If I had Rs.50000, wait…RS. 75000!… what would I buy from QVENDO? OMG!
I wasn’t sure what had happened to the QVENDO competition and wondered whether I’d ever get the chance to go, ‘YAY!!!!! I won!!!!’ and ‘OMG!!!! I’m getting STUFF….FOR FREE!!!!’. Lol. My fears have been laid to rest and it was announced the limit had been bumped up to Rs. 75000! >_< Joy, one word I have for you….this has come at the most perfect of perfect times – Christmas around the corner, sister’s birthday just a few days away, Christmas gifts in order – yes, perfect timing! Would you actually give away some of these things as gifts to OTHER people? I hear people asking me…and the simple answer to that would be, ‘YES’! Christmas is all about love, the spirit of giving and sharing so apart from feeling great if I won, it would feel better to know that I have some goodies in store for near and dear ones! Plus, it would be much easier on the pockets! 
LOL! So, GANBATTE! (Japanese cheer for getting psyched up) to me and here we go, QVENDO Wishlist – Part 2!!!!
I’m going to shamelessly, once again (this is becoming a bad habit) put it out there and say, the moment you get mail that reads ‘exclusive’, ‘VIP’ and ‘chance to win….’, ohhhhhhh have you really managed to sucker me in! Lol. So what is this about QVENDO? What is QVENDO? QVENDO is an online, by-invitation-only shopping site. What’s the big deal? Well, it’s a shopping site where you can get branded and exclusive items. So what? Well, how about these same branded items on incredible sale? OMG! Yep, that’s the reaction I had.
Yes, I will say it, the pieces in their catalogue are beautiful indeed! So if I had Rs. 75,000 what would I buy from QVENDO? The original limit WAS Rs. 50000 and with that I had chosen a few items from their catalogue and campaigns during THAT time. There are now different campaigns going on: True Religion Collection (2011/2012), Pink Poodle (all about bags!), Replay Watches, Replay Jewel and Luis Trenker. You think it would be easy to decide what you’d spend your Rs. 75000 on…IT IS NOT EASY! Especially, when you’ve got adrenaline running through you and you’re trying to make calm, logical and judicious clothing decisions and at the same time, fighting the urge to just splurge on ANYTHING your eye lands on! Lol. So, calmed myself down a bit…..breathe….took a look at the items and here is my QVENDO Wishlist – Part 2!!!!
I have to admit, the collection in the Luis Trenker section, screamed out to me!!! It was saying, ‘You and I were meant to be!’ Oh so cheesy, but really, I loved the collection. So first off from that collection would have to be the Luis Trenker Dress Silke Grey for Rs. 11,500! Original price: Rs. 15,600.
- Luis Trenker Grey Silk Dress
The next item that kept catching my eye were the shoes on display with the dress mentioned above. Once again, from the Luis Trenker section, the Leona Dark Brown shoes priced at Rs. 20,300! Original Price: Rs. 27,100.
- Luis Trenker Leona Dark Brown shoes
My brother is a Christmas baby (yes, he was born on Christmas) so it’s only fair that I pick out something for him too. Since he’s been looking for a good shirt/sweater for a while, the Luis Trenker Sweater Der Berg Ruft in Grey for Rs. 3,700 would be perfect for him with the front design something that would meet his approval 
Original Price: 5,300.
- Luis Trenker Der Berg Ruft shirt in Grey
For my dad, he’s always on the look out for a great shirt and immediately, while still in the Luis Trenker collect, the Shirt in Heini Red/White Plaid got my attention, at Rs. 7,800, PLUS it has a front pocket (an absolute must for my dad)! Original Price: Rs. 10,800.
- Luis Trenker shirt in Heini Red & White Plaid
I wanted to gift something to my flatmate as well, who’s not just a flatmate but a friend and fellow ‘crackpot’ (lol). So since she’s a bag person, the Pink Poodle bag, Funkyline-Jungle-Tuesday-Green at Rs. 3000 was the perfect choice for her. Original Price: Rs. 6,700.
- Pink Poodle Bag Funkyline-Jungle-Tuesday-Green
In the True Religion Collection, there are some excellent shoes on sale! I mean, incredible sale so the True Religion Shoe in Black or even the one in Black/Beige/Brown for Rs. 5,300 feels like a steal. I can see either my brother wearing it or even my dad! Lol. Original Price: Rs. 8,000.
- True Religion Shoes Black
My youngest sister just started college this year. So, jeans are in order for the young college-goer and these ones looked like the perfect pair, the True Religion Jeans, Julie Dark Pony at Rs. 10,100! Original Price: 14,900.
- True Religion Jeans TR Julie Dark Pony
I have another sister, older to the one above but younger to me and she is also quite a bag person. Felt this bag might just be the right size and style for her and if for nothing else, pure Lamb leather….plushness right there! So from the Pink Poodle collection, the Celebrity Challenge-Jade Ocean bag priced at Rs. 6,100 is the bag for her. Original Price: Rs. 14,900.
Pink Poodle Bag Celebrity Challenge Reese-Ocean (the bag I want for my sister is similar but lighter blue, a little larger and more like a sling bag)
I now have Rs. 7,200 left and the only one left is my mum. I’m torn because there is the Luis Trenker Shirt for Women, Alina Dark Blue for Rs. 6,000 which is fantastic because I don’t think she has enough shirts. Original Price: Rs. 8,500. But I feel I should get her more…she can keep the shirt or take the shoes…I really love the shoes. LOL. Sigh…poor mum. Fine, she can keep both shirt and shoes and I’ll just borrow the shoes now and then! ROTGL. Isn’t that the way things usually go? :D
Luis Trenker Blazer and Alina shirt (the shirt is inside but can't get a clear view, the blazer is awesome though...lol)
I have Rs. 1,200 left! Time to hit the jewellery section under Replay! To my surprise, there were quite a few things available for my leftover budget of Rs. 1,200: the Replay Gold Brass Bracelet, Replay Silver earrings in the shape of funky butterflies, Replay Silver Ring in the shape of a royal Crown with the words ‘My Honor’ (fit for royalty!), the same Replay ring in Red stones and gold, an array of cufflinks such as the Silver, Black cufflinks for UNDER my budget (Rs. 1000). So what to pick?!!!!!! After careful consideration, there is still ONE person that I haven’t got a gift for and so he’ll get the Replay Silver and Brass cufflinks (it has the words ‘Replay Established 1981′ printed and has a rustic look to it, if that’s the right word) priced at Rs. 1500. Original Price: Rs. 4,100.
Replay Silver Butterfly earrings
Replay Silver Crown Ring
Replay Silver and Brass Cufflinks
So go ahead and head over to QVENDO and check out some amazing items on unbelievable sale!!! I really need another Rs. 50000 to go ‘splurge’! LOL.
Build me a castle & get me a dog whisperer!
Here’s a strange problem I have. Forget the term papers, read-up’s, assignments and civil exams that are on my plate. Somehow, I think I could actually deal with all of them as I have been dealing with them since the dawn of ‘my education’. The two things that could really turn my worries all around and they are oh so materialistic that I’m embarrassed to admit this: housing and doggy training/boarding. There! It’s out in the open and I’ve said it.
Forget not being in the ‘home of your dreams’, just not being in an acceptable HOUSE at all can really drag a person down. Our flat is working out fine but the one thing we struggle with day-in and day-out is the DUST!!! I wake up and I’m able to run my nails down my skin and see an actual ‘dirt line’. A ‘dirt line’ by definition is when, after scratching, you can see the original colour of your skin versus the colour your skin has taken on due to the accumulation of dirt. It’s happening all the time. One time, I was scratching my face and feeling disgusted with the amount of dirt I could feel under my nails till my flatmate exclaimed: ‘Oh my god, what’s wrong with your face? Have you been scratching it?’. I thought, wow, I must really be scratching too hard because I thought my flatmate was concerned because there must be red lines on my face. So, got up to check it out in the mirror and I believe I went something like, ‘Oh my god’! All the places where I had scratched there were ‘dirt lines’ everywhere! Ewwwwww! I went and washed my face IMMEDIATELY! It’s a constant battle against the DUST in this house.
If dust weren’t enough, now we also have a resident rat which loves to jump off the bathroom wall and scurry away. Sadly, he/she has always made his/her appearance only to my flatmate. She says it’s fat, like an apple! Lol. And needs to lose weight. Double lol. I told her he/she probably’s jumping off the wall as exercise to lose the weight. So our bathroom is now his/her gym. Hmmmm…at least someone’s enjoying this flat.
Apart from the house, a dog whisperer is needed, PRONTO!!! During the day, maybe because of the heat, Hector and Alchia Bura are ‘angels’! They’re quiet, they like to find a cool spot, curl up and sleep. When the sun sets, it’s like some unknown switch gets turned on and they morph into these hyperactively crazy dogs!!! My flatmate calls it the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde syndrome which is completely correct. We need Cesar Milan! That dog whisperer who shot to fame on the Oprah Winfrey show and now his own show on the National Geographic channel. I was watching one of his interviews on a British chat show and he said in Mexico they had dogs that needed more food but had no psychological problems like their Hollywood counterparts in the States! Lol. So true but I think psychological problems do happen especially with any animals that have become pets or domesticated and housebound. Hmmm, Cesar just come to India!!!! Teach Alchia Bura to stop chewing things and throwing tantrums!!! T_T
So those are our woes in a nutshell. Added to the need for a doggy whisperer is an urgent need for a dog boarding facility. Yes, yes, they’re just animals why go overboard and get them a boarding facility? Firstly, we just don’t trust a shelter. Many times shelters are some of the saddest places for a dog – understaffed, poorly maintained and a breeding ground of diseases and illnesses. So that’s an absolute no. So how about a friend? Bring me the ‘friend’ who would like to take on the responsibility of caring for two dogs for two weeks over the Christmas holidays….yeah…pretty difficult and don’t think that we’re going to find many takers there either. So, naturally a professional dog boarding facility is always the best option. Been looking around and found one which my flatmate and I are checking out. If all goes well by God’s grace, hopefully this will be the place for Hector and Alchia Bura during the Christmas holidays which is that nagging worry that my friend and I haven’t been able to shake for the past few months. It’s the reason we’ve had sleepless nights and fatigue and anxiousness. Fingers crossed everyone! If it’s good hopefully a post about our experience with the place will go up.
On other affairs, I’m not sure if I’m getting dumber or older or both. I tried comparing my level of activeness during my M.A. years and now and I realized I’ve become such a slacker! It’s shocking how unmotivated one becomes with age! o_0 But I got a bit of an fresh injection in my arm today and I don’t know why. I just felt like suddenly picking myself up and doing something finally. Mental slump over!!!! I guess it happens to everyone – you get tired of being tired about your situation… hmmmm…..So here we go!!!
Adoption plea for man’s best friend!!!
I’m here again. Making a plea I made over a month or two back for families to adopt our two dogs, Alcha Bura and Hector. Maybe I’m asking for too much or a miracle but I can’t help it, guess I’m always hoping for the best till the end. These two beautiful dogs deserve a good home and a good family to love them and raise them. I know they will bring a lot of joy to whoever decides to adopt them. If one family could take them both, that would be nothing short of a miracle! And if we can get two families, one for Alcha and one for Hector, that will be just as amazing…
These two came into our lives when we least expected and many tell us that the trials, frustrations and tribulations we’re facing now are ones we brought upon ourselves. Lol. I don’t disagree at all with that and gladly accept that fact. But there’s nothing more to be done about it. So if it sounds like I’m happy keeping them, why this plea to adopt them? Good question. If I could then I wouldn’t hesitate to keep them with always. But it’s reaching a point where it’s not them that give us trouble but the people around us instead, who are being the real pain. I’ve never run into so many people who have so many issues with dogs. Growing up, I remember how my parents use to teach us to handle dogs on the street that scared us – their advice? Look straight ahead, be indifferent to them and just keep walking. Pretty straightforward, understandably hard to do when you’re scared but like all fears, you just have to face them. There are real fears and there are needless fears. Being scared of animals is a pretty needless fear. That’s just my personal opinion so please don’t start bashing me up for it.
These two lovely dogs deserve good homes. They deserve good families who will love them and provide them with security and some assurance of stability. They do not deserve students who keep shifting flats, they do not deserve people shouting at them, or being needlessly scared of them or complaining about them to such an extent that they become housebound most of the day. These peoples advice? Chain your dogs, keep them inside, don’t let them out. It’s so stupid that there’s not one single comment that’s worth wasting on such advice.
We’re looking for families in Delhi, preferably, who have had some experience with animals. If you have your own place with some space or a small garden that would be wonderful. We are not asking you to take both of them together but if you want to then that would be great! >_< If there are some families in Delhi, Noida or Gurgaon who fit this bill and you would like to inquire then please respond by replying to this post or mail me at musingsaday@gmail.com.
Hector studying Japanese!
Alchia Bura a la mode!
Reading your feet?
Halfway through to the end of a somewhat strange weekend, I am reduced to surfing the web reading manga of the less-ventured-upon type and manga of the more-ventured-upon type such as Nurarihyon. I’ve also been scouring the net for interpretations of dreams about driving and now I’ve landed up on this whole issue of reading people’s personality through their feet and toes…yes, yes, a very ‘productive’ weekend.
I wonder if someone had read my feet, would they have seen the ill-effects of disturbed and improper sleep? Would they have known that this came about due to stress over an unfinished task? Would they have been able to read that this person is feeling overwhelmed and unsure? Maybe perhaps a tad annoyed and fed-up? Could they have read into the fact that perhaps this person wants more than ever to learn how to make a situation more advantageous for them? Hmmmm….a lot of questions and maybe’s. I still don’t know if by reading my feet someone could have figured that much out.
However, there were some interesting points I found out like a longer second toe on the right means leadership potential or someone who likes to be in-charge (we’ve all heard about the theory of wife will dominate husband yaddah yaddah). But the second toe also represents the sensitivity level. Also if this second toe (from the big toe on the right foot) is unable to touch the ground and if there is a gap between the second toe and the third toe then that person is trying to detach themselves from their emotions. A calloused ball just below your little toe means you’ve been shouldering too much responsiblity. A really angled third toe means someone who can deceive others easily and has a high propensity for being misunderstood (common in spies it seems). A particularly small little toe means a person of child-like tendencies or quality. The fourth toe seems to tell a lot about relationships. Now, I wish I had THAT book. I also took a small quiz and found out quite a bit. Most of it is true so I guess there is something to this whole foot-reading thing after all. Here are the links: http://www.blogthings.com/whatdoyourfeetsayaboutyouquiz/ and in case you’re interested in the article about this lady who does foot reading, here is the link to that as well: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/wellbeing/5125678/Foot-reading-what-your-toes-say-about-you.html‘. It’s funny how my interest in this thing got started….it’s all thanks to Aishwarya Rai. LOL! Yep, you heard me right! I had read an article by a director (very well-known but I’ve forgotten who) who gave a lot of ‘insight’ into her personality after having studied her feet when he met and worked with her. What he had to say pretty much piqued my curiosity and so now I’ here. Sigh….
As for dream interpretations, from what I’ve gathered, driving is a symbol of the direction your life is headed. The type of road counts, the type of car counts, whether it’s you or someone else driving also counts. If you’re driving then you’re in control of where you’re headed or if you’re being driven it can mean that you will succeed due to your store of knowledge. Being driven by someone could also mean, however, something that doesn’t fall within your control and that the person driving might be the one in charge or controlling you OR what they stand for is what is controlling you. Hmmmmmm….that can’t be good. Anyway, a friend said she dreamt of me driving her. It seems I was a terrible driver! More like dangerous driver but you couldn’t blame me so much because apparently it was a driving test, with the instructor in the passenger seat and my friend in the backseat. Lol. I thanked her for the dream because I decided to look at it as a wake-up call to get cracking with the more important things in life. Boy, do I need inspiration, concentration and devotion to get this done. Hmmmm….>_<
I did do much more than just read about feet, manga and dream interpretations. I did laundry, finished off a WAY overdue assignment (praying that it will still be accepted), received my Chinese dictionary from Flipkart (man, I love Flipkart!), bought groceries and well have been home since then. I had a good sit-down snack and dinner with my brother, who despite his young age and deceptive passiveness and childishness has a lot of common sense. Lol. So much so that I was taking advice from him on life, friendship and love. I enjoyed it though and appreciated what he had to say and share. Sometimes, more than the age, I guess it’s the personality of the individual and what they’re like and stand for at their core that counts. Wonder if the feet can tell you that about a person as well? Hmmmmm
My week so far….
I have been to the halls of bureaucratic fame and fortune (merrily cheated on the way by our good auto-wallah),
Handed in my humble application for membership and left
leaving it up to the ‘powers that be’ to see it through….
I laboured on through the dust and cobwebs,
On past the wheezing and hacking noises of my own cough,
To reach that singular golden parchment adorning the shelves of our humble abode of knowledge…
and it lies unopened, still, atop my book shelf….
The hardships of my quest had weakened me,
But the call to duty had sounded and I stirred,
Determined to fulfill my sacred bonds of filial piety….
And possibly be rewarded monetarily for my deeds!
I have held wealth of both kinds: yellow and green!
Stretching from the Americas to the ‘land down under’,
Such fabulous wealth beyond my dreams…
I have feasted like a queen on the Grand Old McD’s and KFC,
And humbly ran to Wenger’s to top it off with the sweet nectar of life…
Dessert!
I have awoken aghast by the noises of a beast! a brute!
Only to discover I have lost my most precious aid for the visually-challenged!
Lying ravaged and broken in the jaws of that furry creature known as Hector! Grhhh….
Now I recount my saga for all to hear, as I lay confined, by my trusted Medicine Woman, to house-rest!
The journey known as the ‘week’ is fraught with untold dangers my friends!
Be alert, Be brave and Be victorious!!!! Hooo-ah Hoo-ah!
Steps to take when sitting an exam….
I wish I had far more interesting things to share. But I’ve just come back from the same old grind that most of us who hail from this country have to go through…our state civil service exams!!! Yep, I sat for mine. Still cannot believe I did. No prep, no clue…and when I say no clue, I mean I had no clue! I didn’t even know which format the exam would follow – the old format which meant I would have to relearn all my Indian history again or the new one, which meant I would have to become a General Studies genius overnight! 
As you can or cannot tell, my nerves are a LITTLE frayed. Overall, it was an experience to notch on my belt. I can walk around with my head held high that I have now also joined the ‘exclusive’ league of state civil service aspirants!
Here are the steps I took in my ‘prep’ for this exam:
- Stay up late playing Sims on Facebook!
- Read manga online and clap your hands like a happy idiot when you’ve read something good.
- Switch on the TV leave it on the TLC channel or HBO and open your book right, smack-bang in front of it and ‘study’…guffaw!
- Try to load and reload and then load again, the latest episodes of your fave anime on a super slow Tata Photon connection.
- Convince yourself your doing the ‘responsible’ thing by cleaning out the family PC, defragmenting the drives, clean out the registry, delete temporary files etc. etc.
- Take time to go and indulge in warm family chats, warm family discussions, warm family chores….anything that is not related to studying.
- Go multiple times to your bookshelf and look earnestly for ‘study material’ to help you prepare….in front of the TV!
OMG…I’m reconnected!!!
Shifting is done and we have ‘settled’ in to our new place. Commemoration date of our entrance shall be noted down as the 1st day of September, in the year of our good Lord, 2011. I’m a little incoherent right now. Could be from the food overload I put myself through just an hour ago. Budaejigae, ice cream and a ‘diet’ Pepsi. Hoo hoo. Very healthy eating….ahem.
So how is this new place working out? The major irritant so far has been the lack of a wash basin for washing dishes in. Yeah, you guessed it…THAT’S where we’ve been washing our dishes! Apart from this ‘minor’ setback, the place is not half bad. Spacious, with lots and lots of room to spare. We turned the inside room into a kitchen and it’s so ‘cozy’ that my flatmate has decided to make that her study/sleep area. What makes it cozy? Could be the stack of bags against one wall or the fridge and shelf along another or perhaps the table holding our stove and gas cylinder? Who knows?! The bathroom is another riot, with a tiny corridor leading to it. We couldn’t help but notice the difference in tile designs on the walls of the bathroom. In the end, we concluded that the landlord must indeed be really cheap that he went around asking people for their left over tiles from different construction sites! Lol!
The balcony is glorious, overlooking the busy and NOISY main road. But I’ve decided to take this ‘noise’ as the ultimate test of living in a city…reminiscent of New York’s motto, ‘The City That Never Sleeps’….ahem. The first night in the house was interesting. The curtains can’t be pulled all the way across so a bit of the window was left exposed to the street lights below. The light they gave off was that kind of orange-yellow glow that you’d expect to see in an outdoor concert at night. Then every time a car would pass by it would feel even more like being in a concert with the headlights acting as those huge lights that pan across the crowd. My flatmate and I couldn’t help laughing every time it happened. Our own private concert to keep us wide awake….sigh…Lol.
The second day in the house was action-packed as the fan ‘decided’ to FALL on top of my flatmate while she was sleeping! Luckily, she was sleeping in the foetal position so it just touched her feet but nothing more than that. Phew. There was slight pandemonium that day and we marveled at the strength of my friend’s self-preservation instinct as she later confided that she had jumped off the bed and ran, not because of the feeling of the fan falling on her, but because of the flash of white light that had come just before the sound of something short-circuiting which was then followed by the fan falling. Wow! O_O That’s amazing reflexes and drive….I started thinking that if an apocalypse was to happen in the form of a zombie virus breaking out etc. then she would most likely be one of the few to survive….hmmmmm. That’s a big compliment when you think about it….hmmm…or a big insult….hmmmmmmmmm….
It’s funny how you miss something when it’s no longer around. I do not know why; when we didn’t have the internet for these few days, suddenly there were so many things coming up which required a net connection!!!! I realized how much man has become so dependent on machines and technology. Does it matter if I don’t check Facebook or Twitter for a few days? Or if I don’t blog for a while? Will the world really miss me that much? Why do we want to be heard, seen and acknowledged so much? So much so that we put ourselves up for scrutinization to complete strangers?
This just in….earthquake just struck Delhi less than 5 to 10 minutes ago. First thing I did was head to Facebook and Twitter to see what others were saying. Lol. One of the best examples of one of the better uses for technology….
