Chronicling the Busiest Weekend Ever

The weekend before our journey to Dubai has got to go down as the most hectic ever in my life. There were so many things to do, and places to go, and loose ends to tie up. Just thinking of all that had to get done had me all stressed and making lists on Friday evening.

On Saturday we woke up bright and early and got going. K decided he would stay home with Piglet while Snubnose and I finished all our outside work. We needed to finalize our tickets and visas and get print-outs of all our documentation, go crazy-mad shopping for Snubnose and Piglet – Piglet was badly in need of some new pants, all his old ones were like shorts, he also needed some swimming gear, which would give him a little more protection than his old hand me down swim diaper from Snubnose 🙁 .

I also needed to stock up on stuff like sunscreen, and other sundry toiletries we would need during our stay there.

In addition, Snubnose was invited for 3 birthday parties!!! – and we needed to go buy presents for all 3 kids, and I needed to ferry her to her parties, and I needed to ferry Piglet for one Navrathri golu function that he was called for.

In addition, Piglet is performing in a Dussehra garba dance in his school, and so I got a note saying I needed to buy a traditional Gujarati dhoti kurta ensemble for him. Sigh! Add to that all our packing and the general excitement in our house, and you can imagine the chaos.

Apart from all this, I needed to complete office-related work, and find time to make one secret expedition. JustBooks the library I frequent (and which I have a mixed relationship with) had one fabulous offer all of September where for one small payment, I could upgrade my library account to 10 books and 2 magazines. Currently, I am at 4 books, which includes books for me, Snubnose, and Piglet – not very satisfactory for all of us.

So that was my first stop on Saturday, to make sure we had enough reading material for the journey – never mind that I was yet to collect our visas and tickets, and our on-boarding slips were yet to be ready 😉 .

So, we did the upgrade – a very frustrating process because servers were down and we came back home with all this loot.

I have to say that though I get frequently frustrated at the lack of choice reading material in their libraries, I do like how well stocked their children’s section is, and how understanding they are and how quickly they replace their stock when some of Piglets’ books are returned to the library rather battered. I am so ashamed when that happens, and I am always grateful that they don’t embarrass me further!

After the library visit, it was a quick dash to the travel agent’s only to find the airlines have misspelled Snubnose’s name everywhere. The TA assured me that it would be fine and that it’s too late in the day to make any change but I will be peaceful only once we’re actually on the flight and airborne, I think.

Then Snubnose started feeling very hungry. Funny how she feels hungry only when we’re passing in front of Coffee Day Lounge. So we stopped for some pizza, fries, and dessert, which Snubnose slowly, very slowly ate. I spent the time evaluating my to-do list, and realizing with horror that it was already mid-day and that there were still at least 3 more shops, one party, and one golu visit to get done by EOD.

After food, we decided to look for Piglet’s ethnic wear. I tried looking through cheap stores in Tippasandra, but nothing looked good. Finally, gave up and decided to visit the spanking new FabIndia store in Indra Nagar where we almost immediately hit gold.

It was surprisingly not much more expensive than the smaller stores I was visiting, so with a sigh of relief, I handed over my debit card to the clerk. My debit card got a whacking workout this weekend, I am almost scared to view my statement tomorrow 🙁 .

On the way back to our car, Snubnose insisted on a photo-op in front of the new Chumbak store.

The new store looks lovely and we will definitely be making a visit during another more calmer weekend, I assured Snubnose.

Then there was the birthday present shopping, then off to the birthday party on the other side of the town, and then a mad dash back home to take Piglet to his friend’s house for the golu viewing. I was exhausted but thankful that Piglet was in an amiable mood, and made the perfect guest. His friend’s house is full of expensive knickknacks and I was dreading the visit as Piglet’s well-meaning clumsiness can wreck a place in no time. However, thankfully nothing untoward happened and I collapsed with tiredness at home at the end of the day.

Next day was more of the same. This time K accompanied me and we all went for more shopping. In the afternoon, Snubnose went for yet another party and me and Piglet took the opportunity to catch 40 winks. Evening was spent packing. A large rum and coke later all was well with my world or at least all will be well when I find Piglet’s old swim nappy, damn it!

Gosh, can’t wait till I am poolside in Dubai. I need a break after all this mad running around. Something tells me I am not going to get it though 😉

So, how was your weekend?