Reflections: April 2013

Won a gift voucher for books courtesy Gulf News and picked up 2 books from the Jashanmmal bookstore. The first one Tom Ang’s 'Digital Photographer’s Handbook' is a must read if you are a budding photographer. I’m so glad I picked it up because it’s written in very simple language and has photographs to illustrate every point made. What a life he must be leading I'm thinking….you know he’s practically visited every country in the world. And takes pictures for a living.

Just the kind of life I’m going to lead in my next life. And in that life my husband will be my wife and my kids will be my parents.

And I’m gonna give them hell….ohhhh yeaahhhh.

Sorry got sidetracked, the other book is Rachel Allen’s 'Cake' which you’ll love if you are a cake maniac like I am. Did you know Rachel Allen was here in Dubai for the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature last month?? I so badly wanted to go watch her in action and get my book autographed at the same time but didn't because I feared she’d ask me how many cakes I baked from the book. I could see myself shrinking in shame because I hadn't made a single one.

Well technically speaking it’s not my fault I didn't make anything from the book because every recipe in there contained eggs and here we were observing Lent.

Yep, no meat, fish or eggs for 50 DAYS.

I knowww….whatever were we thinking???

Those 50 days felt like 50 weeks to me. I freaked trying to dream up different vegetarian dishes every day. I won’t mention the deep sighs & pathetic looks I got each time I served a meal. Not to mention the temptation….a neighbour came over with a huge bowl of fish biriyani one day and my heart broke into two as I sent her away. We also went for one of those horse shows and stoically ate vegetable samosas and pita bread with hummus while the others gorged on chicken pot pies, bacon wrapped shrimps and…and…I can't bear to say more. There are more such sad stories but I’ll leave it to your imagination.

To cut the story short, we survived the 50 days of Lent & it went better than expected. Looking back now we are happy we made it through and quite satisfied about the whole thing. Self-control is not easy. We may have cribbed a bit but didn't knowingly do anything to break it. Again and again it comes back to me that almost anything is possible if we put our minds to it. Lao Tzu the Chinese philosopher says “He who controls others may be powerful but he who mastered himself is mightier still”.

I wouldn't have found the quote so meaningful if I hadn't been observing the Lent;-P.

Rachel Allen’s book in the meantime is sitting on the book shelf and staring accusingly at me;-(.

In other news, I was roped into playing teacher for a week during the holidays again; the Vacation Bible School at church, remember. I gave in without a murmur this year and managed to have a good time too. I had around 15 kids in my class and succeeded in keep them occupied for a few hours everyday. At the end of 7 days I gave them a bookmark each which I painstakingly made for them and threatened them with dire consequences if they lost it.

I've also acquired a new position…meet the Manager of the father-in-law’s facebook account. FIL had no clue how to go about on FB and asked for help. The doootiful DIL that I am found it difficult to say no. I’m now posting pictures and updating statuses on a weekly basis and quite enjoying it. FIL is very pleased with all the attention his page is getting and I feel like a master puppeteer controlling the strings of something which is not mine. Never mind my own FB account is lying unattended & gathering dust somewhere.

So that’s all in the news from the RBC* today. You have a good day too.

Wait….just remembered some more…..you know I usually cut across a park to go to the local grocery and one time when I was coming back from the grocery[back through the park] I saw a worker planting tiny shoots into the ground. He made the mistake of looking up to see who was passing by and out shot my hand expectantly. And alternatively showed him one finger [the index finger you dirty minds] signaling ‘just one piece of the plant please’. He gave me one, then two, then three and four and went to pick the fifth out and I mimed “enough enough, thank you, thank you, beaming happily at him. All those elaborate gestures because he didn't know English and I didn't understand Tagalog. We both went our way feeling very pleased with ourselves:-).