We left London on April 12 to Dubai. A couple of our friends moved there just a few months ago. We spent two days in Dubai staying at heir place and we had a great time. Dubai itself is a one huge construction site. In five or ten years it would be a great place to live. Even now it is very impressive. We spent two days eating great food, wandering through fantastic shopping malls and talking to our friends. We had a blast. Kids loved it as well, especially the swimming pool.

We reached Cochin in the early hours of April 15. For the next two days we did nothing but slept. The kids recovered the fastest. After that the life has been going on as expected. The main reason for this trip is the upcoming wedding of my brother in law. We went to see our future sister in law in her parents house. She seems to be an exceptionally nice girl. Hopefully, my brother in law will treat her well. The wedding itself is on April 29. I already have my sari. The blouse should be ready tomorrow. on Sunday morning the beautician will come to help me dress up. Though, I fear the by the time we reach the marriage hall, which is two hours drive from our house, my kids will trample my dress beyond recognition.

We also did a few other visits to various family members. Then, we decided to go to Trivandrum to visit my brother in law, see his work place and his apartment. He's been asking us to come for a long time, and finally I've been comfortable enough to travel with two kids. We decided to take a break and stay one night a Leela Kovalam. Our Kochacha's (this is how Big Munchkin calls my brother in law) work place in Technopark would not have been out of place anywhere is the world. It is a very modern, new building. Leela left me with a bit of mixed feeling. I loved Leela Goa and Leela Mumbai, so I had very high expectations. I also did not realize that the Leela we are going to is in Kovalam. I really wanted to take Big Munchkin to a nice beach where she can build a sand castle. Beach in Kovalam is really very bad. It is dirty, the sand is mixed with black mud, it is full of stones and bits of garbage, and water is very deep with strong currents. It is impossible to build anything there. It was a disappointment. On the other hand, both pools were lovely, with the appropriate kids sections. We were staying not in the main building but in a cottage at the edge of the hotel. I did not like having to call an inter-hotel car every time we wanted to go anywhere, but it was too far to walk. On the other hand, staying in the main building might have presented safety issues for the kids - the balconies did not look very child-proof. The room was nice - big and well designed. Unfortunately, the bathroom door did not have any kind of lock from outside. It also had a sunken bathtub, which I would have loved if I was there without kids. Little Munchkin also loved that bathtub, and kept running there every few minutes the whole time we were inside the room. The fall into that tub could have been very dangerous, so I was a struggle to keep his out of the bathroom. Nevertheless, we had a nice lunch at a seafood restaurant, which even had a high-chair. We spent a day swimming in a pool and playing in a hammock. Kids we exhausted, so we put them to sleep and had a nice dinner on a veranda of our room. Overall, we had a good time. All issues I had with the hotel stem mostly from the fact that we had kids and not from the hotel shortcomings.

We were back home the next day. Since then, we mostly staid at home. It is very hot. Our trip to Cochin was not very successful. Fifteen minute walk resulted in Little Munchkin slightly burning his cheeks. We did some pre-wedding shopping and that's about it. We bought Big Munchkin a bicycle, and she's been quite prioccupied with it. Last year we bought a neighbouring house. It has been removed and the land incorporated and transformed into a nice garden and a driveway. Both Munchkins having a good time running and riding a bike there when the sun allows.

We also went to the local beach. The kids loved it. Little Munchkin had to be carried away as he refused to leave voluntarily.

As usual it took me forever to write another update. Or well, better late then never ... My bone scan confirmed that I do have a stress fracture of a second metatarsal. However, Doctor decided or was persuaded to decide that I do not need a cast. My foot has more or less healed by now without it. I do feel OK. I did get a special boot done to reduce weight on that foot. It seems to help a bit. I was also told that weight reduction would be beneficial in order to reduce probability of future fractures. In simple language, I was told to stop eating peanut butter and jam sandwiches and loose weight. I find it very distressing. As long as I remember I was very conscious about my weight. When I was sixteen, I did not like to wear skirts and thought I was fat. At that time I was 54 kg. It took me ten years and thirty extra kilogrammes to feel good about myself. I finally began to be comfortable with myself. And now I am told to loose weight because my bones can't handle it. You can't win.

We also finally moved into our 'new' house. New is a misnomer. It is 30 or 40 year old ex-council terrace. Only Brits can think of a 30-40 year old house as new. At the end we ended up doing nearly complete renovation - we changed the walls, ceiling, kitchen, bathroom, floor ... everything. Two days before the move it was still not done. After a lot of stress it was somewhat completed on the day of the move. The work had been going on for a few more days after we moved in. It is more or less completed with a few annoying exceptions like missing shower screen and vents in both bathrooms. It took us another week of 20 hour work days to get most of the boxes unpacked and sorted. It would probably take us at least another week to get the house to properly organized state.

We decided to change our tickets to India for an earlier date. We will be fling next week. I am looking forward to it. Though I am sure my husband seriously underestimated the problems we are going to have with Little Munchkin's food and separation anxiety. We are also stopping over in Dubai for two days. I am really looking forward to that.

Kids have been good lately. Neither has been sick. Little Munchkin has two more teeth on his upper jaw. It brings total to six. He still bites a lot. Hopefully, he grows out of it soon. Big Munchkin got relocated to her new room and to her new bed without excessive protests. It fact, this relocation was relatively painless, at least so far. Little Munchkin is walking now. He suddenly began to walk just a day after we moved in. He is quite steady on his feet. He has also began to climb stairs. He is very fast going up, but quite cautious about going down.