2014 and what I want it to be

Tags

2014, looking ahead, parenting, planning, resolutions, wishes

I have been kind of running away from this post all of December and January, resolutions don’t work is what I have realised in the past some years. I even joked about not keeping any resolutions this year via the very popular bitstrips

This one makes sense doesn’t it?

But then as January is progressing and I am sitting on bed nursing a sprained ankle, I am realising that there needs to be some planning done on how you want the year to turn out, how you want the year to look. The challenges you want to take this year. The goals one wants to achieve. I might or might not achieve everything but then if I don’t even know what I want to do, there is no chance of doing it anyways.

So lets on my list, a goal list, a resolution list, a wish list. Call it whatever you want to but here it is. Must warn you before you go ahead of this post, I have a gut feel this one is gonna be one long one

Lets start with where we are now, the blog

Blogging 

So this one had me thinking hard, 6 years ago when I started the blog I had no plans in my mind. It was just a random penning down of random thoughts. I grew with the blog. I grew away from it too sadly for a while but overtime I have realised I a calmer person when I write here regularly, nothing special even an update on what’s happening, my travelogues, the recipes and the reviews on the food blog (the food blog has survived better than this one I think). It’s a small target but I have decided to write atleast 52 posts on this blog in 2014. That makes it’s a post a week. I can do atleast this much. What you do think people.

While on blogging, I realised I have also stopped reading them,specially after the reader died a death that I hated. I never got around transferring my feeds (yes I am stupid like that) and hence the reading kind of stopped. So feedly will be setup and reading will start again. Commenting shall also be tried though really can’t promise that one 🙂

Reading

Coming to the next in my list, reading and books. Last year wasn’t bad with about 80+ books but this year I have set myself a big goal. I have taken up the goodreads 2014 reading challenge of 100 books in 2014. Yes you heard that right. I might be mad but that’s what makes me me.

And to add-on to that, I saw the RandomHouse Bingo Challenge this morning and it called out to me so the 24 out of those 100 books will have to fit this pattern. Gotta keep things interesting

🙂

I will be updating the progress of the reading challenge in my page Reading Corner, which I haven’t updated in such a long time, 2010 to be precise *hangs head in shame*

Travel

Well this one almost always is one of the most important parts of my year planning but the last two years we haven’t taken a single long vacation. We have done many many trips, the one to Mugilu, Sinna Dorai, Kufri, Linger, the big drive to Delhi on road, Agra and many more. But all these have been small breaks which I know will keep happening. This year I want to do that long 10 day holiday where we tune off from work and the rest of the world for 10 days, come back refreshed and charged.

Also this was in my list last year too but last year sister got married and most of my off time went there happily. This year I want to do that solo trip, to start with a three-day weekend all by myself and my books and yes ofcourse my camera

Work

I have a detailed plan charted out for work, which I really won’t be sharing here but yes I have it and will be tracking it 🙂

Relationships

In 2013, there are some relationships which are special to me but somehow somewhere got left behind. This year I will make that effort, put that energy in those and see if I can revive them like seriously.

I know life is about moving on but sometimes holding on is very important.

Another very important challenge I have given myself when it comes to relationships is the Orange Rhino Challenge. I read about it first time on Aparna’s blog and god it came at the right time. Just that afternoon me and Ojas had a yelling match and he told me the nth time that why am I shouting on him everyday these days. Reasons of yelling could be many but when I look back reasons of not yelling are always more. It needs strength and it needs patience (which I have very little of) but I think I will try this one, I THINK I NEED THIS ONE.

Tips – Read this one, I am sure you all will be nodding and this one

Ok : While on this I need a counter up which will work on WordPress, essentially not a javascript one.

When I told Ojas about this one, you know what he told me. Lets do this together and call it a Blue Rhino Challenge, such a sweetheart he is. This one is a huge one, the one I am capable of failing in a day. Wish me luck people

and yes health and weight loss doesn’t feature in this list here, cause I will continue to do what I can on it without getting depressed about it. I am working on it and I know it 🙂

So here is to 2014 and the joy and success

Camping, Resolutions and more

Tags

2011, camping, family, fun, N, new year eve, Ojas, resolutions

So we went camping on new year eve, among all the confusions and a plan of finally being at home with 2-3 friends turned into a last minute camping plan… a new tent was bought, the food packed… multiple calls made to various people coming and off we went… only hitch was that I was worried as this was Ojas’s first camping and there was no other kid to accompany him but still we went starting me cursing the friend who made this last minute plan but secretly looking forward to it and slowly getting into the groove…

We went to a friend friends farmhouse some 50Kms ahead of Hosur and located in undulating plains with a few rocky hills around, it was just lovely…

The car heading to the camping spot

We reached there just before sunset, thanks to the fast driving of the friend and the rock solid hugging to ground Fortuner that he had…. and got started to pitch the tents and what fun it was…everyone was excited including ojas infact he was the most excited one

And got to what we do the best… making chai 😛 its simply not possible to not have chai when me, V and M are around 😉

and like my header says nothing tastes better than chai made on a chulha

After the chai we just settled down with some bonfire, potatoes and onions roasting in it, some drinks and singing along for fun… inbetween trying to get Ojas entertained… and what fun it was… heating the food we carried around the bonfire wrapped in silver foil… and at 12 happy new years were said to each other and we all happily slept tucked inside our sleeping bags…

And waking up to birds chirping and a lovely fog outside away from civilization I don’t think we could have started the decade in a better way ofcourse there was chai which was missing and we quickly corrected it by making a fresh cup again 😀

 

the morning cup of chai on chulha

We did a small walk/trek post the chai, had bread cheese bhujiya sandwich for breakfast and started back, all in all a very very fine new year eve and the first day of the decade… and I was so glad my son enjoyed camping…  So how was your new year eve, what did u do? partied or chilled out

Last week I also met Meira who was in Bangalore for a day along with Shruti and the famous TS… now I have met Meira before and I love her but trust me guys TS is cooler than she potrays him on the blog 😉 Shruti also brought along with her the gifts that I won on 400th post giveway… thank u darling they are lovely

 

penstand, chumbak playing cards, chumbak bookmarks and a lovely pair of earrings

and shruti ojas decided to fulfill ur wishes by wearing the flower 😉

handmade flower ofcourse by Shruti

And now to the most important part of the post… the resolutions… I know its rather late in the new year (4 days are long no?) to write this but I just didnt get the time to do it before… So the year 2011 has been declared as a year of health and love by me… so there are top 2 resolutions are

• Spend quality time with N and with O and also together as a family : sounds funny but yes after Ojas we really never get around to spend so much time as a couple as we would like to… so now we have decided we will have a date every week on any of the weekday nights… a late night movie.. a quite dinner, a drink on the terrace anything without ojas ofcourse 😉 and I am dedicating Friday lunch or evening coffee with my date with the younger man i.e ojas 🙂 and weekend is family time… no work… no being online (atleast I am gonna try and limit the time to checking tweets on phone once in a while only)
• Health, Health, Health :  This ofcourse includes lose weigh but also includes much more.. the BP, the reflux, the acidity, the stamina, the dammed knee, the neck and the overall fitness. This will be year with focus on health thru and thru

So what are your new year resolutions? And generally how have u been folks? Long time no?

My Kind of Challenge

Tags

2011, reading, resolutions, resolutions 2011, south asian book challenge

A challenge on books 🙂 I was totally kicked about it when I read it at Smitha’s and decided to sign up on the earliest but some friends were quicker 😉 Yeah I think by now you all now that I am talking about South Asian Challenge 😀

I have read about 50 books I think this year and atleast 30% of them would be South Asian authors so I dont think its a very difficult challenge for me to meet but lets see what 2011 has in store for me 😀

So do u love reading, what are u waiting for, go sign up here

The Zoya Factor : A Book Review

Tags

advertising, anuja chauhan, book, cricket, NaBloPoMo, resolutions, resolutions 2010, review, zoya factor

Zoya Factor has been in my books to read list since it came but somehow I was not picking it because everyone knows I am not a cricket fan but then I consistently started hearing good reviews about it and that still didn’t motivate me enough to buy it… wanted to read it but didn’t want to spend the money… I can be like that for some books haan 😉 and then came Just Books… a library in Bangalore… man I love this… I was a member of Easy Lib when I was carrying and used to only read read and read but somehow in Easy Lib the problem I found was that there were too many complications in the way they issued, u needed to have the price of the book as the deposit etc but Just Book I like I like…. and they have a good collection of kids books too….though I like easy lib too 😉

Ok enough I divert too much from the topic all the time 😀

coming back to The Zoya Factor, it’s a book that kept me holding on to it and I laughed, I cried (a little bit), I felt for the protagonist…. “Zoya” a young so-called independent woman working in an Ad Agency who was luckily or unluckily born at the exact same time when Indian Cricket Team won the world cup and along with that time came the luck that she could make any team win a match if she had food with them before the match 😉 funny and strange….

The book takes us through the time when she discovers this and how is dragged to Australia for the upcoming World Cup and how her personal and professional life goes through the ups and downs of this so-called “Zoya Factor”

The book balances itself with right amount of cricket, right amount of advertising and now cricket and advertising can’t be separated anyways right, right amount humor, right amount of romance and right amount of hindi… yes the novel can safely be called as a Hinglish novel, I loved the fact that the author was bold enough to go do that experiment, I mean most of the books are shunned away for using the local language and yes I agree to the fact that they also limit the readership of the book but Hinglish is what we speak these days and I personally think its a good idea to have a book or two coming out like this 🙂

The thing I didn’t like about the book though was the editing… I think it would have fared much better had a good editor looked at it once…

But on the whole a good book which probably announces the arrival of the “Hinglish DesiChicklit”

Rating 3.5/5

Book The Zoya Factor

Authors Anuja Chauhan

Price Rs 295/-

PS: Read Smitha’s review here

PPS: I think if nothing atleast one of my resolution this year will come true… I have already finished 4 books in the last 20 days of Jan… yippe!!!

Resolutions 2010

Tags

2010, finances, loan, NaBloPoMo, new year, resolutions, weight

I really don’t make resolutions… gave up on them ages ago when I realized that I all do is make them and break them in 24 hrs 🙂  but this time something inside me is telling no make them and challenge yourself to complete them too….

so here they are :

• So I have lost 10 kgs but there is 15 more to go and that is the target this year… the next year eve I surely want to be in the weight I have been dreaming of God knows how long now… 69.9 kgs, when I reach that I would still be about 4 kgs overweight but I think I would settle for 15 this year and see what I want in the next year resolution
• Read more – I read a mere 20 books this year and I dont like that… I want to read more and more and more so I am giving myself a target of 35 this year, a very achievable target if I want to
• Start something of my own or get back to job : I have given myself quite sometime with the break and now I need to put my heart and soul into doing something constructive… Though I would really love to start something on my own the big problem is finances… anything I try to think of there is atleast an investment of about 10lacs and I dont have that kind of money but whatever it is I need to start doing something now……
• The biggest goal we have set our self as a couple is to manage finances well… We were happily spending when we both were working…liked something buy it was the funda of life and if u dont have the cash… big deal swipe the card and convert to EMI’s till I lost my job and we realized… shit we are neck deep in EMI’s, so there is only one target this year close as many as loans as possible… we have already closed couple of them in the last year and by the end of this year we want to be left with only the home loan which we are giving ourselves 5 yrs to close
• Learn to deal more patiently with Ojas… he has entered the trouble two’s a bang… they have arrived and he drives me crazy… I was very patient with him always but the last month or so,I have seen losing my temper more than I should have, though he hasn’t really (as of yet) got a slap from me but I dont like the way I am shouting these days… I need to be more patient with him…
• Get my messy house in order no I mean seriously I think I have made Ojas a good excuse to get away with the messiness… Its NOT DIRTY but its messy all the time and I want to change it this year… I want to have in order house this year…

So what are your resolutions and whats your track record on them? dump them or fulfill them?