For the first 17 years of my life, the word vacation had only one meaning – the onam ,Christmas and summer vacations from school.
Then came the 4 years in college where vacation meant the rather long and lazy breaks between semesters where I would forget all that I learned during the previous semester and start afresh.
The next 5 years in Delhi , the 2 X two week long breaks every year came in. 2 weeks sounded awfully long to your manager but terribly short to your parents and all I could remember were the excitement before it and the “shall I just resign and go back?” brooding during the return flight .
And there was 2010 when I got married and was forced to be in a long-distance-marriage for a year. Then vacations were the trips to Pondicherry and jaipur and kumarakom and many others we planned over phone and never got to execute, because we had too much stuff to take care of.
It was after coming here that I actually started taking vacations, not that we would take days off from work to travel but we make sure that we make maximum use of the weekends and holidays. Of course, the ultimate vacation would remain the whirlwind trips to India. Yet to take one , but already there seems to be a hundred items on the to-do list.
You see people around you taking vacations – my colleague went on a 5 week vacation, people go camping, the lady at the motel I stay on-site went on a 3 week trip to Thailand etc. And being in a new country means that you have lots to explore. And Australians in general seem to love being outdoors. It all rubs off on you I guess.So much that I spend quite a lot of time searching for places/events to go. And the anti-socials that we are (I don’t really make friends that easily, at least not the let-us-spend-weekend-together kind of friendship; neither does the husband), we need to pass time after all :-D
Monday, October 24, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
This and That
Don’t have any subject worth a whole post, so jotting down a few random stuff
Had the first encounter with the Australian medical system. Thanks to my wisdom tooth which decided to do a cameo for two days, spoiling my birthday plans.
Oct 3 was a holiday here. Didn’t make any plans coz of the toothache but come Friday evening I was perfectly alright and spending 3 days inside didn’t sound like a very good idea. Even though it was predicted to be a rainy weekend , we made some last minute plans for Kiama & Jervis Bay. All motels were booked out and we finally managed a place 1 hour away from Jervis Bay. It was in the middle of nowhere , difficult to spot even though it is situated right on the highway but turned out to be a rather lucky find. They had private access to a beach which was quite nice.The room was all wooden panelled giving it a vinatge feel.
Not having a car and having to rent one for trips has its advantages. You feel like being in a cheaper version of Top Gear :-) Not that we possess enough knowledge about cars to come up with the verdicts that we deliver.
Junior Masterchef – Are these kids for real? They are just 10 or 12 ,but act and speak with so much maturity. Its unnerving at times. As to the cooking, each episode gives me a serious “Am I really cooking in my kitchen?” feeling.
I am still uncomfortable with the fact that everyone –from the salesperson in the store to the bus driver to everyone I see in the office- greets me with a “How are you?” or “How is it going?”. A “good morning” or a simple “hi” would be easier to handle than a question which requires me to give an answer and then ask about the well being of the other person and then wait for his answer. Hmm. Maybe I am lacking in the social etiquette department :-)
Another Aussie thing- Maccas for McDonalds. Isn’t McD cool enough? :-P
Though I quite like “Brekkie” for Breakfast
Saw an ad for a car insurance that gives 15% discount for those drivers who don't claim. Makes sense rt?
Had the first encounter with the Australian medical system. Thanks to my wisdom tooth which decided to do a cameo for two days, spoiling my birthday plans.
Oct 3 was a holiday here. Didn’t make any plans coz of the toothache but come Friday evening I was perfectly alright and spending 3 days inside didn’t sound like a very good idea. Even though it was predicted to be a rainy weekend , we made some last minute plans for Kiama & Jervis Bay. All motels were booked out and we finally managed a place 1 hour away from Jervis Bay. It was in the middle of nowhere , difficult to spot even though it is situated right on the highway but turned out to be a rather lucky find. They had private access to a beach which was quite nice.The room was all wooden panelled giving it a vinatge feel.
Not having a car and having to rent one for trips has its advantages. You feel like being in a cheaper version of Top Gear :-) Not that we possess enough knowledge about cars to come up with the verdicts that we deliver.
Junior Masterchef – Are these kids for real? They are just 10 or 12 ,but act and speak with so much maturity. Its unnerving at times. As to the cooking, each episode gives me a serious “Am I really cooking in my kitchen?” feeling.
I am still uncomfortable with the fact that everyone –from the salesperson in the store to the bus driver to everyone I see in the office- greets me with a “How are you?” or “How is it going?”. A “good morning” or a simple “hi” would be easier to handle than a question which requires me to give an answer and then ask about the well being of the other person and then wait for his answer. Hmm. Maybe I am lacking in the social etiquette department :-)
Another Aussie thing- Maccas for McDonalds. Isn’t McD cool enough? :-P
Though I quite like “Brekkie” for Breakfast
Saw an ad for a car insurance that gives 15% discount for those drivers who don't claim. Makes sense rt?
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Pokolbin
I enjoy reading food blogs, more for the restaurant reviews than for recipes. There are quite a few Sydney food blogs around and I follow grabyourfork , awifescharmedlife,chocolatesuze regularly. Though I tried writing a few restaurant reviews for zomato.com when back in Delhi, I know I don’t really have it in me to be a food blogger. Read and salivate I can .Write, I better stay away. Same with travelogues. Even I find it hard to read through my travel stories :-X
So this post which I started with the intention of being either a review or a travelogue will instead be just a random recollection of facts from our second trip to Hunter Valley. After a drive around the Upper Hunter Wine Valley, we decided on Pokolbin in Lower Hunter this time. It is rather ambitiously named as the “Wine country”. A look at the map showed vineyards all around. Pointless though, since I was driving and husband doesn’t drink (I used to think that ‘mallu Christian men who don’t drink’ were an extinct species until he came along to refute my theory). And the organizer of the trip aka me, who was very meticulous when it came to the train timings, car pickups, driving distances and lunch and dinner options (obviously), overlooked the fact that wine/cheese factory tours happened only at certain times. So we had to satisfy ourselves with visiting just the tasting rooms. And the sculpture garden at Misletoe wines – but the kangaroo sculpture which looked huge in the brochure turned out to be rather tiny and most of the sculptures are in a pretty bad shape anyway. And then there was the Hunter valley garden, which is huge but since we reached just 30 minutes before closing time, we skipped that too. We would have skipped it anyway considering the 24 dollar entry fee –I am not a huge fan of plants and flowers and feel that all gardens are more or less the same.
The kangaroo sculpure at Misletoe Wines
The day before we left, I had gone through the websites of all restaurants listed in the Pokolbin tourist brochure checking out their menus online (and prices-Pokolbin is not easy on the wallet when it comes to fine dining). We finally decided on the Verandah for lunch. The view is really nice, a dinner with that view would be an unforgettable experience .We went for their Australian Tapas Tower which was very good value for money and gave the chance to taste quite a few of their dishes. It was followed by the dessert tasting plate, which was not that impressive. We also had a taste of kangaroo meat for the first time – I found it similar to lamb, but softer.
The Tapas Tower
The Dessert Tasting Plate@ Verandah
The highlight of the trip was the dinner :-D
I was in no mood for anything after the Tapas which was heavy enough but we went for dinner at Maneeya Thai restaurant, which was just opposite to where we were staying. I don’t even remember what I ordered .And husband,who loves everything spicy, ordered Jungle Curry , ignoring the ‘very hot” warning on the menu. “It’s really hot” warning from the waitress was dismissed with “make it extra hot” .And boy, hot it was. Hot enough to make your eyes water and your lips go red. More Hot than spicy, because of all the chilli flakes that we could see floating in the curry. We seriously suspect that the waitress dumped a few spoons of chilli just to prove her point.
A very hot ending to an otherwise nice trip:-D
So this post which I started with the intention of being either a review or a travelogue will instead be just a random recollection of facts from our second trip to Hunter Valley. After a drive around the Upper Hunter Wine Valley, we decided on Pokolbin in Lower Hunter this time. It is rather ambitiously named as the “Wine country”. A look at the map showed vineyards all around. Pointless though, since I was driving and husband doesn’t drink (I used to think that ‘mallu Christian men who don’t drink’ were an extinct species until he came along to refute my theory). And the organizer of the trip aka me, who was very meticulous when it came to the train timings, car pickups, driving distances and lunch and dinner options (obviously), overlooked the fact that wine/cheese factory tours happened only at certain times. So we had to satisfy ourselves with visiting just the tasting rooms. And the sculpture garden at Misletoe wines – but the kangaroo sculpture which looked huge in the brochure turned out to be rather tiny and most of the sculptures are in a pretty bad shape anyway. And then there was the Hunter valley garden, which is huge but since we reached just 30 minutes before closing time, we skipped that too. We would have skipped it anyway considering the 24 dollar entry fee –I am not a huge fan of plants and flowers and feel that all gardens are more or less the same.
The kangaroo sculpure at Misletoe Wines
The day before we left, I had gone through the websites of all restaurants listed in the Pokolbin tourist brochure checking out their menus online (and prices-Pokolbin is not easy on the wallet when it comes to fine dining). We finally decided on the Verandah for lunch. The view is really nice, a dinner with that view would be an unforgettable experience .We went for their Australian Tapas Tower which was very good value for money and gave the chance to taste quite a few of their dishes. It was followed by the dessert tasting plate, which was not that impressive. We also had a taste of kangaroo meat for the first time – I found it similar to lamb, but softer.
The Tapas Tower
The Dessert Tasting Plate@ Verandah
The highlight of the trip was the dinner :-D
I was in no mood for anything after the Tapas which was heavy enough but we went for dinner at Maneeya Thai restaurant, which was just opposite to where we were staying. I don’t even remember what I ordered .And husband,who loves everything spicy, ordered Jungle Curry , ignoring the ‘very hot” warning on the menu. “It’s really hot” warning from the waitress was dismissed with “make it extra hot” .And boy, hot it was. Hot enough to make your eyes water and your lips go red. More Hot than spicy, because of all the chilli flakes that we could see floating in the curry. We seriously suspect that the waitress dumped a few spoons of chilli just to prove her point.
A very hot ending to an otherwise nice trip:-D
Thursday, August 18, 2011
And then... she drove.....
My first driving lesson was at the age of 17. With a couple of months to go for the start of college, my dad thought it was a nice (a feeling that was short lived) idea to let me behind the wheels. My first driving instructor was a rough old chap (a friend of my grandfather and driving guru of my father) and he made me “take the H” on the very first day. Thanks to the parallel set of brakes he had, I passed it with flying colours and came back very confident. A few lessons later, I started driving the family car on quiet roads. All was well till I went and rammed the car onto the compound wall at my uncle’s place. The car suffered minor scratches but my confidence went on a long vacation. Then came college and since I was too lazy to practice my driving when I was home for holidays, chapter 1 of my driving came to a rather abrupt and uneventful ending.
9 years later, chapter 2 took place in Chennai. This time I had to go for classes at 6am and the rains never helped (rains in Chennai in August? – nature was definitely not on my side). Rain was the perfect excuse to miss my classes – or rather the so called classes where 4 of us were bundled into a rickety old car and each of us was allowed to drive for 20 minutes and watch the other 3 drive for the rest of the time. But I got my license to show for it;-P
After moving to Sydney and starting my job, driving became a necessity. I have to travel to a site that lies on a highway, 20km from the nearest town. I have to either take a cab or get a lift , both of which are extremely irritating prospects – cab because of the money involved(I feel guilty even if it is the company’s money) and lifts because of the daily ritual of asking “can you drop me on your way back if it is not a problem for you ? And it would be great if you can pick me up tomorrow morning as well”. And so began chapter 3.
Back in India, I found driving to be somewhat like playing a complicated videogame - like getting things thrown at you from random directions at random intervals? And although I can sit for hours playing videogames, driving didn’t hold the same thrill for me. In my family, driving is considered to be “a skill that can only be mastered by a few” and guess that kind of put a lot of pressure on me and took the enjoyment out of it. But here, everyone drives and it is a part of life and is taken for granted and it changed the way I looked at it. The fact that there are rules and that everyone (ok, almost everyone) follows them helps. And oh, yes, automatic transmission – that just makes life easier ;-)
And for the first time ever, I really enjoy driving – that’s all the 15 hours of driving with an instructor on the side and around 300km ,with an equally instructive husband on the side ,along deserted country roads where most of the time we were the only ones in sight(but to my credit I managed to create a long procession of cars behind me because I couldn't bring myself to go beyond 90kmph though the speed limit was 100kmph .I am sure that when they finally got a lane to overtake and saw me behind the wheels,they went "A woman? That too an Asian? God help us" So much for stereotyping ) but yes ,I am getting there. As my instructor tells me , I just need some more guts :-D
Technically I am on a temporary visa for some time and I can drive with my Indian license – yes, when my husband told me that for the first time I asked him “are you insane?” and refused to believe him but true it is. So looks like this chapter could go on happily for a while. And I absolutely love the opening lines of this one - a day of driving around in the Upper Hunter Wine growing area in NSW dotted with olive farms ,vineyards ,horse studs and farms and picturesque views on either sides.
9 years later, chapter 2 took place in Chennai. This time I had to go for classes at 6am and the rains never helped (rains in Chennai in August? – nature was definitely not on my side). Rain was the perfect excuse to miss my classes – or rather the so called classes where 4 of us were bundled into a rickety old car and each of us was allowed to drive for 20 minutes and watch the other 3 drive for the rest of the time. But I got my license to show for it;-P
After moving to Sydney and starting my job, driving became a necessity. I have to travel to a site that lies on a highway, 20km from the nearest town. I have to either take a cab or get a lift , both of which are extremely irritating prospects – cab because of the money involved(I feel guilty even if it is the company’s money) and lifts because of the daily ritual of asking “can you drop me on your way back if it is not a problem for you ? And it would be great if you can pick me up tomorrow morning as well”. And so began chapter 3.
Back in India, I found driving to be somewhat like playing a complicated videogame - like getting things thrown at you from random directions at random intervals? And although I can sit for hours playing videogames, driving didn’t hold the same thrill for me. In my family, driving is considered to be “a skill that can only be mastered by a few” and guess that kind of put a lot of pressure on me and took the enjoyment out of it. But here, everyone drives and it is a part of life and is taken for granted and it changed the way I looked at it. The fact that there are rules and that everyone (ok, almost everyone) follows them helps. And oh, yes, automatic transmission – that just makes life easier ;-)
And for the first time ever, I really enjoy driving – that’s all the 15 hours of driving with an instructor on the side and around 300km ,with an equally instructive husband on the side ,along deserted country roads where most of the time we were the only ones in sight(but to my credit I managed to create a long procession of cars behind me because I couldn't bring myself to go beyond 90kmph though the speed limit was 100kmph .I am sure that when they finally got a lane to overtake and saw me behind the wheels,they went "A woman? That too an Asian? God help us" So much for stereotyping ) but yes ,I am getting there. As my instructor tells me , I just need some more guts :-D
Technically I am on a temporary visa for some time and I can drive with my Indian license – yes, when my husband told me that for the first time I asked him “are you insane?” and refused to believe him but true it is. So looks like this chapter could go on happily for a while. And I absolutely love the opening lines of this one - a day of driving around in the Upper Hunter Wine growing area in NSW dotted with olive farms ,vineyards ,horse studs and farms and picturesque views on either sides.
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