Bananas and some randoms!

I hate them! I actually do. I'm on some kind of health kick at the moment (in a bid to look a lil' bit more flattering for the summer!) and I've decided to cut down on junk food and eat a lot more fruit and veg. What astounds me the most about this is how much I've kept to it. I'm having more than my 5 portions of fruit and veg a day(!) which is a big thing for me! However, my amma keeps trying to give me bananas (like I'm some kinda chimp!) and it pains me to eat them. With every bite, I generally feel queasy. I know there are those who are trying to sing the praises of bananas to their monitors but they just suck (IMO). My favourite fruit are pears. Ripe, juicy sweet pears. I can't get enough and I might even make a pear crumble this weekend (I'll try not to post any photos Chaarmax/Dili!).

On a totally different note - regarding the recent news in Austria which T has blogged about here - I was absolutely appalled! The fact that someone had the capability to do this and keep up this pretence for however long is a sign of the downward spiral in society. What kinda FUCKED UP SHIT is that man?! (Excuse the profanity)

A E I O U

We only have 5 vowels in the English alphabet. 5! Therefore we should make as much use of them as possible no? One of the things that I am completely anal about (completely!) is the use of good grammar, punctuation and spelling. So being an avid fan of Facebook (FB) (yes I admit, I am a FB stalker - it's quite sad really!), emails and text messaging, it only winds me up further (should I have used farther?) when I see the English language being ripped to shreds because people can't differentiate between they're, there or their, you're or your, affect or effect - the list is endless.

or when they dont use any punctuation no full stops no commas no capital letters at the start of sentences.no spaces after full stops or any kind of punctuation.No apostrophes.

It makes reading text so difficult. If you're going to write something that you obviously think is worth reading, then at least make it readable!

Which brings me on to the use of vowels or rather the lack of!

Example 1:
"This is so gonna sound lyk an April Fools!! Bt u knw dat phD I applied 4 @ UCLA 4 a laugh... DEYV INVITD ME 4 AN INTERVIEW!!!!! Dunno wat 2 do! Ring u ltr xxx "

Fair enough - this was in a text message (trying to save texts and money) but it was from a grown adult! She could have written it out properly and still only sent 1 text!

Example 2:
"Yea, I dnt thnk I am eithr I ges bt I hav bn actng lyk I am! Thanx 4 da girlie chat yst mrs. Hav fun 2mrw x2

Same person - but again, she could have easily used the vowels! However, I'm willing to let these slide because they are texts and there is a limitation on the number of characters that can be used.

Example 3 (taken from FB):
"yh me bless ini..ntn mn juz jamin..klkl..cum da dai..it'l b jwkz ini..styl..vere enada?nefin nu?tc da x"

WTF?! Alright, I know that two of those words are an attempt at written Tanglish but the rest of it?! And when did ".." become punctuation? Is it the end of a sentence? Should we pause?! Seriously?!

Example 4 (taken from FB)
"im crious i aint a vry jkative person im havin hell ryt nw iv been wid a gal 4 2 yrs an stuff r gtn bad2

Give me a break! You've got wall space on FB so you can use the God damn vowels!

However, what grates me the most (and I remember that Darwin might have mentioned this a loooong while ago so I will find the link and add it at the end) is the people who write like this:

"i iz a COL student me have lotz of friendz gut 1nce and bad 1nce i izt known as a G But iZ nOt a G iZ just A noRmaL StudeNt jUsT aSk 4..."

Why are some letters capitals and others not? Doesn't it take much longer to write things like that? Why do you do it to yourselves (and more importantly us as the reader!)?

Now I'm too scared to spellcheck this as I've probably made lots of mistakes!

And for the record - Darwin's post (sorry Darwin - I'm not sure if this is OK within the etiquette of blogging!).

*Disclaimer* - I never claimed to be great at spelling, punctuation or grammar but I do like to read text that is readable which is why I posted this.
If you notice the mistakes (of which there are probably a few), don't berate me. I'm only human! :)
And I'm sorry for the rant!

In all it's coloured glory!

For Ian and Darwin - here's the coloured pic! I shall endeavour to not make that mistake again!

When Girls Don't Flop!

I managed to organise a girly night out and guess what - it didn't flop! *shock*

It showed all the signs of flopping believe me - about 50 texts were sent from me to the people attending (all 6 of them which then became 4) and all of this over the course of 24 hours. And because dates were confused, we ended up as 4. Oh well. Now as much as I like to dance and go clubbing, we decided to go bowling and dinner - a chilled one! I use the term dinner loosely because we ended up in Nando's but dessert was at the lovely Waffle House in Bayswater! Mmmmm! As you can see, dessert was good :).

Whilst we were out - it hit me. I know why girly nights flop - it's because we're lazy. There is so much effort firstly to organise it, secondly the physical preparation, and thirdly the after event matters.

I've briefly covered the first here.

The second - we have to look good. Even if we're only seeing the girls, there is a need to dress to impress. We're constantly being judged and more so by our female counterparts. This means that we need to make sure we co-ordinate our clothes, make up, shoes and endeavour that our hair looks good! And that requires a whole load of effort on our parts especially if it's only for girls!

Thirdly, we worry about getting home (a lot!). For the non drinkers, it's not so much as we usually drive or are in a state where we can string together a few sentences but for the alcoholics, it's a lot harder and safety is a BIG thing! So more often than not, we flop!

But despite all this, we do rock (sometimes!) :). We get what other girls think when they we feel threatened by that gorgeous girl that all the blokes pine after, we are more often than not always on hand to deal with break ups (although only those of our close friends), we are always clean and smell fresh (well more often than not), and we totally understand the pain and torture of high heels despite repeating "no pain, no gain" as our mantra!

Obviously there are more but some things are better left unspoken no?

Also - you know you've made it in the SL blogosphere when you make it onto someone else's blogroll so thank you Dili! :)
eta: Thank you also to Chaarmax! :)

A question I usually ask...

Myself is why don't I have many female friends? I know the clichés about girls being too bitchy and they're all out to stab each other in the back(!) and all of those... But seriously, I see the best in everyone until they prove otherwise. I'm one of those far too trusting souls, the ones who get hurt time and time again. I'm ever the optimist and I think it's a role I shine in!

Don't get me wrong, I have female acquaintances - the ones I see on the social circuit and I can have an amicable conversation with but friends - the ones I call and talk to about everything with no holds barred - there's only two. Well, one really; but she is at least my best friend.

But now I know why. It's because girls flop all the time! Going out requires so much organisation and so much attention to detail. With guys it'll be like:

Me: "Shall we go out?"

Male friend (MF): "Sure - I'll meet you at X at hh:mm and we'll see how it goes from there."

Me: "Cool - see you then and let me know if anything changes."

With girls - it's a whole other ball game:

Me: "Shall we go out?"

Female friend (FF): "Sure, where were you thinking?"

Me: "How about X? I'll meet you there at hh:mm."

FF: "There? Can we make it a lil' earlier/later?"

Me: "Sure - "

FF: "I'll tell A, B and C...."

Me: "Wicked, so X at hh:mm" (earlier than what I'd initially said)

FF: "Do we have to dress up?"

Me: "Whatever makes you feel comfortable"

FF: "How much money should I bring?"

Me: "About £30 maybe? We can get out more if we need it right?"

FF: "So X at hh:mm?"

Me: "Yep. I'll let you know if anything changes."

So, I put the phone down and get on with the rest of my stuff...

*Text message alert*
From A - Scrumpy, where we going? FF told me but what time and stuff? What are we going to be doing? Can we make it later?

*Text message alert*
From C - B said FF said we're going out tonight? I can't make it unless you change it to dd/mm/yy.

*Text message alert*
From B - C can't come to X and I don't know what to wear!

And this is probably all one week in advance of the said event! As it gets closer, it gets worse! By the time it comes around, I just want to cancel and have a quiet night in!

This isn't the only reason but if I continue, the post will be just too damn long!

The Second Coming of 2008!

It is Monday, the sun is shining and I am a happy bunny! Summer is pretty much right around the corner and I have a whole lot planned. How much of this actually happens though is dubious!

Happy belated New Year btw.

2008 is my year to do stuff! A whole load of stuff. I was a bit tired of waiting around for friends who would agree with the utmost enthusiasm that "We should do this" and "Yeah - that sounds awesome. I'm definitely up for that" and then when the time came; when I'd put my best efforts into researching and organising, they would flop! If it's due to a lack of money, then I'd get it but most of the things I try and organise are usually free, I offer to drive wherever we're going and if they're not free, they are at least of minimal cost.

2007 was the year of flops - the only thing that did happen was my trip to Cuba and that was after a lot of planning and heartache! But this year is not going to be like that. This year - I'm going to launch it - even if it is by myself! So I did. At the beginning of the year, I signed up to a martial art and I'm still going (surprisingly!), I joined a local community youth group which helps the community and I've been going to Yoga classes (albeit - this is slightly flailing!).

I don't think that's too bad for the first three months of the year. And now that the summer is around the corner, on to other things. I'm going to go to the theatre - not just to see the big productions, but to see the random small scale ones in the local theatres, I'm going to go for random walks around London and it's parks.
I'm going to take a day off work, pick up whatever book I'm reading at the time and head to the park and chill in the sun (well in the shade but in the warmth!).
I'm going to organise a random day out - be it to the planetarium, London Zoo, or a theme park. I'm going to visit museums and travel and basically do what I want to do without having to depend on others!
I'm also going to learn how to play a new instrument though this might have to wait until later on in the year when the Sun doesn't coax me into going out all the time.

My ultimate goal is to organise a day of rounders/cricket/football in the park and manage to actually get a group of friends to come!

And I might even go speed dating - I don't have much to lose I guess! Maybe I should cross this bridge when I come to it?

No Comment

I deleted a comment. In hindsight, I don't think I should have because it kind of defeats the point of this post slightly.

Basically on my previous post, someone left an anonymous comment. Something along the lines of "It sounds as though it's you that needs to do the growing up - and fast". I think I let this get to me more than I should have so I deleted it. I regret doing so because I should have asked why anonymous commenter (AC) feels that way? But then I'm not blogging for AC to criticise me (especially on one post!) but I guess with free speech it's allowed. It's hardly fair to judge me on one post surely? The comment upset me because I'm not blogging for your approval.

As I write this now though, I'm thinking I'm reading too much into it. I mean, you don't know me AC and I don't know you. Your opinion therefore shouldn't really matter me to that much. Thus, I apologise for deleting your comment.

"You are actually....

Younger than me. Stop telling me what I can and can't do!". One of the last sentences I uttered at my brother before we stopped talking 2 days ago! I think puberty hit my brother late (he's 19). Shouldn't he be nearing the end of all this teen angst and mood swing stuff? I don't actually know why the way I live my life bothers him so much.

A quick introduction to the relationship between my siblings and I - it rocks! We are very close and in general we have a lot of fun. So the fact that this has happened pains me. I'm of the belief that my siblings have lived through some bad times of our lives together and through that (and amongst other things) have become my best friends. We're like the 3 musketeers only a lot more cooler!

He's got this huge chip on his shoulder like we're all meant to bow down and listen to him just because he's bigger than us and a lot more vocal!

It's alright for him - he spends the whole day doing nothing (university break) so can talk/go out during that time. For me, I only have the evenings free and I can't spend all of that time with you! For God's sake - grow the fuck up!

My Face

If you were to see me as I was reading a newspaper on the tube whilst listening to my iPod, you'd probably think I had some kind of gurning problem. And to be honest with you, I wouldn't be surprised!

I have a very animated face. If the eyes are the window to the soul then I am completely transparent. I often find myself smiling at the weirdest stories in the newspapers, trying to conceal my contempt when I'm reading manifestos from London's Mayoral Contenders(!), or hearing the most explicit/cheesy/romantic lyrics on my iPod which I probably don't pay much attention to when it's on a big stereo but seems so much more intense when it's so close to my ear drum!

It's at times like this, that I find myself catching the eye of another commuter who smiles so randomly at me that I can't help but blush and smile back. Because, I know they're thinking that I'm a complete and utter nutter! I then bury my face in the newspaper and try to avoid looking at anyone for the rest of the journey but am suddenly totally aware that I actually have an expression for most of my feelings!
So when the gorgeous man who smiled at me after catching one of my moments smiled at me again and again (was the frequency of my expressions increasing?!) - I couldn't help but look at him repetitively!
What made this journey even more satisfying is that I caught him smiling randomly at his book - I'm glad I'm not the only one out there! Maybe that's why he kept smiling at me! :)

"You do not have to say anything....

But it may harm your defence if you do not mention, when questioned, something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence"

Please tell me that I've not just been cautioned by a police officer?! Could this situation get any worse?! Not only is my insurance going to go through the roof but I'm sitting in a police car being cautioned! Which is worse; I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure they're both not a good situation to be in.

I was driving along with my brother and sister and North West London was heaving with traffic! I'm not one for patience, so I did a U-turn and tried to find another route. Basically I was on a slip road trying to merge onto a dual carriageway and there was a car in front of me. I was looking behind onto the dual carriageway to see if there was any incoming traffic. When there wasn't any, I decide to move forward thinking that the car in front would have pulled off as the space was big enough for both of us to go (it didn't help at this point my brother yelled in Tamil "Goooooooo" so I went! I should have checked.). Unfortunately for me, the driver in front hadn't moved off so I went into the back of him! :-(.

Anyways, it turned out he was a Cuban diplomat who'd never had an accident in this country before (bollocks!) and didn't really know what to do. So I explained that we needed to exchange details and insurance details. And then he said "We need to wait for the diplomatic police" You WHAT?! The diplomatic police? WHY?! WTF?! It's just a road accident! These are the thoughts that went through my head but clearly I didn't tell him this, I just meekly agreed and waited. We assessed the damage (my car sign had been imprinted into his rear bumper!) and agreed that it could have been a lot worse and it was unfortunate (yeah, more so for me than you - I have to pay for this shit myself!)

The thing is, I was in Cuba recently so I was hoping I could somehow maybe sweet talk him but my brother or sister would have had none of it. They think that I would have been left standing in the middle of the road with just my car air freshener having given everything away!

We parked up on the side road and waited for the "diplomatic police" to arrive. Every single official looking car that I saw only seemed to make my heart race so imagine my surprise when I saw a normal police car (though I still had some fear instilled in me!). I had been waiting for an hour by this point so I got out and made my way over to the diplomat's car and assessed the damage with the police. Good God - can people please stop gawping at us - it's just a minor accident! No one's hurt, it's not a 6 car pile up and I haven't been arrested (yet).

By this point my siblings had become so hungry (even though they'd just eaten about 2 hours ago - anyone would think we'd been stranded in the outback), they'd gone in search of a shop!

The female officer told me to go and wait in the car - she was just going to go through an incident report with the other driver and would then come to go over it with me.

I was beginning to get a lil' bit more worried but I hadn't done anything wrong (had I?!). My siblings had come back this point (with goodies) and were trying to cheer me up by making fun of the situation so it didn't look too good when the male officer came over to make sure that I was OK, that we were sitting there having a bit of a laugh! So he asked me what happened and told me that his colleague would be over to take my side of the story. And then it happened - he told me he'd need to breathalyse me! NO WAY! WTF?! So I got out the car, and blew away into the little device. I know I don't drink alcohol but I couldn't help feeling like "This could go horribly wrong. Say it's positive - Oh no, my parents will kill me!" Where did all my rational thinking go?! Thankfully it was negative. By this point, a small crowd had built up (My brother and sister got a lil irate at the passing crowd. Something along the lines of "WTH are you looking at?!") and the female officer had made her way over to me! Oh good God, could this get even more embarrassing?!

She proceeded to take my mini statement and because it started to snow again, she said, "Shall we go and sit in the car?" Apparently it can get more embarrassing because clearly she didn't mean my car as she walked over to the police car. Oh no! So in I went and sat down in the back. I've never been inside a police car before - they don't have a radio. Instead they have a screen which had all my details there! Eeeek!

And then she cautioned me! The only thing that made me feel better at this point was that she cautioned the other driver as well.

As the ordeal came to an end, she said that she couldn't see any laws being broken so I'm not in too much trouble but I do have to present all my documents to the nearest police station within the next 7 days, my brother and sister have been sworn to secrecy and this is something that we will take to the grave and my car is slightly battered but that can be fixed.

The only thing now is I have to tell my insurers and I don't think they'll be too pleased as I had the EXACT same accident 4 months ago!