Cycling to tea

We invited ourselves to tea to one our of collegaues's place. We are so shameless but then, who cares? So we rode to the indian store, bought samosas and then cycled to their place. We had tea and bitched, ok, ok, let me rephrase that, we gossiped. Bitching is fun sometimes, maybe all the time.

Just a couple of more weeks over here. i miss home. i miss the crowd and dust. i am well aware of the sea of opportunities i can drown in over here, of the things i can do over here that i would find tough, if not impossible over there. i want to hoard enough dough so that i can give up this 9-to-6 life and well, live life my way. Sometimes i think i have too many dreams inside me.But then, i would rather be pregnant with dreams than be barren of dreams. i will give myself some couple of years over here. Live some of my dreams over here before i move on. To another dream, another place, another life.

And yes, quails definitely taste better than chicken. Way better.

oh oh oh

Middle of the week. Cooking quails. i have never tasted quails before. i guess it would taste like chicken or maybe better. Will find out before the night ends.

Today was the last game of the league. And we lost in the last inning, yet again. It is becoming an irritating habit - losing, i mean. i cheered so much - shouted my lungs out that some of the guys in the opposing team were so amused. One of my team mates told me he wanted to win it for us because of the cheering! Maybe i should have been a cheerleader. The tournament is next saturday. i am all geared.

i baked a cheese butter pound cake yesterday. It turned out delicious. i am going to try making meat loaf next time.

i have started cycling. After about 10 years. It is fun. But i am still not ready to ride on the road next to those big bad cars. So i ride on the sidewalk. We are planning to go visit everyone riding bikes. Wouldn't that be fun?

We went downtown on saturday. Gypsy's day out. It turned out to be quite an adventure. We were to take the train to downtown and we missed it. It left the station just as we drove in. So we decided to take the bus rather than wait another hour for the next train. Since we never travel by bus, we didn't know which bus to take. So we boarded the first one that was destined for downtown. It turned out to be the kind that stops at every other street. And it took us all of two hours to reach downtown. Then we took the cable car, for which we had to stand in the queue for about half an hour. Then we hired one of the fishing-boat-turned-cruise boat which, so very conveniently for us, seated six. So there we were, six Indians playing tourists. The ride was manificient. It took us around Alcatraz and under the golden bridge.

i have to start shopping for going home. i haven't even composed my shopping list. i loathe shopping but do i even have a choice? Of course, i do. i always have a choice.

Did manage to finally turn the last page of "The Bourne Supremacy". It was good. i started Scott Turow's "Law of our fathers". But he disappointed me. The first few pages were enough to make me blench.

Hardly alive....

Oh god...What a week it has been. Last week, i was so wrong when i thought we had everything under control. Monday came and there we were, caught in this landslide of problems. We plugged one hole and another started leaking. In the end, there we were, no time for even the traditional morning adda sessions, trying to test and find hidden bugs. With friday evening being the deadline, last minute discussions with the clients, changes in requirements.....eeeya.. Why the hell cannot they make up their bloody minds? They want something one day, so i code. Next day, they decide they don't want it at all, so i change my code. And then, one fine day they come and say they do want it. So i have to modify my code yet again. It was all i could do to control my temper and not tear my hair out and stomp my feet. As they say, the client is God Almighty. But then, i am an atheist. Am i even making sense?

So today, after four days of slogging some n hours every day, the deadline was there standing behind us. My code was done and ready to launch. And then, my colleague/friend came to give me this good news - apparently one of the juniors working on another part of the project miraculously managed to misinterpret the requirements and he modified my existing code and it is all a mess! i see red - blood red. We have another 5-6 hours before QA would start breathing down our necks. So we marched off to confront the client. i was like, was this the requirement, this does not make sense to me (which is fast becoming my favourite phrase), did you tell him to make this change..blah blah....And more blah blah...In the end, since the guy was long gone home, we had to clean up his mess! At around 3, we managed to wrap up everything and make the deadline. Since this is some multi-million project, we were told not to screw up anything. It is not yet over. Like my PL said, this is the beginning of the end. Thank you.

Then we had a popcorn party just "in celebration of being alive". yeah right. Who says i am alive?

The party last saturday was a hit. Everyone went gaga over the food. And the mishti doi turned out so good, if i may say so myself. Immodesty, thy name is....

We are thinking of taking a break and going downtown to take a cruise and maybe go hiking. That is, if i can manage to wake up before the sun sets.

i need to finish " Bourne Supremacy"..i started that last week and never got time to flip beyond some hundred pages or so...

Didn't even go to play the game on thursday. But did go for the salsa class. Had a blast dancing away the fog in my mind. Sa re ga ma little champs is going to be on now so off i go to hear some cute (and some not so cute) kids sing their tiny hearts out...

saare suru ka yeh hi milan
geeton se meheka he sara chaman
apne hooton se nagme sajaye huwe
Aawo hum sab mil gaye
sa re ga ma....
la la la la la.....

Party time

Lunch party tomorrow. One of my friends (we spar so much that it is a joke in our project that given a chance, we would end up killing each other) is going back so i decided to throw a party for him. i have been making preparations for it. The menu would be: Kelichana, duck vindaloo, matar paneer, dal and mishti doi. The mishti doi is baking in the oven right now. This is the first time i am making mishti doi. i don't know how it is going to turn out. The recipe said 'don't open the oven during the whole process". With my impatience, i am finding it so hard not to take a peek and check if everything is OK. i will find out tomorrow morning.

i am feeling sleepy. And i have to wake up early tomorrow and do all the cooking before they turn up.

We went out today for lunch with our clients to a thai restaurant aptly named "Thai cuisine". The food was good. We were talking about different cuisines. There is actually a Filipino dish with coagulated pig blood. They say it is really nice. They sell coagulated pig blood in the Asian store i frequent. They have pig feet, cow's tongue and an assortment of such oddities that i love gazing at in wonder. They sell live frogs too!! In dallas, we went to this chinese store and he had to drag me away because i insisted on pointing out every item to him. It is exciting to know there are so many varied, exotic recipes out there. i want to try out a dish from every country.

Ok, off to bed i go and try to wake up early and see what i can whip up for my guests. What if i oversleep and they come to find nothing ready? That would be quite something and i will never hear the end of it. But knowing them, they would start cooking themselves!!

(Un)Healthy eating

As i munch on chips worth 200 calories, i think about my eating habits. Summed up in one word - unhealthy. It is more so in this "land of milk and honey". Since i wake up with barely enough time to make a respectable entrance in the office, breakfast is a thing of the past. And then lunch. Fussypot that i am, the cafeteria is a place i have shunned since the stuffs on the menu are things i don’t want to eat. Going out for lunch everyday to the Chinese/Thai and my favourite dhosa joints is not something I can indulge in everyday because of the time (and yes, yes, money) factor. Unlike my colleagues who bring ‘tiffins” of home cooked food everyday, i don’t feel like bringing lunch to office for the simple reason that, more often than not, i would end up eating the same things for lunch and dinner (We believe in cooking in bulk so that we don’t have to come home from office every night and cook. But this is a theory he does not subscribe to but since he is not here, well, i can have all the leftover i want). Yuck.

So the solution? Of course, the vending machine, which, for a few quarters, will spew out my choice of chips/cookies and what not. And then we have popcorn almost everyday. Now add to this the fact that my diet is mostly meat or fish and not enough vegetables. The people i stay with are as health (un)conscious as i am. There has to be meat or fish on the menu everyday. And i never drink enough water. When he calls up, he reminds me to drink water. i actually have to be reminded to drink water!!! (Guilt made me gulp down a mouthful of water a few seconds back). All this despite the fact that i know i should include fruit and veggies in my diet, cut down on red meat, drink gallons of water to flush the toxins from my body, exercise daily. Maybe because i never have to worry about my weight and my skin, i guess that makes me complacent.

i have started following the adage “ An apple a day blah blah….”. So i have a green apple every day, green apple because it is crunchier tastier than the red one. And yes, yoghurt too. And, of course, chips on the side! To a healthier and fitter i.