My Boy'sterous Reflections

Its been a crazy few days packing for my two week trip to MN ..its crazy if you take two weeks to pack for a two week trip , right ? :O

but the good news is I finally made it here yesterday afternoon :D ( that I forgot to still pack a couple of things is a different story but I am here,with family and that feels SERIOUSLY awesome !!! )

and since I've slacked on the Hawaiian chronicles, so much so that I still haven't got down to penning them , I promise to do a better job with this , the Minnesota Chronicles ..

You would agree if I said - the craziest part of travelling anywhere is getting there.. but for me, its also the funnest especially when you're travelling alone because it gives you the opportunity to observe people and their antics and top on the list yesterday was this man sitting next to me , who slept like that was all life was about ..he slept nonstop ..from the minute we boarded till the time the row infront of us cleared .. he even slept while having his beverage ..like a sip of Coke and he conked out - I mean 'snoring' conked out ...like it was horse tranquilizer and not Coke ... Jesus .. you would really have to see it to believe it .. and his only saviour was my book ( I was reading ' Shopgirl ' by Steve Martin ) that kept me occupied for the most part ..occupied enough to not elbow him or knee him or even stab him .. if the need arose .. infact if you haven't learnt the most important truth about flying yet ..its this ..

Yup ..I can't believe it but my blog officially turned 2 today ..needless to say its been quite the journey ..a journey I am proud of !!

I still remember when I wrote my first post ..elated as I was ..I wondered what next and so remained the question for many months - and then it slowly began to get easier...

However, having said that I must still admit that writing is and will not always be a piece of cake but whats important is I revel in it , and over the last two years I've particularly enjoyed writing about movies , travel and relationships ( like the new layout din't already spell it out for you ;) .. ) but it wouldn't be half as much fun if it weren't for all the comments, feedback that all you lovies keep sending my way ..

So thank you for being my friend on this journey and for being there ..it means a lot :)

I haven't done this in a while ..come to think of it the last movie I wrote about was Midnight in Paris back in June.. but by now you must know that hubs and me watch as many movies as we can ..so here's a couple of them I really loved , laughed and adored ( even cried ) these past months or so ..

Sunday the 7th of Aug was Friendship day , which is when this post was supposed to be up but then sometimes in my case well begun is literally ' half ' done :P .. anyways here it is ..

My FB page is inundated with friendship day messages yet most of them seem perfunctory ..perhaps one of the reasons why I wish to refrain from posting any ' friendship ' messages today..

I still believe in the institution of friendship but I'd much rather celebrate and rejoice in the company of good friends all year round than wish each other this one day and forget they existed the remaining days..and as rhetorical as it sounds , its what I've come to believe in ..

blame it on all the exciting episodes I've had with people I thought were my friends or

blame it all on just growing up ..

either ways the meaning of ' friendship ' has changed ..

and every time I wrote a post about friendship that change was even more apparant whether it was about friends growing apart or about moving on or even about reuniting with a lost friend ..

And who knows it might change to mean something else in the future but for now I want to remember it as this ..

It might hurt to let go

sometimes a little , sometimes more ..

but let not despair in your heart grow

for every friend that turns a foe ,

there's always a good one in store

to rekindle the flames of friendship aglow..

Happy Friendship day to you and your best friends :)

July has disappeared without so much as me blinking ..it seems to me the lesser I write the faster time flies ..

now is that how its supposed to be ?

Who knows , all I know is July was not such a blur either .. atleast not the first half ..when me and hubs took time off and went for a real vacation not a work cum pleasure vacation but a real one ... Weekend breaks are good and I'm glad to make good use of them as and when the time and money allows but after a while they just don't seem to cut it out for me ... my heart desires for a getaway that's longer than just the weekend

Infact isnt that what a getaway means ..

when you really get away ,

when you feel you've gotten away ..

Pardon me if I seem a bit carried away with all this getting away but you do get me right ?

Call me a romantic if you may but nothing beats the crap of everyday life than spending quality time together and doing what you enjoy most together be it travelling , watching a movie , going to a park , exercising ..hell even shopping counts .. the idea is to take out the time every once in a while , to stop and smell the roses .. and I mean it in the literal sense of the word too ...

coz the whole purpose is to slacken the pace of an otherwise crazy life and get away and we did just that on our trip to Hawaii .. and believe me when I tell you that we've been to quite a few places together but this trip , visiting Hawaii was an out of this world experience..

because Hawaii is a place with something for everyone , from the nature lover to the beach goer to the savvy shopper ...

a place with a little bit of all, from tropical rainforests to stunning waterfalls , from tranquil mountains and lush valleys to one very active volcano and even snow on the highest peaks ..not to mention the never ending stretch of gorgeous beaches ..

maybe its just the traveler in me falling in love with every new place I visit ..wanting to savour every moment , every sight , smell and every experience but its the truth .. and as a Jewish proverb goes ,

and so even with all its rockers and some shockers ..HAWAII is still every bit magical ..

Hands down a must watch this summer and I'll rate it a 4.5/5 :))

Have you seen any movie lately you really liked

and what's on your must watch list for this summer ?

— Marcus Buckingham

In this past month of little writing and reading on le blog and blogosphere ..

I've been doing a lot of thinking , infact introspection might just be the more appropriate word here ..

Coz remember when we were young and life had a plan , as idealistic as it may have been ..

there still was a plan ..and mine was you'd say pretty conventional - to study , get a degree , get a job , get married , continue working , buy a house , a car , a dog , have kids ..

and then as life went by , I realised I was slowly accomplishing these goals I had set for myself , though not necessarily in the order above but life was happening and things moving ..and then somewhere in the middle of it all , crept a doubt ..

All and any attempts at ignoring it failed , and it forced me to deliberate , if this is how I wanted my life to turn out ?It wasn't like I was miserable but admit it aren't there times when it feels like everyone has it good except you ? that somehow your struggles are greater than anyone and everyone else ?

But its just normal human tendency or should I say normal woman tendency to sulk because sulking always makes everything better - doesn't it :D :D

Jokes apart , what does amaze me though is how a single have-not can make us more miserable than a dozen have's .. and how the have-nots always seem to yield more power than the have's ..

Maybe the grass is greener on the other side , but maybe its time to CROSS OVER and look at where you're standing .. because in most cases while we're busy ruminating over how he or she has it all, we forget to consider the possibility that he or she might be feeling the exact same way.

So ,

So like I said before , bring it on life - I'm game for you , I may not have it all but I have plenty and life is good , much better than I could have ever imagined and for that I am more than THANKFUL :)

Its taken her almost a year to grow into it but its been worth the wait and those big beautiful eyes ..I'm in love ..

Thanks Jo for such a heartfelt post and the mini photo shoot, you made my day, my friend :))

<3 <3 <3 to you and your beautiful family ..

The weekend just zipped past but for a change it was full of excitement ..does gorgeous weather and spending a day on the beach have anything to do with it .. TOTALLY !!

But this post is not about the beach ( maybe later .. ) its about a certain kind of thrill you experience while exploring new things and places like when I was in Brussels ..

Assuming that you still remember all those places I showed you ,today I'm going to give you a lil behind the scenes action like Oprah..because all those pics you see were taken the second time around when we visited the attractions together ..

The first time ... well it just happened that I went alone ..coz with hubs working the whole day and having only a couple of hours in the evening it made sense for me to check out the places ,

ponder on the logistics where , how , what ..

and believe me when I say , its not something I get to do everyday , show hubs the way or order him around and therefore I admit to ' sadistically ' enjoying being in charge hehehe :D

Being and feeling at ease is not what you'd consider my forte ..but much to my surprise I was ... and so armed with a map in one hand and my handwritten lists in another I took to the city as if I belonged there ..

not that I didnt commit the odd mistake - like you'd expect any tourist to ..

take for example the transport system in Brussels ..Its well connected but its extensive ..

There's STIB/MIVB , there's TEC and DE LIJN and there's SNCB/NMBS

and there's Greek and Latin-which is what the above is,till you get a first hand experience...

and my first hand experience went like this ..

In an attempt to be the boss who knew it all ..I assumed I knew the diff transport systems and that I had hit the jackpot when I found I could purchase a 3 day pass that would give me the freedom to travel freely and not worry about paying every time I boarded a tram , bus or train ..

Smart , eh ?

Yeah if I was living in Brussels ..

apparently I wasn't ..

I was told later , I was living in Flanders where the jackpot wasn't acceptable coz it was a different provider .. so 9.20 euros * 2 go straight down the drain ..

I read somewhere “When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money.Then take half the clothes and twice the money”.

and now you too , know one of the reasons ..

why you need ' twice the money ' :P

The other reason is ofcourse the love for good food and drink.. only that my love for good food even while travelling is limited to what I like ..I just don't have the excitement to try out something new except this time I sorta found myself in ' Osaka ' a Japanese restaurant and had to admit I had the yummiest dinner .. the ambience was quite good too ..

But if you're in beer heaven , food should come second .. right ? and top on our list was this place called ' Delirium Cafe ' ..

Did you know Delirium cafe is known to house as many varieties of beer as the year we're in ..so 2011 for 2011 ??

but did you also know that there's a Delirium cafe right next to the Delirium pub ..??

So guess what happened ...

we went , we drank and we SAW ..

we saw that all this time we were supposed to be in the cafe ,we were actually in the pub ..

Looks like what usually happens with people post binging happened to us in anticipation of binging .. hehe :D

A classic case of mix up..but compensated by the bartender who gave me this..

Delirium in Delirium Cafe ..

you bet ;)

So today was Day 2 of Zumba ..and guess who didn't turn up for class ...

Guess , guess ..

Yeah you're right , it was the old lady ..

So much for cheers of ' more , more ' and not that she was my competition

but hehehehe .. guess who's having the last laugh ..

if laughing for a nanosecond counts .. that is ..

coz the other surprise was I was the only one for class today ..

Ideally you'd love the one on one session having paid for a group session but in Zumbaaa ..no way, Jose ..

Either ways I was high on confidence , my mind misleading my body to think I was better equipped to handle Day 2 ..

... yeah for about 10 mins .. and then the realisation dawned..

By the end of the class it felt like I was all over the place ..my arms flailing in all directions , my legs din't know left step from right or vice versa and need I say co-ordination sucked ...

The trainer must have gauged my predicament from my shameful sheepish grins and said for a beginner I was doing really well -

but as frustrated I was , the bitchy me almost replied - Geeee thanks - am I not suffering enough ?

but better sense prevailed and the pleasant me smiled for the much needed encouragement ..

What also encouraged me were Erika Harris's words ..she aptly said,"I frequently-regularly-often trip while reaching for my high ideals. Then I giggle, or cry, and get back up."

So I'm going to giggle and cry about it here on my blog ..

and maybe , just maybe in a couple of years months have the courage to brag and post pics , like Corinne asked ..

and pics reminds me of the Brussels post , I was supposed to do ..

After dinner tonight ...

Promise !!

though that wasn't quite the sentiment barely 10 mins into the class when I found myself huffing and puffing like an old woman whilst the ' literally ' old woman next to me cheered for more ..

or the thought last night when the joints in my body decided to pull a coup d’etat, yelling ' Torture '

For someone whose been around 21 long years and whose unflinching dedication to the sport and nation is and will be an inspiration for generations to come ...

Indeed , its never too late ..

This one's for you Sachin , from your team and from every Indian - an early , but surely the best'est' birthday gift ..

Happy Birthday ..

3 blocks from the Grand Place square , located on the corner of Stoofstraat lies another famous attraction the Mannekin Pis .. a little boy peeing into a fountain. Plenty of folkore surrounds the existence of this bronze statue but he's definitely the most photographed and has quite the fan following ..

If only it dint have like a hundred thousand calories , maybe I would have had the heart to have another one .. Do you think about what you're eating when travelling or do you give into such sinful temptation?

The best place to be when you're sad is Grandpa's lap ..

coz no matter how old you grow , you never outgrow his lap ..

coz no matter how old you grow , you're still his grandchild ..

Happy Birthday to the coolest dude I know ..

Happy Birthday Nana ..

Love you :))