and its done!

Cant believe how fast time flies!

I have already come to the end of my B.Ed.... keep thinking this is a dream, and I'm going to wake up and it will be time to go for the inauguration ceremony...

As I sit in my sari, waiting to leave, this past year has been filled up highs and lows, laughter and tears and everything else which comes as a side order with LIFE!

Today is the Valedictory ceremony, we dint take part in the official college convocation ceremony because our semester started later. So next year May if I'm still in Bangalore, I will do the walk, with the whole gown hat etc.

But for now this is my graduation!!!! I know I still have my exams left, but this a big deal! I did it!

Survived!!!!

Christ University is interesting to say the least. It was hard to get back to the whole being a student thing and especially in a place which is such a stickler for rules and regulations..

Looking back at my blog, I realize I never really did a post on college life etc.

Well here goes :)

Being a student was fun again, but honestly I like being on the other side of the table. And now my degree allows me to do that! Can you say Teacher aunty?

I took part in my fair share of events in college - Mono Act, Dumb Charades (yes I am the drama diva)

I became the official designer for the department, worked on the newsletters, brochures, posters etc for the School of Education.

Thanks to all my experience in Kodai and BY's amazing design skills I did learn some thing...

We went on trips, we attended classes, we bunked classes, we submitted assignments (late but never the less), went to the library, googled every thing!

Made friends with people I never expected to do!

All in all, apart from what I was taught in class I learnt a lot...

learnt how to use the Indian loo! (seriously major accomplishment!)

learnt how to wear a sari (properly and now can say I can put on a sari in 8 minutes!)

felt domesticated at times - making my lunch, packing it, watering the plants all in a sari...

felt like crap at times

Frustrated at times...

But overall I'm happy its done!

Dee, Pinks, WC and N came for the function! Surrounded my friends and family I am happy.

While every one else brought one or two guests I came with my whole posse and as one of the teachers very politely put it "They are quite the lively bunch aren't they?"

From taking a million pictures to hooting every time my picture came up on the screen, it was a fun day..

After which we went to our favourite watering hole, High Note for a lovely lunch.

The party continued on at WC's place in the evening, going into the early hours of the morning (as usual :))

I finally came home today 5 days later, after hours of WII and cooking for the boys, the past week has been a blast..

Toodles from the graduate

Happy Tuesday

Celebratory lunch at High Note

Bring on the drinks :)

Lookie here, I won some thing :)

Student teachers of Mary Immaculate School

Teaching aids, a teachers best friend!

and what a weekend it was...

Ah Monday nights, enjoying some down time, with Chinese food, chilled beer at home... this weekend has been packed to say the least!

Friday night, I was official baby sitter for Akku and we had quite the blast. Watched a movie, made Dee's birthday cake and chilled :) I got done with that at 11 and headed to WC's house for what I thought was a quiet evening of poker with the

guys... Walked in the house to find 25 people there and the party in full swing.

Lots of laughter, poker and drinks later, the party finally ended at 9am. Breakfast, movies and

some Xbox later, finally managed to get some sleep at 3pm... only to be woken up at 5 for the next party.

And while I slept the boys played cricket on the xbox... will the fascination for cricket never stop. From playing on the roads, to the comfort of thy home. Technology never ceases to amaze me.

Saturday was Dee's birthday and we had the first official Above The Knee's Party at our place. The party was destined to be great, because I found two day

s earlier I had won a radio competition (yes I do take part in them a lot!)

And what did I win, the alcohol being sponsored for the party!

I do love Radio Indigo... so we were all set for the party...

It was a blast, expected! And around 10pm, in walked in Kenny Jones and SriRam with our goodies...drum roll please...

3 bottles of whiskey

3 bottles of rum

3 bottles of vodka

1 crate beer

1 crate energy drinks

2 hard rock tshirts

2 CD's

and other indigo goodies!!!

Now we were set to Partaaay!!!

Had a blast with the radio indigo RJ's and after a whole lot of drinks, jokes and laughter it was time to bring in the Birthday girls birthday!

The party finally wound up at 3am and I headed back to Ian's with the gang...

Finally some sleep at 5am, after making Maggie and peanut butter sandwiches for all LOL

Sunday was relaxed, waking up at 2 and then spending the rest of the day in bed watching random stuff on TV... just what the doctor ordered.

And the week begins again, my last week in Christ Univers

ity. Graduation is on Friday! WOHOO

Off to bed now at a reasonable hour for once!

And here some pictures from the Winner of the first Radio Indigo Party Patrol :):)

My pretty flat mates!

SriRam, Shreya, Stanley and Kenny

With the boys :)

With the girls!

The gang with the goodies

And its 2:30 am

The title says it all, 2:30 am on a Wednesday morning, and I cant sleep!!!!

Tried watching twilight, but my fan is too loud for me to hear what's going on... So what to do... blog of course!

One week since class got done, my how time has flown...

Today also marks the one year anniversary of CNSVC... like I said before how time has flown...

The week has been good, relaxed... hanging out with some good friends always makes life much nicer!

Hung out with Happy couple 1 & 2 this past week... D was my date for the weekend! Like always we had fun :D

Wore on a dress on saturday! Gasp I know... There is a girl under this creature called shreez!

Here's a picture to prove it happened...

Watched Iron Man 2 - good movie, not as great as the first, but Robert Downing Jr. - is FINE!!!

Also watched Badmaash Company - a semi decent movie, and even portrays Michael Jackson LOL

Happy Couple 1 and 2 are coming to Kodai this weekend. We all travelling up on Thursday night and they will be there till Sunday night. I will be staying on till graduation.

My kids graduate... yay!

Looking forward to the trip... should be fun :)

My new happy songs:

Say Hey (I love you)

Smile

Wavin the flag

Well thats all the randomness from me for now...

Happy Wednesday... its all down hill from here...

Hope your weekend is as exciting as mine will be...

Toodles

I heart Bangalore

So when I first shifted to Blore I hated it, well hate is a pretty strong word, I guess I just found it hard to adjust after Kodai. Dint have too many friends, my house was not a home and all in all I just felt out of place.

But 236 days later - I have to admit I love Bangalore.

I have friends and am constantly make new ones. I love meeting new people, new ideas, thoughts, views and just in general hanging with different people.

I am also fortunate to have great room mates as well. Another 'delhi-ite'! Isnt it weird that I have met nicer delhites in blore than I have in Delhi!!!

But what I love about Blore in the culture... even tho things close by 11:30 here, there is still so much to do! Good music, great places to go dancing, decent food (nothing compared to delhi, but cant complain :))

Today was beady's birthday - she has this wonderful 1BHK, well set up. Met loads of her friends, lots of drinking (the rum punch was potent!), lots of dancing (so nice to jive!!!) and a whole lot of laughter!

Came home and made dinner - while laughing hysterically and managed to cut my thumb and drop red chilly powder over it! Yeah I am THAT clumsy!

But all in all - a great day!

Ciao for now

Shreez

The fabulous life!

Presenting the fabulous life!

After a good nights sleep, wake up post 11am, because honestly which self respecting who’s who wakes up early now days. Its so passé

After a leisurely breakfast, or is it brunch? Who really cares!
Now we all know, if one eats, one must exercise. Got to look good!
No boring gymming (as the lovely Delhi’ites say!) The new and IN thing to do is Pilates.
With the right type of breathing and some well designed work out plans – Pilates is the answer to getting the new you.
It’s off to the spa then. Got to protect your body against this horrible humid weather we’ve been having. Protect those digits ladies! Don’t want chipped nail polish now do we. Gasp!

A head massage, shoulder / back rub, the nitty gritties of hair removal and pedi / mani – one is ready to go.

Oh look at the time! Luncheon with the girls awaits. A quaint Italian joint is the choice for today.
Hello darlings
And wow you look fantastic today
How was the honeymoon wink wink
Floats around the place.

After finally getting down to ordering, a couple of rounds of cocktails later, and some well deserved lunch. Its time to say tata and flounce off for a bit of shopping. Louis Vitton is having a sale. Everyone is checking it out.

Now with all the absolutely gorgeous hunks gracing the silver screen, a movie is always on the schedule. If its bad boy Bradley Cooper in Hangover or Yummy Ryan Renolds in The Proposal. Its movie time darling!

Post movie – coffee is always a good idea. But needs to be on the go, us busy girls have to get home and get ready for the night ahead.
But a quick stop at the pool before heading back home. All those calories! One needs to be careful dear.
A 10 minute shut eye in the steam, walk out looking good and feeling refreshed.

A quandary!! What to wear??
Tap freshly done nails against wardrobe.
Finally pick out that perfect piece!
Dressed and ready – its time to hit the town.

Advice – don’t always stay in one place – its all about being seen everywhere! Party till the break of dawn, difficult in Delhi where everything ‘seems’ to close at 1, but its all about breaking the rules isn’t it?

Head back home to a well deserved sleep. Advice – don’t drive drunk. You’re too pretty to die!

Wash off that make up and slip into those covers and cuddle the one next to you.
Until tomorrow..
Xoxo
Shreez!

The life of the ‘fabulous’ and since I have been in Delhi for the part 2 months, without a care in the world – my life is imitates this life kind of poorly.

Wake up post 11 – well that ones true, I am a facebook addict and end up chatting with half the world till 3am!
What to do!

Breakfast / lunch depends on what time post 11 I actually surface. *sheepish shrug*

Pilates – YES I have started that. YES its great fun. YES my body is in excruciating pain. But it’s a blast and I have blondie with me, so that’s good motivation.

Spa treatment is done every two weeks. Oh how I missed these head massages. Though my hair seriously needs a trim. Oh how I miss you hoops!!!!

Luncheon with the girls – happened once. I wanted to shoot my self. To discuss the pros and cons of a summer versus winter wedding is not really how I want to spend my afternoon. And to sum up the debate eloquently
“Who really wants to sweat at a wedding darling? Gasp!”
Shreez rolls her eyes!

Shopping – ZILCH / NADA / NOPE / NAY
I know does not sound like me, but hey even this girl needs to keep her purse strings tied.

Movies – ok that’s my guilty pleasure. I love watching movies! Hangover - hilarious. Can I get Bradley Cooper sent to India?

Coffee is usually done with Blondie – or I stroll down to the local barista with a good book and feel happy.

Swimming another one of my favourite things to do. Up to 70 laps a day baby!

I have gone out a total of 2 times since I have been in Delhi. And honestly give me CNSVC, monitor gin, fried eggs, henna, permanent marker, laughter, memories, jokes and great conversation anyday!

And to last bit of the fabulous life – cuddling next to that someone special, I spend every other night getting attacked by my dog, trying to get onto my bed. But then again I have been away for 4 years, so now he thinks the bed is his.
Oh life!

And that my friends, is the fabulous life of shreez.
xoxo

Of course New Zealand has electricity, I saw it on the world map… at night!

So the past two weeks have been fun! Hanging out with friends and enjoying the last few days we have together. It always happens .. get to know people really well at the end of semester and wishing we were this close at the beginning of semester.

We have been planning to make pizza since Friday. We were going to do it at Benderloch. So we arrive there at 6 ready to make some pizza. In walks SuperMario – our chef and goes so where are the ingredients?
Me: Uuumm dint you guys go buy them this afternoon?
SM: Yeah they are at Mehendi’s house.
Me: Dang!
SM: Ok, so we will just walk down and get it.
Me: What about the vegetables?
SM: Oh wiggles is getting it
Cue entrance – wiggles
SM: where are the veggies
W: what veggies?
Oh shit!
So there goes the plan of making pizza. We stick to tibbs instead.

Sunday after Frisbee, we decided to have another go at making pizza and head out to Kiwi’s place. (which btw is a gorgeous house!)
Plan was to be there at 6, start cooking and eat dinner by half past 7.
In walks in SM at 7!
Okay so we are a bit off on time, but hey no issues…lets get this pizza going.

So we chop and we dice and we grate, and its all ready to go.
Unfortunately the oven does not work!
Slight problem right… anyhoo… we will just ask the dorm if we can use their oven.
No such luck – they don’t have an oven!
Strike one

We’ll just call on the neighbours says Kiwi.
They are not at home
Strike two

Frustration rises!
Lets call Margaret and being the lovely lady that she is, calls us down to bake the pizza.
Remember that we are walking through a campus, which is known for bison roaming around, oh and let us not forget Bison Bob (he was attacked by bison!)
Make it to M’s safe, the oven is on… lets get this show on the road!

Step 1: open oven door
Step 2: put tray in
Step 3: scream in frustration because the tray does not fit

Can you say strike 3!

After laughing out of sheer exhaustion. We become creative. Lets just say hunger pangs make you think way out of the box.
So tray one is put in at an angle – yes! At least one pizza will cook.
Now what about tray 2? Too big to put in.

Just fold it in half and make a calzone !
Not as easy as it sounds.
After some clever manoeuvring, its pushed into the oven and now we just wait.

Well to cut a long story short, 20 min later, we have one pizza and one…I really don’t know what to call it.
Let the picture speak for it self.

Walk back up… hoping no bison were around.

Made it back safe, ended up sitting on the kitchen floor eating the ‘pizza’
Playing with left over dough
Just another Sunday at Kodai
“No honestly, looking at it – I don’t feel hungry” – Margaret

Erh Eh and all that!

It’s been too long! And with so much happening, I am going to have to resort to photographs and bulleted points to cover the last few weeks or so…
*THE EUCY IS DONE. Its at the printers as I type J gets back in 3 weeks and the fruits of my labour shall be seen
*Impromptu get together’s at my house. Wine, tequila and gin involved
*Just chatting about random things till one in the morning
*Hiding eggs, bread and sprite in a bullet
*Watching movies with really bad acting
*That’s what she said!
*The all school play is DONE. Was in charge of make up. Good fun! Always a blast hanging out back stage. Just let’s say some of the videos are hilarious!!!
*Waking up at 5am to go for sunrise service on Easter morning, then deciding it was going to rain, so instead dropped other people off. Leaving the house in my pajamas and hair a complete mess, and going for a drive around the lake with hoops and then stopping off At a dhaba and getting chai. I love moments like that
*Watching a movie with male frontal nudity for the first time. Yeah forgetting sarah marshal isn’t that great!
*Making a rock garden
*Having a rock dropped on my finger
*Realizing that every finger on my hand is injured in some way or the other.
*Realizing that I have really weird fingers
*KFCc
*FML

*WC
*Am back to crocheting. Yay me! Did 4 hats in 4 days.
*Am now god mother again. Looks like I am headed to Hyderabad for the christening next week
*Laughing hysterically in the staff lounge
*Going crazy on coffee highs (note to self, no more days of 8 cups of coffee and no food!)
*“Can you say Cat Face”
*“Wiggles have you arisen?”
*CSC
*Crazy nights at the golf course
*Ali baba pants
*Coffee at quicky’s

*Long weekend in Bangalore. The most relaxing holiday ever. Thank you Rays for making it an amazing weekend!!
*Nervous about the future
*Emotional about the past
*Trying to take in every thing of the present

"Spicy Goat"

"Thats all!"

The year that was

As usual this post is a wee bit late.. but better late than never right ?
So 2008 - this year did go by really quick. It was filled with lots of ups and downs, like any year usually is. But on the whole the year was good.

~I had my health (with a few injuries thrown in here and there)
~I had my family (and through all the trials, love underlines everything we do)
~I met new people (and made good friends)
~I let go of the past (both people and situations)
~I went through the tears (from the sad moments, the frustrating moments and the funniest times where you laugh so much you have to cry)
~I discovered more of me
~I travelled (alot!)
Delhi .. I consider it travelling as now Kodai is my home
Goa - absolutely fantastic! long way to travel just for 2 days but totally worth it. Beach..sun...friends..bonding..partying..and the other 'interesting' aspects of the trip
Bangalore .. meeting with family and friends all in the span of 36 hours, because I live on top of a mountain and we travel 12 hours one way to get to a decent city
Chennai .. same as above
Turkey - an amazing place. I loved it. Hot air ballooning was the highlight of the trip
Chidambram - this time it was much better..knew what to expect and having friends around always helped
Pondi - one of my fav places in south india. This place is gorgeous. Paper factory is a must along with satsanga (fantastic little restaraunt)
Madurai - for my exams. Thanks to JP and Hoops I made it through those days
Kerela - canoeing on the backwaters of kerela for 6 days. Fan-bloody-tastic. 65kms baby!
Thekkady - you got to love friends who take you for a holiday when the know your down. Added bonus was staying in a fantastic resort. Chilling near the pool, drinking beer, hiking in the forest, dealing with leeches. Got to love A&A
Varanasi - the interview with the people from the leprosary colony was an eye opening experience towards understanding human nature and ability to deal with adversities

~Visitors to Kodai included my bro and then my dad surprising me on my birthday
~Best moment - dad walking in on the birthday song
~Work..goes on. Now incharge of the yearbook and looking forward to learning why I try to lead.

~Technological advancements
Getting my laptop
Learning how to hook up my laptop to my TV
Harddrive :)
Swapping software with J3
Getting itunes and finally putting music and pictures on my ipod by myself

~Technological boo boos
Deleting my recovery folder from the D drive (luckily I dint delete it from the recycle bin, its now back to my D drive)

~Crazy moments
Sneaking out a swan paddle boat at 4am and going around the lake with C
The week of Yaka in May
Categories
Pen 15 club
Cafe Mondys
TGIF and ultimate margaritas
Bad Jokes R US
Laughing till I fall over and cant breathe
TC ... just call me the wing man
...and so many more

~Beauty & Styles
My hair has been cut, coloured, straightened, braided, conditioned with avacado and egg
Pushed my limits (and it dint hurt as much as I thought it would)
Pierced my ears again (and this time he said my ears have lost weight)

I love
.my family
.my nephews
.my friends
.crocheting
.cooking
.hosting parties
.being me

and that was 2008 ladies and gentlemen
To the new year
I look forward to change and new opportunities
Raise my glass and wish you all a wonderful 365 days ahead!

Quick as a wink

I know I know, it has been AGES!!!

I apologize profusely.. so much has been happening and I keep starting a post and then delete it because I am not happy with it.

So enough, today I finish one of the many posts, before I head for a well needed nap!

Am in Delhi right now and with the christmas madness finally over, now begins my vacation. The first 10 days in delhi was spent making cheese biscuits, kul kuls, fudge and all the other christmas goodies.

As Wiggles puts it "jeez shreez you stink of fudge"

Anyhoo christmas was lovely. Small affair this time, with just the family. Wiggles spent christmas with us. Very nice :)

Its so easy when you have people who are so easy and laid back, hit it off with all my friends so that was nice.

Last night a few of us went to the new TC in VV. Quite nice, dint have the old TC charm but yeah... bartenders were good..extremely good, looking at our states today!

Good retro music, some dancing, good friends, good fun...

got home at 2 am and was up early to take W to the airport.

talking about the airport imagine this is you please... Me standing infront of the departure gate, in trackies, oversized sweatshirt, uncombed hair, glasses and fluffy gorilla slippers...

DO YOU KNOW THE NUMBER OF DOUBLE TAKES I GOT!!!!

only me... and the best part, this was the third time I was doing it. Went to the airport twice yesterday the same way.

Off to see Ghajini today...seems like an interesting movie.. need to find a copy with english subtitles..

Went to varanasi for a few days with aussie girl, YP, W and some other friends. It was really nice..

W had to do an interview on the leprosy colony and I was the official translater. Yeah yeah dont choke on your drink. I did the job perfectly fine thank you very much.

More on that in another post.

The funniest part of the trip... 8 people in one auto, singing christmas carols on the top of our voices and having the cops stare at us..

Yes you heard me right, 8 people in one auto. We took the backrest out, and two girls sat facing the other direction, the other 3 girls sat on the seat. W, me and the driver shared the front seat.

As Pappu our driver said - one on the left and the other on the right

I hung on for dear life and spent the entire trip propping my self up.

This was the case for the 2 days we were there and the average time for our journeys were 40 minutes.

Ok so thats a pretty decent post on the past few days. I now bid farewell, my pillow beckons me.

PS - have cut my hair super short.

Tears of happiness and sadness and other things happening

So I have not done a post in ages, forgive me oh loyal reader. Life has been interesting as usual. My internet at home is finally working *yay for me*
And while I work on this post, I hear the resident shrew rummaging around my kitchen and I have just shut the door and hoped it will go away.

This is the same shrew which tried nibbling my toe while I was washing my dishes, which lead to me screaming hysterically while I was on the phone with mom. Ah the joys of Kodai.

Ala-bama left on sunday. Miss her terribly!

Have learnt how to crochet. Made my first beanie. :) Its loads of fun to do and quite addictive.
Am now in the process of making christmas gifts for every one.

Semester is coming to an end really soon. Work has been going good. A couple of busy days ahead. I had gone down to chennai last weekend to do the voice over for the alumni film. The editing has been done and we should get the final copy in a day or two. Its going to be weird hearing my own voice. FYI realized I have a slight lisp. This realization came when I needed to say the word 'interest' for the voice over. Took about 10 takes to get it.

Looking forward to the Halloween party this friday. Any suggestions for a costume will be highly appreciated.

Laughter has been the theme for the past week. With random conversations in the staff lounge, impromtu dance parties which include wild random moves by moi, sexual connotations in conversations and chilling with the BW boys.. my stomach hurts with all the giggles.

Well that was a pretty random post. Hopefully will have some interesting posts soon.

Last movie watched: Waitress - quite random
New fav song: Long jacket short skirt by Cake
Food: whole wheat banana apple pancakes
Drink: freshly made grape juice

İyiyim, teşekkür ederim.

So life has been pretty hectic over here, with hot pink birthday parties a girl barely has time to blog.

It’s Monday evening and I am sitting in front of my fire place while the rain begins and the wind howls and I am glad to be in my pajamas and pretty much done for the day.
This weekend has been pretty hectic – the film crew were up here to make the alumni film and moi was the creative director / assistant / task master / person who makes puppy dog eyes to students so that they will do what we ask. What can I say I am multi talented!

So it was on the go since Friday and my body and mind have been begging for a weekend but that’s not going to have for a couple more weeks now.
Am looking forward to seeing how the films turns out and yeah they have asked me to do the voice over. 15 minutes of fame here I come.

The last week has been a whirlwind. Friday – dreads left for the states, well technically left for Chennai and will be flying out for the states this Wednesday. We had his farewell party at my place and showed the video I made. FYI I love windows movie maker. I can spend hours playing around with it.

Independence day weekend had lots of people up and a whole lot of partying. Sailor (who shall now be renamed semen .. thanks dreads) finally came back to kodai after giving his exams, which he passed. Wohoo

A couple of alumni were up as well. We started the weekend festivities with lunch at Margaret’s house. Good food, great company, awesome weather – just a perfect afternoon.
We then went on the hunt for coffee, we decided on pastry corner, we reached there only to find out that it was closed. We then headed to wiggles house and I proceeded to make coffee and half way through the boys decided my house was more conducive to chilling out and away we went to drive to my place. Now lets review the distance from wiggles house to my house – a 4 minute walk tops. We left his house, but due to the parade going on with independence days we had to take a million detours and landed at my house 45 minutes later. Back in my house and after some coffee, fried eggs, wai wai noodles we were out again. We went to raj’s place for the night. Relaxed company and some games. The night ended pretty early and I was tucked into bed at 12:30pm.

The next day I helped wiggles with his advisee dinner. 3 hours with middle schoolers man was I pooped. We headed back to raj’s house. Learnt a new game – the paper bag game. The idea behind the game is to pick up a paper bag with your mouth only while balancing on one foot. Each round involves tearing off a part of the bag until there is a sliver of the bag left. As you can imagine we dint get very far. We then headed out, the lake and the 10 mile round. Ended up coming home at 4:30 am!

Sunday was pretty relaxed, we chilled at my place and tried watching a couple of movies but they all were so pathetic we gave up and listened to music and had a couple of interesting conversations.

So that’s what’s been happening on this side of the mountain. Have been for a couple of hikes but don’t foresee that happening now since the next couple of weekends are taken.

This weekend I go for camp, with grade 11. If the weather is good camp is an awesome place, with a rock climbing wall, zip line, a raft and volleyball. Looking forward to it.
I get back Sunday afternoon and on Tuesday I am off to Kerela for some work. Will be there for three days and then flying out to Delhi. It’s the schools 50th anniversary and the whole gang will be there. Bhaiya, cousins, family friends and Ala-bama. SO excited. She is coming back to India for a month and is flying into Delhi and we will come back to Kodai and on the way we spend a day in Coimbatore chilling with raj etc.

I am barely in Kodai for three working days and then that Sunday I am off for a 6 days canoeing trip on the back waters of Kerela. Its going to be a blast.
So yeah that’s my travel schedule for the month ahead. Lots of work, lots of partying, lots of fun. What more could a girl ask for!

Till the next post adios

Listening to: No ordinary love
Eating: pasta
Drinking: wine
Accidents: none apart from a light bulb exploding in front of my face thanks to wiggles

*have you figured out what the title means?

Happy birthday to you!!

You know its surprising how much there is to do in Kodai. Insert *gasp*.

But honestly the past three weeks here have flown so quickly. Starting from the most recent happenings yesterday was dread's birthday.

He turned the big two five! Quarter of century – happy birthday to you

Now turning 25 is a big deal. People do crazy things on their 25th birthdays. Unfortunately he was not into the whole thing and wanted a quiet affair.

Isn't happening yo! (As hoops would say)

The birthday celebration began at 11:50 pm on the 4th of August with H and I walking to main gate to get the keys from the watchman for the other gate. He looked at us as if we were bananas to be roaming around in Kodai nearing midnight when every thing closes at 8pm.

So we get the keys and drive over to BW, where we quietly sneak up the stairs as I keep my camera ready and burst into his room screeching happy birthday. Only to find a sleeping dreads. Who even upon having people scream in his ear, pull off his blankets and take non stop pictures (with flash) continued to sleep.

Well we trudged down the stairs and had a muffin (which were warm from the oven, needed some thing to keep me awake till 12) and H and I drove back home.

Now we all know how much dreads absolutely loves hot pink (sarcasm detected) we all decided to wear pink on his special day. We tried spreading the word among staff but dint follow through however there were an unusually large number of students and staff wearing hot pink that day. Go figure!

The idiot however dint show up for lunch and when we finally saw him on the basketball court H&I wished him on the top of our lungs and had students go up and say "happy birthday and pink is hot!" That should pretty much have been the warning for what was to lie ahead.

The evening was full of laughter and lots and lots of hot pink! Every one got into the swing of things and I managed to get D a hot pink shirt (and I mean hot pink!) from Spencer's. Kudos for him for putting it on and wearing it the whole evening! Along with allowing me to take a number of pictures. I see age is making him more cooperative

There was fantastic food (chicken fajitas and biryani)

Great company

Lots of reminiscing – monkeys, bandicoots and charades…

A whole lot of teasing – M and me being the main targets… (I need to get my hands on that video!)

All in all a fantastic evening

And to top it off it was all in pink!

Zee puurrfect!

Muah

Excruciating - extremely painful and the other random happenings of my life!

Well, previous post turned out to be quite compact in it self, I decided to give it, its 15 min of fame and write a new post for the other happenings in my life.

I was finally beginning to believe that maybe I am not as catastrophe prone as I claimed to be. I made it through three weeks of volleyball and ultimate frisbee with out any injuries.
Yay for me
(uuum not!)
Tuesday was playing volleyball... senior team against staff.. we trashed them! And I actually had some thing to do with it, for winning I mean. Game two score 12 - 5 advantage staff.

Shreez comes to serve and keeps serving till score is 22 - 5 advantage staff..
Go Shreez, Go Shreez, your on fire !!!

So yeah, yay to me! Any way between games, got hit in the face with a volleyball thanks to
Big B. (he's on my team! come on, stop hitting me!)
Any way, finished that game and then went for staff volleyball and Big B decides to spike and brilliant moi decides to get it - SMACK right in face - again!

Oh but wait, thats not all - some how managed to pull a nerve or sprain a muscle in my lowe vertabrae (dont really know) apart from the fact that I am in excruciaing pain!

Whoo pa dee do da!
Murphy - what do you have against me.

Any way, having Wednesday off was a nice mid week break, had some people over for a couple of drinks. Have not done that in ages.
Problem with residential schools, is that you end up following the rules set for students unintentionally.
Nice to spend some time with adults, have a couple of drinks and chill..
Big B, Professor, PP, Rachel and Pilot came over...
Finally opened the bottle of wine, which has been staring and me!
Discussions were pretty random.
Guys are stupid - girls are stupid - basically the human race is mindless wits (when it comes to love)

Again the whole men's obsession with woman and woman action
Me - seriously I don’t understand, men’s obsession with this woman on woman thing..
Pilot - dude, its two woman its (glazed look, drool - imagination running wild)
Me - I don’t get it
P - see we like woman, so there for two woman - double the liking
Me - we like men, but we don’t see them together!
P - point .. and we don’t like men so ...
Me - what do you mean so? we don’t like women and we don’t imagine it either
P - point
Me - uumm so what’s the point of the discussion
P - I don’t know, but woman on woman (glazed look, drool... etc )

Uurgh! any views any one?

Wednesday night - played poker! I actually like the game. Big B, Pilot and me. Pretty simple to understand, a lot on luck and since we were playing for rajma, dint really mind betting that much. Won twice (yay me!)
Its called Texas 5 star some thing (blame it on the pain killers et all)
Ended up chatting with Pilot till half past one, about quite a range of topics...which for the life of me can’t think of a single one worth writing about!

aanny way ! bro called yesterday, Looks like he was having a blast in Sri Lanka. We are closer now, too personal to mention, but just lets say I am no longer the bratty big mouth little sister he loved to hate!

Well that’s all from me with all my excruciating pain
Ciao

Calling New York

Little things make me happy. A certain song, some thing said from the heart, a specific smell, an online hug... little things make me smile.
The past year - the constant thought in my head is "I've grown up"
I guess after living with my parents for 21 years - it feels good to be away. To stand on my own to feet and not run to them with my tail between my legs as many predicted I would.

But coming back to what I started off with. Walking back from the grocery store, having people over for dinner tonight (pasta and vino)
Any way walking back with my arms full of groceries, listening to music, smiling to my self - I felt like the main character from a chick flick. Felt grown up.
And then a truck passes by - fumes spurting out and in the little cartoon stip in my head, I am now covered with soot.

Am not making sense. Difficult to explain. Any way almost end of the day. Yippee.... 12 people over for dinner. Cant wait (I am such a little hostess) followed by staff volleyball.
Adios

PS - the reason the post is titled Calling New York is I felt very new yorkish - refer to chick flick character.. ok me bluthering now.

PPS - its pouring with rain :D

Tripping in Pondy

I went to Pondicherry last weekend. An absolute blast. SM was in Pondicherry for the week (work related stuff) so I decided to pop down. I traveled for 22 hours in total to spend 33 hours in Pondy. COMPLETELY WORTH IT!

Let me start of with Friday. Friday was prayer breakfast at my aunts house, so I had to be at her place at 5 am to help cook. Woke up at 4 to get ready. Hours slept on Thursday night – 4
Left Kodai on Friday evening by bus. Arrived in Pondy at 5:30 am.
Hours slept on Friday night – 2

Saturday, we went drove about 70 kms out of Pondy to the mangrove forest (backwaters). We took a boat out and went around the backwaters. Man that was an awesome experience. I don’t have the good snaps from there, should be getting them soon. But it was a beautiful day – blue skies, sunny day, cool breeze and a chilled beer. What more could a girl want

I was able to row as well, looks like I am becoming quite an expert. Who needs a car he he

We came back to Pondy by lunch time and went to this restaurant called Rendezvous. Amazing sea food.
So rendezvous was awesome. These guys had the sea food platter – crabs, squid, prawns, fish (catch of the day). You will be very proud of me, I ate fish with the bone J but it was so good. Black pomfret cooked with onions and some other stuff, but YUMMY
After lunch we went shopping, man did I do some shopping. We were out till 7
shopping.
Had to buy another suitcase while coming back. That evening we went out for dinner to a sea shore place called – Sea Gulls.

Sunday we went to Auroville. The drive to Auroville was beautiful. We were advised not to shop in Auroville since it was really expensive, but to stop at the village shops on the way to Auroville. (Which we did, and shopped like crazy) We could not explore Auroville as much we would have liked to, but since it was Sunday most of the places were closed.

After Auroville we went for lunch to this French place called Satsanga. What a funky place. The restaurant was out in the patio, very nice feel to it. Had my first glass of wine in Pondy there. Chilled there for a bit and then went back to shopping.

There was this export place called titanic – and I was able to dig out a pair of Ralf Lauren pants for 100 bucks along with a Gap linen shirt for 100 bucks as well. We then went to the beach for a while. And I finally got down to what I had come to Pondy for, buying the cheap alcohol.

I got – two bottles of wine, ½ bottle Bacardi, one miniature Smirnoff twist, one bottle tequila, one bottle rum and one bottle of coffee liquor for a grand total of Rs. 1000 only!
Can you believe it .. 1000 bucks that’s it. Man I should live in Pondy

Bought my self another bag to bring the stuff back to Kodai, and was at the bus station at 9:30 – since my bus was supposed to leave at 10 only to find out the bus only arrives at 11. So off to the beach again. It was beautiful, the moon was shining on to the sea and one can hear the waves crashing – utter bliss.

Arrived back in Kodai at 7:30 am and was in office by 9. Hours slept on Sunday night – 0 (the guy was driving so rashly I thought we were going to crash)

10 hours slept in 4 days – by Monday afternoon I was only running on adrenaline and I loved it. I guess that’s the joys of life or should I say youth?

Monday night I slept like a log and was as fresh as a button for Tuesday. I wore my fisher pants, with a bandana (felt I should have been going to the beach not too work) Every one kept teasing me about being a gypsy. I should have read their fortunes and earned some cash.

Fright night

I meant to write this some time back and as usual i forgot. When Cuz was here last month, she came on the weekend of Friday the 13th. We decided to have a fright night fest and out of it came an impromtu costume party (who says you cant have a blast in Kodai)

My closet was ransacked... and now presenting the beauties and beasties of KIS


Man it was an absolute blast ! We ended up watching this stupid movie called 'American Haunting'
Waste of time! And a really pathetic story line.

Even with such a sad plot, Cuz was petrified and my body was what she used to claw her nails into. For a tiny little thing, she is bloody strong