The days are just packed

2008-07-08T17:59:00.004+01:00

I am home early waiting for an estate agent who is to bring prospective new tenants to see our apartment. Every creak on the outside stairs seem magnified as I wait impatiently filled with mixed emotions.

I can't believe we have been in this apartment nearly two years ... for that matter I can't believe that we have been in London over two years. I don't realise the time just whooshing past! Plans seem to be made to be broken. If it hadn't been for the infamous (and way too much quoted and repeated) credit crunch, we might have even been thinking of buying an apartment. All that seems distant ... but a more realistic and favourable option would be to just continue in our current place. And even that seems a remote possibility now.

While rent increasing is something that we hate but expect, most of our friends in this area have renewed their contract at a reasonable hike of inflation + a bit. That seems the norm with most people I have spoken to. However, our landlord has a little drama every year (well atleast he did exactly this last year). First the property is reassessed for market value and then he proposes a rent which is 10 - 12% higher. Last year we settled at a mid way 5% Now we're back on this again ... it seems to be a tougher negotiation (from what the agent presents). Except that I am fed-up with these games and even if it's a bit like cutting my nose to spite my face, I am ready to move. We have started looking at options incase our current negotiation falls through .. and seems like so is the landlord. Though moving might be the more expensive option than giving the landlord the increase .. I hate the idea of being taken for a ride. As I keep waiting, I wonder if anyone is really coming or this was another general pressure tactic!

Ten Years Later

2008-06-30T19:30:00.001+01:00

I am in Delhi after nearly 10 years! It's a short trip for some work, but I have been very excited about visiting Delhi after so long.

I land, and I know I am back. People jumping the queues in immigration, major pushing at the exit point ... all the usual Delhi aggression from the minute I landed. Never mind since I was in a happy mood to be here ... but it just reminded me of all the things I disliked about Delhi in the first place.

Negative start aside, once out of the airport, I was so impressed with what the city has done with the infrastructure. I didn't get a chance to get on the metro, but drove around quite a bit and the whole flyover network, while confusing, transformed the traffic. Bombay could certainly learn a lesson or two on upgrading infrastructure.

Two days were spent going to some of the old places Dilli Haat, South Ex... and going to some new places. I also really wanted to visit DU, but couldn't manage the time. I was quite surprised at the number of pubs around the city ... the Barista culture now seems to be replaced with a more pubbing culture. We were out on Saturday early evening and two sets of school kids came and sat at the next table - drinking beer and having an occasional smoke. I later found out from my school going cousins that it's quite common and nothing to be shocked about. I still was, I can't quite reconcile drinking (at pubs) and smoking with teenagers.

It's good to be back after so long ... I am still not convinced I would like to live here ... but it's been a nice walk down memory lane. And now I am off home till the end of the week for some rest, relaxation and pampering.

Inertia and the demotion

2008-06-17T22:06:00.006+01:00

30in2005 has jolted me out of inertia with the threat to send me to the 'RIP' category ... though at this point I checked and realised that I have already been demoted to the 'Once in a while' slot ... well ... despite my good intentions it has turned out pretty much that way .. it hasn't even averaged a measly twice a month! Now lets see if I can claw my way back to being on the regulars list.

Usually, while I am on the tube I keep thinking about all these things I 'must' write about ... and then it's forgotten. These days I am pre-occupied with one thought (though action on it is very slow!) - I am pained with my job. I have a new manager ... less the better on that topic the better ... and am looking to change roles but it's not working out. So whenever I have logged on to actually write .. it's been more crib-crib-crib ... and then I just delete the post ... though writing it out does feel quite therapeutic! So it all feels grey .. (unlike the weather for a change!) and I didn't want to spread the gloom.

Justifications done ... inertia broken ... and now I am back (I shall not check at this point, how many times I have said this in this year!).

Save the change

2008-05-31T19:56:00.006+01:00

How much can collecting everyday change amount to?

That's what we ended up collecting in the last year since we got ourselves a little piggy bank.One rainy afternoon (and we get a lot of that!), I sat and counted it all ... and it's a whopping 132.8 GBP! That's paying for our flights on the next holiday ... and I know it's our money, but it feels like a bonus :)

Of holidays and laptops

2008-03-26T12:05:00.005Z

Sigh .. the Easter weekend just flew past as expected. Since we're changing from one visa type to another, our passport is with the 'home office' and that made sure that we couldn't leave the country for the long Easter break. The choice was between staying in London and just chilling out..and going to someplace within the UK. Imagine a Sunday .. which is actually like a Friday with two more days of holiday left .. but that was outweighed by the attraction of getting out of here, switching off for a few days and getting a much needed break.

That worked out fine (except that I hadn't thought through the cost implication properly!). We decided to drive around Devon and Cornwall with a couple of friends. It was beautiful ... though very cold. The fun with driving is that it can be totally impromptu. Find a place on the map, read about it in Lonely Planet and off you go. The wind and cold were a pain though .. but the beauty made up for it. The country side and villages in UK are so picturesque, it's looks directly out of a picture book (ofcourse I have considered the fact that the picture books might have been based on this in the first place thereby creating quite a skew!).

In all .. it was good to get away. Though one thing I would do differently in hindsight is not carry my laptop and blackberry. Life pre laptop and blackberry meant that I could really switch off on holidays and relax. While it was fun to have Internet access, I think it stopped me from really switching off. On Monday evening I was actually replying to a work mail - not good. So next time it shall be a no blackberry/laptop holiday ... or so I think ... might just give in at the last moment.

2008-03-22T00:22:00.009Z

I have take such a long blog break, it's become like a sabbatical. At work, amongst other things, I have been working on a few re-launches in the last few months. That got me thinking about a blog re-launch ... new colour, design and some general newness and excitement.

I tried for few hours .. but just could not get my head around xml code to use an image for the background. Well, I could keep trying, but I figured I could get writing before I get my little head to figure out code writing ... something which is I know so little of that it's like going to primary school for the web world.

After many months of stress and over-work, I am finally getting to sit in a comfortable chair with a footstool and not worry about work. I have been waiting for the Easter weekend for a long long time. This year is not quite as exciting as previous holidays. Though it's freezing cold ... it feels great to be in the country side. Away from the chaos of London .. in a nice B&B where the nearest neighbour is over a mile away. It's past midnight and B and a friend are playing some game where you need to think. Soo not my kind of thing to do on a holiday.. left to me, the brain shall remain switched-off till Tuesday. So I've been reading Economist, listening to Virgin radio (by far the best radio station in the UK) enjoying some good red wine .. and decided to stop waiting for the perfect moment or re-launch and just get back to the blog world .....

A rather late recap on 2007

2008-01-19T10:08:00.000Z

Ending the year on a holiday is always good.. it’s a sure shot a high. Sadly back to regular routine that wears off. So the exhilaration has ebbed and now it’s a more realistic look at the last year.

Last year started with mixed feelings and some resolutions. The good thing .. the resolutions sort of worked out. I did change my job for the better .. much better in fact .. and I did lose weight (well not as much as I would like, or as much as needed .. but am happy with the start). By mid year I was in a comfort zone with predictions for my one word for the year being ‘stability’. That’s actually how it did stay for much of the year.. and I was quite happy for it. The last couple of years before it had too much change .. new locations .. academics .. career change ... after a while it gets tiring. Normalcy and a lack of excitement felt soooo good.

Sadly, as I was settling into comfort zone reflecting on the year things took a steep turn. The shock of the unexpected absorbed part of the blow ... and that it was in more mundane events like work rather than harsher events faced by some friends who lost dear people and faced bad health. And just as I thought we had got to our lowest point .. it got lower .. and my department got restructured. Well, I am lucky to still have a job I suppose.. otherwise the overwhelming feeling is that of being ‘short-changed’.

I am not sure if I should believe the feedback .. or am just missing out on the point. But apparently I got a lower position than I expected since I don’t talk enough about myself. Apparently selfish show-off culture gets you further than being the nice helpful colleague who delivers the work but doesn’t trumpet it. I cannot believe my own naivety. Actually I can’t believe the reality. It has truly been a revolutionary year .. the year I grew up. I suppose the advantage of when you’re junior is that the work is more sugar coated and you’re rewarded as you deserve. Middle management is just a peek into the world of ugly politics which just gets worse as you go up. As I see things get covered up, trumpeted for way more than they are worth, harsh reality being rose tinted .. it seems unreal. While I struggle to accept it .. I reluctantly admit that this is the reality of the corporate work.. it’s a world I need to start getting used to .. to fight in .. and learn to play on its own terms.

And with that .. a very Happy New Year. Hope 2007 was good for you .. what’s your one word for it?

I just don't get it

2007-12-08T03:06:00.001Z

Every time I read about a teenager going on a shooting rampage, I just don't get it. This one being the latest in the ever growing number. It reminds me of the book 'We need to talk about Kevin', however, being fiction and the way it is, I don't think it gave me an idea of the 'Why'.

It did however, make me think of what the families go through after something like this.. especially the parents and feelings towards the family from those who might have lost someone to the incident or even others who know them. We tend to form opinions at the slightest details .. this would be a big millstone to carry.

But in all this .. I still don't understand why .. I wonder if anyone does.

So much for a post a day

2007-12-02T16:58:00.000Z

All I managed was 10 posts in a month of 30 days . . but what a month it has been .. one I am unlikely to forget in a long long time!

The month did not just continue as it had begun it progressively got worse. There was not a single weekend that I did not work through .. and most days were till midnight. It was worse with slipping deadlines and unbelievable pressure on the getting the deliverables to the project team. To make matters worse, I have recently been given some new responsibility (someone's left and its stop gap till a new person joins) and I know very little about the area. There's been no time to meet people around the business and in all this chaos there was a report due on some issues in this business for which I was trying to get inputs from people around the business, but I did not get a single reply in time and I knew too little to put together by myself. It doesn't end here .. unrelated to my work .. there's been lots of chaos at B's workplace and threat of mass redundancy. In all this I had my annual review and it was only lukewarm, heavily influenced by how much behind schedule I am on the current project (its irrelevant that most of it has been because of things pretty much out of my control).

All this just built up and up and up .. till one Friday in a meeting with my boss I totally broke down. Not only was it super embarrassing . . it comes across as quite professional. I had felt it coming but I was just rushing from one meeting to another that day and really wanted to take a break before this one to just get away and breathe .. but no time for that .. and it happened even though I tried quite hard to avoid it. Poor guy pretty much freaked.. he obviously knew how much stress there had been with everything (though not about my personal problems) so I tried to blame it on that and hope that it is not something that gets attached as a label to me (though at that point in time ofcourse I wasn't worrying so much about career progression and labels!). After the waterworks were under control .. he stayed late and helped with some of the work. Needless to say that the weekend after this was spent slaving at work and getting some of my overdue work out. The work is finally under control with all the overdue stuff completed for now .. B's workplace did have the mass redundancy and we've gone through the whole roller coaster of emotions on it.. and issues around sorting out my own work permit. And now I am just so tired . . and also so relieved not to have any work on this weekend. Am pretty sure by the next one it'll be quite different.

Lots of lessons for me! For one, I have become more organized about my work .. and it helped my spirits that my boss was finally pretty happy with the results of the project/presentation. It helps that there are no immediate financial issues and in a melodramatic way I think this is not a big issue given we're all healthy and happy! Most important lesson though .. I now recognize that 'stress' is a pretty real issue. I never gave the idea of stress much importance.. I always equated it to some work pressure .. next time I will surely be a little more respectful about the build up of this extra pressure!

A pretty action packed month and pretty ironical. When I was thinking of year end I had written that this was pretty much it as far as 2007 goes since nothing much would happen in the last two and a half months .. and then deleted it thinking I should not be speaking too soon. ESP :) ?!

2007-11-14T22:14:00.000Z

It's 3 deg outside and the minimum has dropped to 1 deg.

That's it ... I'm done saving the environment .. I want my heating on ..NOW!

Year-end

2007-11-13T22:57:00.000Z

It's just November, but already feels like the end of the year.

We are going through our annual review process, setting targets for next year, updating work-plans with everyone's vacation plans so that work can be planned better (i.e. find the 'bakra' to dump the work on).

I have started thinking about how this year has 'gone' (.. or nearly so), what I want from next year. More importantly, holiday plans, even the generous 6 weeks in the U.K. seems short for my holiday wish-list.

Winter is here. Oxford street is lit-up. All the Christmas parties at work are being planned. Sales have begun. Shops are over-crowded... and even basic shopping is a pain. I have started making long lists for presents to be bought. New Year's eve discussions have started ... festivities in the air.

.... AND it's nearly time for my trip home!!

Half of a Yellow Sun

2007-11-12T22:58:00.000Z

I am helping L work on her CV to look for a job. She is much older than me and has been on the welfare system for years and is now looking to get back to work. Before we started the whole job and CV process we were generally chatting about our past and I mentioned that I had moved here a few years ago and asked her where she was from.

L mentioned that she was from Nigeria and then to fill the silence of a lack of topics I mentioned that I had recently read a book about freedom movement for Biafra. I hadn't quite expected it, when she then told me that she was growing up in Nigeria or rather Biafra then. She soon started talking about what it like to be in Biafra, growing up at the time of the war. From being well off, her family practically became nomads, stood in queues for ration, lived near starvation and saw death and destruction all around. Reading the book was an eye-opener, but hearing it first hand was quite a different experience. She had so many stories, including how after the war she was miraculously reunited with her family.

Reading about wars around the world in the news is so different from thinking of people who are living through it. I am not sure I can articulate it clearly, but the experience of meeting L has touched me in a way I can't quite describe.

Happy Diwali

2007-11-10T18:27:00.001Z

A very Happy Diwali to everyone.

Somehow it feels more like Diwali here than when I lived in India. Since there it was a more family thing everyone did their own thing. However, with our friends here, I suppose the feeling of being 'away' is strong, so Diwali becomes a big group thing .. though celebrated over the nearest weekend. Last night was a get together and playing cards nearly all night. A Diwali lunch today and a party tonight .. it feels nice and festive!

Run, Fat Girl, Run

2007-11-08T23:22:00.000Z

In the last ten years (8 years to be precise) during which I have put on tens of kgs, this is the first time I have made a real attempt at losing weight and more importantly becoming healthy. .. and it has not been easy.

For the first six months of the year, I kept kidding myself into thinking I can do this on my own. .but ten years of indiscipline is difficult to overcome. It took me committing to parting with my hard earned income to a personal trainer ..and many comments by relatives (especially the particularly unhealthy ones who said I was like them!!) that I could even get started. Then was the very slow uphill task of making one small change at a time - stop the cookies in office, oats for breakfast, snacking on fruits (ugh! even now it hardly feels like a snack!) and so on. I am still fundamentally a greedy, unhealthy person but overall I think I'm doing pretty well on the healthy food front.

Sadly, just food control can't do away the damage of all the alcohol and fried food over the years. So the exercise is up. B and I have finally made our peace that morning gym is just not going to happen. Leaving at 7:30 is bad enough. .. nothing can make that 6:30 .. absolutely nothing! So gym is after work .. 4 days a week ..and comes with it's share of hilarious gym experiences, the latest being spin class! There's me, huffing and puffing along next to all these super fit bankers .. seems familiar! Then there was me trying to start running. Some random enthusiasm made my sign-up for the Hydroactive run which Sunrayz was doing. . and then of course I had to try to start running.. even if it was going to be for the first km. One week of trying I realized 200m was more like it and 500m would be good. What did come as a big surprise was that I actually enjoyed jogging .. if I can call it that ..it was more like jog 100m then crawl for the next 100. After the run though enthusiasm was overcome by creaking knees which refused to let me torture it with the force of all my million kilos pounding on it ..so running has been suspended for a bit.

Its all not bad. The clothes are becoming lose. My face looks less like a lunar eclipse and the weight is going down 100 grams at a time. Its not as fast as I'd like it to be but then I need to burn many hundred thousand kcal for all that fat to melt.. which running rather than impatience will achieve. Till then .. it just has to be more of those horrible spin classes and maybe even try those crazy body attack classes just to give those people a laugh.

Shortcut

2007-11-07T23:48:00.000Z

Just got back. For a change, it was not work .. but watching Deathproof that made it a late night. A typical Tarantino film .. totally enjoyed it. ..esp the second half.

And now there's only 11 minutes left to make the midnight deadline and avoiding a second slip. So just a really good ad for today. Good Night.

And in case you want to watch a another good ad .. check this out.

From my daily luxury of reading news during lunchtime ..

2007-11-06T21:58:00.001Z

The sub-prime story seems to be back with a bang. For anyone who might have any confusion about what its all about .. watch this video. It's funny .. and a fairly apt summary of the issue.

This is the story I found most disturbing .. but more on this later.

First Slip

2007-11-05T22:55:00.000Z

Just two days and I have already slipped once and missed a day of posting. Not good and also the growing doubts about managing a post every-day.

To give some context about why, let me describe the last one month. Busy does not even begin to describe it. I started working on a new project in October. It is hard enough that it is a huge project involving lots of departments, what makes it tougher is that for everything there are big team meetings which slows the whole process. Also, the person leading it is very involved with every tiny decision ..so more delays since nothing can move without him signing it (all very bureaucratic). Add to the woes - people quitting and everyone too busy to help to take on anything additional. So there's all my regular stuff (much less interesting) and this. All this said, its possibly the most I have learnt in the last year.

Net result: Much less sleep. Weekends and late nights working. Lots of stress, dreaming about work (ugh!!) and so on. I also am not being able to demarcate work time and non-work time - so its all blended and much less efficient. Hopefully by the end of this week things will be more under control (I have been hoping this for a few weekends now) and I can atleast salvage the weekend. I realize that I no longer have the enthusiasm I had at 22 when I could work and party and keep repeating the cycle of that without any problem at all.

That's work out of the way. No more on this topic for the rest of the month.

Guy Fawkes and Diwali

2007-11-03T23:33:00.000Z

This evening I suddenly heard the sound of fireworks and rushed to the living room to see that our community gardens had organized fireworks for Guy Fawkes night. I abandoned what I was doing and planted myself on the sofa and peered into the window to watch a lovely display of light and colour. I love the visual fireworks over the 'noisy bomb type' ones. I had expected to miss the fireworks this year because I didn't have the enthusiasm to go to one of organized bonfires at Battersea Park and the likes, so it was a nice unexpected surprise.

While sitting there it felt so much like Diwali (with less noise!). As a child, I rarely went out during Diwali because all the smoke from the crackers hung around as smog and invariably I would react badly with a sore throat and the works. It was pretty much the same, except this is pre-Diwali. Next weekend there is Diwali to look forward to .. a small version of the fireworks and a nice party.

NaBloPoMo minus one

2007-11-02T23:53:00.000Z

While I was waiting for the eternally delayed tube today, I suddenly got thinking about how a year back I was blogging each day in November last year. . and now I barely even get time to log on.

Things have changed a lot in these 12 months and while I had all the time this time last year .. all of last month I have barely had time for anything except work. It's good in a way .. but it has been very stressful. Regular working till midnight, weekends .. it's totally crazy.. even when I go to sleep my every growing ToDo list is spinning through my head.

So I figured that though I've missed the first day .. how about trying to post each day for the rest of this month - NaBloPoMo minus 1. Let's see how long I can make it last.. but it will a nice distraction .. and some fun. Anyone game to join?

De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da

2007-10-25T20:11:00.000+01:00

On Saturday was the last concert of the European leg to The Police reunion tour. We had got tickets and come Saturday evening we made our way to Wembley Arena in time to even watch the entire performance by the warm up band.

Nicely settled into our seats I noticed how empty the place looked. I put it to the big Rugby match which seemed to interest more people than a 80's band. The seats next to us filled up in the next fifteen minutes .. and to my dismay and surprise it was a family with two kids - who looked 4 and 8 or thereabouts. I couldn't believe that they had actually spent all that money on a ticket for a little kid. Apart from feeling like I was at a west-end Lion King show, it was fine. The first group started - ok music, more people coming in, drinks being bought .. and slowly the people next to me start pulling out chips, biscuits and whatever else. Did they think they were on some Sunday picnic at the zoo? The kid next to me looked fairly bored since she could hardly see beyond the tall man in front of her. To make it worse everyone kept sitting .. and the thought of sitting still and watching a rock show was too much of a disappointment.

Group 1 done, off the stage, hall nearly full now and anticipation building. Family decide they want some other seats .. so they thankfully leave. Not before they left some sticky syrupy drink all over .. which kept making my shoes stick to the floor. No more rock shows in London!

Then The Police came on. Instantly all 15,000 people in Wembley Arena stood up. Message in a Bottle and Sting looking absolutely amazing (don't they all look so much better now than when they were younger?). Lights, sounds, visuals .. its was perfect. Except that my shoes kept getting stuck so I decided to ask the steward for some newspaper .. and instead he moved us towards the front. It could not have been better. I loved every moment .. did not sit for the two hours .. even 'Every breath you take' sounded great. There were two - three encores .. all the favourites played .. though it started badly.. it turned out perfect. Now, U2!

Where's the light?

2007-10-10T19:25:00.000+01:00

It feels so strange to leave home after dark and then return after dark too. My only glimpse of daylight during the week is through my office windows. I had heard about this, but didn't think it was a big deal. Its not as yet.. but it does feel so strange ..where did the daylight go?

Realities of a work trip

2007-10-09T17:43:00.000+01:00

Who was I kidding when I thought I might actually get time to pack in some sight seeing with a work trip. All I got to see was the sea from my hotel room ..and the rest of the city from the cab window as I whizzed from one end to the other to attend some meetings.

All the days I was there I was sleep deprived, waking up really early, sleeping late and hooking up to the Internet to log-in to my work network. And to think I actually had a Lonely Planet in my bag, SLR camera, charged battery .. well I did take some photos of the hotel room and the view .. just because I had carried the camera all way, I somehow felt it was my duty to use it!

All that I missed in terms of 'fun' was made up by the work aspect of the trip. There were people from other parts of the business and some fairly senior. Through the various meetings I got to learn a lot about how things work, all the tiny aspects of a large projects and so on. It doesn't make up for not managing to get out even for an evening .. but then I can always go back on a personal trip.

On the flight

2007-09-26T22:55:00.000+01:00

I am on my first work related trip. All very sudden and as usual a huge amount of running around given that I was the only one who had to get a visa done .. in two days where the normal process takes 3-4 weeks!

Packing was done in half hour (just bad planning) and barely any time to get excited. In fact I can barely believe that I am on my way. And this time, my flight luck has reached rock bottom .. or close to it.

I am on a window seat and there is a lady on the window seat across the aisle and is so loud that she is giving me a headache. She has been talking non-stop (including the one hour we were sitting on the run way thanks to the flight taking off late) and has covered every topic from where she likes to party to places she is going to visit to source clothes. She seems to work as a buyer for some chain/clothing company and I now even know of the little buttons they were going to get along the calf of some new design. I wish I had some mute / volume control button for her.

So I decided to listen to music while working. But I have tried two headsets and neither are working. I am giving up on that before I attract any more attention of people around me .. ofcourse with Ms Super Loud across the aisle, I may not have to worry about that.

Given up on work, movie, music .. I could catch up on sleep. And as I drifted off to sleep .. some child shrieked the plane down and that was the end of sleep. Why do parents not give that 1 tsp of phenargan or whatever ıt ıs called which could buy peace for an entire aircraft... and themselves.

Now the food comes along. Ofcourse the person in front me has chosen this very moment to push his seat back .. slam into my laptop and have his headset on so he can’t even hear me!

Six years ago

2007-09-11T20:23:00.000+01:00

Today at work someone is my group got around to asking everyone where we were on this day six years ago. Flash back to six years back and working in Bombay. Seems so long back ..yet so recent in some way. Anyway .. so it was an interesting exercise to hear where the others were. Of course I won hands down in having 'moved' the farthest in 6 years - 7209 kilometres! The shortest move was by someone who was working with the company and in the same department .. only difference being that they used to sit 10 feet away from where we currently sit. As usual, the grad recruit has to make every feel ancient by mentioning 10 times that he was in high school 6 years back!!!

Can't believe my luck ...

2007-09-07T22:53:00.001+01:00

A friend of ours just called to offer to take us for the match at Lords tomorrow. It still hasn't sunk in!! I have never watched any game at a stadium .. so its going to be quite a first time .. hopefully a good one with India winning.

There's hardly any time for the excitement to sink in ...

Fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong (I'm quite a pessimist!!).

Playing catch-up

2007-09-06T09:00:00.000+01:00

Started on 3rd September 2007:
Playing catch-up, that's something I am doing a lot of these days.

Work has been crazy, crazy, crazy. Carrying work home, late evenings and general chaos. In the course of my current project, I have also discovered the wonderful world of gathering many useless and useful facts from the National Statistics website. Like, did you know that Indians are the second largest group of immigrants entering UK. They used to be the largest till Poland beat us by miles after joining the EU. Of the Indian's who came to UK in the last year, the local area with the highest percentage of people settling in was Brent (5.8%) compared to the 2.2% of all new immigrants taking up housing there. Then there are lots of other facts on number of people getting divorced, reason by vintage of marriage (!!) ...and the list goes on. Some things ofcourse seem suspect, like this time use information from where it appears that men in the UK sleep for 8.04 hours a day but work only 3.45 hours a day. How do they now this, apart from the fact that the ratio between sleep and work seems worrying.

August also had two trips out of town and a friend staying with us for a few weeks. So its been both fun and busy. The bank holiday weekend involved nearly 40 km of walking over three days. Super tiring.. but in good weather and a pretty place its not that bad. Descriptions and pictures in due course.

Infact, today the only reason I am home so super early is because of the wonderful tube strike. Paranoid as I am, I refused to wait till 6pm (that's when the strike was supposed to start) to find out what happens.

Continuing on 6th Sept:
Given that I did not even get time to complete this post should give you an idea of how things have been.

Actually its a little better now. Work is a little more under control - for now. I had the most terrible stiff neck which lasted for 5-6 days and was so bad that I would wake up in the night when the pain killer wore off. That's a lot better now. And ofcourse when everything goes wrong, it all happens together - so along with 'pain-in-the-neck', there's been a crashed computer and other woes to deal with. The house has also been getting messier and messier and messier as we've been getting busier and busier and busier. Its at the point where we need a whole day to scrub and scrub and to feel like we can live here again.

All I wish for is a few uneventful weeks to catch-up and then I'll be ready for the roller coaster again .. not really ..is anyone ever ready for roller coaster weeks?

Its a small world after all

2007-08-15T22:06:00.000+01:00

Bek's comment about Notre Dame being Kottayam in disguise made me think once more about how similar people are all over the world. Before I joined my masters, my view of the world was quite different. I never thought that I would relate so much to people from different places.

Soon after I joined school, we had a women's dinner. I hadn't expected that people from all over struggle with the same problem of sharing (or rather not sharing) housework, issues around working especially working mom's, staying on in bad relationships ... Another thing which was most common was that while for most of the wives/partners had left their jobs to relocate to the city where we were studying, most of the women were alone since not too many husbands/partners would imagine leaving their job and spending a year unemployed or doing things that didn't really further their career.

Then there are customs which make me feel so at home! I recently met someone from the US whose boyfriend is from Eastern Europe and she was telling me about how when she visited his home the entire focus was on eating, eating and more eating. And visiting every friend and relative in the town ... and even on after dinner visit there would be a huge spread laid out. That sounds so much like my trips to India ..and visiting relatives.

There's of course many more examples of similarities. .. as there are differences.but I hadn't expected there would even be this much in common. But even within that, I always felt that Asians have more in common. Maybe that is why at some level I felt more comfortable in Asia even when I was outside India or could be that I was having too much of a good time at school!

Problem Solved!

2007-08-02T22:27:00.000+01:00

I have been wanting to send a bunch of photographs home and was thinking of going down to the photo store and getting them printed. The usual busy-lazy combination has, as expected, added this to my long 'To-Do' list which is just not getting done. Then thought of uploading them and picking them up from Snappy Snaps during the weekend. Again too many dependencies on me. I figured that Kodakgallery must be having an India version on which I can order them instead of having to wait another four weeks to visit the post office.

Well, Kodakgallery did not have an online option for India .. but found lots of other sites that do. I am a little wary, since in the past many of these online India orders have been messed up and it has been a long painful process of getting the money back. But am now planning to try Picsquare. I have read some good reviews about them on a few blogs and they have a phone number! The prices are also really good (cheaper than when I got them printed at home last time!). I am really excited, the online option makes the whole thing so much simpler. Just hope it works well - will keep you posted.

Turning 30 ..

2007-07-27T20:06:00.000+01:00

.. is one thing I did not do gracefully. I went into my thirties kicking, screaming and crying .. in total denial. I know I was over doing it .. but it felt as momentous as I thought it would!

The birthday was a total anti-climax (as everything seems to be when you plan too much). From options spanning all-my-friends-would-come-over-to-London to I-will-go-to-Goa, it included a wide variety, the common theme of which was drowning my sorrows in suitable quantities of alcohol. Well, none of that happened as some older relatives were visiting us and wanted to do a special dinner. So not only did we spend a quiet evening having dinner at home, this was the first year none of my friends called for the midnight birthday wake-up call. At any other time it may not have made a difference.. but this year it made me feel even more old!

While it is not like I suddenly feel older from that day .. and am doing anything differently, but suddenly I feel more aware about growing old. I know it sounds silly, but even till a couple of years back, I thought there was always enough time to do anything I want. Suddenly I feel like I no longer have all the time in the world. There are expiry dates to things I want to do.. and in a few years ..I might actually be too old for them. Scary thoughts!

The twenties had a lot happening and more changes in my life than the previous ten years, now lets see how the thirties go.

There goes the weekend plans

2007-07-22T10:13:00.000+01:00

Hell!

The one day I go off picnicing, and my pre-ordered copy of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" arrives. Also, the first time that Amazon seems to have sent it through Royal Mail who left a super irritating 'You were out' message rather than leaving the packet with a neighbour. Of course being Saturday, the post office was closed by the time we returned and now I have to wait till Monday to get my copy which is more expensive than if I had walked into Woolworths to buy! So much for B being organized and pre-ordering the book for me ..maybe my lazy disorganized self buying it off a bookshop would have worked better.

There goes weekend plans of sitting in and reading. Oh well .. at least the train journeys this week will seem less boring.

Yet another month

2007-07-21T23:45:00.000+01:00

So now it's yet another month that is flying by too fast. First it was all of May and now suddenly we're near the end of July and as usual I am wondering where the last three weeks went.

One thing about getting into the regular work-home-weekend routine is that there's nothing major that really happens. The only major event to be blogged about is my turning 30.. but of course that is going to be a whole post in itself.. on how I entered a new decade kicking and screaming.. perhaps with greater intensity than when I entered the world.

Then there's been a close friends hens night. The first I ever attended.. It was more sober than ones I had seen in Amsterdam, but a great 'send-off' into the 'married world' (for a lack of a better word). It was good fun and sometimes I wonder why we don't do more of this.. not the hens night.. but just more evenings of pure fun.

I have also realised that we need a new laptop/computer to keep peace at home. I dare not blog/surf random Internet from my work laptop (I have images of some evil spy waiting to tell my boss about my wasteful Internet hours and my blog). At home if one of us is on the computer..its a game of patience till the other one explodes and demands fair share of machine time. The only hitch in the otherwise perfect two-machine solution is that investing in another machine for the sake of peace seems a little extravagant.

More things to be dealt with in individual posts. I must remember to write about my whole experience with kids at close quarters. And an overheard conversation between two parents which shocked me a little. But all that for another day.

PS. For those in London, check out the programme of India Now there are some really good concerts coming up in the next few months. There is also a lot to choose from at Barbican and Royal Festival Hall. For all the times that I wonder what I am doing in this city.. when I suddenly get so much to wonderful choice, all questions fade away.

The shop around the corner

2007-06-30T17:53:00.000+01:00

I love reading. When I was in school, I spent many a days at a dusty bookshop with lots of books and the owner did not mind my reading half the books sitting on the floor and buying only the few that my pocket money allowed. Later, when I was working and living alone, any miserable day could be transformed by an afternoon spent in a bookshop. I loved browsing through fresh new books which had a special smell. Though bookshop chains didn't come quite as close as one where the owner actually knew about the books in stock, I still loved being in an environment surrounded by books.

Off late I have not visited a bookshop and most of my shopping happens through Amazon. The unbelievable prices and convenience of home delivery has have made it top of my favourites list. Last evening we had some friends over for dinner and we started talking about the effect of large chains on small shops which have had to close down. Today, even some of the large chains are under threat from larger online retailers. If this continues, it may not be too far away that all these shops would close and we would move to a totally online model.

To me, that is a scary thought. Imagine growing up without have bookshops around you. As a child, bookshops were a special place. They developed my interest in books and are key to my love for reading. While the Disney store and Hamleys are great stores to spend a lot of time, I would hate to deprive children the joys of being in a bookshop. While we worry about the environment, and the state we are leaving it in for future generations, I think we should think about the world without bookshops and what a sad place it would be. So expensive as they may seem, from now on, I'll try and get atleast a few books from my little book shop around the corner.

Important baking lesson

2007-06-23T12:42:00.000+01:00

Never use extra virgin olive oil in a cake!

And if you are wondering why I even tried. Well, last evening after the cleaning spree, I wanted to bake a cake as a surprise for B. As I was racing against time and got the ingredients together I realised there was no butter or vegetable oil. That left me with two choices, go out buy some butter/oil and not manage to get the cake ready in time or choose between the oil I had at home - Dabur mustard oil (which btw, according to the label here is 'for external use only and not fit for human consumption'!) and Tesco extra virgin olive oil. I figured that the smell of Olive oil would be easier to mask. Well might have been easier than mustard oil, but it definitely was not easy. I poured in half the bottle of vanilla extract ..and there's still quite a distinct smell of oil. The other problem is that being quite a heavy oil, the cake has become pretty dumpy.

Well. lesson learnt, next time it'll be quality over speed.

I did nothing today and still got paid ..

2007-06-22T18:06:00.001+01:00

As is obvious from a post from home at 6pm .. today was not a particularly hard day!

To be fair.. it was not as easy as doing nothing.. (though actually that might be quite difficult) .. but it was quite relaxed. I needed to wrap up a report .. do my work plans and that was pretty much it. I start on something new from Monday .. so it was like my day off. And the Fridays at the out-of-town office is always fun since it is dress down day. After all a day in jeans and sneakers can never be bad!

So am home at a ridiculously early hour with nothing to do on a Friday evening (three years back this would kick me into depression thinking I have no social life).. anyways ..so I plan to tidy the house. Have put a nice (hopefully nice) white wine into the fridge .. and shall spend a relaxed evening chatting with B and maybe watching a DVD. Just the thought makes me feel so old though.. oh well ..tomorrow we're going for a house party.. I suppose I'll make up then by drinking and dancing all night.

All in a month's work

2007-06-19T19:56:00.000+01:00

This evening I submitted my first entirely-done-on-my-own report at work. Since I joined I've been working on bits and pieces from other people's projects .. and this one also started the same way. Someone was going on leave and I was to take over and put in the finishing touches. But when I sat to review it with my boss a few weeks back, he wanted it re-done from scratch. In the last couple of weeks I've gone through three outlines and two drafts before submitting the official version 1. The approach my boss uses is very different from anything I've worked on before. Its fairly efficient and has enough checks to hopefully have minimal revisions on the final draft, but the process itself it sooo tedious. Perhaps being my first time he made it more controlled so that I don't show up with my cr*p a month later.

Its been very interesting for me since I have learnt a lot about the industry and the company in the process. I've also interacted with lots of people around the organization to get relevant information needed for my analysis. In the process I have realised how there seemd to be so many people doing very similar things. .yet it is so difficult to get the information I need. To get one number I once actually spoke to 10 people. .its so bureaucratic!

The other problem was that being my first project I obviously want to make a good impression. I once again (its an old habit) spent too much time researching some things and trying to get the perfect answer, rather that use the trade-off effectively between quality and speed. After all having it all worked out after the event is over is not too smart. Worse perhaps is the amount of time and care I spent formatting. .but then again ..shallow as it may sound..packaging matters.

Well, tomorrow when I get feedback I'll know if I messed up or it went well. Its all important since the mid-year review is coming up. At any rate, tonight I get to sleep well .. for all I know tomorrow night I'll be up all night doing the re-works.

A year and a century

2007-06-12T20:40:00.000+01:00

Today at lunch a colleague asked me how long I've been in the UK and it struck me that we've completed on full year here. Seems landmark in some way .. marking the survival of one year in the 'big city'. The year has been in two nearly equal parts. The first six months of job search angst and the next six flying by.

While the first half had its predominant low.. there were the positives. I discovered the wonderful world of blogging. Discovering lots of interesting people in blogworld..and getting great tips (I have bought all my India trip tickets from an agent I read about on someone's blog). There's no way I could have done this now. Getting time of a weekday morning to go out and having fun with the camera. Getting to catch up on reading (though actually with a 4 hours of commuting, I get to read more now). I also realised while a good job was very important to me, there were other things more important. I also got a lot of time to explore the city, make my ten trips around to decorate the house and meet lots of strange people in the process of looking for a job! Not that I would wish for that time again, but hey, I've always cribbed about the job search period, so am trying to be positive for a change! The second half has been hectic, hectic, hectic. Work catching up, lots of guests, finally being relaxed enough to holiday - its all just whizzed past. Sometimes, I just want to hit the pause button for a day. Though ask me even in the middle of my sleep, I much prefer this. I still miss not having close friends in London..it scares me sometimes to think that I may have forgotten how to forge deep bonds..but time will tell.

The century refers to this being the hundredth post in my blog. Its been fun writing, sharing things with all of you.. reading about your lives. Sentimental speech ends here before this becomes a mushy pink marshmallow!

Where did May go?

2007-06-06T21:39:00.000+01:00

Is it June already? Where did May go?
With so many guests all through the last two months.. its been a lot of fun ..and also very very hectic. April and May are just a haze!
For once, it feels good to be home alone. In the last couple of months, our London friends haven't been met, bills have been left till the last minute, the house cleaned to minimal standards (and now a huge mess!) and in all.. fairly chaotic.
Now that I am fairly settled at work, that too has been getting hectic.
It was also a month of two bank holidays and trips outside London.
They should shift one the bank holidays to the next month. That way the breaks get nicely spread out. It is depressing to think that the next long weekend is in August.
Since March the only film I have watched is Taxi ..that too on a DVD. I am craving for the big screen. Taxi, btw, is a 'must watch'.. it kept us in splits for the entire 86 minutes. Now waiting to watch Taxi 2, though heard that's not as funny.
Read a lovely book - Half of a Yellow Sun. Its written in an interesting style, but what kept me totally hooked was reading about Biafra. I had never read about Biafra earlier and nor about life in a war torn zone. It was all very eye-opening (for lack of a better word).. and a highly recommended book.
We also watched Billy Elliot. It was a fairly last minute plan since a friend visiting London wanted to go for it. Given its popularity we got very average seats. I would interested in the opinions of someone who has watched it. Given the hype about awards and comparisons with Wicked, we had very high expectations which sadly it did not live up to. It was very good in parts.. but overall did not have either the music or singing which you would like to hear over and over again. It some interesting sets and a few good dances .. but overall was a little disappointing.
Amongst the low points of the month, we had some very avoidable histrionics amongst a group of friends staying with us. I thought we had left these things back in school and was absolutely hopeless at dealing with it. It ended in totally ruining one persons holiday and was a big dampener for the rest. An absolutely miserable end to the month.
So that was May in bullet points. I could not think of any other way to join together so many random thoughts.
Hope all of you had a good month too.

Egypt - 3 : The Nile Cruise

2007-04-30T19:45:00.000+01:00

The final part of our trip .. and a last ditch attempt to complete the measly three posts in the same month. Weekends have been terribly busy with guests at home, and time is flying as usual.

The Nile Cruise is one of the most common features on trips to Egypt. Only after getting there did we realize just how common it is. Like most typical tourists we went on a cruise between Luxor and Aswan. This is one of the most popular routes since the there are many well preserved temples en-route and it makes for interesting stops. There are nearly 300 cruise boats which ply on this route. This means that while the cruise is docked they literally park parallel to each other and sometimes you have to cross multiple ships to get to your ship - like in this picture where there are four ships together. The worst though is the for people who are on the ships in between and can't even leave their curtains drawn since they can literally climb through their neighbours window - its that close. And if that was not disheartening enough, since the distance between Luxor and Aswan is not a lot, most of the time on the cruise is spent 'docked' rather than 'cruising'.

With all the negatives out of the way, it was still a lot of fun. We visited lots of interesting temples. Most of the temples were breath-taking in their size and intricacy especially when you think of it in perspective of how old they are. Not for a minute did I get bored, though even till the end I had little idea of the chronology of the rulers of Egypt and had totally mixed up their pantheon of gods. Our guide explained some of the theories behind how Obelisks were made to stand and how carvings were done of such high walls, am not sure if they are accurate, but they made for interesting listening.

Luxor was definitely the most interesting of the places along the Nile. Apart from being the site of the largest temple complexes - Karnak Temple, I was most fascinated by the Valley of the Kings. I could not imagine a place so barren - such an apt representation of death. The tombs were also striking especially the vivid colours of elaborate paintings, most in their original forms without restoration seemed surreal. Photography is not allowed inside, but they would have made great pictures.

One of the things which disturbed me was how many of the beautiful carvings had been destroyed by chiselling away of the features. This was a common theme across most of the temples we visited. From what the guide told us, as Christianity spread there was an intolerance by the Christian population for Paganism. The Christians wanted to spread the message of one 'God' and this resulted in removing the features of the 'many' gods represented on the ancient carvings. When Christianity became the official religion in three hundred something AD, the minority Christian population set about destroying tombs, carvings and burnt a library of papyrus scripts. What struck out in this story was the vicious destruction of beauty and the intolerance of another religion. To me it just seems so unacceptable. So much worse than when the Romans ruled Egypt and painted over their temple walls (a layer on top of the existing sculptures) with pictures of themselves. Atleast all that beauty remained below; it was not destroyed, just covered temporarily. It filled me with a certain helpless anger that people could get away with destruction in the name of religion. Someone mentioned that you feel similarly when you visit Rome and see so many beautiful ancient gods 'beheaded' because they represented the local pagan beliefs. It just makes me so angry and so sad at one level. I suppose it is things like this which makes me stay away from anything religious. Below is a picture of a carving that is intact and one that is destroyed. Not sure if it is clear enough to illustrate what I have been trying to describe.

To end on a less serious note. Here are some other random pictures. In all it was a lovely trip and I highly recommend Egypt to anyone considering a holiday there.

We cruised for a very short while. It was lovely when we did. This is a view of the banks of the Nile as we went along

A horse carriage one takes to get to Edfu Temple. Very stinky!!

Luxor Temple. The bigger, Karnak temple, has a famous Sound & Light show.

Egypt - 2 : Into the western desert

2007-04-19T22:48:00.001+01:00

This was definitely the best part of the trip to Egypt. We were very lucky in finding a two day trip (with Minamar hotel in Bahariyya) into the desert, it was short, but one I will not forget easily. We set off from Cairo early in the morning in a 4X4 which took us into the desert. It was a long day with the expert driver crossing 100kmph for most of the way. He was fun and chatty and made a big difference to how enjoyable the trip was. Though he does this nearly every day during the tourist season, he never looked bored at our awestruck faces.

We went from Baraharriya Oasis to the White desert, a fairly common tourist route. What makes the trip most fascinating is that unlike a regular sandy desert, the desert formations are varied and change as you drive along.

The first stop was at the Black desert (above), the vastness was enthralling, more so because in the vast desert there was not another person or car to be seen. Given the high formations which break the view, for most parts we felt like we were the only people in the pristine desert. The vastness filled me with a sensation I cannot describe. As we drove along the black desert gave way to a large more new formations and we came into the white desert.

The white desert is made of chalk that has been exposed to natural forces which has sculpted it into various shapes. Some look like outlines of animals, trees and others just amorphous shapes. This is where we set up camp with the basic equipment carried in the jeep. The driver was the chef too and cooked us one of the best meals we had in Egypt. It was simple, and having it in the desert by the fire made it a venue difficult to replicate. While we were not the only people (as we could make out by the numerous camp-fires in the distance), the desert is large enough for people not to have to camp too close to each other. We hardly slept that night.. partly because the super dusty, dirty sleeping bag made it difficult to breathe. But waking up in the desert was totally worth the lack of sleep the previous night.

The next morning we drove around a bit more, went to an area where we came across some 'desert rose' and finally drove back to Bahariyya Oasis. This is the first time I have been to an Oasis and the greenery in the middle of an arid desert looked so 'out-of-place'. Finally we were back and on our way to the Nile Cruise. What a stark contrast it was ..from having no bathroom one night to five star luxury. But for whatever roughing out it was .. it was totally worth it and here's the pictures to convince you of that.

Driving along the desert. Lots of varied formations on the way

We were driving along when our driver took a detour to come here. I was speechless at how beautiful it was.

Sunrise and pity that our trip to the desert would soon be over

The white desert by day, really really white!

Bahariyya Oasis, unbelievable how green it was in the middle of the desert.

Egypt - 1 : The cities

2007-04-16T23:18:00.000+01:00

As someone had summarised well when we were planning our trip, there are four segments (for want of a better word) that can be part of a trip to Egypt - the cities, the western desert, along the Nile and the red sea region. After much planning we figured that it would be feasible to cover parts of the first three in the 10 days that we were there. We based ourselves in Cairo and everything was from there. In between places we were back in Cairo and covered the city in 'bits and pieces'.

My first impression of Egypt was how similar it is to India. The chaos, heat, dust .. it all seemed so familiar. Just the language was different, but never did I feel bewildered, it was like going home. We visited Alexandria and Cairo. The two cities were quite different.

Alexandria felt like being in Bombay. I suppose that was because walking along the Corniche was like being on Marine Drive. It had some interesting mosques and the largest greco-roman theatre in Egypt. We also got to eat some excellent sea-food (an unrelated point). More food focussed discoveries were made - early on in the trip we discovered super-cheap and super-yummy falafel in pita being sold on the roadside. Thereafter for the entire trip we abandoned our pre-paid buffet breakfast at the hotel for a far more delicious alternative. Most of our time in Alexandria was spent walking and the great weather and warm sunshine was welcome after the long winter of UK. While it was nice, if someone is short on time, I would say one could give Alexandria a miss in view of the other places we went to.

We spent three and a half days in Cairo. It is a very vibrant city and always awake. No matter how late in the night, the streets were always crowded. One of the most interesting places was Khan Al-Khalili market. While it was rows of shops selling very similar things, the colour and crowd was so amazingly full of life. It was nice to be in the midst of so much activity. Though after a while the shopping part got boring, I could have spent a lot more time just looking at the people and the place. We did the other usual touristy things like visiting Coptic Cairo and walking along the Nile. One of the mornings was spent in a very unsatisfying visit to the Egyptian museum. Everyone had suggested we get a guide, and after putting all our combined negotiation skills to use we got a pretty bad deal. The guide just herded us through the place like cattle and kept adding more people to the group as we went along. It is a place with so much to offer and our breezy tour did not do it justice. As was expected one of the most interesting parts was the very expensive mummy rooms. To think that the bodies are thousands and thousands of years old and still perfectly recognizable, it is unbelievable. The other highlight was ofcourse visiting the pyramids. Like most things one hears so much about, it was a bit of an anti-climax. The crowds of visitors and people selling things was too overwhelming to take in the magnificence of the pyramids.. and though I knew what to expect, somehow seeing them was not quite the same.

So that was the cities. While these were interesting, they paled in comparison to the next bit - the trip into the Western Desert. That's for next time, till then a couple of other random pictures.

A jewellery shop in Alexandria, reminded me of Delhi and rows of shops selling gaudy gold jewellery
..and ofcourse - The Pyramids!

Am back.. happy ..tired and to a messy house

2007-04-10T19:20:00.000+01:00

What a wonderful holiday! I totally agree with the apt description by 30in2005 on the difference between a holiday,a break and going to India. This was the first time I have been on a real holiday .. unlike all my earlier long breaks which usually involved staying with friends or travelling on work for 10 days ..even to Goa.

Though we had planned and planned and planned the house work and getting everything sorted before we left, we didn't do a thing. Even the packing was left for last minute and much as I hated it, the house was left in a total mess. Ofcourse all was forgotten during the next ten days in wonderful Egypt. I could'nt have imagined a better holiday. We travelled a lot. Used every mode of transport we came across - cab, metro, 4X4, felucca, horse drawn buggy, long distance train, cruise ship...the list goes on. Thankfully we also got along very well with friends we had gone with.. and spent many fun hours just chatting.

You can expect to be bored by a long multi-part account coming up on details of the trip (accompanied by pictures)..which will be laden with my nostalgia and only useful if you are planning a trip to Egypt, something I highly recommend.

And while I would love to start off right away, I need to clear the frightful mess since the beginning of the warm summer is bringing with it the warmth of guests who arrive day after tomorrow.

The wonderous smell of baking

2007-03-26T20:29:00.000+01:00

Whenever we had unplanned guests, my mother would hop into the kitchen and bake a cake in a jiffy. Though she has never been interested in cooking in general and we have grown up healthy thanks to never over-eating because of a series of terrible cooks .. baking was something my mom liked and we looked forward to .. fighting over the little bit of batter which could not be scrapped into the baking dish (which never ceases to amaze me because there is no other way I'd ever have raw eggs!).. the smell and anticipation of the end result.. and finally the awesome cakes. I always thought that when I grow up I'd bake every week and there would always ben home made cake at home. It never happened with the series of bad oven houses we lived in.. and ofcourse the general lack of enthusiasm.

Till a few weeks back. When our current oven stopped working and the landlord replaced it with a swanky new oven with lots of nice features we have no idea how to use. It was a lot of hard work dealing with the delivery people and the builder ...but finally it was installed and we figured out how to use the absolute basic manual mode. Since then, baking mania has hit me. In two weeks I have tried a cake, brownies, muffins and today got back early from work and tried yet another cake. Well, part of the enthusiasm is from the absolute frustration of not getting it right. Especially when till last year I could atleast bake a cake! It's always been so simple, but am just messing up on the cakes not rising or it becoming too sweet..I can't get a hang of the ingredients here .. and so far its been a series of experiments. For a novice who is messing up I have extreme confidence, and called some friends for a muffin breakfast. Well the muffins never rose.. but good ingredients taste nice anyway. . and baking usually smells good. So the experiments continue.. and when I finally manage..I shall post a picture. Till then, let me sit back and take the nice smell .. since I have no idea what its going to be like this time!

Indulgence

2007-03-18T13:40:00.000Z

Pester power works! I didn't really believe I could convince B into buying me the Complete Calvin and Hobbes. While I had fallen in love with this version the day I saw it in the book-store two years ago, there didn't seem a strong enough case for it since over the years I had collected nearly all the individual books. I nearly beat up B for once suggesting that I could give away my existing collection and get this.. ofcourse not..those cannot go anywhere. They include the first one which I bought a long long time back when I went to the shop for an entire month and stared at it trying to overcome the temptation of spending 500 rupees on a comic book (that was my mothers version!). Finally the two years of nagging, tears, celebration gave way to B ordering the book from Amazon. (Was quite happy at my little victory ..since my parents seemed to be made of stone when it came to pester power and I never believed it actually worked).

Finally it arrived. I kept staring at it not believing it is really there. It now sits on the bookshelf where my earlier Calvin's were. And the entire old collection has come to the bedroom. B still cannot believe that we have two sets of the same 'comics' in our tiny flat. But its quite useful .. since the new collection is really heavy, the old individual ones are handy to take on a holiday or read in bed. Its all worked out.

Thought for the day

2007-03-16T18:53:00.000Z

Overheard on the train today on my way back from work.

A group from the same company but different offices are having this unnecessarily loud conversation . A snippet -
So how many people are there in your office?
You mean people or lawyers?

So am wondering lawyers are not people then, wonder where they are from?

Rediscovering evening

2007-03-15T18:45:00.000Z

In two weeks, the new job has made me aware of how scarce time has become. Weekdays with the 6am - 9pm routine is becoming crazy. While the train journey has been nice in terms of looking at the nice country-side and catching up on reading, it has stretched each day to the limit.

Today started with just everything going wrong. The fuse tripped and the entire house was in darkness. B got late trying to fix it (its in the loft above a room accessible only with a ladder which is kept in the store room downstairs!) while I tried to help and rush around not to miss my train. Warm sunny weather gave way to horrible foggy cold as soon as we left London..and I froze the entire day. To make matters worse I started feeling quite ill in the afternoon. By 4pm I was fed up and ready to come home. I reasoned that I would carry my laptop and work on the train and at home to make up for leaving office early. Well, I did work on the train but lost the enthu as soon as I got home. Partly because as soon I stepped in I was magically feeling better (its amazing how being home has these super healing powers!) and after ages I have been able to catch up on everyone's blogs, write a post, treat myself to a cup of coffee. . and it's only 7! The thought of helping B by doing the washing up (dishes are his responsibility) has crossed my mind.. but when the warm duvet and good book beckons, love will just have to wait for another day.

End of week one

2007-03-09T20:24:00.000Z

The one predominant feeling - Am so so tired!

A week of of four and a half of commuting has been much more tiring than I expected. Finally its weekend. I don't have to wake up in darkness, leave when its barely morning and the most important thing of my life is getting the 7:13 train (..deja vu feeling of Bombay locals.) Its been so tiring and weekend couldn't have come sooner. B is out tonight for a stag dinner with some friends .. and I am enjoying a glass of Riesling, U2 playing the background and writing. And by the time I complete this post, my take-away Indian food should have arrived and I will be watching the long overdue Amelie.

Work and getting used to a new place has been a mixed experience. It is very different from my earlier work place or any other before it. The place is massive and thousands of people work in the office.. its like a self sufficient island in the middle of nowhere - literally! Also, unlike my earlier job where in two months I became great friends with the girl sitting across my board (those dividers in open plan offices) who was my age and we gossiped about everything and am now going to her wedding.. the person across the board here is a someone atleast 10 years older than me, 6 feet tall and talks of school admission (not exactly a topic I have much to contribute on ..except this article I read recently which shocked me about the whole primary school admission mania!). He is very representative of the typical profile, 6 feet tall men in black suits .. even with heels I feel tiny.. I now understand why all the women wear those totteringly high heels. (There's supposed to be something about height and confidence .. should have paid more attention in organization Behaviour class.) Which brings me to dressing .. everyone is so well dressed. My two year collection of ragged jeans and other college clothes need to be replaced asap. I am still trying to get a hang on all that fall into the category of formal women's wear. . totally beats me.

The biggest upside is that I am sure I didn't make a mistake accepting this job. There's lot I can learn about the industry and hopefully in the future move onto more interesting functions. Not a bad start.

For Women's Day

2007-03-07T22:53:00.000Z

A great ad ... and an important message!

An end, a long weekend and time for a new begining

2007-03-04T20:14:00.000Z

February flew past, much faster than I expected it to.. and my last day at the current job came pretty soon. It was quite an anticlimax and somehow didn't even feel like the last day. There was the usual tension with a presentation I needed to finish and a rush with some other things to wrap up and that was it. Short bye-byes to people I've worked with and I left .. none of the magical rush I quite expected. At some tiny level I even felt a little bad. Though its been only two months I've made a few friends, got into a routine and was settled. Am just terrible at dealing with change, even when its something I want.

Everything was soon forgotten as we headed off to Chester the next day. Packing was left for 6 in the morning since we got back too late and too drunk to pack the night before. We finally got to Chester without forgetting too many things. What was supposed to be long lazy weekend turned out to be lots and lots of walking. I still can't figure out how we walked so much is a city which has a perimeter of 2 miles! But by the end of the three days I am certain we should have walked atleast 20 km. The most interesting was the walk on the walls which surround the city centre. We did this walk quite a few times at different times of the day. The city centre was also interesting. There was an attractive market where we came across a there was a delightful cheese shop. It was fascinating, the variety of cheese they had and we ended up buying enough to get bulk discount. The other highlight of the trip was the pubs. With B&B's stuffing you enough for two meals, our pit stops were at the local pubs .. including fruitfully using the half hour we got before our train back. Sadly yesterday was the maximum of our walking and we were just too tired to step out again to see the lunar eclipse. . instead we stayed in our room and ordered a pizza and had it with wine we had carried while watching some trashy action flick on cable TV. This is a usual on our holidays and is one of the most fun evenings. Today we came across a bookshop just before leaving where we got a lovely hardbound, illustrated copy of the complete Sherlock Holmes - its gorgeous!

And now we are back. The reality of starting a new job tomorrow has not sunk in. I still cannot believe that I will be travelling nearly 70miles each way and will be leaving home earlier than I have ever woken up. Fingers crossed, hope all goes well ..and soon you'll hear of what the new place is like. Till then, here are some pictures of the lovely Chester.

The typical black and white Tudor houses of Chester

The city walls, its a lovely walk on the walls.

Cute houses along the river Dee

Walkway along the river

A really cute little pub. Loved the fireplace with the 'real fire'.

Albion Inn, an interesting place, supposed to be one of the few unspoilt pubs

Chester by night

Let the holidays begin

2007-02-26T23:45:00.000Z

The best part of starting something new and exciting is waiting for it to begin. It was similar when I had got admission for my masters and I had half a year to dream about it (which ofcourse never included nightmares of post course trauma). And now before I start swimming in the tension of being in a big new place, I can revel in the happy anticipation.

Since I started working, everything else has suddenly become easier and I have ten times more energy in general. I didn't realize earlier how much both B and I were caught up in my job search tension. Finally, the notice period is nearly over and this is my last week at the current place. True to tradition (of my leaving a place) my last week is filled with work angst of completing projects. But its not too much worry, three more days and B & I head off for a long weekend. Its been a-g-e-s since both of us went on a relaxed holiday or even on a holiday just by ourselves. Definitely more than a year! Which is why we have not chosen some super activity filled location but a much more laid back place in north-west England. There's not likely to be much to do and I am looking forward to the relaxed weekend of long walks, stay in a small cute B&B and cable TV (with no TV at home, I get crazily hooked to TV's in hotels!).

With more time and another person earning there's suddenly a lot of activity on the holiday planning front. The pipeline for the rest of the year is fast filling up. This Easter we are going with some friends to Egypt for ten days. I am really excited about it. This will also be the longest holiday I have been on which did not involve going home. So, ofcourse, there's a trip home being planned for later in the year .. and going to Cotswold or Scotland with friends who visiting us in summer. You can expect to be flooded with pictures, but till then, am happily off to dream about them.

Different perspectives

2007-02-20T21:41:00.000Z

My place of work is a ten minute walk from the tube station. On the way there is a person who sells the Big Issue. I have started buying it from him regularly and recently started chatting with him each time I buy the issue. Today I hesitantly asked him if he would be ok with me giving him some old shirts (B has some shirts in really good condition, which he no longer wears to work because people here seem to wear only blue, white and grey.. oh and pink!). He said he wouldn't take it because he doesn't wear shirts. He used to wear shirts long back but after a while, he realized that buttons pop off with time and then its a problem because he had no spare buttons or the luxury of a sewing box with thread and needle. So now he only wears t-shirts and jumpers.

It seems so logical, and something we take so much for granted that I never thought of this problem. Once again it made me think of how narrow my perspectives are ... and how much we take things for granted.

And the fairy godmother granted her wish

2007-02-13T22:06:00.000Z

Finally a new beginning with the new year. I did not expect the wish to be granted to soon .. but indeed it has. Now I have an offer for a job which is better is many respects and most importantly, one I am very happy about. Suddenly all the angst of last year has faded far far away.

I can't believe now how depressed I have been through much of last year. There were times when I didn't like going out much and facing the same questions about where I was on my 'job search'. I felt so low I wished to be swallowed by the earth and other such morbid thoughts. Thankfully saner times prevailed and I felt I should have a broader perspective and not be so hung about a job .. it was after all a job .. people have to face up to far worse.

Now suddenly days are looking brighter .. everything seems more relaxed. Life is going to be much tougher after I start at the new place. Its a very big place and work will be challenging. Its likely to be more competitive and I'll have to work very hard to prove myself. Commute is going to be hell.. and jeans have to be traded in for a suit. But at the moment, all that hardly seems a worry.

And just for perspective of how slowly things move. I had started talking about this role last November and finally the paper work got over this week. Totally amazes me! But I should not start cribbing just yet.. I'll leave that for later.. for today ..I'll just float in the clouds.

Something I liked

2007-02-11T23:49:00.000Z

And so true in some sense. Here are the lyrics - quite funny.

And snow it did

2007-02-10T18:58:00.000Z

With all the anticipation of snow, I hardly slept a wink on Wednesday night. I kept waking up every few hours and running up expectantly to then window. And finally at 5:00am I was rewarded! This time I didn't feel the surge of excitement as last time, maybe because I was expecting it .. or it was no longer the first time.

As planned we head out early to take pictures. We walked around and with some of the snow turning to ice, progress was very slow. B smartly hadn't carried his gloves .. so you can imagine the state he was in an hour later. I generously offered my gloves to him as he headed to office and I went on to take more pictures. After 15 minutes I was kicking myself since he must have been in a warm tube and now I was freezing!! More excitement as it started snowing pretty heavily and I madly kept clicking. The fun soon gave way to misery of frozen hands, getting lost and snow (turning to water) on the camera lens through which I managed some watery, hazy looking pictures. Well, I did find my way to a tube station and get to office not too late. And though I wanted to be home to some hot tea and dry clothes I had to trade it for wet sneakers and semi wet clothes and a long day at work. But it was a lot of fun and though I don't think next time it snows I'll go as crazy, I enjoyed the morning this time. Finally, some pictures of the 'heavy snow' (which btw created a lot of chaos!)

Everything looking so pristine. This is the approach to Regents Park

There were lots of others out with their camera's and people making their way to work. Can you make out the snow falling?

A cute little snowman near my office. I can't believe someone actually stopped to make this on the way to work. Which is likely to be the case as there are practically no residential houses in the area - actually none that I know of.

Maybe .. just maybe

2007-02-07T21:53:00.000Z

... the weather forecast for tomorrow is correct.

'Heavy snow' is predicted.. that's about 6 inches of snow. I know all of you in the cold zones of US and elsewhere are going to laugh at this heavy snow. But people here expect everything to practically come to a halt if it really snows that much.

I am of course hoping it does now. It was -3 deg Celsius today and I froze on my way to work. .one one measly overcoat felt like nothing! It can't get much colder.. but can definitely get a lot prettier!I have told my boss that I'll be late if it snows since I plan to take the camera and go picture taking..to make up for all my missed photo opportunities last time. Don't think the alarm clock will have much trouble waking me up tomorrow.. now just hoping all this excitement is not wasted!

And finally

2007-02-05T22:18:00.000Z

The long overdue 'Meme of three' tag from Nee

Three things that scare me:
1. Horror Movies
2. Fear of a loved one dying
3. Walking alone on lonely dark roads - thanks to all my years in Delhi!

Three people who make me laugh:
1. My moms mails
2. Characters of F.R.I.E.N.D.S
3. Tom and Jerry - ok so not people ..but whatever

Three things I love:
1. Reading
2. Music
3. Chatting with B

Three things I hate:
1. Living alone
2. Cable TV
3. My current job

Three things I don't understand:
1. How big brother is such a hit
2. How people fight in the name of religion
3. How some people do calculations so quickly

Three things on my desk:
1. My Our computer
2. A winnie the pooh pen stand - my favourite!
3. A small potted plant

Three things I'm doing right now:
1. Having dinner
2. Finally doing this tag
3. Searching for flights options for Easter

Three things I want to do before I die:
1. Climb Kilimanjaro - doubt that’s going to happen
2. Be in a business magazine issue on the top women in business - even less chance!
3. Visit Antarctica - as doubtful as above

Three things I can do:
1. Make the house look tidy in half an hour (doesn't matter that the cupboards might reach breaking point)
2. Multitask
3. Put my foot in my mouth, always! - figuratively, not literally

Three things you should listen to:
1. Live music
2. Your instincts
3. Good advice

Three things you should never listen to:
1. People fighting
2. Discouragement
3. Alarm clocks - rather wish you could never have to listen to them

Three things I'd like to learn:
1. Patience
2. A new lanuage
3. To play the piano

Three favourite foods:
1. Pad Thai
2. Dumplings
3. Nearly anything with paneer

Three beverages I drink regularly:
1. Coffee
2. Wine
3. Diet Coke

Three TV shows/Books I watched/read as a kid:
1. Lots of Enid Blyton
2. Tom&Jerry
3. Johnny Sokko and his flying robot

Three people I would like to tag:
1. Sunrayz
2. John
3. Chai

2007-02-03T11:31:00.000Z

Thanks for the link.. loved the site. .. and here's something about me.

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

There's magic in the air

2007-01-24T21:38:00.000Z

This was the view from my window when I woke up this morning.

I cannot even begin to describe the excitement that gripped me. It was pure glee .. and I started shrieking for B to come to the window. I have seen snow earlier, but that time it was not all around and on trees and just everywhere. This was a first.

There was ofcourse chaos on the tube with two inches of snow.. but for once I am thankful for that. I needed to be some place in a hurry so I had to take a cab and I passed by Regents Park which looked like Narnia. How I wished I could have stopped, walked around and taken pictures. Sadly, that was not to be. But its captured in my mind and I don't think I'll ever forget the thrilling feeling. It was all so so beautiful.

I leave you with a picture of the community garden which our living room window overlooks .. its pure magic.. and has left me in a high all day!

A bunch of reviews

2007-01-21T13:29:00.000Z

There's been some hectic movie watching happening in the last few weeks.. and I would recommend nearly all of them.

The best one was yesterday, The Last King of Scotland. I don't generally read movie reviews, but B does and he insisted we go for the film though I wasn't sure. It was not a light afternoon film but was fabulous. For one, I got to know a lot more about Idi Amin. But more significantly, if you want to watch some fantastic acting, Forest Whitaker was outstanding. I read later that he has won a lot of awards for this role as well.

A few weeks ago, we finally got to watch Little Miss Sunshine. I totally loved it, especially the end. I didn't have very high expectations, but it was so crazy that it was a lot of fun.

Then there was Guru. I quite liked the film - some good acting, interesting theme. I would have liked an idealistic end but it was realistic in terms of being able to get away in corporate India with little punishment. I didn't like one part, the reaction of the investigation panel. To me, it seemed like they were moved enough by Guru bhai's speech to condone all he had done. But irrespective of the end, the means were wrong, and a good speech does not justify it.

Two other nice movies we watched at home were Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. I loved the first part. It felt so spontaneous that it was lovely watching it. The sequel seemed a bit forced but I loved some of the general dialogues. It all just seemed so natural. While I prefer neatly tied up ends, I liked the open end of the second part, leaving it to your imagination.

On a non film note, we finally went for Alegria. It was a lovely evening out. I didn't enjoy it as much as the Quidam, which is the first Cirque du soleil show I had been for. Maybe because that had much more novelty value so I feel I liked it more, or maybe it was more interesting. I'm not sure which, but it was still a lovely evening and an interesting one too.

Through rain, hail and storm

2007-01-19T20:38:00.000Z

Yesterday, in one shot ,I was transported to Bombay.

It really was a very windy day .. and I could feel my overcoat being practically blown away on my walk from the tube to office. But I never imagined the transport services would be hit so badly. By evening the atmosphere was like an evening in Bombay when it had rained through the day. Bombay - Central line down, trains delayed and people discussing strategies of how to get back home. London - It was exactly the same with the tube line down in some of the outer zones, long distance trains being severely delayed or suspended.. and everyone making strategies on the best way they could get back.

I never imagined it would be this similar but I hear the the transport services cannot deal with anything out of the ordinary. I've warned to wait for the day there's even half an inch of snow!

The perky, persky, pain from the office

2007-01-16T20:23:00.000Z

Three weeks and already I have a to-be irritating boss. My current boss is off on maternity leave in a four months and so there's this new 'dude' who has joined who'll be taking on part of her responsibilities. I am only hoping it is not some part that I feature in.

Day 1, he is being taken around office and goes into hyper enthusiasm about everyone's weekends including his. Its 8 on a Monday morning for gods sake - tone it down. If I thought that was the height of the high pitched enthusiasm .. I was totally wrong. Just two days and his jumping around like an excited puppy wants you to just tell him to 'sit'. All this ofcourse made worse by these open plan offices. Even when he is speaking to someone next to him, I can hear his evening pub plans from my desk. And if this was not enough .. he also has this 'I am not the boss but your pal' attitude ..which kind of falls flat when he is trying to be pals with the 21 year old trainee next to me.

This whole thing reminds me of my office in India. There, we had a Miss Perpetual Sunshine who joined the year before I left. Any given morning, irrespective of Bombay floods and crowded trains she was so chirpy and sugar sweet that it could make you diabetic. Its not like a normal sweet.. but a drippy sugar syrup.. making you ache for some bitter coffee instead.

Its makes me feel so weird to be bitching about people trying to be sweet and pally.. but if you've met the kind I'm talking about.. you'll know what I mean.

Being employed again

2007-01-09T19:48:00.000Z

Its official - I hate my new job. Incase I had any doubts before joining that I might just be ok with it .. it's been proven otherwise. Also ..I keep thinking how this has been many steps back and my whole 'career change' plan has flopped.

That said, however underpaid I might be .. its nice feeling to be working again. Somehow I feel much more efficient when I'm working. Though I have much less time..I am way more organized...and effectively get more done. Its also been interesting meeting people from around the world and I'm totally enjoying the after office drinks. I never imagined how cosmopolitan London work places are.

The other big thing is a feeling of independence. Not that B ever even mentioned a thing about what I spent .. but its an ingrained feeling. Though very soon after I started studying I lost all regret of spending B's hard earned money and started thinking of it as 'our' money (*sly grin*) .. I now realise that I always did have that thought somewhere at the back of my mind. It feels good now.. to think ..that at the end of the month there'll be a cheque waiting for me.

Tonight I am also totally enjoying some 'alone' time. With all these months of being alone at home .. I quite enjoyed the time I had to myself (though perhaps I had a bit too much of it then). B is at some dinner with a friend and after ages am home alone .. and it feels quite good. (oops ..I forgot B reads the blog now) At any rate.. I had a nice quiet dinner catching up on what everyone has been doing. Now back to looking for a job .. to get myself out of this place asap!

Something new

2007-01-08T21:30:00.000Z

I haven't done something new in a long long time. Infact, in all the last few months, I can remember little else except being perpetually gloomy. Well, I am no where close to being happy about my job, but with atleast some sort of job we can now think of other things. Also, given the horrible winter, we don't have too many guests these days..that's a lot of free time for us to talk!

So as of day after tomorrow, I might be one of these people in the picture. Yes, we are going to learn ice skating! I was assured today that the idea sounds far more cool than the experience will be. What the heck, I am excited to be doing something interesting for the first time. And maybe, just maybe .. in a few weeks .. tottering me (I can barely walk on a plain road without falling down!) .. might just be skating along.

A resolution and a wish

2007-01-07T15:17:00.000Z

Its already a week into the new year. . and about time for resolutions. Usually, I make a long list of resolutions and true to stereotype, I break most by the end of the first month. For once, I want it to be different. So this time. I am making just one resolution I want to see through to the end of the year. Its something I've mentioned earlier in different contexts and that is .. getting to my ideal weight. That's it ..the one super tough resolution for 2007.

And the wish. My one word to describe 2006 is 'Low'. There were a variety of reasons .. but the predominant one being the struggle with getting a job, and finally having to accept an offer in something I am not interested. This year I wish for a change in jobs and one which is a lot closer to what I would like to be doing.

That's the simple list for what I want from 2007 .. just hoping it goes as planned!

Happy New Year

2007-01-01T01:52:00.000Z

Wish you all a very very Happy New Year.. and hope all your dreams come true.

2006 has been a long year in some sense.. fraught with a lot of struggle and tension. In some sense..it also seems short with moving to a new country. In short ..its not a year I am going to forget easily. Though I know time is a continuum, somehow the new year brings with it new hope. So hope its a great year for all of you as well..I have my fingers crossed and hope my luck turned at midnight.

Here are some pictures from last evening, which B very enthusiastically took for my blog (have I mentioned, I finally broke the secret to him). Its along the south bank of the Thames. We have some friends over for the New Years break, so were taking them around. This is how we ended 2006.

St Pauls Cathedral

Lovely lights of the totally bare trees. Its my first winter here, and the trees without a single leaf do not fail to amaze me every time I see them.

The classic London picture.

The end of the walk for the evening, London Eye.

And the final thought for the year - What's the one word which describes the year 2006 for you?

And .. am back

2006-12-27T07:57:00.000Z

Holiday over.. and am suffering from terrible post holiday depression. I already want to be back home ... mid year vacation seems tooo far away at this point.

While the journey back was much better than the journey to India.. the arrival at Heathrow was as chaotic as ever. For once, immigration was not a long line! But all the time gained there was lost many times over thereafter. In Frankfurt we needed to check in one of our cabin baggages because smarty pants that we are ..we didn't realize that Duty Free alcohol from India would get counted as 'liquid bottles' and therefore not allowed. So lots of running around in Frankfurt airport ..and since it was last minute.. the luggage was on the next flight. Forms filled, we finally went to catch the Heathrow Connect home.. but that was not working for Christmas .. and I was not going to shell out double the amount for Heathrow Express.. so we made the 1.5 hour journey home on the tube.

We have still not bought our overcoats so thought we'd go shopping to beat the jet lag. What a mistake! This is not something I was prepared for. There are no words to describe the nightmare and we beat a quick retreat. Finally, when I was looking forward to just collapsing to sleep ..I had to not only coordinate with the airlines to get my baggage..when it did arrive it was a mess with a the Blue Curacao bottle broken and all the contents sticky and blue. I could have cried at the amount of cleaning up we had to do in our terribly sleep deprived state!

The other new development .. I am joining a new job today. It was an offer I had got just before I left. It is like many steps backwards. I will be doing the same work as I used to before my masters. I was really hoping another interesting offer would work out before I returned .. but sadly it has not.. and I have to take this. This seems like the biggest anticlimax in my life. I had dreams of waking up excited at some new job I would be joining.. and instead I feel like a child going to nursery who has to be dragged there by the parents. This is so not how it was supposed to be. Am hoping the new year has something better for me.

And now for some friends visiting London for New Years. Unpacking to be done before they arrive tomorrow. Blog reading to be caught up on.. have no clue whats happening in everyone else's life. And trying to cheer up for the last few days in the year. Oh ..and a little late.. but Merry Christmas.

The mid-vacation update

2006-12-21T05:34:00.000Z

Its well past mid-vacation and is nearing the end.. but delays to be blamed on lack of Internet connectivity, very hectic travelling and lots of chaos.

This trip has been full of ups and downs. Its nice for all of us to be home at the same time. . its been nearly two years since the last time we were all here. There's also been short trips to visit old friends and after horrible flights getting here ..and my luck continuing through domestic flights.. I wished I could be teleported from one place to another.

Keeping to tradition I have also gained a LOT of weight in the everyday food festival. Regular jeans have been exchanged for loose salwar kameez' which not only help in hiding new found weight but are far more comfortable than the jeans which have taken the form of an anaconda squeezing me to death.

As usual, we once again forgot to carry our camera. So there's only some hazy phone pictures to show. Next time, I am going to make a list.. and camera will be on the top .. sigh .. I make this resolution every time.. maybe some day I'll actually implement it!

So here are some pictures .. from the high points of the vacation thus far...

We were visiting an aunt on one of the two anniversaries. She made my favourite dinner - khow-suey. Before that there was wine and prawn cocktail .. Perfect!

A great evening spent with old friends at Hard Rock Cafe. Usually, I don't visit HRC in cities I visit.. but everyone highly recommended it, so went along. Good music, nice decor. . standard HRC stuff.

The cocktails were very average.. or even below average. Also, they were very very expensive. But they looked nice. Note strawberry milkshake coloured drink - which even tasted like it.

So with that..I start getting sad about the imminent return to London... and not too sad about the end of a horrible year. More later.. when am back .. to better Internet connection.

I'm home!

2006-12-10T15:25:00.000Z

Thirteen and a half hours after leaving Heathrow ... I am finally home. And what a wonderful feeling it is. Its all so familiar .. and am feeling so free.

Of course, getting here was not without the usual flight related pains of bad service and crying babies. But I no longer care (can you see my huge grin). One lesson - never fly Lufthansa. We arrived on time at Heathrow.. and the check-in counters opened forty five min late. Slow service would not aptly capture how slow it was.. and how frustrating it was to watch! There was a Japanese couple being made to repack their bags (I suppose weight of each suitcase was above the 32kg limit) ..whatever the reason .. they took over half an hour and the lady in the counter just sat and watched instead of continuing the check-in while they got their stuff sorted. Other such lame examples left only 2 counters really working. Then there were the idiotic passengers who ignored all signs of liquid restrictions and carried every conceivable size of creams, gels and liquids .. not to forget their 250ml of water .. of course none of this in the clear zip lock bags being handed out (and then they fought with the security people.. sadly they were from my country..sigh). Another 15min delay at the security check. And finally the crying, bratty kids .. in the row in front of us. The girl who went on and on and on and on .. for all of the 1.5 hours to Frankfurt. And the mother sat there wit a beatific smile not even bothering to calm her. How I was tempted to whack her with my rolled newspaper. Thankfully, at Frankfurt, they went towards the bus for the Chennai flight ... because I was surely not going to be sitting around peacefully if I had to go through it for another 8 hours of that.

More chaos by Lufthansa in the Frankfurt airport. We were to get seats assigned in Frankfurt.. more inefficiency there. Thankfully the flight to India was peaceful. Again a kid on the row ahead of us .. and one year old at that ... but with parents who took the effort to entertain the child. The kid was also a model child for flying and did not cry except during take off and landing.. which to be fair..must have been quite painful for the kid. The 'arrival' was another story all together. With four counters for Foreigner immigration and one for Indian citizens (which was a longer line than the foreign passport holders) .. its your guess who gets priority here. Of course my luck always holds up and I was literally the last person to clear immigration. . however the baggage handlers ensured that its all levelled out and the luggage started coming out even later .. so finally after one and a half hours we got to go out. And there were my parents waiting at 2:30am..and all the ills of the flight and airport forgotten ..we were finally home!

Full Marks to B

2006-12-05T09:06:00.000Z

For planning the perfect anniversary.

What a horrible year it has been. I was really hoping to get away for a weekend . . and even that couldn't happen with a whole lot of other stress in the background. So was not really hoping for much.

I had caught B surreptitiously surfing the net..so I guessed it was for a present.. and that put pressure on me to get my act together on getting him something. Books have flopped very badly in the past ..and after much brain racking..I got him Nike running clothes for winter. Though I suspect I am more taken up with the whole branded thing than B is..but whatever..they are smart clothes..and Lilywhites has smart prices. The secret present burst forth on Friday and I just gave it without really waiting for the 'real' anniversary (we anyway have two wedding dates..so no one is really sure what is 'real'). And with the enthusiasm of receiving cool present..B also gave me my present .. a beautiful pendant from Tiffany's. Its really pretty..but way beyond my middle class VFM (value for money) comprehension..however.. I l-o-v-e it.

The surprise of presents gone ..it still was lovely. B took a day off..which I didn't know about..so was a nice surprise. We went on a looong walk in the morning and then did some random shopping for presents we need to take home. The evening started with nice cocktails ..made sweeter by happy hours. Then The Lightning Play at Almeida Theatre (some good acting..but I felt it missed an overall point), again at the play we had tickets for the last row but the hall was fairly empty so we were asked to move up to much better seats. (I feel like such a VFM aunty). We finally went to the Islington Tapas Bar for dinner.. sadly it was nothing great..the sangria was not good, food was decent...but expensive ..however.. it ended on a great note with some fabulous cheese cake..and had good service We finally got home at mid night ..very very tired... a total contrast from last years pizza and horror movie.

Hope this portends a more happening and happier year ahead.

What would I miss the most?

2006-12-03T12:25:00.000Z

The other day we were having the most macabre conversation about computers crashing. Macabre, because atleast for me, my computer is my friend, buddy and everything else. . and the idea of a crash is truly disturbing. In the past we've had many worried hours about the computer and its ill health. B for all his computer training in college cannot solve a single problem and since I am at my harried best in a computer crisis, he is under violent attack from me. I refuse to buy silly excuses about how engineers are not taught to 'fix' computers .. methinks the answer lies in the many nights of drunken revelry.

Anyhow, all these computers crashing stories started a discussion on what would each one miss the most if their hard disc crashed and 'your world' just vanished. I think I'd miss my photographs the most. There is a lot of material from my masters.. but then most of it is stuff I can get from batchmates if there's something I really want. There's a tonne of great music. and other irreplaceable things.. but nothing comes close to photographs. All the years and 10GB of photographs is a lot of lovely memories captured and saved for posterity .. and it would hurt to lose them. I have backed up everything till before we were shifting .. but all these horror story discussions reminds me to make a copy of the new photograph folders - Now!

The one where it all ends

2006-11-30T11:27:00.000Z

Yipee .. I posted every single day this month!
One month went by pretty fast. And this doesn't seem so long back.
Posting everyday has been tough - sometimes because there were too many people around and it was difficult to log on without anyone noticing.
Also, at times I didn't have anything to say. Well .. I surprised my talkative self. Seems I don't have that much to say after all.
This month had the usual ups and downs .. . but with greater amplitude.
I discovered grey hair, a rat in the kitchen and that I can run 1km if I try really hard
I took some nice photographs and used them to fill posts when I had nothing to say.
I met more strange people. . which was not nice
And some old friends.. which was nice.
In school we were told never to use 'nice', its too generic. We did exercises where we had to replace entire paragraphs full of nice, with more appropriate adjectives.
I am not in school any more.. so I get to be lazy and use 'nice'.
I made two important resolutions for turning 30 - I'll run 10k and get to my ideal weight. Both are very very difficult. At the moment they seem impossible.
Also, turning 30 is not as big a deal as I am making it out to be.
However, by making it a big deal am hoping to get friends to come over. So will be nice anyway .
Some random facts now since I need to fill 29 bullet points
There's no real reason why I need to fill 29 points.. just that I started on that note and would like to end the month with it.
Random Fact - I had short hair all through school because I was very finicky about how it should be tied and my mother didn't have the patience to deal with my tantrums each morning.
After a point I just liked the short hair and so it stayed that way.
That was all through my teenage years when I also refused to wear anything but jeans.
That streak still remains (about wearing only jeans). Except that I cave in on formal occasions
I had once promised myself that I'd do a course on make-up. I did nothing but continue to be fascinated by how make up can transform people.
I just found out that B is getting me an anniversary present, Christmas present and a New Year present. Now that's a lot of pressure .. since I can only think of one present.
Why can't I think of more presents? There was a time I had gone to meet B on a vacation and carried one present for each day !!
I think I am becoming dumber over the years - actually, I'm sure about it.
I am in awe of people who are good at Math, Music and Art.
Needless to add .. I am not good at any of the above.
I am still trying to figure out what it is that I am good at.
I'm taking a breather for the next few days. Have absolutely maxed out on things to say.
Now I can sleep in peace - I filled 29 bullet points. And unless I am addicted.. I'll be back after a break.

I gotta get my life some writers

2006-11-29T18:30:00.000Z

Everything is so messed up. Why can't life be like a nice sitcom .. where you can go from being waitress to two top fashion houses fighting for you. And solutions appear to all problems at the end of the designated 30 minutes.

I so want to fast forward my life to a time when my problems have all been solved and things are smooth sailing. .or better still .. just rewind to happier times.

Wish there was an exchange offer

2006-11-28T17:55:00.000Z

. . between my weight and money. I could do with a LOT less weight.. and that would mean a lot more money. Perfect. Sadly, there's no where I can cash in .. and instead to lose the weight I need to lose more even more money.

My mother had the perfect trick to ensure that we were not overweight kids - one, we had an awful cook and two, she didn't believe in the concept of snacking. So if you were hungry the only choices were carrots and tomatoes.. so no one really ate unless they were very hungry. This routine worked perfectly .. and we never even took our weight. Its a different issue and that even then I thought I was fat and now when I look at my school uniform I wonder how anything more than my finger went through.

As the total opposite of my good food deprived childhood I took to eating nonsense the day I started working. Added to that I lived alone and had Maggi every night for dinner .. which I now realize was the worst thing I could have done to myself. 10 years of junk eating has added up very badly and now I suffer. Gym, soups. salads .. but there's barely any difference. So for my 30th birthday I have a resolution. To get close to my ideal weight. Its going to be very very tough given what foodies B and I are. . and its a long long long road.. but it must be done. This year has been such a loser year .. have to make up for it in 2007. B is helping with an ever romantic anniversary present - a personal trainer for a year. I initially had a long list of plans for when I turn 30 .. now its narrowing down to a few focussed ideas. . but this one is going to be by far the most difficult one.

Thorny Issues

2006-11-27T18:43:00.000Z

Yesterday, B and I had a silly fight over money. Well .. it started with me proposing to go for a play this week. We had initially budgeted for one play (similar expense) a month and this month, have already gone for something. So B felt we should exercise restraint. Then it degenerated into pointing each others extravagances (which collectively adds up to quite a bit). Once silly fight was done with every stupid expense pointed out and ripped to shreds, we started seriously discussing finances (something we rarely do).

At the end of our respective 5 years each of working we have shockingly low savings. Well .. its not shockingly low.. its just zero. Its not like we've wasted money .. but there's always a good reason - the wedding, studying, holidays .. it all adds up. And moving to London has not helped. We just figured that our estimated expense for next year is marginally more than the earning. We have a brilliant game plan for saving though.. once I start working (whenever that f-i-n-a-l-l-y happens) we will save my salary.. so we atleast have some savings when we retire. However, I see a lot of discipline and arguments in the future, if we are to implement this plan. And for now, we have the unpleasant task of prioritizing expenses .. since doesn't look like these happy-go-lucky times can be continued for much longer.

All this looks worse in perspective of the financial planning of some friends. I have friends who are well into house mortgages and stuff. .and unless my degree can sell for an equivalent amount.. at the moment the returns are not looking too great. So tough times ahead and thorny issues to be dealt with - not much fun.

Present Ma'am

2006-11-26T23:07:00.000Z

This feels like coming into class five minutes before the bell just to give attendance. The last few days have been a lot of fun and terribly busy.

The gist - sleeping at 2am every night and thereby being terribly short on sleep, making a 100 cups of tea and then washing the 100 cups, hosting a dinner and a lunch for a big group - more cooking and dish-washing, taking everyone on long walks around the city - I now have fixed routes! ... and a lot more.

Very sleepy and tired now.. and feeling happy about everyone visiting .. but sad that the holiday is over.

Just do it!

2006-11-25T22:36:00.000Z

Yipee .. and the little victory dance! I ran the 1km.

It wasn’t so bad after all. My feet were aching after 500m .. I kept staring at the monitor to will it to magically become a kilometre .. sadly magic did not happen.. but hard work did. I shall now work at keeping it up and increasing it. Eventually one day I’d really like to run a marathon .. but that’s quite far .. for now .. my next milestone is 2.5km and then 5km. And next year .. part of my many ‘Things to do by thirty’ .. is running a 10K run. Well ..it’s unlikely to happen before I’m 30 .. but certainly should before I cross into 31. Well, all these are still tall plans ..so far it’s just been 1km … there’s still ‘miles to go before I sleep’.

Bad genes, Bad feet, Bad shoes

2006-11-24T08:18:00.000Z

I have really bad feet.

How I admire dainty feet in strappy sandals. If I even try something dainty or strappy my feet look like blobs (or as my mum says – they look like pieces of dressed mutton). And it’s not just the blobby muttony feet which are a problem. To make it worse I have totally flat feet and a bunion – all of which results in my feet aching whenever I walk a lot or try to run and I have to beg B ( or anyone I can convince ) to press my feet. Infact, if someone would invent a feet presser (not those silly massagers), I think I’d be ready to trade diamonds for it.

The other fall out of bad feet is that I absolutely hate shoe shopping. Nothing ever looks good anyway. And with an exception to sneakers, all shoes make my feet hurt. It’s only in my dirty old sneakers that I can walk and walk and walk and how I wish I could wear them all the time. But they, look so out of place most of the time .. and so not in fashion .. most often it’s comfort over looks, for me.

The other problem - I can’t run. At all. However, I shall try not to be daunted and really want to be able to go jogging and the likes. B is trying hard to bribe me.. and he says I can get custom made running shoes if I run a kilometre .. even if its on the treadmill. I’ve tried a bit.. and give up very soon.. either my feet give up or I am too breathless. But have decided that I will try at the gym today .. and continue no matter what (unless I collapse or something .. which is unlikely, given it’s just a kilometre!). So bad feet or not - 1 km .. here I come!

Back to square one

2006-11-23T07:40:00.000Z

The whole pain of waking up was magically solved when the clock turned back. I was so happy to be once again waking up in daylight (though the early evening was a little disconcerting). And now, once again, it’s back to square one. Struggling to get up in the dark. Now the evenings are even earlier and I suppose till 22nd Dec it just keeps getting worse. And though sleep cycles and all are supposed to be by the clock ..I am totally disoriented and start feeling sleepy after a few hours of darkness .. which no longer makes sense. Must be my ‘Pea’ brain. Very irritating.

But then, as a friend says, ‘If you don’t go through the winter, how will you appreciate summer’.

Good times

2006-11-22T21:27:00.000Z

Posting everyday is getting tougher and tougher. First the weekends to tackle and now a house full of guests. This time, full is literally full .. I have six college friends over and given the size of London houses it’s bursting at the seams. Inspite of the chaos, I am totally loving it. After ages I’ve had so many close friends together at the same time. The coffee and gossip is endless. At times I become silent and look around the room and soak in the chatting and laughter.

We know a lot of people in London., have a regular set of friends but no one I am particularly close to. I miss that. We never have a dull weekend, but it’s rare now to have a lot of people with who I am totally comfortable and not watching what I say. Okay, I seem to be back to crib, crib crib. So this is where I go back ..join everyone and enjoy the day.

2006-11-21T17:40:00.000Z

I spent the day with a school friend who has a two year old child and I am pleasantly surprised. My previous experience of meeting friends with kids has not been too great. They'd often be super child involved .. who would also be the sole topic of conversation (often because of their cute antics .. but still .. there is that much of the child's dancing and clapping that I am interested in). I then generalized to imagine all parents to be the same and had given up on hope for much 'non kiddie' conversation when I met a parent.

I stand corrected. The friends who had come over on Sunday did not make the kid sing and dance for our entertainment (or boredom). The child found his joy in stationery and he was left to play with it and their involvement was more in terms of keeping an eye out for him not walking into a shelf full of glasses. Today, I was even more impressed. I went out with a friend and her two year old daughter. We visited an exhibition .. where the ultra silent halls were sometimes broken by the childish excitement of the girl pointing out an elephant .. but that apart she was fairly quiet. Her mother patiently kept her involved by pointing out some paintings and when she got bored she just played with her doll. Except for when she was being fed (when she was a total brat and her mother was the picture of patience) I was most impressed with both kid and mommy. We chatted for a long time over coffee about life and such.. the girl played with her stroller, doll and all else that could be played with. She'd touch the floor and then stuff her hand into her mouth, sniffle a bit because of the cold ..at one point I looked worried and her mother just said that there's nothing to worry ..she's just being a normal two year old. Which is so true, except the last time I was around a 2 year old ..her mom wanted to put her into some sterile bubble and shield her from the world of germs ..which made me wonder at what her immune system would be like after she grew up!

For both friends, I can see how much their lives have changed with the child (for one, they have to worry about school catchment areas and not just areas with good pubs!) .. but its not like they have moved into a different world. Not that we've even come to a decision about whether we want to have kids. But its good to see that perhaps if we do .. we might just be able to continue with our lives.

Through my Lens - Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus

2006-11-20T17:44:00.000Z

Now that I have a fair bit of time at hand, I've gone out some days with my camera clicking pictures around town. I initially wanted to make a series in black and white around London. Have done some areas. Also, some pictures just look much better in colour. Here are a few photographs from a recent picture taking outing to Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus.

Leicester Square tube station

I hadn't seen so many of these hand-held board ads till I came to London.

One of the many many shops selling tickets in the area.

And one of the many many souvenir stores

Leicester Square. I sat there reading for a while. It was nice with all the buzz around. The lunch goers rushing about on the break from work and the more leisurely tourists. This is also my favourite photograph from the day.

Piccadilly Circus. Crowded as usual. There are more pictures here.

Weekend once more

2006-11-19T17:19:00.000Z

I have a serious lack of time and ideas.

Just finished clearing up the house from the storm of hosting some friends for lunch. The pile of dishes to be washed looks too tormenting.. so am taking a break to keep up the daily posting promise ..and recharge my batteries.

Once again, its a weekend with a huge dearth of sleep. Whenever I invite someone for lunch, the previous night gets stretched to sleeping at dawn and my cooking for lunch memories are a feeling of being hungover .. due to tremendous lack of sleep ..and a fair bit of alcohol. This happens .. always! So how could yesterday be an exception. There was an impromptu get together at a friends place at midnight. Obviously, when you meet at midnight ..you go home not before 4am. . and after that we had to be up by 9am to cook ..since Ms Super Planner Me had not cooked in advance.

Well, lunch turned out ok. Also realized that our house is not a very baby friendly place. These friends who had come have a 1.5 year old son. After he arrives and starts his Magellanic expeditions it strikes me that not only is most of our living room done up in cream ..we also have an inordinate amount of knick knacks all over the floor and other low lying levels. (Can't stop laughing when I think of them going to a common friends place whose whole house is spotless white. Evil chuckles!) Thankfully, this was one of the best behaved boys I've met.. he didn't have destructive tendencies. We didn't need to shift a thing becuase when his parents told him not to pull at something.. he actually listened. Though there were moments when his hand was poised an inch above the cream sofa with a black permanent marker and I would give an involuntary shriek. All is well and they left with no destruction.. though he left all the stationary from my table, all over the house. I have no energy left now to put things back in the right place. Given that another 2 year old is coming tomorrow, the lazy side of me (that's most of me) is thinking that I'll just clear up after she leaves so everything is set at one go.

Well turns out even when I have nothing to say I can ramble. . and however much I'd like to continue rambling.. must go and clean those dishes and start cooking once again .. for tomorrow is another day and another dinner.

Country roads, take me home

2006-11-18T09:03:00.000Z

Wish you could see the dance I am doing while typing this. I can barely sit still .. because..... in a few weeks ... I ..am.. going.. home. Yipee!

To me, going home.. always.. always.. means going to my parents place. Maybe its because I've been away since college and that's where the whole 'going home' excitement started. Ofcourse, I love our home here and all that .. but its a whole different thing being pampered by grandmothers .. and lazing in your old room. Added to that, my sister is coming .. which is a much rarer thing than me landing up every 6 - 8 months.

I have already started stocking up on loads of presents. Till now we'd been uncertain about whether we would go .. but now it seems much more likely.. so present shopping can get ramped up. People also send strange lists - cheese, chocolates (I hate it .. since you get Toblerone and Lindt in India and its so heavy to carry .. the only things that beat it are soaps and shampoos) ..tinned fish!.. dish washing sponges .. you get the drift. This time we are even carrying a duvet for someone! But when I know I am going home.. I am indulgent of all such demands .. because I know .. that soon .... I'll be sleeping in my old old bed again.

Making of the houswife

2006-11-17T18:07:00.000Z

The many months of not working is taking its toll in small ways. I just realised I'm becoming either a housewife or a retired person. Well ..since retirement is still some time away ..housewife it is. So here's how I realise it.

A few days back Tesco's sent some coupons out with the club card statement. To begin with, I a-l-w-a-y-s carry the club card to get those teeny tiny points which are a miniscule percentage of what your spend in exchange of valuable insights into your shopping habits. Anyway, so the statement arrives and first I inspect it to ensure that all my points have been dutifully recorded and not even one-tenth of a decimal point has been lost. Then I carefully read the accompanying literature ..to gain more 'information' on what items are on sale. After this, with immense glee , I discover the coupons .. immediately making notes of when I'll use what to get 'double' points. And finally I keep the coupons safely on the refrigerator so that I do not forget them the next time I go shopping.

This is the point marketing class starts flashing in front of my eyes. Coupons being a common tool for price discrimination ..and blah blah blah .. and ... the target audience often being housewives and retired people who might be typically more price conscious ..and also have the time to compare prices across stores.

That sounds familiar .. I have found out that if you have a res card you can get discounts on films from the council library ..and that anyway you can borrow the latest films from the council library at half the price compared to the big commercial chains. And now I must go ..because there is the shiny 50 page pdf file that beckons with all the discounts I can get with my new res card.

2006-11-16T10:23:00.000Z

There are few stories that have moved me more. Its a little long, but do read it.

To me, this is the ultimate story of the love of a parent .. and sheer will power. I wanted to write something more.. but I feel anything I say ..would appear too trivial.

This video brought tears to my eyes.

Sicker

2006-11-15T16:34:00.000Z

Today am feeling worse. I tried calling the NHS medical centre with which I am registered. In true govt style, I did not get through. So dragged myself over hoping that my picture of pain would induce some pity and get me an appointment. The person at the desk looked at me as if I am the biggest hypochondriac ever, so much for hoping to induce sympathy! I was given an emergency appointment for an hour later. In saying emergency she gave me a sterner look. Well I thought it was emergency enough since I can't get hold of my antibiotics till they give me a prescription. Ofcourse, she added that unless I look like I am wheezing to death they would not give me antibiotics (no idea how she read my mind!). With that I retired into the corner she pointed me to.

The only other patients were the really old people coming in for their free flu shots. . and some screaming babies who could express their agony more freely than me. Reception lady continued her mean, meaner, meanest treatment on most people except those who were old. Wonder if she would be more sympathetic if I had pointed out my grey hair(s).

I had not anticipated such a long wait so had not been smart enough to carry a book. Instead, I read leaflets on Depression, Problems of Overweight, Diabetes, Flu, Booklet of free vouchers from Mothercare (I was really bored, and the magazines looked even more boring than reading about symptoms of Diabetes) .. and a book on common ailments which specifically mentioned that when you have a cold and sore throat you should go to the pharmacist and not to the doctor. By now I had visions of he doctor scolding me for coming in and wasting his time and was thinking of an escape route. Thankfully my cold induced head was too numb, so I just stayed.

Finally 2 hours later I was called. The doctor looked me up and down. Then peered down my throat and my ears (I have a ear ache too) .. and that's it. He said it was an infection and then typed out a prescription. I felt so cheated .. after two hours.. all it took was two minutes. At any rate, I got what I had gone for, a one week course of Amoxycillin. I know it'll work .. I have this kind of thing once - twice a year and my family doctor no longer even asks me to go over but just gives the prescription over the phone.

Hope I recover soon. But till then may as well cash-in on some pampering. Yesterday I had some amazing tomato soup from M&S - something called Vine tomato with pesto. I also made some stir fry noodles. Tonight, B has promised me ultimate comfort food - khichdi. Now that you know everything about my runny nose, sore throat and ear ache, I can retire under my comforter and read 'The Piano Tuner', my latest acquisition from the council library.

Sick!

2006-11-14T17:05:00.000Z

That's how I am feeling right now. Finally the season change has caught up with me. Sore throat, runny nose and general sleepiness. Want to go under the duvet - forever!

This week I had got lilies for my room. They took forever to bloom. But finally one of the buds opened today .. it's looking nice and bright. Adding some cheer to the otherwise sick feeling.

Even now, when I'm sick, I miss my mother. Am very '5 year old' about it. Partly because she has a cure for everything. . and because she makes yummy soup when I have a sore throat.. which I invariably do a few times every year. No mommy here at the moment .. just hope M&S has some good soup.

Through my lens - Putney to Richmond

2006-11-13T17:27:00.000Z

Saturday, after lunch B and I set out to walk from Putney to Richmond. It was a stretch on the Thames Path and given it was along the river, obviously one could not get lost. I also had a clear destination in mind - White Cross, the pub by the river in Richmond. Brilliant as we are, we forgot to take into account that it gets dark by 4:30 and not really such a smart idea to start the walk at 3:00. Neither had we looked up whether the path is likely to be flooded, as it does so during high tide. Thankfully, we were lucky on that count. The route was very scenic. Though by mid way point it became totally dark. So we only saw shadowy outlines of Kew Gardens and the Old Deer Park. We also wondered whether the place was safe or would we become a crime statistic. We even worked out a strategy incase of an attack - we give everything and ask to keep our Oyster Card since we didn't really want to have to walk home from Richmond. Thankfully we didn't have to put any such ideas to test and got to White Cross, had a drink and then got back safely .. after walking the entire 15.7 km ..and feeling quite kicked at having being able to complete it!

Here are some pictures -

Starting out. A church near Putney Bridge station.

Thames, near Putney

A park along the way. Loved the colours.

The Thames Path. Most of route is like this. It was very peaceful and pretty. It seemed to be in the flightpath since Heathrow is pretty close. The peace and quiet would be broken ever so often by a plane going overhead.

Pretty boats in the river. There were also lots of people rowing.

One of the last few pictures. It got dark pretty soon, so the camera had to be put away.

There were many pubs along the way. Looked most tempting. This one looked particularly pretty.

Warning signs. Seemed funny, but don't think I'd be the one laughing if it was my car that was submerged.

Tired

2006-11-12T22:44:00.000Z

Am so tired.

The walk happened. We went from Putney to Richmon d. More on this later. I like walking and have found a nice website called Walk It. It gives you the walking route between places and to add a feel good factor even gives the calories burnt and amount of CO2 avoided. I've used it once, it's useful since it gives a map and written directions. One slightly scary thing, the website requests feedback about a wrong route. That doesn't sound too good. After walking two hours I don't want to find out that I walked to some wrong place.

Picture session happened. We finally decided on taking sunrise pictures. Will post pictures soon, from both the walk and the sunrise.

Concert was fabulous. I l-o-v-e-d the Royal Albert Hall!

And now, I go to sleep .. very very tired. Would not have written today if it hadn't been for NaBloPoMO, but didn't want to break the chain. Hope to make up for such a lame post with some nice pictures later. Good night!

The Wicked Witch of the Gym

2006-11-11T09:07:00.000Z

I swear that Abs class woman is the devil in disguise!

Recently B and I decided that we must go for some of the classes to add variety to our gym sessions .. and also to do a little more than wish away the flab. Thanks to the set of brilliant genes passes on by my parents, even when I was t-h-i-n I never had one of those enviable washboard tummys. Till now, I had done little else other than curse the genes, so Abs class and the visions of flat tummy called out to me. Armed with enthusiasm and a towel I arrived in the class after my usual cardio work out. I should have anticipated that the super thin enthu-cutlet model types would arrive way before the class starts and set up shop right in front. The first day was more a neck exercise, twisting and turning to see what the instructor was doing. Not that I could keep up anyway. She was just pure evil. Half an hour of non stop torture . . set to super fast music. And incase you wanted to slack ..she would not just point you out.. but do that into her microphone, just incase someone at some far corner of the gym had missed out that you were trying to slack between crunches. Needless to say, the day after our first session it hurt even to laugh.

The proportion of satisfaction is directly correlated to the pain .. and we are in self indulgent belief that if it hurts so much, it must be good. And that has taken us back .. for the last two weeks .. no results to show so far.. but hope.. and the wicked witch ensure that twice a week I think before I laugh. So off we go now for another half hour of self inflicted torture.

Yapitty Yap

2006-11-10T16:23:00.000Z

I feel like talking to someone .. but can't think of anyone to call .. so I write. Does that take my life to a new height of uncoolness?

Finally its Friday. I am amazed at how I still have the Friday excitement thing going. Well it does have it's high points for me. Its day off from gym. So there's a full evening ahead to be exploited. Also, this week in some crazy enthusiasm we cooked each night. And Indian food at that. This is massive progress .. since normally our dinner consists of salads, soups, pasta or take aways. . anything that can be cooked in 15 minutes. Add to that 10 minutes to clean the kitchen . . to anitseptic clean . . given its just 3 dishes and that's it. Good healthy dinners, minimal time, and a life even after getting home at 9 after the gym.

However, couple of weeks back we discovered the evil Tesco Online. It offers huge variety and drops stuff home (we really behaved like someone was giving stuff away for free, but then after seeing bhindi available some place it was too much temptation. Our local store has only zucchinis, avacados and and loads of stuff I have no idea what to do with and could care even less to find out). So in a moment of giddy enthusiasm we ordered kilos of ingredients (vegetables, meat etc including atta to make fresh chappatis - no idea what we were thinking). Who were we kidding? After a week of avoiding it, things had to be cooked or thrown. Ofcourse it's heartless to throw, so all week we've been making nice fresh home cooked Indian food. Result - No life, since it takes an hour to cook and then another half hour to eat and then clean the mountain of dishes and its nearly time to go to sleep. And the cruellest blow of all - we've both gained weight with all the over-eating. So as of next week .. back to good ol salad, soup routine. Works best for us lazy people.

I was so looking forward to going out tonight and getting drunk .. (trashed would a more appropriate description of what I am aiming for) to the world and worries. However, in true style of our Friday evening conflict, B wants to crash at home over a film since he's had a very bad week. But I stay home a lot ..so really want to see the outside world! I really have got to get a life!

So I suppose it's going to soup for dinner and some random film. Maybe we can figure out how to turn on the heating.. or pay off the bills for the month. Sigh ...am feeling old and grown up. Fun weekend coming up though.. a long walk along the river, photo session being planned with a friend (not of ourselves ofcourse .. but buildings and such) and a concert on Sunday .. so it's not all bad.

Happy Birthday T

2006-11-09T16:42:00.000Z

Through many years and ups and downs .. I've always counted on TR. T and I met when both of us happened to be at a common friend's place one weekend many years ago. He was the shy guy who watched sat in a corner drinking beer, glued to the sports channel and answered in monosyllables.

Initially we'd meet up every weekend.. only because we had this common friend whose house we'd be hanging out in all the time. The monosyllables grew into phrases and then slightly longer conversations. At some point this common friend was no longer around but T and I kept in touch. It was also when I was going through a terrible phase with things and needed someone to talk sense into me and a shoulder to cry on. I never realized that T and I started hanging out every weekend because he was being there for me (self glorification, I thought I was charming company!). Over time he became one of my closest friends. He's also one of the most sensible people I know .. and helped me think of my career change, work on my apps etc. T has this philosophy that friendship is very transient based on people around us and once we move away it'll fade away (something I have spent many hours arguing against). Well .. hope I have also proven it wrong. We've been in different cities for a while now .. but still very much in touch. Today is T's birthday. I called at midnight his time and as with our old birthday tradition .. everyone was at a bar/club bringing it in. I soo wished I could have been there too. Next year all of us turn 30. I know it's not a big deal .. but feels landmark, this is the last of the twenties.

T is also very pro arranged marriage (again another major point of disagreement between us) and by his next birthday in all likelihood he'll be married. I really hope the person marries him for who he is and not his 'degrees'. Nor that she rolls her eyes at people drinking and the likes. Another friend had gotten married and promptly became a 'oh-my-wife-doesn't-like-drinking-lets-go-to-watch-latest- bollywood- flick-instead' guy. Fingers crossed at T getting cool wife.. and hope he doesn't become this stranger who no longer keeps in touch. Buts that's for time to tell. Whatever happens .. I wish the best for him.

Happy Birthday .. to a great guy .. a good friend.

Bad Mood

2006-11-08T15:46:00.001Z

It's been one of those super irritating days when I have had enough. All the greyness is not helping either. I feel like watching some cheesy film and drowning in chocolate. Well, am going to do neither .. except maybe scream a bit and bore you with details, to vent the frustration.

The day started with meeting a couple of opinionated bozos about a job. They behaved like they did rocket science or something, given the amount of suspicion they had in my ability to do the work. Especially when the work is fairly similar to what I did earlier and give me three months and I would surely be able to master it. So much for my confidence, because they dinged (rejected) me across the table. Not that I felt too bad because I would have hated the job anyway, but my ego is hurt, since, they got to reject me and not the other way round.

Oh ..and later I met the most frustrating person .. again job related. Totally futile meeting.. and was asked every personal question in the book .. short of B's salary because by then I had kinda reached the end of my patience and gently (or maybe not so gently) brought back focus to the topic at hand. An extract ..

NP (Nosey Parker): Nice meeting you etc etc
Me: Blah blah .. (discussion on my move to the UK, visa status etc)
NP: Oh ..so you're married (from discussion around visa and move etc). What was your name before you got married?
Me: Irrelevant to job .. but ok will humour you. My name was the same Pea C (which is the same as my cv since I have not changed it.)
NP: Completely blank look
Me: Indulgently explaining. I use my maiden name. Not changed it. In my mind - Got it?, dim wit
NP: No .. but what would your name be after marriage
Me: Frustration rising very fast. It would be the same - Pea C.
The last two lines get repeated three times. Till I spell out that Bee K is husbands name, Pea C is mine (adding the look 'don't even try calling me Pea K because then I'll just whack you right here') - wondering how on earth any of this is relevant.This was followed by where B works..whether he's in the IT division and blah blah. I seriously started doubting if NP was considering me for the job or B.

Anyone want to guess NP's nationality?

If everything is supposed to happen for a reason ..and there's something better ahead for me.. it better include a million dollar jackpot .. because otherwise.. this seems soo not worth it.

In a land far far away

2006-11-07T16:12:00.000Z

I was near Piccadilly Circus today when I suddenly spotted a Chinese grocery store. Childlike excitement gripped me at the sight of dried mushrooms and black beans. Who would have guessed that a a store full of chives and soya sauce would one day be my Disneyland. I went to the basement and loaded up as much as could be carried in one basket. I hadn't realised till we came here how much we had gotten used to some of the local products we had started using. . nor, that someday my day would be made at the sight of chilli oil and wasabi peas.

Groceries packed, I went to the billing counter. An old Chinese couple put everything into bags which I thought wouldn't hold up even till the tube station. In all my bubbling excitement I hesitantly said thank you in Mandarin (one of the the three word vocabulary I have of the language - the others are 'hello' and 'goodbye'). I should have anticipated the shock (Indian woman all the way in London spouting one word knowledge of Mandarin). Followed by animated chatting. I told them I used to live in South East Asia and they told me where they were from (all of this ofcourse in English). I left with a smile inside me .. and a plan to go back for all the goodies that I couldn't stuff into the basket today.

Sometimes . . .

2006-11-06T17:45:00.000Z

It is not such a smart idea to start reading old mails. Just realized that instead of focussing on the work at hand, I spent the last two hours reading mails from a close group of friends. They were lying forgotten in my mailbox and I came across one when I was searching for something . . and that started the thread ..and then it was one more and then one more and then a little bit longer ..and soon two hours had passed!

I am torn between laughing at my stupidity and feeling bad for some stuff which I went through. I had gone through a very bad phase about five years back ..and at that time was miserable. A close friend used to tell me to relax and that I would laugh about it five years hence. So true, I am totally cracking up. Can't believe some of the mails I had written - damn 'reply with history'.

Through my lens - Guy Fawkes Day

2006-11-05T15:50:00.000Z

Guy Fawkes Day is one of my many Enid Blyton associations. I imagined it was like Dussehra except that they burnt the effigy of Guy Fawkes. I was quite excited about going to one of the parks for the bonfire and fireworks. We finally decided on Battersea Park because it would be convenient. Ofcourse we totally forgot to take into account the magnitude of the crowd. It was quite a nightmare getting there and back. We had planned to take a bus from the tube station but it was packed like a Bombay loca l so we just walked and got really really late meeting some friends there. All the crowd and logistics aside, it was fantastic. It was not as I imagined it ... but I loved every moment. Oh, and I tried some mulled wine .. perfect for the cold evening.. am going to try making it at home now! Anyway, here's some pictures .. they describe the evening better than I could.

Albert Bridge as we approach the park from Chelsea Bridge

The bonfire from a distance. It was HUGE!

It's like a tower of fire. I just like the picture, so sharing it.

Towards the end, as it was dying out

Lights

Finally the fireworks.

It lasted a long time and was spectacular.

I took over a hundred pictures to get my perfect fireworks snap. Did not get something perfect, but I think this was close.

A fitting finale!

Ideas please

2006-11-04T11:28:00.000Z

Soon it's going to be our second wedding anniversary. Well it feels like much more because B and I had known each other for ages before got married. It was none of the mushy love at first sight .. but after many sights .. and years. But that's a story for another day.

Last year during our anniversary I was really busy at school. It was a week day and after a long day for both of us we didn't have the enthu to even go out. Everyone called very excited about our first anniversary ..and it was such an anticlimax that we were home watching a horror movie and had ordered pizza because neither of us felt like cooking.

After what an absolutely sucky year this has been (well good in a way ..because if we got through THIS ..we can get by most else), I really want to plan a nice weekend away, where we can just be 'normal'. We've also not gone on a break in ages and whatever vacations we have gone for this year have been in big groups (which have been fantastic by the way).

I started thinking this morning and am pretty blank. It needs to be a place we can get to easily since we have just two days and there's no possibility of taking taking leave at that time to make it a long weekend. I was thinking of Swansea, Chester or my eternal favourite Paris, but am not sure what the weather would be like at the end of November. Definitely don't want to go to some place and be stuck indoors. So, ideas please. Oh..and while you're thinking .. any ideas for a nice present for B?

Older and wiser

2006-11-03T13:57:00.000Z

It's a regular Friday. Making plans to catch up with some friends over drinks in the evening and I look down vacantly trying to think of a good place. Then I see it, glistening in the sunlight a little more than the others. I bring it closer and inspect it more closely.

Oh-my-god. It's a second grey hair!! I've had one grey hair for a long time. Have passed it off my mother's love and such ... matter closed. But two, now that's age catching up .. no more of this hiding behind love business. Shrieks followed by closer inspection. More of these emerge.

Frantic call to B follows. Snubbed because he is busy making money for someone else and has no time for such frivolities .. I think its out of jealousy since all he has is balding grey hair. Curses into the phone and frantic email sent to close friend. Reply with no sympathy since she has been colouring her hair for the past two years to cover the grey. Also long time grudge since I had joked about her turning 30 and sent her 'On your 60th birthday' card, with some silly message about .. 'now you're just half my granny's age'. Ofcourse my grandmother is way over 60, but that didn't matter, she did not see the humour in it.

Oh well .. so now it's just me moping and you reading about it. I resign to fate. Thirties - here I come.

From Inside the Fortress

2006-11-02T15:53:00.000Z

The rodent is back. B saw it last night in the kitchen!

While it is comforting to know that I am not seeing vermins in my imagination, it is very unnerving to know that there's one in the house. I don't know if it's a rat or a mouse.. I don't even care what the differences between the two are.. but am totally creeped out (not a real word. . but should be one, since at the moment it very aptly represents my feelings!).

Since last night, my room is my fortress. I step out only when absolutely necessary. Breakfast and coffee was delivered by B inside my fortress. I had to go out to meet someone, so made sure I came home after lunch since there's no way I am stepping close to that kitchen. And even when I need to get out of the fortress .. I gingerly peep out from behind my door .. stomp my foot and when am absolutely sure that the coast is clear I venture out .. actually dash to the next point is more like it. This can't be continued long term.. we have to find a solution. I called some online pest control people and they say it would cost close to 200 pounds! I tried checking for online rat traps but all the bl**dy pages have pictures of rats popping up .. eeeks .. I quickly shut it all.

Reminds of of when I was in college and our hostel was infested with rats .. and my shrieks. My room-mate .. a strong brave girl from the North (North India) would laugh while I jumped on the bed. She never understood why someone 5.5 feet would be scared of something that wasn't even 5.5 inches! Good for her, since I promptly handed her the responsibility of making sure the house was vermin free.. and I must admit she was pretty effective in her methods.

So here I am, stuck in my room .. with music and the computer for company. I refuse to step out even to get water! The musicals phase is still going strong .. and my favourite CD is CATS - the irony of it all!

The one where it all begins

2006-11-01T09:48:00.000Z

In an impulsive moment I joined the NaBloPoMo bandwagon when I read about it. And now am blank. So here's an idea from a tag I read.
I am from India. Have lived, studied and worked all over.
I have been wearing glasses since I was 3.
I was teased by other children in Nursery for being dark & wearing glasses and hated going to school.
Once we moved cities it was better. I had a great group of friends. We had secret clubs, had sleep over parties and read a lot. Suddenly it was cool to be geeky.
We moved cities again when I was getting into senior school. I loved this school. I think it had the greatest impact on 'who I am'. Many of my closest friends are also from here.
We believed there was nothing in the world we couldn't get. And made plans of the companies we'd like to run when we were older.
It's where we dreamt of being on a magazine cover on the Top 20 business women in India.
That dream seems too far at this point
I am not a very optimistic person and I give up too easily.
I love magic and fairy tales and want to visit Disneyland. My flatmate thought I have strange childhood hankerings!
Maybe its because I visualise so much in my imagination.
I think of everything in pictures. Even numbers. I thought that was how everyone thought of things, but I gather it's not. Wonder how I developed the habit.
I love reading (and visualize every detail of what I read)
I hate TV. Not the device, but cable television. I like watching films I have chosen to watch.
I love music. At the moment I am going through a 'musicals' phase, so listening to a lot of Andrew Lloyd Webber and others. I also tend to listen to my 'phase' music so much that after the phase is over I can't bear to listen to it for a long time.
I also like rock, classical, country and some music I can't categorise.
I hate trance, 'boy bands' and some extreme metal.
I use 'love', 'hate' very easily and think too much in 'black' and 'white'. Am often told to consider the 'grey'.
I love dancing. I learnt classical dance for four years. I really feel bad I couldn't continue it.
It's ironical that Bee is like 'wobbly jelly' when it comes to dancing. The one thing I really wish I could change about him. Though to give credit, he's been trying.. but really.. it's still just wobbly jelly.
My friends are very important to me. I do a lot for them. . and am in touch with friends from very long back.
I miss not having my close friends in London.
I make a terrible first impression. Most people think I am too reserved or snooty. It's amazing how the same behaviour can be interpreted in two such different ways.
But once I get to know a person I talk too much and can't stop.
I am a Gemini.
I get bored easily.
I have terrible feet.
I love coffee. I wish I could make good filter coffee. Ooops.. I have so much more to say but have reached my age limit. More for another time.

2006-10-31T16:32:00.000Z

Of my emotions in this job hunt.. today was a first. I am feeling so very amused.

This morning I was speaking to the hiring manager at a company about an opening they have. We talked about the role, he discussed the merits and demerits and in the process talked a bit about his career background. The conversation then moved to him talking of taking a break to study, and suddenly from job conversation shifted to me giving advice on different schools, the application process, my school and what they look for etc. Well, the role I had called for was too junior, but was feeling so very amused when I kept the phone.

This evening, I met someone about another job. The conversation started with the role and once again moved to studying, whether the course was worth it, again more advice on my school, costs, scholarships - the works. And once again, me leaving feeling very amused.