32nd Wedding Anniversary - Part 1

10^TH June 2008

32 years ago, on this same calendar day, my parents were legally married.

In Fiji we generally have two types of marriages.

First one is the registered marriage – marriage recognized by law

Second one is the traditional marriage – recognized by religion and traditional society. And this cannot happen without producing a marriage certificate!! The priests / pundits insist upon sighting it.

I wish them many more years of happily wedded bliss!!!

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Main Aim - 2008

One of my Goals, towards which I am working really hard, is: A House

I have decided that this year either I'll build or will buy a House.

I bought some land in 2006 in partnership with my brother. Here are the steps involved in buying land in Fiji.

1. Find a suitable land to purchase
2. Put a deposit of 20% if one doesn't have 100% payment.
3. Sign alot of papers
• Legal Papers
• Contract
• Mortgage Papers
• Medical Reports - have to get it from Doctors
• Full credit report
  
4. Start payments on
   
5. If investment is substantial have to have a Will. To protect your investment
6. Start working on House Plans.
7. Decide on a design
8. Contact an Architect or Certified Civil Engineer to get drawing drawn up
9. Sign up for water/power/city rates
10. Submit house plans to City Council for vetting and approval
11. Give approved plans to contractors for quotes
12. Select Contractor
13. Start Building
14. House has to be inspected by Civil / Structural Engineers at every stage
15. After final inspection of completed house as per Plan - Move In.

At present I am at Stage 10 - Give for Quotes

This is supposed to be a present for my parents.

So the complete design of the house was in my Mum's hands. I did so much research getting information and house plans in but the final decision was theirs. I had never thought that I'll be back to live with them. I had given up on believing that dreams can come true. :) Anyways the plans had been vetted by the Council before I even knew that I'll be moving and it was kinda late to make any changes.

Anyway I told Mum and Dad that the next House Plan will be as per my wishes :)

This is one major major reason why I was so much into buying a camera. I want to record the entire building process, the various stages... So hopefully I'll get my camera by 18th June and just keeping my fingers crossed on getting at least a couple of quotes by then....

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Weekend Update

Main event of the long weekend - Dad got injured!!!

Friday was a public holiday here in Fiji - Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna Day... Unlike other people my family is not too keen on remaining aimless for even a day. Hence unlike others we were awake at the crack of dawn - 5 A.M. armed to do as much as possible in one day!!! So after doing all the housework we ventured outdoors. Our current home has a very big yard with lots of trees in it. We have 3-4 varieties of mango trees, lime tree, lemon tree, orange tree (2-3 varieties) and 3 mandarine tree. This does not include all the vegetables, flowers, coconut or palm trees!!! Yeah I know!!! Try imagine raking the whole yard!!!

Now this is citrus season in Fiji and since we have so many trees we just had to pick the mandarines. We left the oranges for another day. :) Dad being the nimble one climbed the tree and while in the process of picking the fruits with a rod he injured his foot by rather forcefully yanking on the rod which was right above his foot!!! OOOuch!!! So from Friday he is bed ridden with a rather badly swollen foot. We tried cold compress, cold water bath with lots and lots of ice, ice pack, tried even turmeric pack, moov, sprain creams etc etc... The swelling went down yesterday but the pain is still there... He is going to the doctors today!!!

No need to say that he will no longer be going for any yard duties!!!

My friend, Prabhat's, birthday was on 31st May. Still need to get an update from him.

My brother is going for a visit to Austria, Cyprus.. etc. Currently he is studying for his Ph.D in Czech Republic so he gets to go all over Europe. Though he no longer sends any photos!!! Don't know why!!! :(

Since Dad was not in any good shape we postponed our monthly trip to the temple. If Dad is ok then we'll go this coming weekend.

Started work today and am really busy today... Hence just a straight forward update.

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Correction!!!

A correction on my earlier mails...

Dad likes to tidy up after himself but he still doesn't like to eat!!!

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Dad and Cooking

Cont’d from yesterday

Dad has got into the mood now to do something special for Mothers Day. We are having our Father – Daughter meeting tonight to decide what exactly we’ll be doing. Though I have a fair idea that it’ll involve cooking!!! (I’ll come back to this later). My suggestion for Dad was to take Mom for a very long drive… you know the usual … take in a few sights, check out a few houses (designs that is) etc etc. His response on this was that Mom’s my Mom so I should do this while he’ll prepare food. Imagine this!!! Now if this is the case then I don’t know why they still insist on calling each other Mom and Dad. : )

I really do not want my Dad to cook.

One reason – he is too meticulous. If he is cutting carrots then all the carrots have to be of one size, onions have to be sliced to an exact thinness, the meat has to be lean meat and the list continues. This is only regarding the food not to mention that all the dishes that are available just have to be used. It’s like a cyclone has just passed though the kitchen!!! I don’t know if this is the case in any other household but it is true for my family… Now I wouldn’t mind any of this… I don’t mind the 3 hour preparation time for food that will be consumed in half an hour nor do I mind spending one hour washing dishes and cleaning up. Coz for some reason he absolutely hates cleaning up!!! What I do mind is that after all this activity he gets too tired and is so “full” that he doesn’t eat anything!!! And we are too guilty to eat anything!!! It’s like destroying an artist’s masterpiece.

Second reason – he is just recovering from a bad bout of influenza. He has been very sick of late and I would not want him to exert himself too much.

Big Reason – it’s not just Mothers Day. It’s their day so I would like to do the cooking without supervision!!!

So I guess the decision is very much made on who’ll be doing the cooking. :)

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The car won't start!!

Dear All,

Today I faced one of the biggest dilemnas faced the female drivers... I couldn't start the car in the morning... And like any other girls out there, the first thing I did was call my father some 300 km away to tell him about my predicament!!! Poor guy didn't know what to do... I was sort of furious right then and there but right now I feel really sorry for him... Heres me a woman of 28 living away from home and being "independent" but at the slightest trouble I call up the one person who has always been there for me... my Dad!! I think this shows that I'll always be my Daddy's girl no matter how many degrees I get or how much I age.... So heres a salute to you Dad!! Thanks alot for being there for me... And you were right... It was the battery!!!! :)

So coming back to my predicament with the car.... I fiddled around with the wires and the connections to the battery. Checked the water in the battery and just to be sure I put in some pure mineral water... (I was fresh out of distilled water... who keeps the stuff at home anyway!!!) and fiddled around with the engine.... But to no avail. The stubborn car didn't start... And I started feeling really sorry for myself then... Heres me feeling sick and tired (before going to work mind you) and even God is not on my side... The car won't start!!! Look at us mere mortals when faced with the slightest hurdle we start blaming others and feeling sorry for ourselves :( So I just left the car and took a cab to work... Just sitting quietly and refusing to yarn to the driver and thinking things over... Just would like to add that I am an engineer by profession so as per my nature I started itemising the problem in my head. As soon as I reached my office I did a Google search and found alot of interesting articles.. (Usually I can solve problems using Google!!!) Still pondering over my findings I made the Daily Reports and somehow or the other managed to go through the Management Meeting (I was the chairperson) and then I decided to go home and fix the problem... So took a driver, went and bought a battery and upon reaching home my driver, Awadh, being a mechanic just tigtened the battery wires and the car started!!!

(Would like to point out that the existing battery was only 6 months old so I didn't think it'll give me problems... The waranty is for 18 months)

Now you can imagine my embarrassment... But I had to admit that sometimes a man's touch is necessary and that woman can't know everything!!!

So returned the battery and got a refund... Had to explain the entire situation before they would refund so more embarrassing moments....

But more lessons to learn. I did learn about the starter and the battery and the circuit diagram for the starter as well. If you are interested then have a look. It did help me somewhat.

So my friends out there... If you face the same problem that I faced then as a initial step... check and tighen the wires!!! You might fix the problem...

So heres to another lesson learnt the hard way!!!

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