Festive times, happy times :)

It's that time of the year again! Such hustle and bustle, such activity and beautiful smells wafting about seducing the senses. A few burns and cuts are absolutely nothing. You brush them away and bury yourself ankle deep in your dough/batter/mixture again. These are wonderful times.

Side by side with Mother Dearest, two stoves, having a chat over boiling pots of oil, laughing and sharing cooking tips, gossip and frivolous banter, frying kokis in competition with the other and laughing at each other's blunders, these are memories in the making. Precious moments to cherish for a lifetime. When the time is right, I want to make such memories with my daughter too. These are intimate memories, more precious than what one could buy. When the flesh, blood and the bones are gone a long, long time, these memories are what will remain.

Skin smells of spices - cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg blooms upon warm skin. Even after a nice cold bath on this unbearably hot and humid day, I raise my hands to my face and breathe in deep. The spices linger, middle notes, top notes, bright bold and ending sweet, serene and mysterious. What bliss! I could linger in this moment forever, but alas, forever in such moments are so awfully short. 

Beautiful days. Even the sun takes a break from its hegemony every once in a while. Still it is far too hot for comfort. Between iced teas, frozen yogurt and ice cream, life goes on.

Posted the recipe for kevum today. Do have a look! There will be more on its way from tomorrow onwards. Special Avrudu treats.

Life isn't perfect but one cannot deny that there are perfect moments. I don't attach much importance to superstitions of these festivals, but I do believe that we must celebrate these and celebrate these in essence. This is heritage, this is tradition. Without these, we will be shells. Just empty shells. 

Call me old fashioned, but I am a wee bit old school like that. I want to celebrate all traditions, I want to revel in my heritage. I want to get married upon a poruwa. I want to wear all seven necklaces, the sun and the moon in my hair and the traditional grandiose attire of Sri Lankan Kandyan royalty. I want to be escorted by a royal procession, booming royal drums and somersaulting royal Kandyan dancers. I want to boil a pot of milk on New Year, I want to eat, light the fires and start work for the New Year at the auspicious time. These things are special. It makes living worth the while.

Exhausted yet happy. Pumped up would be the word actually. There is much more to be done tomorrow - more cooking, more frying, more baking. Hello more blisters! Ah but they will be happy little blisters indeed! 

Await more recipes, essentially Sri Lankan, wonderfully unique. 

  

These rainy days

Rainy nights. Ooh I like this!

What I don't like is the pouring just when its time to get off work. I dislike mud with a passion. I dislike getting soaked after a hard day of work. I know, my relationship with rain is complicated.

Was stuck at work till a bit late today. Nights like this I rush home straight for mother's cooking. Nothing can replace that. Nothing.

After a warm wash, in my comfy pajamas, both feet up after having a full plate of mom-made rice and curry, I am a very happy girl :)

Afterwards perhaps, a nice mug of tea. Milk tea. With sugar. And a book for company. Oh I do love these solitary hours.

I have a certain quota for dealing with people per day. I can only deal with them until this quota expires. After that, I need to get away to recharge. Often time I do not feel like smiling or interacting at all. I need to be left alone when that mood strikes. This requires me to shut myself in my room and just read. Or write. Or simply, just be.

Yes I am a recluse like that. I often find company in a multitude of things and never feel alone when I am alone. I like my own company. It isn't too bad.

Completely random, something that irks me. Whenever I go for a client meeting, if it happens to be with a male colleague of mine, even though he happens to be my subordinate, the man is always assumed to be the boss and the only person who matters. Some clients have also been known to ignore me altogether right throughout. This used to happen quite a lot when me and my partner were working together.True that we both have our areas of expertise, but I often find people contacting my partner, rather than contacting me directly for matters pertaining to my area of expertise. I find this a bit insulting. Is it that it is assumed that a woman cannot hold responsible positions? Is it the general opinion that women are not strong enough to face challenging situations? Is it because women are not trusted to have the intelligence to handle complex tasks? Either way, it is rather insulting.

These days I have yet another preoccupation. My food blog! Finally, I have something of my own, something that I thoroughly enjoy doing. I am, in essence, a foodie and this is exactly the thing that I like to do. Cook, photograph, eat and blog about it! So far, it is going great. After all, nobody hates food!

Passing the bed time. These days I am determined to get at least 8 hours of sleep. I have my results so I intend to go on at it. Only tomorrow is a work day and after that, a long weekend that makes me smile just at the thought of it. Cz long weekend = sleeping in+cooking+just lounging about. Simply, bliss.

On yet another note, what I want to do most these days is just stay at home, lounge about doing nothing. My idea of excitement is great food and a great movie all by myself. What gets me all revved up is the thought of shopping for books and kitchenware. My celebrities are authors and chefs. Actors and actresses make me snort in derision and the mere thought of parties and etc just exhausts me. Am I growing old?

But come to think of it. I've never had a celebrity crush until Antonio Banderas. And then, Gerard Butler insisted on playing the tough man exterior - vulnerable interior Phantom of the Opera and got me all in a huff and a puff. That's it. I wonder if there is something wrong with me at times, to be so indifferent to the "heartthrobs" that everybody is swooning and salivating over.

Anyways, bed beckons and I need to answer when it does because I love it so. I am in a relationship with my bed. This is a relationship that had stood the tests of time, the only kind of true, unconditional love there is. We shall always be together. We are destined to be. Such, is my love for my bed, and all that it entails.

Yet another working day tomorrow, and a super stressful one at that. The only thing that stops me from going mad is the fact that it is only tomorrow that I will have to put up with. For now.