Island Chic's Babble» islandchic

A photo a day for 365 days

Island-Chic — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:13:24 +0000

I know I have done a terrible job updating my blog. However, I am proud to announce that I now have a new hobby!

Photography has always been something that has interested me. The sheer lack of talent & having a point-and-shoot cybershot for the last so many years have kept me from pursuing it even as a hobby. Although the lack of talent bit is still the same, the camera bit has changed! I am now the proud owner of a Canon 500D and my ploy to put that into good use is to start ‘A photo a day for 365 days’ project on my flickr.

Hence islandchic will mission on & bring to you personal stories of my little adventures in China & where ever it takes me in the year 2010, through these photos. Do check it out. Your comments are most welcome & highly appreciated.

My favourite food joints

Island-Chic — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:05:15 +0000

Wherever I have lived I have had my ‘most’ favourite food joint (among the dozens of favourites). Naturally those would be the few special places where I’d have eaten the most number of times in that particular city but not necessarily the most elegant, well-known or unique. However these places are usually relatively small, cozy (not the food court) with a personal touch and they served great food.

Here’s the list of my some of my personal favourites. If ever you are in these cities I recommend you give them a try.

Ohri’s Food Court (Hyderabad, India)

Prasad’s IMAX

Neckles Road, Hyderabad

Tel: +91 98 6677 8043 / 44

Email: sales@ohris.com

(My favourite was threaded chicken & an awesome chocolate cake dessert with ice-cream called a bullseye!)

The Big Chill Café (New Delhi, India)

HS-5 Kailash Colony Market

New Delhi 110065

Tel : +91 11 4655 6828

Email : kk@thebigchillcafe.com

(Everything on the menu is great. The blueberry cheese cake is superb!)

Rangoli Indian Restaurant (Singapore)

226 Pasir Panjang Road
Tel: +65 6777 6413

(My favourites were Chicken tikka masala, butter naan & mango lassi)

Istanbul Turkish Restaurant (Beijing, China)

B7 Xiushui Nanjie, Jianguomenwai,

Jianguomen (Behind the Friendship Store)

建国门外秀水南街B7号

友谊商店后边

Tel: +86 6503 2700

Wonder if everyone develop their favourites in different cities?

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Islandchic’s new & improved babble!

Island-Chic — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:47:02 +0000

It’s been quite some time since I’ve blogged last. The reason – let’s just say some times uncontrollable forces can be held responsible for our controllable actions.

Since blogspot has been blocked in China, I’ve been unable to access my blog http://island-chic.blogspot.com and like what happens with all things rough and tough, I lost the plot for my blog in the end.

Later, twitter came along and being lazy, I became more comfortable with the idea of micro-blogging, i.e. tweeting!

Anyway, I have finally started missing my own babble. So here it comes! Islandchic’s new and improved babble!

Feel free to drop your comments/suggestions.

Thanks.

Counting my blessings in 2008

Island-Chic — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:58:00 +0000

In some ways, 2008 was by far the worst year of my entire life for reasons that some people may or may not know. Ironically it was also the best in many other ways. I’d like to leave aside the bad and concentrate on the good. I’m counting my blessings in 2008.

Here are ten things that I was grateful for in 2008.

1) My faith in God, who has always helped me get through my worst. There were times when I wondered about His love and in the end I find that even the bad things happen for a reason. We just got to take it as it comes and savour the moments.

2) My parents who love me unconditionally, have ALWAYS supported me and given me everything they could possibly give a daughter

3) The good health and wellbeing of myself, my parents and my siblings

4) A good beginning of 2008 with a joyous new year with very special friends

5) The wonderful friends I made during my time in Singapore, including some very close ones with whom I shared some really great times with. Also the many lovely friends from all over the world that I am blessed with.

6) My enjoyable travels in South East Asia with really fun travel mates – KL, Langkawi & Tuba, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Myanmar, and Thailand hold amazing memories now.

7) A truly memorable learning experience in the LKY School of Public Policy

A great job with a great boss right after the School

9) Being able to climb the Great Wall, witness the Olympics Opening Ceremony and many of the events that unfolded in Beijing

10) For the presence of a wonderful man in my life through times easy and hard for a good six years.

I hope 2009 is a great year for all of us.

What do you want to do before you die?

Island-Chic — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:15:00 +0000

If you knew that you had only a day to live, what would you have done? If you knew you had longer, would you have done the same thing or would you have lived differently?

Life is short, unpredictable and capricious. To live happy and to fulfill your dreams, you have to know what you want out of life. Here’s an idea. Make a list of a 100 things you want to do before you die and slowly try to tick them off as you get to do them. It doesn’t have to be overly ambitious or anything, just things that make you feel good about yourself. Things that you would have done, if you knew you were going to die very soon!

Here’s the story of 4 guys attempting an epic list of 100 things to do before you die on their website http://www.theburiedlife.com/

Ben, Dave, Duncan and Jonnie left home in the summer of 2006 to complete their list of 100 things to do before you die. For every item they accomplish they help a stranger with an item on their list. According to the website, 47 items have been crossed off the list so far and more than 50 strangers have been helped with their life goals. You can join the network and share your list on their website as well.

Perhaps, I’ve started my list with the most ambitious ones first! Nonetheless, I’m sure of what I want out of life. Whether I get there or not is a different story altogether. Like 50 Cent says “Get rich or die trying”! Here are 10 things from my list of things I want to do before I die. I’d consider myself lucky to tick off any.

1. See the Seven Wonders of the World with the man I love
2. Take at least 10 kids off the street and educate them
3. Make a lasting positive impact for my country & its people
4. Give my siblings everything I never had during my childhood
5. Help my parents fulfill at least one big dream of theirs
6. Do a PhD at Harvard
7. Learn at least 5 foreign languages
8. Have my own Newspaper column
9. Own a swimming pool
10. Be a good wife and mother

Try making your list and start ticking them off. Good luck fulfilling your dreams!

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Island Chic’s 100th post!

Island-Chic — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:13:00 +0000

Yoohoo! Today is a day for celebration. My blog reaches its 100^th post!

Though I did my first post on the blog in June 2008, I officially started writing regularly in August. Since then I’ve been posting regularly, almost on a daily basis, on anything that interests me.

I don’t have a particular theme for my blog, but I enjoy writing about public policy as it is my area of interest. Also I write about politics, society and development. I have a few posts about online apps and some about Google, mostly inspired by HoTsTePPa, who is my blog guru. I’ve had a few posts on love and relationships which were very popular as well.

Though I’m not a professional blogger, I enjoy this as a hobby and I consider it a great learning opportunity. Also I have enjoyed tremendous support from my friends and random readers who have encouraged my writing as well as offered me extremely constructive criticism, which I appreciate very much!

Two of my biggest supporters HoTsTePPa aka DChetty and Elliptically Speaking are highest on the list! Thanks guys.

Some more encouraging visitors I wanted to mention; Pearl of Africa, Subtitled Dreams , DieDie, Bugs, Hilath, Kalhusoru, Princess Knight, Jojo, askme, Dhivehi, Haanee, Sacchu, Fara and Moditoo. Thank you guys!