We would like a special marriage, please.

No turning around now

On Monday the 14th of December we made this whole event official by signing the dotted line in a Government register.

First, we found a few people who would be brave enough to sign on a piece of paper to approve our marriage. (Thank you Papa, Sonia & Denzil)

Second, we found a Government official to approve our signatures. (Definition of a 'Government Official': Show up for work at 11:30am although the office opens at 9am. Then have a cup of tea and make the people wait another 30 minutes.)

Third, although this isn't necessary to the process, we even found an audience of people who were kind enough to participate although they were sweating it out to get their own bills paid and properties registered.

Now that we had all the right pieces together it was time for the signatures.

Finally...done! The footballer was very happy that I signed. :P

(Pictures courtesy of Shabri D'Cruz)

Overdose of Sequins

Sequins is the theme for the pre-wedding night out with my girls. With only four weeks left I was getting desperate and bought the first sequin-cy outfit I saw.

Three weeks left and I saw another which was still not good enough but I bought it cause it was better than the first one.

Two weekends left for me to leave Taipei and *VOILA* I see two things that would work brilliantly. Of course I bought them too.

My last weekend and Im walkin on the street (not looking for sequins anymore) and OMG did I find sequins or what!? Was it worth buying it? What would I do with all the sequins' outfits I have?? Well...what the hell...Im not going to do this again...lets buy it! :D Maybe I can give some away to other people who might not have any sequins outfits for the night. (Anyone need any one?)

NTD 100 for happiness

A few weeks ago I was at the Pinxi township, famous for the lantern festival, and the idea of releasing a sky lantern was very enticing.

The first step in releasing sky lanterns is to pick your colour. Due to a lack of other events in my life, the colour red was most appropriate which is used for celebrations...and in my case (as corny as this) would be for weddings. Other colours you can pick from are white for health (which I can do without for now), orange for wealth (which I could do with but wasn't convinced that the lantern could actually bring any) ... and any colour that you can think of actually.

The next step is to make a wish. I didn't really want to make a wish but it seemed like I wasn't making any sense to the people around me coz - 'why would u buy a sky lantern if you didn't want to make a wish??'. So I made a wish for happiness. (Now, 'happiness' is a very broad term and I would've been more specific but I didn't want everyone reading my real wish. :P )

So here I am with my 'wish lantern' (which has some very ugly art on it). It probably would've been more fun if I were doing this at night where you could see the glow in the lantern...but too bad that I had to get back home.



And there it goes. All for a 100 NT.

Make your own lamp

I got crafty last week and decided to make a string lamp using the instructions from a here and here. It's real easy - all you need is a balloon, any sort of string and fabric stiffener (starch). Wrap the string around the balloon, apply the starch, leave it to dry, when dry deflate the balloon and -Voila - you have a lamp!

Ideally I should've got some hemp yarn but I'm a tad bit lazy and didn't have the patience to go buy supplies. So I used some wool that has been lying in my craft box for the past two years (which was waiting to be turned into a muffler that never happened). I also substituted some of the supplies with locally available products (aka with supplies available at home).

I started off by wrapping a balloon with the wool. I tried two methods - one where I applied the starch on the wool as I wrapped it around the balloon (in the picture below its the orange balloon with the white wool), and, another where I wrapped the dry wool around the balloon and dipped the whole thing into a bucket of starch (in the picture below its the yellow balloon with the blue wool) .

Once the wrapping and applying starch was done, they both were hung on the clothes wire to dry.

The instructions recommended to let the starch dry for least 48 hours before deflating the balloon. But I didn't have the patience to wait and deflated one of the balloons 24 hours later and this is what happened - :(

So I tried saving it - once the balloon had deflated fully I pushed the wool back into shape and then let it dry for the next 24 hours. It didn't turn out too bad. Here is a picture of it in my room now - the wool got a bit messy because I deflated the balloon early but I think it still looks pretty cool.

Of course I let the other balloon dry fully after I saw what happened to the first one. This one turned out a lot better.

I must get out of the house

I couldn't take it anymore - I had to get out, this weekend of most. So after one call to Susie and two phone calls by Smith to cancel her appointments for the day, we were on our way to Nityagram. Of course we had to deviate from the plan as usual and make stops along the way. But our biggest deviation was at a HUUUGGE field, right by Nityagram, that was filled with cows and goats amongst a dismantled Ferris wheel. Nityagram itself was very mama-hoho (Mandarin for 'very so-so'), especially since we arrived too late for the regular weekend program.

Here are a few shots from the day. We spent the day -

Jumping,

Chasing cows,

Climbing trees,
Watching geese,

And lots of other things, but mainly taking pictures. :)

The classic self portrait.

Pictures are taken by Smith, Susie and of course me. To see more of my pictures from this day you can visit my photo blog.

Back in B-Town

I've been lucky enough to meet my best-est friends in the whole wide world every time I've come down.

Here's a snapshot of us BBQ-ing away, late on a Sunday Night.

I see time everywhere

My pizza telling me that it's 9pm already (or maybe 6:15 if I flip the picture around)!!

Alright, I have been slacking. But I really have reasons. This was my schedule last week (which is a typical week for me over here in Bangalore).

• Sat (1st August): Woke up at 7am (after a late Friday night at a play) to go shopping for the bridesmaids outfits which lasted all the way until 2pm; lunch with my aunt; household chores in the afternoon; a friend's wedding in the evening (which took place in a location that is 25 kms from my house).
• Sun: Breakfast at South Indies with my closest friends from college (who I only got to meet a month after I got here); lunch with some other friends; the afternoon is spent making calls to extended family and friends to let them know I exist and that I'm around here; the rest of the day with my mom (who hasn't been too happy with all my gallivanting).
• Monday through Friday: The gym at 6am; work from 9:30am to 6pm (for which I drive at least 36 kms a day in crazy traffic); along with dance classes from 8pm to 9pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays and drinks with friends on any evening that is free.

And then onto another weekend which is as hectic and jam-packed as the previous one. Is the lack of time a good enough reason?