Some things only happen in London

Its been a long time since I updated and much as I’m tempted to blame ‘life’ for getting in the way, its just my own laziness. Add to that the procrastination in checking my Reader … every time I see the 10,000 + unread posts, I just quickly look away and click in the general direction of the little red cross.

London has been good generally. Nowhere else will you meet a guy going somewhere on foot, looking in at every street corner and then coming up to you and asking, ‘Hey, am I somewhere near Heathrow? Can you guide me there?’

The thing is… he wasn’t drunk. We were on foot. And we are a 20 minute DRIVE from Heathrow. I went into the typical sarcastic Londoner mode and politely pointed at an aircraft overhead and said ‘Follow the planes’

I blame the PMS. No, really.

Why its true…

… that matches are made in Heaven.

If nothing, marriage makes a believer out of you.

Of course, its not to say the couple will always be the same. Obviously one will be better than the other *wink*

*********

NoOne just celebrated her one month anniversary which sent me back to my time (I sound a thousand years old). ‘So,’ I said to Mr. over an international call (poor Mr’s pocket) to London, ‘you’re becoming a proper husband’

‘Er, how?’ he says.

‘You forgot our one month anniversary… and I would not have forgiven you that, had I remembered it myself. Its only when everyone was asking me to treat them to a night out that I was informed its our one month anniversary.’

‘Haha,’ he says, ‘you forgot too? I’m sorry, I kept on reminding myself last week to make a note but it just slipped my mind. Sorry!’

We laugh a bit.

‘So, I was telling myself over and over to remember the 4th and then I just plain forgot! Hehehe,’ he says.

‘4th?’ I say, ‘our anniversary would’ve been on the 3rd.’

‘Oh.’

‘Okay NOW you’re in trouble.’

Dear God, for two people like this to end up together… miracle I tell you (no, Cosmic Joke is not a synonym)

As it stands…

For some reason, its not fun to blog when you don’t have to make sure the boss isn’t around… I mean it just kinda beats the whole point of it.

London has been terribly boring. I wait all day for Mr. Specs to come home. Straightening my hair, curling my hair, putting on nail-polish and taking it off, reading romance novels… all house-wifely things get real old, real quick. I AM SICK OF THE IDLENESS!

Cooking is the only thing I really love to do but with only 2 people in the house and no social life whatsoever, putting anything together uses up all the skills I acquired preparing for the GMAT… and its equally draining; trying to divide 1/4 tsp mustard, 1/2 cup cream, 2.5 Oz of flour etc in a ‘Serves 6’ by 3 gets very exhausting after a while.

I know I should take up painting or bird-watching or something to while the hours away but the sheer effort of getting out of bed on a rainy morning and trying to wash my hands at one of those wash basins with cold and hot water taps a foot away from each other… the mere thought is daunting enough to make me want to curl up and go back to sleep. Which I do.

I never reckoned a lack of love for dining out and absolutely no inclination to shop will leave me so handicapped. GRRR!

Enter: Real Life- Finale (?)

I quit my job.

Packed my bags.

Flew to London.

It was sudden.

One weekend, I didn’t know what to do to manage time properly and get everything done.

The next weekend, I was sitting halfway around the world in a new home- my home- that had two cups, two plates, one fork and three spoons. No, wait…. that’s a spoon-type-thing. I’m not sure what it is. Its too disfigured to see what it was originally. Specially after it was left in the microwave in one of those two plates. We’re grateful the plate survived.

Welcome to home.

Welcome to real life.

Welcome (back) to have-nothing-to-do-and-am-depressed crying sessions… and then seeing the bright side of things and going on marathon cooking sessions….revelling in the freedom of having no constraints on my time.

Welcome to the freedom of staying out as late as you please.

Of doing insane things like going to the 24-hour ASDA to get tea bags at one at night because there were none in the house.

Welcome to London. Welcome to home. Welcome to real life.

I’m lovin’ it. 🙂

Enter: Real Life- the past and the present

Sobia says:

What is the change that you hate the most? And love the most?

Well, I hate… the fact that everyone considers you public property- you completely lose your privacy. You sneeze and the whole extended family knows. Part of it is owing to you being the fascinating new entity and all the interest you generate but sometimes, I would just like to be left alone, if you know what I’m saying.

I love… the independence. Even though Mr. Specs isn’t here, I get to do what I want, wear what I prefer and go where I please at whatever time and no one will point at me because now I’m married. The logic defeats me but hey, it works!

Aapa asked do you feel you can be just as open in the new family as you were back home??

Somehow, the two question marks at the end of this question make me think I have no two options as an answer 😉

Jokes aside… of course not. You can’t sleep at odd timings; you can’t skip dinner if you don’t feel like eating… the list goes on. None of this, of course, has anything to do with them being nice or not, for AlHamduLillah, mine are really nice- its just that there’s a certain decorum and formality that’s always in place so you can’t really do that. And if you’re not really open about the day-to-day stuff, the rest is kind of moot. I’m finding it out the hard way- its best not to have an opinion on anything when at the in-laws.

Nandini asked so do you recommend shaadi for all of us unmarried ones? That is my question…

I do!

Yes. The pun. I know.

I would, however, highly recommend eloping. Unless you enjoy getting poked and prodded by hordes of aunties and being photographed by random strangers you don’t know and the ensuing family politics drama. Waisey, you could use the situations that arise in some of your screen plays 😉

Mssnaz asked tell us about your mehndi (you had a mehndi right??!) what songs did people dance to? and did you want to join in?

My Mehndi… ahhh… I didn’t come to it 😀 I hear it was nice. Everyone had fun and my sisters chose the sound tracks and they had some dances… I hear there were 16 or so. I was working till 9:00 that day so they started by 8:00 since I was going to be late.

Here’s the twist… I didn’t feel like the loud music and the attention so I went to the gym. When I came back home around 11:00 pm, the party was packing up because dinner had been served. Haha. I was wearing pants and my mum made me change to this silky shiny yellow gharara even though there were only my cousins left by then… oh and yes, I hate too much attention and noise and parties where there are relatives. Oh wait. That was obvious. LOL. But there was no ubtan or mehndi being stuck on my hands except near the end of the function because I had told them I had office the next day so I wasn’t staying up all night trying to take care of the mess.

I’m such a spoil sport. I know!

Enter: Real Life… on what not to do

Here’s a list as per Saadat‘s query…

The comprehensive list of what new husbands should not do or say

• Keep TOO in touch with current affairs and watch Geo News for an hour the first morning ‘You were putting on your make-up; I was getting bored’ is NOT an excuse. And yes, Geo, ARY and all news channels are now ‘officially’ banned *wink**glare*

• Play Tetris on your phone when she’s talking to you. It isn’t really the Tetris that got to me as much as the 2 extra seconds put into ‘save and quit’ instead of ‘quit’ did. That you’ve been playing it for a year and have a super high score is NOT an excuse. Really.

• If you’re helping her unpin her hair, you should listen to her and NOT start at the front just because those pins are easier to access… You’ll never manage to find all the pins at the back then and get poked in the eye with one 2 days later. True story.

• Doubt her cooking skills

Girl: Who put the fruit in the freezer? Now that its thawed, its so mushy and difficult to slice properly…it doesn’t look decorative at all!!

Man: *contemplates dessert* Don’t worry, you’ll get better with time.

Girl: *glare* I AM GOOD. Thawed fruit doesn’t slice properly- it just falls apart.

Man: Oh. Yes. I thought you said… *voice trails off*

• Tell her she looked ‘nice’ on the wedding day No, brides look beautiful. They don’t look NICE. Little girls with fairy wings for their 2nd birthday party look nice. Not brides.

• Be ‘funny’ “I’ve seen her in the morning when she isn’t wearing makeup.” No, that comment is not funny at all. At ALL.

• Be too truthful ‘So this is what your hair feels like without the conditioner. Ha ha. Er, why’re you looking at me like that, honey. Er, honey? Er …’

• Bond with her family too much So much so that her brothers forget whose side they are on and she notices that the pictures of her wedding that Matt e-mailed her were labelled ‘*insert man’s name* wedding.jpg’ Sorry, did you hear that tinkle? That was my heart breaking.

• Not get a hint ‘My hair looks awful’ is not to be replied with ‘Doesn’t matter, I still love you,’ it was supposed to be ‘No it doesn’t look awful.’ Guys just don’t get that they’re not supposed to AGREE when a girl is being self-critical… in fact, that’s the only time they’re allowed to disagree and will be given brownie points for it.

• To keep your marriage brimming,
  With love in the loving cup,
  Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;
  Whenever you’re right, shut up.
  ~Ogden Nash