Blog-a-prompt Day 7 - Addiction

Wow it seems like we have reached the end of Blog-a-Prompt week already and it has been such fun!! It was good to get a lot of things out of the system, under the pretext of the prompt ;). And here's my last chance, until the next prompt at least!

The topic for Day 7 is Addiction, and though I feel pretty addicted to blogging thanks to the prompts, there are a couple of other addictions that give me pangs of guilt so I wanted to put those down.

First and worst of them all - Facebook!! I was at this stage when I used to keep clicking on every group even if I saw 1 new notification - yes it was bad :P. I have got past that now, thankfully and though I still spend a lot of time there, I make it a point to spend stretches of time offline completely or off from FB. It's an ongoing struggle and I have a long way to go to strike that balance, but I think the worst is definitely past :).

My next biggest time-stealer - TV shows. I have quite a set of them built up over the years, the one I've been seeing the longest being Grey's Anatomy which is in it's 9th season. This is not counting some of my reality shows that keep going from strength to strength and that I usually end up watching most seasons of. There are very few like the Amazing Race that I actually stopped watching as it was getting a wee bit repetitive to watch people racing across the world :P. Others like Masterchef Australia are my all time favourites and I keep waiting for the next season to start. I do know that I don't have time to watch zillions of shows every week, so sometimes I just download them and watch many episodes at one go. Other days, I end up sitting up late when I know that's going to backfire on me the next morning. You win some, you lose some I guess!

Blog-a-Prompt Day 6 - No!

Hmm.. I had a whole other blog post ready, about how I have to deal with "No!" on a daily basis, not only as something I say to my kids, but as something that has become S's all time favourite word. But well, I usually make an effort to not share too much negative stuff here (assuming the kids are going to read some of it at some point of time :)), so in that spirit and until I find a solution and can talk about it a bit more, here's a new take on the subject.

I had written an earlier post about how I used to find it difficult to say "No!" to someone, even if the end result was inconvenient to me. A few asked me to elaborate a bit more about it, so here goes:

In general I think this has to do with a deep discomfort with confrontation of any kind, not just a fear or hurting someone as I used to think. After a few years at work, I realized that being complacent and taking things as they come doesn't always turn out well. Those who ask for what they want are definitely treated with more respect. In a home situation, while I was protected from many such confrontations that are associated with a workspace, even dealing with maids and others working for you can be quite terrifying if you put up with everything you get, just because you don't want to cause unpleasantness. So somewhere along the way I made a decision that something had to change, and started working consciously toward it. I'm not saying I don't still get taken for a ride sometimes but at least I know I am not hesitant to walk into a shop and ask the salesperson something even if I feel the question might be "silly" :). Ok at least I don't hesitate about 80% of the time ;).

Blog-a-Prompt Day 5 - Spicy!

Today is D's birthday - she turned 8 :). We have a lot of family around, so spent most of the day outside, and really not feeling like writing too much right now.

In any case, the first thing that came to mind is the simplest thing for me to post :). This chilly that has started appearing on my plant that I originally thought to be scotch bonnet, but now seems to be a kandhari variety or related. Whatever it is, it's lovely :)

The theories have been white gandhari or "ari milagu"

Yes I don't know what I'll do with all of them :)

Till tomorrow and the next prompt then :)

Blog-a-Prompt Day 4 - Disaster

It's the end of a long day, and I was nearly about to give up on writing anything today.. but seeing the lovely posts of my fellow bloggers at the Marathon Bloggers group, and remembering how sweetly they have been dropping in here, egged me on a bit :).

Somehow the first thing that comes to mind on seeing this prompt was a certain birthday party of D's. Now I am this absolutely let's-leave-it-all-to-the-last-minute-and-see-how-that-works-out kind of person. Or rather I was, and this incident changed me a wee little bit (no major turnaround yet though ;)).

So the idea was to invite the kids from her school, so that she would have familiar faces around rather than a group of grown-ups that she didn't know, and a motley group of children just because they belong to aforesaid grown-ups ;). Bad idea in retrospect, as I didn't know most of the parents personally. I requested the school for the numbers (it was a close knit montessori place, so no issues there) and set about calling everyone - I think this was a few weeks in advance of the day. Most of them were polite, said of course they would make it and so on, and I naively took their word for it.

Day of birthday arrives, hubby requests I call and check/remind people, but I am blissfully in my bubble, and believe that people will land up just because they said so. Of course you know how this ends, other than my loving family, and a couple of the invitees, no one else arrived. The magician performed to a much reduced audience, and tons of food went waste/hopefully got donated.

Well, end result was - I am older, wiser, think a lot more about whom it makes sense to call, and make sure to reconfirm!

Blog-a-Prompt Day 3 - Monday

With the school holidays coming to a close with this week, the word "Monday" can only bring next week and the first day of school to mind. Now I've always been a "hate to wake up in the morning" type of person. I remember my mom used to have a tough time with me with the habitual "2 more minutes" stretching to half an hour even!

The weird thing is, there has been no karma involved, at least where D is concerned. She's a dream to wake up in the mornings, needing a max 5-10 minutes to shake herself awake. It's still me who's the drowsy one, and the one to hit the Snooze button one too many times ;). So I'm still the one who moans and groans about Monday and about waking up early in the mornings. Oh I've enjoyed the holidays and the snoozes soo much!!

I also have a suspicious feeling that if S goes to the same school, that particular karma is definitely coming back to bite me, and I'll have quite a time of it. It's tough enough to get him ready for a 9 O'clock start!

Hmm.. not sure if I've addressed "Monday" or "Sleep" here but here it is ;).

Blog-a-Prompt Day 2 - Thirst

I am a very literal person I am afraid, and once I saw the topic I have the issue of drinking water set in my head, and nothing else comes to mind so I'm going to lead with that :).

I wish it was enough to just drink as much water as how thirsty you feel. But Alas! That doesn't seem to be the case, as the recommendation for skin and health and digestion alike seems to be 2 litres or so. And I have this "sparrow" thirst that can be quenched with just a mouthful of water, which takes my total water intake for the day to about half a glass :P. I have tried various strategies, recommended by someone (mostly online of course :)) or the other. Here are some of them:

• Heard a lot of stuff about drinking water first thing in the morning helping out the "system" a lot, and I thought it would be a good start to my water intake. Tried jeera water, warm water with honey and lime, just warm water or erm.. even just water but no habit sticks for a long enough time!!!
• Put a series of rubberbands on a bottle of drinking water, and move them down every time you finish it. This way you'll know exactly how much you've been drinking. Worked for a few days, and then rubberbands went missing, schedule went haywire etc etc.
• Use a "special" water bottle that you like and will remember to drink from - Yeah right, worked for about a day.
• Keep a filled bottle of water next to where you are working (or on FB ;)) so that you can reach out and drink every 5-10 minutes and finish the bottle gradually. This has been the best strategy for me, now someone remind me to keep that bottle nearby!

All you wonderful water drinkers out there, how do you do it?! I know people who can glug down an entire bottle at one go (you know who you are!), but even trying to drink 2 glasses or half a bottle at one go makes me feel like I'm about to explode! Wish me luck for my next strategy ;)!

Blog-a-Prompt Day 1 - Colours

As if one blog a week wasn't enough, we have taken up the blog-a-prompt week thanks to Monika ;). So here goes!

When I see the topic "Colours" the first subject that came up to me was my garden. The transition from being fascinated with flowering plants to becoming nearly completely a "kitchen" gardener came very quickly for me. I still love to see my flowers, but I get to see so many colours in my garden anyway, that I don't miss purely flowering plants all that much :). 

The vibrant yellows....

Cherry tomatoes

Zucchini flower

One of my all time favourite pics

The lovely reds and oranges...

Cherry tomatoes

Sometimes a pretty pink

The flower of the black guava

And Purples too!

Different types of brinjal/aubergine