Yes, I've moved

I got a comment on my previous post asking if I'm still blogging, and mannnn am I surprised!

I didn't think anyone actually read this blog, other than my rant about Kerala on which I still keep getting comments. God knows where the crazies have put it up that it's still being read!

Anyway, for the ONE reader that's still following this blog, thank you! I'm touched! (really!)

I am fine, and alive and all that. And yes, I do have another blog where I am more active, and yes, I will mail you the link.

I'd have put it up here, but I'm using my real name on that blog, so I need to be more careful about people linking that one to this blog, as this one is generally a sad little blog, and I'm not actually so sad all the time! You'd like me if you met me! ;)

So anyway, adios and all that! I will not be posting on this blog anymore.

If there are any more lurkers out there, leave me a mail and I'll lead you to my new blog.

Cheers!

The Animal Farm

So this animal shelter I volunteered at... turned out to be a lady’s HOUSE!

She’s a local, and she’s got a massive house where she takes care of abandoned animals (although the idea of someone taking the trouble to bring Shetland ponies to the country and then abandoning it is just preposterous!)

I had to clean out the guinea-pigs’ pen, and though it was hard work, I enjoyed it!

I had to rake out all the old hay ( I ended up with 3 bags full of it!) and then replace it with fresh hay. And then I refilled their water and food bowls.

The guinea pigs shared their pen with reallllly fluffy rabbits (maybe they’re not rabbits, cos they had another enclosure for regular rabbits as well, but I don't know what else to call them) and were adorable!

I put in a hour’s worth of hard work, raking and scooping the poop out using a little blue spade the lady gave me.

As I was putting in the last finishing touches of fresh hay artistically around the nice big stone vase they had inside the pen, I heard someone behind me.

Or something, rather.

It was a Shetland pony! Black and absolutely adorable looking! But the naughty creature had tipped over one of my filled-to-brim bags of old hay and was contently chewing it up!

Another one of the volunteers came around and shooed the pony away, after which I had to clean up the mess.

I was free after that though, so I spent the next hour just walking around checking out the rest of the animals and taking to the other volunteers.

Most of the people I talked to had been volunteering for a while and knew all the animals and their names.

This one Jordanian guy (Hazem) I met was talking to a cockatoo and teaching him to click his tongue! The little guy could already say Hello! and was adorable!

I loved the fact that they left their flying birds free to fly around and yet the birds never flew away. This was their home.

The cockatoo liked it when Hazem scratched behind his head, like you would a cat. In the beginning, the cockatoo wouldn’t let me touch him and would snap his beak at me if I tried, but within 10 mins of me chatting with him, he relented and let me scratch his head too! Women's charm? I think so! ;o)

Hazem took me around and introduced me to the other animals – other than the numerous dog and cats running around there was also an African gray parrot, peacocks and peahens, rabbits, owls (who were asleep), pythons, a family of llamas (the baby llama was named Valentino cos he was born on the 14^th of Feb *grin*), deers (one normal spotted kind and another white one) who were sharing their shelter with a friendly goat, a huge Alsatian (whose enclosure was the only one that we didn’t venture into), iguanas, porcupines, maras (before last Saturday, I didn’t even know there existed such a creature!), Minky the monkey (who unfortunately didn’t warm up to me as quickly as the cockatoo) and a regular green parrot that was missing for a while until we discovered that he was sneakily chewing up some cables and had almost exposed the copper wires within! As soon as Hazem called out his name he stopped what he was doing and looked away guiltily! He was scolded by Hazem and I found it so hilarious that the guy was scolding the bird like you would a child and the parrot actually seemed completely aware of his actions and looked guilty!

I didn’t take any pictures this time as I’d started with work as soon as I got in and didn’t have a chance to go back to my car and grab the camera afterwards.

But I’ll definitely capture this wonderful place on film (can you still say ‘on film’ when you use a SD card?) when I return next weekend!

If you're in Dxb and would like to volunteer as well, please mail me.

Random Saturdays

I'm always on the search for new experiences, new people to meet and things to do.
I'm interested by people, humanity, the way we are, so to speak.

I've joined this group called Volunteer in Dubai, and they do a bunch of different things to help make lives better for different people. They organize clean-ups, meetings for autism awareness etc.

So today, I'm off to help clean up the animal shelter.
I've been warned that there are quite a few "very friendly dogs" roaming around freely at the place. And I love dogs! I think I'm more excited about meeting the dogs than the people this time!


At least with dogs, you know exactly what they're thinking!

==========

On a different note, I've decided that I'm going to give up on smileys when writing.

I'm going to try and express my emotions the old-fashioned way, with words!

I find myself constantly using lukewarm language and substituting smileys to represent what I'm actually feeling, and while this is okay in chat (where tone is impossible to explain and emoticons are required) in prose it should be different. Newspapers and magazines don't have smileys in their articles!

And if I hope to be in that field of work, I should work on improving my skills as well right?

So there!

Oops, I think something's burning in the kitchen!

Laters!

So yeah... I've rearranged my resolutions a bit.

Career comes first. So I'm working on getting a job in a field I'm more interested in.

Then I'll work on saving money and changing house.

Practicality brings me down from my lofty castles in the air I suppose.

But I'm not giving up on anything, they're still plans that I give myself a year to bring to fruition.

I'll also start another travel-blog, with my real name, and maybe more pictures of the places I've been to. This is my bid to get closer to the job I actually want. This way, I'll actually have something to say when I tell people I like traveling and writing.

I'm going to make it like a column, I will update it weekly and all that!!

Ooh! I'm getting more excited by this idea by the minute!

Cool! So adios Iwishiwaskidding and Hola .... hmm... I'll have to think up a name for the new blog!

I'll come back to this one once in a while I'm sure! Whenever I feel down and out and know that I can post stuff in here without it linking back to me.

Ok then, I'm off, to grab Life by the horns! :D

NYE 2011

NYE 2008 was the best party I ever had. Even though I'd passed out by around 12:30am, it was the beginning of my friendship with the people I spend most of my time with now, my friends that have made my life so much happier and better. 2008 was a fantastic year.

My only resolution for the year was to travel, and that's something that I'm still doing(and will hopefully continue to do)!

NYE2009 was terrible. I was in middle of a very damaging, and what now seems like a pointless, relationship. The party that was scheduled didn't take place as we'd expected. About 2 hours before midnight, there was a death in the host's family and we had to shift locations and were so busy finding another house and transporting the drinks and food there that we actually missed the clock striking midnight. Plus, the death of the relative (ailing grandmother in India) put a damper on everyone's spirits even though we didn't know her at all.

NYE2010 was a big party. We'd decided to host one at a hotel, hired the poolside area on the rooftop, decked the place up all nice, sent out invites, charged for entry.. complete club-scene! The party itself was a huge success, but I was in a terrible place in life. Above mentioned damaging relationship had ended, and badly at that. At the stroke of midnight I broke into tears and just stayed that way all through the first quarter of that year!

But 2010 was the year of healing for me. I'm over the relationship, done with it.

I'm still traveling, for which I'm thankful. I feel more mature, but I also feel more weighed down, by responsibilities (mainly bills. most of which are speeding fines. ok, not so mature :P)

I'm burnt-out at work though, and am passively looking for a change, and not liking any of the offers coming my way (obviously!). I'm constantly broke, and constantly worrying about being broke and how I'll be able to afford my next vacation.

So this year, my resolutions are a bit more sedate. (see, I knew there was a reason I felt mature!)

Resolution#1 Save money! Save enough money to have 6 months worth of salary in the bank account by my next birthday.

R#2 Move to another place. I hate the house I'm currently living in. Plus, I think the vibes are bad for me. I need to change.

How I'm going to achieve resolution #1 when I have to do resolution #2 is something I'm not thinking about right now! I know it's going to be challenging, but we'll see where it goes eh?!

#3 Work towards changing my career, start following my passion.

Again, how I'm going to achieve resolution #1 and #2 when I have to do resolution #3 is something I'm not thinking about right now! :P

#4 Fall in love.

I know #4 is not exactly something I can resolve to do, but I just want to put it out there to the Universe. What if something like what SRK says in that movie Om Shanti Om happens - Agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaaho to puri qayanaat usey tumse milane ki koshish mein lag jaati hai.

;)

I know it's taken from The Secret, but it sounds so much better in Hindi (urdu?)

And then, if it happens, I can say " Itni shidatt se main tumhe paane ki koshish ki hai, ki har zarre ne mujhe tumse milane ki saazish ki hai"

:P

And then you can say wah wah wah! *grin*

Anyway... that's my resolutions list! And it looks like the toughest one I've given myself yet! (even without me having to actively do anything about #4!)

I'm looking forward to new year's eve, and I'm looking forward to the new year.

It's been a difficult year, this 2010, but it's been good too.

So I'm thankful for the good that happened, and I'm hoping for the best for the future.

So cheers!

To hope, love and potfuls of gold! ;o)

Qatar - Do you have what it takes?

So Qatar won the bid to host the World Cup in 2022.

Which is great news for me, as Qatar is one of the territories I'm handling at work and it looks like business will soar for another decade till they're ready to host the world cup.

But what I'm wondering is... will they be able to handle it?

The infrastructure development alone will be a huge task, and while the country is developing in leaps and bounds ( Qatar did quite well this year, I've achieved my sales target!), they are still a long way away from being world-class.

But the other point I'm wondering about is, whether they'll be able to handle the culture-shock they're going to be facing. The World Cup is going to be one Big party. And though the Middle East loves their football, we all know they're not the best party-people.

I was at the F1 races held in Abu Dhabi this year as a marshal, and the people who came to see the races were uber-rich people just looking to show-off and have a good time. My post (from where we monitor the race) overlooked the marina, where all the luxury yachts were docked to watch the races. The party would start in the morning, with music playing, men and women drinking, topless women sunning themselves etc.

I was also at Vettel's after-party for a bit, where they were basically spraying everyone with champagne (even the reporters and camera-men) and just going crazy!

The folk from dxb and Abu dhabi were able to handle this, and though the guys went nuts for the women, they did take it in their stride and obviously, enjoy themselves thoroughly. But the marshals who were flown in from Bahrain almost had their eyes popping out of their sockets with shock and wonder. *grin*

So, the big question for me is, will Qatar is able to handle their country being over-run by the rich and beautiful who want nothing but a good, long party? Will they be able to handle all the wet-t shirts parties and the drunken people walking around their streets?

I've been to Qatar, several times, and it felt like I was in a small arabic town. (Bahrain was worse)! And it was no place for single women, as I kept getting stares even if all I was doing was walking down the street!

For the F1, Abu Dhabi has a different island altogether, away from the city, called the Yas Island, where all the action happened. Not that the city was devoid of action, but it was nothing compared to what was happening at Yas Island itself. And Abu Dhabi is a lot more cosmopolitan than Qatar (though it doesn't hold a candle to Dxb! Dubai rocks even though Abu Dhabi is the capital! :P)

Will Qatar do something similar? Will they build an island and separate the party-place from the prop room? Or will they slowly get their country geared up to face the rest of the world?

What do you think?

Money money money, must be funny.. in a rich man's world

Round-trip ticket to Cape Town - 3k

Accommodation in CT - 1.5k

Activities (including abseiling, wine-tasting, white-water rafting etc ) - 2k

new Camera, shoes etc... $$$$!!!

They say that for everything else, there's MasterCard.

I'm maxed out... so what now?!

:P

I'm leaving for CT on Thursday morning, and in spite of the way expenses have climbed astronomically for this trip, I'm suuper excited about this vacation!

Of course, when I'm back on the 13th, I'll have to survive the rest of the month on just air and the memories I suppose!

But it'll be worth it!

*fingers crossed*

Back to basics!

I've started writing in my diary again.

I used to yeaaaars ago, till the age of 12 or 13 I think.

At the time the highlight of my week used to be stuff like " I took this new kinda candy to school today and shared it with my friends. They all liked it. I am happy (cos I was popular for that one day, not cos of my generous giving spirit)!"

:P

For some weird reason, I find it easier to articulate when I'm writing as opposed to typing. Not sure why that is. And this is true even though I'm more careful about what I write than what I blog. Cos you know... blogged stuff can be deleted, but what's written is more permanent! I don't want to take a look through my diary 5 years hence and see an entry about boy-trouble and crap and think "sheeesh! How silly was I!" And god forbid someone ELSE read my entries and think the same! *horrors*

So yeah.. I'm writing more and blogging less.. all the better I'd say... considering that this blog is in dire need of a major revamp.

On other news... my keychain... which I'd been carrying around since 2003, broke.

I was in a involved in a drunken tug-of-war with a friend who was trying to drive me home but I wouldn't let him cos I insisted on driving. He got the keys and I got the keychain.

That keychain was my link to Delhi. I got it from the place I was working at at the time.

It made me a little sad, but maybe it's a little fitting. It was time to change I guess.

Gonna sign off with this quote from Grey's Anatomy:

Change; we don’t like it, we fear it, but we can't stop it from coming. We either adapt to change or we get left behind. And it hurts to grow, anybody who tells you it doesn’t is lying. But here's the truth...the more things change, the more they stay the same. And sometimes, oh, sometimes change is good. Oh, sometimes, change is...everything.

Life - a blink and it's over.

I've been busy.

I've been going to Abu Dhabi every weekend for the F1 marshal training. Which leaves me exhausted as it's a 150km drive away, and once I get there, I have to stand in the sun for endless hours watching cars whizz by at lightning speed while trying to capture the numbers of the cars and do the usual marshaling thing.

Then there's Gitex . As I work in IT, this is one of our biggest events of the year.

On top of it all, my mum's been nagging me about the whole marriage thing.

I'm 29 years old, and you'd think that the nagging would stop and they'd just let me be. But no. They still try to set me up, still try to "reason with" me and make me " think straight".

Yesterday, mom said that I need to get married to have someone to go to when my parents are not around anymore.

I would put that as Reason#234 from my mom's list of "Reasons to Marry". (and no, love does not figure in the list).

I thought a lot about what she said. About what I'd do when my folks aren't there anymore. Who would be there? I was thinking about what she said about how I don't have anyone.

And earlier this evening, I got a text from S.

Our friend H's dad had passed away.

H, her mom and her sister had left for India just the previous night and today, in the afternoon, while her dad was taking a nap, he died in his sleep.

It was a peaceful death. Her younger brother was the only one in the house at the time, and he called the cops when he failed to wake his dad up. The medics said he'd been dead for 3 hours.

Life is so fleeting. And we waste so much of it doing insignificant tasks and stuff that doesn't really count for anything. But then again, who's to say what is significant and what is not, right?

I wonder now... what have I done that was of any significance? Will I be given the chance to find out? What is to become of me?

and the walls go up again

I thought you were a friend

I'd begun to believe it

I'd begun to feel comfortable

And then you said it like it is.

It made me cry, it hurt

But it set me straight alright.

The walls are up, the swords drawn

And I fight to lose...a friendship.

The week that was

Back in Dxb.

Bahrain was boring, mind-numbingly boring.

And tiring.

Got back home around 11:30pm on Thursday.

In the flight the guy sitting next to me was on a business trip as well. He started talking to me and I reciprocated. He was quite boring, working as a banker for some russian bank and all.

But I didn't have anything to read and had an hour to kill, so I thought, what's the harm in chatting!

In the end, he asked me for my number, and I didn't know how to refuse, though I didn't want to keep in touch with him.

What are you supposed to say to a guy you've been chatting with for an hour when he says (not asks) "hey, give me your number and I'll give you a call sometime."

How can you avoid that and not be rude?

I gave him my card, and will just have to make excuses to not meet I suppose. Hope he just doesn't call!

================

On Friday, I went to the Yas Marina Circuit. We were being trained as marshals for the F1 Grand Prix. It was quite boring, cos they repeated most of the stuff they'd said in the first session (this was the second). But I got to stand on the track, which was quite cool! Took pics and all. :D

Waiting for Ferrari World to open. That is gonna be one awwwesome theme park!

================

On the job front, I got offered one, but it's in Mumbai.

And I don't think I want to live there. If I have to move, I'd prefer to move to somewhere in Europe, I don't want to live in India.

God, are you messing with me?

Is this your idea of a joke?

Cos it's not funny!

Traveling for work.

I'm in Bahrain now.

Arrived last night.

The plane was delayed for over an hour after we boarded, so I had to sit in the plane all that time doing nothing(flying economy of course, company won't pay for business class).

The flight wasn't playing a movie cos it was just a 55min flight, if that. There was a creepy looking steward, middle-aged arab dude, who looked like he'd been pouring people drinks and pushing trolleys for way longer than he intended to. I'd have felt sorry for him if he hadn't looked so darn mean!

And I dreamt about him at night! I dreamed that I was in my hotel room sleeping, and was woken up with a breakfast tray on my bed by the flight attendent! In the dream, I was freaked out, cos I'd locked the room, and was panicking cos the guy got into the room (even if it was just to serve breakfast).

Obviously, I hatttte traveling for work, hate staying in cold hotel rooms and am pretty worried about my security at these places after what happened to me in Oman.

In Oman, I was woken up at 6:30am by someone who said I'd been offered a complimentary massage by the hotel by a "male masseuse" and that the massage would be in my room.

Right!

And this was in a world-class 5 star hotel with branches all over the world!

The hotel had that guy kicked out, the duty manager came and personally talked to me, telling me that the guy thought I was a flight attendant (don't know what that has to do with it) and thought he could get lucky.

They apologized to me profusely and offered me a whole lot of things to placate me, but the damage was done of course.

How did he get my room number? Had he followed me? What if I do get followed on the way to my room? How long will it be before anyone notices that I'm missing?

I'm tired of it all. I'm tired of hotel rooms and boring conferences and the whole drill.

I want out!

GODDDDDDD, are you listening??!

Tipsy moments

tere bajo’n ni lagda aye jeevay…hanju hun mere su’k de na-i ve…jad tak mainu tu na thee vain…tad’ tak naeeo balna main deeway............................

*siiiiiiigh*

Dear God,

Please give me a new job! PLLLEAAASE!

I'm feeling utterly and hopelessly depressed in my current one.

I'm earning peanuts, my self esteem is lower than I thought possible, and I hate the guy I'm reporting to.

I'm not cut out for this job, for this kind of work.

I feel completely and utterly useless, not to mention helpless!

So please, pleaaaase! Give me a new job!

Thank you.

S

No time to Stop!

So yes, the road trip.

Of the 7 emirates of the UAE, we ended up driving through 6!

It was crazy, tiring and a lot of fun!

There were 10 of us, including one 6 month old baby girl who was the cutest thing ever!

I was the fairy godmom who bestowed her with wishes of travel around the globe, so it was quite fetching that I was part of her first road trip! :D

And mannn! What a road trip it was!

The initial idea was to drive to Ras Al khaimah. This would take us through Sharjah, Ajman and Umm Al Quwain. We lunched at the Al Waha restaurant at the Banyan Tree, where I met the most friendliest staff ever! I have not seen such genuine smiles on hotel staff ever before! Quite commendable! Wonder how they keep their staff so happy! Maybe it's pot! ;o)

We got back to dxb around 8pm and then suddenly someone had this crazy idea to drive to Abu Dhabi.

And the rest of the crazy gang agreed. Thought it'd be great fun to lunch at RAK and sup in Abu Dhabi. So off we went in the opposite direction. I got back home at 2:30 in the morning and was obviously, exhauuuusted!

I slept till noon and have been pottering around the house since, doing laundry, reading the paper, watering the plants and browsing blogs and whatnot. It feels good to just stay in and relax once in a while.

And after the emotionally, financially and physically exhausting Delhi and Kerala trips and this crazy road trip... I'm looking forward to a little peace and quiet.

Although, I have a baby shower to plan for Friday, and have another road trip to Fujairah ( the only emirate in the uae that we missed out on) that we intend to do a couple of weeks later.

Not to mention work!

I guess some people are just not cut out for peace and quiet!

need a break from my break!

I just got back from Kerala on Wednesday.

I had to attend two weddings, socialize with people I didn't know and didn't really want to know, felt alone and alienated and extremely uncomfortable.

I also caught the cold, as usual, cos of all the allergens floating around in the air on kerala (dunno what it is, but everytime I go there, I get violently ill with the flu and it lasts until I land at dxb airport!). So my nose is all raw and red around the edges and swollen. Sucks obviosuly.

There are way too many emotions I'm feeling and it's quite overwhelming in it's negativity - everything around me in India has left me feeling very unsettled and disappointed.

I'm not sure what to do to change things.

You know how sometimes life completely bogs you down and you have no idea what to do and which way to turn?

This is one of those times.

So I do what I do best.

Ignore it. Shove it under the carpet until I need to look at it again.

I know it's not the best way, but I don't know what else to do.

I leave for a road trip in a half hour or so.

Will try to dissipate all my worries into the arabian sea.

Adios!

The Delhi Damage

4 kurtas, 1 handbag, 2 awesome patiala-type pant kinda thingies (not sure what that's called), 3 pairs of shoes, god knows how many bangles, 1 dusted-pink and gold coloured sari....

I think my credit card's melted! :P

Just chill!

I leave for Delhi tonight.

It's just for the weekend and I'll be back on Sunday night.

I feel more relaxed and less unconcerned about my birthday than I usually feel.

I've already had my party and it feels like the birthday is done and over with.

Oh, and the party was so fun! It was a surprise party, we were all playing charades- 3 word sentence, first two words were happy birthday, with the third word (my name) they brought in cake and balloons and started singing the birthday song. :D

And then we inhaled the helium from the balloons and started singing in funny voices!

You should see the videos! lol!

So yeah... I'm more chilled out this year.

I'm looking forward to meeting my Delhi-friends, eating the awesome dilli-food and shoppppppping!

So birthday or not... I'm just gonna have fun!

:o)

Suddenly I'm feeling ridiculously blue.

*sigh*

Need a Pensieve

sunday. rest of the world sleeps. we work. supposed to anyway. :P

sitting at my desk with a cup of black coffee. trying to stay awake.

slept at 4am.

no. wasn't out partying. i was at home, lying in bed, staring at the ceiling and willing for sleep to come. but how can it when i had woken up from an afternoon "nap" at 7:30pm?

this weekend was all about sleep. and sleeplessness.

(feeling the coffee take effect)

I'm feeling listless and restless. I don't want to work this job anymore.

I don't want to live here anymore. I think.

I don't know if I need a break or if I need to break away altogether... move!

I'm going to Delhi on the 19th for the weekend and will be back on Sunday night, the 22nd.

I just neeeded to get away, and my birthday weekend seemed like the perfect time to do it.

My friends were all going to different places as it is, so it's not like I was going to get the traditional "surprise" party or anything. I never do. It's always something or the other.

And if Delhi doesn't get me out of my funk, then I'm seriously considering moving.

I'm not sure where, maybe to Europe. Or Canada.

Of course... I need to have a job... but that'll happen. *fingers crossed*

The idea of starting afresh... new job, new people, new life... it's scary!

And the fear is exhilarating!

So maybe I should move. Or maybe I just need a vacation.

Let's see...