Last week was full of new experiences and lots of fun "firsts" for me. My first trunk show in Bangalore, my first tuk tuk rides (three different tuk tuks in one afternoon!), a first good shopping experience for clothes at Forever New, and Splash, and the first time I, along with two of my favorite gal pals got mistaken for "cricket wives". Think along the lines of wives of professional sports players in the US and UK and you've got the idea:). Funny and flattering (I think?) and another crazy story of our time in India.
Onto another subject. John thinks I love my smart phone more than him. My smart phone can tell me when I get an email on my yahoo, gmail, and facebook accounts. My smart phone also keeps my calendar, can take amazing pics and talks to me sometimes even when I don't know exactly what I did to make it do so! My smart phone is also my alarm clock, my world clock, it contains my grocery lists, addresses, etc. Like your smart phone is has so many apps and I use them all from google maps, gps, googling info, sharing info, it's endless what our smart phones are capable of, yes? I'm sure most of you have smart phones and you know how hard it is to turn it off. How hard it is to "unplug" , John's term for me turning off the phone. Heehee imagine my delight at seeing the headline of a spouse who took their spouse to court for making her choose between him and her phone. Ok so the newspaer story was nothing like what John and I go thru but I found the headline hilarious.
My first tuk tuk rides, weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Honk, beeeeeeeeeeep. BEeeep beep beep, and so on and so on and so on. I never realized that the city streets were so noisy in Bangalore. We are so protected from alot of the street noise inside our vehicle that it took me riding in a tuk tuk to really get a sense of the variety and loundness of sounds and commotion that goes on in the busy streets of the city. Yes I see the traffic and hear all the various beeps on an every day basis. But it's a whole different entity hearing this at street level. Hahaha and boy the things you see! I had read on someones blog once that everyone has their "number" of how much they will pay a tuk tuk driver over the meter. Most tuk tuk drivers won't use their meters for foreigners. They will try to bargain a rate with you of their choosing. The ride can be two blocks away and most unfortunately will try to charge you triple or more than they would a local. So everyone has "their price" of how much over they are willing to pay if the driver uses the meter (for example 50 rupees over meter) or how much flat rate they are willing to shell out if the driver refuses to turn on the meter. Some drivers are willing to forgo a fare at all if you don't meet their price. They would rather lose your fare than not be able to over charge you. So with this in mind my lovely friend and I took our final ride of the day to UB City from her house. Our destination was within a short walking distance but we were both in heels and the streets in Bangalore are so torn up and treacherous, you risk a twisted ankle at the very least on these roads, so we hopped in to the first tuk tuk we saw and were on our way. We arrived at our destination very quickly and my friend informed me that she was going to pay the driver a generous rate for the ride there which amounted to way over what the meter would have cost us had he run the meter, but for me to keep walking and not turn back if he decided to argue. No fee was agreed upon when we got in, and now as we were getting out this guy demanded WAY OVER the price of driving us two blocks. As he was yelling after us we walked away very quickly to the sounds of "MISS MISS NOT ENOUGH!!!!!!" Gigglig and not looking back, we felt no guilt as we paid him way more than the two blocks warranted.
The weekend found John and I a bit homesick. Memorial weekend was upon us and well, it was but it wasn't. We both respect the holiday and what it means and we decided to celebrate it the way we would if we were back home. And that meant grilling baby. So we chillaxxed, grilled, listened to music and enjoyed each other, our home and the lovely slow pace that we decided to take instead of our usually crazy weekends. We shared stories of family members who served the military and fought in various wars such as his Grandpa and my ex-father in law who both served in World War II. John also shared stories of a former co-worker who fought the Russians in Afghanistan. I shared the story of how my favorite uncle never got over his time in Vietnam etc. We definitely took the day to remember, discuss and deliberate. Many quiet moments passed between us as we both remembered and honored those who give/gave and continue to devote their lives to the country they serve. I hope everyone in the US is enjoying a wonderful Memorial holiday and we thank those past and present who serve their country. Especially to our family members who served and are no longer with us. Also, thank you Uncle Robert, cousin Marcus and brother Quint. We love ya.
Ahhhhh and of course the weekend rolled into today. And today was of course crazy, and fast paced. Trying to get too much done with not enough time as always and for whatever reason my body and my mind were not in sync. Let's see I fell getting into my friend's pimped out Innova mini van, I dropped my hot, yummy red pasta sauce all over my clean kitchen floor, and then I proceeded to burn myself my trying to wipe it up with paper towels. Then to add insult to injury I fell going UP the stairs in bare feet. No excuses. Bruce also tooted very loudly and smelly as I was changing him into his PJ's and asked me if I thought that was funny. LOL, yeah I guess it was.
So now good friends. It's time for me to go make some noise with my hubby......me: John, please carry Bruce to his bed (he fell asleep next to Daddy very early tonight), John: huuuuuuuh?
Good night all, I leave you with more pics and hope that you had a wonderful Memorial weekend and to my kids, if you read this, I love you both so much and I know you missed John's chicken this holiday weekend.
Muah!
Onto another subject. John thinks I love my smart phone more than him. My smart phone can tell me when I get an email on my yahoo, gmail, and facebook accounts. My smart phone also keeps my calendar, can take amazing pics and talks to me sometimes even when I don't know exactly what I did to make it do so! My smart phone is also my alarm clock, my world clock, it contains my grocery lists, addresses, etc. Like your smart phone is has so many apps and I use them all from google maps, gps, googling info, sharing info, it's endless what our smart phones are capable of, yes? I'm sure most of you have smart phones and you know how hard it is to turn it off. How hard it is to "unplug" , John's term for me turning off the phone. Heehee imagine my delight at seeing the headline of a spouse who took their spouse to court for making her choose between him and her phone. Ok so the newspaer story was nothing like what John and I go thru but I found the headline hilarious.
My first tuk tuk rides, weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Honk, beeeeeeeeeeep. BEeeep beep beep, and so on and so on and so on. I never realized that the city streets were so noisy in Bangalore. We are so protected from alot of the street noise inside our vehicle that it took me riding in a tuk tuk to really get a sense of the variety and loundness of sounds and commotion that goes on in the busy streets of the city. Yes I see the traffic and hear all the various beeps on an every day basis. But it's a whole different entity hearing this at street level. Hahaha and boy the things you see! I had read on someones blog once that everyone has their "number" of how much they will pay a tuk tuk driver over the meter. Most tuk tuk drivers won't use their meters for foreigners. They will try to bargain a rate with you of their choosing. The ride can be two blocks away and most unfortunately will try to charge you triple or more than they would a local. So everyone has "their price" of how much over they are willing to pay if the driver uses the meter (for example 50 rupees over meter) or how much flat rate they are willing to shell out if the driver refuses to turn on the meter. Some drivers are willing to forgo a fare at all if you don't meet their price. They would rather lose your fare than not be able to over charge you. So with this in mind my lovely friend and I took our final ride of the day to UB City from her house. Our destination was within a short walking distance but we were both in heels and the streets in Bangalore are so torn up and treacherous, you risk a twisted ankle at the very least on these roads, so we hopped in to the first tuk tuk we saw and were on our way. We arrived at our destination very quickly and my friend informed me that she was going to pay the driver a generous rate for the ride there which amounted to way over what the meter would have cost us had he run the meter, but for me to keep walking and not turn back if he decided to argue. No fee was agreed upon when we got in, and now as we were getting out this guy demanded WAY OVER the price of driving us two blocks. As he was yelling after us we walked away very quickly to the sounds of "MISS MISS NOT ENOUGH!!!!!!" Gigglig and not looking back, we felt no guilt as we paid him way more than the two blocks warranted.
The weekend found John and I a bit homesick. Memorial weekend was upon us and well, it was but it wasn't. We both respect the holiday and what it means and we decided to celebrate it the way we would if we were back home. And that meant grilling baby. So we chillaxxed, grilled, listened to music and enjoyed each other, our home and the lovely slow pace that we decided to take instead of our usually crazy weekends. We shared stories of family members who served the military and fought in various wars such as his Grandpa and my ex-father in law who both served in World War II. John also shared stories of a former co-worker who fought the Russians in Afghanistan. I shared the story of how my favorite uncle never got over his time in Vietnam etc. We definitely took the day to remember, discuss and deliberate. Many quiet moments passed between us as we both remembered and honored those who give/gave and continue to devote their lives to the country they serve. I hope everyone in the US is enjoying a wonderful Memorial holiday and we thank those past and present who serve their country. Especially to our family members who served and are no longer with us. Also, thank you Uncle Robert, cousin Marcus and brother Quint. We love ya.
Ahhhhh and of course the weekend rolled into today. And today was of course crazy, and fast paced. Trying to get too much done with not enough time as always and for whatever reason my body and my mind were not in sync. Let's see I fell getting into my friend's pimped out Innova mini van, I dropped my hot, yummy red pasta sauce all over my clean kitchen floor, and then I proceeded to burn myself my trying to wipe it up with paper towels. Then to add insult to injury I fell going UP the stairs in bare feet. No excuses. Bruce also tooted very loudly and smelly as I was changing him into his PJ's and asked me if I thought that was funny. LOL, yeah I guess it was.
So now good friends. It's time for me to go make some noise with my hubby......me: John, please carry Bruce to his bed (he fell asleep next to Daddy very early tonight), John: huuuuuuuh?
Good night all, I leave you with more pics and hope that you had a wonderful Memorial weekend and to my kids, if you read this, I love you both so much and I know you missed John's chicken this holiday weekend.
Muah!
RSS Feed