New resolutions!! Step 1 - Recklessness

Ohoh the best part of october was that one evenin - when all were dead tired & slept off by 7pm, me & my kiddy saw Horton's hears a who & he simply loved it!! hence the cake for his bday!!

Ok here comes November – cold weather’s been predicted – really cold!! & voila there are 4days holidays comin along, courtesy eid!! I’ve been nicked named Jet Airways – cause of my 5 trips to India so far. So, there I am –sitting and planning a trip to Egypt for the past full month, when I finally convince myself that its not goin to work out.

With 12.12.2012 loomin on the horizon, I have decided to live a little recklessly by travellin to new places.

I was bookin 2 tickets for my colleagues to Dubai on this low fare flight to dubai & to Bahrain for another – next thing I kno – am ringin up my hubby & tellin him that I have booked tickets & v are flyin to dubai from Nov 27th till Dec2nd.

After a month of planning, maps, hotel brochures scattered around me, We finally board the flight havin forgotten to print out the ticket & my hair frizzin about like I’ve just been electrocuted!!

Dubai – awesome climate!! the hotel apartment everythin – my kiddy’s awesome sleepin pattern - 8pm – 8am thro out the 5 days we were there!!

After breakfast, we would set out by 11am, visit the different places & b back by 7pm and then Dubai One channel, Swiss choco liq & me used to party!! Ofcourse my hubby was there too!!

We visted all the places on our itenary - the dubai mall - the aquariums, the atlantis -the aquarium there.

I found this lady's outfit hilarious - micro shorts with a shawl !!

Touchin the dolphins was really something else!! Basically the 1st creature I volunteeringly touched.


PS: the tube worms pix is from my mobile!!

OOoohh Oouch OctOber!!

Oct brings back a lot of memory of Oct'2007!! of how my due date kept oscillatin from 15th to 17th to 19th Oct & in my mind, my dates went from 01/10/07, 10/10/07 & then as nothin happened with any of those dates, my fears of it finally happenin on 22/10/07 - I really really dont like the no 22!!

With all the family down to welcome my kiddy - my grans, in laws & my sis, along with my parents and hubby, it was obvious my kiddy wanted to make an entrance - so he dilly dallied & messed with all my dates!!

Finally, my father-in-law sat down on the 8th day of the stay(2weeks stay) & took the malu calendar & then they started haggling over the stars & finally all settled on a good date - 25th oct!!

So, naturally they were all shocked when I decided to check into the hospital on 24th mornin!!

Oh, I forgot to mention - durin this month of oct, my house is an open-mad house as there's this Onam function for Keralite Engineers Forum, for which my mom choreographs about a 5-6 dance performances for kids!!

So, along with my relatives, these 1000 odd people were awaitin my baby's entrance & prayin it would b either before or after 26th oct - even they had a date!!

26 - 1/2 hrs later, on 25th evenin, he arrives amidst my breathin mask, epidural, minus my specs(am sure my lens would've popped out) & in front of 5 students, 3 docs & 4 nurses! With all of them present, I was the one who suggested that they use the vaccum pump!!

& what followed was a mind numbilngly shockin 41 days of horror, with the exception of the baby!!

Well- thats wat oct reminds me of!
This oct however started on the same note - my home being an open - mad house. One day, on the way to pick up my mom from out, this guy hit our rear wheel while v were turnin - the axle promptly broke, swervin the car from the left to right like a pendulum - only we were on the highway. We hit a half lorry twice or thrice & then swerved at 180 degrees to the safe side of the road!! We had hit the lorry at its fuel tank, but luckily nothin happened... anyway - car got damaged, but all were safe & v got it sorted out over the night.

The next big thing was my kiddy's 2nd bday party - this time at Pizza hut - needless to say - he loved the cake, although he did try escapin unnoticed to the playground below!!V had 3 cakes that day - a weddin annversry cake & a bday cake for my brother who was hospitalised on his bday on 13th Oct.

thus starts the reign of the TERRIBLE TWOs !!

Mumbai - with love

Made another really short(weekend - 2days), surprisingly fun trip to mumbai for my cousin's sister weddin reception come sept 1st week!!

After a hectic 10 ramadan days of shuttlin between home, nursery(before 1pm) & work, me & my kiddy left to mumbai wit a family friend, Keith!! He took us to the Pearl Lounge at the airport ere, which I didnt even know existed. He was so tolerant of my kiddy, who he totally suspected was high on the sugar he was eatin!!

We were picked up by my dad at mumbai, who himself was visitin the place after some 17yrs. Went to Bandra(John Abraham's neighbourin apt) to freshen up, then me & mom set out to paint the town red!!

Took the Bandra-Worli sealink to Colaba, picked up my 2 brothers at the hotel adjacent to Taj. Funny how 7months can calm u down & help u enjoy the place witout too much lookin over your shoulder!!

 Shopped at the causeway, lunched at LEOPOLD cafe, went bak to bandra & back to colaba for the reception!! Met all the relatives & all the teens took turns chasin my kiddy away from the pool, from the flowers, exits, overall trouble!!

Next day(being my last day there), I refused to go for a party at Khandala & instead went shoppin, visited relatives in worli - ate really tasty fish tikka!!
U think john abraham would've come home to c his parents to celebrate the parsi new year? well, havin spent the night near the peep hole, i finally came to conclusion - the guy aint in town!!

  Met my brothers at the airport, bid them farewell for their domestic flight & slept thruout the flight bak home!!

Came back to office & made this wit the file thingys!!

Dry August

Had house guests - a bengali aunt & her daughter - uncle passed away in jan - so they came to clear his things up - stayed wit us for 2 weeks - taught my kid bengali, they ate kerala food, v ate bengali food -but i forgot to ask how to wear the saree bengali style :( Finally got my Isthimara after 3 attempts. Isthimara is the learner's license - only v dont need to give any sort of test. Only have the correct papers & qualifications, which vary accordin to the officials mood!! I applied as housewife with child, cause thats a seperate & easy category.

Started drivin classes in july with a private school - the guy's name was my best friend's psycho ex boy friend's name - knew i was doomed from the beginin!! 6-8am daily for a week !!

Went to india for 10 days, came back - went for the test & flunked royally!! the norm is that they flunk u atleast 3 times - my 1st time was a sitter for them!! couldnt figure out how to park with their barriers. Met the cutest top cop - a sheikh - twice - to change my test dates!!

These are a few international flags that were presented at a food festival in sidney.

Back & fourth once again!!

Jet airwayed again back to cochin to pick my baby, mom and to celebrate MIL's 60th bday.

After carefully choosin the flight carrier, they still didnt have individual TVs on this flight and NO baileys once again!!
But since it was wit my hubby, I got Baileys at the duty free in cochin.

Landed amidst heavy & continuous downpour at cochin & promptly left for tvm, reachin there about 6hrs later at night & was reunited with my baby after almost 2 months. But couldnt meet up with Anju who waited for extra 2 hrs for me to show up.

Went to the dentist within 2 days for extraction of 2 wisdom teeth , but the trainee doc says " U need extraction on the left & root canal on the right & follows it by a mind numbingly horrible injection into my mouth-my baby still imitates my scream!! Only for the doc to say that it requires only fillin & careful brushin - I now wish he had either extracted or done the root canal.
Along with the irregular antibiotics, my faithful & quickly emptyin bailey's kept the pain down - after which mom says its dangerous to mix the 2!!so, I stopped the anti-biotics!!

Went to cochin & did the dutiful daughter in law stuff there, all the while keepin my baby at about 10 yards distance from his 4yr cousin brother who couldnt avoid gettin hit from my kid!!

Wrenched my weddin ring off my swollen(from pregnancy) finger after almost 2yrs & now its too big to fit in!!

Airborne - Short, Sweet & Thrillin

Had to make another trip to India to drop my mom in law back in cochin and leave my baby with my mom as she was hell bent on takin a month long break to catch up wit her doc appointments!! (how she was goin to do runnin behind a 1-1/2 yr old was upto anybody's imagination).

So, makin my 3rd short trip for the year, I left on June 4th - thursday night with MIL & baby by JetAirways. Landed in Cochin by 9am, said goodbye to the IN-LAWs by 11am and boarded the domestic airline to chennai. By then, I was exhausted as my baby refused to get off me, even while sleepin & all those steps at the airport AND all those forms for swine flu to b filled!!

couldnt buy BAILEYS there too!!

June 5th - chennai

Went to MCC college, spencers, lost my nephew for about 15minutes, mainland china where they didnt have chopsticks that day.

Went very late for dinner @ sparky's with Anju & Kavitha.

Saw, rather smelt the biryani house next to kavitha's home, which got destroyed within months soon after...hmmm...

Went out wit all to City centre where v had nachos and surprisinly nice garlic bread.

Adwaith got himself & kavitha locked up inside a trial room - thats wat he does when he wants to go the loo!!

7th June - rushin to the airport at 12pm to make it for the 2:10pm domestic connectin flight to mumbai. The flight takes off just as v reach the airport - luckily for me - the agents gave me wrong timin - so they reschedule my whole trip. Instead of chennai - mumbai - kwi, they tele check me in chennai - cochin - kwi.

Only they didnt let me inside the cochin intnl airport for an hr as I didnt have a ticket.

They didnt have individual tv on the carrier & no bailey's here toooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!

Finally back home on June 8th by 1am... my shortest trip ever(weekend + 1day)!!
Caught up on all the movies, tv series and everythin else thruout june- july, with 1000 thanx to anju, kavitha, arjun & karan.

Ps- clicked these snaps from my mobile while airborne - somwhere on the arabian gulf - awesome aint it!!

Madyday Madday May

mY inlaws came over as my parents went for their vacation. Dad in law stayed for 10days and MIL for more than a month - durin which she cooked solely for her son's very spicy palate!!(:P)

Took these pix with my LG 990KU mobile - am impressed!!
@ the Avenues Mall


@ scientific centre-Aquarium

All in all it went peaceful !!

aPril's Foolishness

Have always loved quizzes, right from Bournvita quiz, ESPN school quiz to mastermind and so forth. But there's a huge difference between participatin and being an audience - So, I was understandably in denial even after takin stage for the Quiz show.

Firstly, I didn’t even attend the selection round. So they(whoever put my name in) rang me up, since i was the only other female candidate to volunteer & gave both me & my hubby tele quiz & I through some cheatin, top scored with 8/30 :D

The TRISHNA quiz was held by my dad's engineering Alumni & the quizmaster Mr. Ochintya Sharma (CLICK click))was a newcomer to us, but his questions were tricky, smart and right at the tip of your tongue.

I was in the Family round, with Daniel, an All in all guy - man of the match, series of name it & he's that person and a 10th std kid - Rohit - who's quick to jump the gun. Needless to say, this is the round which determines who gets the rolling trophy which we never got to close to in the past.

Here are some excerpts from the quiz show :




Q1 - Because of my lens & screen placed at a good distance, I mistook it for a parrot - so Daniel wrote - PINJAR - which i knew was wrong anyway!!




Q2:

Q3:

Q4: (check the shape of the street lights) - V got this one!!

somethin in common - Buzzer Round

Q5: Daniel - Queen Elizabeth & ME - Prince William’s girlfriend - Kate Middleton!! Minus 5

Q6:

Q7 - Whose daughter is this first time actress from BLACK?

Round 5 - Theme based round - set of questions, guess the theme - points from max for the 1st hint & so forth.

Q8 - Guess who is this?

I wrote down the theme on seein the pix & underlined it twice - highlighted - what not!!

Q9 - Our direct - missed

Q10 - Identify the group



Q11 - Again our direct - Got it

As soon as Rohit said the answer, I jumped up, almost grabbin the mike to scream out the answer & the quizmaster hurried up sayin, press the buzzer & write down the theme.
But I was shoutin it out
APPLE

WOOOOhooooooooo - it was so damn exhilaratin!!
WE were in the lead with that

Round 6 - Buzzer with the answer from a word formin a sentence
Q12 - Starting with T, which place in Kerala is well known for its tourism with artificial lake & periyar National Park?
Q13- H
Q14- A
Q15- N
Q16- K
Q17- Y - Voted the best song of 20th century and record for highest no of cover versions, which song is this of Beatles?
Q18- O
Q19- U
WINNERS - US - wowowow - it was unbelievable & I was called the APPLE girl for long afterwards!!
Answers are as below :

Ans 1 - Ellipathayam (mallu movie)
Ans 2 - Arundhati Roy
Ans 3 - National Geographic Channel
Ans 4 - Hershey's Street(check the shape of the street lights) - V got it!!
Ans 5 - Queen Elizabeth & Queen Rania :D
Ans 6 - Amitabh Bachan
Ans 7 - Amartya Sen
Ans 8 - Gwenyth paltrow's daughter's name - APPLE
Ans 9 - Newyork - Big APPLE
Ans 10 - The Beatles - APPLE Records
Ans 11 - Isaac newton
Ans 12- Thekady - We got it
Ans 13 - ME - YESTERDAY