Happy days are here!

My Brit friend SD from Goa certainly brings good times along with him. The dude came down to Delhi for four days. He had already threatened to go Ferragamo shopping here. I had prepared to go into hiding.

But I did not need to. He finally decided to leave brand shopping for his trip back home to
London. But he did haul his other friend AS to go shopping with him for glares. Apparently it was quite a task getting him to pick one. Of course he didn't, because he said none of them was the 'it' glare.

Well, Friday night for us took off at Smokehouse Grill where we ended up in a huge group. There was SD, AS and her friends along with my friend PS. It so happened that another friend of mine was in town and decided to drop in as well with his group of friends. So it was a merry group indeed who got very sloshed when drinks were mixed like crazy. I, of course, overdid it with beer poured into rum n coke and vodka shots and what not. The result: a spinning head, spinning as rapidly as a top, and two hours of sitting in the washroom in an unreal haze.

The next day started off on a note that was not very pleasant. I quite felt like a sick dog at work. All resolves however fell off once I reached The Park at night. To be fair to myself, I did start off with a cranberry juice in Aqua. Then we tripped into Agni and I was seduced by rum n coke. And there I was dancing away merrily into dawn. SD happened to have some friend's friends there who bought us more drinks. They later apparently popped open a bottle of Champagne for him and went off to buy a Rolls Royce!

While friend PS and me drove home in early hours of the morning to catch up with our sleep before we met SD and AS again for a late lunch on Sunday.

As it so happened, sleep was not a sure shot for me. All my own fault so not that I can go into a strop over it. I had switched on the water pump at 5.30 am. At precisely 8 am there was a loud banging on my door. It was my upstairs (very irate) neighbour informing me that the pump had caught fire and got burnt (whisper: I had forgotten to switch off the pump). So there was no water and no electricity!

The entire morning a bleary-eyed AB spent attending to calls from the landlady who is visiting her son in Bangalore. And shelling out four grands to get the pump and electricity wires repaired *SIGH*

Late afternoon me and PS were off to Flavours for a four-hour long brunch with SD and AS. Oh was it long drawn out and relaxing. So we started with chocolate & kahlua smoothies. Our appetizer was a wood-fired juicy pepperoni pizza. After polishing it off, I had to plow through a baked chicken penne while I listened to AS telling me why her neighbours never took to her and her flatmate. AS said with rather a straight face: "First of all, my flatmate is a guy. On top of that, one early morning a friend of mine, a Spanish girl, fell off the balcony on top of the neighbour's car. I think he never recovered from the shock of it."

The conversation was, as you can see, pretty entertaining. PS warmed it up further with our old Times of India stories over a lovely Tiramisu that we all dug into with equal fervour.

The evening finally winded up with a film. The Pakistani film -- Khuda Ke Liye. It is brilliant. Not a film to miss out on for sure...

Now time for me to pop back to file a story!

Holy smoke!

It's 6.45 am. I am walking on the treadmill trying not to feel sleepy. I am the only person in the gym. Till a plump guy walks in and steps on the next treadmill. "Are you A?" he asks. "I just checked the register and realised it has to be you?" The awe in his voice being quite apparent.

"Uh, yes," I reply a bit cautiously.

"What a holy name!" he exclaims. "My day has been made."

"I am not holy at all!" I bite back. Not that he is fazed out in the least.

He starts quizzing me. Till he knows where I come from, what I studied in college, where I put up, how I travel to the gym, how the gym next to my house sucks, etcetera etcetera. Of course I am informed as to how he is so knowledgeable about my name and how he is a follower of Ram Krishna's religion (never knew it existed!) and is extremely spiritual.

After learning that I have been staying in Delhi for six years now and been working for five of them, he assumes I need to get hitched! "So are you looking at catching a guy?" he goes on. "Because it is essential to get married." That is exactly the term he uses - "catch". I don't know whether to laugh or slap him. So I just assume a poky face and keep walking.

Making a return...

What do you do when money keeps flowing out like there's no tomorrow. And tomorrow, when it comes, you will be scrounging around for the pennies.

I can see it happening to me.

And I seem to be helpless to put a hold on anything. Well last week, I probably need not have
bought the three saris that I fell in love with at Nalli's. But I did buy them. Then today I visited a dermatologist for some relief from a particularly irritating lip drying problem. Doctor's advise: Do not let saliva touch your lips (essentially no lip smacking or smooching!) To boot that, it came with expensive medicines.

I am hopelessly broke.

So any one looking to help out a damsel in distress, feel welcome:)

Because she has plans up her sleeve. Travel plans to Lithuania, Egypt, Turkey and Greece. For which she needs to save like lots of rupees*sigh* Living is so
expensive.

The aforesaid travel plans have been fuelled by this one perfect holiday I had in Goa a month back. I happened to travel with a girl friend who is quite chilled out and likes to do all kinds of crazy things. So I ended up having the time of my life parasailing, driving all around Vagator and losing our way of course in the narrow winding alleys, lunching in Fort Aguada (which is a must really), rolling joints, dancing all night with extremely cute French strangers in discs and garnering up the courage to give vent to my vocal skills in karaoke bars.

Let me mention this particular bar that we took a fancy to. Cocktails & Dreams in Baga right beside Tito's. We used to frequent it every night (the bartenders knew us as the Delhi Girls). We fell in love with this cocktail called Mr Mesh -- quite a concoction with chillies and Tabasco spicing it up.

If life is lived in moments, then I did have my moments.

A memory that makes me feel all catlike -- an evening in Baga when I sat on the beach, gorging on a chocolate eclair from Mambo's patisserie. I am used to eclairs that have just cream to offer. This one was sheer poetry. It was stuffed with gooey chocolate that oozed out of the sides as I bit into it leisurely and as the sea breeze ruffled my hair, I knew nothing but bliss.

Another was a chance meeting with the French stranger from St. Tropez. As a friend of mine claims, nowadays, all desirable men are either gay, married or they are young. This one was young too. He was just 21, but danced like a dream (and kissed well too). However when he hopped into my friend's car to come with us to the next bar that we were heading to, my friend lost his cool and started badmouthing him. I was a bit taken aback for this friend is a Brit and doesn't usually mind hanging out with strangers as he and his housemate have both confessed to me.

Even in my drunk stupor I was squirming with embarrassment. Poor guy was quite bewildered. But I am glad he still came with us. The third time however he decided to let go because my friend just pointedly ignored his questions as to where we were heading next. So he kissed my hand ala Frenchmen and I left. It was, as has been aptly put by former flatmate S, "like fleeting ships passing by in the night".

Oh, it takes my mind away from all petty problems and just makes me grin like a chesire cat.