Almost forgotten..

This year we did not put the kids in Tamil school. The 2 plus hour time commit every sunday, not to mention the 5+ hours spent by San for preparing them for exams and such were simply out of reach even by thought in August. Why?

At that time it was a very likely possibility that yours truly would be traveling to Austin more frequently this Tamil School year. That concept came to an untimely end, but nevertheless it seems to have been a wise move. What with grand parents being around and our ability to take them to visit local places on Sunday, me going to Yoga Sunday morning to compensate for all the absenteeism during weekdays, long bike rides with kids on Sunday mornings after yoga class.. it has definitely been a plus getting those two hours back on Sunday.

However.. there is a big however here.. The kids have almost forgotten everything they learned in the last three years of Tamil school in less than three months. One would think that the grandparents being physically here and all what with them talking exclusively in Tamil with the kids and between themselves, their proficicency in the spoken language would improve! Not really. 

Apparently the little one overheard grandma betting with Sangeetha "give me one month and will make her talk to me in Tamil".. so she takes this up as a personal challenge of sorts and tells herself "give me one month and I will make granda talk to me in English".

So we are now 4/12 months into my parents 5 1/2 month trip and Grandma is exclusively talking to grand daughter in English. The little one came and bragged to me at bedtime last week "You know. Grandma thought she was going to make me talk in Tamil. Guess who is talking in English now?"

Told her "Shame on you. Grandma knows English and Tamil. She taught English and is a school teacher. You have forgotten Tamil. This is not a challenge. She said it as a wish". Somehow my little beration didn't make any impact and was promptly brushed aside as "rantings from a patriarch not worth giving a damn" and off she went to watching some more Phineas and Ferb on youtube.

So the last one week has seen a revival of the bedtime Tamil Quiz. We sure had some fun early rounds with the kids making up imaginary words when asked to translate words from English to Tamil.  

Asked the little one what is the word for Wheel?

She goes "Is it tayaru?"

We all burst out laughing. Told her Tyre is an English word even if spoken in this house with a Tamil accent. 

Even Jr. starts forgetting things and when I ask her what is for Clouds she goes "Vaanam panju?" (Cloud cotton?). Seriously didn't know at that point if I should laugh or cry.

We have now covered all animals, birds, fruits, vegetables, landforms and everyday objects around the house. 

The bedtime crash course is in full swing. They also seem to have lost the abiltiy to identify any Carnatic music ragas. They could identify 20+ last year. Now it is down to random guessing.  

Lot of work ahead.... but bedtime is becoming a laugh riot!

Blue Angels

We did not really enjoy the blue angels show this year as much as last .. but did get a few great pictures with Alcatraz in the backdrop. 

Last year we could not find parking and were outside the city hall. This year we succumbed to the city fleecing and paid a good 30 bucks to park near Pier 39 so we could watch the planes go between the Pier and Alcatraz.

The crowd was overwhelmingly a "smoking" crowd and there was nothing we could do. If it is one or two folks you can request them to kindly move away, but if it is a group of 15-20 people around you lighting up, what do you do?

You hope the show gets over fast and you get a few good pictures!

 

and my favorite.. a shot that was accidentally taken by tracking the planes towards the sun. Managed to salvage it using the HDR toning utility in photoshop that gave this a cool effect!

Next year we watch them live on TV! 

Pelicons

Two Photographs..

The first one is a Pelican with an "a". 

This shot captured at the Shoreline park a couple of weekends ago (when things were very different with life) during a picnic... 

The next one is a Pelicon with an "o". Yes, you got that right. The title was no typo. This shot was taken last sunday where a pelican was trying to act like one of the blue angels.. When you have a 70-200 on a 2x extender the thing is more than a foot long and taking hand held shots is a challenge. To top things off the gulls and Pelicans would come flying in from the sides and mess up my focus! 

The only bonus? This shot of the Pelican was as crisp as the shot of the airplanes (which could be crispier..). A lot of people got conned by the Pelicans. The blue angels would make a noise and everyone would turn to the edge of the Pier and out would come a Pelican and the crowd would burst out laughing.

This year somehow the fun was not there watching the Blue Angels perform compared to last year. There was just way too much of a crowd and too much second hand smoking for one day!

Next year we might not even go..