In the summer of 2013 I will be taking the trans-Siberian express from Moscow to Beijing.
It is going to be an adventure.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Tea-time
I took a nap this afternoon and dreamt that my grandfather was at the door to have tea with me. He was fumbling with his mobile phone because he wasn't quite sure how to use it, alone, and slightly unsure about if he was there at the right time. And it was so disappointing because even in the dream I knew this was wrong- it was him but it could never have been him.
1. My grandfather was always on time; at places at the time he wanted to be at. If he was at my door it was the right time for him to be there. And he would never have been tentative about if it was a good time to see me. It was always a good time to see me. He knew that.
2. My grandfather knew how to use his mobile phone. The two things he needed to do, disconnect calls and delete text messages without reading, he had mastered. Everything else was unnecessary and there was no uncertainty about this either.
3. We lived together, so there was no reason for him to visit me for tea. Had we lived in the same city we would have been in the same house. This visiting business was for other people. We were intimate enough to sit at the same table every night and eat out of the corner of each others plates. It wasn't the cute quirky thing grandfathers who occasionally see their offspring and dote on them do. It had the slightly competitive tinge of people who live together and know that whoever gets to the chutney first gets to eat more of it. Though we were never like this at tea. Only at breakfast.
But it was nice that he came to visit me while I was napping. There aren't too many other options left to us.
I think the dream was brought on by a deep deep desire to have someone make me a really good cup of tea.
1. My grandfather was always on time; at places at the time he wanted to be at. If he was at my door it was the right time for him to be there. And he would never have been tentative about if it was a good time to see me. It was always a good time to see me. He knew that.
2. My grandfather knew how to use his mobile phone. The two things he needed to do, disconnect calls and delete text messages without reading, he had mastered. Everything else was unnecessary and there was no uncertainty about this either.
3. We lived together, so there was no reason for him to visit me for tea. Had we lived in the same city we would have been in the same house. This visiting business was for other people. We were intimate enough to sit at the same table every night and eat out of the corner of each others plates. It wasn't the cute quirky thing grandfathers who occasionally see their offspring and dote on them do. It had the slightly competitive tinge of people who live together and know that whoever gets to the chutney first gets to eat more of it. Though we were never like this at tea. Only at breakfast.
But it was nice that he came to visit me while I was napping. There aren't too many other options left to us.
I think the dream was brought on by a deep deep desire to have someone make me a really good cup of tea.
Friday, June 15, 2012
Movies during the week
Beastly was a waste of time. I watched it because I watched Craig Ferguson chat with Neil Patrick Harris about it and I was charmed by their camaraderie. This is not enough of a reason to watch something. The film reaffirmed my opinion that anything with Vanessa Hudgens in it is a terrible mistake.
Happythankyoumoreplease was another one that I learnt about from Craig Ferguson, this time in a chat with Josh Radnor, who directed the movie. It was marginally better than BEastly. But this is not saying much. I was bored.
Angel was delightful. It was macabre, over the top and crazily fun. I like Romola Garai. I loved her in Atonement. And Dirty Dancing 2 is a guilty pleasure. Though I have to say the charms of the lovely Cuban boy in it had eclipsed hers for me. Until now. I ow want to watch many things wit her in it. I also want to watch the other stuff by the director Francois Ozon. I liked Swimming Pool quite a bit. He looks like fun.
Love's Kitchen was ghastly. All things with Gordon Ramsay are doomed.
Soul Kitchen, another film about cooking and rescuing a sinking restaurant- this time in Germany, with Germans. The film was full of people saying "so-oul kitchen munn" (man) in the peculiar sing song Germans get/do when they're being all hard rock about things. It was ok as films about food go, but this is because so many others are so spectacularly terrible. Like Love's Kitchen. Love's Kitchen made all of 121 pounds on its opening day. Which does not surprise me.
In other news my obsession with Craig Ferguson continues. As does my addiction to Master chef Australia. But more about Craig Ferguson in the next post.
Happythankyoumoreplease was another one that I learnt about from Craig Ferguson, this time in a chat with Josh Radnor, who directed the movie. It was marginally better than BEastly. But this is not saying much. I was bored.
Angel was delightful. It was macabre, over the top and crazily fun. I like Romola Garai. I loved her in Atonement. And Dirty Dancing 2 is a guilty pleasure. Though I have to say the charms of the lovely Cuban boy in it had eclipsed hers for me. Until now. I ow want to watch many things wit her in it. I also want to watch the other stuff by the director Francois Ozon. I liked Swimming Pool quite a bit. He looks like fun.
Love's Kitchen was ghastly. All things with Gordon Ramsay are doomed.
Soul Kitchen, another film about cooking and rescuing a sinking restaurant- this time in Germany, with Germans. The film was full of people saying "so-oul kitchen munn" (man) in the peculiar sing song Germans get/do when they're being all hard rock about things. It was ok as films about food go, but this is because so many others are so spectacularly terrible. Like Love's Kitchen. Love's Kitchen made all of 121 pounds on its opening day. Which does not surprise me.
In other news my obsession with Craig Ferguson continues. As does my addiction to Master chef Australia. But more about Craig Ferguson in the next post.
Monday, June 4, 2012
Movies on the weekend
On Friday and Saturday I wrote a term paper. On Sunday I went on movie bender. It seemed like I hadn't watched anything film like in a long time. Over the week I had fallen into a Craig Ferguson charm vortex- and had gone through every clip on YouTube. So I thought it might be time to watch something more substantial instead. And so I put myself through Chloe, Shame and A Dangerous Method.
Chloe was ok. I didn't know, until a friend told me after I had watched it that the lesbian bit was supposed to have been very exciting. It wasn't terribly thrilling in the movie. The whole thing seemed a little too much like Unfaithful. But this might be because all films about cheating seem kind of the same to me. If the plot was something other than unfaithful married person who feels bad and then dumb stuff happens I would take note.
As I did with A Dangerous Method. Which I liked very much- due in great part to Keira Knightley. We never get to see her being a doctor in her own right. First she is the patient, then the mistress, then the pregnant wife of someone else, while all along clearly far too intelligent and compelling to be just any one of these things at a time. I would have liked to see why she moved to child psychology. I would have liked to see that developed more than the elaborate bit about Otto Gross and his influence on Jung. Or if not more than equally.
Shame was great, except that the title made it seem a bit preachy, or gave it a bit of a judgmental context that the rest of the film doesn't really hold to. It didn't seem to be as much about shame; it seemed to be about compulsion and wretchedness, so the context provided by the title is not necessarily one I would have arrived at myself.
You could tell from about the 10th minute, from the way the music kept swelling higher and higher while all the man was doing was riding the subway, that this movie was going to be a long, torturous and self consciously so. I liked it. But I couldn't watch it again. I will be watching everything with Carey Mulligan and Michael Fassbender though.
Chloe was ok. I didn't know, until a friend told me after I had watched it that the lesbian bit was supposed to have been very exciting. It wasn't terribly thrilling in the movie. The whole thing seemed a little too much like Unfaithful. But this might be because all films about cheating seem kind of the same to me. If the plot was something other than unfaithful married person who feels bad and then dumb stuff happens I would take note.
As I did with A Dangerous Method. Which I liked very much- due in great part to Keira Knightley. We never get to see her being a doctor in her own right. First she is the patient, then the mistress, then the pregnant wife of someone else, while all along clearly far too intelligent and compelling to be just any one of these things at a time. I would have liked to see why she moved to child psychology. I would have liked to see that developed more than the elaborate bit about Otto Gross and his influence on Jung. Or if not more than equally.
Shame was great, except that the title made it seem a bit preachy, or gave it a bit of a judgmental context that the rest of the film doesn't really hold to. It didn't seem to be as much about shame; it seemed to be about compulsion and wretchedness, so the context provided by the title is not necessarily one I would have arrived at myself.
You could tell from about the 10th minute, from the way the music kept swelling higher and higher while all the man was doing was riding the subway, that this movie was going to be a long, torturous and self consciously so. I liked it. But I couldn't watch it again. I will be watching everything with Carey Mulligan and Michael Fassbender though.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Mangoes
are depressing. Because I live in a country where the stores are filled with things that look like Mangoes, but are imposters inside. From the Cote d'Ivoire. And the South American ones are even worse: with thick reddish green skins and fibrous hard stuff inside.
Last year I ate just one mango. The Mango came from a Bangladeshi shop on the outskirts of Milan, and was a gift from a shop keeper who said I looked like his Tamilian girlfriend from 10 years ago. I wasn't sure where that conversation was going so I took the Mango and escaped. It was bigger than an Alphonso, but didn't taste like a Banganapalli. Whatever it was, it was very very good. And it was the only one.
This year when my mother visited me she brought me 3 Malgovas and 2 Banganapallis. Banganapalli is my favourite kind of Mango. I ate one a day at dinner for the next 5 days. And then they were gone.
This week, on my way to the library I found a Turkish woman selling Alphonso mangoes. They will little but they looked lovely. And so for the hideous sum of Rs 130 per mango I bought two. I finished eating the second of those this evening.
Yesterdays newspaper had an article about Indian mangoes and how they are packaged and sent all over the world. I worry that I will find no more mangoes worth eating this year, so all that remains for me is to cut out pictures and scour the newspapers for more stories about mangoes. The Hindu rarely disappoints in this regard.
Last year I ate just one mango. The Mango came from a Bangladeshi shop on the outskirts of Milan, and was a gift from a shop keeper who said I looked like his Tamilian girlfriend from 10 years ago. I wasn't sure where that conversation was going so I took the Mango and escaped. It was bigger than an Alphonso, but didn't taste like a Banganapalli. Whatever it was, it was very very good. And it was the only one.
This year when my mother visited me she brought me 3 Malgovas and 2 Banganapallis. Banganapalli is my favourite kind of Mango. I ate one a day at dinner for the next 5 days. And then they were gone.
This week, on my way to the library I found a Turkish woman selling Alphonso mangoes. They will little but they looked lovely. And so for the hideous sum of Rs 130 per mango I bought two. I finished eating the second of those this evening.
Yesterdays newspaper had an article about Indian mangoes and how they are packaged and sent all over the world. I worry that I will find no more mangoes worth eating this year, so all that remains for me is to cut out pictures and scour the newspapers for more stories about mangoes. The Hindu rarely disappoints in this regard.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
spring cleaning
this evening i decided to clean up my wallet as there seemed to be a lot of bits and bobs in it.
i found a prescription of my grandfather's.
i found the business card of an ex boyfriend in which he had noted that we had been together from july 2008 to august 2009, and that any time in the future i could barge into his life and demand that he return to me for a maximum of four days.
i found a gift coupon from a bookshop that i dearly loved, and that closed shop in 2008. given to me by said ex boyfriend as he had won it in a quiz. we went to the bookshop together and took pictures on the day it shut.
i kept the gift coupon and threw out all the rest.
i found a prescription of my grandfather's.
i found the business card of an ex boyfriend in which he had noted that we had been together from july 2008 to august 2009, and that any time in the future i could barge into his life and demand that he return to me for a maximum of four days.
i found a gift coupon from a bookshop that i dearly loved, and that closed shop in 2008. given to me by said ex boyfriend as he had won it in a quiz. we went to the bookshop together and took pictures on the day it shut.
i kept the gift coupon and threw out all the rest.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Procrastination 2.0
I have a paper due tomorrow- on Maoist movements in India and Nepal. This is why I am now going to tell you about what I ate for dinner.
On my way back home I stopped at a farmer's market the other day and bought lots of fresh vegetables. Having bought them I found I had no will to cook them. So on day one of the vegetable explosion I made guacamole pasta. I diced one avocado, a quarter of an onion, one tomato and squeezed the juice of one lemon in before adding a tiny amount of pasta. Because the avocado was really ripe it made a sort of sauce for the pasta, but the whole thing was more like a salad. I dislike chopping onions though.
Dinner on day two had fewer ingredients.
I cut half a pod of garlic and sauteed it in a teeny bit of oil before adding one medium sized aubergine, one tomato and half a teaspoon of chilli powder. I kept the heat high and let some bits of the sliced aubergine char before pouring in a bit of water and cooking the whole thing down. Right at the end I added some chopped basil and salt.
Tomorrow I shall make myself beans with just a little bit of butter and lemon. There by bringing down the number of things i put into the vegetables down even further. This is a game I will play until my paper deadline has passed. Or until the vegetables finish.
On my way back home I stopped at a farmer's market the other day and bought lots of fresh vegetables. Having bought them I found I had no will to cook them. So on day one of the vegetable explosion I made guacamole pasta. I diced one avocado, a quarter of an onion, one tomato and squeezed the juice of one lemon in before adding a tiny amount of pasta. Because the avocado was really ripe it made a sort of sauce for the pasta, but the whole thing was more like a salad. I dislike chopping onions though.
Dinner on day two had fewer ingredients.
I cut half a pod of garlic and sauteed it in a teeny bit of oil before adding one medium sized aubergine, one tomato and half a teaspoon of chilli powder. I kept the heat high and let some bits of the sliced aubergine char before pouring in a bit of water and cooking the whole thing down. Right at the end I added some chopped basil and salt.
Tomorrow I shall make myself beans with just a little bit of butter and lemon. There by bringing down the number of things i put into the vegetables down even further. This is a game I will play until my paper deadline has passed. Or until the vegetables finish.
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