Come Dine with Me

This past Wednesday, I had the girlies over for another Come dine with me feast. Because we have a large group, this is only my second time making dinner. I thought I would go fancy but also try to be a bit healthy. For the first course, I made homemade spring rolls. The main meal was wonton noodle soup and the piece d' resistance- Mini fruit tarts- Yummy!

Jumping out Windows

At G, we have a fab perk where they invite in politicians, writers, musicians in during the lunch hour to educate us about the culture around us. The best person I've met through this- Salman Rushdie, who actually has a death warrant out because of his writing.

Today, we had a musician in for lunch who was fab - Mick Flannery from Cork. He's got this lovely, gravelly voice and plays both piano and guitar. His performance was good but he was PAINFULLY shy. He made these little remarks and everyone just giggled cause we didn't know how to react to him.

He's lovely and definitely check him out if you are looking for pretty, DEPRESSING music.

8 Years!

Today, 8 years ago, BF and I became official BF and GF. It was cute because he legitimately asked me to be his girlfriend- very 1950's "Will you wear my class ring?" type of scene. Cute!

Then we made out and I asked him to the Sadie's Hawkins dance :)

Fenway Park, Boston, May 2009


Agra India, January 2010

No more Locker Room!

Our lovely little apartment has two bathrooms which to this day I believe is the saving grace in our relationship. Normally I do NOT venture into BF's bathroom because, well frankly, it seems like boy and not in a good cologne kind of way... more like a locker room.

Since BF is out of town for work- Philippines for a week! I have the run of the house and will be having my lady friends over a couple nights this week. BF's bathroom is the guest bathroom so I did a GIRL clean of the place (like actually cleaned not a couple of swipes here and there like BF). I threw in some pretty pink candles (which normally would NOT be allowed in there) and got rid of the locker room smell. I may EVEN take a nice, relaxing bath in there this evening. (I got the smaller bathroom because I got the bigger closet- Priorities!) I might have to talk BF into switching bathrooms with me when he gets home!

Cabin Fever

So I found myself stuck in the house last weekend because I was sooo exhausted from being sick. However, I was not apparently sick enough to not purchase random items off the internet. I'm trying to hold off on buying new clothes for a couple of months (near impossible especially since I'll be going to the states in March.)

The items arrived this week and I'm just getting a chance to use them now. I ordered from Amazon who does free shipping to Ireland over 25GBP (Sweet!). BF needed collar stiffeners (not fun) and then I got myself the Gillian Michaels 30 day Shred workout video and the Travelo purse atomiser.

First, the Gillian Michaels video- My mother and younger sister both recommended Gillian Michaels to me. My mom might be the tiniest person I know and she's super fit! My sister has always had six pack abs (B@#$), but they found the video to be challenging and easy to follow and I agree! It's circuit training and there are three levels. I've only tried the first level so far and it's not too bad (I think last month's boot camp training really helped me here). Looking forward to trying the next two levels.



And the other product I purchased is rather random- a perfume atomiser. I saw it in magazine and it was a total impulse buy but I love it! Since I go to the gym most mornings, this little gem allows me to smell lovely and fresh without having to lug my perfume to the gym with me. It's perfect for traveling as well and SO simple to fill- took 10 seconds. I highly recommend this gem.

Date-Tastic

So as you may know I have three sisters who I miss DEARLY! I usually talk about the oldest one the most, because she actually responds to my emails. (Take note little ones!), but I recently got this email from my 22 year old sister who is living in Chicago about a date she went on. In the email below, T is my sister.

Warning- It's a bit long, has a small bit of foul language, and there's one bit of TMI but it's worth the read. SO funny!

"So I've been meaning to tell you about my very first adult date last Saturday. Now, don't get all excited because this was not your typical date where both parties are interested and both parties are trying to have more dates after. This was one of those dates where I didn't have the heart to say no, the attraction was very one-sided and I am trying not to see him again. Ever.

Now this boy named Mike (vegetarian, environmental junkie... much more on that later) is a friend of Baxter's friend, who was here visiting for a couple of days... We all went out on Tuesday night and I started to get a little drunk and started talking to Mike who just happened to be sitting next to me. We started talking about food, and then he started ripping off all these fantastic buzz words like... "Green city market, fresh local food, brunch, bike ride, cookies..." In my drunken state, I must have sounded really jazzed and so he suggested going on a "Saturday day adventure." Being the yes-man that I am, I replied, "YES yes, totally that sounds awesome. Let's do it. I love food and bikes."

I didn't hear from him for the next couple of days so I thought I was off the hook, but friday night rolled around and I got a text from Mike asking me to ride my bike over at 11am to meet him at his apartment. In my naive little head, I thought, "Oh nice a new friend, this might be fun." When I told George about it he said, "T you're a f#$ing idiot. This is a date. He likes you this is clearly a date."

Since I didn't have the heart to say no, I jumped on my bike and headed over thinking, "This is going to be weird. Ugh I hate myself. What am I doing?" 1. I was right... it was weird. but 2. I did not expect him to be so f@#$ing weird.

First thing he says to me when I arrive, "Hey T, sorry but we can't use the front door, you'll see why in a second." We walk around to the back of his 1BR apartment and as I walk through the small kitchen there is an intricate ropes course running through every room of his house.... He has an indoor clothesline running throughout his house. Something similar to this....
To get from one room to another I had to limbo underneath his boxers and briefs gahhhhhhh. I couldn't hide the dumbfounded look I had on my face so without hesitation he answered..."I'm on a zero waste challenge. I'm trying not to produce any waste so that means washing my clothes by hand and drying them throughout the house." I didn't know what to say so I giggled, said Cool and excused myself to the bathroom.

I happened to be on my purrriod that day so I was looking to change my tampon before sitting down to homemade brunch. As I start to take care of my lady business, I realize that this f@#$ing weirdo doesn't have any trashcans in his apartment because he is zero waste! So I stood in there for about 2 minutes deciding between pushing his old plumbing to the limits and flushing all my tampon things or wrapping everything up in like 2 feet of toilet paper and pursing it for a trashcan later on.... Then I thought, "Ew I'm gross. Used tampon in my purse?! Screw his toilet. If he wants to be zero waste than he'll suffer the consequences of a clogged toilet." I've never been so nervous flushing a toilet before, but thank god everything went down.

I walked back out and brunch was pretty much ready to go... He made a pretty big feast of omelettes, morrocan potatoes, and sweet corn pancakes. I was so pumped to dig in... as I started to cut into the omelette he stopped me and said, "T, do you mind if I say a blessing?" I thought sure why not he must be religious... that's cool. I guess. He reached across the table grabbed my hands and started his blessing with... "I would just like to thank mother earth...." I'm sorry what?! Mother Earth!??!?! HAAAAAAAA. I wish I had video recording capabilities... and I wish I could put it up on youtube for you.

Anyway.... I have learned my lesson. I have learned the power of NO. I am definitely not seeing him again.
I mean I should have known it wasn't going to work... he is a vegetarian tree hugger. And prior to meeting him on Saturday... I had panda express orange chicken take out in a styrofoam container. We were f@#$ed from the beginning."

Upside Down, please!

So I went to my first pole dancing class at the new studio last night- Loved it! The location is not that great to be honest. It's in the basement of a club so imagine the beer-soaked carpets we're working on :)

But the teacher is good (although a bit nuts). I took a couple of beginner courses before that kept teaching the same things so I'm glad I signed up for this beginner-intermediate course. There's another gal there who has taken the beginner course so the teacher is teaching us different and new moves.

This is what we'll be learning next week. I canNOT freaking wait! I better not skip my pilates class this week. I'm gonna need major core strength for this move.



P.S. I do not know who this chick is but it's the only video I could find quickly that showed the move we'll be learning! :)

Under Construction

Dear friends. I was getting bored of the plain green background of my blog and wanted to jazz it up a bit so please bare with me while I fiddle with the HTML of these freaking templates :)

Twists, Turns and Spins

So I was back at the gym yesterday for the first time since "The Fever". My joints are still sore but it was manageable. It felt great to be back!

Tonight I have my first dance (pole not hip hop) class for the year. I haven't been in AGES, and I miss it! The last dance studio I went to was good but so disorganised. They would cancel without letting me know, or the teacher would be late, or they would change the times without a word of warning- ANNOYING!

Strangely enough there aren't that many places in Dublin that offer pole dancing :) I managed to find another "studio". They seem professional enough (at least their website does) but their class takes place at a bar. Is that weird? Are they hopeful that we will turn this into a true profession?

Back to Normality

I rested all weekend and I think the joints are getting better. I'm planning on getting back to the gym this afternoon and I actually can't wait! Without working out, I've been lethargic so really looking forward to it. Plus I have new gym music which may or may not include Miley Cyrus to inspire me! (I'm not ashamed, it's SO freaking catchy!)

Confirmed!

Well friends, it looks like I escaped Malaria and Dengue fever. HOWEVER, I got something more exotic sounding... Chikungunya fever ... Say what?

It's actually not as bad as it sounds... just a tropical fever. The only side effect that is still not resolved is the joint pain. I haven't been to the gym in ages, although it feels like I have been working out HARD for days :(

Indian Wedding

The wedding was a three day extravagant affair that started in Chennai and ended up in Mamallapuram .

The Mendhi Party was the first of the wedding events. It was hosted at the bride’s house and was a get together for the girls to get our hands painted in preparation for the wedding. The boys were there as well and it was essentially a cookout (with Indian food, of course). It was lovely and followed by a night of Karaoke! BF and I scored 100 on our lovely rendition of Sweet Caroline.


The second event, the Sangeet, happened the next night. The Sangeet is a celebration of dance and song. It was very similar to a western style reception except that we had been taught some bollywood moves and so were able to showcase our “talent.” Because the groom is Irish, there was also some Irish jigging to be had. The night was really fun and ended with the boys singing Irish songs well into the night!



We had a day off to recover from the Sangeet and headed to Mamallapuram for the actual wedding. We were staying at a five star resort which was AMAZING! The wedding day was when we actually got to wear our saris and tunics.

Indian Illness and Misfortune

While doing research for out travels, every website warned us of the diseases and illnesses that we may encounter.

And the group of us managed to get a lot of them!
- Three out of the four of us traveling together got Delhi Belly. (I have a stomach of steel!), and BF even managed to faint from his due to dehydration.
-Three cases of Bed bugs
- The MOST mosquitoes bites you can imagine. I had 28 on ONE ankle alone. TWENTY EIGHT!!!!
- The bride and groom ended up in the Emergency room on their wedding night because the bride cut her foot and required five stitches.
- One gal got a broken blood vessel in her eye
- One gal hurt her back from the long flight over
- There were many injured toes and feet from playing soccer

And at this very moment, I’m sitting in the ER in Dublin waiting to hear the confirmation that I contracted… DENGUE FEVER. Oh Joy!

Udaipur

After being in Delhi for a couple of days, we decided we needed a change of pace and flew to Udaipur. What a difference! It was a smaller city (though still with MILLIONS of people). It was much more calm and not as chaotic. It was voted the top best city to visit by Travel and Leisure. To be honest, there isn’t much going on here. There is a large lake with a massive hotel in the middle of it. It’s famous because the James Bond film Octopussy was filmed there. It was also the site of Elizabeth Hurley’s wedding.

On our way there, I learned that my friend Nelle who has been traveling for a year with her boyfriend, Adam, would also be in India. I had high hopes to meet her but figured India is so big she could be anywhere. But luck was on our side. We happened to be traveling to Udaipur on the same day! And even more lucky, her hotel was less then 100m from my hotel! We ended up meeting for New Year’s eve and celebrated on a lovely roof deck with perfect views of the fireworks.
In front of the fire pit


Some of my favorite images from Udaipur

Laundry Day


So colorful


Relaxing on the roof deck


After a couple of days in Udaipur, we headed to the airport to get to Chennai and you’ll never guess who we ran into….Katy Perry and Russel Brand! After they got engaged! We also ran into Heidi (from the Sugar babes) and her boyfriend (Dave Berry) in the Mumbai airport.

Here's my best shot of Russell Brand without becoming a crazed fan

The Taj!

So after our scammy day in Delhi, we woke up early to head to Agra which is where the Taj Mahal is located. Although the distance between the two cities is only 180km, it's actually a 4.5 hour drive (due to maniacal auto drivers, dangerous lorries and...er...cows on the road.)

It was worth the trip though. The Taj is beautiful! It's amazing that it was built solely as the tomb for one lovely lady.


We had a shifty tour guide who convinced us to cut the very, very, very long queues to get inside the Taj to see the tomb. At the time we were shocked, but on looking back, he literally saved us 2 hours in line.

Agra's sole industry is tourism so there wasn't much else to do there. We visited (were dragged to) by the tour guide to a silk carpet shop and a marble works store.

Doing some Marble work!


Finally, we were ready to head home on our 4 hour journey back to Delhi. Halfway home, the car suddenly starts to make weird noises and then STOPS. What the heck? The driver managed to pull over the shoulder where we sat for 30 minutes before we were told that it wouldn't start again. We (and when I say we, I mean the boys) managed to push the car to the nearest roadside restaurant where we sat for three hours until another car came to pick us up.

Scammed!

So, we were barely in Delhi for 5 hours before the group got scammed. We read the guide books and were warned to watch out for fake tourist guides who take you to their friend's store and force you to buy things. We were also weary of pick pockets, but we weren't prepared for this crafty scam artist.

Basically, we were walking down the street, minding our own business when we noticed that one from our group was no longer with us. We turned around and he was just standing there. Er... "AL what's going on?"

Apparently the scam artists threw sh@#$ on his shoes and then kindly offered to clean then at an exorbitant rate. Innovative, no?

We're still in India and the wedding is tonight! Expect lots of India updates in the upcoming days!