photo: a magical book

A shot of a book on photography that I recently purchased.

December was a pretty good month for my reading, considering I was away on vacation for a while. I did manage to get a good amount of reading done actually. I usually write down all the books I read once I finish them, but for some reason, I haven't written down the December list and this is what I remember of it so far. I have a feeling I'm forgetting something though!

Stranger to History---Aatish Taseer
Memoirs of a Geisha---Arthur Golden
The Tipping Point---Malcolm Gladwell
Family Planning---Karan Mahajan

And yes, I finally remembered the forgotten one....The Return of Jeeves by PG Wodehouse.

increasing traffic

Have you noticed that once you start blogging you automatically start looking at your stats and checking how many daily visitors you get, how you get them and from where they come? One of the ways to up your traffic is to be listed on relevant sites, from where you can get some referral traffic. Submitting your site to a free web directory is a good way to start, but do check to see the kind of sites they list, so that you can ensure that people will actually come to your site and that your site will fit in with the rest. No point adding your cooking site to a plumbing directory, is there?

medical problems: imagined or real?

I'm always amazed at the number of new diseases and medical problems that plaque developed countries like the United States. Maybe their medical science is more evolved than others, or maybe that people there have more problems due to their lifestyle and environment. Things such as adhd medication seems quite commonplace these days, even affecting adolescents and children. Is that a side effect of progress too? Or is it just that doctors are more willing to diagnose problems even when there might not be one, just to increase their billings. This has been debated endlessly, but nothing conclusive has really come out of it so far.

photo: tea time

Nothing like coming home after a vacation to simple routines of having a cup of tea in the evening. I love to travel, but I like even better to come home....and of course start planning the next trip out as well! This was taken about 10 days back...the light is coming in at such a slanted angle these days, making different kinds of shadow patterns.

vitamins or natural?

I've never been too enamored of taking a bunch of vitamins to sort out one's daily deficiencies like a lot of people are. I would rather focus on eating well and keep things as natural as possible. The popularity of places such as vitamins.net is obviously not for people like me, but the fact is that more and more people are having to start taking vitamins at an earlier age, since their diet is not up to the mark. Having deficiencies early in life will ensure that you end up having problems later in life too, so maybe it's become more of a necessity these days.

put on those shoes...

I agree, sitting in a wing chair, reading a book and sipping a cup of hot chocolate is not the best way to be healthy right! But it's definitely good for the soul! For exercising I like nothing better than heading outdoors for a nice walk, which is by far the most long term exercise one can continue, not like a shortcut like finding the best fat burners and sitting back to let it do all the work. There's no such thing people...you have to work it off yourself, else it's not going anywhere.

I need a reading chair

We're pretty much done buying furniture for our apartment, but there's always something else one needs, isn't there! We have all the major pieces of furniture but it would be nice to get a wing chair, which would make a nice reading nook in the bedroom. Wing chairs are always a great investment, since they last for a long time and can be used in lots of different rooms. I love to put my feet up when I read, so either need a chair with an extend-able foot rest or a separate piece like an ottoman. Since we already have an ottoman in the living room, I think it would be just perfect to have a wing back chair for the bedroom. The other recurring furniture that we buy are bookshelves and other open shelving, which I find to be really useful.

and once more...

As Ms S said in a comment on another of my posts on a similar topic..."Amen to that"! But here I am again, mentioning something or the other about weight loss and so the saga continues. Has that ever happened to you? That the more you try to stay away from a topic, the more you end up writing about it? Almost like not liking chocolate but developing a craving for it as soon as the doctor tells you that you cannot have it! Yup, that's exactly like what is happening now!

changing fads

I remember when I was in college how much of a fad it was to have all kinds of muscle supplements. They were such popular stores among the college crowd, sometimes having as much of a crowd at the cash register as the bars, and that's quite something isn't it! Nowadays, the fad seems to have switched to online stores since I don't often see such stores in the shopping complexes anymore, or at least in prominent places.

and yet again

Why oh why, is it that when I don't know what else to blog about, I end up writing yet again on things like diet pills, an area that is really not my field of specialty at all. An area that I'm not all that keen on but it seems to be one of those unexplained mysteries of the universe that it seems to come back to me time and again. Anyhow, the thing about blogging is that it's a place to say or write what you want and so that's just what it is.

Back from vacation

Our vacation last month went really well, and now we're back to our old routines. As vacations go, this one was rather hectic, more hectic than normal even. Maybe it was because of the shorter winter days, or maybe it was because we tried to pack in too much into the short time we were there, for what ever reason, it did get a bit exhausting and it was nice to come back home for some rest!

It was after years that we visited home during the winter months, so that was very different and very hard to deal with, especially as the cold set in towards the end of the month. We've been living in warm climates for the past 6 years and have been visiting home only between March and October, when it's warm, so it was a completely different experience. Partly nice to be bundled up in woolens, but so cumbersome too.

ah, thankfully not this time!

After my last experience at the airport when a young girl asked me all sorts of questions about the best diet pills, I was wondering if it would happen again when I was traveling through the same airport earlier this month. But, no. I was not asked any intrusive and inquisitive questions this time around and was thankfully left in peace. I think the sign that people could see on my forehead, telling them to ask me about this topic, has faded away. So glad about that!

on being organized

The thing with being organized is that one must have a ready stock of supplies that enable you to be organized, so then you really don't have to wonder how to do things, you already have a host of solutions. It pays to be well stocked with everything from box cutter to rolls and rolls of masking tape, pins, clips and bubble wrap and so forth. This way if you have to pack something or mail a package, it's all sorted out already, and that too with barely any effort.