Little Miss Muffet

I had this conversation with Daughter yesterday and thought would put it up on this blog. The way I see it, I don't think anyone else reads the darn blog (regularly) except me. And it's nice for me to remember these conversations. And the only person who I can think of would read these blog posts years from now on, is my daughter. And she'd get a kick out of knowing what she used to say when she was six. So here goes.

Scene: Me (spooning out Curd to daughter during lunch).
Daughter : Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet eating her curds and whey. What's whey?
Me: Whey is what you call the juice of the yoghurt. See, Little Miss Muffet eats her curds AND whey. Why don't you eat the " juice"? Little Miss Muffet eats it.
Daughter: Little Miss Muffet isn't real. And why would a spider come and sit down beside her? Spiders can't sit! They can only stand. And what's a tuffet anyway?
Me (dumbfounded): Don't really know what a tuffet is. We'll look it up on the internet when you've finished lunch. Now eat your curd.

Steve Jobs

As I type away on my Mac Book Air, I think of Steve Jobs. Facebook is awash with people playing tribute to him. People from all corners of the globe. Many of whom possibly didn't own any Apple products. Some of whom did not like what Apple stood for. Such was his greatness.

I doubt few world leaders would have had so much of a following.

So why are people like him thought to be so great? I think the way they have re-shaped our world is simply enormous. I mean, look at me, Blogging! This is a word that didn't even exist in our vocabulary when we were young students. And today, this is something I feel good doing. Look at the way I chatted with my Mother, thousands of miles away, on Skype! Look at the way we find solace after looking up the latest thing wrong with our near and dear ones on some medical website, and knowing what to do.

So thank you Steve Jobs and all the other nameless techie geeks out there!

Restaurant Review - Nihonbashi

We have gone past Nihonbashi almost every day of our stay in Colombo. Never entered. However finally decided to go last May, just before I left. Anyway, the food was not as good as in Hohsen Ginza. However the decor was interesting. They had tables sunk into the floor. They also had an I-pad menu. Was not sold on the concept. Then we were offered coffee flavoured jello on the house. The irritating thing occured when we wanted to pay the bill. They were having a promotion for SCB card holders which would enable a sizable discount. Fishily enough, their card machine was "down". So we were forced to pay by cash and forego the discount. Pretty sure they made up the fact about their machine being down. Not going back again. Feel like having Japanese? Go to Hohsen Ginza.

Say Cheese!

I'm seriously in a blogging mood today. Was looking through my old posts and realised that I had promised to share my healthy discoveries. I subscribe to a newsletter by Dr. Oz. Yes, the rather good looking man who talks even better and comes on Oprah. So recently, was most pleasantly surprised to see that certain cheeses have been found to be anti-cancer! These include Edam and Gouda! Apparently these have Vitamin K2, which inhibits cancer growth. Needless to say that though I have been happily giving most health revelations a miss, I have been following this one religiously! Here's an article that talks about this.

http://healthybodydaily.com/dr-oz-cancer/dr-oz-gouda-cheese-can-reduce-cancer-risk-three-secret-weapons-to-prevent-cancer

Daughter and Me

I realise my darling daughter is growing up so fast. Especially in her mind. She is very mature. She was an early reader. Now she's into books like Harry Potter, The Secret Garden, The Railway Children, The Narnia books by C.S Lewis, and tons of others. So she's very precocious.

Recently she became sick with non stop vomiting for one night. She was scaring the living daylights out of us. At around 2am or thereabouts, she apologises to us for keeping us awake. I couldn't believe it. Where does she get this from, this 6 year old? She is supposed to think Mom and Dad have nothing better to do than take care of her.

I have also finished my studies recently, so rather more bored than usual. Been cooking up a storm in the kitchen, trying out heretofore untried dishes. She is so lovely and encouraging! Says to me, "Mamma, you're the best cook in the world!" And then she goes on to rate all my dishes either a 9 if she doesn't like it very much, or a 10 out of 10 if she likes it.

Motherhood is not easy by any means. And Daughter is not an angel all the time. Like any other child she can drive Mom up the wall. However, when you hear a child say to you, "Mamma you're the best mother in the world!" it really makes it all worthwhile, even though you know it can't be true.

The Jewellery Exhibition

I recently attended the Jewellery exhibition held at the BMICH. It was huge, with lots of beautiful pieces of jewellery. I bought a green "jade" bracelet from a Burmese stall. I doubt it was real jade though as it was really cheap. 400Rs! My only learning from attending the event was this: do not buy from jewellery exhibitions! There are way too many people clambering over each other. You don't even have enough peace of mind while dealing with all the jostling to be able to ask for a receipt! Some of the out of town "exhibitionists" (pun intended) you will never see again. What's to stop them making up some fake certificates?

As it is from what I know about gem stones, they are really not very good investments. Yes, the prices of gems have shot up recently, but still, from an investment stand point they are not the best. You are likely to get back a fraction of the price you paid for them if you were ever to sell them back. This is because the jeweller is selling to you at retail prices whereas he/she has bought it at whole sale prices. Therefore they would only buy it back at a much lower rate.

I had gone with a friend to the exhibition. At one point I was mentioning to her how gems were not good investments and the seller heartily agreed with me! He went on to say that diamonds are the only solid gem investment.

Back

Hello people! Back in Colombo last month. Haven't blogged in about 4 months I see. I think I'll be able to do it more often now that my studies are over!

I must say, now that I don't have the study agenda any more, things seem quite dull and listless. I really wish Colombo had big shopping malls and nice movie theatres. At least could while some hours away that way.

Anyway, I'm happy to be back people. This post has to be short as my laptop needs charging!

Cheerio!

Long Break

Can't believe it's been this long since I've blogged. I see I haven't kept my promise of blogging once a month.

Will be leaving soon for 3 months! Will miss Colombo. Right now the city is festooned with beautiful paper lanterns for the festival of Vesak which is coming up on the 17th of May.

The weather is unbearably sunny and hot. Can't wait for it to start raining.

Some reviews:

The Golden Dragon, Chinese restaurant at the Taj Samudra. Really not that good for the price. We dined there quite a while back. The Lemon Chicken tasted more like chicken with marmalade sauce. The most disappointing dish was the mixed fried rice. I felt I could have done a better job of it, and isn't fried rice basic fare which they should be able to get right? The decor was also a bit disappointing, and didn't think much of the plastic chopsticks.

Well that's it for now. Exams coming up!

This and that

Well the year has been whizzing by. I find myself short of time to do all the things I want or need to do. So, there's not much time for blogging. But I've decided I'll blog at least once a month, so here goes.

Restaurants

New Restaurants tried include The Union Bar and Grill (below the Hilton Residence), The Lagoon, at Cinnamon Grand and Ginza Hohsen,a Japanese restaurant located in the Hilton Hotel.

Ginza Hohsen: Not being a great fan of Japanese food, I was blown away by how good everything was at Ginza Hohsen. The set up was lovely, typical Japanese with a lovely view of the Japanese garden outside. One can watch the cooks in action, something I always enjoy. The food was wholesome, large portions and delicious. I'd love to go back even though it's pricey. Meal for 2.5 persons with just mineral water and no dessert went over Rs 5000.

The Union Bar and Grill: Overall, disappointing, though the prices are a nice range from reasonable to high. Didn't like the quality of cheese they used in their dishes . Service was good though.

The Lagoon: A nice seafood restaurant. You can order fresh fish and decide how you want it cooked. Watching the cooks in action adds to the ambience of the place. Pricey, but overall, worth it.

The New Year

Well 2010 disappeared into the blue, and what do you know so has one month of the new year already. Already been visited by 2 sets of visitors in the new year. I find myself not having enough room to breathe even I get so many visitors. Ofcourse, I love having people who really care about me stay over. But the problem is, more often than not, it's the people who really want to take advantage of your good nature who want to come over. Sometimes, it's people who never bother calling, writing or sending a card. And what's more, people seem to think I'm some sort of travel advisory in addition to a free place to crash in and have meals. I don't mind giving people advice, but would love to get a thank you now and then! I tell you some people just love a free ride!