I dont know if its because we did nt go to India or the US during the December holidays (like we usually end up doing!) but this winter has been tooooooo long! Hours and hours of skiing, ice skating, driving, drinking gallons of tea, pot luck lunches and dinner parties,.... How can anyone bear all these after a point? Not to mention the heavy jackets and boots one has to wear even to step outside for a minute! And for a Hausfrau like me who has to step out a dozen times a day, its highly frustrating! In and out between freezing cold and warmth makes you have crazy thoughts! Like buying a one way ticket to Hawaii just for yourself!! (Sigh!)
And right in the middle of February, there is this 2 weeks Ski break! Ashu went for a ski camp the first week and read like a million books, the next week. (The latter deserves a separate post!) The camp was quite intense and poor thing did nt complain. One hour by by bus, 2 hours of skiing, lunch break, another 2 hours of skiing and then back in the bus for an hour! She did this Monday to Friday! Not to mention wearing the ski boots all day long, lunging the skis, helmet, etc... I know I would have quit sometime in the middle of the first day!! (Right after the lunch break! ;) And she was also in a ice skating class every Saturday and there was a final performance last weekend which was beautiful! Antu of course does nt embrace winter like Ashu does since shes more like me! Ice skating class - "NO!" Skiing - "ok! But I will cry the entire time! And you have to carry my skis and hold my hands while I walk with the skis and be handy with a tissue to wipe my runny nose and tears"! End of story! Somewhere a four year old Ashu is judging me!!
Anyway, for the first time in four months the weather seemed warm yesterday and I could nt believe my eyes! Is it really warm or am I hallucinating? Are they really kids I see playing outside? The pond melted and the ducks are out? Is it really the sound of the stream flowing? Are the birds chirping? Oh my God! I cant explain it in words! I could actually HEAR the change in the season! Thats when it hit me! That its the silence which is really unbearable about winter! As if Mother Nature is mad at you and decides not to talk to you for a few months! Ashu and Antu went to the shed where the cycles were hibernating and brought them out! I stood in the balcony and waved at them! Of course, nothing lasts forever and the weather forecast says its going go below zero next week but Spring is almost here and with the little preview we got this week, I cant wait!
