I am cheating a bit this weekend because I am writing about my last weekend.But I can justify my actions ( I always can…..) This week was quite uneventful and by the time i finished all the first things in the week there was no place for what i did last Sunday!
Seejo,Seejo’s friend, Ashu,and I also went to an island in Maryland called Chincoteague. Have any of you read the book Misty of Chincoteague by Margureite Henry. Its about a couple of kids who try to capture a wild pony. I read the book when i was a kid. It was the first “pony tale ” I ever read and thats when i started reading a lot of horse/pony stories. Black Beauty and a lot of other ” Horse stories for little girls”.
I always thought that Chincoteague and Assateague were fictional islands.I was totally surprised and thrilled when i realised there actually exists a place called Chincoteague and that it really has wild ponies. And what was more exciting that it was only about 3 hours away from Seejo’s place. Ofcourse I insisted we go there this weekend and thats how Seejo,Ashutosh and I headed over to the islands. The attraction was the wild ponies. Legend has it that these horses were being transported from Spain to south America when the Spanish galleon capsized near the islands and these horses swam to the Chincoteague and the nearby Assateague islands and settled there. Ofcourse there is a more plausible story that these were horses tamed by the local farmers etc. but the first tale is definitely the more romantic one…..
Other than the wild horses ( which we caught a glimpse of) there were a few other wildlife to see. We did some birdwatching and we tried to identify the birds with the help of the pamplet given to us when we entered the place. The highlight of the trip was definitely the lunch. We had our lunch at a local seafood restaurant. Sea food buffet . It had fish,shrimps,crabs and more fish. All types and sizes boiled, grilled, fried or curried. Two different kinds of crabs and a spicy crab soup. Chicken and pork and hashbrowns for the not so fishy people.And cakes and apple pie.
It was pretty good ,even for a person who is not into seafood at all. The funny part was when we retuned to our table with plates laden with crab legs. Now these were not ordinary crabs, they were snow crabs and eac leg was about 20″. We  stared at the legs wondering how on earth could we eat them.Finally asked the waitress for tips. “sure I’ll show you she said.” Grabbed the legs broke them at one joint,cracked them again at anothere joined and pulled the bones out. Next she inserted a fork through the crab leg and slit the crab leg ,similar to the manner we slit open a letter. Inside there was a fragment of a white gooey mass which was the crabmeat.
Truthfully, it was too much trouble for a small pice of meat which according to Ashu tasted like “salty sevaiyan”. When the waitress did it it seemed quite simple but when I started to do it,I realised this was one of those tasks which requires some inborn skill. After a mental sorry to the poor crab I broke its legs at the appropriate joints. However slitting then apart was another thing altogether. And even after I Â managedthat, I never could get the crabmeat in one piece. Made me crabby as hell (hahaha)
This week was a peaceful week. Mark was busy with a lot of stuff and i was busy trying to get a committe for my defense. And trying to accelerate my pace in writing the thesis. And wrapping up the experiments.And teaching a new guy here the ropes. And job hunting………..
This weekend we had an unexpected guest. A girl called Sabina from U.K who is on a solo world tour landed up at our place courtesy Subbu. She is just doing one of the things that most of us dream of and few have real hopes of actually doing it. She plans to see U.S and from here she is flying to AUstralia and then Bali ,Singapore and the Far East ,India and then back to England. All alone …isn’t that coool!
Books
Cakes and Ale by Somerset Maugham.
(I need to read some new books.People why don’t you give me suggestions on what to read/what are you currently reading? Preferably soemthing fun)
Websites
www.short-stories.co.uk (Pretty goos stories,,,one of the sites that makes you wonder…gosh how come i missed this one)
http://indianbloggers.blogspot.com/ ( painstakingly compiled list of Indian bloggers. Some of them is real neat stuff)
Movies
Naram Garam (Swaroop Sampat looks so good….and Amol Palekar and Utpal Dutt are as good as they were in Golmaal
Bombay to Goa (I saw the movie for the first time….would you believe it)
Tango and Cash
Vegetable/Fruit of the Week
Our secretary made some rhubarb jelly and got it over to taste. Never ever had rhubarb before. It tasted exactly like aamla (gooseberry). Apparantly rhubarb looks similar to celery than to the berry. It has a nice tart taste. I am going to head for the fruits aisle first the next time I get my grocery.
R.I.P
My poor phone. I was taking one of those leisurely baths combined with some bathroom cleaning and i took my phone into the rest room. I was gathering all my stuff while coming out of the restroom ,after finishing my cleansing activities when the phone slipped out of my hand and………….. and………………….and.,…………………..”chullu bhar paani mein doob gaya”. Its conked off and i feel handicapped. So all those who have been trying to call me up thats the reason. THe phone at home is still working……
