Such a big title this post has! Well, I've started writing this post from the afternoon-time itself. Not because it's a big post, but because I have decided to start writing posts from the afternoon, rather than simply lying down on sofa, and watching same news again and again, or hoping there are good serials on ARY Digital (Pakistani channel) or Star Utsav.



Day 16

(I am going to write this day in pointers, because it wasn't a memorable one.)

• I got up, brushed, breakfast and so on.
• We had decided to take a complete rest today, as we had worked a lot yesterday (Day 15), as the guests had come home for dinner.
• We had lunch in a while.
• Then I was watching TV.
• Dad came at 6, which followed by a hot cup of tea and biscuits.
• All the stock is over at home -- Chocolates are almost about to get over; there are no chips left; and no biscuits.
• I was bored to see the same faces and same news in the evening.
• I could've easily sat on the net, and write blog or do something. But the net speed was very, very slow.
• We had dinner.
• I was so irritated, that I was crying. We hadn't gone out today; so maybe I was bored because of that.
• We went in our rooms; I wrote blog.
• I slept!

Sorry to sound boring, but Day 16 in reality was so boring.



Day 17


I got up, and was excited as the baby boy was coming with his mom (our maid) today. So I got up excitedly, brushed, had water and sat on sofa. I didn't have my breakfast as well.

However, at around 12, the door knocked, and it was the maid; but the baby boy hadn't come along with her. Me and mom, both, were disappointed. Anyway, in a while she went. We immediately heated the food for lunch (as we both were hungry).

Post lunch, I was sitting in my room, and was writing blog. I also was surfing on Facebook and was listening to old Bollywood songs. (These are the only decent songs on my laptop right now.)

I almost sat in my room from 3 to 5:30. Then at 5:45 I got up and switched on the TV. Soon dad came. I was desperately trying to search a good program on the TV, but all the channels were disappointing. Finally I watched the serial How Do I Look? on DIVA Universal channel. It was a fun show, but could only watch the end part of it as I had switched on the TV late.

As soon as the show was over, I thought my life would end there, but after browsing through channels, I found the movie Monsters University. Again I watched its end part. I watched it from the last 'scare' match to the end. What a movie that is!

After that we had dinner. I made salad, and it was yummy -- I put salad leaves, tomato pieces, onion pieces, grated carrot, chilli powder, salt, sugar, and topped it with yogurt-mint dressing. It was superb!

After dinner, we had to do something, well at least I; else I would've died of boredom. I don't know why but since two days I am bored. (Thankfully, tomorrow dad has a holiday, and we're going out!)
As there was nothing decent on TV, dad connected his hard disk, and we watched a Marathi movie Lapun Chhapun. Such a funny movie! I laughed my heart out. As soon as the movie was over, I asked dad to put on some other movie, so dad put Mumbaicha Jawai. This film is very old and is black-and-white. We laughed for starting half-hour, but later switched it off, as it was 11:24 here. (Big deal, man.)

Right now I am sitting in my room. Rest of the post is written already; so I just have to check for grammar and spelling mistakes, add on few sentences and words, and publish! (I am feeling good that I have written more than half the post in the afternoon itself!)

Now, after the diary of Day 16 and Day 17, let me take you on a tour of my room in China.



 
This is the entry to my room. It sort of looks like a royal entrance. (It does look.)
 



This is my bed. It is too large. I liked the bed-sheet. And yes, I know the room or the bed, are looking small, but they're big in actuality.





There is neither a wardrobe, nor a table in this room. So I use this sofa as my table, and my bag as the wardrobe.




This little frog sleeps next to me every night. I love it so much.




This is the crazy view from the room after opening the curtains. I loved the windows. They're of full length. Even though ours is a ground floor, surprisingly nobody peeps in.




 A closer view outside. Love it...it is beautiful; always inspires me to step out of the house.




I keep my handbag and camera bag behind the main luggage. I need both the bags very often.




I liked the magnetic stopper behind my room's door (though it makes a thud sound whenever I push the door back at night).




My saviour -- There is a charging point right near my bed.




There are only two switches in this room. And both of them have the same connection. It shuts off the light. One is near my bed, and the other is near the entrance of the room. If you're thinking of putting connections to your new room, don't forget to use this tip. Always keep the main switches (especially lights) near your bed and near the entrance. It makes everything so simple. (Plus if you're afraid of the dark, they'll always help you.)




I hope you liked the room. Goodnight. x

 I saw lot of fishes the other day. I thought most of them were similar, but when I read their description and their names, I realized that I was wrong. Every fish that I saw had a different specialty of its own.
I tried hard to click photos, but the fishes were not steady. It was difficult.




Is he Magikarp pokemon?






Sea Horse






I loved this thing.  This showed actual growth of a shark inside the egg. Shark as in not the big one. That small sized fish that looks weird.
If you still didn't get it, look at the second picture from here.




 The best part of this was that the baby sharks inside the egg were moving! They were alive!




This is the shark inside those eggs.




Glass Catfish.






Matamata Turtle












White-blotched River Stingray
 



Freshwater Sawfish




Red-lined Torpedo Barb






Odessa Barb




Fire Eel




Freshwater Pipefish

 


This fish has a sort of tiger-like stripes. I tried many times to click a better picture of this fish.




This fish can turn into a ball, by blowing himself up. He does this when a bigger fish attacks him. 

 


Three Spotted Eartheater




Chinese Sea Dragon




Garden Eel




Spotfin Lionfish




It's a type of a jelly fish.





Sea Turtle, I guess. I always have a special bond with turtles; because I had four as my pets.













Shark!




Hope you had a fun dive in the ocean!
xoxo

 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.

I started writing a different post earlier, but now when I realized that the post would be too long to finish it early, I took up a different topic. Actually I am sleepy, which is strange. So I have to write a post as soon as possible and give myself a peaceful sleep.

Today we had to go out to WalMart to buy plates and vegetables. My dad's colleagues are coming tomorrow for dinner, so we are preparing for it right from today. They are five of them, plus we three; so we will need eight plates, whereas we had just five here. So we had to buy plates anyhow. For that we had to go to WalMart in the morning itself.

We went to WalMart, and I had to buy a deodorant. I hadn't brought mine to China, because there was no need to, as I could've got here without any issue. So we were just roaming in the toiletries section as well. That's when I bought few more things. (You know I cannot help but put few things for me every time we hit departmental stores!)




I bought this little bottle of Fa deodorant which was of 50 ml for Rs 100. So just imagine what would be the price of the normal sized bottle here? No bottle was less than Rs. 490 (49 Yuan!); a deodorant for Rs 490; that too Fa and Nivea. We get same bottles for Rs. 150 + in India. No, thank you.



We bought this packet for Rs. 200. There are 5.5 cm sized 20 clips, and 11 cm 10 clips inside the packet. The colours we bought are--small sized clips are green and blue; and the large sized are white and hot pink.

After putting them in the trolley, we searched for plates; however there were only medium sized plates. So we were thinking what was to be done now.

After coming home, we had lunch, and I was blogging. But I was so sleepy, that I slept while writing the blog. After that, I got up around 5:30, and checked my cellphone; dad had texted me to get ready and that we were going to Carrefour.

Dad came and we gave him tea. After that we left for Carrefour. We took a different route. We went to Decathlon store, where we get sporting goods; it's a large store. We did not buy anything from there, and I guess, going to this store was our biggest mistake for the night.

After the store, we went to an Indian restaurant named 'Kebabs on the Grille' for dinner. One small bowl of bhaji was for Rs. 950 and a butter roti for Rs. 200. Well, we had to eat, anyway. It felt good to be there. The manager was a young man who was from Mumbai itself. Oh, and the waitresses were Chinese and were dressed in Kurta as their uniform.

We had delicious food, and left for Carrefour. We were getting late, as it was 8:50 already when we left the restaurant. Thankfully Carrefour was few footsteps away from this restaurant, so there was no issue of traveling.

We entered Carrefour, and it seemed sort of strangely deserted--there were people, however they were rushing. Also the escalator to go up was not working (or rather was stopped by them to stop the customers to enter the store). But even though the escalator was not working and there was a board kept near it, we crossed it and rushed (rather, ran) upwards, so that we buy the plates and remaining foodstuff for tomorrow's dinner.

This Carrefour is located in the area where lot of foreigners stay. So it has a nicer amount of goods. We bought plates, spoons, sugar, tofu and other things. We rushed to the bill counter, paid, and left the store; we had to catch a taxi, as this place is very far from our house. We got one, and finally reached home.

After going home, we dissembled grocery, vegetables and plates, and sat on the sofa, breathing heavily.

So finally now I am in my bedroom, writing the blog, and my room is sort of a mess right now.
See you tomorrow, anyway!
Goodnight!
xoxo