Sis asked me to call her up today. Problems with the job. Well, I was expecting it to happen some time...that woman kills herself in that job and the appreciation that she gets hardly justifies it. I have seen dodos earn twice her salary...and with the job market in India booming, she can easily get another job with a much higher salary. But anything that I say used to fall on deaf ears. The problem is that we tend to treat our jobs as though our lives depend on it.I used to do that a few years back, but after one bitter experience I decided that I am not going to sacrifice my life for a company and I surely don't regret that decision. Its the same with her...she needs to get a life and have told her that numerous times, but to no use.

Now she finally realised it. So hopefully she has a proper chat with her boss and puts down her papers to explore other possibilities. Woman really needs a life !!!

Now she is terrified to tell dad and mom that she too is flying to London for a holiday.One of her bright ideas is that she flies without telling them and then both of us receive them at Heathrow , since they fly 5 days after her. Well thats the first time you will hear of 2 heart attacks at the Arrivals at Heathrow.:-))

Good sense prevailed (very surprising with my sis) and she finally decided to tell them on sunday.

Supposedly MK told her

MK : ''You fly to London and if Dad calls up will tell you are in the bathroom.
Sis: '' For 3 days if you continuously tell him I am in the bathroom....he will surely think you have murdered me .''

How right is that.....:-)))

So yeah...next week Sis will be here...am so excited.....its nice when she is around....we do hv great fun and she does have agreat sense of humor so we are always laughing....Shame that we did not share this relationship when we were growing up. That time we were always at loggerheads with each other. But I guess thats normal sibling stuff. Am happy that atleast since the time that she got married we have this great communication.

Madam does not want to sit at home in London....so we have planned a Scotland trip next week. With the current weather forecast...we will surely be spending all our time within the hotel in Scotland. :-))

Mom and Dad reach on 11th....so am looking forward to that. Wow a family get together in London.....what more can I ask for? :-)))

Am currently reading Madeleines in Manhattan. Here is the amazon link
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Madeleines-Manhattan-Recipes-Colette-Rossant/dp/0747584265/ref=sr_1_1/026-6622687-1975641?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183044750&sr=1-1

Sania Mirza out of Wimbledon......well....not a surprise that one.....but she actually got thrashed.....by Nadia Petrova.

Good I did not go and waste money at Wimbledon today.....we had plans to visit to watch this match, but cancelled at the last minute......now I am really glad that I did not go.

Now want either Ana Ivanovic or Jelena J to win.....so ladies....make me happy.....

Yesterday got a surprise when I reached home. D had shorn off all A's hair...poor A looked like a shorn sheep. Actually she looked very cute.She looks more like a boy than a girl. D's logic was that she has anyways decided that A needs to be shaved so that when it grows back the hair quality is better. Now that can happen only in India in Nov, so till then A will sport a boycut. With a tshirt and trousers A looks like a tomboy :-)

one of my colleagues sent me this mail. I generally don't read forwards, but this one made me laugh ....maybe because they are all related to my generation and are so apt :

HEADLINES DATED 1ST JAN 2023:

1. President Sonia gandhi and prime minister priyanka gandhi receive italy prime minister rahul gandhi.
2. Dhoom 17 ready for release.
3. I will play next world cup - sachin tendulkar
4. Salman, Vivek and Abhishek attend aishwarya's 3rd marriage.
5. Mein tau aabhi jawan hu - dev anand.
6. Petrol Rs.999/lt.
7. Kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi completed 2,50,000 episodes & Baa has completed 400yrs.
8. Coach ganguly resigns, as india went out of world cup in 1st round after losing to korea .
9 N.siddhu will launch his own TV channal where he can speak for a whole day.

Movies that I own

All about my mother (Spanish)
Happy Times (Chinese)
Amelie (French)
The Colour Purple (English)
What Have I done to deserve this (Spanish)
Pauline and Paulette (Flemish)
The Road Home (Chinese)
Chungching Express (Chinese)
Sideways (English)
Jamon Jamon (Spanish)
Closer (English)
Rebecca (English)
The Last temptation of Christ (English)
The Passion of the Christ (English)
Kolya (Czech)
Finding Neverland( English)
The English Patient (English)
The Squid and the Whale (English)
Happiness (English)
Cinema Paradiso (Italian)
Secretary (English)
In the mood for love (Chinese)
Tsotsi (English)
Matador (Spanish)
Human Traffic (English)
Young Adam (English)
Chronicles Of Narnia (English)
Shrek 2 (English)
Bambi (English)
Downfall (German)
Bhaji on the Beach (English)
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (Chinese)
The Hero (Chinese)
Zhou Yu's Train (Chinese)
Little Miss Sunshine( English)
Before Sunrise(English)
Before Sunset (English)
Days of being wild (Chinese)
Real women have curves (Spanish)
Delicatessen (French)
When Harry met Sally (English)
Sound Of Music (English)
My Fair Lady (English)
Oklahoma (English)
The King and I (English)
Carousel (English)
Maria Full of Grace ( Spanish)
Central Station (Spanish/Portuguese)
Memento (English)
ET (English)
My big fat Greek wedding (English)
Trainspotting (English)
Love Actually (English)
The Lord of the Rings - Trilogy (English)
Sisterhood of the travelling pants (Spanish)

Yesterday was D's swimming lesson....so I cooked. Looked in the refrigerator but just had cabbage and some brocolli....D used up all teh carrots to make a carrot cake (yet again :-)

D told me to make a curry with Borlotti beans....but a curry didn't sound very appetising...so decided to make a simple Borlotti bean soup....It is so simple to make and so quick and theresult was wonderful....

What is Borlotti bean (picked this description from the BBC website)

A variety of kidney bean, this is a large, plump bean, pinkish brown in colour with reddish brown streaks, widely used in Italian cooking. You can buy borlotti beans dried or tinned - cannellini beans make a good replacement if you can't find them. They have a sweetish flavour with a smooth creamy texture. Good for using in salads and casseroles. The dried variety needs to be soaked in cold water before cooking.

Borlotti Bean and Pasta soup

1 can borlotti bean (remove from the can and wash it to remove the slimy preservative. Optionally you can use dried beans soaked overnight in water and then pressure cooked for 2 whistles)
I can tomato puree
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
1 cube vegetable stock in 450 ml boiling water
Crushed pepper (a teaspoon or as per taste. I prefer a bit more since I like my soup hot)
Sea Salt to taste
Sun dried tomato puree (I like the taste of sundried tomato....can be skipped)
A handfull of pasta (I used Fusili, since I did not have any other, but u can use cup shaped pasta)
3-4 table spoon of Olive oil
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

Chop the onion in to small bits. Peel the garlic and crush it. In a pan, heat the oil and put in the onion. Keep sauteing it so that it does not burn. When the onion turns in to a pinkish shade, put in the garlic and keep stirring it for a minute or so.Add the tomato puree and the beans along with the vegetable stock.Add the black pepper and sea salt and let it come to a boil.Let it boil for atleast 10 - 15 minutes so that it loses its ''wateriness''.

In the mean time cook the pasta as per instructions on the pack. However drain off the water when its partially cooked (as we will cook it again later). Sprinkle some olive oil on to the drained pasta so that it does not stick.

When the beans comes to a boil, take half of it out in a food processor and pulverise to a smooth consistency. Pour it back in to the boiling bean pot and add the pasta. This bean paste will help to thicken the soup. Lastly add 3 teaspoons of sundried tomato paste and boil for a few minutes till the pasta is fully cooked.

This should be served in big bowls( with a spoon of extra virgin olive oil sprinkled on it) and can be actually served as a whole meal, since its rich in proteins and carbs.

Serve with hot garlic bread or crusty baguettes. This soup is perfect for a cold or a rainy day. Yeah, its supposed to be bloody summer here in London.....but all week it has been cold, wet and miserable.

Wimbledon time again......

Shame I cannot visit it this year.......they have the no toddler policies, so entering the grounds is up to the Wimbledon authorities' discretion.

Now whom do I think will win.....well.....in the men's game does not look like anyone can touch Federer.....but u never know.....we can have an upset here and there a couple of guys who can actually bring about an upset....Nadal, Ljubicic et al.....

Women's game.....ummm......loads who can win this....favourite is Justine HH, but serena , jelena j, Iva, Venus, Maria, mauresmo, martina etc etc...so many women who can actually win this tournament.....my favourite this year are the serbians....would be good if one of them wins it....or else another one of my favourites...martina H...if she wins it that wd be grand.....time will tell.....

so as of now I wd bet on :

Men' -- Roger F
Women's -- Justine HH

Today had been to this Thai Vegetarian place for lunch...its based in Shoe lane, a couple of minutes away from the office.Jeremy introduced me to this place and its fabulous. Its got only vegetarian stuff and most of the stuff is made of soyabean. Took Jackie for lunch and she liked it. So next week the three of us i.e Jackie, Volker and myself will visit the place again....

D will most probably come to London on Friday afternoon if the weather stays fine. Its surprising that in June we are having such deplorable weather. Its June end and its not bloody summer yet....its cold!!!!

This evening will play tennis.......its becoming pretty regular which is really good. Was just wondering yesterday while I was in the shower (its funny how u get such random but interesting thoughts in the shower) that all the extra curricular activities that I have been doing are all desires lying dormant all these years. These are activities which I always wante dto do, but could not do for some reason or the other.....so now its like a race against time to try and do as much as possible....basically live a full life.

Hence the obsession with tennis, learn mandarin, cook and eat various cuisines, travel, have a multilinguistic dvd collection etc etc.....

Mandarin is going pretty well...I actually have done 25 chapters.....in a couple of months.....its fun...I have uploaded all the lessons on to the ipod and listen to it on my way to the station....its funny how much you can learn while you are walking to the station.....

Its only after I came to the UK that I could indulge in my obsession of food.....I always knew I was crazy about food (and am lucky it does not show on me)...but at home it was always mom who cooked and that too only traditional stuff....so I could not really try out different cuisines and another reason would be that a couple of years back we did not have this retain explosion in Pune and getting the ingredients for cooking Thai, malay, Italian was difficult...atleast it was for me....

however here in London....its so simple to find just about every minute ingredient of every possible cuisine....Its brilliant....

yesterday when i was talking to D in the afternoon, she asked me what I fancied eating for tea and I cd not think of anything. Once I hung up....I was browsing the BBC food website and saw this recipe about scones.....really simple....and I emailed it to D ,picked up the phone and told her to check her mail and make scones for tea....brilliant isn't it....what convenience...browse a website at work....pick up recipes and call up home and demand it....:-)))...If D reads this she is gonna kick me hard.....

She did make them and they were delicious.....had them on their own as well as with clotted cream and strawberries......A also loved them....she kept sayin ''strawberry...strawberry.......''

Just been to the postoffice to post the bank statements for Mom and Dad's visa.....while I was walking towards the post, saw some japanese tourists clicking snaps from every angle of a staircase.....yeah thats right...a set of stairs on the opposite side of the road ...believe that...initially I thought that maybe they could see the St. Paul's Cathedral dome from where they were standing....so I curiously went to take alook.....bit NO....it really was just a staircase....well....thats japanese tourists for u....they are more interested in taking snaps than actually admiring the object that they are clicking.....which sounds funny....but thats my experience of japanese tourists....

Last I blogged was in May 2006......Everyday I think of writing, but it just does not seem to happen.....and now so much has happened since the last time I wrote that I cannot remember half of it....

anyway....its always good to have a fresh start....so this very minute I promise myself that I shall update my blog atleast one in a week....twice if I am in a good mood (for atleast 2 days in the week...which as per my experience is almost impossible...:-))...but one never knows does one ? things might just change and suddenly I may become the sunny person which so many people think I am (thats not me being narcisstic.....but thats the truth...people do think that I am always smiling ....little do they know how miserable I am)