'The King's Speech' & CBTL

My weekend's gone by in a jiffy. I was running errands most of the time...buying groceries, paying bills, dropping/picking up stuff from the dry cleaner, parlour (yes that's an errand too), cooking etc. I hardly got time to chill and suddenly it's Sunday evening :(

There were a couple of highlights though - a glorious Saturday afternoon nap that had more to do with the searing heat outside than anything else, managed to watch 'The King's Speech', and discovered the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in town that totally made my day!

'The King's Speech' is a must-watch movie. Just over two hours, it's slow in parts but there's never a boring moment. And what a phenomenal effort by Colin Firth. He so deserves that Oscar.

You know, every time I see such a soul-stirring performance by a Hollywood actor I really wonder whether any of our (Bollywood) actors will be able to pull off such a performance. And the answer, almost always, is a disappointing and resounding 'no'. You watch this movie and name one Indian actor who could've done as good a job of playing a person who suddenly finds himself annointed King of England at a time when he must lead his country to war and is expected to dole out inspiring speaches but who suffers from a debilitating stammer, as Colin Firth does. The director very cleverly shows a close up of his face every time he's trying to deliver a speech, and the contortions of his face to get those damn words out make your heart go out to him. You can feel his pain and anguish at not being able to get words out of his mouth. The humour is good too, if you appreciate British humour that is. Awesome movie, watch it.

And if you happen to stop by the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, do try their Philadelphia Baked Cheesecake and Brownie Cheesecake. They're orgasmic. And that, I think, is a great way to end this post. Hope you had a good weekend.

My 'Go-To' Books

I had the most wonderful day today, even though I spent it all by myself.

It's a long weekend. I woke up at 10 in the morning, dawdled over tea, had breakfast and went back to sleep at noon. Woke up at 2, showered, had lunch, went to Barista with my 'Adrian Mole', had a lovely hazelnut mocha and blueberry muffin, ran a couple of errands and am back home doing nothing.

Why can't we have more such days? :(

*******

I have a few "go-to" books and movies. These are books/movies that I turn to when I'm feeling low or have been having rough days.

My "go-to" books include the Bridget Jones Diaries (both) & Confessions of a Shopaholic.

Bridget Jones because...come on...it's Bridget Jones! Here's this girl who's constantly fretting about her weight, very much like me. She keeps landing herself in the most embarassing situations but she also has the courage to laugh at herself. She is being courted by two sex-on-toast men - one the biggest gentelman and the other possibly the biggest jerk in town - and she keeps falling for the jerk just because he is glib enough to talk his way into her heart. Now that's a situation many of us (women) are familiar with, aren't we? But in the end she goes with the nice guy. What's not to like?

Of course, the diary format also works for me. The book is fast-paced and not unnecessarily wordy. And I don't need to read it from start to finish at one go. I can read a few pages when I'm sad, put it down, pick it back up after some time and continue reading from where I left!

I also love Confessions of a Shopaholic. Becky Bloomwood is hilarious! She comes up with ingenious excuses to buy things she doesn't need. She also writes the funniest letters to her bank manager asking him to waive off her credit card bill and increase her credit limit! We could call her stupid and hate her for not having the mental strength to put an end to her shopaholism, but we don't because we know there's a little bit of Becky Bloomwood in all of us.

I've discovered two other books that could become my "go-to" books soon. One is 'Dork' by Sidin Vadukut. The book has workplace humor and it's outrageously funny. If you haven't read it yet, I'd say you MUST. You'll be rolling on your sides laughing.

The other book that I'm currently reading and finding absolutely adorable is 'The Secret Diaries of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 Years'. Here's this adoloscent obsessed with the spots on his face, which he's convinced is a result of the poor diet his mom feeds him, and the size of his "thing". He's a drama-queen, a chauvinist (he expects his mom to worship the ground he walks on & he'll let his girlfriend work at a cake shop or some place like that but not to have a career), but he also cares for old people & animals and looks out for his father who's having a rough time. The humor is subtle but it's definitely there.

Then there's 'Love Actually', the movie. It's my favorite movie EVER. I think I've watched the movie more than 20 times and it makes me happy every single time. It's got so much love floating around - love between a brother & sister, between a father & his step-son, even between a musician & his manager (!). Love that transcends boundaries of social strata and race. And it's got this Christmas theme running all the way through. And we LOOOOOOOOVE Christmas over here.

Which reminds me, Christmas is right 'round the corner and I haven't bought my decorations yet! I have a little tree from last year but I need to buy the ornaments & mistletoe & streamers. And plum cake! Oh, Christmas is going to be so much fun!! :)

Of Rotten Luck & Conspiring Forces

So I've been bitten by the cooking bug big time. My mom almost did a flip when she heard this because, you know, until a few months ago I never ventured near the kitchen unless it was to make tea, Maggi or scrambled eggs. I was always the kind of person that thought cooking is literally burning your time away. I thought cooking was for women who had mothers-in-law from hell and chauvinist husbands who believed that a woman's true position is in the kitchen. Cooking wasn't for liberated, independent women like me. I was meant for take-outs & ordering-in.

And then I met The Knife! Well, started reading his blog to be precise. He got me interested in food. And then I started watching shows by Nigella, Rachel Allen & Curtis Stone. And then came Masterchef Australia and I was hooked...on to food. Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined such a day would come. But here it is, well and truly. And The Boy has been asking why I spend time watching such shows when I don't learn anything from them. All very good-naturedly, of course.

So I've been intending to cook some gourmet kind of thing (yeah right!) since three weekends now. I have elaborate plans to cook an appetizer, a main course and dessert. And I've been dying to cook Asian food - one of those light, springy, sweet & salty chicken dishes. You know, something with a light broth...or some fancy reduction...or jus! But each weekend my plans go for a toss.

The first time around I didn't get the time to look up a recipe in advance and by the time the weekend came, I had too many errands to run and couldn't get around to looking something up. The second weekend, I got so tired after gymming on Saturday, I spent a major part of the day sleeping! Sunday passed in the excitement of watching Harry Potter (yes, we belong to that group of people, lovingly, or disparangingly, depending on which side of the fence you're on, called Pottermaniacs that get excited about the Potter books & movies). And this weekend, just as I sat down to find a recipe, my internet crashed! It's up & running now but it's too late to go shopping for ingredients.

Rotten luck and conspiring forces, I tell you. And it pervades through life. For the same reason, I haven't even been able to blog in a week now! There are so many topics doing the hampster dance in my head...Masterchef Australia, 'The Social Network', 'Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows', Big Boss, Koffee with Karan and a tag by Moonshine. But I've been swamped with work and haven't had the time to write. Such injustice! But now my head is above water and I'm going to get back to blogging with a vengeance. Eat that, you work monster!

Till then, enjoy your Saturday guys. And please send me some positive vibes to counter the conspiring forces. And may the Force be with you too!

Shrek...Forever & Ever & Ever & Ever....

It’s got to be said - boys are fun but girl friends are mind blowing fun!

You can discuss the world with girl friends - from shoes to bags to clothes to the current hottest lip color to your ever expanding waistline to your love life to George Clooney & Brad Pitt to the dreamboat vegetarian vampire who can make any woman of any shape & size go week in the knees to other friends' girlfriends/boyfriends to the latest gossip - without them rolling their eyes or chiding you for indulging in gossip.

You can never discuss such things with boys without feeling like swatting them with whatever you can lay your hands on because they would either be rolling their eyes faster than a yoyo or worse still, gagging, totally disrespecting your need to honor the estrogen in your body. Lots of it if you're PMSing.

Over coffee on Friday evening, one of my girl friends & I made plans to spend Saturday together doing “girly stuff” which involved shopping (surprise!), movie & dinner.

We met up after lunch on Saturday and headed out to shop. I needed to buy a pair of sunglasses, she a pair of shoes for everyday wear that she wouldn’t mind ruining in the rains.

I ended up with: 2 pairs of sunglasses (one from Idee, a Guess house brand, and another from Van Heusen that criss cross in front like an elongated 8 and is a design I’ve been in loooooooooove with for the longest time), 2 party tops, 2 casual tops, 2 nude lip glosses from L’Oreal & Maybelline (I now have 3 nude lip glosses, someone please explain to me why!), an Aqua Blue shimmer eye pencil from Chambor, a Maybelline smoky eyes eye shadow, and a whole bunch of lingerie that you don't need to know the number or price of!

Well, lingerie is an investment, right? RIGHT?

Here’s what my friend bought: A pair of stilettos she didn’t need, a handbag she didn’t need, a perfume, two casual tops and a pair of jeans she wasn’t planning on buying! Of course, she couldn't find the one thing she needed to buy. Don't you know that always happens? Don't you?

See how much fun hanging out with girlfriends can be! Never mind it usually ends up burning a hole in your pocket. We look at it as an "investment", and we're not cribbing about our boyfriends most of the time that we spend shopping, so it's good for our relationship too!!

Armed with our shopping bags, we went to watch ‘Shrek Forever After’. The security at the multiplex obviously thought it would be too much trouble going through so many shopping bags (rare breed of sensible people working at the mall, I tell ya) and didn’t bother to frisk us. Did I tell you I loved the movie? Seriously, how could critics give it such bad reviews?

They either didn't understand the movie (I swear that's possible. A friend of mine thought the movie was about Shrek day dreaming!) or aren't Shrek fans to begin with!

The story goes something like this: Shrek is bored of the whole feeding-burping-the-baby-and-nappy-changing routine his life has become and yearns for the time when he was a “real” ogre that could scare villagers and that people were afraid of. Rumplestiltskin, the evil guy who wants to seize the kingdom of Far Far Away, tricks him into believing that he can give Shrek one such day again and makes him sign a contract. Shrek falls for the trick, only to realize that Rumple has sent him into a world where ogres are hunted, none of his real-life friends like Donkey & Puss-In-Boots know him, and where Fiona is not his wife but a warrior princess leading the rebellion of the ogres against Rumple. Shrek's only way out is to make Fiona fall in love with him and share a “true love's kiss” with him. And he has one night to do it! Unfortunately for him, she is completely focussed on her mission and does not entertain any distractions.

Isn’t this a cute story? It kept me engrossed and rooting for Shrek throughout.

The 3D factor doesn’t really add much to the movie experience but 'Shrek Forever After' is just as cute as the previous installments, has plenty of ‘awwwwww’ moments and is totally watchable, if only for the fact that this is the last of the adorable Shrek movies. And I'm a HUGE Shrek Fan (not in size, only in degree :)

Sunday was spent at home sifting through my previous day’s shopping, passing out repeatedly looking at the bills, undergoing a massive guilt trip for splurging on totally unnecessary things, watching ‘Love Actually’ for like the 100th time to get me over the depression resulting from the guilt, watching ‘Twilight’ on Star Movies just 'coz it's an overly gooey, trashy, chick flick that's sure to get your hormones in overdrive, devouring cheese & pepperoni pizza, and reading a thriller that I’m currently reading.

The highlight of my Sunday: I got the pizza absolutely free! Here’s how my conversation with the pizza guy went when I called them after an hour of ordering:

Time of calling: 10.30pm

Me: You guys are supposed to deliver in 30 mins right? It’s been 1 hour and my pizza is still not here. And your shop is 5 minutes from my house!
Pizza Guy: M'am, the delivery boy must have got caught in the traffic.
Me: At 10.30 in the night? In a residential area?
Pizza Guy: Uh…erm…m'am, it’s election day today!
Me: Please tell me which part of town people are voting in, at this time? You’re giving me the pizza for free.
Pizza Guy: No m'am, I can't.
Me: Excuse me? Your policy is 30 mins or free! Is it not? IS IT NOT?
Pizza Guy: Uh....okay m'am, we’ll settle it between the two of us.
Me: Oh, I’m not settling anything mister. It’s free or I complain to your headquarters.

And that’s how I got my free pizza!

And no, I don’t feel the least bit guilty about it because these are the same guys who had refused to deliver to my place once when I had called them 5 mins after the time of their last order, saying they won’t deliver because I’m not their regular customer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So much for customer service.

What about you? Did you like 'Shrek'? And how was your weekend?

Sunday Lunch

Spaghetti Carbonara – cheesy, subtly flavored & with crispy bits of ham - followed by coffee and blueberry muffin, and rounded off with Belgian chocolate ice-cream. Now, that's a Sunday lunch worth having!!

How was your Diwali?

Rani Mukherjee in a Bikini, Anyone?

I haven't watched 'Dil Bole Hadippa', neither do I intend to. But watching Rani Mukherjee do the getting-wet-in-the-rain-in-a-bikini-top gig is a very 'yuck!' inducing experience. I think she's better than that. She's known for her acting ability; she should lead cavorting in bikinis to wannabes who don't have much else to boast about.

Besides, she is no Bipasha Basu, her new toned look notwithstanding. She can't be...her face & body type do not lend themselves to Western wear, leave alone bikinis. And I'm not being uncharitable - different people have diffirent body types and it's extremely important to know & understand one's body type and dress accordingly. Especially if you are on screen.

There are some women who look better in Western wear than ethnic wear. Unfortunately, Rani Mukherjee belongs to that overwhelmingly majority of Indian women whose bodies lend themselves best to ethnic wear. Or at least Fusion.

*****

I think I'm discovering a new facet to Sunday evenings. There was a time - not too long ago - when Sunday evenings were the darkest hours of my existence. I would get depressed beyond healthy levels of depression, and therefore had this need to be out & about doing stuff...watching a movie, shopping, simply hanging out with friends at a coffee shop at Bandstand...whatever! Just as long as I was out of my house.

Strangely, I don't feel that need anymore. I still get depressed but it's manageable. Now I'd rather spend my Sunday evenings at home, hanging out with A or my sister, reading a book with music in the background, watching Travel & Living or a DVD.

What about you? How do you spend your Sunday evenings?

So We’ve Been Good This Weekend!!

Shopping (for clothes, shoes & bags though not necessarily in that order) & desserts are two of my biggest weaknesses, and I was good on both counts.

After unexplained and totally unnecessary crying over the complete absence of shopping in my life, I went to my favorite store (in India at least) - Cotton World - over the weekend. I hadn’t been there in AGES, so I was ravenous for clothes! Raided the entire store and ended up trying some 20 outfits (!!) out of which I short-listed 9. But obviously I couldn’t walk out of the store with all 9 items in tow, or it would’ve put all those months of abstinence to waste.

So I went on another round of trials, after which I sadly and with a leaden heart let go of four. It was a very tough decision folks, to let go of a sexy top, uber-cute pajamas (baby pink with white polka dots) & the cutest sleeping shorts (with pink & purple hearts on them et al). Sob sob :((

I was depressed. To put myself in a happier place again, I decided I wanted cheesecake. I headed to a patisserie....but....just then....alarms bells went off in my head! (Remember, we haven’t lost the entire 10kgs yet?)

Gaaaaah....goddamn alarm bells! They always go off at the wrong time!!

So there I was standing in front of the patisserie with the sad face of a baby that wants chocolate but doesn’t get it, while there was a huge war waging inside my head....like the war between the id & the superego! 'Id' wanted that cheesecake, which I could so clearly see calling out to me from inside the patisserie (they have voices, trust me!), but the superego was yelling “Leave! You’re fat! You don’t need that cheesecake!”

And I walked away.

Sigh…depravity! How difficult can life get? But the same evening, my sister came over with a box of freshly baked, warm & gooey chocolate chip and walnut cookies from Cookie Man.

There’s always justice in the universe, you know? What's yours shall be yours forever. No one can take it away from you :P

The Journey From Bong to Thai :)

Once the crazy hormones have subsided, life can be calm and serene once again. After having fought with A for no reason at all on Friday night (I was PMSing hardcore...he wanted to come over...I wanted to meet him but at the same time didn't...so he ended up getting thoroughly confused & pissed off by my erratic behavior, and we ended up having a big fight), I decided to make it up to him by cooking him dinner last night. For company, I asked my sister & brother-in-law to join us.

I was initially planning to cook Bong food for the lot...rice, kosha mangsho & eelish (was borrowing a recipe from The Knife)...but my sister vetoed it. In fact, she vetoed anything Indian. My other options were Chinese, Thai & Italian.

Now, Chinese food, I think, is best left to restaurants. Home-cooked Chinese just doesn't taste as good, maybe because we don't add the fatal ajino moto to it when we cook it at home! So I turned to my ever favorite pasta, which was shot down by both A & my brother-in-law, at the last minute (hmpfff...shouldn't men just be thankful they're getting cooked food magically on their plates)?

Then a friend & her boyfriend called & asked if they could come over. I suggested they stay back for dinner.

With just a couple of hours to go for dinner and an undecided menu, the panic button was pressed. After a quick inspection of my fridge, my sister, who's an expert at damage control of any kind (I stand & hyperventilate while she goes about finding a solution to the problem/crisis at hand), spotted Thai green curry paste, fish sauce & soy sauce, and came up with the idea of making Thai green curry with chicken & Thai fried rice.

While I made a mad dash to the grocery store to buy boneless chicken, she went about boiling the rice & chopping the ingredients. She had also brought along a caramel pudding mix (I would suggest not bothering with the mix, it has too much sweetener & vanilla essence in it...it's much better to make caramel pudding from scratch at home, though it's painful). We quickly ordered a couple of starters from a nearby Chinese restaurants.

What we ended up with were two decent starters - crispy fried lamb & red chilly pepper fish, a good Thai green curry (though it was more white than green courtesy all those cans of coconut milk) & a disaster of a Thai fried rice.

You see, neither my sister nor I have quite mastered the art of cooking rice, so we have pretty much resigned to the fact that our rice will always be limp, sticky & more like 'mashed' rice. The caramel pudding too was a mild disaster. We tried making it with skim milk (mistake # 1 - the mixture became too thin in consistency), added too much of it, and tried to do damage control by adding some custard powder to it (mistake # 2 - the mix became lumpy).

Over dinner, we pretended every dish was made from scratch and no readymade mixes were used, but men who stay/spend a lot of time with women who can't cook know better, and our bluff was called! That's when I decided to drop the bomb and said I should've just stuck to my original plan of cooking Bong food. I heard a collective scream of "NO!" go up. You see, all three men at the party were Bongs :)

Of Microwave Brownies & Car Issues Induced Crankiness

I've had a mind-blowingly unproductive day. Started out with me gorging down straight-off-the-frying-pan aaloo parathas. Then I went on to make a brownie with a brownie mix that I picked up from the grocery store.

Now there were two complications - one, I was using a brownie mix, which can never equal a homemade batter in terms of taste, and secondly, I do not have an oven, just a simple microwave with micro & grill functions. Expectedly, the brownie came out tasting like crap - boiled rather than baked! And to think I took the pain of putting walnuts etc. in it.

Next on the agenda was making chicken quesadillas with guacamole for dinner. I had the recipe downloaded and the ingredients duly purchased, but the ambitious plan was ultimately shelved due to 'The Boy's' insistence we go to watch Quick Gun Murugan in the evening (chicken quesadillas were replaced by a promise to bring rice pulao & kosha mangsho for dinner, which I don't see happening either as of now).

He was in a surly mood himself, induced by the non-availability of the car of his choice. Hopefully Quick Gun Murugun will do us both some good.

What about you? How did you spend your Saturday?

'Public Enemies' & Bra Shopping

Yes, you read that right. So those of you who’re not interested in my bra shopping trip this past weekend, or find such a topic offensive, are advised to skip to the second part of this post. Unless you’re also not interested in ‘Public Enemies’, then you can skip this entire post!

*****

I detest bra shopping. I think anyone who’s above a 34B does. Am I right?

I don’t squeal at the sight of sexy lace or cute polka-dotted bras like many other PYTs.

It’s very difficult to find the right bra – one that looks pretty/cute, yet gives your breasts the support they need and gives your body a nice contour. Needless to mention that most bras that do all of the above-mentioned things cost a bomb! But the process of trying one bra after another to find the one that fits right is extremely tiring.

To make matters worse, there are so many companies in India offering a wide range of bras these days, both in terms of designs & style - racer-back, push-up, cross-your-heart, padded, strapless, clear straps, under wired, demi-cup, convertible, multi-way, t-shirt, minimizer, maximizer, shelf, peephole etc. Trial sessions are exhausting!!

This past weekend Marks & Spencer, where bras retail at Rs 1300-1400 a piece, had an up to 60% off sale, including on lingerie, which is a rarity. I needed to buy a couple of t-shirt bras so I went.

The store was a madhouse! Aunties carried armloads of sexy bras into the trial rooms and remained there forever. Frankly speaking, I couldn’t imagine any of them being able to carry off any of those bras. No offence to aunties but I somehow can’t imagine chhachh-drinking thepla-serving aunties with potbellies & hips wider than the state of Texas wearing sexy barely-there bras.

And this one aunty told her husband to kindly stay away from the bra section of the store while she shopped for bras. I’m sure they were married for more than 20 years!

AND…what’s with lecherous middle-aged men with pot-bellies & oiled hair standing in the bra section, leching at women buying bras??!!! It’s sickening! They make you so uncomfortable…it seems their tongue would hang out any moment.

So did I find the right bra? Yes, I did! It was a steal too, considering it’s a Marks & Spencer bra. I got 2 for 1400 bucs, where as each of them individually would’ve cost about that much without the sale. So yayyy!!

*****

On a totally separate note, I watched ‘Public Enemies’ this weekend. Had to b/c of Johnny Depp. The movie revolves around the notorious bank robber of the Depression era (1930s), John Dillinger, who became such a huge problem for the United States government that they had to get the FBI involved in capturing him “dead or dead”. Of course, as in all movies that have the battle between vice & virtue as their pivot, this movie too has a predictable ending, but the cat & mouse game keeps you engaged. More than that you marvel at the self-confidence of the outlaw – manifested in the number of times he escapes from jail, walks into the room of the ‘Dillinger Hunting Squad’ at the Chicago Police Department (without a disguise), asks for the score of the baseball game & walks out, and how he sneaks out undetected (again without disguise) even when he’s surrounded by the police!

I won’t rave about the movie but I found it reasonably good. It’s engrossing throughout, has a brilliant background score & a smoldering Johnny Depp (no surprises there :). Christian Bale (Batman) was suitably subdued. Marion Cotillard is far prettier in real life than she’s looked in the movie.

If you love Johnny Depp, go watch it! The movie is no ‘Finding Neverland’, ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ or ‘Charlie & the Chocolate Factory’ but it’s still worth watching for Johnny Depp.

A New Found Appreciation for Food

It's a rainy Saturday morning and I have nothing to do...nowhere to be! It's heavenly!

I'm sipping on my morning ginger tea - my life force! I can't function fully without my morning tea.

The weather is awesome and I really want to write, but I don't have anything particular to write about. So, I'll write about the evil influence that The Knife has had on me.

I consider it an "evil" influence because I was never one for cooking. Until I started reading his blog.

I used to detest cooking...considered it "burning of one's time" in the literal sense of the word. I never understood how people could think of painfully chopping vegetables and standing in front of the gas range for hours as means of de-stressing!

However, ever since I started reading The Knife's blog, I have started experimenting with cooking. Not the dal-chawal type of everyday cooking but more exotic weekend cooking - Italian, Spanish, French, Thai, Mediterranean cooking.

Almost every weekend I’m cooking something and inflicting it upon A & my sister. And if their feedback is to be believed, I’m pretty decent at it :)

I hunt online for recipes during the week so I can make something new over the weekend. Sometimes I pick recipes from The Knife’s blog because they are practical and easy to follow.

Ever since I’ve gone on the GM Diet, all I can think about is food! I dream of food. Yesterday was the ‘chicken & tomatoes’ day. I was way bored to eat boiled chicken & raw sliced tomatoes all day, so I got a little experimental with Italian herbs and came up with this delicious chicken preparation that had all of 1 tsp of olive oil in it! So here’s what you’ve got to do :

Take skinned boneless chicken breast (or leg pieces if you find chicken breast too chewy). Grate tomatoes and marinate the chicken in the pulp for half an hour. Add salt, pepper, chopped fresh basil & parsley, dried oregano (though keep oregano to a minimum because it can overpower the taste of all other herbs) & red chilly flakes.

Heat 1 tsp of olive oil in a pressure cooker and sautee crushed garlic in it. Once the garlic turns brown, add the chicken along with the marinade, shut the lid on the pressure cooker and let it cook for 3-4 whistles or until the chicken is fully cooked. You wouldn’t need to add water as the tomato pulp is enough. You can then remove the lid from the cooker and let the gravy dry up a bit. This can be served with garlic bread.

This chicken dish is easy to prepare and tastes good even though it isn't loaded on calories.

In a way, this weekend is going to be really sad. I associate weekends with good food and eating out, but my diet doesn't allow me to. I have 2 more days left to go and can already see my plate of spaghetti carbonara screaming out to me! Get that plate of ham & bacon with spaghetti in a cheese sauce ready, babe :)

Have You Eaten Enough Today?

I had an awesomely fun weekend! Never mind that I ate at a really cheesy restaurant or watched a bad movie. It was just the kind of weekend I want most of my weekends to be - out & about doing stuff rather than languishing at home.

The weekend started with lunch at this relatively new restaurant called ‘Machan’. It’s a theme restaurant with ‘jungle’ as their theme. It was a place we hadn’t tried before so we decided to go. The inside of the restaurant was completely dark except for white lights on top of every table!

Now does it require an Einstein to know that white light at restaurants is a total put-off? It’s one thing to try & do something different but there is a very thin line between being able to pull off something different & going completely wrong! And to miss something as basic as this…well, if you’re getting into a business - any business - you better get the basics right!

What put us off even further were the plastic tigers, elephants & giraffes that were part of the décor. I mean, couldn’t they have had animals made out of stone or something?

The food wasn’t bad but it wasn’t spectacular either. We ordered a Karachi-style mutton kebab for starters. I’ve had melt-in-your-mouth varieties of this kebab elsewhere, and though the kebab we had yesterday wasn’t bad, it wasn’t a patch on the stuff I’ve had at other restaurants. For the main course we ordered a mutton dish (named Rifle Mutton in line with the jungle theme), which was reasonably decent, along with rice. And we wrapped up our meal with gulab jamuns & rosogullas doused in rabri!!

Needless to say, we couldn’t walk around after the meal. So we decided to do the next best thing (next only to sleeping) in such a scenario – we decided to watch a movie & ‘New York’ was it! I’ve already put a separate post on the movie but let me just reiterate that the mind is known not to make very smart & sound decisions when it’s in a state of half slumber. The movie was so pathetic I had to watch another movie – 'Death of a Funeral' – that night to detoxify my mind. It is a hilarious movie. Please do watch it when you have the time.

On Sunday I met a friend for lunch. After gorging an entire plateful of pasta, we wanted to go to a coffee & dessert place. The place we chose, a deli, offered a hell lot more than coffee & dessert…such as pancakes, waffles & crepes!

We happily ordered an apple pie with ice cream along with coffee. While we were contemplating leaving the place, it started raining! Now, what would you have chosen if you were in our position - getting wet in the rain or staying within the dry, warm confines of a coffee shop?

We, like any sensible two people on this planet, chose the latter and ended up ordering a waffle with whipped cream & apples in cinnamon sauce. But as destiny would have it (yes, yes it was destiny at play...otherwise why would two sane people who are stuffed up to their neck with food order more food?) we ended up ordering a plateful of pancakes. With maple syrup & whipped cream of course. Trust me, the smell of pancakes being freshly made in butter is hard to resist!

The weekend was about food & movies. And while I hope I don't make it a habit to stuff myself like that every weekend, it IS good to forget about all your worries and drown yourself in the comforts of food every once in a while. And of course, a better choice of movies might help :)

Honey, I've Been Shrinking the Weekends!!

Why does the weekend get over so fast? My Sundays seem to have fallen into a pattern. I wake up around 11. By the time I get done with coffee & brunch, it's 1-1.30. And guess what I've been doing after that? Sleeping again!

The heat is killing & the humidity oppressive. Stay out of home for as long as 10 minutes & you get sapped of all your energy! It's cruel!

By the time I wake up from my siesta, it's almost 5 in the evening. And that is when depression hits you right in the face! The thought of the weekend coming to a close & a full work week lying ahead of you is crushing. Anyone else here who roots for a 3 day weekend??

BTW...I just love the way Sonam Kapoor turned out at the IIFA Awards nights in a Roman / Grecian Anamika Varma creation. Love the way she's dressed up her toga with exquisite Kundan jewellery & Gladiator sandals, and just LOVE LOVE the overall look! The only pictures I could find were at this site, and since they're patented I can't put them up here. But for all those who love fashion, please CHECK-THEM-OUT! :D

Talking of Gladiator sandals, I've been trying to find a pair for myself desperately! I've seen people wearing them & have scoured the stores, but haven't been able to find a pair. Yesterday I almost stopped a girl who was wearing them to ask where she got them from. For some reason I didn't, and now that I think back on it, I so should have asked her! At least I would've been able to get me a pair as well :(

Double depression....Baaah!!

The Weekend That Was

They say 'it ain’t over till it’s over'.

How come this applies only to the bad phases in life? Why do the good things, such as weekends, get over so fast??

Mom went back on Saturday after having spent 2 weeks here. She went back really paranoid and concerned about my well-being, having witnessed the cyclone.

I on my part am very proud of myself for having shown great courage in the face of the cyclone (my sister & I jumped over fallen trees, wires etc. to get essentials for the house such as milk, bread, eggs, batteries for the torch, candles etc. before the stores shut down due to the cyclone) and even greater restraint in terms of food even though mom was around. I barely let her cook fancy stuff except for the occasional chicken curry, which along with roti is my favorite home food. I’m not letting those 3.5 kgs find their way back to my waistline!!

Saturday whizzed past....took mom to buy last-minute things for my parent’s house. And Sunday was catch-up-on-my-sleep day. I was severely sleep-deprived while mom was around. Mom, like people of her generation, is an early-riser. Which meant the house got hustling & bustling at unearthly hours (well, for me at least) like 6.30am! After much cribbing from my end, she did extend her "dormant hours" to 7am but that was the most she could give, and the best I could manage to get out of her.

On Sunday life was back to normal. I woke up at 10.30am, followed by coffee & brunch with A. We came back to my place around 1pm and fell asleep again, not to wake up till 4pm! Getting to sleep on a weekend afternoon is an absolute pleasure for me, the next best thing to lunching outside followed by a movie!

After tea and a cool shower, A went to play cricket (them boys!) with his friends while I went over to my sister’s place where I had delicious rolls stuffed with kosha mangsho style mutton (a Bong favorite for the uninitiated).

Had a nice satisfying Sunday after a slightly sad Saturday (owing to mom’s departure etc.)….but why did it have to end so early??

Weekend to Remember...for a Long Long Time :)

Life rarely disappoints. An awesome weekend is, more often than not, followed by a killer Monday. Sometimes I wonder if I wouldn't be much happier if I quit working for good. Afterall, what can give more happiness than not having Monday morning blues?!!

I had a nice long weekend. Friday was off due to International Labor Day, or May Day in some countries. We had plans to go to the beach for the weekend, which we cancelled due to the searing heat...it's been 41-42 Celsius for a couple of weeks now! So we stayed put in Calcutta with our respective air conditioners and a bunch of DVDs for company. And of course, with KKR's hilarious performances in the IPL, there was enough entertainment around!

Did A LOT of eating out this weekend! By A LOT, I do mean A LOT....lunch & dinner on Friday & Saturday, and lunch on Sunday!

Sunday lunch was the best of it all. I caught up with a friend from college who I hadn't met in a year...was meeting her for the first time after she got married, to a very cool guy may I add. But apparently, marrying cool men isn't enough to ensure you'll have a fun life after marriage. As my friend kept saying, "It's all nice, you know, with the whole stability thing...but it's also very boring. You spend all your time dealing with domestic issues...something or the other keeps breaking down, or the maid fails to show up, or there's no running water...and all your time goes in calling up people who will come and fix these things a million times before they actually turn up, waiting for them to show up, arguments with the maid etc. Trust me, you're much better off unmarried, if you're not too hung up on the stability thing that is!"

Words of wisdom? Well, words of experience definitely.

Anyway, coming back to the story of my marvellous Sunday lunch. We went to a deli for lunch. Ordered pasta, and while we were eating there was a thunderstorm followed by a downpour! It was completely dark outside. The cafe had glass walls on either sides, and we could see the rain lashing against the glass.

We obviously were not going to be able to go anywhere for quite some time, so we ordered dessert! Any prizes for guessing what we ordered? For those who aren't clued in, cheesecake has been giving brownies very tough competition as my 'Dessert of Choice' for more than a year now. So cheesecake it was! Baked creamy cheesecake, mind you. Not the mousse-like fluffy cheesecake you get at most restaurants. I can't even begin to tell you how badly I miss the Baked Strawberry Cheesecake at 5 Spice in Bombay!! :(

And then....we ordered coffee!! Nothing beats a hot cappuccino when you're watching it pour while you're dry, warm and fuzzy inside.

The other highlight of the weekend was the acquisition of 2 hand bags. Yes, not one but two!! One is olive green & brown while the other is purple. And I loved them both so so much, just HAD TO buy them. 2 bags in a single weekend...what more does a girl want? :P

A lazy lunch of pasta, followed by cheecake and coffee while it pours outside...if that doesn't sound like a perfect Sunday afternoon, I don't know what would. It was enough to make up for the horrid Monday I had :)

Indian Summer

It was 40 degrees in Calcutta today! Not to mention the oppressive humidity. It presses against your chest and makes each breath an effort. There's a reason why the phrase "Indian summer" finds repeated mention in English literature.

I didn't leave home till the evening. Went and had a strawberry-banana smoothie first. It was really nice...it had low-fat milk, yogurt & ice cream, apart from fresh strawberries & bananas. Then I went to Crossword and bought 2 books - 'Hungry Tide' by Amitava Ghosh (haven't read him before but have heard good things about the book. Besides, it's set in the Sunderbans & I'm just back from the place, so thought I'd check it out!) & 'The Devil Wears Prada'. Have seen the movie - and loved it (the clothes...Christ!!). The book should be fun too, I hope!

I usually like reading the book before I watch it's on-screen adaptation b/c they never really show the whole thing in the movies, but sometimes it can be fun the other way round too! You can imagine scenes from the movie while reading the book, so it becomes that much more visual.

Then went for dinner to this hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant called 'The Bistro'. I call it a 'hole-in-the-wall-place' b/c that's quite literally what it is. The owner has converted what seems like the garage of his house into a restaurant! Small though it might be, it has very classy wooden interiors and just a few tables. It has a very European ambience and good Italian food (any kind of good non-Indian cuisine is difficult to find in Calcutta).

Overall, it was a good day spent with people I like being around. Looking forward to tomorrow as well :)

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The IPL isn't even half as fun to watch as it was last year, and it's mainly b/c of the change in location...for me at least. The pitches are flat...the ones last year were belters!! The matches might be sold out in South Africa but the crowd is tame. The crowds last year were roaring!

The other thing I don't like about IPL this year is SRK's underhanded antics. First the entire 4-captain controversy. Then he replaced Sourav Ganguly as the captain of KKR (inspite of repeated statements in the media that Ganguly will remain the captain). And now he's dropped 'Kolkata' from the name of the team! They're only 'Knight Riders' now. What nonsense! Last year I was supporting the KKR but I now need to find a new team to support. Suggestions, anyone? As long as you don't say Bangalore Royal Challengers I'm willing to consider. They are going to suck big time this year as well - inspite of Kevin Pietersen. One man not a winning team maketh. They were 50-4 when I switched off the TV!

Am off to bed now. Goodnight peeps, and have a fun Sunday :)

Indefinite Suspension of Time

There's something to be said about Saturday mornings where you have no where to be by a certain time. You read the newspaper leisurely while you sip on tea, check your mails, check in on your friends on Facebook. Breakfast happens in its own sweet time. The entire weekend stretches out lazily in front of you. It's a blissful feeling.

You appreciate Saturday mornings more when you've gone through the grind of working four consecutive Saturdays in a row. A working Saturday somehow kills the entire weekend!

Gym beckons. Couldn't go for a month due to work pressure. My gym instructor kept calling me. I took his calls the first couple of times and then I stopped taking them b/c I'd have to give him the same explanations every time he called...."I'm swamped with work. I've been working till 11 in the night every single day, when can I come to gym? So would you please understand & I'll come when work gets easier?" So finally, he got smart and started calling me from numbers I couldn't identify. He got me there! Now that the work pressure has lifted, I'm going to happily trundle off to the gym in a bit :)

There are other things I want to do.....get a pedicure, a face massage. Maybe I'll put the head massage off till tomorrow. Want to watch 'Milk' & 'Revolutionary Road'. Wanted to watch 'The Reader' as well but after reading reviews, decided to pass on it. Doesn't sound too exciting, sounds slow rather. Want to check out this pink, orange & white dress at Benetton...it's a sporty-summery dress which ends right above the knee and will look awesome if worn with a pair of sporty white pumps or strappy white flats.

All these and more will happen in their own sweet time. 'Coz I have the entire weekend in front of me & nowhere to be! :D

Knock on wood.

Finally Resting at a 4 Day Weekend

So how come I had the time to write so many posts today?

Simple! Because I have a 4 day weekend, that started last night! Yayyy!! :D

Today is Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's Happy Birthday, who is to West Bengal what Chhatrapati Shivaji is to Maharashtra, so offices are shut. I have a nice four day weekend to chill, unwind, sleep, watch movies, blog, gym, read - not necessarily in that order though. And it's a very nice, calming feeling this - to know you have four days off with nothing to do.

So take care, you people. I'm sending you all a care bear :) Have a good weekend & keep the faith. In blogging, that is!

Not What I Signed Up For

It’s one of those weekends one can do without.

I was very happy when I went in to work yesterday morning. Friday syndrome, you know. Until I opened my mailbox. There was a mail from my client sitting pretty in my inbox, asking us to make a presentation to him & his team on Monday. We hadn’t even started work on the presentation! That meant working late on Friday as well as having to work today (Saturday). Bleh.

But it was okay b/c I had Sunday to look forward to. Had made some very nice plans with a friend. Was really truly excited about it. This afternoon the bomb dropped. My friend is stuck in Jammu, where he was travelling for work, and he can’t get back before tomorrow night. As if a working Saturday wasn’t enough to ruin my weekend, there went my Sunday plans too! I’m totally disgusted…I mean, how much more crappy can it get??

Told you, it’s one of those weekends one can do without. I certainly can.

Ah, Saturday mornings!

There’s a lot that can be said about Saturday mornings. For instance, it’s the best morning of the entire goddamn week.

There is no melancholy that surrounds you when you wake up, like on a normal working day.

The puffy eyes, the feeling of heaviness in your head, the hoarseness in your voice, the lethargy as you drag yourself out of your bed and into your bathroom all magically disappear when you wake up on a Saturday morning. Instead you wake up with a smile on your face and a million plans for the day running inside your head & crashing against the walls of your brain. The feeling that you have two whole days lying ahead of you to chill, sleep, watch movies, read, go out for lunches & dinners, shop, hang out with friends is priceless.

Something like the Mastercard commercial….

Going to work Monday thru’ Friday : 1/4th of your month’s salary

The joy of “having” to do nothing over the weekend : PRICELESS

I woke up at 10 today, to a bright sunny winter-ish morning.

Don’t you just love the sun on a winter morning? It’s not beating down on you. It’s soft and filtered, yet strong enough to seep into your skin and give you a feeling of warmth. God, I love sunshine! Yup, that is what I am at the end of the day - a sunshine person.

I have a million errands to run today. I have a nasty cold due to the change of season. It’s not cold enough to sleep without the fan, neither warm enough to sleep with the fan on. You can’t take a cold shower, and you’re very likely to catch a cold if you step out of the bathroom after a hot shower. That is exactly what has happened with me but…BUT BUT BUT…I’m not going to let that ruin my Satuday. So…Carpe Diem, baby! Seize the day!!