The Adventures of the Little Indian Girl

ok... am not all that creative with words. But really. Last year it was some other issue - first they claimed motherboard problem then all they did was replaced the DVD/CD Drive. (they = HP people). I think my HP monitor is screwed. It turns on but the whole screen gave off this greyish hue. Maybe that's the replacement of the blue screen? I don't know. But it's tiring really. I thought maybe if I threw it out the window ti might work? Really I did. Luckily at that very moment N came over and gave a more sensible solution - ask his IT colleague for help at the office. Laptop is just two years old and so many problems already. I am now using hubby's 4.5 year old Sony Vaio! sigh.. they just don't make them like they used to before!

What a wonderful weekend that was! Our first thanksgiving together - hubby's & mine! I was amongst other things grateful for wonderful warm weather on the Wednesday & the day of Thanksgiving! I was actually wearing sleeveless top! ;) It was a wonderful gift from Mother Earth! Very kind!

I was also very thankful for the invitation given by N's friend to join him & his family for thanksgiving lunch. Friend's mother is a professor at a university here and she invited several of her grad students as well. We went expecting to join a traditional American family lunch, instead spent the afternoon with Americans, Africans, Peruvian, and Japanese! We had a wonderful time learning more about Cameron, Mali, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Peru. The Japanese wasn't in a very social mood. Learnt about some of their research areas and are all quite intriguing. It took me back to my own student days not too long ago!

Dinner we spent with an Indian friend's house. He prepared wonderful yummy pav bhaji, one of my favourite dishes that I savour every time I am in Mumbai! But I was really full from late lunch we had and so couldn't truly enjoy the feast that his friend prepared! :( We watched a movie together on his large flat screen and had a quiet and good conversation about life in general.

Friday after Thanksgiving, also known as Black Friday, we headed out to catch some good deals on winter clothes as I had really none, except for the few items we bought last month! We spent nearly four hours in the retail store, and enjoyed the early-bird-specials in the nick of time, thanks to N's good memory for the prices that were before the end of the sale, and the wonderful cashier who was willing to overlook the passing of the deadline. We could have gone at 4am when the stores opened, but really I just couldn't get myself to jump in into the world of consumerism that way.

It's really horrible. I feel sad when I look at the employees who look like they could just scream or crash into a deep slumber if you handed them a pillow and some space to lie down. Why do we do this to ourselves? Fine, they probably get paid more for that day. But they see the ugliest side of consumerism in the matter of few hours. I wonder how they handle it. My friend later did say though that if you know exactly what items you are looking for then going at 4am makes it worth it as the queues for the cashier in the first one hour wouldn't be long yet. But if you are there to browse then expect hours of wait.

Anyhow, we got home in the evening exhausted. It was also that time of the month and it drained me. But hey! I got a whole new wardrobe!! We won't be going on another spree like that for some time!!! I have never spent that much in one shot before! oof...but we got the stuff we really needed. Saturday was spent looking for a blender/food processor! We got a wonderful deal, plus we made use of a friend's generosity who gifted us with a gift card at one of the stores! Of course, the item is still sitting in the car boot! :P

Oh the highlight of the day, our apartment is now officially fully furnished!! Wednesday, N and his friend headed to IKEA to get the futon mattress that was out of stock for quite some time to finish up the final major purchase! We assembled it on Saturday afternoon and hubby took me on a wonderful date at our new couch with dinner & wine and beautiful dance-able music!

Somewhere in the day we headed to one of the high-end grocery store to get some potatoes, as the place was right there. We ended up with many more things. And our freezer is now stocked up for the winter! Yes, that's all frozen veggies, cheese-jalapenos poppers (yum!) & ice cream!!



Sunday was R&R time. We lazed around in bed till mid morning, late lunch, talk, relax, read, bum..... and as Monday comes around, it's back to reality and back to work....

I hope I will be inaugurating the blender/food processor soon to make some coconut chutney to go with dosas soon....as hubby made a bet with me that I will make dosas (from scratch, not the dosa mix) if the laptop which will return today will come fixed and if not he will make me pesarattu (dosa made with moong dal). I much prefer plain/masala dosas and I much prefer my working laptop than continuing what seems like the neverending saga!