Happy New Year

Even though I have only 3 followers to my posts, I'm going to keep on writing. Because I love looking back oh every year or so and seeing how things have changed.

December and January have both been extra-ordinarily busy. Got work for myself which I can do over the net! So that's totally amazing. I have yet to collect payment for work done though. Hope that works out, given that the people I'm offering services to are in another country!

Our driver quit in December and that was quite the wake up call as he did it the day before H left for NY and school was very much open. So have been taking steps towards getting a license. Got my learner's permit this month. It was a little bit of a nightmare doing so, as they couldn't make my finger prints match. I think that's down to me hardly having any discernible finger prints! I don't know why that is. Extra smooth fingers I guess.

Ok, it's the middle of the night here so must go!

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.