Hello & Dia Duit! Here we are with Part 2 of Ireland Diaries :D Last time, I left y'all hanging at the rainy day entry we made to Dublin, after managing lots of baggage, a baby and bad weather. Now, I'll take you through the wonderous memories & observations I've made in this beautiful country!
1. A Jet Lag Nap
What would any average Indian do on getting back home after a long travel? Clean up and Nap before they go about the day! Drenched that I was post rains, I wanted to rush to get a shower done. Though my sister warned me to have brunch and get an energetic doze to combat the so called jetlag, I brushed off her concerns. True, I had kept vigil for a lot of the 12 hour travel we had endured but I assumed I could catch up on sleep in the night by calling in early that day. So I just had a quick breakfast, went for a shower and hit the bed thinking I'd take a short nap before lunch.
I woke up 8 hours later at 6 pm.
2. Culture & Climate Shock
a. The Tap Water
One of my very first culture shocks, was the drinking water. People drunk straight out of the tap in the kitchen while I was busy searching for the non existent RO Purifier. But damn, the water tasted refreshing and energizing! I later on understood that in her part of the city (which was the last station of the tram and hence closest to the base of the mountains), water was sent to homes straight from the clean springs and rivers!! Yet, I had a mental block ingrained which ensured I would always boil the water before I had it - much to the amusement of my sister.
b. The Silence (& Greenery!)
What does the combination of having a country spanning an area roughly equal to the state of Tamil Nadu with the population of the city of Chennai mean? Two Things.
Profound Greenery (The morning walks - a treat to the eyes, ears, lungs too! So many trees, fresh air and active winds) + Total and utter silence. Even the cars don't make noise (nobody honks!!). People keep to themselves, you can barely hear music or any form of loud sounds outside your home and if you are quite enough, you can hear your own heartbeat. Meditating here was a pleasure like none other!
On the contrary, it also meant I couldn't play anything on the TV at a volume louder than a whisper when my nephew took his afternoon nap and gave everyone a break from Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round (quite a banger to be honest). Doing otherwise meant the sound would travel from the living room to his bedroom quite prominently.
c. The Utter Lack of UPI
I was casually asking my sister to transfer a few euros into my Google Pay account, thinking it'd be a useful emergency fund. She sat and laughed at my audacity to assume UPI worked in Europe, or in any other country apart from India for that matter. She went on to break my bubble and say its either Cash or Card there, nothing digital. Imagine my shock.
No UPI?! But that also meant.... No Swiggy/Zomato/Blinkit/Dunzo/F&P - literally no convenience apps!! What if I had a craving in the middle of the night? What if I ran out of groceries the next day? What if I wanted to send a surprise cake to a friend living cities away from me?? Well, all these questions were met with silence, the answer being a very simple - You Can't.
d. Sunshine at 8 pm at 10°C
You read that right! I faced bright sunshine in a freezing cold temperature which ended up tanning and freezing me. Total contradictions. My poor body clock went for a total and utter toss, and that meant my sense of breakfast-lunch-dinner did too. I had to consciously make myself eat dinner everyday despite my brain refusing to accept a very sunny night being possible. Oh, and did I mention I would end up waking up at 10 am if I didn't set an alarm for before?
Coupling the confounding sun-freeze with my absolute lack of assignments/tasks/time tables and the lack of digital convenience, it was a very confusing time initially, as I had no clue what to do with my new found freedom but with a lack of mobility. The one main thing I had with me was my laptop (I had lugged it all the way crossing so many security checks), intended for movies, group calls and content streaming, only to lament that I hadn't brought a travel adapter with me!! Indian Rounds do not go well with British Squares. I later found joy in reading online books, albeit on my phone.
3. Fitting in with the Family
I soon got into a routine with my sister's family - it was pretty much the structure it gave me that helped me understand that a day had begun or was to end (else its very easy to forget to take a shower or eat your meals on time!!). I write it here for your entertainment benefit:
06:00 am - Wake Up, make my bed and tip toe my way to the bathroom
06:15 am - Sit in the living room to make calls to my friends & family in India
06:45 am - Meditate/Go for a Walk
07:00 am - Make a quick breakfast / Go with bro-in-law to buy hot croissants
08:30 am - Go back for a nap
10:00 am - Get woken up by my nephew and lock up my phone :P
12:00 pm - Take him and my sister to his play area in the nearby mall
02:00 pm - Get back home (maybe do a round of laundry)
03:00 pm - Lunch & some short films (His nap time, so the TV is mine)
05:00 pm - Bro in law comes back from office and we all go out for a car ride
06:00 pm - Play time with the kiddo
07:30 pm - Dinner Preps (for the kid and us)
08:00 pm - The kid has dinner and plays
10:00 pm - (usually earlier) we have dinner & pray he chooses to sleep
12:00 am - I go to sleep while my sister and bro in law tackle their baby :P
Quite an unconventional routine, but worked for the stay!
Nobody asked me to do anything in terms of helping around the house. The sheer amount of boredom I had at times, made me wash up dishes, fold clothes or do any little chores here and there. The part I absolutely loved doing was putting away his toys!! I created a mini library space for his books and boy am I proud that he learned to ask for books only from there. I'd at times laugh looking at the size of his clothes (smaller than my forearms) and smile at how mindbogglingly cute he is. My sister was very glad I took over the little things like this and majorly asked my help in keeping him engaged.
Let me tell you this. I have done engineering, MBA, been a TedX Speaker and even authored a book - but hands down one of the most difficult jobs in the world is to keep a 2-year old entertained!! No amount of YouTube, ingenuity or creativity is enough to keep him from getting bored. Why not let him be bored you ask? Well then he hunts for his mom. The poor lady would have gotten barely a few minutes of me-time before she hears those words "Amma Venum" (I want my mom) from him. The collective entertainment provided by me or his dad will not work, where one word from his mom does!
Those of you following me on instagram (@parinaama_blog) might be curious at this point - how on earth did I travel so extensively, mostly alone, in a country devoid of Ola/Uber/UPI and taxi fares that go through the roof, despite my baby-centric schedule? Wait for the third (and final) part of this series to find out!
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