The world around us

We all have our weekend haunts don’t we? I think it is really important to have a place to go to, and thankfully we have always managed to find ours fairly quickly once we move to a new place. In Kansas City, I loved the country club plaza area, which is chockablock full of really great restaurants and cafes, especially local ones.

In Providence, we had this incredible diner in Wayland Square which was just a couple of minutes walk from our apartment. We loved going there for breakfast and then browsing through the fun stores there, which included an old bookstore as well! In Bristol, RI which is halfway between Providence and Newport, our good friends and neighbors introduced us to this awesome diner in a trailer of sorts, over looking the bay and the tiny park where one gets a great view of the fireworks in the summer.

In Bangalore, our haunt was the 100 Ft restaurant and boutique, which was not necessarily a breakfast place, but it was a great place to hang out, eat and shop. Here in Dubai, our weekend haunt is The Lime Tree Cafe, which serves really awesome breakfasts and has a wonderful atmosphere.

Something every interesting happened the other day. Since my friends know I do research work, I’m always being asked to do some work or the other for them, researching, finding, digging up stuff. I don’t mind, since it’s not that much work anyway. Recently, one of my neighbors asked me to find some information on the process to turbo charge an engine! Well, it’s certainly not something that I had looked for before on the Internet, and I was happy to do so. I managed to find the information pretty quickly and my neighbor was thrilled to get the information so quickly. Working as a freelancer gives me enough free time to do things like that, and I really like working on my own schedule and terms and doing fun things like this.

I read an interesting article in the paper over the weekend about how Americans are not only downsizing the kind of cars they are buying but also their TVs. With the change to digital broadcasting to occur next year, a large number of consumers are trading in their old TV sets for new flat screen versions but are also going in for sizes such as 19, 21 and 32 inches instead of the larger sizes that were preferred earlier. The number of LCD TVs that were shipped last year rose by 52%, of which the majority were made up of these smaller size television sets.

I think the recent economic changes is going to have a much longer lasting cultural and social impact on society as well. Besides of course, having less disposable income, consumers are also having to rethink how they live their lives. What is interesting is that a lot of these changes will ultimately effect the environment in a positive manner, or rather will not result in as much damage as the original versions might have. It’s definitely an interesting time to see the changes occur in society.

I’ve written about this before, but since the matter is something that continues to keep me interested, I will write again about how the Internet has become a place where everyone comes to find things. The things that they are looking for are varied and could be anything from a secondhand car to a doctor recommendeddisposable diaper or even puppies. It’s everything and anything to a lot of people and that’s what makes it so interesting and something that one comes back to time and again. I use Yahoo search for most of my findings as it seems to come up with the most relevant and best results, but there are lots of other great search engines too.

I love taking photographs of the simple things in life, the little things that I notice here and there and things that are often under rated. With all the lovely sunlight we get in our house, it has been possible to get some really interesting shots that would otherwise not have been possible. In a lot of my photos, it is the sunlight that is the star of the shot, and not anything that I have done. I have just been in the right place at the right time to notice it. That really is the key, I have begun to “notice” things, to appreciate them and to enjoy their beauty.

Hope you do so too!

I recently booked our flights for our trip next month after a good search on the internet and the newspapers for the best flight deals. Airlines are always having some promotion or the other and if one can book a flight on one of these promotions, it usually saves a good amount of money and can even offer special perks like the use of the airport lounge, extra frequent flier miles or some other special deal. Since I wanted flexible travel dates, I was not able to take advantage of the special and ended up paying a bit more, since I’m quite sure that our return dates are likely to change. So, I bought a 4 month return ticket where I can make changes without having to pay for anything at all. I’d hate having to deal with problems when I’m away, so it’s best to anticipate them beforehand and make provisions for their solution.

It’s been ages since I checked out bLaugh.com…but sadly, there were no new cartoons on the site. I decided to look up some of the archives and found this comic, which I thought was really funny. It really is so true, we all try to do so many things at a time that we end up doing none of them well enough and everything ends up piling up. Time management is not what we are good at anymore. I have to constantly remind myself to slow down and enjoy what I’m doing, rather than trying to think of what else I also could be doing a the same time.

What is it about designer clothing that gets people so excited? For some it has to be Oscar de la Renta, while for others a different designer, but what really sets them apart is that these clothes are made individually and not for the mainstream. So besides being very unique, they are also extremely well fitted, which is what makes them look so good. The materials used will be the finest and no expense will be spared on the workmanship, so what you get is a world class piece of clothing, which could also be a work of art.

I never thought I would like to drink tea, but I do. It all started when we lived in Providence and the winters were so cold. I used to drink tons of coffee, but didn’t like the effect it had on me, so switched to tea or rather had a cup of coffee a day and usually 2 cups of tea too. In the beginning, I didn’t even know how to make tea. It had been made at home of course, but who paid attention. My initial choices of tea were pretty pathetic too, but bit by bit I’ve started selecting nice teas that are wonderful to have and make one feel refreshed.

Enjoy!

I’ve worn contacts since I was 16 or 17, I think. I spend so much time working on the computer, and my other favorite pastime is reading so needless to say, I put a lot of strain on my eyes. What I really hate is that the dust and wind really bothers my eyes and I’d really love to have them fixed by getting Lasik surgery. Several of my friends have had it done already, and I need to get my guts up about it and go meet a doctor and find out if it is viable option for me. It would be so amazing not to have to worry about taking off my lenses every night, since I wear gas permeable or GP lenses and they cannot be worn overnight or for long periods of time as the eye does not get enough oxygen and becomes dry and irritable. I think I’d better just go ahead and find out what it takes to do the surgery since it would be a great improvement to my life.