'Tommy' the Tom cat

Our new house has a previous tenant that still resides in the upstairs portion of the house. It is a Tom Cat that is the size of a bobcat! (not exaggerating this time, cross my heart) nor I have ever seen a cat this large in these parts before. Most time when I see Tommy he is scaling our upstairs balcony with a dead rodent in his jaw...and then I wonder 'where was Tommy when we were dealing with that pesky Asian house shrew?'
The night before last Tommy came downstairs...we were asleep and there was full bags of trash in the garage/patio trash bins. while I was in a dead sleep, Z heard Tommy rustling the bins trying to get in our trash so he banged on the window and scared him away...a few minutes later Tommy came back and Z again banged on window and this time Tommy was gone for about ten minutes before returning...when Z heard rustling again this time he got half dressed, grabbed one of his flip flops, ran out the door towards the cat...Z blocked Tommy's escape towards the gate and so the cat darted for the stairs, Z ran after the cat and threw his flip flop at Tommy while the cat was running up the stairs...Z missed the cat with the flip flop missile but apparently it scared Tommy enough that the rest of the night no more attempts were made to acquire the tasty treat of our garbage.
I was not a witness to the scene...and I still do not know why I did not wake up because I usually am a light sleeper...I would have loved to see the incident first hand!

Day after Christmas...

Formerly known as 'Boxing day' in old British English (maybe they still call it that in modern British English as well...) Z and I planned to set this day aside for us to have our own little Christmas where were would eat American holiday food and unwrap gifts. We went to bed at 2am on the 25th/26th...when our last party guest left at 11:45pm we immediately jumped on skype to talk to our families while it was still Christmas day for them. Anyways so 2am on 12-26 my head hit the pillow and I was so exhausted and so happy that I could finally sleep as long as possible...but my sleeping plans were interrupted by an upset stomach - I am sorry to have to mention these things on a very public website - I was up all night vomiting! I haven't had stomach problems for about a year now so of course mentally I went into a hypochondriac state and thought I was dying...whatever was making my tummy upset was also causing delusions. Z being the wonderful hubby he is, got up several times through the night to bring me water, pepto and the most important item...mouthwash. I finally fell asleep around 6am and didn't wake up until noon.
When I awoke it was time to open presents...Z had been anticipating our present exchange all morning but patiently let me sleep. We decided to open the presents that some of our Curry Land friends gave us first...pictured below is what we got:

I am not sure what Muslim monument this is...but we are now the proud owner of a its miniature replica...

oh and it has a creepy red light that lights up in the inside, which I would show pictured but for some reason the light has stopped working in it today.

Another friend gave us this vase, it kind of reminds me of a vase my grandma had in Fl around the early 90's...so needless to say I fell in love with it right away, Z however does not share my enthusiasm. 

Z and I then exchanged our gifts for each other...just to let you know I did finally buy Z presents; scissors that were manufactured in our city (apparently our city is famous for these scissors) and an Atlas...for some reason Z wanted an Atlas. I will also get Z a new phone when we go to Curry Land #2 in February...the one that fell in the river is done.

Z got me a KINDLE!!!! Woo hooo!!!

My new best friend :) - please disregard the pale gaunt woman in the photo

The rest of the day I witnessed Z ingest 1/2 a gallon of eggnog, 14 Christmas cookies, one piece of Christmas birthday cake, 10 Swedish meatballs, and half of a cheese ball... I ate crackers and water :(

not a white, nor a blue...but deffinitely a strange Christmas

I don't know why I was expecting a normal Christmas day...no day is ever normal over here :)

• On Christmas Eve we were heading to a friend's house for a party...I spotted a teenager on the back of a motorcycle dressed up like Santa... full red suit and had one of those creepy Santa/Chucky masks on (shudder). He also had a banner attached to the back of his suit 'Neha's Sarees'
• Christmas morning we awoke to loud drums and awful singing outside of our house...I 'tore open the shutters and threw up the sash' and saw the hidjera (a clan of hermaphrodites dressed as women)outside our house singing and dancing.
• The entire day we were in full party preparation because we were hosting a Christmas event on our roof/balcony for our friends...I had one last item to cook...the cake - for some reason people in Curry Land associate Christmas with cake...but not fruit cake, more like a white frosted birthday cake. I mean it makes sense, we are celebrating the birth of Jesus so why not make a birthday cake. But I have to admit I have never ever made a birthday cake before...in America I usually just bought them from Publix (oh so tasty!) not to mention I have never done this sort of thing on Christmas day.
• When our guests started to arrive again we heard loud drums outside our house...we looked down from our roof/balcony to see a wedding procession which included drummers drumming and ladies dancing...I have to admit it made me think of the 12 days of Christmas song :)
• After the 12 days of Christmas song reenactment outside my Christmas started to get a little more normal...we spent the rest of the evening with close friends, watched a film about the meaning of Christmas, completely stuffed ourselves with very delicious food and deserts, exchanged gifts, and took pictures in front of our Christmas tree.

The cake masterpiece...a friend that does henna designs did the decorating

No one smiles in pictures here...but I swear they are happy and having a good time at our party

yay! there's a little bit of a smile :)

Rabbit ears - hehehe

Happy Holidays from Z and me!

What was I thinking???

I kind of procrastinated on Christmas baking this year...which means yesterday on December 23rd I had to make around 200 cookies - yikes!
Lucky for me my dear friend Ira came over to help so it only ended up being 12 hours worth of work instead of 48 :)
Last year I simply wiped frosting all over cookies and dumped sprinkles on them...this year however I planned to pipe the icing on...I think the Christmas ghost of Julia Childes possessed me because I don't know what I was thinking!

 Ira did the red and green frosting and I did the yellow and white...

 Don't look too close...definitely not a professional...

 This is point when my hand started cramping (8:32pm to be precise)...

 The rest of the evening I could not straighten my hand out... Randy from a Christmas Story 'I caaan't put my arms down!...

 Some of the cookies are going into gift baskets for Christmas gifts and some will be served at our Christmas party on the 25th...

 Rosy helped with the baskets today...she is so diversified :)

BTW - Happy Christmas Eve everyone!!!

Charles Dickens would not be amused

Z invented a new Englurdu (English and Urdu mixed) phrase when he describe my holiday Swedish meatballs as ..."The gosht of Christmas bhas." translation: The meat of Christmas Buffalo...Very Amusing on so many levels... I mean can you imagine Mr Scrooge instead of being visited by the ghost of Christmas past the gosht of Christmas bhas appeared hovering in front of his window!

Christmas through childrens' eyes

In my heart the past few weeks the Christmas spirit candle was a little dim so to speak...I am sure many can relate. Christmas activities and preparations are a plentiful but no sight of that much needed Christmas spark that makes ones heart merry and warm...until tonight...a wonderful family came to our home with their two little boys. While the adults talked I gave the boys crayons, markers, and paper...I pointed to my Christmas tree and told them to draw me a tree...here are my Christmas pictures :)

1) Astitvas' Christmas picture, I think he is letting me just hold on to this one because it is very apparent on the drawing the the true intended recipient is God :)

2) I call this one Astitvas' Passion drawing. I don't really know the story on the jovial fellows at the bottom of the picture...but I am sure that Astitvas' explanation would blow my mind because he is a bright kid.

3) Manafs' Christmas picture; When he finished his picture he quietly walked to my Christmas tree and place the picture under the tree like an awaiting present...my heart melted! Especially since we don't have any presents under our tree, because I haven't gotten Z anything yet (I am a rotten spouse)...Anyways at the end of the evening I had tons of things under my tree: 3 pictures from sweet little boy and 2 paper airplanes...I think they felt sorry for us not having any presents so they made us toys :)

Manaf explained his picture to me...the stick figures at the bottom of the tree is baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph (just in case you are like me and did not pick up on that), and then there is a Passion scene above that, and the round ornament that says 'God Loves' is really supposed to say "God Loves Me'...Manaf ran out of room to fit the 'Me'. 

I am going on shutter fly right now and making these pictures into holiday greeting cards because they are SOOO FABULOUS! 

Help has arrived...Hallelujah!

A week ago Friday I woke up daunted by the awaiting house chores...we had been traveling a lot so dust, cobwebs, trash, and dishes were piled up to wazoo! There wasn't simply just a daunting feeling I think I was going into shock...
Symptoms of Shock

An extremely low blood pressure
Feeling weak or nauseous
Chest pain
Fast but weak pulse
Profuse sweating
Dizziness, faintness or light-headedness
Moist, clammy skin
Unconsciousness
Rapid, shallow breathing
Feeling anxious, agitated or confused
Blue lips and fingernails...
Okay so maybe I wasn't physically going into shock but mentally I was very anxious and despondent...but I am not going to look that up on web Md because who knows what mental disorders fit those symptoms and frankly ignorance is bliss.
Anyways...that morning even before my coffee was brewed there was a knock at the gate. I opened the gate to a mother and her teenage daughter. They said that my press walla (the person who irons our clothes) told them that I had work and needed a house helper. I invited them in to sit and talk longer about the job...we only talked for 20 minutes or so...I hired the daughter on the spot...not sure whether or not it was due to her serene and joyful personality or my dire urgency to not have to tackle the house work. Again didn't have my coffee...details are a bit fuzzy...
The next day the girl showed up, for the blog we will call her Rosy...and I have been spending the entire week working beside her so she will know where all supplies are located and how we like things done in our house. She has passed her first week trial basis with flying colors but the best thing about Rosy, she smiles every day.

I just simply imagine my favorite things...

and then I don't feel so bad.
This picture is currently on the desktop of our computer...I have been doing A TON of work on the computer lately so I look at it often, and then I chuckle, the then beam with pride, and then my eyes well up with tears because I miss Ray Ray and E!

I will probably have this picture on my desktop until she is 20...yes I will be one of those embarrassing aunts - that's just how I roll. 

Curry Land beauty secrets

Curry Landers take their beauty regime very serious...there are very strong opinions offered on what one should use, how one should look, length of hair, fairness of skin, eyebrow shape...its endless. For me, I just take it in one ear and out the other...Especially when they start talking about henna. I love henna on hands!

See, not so bad...but it is when henna is applied to hair that I start trying to find a way out of the 'beauty' department of conversation. My hair is not jet black so I cringe at the thought of what this potent natural die would do...especially when day to day I see this:

please note that these old men have red/orange beards...this is due to henna applications...I am pretty sure my hair would end up the same color as their beards...Eeek! 

"Open Up It's the Police!"

Wednesday night...or I guess you could say Thursday morning since it was after midnight, we were startled awake by someone incessantly ring our gate bell. Z threw on some clothes...and by some I mean the bare essentials...and went out to the gate. To his surprise it was the police. And as you can ascertain yes they did say 'Open up it's the police'...but Z knows Curry Land pretty well and said 'no, it's the middle of the night, what do you want?' They really could not answer that question because they really had no business coming to our gate in the middle of the night. I would not suggest saying 'no' to police officers in most of the world...and the entire night we could not sleep due to worry that they would come back to our gate and bust through our house...probably because of what I have seen in movies.
By the way we have consulted many friends and they all have said that Z did the right thing.

Technical Support is only a phone call away...

Most companies now have all their customer service and technical support calls routed to Curry Land. So for Z and I technical support is only a couple of doorsteps away...but to my dismay they rarely come out and do house calls, I still have to call the 1800 numbers...I still get lousy service...and like most of you the phone call ends with me demanding to speak to their manager while rubbing my fingers over my temples due to the call center induced splitting headache. Yes, you've guessed it, I have recently had the pleasure of making one of these calls in regards to our laptop...We actually got them to agree to send a technician with a replacement part to us...and then the next day they canceled on us...so close...next time I will try to get their location...and will never have to make a service call again - that my friends is my Thursday morning diabolical plan.

The 'we were locked out of our house' story

Without further ado...the drama you have been waiting for - (disclaimer: I'm still a little bitter about being locked out of our house so please forgive the rants).

Z came home from our retreat on the bike, I was a couple of hours behind him riding some friends in their car...I chickened out of riding back on the bike for 61/2 hours. When Z got to the house the lock on our gate had been changed...weary from traveling Z went to the hardware store and bought a tool to try to cut the new lock off...the new lock was not budging. A neighbor saw Z trying to remove the lock and started interrogating him. neighbor: 'What are You doing?!?' Z: 'I live here and someone changed the lock!' neighbor: 'oh...your next door neighbor has the key to that lock, someone tried to break in while you were gone.' Z had to track down our other neighbors who happened to be at their brothers' wedding. When Z got to the wedding he got the key and also was invited to stay and eat...Z politely declined because all he wanted to do was go home, take a shower, and rest. Then the neighbor had a request...they wanted to use our upstairs patio/balcony area for the next days wedding festivities. He also asked Z if we were vegetarians...we are not, but that didn't put a damper on his plans for using our house for the vegetarian only guests.
I arrived home just as Z had got back from retrieving our key...we got into the house and checked all the doors for the supposable 'robber'. No door was messed with...there were dusty footprints up the stairs to the upstairs patio/balcony area...hmmm???
We quickly surmised that the neighbors were responsible for locking us out of our house...they were going to use our house for their wedding whether they had our permission or not!
The next day they came over to the house with the caterers...Z gave them strict orders that they only could use the upstairs (we don't use the upstairs of this house, we have plenty of room for the two of us on the first floor). Well the neighbors got a little testy about that and said that they had received permission from our landlord to use whatever part of the house they wanted. And this my friends is when our neighbors started causing drama and acting like 4 year olds. Z told them that the house is under contract to us the tenants and that they need our permission...so what did our neighbors do? they called our landlord. The phone call didn't go as they had hoped, the landlord was on our side, especially when we told him that we were locked out of our home due to these yahoos. The neighbors were fighting a losing battle, but instead of apologizing they threw more tantrums...at this point I started to refer to my neighbor as 'Groomzilla'.
We graciously told them that they can still use the upstairs and the upstairs only as long as they agree to clean up after themselves. The wedding went on as planned, Zach attended but I did not...these people had broken the lock off our gate! I will be keeping my distance.
The next morning they cleaned thoroughly...and they promised to bring me food leftover from the wedding...guess what folks they did not bring any food over...strike 3! 

Holiday inches

I miss family, I miss Z, and I miss friends...so to cope I made brownies...and then ate a third of them straight out of the pan...not proud of myself, but those are the facts folks.
Thank goodness Z comes home tomorrow...there is way too much chocolate stashed in this house.

motorcycle road trip, tiger attacks, chow mein...Thanksgiving revisited

Here are the highlights of the fun, mundane and wierd events during our Curry Land Thanksgiving holiday...

• Rode six and a half hours on the bike for a fall retreat in a national park / tiger reserve. The roads were really, really rough...for the sake of my spinal cord we had to stop at a Honda service shop and get the shock for the back tire tightened.
• Before heading out on our adventure Z removed the saddle bag on the bike and  creatively tied a small duffle bag and bookbag and both sides of the bike and then I had to wedge my legs and feet behind the luggage. So even though the ride was reall really rough, I was not going anywhere, pretty well wedged! When we arrived and unpacked our luggage Z notice a hole in our duffle...the bag had slipped a little off of the muffler guard and was singed...also my black 'weekend' pants were singed :(
• We stayed at a quiet resort by a peaceful river...a tiger park was only 3 km away...and a recent tiger attack was only 1 and 1/2 km away...During our one week stay three village women had been killed by tigers while they were gathering wood. I did not go hiking.
• Some friends and I decorated diyas (clay bowls that are used as oil lamps) for Thanksgiving decor...nothing says retreat like arts & crafts.
• For Thanksgiving we ate salty chineese food and fish...after dinner some of the service staff at the resort 'lifted' three of the prettier diyas that were made, I confronted the sales manager about it hoping that he would be able to make the diyas magically appear...no luck
• Z went fishing with a friend...didn't catch a single fish but he did happen to get his blackberry wet and now it will not turn on...he is back to using the fake blackberry until we can get the water damaged one fixed.
• When we got back to our house...we were locked out...and NO we did not loose our keys, someone had changed our lock - and that story my friends will have wait for another blog post.