Do you believe in the Chinese New Year predictions? I never used to, up until the past few years, when I noticed that the Chinese New Year beginning has always felt more like a New Year to me, in the sense that it would be a better marker for new events rather than the sleepy Jan 1st date.
This year also, it has been the same. 2026 is the year of the fire horse, and it’s supposed to bring some chaotic horse energy, and everyone can agree with me here, it’s been chaotic and more so far. It’s only February, and I already can’t wait for the year to get over.
Apart from doom-scrolling the news and watching my stocks and life savings going down the toilet, we have been having multiple discussions at home over geopolitical events. I have been optimistically hoping it would just be a few days of bombing before it all blows over in the Middle East, and we go back to normal (and that’s looking more and more unlikely by the day). My son firmly believes that this will be World War 3, and my husband and daughter are somewhere in between.
On the personal front as well, there have been calamities. My father-in-law had been ailing for a very long time, paralyzed due to a stroke. But he had been stable, but suddenly, he caught a cold and died. He was 95 years old, and in a way, it was a blessing as his quality of life has been pretty poor due to the stroke, but it was still a shock. We were looking forward to visiting him during the summer holidays. He was a wonderful dad, father-in-law, and grandfather, and we all will really miss him a lot.
We wanted to go back home for the funeral, but the flights were a total mess, and we would have landed way too late for the actual funeral, so we decided to go later once things had settled down a bit. Not being able to go has really messed up the hubby’s headspace, particularly, and he’s been having a lot of sleepless nights.
In yet another blow, our landlord has sold the house we live in, and we are now looking for another place. Identified one, but it’s nowhere as comfortable and cozy as our current house, and K and I have been having massive disagreements about our next steps. He is a firm believer in Vastu (a kind of Indian Feng Shui). I am a firm believer in a comfortable, well-insulated, modern house. The house he selected is a charming 1930s brick house; the one I am gunning for is a modern, spacious townhouse. So far, he’s been winning, but let’s see how it goes in the next few months. We are also planning to buy rather than rent, so that there is more sense of stability, so this is a huge decision.
The weather has been improving by the day over the past few weeks, and I have been enjoying my morning walks among the daffodils. I read Wordsworth’s poem Daffodils in school, but I never really understood the fuss around it. But now I do, there’s something beautiful and amazing about coming out of the winter darkness and then seeing all these bright yellow blooms all around you – yes, they are everywhere, in parks, growing out of cracks in the concrete, on traffic islands, everywhere. These flowers are also short-lived, so I enjoy these fleeting moments as much as possible.
Spring Break is coming up for the kids, and they are really eager to get out of the house and do something after staying home all winter. K and I are planning something small – a road trip to some nearby places. Neither of us has the mindspace right now to travel out of the country (we were considering Paris earlier), but we probably will do something. The boy is a bit disappointed; he was hoping that moving to the UK would mean more travel opportunities, and it will, hopefully, but just not now, when we are in the middle of so many big decisions.
And that’s what we have been up to. Crazy up and down couple of months.
