Mes Secrets Inconnus

Finally , i am on the last leg of this never ending journey ( at least that’s what i am feeling). I spent a couple of hours shopping in the Heathrow airport. A very lavish and costly place. But interestingly they always drive you to a very good deal and bargain. I am now very convinced that from their ruling in   India, they have got used to bargains and bargaining ;-) Good to see cross culture grow ;-)Fusion of  west and east.  I hoped i had a little more time so that i could look around for more such  fusions

Look at this – . I saw this in the flight map…. Can you believe ? Is this the India map we were made to learn??? I am not sure if it’s some error while depicting or this is the current map of India. A very sorry tale….

Yep, i am super excited as i am flying back to my home. I know this is going to be  long stretch but at the end of it , there is happiness.

To avoid any final minute confusion, i got into online boarding. I was rather shocked that BA now allows passengers to carry only one luggage as their check-in baggage and this time around i had two baggage's. What’s with me and baggage's , i simply don;t understand. So get on a call with their customer support to figure out what was the exact rule. Beep, Beep and i was connected on to a IVR which only gave info it had and not what i wanted. Another hour of googling and random phone calls, i got connected to thier customer care – An italian/French lady greeted. Apart from the greeting, i did not understand a single word  that came out of her mouth. In this respect, i should give credit to the desi call center’s. They are so well trained even in accents ;-) Anyways after a lot of confusion, convincing, arguing, she allowed me to check in 2 bags. Lucky me!!!! i even had her email me for the confirmation. After all this drama, i went on to book my seats. At a friends suggestion, i choose the front seats. Only  to realize that it was a bad choice – the basinets :-( Will the kids allow me to take a nap??? . Ok, the final calling has come in, need to wind up. Will blog from Heathrow :-)

Very exhilarating that i will be a goner from this place soon. I have few more days to wind up my shopping. And yes what is bugging me is, i need to shop a few items which have been mailed to me only a day back. Let’s see what best i can do. It pains to shop using a public transport.

I just can’t wait to see my lil one !!! Hope she has not forgotten me!!!!

We were like 15 years old and our CEO decided we need to have a celebration for this. So the event proposed for this was - dinner party followed by a comedy show.

The dinner started at 7.00 pm and everyone was enjoying the cock tail. I had not noticed that i was the only one who did not have a glass of beverage, until someone asked me where my drink was :-) So i walked up to the lady who was making these great cocktails to check with her if she had some soda. But when i reached her, i noticed that nobody was going for the soda and more over i did not even see any soda. I was so embarrassed as i did not even know what beverage i wanted, so the next immediate thing that came to my mind was water. The lady looked at me and gave me a glass of water. I felt like chicken. So i went back again and this time there was someone ordering a drink and here i applied "James bond" skills. I looked at the lady and ordered Martini - shaken not stirred :-). A sense of satisfaction came over me, only to drown me. They had no Martini. So i just took the drink the last person took as i did not even know what to ask  next:-(. Sad , i think i will need to do some research and keep some names ready so that i am not embarrassed in any social gathering. So holding this beverage in my hand i made my way through all people. Although the drink was on the table for the rest of the time, the smell made me high :-)

After the dinner we went to this mini theatre which was all booked for us to watch a stand up comedy performed by "Unexpected Productions" . I felt that some of the scenes were quite good while others were lame. But all in all, it was a night out worth remembering.

I have never claimed to be a food expert or authority. I write about restaurants because I love them. I love the food made by my favorite establishments, and I love the institution itself. And despite my lack of credentials, experience, and all around knowledge, I’ll admit to trying to bring some discipline and focus to my writing about food and the people that make it for me. One (of many) embarrassing gaps in my resume as a food blogger is Ethiopian food. I had no clue how the food would be and what i would get. But one thing was for sure,since i had been in Middle east and had tasted few Mediterranean dishes,i guessed it would be close to that.
So there were these guys from my office in M$ who were working in my project - real friendly and resourceful people and they offered to buy me a Ethiopian food. So i agreed and off we hit the freeway and went to South Seattle to a hotel called as Habesha. As you enter the hotel you will immediately notice the lamps which are made out of handmade paper and decorated with paper cutouts. There is also a sleek, backlit bar and exposed brick wall. I was coached that there would not be any silver ware and will need to use our hands.The crowd was beginning to make way. I noticed that they had only one waitress and she was pretty good;-) We ate something called as Injera which was very similarly to desi dosa ;-) The food was very delicious and ate much more than i could. All in all, i would definitely walk into a Ethiopian restaurant if i found one :-)

Yes, you heard it right. Here is how it goes - A friend of mine who has been sharing the apartment with me, wanted to check out a few laptops and looks like he found something good on Walmart :-) So we decided to head to that place. The nearest Walmart was in Renton which was like more than an hour drive if we take the public transport. I had asked him to make a note of all the directions we may need to get there and better still take a print of the directions from our fav app - google apps. He quite assured me that he had the directions set right and in fact had directions from two different ways. Sounded magnificent.

We reached the Renton Transit center only to realize that we had not got the directions to to the store :-) Sounds funny , but its not when its windy and the temperature reads 1 C and you are homeless and lost :-) . We'll that's how we felt. But then considering that we are professionals who had and have been executing complex projects this seemed simple. So , we fixed our base as the transit center and went in each direction recollecting any street name that seemed familiar from our google maps. First shot, we gave up just after crossing a street. We trusted our sense of direction. We then headed back to our base and reached out to another route. While we walked we came across a creek which looked very beautiful. But quickly we realized, surely the store would not be in such a beautiful place. So we returned back to our base and then thought over carefully what we should do. By this time, our hero wanted to head back to the apartment as it was fruitless and cold. So we conjured up our courage and for one last time we headed in a different direction and continued on that path even though hero suggested that we may have come again in the wrong direction. But guess what?? in midst of this cold freezing weather, lady luck decided to help the destitute ones. From that point onwards, there was nothing we could do wrong - walked the correct direction( given the innumerable crossings) , reached the right place, did our shopping, walked into a chinese buffet ( this was the best place - eat what you want for 7.5 $ and trust me they had so many varieties) , reached the bus stop just a min to spare and got the connecting bus in less than a minute. What else could go wrong... Finally we are at the apartment and I just increased the room heater :-)

BTB, check out few pics i clicked on our adventure. Ok, it's no where close to my photographic skills, as it was clicked from my iphone. As i always say - Schumacher can only unleash his potential with a Ferrari :-)

Every day i have lunch @ the MS cafeteria which is on the 25th Floor. They serve a variety of stuff with the Burgers and pizza being constant and every other cuisine ranging from Indian , Mexican, Mongolian, Thai, Chinese and Italian. I guess i do not really know which cuisine the others belonged to. But the fact remains that i have altitude sickness and the fact that i eat lunch 25 storey's high makes it worse. As the elevator moves up and down, i can literally feel the pressure in my ears and i am deaf to ppl who talk to me:-) and BTB, in all my flight travels , i always make sure that i have my ear plugs on for the entire trip. Pressure always does me in :-)

So i was in the cafeteria the other day contemplating my sickness problem, when i noticed that i can actually see Lake Washington from the cafeteria. So i thought i might as well enjoy the little sunshine this place has to offer with this background. Trust me , it looked really beautiful. And again don't blame or my Iphone for the quality of pics - we did our best.

From time immemorial, my folks at home have always told me that its always good to have the "lord's" blessing when you leave home for any reason. So like someone who religiously follows such practices, I looked at the "lords" picture I had in my pendant and got out to work when i noticed this -

Freakin neighbor right ? I don't know if he is a movie freak or he is a maniac by himself. Who cares!!! I do, I definitely don;t want to see a skull on my way out!!! So I guess , I will have to opt the other secret route - jumping out from the window !!!

There is nothing much you can do in a new place if the weather is not supportive. Honest!! The weather here does not even listen to the weatherman. This simply is a question mark on man's quest to overcome nature. They say you can predict upto 80 %, WTF, you say 20 % it will not rain and i go without a protection and then ??? Dude!!! get your basics right - remember the 80:20 rule :-)

So with all these weather things going around and people having innumerable devices to keep them ahead of weather, we always end up being indoors :-) and that would be the Malls. So by this time I have visited all the major mall's of Seattle -  the crossroads mall, the factoria mall, the Bellevue mall , city center mall, pike place market. But like they say - seen one seen all. It's the same everywhere - JC Penny's, Macys, Shacks .. they never change....Since they all look same, i won;t bother to upload any pics :-)