Rain Rain go away

It has been almost 5 months I've been in Singapore now, and the rain just hasn't stopped... I love the rain - when I'm nicely tucked in at home with a book at some bhajjiyas, but since they don't sell bhajjiyas here (and I can't cook) and it rains only when I'm out, the rain and me aren't best friends anymore.. sigh...

Oh and another thing. If you ever wanna make pudding with ripening pears, grapes, berries, peaches, milk, honey, and spare bread... and you wanna make lots of it... and you don't have an oven or a pressure cooker, or anything air-tight to cook it in - then don't think of making it.. I learnt that yesterday.

Air India? By bus or plane?

Another Air India Story this.. but then again, with an awesome carrier like this one you know there will always be there stories...
Return flight from Mumbai to Singapore... Obviously being Air India, we don't just board the plane, but have to take a bus to it.. Yes, even for international flights...
The idea of taking a bus to take a plane always fascinates me... well not really, not the actual doing, its just the concept of it that is so amusing
So all of us already weary passengers wait and wait and wait some more for any announcement of when boarding will begin.. it is 12:20 already and nothing so far for our flight that is supposed to take off at 12:45
Then they begin shoving us into the buses to get to the plane.. All in, the bus takes off for a 7 min ride around the airport.. Bus stops, people get off and walk towards the plane... Steward standing at the base of the steps looks at the first passenger's ticket, then looks around.. looks some more, confused... and says:
"But you're going to Singapore and this flight is for Mangalore !!"
Sigh
And so on we go the bus again.. for a 15 minute bus ride this time..round and round the airport, till they FINALLY find our plane to Singapore.. by the time we're getting into the aircraft it is already 12:45, but then again.. it wouldn't be Air India if it actually took off on time !!

Marriage Proposals: About to Propose

I can see this happening sometime in the future... and I'm wondering whether my Tarzan is the only one crazy enough to have thought of this.

Innovative way to Propose marriage # 1:

Tarzan comes on a white horse through the streets of Singapore (yes, a horse is going to be walking the streets here). Considering the city's clean image, our white horse will be wearing a nappy.. avoid that littering fine as well.
So.. yes.. Tarzan on white steed screams from a microphone up to Jane on the 23rd Floor and asks for her hand in marriage.
Jane nods her head back (she does not have a microphone and won't be heard from that high up)
Oh and I forgot the main part - you know how couples have a Just Married sign on their cars on their wedding day.. Well our sturdy steed is going to have "About to Propose" pasted on his bum as he makes his way to Jane's humble abode... and have tin cans trailing from his tail so that anyone else who might have missed a horse on the Singapore streets won't miss the din

Tarzan & Jane are hoping with all the news this creates someone comes ahead to sponsor the wedding and maybe honeymoon as well

Signed: Tarzan n Jane

Air India !!!

This one was a blog story in the making right from the time we booked our flights to Mumbai on Air India.
My second flight on Air India ever and I was completely nervous expecting horrendous 5 and a half hours of nightmares.. but it was a pretty good flight.. The Air Hostesses had the "ask me for help and I’m throwing you off the plane" look, but were surprisingly nice for the expressions on their face (well, some people have faces like that, they just can’t help it).
The food was good, an amazingly smooth flight, we didn’t even realise when we took off or landed (partly to do with the fact that we took off so damn late, but then this was Air India, some things you just assume will happen)

Anyway, so we hear this old lady ahead of us ask the air hostesses for a "shawl" (or blanket, however you wanna call it)
Air hostess passes by a while later and gives her something.
20 minutes after that is this conversation with another air hostess -

Air Hostess: " Aunty, sab theek hai na. You need anything"
Old Lady: " Nahi, theek hai"
Air Hostess: "Achcha. Lekin aapko Salt kyo chahiye tha?"
Old Lady: "Nahi Ji, Maine Salt nahi Shawl maanga tha"

Oh well..

Home Sweet Home

I'm not sure why I didn't think of this earlier and plan a proper longer holiday, but then that’s usually how it is... Last minute plans these were...
I figured Chinese new year holidays would be better spent ambling the time away at home in India instead of being stuck in Singapore where most people have left for the festivities and holidays to other parts of Asia.

All in all, this has been a well planned surprise visit.. and I’m so happy to be back sleeping on my own bed and tasting all the lovely food here.
My lovely Malwani food from the take away at the corner of the road - if I had a last meal before being sent to the electric chair - this would be it (along with some Goan sausages, and some other food as well. Big meal that one will be)

Dear Ole Goa Portugesa - without the owner coming and disturbing you at your table that is.

The Amazing n Awesome Jai Hind at Pali Naka - this food will also be included in that last meal.

Gondola's and Soul Fry - I never know which one to go to, agony it is chosing cause they're both so yummy..

And my favourite place i missed the most - Good Luck Irani Cafe at Mehboob Studios. It’s just not a proper morning without the yummy Brun Maska and egg Bhurji. Sigh. This followed by Mango Milkshake at Just around the corner - this one you just have to taste.

All that’s left now, Margarita's at Not Just Jazz and my usual dinner at DPRC... I can hardly wait for tonight...

Eating and Eating in Singapore

How much can u eat in a span of 3 hrs... well I've been eating so much in the past 2 days that if I were a polar bear, I'd have put on enough fat to last me 2 winters...
My darling friend Pinto is in Sin city.. and true to college tradition of drinking and eating like 2 crazed women living the last few hours of their lives, we ended up doing what we do best - being completely giddy and crazy while hogging away to glory
Yesterday was China Town. Decorated as it is for Chinese New Year, with all the food stalls everywhere, we went mad. Tried out all the sweets and delicacies anyone would let us get out hands on, gobbled up yummy chicken rice, pigged out on oyster and egg ommlet (highly recommended btw, this is at Food Street) and then had some more sweets, even raw mango which really made us feel like pregnant women craving for all the food we could get our hands on.
By the end of it, when we reached Clark Quay for a drink, we didn't have space for it in our tummies, and we couldn't walk back to the hotel.

Today was even worse. After a lovely "filling" meal of mutton biryani at home and a well deserved nap, we headed out at 10 to my favouritest place in Singapore - eM by the River at Robertson Quay. Yummy mango salad, Garlic Prawns and lotsa margaritas later began the quest for Chilli crab at 12. Ended up at boat quay, where the nice lady recommended we order 2 crabs since they were small. what we ended up with was a foot long plate, and these huge mama crabs. We ate like there was no tomorrow, all the crab was finished, we didn't even stop in between for a breather, people passing by looked on with concern as the piles of crab shells kept increasing. we ate for an hour and a half non stop...
The only reason I'm posting this now is because this is my feeble attempt at exercise to digest all that food. I've eaten so much, that if i had another bite now i wouldn't need to swallow, the foods reached till my neck.
i don't think there will be breakfast or lunch tomorrow.

EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED

Bought a novel the other day - Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. I've never heard of the author of the book, just picked it up along with some other ones.
So I'm at home, I've opened the book to read it, and I'm on the first page... and I'm flipping channels on the Television at the same time, and i reach HBO - where they're beginning to show - Everything is Illuminated, the movie.
these kind of weird coincidences don't happen to me at all - so you can imagine why I'm quite excited about it.
Neways, the movie is awesome. I've fallen in love with Alex the 'premium' Ukrainian wannabe American.
I absolutely loved this movie, a great one after a long long time...
Its been a while since I've seen an awesome movie that was based on a book, tis' usually the other way around
Now really looking forward to reading the book.

This from Wikipedia on the book, awesome lines :
The novel takes its title from a quote in Milan Kundera's novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being: "In the sunset of dissolution, everything is illuminated by the aura of nostalgia, even the guillotine." The passage refers to the philosophical idea that the greatest tragedies in life can only be experienced to their fullest if we are able to relive them.

Happy New Year?

Quite elaborate New Years plans this year...
Gettin tipsy begins at 5:30, after which is dinner at a friends (where Mala n me will be taking food cooked in our tipsy state)
Then is dinner, then come board games - Taboo, charades... which when you're us and are completely sloshed are very amusing to play... then is getting drunk some more and singing on the roads with dear ole Old Monk in our hands... probably go out somewhere...
Somewhere in between the clock shall strike midnight and we shall free ourselves of the ghosts of 2007 and look for newer troubles we can get into..
It will be good indeed.

First meal?

Yesterday was the first day I've cooked a fish in my life !! or vegetables for that matter... with a lil help from Mom o'er the phone from India the Pomfret turned out just fine, so did the lady fingers...
I mean Hey, I'm still alive after last nights dinner.
I've realised I quite like this independence and eventually it will be real hard to go back to living with other people in the same house.
I've also realised that I really miss singing 'My Bonny lies over the Ocean' on the top of my voice and annoying the living hell outta most people - its just not the same thing when you sing it alone.

Of Margaritas and pick up lines

Went to this place yesterday at Dempsey road and it had all the makings of an amusing Friday night.
Our cabbie who dropped us there suddenly yelped when he saw a sign that said “happy hours”. Its never a good sign when the cabbies do that to 3 girls in their cab, it means its only too obvious that we’re going to get completely sloshed that night and everyone already knows it. Oh well…
So we enter this place and we can see weirdly dressed people doing what I’m sure they thought was burning up the dance floor… some guy in almost opaque (I swear) white shades dancing with himself and the people in his head and a lotta other people who would have gotten a mention here had they had the charisma of our ubercool white shade man

We order 3 margaritas and tell the waiter to get them frozen, and one on the rocks…
Only to find our waiter hurry back apologetically to us 10 mins later telling us that the kitchen is closed after 11:30 and so we cant get any food, would we like to order drinks instead… After patiently explaining that the margaritas were drinks and not pizzas our humble waiter who’s first day at work it supposedly is, was pretty fast in getting us our drinks.
Then a lil while later we have these two 5 foot nothing pimply guys come up to ask with the weirdest pick up line I've heard so far “ Do you think tattoos are cool, cause his sister wants to get a tattoo with her boyfriends name on her arm and I don’t think so”… sigh… the next 10 mins went trying to get them to leave after they promptly got chairs and sat their asses down.

So I called my friend Mala who sat across from me and made it look like we were both on separate calls hoping they would get the hint, which they did. But not before departing with another gem he told Mala “ You know, you wont be able to pick up a lotta men if you’re on the phone all the time”…
This will be an interesting 2 years indeed….

Frozen Eggs

Frozen eggs !!!

Yes, have you ever heard of frozen eggs? The eggs in my refrigerator froze!! Really!!! I never knew that could happen. That they would freeze if the temperature was low. So I threw all the disgusting looking frozen eggs out (they look the same as normal eggs from the outside, but try cracking one and the lil disgusting sight that awaits you is, well, just plain ole disgusting
So I bought a dozen eggs again yesterday, and lo and behold… they bloody froze again..

See these are the things that mothers need to tell their children when they're gonna be living along.. mine didn't even know about frozen eggs until i told her

Getting Back in Action

SIN city doesn’t seem to be doing a lotta good for my dear ole Blog… I have had a thousand things in my head I’ve wanted to post here but there’s just been no time… now that I’m quite settled in…apartment found, coffee table and other shelves finally bought (the owner of the apartment is also Indian, so cheapo that he is, has only semi furnished the place… how can you not have a coffee table? Where was I supposed to be eating when I’m sitting on the couch and wanna put my feet up on non existent coffee table?? And what about shelves? I can’t leave things lying around on the ground (now there’s a thought) so everything is finally done now)
I’ve started cooking – well eggs and ham and anything to do with the eternally good Maggi noodles – all food is a combination of these 3 basic food groups – with orange Juice
I’ve started keeping my apartment clean – Mom, even you would be amazed that I can want to pick up my own clothes now
And thank God for the good ole usual wasted bums with me here in SIN – I’d be lost and lonely without them telling me that’s its already 6:00 pm and we need to catch up on the drinking….

What the Kaka

Its my friend Muna Darling's "Huppy Burthday" today (as all the lovely people say it in India)
So Muna Darling, here's wishing you a Happy Birthday, and hoping that you finally leave for Italian shores before the next birthday comes up. Since we're in different countries, this is the only birthday gift you're getting right now (I know I know cheapo I've become)
The Ketchup Girl n me will down some vodka for you..Greenapple, here we come

Monday morning blues

In a pretty uncoordinated state, so far, in Singapore. Wont blame the time lag, but I thinks its more the fact there's no one to keep a watch on my laziness and sleeping (or should I say waking) hours
Getting up just in time to hopefully make it for work means that all the jewellery, makeup and other things are usually dumped in the bag, so that I can do them in the cab on the way to work. I tie my shoes (buckle? What is the correct word?) Straighten my collar and the usual stuff that is needed to look decent that early in the morning in the cab. Only I think I forgot to wear one earring today, so I ended up going around work for half the day wearing one big earring loop - and the strangest thing, no one noticed..Sheesh

Live from Singapore…

My first week in Singapore over and done with, and I finally have the time to catch up on my blog and the rest of my life as it was in Bombay. So many things I wanna write about, trying not to make it a 100 pages long posting. Tis' will be the first of 104 weeks in Singapore.

First day was pretty good, received a warm welcome from my boss who took me n a friend around to introduce us to the city and stuff… for all those managers getting people from outside the city to their departments LEARN people !!! Most people can find their way around, but the gesture never goes unnoticed. As my friend Muna would have said – I have a (d)olly boss. Work has being good so far - the people are really nice, which obviously helps a lot.

But it’s my second week at work and I'm bored already… this seems like a lovely start to a long and unending two years of boredom and work… sigh. More work then boredom being where the problem lies.

Searching for houses now, lets see how that goes… I’m torn between a big house far away and a small house 5 mins away from the office. It’s a question of what will win – my laziness to travel or my love for that nice quiet house that a wee bit bigger.