Shopping Spree ...

This weekend I was mad shopping things, I had a pretty long list to purchase as I ran short of lots of accessories that I use in my day to day routine and adding on to that huge loads of chocolates. I know that this weekend will be the last weekend for me to shop and the next coming weekend I have plans to go to Washington DC as one of my close friends is visiting me from Chicago. I had a budget in mind which I wanted to spend in the US and the rest of the amount will be spent in Dubai as I have a 13 hours transit in the desert city ...

Friday night I went to my cousin's place a New Jersey and it was 10:00 PM when I reached there, later we decided to eat outside, so we went to a North Indian restaurant and had a good meal. We came home and by then all his roommates have come back and we all had a long chat, general vetti topics and pulling each other’s leg, I was given very high respect which is too unusual to me, but for the simple fact that I am very very old. I hit my sack at 11:00 and got up around 10:00 AM on Saturday, as all his roommates wanted to taste my specials, I decided to cook, I made onion vetha kuzhambu, tomato rasam and potato fry, but knowing the fact that it will take a long time to cook for 8 ppl, we all had maggi for breakfast.

I finished cooking by 2:30 and we all had our lunch at 3:00, all my cousin's roommates appreciated my culinary skills and enjoyed my cooking taste, not even a single piece of potato fry was to be found in that vessel. It’s good that nothing went wrong that day and all the menu items came out well with the taste I expected it to be. Evening my cousin and his friend who joined him from Connecticut went to "Liberty State Park", as it was freezing there we all rushed back home. His roommates have invited a couple for dinner as they are leaving to INDIA this weekend. They both were very friendly and I dunno what my cousin have told them about me, moment he saw me he said "I have heard a lot about you and pleasure meeting you".

When it is rain or cold the first thing your mind would want to have is ??? "Onion Pakoda", everyone in that room said, it will be great to have hot onion pakodas now, I told them that I know how to make that, moment I said that, guys started cutting onions :-), I started mixing the flour with salt and chili powder, and added curry leaves and green chilies and kept the oil pan on the stove, within 20 mins hot hot pakodas ready!!!, my image of "Excellent Cook" changed to "Experienced Cook", pakodas too came out very well with that traditional golden brown color. Then we all had dinner around 9:00 PM, the couple who came home for dinner literally drank my rasam and they said they have not tasted such a wonderful rasam ever :-)

After another heavy meal, we all decided to brave the cold and go out for a walk along the banks of Hudson river, we wrapped ourselves in thick jackets and went for a 1 hour long walk, it was full of fun, I shared all the good jokes I have heard, most of them were dirty to be honest, but dirty jokes are also hilarious. We came home by 12:30 in the morning and all of us were dead tired, and hence we went to bed. I am happy that I am getting rid of my stay here  day by day and its just 13 more days to go, that simple feeling made me feel happy. Today is the day where the day-light settings take effect and hence all our clocks will be rolled 1 hour back, so you get 1 extra hour to sleep in a day.

Sunday morning I got up at 8:00 and by 10:00 myself and my cousin went to BJS to complete my final list of shopping, I shopped like mad and purchased all that I wanted and put a tick mark against each of the item in my checklist, I did a big mistake by purchasing a wrong size of diaper for my cousin's son, so I have to go and change that next week. I then purchased lots and lots of chocolates and it was a whopping amount at the billing counter. I hope I am still within my weight limits so that I can carry them back to INDIA without any problem. We forgot to take our trolley to put our goods, and later my cousin went home and took that trolley and till them I stood out in that shivering cold with just my t-shirt and three fourth pants :(

We came home and had a heavy breakfast and headed off to Statue of Liberty and then to Ellis Island and then back to home. It was very cold on Sunday and hence we could not spend much time outside. The ferry trip to the "Statue of Liberty" was fun and also I learnt very good information today regarding the color of the "Liberty Statue" being green. It is made up of metal and mainly copper, and when copper is exposed to air which contains "Oxygen" it turns green due to a chemical reaction called "Oxidation" and it took almost 30 years for the statue to completely go green since its erection. If the temperature would have been a bit higher, we would have enjoyed a lot, but unfortunately it was very cold.

I, my cousin and his friend came home by 5:30, had our early dinner and then packed all the things I have shopped (almost 16 kgs), took it in two big back packs and came back to New York by 8:00 PM. I then unpacked all my stuffs and then arranged it in my big suitcases. I know I have to do a final packing during my last week and this is just a temporary arrangement. My cousin stayed with me in the hotel overnight and me entered my accounts and settled few hundred dollars to my cousin as he is the one who is paying thru his cards. BY 10:00 PM we both went to sleep. It was a pretty tiring weekend and I have one more weekend to spend in the US. More updates to follow ...