Alien feelings

The feelings are very alien, very weird and mixed! End of day 1 in my "own" house and I can't feel a thing that supports that fact.

I will not pretend that all the feelings are in the neighbourhood of happiness.

There is surprise that a structure of walls, columns, beams and bricks - a blank canvas can convert into something beautiful and a work of art.

There is worry about the sheer amount of work involved to keep a house clean. True for any size, shape, style of a home.

There is disappointment about the way some of us humans behave, the greed we display for money, for more, for anything extra or free. The kharcha-paani that every delivery or installation person wants even though the sales receipt and customer service says delivery and installation are free of cost ma'm!

The shock when a lady who comes to help do a one-time, one-day only, clean up of the place, which has already been properly cleaned once, asks for Rs 600/- to do a round of sweeping and mopping and no other actual cleaning and refuses to budge till that amount is given.

The feeling of being let down by the shoddy work done by some groups of workmen, with the taps leaking at places, the doors coming off at hinges, the paint peeling off (already???). What happened to good work ethics, quality of work and doing one's job properly?

The feeling of slight regret at the thought that maybe I should have gone with a big interior contractor/firm to do get all the work done. Maybe the final quality and look of the work could have been better. The could-have-beens and if-onlys just add to it.

The hope that all these niggles and hiccups will be gone eventually and things will work smoothly.

The pleasure of lovely views, night time city lights, cool breeze, warm hearts and sun drying clothes.

The joy when things like newspaper delivery, laundry collection, milk delivery and car wash are all taken care with one phone call.

The belief that all things that are meant for you shall come to you - in one way or another! So do what you want to and life will gently tread you towards the path meant for you, towards people you are supposed to meet, towards places you are supposed to go to!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Addicted!!

So this whole house building, setting up, decorating process is a tough one I tell you. It takes a lot out of you, mentally more than physically. Choose this, choose that, find this, track that. 
What helps with it? A relaxing day at the spa! Seriously! It does.

Pic courtesy http://bergenlinen.com/

The kid's school hasn't started and I couldn't leave him anywhere to go out to a spa. Then I heard about The Bangalore Mobile Spa. 

They come to your place and offer the same services as you would get in a regular salon spa. 
I will admit I was a little reluctant initially about the doing-this-at-home thing. I wondered if it would be as relaxing as the real go-to-a-spa experience. Also it was a bit of anxiety associated with trying out a new thing, place or meeting someone new. 
But I went ahead and called them up. For me the customer experience starts from the reception desk itself and I was impressed with the way the person on the phone handled the call. She was courteous, clear and confident. She checked on my location and told me she would get back after checking with her manager if they can service this location. And call back she did! They gladly agreed and booked an appointment for the next day :) 

I was sent an invoice via email with the services and charges listed. The next day they kept me informed via sms about any time related updates, which was good to know. 
The team came on time and started setting up the equipment. They took a few minutes and voila the whole spa atmosphere had been set up! Music, candles and rose petals. Who would've thought all this was possible at home while watching the kid play.
The next hour and a half was absolutely blissful. I got a pedicure done - their summer special, the heel peel and for someone with cracked, dry heels it is a sure shot treatment. Loved the clean, smooth look after the pedicure. Also got a hair spa done, my first ever, after hearing from friends how hair spas had helped improve the quality of their hair. The head, neck and back massage that was done as part of the hair rejuvenation was awesome.
The team was efficient, quiet and experts in what they were doing. Once everything was done they cleaned the place and wrapped everything up. I paid by cash against the invoice amount and added a tip.
Loved the whole experience and I am totally going to do this again and again. The mobile spa offers some great services including facials, pre natal and post partum packages, hair treatments and some yummylicious body polish options.
Rubina, the owner, was very sweet and generous to send a coffee body scrub which was heavenly and left my body feeling soft! Super soft. It was an exfoliating scrub with dark roasted organic ground coffee beans and chocolate enveloped in cocoa butter. Usually scrubs tend to leave skin dry but this one was different. 

I am totally addicted to the service and the products and am going to be booking another appointment soon :) Do check them out on their website or their Facebook page and schedule that appointment in the comfortable surroundings of your home!

This post is a part of the Blog-a-Prompt week at Marathon Blogging. Today's prompt is Addiction!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Road Trip Day 4 & 5 - Sun city, Blue city - Jodhpur!

We loved Jodhpur! Period! It looked great, and has expanded well in the last 20 years. The Jodhpur part of the trip was very nostalgic. We visited the house we stayed in, the school where mom taught, dad's office and the school where me and my sister studied for 2 years. It felt like replacing a photographic memory with the actual image.

My sis and me in the school campus in the pic below. Most of it was the same with a few additions, a fresh paint job and a new play yard. The current principal was happy to see us and told us to look around and take pictures :)

After that we did our round of shopping, yes we are pretty incorrigible that way! Ended up buying some bandhej and lehriya sarees, some handloom stuff and some souvenirs for gifts. In my defense I did not own a single Rajasthani saree before this :) 

There is this road in Jodhpur city, called Nai Sadak, and it was our regular shopping haunt during our earlier stay. We headed back there and had mirchi vada, matar kachori, pyaaz ki kachori and mawa barfi - all of Rajasthan's local specials. 

Out of the local tourist destinations we chose to re-visit Mehrangarh fort. I had images from earlier visits to the fort in my head - the blue coloured houses as seen from the fort, the huge looming fort structure and flights of pigeons!!
It has been maintained really well and has been done up well in terms of a tourist destination. The signs are easy to read and well explained. The guards are tourist friendly, seem well educated and can talk in Hindi and English in addition to their local language. There are cafes and very clean restrooms inside the fort (a rare sight in most tourist destinations in India). It was a great experience and I can visit this place again!!

We left for Bikaner around lunch time on Day 5. Reached there at about 7:30 pm. This was a good drive - the roads were pretty decent except a few stretches. Again not too many places to eat but as we got closer to Bikaner things got better. 

Day 6 - the last day post coming up soon... 

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Rajasthan by road!

I have been travelling across countries and within India since last December. It started with the Sydney-Thailand trip last Christmas, followed by the move to India in Jan this year.
Once in India, I spent some time in Faridabad, Delhi, Bathinda, Bangalore and Chandigarh. Not more than a week anywhere though!
At first I thought I would get tired of the living-out-of-a-suitcase and getting-used-to-new-accommodations part very soon. But it has been pretty OK. It helps that the kid has grown up, relatively speaking, and is in general cooperative about seeing new places and meeting family (new people for him).

The next travel bit is a road trip to Rajasthan. It starts tomorrow and we plan to go from Bathinda, in Punjab to Jaipur, Ajmer, Jodhpur and Bikaner, in Rajasthan. We have stayed in Jodhpur for 3 years when my father was posted there while he was serving in the Army. I was 10 years old then.  We did travel across Rajasthan that time too and so a lot of memories will be revisited.
The road trippers include me, N, my sister, mother and father. Dad wanted to take the family out for a trip. According to him it is not very often that we get together like this and so this is a perfect opportunity :) Both his sons-in-law are away on their own business/work trips. So it's just the 5 of us. I will try to do a daily post with the highlights and if possible (network speed permitting) daily pictures.

6 days, 5 nights, some 1350 kms, 4 grown ups, 1 kid and a Scorpio.
The music is ready, maps have been printed, bags packed, car loaded and munching stuff collected.
Now it is get, set and go in the morning!!  Looking forward to it!! :)

This picture was taken in Sydney downtown. It represents movement, travel, activity and buzz to me. Life is like this - it doesn't stand still, even if we do!!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Day 3 - Gift paper love

We all have those quirks that define us. Some small, some big. 

I have traits that make me "me". One of them is that I have a photographic memory for birthdays and anniversaries (the ones I want and need to remember). Some of my friends admit to relying on me to remind them about common friends' birthdays. They say they don't need a calendar, they have me :) 

My other quirk is gift wrapping paper!! 

 I have a thing for it. I hoard it. Shhh! I just can't help walking over to the gift paper section in a store in a zombie like trance. And I keep adding to my collection, under the watchful eye of my now-very-vigilant husband. Every time I buy a new one, he does try to remind me that I have a dozen of them at home already. But this addiction is hard to get rid of. I swear I am trying my best though.

My friends and even some of my neighbours know that if they have a wrapping paper crisis they can come to me. I always have something or the other available. Always!!

I have this one which is perfect for a little-man aka pre-school boy's gift with robots, gifts and balloons. A gift tag from Templetree, Bangalore with an alien space ship to go along. 

This one is simple and blue (yay!) and I have these perfect little message tags/cards to go along with it (again from Templetree). 

Gift bags are elegant too, with a matching or contrasting colour of tissue paper inside. Sigh! How I love those pretty gift bags stuffed with crinkly tissue paper inside (I know, I know, I am beginning to sound crazy now). 

Want some tags to go along with that? 

And this one is one of my favourites. It's stamps of different colours, sizes, shapes on a basic brown sheet. I love basic brown sheets coz there is so much you can do with it. And I have message cards for this one too! 

This one below is the latest in my collection. Spotted it the other day and could not resist buying it. Ain't it cute? I love those tiny shoes. Perfect for that girlie gift!!

I like wrapping gifts nicely and could do it all day long. Who doesn't love a neatly nicely wrapped present?  Now all I need to do is make a career out of it ;) 

Happy Monday!!

P.S. - This post is part of Day 3 of The Marathon Blogging_Dec 2012 event. 

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

N turns 4 and a tad cuter and wiser!

N turned 4 last week and with that S and I breathed a sigh of partial relief. Yay!! we made it through the terrible threes. But wait what might the 4s bring?
Then I read somewhere - " If 3-year-olds are busy, inquisitive, and fun, 4-year-olds are all that, magnified — yet with a budding maturity, self-control, and understanding of rules that help make life a bit calmer." I hope so. 
The 3s have been very demanding. But I can already feel the 4s being more pleasant :) 

When we were talking about how he would like to spend the day. He didn't really have a list of wants. He did not mention the word party. But he continued to scan every toy/gizmo/vehicle around him and let us know that he would like to get it as his birthday gift.  He was told to choose any 2 things - one from mum, one from dad. He did spend a lot of time thinking about what to choose using the phrases "Thinking", "Still thinking", "Still Still thinking" and ultimately chose some decent (subjective, I know!) gifts. On the actual birth day, we took him to an indoor soft play area that he loves. It was bright, colourful and happy and N enjoyed it with friends. 

We were reading a book a few nights before his birthday. It was about a boy named Angus who shares food from a goods train with people who need it rather than the rich and full, royal family. We do the "What did you learn/like/dislike discussion for the books we read?" And so N said "Mamma, it is a good thing to share things with people who don't have them. I would do that." That motivated me to walk in to my local soup kitchen/community kitchen for people who don't have homes, here in Wellington and I asked about what kind of donations they accept. They said pretty much anything was welcome. I asked N if he would love to share some of his birthday cake with them. He liked the idea!! So we ordered a big cake... 

... and decided to donate it to the soup kitchen after the party. We went to the kitchen after his birthday party and the staff and volunteers there were pleased and wanted to show N the place. His favourite part was the huge walk-in freezer, as big as our master bedroom. 

May the sharing and kind spirit continue. God bless you N!! 

I love this poem by Kahlil Gibran and I hope I can follow it while raising N.

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

~ Source here

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Spring is here!

Well almost here! So while the rest of the world gets ready to face fall/autumn, here in New Zealand spring is about to start. The weather is Wellington though just seems to be the same. Even though the temperatures are slightly higher, it is a lot more windy than the winter. But the silver lining in the cloud is that for the first time ever since I came here I was brave enough to venture out in 2 layers instead of 3.

Glimpses of a few spring must-dos

Eat strawberry gelato from our favourite gelato shop in the city.

Spend time at the waterfront watching sail boats, speed boats and kayaks. This picture was clicked by N *proud mommy moment* He has been showing a lot of interest towards the camera. 

Catch those tiny new greens popping up on bare trees post-winter. 

Swing in the park and fly high in the sky! 

Go for hiking and get to see awesome, picturesque landscape. 

Go to the beach and get dirty :) 

Get some spring flowers to brighten up your day!!

Linking this as my photography to Made with Love Party hosted by these wonderful blogs - Patty at Colours Dekor, Cerys at Rainy Day Mum, Angie at The Magic of Play and Rashmie at Mommy Labs.

Have a great week ahead. Love!!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad