Movie Marathon Months-- Updated

Somehow a lot of good movies…movies I want to watch are being released June and July. While I love going to the movies, I do feel a little guilty about doing it so often when I am unemployed and sitting at home. Anyways that said, it did not actually stop me from going.

Hangover II - 1.5/5 (Give it a miss, go watch something else)

I wasn’t really dying to go for this, but then hubby said that it was doing well. Hmmmm, not sure how, cos it was bad. I think the first movie worked cos it was novel and drastic. Walking in to see a tiger in the toilet…that is funny! Licking a guy’s broken finger, is jus disgusting. The movie was needy just like one of the protagonists and in places plain insulting. Not my taste. Anyways I am not gonna write much cos I have forgotten most of it already.

To spoil the movie more, two burka clad girls walked in super late and then insisted that everyone in the row get up so they could move to the corner seats. Before I could even realise wat was happening, some guys from the back started shouting at us to get up and let them in. And people say that Singaporeans are incourteous!!

X Men: First Class - 3.75/5

I absolutely loved this movie. Loved. It. More than the movie, I thought Michael Fassbender was pure eye candy. Even if you have not watched a single X Men movie, you will be able to follow this. At the same time, for the diehard X Men fan (me!) it was still entertaining. Its kinda hard to believe that there was a time Magneto couldn’t control his power. The thing that did not sit well with me was how everyone needed help to sharpen and control their powers…except Prof. X, who seemed to come pre-honed. I liked that not too many mutants were introduced, unlike the first two movies, where so many were shown but not built on. I was surprised that Beast who built the cerebro was not even mentioned in the previous movies. In fact the impression was that it was built by Charles and Magneto. Overall it wasn’t very noisy and with too much going on, but at the same time kept a good pace so you don’t feel its dragging. Definitely worth a watch!

Kung Fu Panda 2 - 4.25/5

AWESOME! There is something about cartoons and Jackie Chan movies where even if the story seems along the same lines, you still don’t watching it for the action and comedy. There were times when the backdrop would look so real, you tend to forget that this is animation. But it makes the 3D totally worth it. I loved the character of peacock! The use of the peacock’s feathers the way a fan is used in kung fu was amazing. It was funny how the goat kept going for the silk robe. The concept and importance of inner peace may have been a little profound for the little ones, but very well portrayed. Somehow even X men dealt with the same theme of inner peace and how it was important to be able to channel ones energy.

Cars 2 - 3.5/5

I read a lot of poor reviews about this movie. But since I really liked the first CARS movie, I wasn’t gonna miss this. Okay, the movie mixes a lot of things, from James Bond to F1 races. Storywise, there isn’t much link with the previous film. As much as I liked the movie as a good watch I think the movie was for the young at heart rather than the young. The story is complicated, maybe a little more than a kid can understand. The focus is more on Mater than Lightening McQueen. There was a lot of ‘killing’ of cars which I did not really think was needed. Its hard to understand the long winded moral of the story which is don’t judge a person (or Car in this case) by how he behaves or looks or talks.

Delhi Belly -4/5

The story isn’t complicated to understand, its not a new original script, its not some artsy fartsy (well maybe just fartsy) movie. Its not a movie that everyone will enjoy. Maybe don’t take your parents or children to this one. If you are the sort who likes to eat popcorn during a movie, maybe you want to wait for the first 30-45 mins of the movie to pass first. I am not a fan of toilet humour at all! That was a huge put off for me.

But that said, I did enjoy the movie. The movie is about mix ups, misunderstandings, coincidences and such. It’s really hilarious when it gets going and outright unbelievable at time. It felt like a lengthy sitcom, well paced and witty.

However the movie goes, whether you laughed or cringed, you will love the last song of the movie. Aamir Khan does a ‘Mithun’ spoof. Great way to end the movie.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon - 2.5/5

I love Transformers, that is why I went for this movie against the advice I was given. I liked the first two movies, they were loud, lot of action, a lot of transforming.

The background story of Sam Witwicky’s life was also not a drag to watch in the previous movies. There was too much unnecessary stupid things going on. There was NO NEED to bring the parents at all. There were so many unnecessary characters brought in for no reason.

I know every movie has a damsel in distress with the ‘oh please save me’ look and her boobs sticking out. I still felt at least Megan Fox redeemed herself with a little of the tough girl act. Girl could drive and fix cars atleast. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley was there only to show her legs and what not. The stupid ‘motivational’ speech she gave to Megatron…yucks! I just couldn’t take it I duno how Megatron did. She really seemed very out of place in the movie for most part.

McDreamy cannot be evil. NO I will not accept that! Come on, how could you do that. In the beginning he said he was forced to do the bidding of the Decipticons, but why did he continue to hang around and help even when they were getting defeated?

The major action was limited to the last 20-30 minutes of a painful 2 and half hour movie. It was good action, but I wanted more. It’s a transformer movie, you watch it for the action not the story!!

Movies yet to be watched

Harry Potter 8

Budha Hoga Tera Baap

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

(My mom is not gonna be happy with me watching so many movies!)

First Incident Report

So in continuation with the passport fiasco:

Friday morning was a mad rush. First to the airport then in search of a police station to lodge a complaint. Abu Dhabi becomes ghost town on friday mornings. There is hardly anyone on the streets, almost nothing is open. Including the police station apparently! They refused to file an FIR in the police station we went to and told us to come back on sunday.

Saturday Sumit spoke to his company PR officer (person who helps with local administrative process) and he advised that rather than go to the police, it was better to go straight to the immigration office.

Sunday at the immigration office, Sumit was told he couldnt file a report for missing passport in Abu Dhabi as his visa was from Dubai, so he had to go there. He went to the taxi company's office hoping to identify the cab driver and maybe calling. The good thing was we had had a lady driver, and there are only few of those here.

Monday Sumit was back in immigration office with his PRO to try to atleast file the FIR. Again there were told to go to Dubai. When asked what will happen if in Dubai they do not accept, since we reside in Abu Dhabi and the passport was lost here, the simple reply was, 'we will send you back to them'.

By this point we were quite frustrated. It had been 4 days and so far we hadnt gotten anywhere, not even an FIR. We had been calling the airport daily to check on any updates. Every morning our conversations started with a recap of what had happened at the airport that day. Speculating on potential scenarios. Should we go to the Indian Embassy straight? should we go to Dubai and try?

August is start of start of the fasting month, nearly all work comes to a stand still. Sumit's visa was expiring, and we were gonna do the renewal this month. Usually visa renewal required a visit out of the country, so we did not want to delay that, since I wouldnt be able to travel very soon. We needed to apply for Sumit's parents visa after his renewal, so that they were able to be here for my delivery. So we needed to start the passport process real soon.

As we were heading to bed, close to midnight, we got a call from the airport police saying that they found his passport. We ran out of the house like crazy, even before the call ended. I dont think too many people run around the airport if they are not flying out or in.

Funny incident of the day:

The Pakistani taxi driver found it amusing that I was pregnant, we had no luggage, we seemed to have ran down the road at midnight and were rushing to the airport. He couldnt contain himself, he asked us with a very serious look 'aap bhag ke shaadi kar rahe ho kya?' (are you running away and getting married?)!!!!

I made a BooBoo

I am an extremely paranoid traveler. I dont like carrying passport in hand. I check for it every 5 minutes. I have a passport pouch which is bulky, so that if I drop it I will know. Any left over currency from a trip I save it in the pouch, for use during emergencies, like I lose my wallet.

A long time ago, my entire family was traveling back to Chennai from Kumbakonam (my paternal village) after my brother's Andinarave (1st birthday). We took two autos from the station to our home. Some confusion ensued over the payment and stuff, 2 suitcases were left behind in one of the auto. The 2 suitcases just so happened to have all the gold jewellary. Some my mom's and some my aunt's and also cash, all the expensive silk saris they had bought or were gifted, you get the picture. All in all it was a very expensive mistake! After a month of running from one police station to another, tracking the other auto driver etc, we finally recovered partially what we lost.

Then the following year, my cousin sisters were coming to Mumbai to visit us. They did the exact same thing, and were left without any clothes for their one month trip.

My mom was returning to Singapore and my little cousin was 5-6 years of age and wanted to go to the washroom, so mom requested the airport staff in India to let her take my cousin in. She gave her passport and ticket my aunt who was waiting outside and went in. (This is a long ago, when security wasnt so strict). She came back to the gate and handed my cousin back to my aunt, said her goodbyes and went back. Without her passport and ticket. It took her a while to realise it too. These were the days when mobiles were not there either. So mom started panicking. She did not know how to contact them in time for the flight. Luck had it that my uncle had discovered the passport by the time they reached the car park and was rushing back.

I lost my wallet at least once a year. Either I dropped it by mistake or it got stolen from my bag in school (yes, that happened few times). There was a couple of times I was getting down from the bus and dropped my wallet. It used to be soo frustrating,even though back then I did not have any credit cards and not that I carried much cash. But as a student I was always broke, so it used to really pinch losing my wallet so much.

My brother did not want to be left behind, last year on his way to Abu Dhabi from India, he happily forgot his PIO card at home. He assumed since he had a Singapore passport it was alright. Of course it wasnt, and my poor uncle had to drive across Chennai in a mad rush, he even got caught by the police, to reach the airport in time to hand over the card. That seems to be the only 'booboo' story of my brother that I remember.

While my dad (like Sumit) claims he never loses things, just misplaces them. Always only remembering at the last moment that he has. I know the number of good watches my dad has forgotten in hotels and country clubs. Last year, he left his wallet in the flight, along with a bottle of Chivas that he bought inflight.

I often say that my dad and Sumit have many things in common. After yday's luggage confusion, seems like Sumit also managed to lose his passport. I distinctly recall him showing it to the guard when he went to return the luggage. Somehow this morning we couldnt find it anywhere at home. He is quite forgetful, even I agree, but he hasnt lost much things in his life (or so he claims). There is always a first, especially for 'BooBoo' stories.

Mixups

So it seems it was a good idea I went to the airport after all. Even though I left an hour before the flight arrival, the flight arrived 45 mins early! Since Sumit was a Business passenger, his luggage and all came out quite fast and he was out of the airport as I reached. Luckily I had left him a message stating I was just reaching. When we were about to get into the taxi I noticed that the luggage piece with him seemed different. It took Sumit much longer to realise that he had by accident taken someone else's luggage! He refused to accept that he made any mistake, even though I told him our suitcase was dark brown and the one he had was very light brown. His point, 'brown is brown!' (sigh!men!!!!)

So we ran around the airport trying to return it and get back our suitcase. It was very important to me especially cos all the goodies my mom sent for me were in it and I wasnt about to lose them. God knows when we would get it and whether they wud have spoilt by then. Thankfully the nice Chinese gentleman whose suitcase we had was very understanding about it.

Hmmm

So 5 days seems to have gone by faster than I expected. Thanks to me sleeping thru most of it. Sumit should be back in 2 hours and I am trying to decide whether or not I should go to the airport to meet him. On the plus side, it would be a good surprise, on the minus side, it would mean a one hour ride all the way there.

We have been having so many friends and cousins who had babies recently (last 6 months), and I know it sounds lazy of me but I really hadnt sent out gifts for some of them. With some people, you dont want to gift clothes and the usual stuff. Plus some places I couldnt find good online stores, where I liked something worth sending. Its one of those things, I like to send something that I feel the other person would like. Sometimes I find something, but in the wrong country and it doesnt make sense to ship it internationally. So finally I came round to doing my gifting. I found this great site for the US, which shipped these incredibly cute rockers for kids. I mean they had the cutest designs I had seen. I was totally in love. Its totally impractical to carry around though but still...I mean they were cuuuteee and they sang songs as well. I sent a butterfly to my friend in NJ for her baby girl and froggie for my niece in CA. Both of them told me today that they got the packages. Seems like it has been a big hit, I am so glad.

Anyways as much as I am proud of finding the right gifts, I still have a few more to go. As soon as I finish one round, seems like more people are popping out!

Sumit leaves for Singapore tonite on business. Well its his first 'Business Trip', so I am being supportive. Even though he is gonna be gone for 5 days and I am gonna be stuck here alone, I am being supportive. He is super worried about leaving me alone, since we dont have friends here and he is sure I am going to something crazy and get hurt. I am not six! I do wish I could go with him, but I just came back from Singapore few weeks back. I met up with everyone I wanted to and had a great time.

Anyways, in other news, my day started with swimming around in the pool, finally after they turned the heater off. Its such a simple pleasure of life, to be be able to just float around in cold water. Blissful start.

I decided to make South Indian for lunch today, my 2nd attempt at sambhar. I know its quite a shameful thing that being a south indian, I dont know how to cook sambhar. But the sheer number of steps needed to make a decent one used to really put me off. Not to mention the number of utensils that get used. I am more of a lazy one-step all-in kinda cook. It came out decently, not as good as the last time. Ah Well! I knew there would be left over and I could just use that for dinner.

I am sooo looking forward to my mom coming here end of July. I am running out of ideas and patience to cook. Dad is trying to drop by sometime too, on his way back from Iran. I am completing 24 weeks of my pregnancy. I cant understand why people keep telling me that I dont look pregnant, cos when I look in the mirror, I see a very big belly. On most days I get some major kicking from inside to remind me also, as if I had forgotten. Trying to deal with belly itching. Nothing seems to work.

I discovered Fox's cookies in our local supermarket and it has become my comfort food. I sneak in one or two biscuits a day. My favourite one being Chocolate Viennese....mmm buttery and yummy yummy yummy. I am giving myself this allowance now with the promise that once the baby is out, I will be more careful with my calories.

Dearest Mama

My guru S. Sathyalingam Mama passed away recently. I had not seen him in many months as he was battling cancer. But his lessons will always be with me, I will strive to follow and teach my children.

Summer Woes

Its summer time again, weather keeps going up and down. There are weeks when its just plain horrible heat with absolutely no wind, leaving a suffocating feeling. On other days, there is a cold wind which subdues the heat and makes it bearable to go on walks. I look forward to such days, when I am not going to be on house arrest. One of the other perks of such days is being able to go for a nice cool swim. Except my stupid gym had closed the pool for half the week in the name of maintenance and when they finally reopened, they started the pool heater! Its summer for god's sake, who wants a heated pool?? And after all the 'maintaining' they did the pool was still sooo yucky and not very clean. Sigh, makes me miss Singapore a lot.

Of course there are perks of being in Abu Dhabi, especially when you dont want to get cooked like a lobster. You can get nearly EVERYTHING home delivered. Even if its just one lemon you want, they will deliver it and quite quickly too. Now my regular stores have seen my pregnant bump, I get priority service.

But all said and done, I will take the rain any day to the sun!

My Bakes

Sitting at home, I started experimenting with various recipes, especially cakes. The good thing is its just two of us, therefore if something screws up not too much is wasted. Initially I tried very basic quick breads and brownies. Few months back I proudly bought a mini muffin tray to add to my collection.

So far I have managed to successfully make lemon, orange-strawberry, and lemon-blueberry breads, brownies, variety of muffins including cheesecake. But I have been having craving for a simple marble cake. So this morning I tried the first recipe I came across and very proud of the results. Thanks to my friends K and S who got me some amazing cocoa powder from Brussels.

I have been waiting to put up this post for a while, but since I am not a great photographer, I am dependent on Sumit to take the fotos and give them to me from his complicated camera which I refuse to operate and he doesnt trust me with! So finally I got some of the fotos out of Sumit's camera to put up.

So I am proud to present my

Lemon Cheese cupcakes

Orange and Strawberry Bread

Orange Cake with Chocolate-Cinnamon Frosting (Had baked it for a friend's birthday. I know the cake doesnt look so great but it vanished within 30 mins!)

Marble Cake

** Special Thanks to Sumit for being my practice dummy, eating everything I made and giving valuable feedback. :)

Positive News

English movies usually show a girl taking a pregnancy test and bracing herself by sitting on the toilet seat, indicating that it was positive and unexpected. On the other hand in Tamil movies they show this girl running to vomit. Her husband comes rushing to see if all is ok. The mother in law in the background will smile and whisper to the father in law, who will whisper to the son, who will then ask the girl 'is this true?' and the girl will give a bashful nod to indicate that she is pregnant. In Hindi movies, the girl will faint and someone will check her pulse and say 'Badai ho, aapki beti maa ban ne wali hai!' Its just soo funny and oh so melodramatic.

For me this was always just a joke, something I made fun of and never really believed happened in real life. I mean come on. My body works like clockwork, I knew exactly when my next period was gonna come. I never had pain or vomiting or cramps, I used to run and dance even during my worst days.

So I was in India attending a family wedding, getting ready for the evening function, out of the blue I rush to the washroom to puke. I havent eaten much all day and am terribly dehydrated cos for some reason the wedding hall was short of water. So naturally my first assumption is I have acidity. But of course it had to happen right in the middle of the room where all the ladies were. My mother in law's looked at me very curiously and asked 'Are you pregnant?' Immediately all the others chimed in and started asking me if I was late or expecting this and feeling that. To me that was a ridiculous question. I wasnt even late! I know it had been three years since I was married and they had been expecting that by now I would have had 3 kids, but still, I would know if I was pregnant rite?

All night I kept telling everyone ( cos the news had spread thru the entire wedding hall!) that I was alright, it was probably nothing, just acidity. I was sure of it in my head that it was impossible that I could be pregnant now. I mean Sumit and me just had the 'oh we should think about a family when I get back' talk, the day before I left.

As soon as we got back from the wedding, my sister in law had already bought some home pregnancy kits for me. Even though I had insisted I would go back to Abu Dhabi and get it checked 10 days later. The pregnancy tests came out not positive or negative. I wasnt even sure it was correct. But somehow my family read it as 'if it isnt negative then its positive' and promptly called Sumit and told him the 'good news'. SO much drama, rite? I just found all of this funny and little annoying, seemed like no one was gonna wait for me to go back and check. In the meantime, I had been banned from doing any work around the house, including going up and down the staircase. I felt like an idiot, while everyone around me was running about doing work, I was sitting down. I had also been told not to tell anyone anything yet, obviously cos as far as I was concerned, there was nothing to tell.

Finally after much fuss was created around me by my mother in law and sister in law, 10 days later I reached Abu Dhabi to find out the truth. I took the pregnancy test and when I finally saw the result, I had to sit on the toilet seat to brace myself.

It was positive!

Homemade spa

So when I was back in Singapore last month, I commented to my mom about how her complexion has remained fair in all these years. Last few months she has not been working and her skin has cleared up a lot more too. Of course I started complaining about how inspite of me doing the same, I dont seem to stop tanning. (I might have missed telling her about my regular swimming in the sun.) More importantly my mother has not been to a spa or hair stylist as far as I can remember, not even for my wedding. Obviously I wanted to know what her secret was.

Mom: Its simple, when you are making ghee from butter, what ever remains in the wrapper, put it on ur face. If your milk has cream, take a little out, put it on ur face. If you cut lemons or oranges, rub the peel on ur face before u throw it away. Then wash your face. Take some yogurt and besan, mix them and use it like a mask.

I know there are many home remedies for skin care out there. But when my mom said it I really felt it was bizarre! A friend of mine told me she used to wash her face with milk before her wedding to remove the tan. But still it was something I had never tried. Not that I am against the idea.

So after coming back to AUH, I decided I was gonna try some of the ideas. Considering I am wasting time at home anyways, why not. I am sure most of these are probably quite common and I am quite behind in my 'discovery'. Nonetheless, here are a list of things that I tried out.

1) Yogurt and Besan: this was awesome for the summer heat. It worked as a scrub as well as a mask. Very refreshing feeling after

2) Orange peel and Milk: I had a lot of heat boils in Singapore, and the marks just refused to go away. But After I rubbed them a few days with orange peel soaked in milk, Voila! They became soooo much lighter. This has become a regular thing now for me especially after swimming.

3) Milk and Honey: This one was great for dry skin.

4) Strawberry and Yogurt: I had bought some strawberries which were really sour. I did not want them go a waste, so after eating as many as I could, the made a paste of the last few, mixed with yogurt and made another face mask. It exfoliates the skin really well, quite refreshing.

Jab We Met

Event: Dad’s office party

Me trying to be polite and chatting with random people

Aunty No.1: “ So your husband is north Indian?”

Me: “Yes”

Aunty No. 2:” Did he used to work in Singapore?”

Me: “errr….No”

I know where this is headed and I was trying to prepare a version of the ‘long story short’ in my head

Aunty No. 1: “Ohhh…how did you guys meet then?”

Five years since we met and three years of my married life, I was getting a little tired of the question. Would they know if I lied?? Cant mom please call me now? Sumit look at me..rescue me…Damn it, he isn’t even looking.

Random uncle: “Ladies, why don’t you guys start having food?”

Thank God!

Aunty No. 1: “NO NO..I want to hear this first” Grabs my hand and makes me sit down

Sigh, I am stuck

The Short Version:

So Sumit while studying in IIM Bangalore, came to NTU, Singapore on exchange. At the same time, I had recently started working in NTU. We met first thru a common friend. It wasn’t love at first sight or anything, we became good friends. He left within one month and we had a long distance relationship. Two years later we were married.

Grilling matter

Lazy friday, spent having wonderful belgian waffles in the morning and awesome sandwiches for brunch. Thanks to a wonderful gift I got for my wedding. Problem is I dont know whom to thank for it.

Generally I dont forget what I get and from whom I get it from. However my wedding was an occasion whereby I left Singapore the day after I got married and did not even get a chance to open all my gifts properly. So my parents did the honours and also made a notebook of who gave what, so that I would know. Then they promptly lost the book in midst of all the commotion of coming for my reception in India. So I only got to see my wedding gifts a year after I got married. Among the few gifts I did manage to check out before leaving were 5 coffee makers and a sandwich maker cum grill cum waffle maker, the latter being something I really wanted. I did not have time to repack it with me and considering that I knew I was gonna be in India for few months before moving to Abu Dhabi, I felt there was no need to carry it with me then.

But over time it got lost, and placed somewhere very 'safely'. Mom and me searched the whole house, mom was sure I must have been mistaken. Finally 3 years after my wedding, I found it, still perfectly wrapped and in good condition. I sincerely wish I could remember who gave it to me though, cos I would really love to give that person(s) a huge hug. Its one of the most used thing in my kitchen.

Unemployment woes

Yesterday Sumit was arguing with me about how I am so fickle minded and impulsive. The argument spawned off from me not having left the house all day because I was job hunting and did not feel any motivation to leave the couch. This usually spirals into a depressing session of self loathing, sarcasm, complete indifference and impulsive statements.

So many people told me "oh you are quitting your job, thats so wonderful! Now you can do all the things you wanted to do but never had time for." Thats not really true. When you have all the time in the world but no work it also means you have no money to spend on whims and fancies. So you try to do whatever you can with the resources in hand. One morning I am studying Arabic and on another morning I am looking through GRE questions. One day I am resolved to finish my video journal while another I am just in the mood to watch sitcoms. Somehow nothing seems to engage me long enough. Maybe because these arent meant to be full time activities.

Its not my fault that I am stuck in a country where medical research is unheard of. Doctors find it amusing that they have to look at things beyond jus treating their patients. There is jus so much money thrown around that they can just buy an existing research facility instead of bothering with it.

You can plan all you want but well things wont go your way, especially when you go thru so much trouble to make sure that your younger brother has a good time. So in my previous post I had said a lot about the things I had planned for him right?

Friday started with tour of Dubai..the Burj viewing tower was a let down, it wasnt so great and view from ther isnt a must-see. From ther we went to Bur Dubai in search of the chaat place I had been to nearly a year back which had the most amazing pav bhaji. But after walking for 1 hour we gave up and settled for another place we found. Thankfully the food was great and we even got to have a kalakatha gola and matka kulfi at the end of our meal which were pretty tasty too. So we decided to spend the evening at Jumeriah where on most evenings you get to see a parade of high end cars drive by from Porshas to Ferraris to Rolls Royces. Well as luck would have it, we hardly got to see any, maybe it was the time or the location we were sitting at or just our dumb luck. I flt bad cos even just the previous friday we saw such a good line up. To add to that, we had bad tasting Mexican food and by the time we drove back I had two sick boys in the car.

Well Saturday started off better. The Grand Mosque of Abu Dhabi is certainly a saviour. It is huge and really beautiful, no expense was spared in its making. Inspired by the Taj Mahal, its made from marble imported from Greece, Italy and India. Chandeliers made in Germany with Swarovski crystals and the largest handwoven carpet weighting 39 tonnes. Evening was supposed to be ice skating, but of course, it just so happened that day the rink was closed to public! It wasnt all bad, we ended up playing pool and bowling.

I had read a lot about Al Ain being rich in culture and heritage. Also some French archeologists had made uncovered some sites from the bronze age, etc. The weather wasnt gonna let us have it so easy. It was foggy all morning, with the visibility dropping as we approached the highway. But by the time we reached Al Ain, the fog cleared and it became really hot! So we went to the museum and the palace both were kinda let downs. The archeological site was closed till 4pm so we couldnt go in cos we were there at 2.30pm and I had to be back in the city by 6pm. So much for that.

I am wondering if its a good ideas to ask people to visit at all!

Dubai Brotour

My younger brother is visiting and will be staying with me for 10 days. I havent seen him in 1.5 yrs so I am really excited. The last time I was here we had few visitors. Even my mom who stayed in Dubai for one month came to my house only for 2 days and both times I wasnt at home. Its funny cos back then we had a 2 bed room house and it was huge and spacious. So much so, that we hardly visited the 2nd room except to dry clothes. Our current house on the other hand has only 1 bed room but its more homely. I actually like this house so much more.

Anyways back to my brother coming. Well we can finally do the touristy things to be done in Dubai. I have planned so many things for the coming week, including 1 maybe 2 trips to Ferrari World depending on how much we like it, paramotoring in Ras Al Khaimah, Desert Safari and of course going up the Burj. Too bad he doesnt have his driving license, cos I was looking forward to doing some speed thrills at the Autodorm. But well I have to be happy with the fact that Abu Dhabi highway speed limits have relaxed and been increased to 160km/h.

Back to the Future

Its been 2.5 months since I came to Abu Dhabi..again. When I left for Singapore it was supposed to be a temporary separation and Sumit was to join shortly...but unfortunately that dint fall thru and I had to come back. This time also there was a lot of drama before I came..nearly everyday I changed my mind two times about coming back here. I was constantly caught between leaving my career and supporting Sumit. If I din come back Sumit would go crazy and if I did, I would.

Sigh..the sacrificies one makes in the name of love! So since I knew I had to come back, I made a pact. With the city. We were both going to start over, with a clean slate. I wouldnt let my previous prejudice affect my now judgements and the city would on its part treat me better. I can safely say that we have both kept our word so far. It certainly hasnt been a walk in the park but its better than the last time. I can only hope the new year will bring with it new tidings.

No Problem

So on a boring friday we decided to just go for a movie. It so happened that "No problem" was running and we made it just in time too.

It was funny, at parts hilarious. Anil Kapoor was full on paisa vasool (Sumit feels differently, he felt it was the 1st song that was paisa vasool). Parts when Kajal became Kamini was a good spoof on multiple personality disorder. Overall I doubt if I would watch the movie a second time nor do I think it has the elements of a great "Andaz Apna Apna" in the making. BUt it certainly turned my boring afternoon into a funny (mindless) one.

Lavik to Bergen to Oslo

You simply dont realise the days pass when you are on a vacation. That is exactly how we felt leaving Lavik. We both swore that we would come back and stay here for 2 weeks, when we wanted to get away from the city life. It was that kinda town.

We were to take the ferry across the river to reach the other side of Sognefjord and continue towards Bergen. It was our last stretch of driving. We reached Bergen railway station, dropped our luggage and then needed to return the car. Driving in the city wasnt so easy though. We got quite lost and managed to go in circles many times before we found the place.

Tired and hungry we headed to the Light Rail station. Wait, you can only buy ticket with coins or credit card and it has to have a pin! Sumit tried a few cards and the machine hung. So many of the passengers behind us couldnt get a ticket either. It was only after we had some pizza we were a little upbeat about roaming the city. It was around noon and we had till 11pm before our train.

We saw the city twice and it was only 4pm! We had walked around the city and gone up Mount Floyen, even tried to catch a snooze there. We went to the Brygge, around it. We ended up wasting the rest of the time just sitting at different parts of the city. Coming from Singapore, I am used to public washrooms everywhere, most of them free. It wasnt the case there, you could find a washroom in cafes, if you buy something you could use (they were code locked). So we ended up randomly buying things. Finally at 9pm we decided we had had enuf and went to the train station to wait for our train to Oslo. I only remember Thanking my senses for booking a sleeper cabin, cos we both jus crashed as soon as we entered.

If there had been no announcement of Oslo, we would have just slept longer. Breakfast at the railway station reminded me so much of India. Thankfully our hotel was walking distance from the station, we quickly dumped our luggage and went to get some real food = Apent Bakery ( must try on the lonely planet list). So we walk across town, cross the Royal Palace and pass thru the houses of Ambassadors, trust me you would not regret the walk to find it. Its really tucked away somewhere far from sight because I dont think they want many people to know. They have the most amazing bread and jam. Wait did I mention it was berry season and we were getting fresh jam everywhere. But this place, for the bread lover (that is moi), it was Heaven!!

After stuffing myself with hot bread, yummy jam and a nice cup of chocolate, we went to the Royal Palace. Seems like the ambassadors were visiting the royal family, so there was a parade. We stayed on till the guard changing and then left for the hotel. We had very few things we wanted to do in Oslo, sadly the Ski jump was closed for renovation so we couldnt do that. So we decided to go to the Viking Museum instead that evening. Next morning was to Vigeland park. Sadly though, the museum only opened at 12pm and we dint want to wait. We wanted to go to Hadeland glass factory because we thought it was jus 1 hour away, turns out is twice that and buses were quite infrequent. Nonetheless it was a good decision to go there.

I have never seen glass blowing, so I was super fascinated. You get to understand why wine glasses are so expensive when you see 6 people working on each glass. Its a lot of effort. The vases were beautiful, its truly an art. I was really proud to buy our first true set of wine glasses. Suddenly we realise its time for the bus, which have been so punctual up till now in our trip. We ran around finishing our purchases and getting the VAT rebates done, blah blah.

So we are now really tired from all the running around, we wait at the bus stop for 20 mins only to realise that actually the next bus is supposed to come 1 hour later! Thankfully we found some coffee and hot chilli fries (made from fresh potatoes mind you). Perfect for the weather.

We returned much later than expected and went for Indian food yet again ( Sumit is so fussy about food :P). The excited restaurant owned was all too happy to make the dishes in 'desi' style, hot and spicy. Sigh!

So the next day was Amsterdam, now that deserves a whole post to itself.

Geirangerfjord to Briksdal to Lavik

Norway is expensive but the price we paid for bad breakfast at Geiranger town was jus ridiculous. Since we had a kitchenette, there was no reason to let that repeat. So we head to the grocery store to get some stuff, dump it in the car and start our trek.

You see we had decided to go trekking, because apparently there are many spots where you can take good photos from. We had asked someone at our cabin and she couldnt explain very well but she managed to point us to the right direction. In the town, we found the tourist information office, and decided better to reconfirm. I have no idea why the lady the tourist info gave us a completely different route. We believed her and started walking. We heard waterfall some where, we followed it and saw something that cannot be described. I will jus put a photo up. I think we trespassed into someone's personal grounds cos when we tried to go back we found barricades. To show some signs of summer, you could see small flowers here and there. Sumit started teasing me for taking so many pictures of them.

After a while, we were sure we were not going where wen intended to go. But then, being the optimists that we are, we found a nice rock with a great view and had a picnic lunch. Bread-butter sandwiches with fruit yougurts and apples. Yum!

The walk back seemed a lot faster (maybe because I had stopped taking pictures of the flowers). We managed to reach town by 2pm. We felt it was still early and we could go for a spin, what use of getting a car rite? There was this zig-zag path that Sumit wanted to drive up on. Ofcourse the view from above was splendid.

Once again chef Sumit decided to make dinner, the menu - tomato soup, hard boiled eggs and bread with cream cheese.

We had to leave early the next morning, we were driving to Briksdalbreen glacier and we had to reach by 10am. Although google promised us 2 hours, there was a feeling that it would take longer. We were right to leave early, and I was right to let Sumit drive. The highways were at places were 'hidden' by low lying clouds and then kept getting narrow. As soon as we hit the country road, there was only one lane for two way traffic, so one had to be careful. Also there were no sign posts on the country roads. So we were not sure if we were lost. But in front of us we saw this huge glacier (we dino that was where we were going until later), so we decided if we really were lost we will jus get as close as possible to the glacier in front of us and take it from there.

Finally we reached Briksdal glacier. Now we were supposed to go on a glacier safari, which involved (from the pictures) going around the glacier lake in a raft. I expected it to be a very relaxing sorta, easy activity. We were driven up most of the way till the glacier lake and walked up the rest. If at any point till now we had felt Norway was cold, we were about to experience the worse. The wind was so strong, it kept pushing us. There was a German couple who joined wit us and our guide. We managed to get the raft in the water, then we were told we had to row against the current and wind!. So we huffed and puffed, rowed till our arms hurt, only to see we had hardly moved. The current was taking us away much faster than we could row. After about, I am guessing, 20 mins ( what felt like eternity), we were pushed onto shore. We decided to make another attempt. It would seem for a minute that the wind stopped blowing, but that was just a cruel joke being played on us. We just went some distance and anchored on one side, took fotos, asked questions to the guide. Tried one last time to go closer to the glacier, we managed to make it close.

The trek back was slow and tiring. Coffee was badly needed to wake my senses. My feet were numb inside my shoes. We met many chirpy people walkin up to the glacier, all greeting us with the widest smile. I wasnt sure if they would smile on their way back. Anyways, we had managed to finish the whole experience much earlier than anticipated. For my efforts I decided a treat was due, double chocolate chip muffin, Europe size!

We only had the last stretch of drive, 3 hours to Lavik left. We had decided we wouldnt stop for fotos. Seriously you cant help it when the whole damn country is so freaking beautiful! But half way thru I was too tired. We had packed lunch, which we had on the way, so we didnt really have to stop much. We reached Lavik around 5pm.

Lavik Fjord Hotell, family owned, straight out of an Dutch novel. It was like a boutique hotel with its own view of Sognefjord. The dutchman behind the counter was more than excited to help us with our room and also made us some hot drinks. There was a lovely bookcase just outside our room and an arm chair. I felt the only thing missing was a glass of wine, but since we were driving, we din want to risk it (Norway has very strict laws on drink driving). Evening dinner was specially made for us, hot spinach tortellini with salad on the side. We couldnt have asked for more.