Fifteen days have passed by already, and more fifteen left. I'm on the mid of my vacation. And I have a mixture of emotions. Sometimes I want to go to India, and play around with my friends there, and on other hand I feel like I'm going to miss this place and miss my dad (he won't come along with us to India on June 10th, but later). As we are here for a month, this house doesn't feel anything less than a 'home' to me. I will miss every little aspect of this house. (Let me change the topic before I start crying.)

So, today was the big day when my dad's colleagues were coming home for dinner. As you know, dinner requires lots of preparation. There are pre-dinner, dinner and post-dinner preparations that you must go through smoothly in order to make a dinner plan successful. Well, ours was a success.

My mom was super-stressed and hyperactive right from the day dad had invited them home. Since then she must've decided and finalized the menu at least ten times. After lot of cancellations, we finally came to the conclusion--Orange Juice, Onion Bhajjji, Papad, Lemon Pickle, Yogurt Mint Dressing, Pineapple Raita, Salad (Cucumber, Tomato and Carrot slices), Chana Masala (Chhole), Tofu (Paneer) Tawa Masala, Vegetable Biryani, Spring-Onions Paratha and regular Paratha.

Just imagine; so many food items and only two ladies to cook them. And on top of that, the guests were five, and we were three. And as we're not in India, we won't have enough number of plates/vessels/bowls/spoons. So we were transferring cooked items to different bowls, so that we could use the main vessel/frying pan for a different bhaji. Plus, there wasn't sufficient quantity of the required ingredients at home. Adding all this, cooking all the items was a tough task. Oh, and on top of that, my mom was not keeping well.

Anyway, after I got up in the morning, mom was in the kitchen, preparing Chana Masala. As soon as I was done brushing, the maid came, along with her naughty little baby boy. But sadly I didn't play with him, because I had to clean the house. I thought of having breakfast later, as I don't like disturbing the maid in the kitchen. I started off with cleaning my room--I made my bed, and kept the laptop, wires and miscellaneous things on their places. Later I opened the curtains.

After that, I moved a few things from my parents' room, and kept them elsewhere. (I like to keep things on their assigned places. Some people don't move the thing to the assigned place, and keep it on the place where they had found it, but they keep it NEATLY. However, I like to keep things neatly on their assigned places. I am very particular about that.)

I sat next to my mom, who was cutting vegetables for Biryani. I drank water from the bottle, and played with the baby boy. He was drinking milk from a bottle, with a face of a bear on it; and simultaneously was calling, "Mumma aa" (Come, mom) to his mother. He is adorably cute; I feel like cuddling him.

After a while, when the work was done, I bade him a 'bu-bye' and gave him three 'Kisses', and one white coloured 'Toblerone'. As soon as he went, mom gave me tea. I had breakfast, and immediately had bath following it. I had to go to WalMart to buy two cartons of orange juice.

I went with a handbag and Skull Candy earphones in my ears. Firstly, I went to 'First Food Mall', but after checking the price, I exited it, and escalated to the first floor for WalMart. The price of an orange juice carton was Rs. 260 there. I took two cartons of orange juice worth Rs. 110 each from WalMart. However, when I checked out, the bill was Rs. 200. (How I love these departmental stores!) I am proud of myself for saving Rs. 320.

Anyway, I left WalMart, and walked home singing songs loudly. I reached home, and mom served me lunch. After lunch, I put the wet clothes on the bars. I rested for ten minutes and went to the kitchen to cook Tofu (Paneer) Tawa Masala. I was done with it, and it was 3:15 till then. I helped mom in other food items.

Later we cleaned the house. We put the plates, bowls, salad, pickle, tissues, spoons, etc. on the dining table, as it was going to be a 'buffet' type of dinner. We kept the heating food, pineapple raita, roasting papad and frying onion bhajjis for the last minute, after the guests arrive. It was 5:30 on the clock, and mom and I started getting ready. We only changed to a better pair of clothing, washed our faces, and applied lipsticks.

In a while, at 6, dad came; and fifteen minutes later, at 6:15, his secretary arrived. The guests were invited at 7 o' clock, but the secretary came earlier because she stays far away from the house. So it would've been hectic to go to and fro. So she was home earlier than others. Dad and I chit-chatted with her, and she told us what few show-pieces meant, which were hanging on our home's walls.

Slowly, slowly, the guests started coming in, and so did the remaining work in the kitchen and filling up glasses with orange juice and giving the guests.

The evening was fun; especially after seeing how nice bond all of them shared. They were laughing and pulling legs of their daughter-like secretary. She's born in 1988, and they call her 'Shawlee' which in Chinese means daughter-like/young woman. It was a fun evening.

They had food, and chatted for some time. Then around 9:15 they left. I helped mom in the kitchen to keep the used plates and bowls.



You know, I actually had decided to skip today's blog. I literally had taken the blanket over my head and had cuddled up without the lights. But later dusted off  the laziness from me, and started writing blog.
It is 12:46 here, and I am done writing pretty early today.

Signing off. Goodnight.