Have you started holiday gift shopping yet? What’s on everyone’s wish lists for holiday presents?

Well, I don’t think I have every received anything more than small little Secret Santa gifts from the various companies that I have worked at. You know the one where you pick a name from a bowl and you have to buy a gift or two within the small budget that you are told to stick to and gift wrap it and give it the day before or maybe after Christmas at the office.

Those usually are what we get and give around here. But if I had a nice big Christmas wish, you know just for the sake of creating a Wish List so to say, I would hope to get a new laptop – one from either HP, Dell or Asus ith 16GB RAM, 1 TB hard drive and a Corei 7 atleast. How about a new smart tv – a 60 inch Samsung or Mi will go nicely in my room thank you very much. And a Blueray players plus a bunch of my favourite movies on Blueray And a Samsung Galay S24 Ultra – top of the line, beautiful and awesome. A new proper mic for my videos that I shoot for Youtube and maybe a nice big headset.

I would also like a new mattress to replace my old one. And though I have an Amazon Echo I would like a Google Home device. A new Tablet pc – like the Samsung Galaxy S9. What else? Oh well while we are at this fantasy list, how about a new apartment please? LOL.

Prompt from NOVEMBER BLOGGING PROMPTS #BLOGPROMPTS at Food Fun Family

Well, I will be going back to work from tomorrow. My 6 days of leave away from the office due to my illness comes to an end. Today I had to go to the hospital for a follow up with my doctor. Yesterday I called up Lalpath Labs and arranged for them to come and take my blood so it can be tested. By around 1 pm they did come and get the blood for testing and I got the results by 4pm. I could tell that the results were good and that I wouldn’t have to worry but needed the doc to reassure me.

So I got dressed in the morning and my sister decided to join me; she wasn’t free initially but she then told me that the work she had scheduled was cancelled so she was accompanying me to the hospital. We did have to wait for a while and I did so, standing all the time. Once I saw the doc, I was a bit relieved and he told me to continue some medicine for a month and then come to see him. I opted to buy the medicine from a medical store nearby rather than wait in the queue at the hospital’s pharmacy for another 30 minutes.

I booked an Uber and my sister got down in between to run some errands and I came home to have a late lunch with my parents and then laid down on my bed, cranked up the ac and watched some Big Bang Theory. By evening I had some light snacks and tea. I bought poori masala for my parents and I had a masala dosa for dinner with a vada each. Now I will relax with some tv before going to bed.

5 Random Things Found in My Purse

Well it’s a wallet since I am a guy and do not have a purse. And these are not really random but I am not sure if it’s something a lot of guys carry

1. My PAN card
2. My Aadhar card
3. The card I use to swipe entry into my building
4. I always keep the latest electricity bill in my wallet. I dunno why. For instance, we just got the bill for September-October on the 25th of October. I kept it in my wallet when I saw the bill on the evening of 26th of October and I paid the bill this morning. Now I will keep it in my wallet until the next bill comes out.
5. 1 passport size photo & the order code for it fro the studio I got the photo taken in a little cover pouch that they give you. Incase I need more photos, I can just go there and order a new set using the order number.

Prompt from 30 Blog Post Ideas for November at Grande Life

Well, it happened again. Something that I thought was sorted out and would never happen again and that I just need to be careful and hope that my legs get back to full strength. I got my problem again. On Friday morning, after doing a night shift of 1:30 am till 9:30 am, I went to get some coffee and breakfast. In fact I had actually started my work at the office at 12 am. After coffee and breakfast, I came back home but as I was getting in the Uber, I had abdominal cramps. I chalked it up to having less water and also the room that I was in was a bit hot and the ac was barely on.

I came home by 10:45 am and went to bed at 11:30 am but woke up at 12:30 pm with cramps on both calfs. It refused to go away and it got worse when I tried to sit down. We had to call an ambulance and I needed help to get in and get down. At the hospital they have me some painkillers via a drip and then I waited to see the doctor I had been consulting with. After he saw my blood test results, he asked the nurses to give me two shots of a powerful painkiller and then I was led to my room. BY this time the pain had decreased and it was almost gone and it was almost 6pm by then.

I was in the hospital till yesterday evening. Turns out I also have a bad infection and this could have triggered the cramps. I do not know. I am on anti-biotics and will go back on Monday. I spend Saturday, Sunday & most of Monday in my room with my sister, eating simple meals, drinking lots of water and resting. I am now taking my medicine and resting at home, getting some sleep.

Facts people don’t know about you

• I hurt my head while playing with some childhood friends when I was about 3 years old. I slipped and fell down the stairs and I had to get stitches done. That is my oldest memory, me at the hospital crying and my dad consoling me.
• Years later, maybe when I was 12, a friend of mine playfully was tossing bricks in our school yard and one of them as a little too high and it landed on my head – on the exact spot and I had to get stitches again!
• I remember getting locked in – there is a door that led from the living room and the spare room to my parents bedroom, the only bathroom and kitchen in our small apartment. The key broke inside it somehow and it took a while for someone to come in and break the lock.
• While in school I’ve had my share of crushes 5 in fact and 1 girl as almost 2 years older than me but in the class/grade ahead. The fifth is one of my teachers. I remember 3 of them very fondly.
• I was also the crush (crusher? crushee?) of two girls. 1 who haven’t seen since 1991 and the other is one of my oldest friends and who I am still friends with, albeit a long gap when we weren’t speaking to each other due to a falling out we had back in 1999, to this day.

I think that’s enough facts for one post. To be continued!

So like the title suggests it is not a 3 day long weekend but it is. So since I have today and tomorrow off, we also have Tuesday off due to it be Dussehra/Vijaya Dashami in India and hence its a holiday. If only it was on Monday so we could enjoy a proper 3 day holiday. Anyways we do get that extra day off, for which I am grateful. Any extra day off is a respite from the demands of the office.

What are my plans? Absolutely nothing as I have a bunch of movies that I plan to watch over these 3 days and a couple of football matches as well. Other than that I will sleep in a bit, watch some Youtube videos as usual and listen to some music just like I always do. And drinks a few cups of coffee and tea. I don’t think I will go out and instead will say in. Tonight’s dinner was Big Spicy Chicken wraps from McDonald’s which were neither big nor spicy, some fries and Black Forest McFlurries for the three of us at home.

Ofcourse McDonald’s messed up my order a bit; they forgot 1 of the 3 McFlurries. So I got a refund and ordered again. The wrap was not really any good and the fries are meh. When I am on my own I usually do not order the fries for myself and will go with either their nuggets or wedges. I don’t think that I will ever order their wrap anymore. Well atleast their McFlurries are always awesome! I had watched the 2023 film Pet Sematary : Bloodlines in the afternoon. And now for some football and maybe a couple of Star Trek Lower Decks episodes later on.

Your biggest life regrets

• I regret not having completed my graduation earlier on in my life. I gave it up too easily and it as only recently that I did so. This is something I have to live with for the rest of my life.
• I regret not taking people’s advice and choosing a different major for my pre-degree back then. I wanted to do computer science and engineering even though I should have realized that the I didn’t have the acumen for mathematics in particular. I should have done something else.
• I also regret joining the college that I did. Hindsight being 20/20 I should have not gone there. The group that I was with was not the right fit for me.
• I regret not getting married. However that is not something that I can solely do. But yes that is a big regret.

Prompt from 150 Practical Blog Post Ideas For Lifestyle Bloggers

Your weekend routine

Well my weekend routine is the same and it has been the same for quite a while now. I do not go out much and in fact probably only go out once a month. Otherwise what I usually do is just the following:

• laze around watching tons of Youtube videos
• order a nice Saturday night dinner for my parents and myself
• drink lots of coffee or tea
• watch a couple of movies
• shoot a couple of videos where I do movie reviews
• sleep

That’s about it. Sometimes a relative will drop by or my sister and niece will stop on by. I might buy some groceries and have them delivered and once in a month I will order a small tub of ice cream. But that’s about it.

Prompt from 150 Practical Blog Post Ideas For Lifestyle Bloggers

So I am very tired all the time these days. I guess the evening hours aren’t what my body wants either. I have been working in the 6:30 pm to 3:30 am shift for the past 2 weeks. Mornings I usually wake up between 10 am to 11 am and in full zombie mode I stagger to the bathroom to wash up and then brush my teeth. Coffee is what makes me come back to humanity.

After a quick breakfast, I then am at my desk until 1:30 pm when we have a quick lunch. I usually try to watch a movie or some tv show but nowadays I feel sleepy and tired and I just want to catch about an hour or 90 mins of a power nap. This is more and more like a necessity depending on what time I fall asleep at night. Since I reach home by 4am I usually watch a bit of tv at that time and fall asleep by 5 am. That means I am only getting 5 or 6 hours of sleep. So yes that 1 hour power nap is a much needed thing.

And now I am drinking coffee and munching on biscuits and will shower and shave and get ready to go to work. I hope my timings change soon and I get the morning shift once again. I usually am very, very relaxed at those times.

• This month I did the whole gamut – I started out in the morning or regular work shift of 9:30 am start and then moved for 2 weeks to the dreaded 1:30 am to 9:30 am shift. Once that was done I had a long weekend, taking a Monday off as well due to feeling a bit sick. Once that was done, I moved to a 6:30 pm to 3:30 am shift. All in 1 month.
• I must say that despite the graveyard shift timings for 2 months, I did enjoy working from home again. Also with the relaxed atmosphere making up for the lack of sleep, I was atleast happy for the fact that I was home.
• There have been a couple of things bothering me at work and it has been a real annoyance.
• I have been meaning to go out for lunch and a bit of shopping the past two weekends but each time I keep getting a cold or just feeling a bit under the weather and hence opt to stay in.
• It’s been raining quite a lot these past couple of weeks. September’s last two weeks have been plenty of heavy rainfall and people falling ill. As of today it;s supposed to die down and we are to some much needed sunshine until the November showers.

The almost 3 day weekend – technically in terms of hours, it’s gonna be that – couldn’t have come at a better time for me. Having worked in the graveyard shift for 2 weeks, my body has taken it’s time to recover and get back to more decent hours. This is why I rarely do this shift at all. I am not young anymore and at 47 the recovery time is longer.

Also, I barely slept during the work days, managing less than 6 hours on a daily basis. 90 minutes to an hour in the later morning and then 4 hours at night before I wake up at 1 am. I was working last Saturday and hence used that day to sleep in a bit. Similarly after this past week, of which I was at the office, I decided to take things slow for the rest of Friday. I left the office at around 10 am, then went to have a leisurely breakfast and large frappe at Starbucks before coming back home by 11:30 am. I did sleep till almost 2 pm. After lunch I watched a movie but by 10 pm I was tired as heck and slept for a while.

Saturday too I was very tired and sleeping in felt like the best choice. However I did wake up at 7 am and in the afternoon I managed an hour’s nap before watching a movie. By night I was once again aching to get to sleep, so much so that by 11 pm I was in between the sheets and snoring to my heart’s content with the tv on. I would have gone out today but I started getting the sniffles and hence even though I had gotten ready to go out I cancelled my plans and stayed in. Napped in the afternoon while trying to watch, yet another movie. The lack of sleep previously has caught up with me.

What my family does during the weekend

Well let’s say it’ a 2 day weekend and I am not going out. And neither are my parents. Yes it is just them and me at home. So mornings are very peaceful; it will be us going about our morning routines. I brush my teeth, wash my face and go to the kitchen for coffee. My parents would also be awake and doing similar things. We also tend to spend a few minutes at the balcony for some fresh air (even if my bedroom window would be open by now). The morning is spent like this – I will be at my desk in my room drinking coffee, then eating breakfast and relaxing at the laptop.

My parent have their ritual and prayers and they have their breakfast at the dining table. The rest of the morning is spent peacefully. By 1pm I am checking what movie I am going to watch in the afternoon. With the maid having helped mom in making lunch, she then leaves and the three of us will have lunch and then they will settle in the front of the tv in the living room, while I grab an apple and/or an orange and then settle in bed to watch said movie. If I am tired then I might also take in a nap.

Evening by 5pm is when were have tea or coffee with an evening snack. Post that I usually take a shower and I will be back at my laptop desk until 8pm when I check what to order and then place orders for dinner on one of the delivery apps. We enjoy our dinner and then they watch tv while I will watch my movies before falling asleep by 12. Sunday is more of the same but I usually buy some fish curry so we can eat that with rice. Boring, safe and comfortable!

Prompt from 621 Lifestyle Blog Post Ideas Your Readers Would Love at MasterBloging

Oh that has been tiring! I have been working from home this past week, with the exception of Monday. Due to some issue with scheduling I ended up having to conduct training for a set of 12 newly hired employees and I had to do it in the graveyard shift or 1:30 am to 9:30 am to be precise. This is a tiring shift and especially for the likes of me. No longer being a spring chicken, I rarely do this kind of shift. Also due to some health issues that I have faced.

Anyways, initially I was told that I might just have to do it for a couple of days but I will end up doing it for 2 week, this week and the next. But the good thing is that I can work from home. The bad thing is that I barely get a full sleep. I go to slee after dinner, usually at 9pm and keep the alarm for 1am. I wake up and wash my face and then setup the work laptop and connect to the VPN before I go make a cup of black coffee and start the work. At 4 am I give the trainees a break for 25 minutesand I go look for some biscuits or an apple or something.

Work continues till 7 am when I send the guys for a 45 minute breakfast break. During this time I make another cup of coffee and look to see what I can have for breakfast. I complete the work day by 9:30 am and see if there is any pending work. By 11 am I try to get a nap for an hour or 2 and then have lunch and watch a movie. At 5 pm I will get a snack and make tea. I shower by 6:30 pm and chill till 9pm when I have lunch and then go to sleep till 1 am. Rinse & repeat.