💕

Because..

)(

If it's not Metallica, it's probably noise

Babes

morning stuff

Too early to be out and about, not when you're traveling though.
I do hate traveling so early in the morning, leaving for someplace at 5:30am means having to wake up at an unreasonable time of 4:00am and who does that?

If I'm complaining it's only because there wasn't much sleep to be had last night, what with the dog getting sick after midnight and other trivial cleansing activities that follow such ordeals.

My throat hurts, like someone tried to strangle me. And it's not the cold or seasonal flu or anything.

Ah well, I'll be at my parents soon, and boy that's going to be a fucking relief.
--

I do like the night mode on this phone. Its comforting sepia tint is easy on the eyes, and somehow looks nice too.
--
Did the new iPhone update solve the random blogger app crashing problem. I'm inclined to think not, but yesterday it felt like it didn't crash when I was just typing gibberish waiting for it to shut down randomly.
Perhaps I'll try writing a post on that and then see.

--
Well, this trip will last some six hours and doesn't guarantee internet signals all the way, heck I just lost edge too.
Its mostly jungles and more jungles en route.

Soon.

::

I'm a permanent resident of someone's shitty nightmare.

T(h)ings

Decked in my finest, me a finery sporting fop, and yet my picture for 'adhaar card' makes me look like a black widow readying lethal food for her unassuming sixth husband.
--

How does it happen each time that I'm peeling a juicy fat stem of ginger, its burning juices fly in a trajectory carefully aimed for my eyes and leave me hissing and writhing in discomfort.
--

So many dishes did I wash today, that my fingers turned to raisins, and my nails lost their buff sheen.
--

Dried figs and apricots are a probably my eighth sin. Thinking of putting an alarm before snacking on them, so that I know when to stop.
--

My mind engendered with a ripe drawing idea. Alas, I find myself in an environment most unsuited for endeavors that require a bit of isolation.
--

More..soon.

Rains

Rains!
The positive side of being in the center of the country is that the weather is always clement.

It's been raining for days, and will continue to do so. The winds are cool, even sunshine is mellow and warm and you need nothing save a slow fan to stay comfortable.

How can you not love this weather? Rains are best enjoyed by sitting inside, in the comforts of your home, watching fat raindrops splash against windows, forming into a trickle, enveloping lesser drops.

I play this childish game, where I pretend that water droplets are competing against each other to see which drop trickles fastest to the bottom of the window.. and I place wagers and make bets with myself.
It's a fun game when you know there's nothing to this day save look at rains.

It's now a downpour as I write this. Like sheets of water cascading down in a noisy splutter.
Waterfall from the skies.. on days like these.. sigh.. you know.
Hearts.

Unh

Apparently passport isn't enough anymore. Now you've to have 'aadhar card' as well.
And I don't have one.

So, yeah.. that exercise

Dreamzones

Dreamt that I've gone for an outing.. sans pants. What?
I got out of the car and realized my attire was incomplete. Just a t-shirt and no pants.
I don't know why I didn't go back into the car, instead I kept pulling on my t shirt to cover some virtues and walked on in a market place full of people.

Then, some film actress was living in my house or was it a hostel room? She was aghast at the grandeur of some university that we were walking in, and didn't know where to wash clothes. I told her to put them in a washing machine. She started crying and asked me to hold her. I was majorly uncomfortable doing any of that.
We walked into my friends room where everyone was hidden under the beds and when I pulled out a person he turned out to be my cousin, whom I've had no contact in for over a decade.

Strange dreams, in fact they were stranger as I recollected them in the morning. Most of them seem to have fizzled out.

And now..aha! I'm at the bank. So fun!

Phew

The wifi wasn't working for a good long while (surprise surprise) and I wasn't getting anything better than and Edge connection (gasp) and thusly my previous 'rose' post went through such horrible misshapen tragedies that my heart weeps.
Firstly it was sent a multiple times to my blog, I think each time I refreshed my mails, it was sent over and over, and worse, it was incomplete.
Yes, it kept getting sent with only half the words, minus the couple paragraphs that were at the bottom.
How bloody perplexing.

But I think I finally found a way around.
Silly things like these pain me. I'll know better than to send a mail when all I've is and edge connection.
Sigh.

Rose..

There's something to be said about roses that smell of roses..these rasping red petals so redolent of voluptuous tidings, fullness of life and scarlet dreams.

They are what the earliest drafts of Arabian Nights smelled like. 

Their scent has this syrupy sweet viscous quality that can persuade your senses into mild perversity; even trick you into thinking this world as a snug grotto of your own devices.

Rose tinted shades, as they say.

But, ah, how wonderful do roses smell. Velvety fragile folds Imbued with liquid scent that both allures and alerts (thorns) 

Negate agitate

The ultraquiet dead calm of my mute room is grotesquely slaughtered by the jarring noise of a 'ticking seconds hand' in a faraway clock.

Perhaps I could awake the sleeping citizens of this house by vigorous blinking. Imagine the din my sparring eyelashes could cause.
Or how about shuffling feet? That'd bring the house down.




Sent from my iPhone

Uh oh

It's not even 10:30am on the clock yet, and people are already on their post breakfast nap. I'm playing with the dog and fooling about on the inter web. 

This eerie stillness that comes about at an awkward time of late afternoon quickens it's pace here. Sigh..i feel like a Protozoa. 

Soon..

--/\

This phone updates more often than Tim Cook takes a dump.

G'day

Sleeping at 9:30 pm and waking at 7:00 am. Preposterous!! 

The days stretches on, and by the time it's evening, the weight of hours gone by burden dusk, so wearily, looming over twilight's shoulders, that it begins to crack under the strain of encumbering dull hours it has had to endure. 

Something to be said about these impermeable nights, armored in a drowsy chitinous membrane, that induce sleep as effectively as morphine. It's like you're breathing in a room full of alprax and no matter how hard you might try, nights wouldn't let you stay awake beyond a certain time. 

What shall I do today? Read some, do a bit of kitchening (when at the in-laws..), watch futile tv, shove some ice up my veins..ah, the choices are endless.

**

The voids ignore me and I ignore them back, little do they know I'm dying for their attention. 

Book stuff

Because why not? 

Last minute purchase at airport yesterday. This shall be my salvation during the next few monotonous days of nothing.

Perspectives

Never in any drawing in my life have I seen such perfect lines and levels and perspectives as ones illustrated by Albert Uderzo for Asterix.

Nothing absolutely nothing beats these perfect drawings. I'm in awe, have been since a child and it never fails to both flabbergast me. It's mind blowing stupefying, it's unbelievably perfect. 

T'day

Ah mornings, devoid of any flavour. If this morning were a gas it would be 'argon'. 

Banal, characterless and drab. Minus the vigor or even rigors.. blob of banality that hangs in suspended animation; throughout the day. 

Night comes, day begins and every second is a flat tone of colorless sounds.

I nosedive in alliterations marked under 'random' tombstones and resuscitate, rejuvenate and rejoice; marveling at strings of sonorous sickle song words, that slaughter and restore. 

Hearts 

Ola

I've been MIA from here for a couple days, and I hate that I've not written anything here. 

Apart from the fact that I'm terribly jet lagged, that my eyes feel like they've been anchored to my soles and that I've endured yet another flight today, things are going fine. 

I landed yesterday early morning, and a few hours of sleep later there wasn't a moment that I was breathing alone. Always surrounded with laughter, J's, cousins and a general non stop frolic laden conversations kept me from as much as even refreshing a site. 

The moment I clutched my phone, there'd be tiny hands, gruff finger, large palms trying to pry the device away from me, lest I get engrossed in anything other than a million eager talks surrounding me. 

So, I write this, while sitting at the back of a car, en route casa in-laws.

I'm so dead sleepy and tired, I close my eyes only momentarily and dreams begin to form. Ugh, it's the kind of sleep that won't let you fall asleep immediately. 

You know that time when you're so tired that the moment you relax, your body becomes numb and you get paranoid and push to stay awake in order to keep yourself from getting paralyzed with sleep. 

I think I'd need a good fifteen hours of uninterrupted coma.

/)(

Nothing in this world has travelled  more than t-shirts 

|°|

In a cimmerian alley, behind the secret code and lush desire block, there exists a territory of marvelous chaos. Its every square inch littered with a holy mess of breathtaking rune.

Scroll down..to the ends of the universe, into elysium eclectic, through a quaint wormhole in that nebulous alley.

Things

There's a world of last minute things to take care of when you're traveling out of the country, for a couple long weeks. 

You want to look into the fridge and check for any perishables that might rot and whether you can salvage them if they're not cooked right away. 

Case in point, you might remember my impulsive purchase of 3kgs worth sweet potatoes. They were a lot, and how many can a girl eat? So apart from having them for lunch, I also par baked the rest and froze them in batches. 

Ditto for tomatoes and onions, that I turned to gravy and froze. 

I also like to give the house a good cleaning, so when I return I find the world in spick and span order. But that didn't happen today, will have to get on with the cleaning chore tomorrow morning. 

Ugh, also packing is pending. 

Think I might make a checklist, lest I miss out on anything..also just remembered I shouldn't forget to take music. 

Hopefully I should remember things in order tomorrow. 

Well, at least the drawing was done with. 

Whaddya know, I just clipped my nails too. It's like something starts itching inside of my spleen if my nails grow a bit long. They get in the way of my life, mostly during chopping and playing string instruments. 

Also if I don't clip them, I might want to chew them and that's a habit I'm trying to kick. Trying being the key word. 

Sometime tomorrow late night, or day after early morning (if 2:00am is early morning) I should be in Delhi..except only this time I'm not traveling alone. 

Feels odd to travel as a twosome when mostly I'm used to traveling alone with myself. Ah well. 

Fin

Ah well, it's late and the light isn't good for clicking pictures, and I've finally finished. 

Also including the close ups. 

Will click a better picture and put it up tomorrow

hm

Listening to Commissioner Gordon talk dirty and partake in bedroom romp made my skin crawl. eew.

-still listening to Batman no man's land graphic audiobook. It's pretty nice. More of an audio drama actually.  An entire voice cast. 

ughs

Waking up on the wrong side of the bed, one that's depressive and stressful.

It's ghastly when you overthink, only to arrive at the most negative of conclusions, painting the most dramatic pictures in your head, ones that do your head no good.

Then you try to mentally console yourself, you're being silly, it can't be as bad you make it out to be. breathe now. A cheerful facade and you get back to doing whatever it is that you were doing, with that single thought still putrefying at the back of mind..tainting your day.

Ugh, I hate such days, I hate that I let myself go on that road, I hate that I'm scared.

§

It's a bag of nectarous candies, these words of detrimental cynicism..because wooden bits of pious positivity are so passé 

«¡»

Nighttime and the winds are cool

  Each night finds me in more or less the same place, similar posture, engaged in seemingly identical chore or work; even though it's a new night each night, yet it's pretty much the same. 

The only thing that sets apart these moments of bromidic uniformity is the fluid presence of immeasurably lovely words plastered in the obscure expanse of virtual nest. 

 A copper nest, honey tinted and rapture laced. Diaphanous space where hearts breathe and souls breed. 

Drawing downdate

It's slow work in progress. 

Hopefully it should finish tomorrow. Need to get an earlier head start for that

Perhaps I will do away with my second attempt at sleeping and begin the day much earlier. 

Yes, that'll have to be done. 

___

I've a bit of watercolours to drown in, where am I going with it, I know not..

This.. and hearts..soon.

auralslacks

Small issues that tend to make life overwhelmingly difficult. Annoyances rather.

I cant's find a good audiobook version of 'Best Served Cold'.
 Can't find it on any torrents. A good version isn't available on my usual go to audiobook download site (audiobookbay) and it's not available on YouTube either.

The one file that I did find is broken , and the narrator isn't the narrator I was looking for.
I mean there isn't one like Steven Pacey, there just isn't. Dare I say, he's even better than Roy Dotrice, who did GoT.
In fact after the initial complaints of the voice change in Got audiobooks (see archives) for the fourth book, when Roy Dotrice's voice was replaced by John Lee, I kind of warmed up, nay, loved this sudden new voice narration too. No matter what others had to say, but John Lee did read AFFC like a baus, and it didn't make me miss Dotrice as much.

But hold on to this train of thought, it wanders..

UPDATE: Found the 'best served cold' audiobook version I was looking for!! Finally! this one read by Steven Pacey. Yoiks! 1GB..but no matter. It could be 5 and I'd still download it.

dream drone

Ah Mornings, though I write this in noon, I didn't seem to have the time to update about a couple peculiar things about this morning reverie.

As you might be aware, general morning discipline has been rather lackadaisical; what with waking up early to pack lunch and fix breakfast and then sleep again, only to wake up a bit (late) eightish.

Those couple winks of forty or eighty also result in rather odd dreams, and I'm certain of walking the tight rope limbo somewhere between consciousness and comatose.

This morning, as I slept (the second time after early morning kitchen roulette) I heard voices and sounds. This, when I was asleep, and the sounds slowly penetrated my zzz's. The distinct sounds of door opening and closing, feet shuffling, someone walking, someone present or generally being about the house, in the bedroom, near my bed, sitting on the edge.. and I was asleep.

All these sounds I could hear in my dream, or through my dream or that they were amplified versions of some other happenings outside I could not say, but the sneaking suspicion that someone was in my house, even if it were in a dream lurked at the back of my head, and in fact it was my dream that forced me to open my eyes.
It's no easy feat, to be asleep and wake yourself up just because a demented dream is forcing you to open your eyes. My eyes felt glued shut. Of course they wouldn't open, cuz I was asleep, fast asleep, and it was a sneaky dream that forced me to pull myself out of my morning trance.

It's not like there was a ringing phone or doorbell or alarm, that'd jolt you from your sleep and make you take notice.
It was a calm sleep, and an idiotic morningmare forced me to wake up, to check if there really was someone in the house, if someone was actually sitting on the bed, whose feet could I hear? did someone enter my house, and my oh my, I pried my eyes open, and even then they wouldn't. I wanted so hard to give up and sleep, but NO.
giving it all the effort in my possession to sneak a peek through a slit that was wrenched through my eyelids to see nothing save my lashes, cuz that's how far I could open my eyes.

But I was awake, and the house was quieter than silence. No feet, no one on the bed..just faint distant sounds of streets being cleaned and rustling leaves.

I guess these soft tones of static everyday were strangely mutated to form a kaleidoscopic orchestra of spooky noises in my dreams.  

heart (s)

In the amber of a memory, fossilized a heart

it could be an infinite, had it had a start

existing as an endless

predating birth of time

adorning a carbon necklace

bejeweled in blood bright

twinkling on arid shores of aurora and asteroids

shimmering whenever a macrocosm imploded

perched on cosmic waves of antimatter tides

growing wise while stars died 

strung on celestial threads of reality

feeding on voids, added to its size

beating with pulse of chaotic activity

burdened with boundless galactic energy

compressed in blood red chambers four

sans sane outlet, nay, not even a door

t'was a lot for heart to take

no exits for excess to pour

now surely it'd burst or break

horizons stained with cosmic gore

before it burst, it did oscillate

and slowly bled to its death

Graphite gunge

Here are some more five minute doodles done with my new graphite stick. 

They're fairly muddled, so you might have to pry them one from another visually 

These were quick and perhaps next time I can make some neater ones. 

Let me know what you think. 

Maybe I can make a separate place to put pics like these. Hah :) 

-_-

💜❤️💞💗
oh sigh..
you know that moment when you've dived into a lazarus pit, made entirely out of soma..refreshing beyond belief, invigorating beyond compare and every atom wallowing in love so deep, you'd need an anchor to keep from drifting into madness.

--

Best served cold it is then. I'll download is right now.
Also, currently listening to 'Batman No man's land'

--

Narcos does make you sad..it kinda made me annoyed sad

--

those pearls, in alphabet forms..sigh..delicious ink stains, threaded in a flow of picturesque lettering.

audiobook recco

OK, I just got and audiobook recommendation 'The Way of Kings'  by Brandon Sanderson, since I'm still contemplating which new one to start with after the last one that I finished  'The last argument of kings' , and fillings gaps with audio graphic novels (which are pretty kickass).

I'm waiting for this choice to be seconded or given other options.

prudence unlimited

You needn't be stupid to act foolish or insane to do something mad.

I woke up feeling like I've walked into an entirely different realm of sagacious levelheadedness. Today would be a day logically spent, I mused to myself and got on with the day. Some time before noon I realized I've to make a quick grocery run, and that my refrigerator is probably at its wits end, and that's exactly what I did.

Spent a good hour buying choicest vegetables among other things like breads, fruits and other assorted items.

Just as I was stacking my fridge with the goods, I realized with certain unease why the innards of my my refrigerator were en route emptiness..It's because by the end of this week, before even the weekend starts, we will be out, traveling. 

There won't be a soul in this house for the next couple weeks; which is exactly why I'd stopped buying too many things, lest they perish in the frigid depths and start rotting. 

Well, whaddya know..there's going to be a green revolution in my house. vegetables and fruits are all that'll ever be eaten. I mean come on..how could I totally forget this simple fact and buy so many vegetables. I mean there's almost 3 kgs of sweet potato.

Salads for breakfast and soups for dinner. Nuff said.

Create and resent/repent or not?

It often times happens, that you might start to write or draw with a singular odd thought in you head, something along the lines on how a particular story or drawing or an artistic endeavor might progress, and you assiduously labour at that momentary lovechild, honing it, shaping it, bringing it to life so that it may exist on its own, without you ever having to bother about caring for it; however there are times, when in such process you realize not without much surprise that what you'd earlier intended to create, isn't something that you ended up spawning. 

Well, it happens to me quite a few times, or to anyone who's out there making something new. 

Your brains seizes up, and tells you to go a different route than what you'd earlier planned, and that's fine. A lot of times the end results are a lot better than your initial thoughts, and sometimes they can be downright weird..which is exactly what happened to my drawing today. 

It's a new watercolor drawing, and what it initially began as is not what It ended up being. 

It's odd, perhaps off, or not, I don't know. 

I've only finished the initial rough sketch and will probably start filling in details tomorrow but umm..what? I don't know. 

I'll click a pic tomorrow and put it up, in the meanwhile wonder if this is indeed what I think I wanted or should I let my mind meander a bit more..

Sigh. 

Hearts. 

Some some

The state that is my kitchen counter, when I'm testing recipes 

Noneday

Ah Monday, except it feels like Tuesday, and you'd wonder why? Well, because Sunday was working in China. Yessir, it was a working Sunday. 

When Chinese public holidays sprout in the middle of the week and that too 3 consecutive ones, the Govt. tends to make weekends working, that is to say all schools, offices and other things that usually shut down on weekends were open this Sunday, as in yesterday. 

So yeah, today feels like Tuesday and I do not have any love for Tuesday, but since it's Monday I shall let this pass.

--

Cold is one of those nonnegotiable infections that you can't rid of with medicines. It takes its time and slowly sucks out the joyous disposition, usual merry moods of its host leaving behind a bitter and angry temperament, that soon betters once cold is gone. 

But during the days that it stays, the world feels like a grayer, joyless depressed place. 

How can I imagine thee waking up sad? What'd cheer you up, pray tell? Another sketch? A poem? A story? Anything..

Etc

Some images from last night 

The skies were clear and the lights didn't scatter much. 

--

It's getting chilly now. Sheets are replaced by thick blankets, and it's only going to get worse.

Will start a new drawing tomorrow..I meant to start today, but then I went out running and got plenty busy after that. 

I think I might have a migraine coming, I can just feel it. My slow throbbing ache in the temples is steadily getting worse. Need to take proper precautions before it blows itself into a full on head splitting misery. 

--

Is there any way to add labels to these posts when you make them through an e-mail? I do love me some labels. 

Pencils

Stationery shopping..something I indulged in yesterday evening. 

In fact I'd visited an entire street dedicated to artistic whimsies, and the wonderful things I found there. 

Venturing into places stacked full of pens, colours, brushes, notebooks, pots of paints and odd tools makes you want to never leave. 

But leave I did, armed with a graphite stick that seemed to call out to me. 

 

How could I not lay my hands on that wonderful thing and take it out for a spin today. 

Did a few five minute doodles with this thing..

Tell me what you think? 

The second image has a few many things, uh, my I've got graphite all over my pages, my hands and well..

killing time with a time honed machete

A bit about tv series

that I recently watched but didn't write/talk about

Aquarius: I think I already mentioned about this crime drama series in some of my archives, but it's worth a second mention. Set in the late 60's, revolving around Manson family and other incidents that formed the backdrop of that time. It's a good watch.

Stranger things: You might start as a skeptical when you first watch this, but by the third episode you'll be a complete convert. It envelopes the whole 80's vibe so well, paying homage to every sci-fi horror, thriller movie of that time, it immediately pulls you in. The tint, the vibe, dialogues, settings and the music works so well. Its music deserves another mention, because they've nailed the 80's synth so honestly, and oh man I LOVE THE CASTING of that show. It's a must watch

11.22.63. : based on Stephen King's book of the same name, it's produced by King as well, which sort of nudged me to watch it. It was nice, very Stephen King, and wore that whole American culture to it like some of King's book do, that sometimes bounce off me, cuz often times I find these topics absolutely culturally irrelevant.  I kind of found this a bit of both meh and gripping at times, but that's only because the central plot or reason/topic of this entire series was not something I could relate to. It's a so-so watch.

The Night Of: An HBO series that's based on 'Criminal Justice' which was pretty good when it came out. It's a crime drama series and engrossing. Each episode is an hour long, and not necessarily a binge watch material. It's gripping and weaves a good image of the American justice system, race prejudices and how shit can hit the fan that one day in your life when you thought nothing would go wrong. It's a good watch.
____________________________

Series that I'm currently watching

Wayward pines: It started off with that blue tint, everything's mysterious, 'man lost in a town can't get out of there' kind of predictable vibe, and it didn't help matters much when the casting showed that M Night Shyamalan is behind this tv series. I didn't pay much attention, but again, a couple episodes in and it picked up, and picked up so strangely creepily that now I'm kinda hooked. Also I realized that Matt Dillon looks like a cross between a zombie and Frankenstein's monster. (I'm not kidding).  This is definitely binge watch material. It's a fantastic watch.

Inside No 9: A British Tv series that's a new story each episode. What can I say, it's uniquely creepy and exceptionally awesome. Each episode is a mish-mash of horror comedy and it's darker than pits of nights. Oh man its funny and it's dark. Brits know a thing or two about dark comedy with that bone dry humour, something I love and adore. Episodes are half an hour each, engrossing, crazy, creative, mad and cathartic. It's a must fucking watch.

(this list doesn't include anime's that I'm currently watching/watched. That is another post for another time)

Morning notes

A couple hours between early morning and morning I spent waking up every fifteen minutes to glance at the clock and sleep again, and during those extremely sleepy and waking moments I dreamt over a dozen vivid dreams. 

•  there were wolves looking for snow and they reached a field that was carpeted with a thin layer of white. A female wolf got so excited, she along with her pup ran to the white fields of snow and strangely didn't feel cold. 

Her pup was spread on the snow trying to make snow angels, but it wasn't working. The wolf picked up the snow and cried 'fake snow'. It was cotton apparently. 

•  I decided to ride my bicycle to work, and en route somehow got lost and reached some red brick ancient temples that were ridden with moss and everything about them was cool and damp. Huge banyan trees covered the temple ruins, their roots hanging from their branches, and a lot of these ruins and trees were submerged and grew out of water. There was a small pond where these ruins stood. 

I was cycling up ahead, over the steep brickwork and mossy path of the temples, and often times my cycle would float in the air and I'd touch the banyan trees and cling to them, sort of like a trapeze artists, with my cycle still intact under me, and I rode on and on

•  One of my oldest friend who's a sworn bachelor met me dressed in a completely Rajasthani ethnic garb that surprised me no end. He ushered me into his home that was tastelessly furnished with Rajasthani ethnic knick knacks and a lot of his previous furniture had been oddly upholstered with similar ethnicity. It really looked weird, and he introduced me to his wife who looked like some minor celebrity. She was overdressed in similar clothing like my friend. I fake complemented the house and they showed me a small bundle, inside which rested a small baby. It was so tiny, not even a few hours old. 

---anyway..I woke up late. I need to get out of this habit of waking up early and getting done with morning chores to sleep again.

 Is there anything more blissful than those few moments of morning sleep that feel so sweet that you'd trade all your happiness for it. 

Lunch n love

Lunch is a lazy Saturday special of one pot casserole 

--

Ugh, the starting of a seasonal cold is one of the worst things to have inflicted on your system. 

Mornings and nights being almost hellish times. Everything feels annoying, irritating and you feel like a middle finger..rest, rest and rest some more..keep hydrated and plenty of hot water.

Soupy khichdi, bowls of steaming sambhar and unapologetic amounts of ginger tea help get through these bacterial/viral afflictions. 

To hell with these infections..why can't they keep their ugly paws off beautiful things..💋❤️

Manchurian by proxy

Wish I'd clicked a better picture, but greedy hands got to it first 

Gobi Manchurian on popular demand. Ironical this, cooking up a Chinese dish that no one in China knows about..but that's how it is with food. 

Crisp and thickly coated with gravy we all know and love. 

BS

Body Shop is among one of those brands -

that I've blacklisted/boycotted from ever buying or recommending anyone to buy, for various reasons. 

• my hair and skin reject their products most aggressively

• (most important reason) I had the misfortune of shopping at their most hostile branch, managed by the most inhospitable salespeople that body shop could employ. 

 My enquiry about certain products was answered with a not so subtle corny reply, in a fruitless bid to cloak their absolute ignorance about those products. 

  A corny reply I didn't quite like, and let them know it.  

-that was it for Body Shop.

[]

I think it's almost mandatory to work on MacBooks in a coffee shop. They'd probably bar you if you've a windows laptop.

Hue and eww

You know that glossy leathery sheen which embalms each green leaf making it a shiny reflective surface of water varnished greenery, that lacquered glisten which coats even the dullest leaf after a bout of rain..washing away minuscule dust particles and resuscitating the life force of each leaflet, well, it has happened, in abundance. 

The aftermath, or rather a small spell of momentary dry intermission after three long days of ceaseless rains has left the world a gloomier, wetter, damper, cooler and somehow prettier place. 
The skies have assumed an overall grey aura, and everything that seemed matte at first glance is now reflective. 
There isn't a drop of humidity in the air, save a bite of bracing dampness and cool winds..had it not been for these chilly autumnal winds, this post would have been a long rant about humidity.

Warm weather, sunny Saturdays and bright bearings are going to a thing of the past now; Chinese winters are ruthless. 

Taking advantage of the momentary interval from rains, I went out to get rid of the trash and after a few minutes of deep breaths realized with some gross confusion how the world has been ridden with creepy crawlies. 
SLUGS, everywhere. 
Slugs, centipedes, millipedes, earthworms, other assorted worms, snails..lots of snails and other wriggly usual suspects.
That was my cue or rather eww to repair to my house immediately,  for if there is one thing that absolutely grosses me out is the sight of wriggling things. 

Back to the warm comforts of my house that is now slowly turning into a mess. 
Crumbs everywhere..but phew. At least they aren't wriggling (for now) 

⊂⊃

An aerial view of your heart..
some verse in mother tongue..
what else can a girl want?

meanwhile

when you want to shut yourself inside of you.

kill kill kill

And now torrenthound is gone too..

These are dark times.

You are not your own anymore, never were, even lesser now. censorship was already controlling the 'what you watch' aspect of things and now the 'how you watch' is controlled too. we'd be paying for our oxygen very soon..perhaps already are, what with giant sized air purifiers..

Shutting down torrent sites one after the other, just so we can pay for everything, watch it streaming, stop sharing. It wasn't just movies and series..it was books, anime's, music, audiobooks, porn, comics, games..it was a community.. It was about camaraderie, about altruism. About doing good without knowing anyone. doing good for others. Selflessness..uploading, seeding were small embers of hopeful light in a world wrought with self destruction, hate, wars, racism and selfishness.

   And they want to put an and to all of that, because apparently piracy was making it difficult for them to upgrade to diamond studded platinum platters instead of their usual 24 karat gold ones.

Oh come on, just one dime away from a corporate's pocket and they create such a  ruckus, as to destroy these little virtual messages and rays of magnanimous humanity that shone on this dying desecrated world.
Torrent sites were not hateful, they were kind and charitable. Committed to noble acts of sharing and bringing forth light to one and all.. to people with limited access. They enlightened and helped..these sites weren't thieving content. They were simply making copies, and is having two or million instead of just the one ever a bad thing?

Torrents brought awareness, popularized forgotten phenomenon's, even uplifted them to cult status..they helped spread the word. You'd think some random series/movie/book/comic/game/music from a far away country would have ever garnered such rapid acclaim and idolization had it not been for torrents?

GoT would have not been a household name, had kat.cr not existed to distribute it freely to every acne ridden hormone fueled teenager, bored husbands and desperate old men..and I cite this as just a small example.
The only reason why 4th world people living in 5th world squalor know of every Beyonce song is not because of its repeated airplays on Mtv, but because of torrents. Is it really that hard to understand?

You kill torrents, you kill your chances at ever being this popular and recognized..anything for that matter.

Have fun being a part of dark ages..for you know not how evil can mutate itself into the most unforeseeable forces of calamitous future.
Things never go the way you expect them to go. 

rage

Alright, so here's a real frustrating situation

I opened the chrome browser app on my phone to write a blog, and typed in 'blogspot.com' and it directed me to an already existing long defunct blog page. Well, I signed out of that and it led me to a new google sign in page.

So I signed in, using a different email address, and again went to the blogger.com address, except this time it opened the same long defunct homepage of my old blog. 

Well, I want to sign in with a different e mail into a different blog.

I've signed put of that place a hundred times and yet each time that I want to log in with a new address it opens the same homepage of an already existing blog. It just refuses to understand that maybe I'd like to be given the option to sign in to a blog and see a blogger.com sign in page that expects me to log in or sign in or some similar shite.

The moment I type in blogger.com, it redirects me to my old blog homepage, and this after signing in with a new e mail address each time. I don't understand why this idiotic google doesn't understand that I need to sign in to a different blog, instead of the same old blog it keeps throwing at my face, and refuses to sign me out of that. 

WHAT THE FUCK!!! GOOGLE, 

IT'S SO FRUSTRATING, THAT I CANT SEEM TO OPEN YOUR BLOGGER SIGN IN PAGE!

why must you redirect each attempt at opening blooger.com to an already existing blog's homepage, one that I don't use anymore???, when I've signed out of there a thousand times already.

I want to log in to a different account and gain access to a different blog. is it so hard to understand????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

UPDATE ON THIS MADNESS:

I DELETED THE STUPID APP AND DOWNLOADED IT AGAIN, AND NOW IT FINALLY SHOWS ME A BLOGGER SIGN IN PAGE INSTEAD OF REDIRECTING ME SOMEPLACE I DIDN'T WANT.

WTF GOOGLE? YOU THINK YOU KNOW ME SO WELL, THAT YOU'D SEND ME PLACES I HAVE NO BUSINESS BEING, THAT YOU'D REFUSE TO SIGN ME OUT OF THERE A HUNDRED TIMES OVER, THAT YOU'D NOT UNDERSTAND THAT I HAVE ANOTHER BLOG THAT I MIGHT NEED ACCESS TO VIA BROWSER?

FUCK YOU! YOU'RE SO FUCKING SHITTY THAT YOU DON'T EVEN UPDATE YOUR BLOGGER APP., THE ONLY SANE THING TO COME OUT OF YOUR HIDEOUSLY INVASIVE PIECE OF GONORRHEA RIDDEN DOLLAR BUTTS!  

I SPENT TWO HOURS JUST TRYING TO SIGN OUT OF A BLOG PAGE AND YOU DIDN'T LET ME! YOU JUST DIDN'T! THIS AFTER NEVER SIGNING IN TO YOUR CHROME APP USING MY E MAIL ADDRESS. THIS IS HOW HIDEOUSLY SHITTY YOU ARE! 

FUCK YOU GOOGLE! FUCK YOU UP THE ASS SO HARD THAT YOU CAN'T EAT FOR A FUCKING MILLENNIA. 

Dreams and such

One needs to delve in further and understand a little more about these dreams that mainly concern broken teeth. 

Night was a spectrum a of a million dreams but the one that stayed with me was where I watched someone suffer the agony of broken teeth, and I don't know how it affected me in the dreams that I suffered it too. 

Oh there was blood, so much blood. Dribbling from the corners of my mouth, copious amounts of blood filling my whole mouth, as my teeth broke. 

There were betel nut sized bell peppers that were lodged between my teeth and gum and they were the culprits behind the breakage, and oh man, I couldn't understand why there was so much goddamn blood. 

Once all of it was clean I inspected my mouth closely and saw what I'd expected, a lot of my teeth were gone, and a voice in the background suggested I get fake ones. 

What in earth? 

Another dream before that was when I was at the beach and I heard faint voices shouting for help. They were faint but they screamed 'help'. I opened my eyes, it was about 5:00am and there was a faint meow in the background. 

It was the cat, meowing in a whisper, not out of pain, but because he wanted to be let out of the house, which is what I did, and went off to sleep again. 

Dreamt of broken teeth and woke up really late. 

--

Moon festival holidays have started, and will keep on for the next three days. Let's see what this break and changed weather have to offer us

--

Tried the app bloguma and it's pretty ridiculous. 

You end up typing in a single file, and words disappear at the corner of the screen. 

You can't see what you've already typed and how you've typed. New para's line formats mean nothing, I guess you can see them in the end result but not as you type. 

Ok, I'm writing this on notes and will paste this on blogger app. If that problem still persists and doesn't figure itself out, I'll  mail posts to blogger. 

Do I want to change it into a wordpress? Hmm..I don't know. Something about existing on the same blogging platform feels warm, assuring and endearing. 

Wht?

This is some serious issue I have here on my phone now. 

My blogger app shuts down in the middle of writing and everything I've written is wiped out. 

I mean one moment I'm typing, and the other I'm on my home screen, and all the stuff I've written if gone. 

Is this the new update issue or has this blogger app become redundant? 

Either ways it's mighty annoying. 

Is there a solution? 

Book fiend habits numero dos and other things

On the one hand I feel like reading something totally Yasunari Kawabata or Orhan Pamuk and on the other I feel like I should read something Neil Gaimanish or Chuck Palahniuk sorts.

Perhaps I'll get a book that's a bit of both or get two different ones at that.

Decisions decisions

   I'm unable to read a lot of books at the same time, or leave a book half read for that matter.
The only variable in this case is probably that I can listen to a different audiobook in parallel, apart from reading a book, and immerse in some comic books apart from that.

So if I'm committed to a book, well, I'll be a one book woman for that time until I finish it.

The last book I read was 'knees up Mother Earth' by Robert Rankin, and I tried hard to stretch this reading journey by only trying to read a few pages everyday, but that was near impossible because that book was ludicrously comical and deeply engaging. I think many a nights I hugged the book as I slept, hoping for its smells to permeate my being, for its fingerprints to implant themselves on my person. A bit creepy, but that's how it is.


Ok, so I've go the blogger app on my iPad as well as phone now (I just transferred it) , and as we know that app has certain limitations, apart from the fact that it doesn't update, you can't even sync it for two different blogs. As in you can't switch to write in to another blog..so apart from syncing my blogs to my mails (I do as I'm told), I have now the added advantage of using the same app on two different gadgets; which I now use to write two separate blogs.

Apart from that I use the basic Notes app on iPhone to write. It sometimes includes my grocery list, or phantasmal words that were translated from thoughts mid sleep, or even ideas on what next to draw. Basically I use it as a note..from writing gibberish alphabets to ten page stories.

Apart from that I've two small diaries that I use to pen down things, days, details and what not.

--

It's been raining since last night, and not the ferocious pelting raindrops, but rather a steady flurry of dew drops, but this has put a damper on my running plans today, and thus rather foolishly I opted for a 40 minute at home full body cardio workout, and I'll have to say running is a better bet..because it isn't half as tiring. I mean running for 40 minutes doesn't make me feel like I'm knock knock knocking on satan's door.

Ok, So I run at a steady pace for about 6 kms and I do it about 3-4 times a week.

Apart from running I do some light exercises at home on my trusty Yoga mat. Some squats, some lunges, some jumping jacks and plenty more. And I keep mixing them up, but today inspired by some Herculean will, I decided on a full 40 minute workout, and by the gods, I was a puddle of sweat after the first 20 minutes, by the time it was finished I think my muscles felt cemented. God knows what kind of agony I will see myself in tomorrow..hopefully not much.

--

What I really like about the new iOS10 update is the musical montage thing it does with your pictures. it was kinda cheesy cute and nice..

I had to turn on the keyboard sounds just to hear them click.. which they do with such a murmuring gluck.  It does sound a lot better, but it's back to being mute again.

Pressing home button is a bother, cuz I'm so used to swiping, I end up with the camera mode each time

--

Some profiles are to die for, and some worth living. (hearts)

Cattales

With my darling, for my darling 

Layered

Rainy day bliss

::

If nature intended for you to be fat, then water would have had calories. 

Night time tittle

Afternoon sky

There's no reason why I'd want to put up this picture at midnight, while I lie on the bed, feigning sleep, or rather while sleep feigns me. 

It's impossible to force yourself to sleep when sleep isn't on your system's agenda. 

You might be tired, your shoulder blades throbbing with searing ache, your hamstrings screaming in agony, your triceps raw with displeasure, but the moment you decide to give yourself a well deserved shut eye..well, that's exactly what you don't get.

The irony being that when you are at your sleepest best, it's already time for wakey wakey. 

Perhaps everything is a joke, but it's not a funny joke, and just cuz it's a joke doesn't mean it deserves a laugh. 

If I start writing poetry in a while, then know this, I'm having a pretty shitty night. 

I know what, I'll mentally start designing a menu for tomorrow. 

Lunch is already figured out. It's sitting in the fridge. 

I've only to figure out breakfast which I'm thinking should be some sort of a single serving frittata and dinner..mm..black rice perhaps. 

Imma mull it over. 

Good night world. 

Oh bother

Bothersome shite: 

Flimsy VPN. Blank IP location and still shows connected, fooling poor saps who harbour the illusion that they're connected to the world, when in fact this VPN connection is more extinct than a dodo. 

A very sick Gogi. Who can't even walk, who was in the animal hospital for over a week because his leg was terribly mauled to the bone in a fight. He's in such agonizing pain that it makes me weep just to watch him try to stand up. (It hurts me so much that it's a bother, if I find that cat who's done it..he'll regret he was ever born) 

The following bothers are image less but they're bothersome no less: 

• pest infestation of my flower plant. A white coloured fluffy looking disgustingly gross pest that has invaded the stalks of my beautiful 7am flowers. I'm ridding them using mild detergent water, to weaken their shells from the alkaline.

• a leg muscle that I pulled yesterday from running, as I was trying to evade a vehicle that showed no respect for zebra crossing. 

• I've no new book to read 

• don't get enough sleep and my body seems allergic to napping.

• upcoming Chinese holidays for moon festival starting day after tomorrow, that might turn my house into a zoo, since long weekends call for animal like sloppiness from a certain resident. 

• can't find my white ceramic quarter plate. 

• morning schedule is out of whack. I wake up early and fix breakfast and pack lunch and go to sleep again, cuz my body feels exhausted from no sleep, and then I wake up after eight which feels miserable. 

• the new reed diffusers I bought are no good. They evaporated before you could say lo! And now I'm going to make some of my own because I'm pissed at these shop bought ones 

• for all the hate I possess for IKEA, I really need to go there and buy a couple of essentials for home, and then I can go back to hating on it. (But goddamit I do hate IKEA. I'll put a more detailed post on that) 

• I feel like eating 'haldiram's bhujiya'. In fact I feel like eating two packets. 

• I've been barred from my anime torrents account because my download ratio is more than my upload ratio, and I've to increase the latter ratio to gain access again. Jeez, this irks me no end

• finding a wet bath towel hung on a dining chair. EVERYDAY! 

• constantly running out of meal ideas, not a good sign considering I've got to cook everyday. 

• dead torrent sites

It's a bottomless list, and there's more..there's always more. 

Shark tank

Mornings, when your thoughts wander into the fringes of the abyss and come back as mere shadows. 

They scrape in cruddy filth of loathsome dark alleys secreted away in the dingiest prisons of your memories. They excavate through blotted out and lapsed mines of ancient miseries, they unfurl iron curtains that've permanently barred an obliterated center stage of vicious thoughts. 

They tinker with mental alarm bells that you've subconsciously put on a permanent snooze and tried with a ferocious might to forget. 

Thoughts are a concrete fallacy. They exist and they don't. Deceptive, receptive, willful and wicked. 

To muse in the mornings is to thread through your veins with a blunt knife. 

In bud in bloom

a set of two 

v'la deux

you know they knew

when I thought of you 

coffee coven

I'm not exactly a coffee maniac, as you might know, and a quick dip into my archives would substantiate these claims, that moi is a tea person; however, there are times in a day when I do feel like a bit of coffee.
This time is usually post lunch for me, as it is the case wth most people.
I do not begin my day with coffee, and most certainly don't end it with one, but during the interval or intermission of a day, I sometimes do feel the need for a good cup of coffee. NOT INSTANT coffee, but some decent hot coffee, usually a pour over coffee or Moka pot brewed coffee.

Moka pot brewed coffee does involve a bit of washing up, and my desire for coffee does seem to be aided by a bit of harmless laziness, which is why I usually opt for some decent pour over.

I have on my person a packet of fantastic Espresso Colombian beans that exude the most coffee caffeinated aroma, which sends the whole house warming with superior coffee roast perfume. It's like an invigorating incense that energizes your faculties no end, or perhaps that's just how coffee beans are supposed to behave.

There's no animosity or hatred towards instant coffee, in fact I rather love its aromatic hues, and some might even argue that the best cold coffee (one that's made in a blender with copious amounts of milk and sugar) is one made out of instant coffee, and in fact my brother usually prefers his hand made cup of hellish instant over a moka pot brewed cup, and he isn''t alone in thinking that.
I guess instant is the kind of taste that most people relate to being like coffee more than proper coffee; also the added bonus of making it as sweet and thick and milky as you'd like, instead of watery pour over or moka pot brew.

What was the whole point of this post? Absolutely nothing! Not everything needs to have a point, plus I'm filled to the gills with fresh coffee and I guess it's doing that thing it does.

Past repast

About a weekend gone past-

 I found myself in a quick getaway from Shanghai, a few hours drive, in a city called Suzhou, part of Jiangsu province 

Also sometimes known as the 'Venice' of China, due to its system of canals and houses constructed along its banks. 

It was beautiful and green and had a good number of ancient or old gardens and scenic spots. A lot of them were UNESCO heritage, and they were breathtakingly beautiful. 

Like this bonsai garden. Why not? Such beautiful teeny bonsai. This was a place called Tiger Hill. 

It was an old town, and I loved the yellow here, absolutely irrelevant, but it had such a romantic old vibe to it. 

No, I wasn't a part of any boating shenanigans, but it's does make a pretty picture. 

Female version of 'Buddha', known as 'Tara'. 

These fruit offerings were plastic. How do I know? I touched them of course.