Clouded thoughts

I am quite the cloud gazer and my mobile phone and I are partners in this. And why not?

I'm bookmarking this!

So like I mentioned before, I have been reading like never before. Recently, some friends were clearing out their house as they are moving abroad. Apart from the household stuff which we might take from them, I found my best junkyard sale yet: 3 new books given by them!

Yes!

This is better than anything I could have asked for! Looks like the job hunt will be on pause mode for a while. This holds true, especially for a reader like me.

A bit about my reading habits: 

I hate being interrupted in the middle of reading a book,

I hate keeping down a book to eat, drink or sleep,

I love to fall asleep while reading,

I love the smell of new books,

And I read to finish a book as soon as I can, preferably overnight

I usually order my books from Flipkart. And Flipkart sends these really cute and silly, yet extremely funny bookmarks with the books. These days I am in the habit of collecting them as and when I order a new book. 

This one is already my favorite titled Important reasons to use silly bookmarks 

What is the important reason ? 

(Click on the pic to read the text)

(even my long forgotten camera was put to use)

And on flipping, I get a pair of cool glasses to appear nerdy and keep the buggers away

Of course I don't mind one bit. 

Looks like for a change, these silly marks are going to keep me hooked on to the books ! 

Will keep posting more of these as and when I discover a new one.

Till then, its my book and me.

Teeny bopper -- Yo !!!

It's 5:30 in the morning. Am on my way to meet my lil one. And a little annoyed at choosing such an early flight. On top of that, I see that I have been assigned the emergency exit seat. Ughh. An air hostess approaches me

"Ma'am I see you are seated next to the emergency exit. Would you like to assist us for our emergency proceedings?  "

"Yeah, sure"

"May I know your age please"

"28"

"(Smiling) Actually you look quite young so I asked, like 15 or something"

I didn't hear the rest.

Didn't need to, since I had heard all that I needed to. Gone are the days when i used to get pissed off at people taking me for a school/college kid. What with the year closing to an end and another candle being added to my birthday cake, its good to know that I can still pass off as a teen on the outside.

.... Heyyy, on the inside as well !!

For the love of Mexican food - El Patio

It has been in my mind for sometime to experiment with Mexican food cooking. Other important stuff or just lack of ingredients has not let that happen. Though I have tried the most basic of Mexican sides, salsa. 

I love Mexican and have been craving for it for quite some time now. I am a sucker for this cuisine and well, what makes my liking delve into the realms of love are margaritas! Traditional unadulterated margaritas. This love, and the follow up craving, was also made possible by a restaurant which is ranked in the Top 5 of my all time favorite eating out places. Today I couldn't help but think about it.

El Patio.

Unemployment ke side effects

Yawwn !!

Been sleeping too long, haven't I :D

Well, I am awake now and hopefully would be so from now on, here on this page at least.

I kinda try to do new things, big or small. Some things are done on purpose. Like temporary unemployment. Somethings happen on their own.

Like extended unemployment.

I Have to say the initial months weren't great.

They were awesome!!

The freedom from corporate world was exhilarating! Like freed from a 9am-6pm cage.

There was so much on my plate. A new life, a new city, a completely new way of living. The months off helped me get in the thick of things, set up house etc etc. But now the no work routine is something I am looking to get off, things are just taking their own sweet time to shape up, hence the extension of the unemployment.

I was up to a lot of other things as well during this time. Things which I call side effects of unemployment. A look :

• Reading, reading and more reading. The voraciousness is back !! I am devouring books at a blitzkrieg pace, reading everything from Hindu mythology fiction, India's freedom struggle to marketing in Internet age and what not; including Harry Potter - Book 7, probably the sixth time. JKR, am still a fan \m/  And, I already have a list of ten titles in line.
• Sleeping like never before. Why a side effect? Coz I find sleeping a waste of time. Thankfully, this didn't last long.
• Made more than the usual number of trips to my beloved Delhi, than would have been possible. And spent some Quality family time.
• Writing this after a hiatus.
• Movies - of course. With my new LED, lazy afternoons turn me into a couch potato at times and I end up catching up on movies- the crappiest and the nicest ones . Crappiest -- hindi version of Serendipity; Not even going into it. Baaah
• Came around to knowing names (Mind you, ONLY names) of Hindi soaps.
• Saw Titanic ten more times and fell in love with it all over again - every single time.
• Oscillating dangerously between frustration of sitting unemployed and giving up the comforts of sitting unemployed :D
• Logged on to Linked In more number of times than I ever did these past years combined!
• Took to cooking and realized that I actually enjoy it a lot.

I guess that has been pretty much it. The hunt is on to get back to corporate world , but till then it is about doing all these things I never had the time for.

Till the next post, Adios

Mrt diaries

1. There is a universal jubilant look on the faces of those who manage to scrape through just before the doors close. Always. This is followed by nervous or victorious laughs n giggles accompanied with an occasional hi five.
2. Its almost laughable to watch people suddenly sprint to catch a departing train and then brake as suddenly coz the doors close just in front of them. Also notable is the dejected look on their faces. Errmm, though its not funny when you are on that side of the doors.
3. Most of the kids here have thick glasses, almost 95% of them. Most of the statistics are just made up, but I am pretty sure about this one.
4. A lot of times seats go empty as people prefer to stand! What a contrast to India where even bucket seats are expected to be shared.
5. There is always that old crony who elbows you, breaks the queue or shuffles past you to take that last seat. Yes, even in this extremely rule bound country.

More to follow as and when observed.

That's just my parents in one of the plentiful mrt rides. Just for that bit of glam to this post ;) 

And we parted

Finally, I belong to the Have-Lost-a-Mobile-Phone club.

I lost my phone two days back, but the realization is hitting now. 

I have finally lost a phone ! 

Oh my Blueberry. 

My striking blue colored vintage Nokia.

You were a good phone. You gave people so many chances to crack a joke and make fun (of you as well as of me). You invited stares when you were whisked out in public. You gave me some challenging times to type with you as I alternated between my smartphone's Qwerty and your ABC keypad ( Its important you know - The Lesson of adjustment ). 

Most importantly, you survived for days while my smartphone died multiple deaths in a single day.  

There it is, a glimpse of it

Bye bye, good friend.

Rain rain, stay!

Its booming outside, like cannons.

Yes, its the oncoming cloud parade. Huge grey clouds, with a promise of cats n dogs waala rain.

Am home cooking lunch with my flatmate. Intermittently, we peek outside the door and giggle mindlessly at the falling sheets of water. You know that childlike smile. Its on our faces. A perfect mirror image.

What IS it with rain that lights up the heart like nothing else can!

I feel I wanna fly, I feel I wanna dance !!!!! But for now, I'll just sing.

And I just have one song on my mind

Pani da rang ...... Tra la la la

:) :)

Image source:google

No roar in this one

A 55 minute queue for check in is not cool. Especially on an empty stomach and sore muscles from a hectic gym class.

After the long wait for the check in, there is a mad rush for the security check as the boarding stops in ten minutes. 

Huffing and puffing, we now brace ourselves for the next queue. Crossed. Jubilant, you wait for the boarding, expectantly. Not so expectantly , an announcement -- "the ladies and the gentlemans, sorry for the inconvenience (or something that sounded like that) , but the gate has shifted to f36"

Cursing, and a lil more for the bad English, I, along with my two mates, make a dash for the new gate. Another queue for security check and 25 minutes later, we finally get our seats which have been assigned wrongly.

One of the worst experiences ever. I demand some dollars back. Somehow, most of my trips in SE Asia have been doomed one way or the other. This one is clearly no exception. 

The one thing that mildly saved the day were fellow passengers; a guy straight.out of hollow man, a dude who seemed to be from sets of cast away oh, and this extremely cute kid with the cutest giggly laugh ever!

And then when you atleast expect an apology for the massive delay of 3 hours, all you get in a website to check our more deals with the damned airlines.

This Tiger is definitely crouching today ! 

Movie Duff(er)

I missed out on catching up this movie sometime back, which is India's entry to Oscar's for this year. And somehow, all my friends had either seen it or were planning to see it with other people. Having no one to go with, I thought to myself - why not do a new thing then? - watch a movie alone.

Though I should mention that my flatmate did offer to watch it with me again. But then I couldn't have forced the movie on her again, especially after the facial expression when asked to give her review.

I had always wanted to watch a movie by myself and had thought of going for the mostly empty morning show, you know as a safe first-time-watching-a-movie-alone experience. But here in Singapore, you obviously don't get zillions of shows for a Hindi movie which you do in India. So not having much choice in the show timing, I had to book one for the peak afternoon show. It was almost full by the time I booked it (we Indians are everywhere!).

As for the seats, I wanted to book the center most seats as opposed to the center aisle seats I usually book. This change happened after someone mentioned to me how the center seats are well distanced from the four corners and more importantly, people will never bug you by crossing left and right.  

So, the fourth row which I was booking initially had two seats available right in the center. It would have made sense to book one of them, right?

But no. What if people around me think that I got stood up by my date? 

So, errr, let me not book this row. 

I booked the center seat in the third row. Tolerate a little more strain, but don't let people think what they can think. 

With that done, I set off the next do-a-new-thing-today day. Movie was to follow the Harry Potter & Andy Warhol exhibition. Yes, the same exhibition.

I have already mentioned about the goodies I bought from the exhibition. Looks like those people trust us to spend tons of money on the shop. Guess that is why I was handed over an XXL sized bag for my meager purchases.   

Whoa! I was running late. Reaching the mall which housed the hall, I stepped into the lift and pressed level 7. Cursing under my breath for the hall to be at the topmost floor and at all those people who had to get off at levels 2,3,4,5 AND 6, I finally collected my tickets. Not to mention, a popcorn bucket and coke!

Once inside the hall, I realized that the movie was on and the hall, full. Armed with my handbag, popocorn, coke and my extra large HP bag, I made my way to my seat. And there, Standing at the aisle, I was dreading the trek to the centre seat.

I prayed.

Banging my HP bag on the guy in the front row, spilling some popcorn on the guy ahead, stumbling over someone's foot and somehow controlling my swinging handbag, I finally crash landed into my seat. Squirming in my seat and wishing I could disappear in it, I waited for the movie to take care of the numerous stares.

Phew! Whattay start.

But hey, the movie is on. And I have my bucket of salted popcorn. I laugh loudly at this extremely funny scene. The guy next to me is staring at me.

The expression on his face? - Totally makes up for coming for a movie, alone !

(Till the time we do a new thing again)

*Photo Credits Google