Tea Time

well almost...
we are going to go and try out a new tea place in Ooty... seems so apt doesn't it? seeing as Ooty is FULL of tea gardens and yet its taken so many years for a tea place to come up and there are TWO Coffee Days in this little town... TWO!!! why why why? AND there's a Barista coming up...
anyway, we are going with Miss Smith who says we can now call her 'Catherine' since we're not students anymore but I simply can't bring myself to doing that so it shall have to be "Smeegs" (who is an uber cool Math teacher at Hebron btw and is probably the only reason I did A'level Math since I really wasn't good at it!).
She's busy busy busy with Exams going on at the moment and will only get off at 1pm so then we will all go to "Glendale" which is the tea place and well... drink TEA!
i'm heading back to Bangalore on Saturday and then off to bombay about a week after that... hmmmm. Looking forward to seeing everyone but NOT the heat and the crowded trains and vegetarian food at Granny's and no internet although I am seriously thinking of amending the latter. (I always get confused by former and latter so incase I've got it wrong, I mean the lack of internet!) :D
i am DYING to watch Narnia - Prince Caspian. I've been reading the "Voyages of the Dawn Treader" which I think is the fifth book of the Narnia series and Mr. Reid (Hebby Principal) is reading to Hebronites at Friday Assembly! yeah he still does that... Isn't he cool!?
anyway... that's all for now.
Toodles!

Rainbow Colours

 

Well, there's soooo much to say and I want to see if I can go and get some lunch in the staff room (yeah I've crossed over to the other side!!) so this will be short...

I'm loving it here! Mizpah Home (the orphanage where I am working) is great... The kids are so wonderful and loving, it didn't take me very long to settle in... I have my own little flat there with a little bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchenette and a seating area! Mr. Mohan and his wife (Aunty Jenny) are also great (they run Mizpah)... they are such wonderful and inspiring people... i'm mostly helping out in the afternoons and Sushi I miss you SO much cause Mr. Mohan wants the kids to learn some hindi dances...!! and he remembers you! apparently he used to call you Preity Zinta cause you were such an amazing dancer! surprise, surprise! anyway... so I've been trying to teach them a dance to "Bum Bum Bole" from TZP and its been a lot of fun but could REALLY do with your expertise! ;)

Its so so great to be back at school... everyone is so nice and i've had hugs from people whose names i have forgotten (oops! I've always been pretty bad at remembering names) and even the kitchen men and bus drivers say hello and its just so heart-warming... I feel like I've done something right!

Ooty is COLD! Although, I'm also getting used to that... I have a total of seven blankets and covers on my bed although I don't use all of them to cover myself, but they keep me nicely insulated at night!! :)

Tashu and I had dinner at the Georges' yesterday night and I thoroughly enjoyed that - she's always been such an amazing cook... one of the many women who've inspired me to love baking! And we're joining the A'levels on their dorm meeting and dorm activity this weekend! :D That should be fun...

Its SO great to have Tashu around... The first day we came around to visit school we had to answer the questions - "so what are you doing now? where are you? what are you studying?" about a million times!!!

When I went to Selborne (the girls' hostel) I pretty much disrupted Prep (organized study time in the dining hall) cause my girlies from std. 7 (I'm still calling them std. 7! they're actually std. 9 now... almost std. 10... its ridiculous!) who I had the privilege of being prefect to were all waving and telling the others that "Priyanka's here!!" That was a GOOD feeling! Heartwarming!

Anyway... the bell for lunch just went... (oh the wretched bells!) so I think I should seriously consider going in for lunch... Although its gonna be strange so maybe I'll just go get something from Virtue Bakes!

Love to all! I have a LOT more to say but it'll have to be later!

Toodles

 

 

 

--
"You play the hand you're dealt. I think the game's worthwhile." - C.S. Lewis

Not just food...

To many "Sushi" is just a Japanese delicacy.... To me, Sushi is:

Super-duper friend
Hotness overflowing
Uber cool
Singing buddy
Magnificent
Ingenious
Talented dancing diva
Always there for her friends!

Happy Birthday to my fellow "bangla babe"!!!!

I hope your twentieth birthday is ALLLL that you want it to be and MORE!

I miss you and I love you to the moon and back a million times over!! :D

Hugs and Kisses,

Tomorrow we'll have the stars...

I'm going to Ooty tomorrow!!!! Well I'll be on the bus tomorrow, but i'll only get there day-after...
Here's a photo of me and Rishi(ta)... we met up at good ol' Forum (that huge mall that people don't seem to get tired of!) and had good times doing a little shopping, chatting and laughing about old times... Rishi was our neighbour in the 'A'level dorm in Yr. 13... Meg and I shared a room and Rishi and Gail were next door and we had many funtimes!

As long as a piece of string...

(photo from Duke of Ed trek)

I'm testing this blogging thing from my gmail inbox. Its ingenious if it works... When I'm up in Ooty and I get the chance to use the school computers, I likely won't be able to access blogger cause the last time I checked, the CS dept. categorized blogger in the "time-wasting" section and so you're firewalled against it! Things may have changed but if not, I can email my posts and keep you updated (those few of you who are interested! I love you!).
Anyway, I'm totally excited about going to Ooty. It is possibly my favouritest place on earth (granted, I haven't been to all that many).
For some reason, I was thinking Mrs. Dodds today... She was our awesome dorm parent for two years in Std. 10 and 11 and we used to have the BEST dorm outings every weekend. Mrs. Dodds was an english teacher - needless to say, brilliant at her job - an amazing mother to her three girls, cool wife to her uber cool biker-husband and simply one of God's best creations!
She used to take us on a lot of long walks almost every other Friday dorm meeting she would announce to us:
'We're going for a picnic tomorrow'
'Where to?'
'Somewhere in the woods'
'How are we getting there?'
'Walking, of course!'
'How long is the walk?'
'As long as a piece of string.'
She would say matter-of-factly the most vague answer you've ever heard but that's all you would get!
Of course we always enjoyed these - atleast I did. Even more so on the rare occassions that we would cycle to our picnic spot. Those were amazing. Ever tried zooming down a long downhill path after a difficult up-hill climb? Its the best feeling ever!
Tashu is going to be in Ooty as well which is GREAT! I get to see her for more than a few hours this time which makes me very happy!
I finished reading 'Infidel'. In my last post, I said it was pretty good, but I think that's an understatement... I learnt a lot and it was really good re-visiting Africa through her book and understanding a little of how things work in traditional Somali households and some of the other cultures that she experienced. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a brave woman; I don't necessarily agree with everything she says or does but then nobody's perfect and atleast she faces the problem even with death-threats staring her in the face, she doesn't stop and that's something...
Next is what?... I have a bunch of new books to read but I can't decide what to start with. Maybe you can help?

Life Stories

German Marble Cake and Banana Bread. See here.

There are SO many amazing blogs out there. I can't remember how I got here but did'ya know there are actually awards to be had for blogging? Check this out: Blogger's Choice Awards 2008
Here's one amazing blog I found: Confessions of a CF Husband
Its nominated for the 'Best Blog of All Time', 'Best Photography Blog', 'Best Blog about Stuff', and whatnot!
You've GOT to read it, It's just inspiring! God works in mysterious ways...

Last year Blogger.com got the award for the 'Best Blogging Host'! And it will probably win again this year too... YAY Blogger! Are you bored?
Try this:

52

And other things... I am apparently 71% addicted to blogging. Surprise, surprise!
71%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

I watched 'P.S. I love you' yesterday and it was pretty good.

I am reading 'Infidel' by Ayaan Hirsi Ali at the moment and it is pretty good. I was a little apprehensive to read this cause its like reading a book like 'My Feudal Lord' by Tehmina Durrani where horrible things happen to women and there's nothing you can do right in that moment to stop it. But my aunt kept telling me to read it and lots of people are talking about it so I figured, I couldn't run away...

Its nice to read about Africa, especially countries that I have only been in in transit like Ethiopia and Kenya but never really saw...

Some bits are almost intolerable to just read about. I can't even begin to understand how it must have been to actually experience these things.

Big Fat Drops of Rain

Taryn came home yesterday and it was just GREAT. It dawned on me that I have been friends with this girl for almost SEVEN years! And I am just SO grateful for that. If you don't know Taryn, she was one of my room-mates way back in the day when we started at Hebron in Std. 9 in 2001! We spent many hours lying on the trampoline talking about the non-existant "perfect" men we wanted to marry someday and being homesick together and plotting plans of running away from school in our bathroom slippers!

We had a good time. We watched 'Dan in Real Life' and '27 Dresses', ate roast chicken and spread 'Happy Cow' cheese on our bread, baked a 'German Marble Cake' with rum in it :D - more about that later - drank lots of Orange Twister, reminisced about 'kitchen-duty' and 'three-minute-showers' and all the other sorts of fun that we had in school, sang 'Switchfoot' songs as Taryn played them on the guitar and stayed awake till 2 am just pouring our hearts out to each other and man, it felt really good to just talk about the things that I haven't talked about and needed to talk about for so long and also to pray together. I really miss the desis* for that. We always used to pray together - before an exam, before leaving for the holidays, or if we just had some major thing going on in our life - usually related to a boy! - and sit in a circle after we've consumed some chocolates or any other comfort food or spicy Korean noodles in a bowl with 6 forks/spoons or whatever clean utensils we could find in our horribly dirty kitchen in the 'a' level dorm and hold hands, close our eyes and just cry out to God to take control.

Anyway, it's all dark outside and it rained a bit and I just love it when it rains but I wish it would just STORM, you know. Big fat drops of rain with thunder, lightning and the whole package - that's the BEST!
I just drank the worst cup of coffee I've ever made and I'm listening to 'Feeling Good' - Michael Buble. Thanks Vini! And 'A Page is Turned' by Bebo Norman
Oh yes, I have a bus ticket to OOTY!! Wahay! I'll be off on the 18th May on the night bus and will be working with Mizpah Home and helping out with the kids there. Really looking forward to that. Ooty my Beauty! :D

* The 'Desis' is a nickname for my favouritest girls from Hebron who I shared my life with - Grace, Meg, Niru, Alva, Sushi and Tashu. Some (or one, I forget) of the boys started calling us that cause I think they thought it would irritate us and we just thought it was pretty funny and LOVED it and it just stuck! :P I love you gals!

So Small

I am addicted to this song.
'So Small' by Carrie Underwood.

What you got if you ain't got love
the kind that you just want to give away
It's okay to open up
go ahead and let the light shine through
I know it's hard on a rainy day
you want to shut the world out and just be left alone
But don't run out on your faith

[Chorus]'Cause sometimes that mountain you've been climbing is just a grain of sand
What you've been up there searching for
forever is in your hands
When you figure out love is all that matters after all
It sure makes everything else seem so small

Also:
'The Fear You Won't Fall' by Joshua Radin
'Beautiful World' by Coldplay
'What Can I Say' by Brandi Callie
and you can add Bryan Adams to that as well :) You can call that rediscovering, I guess.

I finally watched '27 Dresses'. It was okay. Your usual chick-flick where you can pretty much predict the next line but then you're not looking for anything too intellectual anyway so its all good.


Also watched 'Across the Universe' yesterday and it is a strange, strange movie with amazing music - of course, its the Beatles and you can't quite beat that. Yeah, its a love story based during around the time of the Vietnam War and there are some really surreal bits but worth a watch, I guess.

'Elizabeth - The Golden Age' was good. Royalty in big puffy dresses and political battles. Interesting stuff :)



In the kitchen, I have been on two more adventures!
Peach Cobbler and Granola Bars. See more here.
I'm dying to try out Peanut butter cheesecake but its close to impossible to find cream cheese here that doesn't have a price that pretty much burns a hole in your wallet so that'll have to be on hold.

Go Black!

Niru mentioned this site in passing and it really is pretty cool... every little thing counts. I google pretty much everything so now I'll blackle it instead. Thanks Dotty.

http://www.blackle.com/

I've been visiting a lot of doctors recently and I really wish it wasn't such a money making debacle. Its hard to know who to trust.

And... I didn't know getting an ultrasound is so painful. You have to down about a litre and a half of water and hold it in your bladder and just wait till your turn comes and then you're lying there and... get this... they press down on your abdomen with this thing with wet goop on it. I very nearly peed in my pants. After they were done, I pretty much RAN to the loo. Ugh.

Anyway, the verdict is that I have polycystic ovaries which means that both my ovaries - those things that define my femininity, well atleast physically - are prone to having cysts on them - whatever those are. What does that mean? Well, many things apparently depending on the severity of the case and it varies from individual to individual. Oh yes, and it explains my increase in weight - that is kind of comforting. I mean to know that there IS a reason I've bloated up so much, besides perhaps too many visits to Mac-freaking-Donalds. On the other hand, it means I will constantly have to exercise and watch my diet. Yeah, right! Exercise, ok, it actually feels good to watch the calorie count on the treadmill go up and I want to be able to run the Mumbai Marathon next year. But watch my diet? I love food! As you can probably tell. Anyway, I refuse to take a whole bunch of medicines though. As long as I get to stay a woman and have babies, whatever. I guess there's a long way for that yet. There are no good breed-a-ble men within 500 miles of me so... hahahaha.

I wanted to make granola bars today but there's no honey at home. Well, there is but it smells nasty - it has tulsi in it or something... yuck. So I'll have to make something else but what?

Maybe I'll finally make those calzones I've been wanting to try.

Anyway, if you pray, pray for me cause I can't pray for me or anything else nowadays. I seem to have health problems popping up all over the place and I just want it all to GO AWAY!

Toodles.

Food Crazy

I decided, I needed a food blog!
I still have to work on it cause it looks a little blah. But if you want to try making this Devil's Food Cake, the recipe's on there...
Have Fun!