My mosaic

1. Mallorca 2007 -- Waiting for summer to come, 2. Stir-Fried Salted Tiger Prawn, 3. Giant Moth!, 4. Sugar plum dining room, 5. anjelina jolie, 6. Sangria, 7. Paris, l'amour..., 8. Untitled, 9. Surfer Girl, 10. IMG_8118, 11. a glorious day ~, 12. So Glad We Get Along!

Bollywood's gone mental!

I've just discovered that every song I've ever liked in a hindi movie is a rip off. A total rip off!! You can click here, here, here and here to see for yourelf. I've always had a thing against Amir Khan for leaving his wife and kids, but kudos to him for his originality! I think him I like him a tad bit better seeing how everyone is now-a-days following in Anu Malik's footsteps!!

Atleast he can come up with original story lines e.g. Taare Zameen Par. I made a huge mistake wasting five pounds on going to see 'Partner'. Every minute was painful & I was cringing for the darn movie to finish. Not only was it a copy of Hitch (literally every scene), but it ripped other hollywood movies off as well!! I was supposed to go see Kismat Konnection when it came out this week, but I changed my mind when I realized the synopsis sounds amazingly similar to Lindsay Lohan's 'Just my Luck'. And 'God tussi great ho'....Anyone remember 'Bruce Almighty'?

Surely India's full of talented writers?? Where are they now?!

And what's happening to the women in Bollywood? Recent pictures of Hansika Motwani have absolutely shocked me. Unfortunately I did have to endure the pain of Aap Ka Suroor 'cuz a friend convinced me and my mum that the movie got better after the intermission & I never realized where I'd seen this chick before. Is this what 16 year olds are supposed look like these days? No wonder young girls in today's day and age are so bent on looking older and getting on diet's! I'm lucky I had something these girls will never...A childhood!!

On another note, I was surprised to see Deepika Padukone & Aishwarya Rai in my monthly Marie Claire (girls mag) showing off whatever brand of watch they were paid to pose with... Aishwarya I get, but wonder where they got a hold of Ms.Padukone from?

Where was I?

No seriously, I'm too old for this. I used to enjoy backpacking and sleeping in bunk beds, sharing rooms with strangers & meeting new people...Maybe it's just that when I'm travelling with mum I like her to be comfortable and she just wants to have fun. =) Serious fun. We somewhat swap roles when we're together actually. She becomes the twenty-something and I turn into the forty-something.

Travelling with mum is heaps fun though. She always packs food. And I don't mean like 'lunch' or a 'sandwich'. I mean like food. Just getting into Scotland we had like half a kilo chicken biryani, 4 huge tubs of yoghurt (actually that one's on me, I love eating just plain yoghurt), dried fruits, fresh fruits, cookies, parantha's with mango pickle and a whole lot more! We literally live on the food we take + the free breakfasts. When we're out travelling mum and me save every penny on food, trust us!

Mum loves cricket & she got a chance to show off her bowling skills as well!

Anyway, shopping is my drug of choice and we spent a lot of time doing so in Scotland. One thing I paticularly liked was a letter opener I bought. It's got 'up yer kilt' engraved on it with a hand flipping the middle finger in tartan. It's proper class! And mum actually bought that for me! Hahaha!

The best way to sightsee any city in England is by getting on the open top tour buses. Which is exactly what we did. The 'top-less buses' as I like to call them, usually take you through the main parts of the city & show you all the sights. Most of them have a live tour as well, or a recorded tour operated by the driver and they're the best way to get around in a city. Thats a lot of what we were doing when we went on to visit York, Bath and other places around the country. I also love museums and the UK if full of them. There's something about the past thats got a magical quality which completely consumes my attention...and there was plenty to consume in Glasgow.

I spent a whole day in all the museums while my mum found better things to do ('cuz she can only stand museums for about 5 minutes). Give mum a bookshop or a jewelry store and she'd be lost in it forever. Well, so would I actually- teehee! =)

Here's something me and mum found at Nando's in Manchester when we were having some yummy dinner for chicken one night. This seems to be No 5, I'll keep my eye out for more!
We also had a chance to head to Cheshire Oaks as I mentioned in one of my previous posts, with my flatmate Sid and her sister. Great place for shopping by the way and we found something I didn't buy but I should have. If you're ever stressed about your boyfriend/husband, this should automatically make you feel much much better! =)

Glasgow*

It seems like its been absolute ages since we were there but it was only less than two months ago when me and mum went to Scotland. I didn't really want to risk travelling to somewhere I hadn't been with mum, and I was very keen on taking a trip to Italy but dad suggested I show mum around Scotland.

I absolutely loved it! I think the Scots are brilliant anyway...love their accent!! But it really is gorgeous. Scenic beauty apart (which is fanbloodytastic) the history of the cities in Scotland is fascinating. I particularly liked Glasgow and we enjoyed every second of the three days that we were there. For those of you looking to travel from the North West, the Megabus does really cheap deals.

Glasgow was fantastic because it's the biggest place to shop in the UK (after London) and its soaking in culture and history. We stayed at the Euro hostel which also does day trips to nearby castles & Edinburgh. My mum always has this thing about staying in youth hostels. She ADORES them! A couple of years ago when we travelled to London we found this really cheap hostel in the middle of the city and mum fell in love with it. She loves the travelling culture in Europe & really enjoys the backpacking part of travelling. Most youth hostels have a free breakfast included (which she relishes, and also packs her lunch for the day from there) and more than anything mum really likes the dorm rooms, the bigger the better. We stayed in an 18 bed mixed dorm in London once, and I remember her chilling out with some Australian tourists giving away her free drinks vouchers for the bar. Man, can she make friends anywhere or what!

Maybe I'm just getting old but when we were in Glasgow I just couldn't handle the idea of sharing a dorm with other people. I just needed my own room!! And Euro hostel delivered. Mum wanted the feeling of a 'hostel' and I didn't want to stay with any other people so we got our own room with a bunk bed!

I really want to continue...but my housemates cousin is over and we're all gonna watch Kuch Kuch Hota Hai plus it's time for din-din so I've gotta go get some grub! Will need to start writing about all the travelling soon, I can't wait to tell you all about Paris!

Zoravar

My brother is awesome =)

I absolutely love him! He's 5 years 5 months 5 days younger to me (we only discovered this 2 summers ago) and I swear we should have been twins! We've both got this kooky tooth on our lower jaw and this chipped toe nail on our right foot. For some reason (might have something to do with him being seriously taller than me and possesing a whole lot of facial hair) people think we're "boyfriend-girlfriend". =) It never ceases to make u smile! From dope dealers, to people working in starbucks, strangers have always thought we were dating. Mick has always looked years older. He's looked 21 since he was about 14...and he's always gotten a lot of attention from the ladies. Hahaha, I'm so overprotective of him, I always blurt out his real age & the fact that I'm his older sister everytime some chick comes over to talk to him! Lol...

He's had his phases as any teenager does and it's been an absolute pleasure being his older sister till now. We've had so many brilliantly funny moments, we snort our drinks out of our nose everytime we talk about them, even now! And last week as he got his IB results and graduated high school I couldn't help feeling just a little proud. He's 18 next month, but he'll always be my baby. I remember when he shat on my frock during his naming ceremony when he was just a couple of weeks old! =)

He spends atleast an hour a day on Wikipedia & is so much more cultured than me. Sometimes I get so annoyed about living in Liverpool and everytime he comes here he shows me the city I live in, through his eyes and I love it so much more! He's always telling me to count my blessings and never forget how lucky I am...sigh, I absolutely love him! He's currently on an euro-trip, the lucky bum. But it's his super expensive graduation/birthday present from my dad and I know he's enjoying it like a lemur on cannabis. So Mick, as you're cooking dinner in your serviced apartment in Amsterdam, please know that I dote on you like crazy! Thank you for being such an awesome bro, I heart you!

Why do people leave?!

Seriously. My family should NOT come visit me. They leave me so heartbroken...I can't deal with it! My brother visited recently, my mum flew back to Singapore to make sure she could spend some time with him before he came here (I still don't understand why she couldn't have just stayed here and the three of us could have had an awesome time!) but he left on Wednesday morning and it's taken me all this while to just deal with the house being so so so empty. My heart feels more empty. Ugh, this is such a sucky feeling.
I really do look forward to my friends and family visiting me but I'm so terrible at goodbyes at the airport (or otherwise). I just couldn't stop the tears when mum left & kept staring at the way she'd left things in my room...and when Mick left, I just couldn't remove the bottles/cans of coke from my room. It was like chucking a part of him in the bin! (My brother drinks coke like water...I think he averaged 4-5 lts a day when he was visiting me)
Haha, my brother mocked me calling it separation anxiety, but I really cannot watch people leave. I think this being 'independent' thing is absolute BS. I mean I definately do like my alone time, but there's something totally different about having someone that cares for you and loves you unconditionally, around all the time. I absolutely suck at trying to keep in touch with everyone via email/snail mail/texts/chatting/calling etc. I've always made an extra effort 'cuz all my family & friends are all over the world, but recently I've just lost interest. I just want to build a super huge house, strategically located on the globe where all my friends and family could live and work and constantly surround me with their company. The company I miss so so much right now!!
I guess it's a little bit blah in my head now 'cuz not only has my family left, but all my housemates families have left as well. The house that at one point had about 25 people hulla-buh-looing around in it had now been reduced to 5 housemates (yes, one of my housemates left to go back to Finland) and it feels rubbish. Plus I've actually pretty much moved into my new flat and I'm the only one in here for now and it's so quiet and spooky. I can't wait till 2 of my current housemates move in with me. Plus with exams looming and me having done not so much revision I've got this constant sinking feeling in my stomach. Sigh.
I had such an awesome time travelling everywhere, but I guess all good things must come to an end. So it's back to square one for now...