the 42 lessons

Plucked out of a friend's post: Written by Regina Brett, 90 years old, of the Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio.
"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 42 lessons life taught me. It is the most requested column I've ever written".

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short – enjoy it..
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Stay true to yourself.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. Save for retirement starting with your first pay check.
9. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
10. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
11. It's OK to let your children see you cry. (ok, doesnt quite apply for me yet)
12. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
13. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it...
14 Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
15. Get rid of anything that isn't useful. Clutter weighs you down in many ways.
16. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
17. It's never too late to be happy. But it’s all up to you and no one else.
18. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
19. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
20. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
21. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
22. The most important sex organ is the brain.
23. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
24. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'
25. Always choose life.
26. Forgive but don’t forget.
27. What other people think of you is none of your business.
28. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
29. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
30. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does..
31. Believe in miracles.
32. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
33. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
34. Your children get only one childhood.
35. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
36. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
37. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
38. Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have not what you need.
39. The best is yet to come... (Ed note: I sure hope so!)
40. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
41. Yield.
42. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."

I cannot agree more on each and every single one of it! These are my resolution for 2013 and all the years to come! lets live life and celebrate every moment of it!

goodbye 2012, welcome 2013

Here we are in 2013. A brand new year. Where did 2012 go??

I know. It's been forever since my last post. I think of things to write about all the time but I never make the time to follow through. In the mean time, however, I did want to take a few minutes to reflect on the past year.. and be thankful for the memories. It has been a good year overall. But big ups or downs (thank God).. No new job or new home or new anything. But I can say it saw me as mostly a happy n content person.

I travelled a bit as usual. both for work n pleasure. Work wise, Holland has become like a second home. London being the third. (which is always a pleasure!) While the travel to holland was and is quite extensive, my friends there make it so bearable. My Dutch family as I call them :) I've even developed a little crush on the city of Den Haag! :) so thank you NS and SS for the hospitality and warm welcome! And London for the open arm and homely feel!

Pleasure travel wise, I managed to tick a few of my must sees this year, and revisited some places:

• started the year with a girlie rendezvous in Paris where we had a chance to see Paris with a Parisian; stayed at her parents French apartment, eating at her local hangouts. 4 girls, shopping, eating, cocktails and all in Paris, need I say more??
• the ‘big’ trip of the year which started in Amsterdam to Prague to Vienna to Salzburg to Rome to Cinque Terra to Sorrento, Amalfi and finally Naples. Awesome trip where I fell in love with Italy all over again! Highlight of the trip was the five days in Rome. my first solo holiday. Couldn't hv chosen a better place. I chose a familiar city for safety reasons but wandering around the cobble streets of Rome, making friends with strangers n just immersing in a different city on my own was enlightening. In many more ways than I can describe. I'm planning to do it again this year, the solo traveling I mean. Perhaps a less commercialized city this time. See how I fare in cities with less tourists. :)
• AP’s wedding in Bali. A beautiful wedding of a handsome couple with a lovely backdrop! Thanks AP for having me there!
• Perhentian island for my PADI license! I’m a certified diver, woohoo! just talking about it takes me to the awe of the underwater world and the most amazing ‘graduating party’ we had with the dive instructors on our last day there. Dun think I had that much of fun when I graduated my BSc or MSc even!
• Summer in London and Den Haag. Being in London till a few days before the Olympics, was amazing! The whole atmosphere was different! and crush I have on Den Haag after a weekend cycling trip is going to last forever. I just know it. Thanks SS!
• Barcelona & Amsterdam with sister and sister in law! Great weather, amazing company and LOTS of SHOPPING! To sum it all.
• Finally, to wrap the year, Krabi with SI and NB.. a short and sweet one. weather was so so, can’t say I was too impressed with Krabi but the great company made it all worth!

That’s the travel. Work has also been great. Lots of travelling up and down Holland and London, and the last 5 months especially were very hectic I hardly had time for friends n other social activities, but I enjoyed every bit of the challenge n diversity it brought. While I'm a little upset that my boss is moving on, I'm looking forward to another year of excitement at work! Bring it on!

Nothing else to comment. So, to draw a close to my ramble ; Overall, 2012 has been nothing but kind to me and I cannot say enough about how grateful I am to God and all the wonderful people in my life. my family, friends n colleagues. I am totally psyched and ready for 2013 - a year in which I think big and amazing things are going to happen! I can feel it! Whenever I strive for "the impossible," I'm always surprised to discover that the limits are far beyond my expectation. Here's to pushing those boundaries and making the most of 2013, filling it with love and laughter!!

Happiness state of mind

I’ll explain where I have gone MIA all this while, but here’s a random post for the meantime…

They say once you learn how to be happy, you won’t tolerate being around those who make you feel anything less. I’m generally a happy person but, my end of the year goal is to focus on being totally happy by nipping out those who pull me away from my on-going ‘happiness state of mind’! Happiness is not a consequence of things that happen. It has to be created. Create happiness, and happy you will be!

Law of attraction says that there is only two type of feelings/vibration one can ever have at any time. Positive or negative. I’m going to focus on the positive and get rid of the negative contributors so they don’t have the power to will me away from the constant positive vibration.

Another year

a bit late i know, (slacker as usual) but a very Happy New Year all! may this be the best of the lot!! cheers! PS: Further updates to follow. :p

Bangalore to Madrasipathinam

I'm on a stroll of holidays. Mini ones. Some planned and some just came along (some obligatory) that i'm away every weekend since India. While I DO absolutely love travelling, i am somewhat finding this exhausting. barely had a few days at home and am off to Singapore again in 2 days. office family day followed by and audit followed by 4 days in Bangkok. yes, back to back. adding to it all, i'm on my notice period (yes, i resigned!) and will be starting the new one right after. exhausting aside, its all fun at the end of the day, i know. I might be a dead meat by the time I get to Bangkok, but really looking forward to that one. Reunion trip with my girlfriends from college days. after God knows how many years! (and numerous attempt of a reunion) sadly, one of the six can't make it. :( but there will be 5 at least. and what can be a better place to hook up and catch up with ur girlfriends? great food, sights, shopping and not forgetting all the cheap massages! :) sawadikap people!!

Since I’m lagging behind on the travel posts, here's a quick one on my recent India trip with SS. though I’ve been there so many times in the recent years, I still find each trip giving me a new experience. this time, we flew into Bangalore and out of Chennai with a road trip in between via Krishnagiri and Kanchipuram. It was SS’s first trip to India (lost count of mine) and my first to time in Bangalore. We stayed at my uncle's place in Koramangala, an upmarket suburban i was told.

I’ve heard that Bangalore (or Bengalooru now) is much nicer compared to the other capitol states in South India. wheater wise. more outgoing etc. My overall impression, ‘Very good”. The airport itself was very nice. Not as nice or big as the new Delhi Airport (but that’s much newer and is in the capitol state of the country to be fair) It’s got glassy, high ceilings, clean with modern interior. Very organized and it was so easy to find out way to the taxi rank outside. No tout like in Chennai (thank heaven for that). Even the taxis were all looking new and nice. They have white and blue cabs. wheater was a pleasant surprise. It was not as hot in the summer as it would be in other parts of India at this time of the year (Chennai was freaking hot same time last year) Bangalore's altitude and the greens with lots of trees and little lakes around does it. It was slightly chilly at night that we could do with a shawl or thin sweater. The Airport is in outskirt. So the traffic was so bad until we got to the city area. Where SS had her first glimpse of Indian traffic... as a frequent traveler to India (2-3 times a year is surely frequent by my standards) I find Indian driving incredible. It looks chaotic but between the drivers coming towards you on the wrong side of the road, the pot-holes, the constant honking, the mountainous speed-bumps that shakes your insides, suicidal bikers and the sheer volume of the traffic almost everywhere, there is a crazy order that seems to work for them..

We didn’t do much sightseeing in Bangalore. It was more shopping (which was one of the main agenda for SS and being the natural ‘shopaholic’ myself it goes without saying!)..

On the third and our last night in Bangalore, my uncle took us on a ride around Bangalore. We stopped by the infamous ISKCON temple.. a Radha Krishna temple. I’ve seen them in photos but the impressive blend of modern and traditional architecture was even better in real. lucky it rained that day so the crowd wasn’t so bad. The queue to get in can take hours in normal days.

Here are a couple of shots around the city (not so different from other parts of India) as they say, welcome to India.. this is one on how anything goes here!!

The typical women laborer (mostly construction workers) going to work. A friend said this reminds her of something she read somewhere years ago, an international photographer who said that the sexiest thing he has ever seen is the straight, good postured back view of Indian women clad in saree balancing things on the head. i can see how.

A shot of the yellow 'auto-rikshaw's.. Reminded of my yellow cabs shot in NYC.. see the similarities?

On our fourth day we left Bangalore early heading towards Kanchipuram with a pit stop in krisnagiri. Our pre-arranged driver cum tour guide came to get us at my uncle’s place. We dropped by this famous Shiva temple. I’ve read and seen it on my friends’ albums. The 32 ft. Ganesha statue is at the entrance of the temple and the very impressive and gigantic statue of Lord Shiva, about 65 feet high the main highlight. very striking indeed.

After a rather lovely 2 hour journey on a free way and another hour on the inner roads where the views were breathtaking and the road pretty treacherous, we made it to Hogenakkal town, which is famous for it’s falls and coracle rides. This was the highlight of our trip. The water on the falls flows from the river of kaveri. The falls is often called the "Niagara of India". There is a lot more water during the monsoon season covering most of the rocks though. I read that the carbonatite rocks here are considered to be the oldest of its kind in South Asia and one of the oldest in the world.

The Coracle which is a circular boat (u san see that!) are made of bamboo sheets, covered with plastic sheets and sealed with tar. It was used those days (or maybe even today in the rural areas, not sure) to cross rivers and such.

The falls is quite a famous picnic spot for the locals.. many road side shops selling fried fish. In fact, these shops are there everywhere inside the water fall area too creating a rather 'lovely' (read fishy) ‘fragrant' whenever u pass by one. We even saw them washing the fishes in the water. Yikes! My first thought was, no way I’m having a dip in that water!

While the Indian infrastructure leaves a lot to be desired, I always thought the people are remarkable. Our coracle driver (not sure if i can call him that) an elderly man in his 50s was really sweet and chatty. He even stopped half way, got us off the coracle to hike up the slippery rocks for amazing view of the falls. didn’t see many others doing it.

River flowing after the fall between the rocks and the coracles, both loaded and empty.. a real beautiful sight to behold!

It was a lot hotter here than in Bangalore that we were sweltering! yet content with the beautiful view around! It started raining towards the end of our time there.. Some people took shelter under the coracles, while others (read 'we') got soaked in the rain!

Next stop, Kanchipuram, where we stayed the night. Our hired car broke down on the way and our very lovely and knowledgeable driver had it fixed in no time. It always amazes me how people here are nice and polite, nothing seems too much trouble. And I was particularly impressed with this driver’s knowledge. Knew a lot of history and places in India.

Kanchipuram is located around 1.5 hour from Chennai, also known as the city of thousand temples (there were temples in every nook and corner) and very famous for its silk sarees.. we got up pretty early (7 am is surely early by anyones standards, especially when our sleeps were already running on deficit) for prayer in the Kanchi Kamatchi Amman temple. The prayers went pretty smoothly and considering it was a Sunday, it wasn’t that crowded.

Once done we stopped by the Kailasanatha Temple, a very old Shiva temple, apparently the oldest in Kanchiparaum built in the 7th century. We loved the ancient look of the temple and how well-kept it was for a temple that is not that commercialized.After a holy morning and a hearty breakfast, Chennai it was, more shopping, yay!

This is a Junction around the corner from the hotel we stay every time in Chennai. Just like the locals, we stop by this little Ganesha temple each morning, praying for some control on the shopping spree..:p

so thats it. overall it was a great trip and I’m glad SS enjoyed her first experience in India. Till I’m back there in October. :)