Friday, January 30

strike a pose

in honour of the great day
that is friday (noworktmrday)
here are some random pics.


eating at Jewel of India, yummy mutton korma
and garlic nan!


clear, sunny skies...don't you just
love the beach


i was about to dive off the boat when i heard
there was jellyfish in the water... someone
caught (it died in the process) one and here they
were trying to resuscitate it.


this lil guy had me for a paparazzo for a sec

enjoy the wkend!

her morning elegance



i lovelovelovelovelove this video.
i thought of the music video for
chasing pavements when i saw
this initially but this is far more
innovative.

sometimes i feel like this is what
i look like when i dreaming as my
dreams are always so vivid and
active.

Wednesday, January 28

bookophila

i have been a bookophile
since birth pretty much.
my mom read to me while
i was baking in the oven
and i pretty much read
everything i could get my
hands on.

i've read the bible (twice),
skipping numbers the
second time. i read all my
mom's psychology books,
which sparked my interest
in abnormal psychology,
my dad's law, politics, history
theology books. everything
and anything.

today i was on amazon and
seeking out some of my childhood
favourites; books i read 10+ times.
Enid Blyton was a fav when i was
younger and i'm quite happy
with the collection i've amassed,
hopefully my own kids will love
reading as much as i did.



the magic faraway series was one
of my favourites growing up.



as for mary poppins, i couldn't
put a figure to the amount of
times i've read these books.

still one of my favourite hobbies,
except now i read ayn rand,
john grisham, tom clancy and
various foreign novels in english.

ciao

Tuesday, January 27

day one

yesterday was day one
at the gym. tmr should
be day two but since its
the bday of a very special
lady, i'll have to double up
on thurs and fri.

the wkend is looking quite
promising already, PM is
keeping a wine and cheese
tasting, which i thoroughly
enjoyed the first time.

anyway back to the gym.
being a ballet, gymnastics,
swimming and occasional
tennis girl for most of my
life, i've never really been a
reg gym member. now that
work has taken over and i
have no more time for any
of those things, i'm giving
the gym a try.

it was after some time on the
treadmill and in the weights
room that i realised i have zero
upper body strength.
nil zilch zip nada
none whatsoever.

so i guess thats my goal for the
gym. be able to do a couple pull ups
without grunting and squealing.


ooo and spinning looks fun...

Monday, January 26

wrong wrong wrong

high fenced hunting or canned hunting.
whatever the name it amounts to
the same thing. animals ranging from
deer and pheasants to lions and rhinos,
bred and/or bought to be hunted by
well paying hunting enthusiasts or
people who just like animal heads
hanging off their living room walls.

let me say first, that i'm bias to some
degree against hunting in general. i
have no issues with hunting if u eat
what u kill. i eat meat, im not an vegan,
and i don't have extreme views either.

i even get that people find great
pleasure in pursuing animals and killing
them, just for sport. don't agree with it but
each to his own. whatever.

i have an issue with canned hunting.
some of the animals are by no means wild,
often times they have been bred or sold
by circuses or zoos, so their defense and
survival instincts are questionable.
and then of course they are within an
enclosure that robbed them of a chance to
escape. This is a video of a lion being shot
against the fence in a canned hunt.
some of the proponents say that 300 acres
is enough area for it to be fair.

after reading a couple articles and getting
a lil riled up about it, i share my opinions
with the Mr. who said for it to really be
a fair hunt, they should go hunting in nothing
but their underwear.

basically it all comes down to ethics and
those vary widely in the hunting community
and those seeking to protect animals. this
article had to be the most neutral one i read,
and pretty much it says to respect other
people's rights to hunt in whatever way they
want. louis theroux of the bbc wrote this
well written, informative article.

my opinion is within the title of this post.

Friday, January 23

absence

funny how quickly time flies
when you feel as though
you're at death's door.

having been sick for the past
couple weeks with an on and
off fever and a harsh cough,
which led to laryngitis.
although i had no voice,
thats no excuse for not blogging
since a voice is not required but
i was too content to just become
a part of the couch and just
watch tv (House marathon) and movies
Doubt - watch it, good movie
Slumdog Millionaire - a def watch,
i like bollywood movies on a whole but i
was skeptical about the hype surrounding
this movie, but it was a great movie, loved it.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory -
no offense to Johnny Depp but this is my
preferred version. i love this movie,
nothing beats the original.

but my sick leave is now up
and i'm back in office with
a raspy voice, grateful that its
friday.

Tuesday, January 13

i ♥ food

i loooove food. three xtra Os don't
even justify it. i also like to watch
food oriented shows.

Top Chef


now in season 5, this show is
one of my favourites. i like the
competition aspect and the structure
of the show as well. each episode with
the exception of the finale starts with
a quickfire challenge where the chefs
are tested on their speed and ability
to come up with a dish appropriate to
whatever theme the producers decided.
now... it would probably take me 15 out
of the 30 minutes just to think of something
to cook.
the second challenge is often a group one,
which is where you usually see heads butt
as the chefs have different cooking
backgrounds and of course different
personalities so it makes for interesting tv.
its a fun show and i like to see what
they come up with.

Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations


i love this show. anthony bourdain travels
around the world and experiences the culture
and food of whichever country he's in.
its the culture part i like about this show,
i feel like the show depicts a true representation
of each country, even when he did his
jamaica episode i found it to be somewhat
well rounded. the uptown jamaica is always
left out of commercials and travel shows,
i suppose its not nearly as interesting for tourists
but the lack of depiction is the reason why
i have been asked if jamaicans all live in shacks
or even worse... trees. so it would have been
nice to see that but there's only so much
producers can fit into an hour after all.
exotic country, food and bourdain's
offhandish attitude makes for a good show.

andrew zimmern
on bizarre foods
(also on the travel channel) does the travel
and food bit as well but minus the culture
and i dont really want to watch him eat
bull's testicles or suck the brain out of a
suckling pig's skull. not my thing... at all.

lastly Iron Chef America


now this is just straight cooking.
a challenger chef selects one of the
iron chefs to cook against and they
have one hour to cook a minimum of
5 dishes, all incorporating a secret
ingredient. i learned recently that
both sides are given a list of 3-5
possible ingredients beforehand
so the challenge isnt as difficult
as it seems watching the show.
i like that the judges panel is a little
mixed and varies though 2 of the 3 judges
are always pro food critics.

perhaps my calling should have been
along the lines of food critic

(bored) at work

sometimes i feel like my job
is non existent. in speaking to
a friend, PM (whose job was
having her do breathing
exercises to bring back down
her blood pressure) i realised
how ridiculously easy my job is.

not complaining...just not
challenged...at all.


a lil idle over the wkend



climbed on top of my water tank to get a picture... he was so shy

Friday, January 9

the wkend :)


need i say more?

yet another day spent
at work with no work to do,
at least its friday or
noworktomorrowday.

glorious

my friend smurfette asked
me the other day after
looking over my blog what
exactly was the point of it...
most of the really good blogs
have some main theme,
its all about cupcakes,
travels, family, knitting etc
and i suppose mine doesnt
really have a focus but as the
title says its a little of my
everything.

so forgive my all over the placeness.

our group is doing a bbq on sunday
with a recipe concocted by yours truly
and will be prepared by the group chef
who i occasionally call perv in humour
but this week he's known as
chocolate rain!
(watch the vid, he's identical)

enjoy the wkend!

Thursday, January 8

colour me red


idling while there was no internet nor work yesterday

i read some time ago about
how the make-up early geishas
used to wear had severely
damaged their skin, because
of the lead in the cream they
used give them that snow white skin.

i dabbled in makeup a bit when
i was younger but it was nothing
more than eyeshadow, eyeliner,
maybe mascara.
now my make-up process is
reduced to lipgloss.

even now in our lead-free days,
i've noticed that women who
wear heavy make-up
consistently end up having to,
because their skin just doesn't
look the same anymore.

me personally i like to let
my pores breathe easy.

Wednesday, January 7

point a to b

i'm doing cartwheels and
backflips in my head over
the new car i'm planning to buy.

just need to decide what i'm
going to get first.



this is my old car, the 2007 suzuki swift,
same colour minus kit and with more
subtle rims.

now my budget is about 1.8 m which
works out to be about USD 23 gs.
so i have my eye on the below.

a mazda speed3

i've driven suzuki, kia, honda, mitsubishi,
dodge, no mazda.
no bmw, mercedes benz or audi either but
i'll leave those until after the house
has been paid for.

i'm still searching tho
wouldnt mind one of these


the search will continue on the
wkend when i'll have time to
actually go to the dealers.

tmr

Monday, January 5

4 days later



happy new year to all
i caught up on some
nightlife, celebrating and
partying as i haven't done
in a long time and the
flu bug bit me good and proper
but in spite of the sniffles and
fever, it was a great start to
the new year.

until tmr