Thursday, August 11, 2011

Singapore II

Here is why I would make a lazy (my first instinct was to say bad but then I thought I can't really use the 'B' word, just in case some prospective employer is reading and is on the brink of giving me my own regular column; hence I will stick with lazy :-)) writer.

Because it's taken me more than a month to come up with the second part of my series on Singapore. Hang on, I just said a series- frankly I don't know it myself, so we'll see how it goes.

Left looking at the beautiful night lights and the Singapore skyline from our very own balcony, I must confess it was where we sat for long periods of time, perched high in the balcony, exhausted from the day's wanderings with two children; to enjoy wine, beer, cheese and olives. It was the scene of many a midnight feasts.

OK, back to the details. Swissotel turned out to be fabulous choice for many reasons.

Although it has what I think one of the best locations in Singapore (you have to ask for the Esplanade facing rooms  and trust me with a great camera you can make everyone believe that you actually saw the Merlion -hee hee); it has very competitive rates.

It's great value for money for 5 star luxury.
The staff is very friendly and not at all snooty- and I talk from the point of view of a person with colored skin WITH two small children!
They are very well connected- the hotel sits ON a train station for those who'd like to travel with the very efficient MRT, the taxi system is organised and they do not fleece you. There is also a mall within the huge hotel complex which has, as its part the Raffles hotel, the F and has easy walks to the Esplanade, the Quays, the Chinatown and pretty much anywhere except the Zoo and the Sentosa Island.

In fact this is one thing I have to stress and re stress about Singapore- EVERYTHING is walking distance! Please do walk. I agree it's really humid, and it gets quite unbearable especially during the day. But it's still a fun place to walk, because the city has footpaths, traffic rules, people who follow traffic rules, you can wear pretty much what you want or not and rest assured that you won't be visually stripped naked unlike in  Delhi. It's freeing, this feeling and heady as well! The first time I felt like this was in Goa; people have seen too much nakedness in those parts to worry about someone walking around in shorts! There is of course the difference in cultures, or as in the case of the Indian capital- the lack of it.

To get back to the point, when in Singapore- walk!

We did as well. And we thoroughly enjoyed it all- the Zoo, the Universal Studios, Chinatown -where we stumbled upon, of all the things in this world, a genuine Tintin shop. This Shop stocked all things, obviously Tintin. There were mugs and bags and notebooks and books and models and things I have quite frankly forgotten. But more than Chinatown itself, it was this shop that totally wowed us.

More to follow...

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Ha!

My last post with the title- 'this post has swear words', has had more hits than others.
Ha!
Again, HA!

It must've come as a disappointment to those looking for more colorful words; this one had not nearly enough nor nearly too colorful!

Good strategy for getting unsuspecting readers.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Maidless Again!!! Also this post has some swear words :-)

Well, if by reading the post header one thinks- wow more housewife woes; you are damn right!

I am super tired.

I am also super tired of looking for one. This one, being too good to be true; also because she came by herself- I just had completely stopped looking; of course therefore was not meant for me. And this sentence sucks.

My vertigo is making my life hell and am having a tough job just to stay upright.

I do thank God for whatever help I get.

This post is real crap and probably will delete it soon enough.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Following Farhan

Yes I do mean Akhtar!

Who would know; did he himself know that he would one day be known not just for his directorial prowess but also for his comic timing?

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara- fabulous flick.

Following Farhan- he could very easily use as the title of his next film.
FF- I have been kind of, ever since Dil Chahta Hai! Loved the movie, the soundtrack, the non filminess of it, the-casual-and-the-not-so-much of it.
The theme that recurs in most of his films is friendship, the one thing that almost everyone can or would like to relate to- friends who will be there for you.



I,  adore the brother-sister duo (Farhan and Zoya Akhtar) for the ease with which they have taken over the hindi film industry. Actually I must say that part of bollywood, which is relevant to me; and I certainly don't mind them monopolizing it. After all, it gives me great entertainment. The films are still quite, well- filmi, but great entertainment.
If I want profound messages, I'll just watch pick up any odd season of the Sex and the city and lose myself in the explicit, sexual, explicitly sexual world of Carrie Bradshaw with lots of fashion thrown in for a good measure. I am not being sarcastic, it's true. For all it's superficiality, every single episode leaves you with something to think about.

Coming back to FF, I have seen almost all the movies he's made or appeared in.
Following Farhan- I definitely want to work with him. 

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Orhan Pamuk

....as I just tweeted as well, is now on my list of do-not-touch-again-authors!
I braved his 'My name is Red' and vowed never to voluntarily read him.
And then I became part of this book club where the first book was one I had read ages ago and quite 'not liked' :-);  and the second one was Orhan Pamuk's Snow.

The book didn't look too bad from the initial few pages. My mistake or rather very cleverly written to trap people just like me.
Yeah sure- Mr Pamuk has got all the time in the whole wide world to design strategies to get such 'valuable' readers like me to read his books. He wouldn't just write for the pleasure of it.
Ok now I am losing it a bit.



Thing is I am sure he writes very very well and where as he can put together many books with many pages, I find it extremely difficult to string together a few coherent sentences.
Thing is- I still can't stand his work. And I was so looking forward to 'Istanbul'...now thanks to this book club book, I have been made to pledge to never read him again.

I ploughed  through it, just like characters in this book plough through snow and I thought I will make it.
I couldn't.

This is the only other book to have been abandoned by me; the other one being....can't remember for the life of me!

Joni Mitchell Again

Finally, am nearing the end of sorting out the discography, which I assure you is not a small task. It is in fact herculean!
But as I was telling A, it is totally worth it- each one is a one 'me likey' :-)

Monday, July 18, 2011

Travel Plans...and the trip :-)

I have no excuse for delaying this post any longer other than laziness. Also the fact that I wanted to write and write and write as soon as landed back in Delhi, but then the days got lost in doing laundry worth 8 days, and then not doing laundry as the machine conked off and then buying new machine and then doing laundry!

There you have the complete lowdown on my life in the last two weeks. But you still don't know where I went...well, we finally went to Singapore.

And what I found out- for those faithful readers (bless you) who remember where I left the other post- was 'cheaper rates' at a brilliant hotel!
Well the whole trip turned out to be anything but cheap, but also because my adorable husband wanted us to have a brilliant holiday. My whole notion of not being able to afford Singapore- I dismissed myself. It was my sanity versus our savings- my sanity won!

And just as we were unable to find a single decent hotel out of the dozen or so we contacted, also meaning a hotel of our choice, for the price we were willing to pay; I made A call up the Swissotel. We lucked out. He happened to speak to a wonderful guy in reservations, who gave us a great rate. We got the visas, we had the tickets already, we now had reservations- we were ready to go!

The flight was in the morning and was quite uneventful, if you don't count my younger one physically pooping in his pants twice, and I mentally sh@##$%^ bricks. Wow, if this is the start of the holiday, what could be in store for us?
I pumped homeopathic medicine into him and yes put him to bed in the bassinet!

We reached and were out of the airport in 25- 30 minutes flat, including immigration and baggage. Wo...are we out already?
The airport was quite empty and it felt as if we had arrived in some sleepy little island. Island it is and so green that most trees are mossy as well, but sleepy it is by no stretch of the imagination. A hsort 20 minute ride got us to our hotel. The check in was smooth and the room- gorgeous!

It was a large room with enough space for two big beds, a big writing desk, television- my children were quite pleased, a big bathroom and the icing on the cake- a balcony with what has to be the best view in town. We could see the flyer, the quays, the esplanade- the night lights were straight out of a dream.

Singapore II follows!

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Do We Ever Really Need A Pep Talk?

I guess we do.

The power of good words, kind words, words which might actually fly right over your head and which might not mean a thing at the time of delivery, still made me feel loved- after I had ranted at the mere 'words' of it.

It is extremely irritating in the face of grave losses. I mean, I would personally physically harm the person, if they were to say, 'Oh it's for the best!!!'
What loss would qualify that form of pep talk- the loss of dead weight relatives!!!

I guess I am making little sense even to myself- fatigued.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Skype on Mac!

Tried to do a group video call with my sisters on skype. Of course it doesn't work. You have to subscribe to it like all premium content. So we spent a half hour just trying to figure it all out.

Will try and download faetime and do it all over again.

BTW A is talking....

Friday, June 24, 2011

Travel Plans

Oh this I have to share. It could make you laugh.

So even before K's summer holidays started, I wanted to already fix on where we were taking off for a holiday. After all, we now have a school going progeny and we have to plan for when the school is off!

I thought of going to D's...too far away...the thought of traveling with two kids all by myself was straight out of a horror flick!

I thought of renting a house in the hills for a straight couple of months...alas we never look hard enough!

Then we decided on Gethia and miraculously we landed up going as well, straight in the first or was it the second week of the summer holidays!

Even then I was hopping around on one foot saying let's plan, let's plan now!
We couldn't decide on a destination.

We thought of Singapore. A wrote to everyone meaning hotels, got tickets booked and then I decreed that it was all too expensive. Gracefully, A accepted.
I think deep within my heart, I wanted to go visit my sister, just couldn't say it. So I started A's visa process as well and in due time got it.

In the mean time, we thought of and in detail planned for a southern Indian sojourn from Bangalore to Coorg to Coimbatore. We booked hotels and planned activities for the kiddos, spoke to car hire agencies- the works! It just didn't seem right. We even threw in a good three days planning for Chikmaglur for good measure.

We also travelled to Kovalam, Goa, Srinagar and Chennai going on to Mahabalipuram. We had travelled the length of the country so far and were no nearer to finding our destination than two months ago!

So we thought this time, the heart's set on foreign lands. Let's see. How about Colombo?
A really wanted to go to Maldives and went on and got the tickets booked and the hotel too...a lovely place on the sea. The expenditure seems immense.

Back to square one and no closer, we suddenly chance upon Bangkok (as if we didn't know the existence of it before!) and this time everything falls into place- the apartment, the air tickets, the travel guides- everything. And it's true what they say about the place- it's cheap but good!
And then just before we give our documents for visas in, I try to see if there are any travel advisories- there weren't really. But I did get to know that Thailand was hosting it's general elections the day after we were leaving. Now considering the violence which plagued the country in the very recent past, A put his foot down and cancelled all bookings. So we swallowed the bitter cancellation charges of the airline.

Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. The summer vacations are nearly over and we were not going anywhere.

Till the time I discovered something that got us going again.

I will tell you when I get back...

Search...and a lot of non sense

Well this is not a soulful post. This post is about literal Internet issues- search.

Okay...simplifying for the lay people reading me, I check on stats sometimes- OK....ALL THE TIME....OKKKK....EVERY SINGLE TIME I LOG IN...can we move on please.
So as I checked the stats, I have also recently started checking the various sources by which gullible people land up on my blog.

My God...this post just goes on and on...

So why ever would a teeth whitening webbie direct their clients to my blog? My teeth are not pearly white by a long shot, I have many fillings, a couple of root canals- unless...unless they want to divert attention from how horrid it could be for people by directing them to my website?
Actually I got it all wrong, while someone was searching for this much talked about (at least in my blog) dental website, the search engine threw up this blog as a result. Wow...someone out there truly loves me.

Which is why mine is not to question why...just enjoy the increased traffic!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Dysfunctional Families

Do we all belong to them?

Well I don't know about all, but my husband and now by default I too, am part of one. A big one. How the hell did I land in this mess....yes I know the answer is quite simple- I got married.

Maybe I have already harped about my special situation once too many. Maybe it just doesn't interest anyone, why would it?
But if the Bold and the Beautiful can still be on- can you believe it, then I am totally allowed to go on and on about the miserable family I am a part of albeit by default.

Actually forget it. I will keep this inside me till Ekta Kapoor or some other maker of soap operas begs me for an 'original' script :-)

O TODAY :-)


Wednesday, June 15, 2011

ADELE is good

One of the few contemporary artists I really like in  a world full of Rihannas and the like! Don't get me wrong, she's got a nice voice, Rihanna but I just can't stand her work.
My personal opinion- you just don't have to agree.

The Working Jobless...

Housewife/Femme de foyer/Mothers- some with lots of help, some without any.

So you know which category I fall which is what prompts such posts.

But now I am actually fatigued  or as they say creuvee in french; and I must be if I am thinking in the language.

Thankless jobs- lots of you have them- doctors, teachers, guards, waiters, airline crew; it's a pretty big list anyway. You still get a day off, if not the whole weekend and a month's paid leave. You also just might have some rights, just might!

Not with mothers like me. And by the evening you are so brain dead that the idea of having ANY conversation seems like a herculean task and pointless besides. I guess I could count myself a bit lucky with a partner who pitches in more than he can and does not crib about it. If I have given up active life, the best years of my youth to the pursuit of bringing up children, then he has given up his passions as well. He has completely stopped even trying to play tennis, a sport he's bonkers about or trekking or even just vegging in front of the tele. And I thank him for it.

But when the kids grow up and no longer need me all the time, and when it's a bit late in my head along with a lot of tiredness in my body to start everything all over again profession wise, where will I be.
I will be at a complete loss to even know what to do.
I hate my body already- too much baby fat everywhere coupled with the last blast of air (literally!) from the gall bladder surgery. When do I take charge of it again? When I see this amazing partner of mine just looking at fitter women my age and just simply remarking how admirably fit so and so person is at their age? What will I feel except bitterness?  And what will I say, that I was bringing up your kids so I didn't even have the time to take 5 minutes in the loo let alone follow a fitness regime?

Come on, I know I am being pessimistic here. For all I know all this may never come to pass. I hope my kids pretend to need me even when they don't. I hope I find something that gives more meaning to my life than just being obsessed about food and feeding times and snacks.

I hope...I do.