kristenpurp

random stuff

Wed, 27 May 2009 05:20:41 GMT

I bought myself a piano yesterday. Its actually a digital piano, so like a clavinova type thing, I decided since i already own a piano it would be silly to buy another one and these don't need tuning. I managed to get him down 5000 rupees on the price too! (about 12%). So now I'm madly downloading sheet music :)

what else?

My shoes keep breaking!! I have broken the straps on so many shoes lately. So annoying!!

So I guess I need to go shoe shopping.

Its 4.5 weeks til the summer holidays, I'm off from the 27th June til the 17th August. Woo! Come visit!!

I got a Distinction on my first Masters assignment. Yay. I need to spend the next three weekends working my butt off as I have the last two assignments due for this semester.

I'm getting old... Its my birthday in 3 weeks or so... 29!!! That was also part of the motivation to buy a piano.

I was thinking of going to Europe for my holidays but then I decided to be responsible and just put all the money towards my debts. Which are unfortunately larger than they were previously because my computer got stolen out of my car and I bought it on interest free and had not finished paying it off, so now I am almost finished paying for the computer I don't have anymore, and am going to start paying for the one I am now using (my new one). Grrr...

So I might just go to Thailand or Sri lanka or something cause they are close by and cheap and I'll prob go somewhere in India as well. I have a free airfare from Kingfisher cause they screwed me over a while ago.

funny things I've seen lately.

1. A man on a motorbike holding a live goat
2. yesterday I saw a woman holding live chicken upside down by the feet on a motorbike.
3. 6 people on a motorbike!!!

Funny things that have happened lately.

1. the usual getting stalked... My friend and I went to a bar and talked to these guys but were not interested and they followed us out. Then they started following our car (in their car) I managed to get behind them and indicated left, so they turned left and then I went straight ahead. Then they saw me and turned around to keep following us, and I drove into a five star hotel to hide and they followed us there as well!! We told the security not to let them in but they said they were only going to use the bathroom and they DID let them in, so we ran off and drove off while they were in the bathroom and finally lost them. I really don't understand this behaviour though... Do they think at some point we'll turn around and say oh yes I've changed my mind you are awesome lets hang out??

2. Another stalking incident... was talking to a guy at a party, didn't give him my number but the next day he started calling me. Turns out when I'd been distracted he'd picked up my phone and called himself from it so he had my number...

3. Man deciding he misses me so much he decides to cancel all his work in the US to come visit me (he's Indian but based in US). He's nice though, not a stalker.

I think that's about it at the moment :)

beach etc

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 05:07:09 GMT

I went to the beach this weekend, same beach as last time, but this time we did a Kerala backwater cruise on a houseboat.

It was pretty cool we had a whole houseboat with a bedroom, big deck with couches, kitchen etc to ourselves for 2.5 hours and it only cost about $70

We bought what they called "tiger prawns" and they cooked them for us on the boat. Soooo tasty.

Beach pic

random India stuff...

hmmm what has happened lately... I think I must be getting used to life here because things don't seem noteworthy to me anymore. I also think I'm getting the hang of how to get things done cause last week i managed to
-get my hair done
-buy stuff for the bathroom (shower curtain & rod, shelf etc) and get it installed
-buy new curtains and cushion covers
-get curtains taken up
-get AC fixed
-get fan fixed
-get Australia Network installed

this doesn't seem that impressive in Aus i know... But usually if you say to someone can you come and fix install etc an item they will say yes, no, tomorrow, then not turn up, then next week etc.

with the curtains the tailor said "i can't do it til next week", I said I really need it done, he said ok I'll have it done for tomorrow, then the next day it wasn't done, so i said hey come on you said it would be done, and he said "i have a fever" and i said but these other two guys here don't. And he said "ok madam" and they did it in 20 mins. I think i've worked out you need to be a mixture of annoyed and good humoured.

with all of the other things various similar things happened, originally I asked someone to install my curtains and they said no, next week, then maybe tomorrow, then ok i can so it today, same with the AC and the Australia Network (all seperate people). Maybe I was just lucky.

Anyway I am feeling like i can "do stuff!!"

yay!

Oh and I got an iphone. Its the coolest phone ever... i especially like "around me" the app where you can look up the closest banks, bars, coffee, petrol, hospitals, hotels, movies, restaurants, etc

Tomorrow is Holi which is an Indian festival where everyone throws coloured dye at each other... We're doing it at school so I'll take pics :)

better tiger and leopard pics

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 04:04:47 GMT

random India stuff

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 08:15:55 GMT

Bubbly; the girl who's wedding Nicole and I went to

Kate and Solomon sitting on my couch

The view out the window at school

I always think of Emma when i see this sign... i realise this is NOT her last name, but it sounds like it...

this was just funny

People i met on safari and mischief i got up to

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 07:43:19 GMT

Christmas lunch

Marble Rocks

Rowing down the river between the Marble Rocks

Arvind and Jackson took over the rowing

Arzu (Jackson's wife) and I on Christmas night

We crashed a baptism here's us dancing...

Drinking on the train

safari

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 07:22:33 GMT

So on Tuesday the 23rd Of December i left with Jo, Thyagu and her son Arvind on a safari!

The first place we went to was called Pench; it had tons of wildlife here are some pics

This is a crappy pic, but i can assure you its a Leopard

Then we went to Bandahvgar

We saw a TIGERRRRR!!!!!

Tiger footprint!!!

Tiger!

Nicole wedding etc

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 06:05:53 GMT

So Nicole came to visit and we did lots of fun stuff.

went to a wedding here is us dressed in Sari's

Us with the groom

And the bride Bubbly who funnily enough is moving to Perth to live, hahaha.

We did lots of fun stuff in Bangalore, went to Jo's for dinner, went to some bar's and the leela palace and little italy (totally veg italian restaurant with awesome pizza) and on Friday was the last day of school and we were going to goa.

We had a few issues with flights and ended up having to go via mumbai, so here is a pic of Nicole with a mumbai taxi

So we got to Goa in the morning and met some guys and ended up dancing with them in a club

Check out Nicole's bollywood moves...

Relaxing on the beach

Espresso Martinis at Tito's

So Nicole left to Europe on Sunday night after our flight from Goa was delayed by four hours...

oh dear haven;t blogged for soooo long... :)

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 12:58:59 GMT

Ok heaps has happened since i last posted.

Nicole came to visit for a week. We hung out and went to Goa for the weekend and went to a wedding, wore Sari's etc.

Then i went on a safari for a week and i saw a TIGER!! and a leopard.

SChool finishded for 3 weeks, we had the work christmas party.

Last night was new years. Went to a farm house party, it was great got ridiculous and fell over several times, got home at 7am i think.

I'll elaborate on each of these with pics when i have some time maybe tomorrow or something.

:)

Picnic on the balcony

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 06:10:08 GMT

On Wednesday night we (kate and I ) decided to have a picnic on the balcony.

It was really good, we had cheese and wine and lamb kofte and stuff and i put the cushions from my couch on the balcony and lit candles. :)

Saturday and Sunday night

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 06:04:30 GMT

Saturday Night we decided to go for drinks for Jenny's birthday so we went to TGIF which was nice.

We had wayyy too many tequila shots, including introducing Jo to her first Tequila shot!

Kate and I and Arian (the guy she's seeing) went to Ali Baba which is a sort of arab restaurant for tea. I managed to convince them to give me one of the waiters hats :)

OWC Christmas Bazaar

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 05:41:35 GMT

Last weekend the overseas womens club had a fundraiser where they have a fair and lots of stalls and stuff and our kids sung and played at it. It was kind of a PR thing to get more kids at our school

The principal was helping the kids out here, playing recorder :)

After we sang I bought lots of Christmas presents for the fam. On Tuesday night i went to DHL and got them sent. DHL reckon they'll be there by today, but i find that hard to believe. I'm thinking maybe next week sometime. Let me just recommend that you DON'T go to a DHL in India. Oh my goodness they were terrible. I just stood there for a while then said eventually, come on guys, am I ever going to get served, then i got served and they brought a box that was too small, then one that was too big and i said will it matter and they said no madma you're chaged on weight. So i packed all the stuff into the box and then they meaured it and said ok madmam the box weighs 2.4 kg but we're charging you for 4.5 cause its a big box... So then i said DO YOU HAVE A SMALLER BOX??? so they went to look for one for about 20 minutes, then i just decided to rip the box they had given me, so it was smaller.

Then i went to pay and they said only cash madam. So i had to drive to MG road and back to get money.
When i got back i asked them for a texta and some paper and I made a sign that said "We only accept cash, no electronic banking, ATM on MG road". I stuck it on the noticeboard and they were amused.

Anyway after 2 hours my christmas presents got sent. (I think)

Masinagudi

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 05:30:01 GMT

So i went to Masinagudi two weekends ago, which was lovely.

i stayed in a treehouse!! A treehouse with a shower and a toilet which was quite surprising! :)

We also went on safari and saw an elephant, but mind you we saw elephants on the road when we were driving, its a change from all the cows... hee

We also saw a car that the elephant had charged and put a dint in, and the tree it had blocked the road with a cut the power to a village....

Here are two elephants we saw on the road on the way there, they look all ghosty cause the car was moving and my camera was on night mode. You can't use the flash cause the elephants might charge the car. Apparently 300 people a year are killed by elephants in India, and 5 people a year just in that area alone.

On the way back we had lunch at Lalith Mahal Palace, which according to my friend, is the palace the Maharaja built for his mistress...

I realise the photos on this post are fairly crappy... sorry

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:22:16 GMT

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:51:06 GMT

So... Last weekend I finally had a boring Friday night... mostly because I'd been out every night that week and was sooo tired. So i went to Jo's for tea (not boring) and then went to bed by 10.30 (boring).

So here's the place i went on Thursday night, its called Aqua, its the Park hotel which is the place i went really early on that had the couches outside.

Nice pool hey? Apparently my friend Jenny once saw a rat swim down the length of it... hahaha...

On Saturday I woke up and felt like eggs so i told Sharon cause she makes awesome eggs. So i went to her place and her maid made something kind of like bubble and squeak believe it or not. Really tasty.

Then i decided to get my hair straightened. I went to the hair dresser down the street and they blow dried my hair straight, then straightened it with a straightener, then i decided it needed a trim, so they did that too. For free! and the straightening only cost 400 rs! (which is like $12) So that was awesome. A friend of mine had texted me about a clothes sale that was on, so i decided to go to that. I figured Ana might want to go as well so i called her and she decided to come with her housemate Carlie. So we went, it was shit, but anyway... we kinda got lost on the way back. For like 2 hours. We were driving down village roads and eventually we found an auto driver. they are usually good to ask for directions, so we said to him "kammanahalli?" which is the suburb we live in... And he looked at us and shook his head... and said

"oh madam...

...Very Problem..."

hahahaha

It was SOOO funnny.

anyway another guy came and told us where to go and eventually we found our way back. hee hee

So here's a pic of me with my straight hair and new dress I bought.

We had such a silly Saturday night we were supposed to go to this party but my friends picked me up and apparently no-one turned up we found out when we were nearly there, so we just drove around for a while and drank in the car, then we went back to my place and drank there for a while.

Here's Supria relaxing on my couch

Bunny also had a lovely time.

On Sunday hmm I've forgotten what i did. Oh i remember Sharon and I went to TGIF and had a burger and ultimate drinks (those huge fishbowl ones).

We met up with Pradeep then got some wine and went to his place, here's a sign I noticed while we were stopped for wine.

I thought I should take some more pics of what India looks like, so here is the street where we bought wine.

After that we went to Pradeep's place, here are Sharon and him and the view from his balcony

There was a work party on as well so I went to that and saw some really cool Indian dancing; my favourite was a bit where there was 10 girls all one behind the other and they each had their arms out in a different position, so it looked like a 10 armed women.

Then i has to leave to pick up my friend from the airport.

hmmm this week... went to a friends house and played pool etc on Tuesday. Wednesay went out for dinner and drinks. Tonight a friend came over and made him dinner. Tasty tasty pasta. Everyone should know this recipe that i stole from my Dad.

Pistachios
Chicken
Prosciutto
Onion
Garlic
Cream
Honey
Pepper
Chilli

Just sautee the onion and garlic, add the chopped chicken and prosciutto, then add chilli and pepper to your taste. Cook til the chicken is cooked through Add about 3 tablespoons of honey mix it around and then add a container of thickened cream. It is the best pasta sauce and so easy. Totally awesome.

Also i FINALLY went to brunch! Two Sunday's ago i went to brunch at the oberoi which is 5 star hotel here. There was tons and tons of food like seafood, lots of indian, pasta, desserts and lots of little things sort of like main courses but just tiny versions of them. It was really fun.

I just found a bunch of photos from the last 2 weeks but I left the cable at school, so i'll try to remember to edit this post tomorrow and put in some pics. Woo i did it! :)

funny

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:54:30 GMT

my sister sent this to me.

i have no idea if its true but either way its so funny i was crying while reading it.

http://ken_ashford.typepad.com/blog/2008/11/paying-with-spider-drawings.html

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:02:52 GMT

so we were in Alleppey for 3 days then we went to Goa from Monday til Sunday. Goa is kinda like Bali in terms of food, shopping, scooters, tourists etc. But it is very nice and green and pretty.

sunset from the place we stayed the first night

Dewali Fireworks

in the rock pools at Anjuna

drinking a japanese martini at the Taj

view of the beach from Taj

Me at the Taj again

beach on the last day in south goa

holidays!!

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 06:11:04 GMT

so i spent the weekend of the 24th at a beach house in Alleppey in Kerala. Very lovely. The house is SO close to the beach, here are some pics.

The beach from the house

me and a fishing boat

me and Sharon

Me Sharon and Varghese

The beach!

fishermen

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 08:51:39 GMT

ok just so you know, i didn't win the motorbike... :(

haha

Michelle another girl here did. And I think she's taking the money. which is Rs60,000

update

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 07:43:33 GMT

So I went to the dentist on Wednesday night and he was excellent. As clean as a dentist in Aus and less than a tenth of the price (and apparently he's the most expensive dentist in Bangalore).

After the dentist I went to Jo's for dinner which was lovely as usual, and I think i got home about 9.30, which was early for me. Sleep finally!!

Thursday night I went to Jo's again to pick up my car and it was all working well, nice and shiny and the AC is really really strong now which is great. :)

um... what else? Friday...

Went to dinner at a hotel with a friend of Sharon's then we went to ICE bar to meet up with the guys we met there last week. We had a few drinks there with them, then went to their place and had a sleepover. Nitin drove me home on his motorbike on Sat morning which is always fun. Yay!

Saturday I slept for a few hours, then had to get ready for the Dewali party. The company that is building our school has this huge party each year, i guess it is like a Christmas party. There were fireworks, guys walking on stilts, fairy floss, open bar, tons of food, a fashion show, etc etc. I got on stage and did a little skit thing with some girls I'll put up pics when i get some (my camera battery was flat). After the show there was a presentation to people, we didn't get to participate cause we've only been working for the company for a few months, but the others won insane prizes like trips to Bangkok, flat screen tv's and even 3 motorbikes and A CAR!!! Can you imagine getting a car at your work christmas party? It was so insane. And NOW... our boss decided we should get a chance to win something too, so one of us is about to win a motorbike! how cool is that? She is going to tell us in an hour or so I think.

So there was lots of dancing and drinking and fun and maybe some random pashes at the party. hee hee

Then Sharon and I went to the BBQ we were invited to which was great fun. We slept over and I ended up spending the whole next day with the host, we just hung out in his lounge and listened to the rain and ordered in food adn then we went out for dinner at the leela palace. He stole me a rose from one of the crazy flower arrangements there.

This weekend Sharon and I are going to his beach house in Kerala for the weekend, then we're going to stay in Goa until the next Saturday. We're going to stay in bungalow's on the beach! :)

Its Nitin's birthday on the Sunday, so i figured I'd come home after a week of relaxing and get a little partying in. :)

stuff

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 06:01:32 GMT

so busy!!

Ok so the cricket was a draw. Bloody test matches. So I didn't win any bets, but I guess I didn't lose any either.

Um... Friday night I went to ICE a bar with my friend and ended up hanging out with Indians mostly. haha Pretty funny since it was an expat thing. We went back with some guys to an after party and ended up sleeping over and being trash bags and getting back home at 8.30am via the masala dosa shop. Woo! Breaky!

Then I had a dentist appointment at 10am. Oh dear. I So needed sleep. Oh well. I need two fillings which I am going to get tonight, they will cost me 800 rupees, or about $20 each. In Aus it would be about $250 each. Yay for India. haha

Sat night I tried to have a quiet one, but went to TGIF with Sharon and had burgers and buffalo wings and too many shots of tequila and margarita's. Then we went to her friends party. I was so so stuffed. The next morning I was ridiculously hungover. Several hours of vomiting. I was supposed to meet up with a guy I met on Friday night but luckily he too was hungover, so I ended up meeting him for coffee and stuff at about 5, and went for a ride on his motorbike. woo! Yay me for finding a lovely 6"1' extremely hot Indian guy with a motorbike. hahaha... Then I had dinner with a friend and had the best raspberry martini's of all time, with fresh raspberries. Mum I'll have to take you there sometime. We went for a drive in his Honda City and he let me drive, which was fun until I nearly hit a dude on a motorbike. Whoops. Then we went and ice cream. Lots of fun.

The next night I went to Jo's to drop off my car to get it looked at by a mechanic, and then I met Sharon for dinner, we went to meet TJ and Jacob, I met TJ a few weeks ago and it was Jacob's place we were at, we've decided to have a party with them on Sat night, I'm planning to make pizza, so I'll have to go pizza supply shopping. Jacob also drives a Honda, a Civic this time and he also let me drive which was very very fun. We went and got food at a nice hotel and I still didn't get to bed early.

Last night I went to Jo's and we went a a russian dance performance. It was good, kinda odd, but free so not so bad. Then Nandini cooked us lovely dinner as usual and Thyagu drove me home at about 11. So I went to bed thinking ooh i'll get a bit of sleep finally, but then Rajeev called me at 11.45 and woke me up. He wanted to go for ice creams again but I had to decline. Man I need sleep!!!

So tonight I'm going to the dentist, then to Jo's to get my car, and hopefully I'll try to go to bed early, cause tomorrow night I'm going to Hard Rock Cafe and i think I'll go see Shan at I bar since he's been asking me to for a week. Friday night I might go to ICE again with Kate unless something else happens, Saturday I have a work Dewali party and then the thing at Jacobs.

I think the point of this story is i am never going to get any sleep!!

haha

Oh, and Sharon and I are going to Kerala now for Dewali, cause TJ and Jacob own a resort there so they have invited us and are just booking our airfares etc for us, which is lovely, so then we might catch the train to Goa for a few days too after that.

I think that's about it. I really should spend some time with my bunny tonight I think after the dentist.

cricket!

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:42:49 GMT

Yesterday I went to my first cricket match ever!

It was really fun and I think we are winning (I hope so since i have two bets on it).

I saw Ricky Ponting but he was too cool to talk to me.

I also saw Alan Border and i got a pic of him

Apparently this guy played for India in the 80's.

Shopping

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:42:26 GMT

I love having a car it is so good, on Saturday I just drove down to Kammanahalli and and got a new sim card, and went to the supermarket and then I found a place to get some meat.

There was one big shop with three little separately owned stalls, one for beef, one for lamb and one for chicken. The lamb was the most expensive, beef is only about $2.50 a kg, which is only a little more (i think) than Aussie farmers get paid per cow. I told him its about $35 a kilo in Australia and he was pretty shocked.

Here's a pic of the lamb (mutton) butcher; He's cutting up my lamb chops for me :)

He was really nice, I told him I might come back next week.
I went to a party at a farm on Friday night which was nice, a bunch of people had a jam so it was fun to hear some live music.

Sat night Jyoti got us tickets to a concert, it was Indian music from movies from the 60's. We stayed til interval, then went to "the Only Place" for a steak, which was quite good, it doesn't quite rival Vlado's or that place Tim and I went... what was it called?? That place was SOOO good... in port melbourne... thinking thinking... I think it was something about Charcoal. Anyway the steak was very tasty, but it was a weird cut, not eye fillet. I think like a sirlion strip or something. Either way it was cooked perfectly (medoim rare) and tasted great and was only $8.

Sunday I was supposed to go to Leela Palace, but lots of people were piking and it was $50 so i decided not to go and wait til more people are going, and also Jo invited us to the bangalore club for lunch to we went there instead. We mostly had vego chats (lots of little entree things, I guess kind of like indian tapas), but I also tried kidney and liver masala and brain curry. I've never had brain before, it was ok, but a little flavourless.

Here are a couple of pics of us at the Bangalore Club for brunch. Jo, Kate and Helen and some waiters.

It's funny I'm starting to crave indian food if i don't have it once a day. Last night Sharon and I went out for dinner to a place on 100 ft road and had hommus and pita bread, and Tzatziki Chicken; the chicken was fantastic. But I did feel like I needed indian food. I'll definitely have to have some for dinner tonight I think.

I drove all around the place last night; I got a stereo installed in my car on Sunday and i wanted the guy to check something, so I managed to get from school to the radio shop, then I went to the chemist and picked up two things that i normally need a prescription for here and just said hey can I have this, and they just gave it to me. Woo!

So I think that's about it since the last time I updated :)

school stuff

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 05:55:41 GMT

Here is my lovely friend Sharon she's the directors assistant.

This is Saad the IT guy

This is Alan and Mark, Mark teaches humanities, and Alan teaches English and Drama. Alan is married to the grade 1 teacher Laura, and Mark is married to the grade 3 teacher Michelle

Here are Jyoti and Kate

Here's John the art teacher and the grade 6 class.

This is one of the many many random cleaners that don't do much cleaning.

And this is the outside of the one part of the school that is currently built.

car and bunnyo

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 05:39:13 GMT

Here is a pic of my lovely car

and here is bunnyo jumping around my bed this morning

driving

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 08:14:02 GMT

I got a car. I'll take a pic of it later...

Its a 97 maruti 800.

So i was driving home last night and I had to bribe the police... hee hee hee

I was driving without proof of insurance and an Aussie driver's license (as opposed to int'l or indian) and apparently I need to get an emissions test cause my car is older than 10 years. So they said i need to pay a 1000 rupee fine, so I offered them a 300 rupee bribe instead. My friend Kate was cracking it and asking for a receipt etc. I was just laughing and offered them money. Obviously asking for a receipt for a bribe is not a good idea...