:) My first recording :)

My first recording ever... I wasn't nervous... I don't practice a lot...hence I am not great with my timing and with my singing. It is my first recording so please be polite with the comments! :)

Lets just talk...

Back to the place where mostly fish and chips are the answers to your call for a hungry stomach. But its not the case else where and Milena was a wonderful host :) with some lovely food... and aromatic tea...



I was made aware of a Bulgarian custom done on the 1st of March and it happens to be a holiday in Bulgaria if I'm not wrong. The custom of wearing Martenitsas (red and white thread worn as a decoration). The piece worn has to be taken off when you see a Stark (bird with long orange beak...).

Things have been partly great over the week :) Well had both good and not so good moments over the last few days. I had to visit Deutsche Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz (DFKI) - German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence. This was the highlight for my trip if nothing else :)



This time I spend a day in Hamburg and was shown around the city. I met Ariane a Couchsurfer from Tangerhütte, Germany. The following day she visited Bremen and it was nice to walk around the city this time again (after a year).


Saturday was dinner at Anuj's place and I ate Indian roti's after almost a year :) followed by a Hungarian dessert. A continental musical session followed later in the evening.... Later that night I had a glimpse of Iranian new year celebration. Some delicious food, but it was wrong timing :( specially after the spicy Indian encounter! Calories worth the butter chicken were pretty much burnt at Rosy's birthday party (Milena's friend). The party was just an excuse to see some university crowd and a party at IUB. It was not bad after all :)

I am back in Bristol and will I be in Bremen by end of this year... is a question worth asking and an answer is pretty much unknown at the moment...

a reason needed to come back...

probably not! :) But life has better ways to answers to our questions... I visit Bremen again and this time its brighter and the city seems to smile more than usual :) and I did witness an accident on the tram line! A tram just hit a car and it seemed badly slapped! I hope no one was hurt.

Later for dinner... I see old most cherishable faces (Anuj, Stef, Milena and also Orsi) which was a happy evening at the end. For a person who has been traveling over two years away from childhood friends, away from the company of friends; meeting few who have recently been part of my life is pure happiness :)

Sometimes the most obvious reasons for happiness overshadows the purity and the essence of the real feeling. We tend to take it for granted. We tend to look for alternatives and I tend to find happiness in a way uncommon to most. A picture was one that I wanted :) ... but probably it was good I dint have one made... the image is best in my mind. Pictures are always incomplete, they are in front of our eyes staring, some smiling, but yet the feeling is unknown mostly. This time I want it to remain in my head. Well too much said though on it already....

Later in the night I had a good session of talks with Milena and three cups of rose tea... Loved the tea... helps my sour throat (thanks to Coke at the Hbf station)! I will be visitng Hamburg tomorrow for most of my day... that is my definition of a plan baked and waiting to be garnished with more surprises just within couple of seconds!

A visit to the Windmill City Farm...

Had a good Saturday :) spend most of my time home. Sunday was sunny again (Lucky!!!) and this time Sebas agreed to come along to one of the CS gatherings. CS gathering are part of Couch Surfing group (a hospitality network). I have been part of the network over a year now (Thanks to THE lovely butterfly, Anick!) and have hosted/surfed several people and cities in France, Spain and UK. CouchSurfers have been organizing sunday meetups for couple of weeks now, its fun and an excuse to spend a Sunday afternoon with some known and some unknown faces in town. Today we met at The Windmill pub in Bedminster. Later we did visit the Windmill City Farm and it was fun to see chickens, ducks, sheep from France and UK... :) here are couple of pictures from the visit!

Peace....

Fooooooooodd duuu laa da la dubb la duuuu

(Top to Bottom) Rice with Mixed Veggie, Salad Green with beans, Chicken-Cheese with Pasta

I've had a healthy week mostly! A run to start the week and I've tried hard to be wise towards my food choice! :) Some of the things I enjoy doing: Cooking! :) Thanks to Sebas for ideas as well...

Again!!!

1:12 am and I'm struggling again! I get in bed around 23:00 and still I'm far away from even a small nap... I had a long day. Spend almost 11 hours at work and I struggle in bed I am supposed to be tired... :( sounds like complaining? well... :( Have a dry cough since three days now that adds to my wonderful situation.

On a bright note, I Spoke to mom today... after her usual 'almost sarcastic' comments yesterday about me not calling her! It gets weird when they ask me about my plans, future, and the list does not seize... and when I have no definite answer the silence makes them think I am angry... which I am not and its wiser to be quite than convincing! :) I love her...

Well on a brighter note ;) mom, dad and rash send me a gift pack on my birthday 2 weeks back: rash compiled a photo album with pictures made when I was a child... with me dressed as a bride, kissing a girl on my/her birthday when I was 4, dressed as a girl most of the times and a lot of theater/fancy dress. Back in school days I was always chosen to be dressed as a bride! I wonder if they always wanted to save money on the wigs!!! Another unsuccessful attempt to get to bed on time... and what could I do in bed?

Have already sorted out what I am gonna do tomorrow at work... just can't work out how I should sleep... I'm gonna try again!

Oh the might Homer send me some of your powers... :(

A perfect suspended Sun(dietic) day!

Got up late around lunch time, missed the shower, wore the same after party shirt and headed to pipe and slippers! Met so many couchsurfers from the Bristol CS group. Well it was my first Sunday CS lunch meet and as I like to call it, a sun(dietic) ritual! I was starving and sunday is kinnda my vegetarian day... nothing religious in me, its just that I wanna keep it light one day a week...so finally after like 30 minutes I was served a huge plate of vegetarian mezze! Beautifully arranged with salad, olives, brown bread and chick-peas sauce! I enjoyed my meal with a pint of orange juice, lime and extra ice. Later on couple of us went to the Bristol suspension bridge. It was great sunday to me and I am glad to have made many friends :) I am looking forward to a really nice week...

until next time...

9.4 miles worth of happiness...

Another happy Saturday...

So the first thing I was up for today was to explore the city around me... introduce myself to the surrounding of Bristol. Hence, a 9.4 miles worth of happiness.... I ran from Filton to Lawrence Westwood via Henbury, home to The Blaisey Castle.


Today I wanted to do something which demanded physical exercise and I wish to spend time alone... I did not run like this for couple of weeks now. And, I was desperate to get back in the rhythm. Running might seem not so great to few... ofcourse you have to deal with blisters in the feet and itchy nipples... but then worst of all is back ache... I feel it now! But for me its more of a mental training than physical...

The back ache forced me to cancel my plan later in the evening. I was looking forward to meet Maria, Kate and Patrick in Clifton and then head for dinner in Southville. But then I had had enough already from the day... and I called it off! Sebastian and I made dinner and this time it was Gazpacho... I must warn you, it wasn't cold! :) It was healthy and I ate it with bread. The white china cutlery, a warm fresh baked baguette, aromatic soup made with leeks, carrots, potatoes and meat. We set to watch a film... I feel lucky... I feel blessed... I feel happy...

Later I had a chat with a friend... she's a psychiatrist and is moving to Bristol from Hungary. She is looking for a job and when I asked her in detail she mentioned that she is a luck trainer! A luck trainer!? that sounds optimistic and so positive... well if you ask me, I think there are 6 billion luck trainers in this world... and I personally have 501 ancient forbidden formulas from the secret brown papyrus notebook of my grand mom... which has been rolling over the family tree, node after node since the times of The mummy returns!!! Just to mention one... a stroke of luck and good fortune knocks the moment you step in shit, provided you scrape it off with a moon walk!!! Try it... it works... well I sincerely do not offend any one on the basis of their profession nor am I underestimating the practice of training your luck. I am curious, I am certainly not ignorant and I am positively looking forward to talk to her about it... and would love to be tuned more on it.

Well on a more productive and rhythmic note I did tune my guitar after almost two weeks. Poor Mr. Boston from Belmont park was made to go through and exile in his fluffy black bag! Oh.. Mr. Boston is my guitar... if I fail to mention before. :) he sounds merry now. I am a novice and no hero at guitar. Trying to practice some rhythms and may be try and sing some lallaaasss... in the future...

In the present I am not gonna let my back make me sing "oooh" "ahhh" "ouccchhhh" for the rest of night... so its good for us all here at 7 Belmont Park If I get to bed... :) I will catch ya folks soon... May the force be with you! (Damm... I am a FREAK now!!!) I've been through a crash course of star wars recently... so it might explain! ;) not to worry its doesn't ger worst... but you better not underestimate the powers of the dark side!

Peace

Feeling the Clouds...

Feeling the clouds??? Thats how I want to describe this note... because I am trying to express the happiness... sometimes dreams make you extremely and heavenly happy... even if they semi-visibly last for tentative vanishing seconds... I do have something to say... and I promise I am no mushy this time... but I believe that its good to write what you feel. I may be an adult but what would you say if I'd to tell you that I don't enjoy feeling so!?!

Well, sometimes I wish keep writing just the way I do, the way I perceive things around me, and feel... I know I will miss the 24 years old me when I am 75... and I wish to look back in time and see, read, understand the young and happy Puneet. And adding a leaf to the tree I wish to post myself a mail for the future. A happy one, a cherish'able one... I want to emphasize that though I am having sleeping trouble and I might need to see a doctor, things around me are smooth at the moment. Although the sleeping trouble is not serious but I get tired thinking and its making me nervous sometimes... Well that's not the way I intended to describe my dream. So it was 25th February morning 5 30 am and my bed is tossing me with ease just like a coin for a head or tail... finally it was the magical ting in the clock I fell asleep and I was sleeping with my mouth slightly open, worth a cherry! I was supposed to get to work by 9 and my sleep, a precious jewel forces me to switch off my alarm at 8... and suddenly...

I see my first girlfriend (this goes back way when I was 17)... I haven't even thought about her in ages... and to be frank I dint want to... but I see her in this very dream... I fail to remember what I was saying and where we are... but in a local frame I see us on a table, probably it was tea time... we had huge cups in our hands... smiling (I will smile again to this magnitude when I'm hugged by a close friend or family... I miss it... ), talking and I see us having a great time... she advices me to be careful... but, careful for what? was I going somewhere? I fail to remember... but the grin did leave a joyful pain on my cheeks... I could feel it... in the very next frame I hear a knock on my door from Sebastian... its 8 30 man, lets go! This was all I can recreate... It was strange to me to see her after years... I met her when I was in my grade 11... and after 4 days I got the courage to go and talk to her... and we spent a reasonable time together for the rest of the year... until I moved to the university and it pretty much seemed like a vanishing point soon... sad but that's the truth... I wasn't brave enough to say it to her personally so I did it on the phone.

I saw her again when I graduated and went back home. She looked different this time... and so was I, she emphasized. I apologized the way things rolled in our life...I felt guilty sometimes back then but sometimes things happen for good... it probably did pretty much great for me :) And as I may forget this dream, I will not forget meeting her before I came to Europe... it was briefly 10 minutes... I never could be around her for more than few minutes...
To those....well if you were to argue that things like these are to be personal to be written on a blog... well I don't believe in that... I write it for me...

P.S. Mr. 75 years young Puneet... you were freaking 15 mins late to work!!!!

Losing my Star Warginity.... feels great!

This fine evening of 23rd February 2009, I, Puneet Chhabra 24 years 1 week 15 minutes and 12 seconds old am proud to say that I finally got to lose my Star Wars virginity! Sebastian suggested me to start from the 4th movie (I forget what reason he gave :s ) which was released in some late 70's.... and as it goes (2 hours were long... thank god to the virtual pop-corns, with some invisible cola and the real salted cashews I munched...) I was impressed watching the droids who are so intelligently dexterous yet so naive in their behavior and intelligence.

No offense to the MI guys who always redefine intelligence the very first excuse they discover... who might even argue that intelligence is too narrow (really??? narrow was all you could think?), and thus broader definition more accurately reflects the differing ways in which humans think and learn... but coming back to the era in which the movie was made... I am fairly impressed!

P.S. Robots weren't pretty back then (they did a better job on them, seriously!)...but they could have at least picked up a mirror cracking hot actress for the lead role!!! :(

Thank God to mobile blogging...

Well... I do connect to the world (partly on my mobile and the rest well I cannot mention it here...). And thank god to the tiny mobile device I had for such a long time now and never realized I could actually post messages through it. I wish I could voice chat as well... I am looking forward to the weekend... and hope every one has a great time as well.

I have a long schedule for tomorrow and it includes late hours of sleep, then sleep for breakfast and meeting CSers in the afternoon for Silent Disco... :D it's gonna be fun event in the city center...and I am looking forward to be part of it... I will post pictures soon...

Have a nice weekend... and I promise to hang on to the closest surfing internet byte closest to me...whenever I can :)

ciao for now...

Can't get enough sleep... ask the moon!

Well it was a long day... and equally long relaxed evening :) (with Assam tea and Nutella...(my sweet heart) ). Special thanks to FB and some comedy on Fox! I should have been asleep by now... I'm in bed and there is no way I am able to shut this brain of mine! Tried stress pills and music... but :( For a year now, sleep has become a biggest challenge to me...

Any how, Im hoping to get some sleep. It is a beautiful night (yea, romantic nonsense). I see the moon right out of my window through the trees. My garden with not so shy trees and I see the moon clear right there... smiling... :) The moon and the clouds are like playing numerous rounds of hide and seek: one moment you see the moon and the other she's magic... well hope the weather is clear over the weekend...

As per the rest of the week... its work tomorrow and then I meet Ellie on Saturday for dinner... not gonna do anything stressful over the week end... apparently my leg needs rest as well... Well if there was anything good about today, It is: Yes, tomorrow is Friday! :) and we (my office mates....) also go to our French Themed pub for lunch, a well enjoyed 2 for 1 priced friday chore! :)

Until next time...

Peace...

The Grinning Skull...

A thought to sleep with...

When you’ve suffered a great deal in life, each additional pain
is both unbearable and trifling. My life is like a memento mori painting from European art: there is always a grinning skull at my side to remind me of the folly of human ambition. I mock this skull. I look at it and I say, “You’ve got the wrong fellow. You may not believe in life, but I don’t believe in death. Move on!” The skull snickers and moves ever closer, but that doesn’t surprise me. The reason death sticks so closely to life isn’t biological necessity–it’s envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud."

- Yann Martel, Life of Pi

The Anatomy of Margaritic Hang(over)...

Well well then... a margaritic end to a Saturday! Yea, my day was fab, a scrabbled (I love Scrabble..) early evening supper with Gil and Karla, then to Joney's birthday party and the rest is outstandingly, mirthfully, rummingly, shadily, slippery and hazily AMAZINGLY MARGARITIC!!! So yea, I was black-outed... and I was doing good with couple of pints until what happens to be my obsession with margaritic version of everything

"Oh how about you sir? Well,margaritic fish with some chips, ofcourse margaritic and with margaritic salad and for desert I prefer ice cream with margaritic toppings... that would be all!"

...started with the pizza and ended with the mix of tequilla and lime... So I was all out by 2 and I got home around 3 30... Now I am trying to solve the puzzle, what happened in those noodly and wobbly hour and half.

And its morning and its Sunday... all I could figure out was that I have a watch which stopped since 3:11 am :( , a hurting knee and 621 beetles wrestling back of my eyes...!!! Well indeed it is sunday, its just the day except the sunny smiling sun (I think he does smile..never seen with naked eyes! I'm optimistic :d)... the snow is gotta melt and I wonder if the showers are at business!?


But as a good mommy's boy I got up early (10 am... comon its sunday!) and had to call 911 for an emergensic Tea rescue and cookie search team! Thank God Sebas is here... Ohh... apparently he was with me too last night... :D We are the outcome of the smiling and illusionary margarita... You might be wanting to see me I know... Well here you go... as long as I remember I was cuddling to my.. or.. well.. arms.. clothes and my umbrella.. while I was in them but I have no clue when I sneaked out of them so swiftly... you see that?!? The boy has skills.. accept it! So the mommy's boy did eat a healthy brunch... pasta with beatroot and almonds... I love the color! :d

Well I better do my launderette.. when you dont have one you are lazy to go... and even more when you have one in your kitchen... what difference does it make? I am lazy in both cases... I do have one... and yea its a self-service washing machine which is so naive in its intelligence that never dries your clothes (just fools you with its high-speed rollercoaster!!!)... wonder why they make-up it with such fancy buttons which say dry and yet I still try!!!

Until next time... Toodleeeeeeeeeee!!!

Home sweet Home...

Well some pictures of the snow covered Bristol and an excuse to show you my messy flat! :) The first pic is the football field view from my garden. Pics on the left (last one) is the entrance to my apartment.