On the Art of Queue Breaking

I have been wanting to write more on this blog for a while now, and an FB post by a friend on queue breakers inspired me to put down my thoughts on the subject. I have come to realize that every single time I am in a queue or a waiting list of any sort, a big part of my attentions are engaged not in figuring out if it's my turn next, but whether someone is going to try to cut the queue :P. And yes, I am reciting in my head what I am going to say to them as well. Here are some types of queue breakers that I have come across:

The Clueless One: This type of queue breaker just walks straight in or ahead as though not realizing there's a queue formed. This can be justified in situations where the queue is not too obvious, say folks sitting in a queue of chairs so are not as noticeable. But I have noticed this kind of behaviour even when there's a snaking queue with dozens of folks standing in it! What happens when you confront this person - usually a sheepish "Oh, there's a queue?!" and going and standing in line where they belong.

The Slimey One: Especially in places where the lines are formed quite haphazardly, you would always find one or two folks who try to take advantage of this. Did you just see them beside you? Suddenly they are in front of you! A firm questioning will lead to some face-making and return-accusations (But you weren't standing properly in line, how was I to know?!), but in most cases leads to a grumpy going back to place.

The I-Know-Somebody One: This type of queue breaker knows the doc or whoever it is the queue is waiting to meet. Could be true in some cases, but doesn't justify the behaviour whatsoever. When confronted, some of them do feel embarrassed and go and wait in line, but in some cases their behaviour might be encouraged by the oh-so-great ones on the other side of the door/front desk, and in that case all I can do is grumble.

The Can't-Care-Less One: We have all come across this type - the one who marches to the front of the line and rudely makes their presence felt. They don't care about being polite or standing in queue, and unfortunately there's no point in correcting this one. I have tried questioning as it's too tough for me to just let it go, but not to much effect.

The Ostensibly Polite One: When at the doc/paediatrician for example, sometimes folks come in for an emergency or requesting to go in earlier because they are in a rush for some reason. In most cases, I would prefer to give them the benefit of the doubt, as I don't like to think that folks use kids as excuses for cutting lines. But one incident that happened when D was a few months old really made me change my mind even about this scenario - A mother came up to me and said she would like to see the doc for "five minutes" as she had something urgent to ask her. I relented, and even though I had been waiting for more than half an hour, agreed to let her go in first. She stayed inside for a good 45 minutes, and I could hear from the outside that she had a list of do's and don't prepared to discuss with the doc about some overseas travel :O!!!!! Well, definitely made me more distrustful and taught me to ask more questions about the situation before making allowances.

And then there are times like when recently in a doctor's waiting room, I was about to challenge somebody for walking in before their turn and they came out in under a minute after handing over a wedding invitation :P. Unfortunately, that will not make me any less wary of queue breakers in the future.

I'm sure there are many more you can add to this list, so do tell me about them in the comments :).

All Charged Up?

My life seems to be filled with devices nowadays and lately half my thought process is used up in trying to keep these charged and ready to use. And yes, I like to live dangerously so that means even after that "red" indication appears it would take me just a little while more to go and put the device on charge. Here's what a normal day looks like:

Is the Laptop charged? Yes, it's not too bad and in any case I can always shift my position closer to a power source ;).

Is the Phone charged? Ah it's nearing the red already! Didn't I just charge it yesterday, damn that 3G and Bluetooth for getting the power low quicker than usual!

After walking like crazy to increase my step count on my Fitbit Flex, I realize I'm not wearing it on my wrist as I had taken it off to charge :P.

It's been ages since I read something, is my Kindle charged? Ah yes thankfully it is :).

At the end of the day, my son comes up to me and asks for the iPad for some playtime. Oh No! I've completely forgotten to charge it :P.

Of Meds and Moods

I am normally quite an upbeat person, and looking for the positive is something that comes naturally. But there come a few times when I find it really tough to be a happy trooper, and today is one of those. I just found out that my TSH (Thyroid) levels are still not under control after diligently continuing with my meds for the last 6 months. The only small positive there is that I've been having a very low dose and the doc has now increased it only slightly before needing to recheck in 6 weeks.

For most who don't know me personally, I am a person who hates having tablets of any sort - usually homeopathy works wonders for me, and I don't have to resort to standard medication much, and even homeo I avoid too much of. So in the last few months I've already been moaning and groaning about needing to take that thyroid tab every morning (not to mention the resultant Calcium tab since apparently the Thyronorm "leeches" my calcium!). The very fact that I need to continue something all my life just brings out my worst side, but I've been having the tabs nevertheless, simply because I'm too scared to stop them :(.

Well, all this post is trying to achieve is to bring out my fears, my irritation, and yet also establish the fact that I just have to lump it don't I. Sigh!

Letter to a Stranger - 1

This one is inspired from Monika's series (like this one)...



To the "Dude" who was standing behind me at the ATM,

Don't judge the person ahead of you in line, just because I took a little more time than normal and because you felt unable to spend that extra 2 minutes in your overwhelmingly busy schedule. And you probably assumed that since I'm a woman I "obviously" will take more time. Have you never tried to withdraw a large amount of money and found that the number of notes are too much, which means swipe again, enter again and wait for the notes again. And then do it again one more time for the remaining amount.

Maybe you never have to withdraw that type of cash, cos you're a cool dude and you can drop in at the ATM anytime, but I was withdrawing it for my dad who likes to take it as one large sum every month. And I had already visited one ATM that was out of order, and was probably in more of a hurry than you were as I was on the way to pick up my son from school too.

So dude, chill! And don't try to put across your point by sarcastically throwing a "Finished?" at me as I'm leaving.



Mon, this is a brilliant idea, I totally needed that out of my system!!

A short(?) recap

And well I'm at it again, berating myself every other day for never being able to stick to that much needed exercise schedule. And if one more person sees me and says "Why do YOU need to exercise?" I will really tell them :)!! I mean, have you seen my post-C-Section (that's one excuse long gone!) paunch ?!

So to amuse myself, and hopefully you too, (and find material for that Day 4 post ;)) I thought I should make a list of home exercise schedules that I tried, and somehow or the other didn't work for me.

1. P90 - This is one of the easiest ones from Beachbody (yeah you read that right ;)). They have a really well known one called P90X, but I wanted to start from the basic version and work my way up. Overall, it was quite a good option. Short, simple exercises, with a good set of stretching thrown in. The neck stretches especially were very good for my cervical spondylosis issues, never needed to do my therapeutic stretches when I did this. Did this on and off for a month, stopped, restarted etc etc. It basically gets a bit repetitive and boring after a while, of course you are supposed to progress to the next step that I never did ;).
2. P90X - The real mean version of the one above, it's raved about by most exercise enthusiasts who've tried it. Longer routines, so a bit more difficult to fit in, not to mention the intensity is about a quadzillion+ more than what I can ever manage! Tried it for all of 1 day, and then went back to endless loop of above.
3. Turbo Jam: Dancey routine from Beachbody, nice for a change, but did not like the lesser amount of stretching. Didn't feel it was great for my knees.
4. Turbo Fire: Much faster, much dancier version of above. I have two left feet. Enough said.
5. Leslie Sansone's Walks: This is a very nice set of videos, totally approachable, very simple set of steps, seems ideal for someone like me. The 1 mile walk is only about 20 minutes long, so great to fit into any day. Why I still didn't manage to stick to it - NO IDEA!!!!

Other than these I have tried the gym, power yoga etc at various times of life, but even with being a SAHM I am not keen on getting into something where I will have to devote exactly that same hour every day, doesn't work for me as a zillion things seem to come up that need my attention exactly between 11 and 12 on that very day. 

So here I was, again at square one, and I finally decided to start somewhere and went and joined a yoga class that functions along with my daughter's karate class - this way I'm anyway going to be there so no time lost - Wish me luck!

And yes, if anyone wants to partner up and join me in trying one of these schedules, I'd love to do that too ;). After all 23rd time may be lucky I guess!

This post is for Day 4 of #marathonbloggers. Do check out our FB group if you would like to make one post every day in the month of December.

It's a new year !

And Resolution time of course ;) I usually refrain from making resolutions as I never manage to keep them :O but there are some this year which I (hopefully!) am already on the path of:

1. No new clothes in 2012 - Overflowing cupboards, 4 unstitched blouses and 3 salwar-kameez materials that lie inside taunt me everytime I take out clothes to wear. I keep giving away clothes (3 times last year) and yet it's like an Akshayapatra and clothes are always falling out. I usually try to limit wastage in stuff like water/electricity/groceries/even LPG consumption that I thought it's time I included this area of my life too. So - also to be announced to all family members who might feel the need to buy me any - no buying or being gifted clothes this year.

2. Finding my abs - That's a more fun way to put it than to talk about losing flab ;). My second child is now going to be 4 years old and having been pregnant is no longer an excuse (even to myself) for the state my abs (hidden under layers) are in! Have been checking out lots of Home Exercise programs (mostly from Beachbody) and I'm quite comfortable with the starting levels of P90 as well as Turbo Jam. Going to attack both these, either in separate cycles or as a combination - done with 1 week of TJ already, wish me luck to keep at it !! This one is also important because my family has a history of neck and back problems, some of which I'm already facing, and regular exercise is sooo important.

3. Organize Organize Organize - this has so many levels to it it's scary. From accounting to remembering to check if my maid has washed the tiffin boxes for the next day, on some days I have no clue where to start. I've tried making checklists, but then forgotten to look at the checklist :X. So here I go with setting reminders for everything I can think of, and hoping that's going to be better than my previous attempts. The hitch is to actually perform the action as soon as the reminder comes, or I am capable of forgetting within 10 mins :(.

4. Green green green :) - this is something I've been trying to do in 2012 with composting and kitchen gardening, so hope to keep at it. I have started using an organic detergent for clothes washing, but my experience is that to try a do-or-die approach for this stuff will drive me and everyone around me a bit crazy. So if i can't get that stain out, I still reach for the Cuffs-and-Collars! Until the time I can effortlessly use organic means I will just try to progress a step at a time :).

5. Schedule Schedule Schedule ;) - this could be part of point 3 but this one is aimed more towards my time spent with the children. Somedays when I'm feeling tired or watching something interesting on TV :O I feel lazy to read that bed-time story or to sit and play that game with the kids. And then feel really bad about it afterwards. So I'm hoping to have a loose time-table for the way we spend time. D atleast is old enough to know what a time-table means so we can have lots of fun setting it up, and then she knows what to expect :).

This list is getting dangerously long, so I think I should stop here for now and keep the rest for next year ;). Bye Bye Bye !

Favourite 3 Idiots Moments

While watching the movie 3 idiots for atleast the 10th time I tried to write down the quotes/dialogues which make this movie memorable for me:

1. Us din hamne human nature ke baare me kuch seekha -

Jab dost fail hota hai, tab dukh hota hai,

Par jab dost first aata hai, tab ZYAADA dukh hota hai !!!!

2. Can you tell us how an induction motor starts?

Brrrm.. Brrrrm Brrrrrrrrrrrm.. !!!

3. Dono taangein tudvaake pairon pe khada hona seekha hai sir, Aap apni naukri rakh leejiye, main apna attitude rakh leta hoon.

4. Tu to meri pen le gayi - the guy who played the Chatur character did so much justice to the role he should be known as the 4th Idiot !! :)

P90 Progress Report

24th June 2011 - P90 day 10 - Sculpt 1-2
Adichu pudichu 10 days out of nearly 20 - quite bad but I hope holding on is going to help make it more regular.

Weight had gone down a bit in between, but today back to 59.something. Funnily fat percentage is significantly down to 27% ( it was 28.8% a couple of weeks back!)- wonder what I did? !!!

27th June 2011 - P90 day 11 - Cardio 1-2 + Abs 100 (Fingers crossed for the rest of the week :)).
I really love this cardio routine.. can feel it getting just that little bit easier!! Sculpt routine probably because of disliking the push-ups and lunges a bit, my brain does not feel like I should move onto Sculpt 3-4 anytime soon ;).

28th June 2011 - P90 day 12 - Sculpt 1-2
I've been using a 1 kg weight upto now. Started the 2 kg weight, but like i suspected it is a bit too much for most of the exercises, especially the lifting type ones. Using it for the curls and wherever else possible without straining my back.

29th June 2011 - P90 day 13 - Cardio 1-2 + Abs 100
I don't quite believe what happened today - was interrupted in the morning after my power yoga routine because of an unexpected guest.. was feeling a bit disgruntled all day. Managed to actually get around to it before dinner and finished the rest, even managed a bit of a warm-up by running behind Shehan as he cycled outside :).

30th June 2011 - P90 day 14 - Sculpt 1-2 + Abs 100
Just felt like adding the abs as I had time ;). Doing 2 kg weights for about 3-4 and 1 kg for the rest.

1st July 2011 - P90 day 15 - Cardio 1-2 + Abs 100

Good going this week.. hope it continues !

3rd July 2011 - P90 day 16 - Sculpt 1-2
Making up on Sunday instead of Saturday

5th July 2011 - P90 day 17 - Cardio 1-2 + Abs 100
Missed a day, but better late than never? !

6th July 2011 - P90 day 18 - Sculpt 1-2
18/30 days in the last month - decent!

7th July 2011 - P90 day 19 - Cardio 1-2 + Abs 100
8th July 2011 - P90 day 20 - Sculpt 1-2 + Abs 100

Attacking the Exercise Monster yet again!

Everytime I "re-start" my exercise schedule, I ask myself - When I feel so good and energized after just a couple of days of exercising, why do I need to push myself to get back to it everytime?

Obviously there is no easy answer - there are a million excuses - from lack of time on some days, to my painful varicose problems on others, but even if a bit irregularly at first I am going to stick to it. The wonderful P90 is one of the best schedules I have ever come across - you really see an effect in abdominal weight and firmness within a couple of weeks of doing it. This time I am going to actually see it through for 90 days and see if it has any miraculous effects on my "abs".

One of my collegemates had posted on FB about this same routine, and I immediately pounced on the idea to have a partner of sorts :). Even if we're not synchronizing our schedules, just having some accountability, having someone to tell - Hey I managed to get to it today! - is a really good booster to trying to keep to some sort of, if not perfect routine.

So this time I am 5 days into it (last time I stopped at 2 weeks with my varicose pains) and keeping fingers crossed. Apologies to anyone reading this - I know I am sounding like a stuck record and being very repetitive, but I am just putting my accountability all over the internet :).

Exercising.. oh why so hard... ?

Back from a vacation in Chennai.. the most exercise I did was sitting through a power cut i think - I am so Bangalorean now that just sitting without the fan in Chennai is enough to pour down with sweat !!

I found that my weight is down to an even 59 kgs but fat is at 29.8% !!! Horrors - all the non-veg food in Chennai, even with trying to eat reasonably less quantities of rice seems to have settled in my system :(.

Trying to get back to my exercise regimen from yesterday, but this damn varicose problem is just killing me.. my legs are paining nearly all the time.. cramps in my calves on and off, not yet unbearable but I know it's getting there.. anyone who knows any specific exercises for this problem please do let me know.. am trying to do Viparit Karani which seems to be the most advised one, but not seeing any major results - maybe I'm not regular enough :(. Just doing the regular exercises for all my problems - I also have starting signs of cervical spondylosis which is a family ailment and have some neck exercises I'm supposed to do for this - need so much dedication that I just get tired of the routine after a few weeks :(.. Aaah I just need to buckle up and get to it - I know cribbing doesn't help but it feels good to vent instead of going and exercising like I should be ;).. okay okay I'm going now!

And I'm done!

With trading in futures and options for good !!!

Have been dilly-dallying in the last couple of months.. made major losses within the first couple of months (have been at it since Nov), and then was just hanging in there hoping to make atleast some of it back before exiting - atleast that's the mantra I've been chanting to convince myself it's not just madness. But everytime I reduce my losses, I once again seem to lose nearly that exact same amount if not a little more and go back to the same total humongous amount.

Told myself that at the end of this month I find my losses to be still close to or more than what it was, I would stop. So here I am, reiterating that as of tomorrow when I will square off my last remaining open position, mostly at a loss too - THIS IS IT. I will get back to dealing only in stocks, also after doing enough research and not taking anyone's recommendation blindly.

And by the way this is not completely of my own doing, but because of using an Active Trader Service which specializes in a call-and-trade option, which I had thought meant I would get recommendations which I could decide on and call the broker, but it basically means a broker from their end will call you 20 times a day with seemingly do-or-die calls, and you will repeatedly keep getting pulled into it unless you have the will power to say no.

Do they have a Traders Anonymous I wonder ?!

Throw a tantrum or get taken for granted..

Or of course choose a middle path I suppose.. but that was definitely not an option for me today.
Went to pick up some of D's uniform stuff which is bulk-made for their school by Adidas.. should have expected a distributor type of outlet instead of a posh retail one.. but I guess that was just the first stumbling block..

Got the shoes, socks without much ado.. last on the list was a white t-shirt.. now clothes - especially the children's are something I am very particular about - if I'm paying for something new, it should look new.. I pride myself on being able to spot any marks or issues with what I'm buying.. This guy brought out a t-shirt from his godown - without any packing material on it - checked my daughter's size and gave it to us. I of course had to give it the once-over - it was a white t-shirt after all - and found some dust marks on it. When this happens in a standard shop, I ask for a different piece in the same style and take it if it's there or leave it behind. In this case I didn't have an option of not taking anything, so the guy was trying his best to palm off the piece on us, excusing the dust marks as having come from his hands which were dusty!! According to him, he had just 2 pieces in that size - one was taken that morning and this was his last remaining.

I totally lost my cool - told him if he was supplying the whole school how could he make an excuse of not having stock of pieces. When a couple of hundred children of the 1st standard would ask for that size, he would have just 2 of them handy - nice try, but no way it was true. Also they started issuing the stuff on 9th April, so not that we had gone at the end of the time (end of May) when this excuse might have actually made sense.

As if to prove his point, he took my hubby to the godown which was a bit counter to his case, as they apparently found a piece of that size. There was also a further sarcastic exchange when he cautioned me about taking the t-shirt out of the packing to check the size, as he wouldn't be responsible for it being dirty, and I responded that I had faith in the cleanliness of my hands unlike his!!

Phew.. at the end of it all the thing that most surprized me was hubby's rejoinder that we can't "afford" to behave like that and that there would have been a more polite way of getting things done.. also about how the guy was obviously uncomfortable being at the receiving end by a woman... Now I'm usually on the other end of the bargain - pacifying hubby against getting irritated - believe me - I am usually polite, but this situation just seemed to push all my buttons (maybe in trying to be more patient with my children I don't have much left over for anyone else) - because the guy at the outlet was totally taking us for granted and I ended up getting all the more irritated with hubby for not being "supportive" ! Also has to do with having been naive and non-confrontational and taken for granted in such transactions for much of my life, and having come out of that mould with great difficulty.

Did feel a little bad later though as I know people who deal with customers all day have a tough time of it, but why should I be at the receiving end of their frustration? I hope that I was just standing up for myself, and not being petty :(.

Wow that felt good to get off my chest.. !!

P90 - week 1

My long awaited (by me ;)) exercise chronicle begins at last. I'd been hearing a lot about this exercise routine called P90X from a friend of mine on Facebook, until finally I decided I really must find out more about it and see if I could attempt it. From the description of it, I found that it might be a bit extreme for someone totally out of touch with exercising for quite a long time, so on looking around for options, found the much toned down version P90 - it's basically a 90 day routine, by which you should be able to see some results if it's working for you.

Start Date: 28th March 2011
Weight: 58.7 kgs
Fat % : 28.1%

The routine is very varied and one type of exercise usually only lasts a maximum of 2 minutes, so it definitely never gets boring. The suggested schedule is a sculpt routine, alternated with cardio and abs routine with one day of rest in a week. The trainer Tony Horton really connects well to the audience, and keeps your attention for the reasonably short 30 or 40 minute routines.

After 6 days of working out, I find my weight to be up to 59.1, but fat % reduced to 27.8 ! Maybe i'm building muscle and losing fat, atleast i hope so ;). Not following any major diet schedule, because my intention is not really weight loss as I have usually not had a problem with being within the appropriate weight range(except at one point when my daughter was 2 years old, and finishing all her leftover food started pushing my weight upwards!!). The main result I'm hoping for is a general toning and increase in stamina, and of course a significant reduction of tummy fat !

Routines

What is it with me and keeping to a routine about Anything? Here are the things that I want to be regular at but don't manage to get into a routine cos it got too monotonous after a while

1. Exercising - of course this is on everyone's list. For me this includes not just exercising for fitness but even for health like these exercises i'm supposed to be doing for spondylitis that i'm starting off with - did them for a couple of weeks but now I keep finding excuses for putting them off even at the risk of my neck beginning to feel quite stiff !
2. Keeping accounts - I would dearly like to keep a tab on where all the money goes, but never manage to stick to keeping notes for more than days at a time! Tried doing it on paper, on excel, even budgeting software when I suddenly got an enthusiasm for it. Maybe it is an underlying belief that I'm sure that I'm not spending on frivolous items but only on stuff for the house and children, but it still leads to unnerving moments when I have withdrawn 5K days before and find nothing in my wallet :(
3. Housekeeping - I see things lying around, I know they must be cleared up, but on some days my mind just refuses to order my arms and legs to go about it ! Drives my husband crazy when he comes home at the end of a tiring office day cos he's a bit of a cleanliness freak, but even at the cost of keeping the peace I just cannot get to it sometimes!
4. This one is not about routine but about giving up routine - Farmville ! I keep telling myself to give it up and do something more constructive, and manage to do exactly that for a few days but then slowly find myself drawn back.. crops might have withered and I might have a million requests to return.. but yet here I am again at the same faintly irritated but addicted stage I was a week ago !!

Of course by writing this down I hope to feel more accountable(guilty?!) and find more interesting means of getting things done!

Impatience..

I have always considered myself short-tempered. This was not very obvious in a work environment which was my primary realm for 7 years, since the type of interactions you have with colleagues is of a more light-hearted type, and your personality doesn't come so much into professional dealings.

But in the last 5 and a half years, when I have been a stay at home mom bringing up my daughter and now my son too, it really worries me sometimes if my lack of patience is affecting their temperament in life too. I can see now that my son (who's already in his terrible twos) mimics my loss of temper with reacting the same way when I raise my voice to him. I wonder if impatience or short temper is in the genes or if it is something we pick up by example through our subconscious when we are at an impressionable age.

About 6 months back, I was diagnosed as hypothyroid and though I didn't have any major symptoms that I could figure out other than hairloss maybe, I have since then realized that "something" has just worsened my impatience. On some evenings I feel like the children are completely out of control and it builds up to such an extent that things just boil over and spill out. Thanks to my husband pointing out that it sounded like I was the one out of control, and that I sounded very unlike my usual self, that I have become more aware of these times, and manage to step back and hold on to my temper by taking deep breaths or some such thing. But on days like yesterday when he was not around and I was managing both the children on my own and they were making me repeat everything 10-20 times before getting things done, I just lost it :(.

I am hoping to put down some of these things to remind myself to work towards bettering the way things are. Any behavioural problems on the part of children are only compounded by our impatience or short temper being shown on them. Although I believe a totally soft upbringing is not the right way, we have to find the balance between reprimanding children when necessary, versus their small mischiefs/misdemeanours becoming the brunt of our temperament on a certain day. Wow that was so easy to put down, soooo difficult to practice!!!!!