My Boy'sterous Reflections

So here are my favorites so far ..













Restaurant photos courtesy - Indika 29-95 , Anvil -My life in cocktails , Bombay Pizza - Bombay Pizza co.

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 ..

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 ..

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 ;)

Straddling the San Bernandino County and Riverside county, the park covers a land area of approx 800,000 acres and includes parts of both the Mojave desert and the Colorado desert ..

If you look at the map below you'll see that the park has 3 entrances ...you can choose to enter through the Joshua tree or Twenty nine Palms entrance and exit through Cotton wood ..thats a distance of approx 60 miles and takes approx 4 hours , however we chose to drive from the Joshua tree visitor center to Twenty nine palms or Oasis visitor center , a distance of 34 miles with an extra 7 miles if you include a trip to Keys view ..

and Jumbo Rocks ..for their sheer size

The ride up was positively thrilling, the rotating tramcar gives you a panoramic 360 degree view but even more breathtaking was the view from up above ..it was non pareil ..

on one side lay the desert