I Hate Quiche!

So it was one of those days the husband was not supposed to come for dinner and all of a sudden (AGAIN) he says he is coming and I hadn’t cooked cuz he said he wasn’t coming! But trust me this has happened couple of times now so I should not assume and just cook everyday!. Ofcourse he said he would have something from out and come if nothing was there but I am not a fan of that concept – soo I thought good chance to try out a quiche! So in 1 hour I whipped it up, using grated swiss cheese, sausages, ham, mildly spiced diced chicken and onion stir fry (if I could call it that!) and some shredded potato. This is basically like a cake, except savory and pretty easy to make! You can put whatever filling you like! 

Recipe Found At : http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/Easy-Quiche-L3333.html

And unbelievably the smell made me so nauseaus I didn’t even wanna look at the thing! I actually thought I would be the one appreciating this savory pie since I am not much of a sweet tooth, but Dimi actually enjoyed it! so much so he was having it for breakfast as well, I told him I am not going to look at the thing even! <feeling vomitish again>! But 1 thing made my day, Him coming home at 9:30 in the night with random flowers, oh btw I am not a flower person, I am verging on hating red roses for some reason! So he does not have the pressure of getting me flowers all the time, at-least I spare him of that! He was pretty cut up the bouquet did not have lilies, cuz lilies are my thing, but little does he know you cant just go buy lilies like that! My wedding bouquet of lilies came from Oman!!! Remember? 

But you know, you could be the least flower liker in the world but when your man is standing at the door, with this bunch of garden stuff at that time of the night, you have no way but to be that flowery girly girl you ought to be!

Oh but that quiche, that darned quiche, I just did not feel good after making it. I think i had eaten bit too much of the leftover pasta or so Dimi said and was on and on about me always eating too much than I should! i felt sick, nauseous, tummy uncomfy and slight headache. He gave me a bit of apple juice but that didn't work, so he made me some plain tea with a lime in it, no sugar, tasted HORRID but worked wonders as always. Slept like a baby, overslept more like! But I still managed to take a few pics, IN THE MORNING! 

We never fail to look stupid individually or together! Sigh. 

Bon Appétit

Alright fine it was not some feast as such, but my first attempt in planning and implementing a fancy meal. Oh by the way, I had to get married to learn to cook. Even boiling rice was such a big hurdle! Now I have cooked before mind you and I have really enjoyed it and even used to collect these recipes and do stuff at my grandma’s place. They came out good you know, butter cookies, cake, and stir fried veggies and the works! But I was 13-14 at most! Then came studies and I just could not be bothered anymore, with age comes much laziness in my case. But having your own home, own tiny little kitchen changes everything. EVERYTHING! I came there knowing absolutely nothing. But now I see the light. When it came to basic stuff like pots n pans my parents got for me and all the spices were neatly arranged in small bottles by Dimi's mom, which helped me heaps. I even asked Dimi's mom to put labels on the bottles cuz I really felt like an extreme newbie.


Ofcourse lots of girls are extreme newbie’s when being newly married so I was encouraged to an extent but the reality was these girls at least knew how to boil rice!!!! So anyway it was a whole different motivation for me, given that I was jobless most of the time and had a hungry husband to feed, it really got me up on my feet. Being the darling he is, he wanted me to take my time, step by step, did not rush me one bit, but I was rushing myself ofcourse, because I have always had this fantasy of being a homely wife who waits for her man to come home and then you know, lo and behold a feast awaits the hardworking goof, I know I know, its girly and I can’t even believe I’m actually saying this fantasy out loud for everyone to see, but I can’t be in denial anymore! So the crash self learning course began. I tell you for someone like me Google is a lifesaver! I am not someone to call up and keep asking for help, I know it’s bad sometimes, but it’s me to self learn! Honestly I could save myself a lot of time and blunders by simply picking up the phone and asking help but I just can’t do it, I have this other issue of mine where I need to gain some self satisfaction of knowing that I did this allllll by myself! It’s crazy I know! But hey this is cooking! I’m allowed!

I am a major klutz, like major, I will have to start another blog post to prove that point with the multitude of examples! My husband comes to the rescue when cutting and beating, although that is not much of his thing, he manages to excel in whatever circumstance given the chance, something I am baffled, always surprised and admire about the man!  he helps anyway just so I won’t cut myself or spill stuff all over! Ofcourse I don’t even like when he pokes around the kitchen too much, cuz too much of his hands means he is going to steal my glory! So cutting, stirring and beating is only allowed, I AM THE MASTERCHEF! Since he handles most of the other stuff, I need the kitchen to be my battleground I say, MINE! Ok ok getting carried away, inhaling, and exhaling. Ok calm. So I’m alright with the basics but you know still look at the recipes from time to time just so I won’t miss out on something important.

If you only know my blunders, the millions. Sigh. But I’m much better now! Really! So as much as I always like to go on about me myself and I, I know you guys are not gonna want to read all that crap. So let me get BACK TO THE FIRST POINT I WAS ON ABOUT. So I thought I would prepare a surprise candlelight dinner for the darling. Well it was nothing much, but I had a loooot of time to spare, so “cooked” up the whole plan! I even printed a menu card! Aren’t I just too cute?

So thought to go western cuz all this time I have been making the same old Sri Lankan stuff over and over again and just needed a deviation. So Ribena, Garlic Chicken in Soy Sauce and Fusilli mixed with a potato salad! Dessert was chocolate pudding and me! Ah the look on his face, i would make dinners everyday just to see that look on his face, OK I'm kidding, he is not THAT LUCKY! 

So the chicken was a hit, like my last attempt of batter fried prawns! Pasta was desperately calling out for a sauce, it seems the potato salad although had so much mayonnaise, egg and bacon, was not enough to give it that flare! It was to an extent plain but when mixed with the chicken pretty good, or SO HE SAID. Sadly my dessert did not come out as planned. I mean it tasted as I imagined, but I forgot to whip the cream! I just spilled the carton Dimi bought over the pudding and it was just plain milk that came out, then I tried stirring it and the pudding got all lumpy and the presentation was plain ugly, luckily we only had space for a teaspoon of that pudding! These microwavable puddings! Pain! I was way too embarrassed to take a photo of that! But i take pride in my chicken, great great great pride. I think its enough to call me THE MASTERCHEF no?, sigh. 

For the learning Wife/Husband or anyone, there are 3 reallly yummy and simple links a REAL masterchef friend of mine recommended!  They could be useful for you!

1. http://www.exclusivelyfood.com.au/
2. http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com/
3. http://blogchef.net/

Ah! the joy of cooking. Wish me luck on my future endeavors! 

Our Big Day, Finally!

So the big fat Greek wedding was finally over and done with. Well it wasn’t big or fat or Greek but you know I just wanted to sound witty there. Not so funny? Didn't think so either. I'm finally coming to accept my lack of skills in humor; I seem to be plain lame. Back to the big day! It’s already been 2 weeks! Unbelievable I say un-buh-leevable!

Let’s first get the emotional aspect over and done with. It was hard! You live in a home where you see your parents and siblings every day, yet sometimes you even hardly see them day to day, but when the day arrives where you know you’re not going to be bunking there every night, its hard man, real hard. Being someone who considers my parents almost as best friends, actually more like my kids sometimes! It was a lot to bear (luckily I was not thinking sad things during the wedding!). The day after the wedding I held on to my always comforting husband and cried my eyes out. Let me tell you I did this the day before the wedding as well (this time holding on to my always wonderful parents).

No matter how happy and joyous the event itself is, the wedding after all is just a one off event! No one emphasizes on the leaving and cleaving aspect of it, the bittersweet reality. Before marriage my phone would be used on the man, but now the phone is used on the fam! Ironic in a sense.

So let’s talk happy and review now! The wedding! Everything went off well in a summary. Was fairly worried that since we opted for severe or drastic cost cutting methods, that stuff might look cheap or not that tasteful but lo and behold! It was everything Dimi & I wanted. On that day we forgot about being stressed out and thinking about this going right/wrong and that going right/wrong, and just left it and enjoyed everything in our own world! So time to time I still replay it all over and over and am joyous for that attitude we kept!

Starting off with the church marriage service, it was short, almost too short as we did not have too many bits and pieces, it was the standard service conducted by 2 priests. I was hoping there would be SOME drama by our Paige boy, you know walk funny down the aisle but he was perfect after his mom's & dad's chastising just before!

Photo credits to Studio U

My cousins who flew down all the way from Bangladesh for the day and helped out with giving out hymn sheets from way before the service started! It was really hot! But it was a life changing time for us, saying our vows and exchanging our rings. The mere symbolism was overwhelming.

Then registration time, once again a near and dear friends voice and another near and dear friends fingers on the piano brought to life a powerful song called “just let me say”, a gospel song which really portrayed what our marriage was, a sort of thanksgiving to the father we love, the friend we know, Jesus our Lord and Savior. (Dimi’s song choice!) Thanks to Devashrie (Best man’s fiancé), amazing voice! And Surath for making wonderful music with his fingers (sounds a bit wrong!)
But you know what I mean! The sound was also done by one of our most nearest and dearest couples who came all the way to not only check on flower décor but also provide transport to the organist. Thank You Shem & Shavindri! We owe you big time for your wedding in August; we will be thanking you with an abundance of confetti! oh and also, THE WALK OUT as husband & wife was pretty tough! The decor was such that we had to walk zig zag! hehe :D

Flower décor, simple yet averagely elegant, we personally loved it all! Hats off to Flowery Décor for really bringing out the essence of simple beauty! Bouquets were done by a Friends Aunty who once again went to the extent of getting Tiger lilies from Oman just cuz they were out of season here in Sri Lanka! Every other bouquet other than my bridal was artificial hence much much cheaper. 

Photo credits to Bamanie K(Another wonderful friend & photographer :))

Dresses, all anyone said was gorgeous! Mine was done by a friend and she did a great job and when I say great and perfect and stuff people, I am not blowing my own trumpet, everything is measured depending on if Dimi and I got what we envisioned before the big day!  Oh about the dress though, I found the train a bit difficult as I got paranoid each time it dragged on the floor and got dirt on it! My short veil was a comfort but for the beach breeze it went crazy! The veil was hired by the way. 

Photo credits to Studio U

I was so worried the maids dress color would come off as boring and dull (as our dearest best man pointed out when he saw the sample cloth!) but guess what? They blended in with everything perfectly! My sisters looked amazing! Flower girl was cute with her basket of flowers and Paige boy is literally my dream guy! I do not know what my wedding would have been without him! He managed to bring a smile on everyone’s face, many blessings to the amazing mom and dad of his. Love you guys a lot!

Photo credits to Shivanka D (Our Groomsman and OTHER wonderful friend & photographer!)

My hair and makeup, nice and simple enough as I wanted. I specifically asked beautician to keep it subtle and she did so, hair down, flower on the side, not too much, not too little!

Cake Structure was all boxes of cakes, as I have mentioned in a previous post of mine, got many compliments regarding it and it was so so so practical for us! We used up all for our small homecoming plus to give out to a few uninvited others! (okay not that few, we had just 150 guests remember??) The structure itself was done by my bouquet lady and the cakes were all made my darling Nanna who celebrated her birthday that very day as well!

Photo Credits to Bamanie K (Our Fav Cake Shot!)

 

Photography, they managed to capture “us” quite well cuz we were relaxed and eager to be natural, but trust me it got pretty annoying as hours passed by and I had to keep smiling, then I was not so natural cuz my mouth literally hurt when they asked me to smile so many times at a stretch! (Almost like I had a stroke coming on) But Studio U was so easy to work with and communicate, we felt comfortable.

Hotel service, good! Dinner was tasty apparently, I could not eat much! Husband whacked though! 1 elevator was busted so people could not get down easily to see us in our embarrassing going away pickup drive courtesy our best man and groomsman and a sloth we know! It was not so easy getting on top of a pickup in a saree! I am so bad with sarees! But well the groom threw my bouquet (something I should have done but oh well, his secret fantasies I guess) and helped me up. There were tin cans attached to the rear end of the cab, so as it drove by with us standing as if we were on top of the world (OK fine bit of an exaggeration there), the tins were screeching all the way until they came off! I think we made a police officer very unhappy.

Slideshow! All thanks to our sweet sisters. It was a collection of photos of Dimi and I individually, and together. They were not all nice ones of us, pretty embarrassing ones too which made it all the more fun to watch. We are really grateful for the trouble they had taken to do it for us, and in the end it was one of the best parts of our big day, nice to know it brought out a few “awws” and a tear or 2(not our tears). Love them like mad, but then why do I need to state the obvious right?

Speeches, 1^st one was by our best man and another “near and dear” friend (the sloth I mentioned earlier), it was touching, funny and rather tainted! I personally thought they should have dished out more dirt! But the cowards were too scared of the oldies.

As you can see, yes your eyes are not tricking you, they had to raise the passion fruit glasses cuz we didnt have booze of any kind! Some people had already drunk em juices by the time of their speech but people made use of water! intelligent no?? (sarcasm - pretty embarrassing! :D)

2^nd speech, so obviously I am biased here, the best speech in the whole wide world (tee hee, to me okay!!!) by my handsome husband(wink wink),  it was not emotional nor too lovey dovey, it was just spot on in every sense for me and it sounded just like the man I knew, the man I loved with every word he spoke. Managed to bring a tear or 2(not my tears, I had my peak smile on throughout, I was elated, was on top of the world. Was trying hard to not let any tears slip), so not bad eh? (Speech ended with him inviting his "Beautiful Wife" to the dance floor! )

Photo credits to Bamanie K

First dance, oh well you know the usual ballroom dance to a song that had a fair amount of sentiment, a song that Dimi and his camel friends sang to me over the phone almost 7 years ago! We chose that because the lyrics were not all too mushy but had just the right amount of what we stood for. 

My favorite line is:

 “The world will turn, and the seasons will change,
and all the lessons we will learn will be beautiful and strange.
We'll have our fill of tears, our share of sighs.
My only prayer is that you realize
you'll always be beautiful in my eyes.”

Then came our retinue dance! Dimi’s bright idea to do something different and not the same old ballroom thing, namely dance to Grease lightening, summer nights, you’re the one that I want etc, in other words a grease mix!  And I loved that idea, so we went crazy!! It was soo unrehearsed! Cuz we met up just 2 days before and on the day of the wedding we were all over the place, so decided to keep some of the practice session moves in mind and concentrate on our partners and dance the song away!

Last dance but not least was the dance with my father, we danced to Unforgettable By the father daughter duo, Nat King & Natalie Cole. It was a simple ballroom dance, and guess who joined? the Paige Boy & Flower Girl! They were there at our dance as well but this seemed more romantic for the two of them, you know the song sort of spoke what their baby minds were thinking! since this would probably be the last time they ever meet, hence they wanted to make each other know how unforgettable they are to each other.

You know its again un-buh-leevable how time flies during a wedding, we got so late to come cuz Dimi said no point being on time cuz our friends won’t be there, it sort of bored some people I guess but by the time we came and started things off, all our friends were there so they didn’t miss the slideshow, speeches or dances! But once again there were pros and cons in that move we made; we should have known our guests a bit more cuz by the time we changed to our going away outfits it got so late that LOTS of people had to leave. I don’t blame them. But then the most important closest family and friends were there out of the 150 people we had.

So let’s get down to the biggest disappointments, sorry but the DJ was bad! I mean we went cheap but I did not assume they would give that sort of service! For example, for cutting of cake we wanted James Taylors, “how sweet it is” and you know what they played? SHOWERS OF BLESSINGS! How inappropriate! We hated it! The day before the DJ concerned assured us that everything we asked was in order but then what was that? Oh and some of the songs that Dimi wanted to be played, sentimental ones, hardly any! They seemed to manage to play the special songs the way we wanted but not the randoms! The announcing was just as horrible. Now that was an example of going cheap and getting real bad results! Although I heard the old people were happy with the music.  But then let’s put it like this, maybe couples usually don’t give such big song lists as we did, so they did play few of the ones on the list but was a bit annoyed of the highly clichéd love songs like Shania Twain's stuff that were on! And also how they did not do anything the way we had asked in the order page we had given to them. Bestman or Dimi had to constantly go reminding them to do this and do that and in the process we missed out on the pre planned flow of events!

But you know we know that was all part of the plan. Nothing is perfect being perfect, its perfect with all its little hiccups, mishaps and imperfections and that’s what our wedding was to us. But let me go on about 1 or 2 more hiccups. Because we were changing into a going away, lot of time was taken and we could not dance much with the crowd! And when we came back we could not take 1 or 2 group photos of some important people! But oh well, at the end of the day those were like needles in a haystack! I know I know, metaphor doesn’t match that much, go figure!

Photo credits to Studio U

So that’s all I can remember for now, and I can’t say every single thing cuz there is just so much! But what made our wedding different was the people, the lovely people who were a part of everything (weddings are usually boring but of course when you are the couple it never is! Hehe). Was extremely happy that Dimi's Bro, Various aunties, uncles were able to make it for that day!!! The Day felt Complete!

and also Special thanks to Preveen!!!

Thou art my mentor in photography, love your photos enjoyed having you around, especially to keep me company, hehe :D oh and apologies for being beaten up! Thats my sister for you!

Everyone made it ever more special and memorable to us. Happy to have made our parents proud. Happy happy happy! 

Photo credits to Studio U

So wedding over, I can talk about gifts now, but will blabber on that bit later in another article. So we are settling down these days. Honeymoon and all that over (once again another article!), we have been so busy but you know what? it has been truly enjoyable doing stuff together(warning: do not misinterpret "stuff"!!!!), waking up together, finding problems in the house, fixing them, arranging, and making food!

I know in years to come these things will be meaningless chores of the day but as you start off, the content feeling you get in all the hard work and toil in making a home, is actually enjoyable, I know I am sounding like a 16 year old kid, but I don’t mind, I am what I am no? Our house is small, but we have made it a home, and life is sweet.

Photo credits to Studio U

I am eternally grateful for my blessings. 

The Quest for a Love Nest

40 days away, and it’s time to panic. Ideally I am supposed to run around like a crazy Godzilla, getting all my wedding details sorted out. But it’s me, wannabe un-stereotypical bride, I’m good okay! “mama cool” as I always say, and as everyone knows. 

So what’s done and what’s left to be done? Tons. Although the main things have been looked into, with the completion of those “main” tasks, a whole bunch of tiny details that need to be looked into follow.

And that’s annoying and enjoyable at the same time. I’m complicated. Deal with it. And I actually have time to write this given that I have started work just 3 weeks ago! Well just so you know it’s not like I am icing during my work time being jobless ok? I try to be as hard working as it can get given my circumstances, but let’s face it I do have quite a bit of free time on my hands. But this I am writing at 7:15 in the morning at my workplace, I come early you know, mama cool like that. 

It’s amazing how over 1 year of planning has come down to 40 days. We do not understand how time literally flew away and still is. It’s also amazing how everything just falls into place one by one; I still can’t believe that we have finished off so many of that never ending wedding list and now even have our own place! 

I mean I know thousands of couples get married, have weddings, have homes and bla bla bla so it’s no big deal we have our own home, definitely not a big enough deal where you need to waste your time reading my ramblings, but you know it’s quite overwhelming! 

Let me tell you, it’s not easy finding places! it’s not a perfect place but I like that it’s not, its small, cozy and potentially hot! But it’s our love nest, so what!

(Warning: Below is NOT Rocket Science)

So tips when looking for your love nest, start early as everything else!  that’s crucial, that does not mean that you won’t find a good place if you start last minute, but you know it could save you a lot of running around, frantically!. 

As everything else prioritize requirements of your ideal place, for example one of ours was that it should need to be fairly close to my workplace! 

So that and budget. Be fair; don’t expect everything to come cheap in this case. But also don’t go overboard and pay for something more than you should cuz you have no choice! So make sure you have a wide choice, and I learnt this from Dimi, analyze the place and then make your offer, don’t go pushing your budget negotiating relentlessly cuz that would be plain pointless, we made that mistake and let go of an almost perfect apartment! I have listed below some things couples might look into before choosing the right place! 

• Type – Annex, House or Apartment?

Annexes are fairly safe and easy as long as you find another good set of adjoining tenants. Make sure you have a separate entrance, you don’t want to start your lives almost as if living with some total strangers and disturbing them every time you go out and come back in!

House – depends on the size when you are starting out. I’m sure none of us want a mansion to begin with, with great mansions come great responsibility, namely cleaning responsibility.

Apartment – depends on your budget mostly. But size wise we believe it’s perfect for a couple, so tiny and compartmentalized. Look out for that maintenance fee!

•   Furnished/unfurnished?

When hunting you'll see or must have already seen that there are so many places, mostly apartments that come in furnished! Very convenient, but of course more green if you know what I mean. But then it’s okay for temporary purposes if you want to buy your own stuff little by little without investing immediately.  In our case, furnished was a no-no. not that we had all the money in the world to buy all the things we needed (because we don’t) but because the sooner you invest in your own big stuff the more beneficial it is to you. If you can’t afford, sit on the floor, wash your own clothes etc and manage. Just make sure you get a fridge though! You can’t without that one!

• Security

If you’re in a nice luxury apartment complex security is a bonus! But if luxury can’t be afforded you will have to make do with whatever security is offered, if this is a key requirement to you make sure to look into it thoroughly and find something that fits you and your budget.

• Advance payments – over 1 year is quite unreasonable in our minds. 6 months or lesser or no advance is ideal for anyone! Hehe.

•  Lease agreements – skim through before signing, but of course that goes without saying!

• Utilities – electricity, telephone, water etc – most of the time you gotta pay your own bills!

• Distance – how far it is to your respective workplaces, respective parents homes and to the main road and other conveniences. So to start off its always good to keep in mind a balance of these 3 unless of course you want a good reason to get late to work, good reason to stay away from your parents and no need for a civilized area, go live near a jungle!

• Responsibility! At a marriage preparation course we took part in we were advised to talk about who is going to do what in your new place. Who does the cleaning, cooking and the respective timetables etc. it was emphasized that it’s good to decide it beforehand than jump in to work right away and see who needs to do what. Think it would save on a lot of arguments! But then again you know what best for you! 

So Dimi was headstrong on getting an apartment cuz he was very concerned about my security if he gets late, not trying to sound lovey dovey, but thats the reality!  house hunting was like car hunting for him! grrrrr grrrrr grrrr, "on your mark, get set, ready go!" it was! Therefore i had the opportunity to sit back and relax and think of some lessons that could be shared with someone facing the pain of looking for places. 

Not only did we check the papers every week for months but whilst driving almost every time Dimi would stop the car at so many apartment complexes around Colombo and ask them if there was anything vacant! 
A very silly and  lame reply of his for one of my "nooo dont go are you mad" comments was that "fortune favors the bold/brave". 
He called brokers, he told all our friends, and just expaaaaaanded the network! There were days in the middle of a train wreck of a work day some one would tip him off about a good place and he would rush drive from work just to take a look at the place! And that ain't easy when doing the job he is doing!


Sometimes you gotta go the extra mile i guess, long hours, long miles just to find your very own little love nest.

oh and and, all this so called advice i have been giving based on our experiences is if you are renting a place not buying alright???!

P.S - Don't forget these are merely my ramblings! NOT rocket science.

 

Wow so I have obviously gone on and on here. and we are still missing a sofa! Sob sob. Floor it is. He he.

So here's to all the couples finding their own little place or have already found! wishing you fun and much responsibility! 

Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!