The belly rules the mind.

(title is a Spanish proverb. They know what they are talking about!)


I have a final exam tomorrow on 'Constitutional Law of India' (Yes, I know! even I thought I was doing an Architecture course.) 


BUT, I spent the entire day ('entire' means- morning 'till evening) reading food blogs. 


And not just ordinary food blogs. Food blogs by designers, photographers and even architects. I am inspired.


Cooking Architecture - I found this one a while ago. Architect couple who also love food and share both passions in their blog. Loved this entry and it is going to be quoted in my thesis (my current topic (subject to change)- Organic Food Park) 


Bella Eats - Another architect. More passionate about food and photography. One of her posts said that she quit her job at an architectural firm and started her own photography company and she blogs extensively about food. Very colourful, healthy, wholesome food. I am going to try some of her stuff (post June 6).


Eating Design - This was sooooo cool! They have a restaurant, they do exhibitions and very artsy type of catering. I was quite awed. Design+Food= Marije Vogelzang. Check these out. Can't decide which is my favourite. THIS is where I want to work.

Marije Vogelzang, you are super cool!

Fork Heart Knife - Two friends who had a tiny restaurant for a year. I want to do that. 

Orangette - She met her husband through her blog! Wowie. So, she's a food writer and he's a chef. 


Smitten Kitchen and Sprouted Kitchen - both cooks/food writers with husbands who are photographers. I say, thats a pretty good combo.


NOTCOT - Another design site with one whole section on food. 

Hmm... I think this is enough for today. There must be tonnes more of these blogs.
So, architecture-writing-food-photography is quite an exciting mix. I will say again, I am inspired. 


:)


One day later- I have holiday plans- blog about food. Yay. I'm so excited that its occupying my mind which should be occupied presently by my design project (due on Monday). *sigh

Brownie Points in the news!

Hindu Metro Plus

Hindu Metro Plus (same article, another website)


Much excitement. We even got our first fan mail. :D

"And if you told me we were dreaming I would pinch you to prove we're awake."

I have a LOT of work to do, but this internet is too distracting. And I found new cool music. Happiness.

Pomplamoose-- weirdest name (means grapefruit in French), but super cool arrangements. They do a lot of covers. She has a very mellow voice, and he is one musical instrument genius! Good stuff.


And most of their music videos are VideoSong, a new Medium with two rules:

1. What you see is what you hear (no lip-syncing for instruments or voice).
2. If you hear it, at some point you see it (no hidden sounds).

Ok. Now back to work. Sigh*

From my Grandparents.

One of the best letters I've ever got.


April 29, 2011


Dearest Tanisha, 


What better occasion than your twenty-first birthday to write a letter to you, to share the thoughts and hopes we've carried with us through the years. What a precious gift you have been to our family!


We earnestly wish you the best as you attempt to reach those goals you have set for yourself, as well as in your endeavor to reach your highest potential spiritually in Jesus Christ. We also want to share things that we have learned over a lifetime of growing up, marrying, and raising our own family and watching as they leave home- one by one- to begin their own lives. Here are some of those things:


No matter how hard you try, not everyone will like you or be nice to you. So love your family and friends even more and thank God for each of them. We can never know another's heart or mind, and everyone has feelings that can be hurt.


God has given you an attractive face and pleasing personality. You don't have to keep up the latest dictates of fashion to look nice and be comfortable.


Try to include at least one kindness in every day. The blessings are enormous! Many people will forget your name but few will forget a kindness shown.


Don't jump into friendships, or relationships, blindly. Learn to talk things out with a trusted confidant. Not a peer, but someone with insight and wisdom you can trust. Weigh any advice carefully in the light of God's word. Pray about each new encounter, and ask the Lord's guidance. He will lead you in the way you should go. You are still young, but one day you will want to marry and start your own family.
Be absolutely certain you have picked the right person; marriage is the most rewarding relationship you will ever have, but it takes work, prayer and compromise.


Never forget that you are here by the grace of God, and as a much-loved child of His, you are an heir to the Kingdom. Whatever you do, in college or at work, do the very best you can. Always attend church, and pay your rightful tithe. It belongs to the Father anyway, so pay part of it back. Whenever you return a favour, always try to pay back more than you were given.


Take time frequently to just have fun; it needn't be costly. Remember too, that as long as you have family and friends plus a right relationship with the Lord, you are rich beyond measure.


With much love and prayer,
Papa and Nana

Brownie Points gets published!

Brownie Points in Time Out, Bangalore

Summer Dresses and Wedding Cake

1. 'I saw also that there was an ocean of darkness and death, but an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness.' ~George fox 


2. 'I've been getting enough advice over the last few months. I don't want anymore of that now. So, lets just skip to the food' *loud applause* 'Everyone please wait for sometime before you wish the couple. The bride and groom would like to eat first' (Wedding of Ashley and Renu) 


2 1/2. 'Aaahhh' ~Everyone, as the top layer of the cake went 'Splat'! 'Who orders cream cake in 35 degree weather. Now we all have to clear it up' ~person with mouth stuffed with pineapple cream cake. (I benefited too) :)




3. 'Our dreams and they are made out of real things like a shoebox of photographs with sepia-toned loving...' (Nice music for a sunny summer wedding)


4. 'No good with faces and I'm bad with names' ~Jack Johnson and Tanisha Christo. Met someone who remembered a bit too much about me from 8 years ago whom I had no clue even existed. 


5. This song makes me all jumpy! (especially from 2:21)

6. 'I want to go swimming' ~Me

Shakespeare got it right.

I googled 'love' and the first result was The Love Calculator. How much more trivial can it get?! Shocking. And as expected the images results were hearts and roses. No surprises.


I came across this and I thought that as far as worldly love goes, this is a pretty perfect definition.

SONNET 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved. 

Food for the senses- Caperberry

There is no doubt about it; dinner at Caperberry last night was the most spectacular and exquisite meal I have had.

Doorways

I've listened to this song, 'Doorways' by Radical Face about 20 times today. It's making me feel a bit sad because I'd rather be playing tribal games in the forest than designing a shopping complex right now. 


I'm having those flashbacks followed by wishing too often these days. It wasn't that long ago that I'd long to be 'grown-up'. I'd rather be care-free. (I'm saying all this and I know at the back of my head that I haven't seen anything yet. Things are only going to get less care-free!) Now I see children playing hide and seek and wish that hiding and searching was only part of a fun game. 




"When I was just a boy still owl-eyed
I liked to drink the rain to taste the sky
I tried to count the stars while in my bed
to keep the thoughts of monsters from my head

and I believed the stars were wishes
I believed the world was good
I believed things hid in the dark
and that all would turn out just how it should
I believed in all your stories
I believed you'd never lie
I believed if i could climb the trees behind the house,
I'd touch the sky

I believed the skies were doorways home"

Hong Kong Density

So, there's a chance that I could go to Hong Kong for my internship. The plan made it to my list of many options!


I was aimlessly browsing architecture in Hong Kong and other random things about the place, and I came across the works of photographer Michael Wolf. How do people live there??! Claustrophobia is not the word. Yikes!