Oh what a weekend !!

Just slowing down now and trying to get in tune with the weekdays, down from a great and very hectic and weekend. Here's what happened:

Saturday - Pari's Day!
Saturday started with a small lie-in in the morning. Glorious sunshine filtered in through the window and there was little we could do except bask in the luxurious warmth of the rays. I know... little luxuries... but you learn to appreciate them more now that you don't have them so often!

This obviously didn't last... 'cause we heard noises from Pari's room. Rekha and I exchanged a knowing look of the forthcoming impending danger... and then suddenly the sound of some padded feet running towards our room... "Whooosshhh... boooomm!!" opens our door and in its wake stands none other than the... Pari-monster!! Fully awake, completely recharged, armed with her dangerously disarming smile and her all-faithful soft doggie - "Beagle", tucked away untidily under one arm... she stood in the door-way.

We exchange menacing looks and I beckon her over... grab her and drag her under the covers to a full tickling free-for-all. Well... by all I mean just Pari and I, because Rekha made a run for it in the opposite direction... shouting "Breakfast, downstairs, 15 min!".

Anyway, after a bout of screaming, Pari and I get up, brush our teeth and get ready for her Kumon & Drama classes. Since I'm the designated weekend driver... I get to do the runs.

Back from the classes and we gobble our lunch quickly. What're we gonna do for the rest of the day? Some shopping therapy comes to mind. So, off we run to the McArthur Glen Designer Outlet at J28 on M1. Rekha goes off to do her shopping and Pari and I get to our business. Its fun shopping with her... the best part is when she asks questions... just love answering her questions. Its an amazing feeling... her brain's like a sponge and I'm feeding her information to store in it. Get a deeply satisfying feeling that I'm educating her in some certain way - after all, everything we teach her now will shape her life practically.

Anyway, Pari and I walk into Levi's and I get her to sit down on a bench and stay put. Right, picture this... I'm browsing through the shirts and suddenly there's a resounding 'scary' "Whoooooo.... hoooooooo..... " from where Pari was SUPPOSED to be sitting... only she isn't there anymore. She's hiding under all the clothes and trying to scare people walking past ! Its really funny, cause people browsing the shirts, suddenly find themselves staring at a small child grinning up at them from between the clothes ! How awesome is that !?!

In-between, Rekha pops her head in to make sure we're not scandalising the poor staff. Seeing everybody still walking about, she's reassured of this and walks away knowingly... she'll be back !

After we'd completely traumatised the poor staff at Levi's, we ran away with Pari's slung over my left shoulder and squealing with laughter. Rekha got some doughnuts for us and we sit at a nice table in the sun to polish them off.

Next, we walk into FCUK for Madhur's present (it was his birthday on Sunday). I liked a nice navy shirt with thin green & brown checks. Looked classy, so we decided to pick it up. Later, we walked into GAME to check out the latest PS3 (for me!) and Nintendo DS (for Pari!) games. Obviously, we don't buy... I've still got 11 games which I've yet to even OPENED ! Buying another would certainly guarantee being hunted down by a knife wielding Rekha.

Back home, we called in a couple of pizzas from Dominos (oh, that reminds me... tried their Double Decadence Piri Piri Chicken Pizza... fantastic !) and settled in to watch a movie on cable TV.

Sunday - Madhur's Birthday
Sunday was Madhur's 22nd birthday. Seemed like a reasonably good day. Rekha looked up some movies at Cineworld and we decided to give Madhur a surprise. Spoke to Ankit/Anjali and we decided to go to Sheffield for a movie - "Aaloo Chaat". Picked them up from their house in the evening and off we went to Sheffield... after making some nice sandwiches to eat on the way :). What good is an outing without food, I ask? Trust Ankit to meticulously make each sandwich a special piece of art. Yo bro... between you and Angie, you've got sandwiches and gujju food covered all proper !

Reached Sheffield and got Madhur a special private screening of the movie... can you imagine that... we got the whole movie hall for ourselves !! Yippee... had a ball... Pari went berserk all throughout the movie... finally running herself out, she crawled into my lap and fell asleep... my poor baby !

The movie was a blast itself... some really classic punchlines. Almost doubled over with pain on a few occasions ! Good acting all around and great scriptwriting, even though I say so myself ;p!

Reached home precisely at 12:01 am! Got the cake out with the candle etc and sang Madhur a happy birthday song! Plastered his face with chocolate... dropped Ankit/Anjali home, crawled into bed at almost 2am... gawd... tomorrow's Monday! Ewww...

A great ending to a great weekend. Laters gang... will keep you posted.

Sachin & Dhoni taking NZ apart

Ahh... its a joy watching Sachin and Dhoni take NZ apart in their 1st innings of the 1st Test. Today's morning session was an absolute delight to watch. Sachin was perfection personified. The first couple of overs saw a beautiful frontfoot cover drive, followed by a backfoot drive... both destined for the fence the moment they met willow.

Caught it on my PVR :)... only seen it about 15 times so far ! There... Sachin's reached his 150 ! Brilliant show mate... you make us proud. This is his 18th 150 ! Crickey !!

Think Dhoni's pissed off now... that's the 2nd boundary he's hit just now. Well guys, keep at it. Just make sure you declare around 500... before the last session so that we get a chance to take a couple of quick scalps :).

Laters folks. Its 1:15am now... gotta get up at 6 to catch my train to London. Just 1 more day to go... Yesss!

One of those days...

Today's just been "one of those days - when NOTHING goes right!". Been slogging all day at work and its been like banging my head against a wall. Something or the other's not working ! Man...!

Anyway... enough of my sob story. Faiza "Frazier" Haq reminded me of Tiramisu... gawd... now I'll have to go buy one on the way back ! Man... I hate walking to the M&S store... its almost 20 meters away from the escalators !

The weekend's nearly upon us. Looking forward to it. Been a really long week, this. But there's been some good parts to it too. Like the nice Train Manager (Petra Bennett) who called Loughborough to let them know that I forgot to put my car parking pass in the car... she saved me a silly fine and an unnecessary hassle in trying to prove that I already had a bloody pass! Finally met up with her today morning again and said "Thank you". We really need more people like her in this world.

And then, Santosh brought me a lovely lamb curry for lunch today. Man... does that guy know how to cook or what? The best lamb curry I've had so far... and I've had a few, believe you me. Thanks Santosh... you're the best lamb curry cook in the world... but you already know that ;p.

Anyway... that's it for today... gotta go catch my train. Laters gang.

Picture time!

Some of my favourites pics...

Princess Pari on her royal throne...
...smiling at her loyal subjects. Her Highness was kind enough to dress down in the blistering Californaian sun so that we wouldn't feel out of place.



Princess Aanika & Princess Pari...
... enjoying a day out with their idols ! Well... at 3 & 6 who else would be their idols!?!

M&S Banoffee Cheescake - You know you want one... I do !

Was coming into work today morning and needed some milk as I'd run out of it yesterday; so popped over to the St Pancras Intl Marks & Spencer store for a bottle.

As luck would have it, neatly tucked away there, just a little to the left and underneath... quietly shouting out to me, were the neat light-brown & plastic boxes with 2 temptingly sumptuous slices of Banoffee Cheesecake. I mean... what could I do?? Honest...! Its a scheming plan against me, I think. Anyway, I came into work and made my cuppa. Tried to ignore the shouts for help from the Banoffee Cheesecake, but being chivalrous as I am, I was unable to walk on :). It would have been sacrilegious to not eat the poor cheesecake ! I mean, I couldn't be that cruel... could I ? Knew you'd agree with me. Bless you!

Laters gang.

The week went by pretty quickly too !

Had a brush with the arctic weather when central heating went a-walking this week. But, its back up now after some coaxing from the extremely effecient E.On central-heating gurus and changing the diverter (3-way-valve!).

Watched "Marley & me" yesterday with Pari & Madhur. Rekha decided to opt-out. Nice rom-com-tear-jerking-dog-movie :). That's an absolutely brand-spanking-new category of films, if you ever saw one. But I think that the teasers/trailors already show the best parts of the film... well, the funniest parts, at least. The ending's a bit tragic... had the whole cinema hall sniffling. Man! That's gross!

Mum's in Richmond with Princess Aanika. Spoke to them yesterday and the conv between Princess Pari & Princess Aanika went like this...

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Feel free to imagine Princess Pari (PP) and Princess Aanika (PA) in their typical English and American accents, me in my pseudo-anglo accent and mom in her usual desi accent.
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PP: Hey Aanika, how are you?
PA:
Mom: Beta, Paridhi-di-di-di-di is talking to you. Do you want to talk to her?
PA: Yeah !
Mom: Say hello to Paridhi-di-di-di-di.
PA: Yeah! Hullo!
PP: Hello Aanika!
Me: Aanika, we're going to see "Marley & Me" right now.
PA: Oh, we've seen that a laang laang time ago.
Me: Yes beta, but we're going to see it today.
PA: But, we've seen it a laang laang time ago!
Me That's great. So, how did you like it?
PA: Nice!
PP: What are you doing, Aanika?
PA: Talking to you ! (doh !)
PP: Aanika, when are you coming to our house?
PA: First you come to our house, then I'll come to your house.
PP: But we already came to your house, remember?
PA: Oh !
PP: We had so much fun, remember?
PA: Oh ??
Me: Ok Aanika, tell mommy to get you here quickly so we can have a lot more fun, huh?
PA: My mommy's not at home.
Me: Yeah, well... when she comes back home. Allright?
PA: Okay.
(Realising that we're not going anywhere with the call... I decide to end it as we're getting late for the movie anyway)
Me: Ok, Aanika we're getting late for "Marley & Me", beta. We've gotta run now.
PA: We've seen it a laang laang time ago !
(Oh dear... here we go again!)

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And there goes the weekend !

Does anybody wonder why the weekends go by so fast... or am I the only one?

Didn't realise that "Marley & Me" was coming out on the 13th ! Grr... There goes my promise to Pari ! Breaks your heart when your little one comes up to you and says - "But, daddy! You promised!". Wonderful.

Been a great weekend nevertheless. Ankit & Anjali came over for the weekend and we had a blast. We did go see the house too... :) Nice ! Velly velly tempting. Interesting bit was that Rekha found out that the neighbour was the MD of her company lol. Some privacy we'll have! The neighbours at the other side is one of the footballers from the Derby team. Not supposed to name him it seems! Quite a show-off though... came rolling out in his Maserati GranTurismo S and revved it up just for our listening pleasure!

We're getting our house valued now for a part-exchange on the new one. There's a couple more we're scheduled to see next Sat. Wish us luck !

Laters everybody.

Drobo !!

I'm getting a Drobo, I'm getting a Drobo, I'm getting a Drobo, I'm getting a Drobo, I'm getting a Drobo, I'm getting a Drobo, I'm getting a Drobo, I'm getting a Drobo, I'm getting a Drobo, I'm getting a Drobo, I'm getting a Drobo, I'm getting a Drobo, I'm getting a Drobo, I'm getting a Drobo, I'm getting a Drobo, I'm getting a Drobo, I'm getting a Drobo, I'm getting a Drobo, I'm getting a Drobo.

In case you folks didn't notice... I'm getting a Drobo :-). Well, its not exactly a NAS drive... yet. I'll need the Droboshare for that. Ab yaar... kuch doosri post ke liye bhi to chhodna padega ke nahin? Sab kuch aaj hi bataoon kya? Yes, no, then? (as in - haan nahin to).

Looking forward to hosting my own webserver and blog soon. Soon bole to... 6-9 maheene, bas?

Oh, and by the way... I'm getting a Drobo ;p !

Laters all.

The weekend is here... almost !

Woohoooo !! Its friday and the weekend's just round the corner.

So, what's in store for the weekend, I hear you ask. Hmm... lets see...

• Pari's Kumon, Drama classes & Piano practice
• House hunting... there's this nice house we've got our eyes on :)... got to go view it
  
• Grocery shopping ;p [now ain't that something to look forward to?]
• Watch "Marley & Me" with Ankit & family and Madhur
  
• Watch "The Unborn" .... ooooo.... this one's scary. Really looking forward to watching it. Don't suppose Rekha or Madhur are going to be up for it. Pari's out anyway. So, reckon Rinku & I will be making the rounds alone on this one. Heh heh heh... watch out girls... ;p
  
• Open the nice bottle of red I've been saving ;p [if you know me, you'll know I like my wines]

Update Time !
Mum's reached Mindy's place and is at the moment crashed out ! When Kumbhakaran... erm... mum wakes upthere's going to be a frantic runabout there. Oh and Hunter's going to have a ball too. Literally, considering running after one is his favourite pasttime... besides barking of course... and begging... and snuggling up close... and licking everybody's face over and over... and chewing shoes... and... and... Yep, you got it right. I miss him !! That's why we're going to watch Marley & Me... he's a spitting image of Hunter ! Let me dig up a pic of him and put it up on the blog.

Well, gotta go folks. Laters!

Mum's going globetrotting !

As the title suggests... mum's at it again! This time's its California. Arnie... beware! Call the army... call the cavalry or the armoured division or SWAT... do something! Protect yourself !

Well Arnie, come to think of it... you needn't really worry. She's going there to meet the Mindy-monster (a.k.a. Akanksha) and the inhumanly serene and quiet child prodigy (drum rolls please)... Aanika !!

Not to mention the calm and well mannered... "uddah" (aka Hunter). Ooouuuhhh... I feel the goose pimples pop up as the shudder runs down my spine. Need to calm down a bit. Deep breaths... one, two... three... phew. That's better.

Right... update time. What's new?

My NAS has gone :(... which means no network media server...!! Boo hoo !! Bawlll !! How'm I going to survive this tragedy? What do I listen to? What do I watch? Ohhh... woe is me for not keeping a 2nd NAS media server mirrored for just this very travesty... Heh, that'll learn me good methinks ! Anyway, looking for a new one now. But first... there's data to be recovered. heh heh heh... I rub my hands gleefully on the thought of getting to tinker with my NAS & 'puter again. Woohoo! Its almost worth the sorrow of the NAS going bust on me. Ah well... you can't have the cake and eat it too. Which reminds me... its lunchtime! Yippee!! Fooooooooooooooooodddddd !!

I'm outta here folks.

Okay, so I lost the plot about writing a page for each day I was in India. But I've been incredibly busy, so can only apologise... profusely at that too!

Grrr... I so hate when people say "I told you so". If YOU do that, I'll have you know that my remote has a "Break Someone's Neck" button... all ready and itching to be pressed. Oh, wait just a minute... its my thumb that's itching. Anyway... I'll press it if you say that! Don't do it... don't... doh! There you go then... brzzzztttt ! Hah ! Have fun with that lopsided thingie on your shoulders!

Anyway... lets move on. I've already busted my new year's resolution of keeping in touch with everybody. I've not called mum for 2 weeks! There goes my "mirchi-ka-aachaar" for the next few months! Mein gott !! Glutton for punishment, I am indeed!!

Lets see... what's new? Rekha's got a new company car... so I get to drive the Merc now grrr...! Was kinda hoping her company would pass the new car to me instead... ah well... cest la vie! But, since the company car isn't a McLaren, I'll survive I suppose.

Paridhi's started her Piano lessons. Got her a Yamaha PSR-E413 to practice. Now, before you say that I've 'maaroed' the 'kulhadi' on my own 'pariz'... let me have you know that I've played it smart and given her a pair of DJ headphones as well... heh heh heh... now, that's what I call S.M.A.R.T !!

Oh, btw... she's doing great with her Kumon classes. Think I've got a little Einstein on my hands here. Lets hope she translates that into good marks in her class. I know I couldn't heh heh. Oh right... I wasn't a genius. Sorry... forgot that one ;p. No, it wasn't intentional ! Honest !

Laters guys :)