Best shopping in the world!
Just quickly, because I'm not done with work yet and I'm actually in-between clients (needed some quick online retail therapy to get my sense of equilibrium back) I must share my current favourite online shopping site.
I discovered it while I was looking up something else online during lunch - mooovvve over trademe, and let me introduce *drrrumrolll*
www.thehungersite.comSuper cool stuff at decent prices and all for a good cause - what more can you ask for!? I've already added about 6 things to my cart and I'm not halfway done yet. Of course, the prices are all in US dollars, so I might need to tip a few things out of the cart before I'm done (since I'll have to pay shipping costs as well) but ohmigod. I was totally hyperventilating as I checked out the jewellery, the tussar silk scarves, the mini journals (*breaaaathe*breaaathe*) the amazing woman magnet (I think I'll get that for Farida) and a ton of other things.
Ok I have to run now!
I think i'm totally back into this blogging thing yaaaay!
Later, aligator!
Labels: Shopping
P.S
Oh and I forgot to add that if I'm ever a mother, I'd like to be a mom like
Dooce!
Ok now i'm
reeaallly off home!
Blogs..
I actually logged on to Blogger to talk about a new blog i found which is very well written and has some of the funniest and most poignant posts I've ever read! It's called
Sweet Juniper and it's written by a lawyer-turned-stay-at-home-dad and his lawyer wife. It's interesting that I stumbled upon it (through another blog I've been reading for years called
Dooce. If I ever go to Salt Lake City, I will get in touch with Heather - I feel I know her, John and Leta. Crazy but that's the wonderful world of cyberspace for you!) today, because it documented her 2nd pregnancy in detail (the birth too actually) and since Dutch is a stay at home dad, he does most of the writing and he blogs quite a bit about parenthood and children and he does it in an interesting thought-provoking way and not in the my-baby's-moving-on-to-solids-my-toddler-refuses-to-be-potty trained style that many less interesting bloggers adopt. It's interesting that I stumbled upon this blog today since (and I'm sure you've noticed) the topic of babies and parenthood is one that has had me confused for a while now.
Anyway, I think "Dutch" is the personification of all I've ever subconsciously imagined my husband to be. Sigh - Wood is one lucky woman! Altho..hmm..I'm not sure if I'd be too thrilled with a stay-at-home husband..but I think that's more coz I've never really considered it, altho 1 of my exes always used to say that he'd like to be a
stay-@-home dad....I don't think I ever took him seriously tho...there's no way I earn enough to have my husband stay home and take care of the kids.
Anyway, I think the weather's getting to me - I need to go home and curl up in bed, under the covers, with this book I borrowed from Rekha which I'm loving (It's Q&A by Vikas Swarup - an interesting read) with another mug of steaming hot chocolate! Perfect weather for it....I hate gloomy weather :(
Unless I have a fire and a certain someone to curl up with in front of the fire. On that note, I'm going home now.
Rekha's Bday weekend
It's a gloomy day today and I'm suffering from post-weekend blues or weekend-withdrawal symptoms. It was an interesting weekend - I decided at the 11th hour, that I would go to Palmy for Rekha's bday. I hadn't seem her all year and I thought it was about time I headed back to Palmy for a visit.
The only problem was that I didn't trust my car to get me there in 1 piece and I'm also not a confident enough driver to make it all the way too Palmy. In the dark. In winter. And definitely not by myself. There were no grab-a-seat deals and flights were proving way too expensive - $600 return. The train doesn't pass through Tauranga so that left me with the bus. There was no bus after 4pm on Friday from Tauranga. So in the end, I picked Mel up from work at 5pm after a crazy busy day and we drove to Rotorua in the dark. In fog. By the time we reached Rotorua, I was a quaking bag of nerves in dire need of alcohol to ease the terror. We got to the club, where the rest of her family was about about 7pm, had a nice hot meal, played game after game of pool and calmed our frazzled nerves with Bacardi Breezers.
Back at her home, we did girly things like straightened each others' hair (1.5hrs) while watching rugby league much to her father's disgust, took photos of aforementioned straightened hair (1hr) and played with Cadbury the cat. At 10.30, I called and booked a cab despite her mother's protests (she was very sleepy) and at 11pm (after a quickie back cracking session - my back was killing me, I had to sit 5 and a half hours on the night bus, we had wasted too much time on our hair!) I jumped into the cab after quick goodbye hugs all round and set off in the rain and blistering cold (roto-vegas as Mel calls is freezing in winter) to the bus stop.
As I paid the friendly cabby and he deposited my bags on the bench, I realised that I had left my new cherry red winter coat, my prized possession, the only coat I had brought for the weekend, on Mel's sofa. I hadn't seen it coz Mark (one of her brothers) had decided to sit right there...
I texted Mel, just to let her know that she could use it over the weekend, since i'd stupidly left it behind and instead of thanking me what does that girl do? She and her mom jump into their car and race over to give me my coat! They got there 2mins before the bus. I was so touched!
Anyway the weekend was great - the night bus ride was such an adventure. I read a bit, listened to music on my new ipod nano (I'm so tech-unsavvy that I managed to delete half the songs I had on my ipod just before the trip!), stared out the window at the raindrops that glistened as we passed under street lamps. There's something about being on a night bus with a bunch of strangers -as we all stepped off the overheated bus at comfort stops, teeth chattering as we zipped up our jackets with frozen fingers and pulled lamely at our beanies, there was a sense of camaraderie - friendly nods, sleepy hellos, each one holding the toilet door open for the next..little things like that that made me feel like I was part of the Night Bus Family!
And then of course we climbed back on board, rushed to our seats (there weren't many of us stupid enough to sit all night in winter, in a bus..on a bus? so we each had 2) and promptly disappeared into our own little worlds. Still, it was all nice and cosy.
Reached Palmy at 4.40am and waited a few mins for Sujit to pick me up (he had ice issues with his windscreen) in the biting cold. I suddenly remembered novels I'd read in which the hero/heroine hopped from one foot to another in a bid to stay warm in freezing winters. So I tried that. Next time I read about someone doing that, I can smugly tell them that it doesn't work. So there!
We sat up and chatted for a bit and then decided to sleep for a few hours, since we didn't plan on sleeping that night. When we woke up, we had my favouritestest breakfast ever - pancakes!!! Rekha's Such a sweety - each time I visit her, she makes it a point to get/make something I like. We sat around and caught up for a while, and then rushed to shower, get ready and head off to Ezibuy for a spot of shopping while Sujit (predictably) rushed off to get his wife a bday present! He totally underestimated her when he told me not to tell her where he was going. So I was all- oh Sujit went to return the dvds etc and she was like yeah he told me was going to do that, but I know he's gone to get me a card and a present. And I was like cheh! You guessed?! And she was like yeah..I know him really well now. I even know what he's getting me! Sigh. I hope when I get married my husband has a bit more ingenuity. And if he's gonna get me a bday present, bothers to get it before my bday. But I digress.
Actually at this point, I have to tell you about Jagrati's theory. She's one person who won't buy you a gift unless she's found something that makes her think of you, even if it's months after your bday. I totally get this way of thinking and it does make sense to a certain extent. I draw the line, though, at more than one friend thinking this way. Coz then I won't get any presents on my bday! And wat's a bday without presents?!?! Speaking of which, Rekha got lovely lovely presents!! It was great!
So anyway, we did some shopping and then Rekha took the whole gang out to lunch at a lovely place! I'd been wanting to go to Rendezvous on 2 previous trips but for some reason or other, we'd never been able to make it. So this time, 6 of us went for a beautiful lunch - very sweet of them to take us to lunch! Again, I was so touched! (Actually come to think of it, we had lunch and then went shopping...ah details details!)
Back home Jaggu and I decided to be bartenders for the nite, so we got cracking and studied Rekha's cocktail book and the notes I'd printed out (I take my jobs very seriously!), made lists and went to the liquor store and supermarket for provisions. Our grand plan was to make 3 different cocktails for the nite - how we thought we'd pull that off with only 1 cocktail shaker between us I have no idea! So as you can probably imagine, we ended up making only Mojitos all nite long (they were surprisingly good. And we even rimmed the glasses for fun and served them in martini glasses coz they were prettier! Oh and we also added sprigs of mint for garnishing. We were very pleased with ourselves). Actually after the first 5 drinks, we quit! Hari had to take over. We had a great nite - lots of alcohol, lots of dancing, stupid drinking games, lots of laughter and a general feeling of kinship that has been missing for a while now.
Sunday, we predictably woke up late - Rekha and I were up by 10 and we sat down and chatted over coffee for a few hours before the others wandered in bleary-eyed and still in their pyjamas. By 2pm I had to leave to get back on the bus to Roto-vegas, where I was greeted with rain bucketing down and Mel, her mom and Lenny who'd come to pick me up. We traded stories, had a steaming mug of hot chocolate each and fell into bed by 8.30.
This morning, we drove back through bouts of torrential rain and patches of thick fog. Thankfully we made it back in one piece.
