running through my head

 I have half a mind to take this machine out of this cold room and to my sunlit lounge but soon the sun will set and am I interested in climbing up and down with a laptop? plus this room has my music system. 

Right, so today!

It's been alright.

I was not so busy, the house is sparkling and smells gorgeous and I have figured out this trick to utilising my room fresheners better. 

Now, I spray a smidgen of the fresheners on the mops as well, this way when I clean the floors the fragrance disperses in every corner of the house and keeps my entire casa smelling fragrant that is both mellow and long-lasting. 

You can try this trick with essential oils as well, but seeing how oils are so concentrated I prefer doing this with room fresheners.

I have pictures to edit, my sore arms from todays' workout to nurse and the coffee I made sits cooling on the dining table because I forgot to bring it up with me. 

Hmm

developments

 A little update on how things have fared till now.

I didn't get my workout in. It was an afterthought after having finished my warmup.

I thought why on earth should I not get a couple days off and relax seeing how I have dealt with injuries before and this might not be anything big, I do not wish to aggravate it. Perhaps Wednesday onwards I'll begin my routine.

Also, there's a breakdown of the drier at home and my morning was spent in hysteria. The technician comes in tomorrow at the same time as my workout. 

I look at it as some sort of intervention, because even now as I type I can feel the sensation in my left heel. I think I will give it a massage and maybe some icing.

Today, I have decided to launch full throttle into the miseries of domesticity.

First I will make bread dough so as to bake bread at night and also I will bake a large orange cake because 1) I have a surplus of oranges and 2) there are some plates I have which belong to my friend and I wish to give them back, but not without something sweet.

The weather as I type this goes mellower by the word and the birds are having a field day, tittering and probably gossiping about the lazy cats who live in the house right across their nests.

Today I wish to be outside.

In a mood to sit on the balcony with my coffee before getting on with anything.

--

ancillary justice!!

well, well well. 

I wait for updates about how much or how little you're enjoying it.

 

memo hush

 The only reason I look forward to cooking dinner these days is because of the audiobooks I have taken to listening in the kitchen while cooking and can I just say, what a revelation it has been.

I am now on 'ghost stories' and after that, there is ancillary mercy and we shall see what comes next after.

So this was a little update before I left this space, that is my work station for the day to tend after my house cats, some outside cats who have meowed outside my door to let me know that it's their dinner time and water some plants, before finally lighting some scented candles at the entrance of the house and in my home and a bit of laundry which I forgot to do this morning.

I know! this is a whole lot and it is but who said anything about downtime? This is HIIT in real life. 

all the updates

 So here we are, a little past four and I'm preparing to go nowhere with today because it's been a waste in terms of getting my work done, everything else has been fine.

I am slowly getting into the zone of fixing my timings especially regarding the workouts and the earlier I start the better it is. Of course, all the stars have to align for that to happen but today I was done by 11:40 which is good. I was able to do an hour-long intense cardio session with a long cool down.

The only thing I lagged behind in was lunch but still got done by 1 and I'm trying to somewhat cut some more corners so as to be able to start eating before 1 at the very least.

Tomorrow I might miss out on my workout because I'm going to spending the day with a friend who's leaving the country day after and we are making bread together so that she has something fun to eat during her quarantine and I'll make her lunch/dinner. She's very interested in eating the palak curry we make and tomorrow that's exactly what I'll do for her.

I have also cut out coffee from my days, however, tomorrow will be an exception since she's a coffee fiend and what not.

The house looks shiny, the cats are all asleep because it's cold, oh so cold today and I am in the mood for a small cup of hot chocolate.

Tomorrow is Friday..you know what that means! A large mug of tea. I mean these are little life enhancers for me and I try to stick to these wee joys in life because to me these are indeed celebratory.

My friend who was greatly peeved at me for having missed spending new years with her is adamant we celebrate it again this Saturday at a bar she has discovered and who am I if not all for festivities all the time.

Thinking about dinner starts giving me a headache and what will it be tonight?

I cannot keep coming up with different foods each night and today it will be mixed veg with paranthas because that's what I feel like or maybe I'll just make stuffed paranthas. How does cauliflower paranthas sound? Yummy!! Maybe that's what I'll make. 

Off to make some hot chocolate!!

Over and out!]

how about it then? eh! today!!

 Today has been such a Monday!

I can't even form sentences in my head because of how weirdly busy I have been today.

There's a cat doctor about to make rounds of this compound today and I have to show my littlest one because he's developed some sort of itch near his mouth and I'm not sure if one can apply topical cream there because he might lick it.

Apart from that, it's bizarrely cold and for a moment there I felt it might be sunny but no sooner had I assumed that it got overcast and has stayed so.

Wow!

No sooner had I typed this that it began to rain.

Is it one of those opposite days?

I hope not.

In the mood for some coffee?!

Maybe. My heart is undecided and my mouth is losing its tastebuds because I don't know it feels bleh.

So I was interrupted as usual because of the cats who are always somehow hungry and they wouldn't let me have a moment to myself because how dare I?

time tales and listens

Hello darling afternoon
are you here inflicting your horrible perseverance
is there anything I have fallen short of?
no chore left on the task list
and how is it that I have time
to pursue my small needs
of binge-watching and reading
while listening to heartbeats on a loudspeaker

update bits

Friday evening soon cometh and I have half baked plans that might or might not reach fruition, not that I'm too hung up on them but it ould be fun to follow through.

Right now I'm baking a German bread cake topped with fruits and streusel and I don't even know if it's a real German recipe but what of it?

The dogs need walking and the weather doesn't seem too promising, what with overcast skies and all.

I've been itching for some gossips.
:) 

bits and bobs

To coffee or not to coffee but before you answer let me make you aware that I've already had a small cup after lunch and yet somehow I still crave it.
What madness be this?
I'm not sure if it's the coffee I feel like drinking or its aroma that I want wafting around me because I most certainly like the way it smells and all the residual beans get filled into a jar and sit in my washroom scenting that space like Starbucks which does at times confuse many a guest.

----

I have reached a certain breaking point of neurosis wherein I've begun weighing sugar by the spoonful that I will allow myself to consume each day and I think this might be the onset of some sort of psychological sickness.
Maybe I should talk myself out if it or teach myself to drink sugarless tea and coffee but somehow I need my caffeinated beverages that are exactly two in a day or sometimes three, none exceeding more than 170mls to be sweet. Not sickly sweet but sweet. Say 1.5 tsps per beverage.

Ah, I need to clear my head and contemplate something other than coffee or maybe I'll just say screw it. Who knows?

-----

I hate that I've lost photoshop and I do not seem to have fallen in love with editing photographs on gimp. It just doesn't have the same comfort for me.
maybe I'll try downloading photoshop on another windows laptop because at this stage with the work that I'm doing it's absolutely necessary.

timely pin pricks

Who me?
Uh, scheduling blogs, charging gadgets and contemplating ironing.
Long travel plans tomorrow and as easy as they are due to the often repeated exercise they always lend a bit of anxiety what with the packing and the what not.
You don't want to forget anything and last moment unrealisingly there are oft one too many things.

Case in point music.
Despite all my misgiving for long flights, I'm actually excited to test out my new Sony Walkman USB (?) as opposed to the much loved Sony walkman headphones that I'm wont to carry.
Granted I'll have to lug around rather large garishly pink headphones along but they're easily and neatly folded into a small case and yes I'll have an extra case to carry but it doesn't look like it's going to be an inconvenience at all.

The only thing now is to shove in some music and I haven't transferred a lot of new music to my machine, a mistake I deeply regret.
I think once I'm back home I'll get some more music from my brother's collection but for now, there are some favourites, some tracks I've not much listened to and there has to be aeroplane friendly music which upgrades my flight experience.
Often times I fall asleep listening to music and then suddenly there's Dave Fafara screaming in my ears from a song I'd easily have listened to during any other day to strengthen resolves and exalt mood but definitely an ear sore when I've finally drifted into sweep world two in the morning.

Right, a bit of almond milk spice brew action now because it's been almost three weeks since I've given up on caffeine and I hope to keep it this way for a few more days.

Soon..

updates and all

Well, whaddya know!
I'm back, I'm tired and I'm hungry, even though I had lunch which I felt was not enough even though it was.
Fun wouldn't be the exact word to explain it but it wasn't boring and it was, well, decently engrossing, though I'd say that it was the mothers of the kids who were more interested in learning what I had to teach and don't get me started on the exclamations emitted in gasps of wonderment when I dotted a page with different colors to show how wet on wet works. It's not like I was conjuring fireworks, except it was something so new to everyone that almost the entire time everyone only experimented with that one technique.
I guess watercolours do that to you.
Though my biggest gripe was that very few people brought proper watercolour paper. Almost everyone had regular sketching sheets and No, it's not going to do the trick but I found a way around that and once I gave them drawn out stencils of watermelons and bananas on proper watercolour paper they realized what they should've brought instead and even made notes.
Almost every parent was convinced that their child would be the next Dali and I didn't want to rain on their parade.

But seriously kids have the attention span of a dead mosquito and most of them decided to write their names on sheets and experiment with mixing colours in a way that it felt like there was mud splashing over their pages.
Anyhoo, done and dusted and now I crave caffeine, but settling for a rooibos tea instead cuz purge week.

Tell more, lots of things. I miss..

cat-atonic

Say one thing about the changing weather, say it affects animals most oddly.
Case in point my dearly beloved cat, who had donned a cloak most saintly during winters only to shed it and turn into something wholeheartedly demonic.
I slept mostly fitfully during those crisp winter months when the feline darling didn't dare venture out nor fling his person from the cottony hillocks of my thick duvet about the house in nocturnal rampage as cats are usually wont to. Instead, he silently munched his meal before folding into a furry mound of slumbering pussy, tucking seamlessly between the warmth of my body and the covering of fat blanket, and now that the weather is all sorts of pleasant with sunshine and cool breeze, the little bastard sleeps in a coma throughout the day, perched in odd places about the architecture and turns into an entity most cutely beguiling at night. Sleep is as far away from his mind as the sun from this planet and he derives some sadistic pleasure from torturing me throughout the night by waking me up at odd hours for food, even though he's been fed and not once but in intervals of every couple hours, completely disregarding the fact that his bowl still has some food.
If not that then waking me up to play with him, to run after him in a grotesque fashion of nightly hide and seek, where I, a zombie, try to chase him out of the house while he, a goddamn asshole, runs about ducking under couches and beds, evading me and when in a final vexation of anger and exasperation I lock him out of the bedroom to get some sleep, he meows in a voice most pitiful, resounding with a need to be loved and so dismal are his meows that even though I kow I'm going to get fooled into his tricks I open the door only to have him scurry away in an invitation to play his games.
When finally I catch him and throw him out of the house, he looks up at me in that similar touching, almost hurt eyes that I begin feeling like a monster and knowing full well that he's only going to annoy me once back in the house I let him, to have the entire night repeat itself and did I tell you the clock reads 2:30 am, and this continues till nearly five when I finally fling the fucker out with nary a remorse and fall back into deep deep sleep because by the heavens my body almost feels like it's breaking in places.

I just don't get it. It's been two nights and I'm functioning on fumes.
There has to be a way out of this and I will find it.

More updates on this soon.

last moment imp.

I've somehow never added an audiobook to my travel music. I think the reason being that I use Sony headphones and I can't really see what's playing and I can't forward or rewind parts that I've heard or missed out on. 

I mean If I pause it and say the batteries die it won't start back from where I left and I can't really see which part I need to push ahead to.

I mean I could put the new Dresden files audiobook but I'd hate to lose the flow as I did for 'blade of Tyshal' which is why I'm aching to go back to drawing and finishing the rest of it.

Ho hum. Music then. 

I'm putting a lot of lounge and jazz, well not a lot, but a bit because sometimes during moments of incoming sleep you need something non-disturbing to keep playing on in your ears without having to be engrossed in it. Nujabes is among my top choices for this, seeing how my flight will be late at night and hopefully, I'll be asleep during most of the part.

cuecat nighttime nopes

It seemed like such a nice night too, what with turning in bed early and anticipating an efficient effortless sleep, the only thing I forgot to factor in was the cat who is pretty much invisible if he doesn't want to be seen and he was nowhere about last night; sometime between reaching that absolute drowsy moment I heard a meow that meant itself to be heard, emanating from a window sill next to my bed.
It's the cat's way of informing that he's about to reach the balcony and that I like a dutiful slave should open the balcony door and let him in.

First order of business as soon as he came in was food, and knowing the ever starving darling I was quick to oblige, my head still knocking on sleep's door I went about this business as quick as I could, lest I miss the sleepy window.
Just as I was about to go all in a slumber mode, the cat meowed again, this time next to my head, obviously asking for something.

Second time I had to drag myself away from almost sleeping, trying to figure out the nature of his meows and position of his head I figured that his cat food wasn't enough and that the little bugger wanted a sort of tuna carnival.
Fine cat, here's your tuna, now I gotta sleep and so I muttered and went back to my bed. This time of course sleep wasn't as forthcoming, nor as kind as I'd last seen it. I was just beginning on my fifth toss to find that cozy spot that nursed me to sleep, that he meowed again.

What? I growled, albeit a lower decibel growl, for people were sleeping.
More food apparently. Fine fine, here it is, now I beg thee, my sweetness, please let me sleep.

It was already half past one and I waited some more time lest the cat wake me up again in need for some other refreshment, and I did see him stride into the room, landing ever so softly on my side of the bed, purring deep, coming in for a head bump, his way of showing affection, leaning in for a caress before forming into a ball and sleeping next to me.
My anger was a thing of vanishing retrospect when I heard him softly purr on being petted.
How could I ever be upset with this lovely little furball?
Surely I'm a monster, and with these thoughts, along with a resounding Phew! in my head I tried to sleep, and it did take time, but I was almost there, and I could swear I was in between dreams when I heard noises, odd sounds, which I knew to be exactly what they were. It's Gogi's way of trying to wake me up without obvious meowing by scratching at things, jumping on floors,  loudly galloping like a horse from one room to another to the point that someone takes notice, and usually that someone is me, for I'm a bad sleeper.

Almost three, and he wanted to be let out.
Deep sigh tainted with murderous leanings. Alright pussy cat, out you go and maybe now I can sleep a little. Finally!

Sleep they say is for the wicked and people who don't own cats, for sometime around five there was a meow again, coming from outside the main door.
I had given up on sleep by now, and to say that I cursed would be to put it very feebly because I was annoyed to the very roots of my hair.
Irritatedly throwing open the doors, prepared to launch a mouthful of explicits at my cat and I almost broke down in tears at noticing that the poor creature was drenched and cold.

You poor baby, my sweet darling, what has happened to you?
Apparently it had begun to rain sometime after I let him out and the little thing got caught in the torrential downpour. How he made his way from wherever he was indulging in his nighttime reverie to my door is anyone's guess, but man he was wet and sad.

A quick toweling down, some food, a bit of milk and warmth under my sheets huddled next to my body where he immediately slept and I along with him.

None of us woke up till it was almost 8. I was late for the day, but that's alright.

The cat is still in the house, sleeping beside me while I type this on my study table.

It's raining still and will continue to do so for the rest of the day, including tomorrow and probably the whole month. It's rainy season here and I'm looking at a lot more similar sleepless nights.

Perhaps I should change my sleep cycle to match Gogi's. This way we could both be happy.

Metaphorical pillow talks

A day so long, you wonder if it'll span through your entire life. 

Still raining, still dark and cool enough to have cold feet ( in the literal sense that is) 

I'm loathe to confess that I'm on my second cup of tea..when was the last time I had two cups or glasss of tea? Perhaps last year October, before I fell miserably sick, but that's past, and I've gotten so much better 

I really need to start typing things on computer instead of just writing them all down. I mean won't I have to type this stuff again on the machine someday? 

Talking of typing, I'm absolutely under the rock in regards to 'journalism story from Morning post'. 

Will have to look for it. 

Writing, writing, writing, a bit of work thrown in and writing some more. 

God I wanna do a bit of drawing. How long has it been since I drew my vintage sparrow..need to do a bit more stuff.

Also..what audiobook shall I listen to now? 

Some recommendations become my top most life priority.  How strange is that? Strange and lovely..

Thistle throat and waking dreams

Morning was a welcome break from the worn out excuse for a sleep that I was subjected to last night. 

The entire night was an episodic saga of toss and turns, because my throat felt funny. 

Imagine swallowing a length of sandpaper and letting its abrasive surface rub against the tender flesh of your gullet. 

That's the closest I can come to describing this caustic feel that has taken resident in my throat most unpleasantly since last evening.

A series of broken dreams punctured by waking moments where I felt like I should slice my throat with a marshmallow or something similarly soft. 

This one dream 

Had me playing a 'move' game on PlayStation 3 with a colleague whom I don't even like all that much in real life . It was a shooting game and instead of the move control I had a gun. 

I had to shoot people wearing plague masks, and we were playing it on a projector. 

I decided to go home, but my friend (not colleague in this dream) insisted I call a cab since I was drunk. 

I don't remember drinking. 

Now the big issue was how to tell the cab guy the house address cuz the houses had no address, they were distinguished by the colour they were painted in, and this house that we were in was an unremarkable white, flanked by a yellow and another white coloured house. 

I decided to chuck the cab idea and ride my bicycle instead.

So my colleague/friend agreed and I rode this bicycle down the stairs cuz it'd be faster than walking.

I could see myself pressing the breaks ever so gently. My friend was riding pillion and when I'd finally reached the bottom of the stairs, she remembered she forgot to pick up some luggage and went back upstairs. 

I rode out leaving her behind, and it was so bright that I shut my eyes hard. So hard that I woke up. 

Woke up to the most irritable throat, irritable self. 

bad habits, music and updates

My new Dinosaurs are kinda exasperating. Can't get their scales right, I mean come on..they're scales. Nothing as difficult as that and I can't seem to get them in a flow.
Today's just not my day.. and I'm listening to the final audiobook in the series of 'first law books'. Loving it and wondering what's going to happen now..and talking of listening.. Nat Geo music is absolutely one of the nicest music channels out there and has been on air for some years now.
I remember spending a particularly hot summer in India, a few years back, cooped up in the house with a small circle of friends, in a haze of craze with this music channel playing non stop.

They played 'golden cobra' quite often and that was one reason my brother didn't want the channel changed.

and talking of nicotine..

..I have kicked it so hard, flooding a new packet with some H20, rendering them all but useless and dumping the allure of cancer sticks in a garbage bin.. and regretting my decision not two minutes later.
But things must be done, cuz they need to be done.
Vices, as fun as they are result in a lot of needless ache. ugh.

---
What's this disturbing trend among people to dress up and get clicked as Freida Kahlo? Instagram has been throwing a dozen images at me of accounts supposedly into high art of some sort, pose as Freida..I mean come on!!

Summer escape roundups

One of those things I absolutely love to do in summers to keep me cool is freeze a lot of watermelon pieces in the freezer and put those frozen pieces into a blender and whizz the mixer on max until all frozen watermelon is an insanely awesome watermelon slushie/smoothie. No added sugar, no nothing. Just watermelon in its frozen glory. 

on the dirt trail and killing time..finding things

Well, whaddya know? I've got a brand new internet connection that's supposedly fast..at least thats what they said on the packet..and I'm taking this baby for a trial run.

With few things to do in my new house, there isn't much unpacking to do considering my packed boxes haven't reached here yet..so cleaning was my only and not to mention my favourite option and past time. Come on, you've shifted into a new house you gotta do a spot of cleaning.
Since yesterday I've cleaned my house thrice- top to bottom, and each time I find something new to clean that was overlooked in the previous cleanliness endeavor..like a new dirt revelation. (How fun [eye roll]) In my cleanliness drive I have uncovered a few many items that the previous renters have left behind..just the way some new renters in our previous house will find a few too many items that we've left behind.

So based on these items and myriad of things that I've uncovered I've come to figure out a bit more of the previous tenants.

I know for a fact that they were a Japanese couple.

How you ask?

1) My first theory that this place was previously occupied by a couple.

• There's an exercise table in the house..obviously it's too bulky to lug around..so it was rather unceremoniously left behind. Bang right in the middle of the living room, and along with it was a number of dumb bells and weights. 
• There are a number of tool boxes and half finished wooden projects.
• men sized t-shirts and men's socks'

- I can safely assume that a man lived here

• There are a number of scented candles
• A lot of crafts tape and sewing materials
• women's hair in the vacuum cleaner left behind (the vacuum cleaner was in a pretty bad condition and I've thus sacrificed it to the technology valhalla)
• women's hairbands

- I can safely assume there was a woman

And the biggest giveaway was a couples bathrobe abruptly left hanging in one of the bathrooms.

2) My second theory that this place was previously occupied by a Japanese couple.

• Well, there are a lot of Japanese folks living in this neighbourhood
• a number of dead tech from obscure Japanese company is left behind
• lot of knick knacks and adornments around the house are Japanese
• left behind are some cookware that are exclusively used in Japanese cooking.
• Japanese style house slippers

- I can safely assume they were a Japanese couple.

3) My third theory that they might have had a child too.

• One of the rooms has a really cute single bed
• A nifty study table which isn't exactly the professional kinds but rather a school going child types.
• a small writing board that has both black and white boards
• Glue marks on the wall of this room which indicates there might have been some posters here.
• A 'happy mother's day' mug
• found a leftover kids bubble bath in one of the bathrooms

- I can only kinda assume that there was a child.

other things I've learnt about this couple

• they were Ikea fetishists.
• They'd travelled to Australia (there are a lot of Australian souvenirs)
• The man was a pilot (I found aviation forms and an airline logo broach )
• they were pretty health conscious and neat
• they were totally into DIY

So, yeah this is what I've figured out in the past couple days. 

Yeah, I've so much nothing to do I'm Sherlocking my time here. 

...soon..

House updates

So I've been trudging the length and breadth of this city for a perfect house, or at least what I believe to be the perfect combination of my ideal house that'll have me haunt it for the next couple of years. Well, as it happens such a thing doesn't exist here. 

The perfect combination so to say, my ideal requirement for my envisioned idle life. 

Two days of sifting through a dozen agents, some of which actually overlapped..I mean I thought I was going to meet some other agent and I ended up meeting the same person twice. Moments like that.. enough to make you feel like a low quality courtesan, and still no decent house yet. 

The ones that I absolutely loved were so far flung from civilization that it'd take me just 20 minutes of solid walking just to get to a superstore and a lot of trekking to find some sort of reasonable market. 

The problem with big commercial cities like these is the space, and I'm all about the space baby. 

My current house in my little town is so perfect they should invent a new word for perfect. Everything is close by and the space is huge, but No! Not here. You want space? You won't get enough rooms. You want rooms? You won't get enough bathrooms. You want all, you'll get a compact house that'd mimic a Japanese hotel. You want a glorious gorgeous compound, with a pond and trees and the works? You won't get civilization. 

Arghhh. 

My feet are so overworked they're going to revolt, I've walked so much these past couple days..all sorts of terrain. Today I'm just going to relax and maybe get some sleep. 

I mean..you start looking for houses in the morning and it's not before late at night when you get to come back to your room and decide whether you want to sleep or put a bullet through this city. 

Some sort of compromise will have to be made, and Compromises are so yesterday. 

stuff

Okay, so I'm slowly transferring some poems and stories to the new tumblr acc. I don't know what difference it's really going to make except there'd be one place where I can keep posting stuff that isn't just whatever.
Does tumblr have one of those blog like personalities where older stuff can be displayed on the side?
I've a good mind to make an instagram account and start posting poems there. Like those screenshots of poems. laughable indeed. I don't think I can manage so many social media accounts..for all you know my interest in any online shenanigans might just start waning if I'm saddled with handling oh so much stuff. gah!