Cookies!

I have been trying my baking skills with my new LG MW/Grill/Convection Oven. Baking is soooo inviting, not just eating... even the cooking part of it.. So much that Hari donned the apron and started off baking his vanilla cake!! The cake was awesome and I could not click it, for we just devoured it right out of the oven. I tried baking butter cookies today and I found time to snap the last piece left :)

Too bad I cannot paste the aroma along with the pic here.

Movie Marathon past week:



Virudhagiri -  Muzhu neela nagaichuvai padam! Gaptain speaks English, appeals for votes from the LGBT societies of Tamil Nadu and fights for student rights in Australia. It's a welcome relief that he doesn't dance in Scottish highlands or in the Swiss Alps, with a fair maiden the age of his grand-daughter.

Chikku Bukku- Ayyyoooooooo! Ezhavu! What charm does Tamil audience see in 'bubbly-bubbly' heroines?

Manmadhan Ambu- I liked it, even though Hari found it irritating.
What's with Kamal and losing a young wife? Vettayaadu Vilayadu, Mahanadhi, Kaakhi sattai, Hey Ram, MMA, Vetri Vizha, Vikram... Wikied and the list goes on and on... And it alsos mocks at me for not having watched a few films! If I aspire to do justice when I claim 'I am Deepa, Ph. D in Tamil Cinema', I need to watch them all. Also, I want to watch 'Thirakatha', a Malayalam movie said to be inspired by the relationship between Srividya and Kamal Haasan.

Mochi's is on sale. Flat 50 percent off on stock that is proving expensive to be storing any longer. Was able to find one pair among the maaasss of useless stock. For a dream price of 445 bucks! :)

Marks and Spencer boasts of a sale upto 70 percent off. Formal shirts and Jeans at less than 1000 bucks... Very surprisingly, Hari accompanied me and actually picked up something for himself at the sale! A pair of Am-I-really-wearing-anything Jeans! Too bad M&S, Chennai does not have much kitchenware yet.

Part Time Instructor, Full Time Shopper

Allopathy, homeopathy and telepathy never work on me, I swear by retail therapy. The last couple of years, I haven't done much else- I have swiped my cards at every place worth a visit! And I have haggled for a bargain with every vendor who doesn't have a card reading terminal. In fact, I chose to study German over French because Goethe Institute, Max Mueller Bhavan is situated in the shopping district of Chennai- on Khader Nawaz Khan Road and Alliance Francais has no such feature to boast about. Now that I have taken up a job that pays me for my own shopping, Hari can heave a sigh of relief! Anyway, I have decided to blog about interesting buys henceforth.

Betty Crocker's Pancake mix- If you loooove pancakes in the morning, with honey oozing from it, you gotta try this! I tried BC's Pancake mix Complete with plain water as the instructions said but felt it's loads better with milk and beaten egg. While we are at it, I swear by honey from Auroville, though the price is anything but sweet- at around 600 bucks a litre. It comes with pollen visible to the naked eye, apparently pollen is very nutritious!

While most tourist shoppers throng the fashion districts of London, good old me fell in love with Tesco, their largest supermarket chain. I came back with boxes of breakfast cereal, Sainsbury's fruit preserves, Guocomole dip and such stuff! I also got fitted sheets (6 GBP) and a weighing scale ( 2.99 GBP) from IKEA. I love IKEA prices, I sooooo wanted to get their kitchen stuff but Hari would have disowned me then and there if I had added to the baggage. Not that I did not visit the fashion districts at all... Clarks, London wooed me with its shoes and I got a sexy pair! I am yet to visit Star Bazaar in Ampa Skywalk mall- Tata and Tesco's joint venture.

I finally have the guts to admit that I am old! OOOOLD. I try to walk to keep shape and I stick to the least traffic ridden places in KK Nagar. And these places are full of young teens romancing around with their highschool sweethearts... after concocting stories about special classes and late tuition classes to folks at home. I am greatly annoyed for some reason! A classic sign of aging, along with crow's feet and laughlines! Anyway, coming back to me admitting that I am old, I am sticking to Cottonworld Corp, for their trousers, Jeans and the like are soooooo comfy. If you want comfort, more than style, head for CWC. I hate it that when I ask any retail outlet for 'Jeans, size 36', they give me a stare and direct me to the mens' section! I tried like 6 permutaions and combinations of cut and style and size in Wills Lifestyle and came out with ONE courtesy buy- a button up shirt for an obscene amount of money ( and it doesn't fit either). Got it just to make sure the store assistant doesn't strangle me with a belt for leaving empty handed after having tested his patience soooo long. And then I headed to CWC and Hari's credit card will speak for months to come about my splurge!

Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan on the cards... Suriya shouldn't think twice about playing the role of Vandhiya Thevan! I am very interested in knowing who plays Poonkuzhali. Watched Manmadhan Ambu last weekend - I loved it while Hari thought otherwise. Maddy has played his role awesomely- rich spoilt mamma's boy. I could relate with Sangeetha's role, I admit! Seeing the movie, I badly want to revisit Paris, Venice and Rome. And Splendida, here I come!