The Mumbai Experience

As I’m off to London for 4-5 weeks, FTF and I decided to go for dinner, because clearly we didn’t get enough of each other Saturday night! So on Tuesday we had dinner at Olive in Bandra. The menu looks delicious so it was not easy to choose what to eat - but eventually we both settled for fish! Black Cod! It was very good! But not before each finishing a martini, two starters and a salad, oh and all the while sipping our Sula wine! Sometime during our meal a group of 4 sat down at the table next to us, two foreign girls and 2 Indian guys. One of the guys looked SO familiar. I told FTF who I thought he looked like. She doubted me but said I should ask. Well, how embarrassing! If it IS him, the poor guy is a ‘celebrity’ having dinner with friends, i’m not going to jump in and ask for an autograph! Conveniently his 3 friends got up for a smoke around the same time FTF was going there, so she asked the other guy where he recommended we go out after dinner. Since we started a conversation with them, and the look-alike is a non-smoker like myself, I got into a conversation with him while the others went to the smoking area. It is there that we introduced ourselves and was indeed the guy I had in mind! It’s not that I am a fan or anything, it was just satisfying for myself to know I got it right! For the rest of the evening FTF and I joined the four of them and we had another drink and chatted until the restaurant closed. They were all nice people, very chilled out and we had good conversation. Good enough anyway, that we ended up seeing them the next night as well!

So after the restaurant closed our two groups parted ways, FTF and I went home. Once again I reached home, super proud that I still have my keys and my phone! 10 minutes later, the power in my apartment goes out. Seriously? I didn’t need my lights since I was going to sleep, but it was getting much too hot in the flat without at least the fan on! So some phone calls later and waiting on my couch with my hand-held fan, the power came back on. First thing I did was turn on the AC! Oof. Then to sleep!

Wednesday I woke up feeling less than fresh! That watermelon martini, B52 shot and 2 bottles of Sula wine (between 2!) hit me hard in the morning! Ouch. But off to work I went! Story of my life! The day was relatively long and slow and I could NOT keep my eyes open. Horrible. Around 7pm I left and went to the hair dresser! I wanted to get a cut to freshen up my hair! Well, needless to say my time and money would have been better spent on a pedicure, or nothing at all! There is no noticeable change. Also, when blow drying I asked for VOLUME. I kid you not, my hair had never been so flat. Actually, now as I write this, a day later, my hair is still flat. And I washed it. *sigh* I did get complimentary threading though! So what, I saved 45 rupees?! Haha. I didn’t reach home until about 9pm and rapidly changed into something nicer and heels and headed off to Juhu to finally see Swiss Guy and his family! I haven’t spoken about them in months, so let me refresh your memory! This guy is basically a colleague of my dad’s who works in Mumbai. He is a Swiss guy and has been so kind to invite me to dinner at his house on numerous occasions! I hadn’t seen him since I got back in April because he was terribly busy with work and his wife and child were on their summer holiday! Last night though I went over there and caught up with them, had amazing Thai fried rice (his wife is Thai!) and mango for dessert! I had gotten their 4-year-old sun a toy car set of a London taxi and London red double-decker bus! It looks so much fun so I had to get it for him, he loves his cars! Around 11pm I left their place and headed to Bandra where FTF was already having a drink with some friends. When I reached I had a drink and then FTF and I were picked up by our new Olive-friend and we headed to F-bar! Despite being a ‘celebrity’, he’s a very cool guy. Perhaps he also appreciates that we don’t treat him any differently because of the things he has done! But it was very interesting to see everywhere we went that people recognized him and asked for photos with him and his autograph. Not so much in the bars and clubs, there people shake his hand and congratulate his success, but the working men, from waiters to door men to security, they all asked for pictures and were full-on fans! It was cute! I can imagine it is difficult for him, but he did say that it is amazing to receive so much “unconditional love”. I’m sure it is! So F-Bar closed by 1:30 and I took that opportunity to head home. I hadn’t even opened my suitcase yet let alone started packing! FTF went on to an after-party and the boys went back to their hotel. I stayed up until about 3:30am organizing my apartment and ‘mentally’ packing my suitcase so I would be able to ‘physically’ do it quickly in the morning!

Like clockwork my cleaning lady arrived at 8am, which is good in a sense because it got me out of bed and in packing mode! I’m at work now but I feel my packing is 80% complete. What remains is toiletries and some stuff I have hanging out to dry now from laundry! And then also my apartment needs to be relatively neat so nothing can mold or get dusty and so my cleaning lady can easily sweep and clean no the couple days a week she comes when i’m gone!

I’m hoping to get out of office early today so I can buy cleaning products for my cleaning lady before I leave, that will also give me the opportunity to pop by the gym and say goodbye to my trainer! Then if the last 20% of my packing goes smoothly can meet FTF for a quick bite (depending the status of her hangover!) and say goodbye. Then twitter friend has kindly offered to drive me to the airport! I don’t have to be there until about 11pm, so it gives me a good evening of time, if I can leave office at a reasonable hour!

I’m only gone for a month, i’ll be back in Mumbai the first week of July before anyone has time to miss me! I’ll be in London for work, and the work gets very busy and very hectic, so i’m not sure how much time i’ll get on my computer, but if and when I do I’ll make an effort to write a post or two! (oh, that rhymed!!) I know I always say these things and then let you down - but I can only try!

Lots of love to my followers! Bon voyage!

Woooo Saturday night was quite the night! FTF and I started at WTF! for a bottle of wine. From there we got a ride down to Liv where we know one of the owners so were settled for free drinks! I randomly bumped into one of my colleages there as well, so that was fun! The place closed around 2am which is actually really decent! From there FTF, myself and other friends joined a house party. Now this house party, damn. It was not just a “house” party! It was a club in someone’s house! Literally! You walked through the front door and the entire living room was turned into a large dance floor with club lighting, a dj booth, an open-bar, the works! Impressive! Eventually pretty much everybody from Liv had shifted to this “house” party, so it was like the night just continued! With an open bar! Hello! I did not leave there until 6am! So I probably got home another half hour later and went straight to bed! It felt abnormal to be driving home with the sun already in full swing! But maybe the sun is a sign of a good night! :p

Needless to say my Sunday was spent in bed. Actually, only until about 3pm! Probably because by then I was hungry! I also had some errands I needed to run, like make duplicate keys (I lost mine, remember?!) and return a top to Zara (yes, return! no exchange!). Twitter friend kept me company that afternoon. He also conveniently has an airconditioned car! Muahaha! At Infiniti Mall where I was returning to Zara, like every Sunday!!, I had a Dominos pepperoni pizza. yum. I tweeted about it and got more then one response saying, “All your hard work at the gym down the drain!” Jeez! Thanks guys! Can’t a hungover woman have a pizza? It was small! A one-person pizza! And I enjoyed every crumb of it! So it was worth it! But talking about the gym, hmm, I last went on Saturday, and I fear that was also the last time I’ll manage to go before I leave to London! This week is only going to get busier and as much as I’d love to work out after office, i’d also like a pedicure and a hair cut! Priorities!

Monday evening I went to see Men in Black 3 with twitter friend. Neither of us actually wanted to see it but nothing else was playing at a convenient time at a cinema near us, and I was badly craving caramel popcorn one last time before leaving!, so we went for MIB3! Niether of us had seen the first two either, so at least we were in the same boat! Thank God we watched it in 2D because I would not have wanted to see those freakish aliens up in my face!! The caramel popcorn was devine though, and totally worth it! :D I’ve never wanted to try the cheesy or masala flavored popcorn… would you?! O_o

This has been a really chilled out week! For the most part…

Monday and Tuesday I didn’t do much except go to work and gym and then watch shows in bed! Love nights like those! Wednesday I finally saw FTF for the first time since before her birthday, so I got to give her her birthday card and gift! We went for a bottle of wine at Red Box, a place near our homes. One of her male friends joined us so we sent him to the bathroom or away for a smoke so we could gossip and girl-talk! Haha. That was not too intense an evening, we were home by 1am!

Thursday on the other hand, the night didn’t seem to want to end! I met FTF and that same male friend at a restaurant in Andheri, La Patio. It’s an open-air roof-top restaurant with bar that actually has quite a romantic feel to it! The lighting.. the music.. the water fall at one end..! We had some wine (obviously!) and some snacks, was nice! By midnight we had been in touch with another friend of ours who was trying to convince us to join him and his girlfriend to a club called Royalty. He did convince us, so FTF and I made our way to Bandra, but not before trying some absinthe! FTF was going to have a shot, I was going to pass, until the waiter told us they served absinthe and we sort of looked at eachother and thought, OKAY! It was my first time trying it, and let me just say I couldn’t feel my throat or tongue for the next 2 days! They serve it to you on fire, and you need to chug the shot through a straw. Oof. After that we jumped in the rickshaw and made our way. FTF’s friend went home at this point because he had an early morning the next day. We must have been 10minutes away from Royalty and our friend calls us to say it’s closing. Well, that sucks! So we stayed in the Juhu area and went to the Novotel beach lounge. They’re usually open until 1:30 so we thought we could get one or two more drinks before we had to end our night! We reached and the bar was closing so we each ordered 3 drinks! We would still be allowed to sit there so we made one big bulk order! Coincidentally, when we went to take our seat, who’s sitting there? Our friend and his girlfriend - the ones we would have met up with in Royalty! Haha. So we did get to hang out with them for a little while! Around 2:30/3am we decided to make a move. FTF and I took a rickshaw, it’s so convenient that we live in the same area! Phew! So she dropped me off first and then continued on her way. I got home, didn’t lose my keys, I was so proud! Got into bed and tried to sleep. Half an hour later or so I get a call from FTF’s friend who joined us to La Patio earlier, and he explains that a drunk driver drove into FTF’s rickshaw 5 minutes after she dropped me home. WHAT?! Thankfully everything is fine with her, she was just in shock for the most part, but the two of them did spend the rest of the night at the police station filing reports and then at the hospital getting scans as a precaution. I didn’t sleep that night either as they were calling me giving me updates on their situation through the night. By 5am or something I got to see FTF and drop her home, it was obvious that she was OK from a physical point of view, which was a relief! I believe now she’s slightly bruised. It is unbelievable how lucky she was, I don’t even want to think of the things that may have happened. And to think it happened 5 minutes after she dropped me home - just shows how lucky I was as well. You really gotta have luck in life, that’s for sure.

Friday I went to work as usual and gymed, and once I got home I prepared my little home cinema - my lapop, speakers and downloaded tv shows - in my bedroom! Was invited to join twitter friend for his friend’s birthday at Royalty but I was too tired and lazy by this point!

So it’s weekend once again! Saturday… office-day… the usual! Let’s see how FTF is feeling and maybe we’ll go dancing tonight? It’s my last weekend in Mumbai before I’m off to London for a month - so that defo calls for a drink!! (Any excuse!)

Monday, Monday, Monday. I feel like Monday comes around the corner faster then any other day of the week! It’s that day I get to write you about my weekend, which I can’t decide is either exciting because i’m reminiscing, or sad because i’m remembering I have a 6-day week ahead of me, again!

Saturday was FTF’s birthday! We had big plans to party it up! She didn’t want to “celebrate” as such, but any excuse to party, right?! So I went to work as I do every Saturday and then headed to the gym, as I have been every day of the week, i’m so proud! I was quite excited for the evening to come around, especially since the last time I left my house I lost my keys and we all know how that turned out!! However to my dismay, FTF was too sleepy and too hungover from the previous night, that she was not up for anything that evening. Hmpf. Shame! By now its 9:30pm, i’m sitting on my bed watching the show Suits! I went around texting some other friends seeing what they were up to but obviously everyone already had plans of their own! Eventually I got invited by a friend to join them to a club called Royalty. I’d never been there and was pretty ready for a night out, so I went for it! I went over to the guy’s house for a drink and then we were all going to drive together. When I got there we found out the club was closed that evening. Our options were now either Liv or Hype. Liv would probably have been where we ended up for FTF’s birthday, but Hype I had never been to before so I was happy when the group opted for Hype! The place is big compared to other clubs i’ve seen here so was pretty cool. The music was not bad either! I was not there for too long because it was already midnight by the time we got there and clubs close at ridiculously early hours here! Anyway at least it was not a complete waste of an evening! Sucks FTF and I didn’t get to hit the town in our little dresses and celebrate her bdizzle, but I think she had a nice evening on the Friday and that’s most important!

Sunday I got out of bed around noon, no hangover whatsoever! Yay! I love that. It’s amazing to be able to go out and drink and then wake up the next day feeling alright! I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have been that way had FTF and I gone out! Haha. I went to Infiniti Mall Malad, as seems to be my Sunday tradition! This time to return some stuff to Zara. Okay, so maybe I did more exchanging rather then returning!! But I didn’t spend any more money! In the afternoon I had plans to meet with twitter friend because I felt I had to thank him somehow for being there for me on the Friday morning. Plans to go for coffee turned into checking out a new place, the Beach Cafe at Marine Drive. It was nice! We got there right at sunset which was perfect, so we enjoyed some fresh fruit juices and mocktails as the day turned into night. I can’t say that twitter friend and me have solved our problems or fixed our differences, but hopefully it will only get better from here, as I know I don’t want to go back to how bad it was before. He dropped me off at home and I spent the rest of the evening chilling at home.

Now it’s Monday. I wonder what the week will bring - we can only hope it’s good things! I can’t afford to lose anything else! My heart and mind couldn’t take it!! ?