Santa Comes My Way

I had finished writing a long post and was trying to format it. I don't know what's wrong with blogger, that whnever I try to select the entire post using the touchpad, everything disappears. And at that very moment it automatically saves the post!!AAArrrggghhhh!!! I will now try and re-write the entire thing as much as I can... :( - only this time on a Word document! Arrraggghhhh!!

Christmas this year has been an eventful one for me. It started with an award by IHM. It’s a cup! I have never received such a cup in my life so I am happy! I am adding it to my award column on this blog. Since there are no rules mentioned for this award, I will just pass it on to, Renu and Nisha.

Another first that happened to me was to attend a Christmas Lunch today. Yes, I have never been to a “Christmas Lunch”before. Never. Ever. Till today. I mean we do go out for Christmas eve every year, last year we were in Goa at this time and it was amazing, but going for a porpah chrsitmas lunch – never before.

This friend had organized a sit down lunch for a cozy group of 15 people. Each guest was advised to get a unisex gift under Dhs.X. We deposited these gifts under the christmas tree and were given return gifts while leaving. When we entered the apartment, it was buzzing with children running around, glasses clinking, casual conversations and laughter all around. The view of the sea was stunning. We sat down for lunch on a balcony way up in the sky. Actually we could call it more of a supper since the “lunch” started at 4:30pm and finished at 7:30pm! The food was yum and each course was served with utmost professionalism.

The conversations hovered around the Mumbai terror attacks and how Mumbai has become so quite now. There is excessive security everywhere and there is just no mood for celebration. Another topic that kept doing the rounds was the speculation on the today-released movie Ghajini (in Dubai the movies are released on a Thursday). That reminds me, the maid at home got a holiday today since it’s her Christmas today. Yes, we do not have a public holiday for Christmas here. Neither for Diwali. Every nationality has the freedom to take off on their festical, but rest of the staff works. Anyways, so the maid went to watch Ghajini today. Her review? The Tamil version was much better! It doesn’t convince me. Being an Aamir movie, I would like to check it out myself!

BTW here’s an update on the New Year’s Eve party – Hubby and I are contemplating on doing the RNBDJ pair. He would wear a trouser with a plain shirt, white sneakers, black square glasses, a moustache, carry a bag with the saying “I work for Punjab Power”, and an old mobile. I would hand him the tiffin at some point, which he will accept with a without-showing-teeth-smile. We still have to figure out the skit though. Yes we haven’t worked on it as yet! Any ideas?

Before I finish this post I would like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!
(Just in case I do not write till the new year!)

Pic Source

Eighteen Ka Tag

Just Call Me 'A' tagged me for this wonderful questionnaire last week. Have been itching to do it asap so here it comes. (I know this is not asap, but nevertheless I am equally excited about it now as I was last week). The rule says that for every answer I have to google image search and pick a picture on the first page with minimal explanation.

Seems someone wants to promote google image search further...but well I don't mind at all :). So here I go:

1. The age you will be in your next birthday: Ah Ah...wrong question. No one asks a man hi salary and a woman her age...

2. A place you’d like to travel to: Prague, Paris and Nice

3. Your Favorite place: Grindelwald, Switzerland

This Ski village in Switzerland is a paradise. With snow all around the place, every person living in this village is connected to skiing. I hear this place is equally good in summer with a lot of people trekking the mountains.

4. Your favorite food/drink: I am a foodie and the fav food and drink varies. Indian I love choley bhaturey, Paneer Butter Masala, Chinese - Chilly Paneer, Japaenese - Dragon Roll(Sushi), Italian - Gnocchi in pink sauce, Thai - Green Curry....hmmm the list goes on and on...

5. Your favorite pet: Dogs. There is no other being that can show such unconditional love for anyone.

6. Your favorite color combination: Again depends on the season. Right now it's Black Grey and Red.

7. Your all time favorite song: English - Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers, Hindi - Main Jahan Rahoon, Namastey London

These two songs have some of the most amazing lyrics and music. Can hear them over and over again and not feel bored.

8. Your favorite piece of clothing: used to be jeans, but now I like dresses the best

9. Your favorite TV show: F.R.I.E.N.D.S I can laugh over the jokes umpteen number of times and every time I watch this (well I have done so over 4 times) I have a new favourite. Last time it was Joey.

10. Full name of your significant other: His name is R * Beeeeepp *

Rukavat Ke Liye Khed Hai (Sorry for the interruption)

11. The town in which you live in: Dubai

12. Your screen name/nickname: DeeplyDip

13. Your first job: Sucked. I worked in an events company

14. Your Dream Job: To run one of the best fashion/design company in the world

15. Bad Habit you have: I drinks loads of tea. Though tea is not bad as such, I am finding it hard to control the quantities I consume.

16. Your worst fear: Like everyone else said - Losing a dear one

17. The one thing you’ll like to do before you die: Travel the world with R.

We are both vagabonds at heart and ready to travel at the drop of a hat. By god's grace we have explored many places but the world is large and there are a lot of places we need to visit.

18. The first thing you’ll buy if you get $1,000,000: A new House. Then a new car if I have any money left (what with the property prices soaring, I hope by the time I get this money, real estate will be more reasonably priced!)

I now tag Reflections, Mampi, Coconut Chutney and D. From what I saw, most of you seem to have done this tag, but if you have'nt and I missed you, then please feel free to take this tag. It's fun answering it, it's fun (but a bit tedious) finding the pics and it's super tedious trying to format the post in Blogger, but once it's done, its super fun reading the post. So go on and tell us a little bit more about yourself. We are waiting :)

Celebration Time

It is with immense pleasure I announce

that I have been awarded not once but TWICE

By Shalom

(Owner of an excellent blog herself)

For my blogs It's me and Styalogue.

Styalogue has been awarded for

being a blog that invests in Proximity

And

It's Me has been acknowledged for transmitting values

to its readers.

(Clap! Clap! Clap Clap!! Clap!Clap! Clap! Clap Clap!! Clap!)

(My hands on the cheeks, teary eyed, I am ready to cry with joy!)

And now friends it is my turn to pass this baton of joy to you.

So here are the winners for the awards tonight-

The Proximidade Scroll Award goes to:

(I have esp included all the new connections I have made and very happy about)

Rang Decor - I love anything visual, to do with home and this blog gave me many new ideas

ChammakChallo - love the name ;) I feel she is just like me

...a Little Bit More - she brings out the foodie in me. Her recipes are awesome

Agnes - She loves travelling, fashion and everything good in life, and so do I

Goofy Mumma - Her shopping and travelling bug coincides with mine

(Clap! Clap! Clap Clap!! Clap!Clap! Clap! Clap Clap!! Clap!)

And The Premio Dardos Award goes to:

My Space

Reflections

Bum Bum Bhole

Mumbai Diva

Indian Home Maker

(Clap! Clap! Clap Clap!! Clap!Clap! Clap! Clap Clap!! Clap!)

Once again I would like to thank Shalom for honouring me with these beautiful awards. They will be cherished for a long long time to come and will decorate the respective blogs beautifully :)

And now a little about the awards and how to pass it forward:

The Proximidade Scroll Award is given to a blog that invests and believes in PROXIMITY – nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers!
Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award

The Premio Dardos Award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his/her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values every day.

The rules for these awards are pretty simple: put them up on your blogs (giving yourself a pat on the back!), link back to the person who gave it to you and spread the cheer to deserving blogs!!!

Mishmash Of This Weekend

This weekend we met some friends for lunch. It was my first time meeting the wife and kids. From the moment we met the conversation revolved around how unsafe every place is. The reason? They are from Pakistan and they hate the terrorism as much as we do.

Living in a neutral country and interacting with all nationalities, there are times when you feel awkward facing them after such acts of violence. Like now with the Mumbai attacks being traced back to Pakistan, conversations with a Pakistani has to be very diplomatic so that we do not hurt anyone's sentiments. After talking to them I realised, everyone is sick and tired of the violence around them. They seem to be hating the new government, and were openly in favour of the military raj. Law and order is in a mess across the border and the citizens there are just like us. It made me rethink - do we really want to go to war with Pakistan or we only want to get rid of the terrorists?? Their media is blaming the Indian government for framing them (Have a look at the video D put up on her blog). They said they have stopped watching TV as everything seems a farce.

There was a sense of shame in their behaviour - as if they were disowning their country for the violent acts committed by some of them. It is a sorry state to be in - to be covering up for something your people do - something you never agreed to in the first place.

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“Punjab Power, lighting up your life. Surinder Sahni this side ji.” That's what I came out rattling from the movie Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.

Got my usual dose of caramel pocorn (God! how did I survive all the movies in India without caramel popcorn?!). This is SRK's first appearance this year and I must say I liked it a lot. I am usually not a fan of SRK - liked him only in a handful of movies, but this one shows he can perform well in different roles.

RNBDJ is about a love story AFTER marriage. Simple situational humor goes ahead once again to show that a good screenplay and good acting is all you need for a good movie.

Inspired by the mutli-starrer song Om Santi Om, this movie has one too - Phir Milengey Chalte Chalte (A cheesy line SRK uses in his new avtaar Raj to impress his wife Taani ji). Kajol, Preity and Rani looked lovely in the song while Lara did a forgettable job once again. (Well she was less forgettable than the other two whose name and face I can't seem to remember right now!)

The new actress Anushka Sharma (a model from Bangalore) has done a good job of a punjabi girl in Amrtisar. Liked her simple Chikan salwar Kameezes with multicoloured dupattas. Will do a feature on this on Styalogue soon. But what hubby and I were discussing is Deepika was heavily promoted during the OSO release. Anushka on the other hand didn't get as much exposure. We wonder why?

And well instead of telling you the entire story etc, I will recommend you to watch the movie and discover it yourself.

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Read in a report that due to the recent recession, a hotel in Dubai has come up with this unique idea of providing one free meal to anyone who has lost a job as of 1st Nov! All one has to do is visit the hotel and show them their redundancy slip and viola! the meal is on the house for you!You can read the full story here.

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And before I end this post, here's a hilarious video - a spoof on Jingle Bells. Hope you enjoy it!

New Year's Eve

This year has flown by (tchk tchk...don't we say this every year?). But well really the year HAS flown by. I love this cool wintry season and the recent rains have been a welcome change. Suddenly everyone wants to go for a picnic, sheesha or do a barbeque at home.

The other night we met up with friends to decide on what we are going to do for New Year's Eve. I know you'll say "it's still a long time away!!". I agree. But then we have booked a camp in a nearby place where we have to make all arrangements ourselves. Since everyone has their own routines, if we don't meet up and decide now, it will never work out. Pheww!! So after loads of food and gossip we finally sat down to decide what needs to be done.

The Accountant friend was given a sheet of paper and pen (he would've preferred a comp, but anyways) to jot down the minutes of the meeting. Everything had to be decided - from the basics of getting knick knacks, milk, tea, coffee, water to entertainment (games, music etc). Everyone pitched in their ideas and then came the more serious topic - the theme??

Here are some of the ideas and why we had to discard them:

Casino - nah, we will be in a sandy beach and the guys refused to wear a tuxedo there!

Cross dressing - well kids will be with us too :)

Devils - already done last year and was lots of fun

Period character - girls refused to dress in their refineries at a beach!

Less is more (since it's recession time ;) ) - but well it will be very cold out there

So after a lot of rigmarole we finally decided on a unique theme (I chuckle) - Bollywood!! Yayy!! We have a winner! So what's the problem you say? The problem is that we have to dress in any character and do a skit for 10 minutes!! It has to be funny and entertaining! And well I have NO CLUE what to do!! The skit would follow only after we decide the character.

You'll say "Sit down with your Hubby and decide". Well I would've but Hubby has no tension and full confidence in his wife! So now I need your help in suggesting some characters we can become. I wouldn't want to do the usual ones, but something new and exciting. I was thinking Bunty and Babli. What is your opinion?

Any ideas to help me out?

PS: And oh while you are at it, please mention any fun games you know to play at the party :)

Pics Courtesy: Pic1, Pic2