Thursday, September 27, 2012

hills

sometimes you need to be surrounded by hills and hear cool breeze whisper sweet nothings... let the angels accompany you on a journey across billowing clouds resting comfortably over tall trees... a silence full of quiet peace... birds nesting and fire burning in the distance... in a small home above the crescent moon...may be you can get there in a few years and sleep.

Letter

So this effect is called Old Letter on Photomania. I can't remember the last time I wrote a letter.Sometimes I do think about picking up a pen and writing to a friend but in the age of advanced technology it's just so much easier and convenient to write an email. Ah yes I remember the last letter I wrote was to my mother in law about five years ago. She doesn't believe in the internet and refuses to get online or even learn to operate the old desktop.

I remember she wrote back in her lovely handwriting. She's adorable. And here's yet another picture of me. This blog has become such a vanity wall but who cares. It's my wall and my two and a half readers enjoy it :)

Kiss

Here's a big kiss and a quote to go with it

"There is the kiss of welcome and of parting, the long, lingering, loving, present one; the stolen, or the mutual one; the kiss of love, of joy, and of sorrow; the seal of promise and reciept of fulfillment." Thomas C. Haliburton


Intersections

Parallel lines have a lot in common but they never meet. Ever. You might think that's sad. But every other pair of lines meets once than drifts apart. Which is pretty sad too.

It reminded me of a long forgotten conversation with someone I forget who probably forgot me. 

Zheng He's

Anshuman was in the mood to take me out for a lovely dinner, the kind where you dress up and look nice. I love those so as you can see I dressed up for it and wore my white shoes for the first time. Wore my favourite (and the only one) Pandora bracelet, slapped my make up on and was ready for the Chinese restaurant Zheng He's at Madinat Jumeirah. The dress looks much better in reality when I can manage not crumple it up in five seconds. The only way for my hair to look half decent is to not comb it so I didn't.










The restaurant is in the Madinat Jumeirah hotel and has a lovely quiet understated elegance with the oriental ambience to go with it. We decided to sit in the open air area by the lake with a view of the Burj Al arab. Here are some lovely pictures of the place. Our waiter was a sweet Chinese fellow who mispronounced my name as "Rahul" for some reason. Anshuman decided not to have wine and since I gave up alcohol some time ago I refrained as well. We ordered Crystal prawn dim sum which was wonderful with chili sauce. wok fried king prawn followed with barbecue chicken rice.









The dessert was Chilled mango pudding, pomelo, lychee sorbet. Yumminess in a plate. I loved it even though my teeth nearly froze. I should really stop the whole dessert fetish before my blood sugar spikes.






And here's Anshuman my darling man. I love him to bits for treating me so so good. I hope we can go on a trip together soon. It would be so much fun. Our quick trip to Sri Lanka got cancelled and that was a bummer but may be next year we will be able to take a long holiday together.




And here is yours truly. If you haven't already gotten sick of my pictures on this blog here's another one. Tonight there's a party at the swanky Alegra and I'm looking forward to the dancing! Life is good baby!






Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The green ribbon

So this morning I found a little green ribbon on my desk. I wonder where it came from but that doesn't matter. i quite like ribbons. They remind me of little girls' pigtails and boxes full of surprise birthday gifts. My plan for the trip next week fell through so I've decided to wear the green ribbon as a ring and cheer myself up. At the end of the day if you do something goofy it's bound to put a smile on your face or someone else's :)

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

disconnected

So there was no internet in the morning. The magazine will go to print pretty soon. I have some plans for the next week but I'm not sure if they will work out. If they do it will be great and I will get to see a new country. it's a happy morning and I am supposed to buy groceries although I'm pretty sure I will try to avoid that as much as possible. Why groceries God why groceries?

Just to put myself in a great mood i'm going to add a new picture of myself. My 12th anniversary is next week. It's going to be good :)

Monday, September 24, 2012

Accidentally

So I had the fourth accident in my car. I banged into a mercedes while backing up. My car is absolutely fine while the other woman's car has a big dent in it. I had to wait for an hour for the police to finally show up. Harini my new Junior writer was there to keep me company. Last time I had scratched a Lexus in the parking lot. My darling Pajero seems to like pissing off nice cars and their owners. So I got home late, had dinner late and now am listening to Janis Joplin singer her heart out, Take it, take another little piece of my heart now baby!

My head is freezing because my hair is still wet but for some reason the temperature cannot be controlled in the ac. It's either too hot or too cold. The eskimo that I am I prefer the cold.

hectic

As the closing date of the next issue of POSE comes closer things get very hectic and I love this part of the month. I like the running around, the meetings, the phone calls, the words and more words. This is going to be a fantastically tiring day and I'm gonna love the evening which will set it off perfectly. Here's a picture of the latest issue "au naturel"

Sunday, September 23, 2012

White flowers

I just have one plant that gets these beautiful white flowers. I am not too good at keeping plants alive but I've been doing pretty well with this one. He is quite low maintenance. Just have to water him twice a week and these lovely blooms come up looking out of the window at the city going by. I wonder what they might say about it if they could speak. I love them. They're lovely :)

Photo Mania aka I'm so vain

So I got the oxygen facial. molecules of oxygen and vitamins were showered upon my face in the form a cooling shower through a small nozzle. The effects will be come visible in three to four days. The lovely beauty therapist promised me people will say,"You are glowing!" I certainly hope so.

I had parked at the wrong end of The Walk at JBR so had to walk for 20 minutes in the Dubai sun but the hydrating and nutritious facial treatment left me quite refreshed. Lovely day this is :)

All these images are from this app on FB called Photomania. A boon for people like me who would rather avoid photoshop and go for a more ready to use option. I'm so vaaaaain I think every song is about me. Haha!

Teen Patti

Friday night was great fun. I love playing cards and even though Poker is my favourite even teen patti or flash is a great game to play. There were about 20 people in all. Someone was raving about their holiday at the French riviera. A very nice woman whose name I forget. She teaches little kids all day and I salute her for her patience. She told me the kids happily put a finger in their nose and then come and hold her hand to say hello so handsoap is her best friend.

So the teen patti session started and we were divided in to two tables of eight. I was sitting next to a very sullen woman whom I didn't like. I tried to change my table but was promptly sent back to the sullen woman's table as husbands and wives were not meant to sit together. Anshuman was at the other table. Finally I stood at the host's head till she let me sit with Anshuman. I drank a non alcoholic pomogrenate and something else spritzer which I liked a lot and there were all sorts of snacks which I hogged on. I won a lot and was named 'the strong and silent' type. At the end of the game if I was in most people just threw their cards. I quite like that feeling. I won a lot of money and left at 12 while my suitably inebriated husband stayed till three and played some more. All in all a good weekend. Saturday was spent happily sleeping and cleaning the house. I watched a lot of cricket. Gayle was a storm. Today it's an India England match which should be interesting. I will be home by the time they are into the third over. I hope India will bat second.

I have to go for a facial today for our 'tried and liked' section of POSE magazine. I like the perks of this job. Will share how it went soon!

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Schindler's list

So I was listening to the theme from Schindler's list in the car this morning and the music almost moved me to tears. The voilin just breaks your heart. I remember even the movie was a great one from Spielberg. It's a lovely morning and another Thursday is already here. The days are flying by so quickly. There is a card party on Friday night. I quite enjoy playing cards especially poker. This card party is going to be in anticipation of Diwali perhaps and we will be playing teen patti or flash as it's called. Should be fun :)

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Lush

Lush is one of my favourite shops. You can get the heavenly smell of an array of handmade soaps even before the shop comes in the range of your vision. As most of my friends know I love shower gels and all sorts of lovely smelling soaps. Today the wonderful people at Lush sent me a little goody bag with Midnight shower gel and handmade soap and a cute star shaped bath bomb. Loving it!

Creme brulee

Anshuman often takes me out to lunch at this lovely restaurant called Jones The Grocer. So I went there today and had a Creme Brulee for dessert and it was perfection itself. The caramel was perfectly formed and cracked under my spoon with a crunch. As the cream and crunch mixed in my mouth I think I glimpsed a piece of heaven.









I love desserts which is probably why I had to get diabetes. Oh but the creme brulee was the perfect sin, one which I will indulge in again for sure.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Mouse and Interviews

So I got the new Porsche mouse. I love it. I've been interviewing people for a sales job and one guy from Uzbekistan actually showed up smelling of alcohol!! Wow! The things that people will do not to get a job. He barely spoke and looked like he would fall down any second. The interview lasted precisely three minutes and both Sam and I were relieved when he left the office!

Sunday, September 16, 2012

talk is cheap

Sometimes only silence speaks the words that speech cannot speak. Silence is so under rated. It is the chosen weapon of the passive aggressive but it is also useful when all your shouting has no effect whatsoever. Sometimes silence is the wisest choice. So I remain silently yours.... at least for a while.

Childhood memories

So I read this post on a blog which listed childhood memories and I loved it so I thought why not do the same for my blog which is read by two and a half people. But those two and a half people are very loyal if nothing else and they deserve something interesting every now and then.

My earliest memory is being at my maternal Grandmother's house in Defence Colony in Muradnagar, a small town in UP. There was a farm in front of the house with yellow mustard flowers that swayed in the breeze. I used to collect beetles all day thinking they were lost. I would put them in a box and bring them home. My grandmother would let them out every time I collected them. I would wonder for a long time where they went. I would go each morning and bring them back only to lose them the next day. The ritual went on for a long time and became my first memory.







On my birthday when I was about seven years old my father got me a red Hero bicycle. It was a big expense for him which I didn't know then although what I did know was that he stood in the June sun getting it assembled and got it for me. My father tried to teach me how to ride the bike and somehow my foot came in the tyre spokes. I was in bed for a month and afraid to put my foot on the floor. Finally my mother forced me to stand up and walk. She did that for me many times even when I grew up. She's an amazing woman.

I had a plastic duck with steel wheels for legs and it made a racket when I dragged it behind me holding it with a string. I remember we lived in a one room house with an attached kitchen and bathroom. My sister wasn't born then. I would walk in a circle making noise driving my mother nuts. I loved my plastic duck. I wonder where it went.










My hair was always kept short by my mother. I cried and yelped to let me grow it long but my mother maintained that I would not be able to take care of my hair so I had the infamous boy cut till I got to tenth grade and rebelled. I still remember going to the barber for my haircut. Most of the time it was so short that a little tail was visible on the back of my head. Oh how I hated it! And no I didn't look pretty like Hermione. I simply looked like a boy. I can give you an example of how bad it was. We had moved to Delhi recently and I was standing at the gate of my house wearing pants with a bib attached to it when a boy came up to me and said,"Kanche khelega?" Wanna play marbles? So I just said ,"No"
I was a tomboy for the longest time and playing in the sun was my favourite activity.
That's all for now folks but I will continue this post soon. Cheerio!

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Happy Thursday

Thursdays are pretty happy days as the weekend smiles at you at the end of it. There's a sneeze stuck in my nose and it's the most annoying feeling in the world. So we got a Nespresso machine in the office and I've kind of switched to coffee from tea but the drawback is that I cannot have coffee without at least a little bit of sugar in it. Without sugar coffee is just poison.

So it's Elie's birthday party on the 27th and everyone has to wear pink. Honestly I think I look much too horrid in pink. When he had the same bash last year it was the same theme and I didn't go because I couldn't find anything pink to wear. I'm hoping this year I will find something that makes me look at least half decent. There are going to be quite a few parties in the coming months as the winter sets in. I like dressing up I just get physically tired because of the late nights. But it's fun to dance and let your hair down every once in a while.

Ninna seems to be back to her old self. My little best friend. I love her. I'm sure she was my daughter in some past life. Lana Del Rey is singing 'Kiss me in the d-a-r-k dark tonight' A whole generation in fact may be humanity as a whole suffers from love thanks to utterly stupid love songs. If there was no music so many people would be saved from the obvious pitfalls of falling in love. Ok I'm done being bitchy :)

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

L'atelier des chefs

For those of you who know not French that means Chefs' Studio. I didn't know either, I just asked Claudia the Wikipedia (I mean that in a good way). So as part of a team building exercise five of us from the office went to The Meridien hotel and got us a class in French cooking. On your left is the menu. Nothing less than a lovely three course lunch would do for us girls! Oh and by the way there was no wine otherwise we would have been found sleeping afterwards.


We got these great chef aprons that we were able to take home. Mine is still in the office drawer because I rarely cook although I should try and cook more. There are so many things that I should do... sigh... thinking about all of them is exhausting...





Our chef was the very French young man called Jeremy Coste. His French accent was adorable and he kept tasting the food every now and then and basically we helped him cook everything beginning from chopping onins, slicing capsicum to frying pumpkin in double cream. My mouth has begun to water thinking about it.











That's Maya cooking the lamb. She's such an adorable young girl. If I ever have a daughter I hope she turns out to be like her. Love love love.








That's Claudia, Assistant Editor extraordinaire and a darn good cook. She did the Tuna perfectly while I butchered it when slicing it into cubes. My apologies to the chef and Claudia.








That's the Nicoise Salad. You can't see the lone quail egg in the middle but I must confess that I did a great job of peeling it. The Tuna was fried by Claudia and she did it to perfection.







Presenting the main course- Lamb with butternut risotto. I loved the risotto and could barely eat the lamb because I was so full of the rice.









The Chocolate Fondant was pure sin. Maya was speechless. We all went quiet and just ate and ate and ate. Wow it was something else and I'm so hungry now that I can't even begin to describe the feeling. Damn diabetes!








That's Samantha, Claudia, Maya and Keti busy slicing colourful Capsicums. It was great fun and I hope there are many more such events in the future.

Oh baby Chocolate Fondant is probably one of the best things a man can make. After our meal we were all ready to drop off into a siesta but came back to work instead with dreams of chocolate...

Sunday, September 09, 2012

Angels and light

There was a time when I and some friends were so into reiki and then I lost touch. We spoke about auras and beings of light and we spoke about kind souls and gaurdian angels. And then I lost faith and didn't really realise why or when that happened. May be it's called growing up. Reiki and the book the celestine prophecy then seemed to make so much sense and we got into it head first. It was easy to believe in souls and angels. As one has grown cynicism seems to have taken it's place and one does not believe in what one cannot see.

But sometimes I want to believe. The closest I come to is using it as a sleeping pill. I imagine a crescent moon and lying in it's curve covered with a feather quilt with stars twinkling all around. A guardian angle sending me light and blessings and I swear within five minutes of visualising this pretty cliche scenario peace descends upon me and I fall asleep. Do I believe in angels? I'm not sure. Do I want to? SO much. SO much.

Welcome to Nothing in Particular

I'd closed off the blog for a while but now it's open to the sweet people in the UAE, Latvia, Russia, Australia and good ol' USA and the rest of the world. Frankly it's quite alright with me. SO welcome to Nothing In Particular. Come by often :) I've decided to make smileys on my blog. I don't care I belong to the internet generation and smileys are a part of our lingo now.

Friday, September 07, 2012

Porsching around

So I came here to the yas marina circuit to the Porsche club meet plus drive and as of now I'm bored out of my skull because Anshuman had to get here a lot earlier and now he has disappeared so I'm sitting alone with my trusted phone and furiously typing away to kill some time. Ah he's here now. The race track is quite impressive. I only hope I will not throw up due to the high speed of the car.

So I didn't actually throw up during the ride. It is exhilarating for the first fifteen minutes but then it gets really hot under the helmet. Your palms begin to sweat and you start to get very tired. Altogether it's recommended to everyone at least once. I was surprised that the high speed didn't really scare me but after 45 minutes of going around the track and going through endless turns as the car speeded up and then slowed down and my body was being thrown in all directions I got exhausted. I tried to remain in my seat wondering when my head might go through the windshield. It was altogether fun but I won't do it again. I'm not a creature of thrills. I like peace too much. Haha.

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Wednesday morning

It's been an altogether lovely morning as mornings usually are. I deleted two apps from my phone and felt quite good about it. Lesser ways of being forever connected. The book is not progressing. I keep opening and shutting off the file. There are too many flashbacks and I think it gets tough for a person to understand the timeline according to a friend. He's right but at the moment I'm not so sure about what to do. I would hate to change the first page in any way.

I love Cliff Richard. He always puts me in a good mood. Want to make a smiley but will refrain.

Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Lost

I feel a bit tired. Just went to buy vegetables for the cook to make. I wouldn't be disappointed if I never have to buy vegetables again but I know that for the rest of my life I will be buying vegetables every week if not more. I had a cup of coffee and it has only helped make me feel sleepy. Lana Del Rey is crooning away,"Kiss me hard before you go" summer time sadness and I'm becoming sad listening to it.

Ninna seems to be going through a phase. She tore a box of sweets to shreds yesterday and peed in the bedroom and ofcourse I had to clean it all up. Sometimes life is less than satisfactory. That's the quality of life, it will make you amazingly happy one day and make you incredibly sad the next. I'm a poem kind of sad. May be I should try to write one. It's been such a long time since I wrote a poem. Or I could eat but I'm just not hungry. Coffee and cigarettes will do that to you.

Sometimes things don't make sense. In fact if you think long enough about anything you will end up with the nagging feeling that you know so very little about the inner working of life, it's events, it's successes and it's failures and all that lies in between. I started writing the book again and managed to finish the second chapter. I want to start the third chapter but I'm just way too tired. Why am I so tired? May be it's all the sweets I've been having these days. I really need to stop that and eat more chapati and greens.

Diseases make no sense. They come in the way of life and become an integral part of it. I've hated taking medicines all my life and now I have to take several pills each day. I'm tired and my rant is finished.