Turning 32 and Henna answers

Sorry for ignoring the Henna questions! I read them and made a mental note to answer and then forgot. Oops. It was applied by professionals, not by me or any family though in a pinch I've done it myself before. Usually in Delhi markets, you'll find a bunch of youngish guys (18-25 yr olds) sitting along sidewalks, with Henna cones and some albums of their work to flip through. I should have taken a picture or better, a video, but it is such a natural thing for me, I didn't think of it! It took 2 guys, 20 minutes total for both hands, and $2. The $2 (Rs.100) is expensive by daily standards because I got it on KarwaChowth, a festival where Henna is a must for married women keeping the fast. Usually it is Rs.50 total for both hands. It lasts for 15 days, though it starts fading away after 2-3 days. When you first remove it after applying, do not wash hands in water if you want it to give a better color. After removing the paste, you let it sit overnight. The rougher your hands are, the better color you'll get. My hands are soft so I have to suffer through questions about my MIL not loving me all that much. Old wives tale - if DIL's henna is lighter, MIL does not love her. Not really true in my case :)

I turn 32 today. I had to work because I'm out of all vacation time. Rather, I'm in negative. Hubby promised to take me out to lunch, if my lunch buddies don't. IF they do, we'll do something else for tonight. Movie is out since we just already watched Madagascar 2 on Saturday.

London Day One (contd..)

Read Day Zero here. We went to visit the London Eye as everyone had said it is not to be missed. Got there and found long queue to get the passes and then to enter the ride. Turned out, if we bought the combined ticket for this and Madame Tussad's Wax Museum, we'd skip the line for buying passes. We had Tussads on our list anyways so we bought the combined pass and went straight on the ride. The London eye moves slowly to give you aerial view of London.

Looking from across the Thames River

Near the Eye

Inside the eye

Aerial View of Thames River

Other side

Hungry yet? We were, so after this we ate at McDonald's near the Eye. After that, we continued on the Westmister Abby. Everything in this area is so close and yet so far on foot!

On the bridge

Big Ben

(partial) House of Parliament

Westminster Church

We didn't go inside as it closed at 3PM.

Backside of the church that I loved and Girish hated

House of Parliament

Another shot I love

Girish wanted to capture us in front of the bus - we waited here for like 5 minutes trying to get a good shot! We got it eventually.

Tired after all this walking

A Rickshaw! Another reminder of India

After this, we went to Trafalgar Square - on the bus instead of getting the tube so that Mehul can finally ride in it.

Trafalgar Square

The big column

The Big Lion

The whatever they are

Some fun

OMG! The pigeons have been replaced by PEOPLE

I wanted some coffee but the cafe at Trafalgar Square closed right when we wanted to enter. So we explored one of the streets next to it.


We wanted to go back to The Eye and get some night-shots. We had seen from our room the previous night that The Eye turns blue at night and didn't want to miss it. This time, however, we took the tube to go back to Westminster.

The London Eye

The Big Ben

Mehul was looking tired by now.

I ruined the shot by standing in front LOL

House of Parliament and Big Ben.

On the other side of the river

Mehul woke up!

It was a long day. Went back, picked up some chinese food on the way and slept really well.

London

Day Zero

We started our journey on October 10, 2008. Flight landed in London at 3PM on the 11th. We checked into the hotel and got a room that smelled of something. We felt the smell throughout the hotel but it was especially worse in this room. After 30 minutes we couldn't get used to the smell, and came down to the reception hall and found someone to talk about this. They changed our room and while talking we found out the hotel used to be open to smokers. We saw 'No Smoking' signs everywhere but that was fairly recent. They had made the hotel non-smoking but had not changed the carpeting anywhere. They were going to do so. The other room was better although in the hallways, the smell was present. We got used to it eventually.

We were near the High Street Kensington Metro station (London Metro=Tube), which is on circle (Yellow) line. The circle line goes in the center of London and touches all the major sightseeing in London. London Tube Map here Since it was evening already, we decided to just explore the nearby places on foot. We walked past the Hyde Park and walked all the way to Victoria & Albert Museum. There were many other museums we wanted to see but didn't have the time. London has so much to explore you can stay there for months and not have to see the same things twice. We only realistically had 4 days.

Hyde Park Gate

Old Style Telephone Booth

Royal Albert Hall

Hyde Park

I made the skirt I'm wearing. There is another one I made which will come up in other photos.

V&A museum closed at 5:30PM. The outside wall of the museum had been damaged in World War II and they have left it as is for memory.



We wandered our way back to the hotel. While returning we saw this apartment building which had so many chimneys up on the roof. I found it really interesting :)


I thought of India as soon as I saw this shop as you always see fruits displayed outside like this there. It turned out to be an Indian grocery store. Hee


Mehul was loving the double-decker buses. We took him on a few rides later in the trip.

I'm back

Just a quick post to say I'm back, if you haven't read it on The Wagon. We reached on Sunday, and I started work on Tuesday. Mehul has some serious Jet-lag. He woke up at 2:30AM on Monday night and 3:15 last night. He is having a bit of trouble adjusting to the school as well. They started transitioning him to the next class today. I hope he adjusts well as he always has a bit of trouble in the beginning.

Here are a few of my favorite shots of London.

Big Ben/London Eye

London Eye at night

St. James Park

Posting from India

London was fabulous. Pictures coming soon. We reached Delhi on the 16th. Yesterday, I got henna done for Karwa chouth fast. After washing off, the color isn't as dark as I usually get because I had to remove it earlier. Here are the pictures while it was drying.

We're off in about 20 minutes

I just wanted to quickly post before leaving. I'll miss you all!! See you when I get back!

Time to pack!

Sorry for staying absent for all this time. We're leaving for vacation in 3 days (Friday). There is a stop-over in London for 5 nights and then we'll reach Delhi on the 16th night. 17th is Karwachowth so I get to keep a fast the first day I'm there. Bummer.

On the bright side, Mehul turned FOUR!! His birthday was past Saturday. We usually celebrate at the daycare and have a separate party at home with friends. This time because of the vacation, we decided to not do the GTG. One of Mehul's class-mate, A, was born on the same day as Mehul, attends the same daycare since he started, and was born in the SAME HOSPITAL!! They had invited us over for A's birthday, and Mehul and A cut the cake together (it was a princess cake LOL) Too funny. Anyhow, there will be a celebration in Delhi with my and DH's family which sounds much better than anything we'd have done here :) We did cut a cake at the daycare too, and another smaller one at home. Yep, I've been eating too much cake!

We've been through most of the shopping now and I need to start packing. There are some things we still need but I can start now. I'll be sure to post before leaving. I'm not taking the laptop but my parents and in-laws have high-speed connections so I should be able to check my mails. I'll try NOT to do any online shopping. It has been hard watching all these sales (sewing) and not getting anything that would show up at the doorsteps after we leave. I am going to get some cloth and notions from Delhi so we'll see what I can find. Also, I'll be getting curtains made for few rooms from there. I'll post pictures.