Sun, fun and the not so fun

So I went and met the parents. I traded stories with the mother, had a Gin and Tonic with the father, gossiped about the lack of decent men with the sister and played softball barney with the nephew.

None of the above is true, obviously. In this day and age my expectations were just expectations.

I left home armed with my specialty pudding to show the family what a culinary goddess I was, but the vehicle my friend chose to drive was a steaming oven, so the once nice work of art turned into sludge, which after a very abrupt brake decided to land all over my jeans. Yes jeans and a tee was what I decided to wear. S laughed so hard because the substance that stained the crotch of my jeans reminded him of something, which he refused to tell me. Anyway after wiping it off along with the angry look that had made its way to the upper part of my anatomy, I went to face the awkward introductions. It didn’t go off bad and I found it funny when Cookie’s sister managed to serve me the drink first when clearly there were 10 others who should have got it before me. After casual awkward mingling, we decided to go on a boat ride on the canal. That was fun, in parts and places. We came back and stuffed ourselves with food; for once I enjoyed the food, in fact I loved it. The boys were very gracious with their comments about my leftover pudding and I wholly appreciate it. Makes me want to cook more. After that we played games, which we fought over and I evicted Cookie because he’s a sour loser. Went to the beach, came back and went home. So it was nice, and the family wasn’t anything like the Adam’s Family. Dang!

Onto other news, the Great White One left. I managed to blink away the tears and hold a wide smile throughout the goodbye speech. He was a great boss even though I had many an argument with him. The department organized a day out sailing as a final goodbye and it was the best Saturday in a long time. I absolutely loved it even though I’ve been taken sailing before. This time the guy who took us didn’t let us loiter in the water, he got me to tack and it was fun and tedious because we had to keep moving when the boom kept swinging. Also he got me to arch my back out of the sailboat, so basically I could feel my hair touching the water. Loved it. I also managed to kayak a few times, ran around playing fetch with Lucy and Nugi ( Springer Spaniel and a Dachshund), played pictionary and went on a speed boat ride. Did I mention that it was the best Saturday in a long long time?

Just a few days ago I also met up with my O/L computer batch. They’ve all grown up, become disconnected, some a little more blond than they were before. I was just glad that I met them, at least I know where they are and what they look like but I don’t think I’d be good friends with most of them like we were back then.

Yeah that’s it.

The Family Stone

I feel a lot like Meredith, but I’m not like Meredith and my boyfriend is nothing like her boyfriend and there is no family stone that I’m after or rather he’s going to make me wear.
Gulp, I hope!
See, I’m going to meet his family on the 3rd and one day on the 3rd the 3rd of October would dawn and I will have to show myself. I tried in vain to pull all sorts of little stunts. I told him that I might get violently ill (somehow my caring nerves preferred telling him NOW about my impending illness) or I might have something else that warrants my attention. But unfortunately he has seen through the obvious lies and hasn’t been merciful, so I guess I must show up this Saturday.
Like Meredith I don’t know what the appropriate outfit should be. The confidence that I seemed to have when I whined about the perfect outfit to meet the parents in a post I wrote aeons ago seems to be of little use. So, I’m sitting here, wide eyed mentally going through my wardrobe.
The pristine white shirt? Too formal and too Meredith.
The rock tee? Too disturbing and too me. It’s good I guess to let them take me in small doses, after all I wouldn’t like it much if they all decided to freak out and have a heart attack.
The cute spaghetti top? Too revealing.
His family is somewhat conservative and we Burghers have a reputation for being everything else other than conservative. I can’t be bothered with the clothes, I’ll just probably grab whatever I see on Saturday and stomp there. But one thing’s for certain though it won’t be a dress!!!

Now that the clothes are sorted I have bigger things to worry about. Meredith had a hard time trying to make conversation at the dinner table, in my case it would be a lunch table (doesn’t sound as good as a dinner table eh?). The thing is I’m one to talk but the language worries me considerably, they converse in Sinhala and I on a normal day can mutter some strange thing. The problem is when I get nervous I tend to freeze and when I eventually thaw, I’d most probably say something stupid. So yes I worry about things like that, wouldn’t you?
I guess I’d also have to behave. I can almost hear mum giving me a rulebook of 10 things to do and a 100 things not to…
# No screaming and running in the house.
# No laughing loud.
# No slurping and guzzling drinks.
# Always smile.
# Be polite and nod in acknowledgment.
I’ll probably follow her advice closely, because I also tend to daydream constantly and it won’t be much of a surprise if a conversation did go like this…
B.F mum: Would you like some chicken?
Me: Yes please
B.F mum: Would you like some rice?
Me: Yes please
B.F mum: would you like a sharp poke in the eye?
Me: Yes please
Oh dear! I guess I’d leave them with a great first impression, one that spells ‘unintelligent neurotic dyslexic all smiling freak’! Well I dunno, maybe it would be fun, maybe it would go horribly wrong. On the bright side if it does, I’ll have another story to write home about.

Pretty in blank

Pretty intense?

Pretty insane?

Pretty in anything?

Pretty in sarong?

It’s a costume party and I’m pretty blank at the moment!

People watching – Part 1

The 60ish-year-old Tamil sari clad lady seated next to me on the bus whips out an iPhone from her mismatched bag and starts browsing the net.

When I grow up I want to be like her

Just musing…

What happened to thought provoking chats on the beach?

What happened to just sitting and listening to the sounds of the sea?

What happened to playing tap rugger, footsie and dancing the Paula Abdul in the sand?

What happened to getting drunk, making a fool and waking up to greet the rising sun?

Miss the old times. Miss the old company. Miss the strangeness only some could understand.

Random stuff…

Tempers flaring…

Blood pressure rising…

Colleagues become annoying…

Ah that time of year! The awards!! Damn awards! What we wouldn’t do for one…. All will soon be forgotten, we will drink and hold hands and dance the merry jig after the show, after we’ve swept the metals off the scoreboard. All worth it, me thinks. Of course me thinks it’s all worth it. I’ll grumble now and rejoice later even though I talk like I don’t give a damn!

………………………..

Last Friday was spellbindingly awesome. I had fun, like a child. Innocent yet full of energy bursts. As you might probably know, I’m full of good ideas, so I rounded a few lost sheep at work and decided a trip to Sathutu Uyana (Happy Park) would be a brilliant spontaneous idea. So trudge, trudge, tuk, tuk there. 5 in a tuk, slightly irritated the tuk driver but we didn’t care, we were going to have fun. While in the tuk we managed to infect the tuk driver with some much needed joy. Once there we wallowed up prawn waddais at the risk of retching, a lot later. Inside we just went berserk with me screaming like a hyena in pain, “Dodgem Cars, ohhh Dodgem Cars…I wanna go…” so went and it was a blast. Then we went on the Yo Yo ride, which was cool but Pyscho Girl was in discomfort, so I kept screaming in glee. The scrambler was next, at which point it started drizzling which turned into a thunderstorm and boy it was just awesome. In some twisted way it was also extremely romantic, so Pyscho Girl and I kept making eye contact*. We were all drenched but we decided another round of Dodgem Cars was perfect to end a perfectly wonderful evening and doughnuts (but unfortunately we went in at closing time, so we didn’t go nuts with doughnuts).

* I’m not that way inclined and never will be!

I love cricket matches, even the ones we lose.

I managed to successfully cough up my vocals cords, get tipsy enough to hug random people, squeezed a friend’s boob when I tried to keep myself from tumbling to the ground, then said crazy stuff to some people (thankfully the boys thought I was cute in all my tipsiness), learnt a few bad songs, got into a fight with the cops (not my fault) and had a freaking rollicking time.

I wanna go for another match soon!!

How to steal a pair of boxers in 8 easy steps:

1. Check for remnants of the tag
2. Pick a few articles of clothing and carry them in your hand
3. Look for CCTV camera and pillars
4. Repeatedly take your phone out and put it back into your big handbag
5. Find pillar and get a really tall guy to watch your back
6. Slip boxers into bag (do not look suspicious while doing it)
7. Have a contingency plan if you get caught
8. Walk out with a few people who have bags from the same store. This particular step helps if you get caught, because security usually checks the shopping bags first.

Yes I stole from a department store, well because Shia dared me (the tall guy who watched my back) and well I can’t pass a dare, I’m a sucker for them, really. The boxers are cute and well worth the intense turmoil and sweating.

Note : Please don’t steal. Stealing is bad, it’s just wrong and I promise I won’t ever do it again.

P.S don’t tell Santa

The trip

Its been sometime since the last time I did a trip up north. This time 27 of us from church visited Kurunegala. An area infested with rocks and foliage, which meant lots of climbing, walking and wading through undergrowth. To the utter horror of the pack of girlies present I screamed with glee. What a perfect weekend!

The bus ride was extremely uncomfortable because we were all cooped up with baggage in hand, but me with my claustrophobic inner self managed to survive the 2 ½ hour ride.

The highlights of the trip

- the time spent walking around with people I just met, getting to know them, admiring their simple and humble lives and wondering whether there’s part of me that’s willing to sacrifice my comfortable existence.

K’s story about her life really made me stop and think, she spent 8 years in Hong Kong, earning a lot of money but she and husband never really found any satisfaction. They realized in time that their life was meaningless and decided to do what they could to help people. So they left the comforts of Hong Kong and took up residence in a remote part of Kurunegala. Even though family and friends thought they were crazy (which happens to be the most common reaction in Sri Lanka) they are happy because they’ve found satisfaction that money couldn’t give them. I thought that story was encouraging.

- the time spent with the 4 girlies and 4 guys under the responsibility of the family we were staying with. The chats that lasted throughout the night, the boys trying to scare us with their choking (lame but fun), playing carom and the ginger tea at 12:30 in the night. Thinking about it makes me grin.

This trip has been a learning experience and a bonding session. So I’m glad that my weekend was simply perfect.

Theme change

Feeling very light and breezy…must be because I’ve been spending my nights in Negambo…soaking up the sunshine and breathing the salty air…nice to be back there after two years…but memories engulf me at times…