Happy Birthday to my wonderful Husband!

There are two things that have sort of become a pattern in my life after marriage.

Come my birthday, and for some strange reason, we are always, either moving houses, planning a move or some other big change.

Come hubby's birthday, we are generally on a vacation, about to leave on holiday or just returning from one.

Seriously!

But this year definitely was an exception to the rule.

We celebrated my birthday very much in Chicago. Of course the move to London was in the background (or foreground, since we moved 24 days after my birthday). But still we enjoyed my birthday and I loved every minute of the three day celebration!

This year for Sumit's birthday, which is today :-D, we are not in any sort of vacation mode. Well, Sumit had a stay-cation last week due to V's mid term school break. But that does not count. On his birthday, we are very much in regular school day- work day mode! But we definitely do plan to make the most of the evening!

So in the year of changes, this is another change to our birthday rules... :-)

Sumit, wishing you a very Happy Birthday.

Today is your day, let there always be music-full volume style, laughter- falling on the floor types, food- licking your fingers type and friends- got your back types and above all family - that can get your pulse ticking!

Smile baby, Life is Good!

Enjoy your birthday and oh yeah.... looking forward to the next year full of travels!

Halloween in London

First my disclaimer, yes I grew up in India where Halloween is not celebrated, was not celebrated when we were kids. The first time i saw Halloween was when I moved to states about a decade ago. Since then I have been 'Holoweenified'! I know it’s not a word. But you get the gist. I might not be the most enthusiastic person in dressing up, decorating or even getting enough candy for the kids. But I thoroughly enjoy Halloween. For lack of better work it’s 'Spooktacular'
This was our first Halloween in London. The area we live in is filled with Expats, American expats at that. Our neighbourhood is known as the 'Halloween Central' Perfect. All I had to do is rush home in rush hour (wink wink) and then get daughter ready in her Tigger costume and head out with my pumpkin mask!
Perfect.
The class moms who told me its 'Halloween Central' were right on the money. Just behind our apartment, there were kids and more kids. All dressed up from cute characters from Disney movies to scary ghosts. The houses were decorated (Compared to States, very skimpily) but it was still really nice. My daughter was just amazed at the carved pumpkins. Yes that’s one tradition I can’t encourage. I am really lazy.

We went house to house, collected a big bowl of candy, chocolates, suckers and my favourite Twix! V got spooked by some skeletons. She said 'That skeleton was mean, he scared me, I roared back since I am a tigger' The weather was really nice as well. It was nice bumping into other parents from her school as well. V was skipping all the way and would point to houses and say 'We didn’t go there' Sumit and I were happily taking her around as well. In all honesty, i had to check myself and not tell V 'Don’t pick up Kit Kat, but please pick up the 'Twix'Hehe, All in all, Trick or Treating in London was a wonderful experience.
We came home with sore feet and hungry tummies. Ate dinner and put V to bed.
Now Sumit and some friends had tried unsuccessfully to look for some Halloween parades. We were still extremely enthusiastic to head out. With In Laws stepping in as 'Go out, we will take care if she wakes up' Sumit and I headed out to 'Piccadilly Circus'. And brace yourself; I actually wore my leopard printed stockings!
Sadly, since Halloween fell on Monday this year, there were not a lot of people. We still enjoyed ourselves. Walked around, went to the Ice Hotel, walked some more, bumped into the Director of Wizard of Oz, the Broadway show and then walked some more. Finally we saw the most creative outfit of the night.

Of course if I start writing about my Pre- Haloween bash at Vinopolis the Friday before, I can’t end the post. Summarising the night. 12 girls all dressed in skeletal costumes headed to Vinopolis and then spent the better part of the night enjoying ourselves immensely!

It was a wonderful Halloween in London.

Diwali that it was and it always will be!

So we celebrated Diwali in much fan fare this year. Having In Laws here only added to the fun, magic and masti of Diwali. New dresses were bought for V. And she was gushing in pride. She helped out in every possible way, by taking an extra long nap in the afternoon, by helping with the Diya carrying back and forth and of course reminding me, mummy this diya is almost over, light new one. Being enthusiastic over celebrations, asking why way too many times, helping with LaxmiJi's paav, making flower rangoli, helping clean up, watching TV and above all being nice to visiting friends and entertaining us so much.

Wow, that one big line. Anyhow, you get the gist!

The fun of celebrating Diwali with a growing kid gets better and better. And it took facebook message and me looking in the mirror to realise a lot of V's eccentricities are very similar to what I did to 'entertain' (read trouble) my parents. Asking endless questions, helping out, being nosy and above all. miss chatter box! And I gush.

But Diwali was really nice. House was cleaned. iPad was used to decide which was the 'north direction' for Pooja, furniture was moved around (read sore arms), food was prepared, poori's made, mithai served, new cutlery used and above all celebrations with friends and family. We had dear friends over who made the whole evening much more fun. Endless chatter, lighting fuljhari's and phooski anar's added to the fun and merriment.

Here, I have to add, Sumit made the much needed trips to the stores to get last minute forgotten things, be it Oil for poori's (Yup, we are that awesome) or scrounging around for Firecrackers (Yup, he was that enthu)!

Which by the way was the highlight of the evening! After 15 years, I lit phuljhari's. It was V's first time. In London, you can light fire crackers in safe controlled manner wherever! Wow. So in US, land of the free, where you can carry fire arms but nor burn fire crackers!

Anyways, back to the point.

Our first Diwali in London was really memorable!

It created a 'Home away from home'

Note: Diwali Pics to follow in a post dedicated to pics! Promise!

The season of lights.....

:-) With family over, Diwali will be a bigger event than it generally is. Add in half term break for V, Sumit's time off and fresh Indian Mithai... we are set to rock it, or light it or bottom line enjoy it!
New dress for V- Check
New dress for me- Check
Gift for Sumit- Check
Buying silver on Dhanteras- Check
MIL engaging in celebratory food preparation- Check
FIL building the list for Pooja -Check
Teaching V to say 'Happy Diwali' -Check
Festive moods- Check
Yay, for celebrating our first Diwali in London!
I will definitely follow up with pictures of our evenings and celebrations... but for now, wishing you and your families, A very Happy Diwali!

Perfect Salad

After a long time, I ate a perfect salad!

To me a perfect salad- is not boring, crunchy, tasty, flavourful and above all delicious.

Yes, I am still talking about a salad. I was famously known as the 'cow' at my work. The best thing in my cafeteria- was a fix it yourself salad with loads of options, dressings, toppings. I ate it at least thrice a week. Of course, being pregnant that time only increased my craving for good salads.

For some reason, I don’t enjoy making salads at home. They just don’t turn out that good. I do make the standard (read boring) ones. But in all honesty, I make them because I should and not because I want to.

Back to my salad yesterday. It is called the 'Kelp Noodle Salad' from Pods Hmm, First thing, I did was wiki kelp!

After that, pigged in. And let me re-iterate. It was delicious, the sprouts, the cabbage, the edamame, the pickled ginger, the kelp noodles, the oh so tasty light sesame soy dressing with delicious chilli's on top. I still can’t get over the fact that I picked it up at Pods in the ready to eat section. Wow. That’s some crazy fresh salad.

At payment counter, I requested the frequent eater card, well knowing me, I will keep going back for more and more.

A wish that will not get full filled

Ever. I know it won’t!

For the past ten- twelve years, I have been trying unsuccessfully to go to a Jagjit Singh concert. There were times when I had the tickets and could not go. There were times that i chased tickets and could not go, there were times when I just could not go.

Bottom-line, no Jagjit Singh, Live in <City> concert for me!  Sob,

And now the maestro is no more.

There are numerous Eulogies, all over the web and I can definitely not do justice to it.  All I know now, is that soothing, melodious voice is on repeat on the iPad.

iUnSmart

Or Gadget friendly! Whatever you call it. :-)

I am officially moved over to the 'unsmart' with over four smart devices for two adults in our house.

Right when I moved to London, one of the big issues, was not having internet. It was hard to plan, to get directions, to be in touch. Implying a book of street maps gifted by our relocation company became my best friend! My husband joked that instead of our kids water in my purse, the book existed. Yes, It was my best friend during those unpleasant weeks of apartment hunting, figuring out lay of the land and of course the fun filled- to tourist trips in the city. But I learned the city really well. My directions, my understanding of street layout all improved slowly but surely.

But after three long months of wait (thanks to 'efficient' systems to get a cell phone here) I got me my smart phone. And then with time, i got the smarter phone, rather the iPhone and now I am hooked! Need to go to someplace new, no more using the mind, oh let me just open up my maps, GPS. Need a new restaurant to go to, no more exploring in the area, lets just look at the app and figure it out. Oh don’t know the time now in Chicago or India, no more using basic math to subtract or add hours, let me just check the clock out. No more remembering to do's, no more post it's let me just make a note on one of my four smart devices and then sync them.

Of course I refuse to move from paper back to e-readers! That’s where I draw the line.

I am now over connected, over hooked and still okay. 

Basically, instead of using my mind for simple stuff or even complicated stuff, I just 'app' it.