Currently Wish You Were Here By Pink Floyd Welcome to the Machine see related

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Went out with Apu to Jersey City and got a ton of food from Rasoi to last us a week. Stopped earlier at Shoprite & Walmart where on a spur tested my blood pressure on one of those free testing machines. All normal for now.

Saturday, August 08, 2009

N feeling much better after severe costacondritis had her almost bedridden on thursday, the painkillers doing an effective job. After much assurance that she is A-Okay, we drove down to I-hop for our saturday brunch.

Following weeks of looking around, we finally bought the reclining sofa set and bed/mattress from Ashley furniture. The first real piece of furniture I've, correction, we've bought. Later picked up SDK from newark and went to watch G.I. Joe at Jersey Garden, but not before previewing "The Perfect Getaway" sans sound. Good movie, very good visual effects and a more sure-handed direction. It was good to re-live my G.I Joe days..

After movie, drove down to Chinatown restaurant were we indulged in sushi and some well cooked chinese food. Finally took to the effort to work a pair of chopsticks. Gave SDK a quick show around our new place, which later led to an impromptu meeting with our new neighbors.

Random pictures from a rainy saturday afternoon. Is there anything more relaxing than watching rain drops falling against the window? How comforting to be on the other side of the window..

Sunday, Aug 9, 2009

N went to watch Magadeera. Blessed opportunity to just sit around and catch up on my reading and re-arranging my I-Pod music library.

Currently The White Tiger: A Novel (Man Booker Prize) By Aravind Adiga see related

Watched Harry Potter and Half-Blood Prince on Tuesday July 21st with N. Finished reading Tana French's In the Woods. Excellent setup let down by a unsatisfactory ending.

Watched Hurt Locker with SDK and N on Friday 24th at AMC 42nd street on Times Square. Had dinner at nearby Applebee's before the show. Good movie. Doubt if its the best of the year. Another movie let down to high expectations.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Drove to our usual breakfast place. The family who run the shop are out on vacation for the next few weeks. We'll have to make alternate breakfast arrangements till their return.

Drove down to Jersey Garden mall to buy gifts for D for her upcoming b'day. Wasted the next couple of hours walking inside the mall from store to store.

Later in the evening, N and I walked down to Chinatown, a swanky looking chinese restaurant on Harrison Ave for dinner. The decor was well done and the food was alright. N tried the California roll sushi.

Monday, July 27, 2009 - Thursday, July 30, 2009

Busy work week and house hunting after work hours. Spending more time on crossword puzzles..who knew?

Friday, July 31, 2009

Saw an affordable, half-decent apartment on Friday evening after several disappointing visits to Newport. $1300 for a three bedroom. Spacious enough but nothing spectacular. Just your average row house among a block of houses with no sweeping, panoramic view of the Manhattan Skyline. And every 15-20 minutes or so we'll be alerted by the passing of an NJ Transit train nearby.

We decided to take it. We're after all slaves to New York City. Fortunately the landlord is comfortable with a month-to-month type arrangement and that suits us just fine. We plan to move in throughout the month of August.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Drove down to North Brunswick to help S and Ni'a. They needed a car to pick up an aunt from Newark Airport. Their car was at the mechanic's with some issue and wouldn't be available till later in the afternoon.

We had lunch at Moghul.

On our way back we stopped by the new apartment and closed the deal by cutting a check for the security deposit. Came back home to watch White Sox leading the Yanks 7-2 top the 6th. Lets go Yankees..

Currently Outsourced By Ayesha Dharker, Josh Hamilton, Larry Pine, Asif Basra, Matt Smith see related

Whilst wifey away on a quick trip to Connecticut, to meet with old friends, I thought I'd pop in here for some updates. I can see its been over two weeks since the last update and my writing time has progressively regressed. I'm caught up in a culture where you just don't get to spend enough time doing the things you love. Unless ofcourse doing the thing you love brings food to the table.

But more on that for another day.

Friday, July 3, 2009

N and I were driving down to philly to spend the long weekend with D and Kal. On our way, on NJ turnpike, progressing along at around 70 MPH, our vehicle's accelerator gets jammed. N sits up straight and she desperately tries to slow down the fast moving car by hitting the brakes but to no avail. With no intention of reliving the incident we succeeded in moving to the shoulder after I manually pulled up the accelerator. But not without spending a few brief minutes in panic and rapid thought processing. But neither of us lost our cool in the face of a potentially life threatening situation. And that probably is a good thing.

The ensuing process of getting our car towed out of the turnpike and to a known mechanic in Vorhees took several hours. Kal picked us up from the garage and we reached Philly well past 10 PM.

The rest of the weekend seems like a blur. Saturday evening a few friends and us went down to watch the fourth of July fireworks.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Picked up the car from the mechanic. N took out for test drive and everything seems to run smoothly.

Spend rest of the evening with familiar faces playing B'Ball, Hide'N'Seek, Chillis and trivial pursuit.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Got off work around 6.30 PM and was picked up by N at the Path. We'd made dinner plans with P-Bo. Picked up P-Bo and headed to Olive garden in Secaucus. Food was good. Place was crowded as people kept streaming in for the entire 1 1/2  hours we dined.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Woke up around 9 AM. Watching the 2nd Ashes test at Lords. Around 12 we went to our usual breakfast place.

N had booked tickets to the Cirque De Soleil show "Alegria" at the Prudential center around a month ago. The show was at 3.30 and we arrived just past 3 PM. We walked the few blocks from Penn Station to the center. The scathing afternoon heat was made bearable by the presence of a mild, gentle breeze.

The security measures at the Prudential center rivals the TSA at the airports. We had good seats but there were several empty seats in the proud auditorium. The show was fantastic. Our second Cirque De Soleil production and Alegria proved far more enjoyable than Wintuk.

After the show  we drove down to Edison to Moghul Express for an early dinner. Sean, Nisha and I had planned to go Red Lion. N opted out since she had a long road trip to look forward to the following day. We drove into the city and found parking a few blocks away from bleeker st.

Michael Tait performs on Saturday nights starting 10 PM. We'd arrived a little early so we walked around Bleeker and McDougal street amongst the masses. Rohit, Kunal, Girde, Gary and others arrived between 10:30 - 11:00 PM. Tait started off with Floyd's Comfortably Numb and as the night progressed belted out R.E.M, U2, Police, Coldplay (amongst the ones I could identify).

The show ended at 1PM as we strolled towards Mcdougal and stopped by Kathi Rolls for a bite to eat.

Sean dropped me off at home around 2.20 PM. N was already fast asleep and I crashed soon after.

Currently AKS lucky ali By Lucky ali see related

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Thunder died. He seemed to be behaving a bit oddly the night before - tired and usually when its feeding time he jumps to the surface and pounces on the worms and pellets. But this time he seemed dis-interested and preferred to lay on the comfy surface of marbles. Coming to think of he did look less active than before.

He was with N for almost 2 years. Quite a good run for a beta fish by all trends and statistics. But I shall miss him. Sitting in N's room, during my darkest hours, when my past, present and future all appeared to come to naught, he was my only companion. The bearer of my misery. I could only but look at his medium size fish bowl and how merrily he swum, round and round, to realize we all live in a big god-damn fish bowl. No more, No less. And there were times when he often paused, looking right at me, before going about his way. Could fish feel the pain of humans? Cos I'm certain humans cant feel the pain of fish.

You would think what a fool I am to grieve the death of a mere fish. I do not grieve nor mourn.

I write cos I came to accept his presence as a part of my life. I took it for granted. But like all things his physical presence has come to an end. There sits an empty fishbowl like a house without inhabitants.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Watched  Public Enemies at 7.40 PM with N after work. Interesting effort, but not likely to be a box office competitor. Jotted quick thoughts here. Came home to have soup and bread for dinner. Followed by a late night showing of Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof.

Currently Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix By Phoenix see related

Friday, June 26, 2009

Left work shortly after 6 PM to meet N at the Au Bon Pair cafe near Wall St. SK was to join us and we were (I reluctantly) heading to the nearby Regal cinemas to watch transformers 2. And what a gluttonous mess it turned out. Not a big surprise. But surprising enough that a majority of the critics felt the same anguish. Sometimes negative reviews are spot-on and its holds true for most Micheal Bay movies. It feels pointless to go into details about the movie. I shall spare the reader its burden. But suffice to say its a lavish waste.

After being subjected to over 150 minutes of loud metallic clanging, we took upon a leisurely walk along the pier adorning the world financial center, enjoying the bright and mighty lights flashing from across the hudson. The night and the crescent moonlight had mellowed down the persistent rain as we settled down in Southwest restaurant. I ordered the SW black bean Veggie burger with a side of the fries to go along with my Aquavit White Cosmo. SK and N shared the grilled Mahi Mahi coupled with Mango Mojito and Banana Dalquiri. It was around 10.30 when they took our orders as the busboys worked the tables to ensure the 11 PM close. As a result N's order of Carmel Brownie Sundae arrived before our main course. The service remained uncordinated till we paid the bill.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

A day of rest and general relaxation. We woke around 9:30 AM to look at the river park apartment. Following our appointment, we drove to our usual kearny coffee shop for the regular round of french toast and eggs. We experimented with Blockbuster and Netflix subscriptions (incldg a quick trip to ferry st) and for now are satisfied with the service provided by Netflix. We rented Night Train (N's choice) an obscure 2009 direct to DVD release starring Danny Glover, Leelee Sobieski and Steve Zahn with Sobieski turning in an macabre performance. This soon led to a movie marathon as we watched Tell No One and David Mamet's Spanish Prisoner. We turned in a little after 1 AM.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

We'd promised to meet A and Nag for brunch at 11 PM. We took the train and met them at their swanky Manhattan apartment. We walked down to Gee Whiz, a local diner and once again feasted on the regular round of french toast and eggs. I think I should avoid for a while if I wish to retain my taste for them. We returned and drove to Jersey city to shop for our weekly supplies. Looking towards the 9 PM showing of Poirot - Ms McGinty's Dead on channel 13.