How I do my part.

I am a believer of going green and recycling.And I try to do everything I can to not use plastic in my daily life and recycle as much as possible.

Things I do
- Try to take reusable grocery bags when I go gorcery shopping. Sometimes the trip is unplanned and end up using plastic bags, but most of the time I do take the reusable ones
- For smaller things, I dont take the plastic bags.I just pop them in my purse.Actually this can give you some weird looks. Like today, I was at a pharmacy and bought few small things, like my cuticle cream and shampoo.And the kid at the cash counter, put them into a plastic bag, I took them out and put in my purse and gave him the bag back and he gave me the "Are you crazy" look and I told "I am trying to save the planet".
- Buying organic as much as possible.I know this is heavier on the pocket, but if there is more demand for organic, then more people will grow organic and eventually the price will come down(hope!!!) . I am trying to shift to organic makeup too.
- Recyle at home. Its so easy to toss everything in one bag and dump it. But believe me, once you get used to it, it just becomes habit.
- I dont buy bottled water, bought a brita water filter at home.There are a few times when I am travelling and have to buy bottled water.And then too, try to put the used bottle in the recyle bin. I f I dont find any recyle bin, they stay in my car until they get home!
- Use natural cleaners, the chemical cleaners we use in bathroom , kitchen, will eventually end up in our water sources, so makes better sense to use the bio degradable ones.
- I live pretty much close to everything, so we walk to the movies, to the grocery(not for heavier stuff ofcourse!) , walk to the restaurants, walk to the dry cleaners, walk to my favorite craft store...that gives us our share of exercise and saves money for parking and gas.
- If we are going anywhere public transit goes, we take it.Especially downtown, saves you from stress of driving and parking in downtown and is green.
- I recycle the batteries and old bulbs and appliances instead of dumping them in regular garbage.

I am glad that our apartment building has started the organic waste collection program, so now I can separate my kitchen waste and this will be processed to create organic compost that will given back to the community(thats a full circle!!)

Please do your part, though inconvinient at times, it is worth it. If not for you, do it for the future generations who deserve a better planet.
This native american saying is so true
We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children

Pics from Tulip Festival

As promised here are the pictures from my weekend day trip.It kept drizzling whole day, it was wet and soggy, but the water droplets on the tulips were beautiful.

I wanted to add a watermark on the pics, but thought, huh, how many people will visit my blog and out of them how many will copy the image and out of those who copied the image will use it as their own or earn money from it.The chances are slim, so will save the effort of adding watermark, when I become a better photographer and my blog becomes world famous. Until then no sweat!

I see purple is the new black in the fashion world, here is a shot of a purple tulip drenched in rain drops.



The yellow ones

These yellow and red tulips dint look so pretty in reality , but the pic turned out pretty good.

These looked prettier in reality than in the pic

The constant rain since morning, made the poor tulips to bend sideways.

Finally, the stop at the parliament building, it was this stop, that our poor guide Monica lost to that curious gentleman.

Signing off on this note
When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.
Chinese Proverb
Dug out this chinese proverb from www to make it apt for our trip

Tulip Festival - Ottawa

Tickets for 2 - $104
Lunch for 2 - $32
Cruise for 2 - $32
Not having to drive for 10 hours - Priceless

We finally did go to Ottawa for tulip festival. To be honest I was disappointed, I guess in my head I was expecting to see something like tulips in Holland. And my expectations were raised, when I read there would be 300,000 flowers, but believe me, that isnt a big enough number if the tulips are scattered in small patches.

We decided to take the tour bus instead of driving (that was a good decision, otherwise, I would have had to hear earful from D after what we saw). If you guys are in Toronto, you would know the Safeway tours. These are tour bus operated mainly for the chinese community, the tour guide was chinese, our fellow passengers were chinese.

Our tour guide, Monica, was cute little chinese girl and her whole purpose of being on that bus was to prevent people from using the washroom on the bus.Once we got in the bus at chinatown in downtown toronto, she came upto each person and was asking "Did you use the washroom at your home before leaving?" Me and D tried hard not to laugh at her question.

We stopped at Markham and Scarborough to pick up some more passengers. At Markham, she repeated the drill, came to our seats "You ok, can you wait for 2 hours to use washroom?".

All through the trip, she made sure nobody used the washroom, everytime we got down, she would remind us to use the washroom in that place. Even before getting on the boat for the cruise on Rideau Canal, she came to everyone and said "Use the washroom on the boat".Her point was use washroom anywhere but in the bus,but the bummer did not come towards the end of the trip. Bus was stopped for 10mins photo time at the Parliment building. Since we already were there and it was raining, we returned early and guess what, as we entered the bus, a gentleman was coming out of the washroom.



Poor Monica, she couldnt stop this unstoppable gentleman from using the washroom on the bus, he probably just wanted to know how it felt like using the washroom on the bus, could be plain case of curiosity.

Another intersting thing that Monica did was, everything she told us what time to come back, she had a clock made of cardboard with movable hands and she would always show the time on that cardboard clock.Even then people would be late and she somehow managed to spot them and bring them back to bus.

Watched a chinese movie on the way to ottawa, this was like a typical hindi movie, a guy has a modern girlfriend, then meets a simple girl, falls in love with her.Some of the scenes from the movie could very well be passed off as a hindi movie.

On the way back to Toronto, saw 'Marlee and Me'.Cried my heart out when the dog died. I am not a dog person, but still was caught in the emotion.In the movie, Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson go to Ireland and stay in a B&B.That reminded of our B&B experience, am going to post that one of these days.

All in all, it was a fun day out. Will I suggest this, well if you have nothing exciting to do on a spring day and have $80 to spare , then give it a try. If not anything, the tour guide and fellow passengers will keep you entertained.

Pics in the next post.

Every journey teaches you something, I learned something too . I learned that thank you in chinese sounds something similar to "CiCi"(sounded like "see-see").I am not quite sure if it was Mandarin or Cantonese.

As usual, signing off with this quote

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” - St.Augustine

Exercise and Me

Went to gym yesterday after 3 months break and today my muscles are punishing me. My family has history of Diabetes, Thyroid problem, Heart problem. My elder brother hasnt reached 40 yet and already had heart attack.The only way I can be healthy is by preventing them. And as we all know that takes eating well and exercising.

I was pretty well focused before my India trip, oh yeah of course I wanted to look good in my saris. But after my trip, my excuse was "I am homesick...don't feel like working out" and after that "Oh... its too cold" and when the weather started to get better "imm...I don't feel like". I was getting good at finding excuses for not having to go to the gym.

Thanks to my neighbor at work, she pushed me to get to gym and while I was there, I disinterestedly got on the treadmill and got a couple of magazines to keep company during my boring workout. And one of the magazines I picked was about running and I stopped at the article about a breast cancer survivor ,who if I remember correctly ran 21 marathons after she was diagnosed. Well, if she can do it, then anyone can do it. It gave me motivation to finish my 35 min power walk and also did some weights, felt really good.

The reward dint come until this morning, when my muscles were screaming pain. But I'd rather be at the gym than at the hospital, so planning to work out at least 2-3 times a week. Lets see how that goes.

Here's to keep me motivated...a quote by Gautam Buddha
"Every human being is the author of his own health or disease"

On that note....signing off for the day

Pics from NYC trip - Rockefeller Center

Here are some pics of Rockefeller center from my NYC trip last month. As a typical tourist, went to Madame Tussads wax museum, visited the lady of liberty, walked in the fashion district, shopped in Macy's. But visiting Rock was first time and hence am posting its pics. Well maybe if I have nothing to write in the coming few days, will post other pics of the trip.

One thing that fascinated me about this building was the conviction of one man in the face bad economic times. While we were there, we saw a short film about the history of the building and about the man. This building was constructed during the Great Depression . The construction of this building was the demonstration that courage and conviction even in hard times are sure signs of success.

Here you go people, enjoy

The building, that provided livelihood to over 40,000 during its construction.

View from Top of the Rock after sundown.

Another shot from the top.

One of the chandeliers in the plaza.

The beautiful waterfall near the skating rink.

The skating rink, was setup in 1936, still providing recreation to New Yorkers and to visitors

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Ok people, me signing off for the day on this note, a quote by Tom Krause.
"Courage is the discovery that you may not win, and trying when you know you can lose"

More about Rockefeller center here.

For all of you out there, whom the recession has affected in a negative way, don't give up hope. In the harshest times of our lives is when our true character reveals. Hang in there, you will triumph and will stand tall and proud.

Lazy me...

I was supposed to blog about my travel experience to NYC last month. Well, there hasn't been a thing in my life I have continued to do for a long time. I get tired, bored and move on to something else. My DH is the only person who has kept my interest in him unchanged over almost 9 years now.

Decided to blog regularly, if not for my travel stories, just to vent my frustration, kill my boredom or just plain writing about myself. Talk about blogging and everyone is doing it these days. Wonder how we all want to talk about ourselves, our lives and how much it makes us feel important. Well I am no different, and so you will see as this blog grows (hopefully)

Now the next question, should i leave it as anonymous or should i tell people about my blog...hmm...question to ponder on. Well, for now, will leave it anonymous.

By the way, the trip to NYC I mentioned earlier was fun. This was my third time, one thing I saw for the first time was Rockefeller Center. Now I no longer see any fun climbing insanely tall buildings and looking down on the rest of the world. But this one was ok, to know it houses NBC, and all the shows I see on TV are shot here. We could have done the studio tour, but were late for it. Well, an experience nevertheless, though wont last in my memory for a long time.

Another interesting thing is, I have always been to NYC with family, first time around was with my elder brother, I was in Boston then . Second time was with my parents, when they were visiting US and the third time, this time was with my younger brother. Interesting isn't it?

Talk about traveling, trying to convince DH to go to the Tulip festival in Ottawa this weekend, lets see if we will be able to make it.IF we do , will post some pics here. btw, the DSLR, I am asking my DH to gift me isn't in sights anywhere.

Chalo folks, to all those who stumble upon this blog by accident, or you are regular visitor.Thanks for reading to my incoherent thoughts and hope you are entertained . Keep coming back, coz you never know what my over imaginative and over working mind will spit out.

With the break of dawn, the fears and apprehension were washed by the beautiful warm sunrays. As we came out, saw the place in light, I was happy, after all, I did not screw it up. It was serene, could hear the birds singing, something I hadn’t heard in a long time and the one thing i did not hear was traffic, this was as best as it could have got. This was pure rugged nature, that man did not mess with. D was still no so excited as i was, at least now he was convinced that we weren’t somewhere in middle of amazon like forest.

The owner of the place is a German guy, Mr.Ludwig, as our host Vasu mentioned.(I had scratched my head a few times before I remembered his name). Felt sad that it took a German to help preserve our country’s nature, but on second thought, we must be thankful, if it was one of us, the land would probably be sold to one of big companies and it would have been a tea or a coffee plantation fed with pesticides, like other places around coorg. This was organic plantation, no messing with nature was how farming was done here.

Here are a few pictures of our tour of the plantation

The fireplace that kept us warm for most part of the night



















The cottage where we stayed for first 2 days,pretty basic but comfortable.














The path to our cottage from the small office building,it doesn't look half as scary as it did the previous night.
















The shot of paddy fields down below, the folks down there did notice us .And by the way we could hear them whistling and singling while working, cant imagine any of that in the urban madness.






























Here is Mr.Vasu telling us all about the different trees in the plantation.I do hear a lot of botany students come over here, even from overseas!














Up close at the paddy field, they grew red rice there, from the shadows you can guess what the conversation could be















Vasu explaining how the tea leaves are plucked and how the best tea is made from the first three leaves of the plant.We did buy some green tea from the plantation but i had to throw it all away because of its smell, organic or not, I cant take that smell.