June turned out to be an excellent month on the reading front. I read five books, reviews aren’t up yet but they will be soon. 😉

This week’s video is a wrap up of the books and my thoughts on each of them. Have you read any of these? Did you like it?

Books I read in June –
Six Degrees by BlogAdda
Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase
The Devil and The Deadly Peace by Sindhura Chamala
First Comes Love by Emily Giffin
Destiny of Shattered Dreams by Nilesh Rathod

Something I’ve been thinking about:

 
In an extra marital affair the woman gets referred to as the other woman, blame is heaped on her for tempting the man, she is held responsible for breaking a marriage. But why is it her fault? She may have loved a married man, but that’s not wrong. The married man had a choice, he crossed the line, it’s his infidelity and yet he hardly ever gets thoo-thooed at.

The Bratpack Update:

 
Cuckoo been going for hydrotherapy!

A video posted by Freya (@freya3377) on Jun 30, 2016 at 6:52am PDT

What started as first rare, then off and off muscle pulls four years ago had progressed to an almost constant limp that seems to be causing constant pain. Over the years her stance, walking and running styles have changed to accommodate for the inadequacy of her right hind leg. She’s also become a more cranky dog, we guess because of the pain.
We’ve been trying to figure out what’s wrong for years now but no definite reason has been found and no medication has worked. Then recently a friend recommended hydrotherapy.
We’ve heard good things about hydrotherapy and are hoping it will help Cuckoo with the muscle wastage the hydrotherapist found in her right hind, which in turn will increase mobility and lessen pain.
She’s been to three sessions now and is finally getting used to the idea of swimming but we are already noticing little improvements.

Wish her luck 🙂

“Hi, Five year old wife” was Che’s opening statement today. Yep, it’s our anniversary. We’ve survived five years, it’s a milestone! I can’t believe it, it doesn’t feel like five years most days and sometimes it feels like forever.

But all said and done, if the past five years are a taster of what’s coming, and I had a chance to do it all over, I’ll choose Che every time. 😀

So much has happened in the last five years, we started to full time freelance (and yet manage to pay bills!), we’ve moved from a flat to a two storied house with a garden, made love uncountable times and had BIG fights an equal number of times, enlarged our family to we two, ours six (dogs, that is), travelled alone, together, national, International, … It’s a long list of memories that make me smile as I think of them today.

It’s been a good five years.We celebrated with food! 🙂

Blog

I can feel myself getting into the groove of things, albeit slowly. This week I talked about sleeping with the dogs , my experience of Kaziranga National Park  – the first part, and my thoughts of Twitter.

I also shared some of the old Hindi Movies I watched. If you are into that sort of thing, I’ve posted the links to the movies in Youtube too.

Reading

I didn’t read as much this week. There were too many things happening but I did read and reviewed Choked by Bharath Sarma Rejeti.

Phew! Finally I’ve started with my last Perry Mason – The Case of the Phantom Fortune. It’s inbetween in the series as I had to order it when I found it missing in the set and it finally arrived just yesterday.

Here and There

Michele over at Angels Bark shared her thoughts on a quote and got me thinking too – “Choose being kind over being right, and you’ll be right every time”. I enjoy reading Bernie’s posts on her day to day life, she has in splits constantly, you should check out her latest on Cousin Connie the Cougar!

Kari who’s on a mission to travel the world talked about Traveller’s Remorse. Have you ever experienced choosing between what you should do and what you want to do?

Gardening

A lot of what I sowed last week is sprouting. It’s a joy to watch the little leaves shoot out. I’ve got my fingers crossed for survivors, they are so delicate at this point.

I need to get the planting beds ready next week so it can sit and settle for a bit before the transplant.

Health and Fitness

This area has been in bad shape. We slipped up and dropped off on our swimming challenge. As always, life caught up. I really need to fix this.

I also need to fix my stomach, which has been giving me hell this week. I’ve had 4 disturbed nights due to extreme pain. I didn’t ever think gas could be this painful!

Delights

This week started out hectic with me and Mom shutting up and down the city getting our flat painted and ready for the next tenant. Its was quite a cleaning job, but we got it done! 😀

Then there was the pretty sarong Anitra get me from her road trip across Sri Lanka. Isn’t it lovely! Another one for my lungi collection. 😉

I came across these pretty caterpillar. They fascinate me with their colours, shapes and designs.

I think I’ve saved the best for last. But these chocolate bars are addictive and crazy heavy on the calories. We couldn’t stop with one. Well, it’s finally over. 🙁

So, that was my week. What have you been upto?

Photos Credit: Free Images

 
P.S. – Day Twenty of the 30 Day Blogging Challenge.

The last week has been challenging and fulfilling. I have been more productive than I’ve been in a while. I got a fair bit done in multiple spaces, and I haven’t done that in a while.

We’ve also had weird weather. It’s boiling hot two days followed by cloudy skies for two days which in turn are trailed by hot days and rainy evenings. This is the wrong month for rain, it hope it doesn’t impact the crops too much.

The Week on the Blog

After the AtoZ Challenge this month I’m doing the 30 Day Blogging Challenge. I’ve not best army best through the challenge until now, I’ve missed a few days and not been able to keep up with the study material at all. Got to try harder.

I did make some changes to the blog though. I added the Jetpack and Worpress SEO by Yoast plugin’s. They are simple but packed with so much stuff. With each post I’m figuring out SEO.

The Week in Reading

I’ve been trying to finish reading the Perry Mason series for a while now. I just never got down to reading Mason in school and college and had to correct that error. Now I’m almost done, just two more books to go!

Now that the collection is done I’m hoping to finish with my long pending review list soon. Need to make inroads into it and fast. This week I’m hoping to read ‘Choked’ by Bharath Sarma Rejeti.

The Week in Gardening

Last week I got some cuttings from an aunt and planted them. The aum plant and lemon grass seem to be chugging along but the strawberries and mint seem to have died. I’ve got my fingers crossed hoping for some magic.

I also sowed a fresh batch of cherry tomato, two varieties of other tomatoes, two varieties of chillies and two of basil. It’s time to get the kitchen garden going in ernest.

The Week in Health and Fitness

I’ve been cheating on my diet a bit and have had a couple of coffees and teas. This week been one of lots of gas, mild discomfort most days and one bad night. I test out gripe water last month and it seemed to help so now I’ve a bottle handy always. 😀

Che and I started a 10 days swimming challenge. We’ve been going late evening and this weather it’s been lovely to get into the pool after the heat of the day. However we managed only 3 days before life caught up again. Got to do better next week.

 
What have you been upto last week?

 
P.S. – Day Thirteen of the 30 Day Blogging Challenge.