Precious offday
After you had a four day holiday, a one day weekend just doesn't quite cut it... Oh well... Beggars can't be choosers... Neither can young interns from Singapore... To make up for the lack of offdays, the five of us did quite a lot today...
We left Pathshala at 3pm... (We couldn't leave earlier... Everyone woke up late... Even me! I woke up at eleven...) And we headed down to Aarong to look at Punjabis and Salwars... Apparently, the outfit I bought the last time was a Salwar... Not a Punjabi... I dunno what's the difference... But I'll figure it out and let you know... (Pictures are coming soon, I promise...)
Aarong has very nice clothes I must say... Very good quality and very pretty... But the prices are higher than Bangla Mela... I didn't bring enough money so I didn't buy anything... But it's a huge place! Punjabis and tops and Salwars on the first floor, saris on the second, ornaments on the third and men's wear on the fourth... Think I want to get something for daddy... But I'll wait for my sister to come to choose before I buy anything... That goes for the green sari I'm expected to get for my sister's wedding...
We visited some bookshops and DVD shops after that... Later on, we went to Rifles... I fell in love with a very nice white Punjabi suit... But it costs almost S$40... After that, I also found another shop selling very nice Punjabi suits for under Tk700... Think I'll consider those options before going back for the white Punjabi... (Also heard that my colleague can get a discount for the white Punjabi... So I wrote down the model number and I'll ask her about it tomorrow!)
To end the day, we went to eat at Grill & Chill... I had Spaghetti Carbonara but it looked and tasted more like fried noodles with egg... It's nice if you don't think that you are eating Italian food... And just think you are eating at home... Had a very local taste... It wasn't even oily!
So that's how we made use of every bit of time of our offday... Can't wait for next friday!
**And this is a reminder to all avid readers of "A Whisper from the Heart"... My birthday is coming up!!! If you don't know when it is... Shame on you! Just get me a present...
Enchantment of the Bonfire
After work yesterday, Shalini, Diya, Arabella and I went to Zaib’s sister’s place for a bonfire… Jess didn’t go because she wasn’t fully well and she expected it to be a cold night… She was quite right in fact…
But anyway… Bonfire… What on earth is a bonfire? That was one thing I went to find out…
Turns out that a bonfire is just what we all know to be a CAMPFIRE… It wasn’t even a very big bonfire but it was quite nice once it was lit… Zaib lit it after we arrived… He also lit some strong smelling dried plants in a cauldron to produce a lot of smoke and keep the mozzies away… (I don’t know how effective it was since I was still getting bitten… but then, considering the surroundings and the fact that it was at night, it probably kept a good number away and saved me even more bites…)
The place was massive! It was a bungalow with a very large garden! Along the boundaries of the property were apartment blocks but no one could look in on this family… Cos they were protected by a lovely canopy of tall, shady trees… The family had set up tables and chairs on the lawn and there was a bonfire set up right in the middle… There was even a little service table set up where the servants served drinks and a special local dessert that is almost like our Kueh Tutu only that it’s 4x the size… It’s made from ground rice placed on a metal mould with a coconut filling… It’s also steamed! But they eat it with molasses… I forgot the name… All I remember is that it tasted really good…
Zaib’s sister and brother-in-law were not in and he and his parents had gone to stay on the property to take care of his two nephews, Nazin and Emud… They were rather friendly and were quite candid in telling us that we should not stay long in the smoking corner (an outdoor table equipped with a lit candle under a lot of trees) because there are a lot of crows in the trees and they do their poop at night… They spent most of the night negotiating for a bedtime later than their usual 8pm… They were smart enough to go to their grandmother, Zaib’s mother… It was afterall, a grandmother’s prerogative to spoil the grandchildren… They were still around when we left after 10pm…
The rest of us spent the evening eating prata(!!) & beef curry, making polite conversation with Zaib’s father and mother, playing with the two dogs Pluto and Socrates (Diya thinks Socrates should have been named Barbie… And I agree… Socrates didn’t look the least bit philosophical… It just looked ditsy…), barbecuing cube-shaped marshmallows that were only made from pure sugar, and even listening to Zaib’s two friends sing and play the Banjo and a strange one-string instrument called the Ektara or something like that… (I know my dad would have liked me to sing too… but I didn’t… For 1 very good reason… They were singing Islamic songs in Bangla… I didn’t understand the language, and they were singing to a different God…)
Seriously, there’s something very hypnotic about a campfire… I’ve never been a brownie or a girl guide… So I didn’t experience enough campfires to know until now… Several times that evening, conversations would cease, things would be still and everyone would just sit around the fire and stare at it... Completely enraptured... Perhaps the fire was very cheery and lively, when the rest of the surroundings were in the shadows… Like the contrast between hope and despair… Perhaps the fire provided the only source of heat in a cold winter evening… I couldn’t explain it… But it was beautiful… There was a full moon out too! Utterly romantic…
Normally, this die hard romantic would imagine spending such an evening with the someone she really cares about or something… But not that evening… Just for once, she took in the whole atmosphere, without wasting time trying to imagine something that is purely hypothetical… For her, only what is true and real was adequate… And the fire, the garden, the moon and the whole evening was all true…
And that made it truly poetic...
Quirky Drik
Wanna know why I love working at Drik?
The people are just different…
For not apparent reason, people just burst into song… Seriously! They start singing right in the middle of nowhere… They could just be stoning… or taking a pause from a conversation… And then a song comes to their mind and they sing it out…. It’s happened several times! Different people each time… And the best thing? No one else seems to mind at all! I’ve promised myself that I’m going to record down everyone’s singing voice… just for kicks… And I think I’m gonna try it out myself sometime too!
Cricket is like this big thing in Bangladesh… Whenever Bangladesh plays, the majority of the Drik ppl would just disappear from their workstations… Nowhere to be found… But if you’re good enough to find the one room in Drik with the biggest tv… They’d all be there… Staring at the screen… Giving it their undivided attention… cheering on their team whenever there’s a hit… It’s quite funny to watch them watch cricket actually… (Reminds me of whenever there’s a big soccer match on tv back home…) I don’t get the game though… Do you know that it can go on for a week? And each day, it can go on for 7 hours?? Talk about stamina…
Drik people love to make jokes and stuff… I would know…I’d been the brunt of most of them… (Interestingly, such things don’t change no matter where I go…oh well!) Got some examples…The back of my maroon jacket says “since 1948”, so people say “Gwen, you’re born in 1948? That’s so old!”…the comeback is “No, only the jacket is that old… would you like to smell it?” There’s one where everyone says I behave like a little girl… only slightly older than Tutul’s son Raiyan… I’ve learnt the Bangla phrase “Ami boro may”… “I’m a big girl”… Just waiting to use it…
The new guy at Drik, Syeed, multimedia teamleader after Siraj, has been trying to trick me into believing that certain Bangla phrases mean something else in English… It’s been pretty confusing because I know enough of Bangla to know that he’s lying… So I just tell him, I don’t understand anything he’s saying cos I don’t understand bangla… “ami Bangla bolte pari na” … Need to learn to say “liar” in Bangla and maybe “I can’t hear anything…something flew past my ear…”… I have a feeling that if I keep this up, I’m gonna have a pretty good vocab of Bangla words… haha!
Oh and there’s the whole conspiracy of my boss wanting to make me learn bangla faster by never translating anything he says… Think it caught on to a few more people… My retort? I start speaking in Mandarin… and I refuse to translate until they do… Haha!
Yup, working at Drik has been great fun so far… They really take care of me… I wanted to go for a walk during lunch… When Nazrul heard, he came along with me… And brought me to Shonko Bajar… Near Drik… Where he bought bananas and bread to eat cos he didn’t want to eat the food at Drik Café… I got 2 bananas just for walking with him! (Did you know? It cos Tk2 for every banana… I think rickshaw drivers are at a losing end… they work so hard to ride 3 girls with heavy bags to Drik from Road 32… and they get a measly Tk6… The banana seller got Tk8 for 4 bananas! Think the rickshaw drivers should just quit their jobs and sell fruits…)
And you know what? I’m quite proud to say that I am confident enough of my knowledge of the streets around this area and of Bangla to be well equipped to go around on my own… I can hail a rickshaw… Tell the driver where I want to go… Bargain (doesn’t always work though…) & Stop exactly at my destination… At drik café, I can order food, and tea and pay… I even learnt how to compliment Jabar… the clever boy working there… Shopping… No problem there… Most shopkeepers can speak English… At least enough to get the right sizes and even get a new piece… And the shops I go to give fixed prices so I don’t even need to worry about bargaining… So yeah… I can pretty much go around on my own without much worry… “Chalak May!” (Clever Girl!)
Okok… Just a last bit for Rajib, my very patient Bangla teacher… (I know he only reads bits of my blog where I talk about him…) So, it’s a good thing that he’s really nice and helpful with teaching me bangla phrases… Otherwise I would just be stuck with “donnobud” (thank you)… I promised I’ll try to recall my Flash… so that I can teach him.. He’s been bugging me since the first week of Jan I think… but really… “ami Flash jani na” (I don’t know Flash)…Still trying to get out of it…
Yup... Quirky Drik... Even quirkier people in Drik... =)
Slow work day...
Two days after Eid...
Every office is closed...
Every shop is closed...
Even DrikCafe is closed...
Except Drik...
Oh well... Even Drik is half closed...
Almost everyone was on leave...
Except me... and Jess... and Shalini...
I can name the people at office in one blog!
Topu, Abir, Amin, Anwar, Tutul, Falar, Rajib, Siraj, Syeed....
there are others i dunno the names of...
Multimedia department reported full attendance! (So proud of them...)
Jess & I?
we worked on our research and proposals....
using the slow dial up...
We got really tired and bored...
We got even more tired and bored...
I think we made more stops to the mini store today than any day...
After work, there was still nothing to do...
The shops were still closed...
Chitroshala was also closed...
So we just went back to Pathshala to sleep...
and watch a lot of Star World Sitcoms...
And that's how we spent that slow work day...
Heart of Gratefulness...
Stock Taking: What have I achieved in Dhaka so far?
In the work department, I don’t think I have contributed all that much… I have learnt things but I have not been about to apply my knowledge creatively yet… There’s still so much I want to learn and to see…
In living on my own, I’m still trying to adapt… It’s coming along… But very slowly… Haven’t bought enough clothes to dress like the locals yet… And my vocabulary of Bengali words is increasing at snail’s pace…
In my personal projects like… learning to play “classical gas” on my guitar… writing my own song… I have not even touched them…
But there is one thing that I definitely have grown in… And that is in trusting the Lord…
When you are in a new place and you have no where to turn to… You could do one of three things… You could become very reserved and turn inwardly… Depending on yourself, trusting in your own abilities…You could turn to depend on other people and everything you do depends on what others do or say or think of you… The last way, is to turn to God… Where in everything you do, you choose not to be afraid for no reason or you choose not to crumble under all circumstances because you have a confidence that God is taking care of you…
I chose the third way…
Since I got here, I’d been become very disciplined in waking up! I have no idea how that happened… I’d also gotten very disciplined in doing my time alone with God every day… I’m very careful that I get daily feeding on God’s Word… My room has a daily devotion calendar given by my ex core group member which I flip and read everyday… My email has daily devotionals from www.purposedrivenlife.com everyday from Monday to Friday… Every night, I’d pray in tongues and in English, read the bible, sometimes pray the bible out, listen to and sing along with the worship CDs, and even listening to the bible in audio format at times… I’d also taken time to read Christian books to supplement my daily reading of the bible…
And it has done so much good!
For one, I’d been sleeping very well… That keeps ones mind straight really…
I’d been able to hear and learn more from Him than I have ever done before… I didn’t even need to go to church to experience Him and the peace that comes from Him… All I need to do is worship Him in my own room, on my bed… God has been teaching me so much about myself and the issues in my heart and life… At times when I’d felt lonely and insecure, a little prayer and worship always perked me up…
During one of my bouts of depression, I’d mustered up all the energy I had to email two of my favourite women in church, and asked them for prayers… Soon after, I started to feel better… It wasn’t a subconscious thing… It was God… It had to be because in the midst of my email getting sent, there was a power flicker that caused the computer I was using to switch off and I never knew if that email got sent to them… I only found out when they replied… And when I was released from the depression
Sidetrack: Must also thank God for allowing me to get my sermons from church YAS (Young Adult Service) every week… I have two ladies helping me out behind the scenes… My dear miss ha has been buying sermon cds for me every week… And my own “mama” or HM would upload it onto the internet for me to download as and when I’m free to… If not for their selflessness, and their love… I would not have this added feeding every week…
I also know that God has been the one protecting me and the people around me from any possible mishaps… Once a telephone wire was hanging low across the road.. I was on the rickshaw sitting at the top… The richshaw went straight into the wire and I almost got the wire caught on my neck… But thank God that someone who was minding the wires realized what was going to happen and yanked it out of the way in time… The wire just slid up my neck… Nothing else…
The several times that we’d been out late or were walking around a dodgy place, we were always able to walk back or find a cab quickly to bring us back safely… And on top of that, none of us had gotten close to being mugged… If all that is not the grace and favour and blessing of God… I don’t know what it is…
I know that people like to look at Christians and our weaknesses and say… How can you be like that? I tot you are Christians and should be very holy & perfect? All I can say is, only God is perfect… He doesn’t require us to be perfect… Just to try to be perfect like Him… He has mercy on us and our weaknesses… And it’s a really good thing that God is so merciful and isn’t looking for perfect people to bring to heaven… cos He wouldn’t find any at all… Certainly not me… I’m just a work in progress… =)
Another visit…
For lunch today, Shalini, Jess & I went to Topu’s place… He stays with his parents and sister Topa… (Topu &Topa are pet names) Topa is very very pretty! She actually reminds me of a girl from CS…
Their house is very nice… There are two sets of sofas! A cane one with orange cushions and a simple wood one with blue cushions…The rooms are also quite big… Topa’s room is very simple and neat and pretty… But Topu doesn’t get his own room… He sleeps in the drawing room (i.e. living room) on two very nice sofas put together…
Lunch was prepared by Topa… We had 3 dishes of beef, 2 dishes of chicken, and 1 dish of vegetables… There was also salad and french fries! The food was fantastic! We ate too much and too fast again… And after lunch, they gave us this very interesting curd dessert… It tastes like natural flavoured yakult and the texture is like tau huay… Only a bit more thick…We loved it! I had three servings of it! I’m gonna ask Topu where they buy it from… After that, they gave us another dessert.. This time, it was a home made dessert called dohyi… or something like that… Also nice…
There’s one last very important thing that I learnt from visiting… The local cola RC tastes very nice! The original one tastes exactly like coke… And the lemon one is very refreshing… I'm so switching to RC from now on...
High Maintenance Girl
This blog was inspired by a few things…
1) A comment my sisters’ once made… That of the 3 of us, the one mostly to marry a rich man would be me…
2) A complaint from my car-smart, male counterpart of the Nightbirds, that it is really expensive to be my friend… (Ok… Ivan is at fault too… But you get the idea…)
3) A life of independence in Dhaka, away from home… You learn about a side of yourself you never knew before…
4) A particular show on Star World called “Outback Jack”… I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m sure I will… It will pop up one day when I’m really bored and sitting in front of the telly watching whatever comes on… Based on the ads, it’s a reality tv show where 12 uptown girls (think Paris Hilton) are literally thrown into the Australian Outback and expected to survive…It’s the kind of show that I’d love to laugh at, trash and declare with all confidence that I’m not like them… (Mind you, when people say and think things like that, they are actually in denial)
5) A passing remark made by a rather peculiar lab rat that I’d spoken to on MSN… Somehow this phrase “high maintenance chick” just came up…
I tell you… All the signs were telling me to blog this…
I had always thought of myself as a low maintenance, simple kind of girl…The kind who never asked for much, never needed much, and never bothered much with anything… Thrown in a harsh place, I’d be able to live quite simply… Hardy like…
I was totally deluded…
There’s absolutely nothing like living on your own to really clear your head…Cos I realized that it takes a lot of money, time and energy to support myself… Even wits! Not even sure if that’s a good or bad thing… You know what I’m saying or not? (If you say that last phrase fast enough, you’d sound like one of my avid readers…I’m sure he’ll know who he is…)
Before I go on, just let me clarify what I mean by high maintenance… I know guys have their own ideas… Like girls who require ALL of their time, Girls who need to have their bags carried for them, Girls who need to be sent home everyday… I’m not talking about that… That’s between a guy and a girl… Not the same issue here… No guy… And won’t be a guy for a long long time… I’m talking about me maintaining myself see… High Maintenance… Essentially, I’m complaining about how difficult it is to keep myself alive…
Give you some examples…
Personal Maintenance: I can’t just live on my facial cleanser anymore… I’ve started using toner and moisturizer… The whole three step thing… And that takes time… I actually get bothered when my hair looks bad… I used to not care how bad it looked as long as I could tie it up… To watch my weight and health, I’ve been trying to cut down on my sugar and oil and egg intake… been taking my vitamins regularly… and might be starting my exercise regime in my room… It used to take 5 mins to prep myself… Now I take about half an hour!
Clothing: I’m still wearing my jeans and tees with sweater… but I already got a Punjabi to wear to functions… Wore it to my boss’ home during Eid… Planning to get more for work… Assimilating into the culture here… and a nice sari to keep… Started to be concerned about my clothes matching… (Perhaps I might even make a nice sari to wear at my sister’s wedding… Hope she okays it…) I never trusted my taste in clothes… but I’m still gonna go shopping for them anyway… And I’m sure I’d be able to at least tell what looks nice on me…
Domestic Arts: I can’t trust clothes that aren’t washed in a machine! I’m really trying to rethink that one… There’s no machine around here and I really don’t know how to wash my own clothes properly… I spend hours doing my laundry… And yet they still seem a wee bit dirty after washing… (Mummy! Help!) I could barely iron my own Punjabi… Never used to iron my clothes…I’d just ask my maid to do it for me… But now, I want to have nicely pressed clothes and I’m making myself learn to iron!
Still get very annoyed when I have to wash my own dishes… How come it takes so many utensils to have one meal?? And I’m a fussy eater but I can’t cook anything except instant noodles for myself when I’m hungry… Still looking for the familiar instant preparation food I had when I was back home in NTU hostel… Not too different from those other uptown girls in “Outback Jack”… Ok, at least I dun go around the desert looking for outlets for Eh-leck-tron-necks... (Electronics)
Recreation: Ref #2 above… It takes money to keep me occupied… Back home, I took part in a lot expensive activities like shopping for expensive useless silver collectibles… playing pool & bowling (but I cut down on those)… taking photos… driving a lot and wasting petrol… watching a lot of movies… always eating at expensive food joints and drinking coffee and chilling out at overpriced cafes…
Over here, I find myself still looking for the same kind of activities even though it’s a poor country… And when I can’t maintain it… I just think about continuing my old lifestyle the moment I get home…What’s wrong with me? I thought I was supposed to be learning to be more comfortable with myself and with less material things… So much for that eh…
But before I get my whole family worried that I’m upset again or something… Allow me to clarify… I’m fine… I’m ok… It’s just a realization of how much it takes to keep me… Mum, Dad, you’ve been doing a great job all my life…
It’s really not too bad being a high maintenance girl actually…
I know for a fact that I go for quality in things… i.e. what I buy must last… It has to be hardy so that I can use it for a much longer time… I wouldn’t settle for anything less, most of the time…
I know I have an expensive and exquisite taste… But hey… That applies to all things including people! So all my good friends can proudly say that they were exquisitely chosen… Now, how cool is that?
I’ve been in Dhaka for what, 3 weeks? And I’m still alive and kicking! No crying and wanting to go home… Even though I’m still getting used to my power getting cut off and water running out and no broadband access whenever I want it… I’m still adapting…
I’m also trying to learn to relate to very strange people at work and at Pathshala… Can’t been too spoilt and pampered anymore…
In the past three weeks, I’d also spent less than what I am given for 2 weeks… Think my dad should be very proud of me…
And besides, being a high maintenance girl, the odds of actually marrying a rich man in future is actually upped in my favour! cos only those who can afford to support you will dare to make a move…
So, all you high maintenance girls out there… Keep your heads up! You’re definitely worth it! =)
The story of my chocolate biscuit…Based on a true story
There was once a girl with a heart for chocolate…
Any kind of chocolate…
Dark Chocolate…
Milk Chocolate…
White Chocolate… (Ok, maybe not white chocolate… She’s white and sweet enough…)
Anything made with chocolate… (not white chocolate)
Chocolate bars…
Chocolate cakes…
Chocolate brownies…
Chocolate ice cream…
Chocolate raisins…
Chocolate peanuts…
Chocolate biscuits…
She especially liked chocolate biscuits…
They didn’t melt in her bag…
They weren’t so small that they didn’t fill her up…
They were easy to find…
One day, she brought her Junior out…
She got hungry…
She was at a petrol station…
She bought a box of chocolate biscuits…
She offered them to Junior but he declined…
She ate them…
Weeks later, she was to leave for Dhaka…
She was afraid to miss the food at home…
She went out…
She bought two boxes of those same chocolate biscuits…
She packed them in…
Night before she left, she heard a knock on the door...
She saw her Junior with a bag for her…
She opened the bag…
She found two boxes of those same chocolate biscuits…
She had no space…
She left them behind…
Two weeks in Dhaka, she missed home and the food…
She ate some biscuits…
She ate some more biscuits…
She ate even more biscuits…
She finished the biscuits…
One day in Dhaka, she walked into a super market…
She walked down every aisle…
She looked at everything they sold…
She saw boxes of those same chocolate biscuits!
She bought them…
Now, she eats the chocolate biscuits any time she likes…
And the girl with the heart for chocolate lived happily ever after in Dhaka… =P
Eid Special: Stuffed Gwen
I can’t sleep yet… Not on a full stomach… Just got back from my boss’ place… I think I had too many sweet desserts… It started from this morning when Rayhana (Housekeeper’s wife) gave us some desserts she had made… It was some noodle-like thingy that was brown and sweet… And had some beans in it… The other one was some orange rice and that was sweet too… That was served to us in the Pathshala common room… We never lifted a finger and got it… Then we went visiting…
We went to two places to visit… Kind of like visiting during Chinese New Year…
Sidetrack: Does every family gamble during Chinese New Year? Cos my family doesn’t… Thank goodness! Jessica was really surprised when I told her about it though… She took it for granted that every family gambles… Oh well, I used to take it for granted that every family spends Chinese New Year the way we do… No gambling… Just lots of people to visit and lots more people to visit us… And our time is spent having mature, adult conversations(ok, not me… but everyone else…) and enjoying the wonderful cooking that my mum whips up… Oh well… Guess CNY just isn’t the same for all families…
Back to the visiting we did today… One was Shalini’s friend’s place… Zaib… He stays on Sonargaon… Which is at the end of Panthapath, where we stay… They stay on the top floor of a high rise building… And mind you… They are rich! You can tell… They all look very upper class… Zaib & his parents… They carry that air of being very wealthy… But are still very hospitable and friendly…
Their place is two big apartments combined to become one… And only about 4 people stay in it… (To put things into perspective, their place is actually smaller than my home… But it’s big by Dhaka standards…) They have a young boy servant who serves us tea on a little tea dolly… How quaint is that? The whole place is quite grand... Carefully decorated with art and artifacts from all over the world… Like a hand-woven carpet of one of the famous monuments from China… (It wasn’t placed on the floor to be stepped on…It was hung on the wall…) They even have four sets of sofas in the living room…(I guess they entertain a lot) and there’s still plenty of space… On top of that, Zaib and his two older siblings were all educated in England… Rich blood…
We were served these sweet desserts… Like vermicelli in condensed milk… It was kind of nice… But I have a real problem eating anything that is too sweet… My mum altered my taste… haha! She also gave us this pasty thing which was made with molasses… Also very sweet… My tastebuds are really having a tough time adjusting to the new sugar rich environment… (Made worse by Diya who has a real sweet tooth and keeps buying these Bangladeshi sweets and cakes and offering it to all of us…)
The other place we visited was my boss Reza’s place… He stays at Old Dhaka… We had dinner there… It was all very nice! His house is way smaller than Zaib’s house… Kind of the size of Tutul’s place… But it gives a totally different feeling… In Zaib’s house, we all felt sleepy… It’s the comfy sofas and the whole yellow tinge in the décor… But in my boss’ house, they had very nice cheery coloured curtains and matching cushion covers…. And the whole place looked very homely and lived in…
Before I continue about the food we had, this die-hard romantic must give an update… We met my boss’ family and… His wife is very very beautiful!! And remember, I mentioned before that my boss is very good-looking… So they looked so good together… Like Brad Pitt & Jennifer Aniston (I heard they split up… is that true?) We saw pictures of them (my boss & his wife… not Jennifer & Brad…) when they went to Paris and Norway before they were married… They went there to work and travel a bit… They looked so loving! In the pictures and in real life… They were definitely a love marriage!! Made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside…
Here’s the best part… Lippi (My boss’ wife) is 3 months preggers! This blur girl noticed it all by herself! She asked her boss if his wife was pregnant and he was like… “She’s showing already?” I think it’s the way she tied her sari… With a bit more cloth on her tummy to protect it and keep it warm… aww... =) Jess & I agree that the baby’s gonna be a really good looking one… No matter who the baby takes after… He/she won’t go wrong in the looks department…
Now back to the food we had… Dinner was a nice yellowish rice with rezala beef curry, a fish called bwong or something, pickles made from olives or mango, and fried chicken! We were all very hungry so we ate really fast and felt so stuffed afterward…
The problem was, we hadn’t factored in the desserts… Dessert was more of the vermicelli thingy… My boss says it’s called sheemide or something…(Az… I’m expecting you to help me correct all these names… thanx!) Of all the desserts I had, I liked theirs the best… It’s sweet but not exceedingly sweet… Then there’s another version of it that doesn’t have gravy, looks a little orangy and resembles mini mee tai mak… It tastes really really nice!
By the end of the day, we were totally stuffed and got packed into a cab to head back to Pathshala… And, that is how this Eid Special came about… Stuffed Gwen… A sweet dessert…
