The blue sky

2018 is nearing its end and I have some exciting news to share. This year is ending on a very positive and cheerful note. I expect a lot of good things for personal and professional growth in 2019.

It's 6 pm in Karlsruhe, Germany. It's another 1.5 hrs in India to approach the new year. My brother-in-law, who is in Tokyo, Japan has already arrived into 2019. So how was the year 2018 for me and what are my resolutions for 2019?

I am a self-proclaimed music freak. I listen to music every day. I am born to be surrounded by music. I love music, in any language, anything melodious, soulful, rhythmic, foot tapping number.

As the year 2018 comes to a closure, I really did something exciting and worthwhile, though on the second last day of the year. We visited the city Strasbourg, which is in France and is very famous for its Christmas market. It was cold, it was grey, it was cloudy, but the atmosphere and the decorations there brought a smile to my face and the day will be forever etched in my mind as one of the memorable days of the year 2018.

This is the second post for the picture challenge sent by John. He is kicked up about it and he is dutifully sending the images, the second week in a row. I hope we both continue with it till a long long time. You can read about the first picture challenge here: https://thebluecanvasofwords.blogspot.com/2018/12/picture-challenge-1.html Here's my interpretation of the second image that he sent early this week.

It's December, its Christmas time and more than half of the world population is busy celebrating Christmas with family. But it is also the most boring time of the year for us, who don't celebrate the festival, have nowhere to go because it is cold all over Europe and schools have close to 3 weeks holidays. T got bored on the second day of vacations and he asks me almost every day about the school reopening. Next year I plan to go to India during this time. Last year it was the same story and this year too. So how to kill time in this dull and grey weather? Watch movies! And yes I did a good job by selecting two movies of my favorite actor, Tom Hanks. What were the movies?

My good friend John who introduced me to the world of blogging stays in Canada. He shifted there last year. Like any other person, he faced problems with settling down in an entirely new county and among new people. He took to a new passion there. Photography!! I am sad that he doesn't blog anymore. I miss our Monthly Writing Marathons. But he is happy with the new passion and he is very active on Instagram and has the handle name johnjethi. Please check out his collection. It's marvelous, stupefying and it completely mesmerizes me. He asks me to chose which I like the best but there is no best. All are too good to even rank them 1 point lower. So this brilliant idea struck me last week. Something that would bring his passion for photography and my passion for writing together! Yes, it's a brilliant idea as it is going to keep us both creatively active. So what's the idea?

I had written about the "Indische Nudeln" (Sevai Upma) when T started school. It was about how happy he was with the arrangement about taking bread in his box twice a week in the Kindergarten and on other three days, he would take Indian breakfast. We also adopted this in his school from September this year. All was going well until 3 weeks back. He suddenly started bringing back the Indian breakfast without finishing it. And when I asked him why he didn't finish it, he gave me the same answer that he wasn't hungry every single time he brought it back!

Life never fails to surprise you, if you are really ready for it with your heart and eyes and ears open! December means shorter days, darker days, no sunshine, no vitamin D for my body and soul and I feel down on many days. It's not as bad as it was last year, but sometimes it gets onto me. After an encounter about which you are just going to read, I thought life is not bad after all!