Fresh Honey Pretzels

I don't want any of you to think that all i do is bag on Delhi. While that hobby does occupy a goodly portion of my time i am capable of recognizing the town's positive aspects. Specifically, I am currently nibbling on a fresh Jelabi that i witnessed being cooked and brought home for next nothing, cost wise.

For those of you who don't know what a Jelabi is... Shame on you! *Stern look* These are my favorite Indian sweet and have been for many, many years now. Let the plebes go on about the galub jamun I'll take Jelabi any day!

Growing up my family referred to these as "honey pretzels" and devoured them on the rare occasions they were made available to us. I was; however, never able to remember their real name and was always stuck describing them to Indian people i met to explain what i was talking about. They all thought i was nuts. None of them ever said as much to me but i could tell. =)

So when i meandered into the sweet shoppe to purchase a samosa, imagine my shock when i saw somebody being handed a giant box of Honey Pretzels. "What are those called?" i asked hoping he would understand me. No such luck. So i turned to the boy behind the counter and said "Give me 6 of what that man had. Please, six like in that box," I begged while pointing urgently at the man's departing figure. Yeah, not so much. I tried describing what i wanted gesturing frantically. Still nada. Finally the angel with the wok figured it out. Bless him.

"Jelabi? You want Jelabi, Auntie?" Yes! Yes! Yes! We had finally broken our language barrier. (I'm sticking by the fact that Jelabi means Honey Pretzel in English. If it doesn't then it should!) He handed me a small box for my two lamb samosas and a larger one for the handful of Jelabi. I could tell he was laughing me but i didn't care because i was going to have a Jelabi that I seen being made before my eyes.

Even as i arrived home the box was still warm to the touch. And as I bit into the first of my pretzel shaped delicacies i was finally willing to accept that life is good in Delhi. Life is very good. =)

An all new "Caroline in the City"

While waiting to find friends, stuff to do and in an attempt to keep myself busy I have several hobbies here in Delhi. With the advent of Internet in my apartment, the new number one spot has been taken away from knitting. Yup, mum, I am knitting up a monsoon storm here in Delhi. (Beware knitting joke ahead...) Of course if I were really knitting during a monsoon I'd have a really cool felted creation to take home! (Ok lame knitting joke.)

But on to my number three love: TV. For those of you who are in or have ever been in Delhi you understand why this is a really, really lame thing to love. There are only about 7 or 8 English language stations that aren't sports on our cable. Since watching cricket and football (that's soccer to you Yanks; all of whom i miss terribly!) aren't up my alley it means that i have 7 or 8 channels of TV period.

Allow me to break down Delhi TV for you. We have HBO, which edits movies for content and has commercials during the movie, which in my opinion, defeats the purpose of HBO entirely. Then we have Hallmark channel and the History channel. Thanks to the latter I can now tell you the history of Star Wars, the piece of paper on which was written the original Gettysburg address and Wonder Woman among other weird things you never wanted to know.

In terms of real watchable TV we have AXN, ZTV and Star World. AXN is cool because it shows all the CSIs (which prior to living here i never, ever watched since i am a Law and Order devotee) and Amazing Race. The latter of course makes up for all the other crap since we actually get this season's AR if a week or so late. YAY!

Which brings us to the real problem with TV here in general: it’s all repeats all the time. Don't get me wrong, if I had been a hermit who had never watched TV for the last 6 or 7 years it would be great. Since i am not a hermit and count the person who invented TV as one of my favourite people ever born, TV here pretty much sucks. Tonight i can watch an all-new "8 Simple Rules" followed by an all-new "Caroline in the City" and ending with the latest episode of "Wonderfalls." In case you don't watch TV (you freak!) allow me to explain how cancelled and no longer on TV all of these shows are in real world.

It could be worse though, my friends, it could be Tuesday and I could be stuck watching an all-new "Becker." 'Nuff said.

Mosquitos Suck

I think its fair to say that mosquitos have their only local Delhi Network where they get together and chat. I also think its fair to say that they all got a memo the moment i arrived in town.

Last night in the span of a 10 minute drive to dinner i got bitten no less than 6 times. My arms, my side and even my forehead were attacked. And they itch like NUTS! *sob* I'm currently drowning in callodryl drying to keep the itch down.

To what evil fate should i give thanks for my status as human pincushion? Who ever you are... Thanks for nothing!

Now i have to sign off this post and itch my arm some more...

The Cool Passport

AFter waiting two long, passport-less months the Indian government has finally relinquished my passport. I now have three visas in my passport from India. Yup that's right three: visitor, the weird "x" visa and now the ever cool "O" visa. Oh yeah, i have an offical visa in my passport.

I have no idea what it means or what it does. I take that back, I can go through the cool "dip" line when we come home to Delhi from trips. Take that people stuck in the long line! =p

PS The Evil Hubby just called me a Blogger B!tch. That's true love.

PPS I have the cool visa!! Woo Hoo!

A New Beginning

Hubby and I have now been in Delhi almost two full months. That means that i only have 2 years and 10 months left! YAY!

Let's see we have no real furniture to speak of yet. Hubby will insist that I point out that we bought stuff when we arrived that is quite nice. I just want my own dang bed to sleep in! Who knew that would be such a lot to ask for. No, Sweetie, I know.... It should be here in two more weeks. Two more weeks is the mantra of hell... er... Delhi.

On the plus side, we finally got our internet set up. It took three crews of people and an entire Saturday. (Let's not get me started on that one. GRRRRRR) the guys who installed the wiring also left the place a mess which has pissed me off to no end. There are stray nails and wood dust all over the damn place. Geez do they think I have a maid or something!?