...and it begins

So, we have moved out of London to the beautiful lil town of Amersham in Buckinghamshire, and no, its not because I'm pregnant and want to start a family (just saying because everyone seems to think so). Leaving our conveniently located 2 bed 2 bath apartment in North Greenwich after our owners decided to sell the place was a true downer for me, but not for the husband who couldn't wait to get out of London and into the countryside. Amersham was the one common place we agreed on, Berkhamstead being a close second, after endless arguments and fights. 

We decided to move into an apartment and give us 6 months to find a house we wanted to buy. Apartment hunting started off in full swing and it soon proved to be cumbersome. We hated most of the places we saw, which also meant more fights and arguments. Berkhamsted options were all exhausted and i still remember telling Roshan, 'lets just go ahead and say yes to this apartment whatsoever,' while waiting outside a property for the agents to show it to us. We were both exhausted after all the hunt and by pure luck we both actually ended up liking the last apartment on the list and decided to move in a month later.

We move into a 2 bed 2 bath apartment at one end of Amersham high street on March 28th and instantly realise its too small. We were in a fully furnished apartment in N. Greenwich and were moving into an unfurnished one, which meant we had to buy everything from scratch. After sleepless nights and endless fights about the sofa, mattresses, beds, coffee table etc, it only came as a relief when our ex landlady asked us if we wanted to buy any of the furniture off her. They were all in real good condition and we happily obliged. This also meant the fights about furnishing could be put off till we bought a new house, and we could also buy them to suit the house. We move in only to find that bedroom 2 can only be used as a dumping ground for unopened boxes (read: my precious props and Roshans mountain bike) and the kitchen has very little storage space to put all my crockery and hoards of masalas. We also instantly take a dislike towards the gas hob, cos we were used to the glass electric hob back in N Greenwich.

We also notice in a weird sort of way, that the entire house is set for a left hander- the way taps open, the plug points, etc. It doesn't bother us much, and we slowly unpack and settle in. Roshan now doesnt have a separate office room to work out of when he works from home and both of us now sit face to face in the living room (and i don't really like it). I have to keep chanting, only 6 more months to go.

Commute into London for me has become a bitch. Although Amersham has the luxury of the National Rail and the Mteropolitan line, it pretty much sucks after 9am till the evening rush hour starts. There are just 2 trains every hour and it takes forever to get to work. I should however get started on the damn driving license cos it only takes me half an hour to drive to work from Amersham, as opposed to 1.30hrs by public transport.

High street is nice with some cafes, restaurants and a Little waitrose and M & S food and there is a farmers market every tuesday which i quite like. Its just been 2 weeks since we moved in and im yet to explore Amersham a bit more, but for the time being its ok. I mean i cant wait to get out of the tiny apartment we are in, and we are heavily house hunting, but for now i think im ok. 

I shall update you about the house hunting as and when we keep seeing them.

7/365

Maple bacon pretzels....need i say more?

6/365

Charity store finds are simply the best. Love the teapot I picked up for 50p

5/365

The O2 Arena- worlds busiest music arena

4/365

The 'round' All Souls Church, Oxford Street, London

3/365

Grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch..sinful is an understatement :)

2/365

Spent a day out at the mall enjoying sale deals still.

1/365: Kick-starting 'A Photo a day' series

With the intention of keeping this blog alive, I am thinking of doing  'A photo a day' series. This is not going to be fancy photographs taken with my dslr, instead its gonna be with my phone camera, something I'm learning to love by the day. I am also not sure how id keep up with it, but what's the harm in trying right?

So here's kick starting 

Day 1: Partied till 5am, had 5 hrs of sleep and then brunched out at a South Indian restaurant. Greasy masala dosa = great hangover cure :)

Here's wishing you all a very Happy New Year

All that happened...

..so far. Well, for starters, the blog turned 3 years old on 25th (rather sadly). I was just checking how many posts I did last year and it is 2, not including my worthless GM diet updates on a per day basis. In spite of being asked on and on why I don't blog here and in spite of wanting to blog here more than on my food blog, I just didn't do it because, lets face it, words pour out when I'm depressed or unhappy or angry (mostly at Ro, but also at life in general) and I was ridiculously happy as a person last year. 

I knew it was all too good to last, because 2012 has not been that great for me (so far). Mentally, physically and emotionally I am a wreck..OK I'm exaggerating a bit..but what's life without some drama right? Here are some of my thoughts as a 30 something year old, who has no clue what life has in store, heck she has no clue what the day has in store for her, leave alone life.

• My personal Facebook page has become torturous. These days I dread logging on to FB. Why? you ask? Well if its not someone getting married its someone pregnant, or baby showers or new born baby pictures or corny professional pics that's all over the place. It's so much peer pressure that it makes you wanna have a baby (like for facebooks sake). I'm so bored, but that's a good thing because I now spend very little time on FB.
• My FB page for my food blog on the other hand, which I started just for the heck of it, has proved to be quite fruitful. Like minded people discussing food and photography, clearing doubts on food and such is fun, not to mention loads of fabulous friends I made- genuine ones who lift my spirits on a sad day. It has changed my attitude towards blogging on the whole.
• 6 years into our marriage and we I have no clue where I stand (Ro probably has it all figured out, I'm sure). Its become seriously boring that I have soooo begun to enjoy my alone time doing whatever I please (and even fantasising scenes from Unfaithful..is that creepy?). Is that why people go ahead and have kids? A friend once said..We had a baby because otherwise we would have to talk to each other. I somehow understood what she meant. It's like this..if the internet connection conks on us one day, Ro and I would not know what to do. 
• Every morning I wake up with a new (health) issue. This morning was no different and the issue was  hair loss. Noticed a patch with thinning hair and it freaked the hell out of me. The wretched google said there might be underlying issues, so yes that has caused enough trauma to last me one week.
• In two minds about taking up a full time job. Pro's: I love my freelance work way to much to let go of it completely. It gives me flexibility, I write about what I love, I don't have a boss and I just acquired a few new clients who I'm extremely happy with. Con's: Pay is not that great, work is not regular and I don't get to meet new people since I work from home. I decided to meet the issue half way by looking for a part time job. Not that easy to come across in my field of work, but thinking about taking anything up, just to get out of the house once in a while and have a life.
• On the plus side, my food blog has started making money and I am being invited to loads of events and get togethers and stuff which all this while I shunned thinking the blog was just a hobby and that I wasn't gonna spend too much time on it or for it. I finally decided to get out there and meet other food bloggers (which apparently is a big community in UK) and went for a networking event. Met loads of like minded people and journalists and pr people, had a fab night with food and drinks and was back home happy and content. I have made it a point to go to all events I'm invited to (food related) and make new friends. 

So on this 3 year anniversary, the least I could do for my blog was to give it a face lift. I am in love with all things yellow, and the blue thrown in to show, well, those days when I'm in the 'blues.' Thanks to all my 54 followers who patiently waited for me to post something and this year is the year of photography for me. I have developed a keen interest in food photography and I would love to do more landscapes and portraits. If I get out and about doing it, then I shall at least post some pics here. Till then adios amigos.

Leaving you with a few things spring and yellow.

Day 5- GM Diet!

..was fairly uneventful. I am not desperately hungry and I don't feel tired. The one good thing that has come out of this diet, if not weight loss, is how good my skin looks now..i think its all the water that i have been drinking. So even if i don't lose much weight, I can at least fuss over my skin..

Someone commented and asked me how is this a GM diet when I'm cheating my way through..well my aim was to stick to the diet cent percent. I couldn't, and so am still continuing just to see if there would be a change at all at the end of it.

Morning- a cup of coffee (the usual)

Lunch- a 10 oz burger patty, grilled.

Tea- a few biscuits (I baked these and couldn't help but delve into some right out of the oven)

Dinner- a grilled 7 oz burger patty made with lean beef, and baby tomatoes seasoned with salt and pepper and a few sips of red wine (my husband, how mean he was, to actually convince me that a glass of wine wouldn't do any harm.I fell for it initially and realised i wasn't enjoying it too much and so stopped with just a few sips)

Would have had about 6 glasses of water (less compared to the usual)

Weight at the end of day 5, 55.5 kg (duh)

Day 4- GM Diet!

Day 4, according to people who have done the diet (including my mom), seem to be the most difficult with just bananas and milk. Now i don't mind eating bananas at all...I mean I actually like it, but the milk..i cringed and decided to skip and that's when my ever smart (pun intended) husband suggested i have it with a wee bit of horlicks to mask the milky taste. Great idea, I thought and went ahead with it only to realise that whatever you do to plain milk, it tastes milky whatsoever. Especially the whole milk we get here, is so thick...yuck! So i added some sugar, well lots of it and it was a pleasure 2 drink :)

Morning- a cup of coffee with little milk and loads of sugar :) :) :) (got tied up with work so skipped breakfast)

Lunch- 1/2 cup cauli and potato sabzi

Tea- 1 cup milk (with 1 tsp horlicks and quite a bit of sugar) and 3 small bananas

Dinner- 1/4 cup potato cauli sabzi, a few slices of chicken and 3 more bananas

Weight at the end of day 4: 56kg (it actually shows 55.5 but I'm gonna just say 56 cos id then be more motivated)

Day 3- GM Diet!

Ok so i messed up, well almost!

We had invited a few people over for dinner and I couldn't be rude and eat my own fruit and veggie (which btw if I had eaten, would have definitely gone mad!). So cheated, big time. I hope it doesn't affect the diet significantly though!

Breakfast- 1 cup coffee with a wee bit milk, but loads of sugar (I decided I was never gonna skip this ever!)

Lunch- a pear (I was not feeling hungry at all)

Dinner- hogged a bit (I don't want to reveal and make a fool out of myself). Also had brandy lemonade

But the good part is, the head ache trauma and the lethargic feeling has vanished. I didn't feel hungry that much and so I didn't force myself to eat the fruit/veg.

Weight at the end of day 3- 57kg (gained .5kg)- not impressed!!!!!

Day 2- GM Diet

I couldn't post the update yesterday..why you my ask?? Well because I thought I would die of a headache. It started on Monday night and whole of yesterday I had a splitting headache. Again I don't know what the reason is, but it made my life miserable. I couldn't concentrate on work or anything for that matter. Spent the whole day in bed. When Ro came home i burst into tears saying I didn't want to continue the diet secretly hoping he would ban me from continuing. Instead he consoled me saying its only 5 more days, you can do it! Bummer! 

Cheated a lot yesterday because I couldn't handle the headache and I decided it was either because I was sugar deprived or caffeine deprived. And by night I was in such a fowl mood that Ro made a cup of horlicks (with no sugar..yuck) and before I went to bed had a crocin.

Breakfast- 1 large baked potato with salt and a pat of butter (this tasted so damn good and kept me full till evening)

Lunch-tea time- baby carrots (had quite a few) (also had 2 biscuits hehe)

Dinner- Baby tomatoes seasoned with salt, pepper and lemon juice (I love this any day, but yesterday somehow it seemed a bit painful eating it), a glass of horlicks

I would have had about 8 glasses of water (all the while imagining it to be brandy lemonade)

Checked my weight this morning and it shows 56.5 kg (not much of a difference)

Day 1- GM Diet!

What the hell was I thinking???????????????????????????

That's what went through my my mind all day, and even now. I struggled through Day 1 with great difficulty. Eating fruits one whole day sounded like cake walk when I read it on a website, but in reality I hated it. The fact that my husband decided to be the devil in disguise and tempt me with food didn't make it any easier. While I gnawed my way through an apple, Ro was biting into a cheese quesadilla. While I was sipping the barely-edible GM-diet soup, he was grinning at me with a half eaten pizza slice in hand. Sigh! how much more of this I can handle, I have no clue. This time its not just myself I'm gonna admit defeat, its to all of you..so I'd be pronouncing to the whole world about the lil or no will power...

I was in a foul mood all day and had a headache. I wonder if it was just psychological (because I read about it online) or if it was the heater on full blast since its been raining non stop or generally me being me, but the day just crawled. 

Morning- had a cup of black coffee with 1 tsp sugar (cheated on that itself)

Lunch- a box of cherries

Tea time- a cup of black tea with a dash of lime and 1 tsp sugar + an apple

Dinner- the GM-diet soup and a slice of watermelon

I would have had about 7 glasses of water as well.

I don't have a digital scale, so noting down exact weight is not possible. But as of now I see NO change:( 

PS: Thanks all you guys who wrote in about the diet..I know its a fad diet and it has its ups and downs, but like id mentioned before this is more of a personal thing that I need to do for myself.

The GM Diet

I have absolutely no will power to do anything, leave alone patience. I start everything with great enthusiasm only to see it sizzle away in a matter of days, sometimes, minutes even!

This time however, I am determined to do this right till the end. I have been hogging on all the food I make (don't believe me..take a look here) and I don't fit into my jeans. This has never ever happened to me and I gasped. So I decided to do this diet for 2 reasons:

To reduce the unnecessary weight I've gained (obviously!) and

to try and finish something I start, for a change.

(well the 2nd is also to prove my husband wrong..he laughed at me when said the D word, yet again)

I am hoping that by sharing it on a blog, I would at least be motivated to carry on for the entire week. I shall chart out what I ate and how I handled it. I know I make it sound like labour pain but humour me please...

Here's hoping I'd be at least 3 kgs less at the end of the week.

Starting at 127 lbs/ 57.6 kg on a Sunday evening.

Spring is in the air

Some pics taken on our weekend walk through the English countryside.

The bluebell patch is Dockey Woods near Ashridge Estate, about an hour north of London. It was just so beautiful, I can assure you the pics havent done justice.

This is the Daffodil patch right outside my apartment...William Wordsworth wasnt joking when he said '..ten thousand saw I at a glance..'

Mushy post alert!!!

So..I love my husband. period. Does it sound strange coming from my mouth? Especially since Ive been brashing him on both my blogs?? Well the truth is, I think he's simply the best...I don't think I would have lasted if it was for any other guy..except maybe Christian Bale or something...in which case I would have just shut up and lived with him no matter what (as long as I am allowed to just sit there and drool at him and maybe once in a while be hugged or kissed).

Ok not getting carried away here (although I'm highly temped.. I could divulge the Mr Bale and me dreams)

I have been sitting back and wondering how lucky I actually am, incredibly lucky that is! Of course every wife considers their husband like god..except for me maybe..not God for sure. Although at times when I exclaim "oh god"..Ro would actually reply saying "did you call me." So vain..yeah I know! But I do regard him quite highly, if that's what you want to know. He's the sane one in the relationship, the one who's got a good head on his shoulders, the one who makes decision-making so much more easier (in spite of me arguing like a mad woman about everything). He never complains about anything especially the chores that need to be done around the house. How can anyone be so pro active in life. I mean he would come back from work, tired and all but would still be happy to do the dishes. Or at least pretends to not be hassled by it. While I groan and complain and bitch about having to make one..just one meal a day.

And the one day Ro says something about food being laid on the table a little late, I throw such a tantrum and fight with him and say all sorts of mean things. The one good thing I've learned over the years is to forgive and forget fast. Something I was never good at.. I could brood for weeks because Ro said something mean to me (friends who know me well will vouch for that). But now we fight and argue for some 15 minutes and then storm out of the room (mostly me) and after about an hour or so pretend like nothing ever happened. 

I used to complain about him not being romantic (what is it with us girls and romance???), and he actually asks me to piss off. But the small things he does sometimes at the spur of the moment makes me love him to bits. Like the time I was bugging him to dance with me at a party and he completely ignored saying he was too old for this shit. And i just stayed away. But after a while a slow song was playing and he grabbed me by the arms and dragged me on to floor saying, 'now this is a song id like to dance to.' or the time I was bawling my eyes out about something silly and he tried to make me feel alright by trying to play my favourite song on the guitar...and I had no clue he knew that was my favourite song. Or at night while we are in bed and he sings to me...And the rare (very, very, very) days where he picks up a bunch of flowers for me..Id be so damn thrilled and Ro would be all embarrassed. Or when he comes back home from work and swoops me down for a kiss. Things like that mean so much to me, but I don't know if I've ever told him that or he knows that at all???

I am glad that even after 5 years of being married, we still have that spark in us...at least I do. I agree its not all smooth sailing and such, but most of the time, its that way for us now and when its not its mostly me at fault (I wouldn't agree on that if he asked me directly though). We have certainly come a long long way.

So the other day when we were on our way back from a friends place I suddenly blurted out to Ro that he was the bestest husband in the whole wide world and he was like 'yeah baby...I know!' (gloating??? yeah I thought so too). But I'm gonna let him get away with that. I am gonna make this year the 'I love my husband to bits year' and try and make him feel that marrying me was the best decision he ever made in his life.

Ex girl friends...eat this!

PS: Don't jinx me (or I think I've already done that to myself) cos my tomorrows post might be about how I'm stuck in a loveless marriage and is considering a one night stand with a Christian Bale lookalike ;) (drool)

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 2

My second set of entries for Scavenger Hunt Sunday and I'm kicked about it..again! Just follow these rules and you are good to go!

1. Anyone can participate

2. You're encouraged to take five new photos this week for the challenge

3. If you get stumped, you may use one photo from your archive (although not too strict about it- I do my best to take fresh shots)

Link up here on Sunday (or Monday at the latest)- you can use the new button

5. Have fun!

Do hop on to Ashley's space to see what the others have done..they are all fab.

Now here are my interpretations:

1. PINK

This is a flower from my tiny garden and I thought the patterns formed on the petals were interesting...oh and the pink is absolutely gorgeous against that yellow, don't you think?

2. BOOK(S)

I don't have that many cook books and I tend to not use them even if I borrow it from the library (thanks to the world of food blogs out there). But I won a signed cop of the Masterchef cook book on a blog give away, a few weeks back and was adamant I would try at least a few recipes from those. Finally got down to it last week and this is what I tried :)

3. FALL COLOURS

I live in London and that too pretty much central London and so don't really see much of the fall colours like in Connecticut (which is mind blowing gorgeous) unless you head out to the country side, and then its absolutely beautiful. This is one from the archives, but an absolute favourite of mine. We headed down to the quaint lil village of Salisbury last year this time and the fall colours were jest beginning to set in. It could also pass off for orange but I had something better for that. This is a self pic :)

4. LEAF

I was out on my balcony on a cold, windy morning with a cuppa coffee and thinking out loud when they would all start shedding, when this leaf flew on to my garden table. I thought the contrasting colours look pretty. So here is one for the leaf.

5. ORANGE

Aren't these the cutest lil carrots ever??? All ready to go into a roasting pan along with chicken.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

...is the brain child of photographer Ashley Sisk and is basically a photography challenge wherein she gives you themes every week and you need to photograph them as per your creativity or interpretation. Sound fun? Yup it is. All you have to do is follow a few simple rules, and you are good to go!

I first stumbled upon the event on Kamalika's blog and she herself has done a pretty good job. Do hop over to both the spaces to see how incredibly creative people can be.

Since I am trying to improve my photography skills, I thought I'd give this a shot. Its my first week on the hunt and im pretty excited at what I've come up with.

Hopping on to this weeks themes:

1. GOLDEN

This is my wedding ring, something which signifies 5 years of togetherness for me.

2. SMELL

Baking one cake fills my house with the awesome smell..imagine two!!! Need I say more?

3. FRUIT

Left over oranges after baking an Orange cake. Yes, I bake a lot of cakes:)

4. SIMPLE

An orange gerbera daisy in a used cider bottle now adorns my side table in the living room..simple yet gorgeous!

5. SPORTS

I'm wondering if I should start playing Badminton again.

Self proclaimed Hypochondriac and a few insignificant things

Ok I'm definitely a hypochondriac or there is something seriously wrong with me. My latest worry is my diagnosis of various ailments (well nothing less than cancer, if I may add) and Ro has had it with me and has threatened to cut internet connection if i didn't stop googling every little thing. Easy for him to say, he's not hypochrondiac (I just found out this term btw).

Last months PMS caused a whole lotta dilemma...i bawled my eyes out one night saying I was going to die and Ro didn't make it any easier, saying out loud he wouldn't make the same mistake again and will marry someone with a bit more brains the next time. Then I bawled at that for a while which confirmed it was PMS.

The thing is I see these symptoms online and then force myself to believe i have it, because the very next day I seem to somehow have that very symptom i read about. Oh my god, that sounds even more retarded out loud. Sigh! I also think its because I suddenly have a wee bit of time on my hands after a very hectic summer..which brings me to my apology..sorry about not being a regular here. A whole lot of you have asked me to continue writing here and I would be lying if i said i didn't miss this page.

The thing is, I started this space to vent out my anger and frustration and i have done it quite a bit. I guess I'm a much happier person now (touch wood) and have come to love London even more than Chennai. I just don't miss India any more. Should i be happy about that??? Still wondering.

Anyhoo, summer went by in a whiz and now signs of Autumn are here. I almost cried out loud when I saw a yellow leaf on the road recently exclaiming fall was here...and it is!

Leaving you with a few pics we took during summer.

First day of summer...Pub lunch at the Fullers Inn

Picnic at Regents Park followed by a game of Frisbee

Pretty Bonsai collection at the BBC Good Food Show, Birmingham (I won tickets to this show yaaay)

A bright and sunny day at Hampton Court Foodies Festival

White Cliffs of Dover

Durdle Door, Jurassic Coast in Dorset

Mayfield Lavender Field, Surrey

Autumn Showers