Temporary

I was temporarily offline for almost 10 days because of network issues. It got resolved yesterday. I could have blogged using my phone, but I have never been a fan of that. Checking blogs through the phone is not very convenient for my eyes. So here I am, back again and this time for WPC I am going with the photographs from an exhibition we went here in London. We like to visit these exhibitions which are free and of course temporary in nature that showcases elements belonging to a very specific topic. This time it was “Illuminating India” It was interesting and it was fun to see an autorickshaw on display 😉 Here are some photographs from that event.

A night of good music

Ever since we heard Jake Lukeman at the opening of Imelda May’s show, Mr M became a fan of his. I liked his songs and he was able to hold the audience’s attention not to mention them laugh out a lot at his humour, but I wouldn’t go as far as calling myself a fan, as of yet. Will I go to watch him perform? Of course. He is really very good. We were at his solo performance last Wednesday at a quaint little church called St Pancras Old Church. This is my first time visiting that church. It has its own history. This church is also the venue of such solo artists. There were many such performances listed on their board. The venue is small and compact, it became something of a private performance if you know what I mean.

The opening at 8 pm was done by Fraser Anderson, a Scottish artist. He was also very good. More emotional in his songs and his poetry was awesome. 

Jack started his performance at 9 pm and went on until 10.30 pm. The church had its own piano, so both the performers made use of the same and we were delighted to hear them perform without a band or loud instruments.

The acoustics at the church was amazing. You might have to learn to sit on those wooden pews for 3 hours or so (or in our case some foldable chairs). That might only be the downside. But you can get up and stretch your legs whenever you feel cramped. Jack’s sense of humour, his way of engaging with the audience making them take part in his gig was the biggest plus point. A couple even did an impromptu dance number for one of his songs. Like I said, it felt like a private performance for us, all thanks to the beautiful venue and the talented artists.

Not formal

I am not a “formal”  person.  I don’t do formal in conversations or in clothing.  After, I don’t know when was the last time, a very long time I had to dress up formally today for an event.  Turned out that it wasn’t a necessity 🙄 After going through the trouble of shopping,  trying out clothes,  wearing formal shoes etc etc etc  (you have no clue to the amount of whinging I did during the shopping. Mr. M should be applauded just for putting up with that)  I might as well be in my jeans and tops.  Formal clothes in India is different from formal clothing in the UK  and I now know that I am not good with either.  Give me casuals any day or my lounge wear.  

2016 – Doubly Exposed!

When I was wondering how to represent this year through my photographs which will also be depicting the important events in my life, I stuck upon the idea of picking up events and making them into a single photograph using double exposure and image overlays. Not all of them are good, but I liked the idea so stuck with it.

I used Zoner Photo Studio, Pixlr, DPP to get these results.

First, let me start with travel,

Chennai: (a photograph of the roof of one of the biggest malls in Chennai & the popular Kabaleeshwarar Temple, my first visit to these places)

Munnar: I visited Munnar twice in 2016, so picked two photographs from those trips and created this one. 

London & Ireland: I visited London and Ireland (Cork mainly) in May. So I decided to club them together 😉 

Brighton & Hampi: One is a sea side city and the other an archaeological city and of course they are in two different countries too. But I thought these two went well together. What do you think?

Now to the events:

Supermoon and Marudhamalai Temple: I wanted to sneak in the super moon photograph and found that the night photograph of this historic temple in Coimbatore made a good canvas for the same.

My engagement and marriage 😉 The place where Mr M proposed and my favorite photograph of our marriage (just the rings of course) along with the famous Khalil Gibran’s quotes made for a nice event photograph. Don’t you think so?

Departure and Arrival: A photograph of one of my friend’s son playing with one of my throw cushion when they visited me for my send off party along with the bouquet my husband got for my arrival in UK. 

And finally, my first Christmas with Mr M: A Photograph of the choir we attended and the Winter Wonderland fair photograph combined. 

That pretty much sums it all 😉 It took me around 1 hour to get them sorted out. Some of them could have been much better. But given the time crunch, I decided to just go with the first cut.

I know that people are just waiting for 2016 to get over asap. It hasn’t been a good year in general, but I am glad that I was blessed with good events in this year and I am thankful for that. And I sincerely pray and hope that the good times continue in 2017 and that it brings with it hope, good health, peace, and positivity in the New Year for one and all.

Stay Safe! Happy Blogging! Happy New Year!

A wake up call!

Before I get into the wake up call, let me give you some context here.

When I moved into my flat years ago (this was when my ex was residing next door) I had installed an iron gate before the door for additional security (my ex had a set of keys for my flat and he was causing lot of trouble at that time). Locking that iron gate was mandatory. That was my primary safety door since I was the only one who had that key. Ever since my ex moved out of his flat, I haven’t been locking that door every day. I do it once in a while when I remember. My apartment complex is pretty secure and the watchman and their family (the watchman’s wife is my house maid) have kind of adopted me and they look after me. I haven’t had any issues so far. So I literally stopped locking my iron gate at nights. Also, unless I get up for my gym, I usually switch off my alarms (two with a half an hour in between them) and go back to sleep until my maid rings my door bell. And my door bell sings a song for close to a minute and then says ‘Please open the door’ at the end of it. Not an ideal one to hear in the middle of the night for sure. Not to mention that it is a plaything for my friends whenever they visit. Thanks brother for getting me that door bell.

Yesterday early morning I hear the door bell sing and I wake up thinking, I did it again. I overslept. Why can’t I get up for the second alarm…blah blah blah. And then make my way to the door thinking that it would be my maid. But then something felt wrong and I realize at the last minute (just one more latch to be removed to open the door) that it is still dark outside. I switch on the light and see the time and its 4 am. I am awake instantly. I am like what the hell! who is there at my doorstep at 4 am. My brother didn’t tell me he is on his way for his business or anything. I see through the peep hole and see a scowling fellow who had opened the iron gate (it was not locked but latched from inside) and ready to open my door. I have never seen that fellow ever before in my life. I instantly panic a bit and ask him with my rudest voice about who he was and what he wanted. He immediately looks around wondering where the voice is coming from and says that he is the cook. I am like why the hell someone would tell that they are a cook if they wanted to do me some harm. probably he is a cook…but what is he doing at my place then. I then ask him which house number he wants and he looks around wondering why he is being asked these questions. I immediately ring my watchman but then after a couple of rings cut the call and check through the peep hole once again to check if he was still there. Lo and behold, the guy has vanished. I wait for sometime to check if my theory was correct and there, after a minute I hear another door bell ring. And I decide that he had indeed got the flat numbers wrong.

I lost my sleep in the process wondering about all the what if’s. I was thinking if this wake up call was for me to be more careful here on and lock the iron gate irrespective of whether it is safe or not. I almost opened a door for someone in my sleep addled state without checking. If the iron gate was locked it would definitely be an added protection in the worst case scenarios too. I told my maid in the morning about this incident because she was wondering why the iron gate was not latched from inside. She knew the cook and told me that she will talk to him. And by that evening she did indeed tear him apart 🙂 Poor fellow.

The result of this early morning wake up call was that I ended up locking my iron gate again, at least during the nights and I also realized that even in my extreme sleepy state, I managed to think rationally and not panic and cause a commotion. I did end up sleeping after 6 am until my maid came and rang the bell again 😉