Christmas in Goa - 2008

Christmas this year was a very quiet celebration with my family. I didn't really feel like going out and celebrating for some reason and I enjoyed myself spending time with the people who matter the most.

And honestly, this was the first Christmas I've had recently where nothing went wrong. Otherwise, as all who know me will attest to, I hate Christmas, because things always used to go wrong. Not this year. This year everything was 'right'.

I took a few snaps of the house and the tree. My way of preserving my memories.

I hope everyone who reads this had a great Christmas.

:)

Christmas at work

Last year I was on leave right from the 20th till the 2nd of Jan. And though I enjoyed myself back home I did have to hear a lot from the folks in office about how I was missing all the fun. A couple of team members said they were feeling like orphans. And I did feel bad about not having put a crib up in Pune.

Well this year I decided to stay at work till the 23rd. I'm hoping to get some decorations up. I went to MG road yesterday. Luckily a friend agreed to come with me. I think I'd have felt lonely doing Christmas shopping alone, as it was I had a lot of fun. :)

I went there with the intention of spending around 500. Well I actually spent more like 2000. And you'd probably say I have nothing much to show for it.

Well that's because most of the money went towards buying an amazing crib set. Tiny little pieces, but beauuutifuull ones. Anytime you're buying a crib set you should always look at the Mother Mary piece. The first shop I went into showed me a set for 350 bucks and took out two cute camels to tempt me. But I was resolute. I asked for the Mother Mary piece and as expected it looked horrifying. I asked him if he had any other sets. He told me he had another 'imported' one, but it was 1,250. I turned and walked out little knowing that another half hour would find me right back there.

The second shop I went to had a HUGE set. Very, very tempting but I didn't even bother to ask the price. I asked them if they had a small set and they showed me the exact same set I saw in the shop next door!!! Well, ok, I know it couldn't have been the same set, but it sure did look like it.

Then I decided not to buy a set. I bought 2 sets of lights. One for the office, the other to take back home. Also some ordinary decoration for the seats. And then when I should have been heading home my feet wandered back to the fist shop despite all the words of warning my mind was giving me. I hesitated, and then asked the guy there if I could see the 'imported' set.

I looked at the Mother Mary piece and all my resolve crumbled. Her face was so pretty. It looked even better than the set we have at home. Then the shop keeper tipped the scales. He said, "This is a one time buy. You buy a crib set, it'll last you for your lifetime". And suddenly I was the owner of a crib set. A real "good" one. Something I'll keep till I'm old and I can give it to my grandkids. Wow! I really feel like an adult now.

:)

Here's a picture I took when I got home...

And that left cotton. Cotton so that the little people have a comfortable snowy bed to rest on. I've asked my friend to get the cotton. So today is going to be a really nice day at work. Christmas has arrived!!!

(I'll add pics to this post later. Much much later. Probably in Jan)

Weekend in Goa

I've been too busy to blog recently. Drove down to Goa for the weekend with some friends from office. The trip was actually supposed to be just my team members - old and new, but in the end we took two 'outsiders' along too.

We started on Friday night (after working all day!) and we got to Goa almost 12 hours later!!!

Well the drive down is supposed to take about 8 hours but we cut from NH 4 to NH 17 through Mahabaleshwar. Do NOT do that if you're interested in a quick short trip. If you want to take your time and drive along hairpin curves overlooking a fantastic view... well that's the route to take.

We set off in 3 cars. An Indica, a Maruti 800 and a Spark. The guys who were doing the driving (Chetan, Shishir and Kiran / Praful) were fantastic! They're the only reason we enjoyed the trip as much as we did.







Friday midnight saw us under a full moon admiring the "table land" in that region. Something I'll always remember. A vast expanse, no other signs of life except for little twinkling lights in the distance.

And after zooming around all those hairpin turns, when we finally joined NH 17, we were shocked to see that it was 3.00 am and we still had 400 kms to go.







Well when we finally got to Goa we relaxed, had some juice / beer / rissois / samosas, and then relaxed some more until lunch :)

My dog was so excited about the new comers he didn't even bother to look at me.





Lunch was at Anoushka's. Loads of fish, prawns, squids, limesoda, beer and feni. Lunch got over only by 3.00 and then at 6.00 we were ready to see Goa.

What did we do that night?

Well we waded along Calangute beach, snacked at a shack, watched a guy do some fire-juggling under the full moon, climbed over rocks along the sea shore at Anjuna at midnight, admired Vagator beach in the moonlight, feasted at another shack at 2 in the morning, and finally drove back home at 3 am.

I had more fun than I've had in Goa anytime this year. It was a night I'll never forget.

Next day there was breakfast (coffee or beer?), sightseeing, and hat-buying at the Dona Paula jetty, and later shopping - for cashewnuts and all the other stuff Goa is famous for ;)

Lunch at Ritz Classic. Crabs, a fish platter, a whole kingfish, all in quantities I'd never seen before.

And then it was back home to pack, rest, have a cup of tea (prepared by Anirudh) and leave.

We were back in Pune in 9 hours, tired but happy.