Hah!

I just read some shocking news in the newspaper. A MTV (India) VJ committed suicide! She was young, beautiful, talented and compassionate. Or so they say. My ex-ex-housemate also claimed that she was her classmate. Knock me down with a feather! Nafisa was 26 and my x-x-housemate was 32. Unless the x-x-housemate flunked school or college six times that is clearly not possible. So, why did she lie? According to her, Rahul Dravid too is her classmate. Now I have my doubts. I think fibbing about such things is plain stupid. I wonder why she did it? I am not impressed by the who-knows-who and namedropping anyway. It requires either a Bob Dylan or a Robert Feynman to impress me, I am not impressed by anyone less intelligent or talented. My sister is a huge name-dropper as are some of my relatives and friends and Varsha, but they are almost always factually correct. I wonder if anyone else over here has heard whoppers of this kind?

Things to do before I die redux

A long, long time ago, I made up my list. I am glad to see that I have started striking things off. Life!

Things I want to do before I die

1. Run a 28 mile marathon.
2. Spend a summer in Paris.
3. Go backpacking across Europe.
4. Actually paint a masterpiece - a mural.
5. Weigh 55 kgs.
6. Walk on the Golden Gate bridge.
7. Learn to speak French.
8. Watch a Bob Dylan concert.
9. See the Rolling Stones.
10. Bungee Jump.
11. See the Amazon Rain forests.
12. Go to Brazil.
13. Write a book.
14. Swim with a dolphin.
15. Meet Bob Dylan, even to get tongue tied and make an complete ass of myself.
16. See the Sistine Chapel.
17. Learn to eat Caviar without puking.
18. Ride a Gondola in Venice.
19. Shave my head.
20. Learn to fly an aircraft, even a tiny one.
21. Learn to play the drums.
22. Go to a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans.
23. Go ski-ing in the alps.
24. Grow my own herbs and tomatoes and own a tiny farm.
25. See the Louvre.
26. See the Great Barrier Reef.
27. Walk along the Great Wall of China.
28. Go snorkelling in the Lakshwadweep Islands.
29. Learn to control my road rage.
30. Drink feni at Dona Paula, Goa.
31. Drink champagne in Champagne.
32. Drink Bordeaux in Bordeaux.
33. Pluck tea in Darjeeling and run along the furrows in a tea garden.
34. Find out more about my family's past.
35. Totter on a Manolo Blahnik.
36. Go hiking in the himalayas.
37. See the wild-asses in the Rann of Kutch.
38. Go to the valley of flowers.
39. Make my own cartoon strip.
40. Learn how to use a potter's wheel and make myself a bowl.
41. Learn to fly a kite.
42. Plant an orchard.
43. Buy original paintings and not just prints.

Wow!

I am in a state of shock. I bought paintings, not one, not two but seven. Yes, thats right - SEVEN! 1 for myself and 6 for my firm. I went for an Art exhibition called Art walk or something and I liked what I saw. I promptly called up work and sent them pics and was asked to negotiate and get a good deal. I got a 15% discount, which I think was fair. I'm still in a state of shock. Thats another item struck off my Things to do before I die list.

Shoes, shoes and more shoes

What did I buy in Bangalore?

4 pairs of stilletoes - 1 red, 1 white, 2 beige - one plain and one with a slightly jungle print design.
3 blouses - 1 for me, 1 for mom and 1 for sis
2 packs of sandalwood soap from the Karnataka State emporium. 1 pack for Dad, he digs them for some strange reason and 1 pack for mom.
3 packs of incense sticks from the same place for a colleague who had asked for them.
4 sandalwood sachets to put between clothes that you store.
2 books - five point someone (Chetan Bhagat), Caravans(James Mitchener)

I now have 35 pairs of shoes. The joy! I was actually looking for black stilletoes. I wear woodland shoes mostly because they are built sturdily and also have the best finish in that price segment. There was a sale going on the Brigade Road woodlands that I chanced upon (while waiting for the person I was supposed to meet for dinner) and I dashed across and bought 4 pairs. I'm in love with my shoes. I think I have a mild shoe fetish. I didn't know I was kinky!

So far away

I am back again. I had to go to Bangalore for work (work and more work) and was too busy to update ze blogge. I did have Internet access but by the time I would wind up, I would be too tired to blog. The free time that I did have, was spent in dinner meetings. I think I've had an overdose of work. I need a vacation soon.

The best part of this visit was the dinner meetings. The food was delish and though they were essentially business interactions, I quite enjoyed myself. I visited a Japanese place called Dahlia on Church Street (I think). The sushi was very nicely done, though I think their wasabi could do with some more punch. I've had better wasabi here in Calcutta at the ITC's Pan Asian. If you could pair the sushi of Dahlia and the wasabi at the ITC, what a pairing that would be! Yesterday I had a solitary lunch at Sunny's (marred only by the loud tones of Bachi karkaria and Arjun Sajnani - the owner of Sunny's. I think Bachi Karkaria follows me around the country. See Here!) and I loved the food. Since it is only across the street from our offices in Bangalore, I plan to go there more often for lunches.  Also went to this basement restaurant called Tycoons. What do I say, their menu was the Skyroom/ Bluefox inspired! On enquiry, I found that the owner had trained under the Skyroom/ Bluefox chefs. Heh! You can go away from Calcutta, but Calcutta never leaves you.

Now I'm back and the depression and the blues have left me. I'm happy to be back, at work and I'm raring to go once again. Thanks everyone for the suggestions/ advice. I shall look into it next month, well in advance.

Help! I need somebody!

I suppose from my last gloomy post, it can be inferred that I am somewhat depressed right now. Actually, I am very depressed and I don't know how to handle my depression. I have horrible bouts of depression because of PMS and it is enough to make me want to rip off my ovaries and fling them in marianna's trench and never hear from them again. Ah bliss! Sadly, I can't really do that, so I want to know if anyone reading this blog has ever encountered a similar problem and if getting help or medication makes a difference or not.

Yesterday night, I could not sleep until 3:00 am because I just did not get any sleep. I went online and chatted with Varsha and Madder and felt slightly better and wondered if they would think I'm totally batty if I told them that I was actually crying while I was chatting. I've avoided meds so far because I hate popping pills and I really think its all in the mind, but now, I just can't take it any longer. So, please let me know, I would appreciate it a lot.

Whinge-blog

Maybe I need to rename this blog whingeblog or something, all I seem to do is whinge over here.

Its raining again over here. I hate this weather. I'm feeling gloomy though I should be feeling very happy. I'm wondering whether or not to seek help for my depression. I hate feeling this way and when there is help at hand, why not get it?

I don't even want to continue this stupid blog. Maybe this feeling will evaporate in a day or two, but I'm sick of everything right now and I want to start afresh.

If I had a hammer

I have so many things to do, and such less time. Life is more than happening, work is keeping me on my toes every minute of the day, travelling has become a way of life and I am stressed out. I can't believe 4 years ago, I wanted this kind of a lifestyle. Yesterday, I had to fill a form that asked me if I had asthma, heart ailments, AIDS, cancer or any life threatening diseases or if I smoke or drank. No, Thanks, I can live without those. Then, I wondered where I wanted to go from here. The question kept me occupied somewhat and finally at the end of the day I had my answer - retirement at 40. So, here I come, I can't wait to be a lady of ummm... leisure at age 40.

Winners and losers

On June 8th, I had posted a contest called, 20 Things to do before you die that was based on music. I was pleasantly surprized to see a clear winner within 2 hours of me posting the quiz and I promised a Korean paper photo frame to Rand, the winner.
Rand does not have a blog, but he informed me a while back that he has received the photoframe. Am I relieved! It took me an eternity to post it because I had to leave for Geneva days few days after the contest and I had a million things to do. I went on putting it off and finally posted it around 10th July. I was wondering whether or not to find out at the post office, when Rand posted that he has got the frame *finally*.  Thanks Rand for your patience and I hope you liked the frame!

Food issues

I used to think I was a low-maintenance non food issues person. I was wrong. Yesterday my maid cooked very bong¹ style food. This must be discouraged. I have nothing against bong food, as a matter of fact I like it quite a lot, except that it makes one fat. As it is, I am horizontally challenged, I can do without gadzillion litres of cooking oil and spices my cook insists on putting in everything. I have to teach her how to cook my way and how not to chop veggies in huge chunks for bhajis.
 
I've discovered some of my food issues in the past one month, so here's another list.

1. In Indian curries, if the gravy/ curry contains onion, it should be minced and not sliced or chopped.
2. Bread should be fresh, very fresh and toasts should be golden brown, if toast gets darker than that, I don't eat it.
3. I can only eat green apples (granny smiths or golden kings) - I just cannot make myself eat red apples.
4. The only brands of biscuits I will eat are Brittania's or Mcvitie's. I don't eat any other brand. I used to also eat 'The baker's" biscuits and cookies, but after our fight I am boycotting his stuff. I know I am juvenile.
5. I need my cooking oil to be a lite kinds or olive oil. If it is mustard oil or coconut oil, I prefer not to eat the stuff.
6. I just cannot stand gummy okra or ladiesfinger. It must be crisp.
7. Most food must be amenable for eating with a fork. If it requires cutting, I cut up everything and then use a fork with my right hand. I rarely eat with a spoon.  I used to like eating Indian food with my hands, but now I feel too lazy to go and wash and disinfect my hands before and after eating.
8. However, pizza must never be eaten with a knife and fork. It is finger food for me.
9. No runny eggs please!
10. I must always have a napkin while eating. Lack of napkins is not nice.
11. Overcooked veggies are my Number 1 pet peeve.
12. Red meat should be well-done. I don't think rare meat (though tastier) is safe.
13. Different kinds of food must be eaten separately, and my favourite foods are eaten last.
14. Not having dessert is sacrilege.

I think I should end now. If I go on, I would never be able to stop.

¹Bong = bengali

To all the BSers

I really dislike men who bullshit me. I've mentioned  this a million times on this blog, if I am not rude on your face, it does not mean I can't call your bluff, it just means I am too polite to do so. People who have met me in real life think I am much gentler than I appear over here. I don't think that is correct, it is just that my way of dealing with stuff is to be polite on the surface and  tough as steel underneath. People who mistake the politeness for weakness are often shell-shocked. Come to think of it, I'm not that polite either. Heh!
 
So, stop bullshitting me, please.

Genetics

The first thing mom did when we returned after dinner was to switch on my PC and play computer games until late in the night and she declared, "The only thing I missed at Sitah Suzy's was my PC." Ah! I can picture mom right now on her PC, totalling huge scores and then ringing me up and telling me in excited tones, "I've reached the expert levels, already!" Lol!

In which I pamper myself

As I have repeated ad nauseum, everybody, their aunt and their cats know by now, that I have 8 hour long German classes over the weekend. After my class on Sunday gets over, I need to be pampered, a LOT.  As far as I am concerned, pampering means "Good food", so I try and have the best meal I can on Sundays. Yesterday, I cooked myself some stir fried veggies, heated some tuna curry (out of a tin) and made a yummy chicken salad. Then after dinner, I opened my bottle of Bailey's irish cream and read the Sunday specials. Ah bliss!

Hmmmm....

I was telling somebody I met, about my blog and then asked the person if he had one or not and he said, "No, I am not that much of an egoist." I was a little bit abashed, and then I realised that he was right. Most people who blog are pretty much caught up with their blog. Those blogs that have millions of comments on them, in my opinion, are asking for trouble. It is not easy to take criticism and that too from total strangers. I found that out the hard way and since I am a hugely self-obssessed, egoistical bitch, I do not encourage commentors I do not know in some manner or the other, to voice their comments here. I even sort of heckle them down with active support of Miss Varsha. Afterall, what else are friends for?
 
I fear I may have pissed off one of my favourite blogger though I did not mean to. One never knows what might touch the raw nerve of people one knows vaguely, does one? Anyway, I shall miss his blog a lot. It used to be my daily source of controversies and gave me an insight into the opinions of my peers, albeit of a totally random, upwardly mobile statistic. I could also be as acerbic as I wished and I shall miss that the most. Sigh!

Highly avoidable bitching session

The people in my German class are a bunch of twits. It might be because I am one of the oldest people in my class and working full-time or something, but I did not expect that people could be so silly. I am forced to listen to personal opinions and woes of this irritating 22 year old studying linguistics. He is by far the most irritating person out of all the bozos. He insists on telling all of us about his parents' divorce, his father's third marriage and how screwed up life can be and how great he is and which club he frequents. All this, to people who turn a deaf ear to him and start yawning the moment he opens his mouth!
 
Then we have this woman who is studying education who is another loudmouth. She encourages the linguistic student way too much and we have to listen to their stupid session of agony aunt and consultee. Why am I spending my hard-earned money on this? Apart from these two irritating pests, there are 2 beauty queens. One wears strappy tank tops and jeans and has a permanent scowl-pout that the guys find irresistible and the other opens and closes her mouth like a goldfish imagining that this would be perhaps attractive, but sadly it is not.  Then we have the tedious engineering grads who are all very annoying and cliqueish and still compare college grades and swagger as if they own the earth the way only Indian engineering graduates can.
 
The most irritating part is the way people compare clubs, holidays, schools, clothes etc etc and I feel like reminding them gently that it is not theirs to brag about, it is their goddamned parents! If this is a sample of my peer group, bring on the older men!

The weekend that played hide-n-seek with sleep

I slept for a total of 9 hours last weekend. Whatever happened to relaxing weekends? This weekend Partizip II verb forms (German) were my bete noire and to add to my woes, I have signed up for a first basic certificate exam at the Max Mueller Bhavan sometime in September.  This year seems to be an exam taking year and God only knows why I torture myself this way.
 
Social life = Nil
Love life = Non-existent (not missing it thankfully)
 
All I want to do at this moment is sleep and not be disturbed.

Ooh! Thats just me!!!!

Athena

?? Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??

Here's looking at you kid

My sister turns 30 today. She achieved her secret hidden wish of appearing on page 3, yesterday and that too holding a glass of wine, people! Here's wishing her many, many such appearances  and best wishes. I bow before the original drama queen. I am but a mere pretender!

Why the Indian mother is a force to reckon with

Before I start this, let me henceforth declare that the views and observations put forward in this post are my own and should not be regarded personally. If they are taken personally, then you are clearly the kind of person I avoid consciously and so refrain from making an ass of yourself.

Most parts of India have a severe imbalanced male-female ratio. Most women have to put up with an unfair male bias at some time or the other. If an Indian woman says that she has never encountered sexism ever, she is either lying or is actually a blonde in disguise and has been duped by her environment to believe otherwise and in my opinion the kind of women I despise the most. In most families childcare is left to the mother. The mother who has been discriminated against, who has had to suffer unfair and discriminatory behaviour most of her life until she is placed in a position of power and supremacy. My theory is that power corrupts, especially when power is usurped and is placed in the hands of those who have been severly deprived of it. That is precisely what happens to the Indian mother once her children reach the pre-teens or the teens. And then, the Indian mother becomes the queen in a deck of cards. She is God to her children. She is the sole decider of events, the only decision maker, the home goddess, the one who knows best even when her child is a thirty year old, the ruler of the roost. She weilds her power effectively in her children's lives and is the last word. Until her dying day, she will be the sole champion and the major force in her children's relationships, starting the cycle of unequal power distribution until she kicks the bucket and the child's spouse enters the vicious cycle. Heh!

This does happen, though of course you have other power scenarios that I shall post about sometime later.

Education Cess

I don't mind paying the 2% education cess at all, but I would mind very much if nothing came out of it but the lining of deep pockets of various politicians and bureaucrats.

What about you?

I really dislike paying taxes. I know it is horrible of me and that from henceforth I will be designated a bad person, but still paying taxes is tough. I would not have minded so much had the process been somewhat simpler and made some sense, but to me doing my taxes is frightening and confusing. I'm shuddering at the prospect already and at the lectures I will have to hear from my consultant.

Under Pressure

I did something that I had not done in 6 years. I chewed my nails. I had broken out of the habit with a lot of difficulty and I had vowed never to chew my nails again. Yesterday however, I was studying, something that I've done after 3 years now and when I got up, my nails - my pride and joy - were all gone.

Cross your fingers

After a very painful set of operations, my mother is finally well and has recovered. She can walk with only a slight limp, without the aid of crutches. She will be returning home sometime soon and I hope the quality of her life improves now that she does not have to depend on anyone for even the most basic tasks. She will be walking on her own after 7 painful years of hobbling, crying in pain and feeling helpless. I can't wait to see her again.

Westward ho!

Why does all of Bombay look like a squalid dump? I remember one of my cousin who criticised Calcutta endlessly citing pollution and dirt as the reasons, but I think Bombay is far more dirtier and squalid than Calcutta. The thing is that Calcutta has changed a lot in the past few years for the better or maybe I only know those parts of Calcutta that are posh and all, but on occassions I have been to North Calcutta or central Calcutta, I didnt think it was as squalid as what I had to encounter in Bombay. I was in Bombay yesterday and though I stayed in Juhu and ventured only to Andheri and Bandra, I couldnt help noticing the piles of rubbish everywhere and the narrowness and constrictiveness of Bombay. I hope I never have to stay in Bombay. I would die in a week.

Now, I have really seen it all...

The Max Mueller Bhavan (Goethe Institute) is normally a nice, interesting place and you have an eclectic mix of people present there always. You have young college kids, professionals, artists, language professors, linguists and also a lot of young people trying to get their bearings. The weekend classes have a better mix of people because most of the people who sign up are students and a wide range of professionals. I have a lawyer, 9 engineers and software consultants, 12 students, 1 housewife, 2 management students and 2 school kids in my class. We normally get a 15-25 minutes break between our 4 hour long class. The coffee break is quality adda time.

Nobody in my class will forget last Sunday's coffee break, ever. We have distinct groups in my German class and my group comprises of the lawyer, 6 engineers and one of the school kids. We were all sitting in the cafeteria and having coffee, when suddenly I heard a loud thud. We turned back to see a strange sight. One of the girls in my class (lets call her S) was having a fight with some other girl (OG). The other girl had flung tea on S and S slapped her. Yes, slapped her! There was an exchange of words, heated discussions and then the fight turned into a food fight. OG started throwing platters of food on S and having an asthmatic fit, and S went on slapping her and words like "whore", "bitch" and "witch" were being flung around with gay abandon. In the end, heaving dramatically, OG called up her dad on her cellphone and bawled at him to get her home. I slunk off at this point and called our Instructor. Everyone else was too shocked and were gaping at the fight with mouths wide open and eyes wide. Well! I've never seen two grown up females having a fight and all of us couldn't help but wonder what it was all about!

Survival of the fittest or how I sham my way through German classes

Word association comes easily to me. My premise in life is, if I could sham my way through a masters in mathematics, I can sham my way through anything. Sadly, I am usually proved right. On the other hand, if something interests me, I am a person possessed. I am so unmotivated in my German classes it surprises me. I used to take classes seriously which is why I passed my classes since I rarely studied outside the classroom. Now, I go for my classes so that I have the requisite number of hours of German study showing in my resume. The sad part is, I do pretty well in the assignments, quizzes and tests, just because my memory is good and because I use my brains to figure out words and word associations, but in reality, I cant speak german fluently and I stutter when I have to and am left grasping at straws when someone speaks german with me. I know I suck!

His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.

Applies to the mothers of most Indian men I know.

Alternatives

When I started blogging I was wildly excited by the thought that I could let my friends and some family know what I was up to. Now, I find that it is not always a good idea. I can't be honest on my blog for fear of hurting feelings of the people I care about, but at the same time I want some place where I can be myself. I have been toying with the idea of closing this blog down completely, but then I have hit upon a better idea. I now have a private blog that I shall tell no one about and where I can say whatever I wish.

Hey Mr. DJ

If one had to make a choice what would a slightly nutty 27 year old choose? To attend the horribly inwards-looking and hypocritical wedding of one's landlord's lump of a daughter or to attend a party that would include some menopausal women, prodigious amounts of booze, loud music and atleast one person who you enjoyed spending time with? I have finally started making the right choices, I did not attend the wedding. Heh!

The agony and the ecstasy

Why me?

Perfection does not last

I found the perfect bra yesterday, *finally*. It is the right mix of feminine cuteness (read: lace, lace and more lace) and support and does not look like a tent and was described as the "wireless underwired bra". I am going to go and pick up a dozen of the same. You never know when the manufacturers will stop making it. That always happens with me, when I find the perfect something, the fuckin' manufacturers stop making just that product. I found the perfect shoes (2 inch heels, closed, soft leather, stylish but comfortable) and I went to buy 2 other pairs and was told that the manufacturers had stopped making it. That also happened with my perfect trousers and my perfect lipstick.

Pop's the tops!

Its my father's 63rd birthday today. I met dad yesterday and did some pre-birthday pampering that involved some gifts, good food and an argument. We are a family that thrives on arguments, space and proving who is more logical. If we havent argued with any family member for a week, we start feeling ill at ease. Anyway, to come back to Daddy dearest, who's birthday it is today. Dad was interviewed by the economist yesterday. He is spry for his age, happy, contented and active both mentally and physically. Here's wishing dad a very happy birthday!

Things have changed

One year ago, I ached to see the world. I wanted nothing more than to travel to places, meet other people, explore cities that I had never been to, Look at sights that I had only heard about on television or read in books, newspapers and magazines. Today, my travelling shoes are firmly on my feet. I have been to 2 other continents (Europe, North America) and 5 countries (France, USA, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Holland) in the span of seven months. I have met more than 1000 people and formed atleast 4 friendships with people spread over the globe. This year, I have yet to visit Japan, Korea and maybe Germany, though it is all tentative. I might go for my annual holiday with my mum to Bangkok. Last year around this time I had drawn up a list of the 50 things I wanted to do before I die and I have already crossed off more than 20 things on the list. I feel as if my life has only just begun and I am eager for more.

Gmail

Does anyone require a Gmail invite? If yes, just email me!

Pssst.... Are you listening?

I have something pathological against gossip. I do not like to hear gossip. It sounds cheap, boring and mean to me, which is the prime reason why I actively dislike women. Today I just want to be left alone, but no, I will have to deal with my father.

I wish I could just take off and go away somewhere. I'm tired of everything today.

Song sung blue

When things are going well, I should look out. It is just a sign that very soon things are going to blow up and my world will be shaken up badly. Workwise things have deaccelerated again with my team members resigning. I feel sick. It is so cyclical. When IT firms are hiring, people resign and leave to suit their whims and fancies and when things are not so good in IT we are deluged with people. Anyhow. Let me just go and bang my head against a wall.

Best avoided

I get bugged with a lot of people. Nobody can be more asocial than me. I just do not like a lot of people because most people are
(i) dumb
(ii) in a constant state of denial
(iii) ill-mannered
(iv) too cheap to be true.
I can deal with (i), (ii) and (iii) but dealing with type (iv) people is tough, very tough. Yesterday I went coffee shop lounging. The amount of ill-mannered people abounding on the streets is amazing.

Word:
(i) Jumping queues is just not done. If you try and jump a queue I am in, get ready for a solid dressing-down.
(ii) Why are butt-cracks and glimpses of the top of bums in fashion?
(iii) Why are single women given the worst service? This is NOT a persecution complex. It is a statistically proven fact that single women get the worst service everywhere.
(iv) Why do parents allow their toddlers and children to wander all over malls and make a right royal pest of themselves? No, I do not think bald kids are cute and I dont melt at irritating lisps. I dont like kids (except for my nephews and nieces who are adorable and not irritating gnats) and I just dont pay attention to any budding drama queens.
(v) Why are waiters in India restaurants misinformed and clueless?
(vi) Why do large crowds of people have to be so god-awfully loud?
(vii) Why don't smartasses catch on that smartassing is tiring after a while?

Why Indian men suck

1. A "No!" from a woman is interpreted as (i) "Yes!" (ii) "Oh, Yes!" (iii) The woman being modest and shy and actually meaning "Yes!"
2. Indulgent mothers inflating their sense of importance - A daughter can well become the president of the republic and the mother thinks, "well, after all the effort I've spent on my daughter, this is expected of her." If the son turns out to be a lower division clerk in a government department, most mothers think, "My Son has proved how talented, wonderful and God-like he is!"
3. Most Indian women spoiling them silly and inflating their already bloated egos. Eg. X was interested in Y. So X cooked, cleaned, ironed, washed, coddled Y ad nauseum without thinking there was anything wrong with her behaviour.
4. Most Indian women needing a man at the epicentre of their universe and thinking that happiness is incomplete without a male appendage.

I am just so pissed off today, bah!

Rock-a-bye baby

I have a new rocking chair at home that dad got for me from home. It is very comfortable and the bestest thing to have naps in. We've had those chairs for over 15 years now at home and dad got me one so that I could relax and remember home. After my german class *finally* ended on sunday I went home, heated up lunch and settled my big bum into the chair, finished my lunch and promptly went to sleep in the chair. Ah! Bliss!

Skirting the issue

Yesterday I wore a skirt after a long, long time. I am a pretty plump person, (I'm not named plumpernickel for nothing!) but I am tall and have longish legs that do not look too bad. I used to have long, thin lovely legs few years back, and now they are no longer thin, but they arent a bad pair of legs at all. Sadly, I cant say that about the tummy, but lets leave that for another day. So, I wore a skirt yesterday, a knee length chiffon scalloped at the edges skirt. I also went book browsing and coffee drinking and lingering at coffee shops yesterday. I did not know how popular my legs would prove to be. Some men stared openly, some took sidelong looks and one joker ignored his family, bald kid et al and gaped at the legs with an idiot look making me and madder crack rude jokes and dissolve helplessly with laughter. This city is hopeless sometimes.

Did I mention somewhere that 8 hours of German over the weekend make me want to rebel and scream, "Kein Mehr!" Added to that is the fact that my class consists entirely of pimply teens who have all the time in the world to sit and conjugate verbs all the fucking day long and I feel old and jaded and ancient. Why do I torture myself this way?

Flummoxed

I don't understand people. Eons ago, I had a blog, a fairly popular blog that used to log about 300-400 hits a day. I was obssesed with my blog. I would check it many times in a day and was prone to shooting my mouth off. The entire affair was tiring to say the least and things went very wrong and I closed the blog down.

Of the many commentors I had on my ex-blog, few were weird and two-faced. One commentor in particular was a total freak. He would make polite noises on my blog and then post mean and nasty comments about me and my blog on some blogs that were owned by people who I think are the type, I have consciously avoided all my life. Not to say that I did not make mean or nasty comments, I did, I do that all the time because I am a mean and nasty person. However, I am not two-faced and I can not change my views to curry favour or for cheap popularity.

Now, I find that this chappie has struck again. I was reading one of my favourite blogs (lets call the blogger E) and this fellow posted some back-slapping comments on a certain post and then when I clicked on a link to another blog, this fellow had posted snarky comments about E on this other blog. Huh? I thought that this fellow did that only with me, maybe because I am not a particularly likeable person, but no, he seems to be a regular two-faced hypocrite. Whatever!? I just wonder whether or not this guy realises that sometimes bloggers check blogs at random and can discover snarky remarks made about them. Not that it matters, but there is such a thing as fairness and you my dear snarky blogger are not fair or even nice.

Persona non grata

Miss Varsha has let Miss Varsha's passport expire and not got it renewed, because "I forgot to check my passport, whoever in this wide world checks their passport regularly?" Miss Varsha has an Indian Passport and resides in the USA. After having a violent fit and calling Miss Varsha all sorts of names, I calmed down and I hope Varsha's passport troubles get sorted out.

Imposition

I got this huge book list from a blog I visited today. The ones in bold are the ones I have read, the ones in italics are the ones I started but never finished and at the end of the list I have added 3 of my own. Sorry for the length but thats the way it was!

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. 1984, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas 45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Susskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie
101. Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
102. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
103. The Beach, Alex Garland
104. Dracula, Bram Stoker
105. Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz
106. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens
107. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz
108. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks
109. The Day Of The Jackal, Frederick Forsyth
110. The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson
111. Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy
112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13 1/2, Sue Townsend
113. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat
114. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
116. The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson
117. Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson
118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
119. Shogun, James Clavell
120. The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham
121. Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson
122. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
123. The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy
124. House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
125. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
126. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett
127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison
128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
129. Possession, A. S. Byatt
130. The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
131. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
132. Danny The Champion Of The World, Roald Dahl
133. East Of Eden, John Steinbeck
134. George’s Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl
135. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
136. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
137. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
138. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
139. Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilson
140. Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson
141. All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson
143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
144. It, Stephen King
145. James And The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
146. The Green Mile, Stephen King
147. Papillon, Henri Charriere
148. Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett
149. Master And Commander, Patrick O’Brian
150. Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz
151. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett
152. Thief Of Time, Terry Pratchett
153. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett
154. Atonement, Ian McEwan
155. Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson
156. The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier
157. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
158. Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
159. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
160. Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon
161. Moby Dick , Herman Melville
162. River God, Wilbur Smith
163. Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon
164. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
165. The World According To Garp, John Irving
166. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore
167. Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson
168. The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye
169. The Witches, Roald Dahl
170. Charlotte’s Web, E. B. White
171. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
172. They Used To Play On Grass, Terry Venables and Gordon Williams
173. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
174. The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco
175. Sophie’s World, Jostein Gaarder
176. Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson
177. Fantastic Mr. Fox, Roald Dahl
178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach
180. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery
181. The Suitcase Kid, Jacqueline Wilson
182. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
183. The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay
184. Silas Marner, George Eliot
185. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
186. The Diary Of A Nobody, George and Weedon Gross-mith
187. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
188. Goosebumps, R. L. Stine
189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri
190. Sons And Lovers, D. H. Lawrence
191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
192. Man And Boy, Tony Parsons
193. The Truth, Terry Pratchett
194. The War Of The Worlds, H. G. Wells
195. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans
196. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
197. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett
198. The Once And Future King, T. H. White
199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrews
201. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
202. The Eye of the World, Robert Jordan
203. The Great Hunt, Robert Jordan
204. The Dragon Reborn, Robert Jordan
205. Fires of Heaven, Robert Jordan
206. Lord of Chaos, Robert Jordan
207. Winter’s Heart, Robert Jordan
208. A Crown of Swords, Robert Jordan
209. Crossroads of Twilight, Robert Jordan
210. A Path of Daggers, Robert Jordan
211. As Nature Made Him, John Colapinto
212. Microserfs, Douglas Coupland
213. The Married Man, Edmund White
214. Winter’s Tale, Mark Helprin
215. The History of Sexuality, Michel Foucault
216. Cry to Heaven, Anne Rice
217. Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe, John Boswell
218. Equus, Peter Shaffer
219. The Man Who Ate Everything, Jeffrey Steingarten
220. Letters To A Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke
221. Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn
222. The Vampire Lestat, Anne Rice
223. Anthem, Ayn Rand
224. The Bridge To Terabithia, Katherine Paterson
225. Tartuffe, Moliere
226. The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
227. The Crucible, Arthur Miller
228. The Trial, Franz Kafka
229. Oedipus Rex, Sophocles
230. Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles
231. Death Be Not Proud, John Gunther
232. A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen
233. Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen
234. Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton
235. A Raisin In The Sun, Lorraine Hansberry
236. ALIVE!, Piers Paul Read
237. Grapefruit, Yoko Ono
238. Trickster Makes This World, Lewis Hyde
240. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
241. Chronicles of Thomas Convenant, Unbeliever, Stephen Donaldson
242. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
242. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon
243. Summerland, Michael Chabon
244. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
245. Candide, Voltaire
246. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, Roald Dahl
247. Ringworld, Larry Niven
248. The King Must Die, Mary Renault
249. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein
250. A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline L’Engle
251. The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde
252. The House Of The Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne
253. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
254. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
255. The Great Gilly Hopkins, Katherine Paterson
256. Chocolate Fever, Robert Kimmel Smith
257. Xanth: The Quest for Magic, Piers Anthony
258. The Lost Princess of Oz, L. Frank Baum
259. Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon
260. Lost In A Good Book, Jasper Fforde
261. Well Of Lost Plots, Jasper Fforde
261. Life Of Pi, Yann Martel
263. The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
264. A Yellow Rraft In Blue Water, Michael Dorris
265. Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder
267. Where The Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls
268. Griffin & Sabine, Nick Bantock
269. Witch of Blackbird Pond, Joyce Friedland
270. Mrs. Frisby And The Rats Of NIMH, Robert C. O’Brien
271. Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt
272. The Cay, Theodore Taylor
273. From The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konigsburg
274. The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster
275. The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin
276. The Kitchen God’s Wife, Amy Tan
277. The Bone Setter’s Daughter, Amy Tan
278. Relic, Duglas Preston & Lincolon Child
279. Wicked, Gregory Maguire
280. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
281. Misty of Chincoteague, Marguerite Henry
282. The Girl Next Door, Jack Ketchum
283. Haunted, Judith St. George
284. Singularity, William Sleator
285. A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
286. Different Seasons, Stephen King
287. Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
288. About a Boy, Nick Hornby
289. The Bookman’s Wake, John Dunning
290. The Church of Dead Girls, Stephen Dobyns
291. Illusions, Richard Bach
292. Magic’s Pawn, Mercedes Lackey
293. Magic’s Promise, Mercedes Lackey
294. Magic’s Price, Mercedes Lackey
295. The Dancing Wu Li Masters, Gary Zukav
296. Spirits of Flux and Anchor, Jack L. Chalker
297. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
298. The Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices, Brenda Love
299. Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace.
300. The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison.
301. The Cider House Rules, John Irving.
302. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
303. Girlfriend in a Coma, Douglas Coupland
304. The Lion’s Game, Nelson Demille
305. The Sun, The Moon, and the Stars, Stephen Brust
306. Cyteen, C. J. Cherryh
307. Foucault’s Pendulum, Umberto Eco
308. Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson
309. Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk
310. Camber of Culdi, Kathryn Kurtz
311. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
312. War and Rememberance, Herman Wouk
313. The Art of War, Sun Tzu
314. The Giver, Lois Lowry
315. The Telling, Ursula Le Guin
316. Xenogenesis (or Lilith’s Brood), Octavia Butler
317. A Civil Campaign, Lois McMaster Bujold
318. The Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold
319. The Aeneid, Publius Vergilius Maro (Vergil)
320. Hanta Yo, Ruth Beebe Hill
321. The Princess Bride, S. Morganstern (or William Goldman)
322. Beowulf, Anonymous
323. The Sparrow, Maria Doria Russell
324. Deerskin, Robin McKinley
325. Dragonsong, Anne McCaffrey
326. Passage, Connie Willis
327. Otherland, Tad Williams
328. Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay
329. Number the Stars, Lois Lowry
330. Beloved, Toni Morrison
331. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal, Christopher Moore
332. The mysterious disappearance of Leon, I mean Noel, Ellen Raskin
333. Summer Sisters, Judy Blume
334. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo
335. The Island on Bird Street, Uri Orlev
336. Midnight in the Dollhouse, Marjorie Filley Stover
337. The Miracle Worker, William Gibson
338. The Genesis Code, John Case
339. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevensen
340. Paradise Lost, John Milton
341. Phantom, Susan Kay
342. The Mummy or Ramses the Damned, Anne Rice
343. Anno Dracula, Kim Newman
344: The Dresden Files: Grave Peril, Jim Butcher
345: Tokyo Suckerpunch, Issac Adamson
346: The Winter of Magic’s Return, Pamela Service
347: The Oddkins, Dean R. Koontz
348. My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok
349. The Last Goodbye, Raymond Chandler
350. At Swim, Two Boys, Jaime O’Neill
351. Othello, by William Shakespeare
352. The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas
353. The Collected Poems of William Butler Yeats
354. Sati, Christopher Pike
355. The Inferno, Dante
356. The Apology, Plato
357. The Small Rain, Madeline L’Engle
358. The Man Who Tasted Shapes, Richard E Cytowick
359. 5 Novels, Daniel Pinkwater
360. The Sevenwaters Trilogy, Juliet Marillier
361. Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier
362. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
363. Our Town, Thorton Wilder
364. Green Grass Running Water, Thomas King
365. The Interpreter, Suzanne Glass
366. The Moor’s Last Sigh, Salman Rushdie
367. The Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson
368. A Passage to India, E.M. Forster
369. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
370. The Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux
371. Pages for You, Sylvia Brownrigg
372. The Changeover, Margaret Mahy
373. Howl’s Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones
374. Angels and Demons, Dan Brown
375. Johnny Got His Gun, Dalton Trumbo
376. Shosha, Isaac Bashevis Singer
377. Travels With Charley, John Steinbeck
378. The Diving-bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
379. The Lunatic at Large by J. Storer Clouston
380. Time for Bed by David Baddiel
381. Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
382. Quite Ugly One Morning by Christopher Brookmyre
383. The Bloody Sun by Marion Zimmer Bradley
384. Sewer, Gas, and Eletric by Matt Ruff
385. Jhereg by Steven Brust
386. So You Want To Be A Wizard by Diane Duane
387. Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
388. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte
389. Road-side Dog, Czeslaw Milosz
390. The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
391. Neuromancer, William Gibson
392. The Epistemology of the Closet, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
393. A Canticle for Liebowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr
394. The Mask of Apollo, Mary Renault
395. The Gunslinger, Stephen King
396. Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
397. Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke
398. A Season of Mists, Neil Gaiman
399. Ivanhoe, Walter Scott
400. The God Boy, Ian Cross
401. The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, Laurie R. King
402. Finn Family Moomintroll, Tove Jansson
403. Misery, Stephen King
404. Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters
405. Hood, Emma Donoghue
406. The Land of Spices, Kate O’Brien
407. The Diary of Anne Frank
408. Regeneration, Pat Barker
409. Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
410. Dreaming in Cuban, Cristina Garcia
411. A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
412. The View from Saturday, E.L. Konigsburg
413. Dealing with Dragons, Patricia Wrede
414. Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss
415. A Severed Wasp - Madeleine L’Engle
416. Here Be Dragons - Sharon Kay Penman
417. The Mabinogion (Ancient Welsh Tales) - translated by Lady Charlotte E. Guest
418. The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown419. Desire of the Everlasting Hills - Thomas Cahill
420. The Cloister Walk - Kathleen Norris
421. The Things We Carried, Tim O’Brien
422. I Know This Much Is True, Wally Lamb
423. Choke, Chuck Palahniuk
424. Ender’s Shadow, Orson Scott Card
425. The Memory of Earth, Orson Scott Card
426. The Iron Tower, Dennis L. McKiernen
427.The French Lieutenant's Woman, John Fowles
428. The Four Feathers, A.E.W. Mason
429. The Jester, James Patterson
430. Cry the beloved Country, Alan Paton
431. The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
432. The Stranger, Albert Camus
433. Lady Chatterly's Lover, D.H. Lawrence
434. Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie
435. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen
Here are my 3 additions:
436. Like water for chocolate, Laura Esquivel
437. Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami
438. The Deptford trilogy, Robertson Davies

Partitions

Yesterday night I was struck by a fit of organization. I did my papers, the accounts for the month, separated the salaries and bills to be paid into neat piles and into separate envelopes, stacked the clothes that had come from the laundry and the cleaners into neat piles and proper shelves (warm clothes, coats and jackets, stoles, formals, bed linen), re-organized my work purse, the papers to carry to work, so on and so forth. I've finally done it, I have managed to take care of my paperwork successfully for the past 6 months. I wonder why partitioning feels so good?

Barmicides Feast

I am a gullible consumer. I love to shop. En route to Delhi, I saw this bakery at Schipol Airport that had an array of cakes, pastries, sandwiches and a number of baked goods. I picked up a huge Dutch nut cake. When I ate a piece, it was uninspiring. So, I cut it up into pieces and took it to work. Altruism is so my forte! Heh!