F-R-I-E-N-D-S

Ok possums oops people (watching too much of Dame Edna), most of you already know I have relocated to a new country (for those of you who don't ; well, I have relocated to a new country).
This means I have left behind a lot of things. And the most important being "Friends".

So I am in a new country with no friends. This is when a few people who belong to the same nation or who work in the same office or who live in the same building as you, conveniently become your friends.
yeah cos that is convenient. So we become "Friends of Convenience" sharing absolutely no frequency/wavelength whatsoever. And when frequencies don't match, I don't have to tell you the results!

Below are some excerpts of my conversations with my Friends here.

A group of us decided to hit the beach

Friend:  oh wait , let me quickly grab my thongs!
Me (thinking) : what?!? did she just say that out aloud?
out she comes with a pair of beautiful pink sandals. oh God she has got it all mixed up.
Me (aloud) : er, don't you mean sandals?
She gives me a really sad look. You know the one you give an uneducated bloke who does not understand English.
Friend : my dear, these are thongs! (apparently here thongs mean shoes)
Me (beetroot red) : uh mm oh ok.

A group of us at the dinner table

Me : hey do you have a hand sanitizer on you?
Friend : Oh yes. I have everything in my bag. My bag is a Pandora's Box.
Me (thinking) : Pandora's box? is it not that box which contains all the evil in the world?   I am not going to correct again, now. Am I? No. once smitten twice shy. I am just going to play along!
Me (aloud) : oh wow! that is a lovely Pandora's box you have there!
Friend's daughter : Mom, Pandora's box contains all the evil in the world!
Friend gives me a piercing look. You know the one you give an arrogant insensitive fool who makes fun of their friends.
Me (beetroot red) : er, uhmm sorry..

After-dinner-conversation at friend's place whose entire family adores and worships Steve Jobs.

Friend's daughter : Apple showroom is my Father's Temple!
ok now I really don't know what possessed me. It could have been all those months of not having anybody to debate with or that I really was fed up of hearing Jobs every time we met.
So I go on ranting about how and why I hate Jobs in a very melodramatic way! (trust me, VERY melodramatic!)
Friend clutching her daughter tightly. You know the way they hold them when they are trying to protect their children from a raging psychopath.
Me (beetroot red again) : er, sorry, din't mean to get carried away like that!

So in short, my friends here think I am a "raging psychopath, completely uneducated, with an arrogant, insensitive heart who does not understand a word of English". Perfect! The only thing missing is the cherry on top.

This New Year 2013, I really miss my friends back home. and how!
                                                                     

foto by Nina

The Apocalypse!

It's 21st Dec 2012. Oh My God ! The Apocalypse. It's happening!!! Its really happening!!!

There is a chillness in the air..The sky is turning blue...the birds are creating a cacophony..
There is a strong breeze...The trees are swaying gently in the breeze..
There are cars on the road...speeding cars...
The traffic lights are going Green, Orange, Red, Green, Orange, Red, Green...
The clouds are forming in the sky (white ones at that!)
The river is still..boats speeding across...

Wait. A. Second. Isn't this how any normal day in Sydney is?
So it din't happen..did it? The Apocalypse?
Thousands of blue blistering barnacles!! Thundering typhoons! Jelly Fish!!
(Just that it would have been nice not to pay the mortgages...)

OK Mr. Apocalypse...you never showed up! am thoroughly disappointed in you (not inviting you to anymore parties, you ditcher!)

-Angry Nina

Lucky little Devils!

1. One day Pharmacist John Pemberton was mixing up medicinal syrup. He wanted to make a medicine that would cure a number of diseases.  He made the first syrup for the drink in a three legged brass kettle in his backyard. He carried a jug of it to the Jacob's pharmacy, down the street. Here the drink was sampled and declared of 'excellent' taste. His goal was to have a health elixir. Instead he created one of the world’s tastiest Drinks widely consumed as a soft drink.

2. Alex was going on a vacation, to take time off from his job of growing bacterial cultures in little Petri dishes. He was studying the effects of mucus on Staph cultures in a somewhat grungy laboratory in London. He forgot to wash up his last batch before he went off, and when he came back two weeks later, he saw an amazing sight. A mold was all over the dish, but all the bacteria were dead. 

To cut a long story short, Alex, found the mother of all disease fighting drugs which was Blown in by dust on his Staph cultures.

3. Two brothers were experimenting with boiled sheets of wheat. But they had to leave their experiment mid-way and leave. Dr John Harvey and William Keith made a surprising discovery when they returned the next day. The dough, when placed in a press broke into small flaky material instead of coming out as a sheet. Four years later they marketed this product and made a fortune.

This product is considered as the world’s favorite breakfast.

4. An Arabian nomad was traveling across the desert. Back in those days they used pouches made from a sheep’s stomach to carry water. The nomad accidently poured milk into his pouch instead of water and began his journey. Somewhere along his way, when he felt thirsty, he opened the pouch for a refreshing sip, but discovered something else instead! The chemicals from the sheep’s stomach reacted with the heat of the sun and bunched up the milk into this substance. 

Today Pizza cannot be imagined without this substance

5. Charles one fine day accidentally spilled rubber, sulfur and lead together into a hot stove. And he finally, got the results that he was waiting for. Today, his invention is used in everything, from shoes to even hockey pucks.

6. French Chemist Hilaire de Chardonnet spilled collodion, an inflammable substance once used as a surgical dressing. When the substance dried, it formed long, thin filaments. Today this substance also referred to as artificial silk is used worldwide in apparels

      7. Wilson Greatbatch was working on a heart monitor. This invention came about when he pulled out the wrong part from his supply box. When he used this wrong transistor in the monitor he noticed that it emitted a perfect sound. This happy accident led to an invention that is used by 3 million people worldwide today to prompt the heart to beat at a normal rate

       8. It was discovered in the 19th century by several scientists toying with penetrating rays that were emitted when electrons struck a metal target. It wasn't fully workable until 1895 when a German scientist named Wilhelm Röntgen tried sticking different objects in front of the radiation and saw the bones on his hand projected onto the wall behind him.

      

      9.Walter Hunt was a New Yorker in need of some fast cash. He owed a friend fifteen dollars and decided to come up with the money, by inventing something the world needed. That something, he decided would hold things together. He drew a sketch of it in a mere three hours, and came up with the idea. He also made a model of it and sold the rights of his invention for four hundred dollars. And, that was all the money he made from this million dollar idea! It was originally made by twisting a piece of brass wire about eight inches long which is coiled at the center and shielded at one end.

      10. No one got the idea and then stayed up nights to invent this product.  A man named Spencer Silver was working in the 3M research laboratories in 1970 trying to find a strong adhesive.  Silver developed a new adhesive, but it was even weaker than what 3M already manufactured.  It turned out to be a classic failure. It was super weak instead of super strong.   No one knew what to do with the awful stuff, but Silver didn't discard it.  Today this stuff is used in one of the most popular office products available as reminders and found commonly on refrigerators.

      11.For thousands of years, man has walked through fields of weeds and arrived home with burrs stuck to his clothing. It’s amazing no one took advantage of the problem until 1948. George de Mestral, a Swiss engineer, returned from a walk one day in 1948 and found some cockleburs clinging to his cloth jacket. When George loosened them, he examined one under his microscope. The principle was simple. The cocklebur is a maze of thin strands with burrs (or hooks) on the ends that cling to fabrics or animal fur. By the accident of the cockleburs sticking to his jacket, George de Mestral recognized the potential for a practical new fastener which is strong, easily separated, lightweight, durable, and washable, comes in a variety of colors, and won’t jam. It consists of two strips of nylon fabric. One strip contains thousands of small hooks. The other strip contains small loops. When the two strips are pressed together, they form a strong bond

     12. This magic substance was the brainchild of Roy J. Plunkett. While working on a new refrigerant gas at the DuPont plant in New Jersey, Plunkett managed to come up with a slick substance that became a waxy, polymer coating, perfect for lubricating machinery. Later DuPont patented the polymer, known as PTFE (polytetrafluroethylene), a substance so slippery that practically nothing sticks to it. Where would many modern cooks be without this magical substance? Other than its use in frying pans, there are a host of other useful products available from fabric protector to devices for NASA. Just don't let the pan overheat in your kitchen, because even DuPont issues warnings that if too hot, its fumes might harm a bird if the cage is nearby. 

      13. Percy Spencer, a scientist at Raytheon's laboratories, absent mindedly left a candy bar in his pocket. He was experimenting with a vacuum tube called a "magnetron". He soon found out that the candy bar in his pocket kept melting to his surprise. Later he observed that it was due to the emissions from the magnetron. And this led to a very famous invention. Today most people can’t envision life without one, but they've only been affordable since 1967. It is present in every kitchen for the last thirty years predominantly in US.

       14. Josephine Dickson married a man who worked for a company that manufactured gauze and adhesive tape. We will never know the reason, but it is a fact that Josephine was accident prone. During the first week that she was married to Earle Dickson, she cut her self twice. After that, it just went from bad to worse. It seemed that Josephine was always cutting herself.  One day her husband had an idea. He sat down with some tape and gauze and a pair of scissors and made something for his wife. She could use this quickly and without a lot of fuss. At his company, they heard about these and they started making them to sell on a small scale. Four years later, in 1924, the company installed machines for mass producing the new product.

      Its just not fair that some people have it all. Well I have had accidents too (big ones at that!), like the one time I kept water on stove for boiling, forgot all about it, locked the house and went out for a wonderful movie. And when I return what do I get? No, no miraculous inventions or life saving discoveries. Just a completely charred vessel and loads of screaming from husband. (It was a miracle (OK, make that God's grace) that the house din't burn down!).

      The lucky little devils get all the luck and go on to become rich and famous, while I am still tucked away on the sofa blogging about them!

      Life's just NOT fair! (I think its time to throw away the little clover leaf that I carry in my purse all time!)

        

    PS: If you know the names of the products/substances discovered/invented above, feel free to leave a comment :)

12-21-12

Three days from now we will be reaching the much talked about deadline 12-21-2012.
The deadline for the world to end!


Yeah, yeah, I know the Mayans just ran out of space on their rock calendar and it has nothing to do with the end of world.

But have you heard about the "Law of Attraction" ?

"the action of Mind plants that nucleus which, if allowed to grow undisturbed, will eventually attract to itself all the conditions necessary for its manifestation in outward visible form." -Thomas Troward

And as we all know, there has been such hype about this. The hysterical and anxious people are actually migrating to places they think would be safe, in anticipation of the "End of World 2012"

So, yes, right now there must be billions of people thinking that the world will end on 12-21-2012.
And according to the above law, this simple thought is going to attract to itself all the conditions necessary for its manifestation..

Though the Mayans might just have ran out of space, it did however provoke billions of thoughts!
Who knows, if right now the universe is not conspiring to make all those thoughts manifest itself?!?

As for me - this is exactly where I picture the most obnoxious man that I have met in my life and think,
if I was the last woman and he was the last man on earth after 12-21-12, and we are entrusted with the huge responsibly of being 'The Adam & Eve' of the New Era.......Would I?

My mom...

As a teenager, I was always finding faults with my mother.
While my father was a hero, my mom always seemed to be the one who got in my way.

I remember those days when I pushed aside her food claiming it to be horrible. The times I have huffed and puffed if she was even a tad late to pick me up from school.. The days when I never entered the kitchen to help her..the times that I shrugged away her hugs...
I remember her silently enduring every blame that I threw her way.

Today I am married and in a new world. Now, I have to cook on my own for me and my husband. I have to press my own clothes.
Even if I get a single criticism on my food after slogging in the kitchen for hours, I would throttle my husband's neck (or starve him to death).

All those years, the efforts she put to make me comfortable, make me happy.. All those years that I never thanked her for...It haunts me even now after 10 years of marriage.

Today I adore her for being there for me.. for being an epitome of patience....for loving me the way no one else in this world would or could...

I guess it requires you to move far away from your home to truly appreciate the value of your mom.

XXOO

I am Number Four

Switching off your brains before reading this book is a must! The logic just does not seem right at some instances. Like they were all under a Loric Charm. Charm? Seriously? I thought this was a sci-fi and not Harry Potter!

But hey I am not here to write a book review!

I am here because one paragraph of the book really caught my attention. (in other words set me thinking)

"Before last night I would have never pondered such a theory. But Henri believes the Mogadorians are plotting to take over Earth, and I must admit, even though the theory in Sam's publication is ludicrous, at its most basic level there might be something there. I know for a fact that the Loric have visited Earth many times over the life of this planet. We watched Earth develop, watched it through the times of growth and abundance when everything moved, and through the times of ice and snow when nothing did. We helped the humans, taught them to make fire, gave them the tools to develop speech and language, which is why our language is so similar to the languages of Earth. And even though we never abducted humans, that doesn't mean it's never been done."

Though this is a fiction, let's assume a few things here.

We, earthlings, have been obsessed with finding another living planet for ages now. (If obsession could bring forth life, I am sure Mars would have had a few living organisms by now!)

But assume that we did find life on mars, then what would we do?

We will monitor every tiny detail, every single nanosecond of the day, while trying to be as discreet as possible.

We will watch the planet evolve. We would abduct a few Martians as samples to study them further.

Supposing the martians begin to die during cold seasons, we will ensure that the fire, we so confidently claim to have discovered ourselves, makes its way to Mars.

We would pass all kinds of information to them to help them. Fire, clothing, cooking, language, vaccines for plagues, maybe teach them to invent the wheel, science, electricity, religion. ( All while ensuring to keep ourselves discreet. Tricking them into believing they discovered all of it themselves -creating Einstein, Newton, Edison, Leonardo, Buddha. ). We would even alter their studies and inventions to an extent that make them believe that the earth does not even exist.

Finally Martians evolve to intelligent beings and start thinking for themselves. Which is when they spectacularly destroy all the resources of planet Mars thereby inventing global warming, wars, etc.

And then they start looking for life on another planet in our universe.

All this while we earthlings have cleverly stayed out of their vision.

So assuming we do all this if we find life on Mars. (of which I am definitely sure), would there not be a possibility that someone did all this to us when they found life on earth? helped us earthlings through? dropped the apple on Newton's head...helped Thomas invent the bulb...forced Edward to create the vaccine for small pox...
someone, somewhere, out there who have cleverly stayed out of sight, but is constantly watching/monitoring earth?

Well, all I can say is "I hope they don't decide to make me the sample!"

-Nina, The Ponderer

Mind Control.

"Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise".

Well, if Benjamin Franklin is to be believed, then I am a long way from being healthy, wealthy and wise.

Reason?

Lately I have developed a habit of "Late to bed and late to rise".
So yesterday it was around 11 AM when I finally got my self out of bed.
I had a Big breakfast around 12 noon (burp!) and settled down with my laptop.
With lots of thoughts churning in my head, I had to pen(or rather type) them down to keep me from forgetting them.
I have no idea how long I had been up-to this exercise.

Considering that our clock is situated in a very awkward position, I had to veer myself to even get a glimpse of it. (And for some unknown reason my brain just could not remember that my laptop does show time!)

It was 4 PM.

WHAT?? 4 PM?!?

Had I been blogging that long? Impossible! I even missed my lunch!!
No wonder I felt soooo hungry.. In fact, I was ravenous.

I fixed a huge lunch trying to make up to my now growling stomach.
hmm yummy!

After the sumptuous lunch, I was on my way back to my laptop when I got a chance to glance at the clock again.
And the time showed 1 PM. (I somehow dint get the time right before)

WHAT?? It was just 1 PM?!?

Just 1 hour after my BIG Breakfast?? Seriously?

Did my mind really trick my stomach into thinking it needed lunch?
Did my stomach just fall prey to one of my Mind's pranks?
Or
Have I completely lost it?

In any case, I think it is time that I considered "Early to Bed and Early to Rise".
Whether it makes me "healthy, wealthy and wise", remains to be seen :)


And oh yeah , Yes - The digital clock you now see on this blog is the result  of this tiny incident!

My Questions

To Lord Jesus : "Does the Bible truly reflect ONLY your teachings. Or are some of the actual facts fudged by the  authorities, clasping us in confining dogmas, so that they can continue to monopolize the world?

Or is the true meaning just lost in translation?"

To the Authorities : "Are you telling us the complete truth? Or are you hiding facts, which is rightfully ours, under the pretense of 'Highly Classified Information'?"

To Princess Diana : "What is the true story behind your death? Were you really murdered or is it one of the numerous stories woven by the journalists/reporters/gossip mongers - just a gimmick to increase readership?"

To Hitler : "Did you really believe in everything you did or do you have any regrets? No, come on, seriously!"

To Mother Theresa : "Do you think I can be like you? completely selfless?"

To the unknown : "Is there a world beyond what humans can fathom, defying all common beliefs ? A parallel universe of bliss? Something to look for after the eternal sleep?"

To Thyself : "Will you ever be free from the fear of death (or the oblivion of what awaits you after)?

Answer : Death itself will be the freedom - oh the irony!

Onomatopoeia

It was purely accidental when I stumbled up on this word.
Onomatopoeia - Take a look at the picture below and guess what it could mean..
Wondering why I stumbled upon it?
I just had to know if cats had language barriers. Does both a French cat and an Australian cat say "meow"? or do they have different languages too? (I am still trying to find out)

Meanwhile, for the curious, here are a few websites that explain Onomatopoeia in detail with examples.

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/what-is-onomatopoeia.html
http://www.examples-of-onomatopoeia.com/

and of course our very own wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onomatopoeia

Balancing Act

Well, I don't have a very complicated brain. It likes to keep things simple and move ahead with life.

au contraire, I have a hyper active heart. (especially around men. You know the kind. Tall, Dark, Handsome)

So net-net,a body with an extremely lazy brain and an extremely active heart.
Nature's balancing act.

Today, while my heart was doing triple somersaults, my gray cells seemed to have happily gone to sleep.

Wishes Fulfilled.

Despite being relatively new to the country, I brushed off my friend's offer to pick me up.
I would be perfectly fine finding her place.
Getting off the train, I walked towards the lane I remembered taking the last (and the first) time I was here.
The sun was setting, darkness looming over the entire block.
Trying to recollect her lane, I took a left. Wrong lane.
Right. Wrong lane
Another left. No points for guessing I was wrong again.
Needless to say, what would have otherwise been a 5 minute walk,  took me almost an hour before I could finally locate her house. ( also involving 15 calls)

Hi Genie, when I said I wished to travel a lot, I din't mean travelling round and round the same block 15 times.
Also the other day when I wished I could wear a gown, I really din't mean a "Hospital Gown" !
You sure have a funny way of fulfilling wishes.

First Impression

I walked to the corner of the jewellery shop attracted by a lovely diamond caught in between the clutches of what we call a ring.
Hearing someone call out my name, I turned my head in time to see a woman in her sixties enter the store. Troy's mother.
They embraced each other and walked towards me with smiles.
The resemblance between them was striking.
I liked her instantly.

We walked towards a nearby coffee shop and sat down to order.
She looked at me, up and down, with a frown "So what do you do other than stealing my son?"
She seemed happy at her question.
I thought perhaps I was a little too hasty in liking her.

We paid the bill and walked to the entrance.
I was about to say my goodbyes when my future MIL wanted to know
"You look malnourished, doesn't your mother feed you anything?"
ok I changed my mind. I dint like her at all...

First Impressions - hah!

Paranoia and Intuition - where is the line?

Me : make sure you tell my parents that I loved them..
Her : Helen....
Me : Tell Him that I loved him...
Her : Helen....
Me : Pass on my stamp collections to my little brother
Her : HELEN...
Me : you can keep my car..
Her : Come on Helen, you are not climbing Mt. Everest.. Its just a 4 hour flight, for heaven's sake !!!
Me : Sheepish smile

It was exactly 5 hours later that she heard the news of a plane that took off but never reached its intended destination......

Mary and her little lamb

Once upon a time, long long ago (when Mary had a little lamb), there was one question that boggled the mind of people.

"Can a boy and a girl JUST be FRIENDS?"

Today, (long after Mary's little lamb stopped following her), there still is one question that boggles the mind of people.

"Can 2 girls (or 2 boys) JUST be FRIENDS?"

Blown away by the wind...

It was a difficult day.
I always had friends to see me through such days. Isolation was for others, it really never existed in my dictionary.
But to know that all your friends are fast asleep in another country, where the sun had not yet deemed necessary to rise, made it an even more a difficult day.
So having no choice left, i decided to take a walk to clear my mind. I have heard and read that a good walk did wonders to brighten you up (though my head never understood this idea). Needless to say, i just got more muddled by the walk. (to see all the other folks chatting away to their friends and relatives, only made me sulk even more!)
Finally, I came upon a bench along the banks of a river. (Again I am not a nature person. The max that I can sit on a bench and stare into nothingness is like about 5 minutes).

But somehow, something nudged me into narrating all the day's incidents (yes to nobody, to nothing). I just blurted out every single frustration in my head.



A huge wind blew at about the same time that I finished my tantrum. I felt light.I felt good.
I had ranted all my troubles into the air and the wind had blown them far far away from me, leaving me light and happy......

Uprooting

Relocating to a new place is always scary. Especially when you are crossing oceans.You are basically in a new world, with new cultures, with new people, with different beliefs, with new perspectives to life and work. Not to mention the new stares (Now I know how animals in a zoo feel like. I don't think I will ever visit a zoo again in my life). The occasional relief when you see someone from your own habitat.

Its just a matter of days. Human beings are wonderful creatures. Soon the new place becomes the new habitat.

Realization!

When I started this blog, I wanted to post only unique and original thoughts that only I (me and myself) had conjured up, but then realization dawned on me.

"Every time I think I have just thought of something original, I realize that somebody has already posted that on the world wide web"

Lucky for Einstein that he did not live in the internet era.

Truly Creative!!

Now that I am here.

Now that I am here, I am all set to bore the world.(if I don't expire of boredom first)
Here is a poem which I wrote way back in 1999 (I think). I am coloring it red cos it was written in red ink on a torn page of a dairy dated June 27th.

Dead And Gone
Standing in the midst of fog and mist,
I call out to my friends,
The years we enjoyed together as sists,
are gonna meet their ends.
Since it is time to go far far away,
to seek where our fortunes lay,
The days we have enjoyed together have now become memories,
All nothing but stored treasuries,
As days pass by they rust and rust,
and decaying becomes a must,
That is all there is in friendships,
nothing  but a mere service of lips,
All green and fresh when it is born,
As days pass everything dead and gone!


I cant recall why I ended up writing this or what made me write it.
But recently when I got my hands on it, all I could think of was "Wow, I dint know I had it in me to be a poet! :-D"

What am I doing here?

OK.. frankly I really don't know what I am doing here...
I once read in a blogspot on "What makes bloggers blog?"
Quoting from iamnotinukraine.blogspot.com

Are most of the bloggers loners in some way? Is it that they imagine they have an unknown friend out there who can shoulder and support their thoughts? Or is it that they plan not to let out their thoughts and instead convert them into masterpieces? Or is it that even after all the catharsis, they still have a few of those bitter thoughts on their mind and would want to release them by blogging.

Well, I don't fit it into any of those categories. Neither do I expect an unknown friend (I doubt if anybody will even chance upon this blog ) nor do I have any thoughts that is even worth sharing let alone create a masterpiece!!  I am not even a great writer (I am a voracious reader though!)

So again "WHAT AM I EVEN DOING HERE?"

What Am I Doing here?