Girls just wanna have fun!

The summer heat is merciless. Chennai has no respite whatsoever from the heat. What better way to beat the heat than a getaway with best friends to a farmhouse filled with greenery, a swimming pool, 2 great kids and some bitchy times? That's right. This past weekend I had a fun day out with my besties, Shan and Mosh at Shan's farmhouse on the outskirts of Chennai. The 3 of us had been going back and forth on a date that would be convenient for the 3 of us. Believe me, it was tough. We had to pick a day when our respective hubbies wouldn't fuss(as if?!) or a day when Shan's kid didn't have a class which he couldn't miss or a day when we hadn't promised the in laws we would come see them or a day when we didn't have to worry about maids, carpenters or electricians coming to fix something at home. Sigh. Fortunately, that day did arrive. Wohoo! We decided to leave home as early as possible so that we can spend maximum time together. We reached her farmhouse around 10:30. Here is a picture of the house gleaming in the sunlight.

The pretty house 

Can you spot Rayyan amidst all the greenery?

With 2 young kids around(Rayyan is almost 4 and Rafa is 2) you cannot expect too much silence. Heck, you can't even expect a minute of peace and quiet! They were so excited to be there and wanted to go around and play with the farm animals. Lets see..I saw ducks and fishes in the pond, hens, cocks, chicks, turkeys and  some emus! Yes. No wonder then that the kids wanted to go out and play with the caretaker's kids and the animals. Next on the agenda was "pool time"! I know I know. I cannot swim to save my life but I liked the idea of relaxing in the cool water. That was fun. Rayyan thoroughly enjoyed himself in the kids pool. Look at him

 Rafa is also a complete water baby like her mom! She loved being in the pool. I carried her for the most part while Shan and Mosh had a swimming race! Was good fun cheering them on. We were playing in the pool for more than 2 hours. 

Post pool time, all of us showered, fed the kids, ate and felt really refreshed. We then plonked on her bed and just kept talking and talking while the kids played with each other. Rafa, of course kept us fully entertained. Mosh and I did the "Jumping Jhapak" song with her which I've taped. Here's a glimpse of the madness that ensued 

Before we knew it was around 4 and then we started talking serious stuff. We talked of life in general - school memories, college fun, work, marriage, in laws, husbands(mostly about what a pain they could be!) and the future.. It felt so good to just sit there and share our innermost fears and wildest dreams. Funniest part is it didn't feel like its been forever since we had done this. It was almost as if we were always together and just began where we left off. Makes sense? We laughed to our hearts content, we made fun of each other, we took crazy pics and of course missed a few other girls who couldn't be there that day.. Basically, we just let go of ourselves completely. Highly recommended girls!! Especially if you're married :D 

Ash, Mosh, Shan

Leaving you with a few words and a picture that describes the 3 of us so beautifully!

BFFs!


In Mosh's lovely words : There's nothing more joyful than knowing that your besties still live just around the corner and that you can meet them whenever... And even the life's worst of situations cant change the madness, laughter and happinesss we bring in eachother's lives. From random chit chat sessions with dominos pizza or jack and jill fried rice at ash's place.. doing whackiest of stuff and gyaan sessions at shahin's place and soulful rambling at my place.. 10 years hence... nothing has changed... freeze.

A great weekend and a restaurant review!

Hi guys,
I do know it has been a while since I posted anything nice, cheery and fun in here. What to do? Life's kinda been that way :( Oh well. No more brooding. This past weekend was a good and fun one! What did we do?
Friday night K called from work and said he was going to bring back dinner from one of our most favorite joints in Besant Nagar. Its not the kinda place you sit down and eat. Its a seedy, shady joint that serves yummylicious food. So naturally I was only too happy to oblige because it meant no cooking and it also meant eating great food in the luxury of your own house. Saturday was another good day - well for the most part we just stayed home. Woke up late, did a lazy breakfast and cooked lunch, cleaned etc. And then met Krish & Sethu for dinner at Chap Chay(one of the main reasons for the post). Well what can I say? It's a pleasure to review the restaurant.
Chap Chay is a new restaurant at Raintree, St. Mary's Road. The cuisine is Pan Asian - notice I didn't say Chinese. That is because its got flavors from China, Japan, Thailand etc. And I must say we all came out very impressed. The decor was nice, simple. Thank God there was no Buddha, at least I didn't see one! The place reminded me of a restaurant in St. Louis that I used to frequent - Stir Crazy (Remember I wrote about it here?). Basically, you choose your own veggies/meat, they have about 16 different types of sauces, choice of noodles or rice and the food gets cooked right in front of you. It was such a lovely sight to see the different colored fresh vegetables - broccoli, carrot, snow peas, red/yellow/green peppers, corn, lotus stem, water chestnuts.. I could go on & on. Some of the sauces were black pepper, chilli garlic(what I picked), Thai Basil(all hot ones) and some not so spicy ones such as Kung Pao, Hunan etc. My recommendation would be to take small portions of veggies and mix up one or two sauces and keep trying various combinations because it is unlimited. The mistake we did was to fill our bowls with all sorts of veggies and took just one sauce and by the time I finished my bowl I was completely stuffed and had no room for more. So be smart and have fun experimenting. Also, don't bother with starters of any sort - they just fill you up. We tried Dimsums(give it a miss) & Honey Glazed Vegetables(which was very nice). For dessert, the 4 of us dug into one plate of yummy fried ice cream!! The flavor was darn delicious. Service was very good. Priced at 650INR per person for the main course alone. Will we go back? Of course we will. But will be smarter next time around :-) We enjoyed and relaxed with drinks, good food & laughter. Overall an ideal way to spend Saturday night. Do give Chap Chay a try, I assure you won't be disappointed.
Sunday was another super busy day. We were spending the day with K's colleagues at Shilpa's house. Her folks had gone out of town and had invited a few of us over for drinks and lunch. She was a lovely hostess - her cook had made yummy egg pakodas, paneer pakodas, grilled chicken, masala peanuts, we had taken along some chips, juice, chocolate milk shake.. Sigh. As you can see, I was feasting! The afternoon was great fun. Mathangi & Michael are expecting a baby in May and were obviously the centre of attention - We discussed baby names, their maternity classes, heard all their work stories and kept laughing till our stomachs hurt! A great afternoon indeed. Post lunch, I was heading to see Ammai and my parents. Played carrom, cards and badminton with Vishal, Ammai and my mom. Very relaxing :-) I got home around 7:30 in the evening and was going to clean up and prep for Monday morning when Mathangi called to say she and Michael were going to Velacity for dinner and if we wanted to join them. K and I said ok and we got picked up, went to Tadka Talk in Velacity. To Michael's biggest disappointment, the place was vegetarian. Haha. Mathangi and I enjoyed the paneer tikka and mushroom soup. But we couldn't bear to see Mike's sad face. So we told him we will go to another place just for the main course. At 9:30 pm in the restaurant we were discussing where to go. Haha. That's how funny it was. Finally, we didn't have too much choice but to head over to Snow's Park in Velachery(an old haunt of mine and K's). Decent food, saaaddd ambience but fast service! Lol. So we went there, had garlic naans, dal tadka and of course Micheal ordered some Chicken Tikka and was happy :) By the time we reached home it was around 11:30! Needless to say, K and I crashed. Longgg day. But awesome weekend after a longgg time. Sooo worth every minute of it. K and I are heading to Pune this Thursday, so more updates on this space next week. Keep up with it, I promise some lovely pictures from Pune city :) Tata! 

Couldn't do without these...

I know this is rare - I don't usually log in within a few hours to update BUT I wanted to! So here I am again, this time in a much much much better and improved mood :)
Made a list of things I'm extremely thankful for -
1. My family - Don't have to say anything about you guys - I am what I am today only because of you sillies! Love you all. U are awesome!
2. My in laws - Duh. They are part of family now but they deserve a special mention - No they don't have the slightest clue about this blog space so I'm definitely not sucking up to them through this - but no, they are such wonderful guys! We share a great rapport - they are so so supportive it is quite unbelievable! :)
3. My job - Lovin' every moment of it! The people I meet, the feedback I've been receiving on my training has been pretty darned awesome!, my lovely boss - she's super sweet!, the people I work with are nice too - so it's all good at the moment, touche! :P
4. Our beautiful home - Gawd. The lovely orange curtains in our living room, the blue green colors of our bedroom, the nice pricey furniture from Home Center, all modern appliances we got, the swanky flat screen TV, home theatre system, computer - gosh I could go on and on about our home. I love it! It's not too big, not too small - just perfect I'd say :) Very thankful for our lovely cozy apartment!
5. Friends - M, who advises me on pretty much everything, S who makes me laugh and all my other wonderful pals abroad and here.... u guys keep me going, Drama Queen appreciates all that u do! :)
6. And last but definitely NOT the least - My awesome, loving husband - I don't know what I'd be without you. I've realized over the past few days where we've been dealing with so many things, I felt you were so distant from me and that you were going far away from me(for some strange stupid reason - I think I was wayyy too hormonal) - I couldn't deal with it. I wanted to be close to you. I needed you. Hated being so far and distant from you. Craved some nice bear hugs and kisses. I have realized that its pretty simple - I cannot be the person I am without you - you complete me :) So so sooooo thankful that you've come into my life - Love you sweets! :)

So, we are going on our first road trip this long weekend and I simply cannot wait to get away from all this - looking forward to tomorrow morning 5 am when we set off - Let the fun BEGIN! =) 

Bravo K!

Sometimes the way people talk can be extremely deceiving. When I first talked to K, I assumed he was a natural talker. And I'm talking public speaking here. The way he'd talk to me, his attitude all that made me believe he would be extremely comfortable addressing a crowd. This morning was a bit crazy - both of us had presentations to make at work(Read : Important ones!) and I as usual was going a bit mad - not nervous but just anxious to ensure everything was going to be fine at the event. In the car, on our way to work, K told me he has a presentation to make today that too a major one and I was like "Wow, he never breathed a word of it to me" and he also admitted he was "a bit nervous". It took me by surprise because to me someone like K can engage a crowd very easily - the way he yaps, his command over the language etc. But I guess he's different from what I thought he was - I guess everyday I learn something new about my husband :-)
The reason for this post is to let him know how proud I am of him doing awesomely well in his presentation!!! Apparently his boss congratulated him and there was applause from all the big shots! Super duper proud of you, love!

PS I think he reads my blog and I'm hoping he's super happy and wants to take me out someplace awesome this weekend! Hint Hint! :P 

MGC!

Very proud member of the Madras Gymkhana Club starting tonight! Thanks Appa! You are the best! :)
<3

Drunkeness!

It was an absolute riot to watch the top notch GM's at work getting DRUNK on BEER! I lurrvvee Zara's and I'm soo gonna have my awesome bachelorette/hen night there!

Mood Swings

I dislike changes of any kind. Ok. Most people do. But I really detest them. Abhor them. Hate them. Any other synonyms exist for this kind of hatred?!  Maybe its the earthy Taurus in me that hates anything different happening all of a sudden. I don't know. I'm grumpy. I've been having too many mood swings. On another note, we had our office party this week and boy. It was good, good fun! Yours truly played a big role and needless to say, the party was a big hit! Kick Ass, huh?  =) Got lots of compliments from all the big shots and very surprisingly from people whom I least expected to get complimented from! I was so touched. Was on cloud # 27, if that exists! It was an amazing night and ahem, really shows I know to party and throw a good one, too! =) Ok ok.. will shut up now! The night ended on an extremely adventurous note.....umm.. not sure what to write about it..but lets just say I had the time of my life!!! It brings a smile on my face each time I think about it. Thanks, K, for that awesome awesome night!!! =) On another note, I'm running the Chennai marathon this Sunday. Stop laughing! Not in the least bit funny. I'm perfectly serious! 7kms starting at 6am. Wish me good luck! Also gonna catch Lafangey Parindey this week..Neil Nithin Mukesh.. Drooool! Looking forward to lots of fun and masti this weekend. More later, adios!
PS I just noticed how my mood swung from "being grumpy" to "being on cloud # 27" to "looking forward to fun and masti". Told you.. I have the worst mood swings! :P