Lost weekend

A certain gentleman, played Mr.Grumpy all weekend. No, I wasn't the reason behind he being grumpy. It was most certainly a fellow who goes by the name Ang, the so-called renovation expert. The grumpiness(is that a word?) started out with a call to Ang on Saturday morning.


Work on one of the bathrooms started about a month and a half back and since then the family has been using the only other one. Mr.Ang(Hmm, thinking again, I wud skip the 'Mr'. Not since he is a good friend rather because am totally pissed off with that bugger). There is a petrol bunk, that is being built opposite my house which was started when the renovation started. Ang, I wud like you to know that they are almost done. Yes, its a petrol bunk and its almost done. And mine is just a bathroom, and it isn't done. Makes one wonder if its a bathroom like the Queen's to be renovated for close to 2 months. But no, its more like a humble little one and it should hardly take about 10 working days.

So, Mr.Grumpy was grumpy all weekend. Thinking back, I should have thrown him out and locked the doors, or rather,  asked him politely book himself into a hotel and be grumpy as much as he pleases. I did neither. Ha... damn, late realisations.

All the negative energy, made me feel like am running a boarding & lodging house.
Of course, I am the manager.
My maid, the room-boy.
My baby , the little helper
and the special chef roped in from India, my mom.

So, the visitor, Mr.Grumpy, books himself into my lodge and avails all the services
- a neat room with an A/c with clean sheets. (Sorry, about the bathroom though, its under renovation Sir),
- free unlimited home-cooked food (Yes, I am talking about my mom's fish curry & avial)
- the lounge (I mean my TV & Sofa)
- Fresh Lemon Tea (served from a toy Kitchen, morning noon & night with a very big smile by a lovely little waitress)
- in-house DJ (who plays Barney one after another after another...quite a DJ that one)
- Laundry & house keeping services
- and we accept supplementary credit cards, diamond & gold trinkets & cash
- and No, we don't take any other visitors

Lets make things clear and I'll tell you what... Am not running a **#$#^&*^&^%$ motel here. Its our own home!!

Bintan , Indonesia

Day 1 was a bright and sunny day and we ,includes Anto, my mom & dad & my baby, left to Bintan Indonesia from the Tanah Merah ferry terminal. The ferry ride was quite bumpy and Nephy started screaming ka-ka. For once, I was sorry for potty training her. She refused to do her business in her diaper and she wanted to go to the loo, which in that fated-ferry, happened to be outside the cabin at the rear-end. Surprise...Surprise...The most lovely sight awaited us there. The trail left behind by the ferry in the sea. A water trail with huge gushes of water. It was quite a sight to see and it got me thinking 'Nice start'. 

After 2 hours in the ferry, we got down on Indonesian soil at Tanjung Pinang. At the immigration, we were waiting for our visa. Anto started off this story, about how the place is corrupted and how they might even hide one of our passports and demand money in return. The immigration officer promptly asked, Where is the fifth passport? Boy, Oh Boy, Does it have to be mine? We blamed them, they blamed us. After frantic searching by both the parties, dear old Anto digged around and brought out the passport. I was gonna whack his behind then and there, but my mom had brought me up with better manners. I'll save it all for a private moment. A hour's journey from there and Voila! The nostalgic Yasin.

Oh lovely huts built on the beach,sorry on the sea. A small little cottage with a sea view and small little balcony with the blue skies and blue seas. Absolutely lovely setting for a nice romantic movie. 

The Nostalgic Yasin!

Well, we weren't on our honeymoon and the huts with its low railings, scared the living soul out of me for fear of an uncontrollable toddler falling over. I chickened out and chose a villa built on hard land. We settled in for the night, after a light dinner and lazing at the resort's beach. Anto & I & Nephy slept peacefully, oblivious to the fact that we were in the middle of another country and a villa almost at the end of the resort with nothing but the wild flora & fauna for a good distance. My dad hardly slept, keeping gaurd the whole night or so he meant, but my mom assured that he indeed slept well and snored well. 

The Villa where we stayed

Day 2 dawned well & bright. Morning buffet at th Agro beach resort, a couple of metres away. I have absolutely no complaints about the Indonesian morning buffet. Had a good number of items to try and you know what, they even had susiyums. I swear they were. Small sweet dumplings, made from green beans and palm sugar. There was tapioca cooked in sweet sauce and bananas deep fried, like those ones we get in Kerala. The Indonesian items were quite interesting.

We loved the Agro beach resort because it housed a playhouse and lovely gardens and it looked like it would be fun for Nephy. We decided to move in to this resort  and so we did. 

The Bintan Agro Resort

Lazed around in the beach for a while. Nephy refused to set her feet down on the sand. She thinks its dirty. For your information, your highness, we had a ball of a time playing in the sand when we were your age. I would still happily do it, if not for my much-hated inhibitions. Then followed food yet again and a nap.

We decided to have our dinner at the Sun & moon restaurant, which was build a few feet into the sea. It looked absolutely amazing. We tried a few more of the Indonesian cuisine. There were curries that tasted almost like our own chicken curry.

Sun Moon Restaurant

Day 3 dawned and with it came Nephy's fever and rains. No pool no sea. Spent it lazily in the playarea and the restaurant.

The Sea, The Pool & The rain

After the rains

Day 4 , the final day in Bintan. We packed our luggages and left early to explore the town. By explore, I meant shopping. Shopped in a crazy mall with crazy discounts of 90%. How wonderful was it to shop in millions. Nephy's dress for 3 million and with 90% discount, its 30,000. The Indonesian rupiyah is approximately 6500 for 1 Singapore dollar. Where in the world will you ever get an experience of shopping in millions. 

Finally, took the ferry back to SG. We went to the top level in the ferry, out in the open and the views were splendid. The blue sky with the sea and small islands spread across and a lovely trail behind. I loved the ferry ride back home.

......... and am still wishing that its Day 1 and am setting sail just now.

Of As & ABCs

A is hired by ABC to work in a reputed company for a salary X.

A is happy , goes to work and is at peace.

After 7 months, company ABC calls A to say that, they are giving out a hike of Y$(Believe A, Y$ was quite a hike). Company ABC calls again the next day to say, they wud indeed be happy to pay this revised salary for the past 7 months too.That is Y times 7(months) = 7Y$ to be paid as arrears.

A think this is quite fishy and don't you too? A thinks A was indeed entitled to get the X+Y salary from the start, but due to some crook(and he would know when he reads this, if at all he reads this) in ABC , A was being paid less. In plain english, A thinks A has been cheated out of A's rightful money for the first 7 months.

A decides to do some investigation.
A goes asking around. Finds out that a friend B reports the same and exactly the same.
A asks another friend C and the same and exactly the same.

A strongly believes that company ABC has screwed all of its consultants for a good while and A is not able to decide what is it that is rightful that should be done.

No points for guessing A & ABC.

Funny Fellow

This post is about about none other than our very own Anto. For those of you wondering who is Anto, he is my knight in a shining armour...and to those of you who have seen him and imagining him so, its high time that you stop rolling on the floor, laughing out loud...Please get up to read the rest.

Once Anto &  I were walking down from the mall to our home. On the way, I saw this girl who had a rather tiny face, pretty yet odd to an extreme , almost devlish(Forgive me Lord. I know all your creations are godly, but You messed it up with this one. You were probably working on a friday evening. Please be reminded in future, that You do NOT work on friday evenings)

Getting back to my storyline, I quietly pointed her out to Anto, and you wouldn't believe me, but the fellow said he had noticed her long long back and I gotta be blind for not having noticed her before. Thats when Anto shed light on his theory.

All girls,rather anything female, within  the radius of 20 m are given a quick scan.
Blink, blnk, blink... all above-averages are give a small little red hallow
Finally, the red-hallow-ones are given a good look, all in a matter of seconds.

Ha ha ha... Men and their silly stories and my husband says the most incredible tales. Have I ever mentioned, that he has an incredibly good sense of humour(No, I wasn't paid to say this).

Well sometimes, he goes over the top, and does really silly jokes and I take this opportunity to let him know that such mokkais(jokes) aren't anything but mokkai mokkais(dumb jokes) and here is one such for the world to savour.

I asked him if he wants an egg omelette or scrambled eggs. His reply 'an omelette with green chillies'. It was only a day before that he said that he didn't like green chillies in his omlette. Hence, I was muttering to myself when he sprang up to say, ' for tomorrow, Can you make my omelette without eggs'.(I promptly replied that I would throw him outdoors and lock the door)

Hope my little darling inherits his funny bone, minus the mokkais though ;)

Interesting....

Our very own Antony's :
"T H E F I N A L E . Chennai vs Mumbai. Govinda Govindaaa for Hyderabad."
(Whats it with men & cricket)

My SIL's bro :
"Early Bday Gift - A Baby Girl"
(Congrats Bro! My Lil niece has a cute lil cousin to play with)

My BIL
"Awesome Team Chennai !! Glad you showed the exit to Team Deccan..... :)"
(Annanum thambiyum ...same kuttai-la oorina mattais :) )

A frnd from Infy :
"chennai ku whistle podu.. Dhoni ku whistle podu... Chennai Super Kings"
(oh God... Men, find something to do)

Antos frnd's wife:
"All I need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt."
(Hmm... hints to her hubby I believe)

A fellow relative:
"IS google run by the templars? or is microsoft, or intel? which company is similar to abstergo"
(This one definitely needs therapy)

A frnd from College :
"When we believe in the Lord Jesus, an exchange takes place. We give Christ our sins, and he gives us his righteousness and forgiveness. There is nothing we can do to earn this. Only through Christ can we receive God's righteousness. What an incredible bargain this is for us!!!!!"
(How true?)

From Someone whom Anto looks up to :
"Risk is the currency of life. Without risk, there is no life. We have to be willing to risk failure in return for a sense that we are living. And it's when we're really living that we really have a shot at changing the world!!"

Another frnd from college :
"No Thangamani ENSOYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!"
(Ha ha ha.... I wish my thangamai and my chinnamani would give me a night off too...)

A Coll frnd and a new mom :
"There are 3 dolls in a man's life... 1) his daughter, baby doll 2) his girlfriend, barbie doll and 3) his wife, Panadol!! ;-) hehe..."
(I like this one!!)

Another Coll frnd :
"STAY TRUE TO THE DREAMS OF THY YOUTH.... :)"
(Hmm... he is probably feeling old :))

Puri :
"U S of A,here i come"
(Bon Voyage.. Hey Puri, When Anto broke the news, he said 'Us family Utham poguthu'.. No, he wasn't drunk!)

A friend of a friend :
"Confused , doesn't sound like me :P"
(Yeah rite... Multiple Personality Disorder)

Anto's lil cousin :
 "சூரியனை பார்த்து மணி சொல்லுறது அந்த காலம், மின்சாரம் போறதை பார்த்து மணி சொல்லுறது இந்த காலம்!! Thanks to Government!!!"
(Funny!!)

A friend of a friend :
"Wat am i gonna engage in IPL is gonna be over Sooooooon "
(Men...)

A frnd from Infy :
"ஒரு வேல இப்படி இருக்குமோ! இல்லனா அப்படி இருக்குமோ....இல்ல இல்ல இப்படி அப்படி இருக்கும் "
(Ayyo pavam.... ennamo aayduchu)

A frnd from College :
 "Patience is the mother of all virtues!"
(Somebody must be testing hers...)

Fellow Mom :
 "To be a mother is to know true love, pure joy and sweet bliss ... AND change diapers, clean up vomit, and never sleep again !!"

A from from coll and then in Infy :
"…into her arms he poured his heart!!"
(fallen in love...must be...)

Antoher one from Infy :
"To live happily.. Stop expecting and stop giving expectations.."

A senior in college, and a relative (my mom's sister's husband's cousin's daughter... maybe)
"Clash of the Titans' average..no where close to Gladiator"
(I do find these quick reviews helpful)

My dear Arch :
"“If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it is - infinite”- William Blake"
(Philosophical...)

Another frnd from Infy :

 "Jcpenney makkals .. bringing Chakkara pongal for you.. don't miss it "

(:( left it all behind me long back..Given a chance, I wud definitely go back)

One from my bestest circle of frnds - Rats :
 "All izz well"
(Enna dee spelling marandhu pocha?)

Anto's lil cousin :
"Happy Birthday Chiyaan"
(Little fellows...)

Arch again :
"To bring out the kid in u , get a bicycle(Gift) !!!! Geeeee!!! I am so happppyy....    "
(She is excited abt something..... is it the person who gave her the gift or the gift)

Prabs says :
Yeah!CSK wins.But tough competition ahead.This kind of batting wont do against MI. Dhoni, Murali, Hayden(???????????????) or someone... pls bat well!!
(.......wo'MEN'.........too)


finally


Me:
Anyone of you wants to hire a home-based .net programmer... Please say yes ;)
(Wishful thinking... This whole week of 'work from home' is making me tipsy.. )

& 

Nephy 

"I love you Mommy and Daddy"

(If you haven't yet made out what these are...These are status messages....)

At work...

Things are quite different at work here than in my first work place.
There... Lunch was a colourful affair. A guaranteed minimum of four. The usuals being Arch,Preeths,Div & Abi and sometimes J and soemtimes the two gundans. No topic was left untouched. No lunch ever ended without a friendly banter.
Here.. most of the days I go to lunch alone, somehow I am very much comfortable being alone, left alone to my thoughts and my own world. I call Nephy who would refuse to talk to me on most days and my mom who never refuses, always welcome. Live live moms!!

There.. I don't smile at people I don't know...
Here, I do.

There... before I reach my desk, I would have said Hi to atleast a minimum of 5 or more friends(not just colleagues)
Here... I go to my desk quietly , an occasional nod here and there.

There.. 'How are you? ' is the start of a friendly chat
Here... 'How are you?' and there is this fellow who always answers it with 'Very Busy'. Tell me, you are fine, just great, bad, pretty bad, sad or anything. Why 'very busy'... I've made a note to myself not to ask that fellow, how he is. But nonetheless, he keeps asking me how am I and I end up asking how he is and yeah... I hear the 'very busy'. People!! (Put your hands in the air.. roll your eyes a little and give that 'Whatever' look, for my benefit)

There.. My team size was from one to about 10 and my manager was most of the times sitting on top of our heads. It wasn't just the manager, even the onsite fellows took the liberty of using our heads for desks.
Here... My team size is a modest 3 and the manager lives in London. Nope, no sitting on my head at all.
(I definitely have to mutter counter-jinxes here for all those of you with the kolli-kannu)

There.. team mates were friends.
Here... thankfully, my teammates are very nice chaps. Kinda helpful and quite the techies that they are, but without the attitude. Makes my workplace a lot better.
(Again... am muttering counter-jinxes. No worries, no one knows of my blog's existence, so am allowed to say all that I want to)

Fine... gotta catch up with work.
There... They spell out deadlines and what a race it used to be to the line..
Here.. I spell my deadlines...

Nephy's 2nd birthday

My baby's 2nd birthday on a lovely sunny day(considering we live in Sunny Singapore, thats not special, yet who would want to have a special day with a heavy downpour, like poor Mommy's wedding, when it rained cats and dogs and then elephants and dinosaurs).  I was of course, the first one to wish with her, a kiss and a wish and a silent prayer.

Followed a church visit with grandpa & grandma & Dad. Traditions.
Bought So-so(Chocolates)
Posed for a good number of pictures
Did I mention the Payasam that grandma made... yummy!
Followed lunch and nap-time. Don't we stick to routines even on birthdays!

At last it was Evening, I was quite nervous if she would agree to dress up. Believe me, it wasn't fun to trick her into her new dress. The little party was to be at this lovely little Indian restaurant. A few of our friends had already arrived. Nephy had fun with her exploits until the others arrived. Finally, the cake was brought out. A beautiful prayer was said asking God's blessings for my baby. The Happy Birthday to you song was sung. I hissed, blow your candles baby. And She bent down and did a foo and blew out her candles.... and cut her cake and offered a bit to mommy , some to daddy and then on to everyone else.

Ha ha... who am I kidding? In reality, she was happy with the birthday song and clapped with us. Then it was time to blow out the candles. But, she refused to go anywhere near the cake,much less the candle. Finally ,I had to do the honors of blowing the candles and Anto, cutting the cake.  You should have heard her screaming 'No-No-No' when asked to blow her candles. Well, its gonna look really silly when we do our rehearsal's for her next birthday with a cake & a lit candle, but SHE asked for it. ;). The whole thing was quite funny and in a sort of a way, cute to watch.

Altogether, it was a lovely evening with friends & family.  Thanks all for the lovely gifts. Nephy had a great time with all the gifts. A special thanks to the one who bought the baby doll. It worked Nephy out of  her tantrums like a magic, when said 'Amma is gonna play with the baby doll, and not with the bad girl Nephy'.
Sadly, she gave it a good number of (well deserved)whacks, and now the baby doll is nurturing a broken leg. No other casualities though.

Finally, she is 2....and not a baby anymore!! When did she grow up so fast.....Wasn't she that little reddish thing, that I was holding on the 1st of April 2008, unable to even open her eyes and look at mommy ?