_Ok......big huge sigh.  Note to self: Don't ever plan on "picking up a few things" on day you are hosting a get together...you'd think I'd know by now.

Laughing at myself cuz I know better. I invited two delightful ladies and their kiddies over to the house for a play date, three kiddos, three mommas.  I intended to serve a veggie plate with ranch party dip and wine for the mommas and fruit and yummies for the kiddos. Easy right? Say it with me, "not in India"....one more time, "not in India"....louder, "not in India".  So here's what happened.  I dropped Bruce off at school at 9 a.m.  Plenty of time to pick up some carrots, celery and maybe another outside table for one of the balconies? Morning was great. Went to a couple of road side "stops" for a look see at the tables. Found one....good price, it was early, I should have just grabbed it. It was only a little after 10 a.m. at this time, I didn't have to get Bruce till 1p.m. play date would start at 2:30ish....plenty of time....wanted to "shop around" a little more, to see if I was getting the "best price on the table".  Dumb.

So it's a little after ten. Asked Shankar (our driver) to take me to a food store so we can pick up the carrots and celery. Then we'd swing back around on way to get Bruce and buy the table(first place was the best price).  We stop at food store #1 Hypercity. Maybe it was just too early but there were absolutely no carrots or celery. None. That's okay, I had some other things I needed to buy...dody dum dum dum, let me just take my time as I do have all the time in the world and jeez,it's just carrots and celery! I'm sure to find some at the next stop right?  Hmph! So I spend a good hour at Hypercity buying random things that are sure to come in handy later. We leave there and it's now a little after 11a.m.   No sweat.  Plenty of time to find the carrots, celery and still buy a table, pick up Bruce, get home, ready the veggie tray, get dressed...no problem.  Dreaming. Delusional....or just plain dumb to think that or maybe all three? So head out to store number 2, Nilgiri's....success!!!! I found celery.  Let me rephrase, I found one big (thank goodness it was big and in good shape) stalk of celery.  Cut correctly it would suffice. Cut with precision it could yield enough for 3 adult ladies and maybe even a little for the wee ones if they are into celery today (fingers crossed they aren't).  Ha! Yay we have celery, now where's the carrots?  Nope. No carrots.  Seriously?  Let me look around and wander aimlessly for another five minutes, nope. Still no carrots. Now it's almost 12pm and I'm starting to panic. Had planned to buy the stuff, pick up Bruce,get home show the cook how I wanted everything cut and set up, then I would take a leisurely shower and make myself ready for my pals. Hmmmmm that was the original plan. Now it's way after 12 almost 1pm, still no carrots and now no time to pick up table.  One more store....yes!  Carrots! Big fat orange carrots, ahhhhhh yay! But now absolutely no time to pick up table and we have to get Bruce.  No worries.  We will pick up Bruce and be home no later than 1:30p.m.  I can quickly show Sheela how I want the veggies cut, placed on the tray, make the dip, then jump in the shower and beautify before pals get here right?  Nope. Traffic jam. traffic was not moving. Now I am used to traffic being bad but usually when I pick up Bruce it is at least moving...never takes more than 20-30 minutes max and most days it only takes about 15.  Not this day.  Took 4EVER!  Made it home, like 5 minutes til 2pm. Yikes!!!! Showed Sheela what i wanted her to do, jumped in the shower, got out and before I could even brush  my hair my first guests were at the door.  So with wet hair no makeup I greeted my pals....lol  oh well, thank goodness I had wine. My guests had met each other when they first moved here 6 months ago and had lost touch, they were happy to see each other and I was thrilled that they could chat and catch up while I went and brushed my hair.  Later the kids played in the jacuzzi (baby pool to them), we enjoyed a very nice veggie plate and three bottles of wine, kids had fun and snacked on the fruit and juices and it was a success all the way around. Didn't have my new table, hair was air dried and wasn't the hostess with the mostest but I did have the veggie tray the way I envisioned it and good wine.  I was mentally exhausted from the quest to find the veggies but felt strangely accomplished. I remember walking out of that last store with a huge grin, so happy to have found beautiful looking carrots! And then I thought. Wow.  I live in India. I actually felt so happy when I found the celery and carrots.  The hunt was frustrating, then frenzied but so fun when I found what I was looking for.  How will I ever go back to regular shopping in the US?  I hated grocery shopping there and yet everything was so plentiful.  Could find good veggies everywhere.  Grocery stores, Target, even walmart...road side organic veggie stands....and yet I never had this much fun looking back on a quest for simple things like celery and carrots.

And this of course leads into my next quest.  I was determined to find good beer.  Rumor had it that I could find Corona here.  Are you sure? All I've seen is Kingfisher, Fosters, Budweiser and Snake dog, or something like that. But Corona? I was so hopeful of
finding some I even bought some Bicardi lemon.  My bro showed me how to add BL to a bottle of Corona, as Dora loves to say...delicioso! So this beautiful day was totally about the quest to quench my thirst for good beer. First stop, success! I found 6 bottles, yay!  Was I just going to take 2 and leave the rest for the other poor suckers looking for something other than Kingfisher or Budweiser? Hell no, I took all six.  And I kept going.  Two more liquor stores, zero for two on both, two more stores...big fat 0's....but I kept up the quest. Finally, sweaty (but not smelly) I  finally hit Spar I heard "angels singing, and I think all the Greek Gods were smiling down on me," I hit jackpot! Twenty-two "baby Coronas".  You know the small cute bottles of corona?  Found 22 of them.  Hmmm. Moral dilemma. Do i just take a six (6) pack and hope that when we want more we will find some? Now remember, my posts when I lived in Malaysia? And remember our motto there? If you see anything you like, want or need buy it all cuz it may be months before it's in stock again if you're lucky. Here we Iive in Whitefield, only about 6 or 7 miles from the city but trafficwise always a good 45 minutes. That's on a good day.  Most days it takes longer.  So we drove all the way to the city, stopped at hundreds and hundreds of stores on the way (justifying like JT here) in hopes of finding said Coronas. Tired and hungry, parched from thirst (yes exaggerating)  I finally find exactly what I am hoping for and there's almost a whole case full! Heaven. So do I just take what I need or take all and not worry about it for awhile?  Yup. I'm a bad person I steal from McDonalds, why would you think I would leave any Corona after spending all morning on my Corona quest? And I actually spent less time contemplating that moral dilemma than I care to admit.  Guess what I'm doing now? Haha, that's right. Cheers! If anyone residing in Bangalore is reading this blog, come over I'll share.

p.s. I got my outdoor tables....or rather sent my driver out for them yesterday:)