Diary of a perturbed woman!

Diary of a perturbed woman, living alone in Ireland [husband is in India]!

Day1 : The morning when I opened the tap, it was like a deja vu of my age-old experiences with The Kerala Water Works! Not a drop of water. That was Kerala. This is Ireland .We dont panic in Kerala, we are so used to it. No water? Fine, there is a well at home or may be in any of the neighboring houses. But wells in Ireland??? No way!

I ran to our neighbors. No one has a drop of water. Fine, so it’s not due to our tank problems. Ran to ‘Super valu’ and bought two 10 litre cans of water.

NOTE: In Ireland, we don’t have to pay for tap water. It is a free commodity, as long as it is available. So, for the first time in Ireland I had to spent money for water! Great!

Water came late in the evening. Now, I always have an emergency water storage kept.

Day2: Gardai (Irish police) issued a new rule for prosecuting provisional license holders driving without a full license holder. It was to be implemented overnight. (In Ireland public transport is almost zero. If you don’t have a car, you are absolutely stuck. Buses are very rare, and trains rarer! ) And I am a provisional license holder. What luck! When my husband will be back, I will be in Gardai Station waiting for bail!

NOTE: On extreme public protest they took back the rule after one day!

Day3: In office, things were getting entirely out of control. I was being pulled by three different managers as I was covering for my colleagues who were on holidays. After getting so pissed off being ‘the doormat’ that I made this photo to make my point. While I was working on it, Mr. E happened to see and he dared me to make that picture my desktop or to take a print out of it and stick it on my cubicle front. I almost did! Well, I didn’t.

Day 4: Once I started living alone, I stopped cooking at home. Suddenly I found that I could live with just 2 slices of brown bread a day! And I don’t have to wash the plates. Wonderful! Result: dropped 2 kilos.

Day 5: My migraine got worse, and I had to take an overdose of Solpadeine. And then I found that more than 6 Solpadine a day can make you high! WOW! I was floating. I still don’t know how I didn’t crash my car into anything that evening.

Day6: Midlands’ biggest shopping centre opened. I am planning to spend my whole weekend there. One advantage of being alone here, you are not nagged by your husband to finish shopping within 15 minutes.

Day7: Tried to put my little finger into the big round plug point behind the coffee machine. Ms A yelled at me just like she yells at her own 2 yr old toddler. She was fuming at me for my stupidity! Still don’t know why I did that.

Day 8: Lying awake at 3 am, listening to radio. When did I last have lunch?. Is it just me or is the whole world going nuts?

Day 9: Husband phones and asks “Did Gardai catch you?”. Me: “not yet”. He: “When they catch you, talk to them in Malayalam”. He is so sure that I am going to get caught!

Day 10: Me phones and tell husband:

“My swimming classes will start on this Monday. If you find me missing when you return, first search Gardai Station, then swimming pool and then in the new shopping centre. If I am not found dead in any of those, I will be alive under my office desk.”

Day 11: the story continues…..

Showing off.....my canon

I am taking baby steps of Digital Photography with my new Canon EOS 400D Digital SLR Camera. So, showing off what I studied from its User Manual. All photos are taken using the pre-programmed modes in it...

Till now I haven't graduated into manual mode... like pros do...

May be these will increase my confidence to move on to that level....
































































Subjects: My home, Our fireplace, Our housing complex landscapes , and me....

photography:
landscapes(subject): me
me(subject):- my husband.

Being aquaphobic!

I have a very dangerous habit of assuming lots of things. It had landed me into lots of trouble in the past. But as the Swathi, I am, I never learn. This time, what I assumed, very nearly cost my life, hmm… not exactly but nearly. I could have been dead!

I don’t know swimming. And so, I am scared of even attempting to float in water. As our gym membership also provides pool, Jacuzzi and sauna, I asked my husband once to teach me swimming. And the self-taught swimmer he was, he readily agreed to be my coach. But it turned out that neither did he have the patience to teach me nor did I have the courage to trust him. I didn’t leave my hold on the railing, for even a second, that within 10 minutes of coaxing me; he quit his role as my swimming coach. Finally he swam and I watched him swim, still holding on to the railing. There ended my dream to conquer water, with his help. (I have joined the proper swimming class anyway which starts next month, where I expect to have more patient coaches than my husband!)

My encounter with water didn’t end there. Some weeks back I found a new word (according to my limited vocabulary) in our gym timetable for autumn. It was ‘aqua aerobics’. It didn’t make any sense to me at all. I knew what ‘aqua’ was and what ‘aerobics’ was. But I really couldn’t think of anything that related the two. Then one day my instructor told me to join that class. She described it as doing some ‘light’ aerobics while standing in water. What I failed to understand was how much deep the water would be while doing those exercises and her meaning of the word ‘light aerobics’. I don’t know why, but I assumed that it would be in kids’ pool, where there is water only just above the ankle.

To double-check I asked my dear hubby whether he has seen ‘aqua aerobics’ class. [We can see pool from the gym above]. And he re-assured me that the water will be very much below knee and that I just may have to wear shorts. But he didn’t tell me that he had seen the class. Again, I assumed that he might have seen it. So, when I went to my first ‘aqua aerobics’ class yesterday, I took my swimwear with me in case they were particular about it. I told my instructor again and again that I don’t know swimming and that I may die in water if I tried and she told me that I don’t have to swim to do ‘aqua aerobics’. I trusted her.

To my utter horror, the class was in the big pool and not in the kids’ one. And we were supposed to do ‘aerobics’ in chin-level water! And then it hit me; my husband was lying. He knew it was not going to be in kids’ pool and wanted me to get over my fear of water. Forget ankle deep, in that depth I could be drowned. I was too scared to cross the pool that one lady literally carried me to the place where I could hold on to the railing. She told me that I was very brave to join the class though I was completely scared to move in water. What she didn’t know that my hubby and my instructor tricked me into it. My instructor allowed me to hold on to the edge of the pool while others were in the centre of the pool, when she could see that I was totally terrified.

And then it started. With boom box blasting, she began to do the normal aerobics outside the pool and we had to copy her, but standing in chin-level water. First, I couldn’t move my arms and legs, at all. I needed one arm to hold on to railing desperately and one arm to keep my balance. But with her aerobics combined with the high resistance of water, it was impossible. Now, I couldn’t quit also. Finally after 10 minutes of drinking that yucky pool water while managing to raise my arms and legs, I some how managed to keep my balance without holding on to the edge, for 2 minutes. Again I would lose balance, do the same charade of ‘aerobics’ and drink another gallon of water. Anyway this cycle repeated for one hr and by the time I got out of pool, I had a full bladder and was panting like a dog. And the best was still waiting for me. To add insult to injury or rather like sprinkling salt to my wound; there my colleague was watching me struggle all this time, from the Jacuzzi!

Can any day be BETTER than this?

Circulating Clooney..

Ok.. That’s it. I am back. Today Shail aunty was asking me when I am going to be back from hibernation and I was replying “hmmm… don’t know.. may be after some more time. “. And only yesterday I got a mail from Mina telling me that she is impressed that I have kept myself away from y360! Retracting everything I had decided, look at me, I am back again, like the black sheep who went in search of greener pastures and came back home only to find the relation between grass and green…(ohh.. its that same old story!)

Now what triggered me to come back was a celebrity. [God… I still haven’t gotten over the “thing” for celebrities!] But it’s not me, this time, who is salivating over celebrities- at least not at this particular time. One of my female colleagues (let us call her ‘A’), adores George Clooney. She is a very sporty girl, not a girlie-girlie type, but more of a tomboyish. When other girlie-girlies, like me of course, go on raving non-stop about the new shopping centre about to open in our town, she will be sitting quietly. [‘R’ was even thinking of telling my manager to give us all womenfolk, paid-leave on that day when Ireland’s biggest shopping centre opens in our town, next month].

Once ‘R’ and I even asked ‘A’ why doesn’t shopping makes her high. And I will never forget the ‘look’ she gave me! The next thing I remember is ‘R’ running away from her for her dear life. I couldn’t run because I am sitting next to her. She is one hell of a girl. So when she started sighing on Clooney, I was thinking… so she is like us… [except for the shopping addiction, of course!]

So, for the past 2 weeks my inbox is being bombarded by her, with George Clooney’s pictures. The subject varying from “Embodiment of Perfection” (he sure was, in that photo), “To Brighten your day” (and it brightened my day!), even to “The Real Man” (which I forwarded to my hubby, hoping he wouldn’t forward Jordan’s picture to me..LOL..) and “ONLY screen savers to have” (I wanted to, but on second thoughts, dropped the idea for obvious reasons!). I wouldn’t lie. I am sure an ardent admirer of beauty in all forms. That includes everything that can make a feast to my eyes – nature, food, clothes, human beings everything… Clooney comes in that scale of course, but still there are some other celebrities I really admire, for beauty.

So, last day I went to her desk to have a peek at her collection of Clooney photos. He is gorgeous, of course. And we were discussing about his divorce, bachelorhood, and latest girlfriend when she showed me some pictures of players in Spanish league. And I was bowled over. I asked her “Are Spanish men always so gorgeous?” (Of course I didn’t have any idea about it!). It was almost like watching “Miss World” pageant, but with male contestants!!! And she was smiling at me with that “all-knowing” look.

Now it has become a joke among us girls here - circulating Clooney pictures. Honestly, I love it. Now, I want to find some one on my own, so that I can circulate his pictures to them, in return. [Does any body else's heart skip a beat on Lorenzo Lamas... ?? or is that just mine?]

After all we are all girlie-girlie types… and now I know for sure that we are from Venus..

Adiós

I am going into hibernation...just for a while...
Is it cos of the autumn and the shortening days that i dont get enough time now a days?
There is so much to concentrate now, on my life... so much so that... some days i even forget to wash my face... :-) [Blame it on shorter days!]

If this is the case then I may forget to wake up in winter!

So, till I get used to the decreased daylight and the sun going off at 3pm...[which hasnt happened,yet!]... i am going into hibernation from y360..

Now, I know why they wanted Halloween on autumn!

..till then....

Adiós

London Photoblog- 2

London Bridge and Tower Bridge
---------------------------------------------
I thought that these two bridges are same. In fact I had never heard of Tower Bridge. Only when I saw them, I found that they were different. Both are across River Thames and are parallel to each other. The Tower Bridge seems to be the old London Bridge , which is the one in the nursery rhyme "London Bridge is falling down". (Please correct me, if I am wrong!)


This is the London Bridge, which looks very ordinary to me....




Some views of London from the London Eye(Millenium Wheel)..
Here,on the right hand side, you can see Westminster Abbey and Big Ben.






This is the Tower Bridge , may be named after the London Tower..



With HMS Belfast , in the back ground..

...and if you are not convinced that it is called Tower Bridge....


Windsor Castle near the London Tower, across R.Thames.


Waterloo Station

Note: Sony DSC SR-32 resolution is 640 x 480 . Hence the grains...
We have given back the camera, anyway.

More next time.....

A belated entry for our Irish Onam '07

Onam is over and I just had a very heavy sigh of relief. Till then it was like Ayyo! Onam is coming, I should do this... I should do that..- a number of planning, schedules and what not. Though honestly I don’t like cooking, I like feeding people with whatever I make. No it’s not that kind of ‘sadistic feeling’ some people may already be thinking. I really don’t want to poison them or make their stomach upset for ever, by making them the dump yard of my experiments. I truly, love the ‘idea’ of cooking on my own and giving dinners to friends. Anyone can dream, right?


So, this year, as Onam fell on a weekend, I was happy. I could cook and I could take one day leave after that to give my body the well-earned rest. On Friday I gave a crash course to both my Irish colleagues here on Onam. I could see their imagination go wild (and their pupils getting dilated) on the idea of ‘eating on a plantain leaf’. One of them even asked me about the size of the leaf. God, did he really think that we were originally some tribesmen from the darkest forests in Kerala! Anyway I told my female colleague that I am going to cook, yes cook, and that I am taking a precautionary leave on Monday in case anything goes wrong with my back or stomach! She was more supportive, may be because she compared it with the huge turkey roast they did for Christmas. But my male friend was still apprehensive. And I think that’s because he is a bachelor!


I shopped alone for the feast because my hubby and shopping never ever go together. If we wanted peace in the house, I have to do shopping on my own. Though he just did ‘pushing-the-trolley’ maneuver, he complained as though he did the whole task of making list, finding the items, comparing prices and checking them. So, I was better off without him in that task. That meant pushing the full packed trolley for some 2.5 km on my own (which was terrible, in an uneven pathway!) and then driving alone after that. Anyway I went to some African store and even bought plantain, which was not available in Pakistani store. I decided to do everything the hard way using coconut oil (which will be as hard as frozen butter in Irish climate) and using boiled rice, which took ages in getting cooked!


Anyway I woke up Saturday with a migraine which made me go panic. But after taking painkillers it went down and I started preparing for Sundays lunch menu. I usually work in kitchen with Malayalam CDs blasting in high volume - to boost my mood. It lessens the actual burden of cooking, for me. So with that, I started. My menu was:
Parippu curry, sambar, rasam, beans mezhukku puratty, carrot thoran, tuna vattichathu(non-veg), pavakkai fry. Pappadam and rice was meant for next day. Payasam (dessert), aviyal, pachadi was planned to be brought by our guests. I knew how to make aviyal. But ‘pachadi’ and ‘paayasam’ looked like “Mt.Everest” to me!



Anyway, I am not self-praising anymore… I finally did it and my back is still intact after that, along with my guests’ stomachs. Also none of us didn’t contract diarrhea. And in fact I got compliments, too! So, I think, apart from pookkalam, we irish-mallus celebrated Onam with ishtyle, in Ireland too!


Fiction: My guests (and may be the readers) thought my husband helped me.
Fact: He did, grate 5 carrots, in the whole process!