Yellow Yellow Dirty Fellow

It was "Yellow Day" at school and we were told to send a yellow object each with the kids.
Ojas & Tejas took a yellow tiffin box and a yellow car shaped crayon.
We decided to follow the theme of the day and played a game of "spot the Yellow" on the road.
And that was not too difficult because the road was infested with bright yellow autos. (Next time we do a difficult colour).
We also spotted yellow trucks, yellow van (exactly like the one in their book), building, clothes, numberplates, boards, bus and even stopped to spot the tree full of yellow flowers.
and to fit the theme, we picked up a yellow flower each to present to the teacher who was also wearing yellow.

And by the way- Quick Gun Murugan- Silly, nonsensical, hilarious and total fun. Go watch it!

Another Milestone Crossed

Learned to look through the keyhole.... check

Gifted A Plant

To me....
As promised the pictures of the Purple Orchids and Adenium that AD gifted to me...

Kreeda - Parama Pada Sopanam

We had fun playing the Traditional Style Snake & Ladder gifted by Rohini

A lovely collectible game painted on a thick cloth with metal dice set and wooden "gotis" housed in a cloth pouch, and a printed list of rules which are different from the usual snake & ladder.
Some links on the history of the game

1. history of the numbers

2. Interesting posters from various countries

3. Mathematics of the game- Markov chain

Signs of a Commited/ Incorrigible Blogger

1. When you ask the blogger about a dinner or an event or a party, (s)he will more often than not tell you - I have already posted about it, read it on the blog".
2. The blogger will have posts organised and scheduled for auto posting and at any given point of time there are atleast 3 posts on schedule and many more on draft.
3. The said committed blogger will be on the look out for blogging opportunities at all times and be fully prepared with camera / phone camera always. Often will fret for days if a photo was missed and therefore the post is not complete in her/ his opinion. If anonymous, will take care to click pictures in profile or with face hidden so that it is bloggable. At some points, will never have proper photos- only bloggable ones.
4. Will chide close friends and relatives for not visiting and commenting on the blog.
5. Will forward related posts to relevant people - just incase they haven't already read it.
6. Will be ever-ready to go for experiences or take time from busy schedule to explore a little know store or even organise stuff for the sake of blogging.
7. Will note down blogworthy stuff for posterity if the computer is not handy at that moment.
8. Will be such a committed scribe that even friends will say- never mind, I will check the blog tomorrow to know what happened (in the party)
9. When asked on dates of some milestone or incident, the blogger will not try to recall, instead, will straight check in the blog for the details.
10. Will do craft work/ cooking/ open gifts stage wise and keep photographing every stage for the sake of the blog post.
11. It will serve as an alternate means of communication - may even be easier to elicit a response via the blog than the phone from the blogger

Add on to the list please....

Word Challenge

Played- on a difficult to get sleep night with the kids. Word antakshari.
Started with A for Apple, passed on the last letter to the other one- E for...
I was surprised that the words that were thrown up were not the common ones that we normally tell when we are playing A for, B for...
A for Astronaut, D for Dinosaur, Y for yellow, W for water, M for Money, R for Rainbow, V for Volcano, T for Teddy, ...
We came to R for and Ojas had to answer
Tejas- hints- that which we wear on the finger
Ojas- ring

Then question to Tejas- G for
Ojas hints- that which we wear on hands
None of us could guess- Gloves

We had run out of words for T so I hinted- where you go susu
Tejas- delighted- BED!

I had a calendar with scented strips. Exposed the kids to the odours and I loved the way they could relate to the various odours- A floral rose smell was identified as "cream" by Ojas (Pond's?) Citrus was identified as juice (Tejas) And lavender as "deo"!
I am pretty chuffed that way!

Tantalising Taj

Andy & I had an enormous buffet lunch yesterday at the Taj Coromandal. Note the orchids on coal. But I do not have to lust after orchids anymore. I have some of my own now courtsey Andy! (Thank You)- detailed pics of the "potted plant gifts" will be shared later!

The Shubharambh was with the assortment of cheese (I love this part) and animal salads-

cheddar, gouda, salmon (fishy cheese- the one with the maroon layer on top) and the bright red one below (very alcoholic and ugh). Lamb, chicken and salmon cold cuts. The goblet has a single prawn with lotsa cheese dip & cabage- called prawn cocktail. The spoon has fish wrapped in spinach leaf and the bowl has fish again. Together with iced tea/ fruit cocktail- fantabulous!

Next we attacked the main course- more animal- dimsums, fish, chicken, (no lamb :((), potatoes- tandoori, kashmiri, you name them, we took them, and even paneer (not so great).

I even took 2 rounds of dahivada which provided tangy relief in between animals. If you are looking for rotis on my plate- they are not there. But Andy did try the chicken biriyai & tendeloin!

The grand finale the desserts-a s usual there was a sugarfree dessert too! I am repenting- there was a yummy sinful looking payasam that I did not take. I should have gone and loosened the churidaar strings while I was at it.

The tiny cup is chocolate-caramel tequila!! The large goblet is a chocolate/ vanilla souffle kind of thing- droolicious why didn't I take another one! damn this stupid stomach.

And all this was laced with gossip that began from 1.30 pm and went on till 6 pm!

Prize Milaa

Thank you Print Lover for your tag & award. Honestly I am touched by what you have to say about me.

" Her posts are short and laced with humor. A free flow of words. No over-analyzing."

Coincidentally my aunt recently said the same thing about my writing- free flow!

The tag now...

1. What is your current obsession? cleanliness
2. What are you wearing today? my attitude......salwar suit what else

3. What’s for dinner? eggs maybe, ah well definitely

4. What’s the last thing you bought? medicines

5. What are you listening to right now? sound of A/C
6. What do you think about the person who tagged you? funny, talented, artistic

7. If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be? does it have a garden?

8. What are your must-have pieces for summer? mangoes

9. If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go? Paris

10. Which language do you want to learn? of the Mind

11. What’s your favorite quote? KLPD

12. Who do you want to meet right now? The husband- I am spoiling for a fight
13. What is your favorite colour? Black
14. What is your favorite piece of clothing in your own closet? my black trousers that don't fit anymore

15. What is your dream job? a job is a job with any prefix..so does not matter

16. What’s your favorite magazine? Tinkle
17. If you had $100 now, what would you spend it on? Rs 5000? usse kya hoga

18. What do you consider a fashion faux pas? matching matching
19. Who are your style icons? anyone who can look styilish without extra effort

20. Describe your personal style.? currently? churidar & short kurta
21. What are you going to do after this? Press Publish

22. What are your favorite movies? my standards are not very high that way

24. What are three cosmetic/makeup/perfume products that you can’t live without? lipstick, lipstick, lipstick...I can miss out the rest but never the lipstick
23. What inspires you? Food

24. What do you carry in your bag? That's a post in its own right

25. What do you do when you “have nothing to wear” (even though your closet’s packed)? wear the one in which all parts of the set are traceable first

26. Coffee or tea? cold coffee
27. What do you do when you are feeling low or terribly depressed? Pick a quarrel with the husband
28. What is the meaning of your name? Moniker? obviously wants to keep writing

29. Which other blogs you love visiting? see blogroll

30. Favorite Season ? Winter where I live ... there is no winter here

I tag

Phoenix Ritu

Dipali

Mad Momma

Rohini

Sue

Chocolate Check

I did promise I would tell you what I was doing a day before my birtthday

Long ago, back in college, I was out with friends on my birthday. We happened to come across a cae festival going on in one of the hotels. We all walked in and had a fun time feasting on all varieties of cakes. Maybe the cakes were not very tasty - not as tasty as the truffles or black forest you get in hot breads or coffee day etc. But the experience was such fun that I always wanted to do it again.

That day since the hubby and I had decided we are not meeting on my birthday, and a group of us had the opportunity and the idea, so we went on a chocolate trek. Knowing fully well that I am not going to be getting any cake that night.

We went on a dessert parlour walk- just like in US one does a pub walk- moving from one pub to another as per the trail.

We did La Boulangerie in Harrisons, Maple Leaf & French Loaf and Ecstacy and ended with Mocha Mojo.

Dark chocolate is the one that's most happening now and so are concept chocolates like black forest.

Another very inetresting trend I noticed was deconstruction.
So a black forest deconstruction was a cup of chocolate, with chocolate paste, cherry paste and vanilla cream topping. And interesting thing is that they are most delicious when eaten in combination.

(Ok so I am going to make rice daal and call it khichri deconstruction or daal, veggies & gunpowder and call it sambhar deconstruction)

Another interesting observation was the presentation- especially in Ecstacy and Mocha Mojo, the cutlery is a wow...the kinds that you want to slip in your bag when no body is noticing!

This is the Flake cake in Ecstacy (Sathyam)- a choco mousse with caramel icecream. The line of chocolate is part of the presentation. Not a smudge as one may tend to think.

What I have not yet confessed is that once we reached Mocha Mojo, the retro coffee place, I took one look at the menu that included chocolate based shakes like Ferrero rocher shake, Mars shake etc and ordered a pepper chicken plate while a friend ordered a Thai red curry Maggi.. (Yes Maggi..and I swear it was the most delicious one even for a non-Maggi-eater-as-a-rule - better made than the chicken

Ok and offcourse seeing the crowd in such places, I felt positively ancient.

Am I Getting Older?

Am I the only person in these and other parts who did not like Love Aaj Kal?
I cannot pinpoint why. The story line was a tried and tested one. The execution idea was nice-the email connect, long distance relationship... the way Rishi Kapoor's (he is a dear) life & Saif's life were juxtaposed. Then why did I not like it? And not that I have very high standards. remember I am the girl who loves chicklit/flick.
It was not a patch on jab we met for instance which I can watch any number of times. Maybe I did not like Deepika's jabbering. Or maybe I was not in a receptive mood.
I also watched Fashion & Dasvidaniya - finally and ahem, liked them.