7 posts tagged “life in the uk”
How well do you know your next-door neighbors?
I am living in this flat for more than a year but still I haven’t seen my next door neighbour. I just know him (and her) through the crying of their baby. In the night their baby starts crying and keeps us awake. I have never met them. Usually I go out in the morning and at that time there in no one out there. I remember, one day when I was coming back to my home I saw a couple with a pram coming down the stairs but I am not sure that was the same couple.
It’s totally contrasting to my place back in India . In India, when you move to new place, before going there, everyone knows about you everything. And within one day you will get to know everybody. But here in the UK my next door neighbour is still a mystery to me.
What's your morning beverage of choice? Coffee, tea, juice? Homemade or store-bought?
I love to have a nice and hot tea in the morning. I don’t like bed tea. I get up early in the morning (that’s strange for someone who knows me since before) and prepare the tea. I don’t like strong tea. I make the tea only with milk and no water. I like sweet tea so I add much (almost two spoons in a cup) sugar in it. Sometimes my wife adds water and that’s why I don’t allow her to prepare my tea.
I don’t like to have only tea. I eat a lot along with tea and usually rusks and biscuits. I dip the rusks into the tea and allow it to sock up well and then I eat it. After finishing the rusks, I put all the biscuits into the remaining tea and keep them soaking for a while and then eat them with the spoon. (I behave like a kid; my wife’s opinion)
If I use the tea only as a medium to eat the other things then why do I need to have a tea? OK…that’s a million dollar question…..
I just have finished one content item from The Linguist library, "Hot Stove, Part 1", about assembling a desk. While reading and listening to Steve, I just recalled assembling my own desk.
A few months ago, I bought a desktop computer. When I purchased it, I thought I should buy a desk for it at the same time, so I hung around in the town centre. I went to couple of ready-made furniture stores but I couldn’t find a desk which was suitable for me. Either they were a bit heavy and inconvenient, or they didn’t have suitable space for other stuff. At that time, I didn’t think that a foldable desk would be suitable, and that's why I didn’t look for one. On that day, I came back with just a computer and thought, "I will find a desk later."
A few days later, while shopping in a superstore, a foldable desk caught my eye and I thought I should give it a try. I bought that desk with a doubtful mind. It was packed in a very small box and I couldn’t believe it would be a big desk. I opened the pack and separated all the parts. It came with a booklet of assembling instructions. First, I went through the instructions. Then I just followed the instructions and put it all together. The major difficulties I faced during the assembly were counting the screws and putting them in the right place.
All the screws looked alike I got confused. Even though they are earmarked, sometimes you may get confused about which screw should be used and where to use it. During my first experience, I placed a screw in the wrong place and cinched it so tight that I sweated while unscrewing it. Also, I put the top of the desk on up side down and realised it while doing the final touches. Without any doubt, I had to take it all apart and redo it.
After assembling my computer desk, I have gained confidence and I’ve learned some tricks. If I follow the directions correctly, I will never do it wrong. Up until now, I have assembled a TV stand, a dining table and a computer desk. I think I have mastered it.
Since last month I do jogging in the morning. I wake up early in the morning and go jogging. The place where I live, it is more or less like urbanised, so you don’t get mountain or trails like in vancouver .
However, there are some nice trails (artificial ….I mean these are intentionally prepared and they go through the town).
Last month I found that most of my clothes were not fitting properly on me. (Either they are shrunken or they were in small size, in first place, when I purchased. But I don’t agree upon the fact that I have put on some weight which all my friends do.) That’s why I decided to do jogging and some exercises so that I can wear these clothes.
On the first day, I woke up early in the morning and put on nice shorts and t-shirt. I have purchased special shoes for my jogging (no matter, even though they cost me more than the clothes for whom I am so worried). On that day I had decided to find out proper route for my jogging and so I went out to find it. I had found some nice trails which were near by my home. Then I did jogging for some days on the same trails but I couldn’t do it more than a mile. When I tried to push myself to do more I got cramps in my legs and then I had to take break for some days. Then I decided to go slow and steady. I increased the distance step by step and now I can go for about more than 2 miles. I think the clothes will fit on me in next few months ……
When I was in India , I was very bad in cooking. I knew only alphabets of cooking like making tea, boiling eggs, making omelette and the stuffs like that. However UK has changed me and at least, now, I can cook various recipes and I am confident I won’t die just because of hunger.
Whenever I get mood, I try to do fish fry. My favourite fishes are Bangada and poplet (both are Indian fish and I don’t know the proper English name) but I don’t get these here.
Instead, I find one tasty
fish called ‘kingfish’. Today I got mood to do fish fry so I went in kitchen and prepared kingfish fry. Here is how I prepared Kingfish fry (with my innovative recipe)
1. First cut the fish in small pieces. You will get quite a big slice of fish here and you have to cut it into small pieces.
2. Prepare spices mixture which you will apply to fish later. This mixture is made up of followings….
Two table spoons chilli powder
One spoon salt
Half spoon black paper powder
Add one spoon lemon juice
Four to five spoons vegetable oil
This quantity is sufficient for one slice of fish.
3. Now apply this mixture to each piece of fish from both sides and keep them to sock in for about 10 to 15 minutes.
4. Now fry the fish in the pan so that it looks crispy.
5. And enjoy the recipe..
I've learned this recipe over trying few trials. Some times there was extra salt or sometime I forgot adding salt. However, I am now expert doing this and enjoy eating the fry made by myself...
What was the worst advice you ever received? Did you follow it?
The area where I live in the uk is not very popular for Indian restaurants. You can find some Indian restaurants good while some really bad. Few days ago, I wished to have some Indian food at home. I really love Indian (especially Kolhapuri mutton) non-veg food. We usually do it at home but that day we were tired and that’s why we decided to order some take-away foods from the restaurant. We asked for one of our friends and he told that all Indian restaurants are good. So we ordered from one of them. It was such an awful food that we binned it all. Actually it was not my friends fault. He is south Indian and south Indian food tastes different from us. Their spices are different and we are not used to it. Also, even though these restaurants are Indian they don’t prepare original cuisine (which is more hot and spicy) but they prepare with British take on it. The food is meant for both Indians as well as British. That’s why it didn’t go well with us.
Today I am gonna parlour for hair cutting. When I remember the first visit to the parlour here in the uk , I just can’t stop myself laughing. It was the initial period of my life in the UK. I wanted to go to the salon for hair-cutting and I just looked up the yellow pages for the addresses of salon in my area. I picked one up and I went to that salon. I hadn’t asked anybody regarding it and went there without any prior knowledge. In India, it’s quite common that we go to the particular salon often and that’s why the hairdresser is known to us. So it is not necessary to tell him every time about what kind of haircut I need. He does his job without asking me.
When I went to the salon, I was confused about how to tell him what kind of hair cut I wanted. I sat in the chair and asked him to cut my hairs very small. I showed him with the help of my fingers how much length of hair he should keep on my head. However, he took it in a wrong way and assumed that I wanted my hairs to be cut very little. So he cut my hairs very carefully and superficially keeping almost the same length as it was before. So I spend £10 for nothing. When he told me “finished” I looked at the mirror and I was shocked because it didn’t look like I just had haircutting. I got up from the chair and paid the bill and left the salon without saying anything. He had spent so much time working on my hairs (and did nothing) that I was afraid to tell him he had done it in a wrong way. I kept mum and came to home. Then I asked my friends and they told me about haircuts. Here, there are numbers for each cut like step 1, step 2 and so on. And we should tell what number of cut we want. It’s that easy. Now I know it, but when I remember this incident I laugh on my English skill. I just couldn’t explain it properly to him and confused him and it costs me for £10.
