Barcelona ..spent and burnt

I couldn’t have picked a better place for a sunny holiday, my self-spurred popular vacation of the season.

We, I and Olga were in Barcelona last week. It was all in all nice 4 days of fun.. 4 days of scorching sun and beach. I just loved the trip.

I am so well out of tune with the undisturbed way of travelling, it is a wonder now if anything isn’t amiss. My flight was at 7:25 in the morning to Barcelona. At 6:15 when my father called I was still sleeping. Usually I am too stirred up to sleep tight the previous night before traveling. What followed was a miracle play. We managed everything, got a taxi and checked in 10 min before the departure. I thought about checking in online the previous evening but didn’t do it. Glad they did let us board!

When we landed in Barcelona the temperature was an easy 38 degrees. We didn’t go about doing much on the first day. We took a walk through the city center and La Rambla, gazing around all the beautifully set up road side shops. It was only a weekday and the city was animated with tourists. We checked into our hotel late in the afternoon and didn’t mind staying in the hotel after the long walk. The evening was more endurable despite the heat. We went to the beach and helped ourselves to some striking Catalan dishes and its sparkling wine.

The next day was more fun. We were at the beach early in the morning. The cool ocean was a welcome to the baking heat. We did some amazing snorkeling. True to what I was told it was mostly sand. There were so few rocks. We could only see small fishes. Whatever I didn’t want to miss the beautiful ocean.

Afternoons were best spent in the hotel snoozing. We were more than willing to explore Barcelona in the evening. Everything was so alive, the vibes kept us bustling until 3 in the morning. All the European architecture, churches, monuments seem so much in agreement to each other, I rather preferred walking to visiting each one of them.

It was more or less the same every day ..snorkeling in the morning and thumping the streets in the evening. I also met up with JJ and others briefly. Didn’t do anything particular.. just curled up chatting. We tried paella and tapas. With eyes bigger than our hunger for all the delicacies, we ended up ordering a helping or two extra only to have a nice fat bill and strove to finish. In any case it was absolutely divine eating only seafood the four days.

I should get away like this more often than I think I should from the work-worn-thin routine of mine.

In the end I couldn’t manage to see their bull sport La Corrida ..ok I had planed on doing too many things in 4 days.

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Saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince this week. Was planning to right from the day it opened in Cinema. I liked the movie, proving otherwise to the disappointments of the earlier movies. Thankfully the movie isn’t swallowed up in darkness as typical with the older ones. Apparently, HP also makes a movie in the theatre in a long time. The film is slow moving given there isn’t much action to this part. But all that budding adolescent attraction doesn’t go unnoticed. The characters have grown which kind of takes away the topping. The younger trio was lot more fun.

I am somehow taken in by this book, not because of the story but it is Dumbledore. I was almost tearful with the ending yesterday. Otherwise too I wasn’t in very high spirits yesterday which rightly did the undoing. It wouldn’t be surprising if I did say a funeral prayer…

Public Enemies is in the list next. Possibly I can manage it next week or the week after.

On reading

As the title already says the post is about books. I have a raffle going with books.

I do feel my reading is in bursts. There are days when I don’t touch anything. And other times when I start feeling that it has been forever since I read. I want to grow a more regular way of reading. The past few weeks have kept me really occupied. Between house hunt, work, and helping Divya, I did manage to read something withal in snippets.

House hunt reminds me, I have finally relocated to my new apartment. There is little else to say except that I have enough tending to do to make it home like. So for the present, given the lack of time and energy to shop I put off honoring my plans and whims.

With no internet I can have some sustained reading time now. Last evening I was talking to my house-mate about her reading habits. I adore reading and more the people who read. She is just learning English and has a nice collection of all English classics.

I like discussing books. It is nice to talk to people about the books they read/have read. What have I been reading?

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernières. The story is set in Greece in the days of second world war. There are some frivolous elements to it but presents a good slow-moving literary work..

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. The book revolves around only two people though personally I would have preferred more characters. The beginning specially arrests attention and later the story moves smoothly.  A simple story in the 19th century grandeur English. Perhaps the ending could have been a bit different..

Wuthering Heights from Emily Brontë. I love the way it is called. The book is baffling in the beginning particularly the names of the characters. It is a story within a story well written rather well told..

What am I reading?

1984, The Iliad, Guesstimation, and The Selfish Gene.

I delight myself seeing the list

2009

Wishes for a season filled with sweetness ..Happy New Year 2009!

And as always… play Hard ..work Hard ..enjoy Hard!!

favorite mistake :)

May be it ain’t wise any longer to put us together to work ..I am starting to love it

Now don’t let the picture deceive you!!! That’s again part of a sincere work!!! To all my late evenings for the past two weeks ..the application is working.

PS: By the way how does one love salads? I desire greatly to do so…

sexy place ..sexy weather :D

Weekend was a complete knockout… starting from walking almost the whole city (Munich) around till visiting the fairy tale castle (called Neuschwanstein) ..one of my favorite places.

I am dragging myself to put this post… simply getting away with this excerpt. [:)]

And here is the best piece of my post ..this again is among my favorites.

of then and now

Hopping now and then… it has been a long way. Some bittersweet euphoria my mind is enjoying today…

Some interesting pieces slipped my mind of who I was and who I am now. It is as if I am still small and juvenile. In a broader sense, I haven’t changed. But I have grown big and probably have become more sophisticated.

I remember well how scared I was to sleep on the side of the bed. I had this feeling that some monster would come from behind or from under the bed and carry me away.  And some nights I would lay awake too scared to sleep. I always slept in the middle in between. Now me and my sisters fight over the one to sleep in between and with no choice it is always Annukkutti.

I hated visiting a doctor or going to a hospital. I used to feel so helpless and depressed. I still hate going to hospital.

I held a bitter detest to newspapers and TV news. I never understood how my parents enjoyed NEWS then. In the beginning it was Doorshan Samachar then came Aaj Tak and later Sun News. And Appa was never happy listening to just one. He has to listen to each and every news.

I hated eating upma/puttu/appam (upma the most) on weekends. I was obsessively happy with bread, Amul butter and Kissan jam. I could eat just bread the whole week.

Going to a restaurant wasn’t a normal thing. Appa would complain if we picked a far one. Amma would complain if we picked an expensive one. Not to screw up the offer we settled for any restaurant. I could eat even upma in a restaurant. Now my lazy bones do the job of driving me to eat out and mostly with no company.

I love marie biscuits and milk rusk. My favorite snack ..something I ate everyday in the evening. Now I eat chocolate chip cookies. Exactly how cappuccino is filling for filter coffee.

My favorite toffee was coffeebite. I was always eager to go buy some grocery for my mother when I needed money to buy toffees. I remember once my sister cut her hand with a blade and it was bleeding quite badly. My mother tied a piece of cloth and asked me to buy some band aids. But I bought all toffees.

Another thing was my father’s shaving blades. They were somehow very inviting. And he would always know every time we play around with the blades. Knives and blades are too inviting even today.

Amma used to have bad heel cracks and times it hurt her very much when she walked. She always kept some spare plasters. And she would never find one when she needed them. We would be hardly hurt but only a plaster could appease as long as there is a plaster at home. It was more of a mental relief than a physical relief.

Visiting cousins was always fun and something to look forward. I even used to write letters to my grandmother. Now they all are a phone call distance away and I care enough about visiting them just in my head.

My aunt used to tell me (however I can’t recollect) I would wear lipstick to stay awake when I went for a night show. I was too worried too fall asleep in the middle of the movie to get the lipstick smudged over my face.

Back then Amma used to scold me everyday. I used to fight with Divya. I saw my friends everyday. And now days go by when I don’t speak to anybody.

No idea what triggered the post. Hope something makes sense. Well here a compliment for reading the whole post [;)]

HE

He is my colleague and someone I seem to like very very much!!!

And with the thoughtful things he does, I know he too likes me. Above everything, he is the one person who understands everything I say. With my ample German, it is still quite hard to clasp a fluent conversation. Anyway I do manage to deliver my message. But precisely when I am speaking to him, I am talking so utterly bad. I want to do a lot better [particularly with him] but anything I talk is a complete hodgepodge. Everyone is laughing listening the way I use words.

I don’t know how good am I coming about my German but it is fun. Last week, I made a remark in blunt reflex during lunch that if he were unmarried and still available, I would definitely marry him. I knew it had hit him ..it was no flattery. And today, he waved me a flying kiss after lunch. It was funny to see him do that and I was laughing so hard. We two are now the uncultured lot at work.

Many a times, I was of the impression people in Germany are very distant and rather difficult to approach. They are careful never to get too close and always carry an air of formality. For some time now, the people I meet and especially at my work, everyone is so ordinary [probably not the right word]. They are so very receptive.

I know each one of them is very experienced and very well knowledged. There is much to learn from all of them. And very frequently he tells me, Ich bin ein Spielkind mit dir.

I have two other very good friends. I like them too ..and believe they like me too.

Three very nice people in half a year… not bad! Not bad at all!!

And here a nice song…