2023 was a fine year overall. It felt like a year of progress professionally, and generally life was good in India. I celebrated ten years of motherhood. But I also lost someone. And I got stuck in a moving escalator.
Here it is, the good, the bad, the ugly:
Celebrating New Year in Goa
Celebrating “New Year” several more times in the office because my workplace is culturally very diverse
Having COVID for the third time
Getting tenured
And getting promoted (and my husband getting a huge promotion)
Surviving, and mostly enjoying, 10 years of motherhood
Wearing an Indian saree and lengha
Running six 10k races and two half marathons
Completing a total of 33 runs of 7.5k on average
1000 piece jigsaw puzzles
Book club
Reading 40 books
Of which 10 were audiobooks
And two books were about Sikh culture
My grandma turning 98
Practicing to think of myself as 40, just to get used to it
Starting a wine club
Lots of chasing and tickling the kids
Giving up veganism—though I’m still about 90% vegan/vegetarian
100% giving up on mascara
Not having to cook any meals because I have an amazing housekeeper-chef
Implementing an “inbox zero” policy at work
Giving up on paper agendas and using Google Calendar
Interviewing approximately 6,000 people for a green card
Traveling to the remote Andaman Islands
Developing an obsession with diving
Radhaganar beach—one of the most beautiful in the world, seriously, Google Images doesn’t do it justice
Doing a comprehensive body health check up at the hospital
Still being the only person in my family without eyeglasses (though apparently my eyesight is deteriorating, which I found out during my checkup…)
The movie Palm Springs
The Backstreet Boys in concert; a semi-serious childhood dream come true!
Imagine Dragons in concert
Shopping on Marshalls.com
Discovering the joy of nice pajamas (Natori)
Rice-dal
Instead of eating Big Macs, which don’t exist in India
Learning how to properly kick a soccer ball from my son
Having a sore foot for three days as a result of that
Publishing 24 blogposts
Riding a horse
Quitting Hindu lessons
And re-starting Italian
Serving on the Israel-Gaza conflict taskforce
Starting a five step skincare routine, and ditching most of it
My 98-year old grandmother dying peacefully in her sleep
Spending only 3% of the year in the Netherlands
Visiting a tea plantation in Kerala
Learning that white, green and black tea are all from the same plant
Nail art
Driving a car only once all year
Avoiding a fifth root canal treatment with antibiotics
Eating popcorn for breakfast
My son playing the keyboard
My daughter becoming a gymnastics fanatic
Not traveling to any new country (I’m still at 41 countries)
Dressing for Halloween as Barbie and my husband as Ken (which was great, because he looks a bit like Ryan Gosling)
Watching three musicals live: Westside Story, Mamma Mia, and The Sound of Music
Dinner with the cast of The Sound of Music (the adults!)
Performing a Bollywood dance in front of 200 colleagues
Visiting Dharavi, India’s biggest slum (not a PC word anymore, I know)
Breaking my vow never to sing karaoke again (with Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go)
Covering the cost of this blog with ad revenue (though I earned way less this year than I did last year)
Killing more insects than in any other year (mosquitoes and cockroaches)
A colleague telling me my shirt is inside out
Upgrading my kitchen’s spice rack. By the time all my kitchen appliances are RVS this style will probably be outdated.
Adding to my Persian rug collection
Playing poker
Paddle boarding at Wallowa Lake, which is the closest thing to heaven on earth if you ask me
Blowing up 100 balloons for each of my kids’ birthdays
Long walks to basically nowhere
Listening to podcasts like “Decoder Ring” and “Even the Rich”
Learning that it’s a scientific fact, proven repeatedly, that ice cream is healthy. Just like wine
Convincing both of my sisters to visit me in India
Putting a record number of presents under the Christmas tree
Wearing silver and gold shoes to work
Wearing dress shorts to work and getting away with it
Experimenting with the butterfly stroke
Bidets
Going to bed at 10 PM (instead of midnight)
Watching Trevor Noah perform live
Being a criminal investigator for a day
Playing paintball
Using Apple Notes to write down all my thoughts
Swapping plates and drinks at restaurants with my husband when I like his thing better
My shoe lace getting stuck in a moving escalator
Being in Chennai during a massive cyclone
Trying to control (limit) my kids’ screen time with Qustodio
50 Cent in concert
Food poisoning
The Bombay Hash House Harriers
Traffic
And honking cars
Dressing in different colors for nine days in a row to celebrate Navarati
Dog sitting
Brew Dog brewery
Walking my first stretch of the Pieterpad trail
My stocks gaining value for the first time in two years
Our 12-year wedding anniversary
Organizing a clothing swap
Ehm… oversharing?
