cinderella and the prince..

So Cinderella is finally going out with nice boy. I was ecstatic.. to the point of being embarrassing. I had been bumping into NB off and on for a couple of years now. Looking at him was like looking into the crystal ball and seeing junior.
Well he came over for lunch, I met him in his official capacity of the boyfriend of the princess of the manor...

Feeling much better now. Looks like our much awaited UK trip will finally be happening. Called the TA and was told my visa should be done in 2-3 days.
This whole process of applying for a visa has put me off travelling abroad, especially a visa for the United states.
We have to start working on that once we get back from London.
This year has been a good year travel wise. In the last one year these are the places I have been to :
1. Amritsar, Delhi : same trip
2. Mumbai : countless times
3.Goa
4.Hyderabad (this was work so really does'nt count)
5. Kolkata
6. Kashid, Murud and Janjira- all on the Konkan coast.

Trips planned for the remaining part of the year :
1. UK : London, Birmingham, Lake district (maybe)
2. US : New york, Boston
3. Lucknow (I don't think I will have enough leave left for that, it might get pushed to next year)

I love travelling.. and this looks good.

free, free falling...

I feel as if I have hit the rock bottom. I don't know what is going to help me lift my spirits. My passport is going for visa processing tommorow. Even this has failed to lift my spirits.
My state of being somehow seems like a huge compromise. I know I have made choices.. but one does have the right to feel upset with those choices. I was happy with all this till a few weeks ago. And then in the last week I realized what would have happened if I had'nt made the choices that I did.
A as usual is hardly empathetic. You can be empathetic if you try and understand the other person. I don't think he has ever made the effort to do that for me or anyone else.
I also need some mind, body and soul therapy.
I have this feeling of emptiness , I feel as if I am in a free fall in this emptiness, the light seems to have gone out and it is pitch dark. I feel no pain. I have hurt so much that I feel numb. I don't feel like crying wailing or talking. I feel weightless.

We had an awesome dinner tonight. It was called ' grilled prawns with wasabi mayonnaise'. And of course A had to make me painstakingly make fresh mayonnaise flavoured with english mustard powder, dashi granules, rice vinegar, sugar and salt. I kept thinking the mayo will become too heavy at a point and curdle. But it turned out nice smooth and fluffy.
There was a side dish of sauteed veggies as well . I have an obsession with our intake of roughage.I make sure there is enough in every meal.
A has discovered the magic of getting virtually any chinese cook book he wants. He just orders on Amazon.com.Usually the discount is equal to the shipping cost to India. We get the books at practically it's original rate.

this, that and there

The painters are finally moving out tommorow. We had almost started getting used to them being around.

The brother has finally got his well deserved raise. His affluence is beginning to show. He actually called from his cell and had a 8 min conversation.It would be " hey! call me back" after the first 2 mins till about a month ago.

I have a trip to Goa scheduled at the end of next week and one to London the following week..

The sister and parents are going to be in Europe sometime in the next couple of weeks - seperately. Talk about a globetrottong family!

Junior told me he was digging for diamonds in the sand pit for me. He came back with a few white pebbles and told me they were 'jewellery stones' and I could use them as I wished.I hope he remembers this for a while.He has promised me a merc as well. I hope he remembers that too.

getting back to this and that.

we have finally moved back.. finally started cleaning up. No, the painting is not over yet.The electricals have got done, most of the new furniture and furnishings have been ordered, fuses have blown, patch ups have been done and junior's vacations have come to an end.
The only thing which really bothered me was not being able to watch movies as and when I liked. I could have done it if I really wanted to. But on most days I was too drained out to even think about it.
I really think I can spend a lifetime only watching movies.
I don't think I missed blogging that much though.

Home improvement

We are getting our home done up I mean really done up. We are going to be dislodged, our things are going to be dislodged too.
The painters say it will take them at least 25 days to do the entire house, Phew! My admiration to a couple of my friends who have been to this ordeal recently has suddenly gone up.
I may not be able to blog for a few weeks and yes, I am one of those bloggers who do'nt blog at work.

Battle with the weight

These are a few things I did to try and lose wait.
1. Eat boiled vegetables before lunch to avoid eating too much rice and the oily greasy cafetaria fare.
2.Go on a nimbu pani diet- i.e. only having nimbu pani during lunch time.
3. Swimming
4. Giving up sweets
5. Contemplating joining weight watchers.com
6. Contemplating joining VLCC. I even spoke to the customer service lady.
7. Contemplating giving up sweets.
8. Contemplated going on a water melon diet , inspired by S's success a few years back.
None of the above lasted for more than 2 days.

I have a couple of theories as to why I can't lose weight:
1. I'm getting increasingly comfortable with my weight.
2. Just because sweets/ desserts are not supposed to be eaten, they are desirable.
3. All repeat ALL my friends are overweight.therefore, no peer pressure.
4. The dorment rebel in me gets activated every time A nags me resulting in me munching oreo biscuits/chocolates/desserts etc for midnight snacks.
5.I'm a serious foodie.I mean really serious.

..and so the battle continues. I am very close to getting back to my gyming routine as swimming does'nt seem to be working out for more than a couple of times week.(yeah! yeah! one more on the list)

the weekend that was

Had a wonderful weekend.
chilled out at home with A and the kids
cooked a good bengali meal one day (aloo poshto, pabda bori diye, rui macher patla jhol) and a good awadhi mutton curry, on the other, for lunch
climbed the hill behind out house with A, junior and members of our extended family followed by a dip in the pool while A cooked us all a sumptious chinese meal.
watched two good movies - donnie brasco and that thing you do..loved both of them.
got sonny boy to paint smilies on a couple of t- shirts- one for himself and one for cinderella

I connected the cable TV wire to our plasma TV in our bedroom. (wonder why I never thought of it earlier) So now we have Cable and Dish on the TV. Could life get any better?

week day break

we took one on wednesday.Did a day tour with the kids. We took them to IMAX adlabs for a movie-I don't know who enjoyed it more.. the kids or us. I am told it is the world's largest screen-we saw a movie (more like a documentary) called walking on the moon. It was about all the Apollo missions to the moon. Junior surprized us. He knew who Neil Armstrong was.
The IMAX theatre is a visual treat. It is a dome shaped theatre half of which is a screen and the other half are the seats. It does'nt seem to have any ceiling.The sheer size makes the difference, it is nearly three times larger than the regular size of a theatre screen and of course has a curvature for the 3-D effect. Sadly, there must have been hardly 15-20 people for the show we went for.

Today I got to know what it is like to be inside a furnace. The aircon in my little office was undergoing maintenance and it was hot as hell.

Had a restful Sunday. Spring cleaned our bedroom, went swimming with junior, checked out furniture, at a neighbourhood store, for the bedroom and a couple of peices for the living room (turned out I know the owner) and managed to take a nap in the afternoon.
I also realized that I am more off work than at work these days.
Junior wants his own blog.I told him he could have one as soon as he learns to write well enough.

acquisition of the year

A bought me the Bose wave music system. I had once told him that , that was the only peice of electronic equipment that I ever wanted. 6 years and a few months later, he presented me with one.This is what I like about A. Just as I am giving up on him, he suddenly does something thoughtful and restores my belief in everlasting love.(I am not the jumping in and out of relationships kind- A is the second man in my life and from the way things are right now, the last).

I have'nt got very far with my 'talking less' plan. BUT, I have started identifying moments I should have kept my mouth shut.

the humming and hawing continues.

Had a rotten rotten day at work. Actually there one happening which was a major down but my day ended with a small up.
I realised I have been working in my current job for 3 years, time to move on. I think I will start looking around for better opportunities in a few months.
Besides that, we planned the good friday weekend.The plans seem a lot more concretised now. the rooms are booked the table reservations are made. Junior will start swimming again from tommorow and I plan to join him a few times a week. I hope I still fit into my costume. Funnily, I have never been conscious of myself in a swimming costume. I always feel very good in it. In fact a couple of summers back, I remmember having a conversation with a friend's father- in- law, next to the pool, in my swimming costume.

And the weekend begins..

"This is the worst day of my life", declared junior (BOJ) when we picked him up from school."I had to go to school on a saturday"
Otherwise his saturday has'nt been bad at all. His summer vacations are coming up and we have done some great planning. He has dozens of play dates lined up, his best friend will be staying with us for 4 days & we have a trip planned for him and his friends to Mumbai. We are taking him to see INS Vikrant and the nehru planetarium there. We also have a trip to Mahabeleswar and Panchgani planned. And there are swimming lessons and cycling sessions happening too. So with a working mom constantly juggling career and home and parenting and step parenting, we have'nt done too badly.
Junior : "I will call you mom and not mummy from now on"
me : "why"
Junior: "because mummy is a dead king"

A is travelling this weekend, he gets back only on Sunday, in time to cook a leg of venison which has been marinating for a few days now.

today I learnt you can also speak with silence...

I need to learn to speak with silence..
I have decided to talk less.. "don't snigger guys, I really mean that".

I attended a synopsys of a workshop, if there can be such thing, on performance in the corporate world. Liked the look and feel of the company, Pinnacle performance, and it's methodologies. They use actors to teach performance techniques to the corporate world executives who need to do high impact presentations as a part of the job. I would like to do a full workshop some day.I need to bring in some more structure in my performance style. The NSD workshop did not help much.

I finally saw being cyrus. I loved it- well loved it in the sense, I loved this particular film not necessarily films of this genre. The film is about two dysfunctional parsi families with a twist in the tale coming up every now and then. Though the bits of film which had a lot of swearing in Gujrati going on, should have been subtitled. The film is otherwise in completely in english.
It starts out like a typical art film and then graduates into a suspense film in the second half. Saif plays Cyrus who lands up at the doorstep of a once famous but now living in oblivion sculptor- Dinshaw Sethna.Though Dinshaw is non commital, his voluptous wife Katy welcomes him into their house and lives. Cyrus gets involved with the Sethna families (the other one being Dinshaw's brother- Faroukh who lives in Mumbai) to an extent beyond their imagination. The twist begins here when Cyrus goes to Mumbai when Katy seeks his help to deal with her father in law who has been sitting on a minor fortune.
Saif Ali Khan has really outdone himself.. he is proving to be a really versatile actor. From Salaam Namaste to Parineeta to being Cyrus. Completely different characterization, very different roles. Naseeruddin Shah- the brilliance is not unexpected.Dimple Kapadia- loved her too, always have since her Sagar days. The lady is in such great shape. She plays an aging but attractive and voluptious woman hitting on a man years younger. And she is a grandma now.
The film is definitely not fluff. Recommended for individuals who genuinely appreciate good cinema.

Had an uneventful day. Left for work early (early by my standards), gave the boss a lift (we live ithe same housing complex- more on that later). Did some big planning at work for the next 3-4 weeks- I am going to get so fried!. BOJ's vacations are coming up and it looks like at least three of his friends are planning to move in with us semi-permanently this summer. We are gearing up. We love having his friends over- my house feels so alive.
Went to headlines on my way back to get a face clean up done.
Started reading the 8th Habit - finally! so far loving it.

humming and hawing..

A is out for dinner again. I wish I had half the energy that he does. So the kids and me had dinner at home. The housekeeper had cooked some Indianised Thai food. The garlic prawns with were awesome though. She seems infatuated with the Thai sweet chilli sauce. She has used it every night as an ingredient for the last three days.

I am going thru a no-hindi films phase. Maybe this is an Oscar aftermath.