How to Build a New County

So map makers all over the world woke up to the reality of an Africa redefined. They're going to have to tear up old prints and draw new borders to accommodate the world's newest country South Sudan. The news was full of the hope and possibility for this new nation; the chance to establish stability in a region that has been plagued by civil war and conflict.

The news was full of the unfolding events and every station had all sorts of analysts and media pundits putting their own spin on the situation while I just wondered how soon it would take Lonely Planet to come up with a South Sudan version.

One news segment in particular caught my attention. The analyst was talking about the very practical aspects of "setting up a new country". She mentioned things like deciding on colours for a flag, choosing a national anthem, deciding on a currency and so on. Laughing, she mentioned that sometimes a simple thing like applying for an international dialing code could sometimes slow down the entire process.

I found just a wee bit reassuring to know that us tiny folk aren't the only people getting jerked around by the phone companies!

In Which the Author Gains a Modicum of Legitimacy

And what I'm really trying to say with that very cryptic title is:

I'VE BEEN PUBLISHED!

The article that I submitted back in February was accepted and the issue is just out. The editor sent over a PDF version of the story to me and they've used some of my photographs to accompany the piece. So, well chuffed with that.

There's just one patch of cloud to gloom up my otherwise sunny day and that is because of some edits they did to my title and bi line - sans permission. My original submission was: Bonnie Scotland - Lifting back the Veil of the Tartan Curtain.

That got changed to: Bonnie Scotland. Scotland is not just about whiskey and bagpiper. There is much more to it, says *my name*


Badly worded, miss spelled and grammatically incorrect. With MY NAME attached to the end of it! The cheek! And the horror! Am so worried that people are going to take one look at that title and bi line and not bother to read any further. Oh dear. 

So right now, I'm trying to focus on the being published part and not bothering about the rest. Each time I feel bad about the cock up, I log in to my online bank account and look fondly at the money in there that's payment for the same. It does help take away the sting a whole lot. 

Take That Slamming Door!

The reason I had been so skeptical about the meeting with True's manager was because there had been so many others in the past who had taken my details to pass on to their friend/manager/boss/ etc and nothing had come off it. My lovely friend, the beautiful (and totally mentally unhinged) Tigger had also passed on my deets to her manager-lady, but I'd long since heard that standard response Thanks, we'll be in touch. 

Then yesterday I got a call from Tigger's manager-lady inviting me to an interview. Again, I went with little expectations. Again, I was thrown a curve ball as we had a simulation exercise mid way through the interview after which I was offered a job!

Its not anything grand; over-the-phone market research, minimum wage. However, the great part is that I can pick my work days which means that I can still schedule things so that I'm working about 32 hours a week and still have 2 mornings/afternoons off to continue with my research for the G Town tours.

Perhaps I'm mistaken here, but it truly feels like the Universe is finally playing on my team!

A Midsummer's Night's Fauxpas

For some weeks now, a friend has been telling me about the free comedy night at the Halt Bar in the west end of G Town. G has recently started his journey as a stand up comedian and of course its always best when you fill the venue with friends sympathetic to your cause. I'd been meaning to check the place out for sometime, but things kept getting in the way. Finally, last week I made it.

The evening had a bit of a shaky start as G was running late which meant that I sat at the bar nursing a beer until the gig began. I'm very used to being solo on many occasions and at many venues; a bar is just not one of them. Thankfully it wasn't a terribly long wait and as soon as the host got on stage I figured people would focus on him and not at the looser at the bar by herself!

Divided into 3 sets, the evening featured six amateurs and one professional act. The amateurs ranged from an absolute novice who snapped the proverbial cherry that night to others who had been on a circuit for some time but were still dabbling. Most of them had good material and garnered laughs from the audience. One of them was totally weird, but hey... there's one in every crowd isn't there?

Post event, G introduced me to some of his pals including the evenings host. Turning to greet him, I wasn't prepared for the explosive Is this her? Is she the one? that was yelled in my face. Choking back the laughter at my bewildered expression, G explained things to me. Back when E (his gf) and I were working together at the shopping centre, we used to kill the long hours by playing our favourite game of rate-the-customers. Apparently, the host walked by one day and I declared that I wasn't quite sure whether or not I considered him cute and placed him in an "undecided" category. A week later, E met him at one of G's comedy events and recognised him as my ambivalent ratee and told G all about it. G being a boy blabbed the whole thing to the man himself.

As G narrated the story, I felt myself turning a whiter shade of pale quickly followed by the warm heat of embarrassment creeping into my cheeks. Thankfully the host was laughing about it and he soon walked away. Still, he hadn't quite forgotten about my assessment - or the lack of it - and as we left the bar later he turned to me and said, Nice to meet you Pixy. Hopefully we'll meet again soon and who knows, you might have made up your mind by then?

Huum. Guess that means I'll have to go back for another look some time soon.

Plan B

Any post written between the 15th and 20th of this month was supposed to have been written from the seaside town of Schoorl in the Netherlands. However thanks to evil dust particles from erupting Icelandic volcanoes with unpronounceable names, I'm stuck in G Town for the next little while.

Ironically, in spite of being surrounded by the ash of all evil, G Town has been having the most amazing weather of late. Loath to waste all this excessive sunshine I spent most of yesterday afternoon wandering around the west end and finally settled down on the steps of the Kelvingrove museum for a long read in a warm sunshine.

Later in the evening Gingersnap, Colossus and myself took a drive out to Carmunnock just south of the city. From our vantage point, we had a great view of the sunset over the city. We had hoped that the volcanic ash would provide some interesting vistas, but perhaps we were a day or two too late for that. Still its hard not to find beauty in a sunset and ash or not, this one was just as lovely.

Storm Clouds and Silver Linings

When you live in Scotland, you will run into many a storm cloud. And I'm talking literally. Suffice to say, my life of late has resembled a veritable mine field of storm clouds. But, dear reader as you well know I have been striving to "Find the Awesome" and focus on the rainbows and bunnies and fluffy cotton candy and anything else that falls under the awww that's nice category.

Today, on the bus ride home from Edinburgh, I realise that sometimes, the storm clouds themselves are the silver lining.

Penguins at the Rugby Game

My friend the Energizer Bunny knew that I was back to job hunting since my part time work had fizzled out some weeks ago. Accordingly, she had passed on my details to a friend of her who ran an agency here in G Town. Last week, unexpected, I got a call from the agency asking if I was free for a one day assignment on Saturday. It was for hostessing duties at Murrayfield, the rugby stadium in Edinburgh.

Eager to earn a few handy pennies, I confirmed attendance right away. It wasn't until I had put down the phone that I realised that the game in question was the England v Scotland match, possibly one of the biggest games in all of the 6 Nations Rugby Tournament. Tickets for this game had been sold out about 5 minutes after they went on sale last summer. And I was actually going to be there. AND get paid in the process! How cool was THAT?

The agency was busing the G Town based girls over and as I made my way across the parking lot of the meeting point, I couldn't help giggle. There were about 15 girls all walking towards the bus all dressed in black suits, white tops and black heeled shoes. Together, we looked like attendees at a penguin convention!

On the way over to Edinburgh, I chatted with some of the other girls trying to get an idea of what exactly we were going to be doing during the day. I also made sure that I had done ok with my makeup application as per the job requirements. It had taken me 3 tries and about 4 stabs in the eye but I had finally managed to follow the carefully written make up application instructions my friend gave me. The other girls assured me I looked just fine.

At the stadium, I was assigned to a suite of 350 guests with two other hostesses. It wasn't particularly hard work, but as with all VIPs, there were some cranky ones and we were kept busy trying to appease those few squeaky wheels. Still, the day was set up so that we had to look after the guests before the game during the luncheon and then after. During the actual game, we were free to take our break.

Most of the other girls weren't interested in the match; half of them didn't even know who was playing! Not me! There was no way I could otherwise afford to be at such an event. I wasn't going to let this opportunity slip by. Grabbing a hold of the only other hostess who was interested, the two of us made our way around the stadium until we found a chink in the armour - otherwise known as the air tight stadium security - and weaseled our way into a corner of the stadium where we were able to watch almost all of the match without (much) interruption. Handy things, those little staff passes!

And what an exciting game it was! A tight scoring game with both teams scoring tries one after the other. The final result was a draw, 15 all. Not the win that Scotland wanted, but then again, not the loss that England was so determined to deliver at the same time!

Finally, a good 13 hours after we first met up at the parking lot, a troop of tired penguins shuffled off to waiting cars, most of them holding on to their high heels. It had been a fun day, but now, all we cared about was getting home and soaking our aching and blistered feet.

It was time to take off the super-hostess garb and return to being mere mortal women again.

Welcome 2010

This is how I brought in the new year. With a circle of friends, some beer and sparkler sticks! Simple, but highly effective! Here's hoping that it is a good one!

Night of Stars and Dreams and Celebrations!

Last night, I went along to the annual Christmas party hosted by Cancer Support Scotland. Staff, executive committee members, staff, volunteers and patrons all gathered to look back on the year that was and celebrate a number of amazing successes.

I knew there was going to be an award ceremony; the program had mentioned an award for Volunteer of the Year and Fundraiser of the Year. What I did NOT expect was to be the recipient of a special award myself! I was sitting at my table, clapping away with the rest when Bill, the Chief Exec started to talk about the next award recipient. And before I knew it, it was MY name being called and everyone turning around to take a look. Too bad I was in the middle of sipping from my wine glass and had to swallow in a hurry and gingerly put down the glass!

The past 2 months had been crazy busy as I was putting in umpteen hours working on the event and trying to juggle filling out all sorts of job apps. But every single minute of it was totally worth the effort when we found out that we'd totally blown past last year's fundraising target. The sense of accomplishment on that alone had been enough to make me feel spectacularly great about my participation.

Being presented with this award was totally unexpected and quite over-whelming really. I'll have to admit that I do like the look of the framed certificate now proudly displayed on my living room shelf.

Belle of the Ball

Two months of hectic preparations all came to a head last night at the Crowne Plaza hotel here in G Town. 360 guests gathered in the Argyll Suite for a champagne reception that was followed by a scrumptious 3 course meal. There were lavish auctions prizes, a car to be won as part of the main raffle event, an amazing line up the silent auction tables and a host of fun prezzies.


I had worked on this event since September, C even before that. It had meant long hours, sleepless nights and piles of anxious meetings over whether we would meet our targets for the night.

Even with a few hiccups, the evening was a raging success and early estimates show that we made about £27,000 that night. Adding that to the £20,000 already in the bank, it would seem that 3 well deserving charities in Glasgow are going to have a great start to the festive season!

No wonder then, that although we were almost shattered with exhaustion by the end of the night, C and I just had to pose for the cameras and share one gigantic hug as we rejoiced in our shared success.

Big Bang Theory

As the popular saying goes, When in Rome, do as the Romans do. For new inductees to a city and culture such as moi, this really helps in the trying-to-figure-the-locals out category. When VBF texted me about "going to the fireworks" I had not the foggiest what she meant, but I sent back an affirmitave response. I just figured she was getting a head start on planning for New Year's!

Turns out, she meant Guy Fawkes Night and the annual fireworks display at Glasgow Green.

And so, we headed over last night - along with about 40,000 other firework enthusiasts who were all thanking their personal lucky stars for the unexpected lull in the rain that had otherwise poured down constantly over the past few days.

I did ponder the absurdity of cememorating a failed attempt to blow up something by now blowing up and setting fire to a large number of objects!

Ah well, there's the British sense of humour for you!

Things That Make Your Bum Go Shake-Shake

The latest Cadbury Ad that is just so AWESOME! Everytime its on TV my hips start to shake and my bum makes dancy-dancy motions. Of course, this is not so good if I happen to hear it when I'm outside in public. But anyway.... I just had to share with those of you who may not be watching TV recently!

Enjoy!

Lifestyles of the Rich and (In)Famous

About 3 weeks ago I began volunteering with a local charity that helps cancer patients, survivors and their families. They had advertised for a Volunteer Coordinator online and it seemed just a good opportunity to meet new people and get networking. Their offices were a mere 20 minute walk away and after the first meeting with the Executive Director and their Events Organiser, I just knew that they would be a good fit for me.

The first event they had me working on was a tie in with Ralph Lauren's Pink Pony Foundation. The store in the city centre was hosting an evening of cocktails and shopping for some of their top clients and 15% of the proceeds were to benefit a local charity; in this case, us.

Yesterday, the morning of the event, C the Events Manager and myself went down to the store to meet with the staff and get an idea of what they wanted from us and so on. After nailing down the details, the store manager mentioned that it would be a great idea if some of the charity staff were to wear RL merchandise. C jumped at the idea and in no time they had her wearing a pair of boot-cut jeans (£725), RL signature blazer (£698) and shirt (£85) finished off with a belt (£59). This of course was an easy enough process since C is tall and willowy with the figure that every designer has in mind when creating the clothes.

On the other hand, when it was my turn, things were not so smooth.

The store lady started by handing me a pair of jeans. Dark blue. Nice cut. Totally blinged out all the way down the front. Just one teensy problem. They were about 3 sizes too small. I knew that just by holding them up and asked if I could have a larger size. She waved my protests off saying that the material was a blend of Spandex and that it would stretch. Well, it didn't and after 10 excruciating minutes of jumping around in the dressing rooms trying to get the pants past my knees, I finally got them to admit that perhaps the material wasn't AS stretchy as they'd thought.

They then handed me a T-shirt. Classic RL polo shirt. Blinged out of course. As I ducked back into the dressing room, I began praying fervently to every known saint in the calendar and beseeched my recently deceased Nana to intercede on my behalf and please please make this fit. There was NO WAY I was going back out there with yet another outfit that I couldn't squeeze myself into.

Nans came through for me, and I had an outfit. Course, when I found out that it was valued at a shocking £150, I nearly had a coronary. Still, compared to C's outfit it was rags to her riches!

The evening was a success. People came, they asked about the charity, they drank the pink champagne and ate the tiny tiny portions of hors d'oeuvres that were being passed around, they posed for pictures. But most importantly, they SHOPPED and with each *cha-ching* of the cash register we smiled at the certain donation towards helping yet another person affected by cancer.

I'll take any amount of humiliation over my hips to make that happen.

Introductions

I've been so busy with updating the travel blog and getting out job applications that I forgot to show off pics of the my purty new flat. 

There's still a lot of work to be done to get it looking the way I want. But this is a start and I'm so very happy with the place.



And speaking of, now would be a good time to introduce my flatmate, Rain Man. So called because of his inability to watch a movie without shouting out the next line in the dialogue. Or mumbling it after I have given him the So-That-One-More-Time-And-You-Die-A-Long-And-Painful-Death stare. It all started when he got very upset when he tried to do this with Independence Day and lost miserably to me. He then proceeded to sulk for the next 3 days until he beat me in Rain Man. I then made fun of him for knowing all the lines in a Tom Cruise movie. Whatever! You're short! was his witty comeback in reference to the fact that I had to buy a little step to reach the middle and top shelves in the kitchen and (properly) look into the washroom mirror.



And thus was the start of what I hope will be a beautiful friendship.

Friday Night Lights

When I moved to Scotland, I knew that I had to leave a lot of my old life behind. There were going to be many changes. The coins didn't have a polar bear on them, the streets would not be lined with Maple trees and there was no baseball team to cheer for. Instead, there was football - the soccer kind. And rugby. And when dating Beans. A LOT of rugby. Accordingly, we set off to My First Rugby Game on Friday night along with friends Skippy, Sab and JellyCake to watch Munster take on the Glasgow Warriors. Mac and I were instructed to cheer for the Irish team while Sabs and Skippy were firmly rooting for the local lads. JellyCake had been bribed into cheering for the Paddys with the loan of the infamous Paddywack Hat. Sabs was not impressed with that! It wasn't a very big crowd, but those that were there were cheering with all that they had. Munster was the far superior team on the pitch (is that a rugby term?) but not that night. Shoddy plays and downright stupid moves made the Warriors into kings.

From a virgin viewer's point of view, I saw a bunch of guys (in very short and tight shorts) run around on a field lovingly embracing the ball and very frequently, each other. Mac made no bones about which side he was supporting. Then again, there wasn't any access to Warrior merchandise! Sabs growled about having to get him some "proper" gear soon. But I'm not sure if rugby jerseys come in a Moose size.

Beans gave me a watery smile for the camera, but we all could tell that he was dying inside at Munster's abysmal performance. Sabs on the other hand had plenty to smile about as his team bull dozered their way to a 29-09 victory.

As I watched the boys play, I wondered why the line out seemed so familiar to me. I had a nagging feeling that I had seen this somewhere before. But where? This was my first rugby game, and I hadn't even watched any on TV. It wasn't until the end of the game that it struck me. Ballet! The line out looked just like a pas de deux in a ballet recital. Don't you think??

Still, that was one observation I kept to myself. I did enjoy my first rugby experience and didn't want to be banned from the sport on my very first time!

Down Discovery Lane

Even after 3 days of being in my new place, the reality still seems a little fuzzy. I can hardly believe that was able to get the apartment that I wanted and relatively easily too! It was finally something good after weeks of drowning in the crap the universe was throwing at me.

And so, I have revelled in my good fortune for these past few days. Taken long walks to get to know the neighbourhood and some of the neighbours as well like the kindly gentleman from the Realtor office downstairs who was nice enough to help with sorting out a leasing agreement. And the guy from the grocery store around the corner who turns out to have an aunt who lives quite near to where I grew up in Bombay and who kindly offered me a cup of tea as we chatted about a city far far away. There's all sorts of interesting little stores along the main street. Butchers, bakers and if I hunt hard enough I'm sure to discover a candlestick maker somewhere nearby as well! Two large grocery stores just down the road and a hop, skip and jump away from the subway, the train station and all sorts of handy dandy bus routes. My local library is a mere 7 minute walk away. 5 if I hurry. Best of all, the neighbourhood seems to have a lovely sense of being a community and not just a random collection of houses and shops all jammed together in one location. Wandering further down the main street, I stumbled upon more good news. Rows and rows of thrift stores run by every single charity foundation imaginable. Which meant loads of opportunities to pick up some very good deals! On just my first round I found table coasters (brand new), a spice rack (only needs a lick of paint), laundry basket and an indoors drying rack. And I haven't even begun to investigate all of the wonderful second hand books I saw in all the stores. Who knows what else is just waiting in there to be discovered.

Royal Guest

Wednesday night is quiz night for Beans. Although he's been part of a team that consists of a couple of colleagues for just over a year now, the team itself The Crimson Knight* has been in existence for over 10 years now I'm told. The original member of the team was the department head of a large organization who earned the nic name due to his rather obvious liking for a wee bit o dram very now and then that eventually gave his face a ruddy hue. Said chieftain was also fond of keeping himself abreast on current affairs and thus found that the quiz night at the local pub was the best way for him to indulge in both of his favourite pass times! And so, a legend was sprung. Ten years later, members of the same team are still meeting at the same pub every Wednesday night for a round of drinks, laughs and to rattle those brain cells. The team is never more than 3 or 4 members at a time and attendance is by invitation only.

And so, you can well imagine my surprise when Beans asked me if I'd like to join him for pub night with the Crimson Knight last evening! Apparently, he'd told his team mates just how much I loved hearing about their weekly adventures and thought that it would be nice for me to see the action first hand, so to speak.

Pinky and the Brain were absolutely delightful individuals who made me feel very welcome. They confessed that they were just as curious to be meeting me as I was them. Again, mainly to assess what crazy person would move across the Atlantic just for Beans. (There is an alarming recurring theme to all of these meetings!)

The quiz itself was run by a very interesting personality who took his role as Quizmaster very seriously indeed and put together a top notch quiz each week. I'm happy to report that I was able to make quite a significance contribution to the night's answers and shone especially in the Bible round - reminiscent of my days as a Sunday school teacher!And then in the final GK round my knowledge of Jane Austen era literature also came in handy as I was correctly able to identify what is a Spinney!

We didn't win, but placed 4th out of 16 teams. Not a bad effort at all! Best of all, I was invited back. Now how's THAT for a Royal Summons?


*Name changed on request to protect the identity of the current team.

Monster Accomplishments!

It is my privilege to announce that all 3 members of Team Leaping Badgers successfully completed the 73 mile Maggie's Monster Bike and Hike event this past weekend. The boys also raised over 3500 GBPs through online donations, auctions, sweepstakes, quizzes and some outright begging to family and friends.

Honestly, those lads are pleased as punch right now. And rightly so! Not only did they finish a really challenging event - 30 miles of biking, 43 hiking from Fort Williams to Inverness - they also surpassed their fundraising goal by a large margin! They should be very very proud of their accomplishments.

So Damn Proud.
Swollen head proud.
New Daddy proud.
Just nailed a supermodel proud!

Well.... you get the picture!

Much Needed Cheer

My friend Maestro sent me this to cheer me up when he heard that I was at home and suffering from the sniffles and frog-in-the-throat syndrome. I thought I should share the love.

Enjoy!

PS: Can someone tell me how I can upload the video right into the blog post? My tech skills are limited as you all know!

My New Loves!

Was finally able to find me a pair of dance shoes that fit both my not-so-dancer-like-size9-feet as well as my rapidly-shrinking budget. I proudly present to you, my new ballroom babies!
With just the right balance of support and style, these shoes are going to help me do wonders on the dance floor! Man, am I going to nail those triple turns in the Cha Cha and demolish the rope spin into Aida of the Rumba. Henceforth, the intricacies of the Quickstep will be vanquished and the dizzying spin turns of the Viennese Waltz are like a walk in the park.

Oh, I am so looking forward to class next week!