Mom's Whistling Kettle and tea-time chats

My tea kettle has whistled, and fragrant Darjeeling second flush tea leaves are being brewed, and I am all set with my tea-time adda. Catching up with friends is always fun. You can start off anytime from where you had left it the last time you met up. So let me start off with our story of life as expats. Last 4 years we were in the beautiful country of Netherlands, in Utrecht region. Our apartment looked over the Amsterdam Rijn Canal and the Hoge Brug(High Bridge). It would have been great if I could take you through a house-tour, but somehow it did not happen that way. We stayed in this furnished Dutch apartment and enjoyed every minute of it in spite of all grief and loss that we had to go through at home in India. These 4 years have taught me a lot. First and foremost staying away from home country, family and relatives was not easy, more so when my Mom was unwell, fighting Cancer in India. The short grey wet winter days were exciting initially, but depressing...