Day 0.25 in Barcelona

We learned something today. Four and a half year olds don't particularly enjoy 10 hour flights. About an hour in, Naina was not a happy camper. Add to it her congestion and clogged ears, and jeez were we ever so happy to land in Barcelona! She (and therefore I) didn't sleep more than maybe an hour on the entire flight. Amit was awake for maybe an hour during the entire flight :-). 

Finally in Barca and Le Meridien as always doesn't disappoint. It's right on La Rambla which is buzzing with activity and lit up beautifully for the holidays.

We were exhausted from the travel (I'm sporting a cold too) so we showered, stepped out for tapas & wine, and headed back to sleep after a short exploratory walk on La Rambla.

Not sure what we'll do tomorrow...

What's this? Another year gone by?

Well, here we are - December 2013. It seems I only blog in the first half of each year anymore...
So much has happened in the 18 months since my last post, but I'll fast forward to the fun stuff that will surely keep you coming back to read more... We are headed off to Spain in just over 2 weeks.  The plan is a couple of days in Barcelona, and then take a train down south, then spend the rest of the time driving around from city to city. 

So...stay tuned...exciting trip updates will start on December 21 when we land in Barcelona!
 

Happy Fathers Day!

I'm back from China and we're down in Avila Beach for Father's Day weekend! Beautiful weather and we're just enjoying the beach time. For a California beach, the water is surprisingly not freezing and N is enjoying wading and splashing.

Colorful city

We went to the Vue bar at the top of the Hyatt last night. 100cny per person cover charge which included 2 of their "drink of the day" per person. The drink of yesterday was a caipirinha so no complaints from me.

Anyway, on to the main point - the view was incredible!! This was an open-air rooftop patio that was right on the rivers' edge. Breathtaking view despite the smog :)

The bar was super swanky and even had a jacuzzi in the middle of it! And yes, there were people in it. We felt like we were on the set of The Hangover - it was unexpected but somehow fit the vibe of the place. Very cool!

We followed it up with the most incredible dinner we've had all week. Sans the "exotic" dishes, everything else was so good that we ordered a second round of almost everything.

Food wise, my tummy has been happy this week - including the Papa Johns pizza they ordered in for lunch yesterday :)

There's a team dinner and karaoke tonight with the local team. Should be a fun evening!

Oh and it's still unbearably hot :-/

Reality sets in!

It's crazy hot here! Two or more showers per day kind of hot. It's so humid that an envelope which I am using to save receipts sealed itself, and the receipts inside it are damp. My hair has gotten big - very big.

On Sunday, five of us decided to take a Hop On Hop Off tour to see some of the city. Stop 1 was a block from our hotel - convenient. Stops 2-4 appeared to be different sides of the same park so we planned to Hop Off at the Bund - Stop 5.

The guide recommended walking along the Bund to Stop 6 so we set off on foot, humidity sucking us further and further into sweaty delirium with every step. We walked and walked and walked and Stop 6 was nowhere to be found! This was a fine moment to realize that the map we had only had *some* street names marked while others were just mystery roads.

So we bravely decided to just walk on over to Old Shanghai behind Yu Garden. There was a dumpling place that the hotel concierge recommended for lunch and we were starving! Old Shangai was super confusing - there turned out to be 4 dumpling places so we just picked one. I don't handle that kind of humidity too well and it totally zapped my appetite so my lunch was a TsingTao and a spring roll!

Stop 7 was supposed to be just across from Old Shanghai we thought we'd reconnect with our tour and carry on to a couple of temples. We asked the waiter which way the main entrance to the area was since we had come in from what we think was the side. Confident that we had good directions and re-energized after an air conditioned break, we were off.

When we reached what we thought was the bus stop, there was no Point 7 to be seen anywhere. We asked 3 people including a cop. All 3 looked puzzled, stopped someone else to confer with them, debated something back and forth with the person and then gave us directions confidently. They were wrong. They were ALL wrong. Each person had sent us off in 3 different directions. When none of those worked we tried the 4th direction and arrived in front of the landmark that the map showed as the Point 7 pickup. But...no point 7. It was getting late and we missed the window for going to the temple. Hot and frustrated, we gave up and took a cab back to the hotel. The tour ended up being nothing more than a $44/person transport from our hotel to the Bund. :(

On the plus side, that evening we found what we are calling Santana Row. It's an area full of upscale, nice restaurants and bars. It's familiar and comfortable and we all breathed a sigh of familiar relief when we saw it. We've now been there for dinner 2 nights in a row and I'm sure we'll be back there tonight!

Oh and we had lunch with our local team here yesterday and I got cornered into trying some foods that I would rather not have even seen, let alone tasted.

It's sensory overload here - hot, humid, polluted, maniacal taxi drivers!, and crowded. "Santana Row" and our hotel are nice sanctuaries though.

Let's see how the rest of the week goes but I haven't started loving Shanghai yet.

Adventures in Shangai

Here I am in Shanghai for the next week+. I've been kind of wary of this trip (food, language, humidity that has already made my hair big, and being away from my family for so long) but so far I'm doing A-OK.

The flight was great - I watched:
Agneepath (and sobbed like a baby)
21 Jump Street (super funny)
Love Aaj Kal (funniest and most ignorant line yet from a Bollywood movie "she's from Singapore. 100% Chinese." Uuhhh...ok my geography isn't perfect but I'm pretty sure that line offended the Singaporean lady sitting across from me who also watched that movie!
The Descendants - only 20 mins of it before I realized that I wanted to wait and see it with Amit.

So...with all that plus a few cocktails and I was having a pleasant flight.

Now here I am at Le Meridian - great location - seems to be in the middle of everything.

For those who are dying to know about the cuisine, I chose NOT to order the grilled silkworm or the baked pig skin for dinner last night but instead opted for some good old shrimp in chili sauce. It was super good.

Up at 5am today thanks to either jet lag or being accustomed to getting no more than 6 hrs of sleep at a time, I was in the gym by 6, and now ready for a day of sightseeing.

Oh and I'm excited to report that I found a loophole - FB is blocked on the web but the app works! Data plan is outrageous so I'll keep check-ins to a min. Interestingly enough, blogger is blocked too so I'm using the app right now.

Sometimes you hear a song that you've heard countless times before but, for some reason that you can't quite explain, this time you suddenly connect with it in a way that you hadn't before. And then you can't stop listening to it.

Here's what's been on Repeat for me lately - love this song.


LANDSLIDE
written by Stevie Nicks (the Dixie Chicks/Sheryl Crow Remix Cover is the song version I like)

I took my love, I took it down

Climbed a mountain and I turned around
And I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills
Till the landslide brought me down

Oh, mirror in the sky, what is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?
Mmm, mmm, mmm

Well, I've been afraid of changing
'Cause I've built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older and I'm getting older too

Well, I've been afraid of changing
'Cause I've built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older and I'm getting older too
Oh, I'm getting older too

Awh, take my love, take it down
Awh, climb a mountain and turn around
And if you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well, the landslide bring it down

And if you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well, the landslide bring it down
Oh, the landslide bring it down

Every night is a surprise

February 17...Mommy got a good night's sleep

February 26...Mommy got sent to the couch

Wish me luck for tonight!

Words of Wisdom (?) by Naina

My good friend suggested a while ago that blogging N's fun phrases as a good way to remember them when time flies as it does. So here they are!


At 18-months:

No way!

Uh oh, my bad

Oh Maaaaan!

Ummm...

When I told her it was bedtime, she held up 2 fingers, looked at me and said "2 minutes"

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday

Baa Baa Shit (Baa Baa Black Sheep!)

I'm thinking (when Amit asked her a question)

A couple of weeks before her 2nd birthday:

Mamma: Naina, when's your birthday?

Naina: July

Mamma: July what?

Naina: Seven. It's MY birthday. No touch my birthday. (then turns to Amit) No touch my birthday, Daddy!

At about 2-yrs:

How are you today, guys? (to Amit & me)


What you guys talking about? or What you guys saying?


Mommy, your hair is so long. My hair is long too. That's super super cute.


N: What you doing Mamma?
Me: I'm putting on pants, Naina.
N: No that's Jeans. You need shirt too.


N: Are we going home? (on the way home from school)
Me: Yeah
N: Don't say yeah, say YEAH!
Me: Okay, yeah
N: Not yeah, YEAH!
(this went back and forth a few times until finally...)
Me: YEAH!
N: Don't scream at me Mommy!
Me: I didn't
N: Yeah, you did.
Me: No I didn't.
N: Yeah you screamed. That's not ok. We have to be nice to each other.


Mary had a yidda yam, yidda yam, yidda yam. Mary had a yidda yam, who something and said no.


Me: Do I look nice, Naina?
N: You need makeup, Mommy
I've also been told You need to brush your hair, Mommy and You need to change your shirt, Mommy.


N: Mommy and Daddy, my brother has a sister.
Us: Who's your brother Naina
N: Minin's my brother. And Pachi is my sister.

Pretty much every time she lists friends who will be at a party:
Rishon and Oranj (Arin!) and Rishon and Akhil and Rishon and Minin and Rishon and Vedu and Rishon...
-----------

Aah, yes. Our little chatterbox keeps us happily entertained every single day!

Spring Break 2011

Spring Break!!! Well, not quite the same as I remember it from college... doing shots till 3am has now turned into sipping a glass of wine till 11pm. Which I think is perfect, by the way :)

While we were hoping for a Hawaii or Mexico trip, I found out that I had to be in Las Vegas for work on

Wed & Thursday. Since it was right in the middle of the week, our Spring Break options were limited. We decided to fly in and out of Vegas, and do a road trip to Sedona (only ~4 hrs away) Friday-Tuesday.

Here are some trip highlights:

-Got stuck in a very scary snowstorm on I-40 in Arizona and took 11 hours instead of 4 to reach Sedona. Drove from 11pm to 10am, through the night and stuck in our car for 1-2 hrs at a time when the roads were blocked by trucks sliding backwards down the hill ahead.

-Took naps in the middle of the freeway when we were stuck in the snowstorm and stuck

-I lost my camera. It's either in the rental car, at Szechuan Grill, or at the Hilton Sedona Resort room 10624.

-Naina petted a snake! and loved it

-Swimming!! Yes, the day after the blizzard, it was sunny and 70, so we hit the pool

-Back in Vegas, we stayed at Bellagio. WOW!!! Really.

-Drunk Columbian guy and his Russian wife at my work dinner who ordered 5 bottles of Pinot.

What a trip it was - N's first Spring Break trip!