As I scrolled through the album on my mum’s phone, I came across a beautiful picture of us in Australia. This was a picture of us on Surfers Paradise Beach in Gold Coast (Happy times !). I began to reminisce about our amazing trip to Australia…

When my father finally announced proudly that he had managed to buy tickets to Brisbane, I spent the next two days battering him with questions and squealing excitedly. I spent a lot of time carefully crafting a travel itinerary listing down the places to visit. The next few weeks were spent planning and packing clothes and necessary supplies. As it was a 10-days trip, my mum was extra cautious with her checklist. We had a fairly turbulent flight journey, but I handled it well. We landed in Brisbane and from there we drove to Gold Coast. The entire time, I was staring out of the window , completely bowled over the magnificent panorama. It took us almost an hour to reach Gold Coast.

It was Saturday. I woke up late as it was a ‘no-school day’ and had a hearty breakfast. My plan was to complete my homework and then lounge on the sofa to finish my recent read “The Trouble Twisters“. Suddenly at around 11.30 am, my dad suggested an incredible idea to go to the tennis court and play tennis. Well! Honestly, I was not very enthusiastic about it. One, because I hardly knew how to play tennis and lifting the racquet sapped all my strength and two, when I scanned the weather outside, the sun was extremely bright, and it was sweltering! I was immensely scared of receiving sun burns. Not a good idea, Dad! The suggestion was completely ignored by Dad and Em (My little sister) and he changed into his sportswear in a flash. I did not want to be a spoil sport, so I gave in.

Holidays are usually a time of great enjoyment and relaxation. During this pandemic, with restricted outdoor activities and no travel, I kept running out of ideas on how to spend my summer vacation. We could not visit the Zoo, Museums, Theme Parks, or Indoor playgrounds. Traveling to holiday destinations was crossed out. The Summer camp activities were being offered online but I did not feel like enrolling. Hence, I came up with few ideas that kept me occupied and were fun as well. Here is a small list that can make your holidays fun!

In my earlier blog, I had listed out the top 5 things that I disliked. But as I mentioned, I do have my favorites. It took me quite some time to narrow it down to my “Top Five”

Number 1: Reading, reading, and more reading….

Reading fiction holds the topmost rank in my list of hobbies. I have a vast collection of books from which I read EVERY SINGLE DAY! My mother gets extremely annoyed when I read late into the night or sneak to read in the morning while they are asleep. Rain or shine, I must read. My love for reading was inculcated in me by my Kindergarten teacher, Miss. P. She was the first person to introduce me to the wonderful world of storybooks. I mostly enjoy genres like mystery, fantasy, sci-fi, and suspense. I have loved reading “The Young Elites”, “ Harry Potter”, “Percy Jackson, “The Trials of Apollo”, “Nancy Drew”, “ Agatha Christie”, “Hardy Boys”, “The Spider Wick Chronicles”, “The Dragon Pearl”, few works of  William Shakespeare, etc, etc, etc. (The list is endless, so I better pause here).  J.K Rowling is my favorite author and a big inspiration. Someday, I wish to create a magical world of my own with my writing.

It is Friday. I am happy as I have just returned from a swimming session. But at the same time, I am truly exhausted and craving a plate of delectable food. Lunch is served and the first thing that I notice on my plate is CABBAGE ! Really ?!

“For the millionth time, Mum ! I do not like Cabbage”. I stomp into the kitchen to express my annoyance and I see my Mum smiling at me while pointing towards that big bowl of bitter gourd.

March 2020 and before-Everything was super awesome! I was leisurely continuing with my happy-go-lucky life, visiting families and friends, enjoying school , gossiping with friends , inventing new projects, turning playgrounds into battlegrounds, sprinting through shopping malls, gorging enormous burgers, wandering aimlessly but freely, pestering my father to ……….A never ending list of events…..and then everything suddenly turned upside down.

April 2020 and after-The world literally came to a standstill. A lockdown was announced, and I officially gave up all hope of stepping outside ever again. Over the last I year, 3 months and 10 something days{I counted}, the world faced and is still facing a terrible pandemic called…Covid 19!Believe me ! It was the first time I googled the key words such as endemic, pandemic, mortality{scary!}, infection rate, symptoms and weirdly, my mom was also scrolling through the same keywords on her smartphone. If smartphones were humans, they must have absolutely enjoyed this extra attention.

There she goes! My little sister rummaging into the refrigerator to fill her bowl with two extra scoops of ice-cream. She also grabs some candies and MNMs and hides it in her pockets. She looks at me from the corner of her tiny eyes and winks. I recall my poor Mum’s words “Just a SINGLE ice-cream scoop after lunch”. And then she plops onto the sofa and starts enjoying her self-earned desserts. My dessert craving gives in and I ask Em to share some candies with me which she sourly denies. By the time she almost finishes her dessert platter, the ice-cream is all over her face and her T-shirt. Mum, who was busy working suddenly appears from nowhere and glares at Em. Em fumbles and the ice-cream bowl topples, and our sofa and the cushion gets painted in shades of ice-cream. You should have seen Mum! She went into a frenzy thinking what to clean first. 😉.