A trip down the memory lane ~ revisited!

It was a tough question that finally got dissolved on its own. It was either Kodai or Pondy that has been running on our minds the last couple of weeks. Finally Athamma saying that she can't venture out for a trip with her still healing hand, got it fixed for us. We decided the short weekend trip to Pondy, its going to be. We normally don't like traveling by train and subjecting ourselves to the trials, tribunals and daredevils of our kids. Imagine running the long passages behind a toddler!

So the defined constrains of a four wheeler is what we can think of. Since it was about 3 hours drive down, I thought I will pack the breakfast and also lunch as kids don't eat otherwise. Made Idlis with Tomato chutney and Peanut chutney, which are my favorite picnic food too. The boys after getting into the car, asked Athamma to join in too. Konda knew she wasn't coming. We told the boys that its going to be just us. They happily waved her bye and settled down. Konda was remembering our first trip we went, just the three of us. She was recollecting on how I had got her a drawing book with crayons and tried to keep her engaged on the long drive. Imagine me doing that again with 3 kids!

The boys were jumping from the middle seat to the back one, its a eight seater car with enough space for the kids to sleep. So they took the maximum use of the whole thing. Within minutes, the boys started asking for chocolates and biscuits. We pulled it along till we reached a picnic spot. It was a neat spot with wood chairs for enjoying. But enjoy they didn't. They were running around the place while we ate our breakfast. Both of them refused to eat anything. The entire stretch was beautiful only lacking the water streams that I remembered. It was all dry and empty.

I remembered the salt manufacturing and wanted to click few pictures. We finally reached in Hotel Ashoka and warmly welcomed with their traditional garlands made with shells. We had booked a room facing the beach. I tried feeding the boys with Pooris that I had made for lunch, with the hope that they would atleast eat pooris. I need not have gone to such pains! None of them touched it. Within moments on reaching the room, the boys settled down playing with the toys they got, the hotel staff were watering the lawns. The boys ensured they got drenched fully in it.

After lunch we tripped down to the beach and spent the next few hours playing in the water. The kids refused to come out. On our previous trip I had got a big set of beach toys for Konda and few were still left behind. We played with those trying to build castles with them. It was very nostalgic, thinking back on the time when we had only Konda. That time we were not only trying to enjoy our idyllic small family statue but wanting to make Konda enjoy. Now its more of a big family and again trying to occupy the kids with some activates.

I saw those hammocks and wanted to enjoy a moment of loneliness, just to enjoy myself for a moment. But gone are those days. I always felt perfectly fine with my own company. Never felt bored when I found 5 minutes for myself. But even that is a scare thing to happen. After couple of hours on the beach, we got back to play in the kids zone. We bribed the kids with lot of other activities and got back to play in the garden. All I could do was pushing the hammock on which the twins got on and was longingly looking at dropping myself. Hubby dear consoled that I could get back after the boys went to sleep. On the promise, the hours flew.

Since it was the Election counting day, hubby dear was glued to the TV all excited to know the result. I was angry at the resort management for even having a TV in the room in the first place. If there is something that I dislike, its the TV!$%&*%. The boys had the entire garden to themselves and run around for no end. I couldn't convince them to eat the dinner too. They got back to eating the chocolates and juices. We finally managed to get the kids into the room and locked ourselves. We even had our dinner room serviced.

When the kids finally conked off, I was drained and couldn't budge. So that swing on the hammock has to wait for another trip! Peddu didn't sleep much because of the new place. And only in the wee hours did we go to the other land! And body clock was right on spot by waking me up at 6.30 am! As everybody were still asleep, I was reading the newspaper and still looked longingly at those swaying hammocks.

The breakfast was another fiasco of trying to get the boys eat but to no avail. They were keen to go to the beach. God knows from where they got the energy. Chinnu got over his fear of the water and finally settled down on the beach. We almost spent 3 hrs on the beach and waves after waves hitting us, made us feel we could just settle down. Of course that's a feeling one would get over after 3 hrs!

We had left our footwear back in the room as it was such a cumbersome task walking with wet feet carrying the kids. But wish we had better sense, it was literally like walking over hot coal! We just ran down about half a kilometer, trying to escape the hot sand! I was sure we were going to get blisters! Playing in beach is lovely but washing the kids and the cloths afterwards, is a pain in the wrong place! More you do, more sand comes out from everywhere.

We decided to start back home after lunch. We ventured out to the restaurant daringly hoping the boys will sit and eat something. In the end, Chinnu ate the roasted peanuts and Peddu had few servings of Onion Raitha.

The trip back was calm as the boys slept exhausted. Hubby dear stopped to buy some palm fruit or Nungu. We simply love this fruit and always looked forward to eating them in the summer. Its been a while since we had and we got some back home. Parents and Athamma loved it and we wished we got more!

The boys broke the fasting once back home and ended up crying, asking to get back to the beach! Guess they will have to wait for another year till they promise to eat better!