The Classic 500

Alwin is and will be in the process of buying a Royal Enfield bullet for a long time. In one of the process of hunting for a good bike, we managed to find ourselves in the Royal Enfield Showroom, The Royal Enfield Classic 500 was my love at first sight, just one draw back, It was a single seater. I said " This looks real good and masculine but it has just a single seater so NOT ALLOWED.

The person assisting us said, that the single seater was just for the showroom piece, and the pillion seat can be attached or detached if necessary. I liked the idea and said Mmmmmmm OK. then it is a good one. I confirmed on getting the MACHINE (Classic 500).

Alwin looked up at me and asked " You would remove the pillion seat when I go to office right"? I looked up and smiled a "YES". 

The Night Watchman and the Silver Beach

Maybe I was born with a phobia towards indoors. I get pretty agitated if I stay at home for more than 12 hours in a row. With a fit of a similar phobiac feeling, I started blackmailing Alwin ( my darling hubby) that he needed to plan for a long trip indeed for the next weekend as it was a long one. How I did the blackmailing, please dont ask. Pssssst. Its a Trade secret.

So began 10 September 2010 with great hopes and a devilish  disbelief creeping up that the "darling hubby "would default on the trip just as usual.
Opposite poles attract dont they? FYI. My Hubby is very much a housie cat which likes to sleep on a cosy little chimney.
With prayers rising upwards that Dheeera should not start any of her famous tantrums and "allergies" should not start its attack on Alwin ( Which are the major trip spoilers in the familiy) I started packing up the bags for the trip.
 Lucky that my prayers were answered, we were heading out on the famous ECR without any major problems and I heaved a sigh of relief.

Dizee world

While on the speeding ECR, Dheera's eye got rivetted to Dizee World which was alright (any place with Alwin and Dheera outside home was alright by me). This was Dheera's first trip to a theme park. And as a mom, I was beside her reassuring that nothing would befall her when I was by her side. I knew Alwin was not gonna get on any of the rides. ( Actually he likes rides that go straight without any curves ... so planning to suggest to some theme park to set up a ride like that    )  

The Phone Adventure

As Alwin was taking the family on a trip for the first time and has no experience on booking a resort he had to take help from Mani basically from Pondicherry to help us out in finding a place to put up for the night. We watched in horror we were left with the last point of charge in Alwin's Nokia. (He just had forgotten to charge his cell the previous night. And so did I, which he realised a little later... much later.) Alwin was reassured that I had carried my HTC along. He asked me to check out with mine and what was worse, just one point or none. Mine was comlpetely out of charge so was switched off. I could not switch it back again. It could take more than three hours to reach Pondicerry and we were almost out of communication. It was race against the life of our Nokia phone with its last ebbing point  we reached Pondicherry safely.

The Night Watchman
The place that we had put up for the night was quite cosy and good. We had all retired to the soft plush bed after the fun at Dizze and the long exhausting drive. This was actually the first time we were in a hotel as a family. With a filling late dinner we hit the sack on touching the pillow. Or did We? I opened up an eye groggily to see what sounds were coming in the middle of the night. There was Alwin all awake. ( Which he is incapable of doing at home) I asked him "What are you doing? Why dont you go to sleep?. After all you drove the whole way". He replied. "Im keeping watch, lest anything bad befall my family when we are put up in a hotel". I was too tired to laugh. Without much ado, I switched off the lights and the TV and said "JUST SLEEP".

Breakfast in a Mansion

Thats Mani, Our grand host of the Day. Software Engineer by profession,But guess what,?? the lucky fellow has another job in hand as an Interior designer. The guy had designed his house perfectly with a huge water tank to adorn the Hall, winding staircases to the other rooms and the elegant balcony, backgrounded by the decorative walls, elaborate doors and windows... woooooooo it must have been quite a work and quite a fortune.But the brave man is still planning on furnishing his house further. 

That morning when we were starting to Mani's place, Dheera started one of her famous tantrums that she wanted to go to the beach right away. Kids!!!! I came to the rescue saying "Mani would give you 'choppu'. " Actually I meant 'kollukattai' A dish made with rice and stuffings, popularly done on Vinayaka Chadurthi, a festival in India. We reached Mani's home quite late. His mother had made an elaborate breakfast for us, fluffy idlis, puris and vada. Just that Dheera's 'choppu' was missing. Kolloukattais are done only during the pooja and served afterwards. The family had planned for the pooja in the afternoon. And Dheera was asking for 'choppu' Thank God Mani did not know the meaning for 'choppu' and I was saved of embarrasment.

The Silver Beach

The Silver Beach  is a beach on the southeast coast of India. It is located 2 km from downtown Cuddalore. This was the beach Alwin had promised to take me before our wedding 6 years before. He fulfilled his  vow on 11 September 2010 ( What a day). He actually took me to Silver beach and played in the clean beautiful tide. Unfortunately the time had come when we had to drive back to Chennai  Exhausted and wet, we returned back a rejuvenated  family with the ultimate enlightenment that " Its office on Monday"