Nothing particularly dramatic happened this week — but over the past 2–3 weeks, a few small, sort-of-interesting things have stacked up, which I can make do with for this post.

Starting with books, I finished Jane Eyre a while ago. I’m halfway through another bildungsroman, Great Expectations. Jane Eyre was a nice read. I liked the overall theme and the depth of its characters, and I’m still mesmerized by the author’s prose. Though I must say, I wasn’t too fond of the ending — it felt a little too convenient, especially when compared to how grounded the rest of the novel was. As for Great Expectations, we’ve been a bit on and off. I’ll try to finish it soon.

About our cat — I think it’s more out of habit now. She follows us every single time the three of us step out of the house together. It doesn’t have to be post-dinner like before; we’ve seen her spying on us even in broad daylight. I suspect people in our locality think there’s something off about us because we keep turning back — not just to check if she’s there, but to figure out from where exactly she’s spying on us. I agree, it would be extremely creepy in any other setting — but in ours, it’s actually quite adorable.

Though, it’s not always fun. A couple of times we’ve landed in tight spots because of her. Once, we were surrounded by 4–5 dogs who thought it’d be fun to bully her. None of us ran. We huddled together and yelled in unison, while our cat puffed herself up to look bigger. We knew she was faking and shaking — and I guess she knew we were too. Luckily, the dogs weren’t too serious and walked away within a few seconds. I guess they had their share of laughs there. On another occasion, I almost cuddled a cat thinking it was ours, only to realize — just in time — that it wasn’t. She looked very similar, just heavier and grumpier. It was late evening, so I was tricked a bit. And then, there was the time our cat got cornered again — this time by puppies. Unlike with grown dogs, where she’s ready to put up a fight, here she was clearly alarmed, with no sign of eagerness to retaliate. We had a good laugh as we shooed the puppies away and brought her home. None of this, of course, stops her from following us.

Jumping threads — I damaged my Mac a while ago. I was a bit concerned it would turn into an expensive affair, judging by the anecdotes I’d heard. Thankfully, the repair cost was bearable, and it’s now working fine. Though let’s see if anything else surfaces. If there’s something unpleasant on the horizon, I hope it shows up within the next few days — before the warranty runs out. :/

What else?

On the travel front, things are progressing fine logistically. I’ve done my initial packing, though a lot still needs to be replaced and removed.

Our Jaipur trip was nice, albeit slightly inconvenient because of the heat — which was expected.

And I think I’m driving decently now, though I still haven’t gotten the hang of reversing and parking. I’m also not great at smoothly changing gears. So, there’s a lot to learn and practice there.

I guess that’s it for now.

Have a good day! 🌸