Friday Release

I am lucky to have my mom or amma being with us intermittently. In the absence of any other family or much close friends that is the best we can have. Amma was to travel yesterday after her 6 month stint in the UK. When someone has to travel I feel jittery. To allay my jitters I take the day off ( convenient ;) I know). I asked K to also book the day just in case. We could have some much needed 'us' time.  Ironically  in the 6 months that amma was here, we never ventured even for a movie. Though  we have had the occasional grocery run :) . So we decided to take the day off - to get used to the routine with out amma as well. Amma helps quite a lot in the kitchen. She is also an additional pair of hands once the kids are back cranky and tired from day care and school. 6 months of that needs a day of unlearning.

Our original plan was to have a nice, quiet lunch at some place where the menu would take ages to be served.  You get the drift 'fine dining'. But then we got pragmatic. What is point of engaging in an exercise which will make our pockets lighter and bodies heavier. Why not catch a movie..better still catch two movies ( I know very uninspired). When I was staying at Hyderabad and K had come to say bye before his on site trip, we had watched 3 movies back to back! Why not relive those days. We also had two movies to our liking - avengers and deadpool 2! 

After amma started and the kids were dropped, we decided to get off asap. As we were about to step out - boom! No, not thunderstorms. The back door won't lock!!! It was like the stars were aligned for us NOT to have a good time. K was the picture of despair - as if India lost world cup by 2 runs, like he opened his lunch expecting paneer and ended up getting poha( yeah he hates poha - I can't imagine how! I love poha), like he was about to finish work and his boss gave a severity 1 issue. 

We Googled. Emergency locksmiths ( gosh the things you can Google! So so,useful ;). One would come within 30-60 mins. Will do. We waited hoping it would be 30 rather than 60. He turned up in 36 minutes!! The job was done in another 30( seems like the door 's hinges had worn out and the door wasn't aligned straight. So much for technical details. The man did have a passion for locks and keys - explained us three types while we kept eyeing the clock). We paid the price and noticed we were 10 minutes away from the show. 

We decided to dart for it. We scooted. We made it! Deadpool was ok( K loved it!) Huh! Avengers was mind blowing! Funny, intelligent, deep!!! A movie that made my day. Sadly we did not have time to engaged in fan tradition of waiting for  clip after the end credits since we were getting dangerously close to pick ups. 

Kids picked up and reality hit in :D

The stuff great weekends are made up of

Disclaimer:Mildly mushy post ahead from an unromantic person. The post may have ridiculous metaphors, so kindly curtail any instinct to throw up when they come.

Last weekend was simply amazing, just the right ingredients which make up a near perrrrrrrrrrrrfect weekend. Biggg Touchwood to this.

We made a trip to Liverpool, so there was the basic and the most enticing element of all - travel!Being a typical Sagi, I am nearly ever ready for a trip. And since I came here, this was one proper travel that K and I were making. I who was spending all my weekends at home back in India, was getting a chance to travel with K after so long, that I was giggling like a silly girl at the mere thought of it. Moreover, Liverpool is a World Heritage City, so the element of history added on to the travel, was like an extra dash of ginger in a warm cuppa tea :D(Boy my love for tea takes my stupid sense of poetry to new heights! )

By 0545 we were up on Saturday morning,and packed breakfast which consisted of sandwiches and fruits. I made tea for both of us, after which we were all set for the walk to the railway station. The city was a sight to behold, but what I liked best was the long walk K and I took across the Albert Dock. With the River Mersey lapping the shores and sea gulls flying overhead and pigeons abounding on the streets, it was a hmm...what I deem,a romantic walk :) What would have made the thing perfect was - Sunshine! It was cloudy and I am like Jadoo, just cant do without sunshine. Thats why I so adore Chennai weather, I can never complain about the lack of Sunshine :D. And when everyone cribs about the hot and humid weather, yours truly will be basking in the superb Sun :) Walk done, we sat  over a bench and had the sandwiches. K's idea of a perfect trip is he should eat there and sleep there. He loved sitting and eating on the benches, and if I would not have stopped him, I am sure,he would have gone ahead, asked me to kindly sit on some other bench, and enjoyed a niceeeee nap.

We took a ferry over the River Mersey, and thanks to K's choosiness, we ended up missing some seats which would have given us a good view of either side of the river. So there was a bit of roothna from me and the splendid manana from K came in the form of him getting a "corner stand" for  us (Corner stand, is like when you get a corner place for standing, and can just lean against the railings, rather than having to hold anything for balance. I loveeee window seat and corner stand :D ) Who then cares for historical sights when there is a "corner stand" and K to lean over.

The cruise done, we came to the city center for lunch. Lunch was pasty and potato wedges. I did not like it so much, I still want the onions, dhaniya powder, jeera powder,little chilli, turmeric and decent amount of salt to be part of whatever I am ingesting. Cheese, white colored food items, boiled vegetables, sauces and ketchups still do not reach the spectrum of "palatable" on my tongues spectrometer. But K's concern at seeing me trying to somehow "eat" the pasty(adj) pasty(noun) was very cute, and took the outing a notch up.

Lunch was followed by a trip in the hop on hop  off bus around the city. We killed an hour like that,but better still was the  hour we killed sucking orange popsicles at a park. Idyllic. But here, they make those popsicles out of pure orange juice, which does not leave the Oraaaanjeee color on your tongue! How pathetic is that! The whole intention of getting a popsicle is to get the color on the tongue. There is a lesson or two in adulteration that Indian Chuski makers can teach these guys, hmpf!

By the time we got home and hit the bed, we were dead tired.

Sunday....was another treasure trove.


Sunday, the intention was entirely to take it slow and low. K hit upon the idea to take me to a store which hosted a lot of Indian stuff. It was a solid 25 mins walk after which we reached the departmental store. Seeing vegetables like palak, methi, karela, raw banana- and the likes, I was all agape. Yea since I have come down here, I had not even chanced on seeing these vegetables.

When we started, K took a travel bag with him. I was like why travel bag? His answer was, you will see. And true to his words,I was mega carried away with all the Indian fares. And I did end up buying enough to stuff the entire travel bag. Shopping done, K took me to Yaadgar, a place which you wont forget in a hurry, cos the chole bhature there are to dieeeeeeeeeeeeeee for!A Punjabi granny sitting nearby, got all pally with us. And I could not help but get reminded of my dear Punju roomie dear :D I wanted to have jalebi too, but they said, they prepare jalebi in the afternoons only. Anyways, the stomach was all tubby with the delicious lunch and we trekked back. Gluttonous that we are, we saw a place which sold Paan. And as daane daane pe likha hai khane wale ka naam, the place sold jalebis too! We purchased them, and happily munched on the paan and scooted home.The splendid sights and sounds and tastes of the trip, filled me with nostalgia and longing. Cant thank K enough for taking me there.

Sunday, also luckily happened to be the day when I got the right mix to make the perfect South Indian filter coffee. Here the milk is different, the measure of sugar to be taken is different the only thing same is the coffee powder I carried all the way from India. So after 2 failed attempts, I was third time lucky.Since the coffee in the morning had come out so well, K and I were majorly tempted to have a mug full in the evening also. It was simplyyyyy divine!!!!

We again took a small stroll in the evening. And wrapped up for the day with all time movie of ours -  Kill Bill :D