of travels and travails

home for Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 06:48:00 +0000

It's almost Christmas time and it's a wonderful time to be home with the entire family! It's a bit last minute, but I still haven't got all my presents done as yet. But today, I found something really nice and traditional, something that is a bit different than the usual Christmassy presents. Well, it's certainly not loose diamonds or an iPod or anything like that, but it's a sweet thing to give a child. I've still got a couple of more gifts to buy and then some nice interesting wrapping paper and then I'll be done. It's nice to be home for Christmas!

photo: weekend morning

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:59:00 +0000

Reading about the local golf scene and drinking cold coffee with chocolate ice cream. Yummm! That's Lee Westwood on the cover...He won the Dubai World Championship a few weeks back, and although this was printed before the tournament finished, the title works very well still.

Getting ready to leave tomorrow for our trip. Not sure how much I will be online, or if I will even take my laptop with me this time.

This shot was taken on a sunny day, but today is hazy, dusty and gusty. A sandstorm is predicted for today, but right now it's just a weird yellowly feel to the sky and sand flying everywhere. Photos of the dusty conditions in Dubai today on a local blog.

photo: patterns

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 12:13:00 +0000

As a lot of you already know, I love noticing the light that streams into our home. In the desert of Dubai, having sunlight coming into one's home is not necessarily a good thing, but I simply love the energy that it brings with it. And thanks to living in the Middle East, I have started noticing and loving all the patterns one sees here. This one is the shadow of our window grill.

an incentive to buy....a camera or a tv?

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 12:09:00 +0000

We renewed our annual newspaper subscription this afternoon and are now looking forward to our coupons along with tomorrow's edition. Yes, the newspaper subscriptions here give you great deals for subscribing, and so we're going to get the same amount that we paid for the newspaper as coupons for two different stores...one a huge electronic store and another a clothing store. The electronic store one will be very handy indeed, since we were thinking of buying one of these new Samsung HDTV or a camera...well, I'm always on the lookout for a good camera but still haven't got around to actually buying one..oh well. Maybe this will spur me on!

our tile crazy landlord

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 12:04:00 +0000

We've lived in so many places, so many cities and have such different types of landlords. This one has been very enthused about making changes in our building, sometimes painting the exterior, sometimes installing some fancy looking glass tile in the entry hallway and at others descending with his team of workmen on the holidays to make as many changes and clean up stuff in the compound. Yes, he is a very different kind of landlord and we're very happy for that. But we all have to admit, he's a bit crazy when it comes to anything to do with tiles!

a new mantra

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 12:00:00 +0000

A tiny window in a traditional courtyard building in Bastakiya.

Yes, yes, since I mentioned it already...we're leaving on vacation in a few days so have been busy with getting everything sorted out and ready for our trip. It always seems that a hundred pending things all need to be taken care of all at the same time, and there's only so much that I can do, but this time around, I'm not getting hassled with all that I am not able to do, but instead am keeping happy with all that I have managed to do. A new mantra, a new way to live, and a new way to bring in the new year.

a new sink...no thank you!

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 11:56:00 +0000

It's been a bit crazy around here, with all sorts of work going on. The landlord got into high gear over the long holidays to get all the pending work sorted out with our recent problems with water leakage from the main line. At first he really didn't know what was going on, and neither did the series of plumbing chaps he brought with him, since the water seemed to leak from a variety of sources, but then he got into battle mode and decided to redo it all. And so we got new tiles in our bath and very nearly got some new Toto sinks and toilets that he was very keen to install, but we resisted since it would have just taken too long and caused too much chaos. Glad it's all done and over with before we head out for the holidays.

Blogging for social interaction

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 07:56:00 +0000

From the time that blogging started out, it really has come a long, long way. At first it was such a niche format, that one had to constantly explain to people what it was. I remember doing that when I started out blogging in 2004. There were so few blogs and many of them were rather technical and IT related. The interesting changes that have happened to blogging over the years is that they have become mainstream and that has led to a vast variety of blogs being written. The bulk of blogs now are personal blogs, where one can share one's thoughts and feelings.

I came across a site called Thoughts.com that offers users a free blog based on exactly this topic. A place to share thoughts and take part in social conversations, a place to interact with a larger community, and a place where one can automatically be updated on one's friends latest posts. You might say that a lot of other sites offer the same thing, but I think the difference here is that they have a lot more control over what information you want or don't want, which is really the key.

So along with the regular posts, there is also a section for users to post breaking news stories and where one can participate in discussions. It's a bit of a combination of blogging, social media sites and viral videos as well. I found their "one love policy" of being respectful to others very nice, since a lot of people find it a great joy to be rude to others while hiding under the anonymous tag.

recipe: Chocolate Mud Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:14:00 +0000

I wanted to make something special for the double celebration of my sister's anniversary and our brother-in-law's birthday. I found this recipe that I had saved in my Word files on my computer...for some reason I didn't write the source, and I just can't recall where I got it from. So, if you're the owner of this recipe, thank you so much.

** Edited to add: Ashwin dug up the source and here it is on Katja and Minna's blog Nestled In. **

I loved making it, it's really super simple, and it comes out really rich and dark, even though we don't get any chocolate labeled just "dark chocolate" as one does in the baking section in the US, just as one finds "semisweet" or "bittersweet" chocolates. Here, they are in cocoa percentages, so I selected a 72% dark chocolate for the cake and a 55% dark chocolate for the frosting. Next time, I think I will go for 60-65% for the cake.

Chocolate (mud) cake Recipe

Dough:
• 200 grams of butter
• 200 grams of dark chocolate
• 4 eggs
• 2 decilitres of sugar…200ml by volume
• 1.5 decilitres of wheat flour….150ml by volume
• 1 tea-spoon of baking powder
• 4 table-spoons of cacao powder (for baking)

Frosting:
• 150 grams of dark chocolate
• 1 decilitres of cream...100ml by volume
• 1 table-spoon of butter

1. Melt the butter in a pot and add chocolate. Mix until the chocolate has entirely melted.
2. Whip the eggs with sugar.
3. Mix the flour, the baking powder and the cacao powder.
4. Add the melted chocolate into the egg foam and mix carefully.
5. Strain the flour into the dough and mix (still, carefully).
6. Pour the dough into a cake tin (that is greased and dredged).
7. Bake about 45 minutes at 175° Celsius.

After the cake is ready, make the frosting.
1. Heat the cream in a pot (don’t let it boil!).
2. Add the butter and the dark chocolate.
3. Stir until the frosting is even.
4. Let the frosting cool for a while and then spread it on the cake.

And then dig in :-)

Pls don't call me

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:27:00 +0000

Don't you just hate it when some calling list gets hold of your number and you start getting bombarded with calls? It drives me nuts, absolutely nuts. Since yesterday, I've been getting calls for everything from life insurance rates to time share sales to AC repair services, and I'm halfway to the point of just changing my number to stop it all. I know, I know, it shouldn't require such dire measures, I should just be able to ask them to take my number of the list etc etc, but it doesn't seem to work like that here. What list, there is no list, there is no way to be unlisted from their list and so on, and then there's the thing of talking to people who barely understand English and trying to decipher what they're actually saying...Oh well, I needed to rant a bit.....feeling better already!

At the Dubai World Championship

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:34:00 +0000

We've had a busy weekend watching the Dubai World Championship golf tournament here in Dubai. We went to see them play two days...Day 1 and Day 3 (thursday and saturday) and it was a wonderful, wonderful event. We walked along with my home town golfer Jeev Milkha Singh on holes 17 and 18 and then followed Sergio Garcia and Robert Allenby on holes 14 and 15, before heading to Costa for a break and then heading back home. Other players we got to see up close were Lee Westwood, who eventually won the championship with a huge margin, Ernie Els, Ian Poulter, Henrick Stenson and many more.

Jeev Milkha Singh sizing up his 3rd shot on the 18th hole in Round 3...should have been his 2nd shot, but he duffed his tee shot to the rough on the left.

Spectators around the 13th green, a short par 4, as Sergio Garcia and Robert Allenby approached in Round 3.

Sergio Garcia getting ready to chip onto the green on the 13th green. Round 3

Spectators around the 13th green. This was on Day 1 of the tournament, so there were few crowds.

which dvd?

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:45:00 +0000

Have you switched to bluray DVD's as yet? We haven't and quite frankly I'm quite sick of figuring out which the right direction to go is. I mean, one could invest in one of these players and later on realize that oh well, this technology is not going to be the one that is going to be around after all. The different brands are just making it too confusing for the average consumer, who is not all that interested in the technical details but just wants to watch a good movie at home. Simple as that!

and on it goes....

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:40:00 +0000

As usual the debate continues on what the best way to lose weight is. The other day I was flipping channels and came across a discussion on the best weight loss supplements. Hmmm, information from first hand users I thought, let's see what they have to say! Well, it really wasn't that exciting or informative. Pretty much everyone seemed to have tried several different products and several had overlapped usage, so there really wasn't a definitive answer on what the best one was. Oh well, so that turned out to be a bit of a time-waster!

winter or spring? I'm confused!

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:58:00 +0000

Sometimes it feels like we live in the Southern Hemisphere! As winter nears, it actually feels more like Spring. We have our windows open during the days, the curtains fluttering in the wind, the birds chirping happily outside. The light coming into the house has changed as well....here it is in this shot in the late afternoon...contrasting with the light of the lamp in the bedroom. I love the warmth of this rug...it's one of our few touches of winter in the midst of a spring like feel.

And we started our bbq season last weekend! Several of our neighbors dropped by the see what we were up to and many got ideas of doing some bbq-ing themselves! I didn't take any shots during the bbq...too busy cooking and eating actually! Maybe next time!

traveling to London?

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:50:00 +0000

Traveling overseas can be stressful for a lot of people, especially if you're traveling on business and have a ton of things to take care of while you're away, work related and of course the never ending shopping list from home as well! Well, the one thing that can make your life simpler when you're traveling to London is using a car hire service, such as Harmony Cars that specializes in airport shuttles as well as chauffeur car hires.

As someone who has been using a similar service in Dubai for the past 2+ years, I know just how convenient it is. Most people don't bother to even consider the option of a car rental along with a driver, but if you're in a new city it can really make things a lot simpler. You certainly don't end up wasting time driving around looking for addresses, for sure.

From what I've seen of the reviews, Harmony Cars seems to be of the more professional companies that deal in car hire services. Of course, everyone has different experiences, but overall the average user has recommended this company. For one they seem to have a good range of cars available for all kinds of users, business and leisure, so even if you're traveling with kids, you will be able to find a suitable vehicle. Good luck for your travels, and oh by the way, this was a sponsored post!

list: what? November already!

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:33:00 +0000

It's November,

*time to relish the cool breeze and warm sunshine.
*to enjoy sitting outdoors in the evening with chilled glasses of skanjvi.
*to dig out my barbeque recipes, clean the grill and go shopping for bbq feasts.
*to keep the windows open and let the fresh air in and see the curtains flying in the breeze.
*to finalize plans for the winter vacations.
*to enjoy long walks in the park by the creek and lazy strolls on the beach.
* and so much more

time to call the plumber :-(

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:03:00 +0000

Oh dear, nothing as tiresome as plumbing problems is there? My landlord is not going to be happy but then it's his job to get these things fixed. Last week, water leaked from the upstairs bath out onto the lamp on the outer wall, right outside our bath and the maintainance chap just can't figure out what's going on. Since the new people upstairs have moved in, there have been a series of problems. I wonder what all changes they have made up there, like did then install a jacuzzi or walk in tubs or some such thing? I do hope that it gets sorted out and that our bath is left intact.

quote: time for everything yet nothing at all

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:50:00 +0000

"I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see."
-John Burroughs

keeping life interesting!

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:57:00 +0000

Ever since we moved here and got our landline installed, we've been getting wrong numbers. And it's not just for any one person or company, we get them for 2-3 companies. One of them is a lawyer's office, something that deals with stuff like one of these Bronx medical malpractice lawyer firms I suppose.

How do I know all this, because the secretary is most willing to give out information of all sorts whenever she calls. As much as we keep telling them that it's not the right number and that we've had this number for over 2 years, they still call back. Interestingly, once I got a call from a gentlemen who said that our number was printed on a business card that was given to him a day before he called. He was most surprised to find that it was the wrong number and that the gentleman who gave it to him did not even know about it.

Giving a room a glow

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:16:00 +0000

I always enjoy researching and looking up new and interesting ways of building houses and interior design, especially on our travels. We were in Washington DC in the summer of 2008 for a family gathering and a wedding and I noticed that a lot of the newer houses there had some something called Travertine tiles installed. Travertine is a natural stone that comes from southern European countries like Italy, Greece and Turkey. The stone has a smooth and creamy texture.

Travertine has been used to build several important buildings in history, with the Coliseum being the most famous one built with it. Apart from Travertine, Accent Glass Tiles can also add to the architectural detail and design. These are a good alternative to ceramic tiles, although the cost is slightly more. Glass Accent tiles are also great for small spaces since they give a "glow" to a room, as they add depth and make the area luminous. These tiles score high marks for durability so offer good value for money.

weekend funnies of a different kind

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:09:00 +0000

The people here love to read advise columns of all kinds. The weekend papers and magazines have several of them, from legal advice to career planning, ayurvedic solutions with acne products, doctors diagnosis columns and so forth. I like to read the legal one, since it always has some question or the other about visa issues or landlord hassles, all stuff that one really needs to keep a tab on for one-selves, but the other ones are really quite complicated and convoluted. But it does make for funny reading!

oh for god's sake!

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:02:00 +0000

Since I love to go out for walks and am slim built, I often get asked about my reason for walking. Some people outright ask me if it's part of some weight loss diet kind of plan. No, No, No. I just love to walk, can't it be as simple as that. Walking is a habit for me, right from the time I joined boarding school at the age of 8 and 1/2. We had to walk or march everywhere, up and down slopes to the dorms, to the class rooms, to the dining hall, to the playing fields and so on until it became part of me. It's as simple as that.

Sorry, to cut the post short, but I'm off to make a sign that says all this and carry it around when I walk...maybe that will work as weightlifting too :-)

on a morning walk

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:11:00 +0000

Morning walks are something that I have really enjoyed in Dubai. Apart from June to mid September, one can really enjoy the early morning time here. I like to go really early, just after sunrise, so I can have a good 25-30 minutes of walking before the sun comes up over the buildings. It's also nice to go early to avoid the morning rush hour and the school buses, which ruin the tranquility with their impatient horns.

There are all villas in the area we live, all single or double storey homes, with high walls and elaborate gates, which makes it quite interesting to walk and admire or gasp in horror at the sights. There are also a large variety of bougainvillea bushes, oleander, jasmine, plumeria and other flowering shrubs for me to refresh my eyes and take photos.

Here are some shots of my walk a few days back. The strings of light decorations are the typical decor for weddings here.

the price of looking good?

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 08:15:00 +0000

At the grocery store the other day and in my shopping cart, I found someone elses list! How interesting, I thought, I wonder what all she bought! And innocently hidden amongst the lettuce and suntan lotion was an entry for diet pills. Hmmm, I thought, I just can't seem to go anywhere without being bombarded left, right and center with these things.

Everyone knows about the Dubai Stone, the weight that all expats put on after moving here, but then it's also a very looks conscious city and people who look good do get better paid jobs, perks and all the stuff that comes with it, but the obsession with looks can wreck havoc on one's health...but then who's bothered about that...most of the people who come to work here are young and could not be bothered about it at all!

re-post: My beloved A2

noreply@blogger.com (Shalini) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:56:00 +0000

Old wine bottles in the kitchen windowsill of our Bombay apt.

We moved from Bangalore to Bombay in February 2005 and after loving everything about Bangalore, I had a hard time settling into life in Bombay. My blog was a place of lots of rants from that time, thankfully not many people came to my blog those days and some of the rants have since been removed :-)

I was working after several years and I simply hated the commute, till I started traveling on the A2, which is the ac bus that travels through Lokhandwala to south Bombay along Linking Road. As someone who'd never used buses before, I was excited to do the Bombay thing and use public transport. The A2 stop was quite close to our apt in Tarapore Gardens in Lokhandwala and my workplace in Khar was right next to the stop as well, so it was quite perfect.

Here's the post I wrote on 13th May, 2005 as I was adjusting to the city of Bombay.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Initially, one of the worst things about living and working in Bombay was the terrible commute. So much time wasted each day going and coming, that could be used more productively. I used to dread the commute so much that it overtook my life and my job as well. I just could not deal with the crowds, the smells, the heat and the endless traffic.

The AC bus has been my savior. Now, I look forward to this part of my day, as it has become my reading time. Since I started traveling on the A2, I have been able to finish a book every 2 weeks. Its incredible how this turnaround happened. I love my 40 minutes of private reading time that I get each way to and from work. It is what makes me realize that after all the initial struggle, I too am beginning to balance and juggle home and work in this chaotic city.

Reading is my passion and not being able to read on a daily basis makes me cranky and irritable. My other passion, Crosswords, have not fared as well, as the roads are too bumpy and traffic too chaotic to do them.

I just finished reading a very interesting book called Ragtime in Simla by Barbara Cleverly. Its in the vein of MM Kaye's Murder in Kenya. Set in the 1920's, the events slowly unfold to tell the story of a murder that takes place on the road to Simla at Devil's Elbow, just after Tara Devi, where one gets the first sight of Simla. I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of the landmarks and buildings of Simla as I am familiar with them and it brought back lots of memories. The people of Simla, the culture, the levels of society, the importance of gossip to this town have come through well. Overall, a recommended read.