BLOG POST 5
We were going to travel by Silk Airlines
from Rajiv Gandhi international airport to Singapore on Nov 20th 2017, the flight
would start at 23.05 and reach Singapore by 6.15 and from there at 8.55, Air
New Zealand would take us to Auckland ,we would be reaching at 23.45, so
basically it would take us nearly 24 hours to reach Auckland from Hyderabad but
thanks to the different time zones the equation was different.
Time gap between India and
Singapore is such that we are behind Singapore by 2.30 hrs so when we reach
Singapore it would be 3.45 I.S.T and New Zealand is faster than India by 7.30
hours and so though we will be reaching in Auckland at 23.45 it would be still 4.15
pm in India, mind boggling isn’t it ? By travelling to countries which are
ahead of us in time we lose time and vice versa. Because of this time
difference, we get jet lag , a condition caused by travelling across different
time zones. This leads to disruption of our circadian rhythm, internal body
clock that regulates sleep and waking. Jet lag symptoms include fatigue,
sleepiness, digestive upsets, impaired judgement and irritability. Moreover, it
is more severe when travelling in an easterly direction like how we were going
to travel now as our day is shortened , our body takes more time to adjust,
leading to severe jet lag
The term "jet lag" is used because before the arrival of
passenger jet aircraft ,it was uncommon to travel far and fast enough to cause jet
lag . Previous travel by propeller-driven aircraft, by ship or by train was
slower and of more limited distance than jet flights, and thus did not
contribute widely to the problem
‘So we were definitely going to have jet lag after reaching
Auckland but we shall face it when it comes’ I thought. Though some friends
advised us to take some medication for jet lag we decided to combat it
naturally. Whenever we travel abroad, as we both are old fashioned enough to
still wear wrist watches,I merrily alter my time according to the local time, whereas
my husband loyally sticks to Indian time ,I also notice a funny feeling of loss and increased awareness of our country
whenever I travel out of India as if my
absence is being missed by my mother country
As I was busy going around packing, my husband who had finished
packing his smaller suitcase much ahead of me was going about with a troubled
expression on his face, I said ‘what is the matter ?’ He was upset because we
had to close our flat for nearly 20 days with both our birds (sons) out of our
nest one in Delhi and the other in US
I assured him as it was not possible to coax any relative to stay in
the house for so many days, I have thought of few safety measures ,I luckily
have a very friendly neighbour who assured me she would keep an eye on our flat
,We would be closing all the doors and windows
Other measures to be taken would be to
install timers on electronics to create noise and flickering lights, if cars are kept in air ports better switch off the GPS or they
would lead the burglars directly home, also very essential to stash any
valuables in lockers
Beware of social media and not happily
post holidays snaps of entire family on vacation and have burglars holidaying
at home, better wait to come back to post those snaps
I have also seen some of friends jovially
removing their house keys from under
foot mats or flower pots, I am sure the thieves know of all these common areas
where the house and almirah keys are kept better as they are professionally trained at
robbery and we are not !
Better lock garage doors ,as we didn’t
have a garage ,staying in a flat complex ,we instructed our watchman to get our
car cleaned daily which I am sure he did -once in a week ,keeping the wind
wipers erect as an evidence of his cleaning LOL,
Main step was to inform the paper
wallah and milk wallah to stop news papers and milk, other wise they will be
happily piling up in front of the door step
All the electronics were plugged off
and the fridge emptied and switched off and the cylinder knob closed after my
final cup of hot chai ,water taps closed
after the maid finished cleaning the vessels, (invariably this turns out to be
a regular night mare for me , regularly after
leaving the house for work a good 1 or 2 hours later I start worrying whether I
closed the taps ,switched off the hot water geyser and worst of it all the deadly
pressure cooker) ,final instructions were to my maid to fondly water my potted
plants kept in our front verandah and balcony
We weighed the suitcases and hand
luggage ,the weight was well below the limit and we were all set to go to air port 3 hours before the flight time
,New Zealand here we come !
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