Party Time!

That’s right folks! My new home is ready for you!  Please be gentle with the furniture and fixtures, they took forever to be aligned JUST RIGHT! Feel free to open up a bottle of wine, browse around and comment on what catches your fancy (or doesn’t!).

Address: www.kosherdosa.com

Map: Click on above link and you will be transported to my new home, no need to knock, my doors are open to everyone!

NB: If you have added me to your blogrolls, please ensure that you change the url and don’t forget to subscribe to my new rss feed!

Happy Partying!

Radio Silence!

I am in the process of setting up a permanent home for this blog and it is taking longer than I expected! Who knew that a full time job, a full time study-plan, the goal of loosing at least 5kgs before the end of the year and explaining to your younger sister that the world does not revolve around her could leave you with so little time to tweak a WordPress theme!

Slap me silly and call me superwoman because this new home will look clean and sexy and if it could, it would taste and smell fabulous too!

You are all invited to the house warming!

The address and map will be provided shortly!

Taking frugal living to a whole new level!

I have been sick, which means lying in bed, catching up on months of unwatched soapies in between bouts of fever gripped shivering sessions.  One of these lucid, post-panado, relatively shiver-free sessions coincided with a re-run of Oprah.

The topic of the day was “Freeganism”.

Freeganism is “an anti-consumerist lifestyle whereby people employ alternative living strategies based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources“, according to wikipedia.

The show went on to introduce a few members of this lifestyle and gave the viewers a peep into their homes and lives.  One of the activities I witnessed was the weekly trip the Freegans make to re-supply their pantry, rather aptly called – a trash tour.  A trash tour basically involves going to a supermarket trash dump, rummaging through the rubbish and finding food that is unspoiled and edible (sometimes past the expiry date). I know, it completely grossed me out too!

Initially I was rather shocked at the people that practiced this lifestyle. Some of them were practicing optometrists, engineers, lawyers and investment bankers.  I asked myself the same question I am sure you are asking yourself – for the love of God, WHY?!??!

I was up for one more surprise! As I continued watching the show, the group had finished their trash tour and laid out all the foods that had been salvaged.  The sheer amount of edible food that had been thrown away was staggering!  Fruits, coffee, cereal, vegetables, you name it, it was in the pile of ‘trash’.  The fruits and vegetables seem to have suffered the trashcan fate only due to slight bruising, the cereal and coffee due to an expiry date (can these really expire??).  Nuts, diapers, juices! The only thing that made me raise my eyebrows was the milk that was past the expiry date.

Surely all these foods were not good for you, I mean come on, they came from a dumpster!  But they seem to have no negative impact whatsoever on the Freegans.  The food went into their fridges, their dishes and their bellies and none of them died of food poisoning.  To be fair, the Freegans themselves admitted that there is an art to picking the food from the dumpster, you don’t just grab whatever you want and shove it into your mouth (ok, ew.), you need to pick the best and sanitize them first.

By the end of the show, I had gone from being repulsed to being introspective.  While the idea of picking food from a trashcan really grossed me out, the fact that these people were able to maintain a healthy living lifestyle from the food that was thrown away as trash made me wonder just how many hungry poor mouths we could really feed in this world.

So, the question of the day is, could you do your bit for the world by becoming a Freegan?  I know I can’t – I have an allergy towards trashcans.

Hello! My name is …

I was reading through my blog, doing some cleaning up, checking that posts were categorized, tagged, waxed and shined when I realized that I didn’t really introduce myself in this blog, I just signed up, set it up and followed an overwhelming urge to put into words what I was feeling at that moment in time.

So this is the “who am I” post.

I am an Indian living in South Africa but my folks were born and brought up in India so I suppose you could call me a first generation Indian South African.  My parents are very proud of their Indian heritage and they made sure we understood that by drilling it into us (me and my sister FF) from a young age.  My mom made sure we both learned our mother tongue in addition to the three other official languages we had to study in school.  My dad made sure he cultivated in us a love for mathematics and all things science.  The perfect Indian family.

Until I became old enough to start thinking.  I was a headstrong, rebellious child and my sister, while not as outwardly rebellious, was able to bring my parents to her point of view.  Always.  I run through the proverbial china shop with horns and hooves flying, she calmly navigates her way through the aisles.  I speak and react at the same time, she listens and persuades. It is a very good skill – one that I do not have the patience to hone.  I blame astrology – I am a Tauren.

Growing up, every Indian tradition was questioned and a “Because that’s how it is done!” answer just did not sit well with either of us and we promptly added said tradition to the “I will be ignoring this from now on!” box.  I am very sure this didn’t quite fit in with my parents’ idea of parenthood and sometimes I am amazed that my parents actually survived this daily onslaught!

Over the years, my parents realized that they had drilled the idea of right and wrong into our heads so hard that it permeated from our skin and that all these new experiences that we were going through, that was so different to what they had experienced when they were growing up is not necessarily bad.  They finally realized that they needed to trust in their belief that they brought us up well and more importantly that we were individuals with our own ideas about how to live our lives.  Might I just add that this is a HUGE deal for Indian parents.  A HUGE DEAL!  Even I didn’t realize how much of a deal this was until …

I had to tell them that I was in a 4 year long relationship with a white Jewish guy.

I can’t begin to explain the tension I went through when I made the decision to finally tell them. “Shitting bricks” was a very real phrase for me that day.  It was a real ‘fight or flight’ moment.  My brain formed the thoughts, my mouth spoke the words and my heart pumped blood to all the important appendages (mainly legs) in preparation for “flight”. I was petrified.

My father looked at me with an expression that I could not read and my bladder screamed “OH MY GOD I CAN”T TAKE THIS TENSION, I NEED TO RELAX”.   Then he said “All I want to say is that, if you are happy then we are happy”.  To give you an idea of how shocking a response that was…it’s like President Bush one day standing up in front of the entire world saying “We made a mistake, we should never have invaded Eye-raq” and then following that up with “and we will be more than happy to pay reparations to all the people that lost a loved one because of our mistake”.  Impossible to imagine right?  Well that’s what this was.  Impossible to imagine.  My sister, mom and I sat there for a full minute with our jaws on the ground in absolute shock.

It was a defining moment in my life.

So I am an Indian girl in love with a Jewish white boy – I am sure you can work out his nick on this blog now *wink*.  I can’t imagine the experiences my children are going to be presented with – can you imagine having Indian & Jewish grandparents, both very proud of who they are?  I see lots of interesting, complicated and hilarious incidents to unfold in our future and I am looking forward to every moment!

Mah Peeps!

This week has been pretty emotional so I am going to lighten the mood a little and talk about the characters I have introduced into my blog.  When I started this blog, I knew that I would have to mention the people in my life as they play a significant role in my daily life and the way I view the world.  Naturally, after bringing up the possibility of becoming a character in my blog, the first reaction was “You better not use my name!!”.  So I decided to come up with humorous apt nick names for these wonderful people.   I am sure you have been wondering what the abbreviations I have used stand for, so here is a quick guide.

FF - Fashion Fundi because she will not step foot outside the house without being perfectly coifed and color co-ordinated!
NN - NomNom because NomNom = superyummy and everything she likes is not just yummy it is NomNom!!
CM – Cookie Monster because she LOVES cookies, give her tea & cookies and you will be in her best books!
TD - TopDeck and the reason for the nickname will be revealed in good time!

I know that there are many more characters that will make appearances over the course of this blog journey, so I will have a running legend up on the side and I will keep adding them as they are introduced to you.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Forced Reflection

Yesterday, NN’s father passed away.

I was there when she got the news and I cannot begin to express the anguish and pain I witnessed on her face.  Her world had been ripped apart and there was nothing anyone could do to make it better.

After she left to be with her family, I sat at my desk, trying very hard to grasp how tenuous life really is.  I kept running through the events of that morning.  NN and I meeting up, coming into work, having breakfast, working, laughing and working some more.  Meanwhile, at that exact same moment, her father had taken his last breath in this world.  The clarity of the realization that life is so fragile took my breath away.

My mind invariably turned to the most important people in my life that I had hugged, kissed, fought with and I almost suffocated with panic at the thought of never being able to do those things with them ever again.  And yet I didn’t call any of them to see if they were okay, I didn’t call any of them to tell them I loved them very much and how much they all mean to me.  I am just not yet ready to accept that they are mortal.  Maybe a part of me also feels that it shouldn’t take a dear friend loosing a loved one for me to let my loved ones know how I feel.  A sense of guilt that I have taken them for granted.

My thoughts were dominated by my parents, especially my father.  Growing up, I always tended to dismiss them and their wisdom.  I was a pretty rebellious child and of course, as most teenagers feel, I felt that I knew best.  Having a father with his own set of issues made this easier.  How do you respect a father who is flawed? As children, we hold our parents up to an impossible standard.  We expect them to know everything, understand everything and of course understand us.  It takes growing into adulthood and becoming responsible for one’s own well being to really recognize that your parents are but human beings.  Human beings that grew up in the same world we did, experienced a set of challenges – different to ours but challenges nonetheless – to those that we did and ultimately are just as flawed as we ourselves are.  Being able to understand this fundamental concept gave me the greatest gift – a true relationship with my father.

Our relationship is brand new, despite existing since I was born.  I don’t need to hear the words to know that he loves me unconditionally.  On some level, deep down, I always knew he did but it has taken me and him twenty four years to break through all the bad decisions, flaws and mistakes to build a meaningful relationship.  One that means more than words can explain.  I refuse to let go, despite knowing that ultimately it isn’t up to me and it scares me.

Today, I am back at work, rushing to meet deadlines and going through all those activities, motivated or mundane, that I go through on a daily basis, but something’s different.  There’s an empty seat next to mine that reminds me that as cliched as it sounds, life is too short. So to all those that I hold near and dear in my life, I want you to know that I love you and you mean the world to me.  I cannot imagine my life without each and every one of you.  Thank you for making me a loving part of your life.

NN – I am thinking of you.

Home Decor II: The DIY Tv Stand!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we had purchased a D.I.Y TV stand which needed to be assembled when we got home from our very successful shopping trip.  My sister (henceforth known as FF), who is staying with us for a while, was chomping at the bit to play handyman.  The engineer in her couldn’t resist the challenge.  TD appointed himself the overseer and I appointed myself head designer.

After two hours of taking down old horrid dark blue curtains & re-hanging light, creamy gorgeous curtains; getting appropriate bulbs, leads & plugs for the lamps and finally finding the most aesthetically pleasing place for them (sounds very easy but there are MANY combinations of sofas and lamps and it has to be just right!),  FF and I were ready to tackle the TV stand.  TD was deeply absorbed in his team pvp (for you non-gamers out there, pvp = player vs player games) and since Team PVP > D.I.Y Tv Stand, we decided to forge on ahead just the two of us.

So we ripped open the cardboard casing and dug out the three page instruction manual with big pictures (love big pictures!) which we read from beginning to end.  Then we checked to see if all the relevant bits ‘n bobbies were in the package (again, LOVE the big pictures!) and finally we pulled out the first shelf plank and laid it out with reverence.

The stand has three shelf planks, stacked on top of one another, held in place by a trim board in the back and two long 8cm-in-diameter tubes in front.  The tubes are held in place by two half a meter length screws that you screw into the bottom shelf and through which you thread in the wide tubes and the other two shelf planks. Are you lost yet? It sounds more complicated than it looks, you will just have to take my word for it!

So FF took over the back board section and started attaching it to the first plank and I started attaching the half meter screws into the first plank.  We had the base structure up in no time and patted ourselves on the back!

Then we mounted the next shelf plank which is supposed to slot into two holes in the back board section. The operative phrase being “supposed to”.  No holes. Both of us start muttering about ‘shoddy d.i.y kits’ and wondering if we should just drill new holes because neither of us felt like traipsing all the way back to the shop for a replacement kit.  Good thing we didn’t as well, because just then, the engineer realises that that she has mounted the back board section backwards! So lots of unscrewing ensues, more re-screwing and we slot in the second plank.

Third plank is mounted and slotted in! We are on a roll! Finally we need to screw on two small legs to the final plank! Wait…what? Screw on to where? Oh … those 5 meter long screws are supposed to stick out of the top plank? Uh oh….I think I have screwed them in too deep.

So we dismantled the entire thing, re-assembled it again and finally we were able to screw on the short stumpy little legs! Those damn legs.

We turn the whole structure on to its legs, praying to all Gods that we haven’t missed a very vital screw because if we have and the tv stand crumbles under the petite weight of the 32″ lcd screen, both FF and I will have to change our names, don a hijab and go into hiding somewhere in the UAE to get away from a very murderous TD.

It seemed to hold FF’s weight, but then again she probably weighs less than the lcd! So we replaced the cute little cupboard with the tv stand.  FF and I both took  a deep breath as we gingerly placed the lcd on the brand spanking new tv stand and stepped away, as slowly as possible.

A week has passed by and it is still standing so I’d like to think that our little d.i.y adventure was a success.  Now I just need to make sure that TD does not notice that little bump on the top of the TV stand caused by me screwing in the 5m long screw too deep into the first plank … oh wait he reads my blog….teehee sorry sweetie!

Monday mornings!

Monday mornings should be banned.

In fact Mondays should be removed from the working week.  They should become part of the weekend.  There is nothing worse than waking up on a Sunday morning and knowing that in less than 48 hours you are going to be back at work…on a Monday morning!

I think I can handle Tuesday mornings at work, because by the time Tuesday rolled around, I would feel like I actually had a weekend.  So I would have had enough time to recuperate, get my chi in place to deal with Tuesday mornings at work.

My weekend watch starts just after lunchtime on a Friday afternoon.  I cannot wait for five thirty to come around but unfortunately my weekend does not start until an hour later due to traffic.  I don’t get why traffic is so bad on a Friday evening! Do other people not share the same sentiment as me on a Friday? I think there should be a rule against granny-style-drivers.  Those of us who drive-like-the-devil-is-on-our-tail, because we want to get home or wherever we fancy christening the weekend, should be allowed to push them over to the yellow line.  Clearly granny-style-drivers do not appreciate weekends as much and I don’t see why we should suffer.

But I digress…after all this hoopla, oh and did I forget to mention that I need to spend yet another half an hour in the supermarket shopping for all the goodies I need for basic toast-making to complex lunch/supper meal-making? Oh wait, our local supermarket has decided that they would like to expand their current parking lot by reducing it intially to a quarter of its size.  So my normal 30-minute shopping session now becomes an hour long swearing session, with 30 minutes spent circling the shopping center trying to find a parking spot. So not cool.

Finally, by 8pm, I am home and ready to kick off the weekend.  Friday night always flies by, and before I know it Saturday is saying hello.  No matter how much I try to wake up early on a Saturday, my body just gives my brain the finger and refuses to budge.  I am held hostage under the duvet covers! I swear!

Saturdays fly by filled with studying, playing with our camera (TD and I recently acquired a Nikon D80 – our newest gadget craze), marathon series sessions and before I know it Sunday’s peeking over the horizon with sleepy eyes and a very grumpy disposition.  I dislike Sundays and I am sure the feelings would be mutual if Sundays had any feelings. No matter what I do, Monday is always looming at the back of my mind.  You just can’t shake it off! Then you blink and Jumpin’ Jack Monday is smacking you upside the head rudely.

Can you spot the trend here? Three quarters of this post was spent getting to the part where the weekend started off, a quarter on the actual weekend and before you know it, it has ended.  This mimics life! I think I have made my case for Mondays to be banned from the working week and added to the weekend.

Down With Working Mondays!

New GMail skin!

I came across this post by HoTsTePPa which is very very cool.  I have since activated the new GMail skin and wow does it look pretty! I love Gmail but the original interface looks absolutely ugly.  This new dark grey color skin looks absolutey amazing!

Try it out, just follow the simple easy instructions HoTsTePPa gives in his post aptly titled: Coolest Gmail Skin!

Friendships

Eighteen months ago, a sweet, quiet shy girl (henceforth known as NN) joined our team at work.  We sat at the same desk for weeks and never really said anything to each other except at lunchtime.   At lunchtime, which we both tended to have in front of our computers, we had a moment of communication only to find out what the other was having for lunch.  After which, we both went back to our respective worlds of work..and silence.

On one particular day, we surprised ourselves by extending our curiosity beyond the type of lunch we were having to how much our respective lunches cost us!  This then led on to gasps and groans about how we were both trying to save money but failing miserably and ultimately landed in a joint plan to combine our resources, shop smartly and share our lunches.

Every Monday, we would trundle off to the local supermarket, buy all the stuff we needed for the week in bulk, come back and make our healthy, easy-on-the-wallet sandwiches.  They were delicious! The added bonus was that we got away from our computers for an hour each day and we got to know each other a little more each day.

A year later, we had an addition to the lunch-time party.  She was full of life, a fighter and so funny.  We loved her instantly.  She also shared our common interest in saving money so she fitted right in and will be henceforth known as CM.

A few months after she joined, CM left us and joined another company and so ended our tri-party lunch sessions.  Fortunately we had Skype, which became the saviour of the day and we have a three-way chat window running in the background always, everyday.  Sometimes we don’t say a word for hours, other times we are discussing politics, what stresses us in life, we confess some of the deepest darkest fears we have and we feel safe.

It feels like I have bullet listed a series of events in the last 18 months, and I am sure this post comes across as mundane, but that’s the thing.  It was this mundane series of events, conversations and actions that led me to find the two most amazing women I know.

I have found a friendship that I know will last a life time, where I know I can rant and rave, cry, feel absolutely vulnerable and be able to put those feelings out there knowing full well that these two will give me a soft landing.  I can be obnoxious and there is always someone to cut me down to size, keep me humble and yet stroke my ego when I feel a little under the weather.  I can be quiet … we can be quiet together and still feel connected.

To NN & CM – My Friends For Llife!