Weekly Gratitude List – April 14, 2012.

Saturday had me cooking again and lunch went off very well, thanks to some tips that I phoned my sister for. I also cooked up a light meal for my father for the evening which he relished. I went walking around the entire township to do some shopping and was able to complete the journey despite lugging a lot of groceries, vegetables and fruit. A long outstanding payment from a customer was finally collected. Phew!

Sunday saw a friend of Ranjan’s Bertrand land up and have lunch with us. He enjoyed the dal that I had so much that he wanted me to share the recipe. Nice to be flattered like that. Mitali suddenly woke up from her hinbernation and called and I was thrilled to talk to her after a long time. We have decided to meet next week come what may.

Monday saw Yakob bringing a new maid to take over from Mangal. Till her health issues are resolved, Rekha will do all that Mangal was doing. I will have to train her though! Although Rekha took care of the top work, I still had to cook and was fortunate enough to have another friend of Ranjan’s, Behram land up for lunch. No left overs! Succeeded in booking a new order from a difficult customer.

On Tuesday, Rekha perhaps was overwhelmed with the quantity of work or the commute or whatever, and did not turn up for work. I continued to cook but good news was on the way. Mangal spoke to me directly on her return home, for the first time since her emergency hospitalisation. She apologised for the troubles and informed me that her niece will come from Wednesday and she herself will be able to recommence work from next Monday. She has to go to the hospital every day for a course of injections and will have to continue to take oral medication too for a couple of months but, she is back to normal. Evidently, it was neither a heart problem nor an asthmatic attack, but something to do with blood. She will bring all the papers for me to consult with our family doctor on her return. Till Monday, I shall continue to cook!

Wednesday, Mangal’s niece Sangeetha came and cleaned up the house. I continued to cook. Was however able to go to the park and do a fair bit of shopping without getting too tired.

On Thursday, my father started off with various complaints and it was a job keeping him in good humour. I got our GP finally to come over and spend a few minutes with him and he calmed down after what I presume was treatment with some placebos. Ranjan was at home and was able to fetch and see the good doctor off.

On Friday, Manjiri came for lunch and brought tender coconut flavoured natural icecream, my favourite. I thoroughly enjoyed multiple helpings. Later, my father decided that he needed to consult a cardiologist. Since the cardiologist who had seen him a couple of years ago and who was Urmeela’s cardiologist was not reachable, Ranjan located another cardiologist. We were lucky to have a husband and wife pair of cardiologists and GPs all rolled into one and they have given him a clean chit for the moment but have asked for a battery of tests to be done. Blood samples will be collected by someone on Saturday, and we shall know what needs to be further by late Saturday evening.

Late in the night, Manjunath landed up to share some very good tidings about his business and I was very happy that the worst is over for him and his factory is now running to its full capacity.