A Very Long List of Favourites Past

August flew by in the most depressive haze I have ever experienced, so apologies for the skipped post. Since then, there has been too much going on for me to write blog-appropriate words, and then there have just been no words at all, but here's to trying. (Fair warning, this is probably the crappiest list of favourites I've ever written and I wouldn't publish it at all but for the fact that the idea of skipping months makes my Type A self uncomfortable. So let's all just move on to December, and 2017, which cannot get here soon enough, and pretend this never happened.)

August

1. That outstandingly brilliant apple I had on the first of August, that made it make sense why an apple was central to Snow White's story- crisp and red and juicy enough that juices ran down my wrist; big enough that it could have been a meal unto itself. 
2. Talking with Marshmallow, and reading Cookie's blog, and being overcome with love and sheer gratitude, realizing that these incredibly intelligent, witty, funny, kind, loyal, opinionated, thoughtful, talented and loving people were my best friends. 
3. Pot roast chicken, and pretty white shoes and a pale pink lace hairband and the scent of books and red velvet cupcakes and a lovely Sunday afternoon with Kinglsey, in what seems to have been another lifetime. 
4. Being a mermaid princess on my birthday, and wallowing in my cheesy chicken bake and banana cupcakes. 
5. Crashing with all of my favourite friends in my favourite city (a preview of what I hope will be a much better October than my last one) and wrapping myself in all their love. 4km early morning walks in lipstick and a skirt and sandals; free breakfast after; talking till 4:00 a.m. because we were enticed into wakefulness by junk food and excellent hosting; winning at Cards Against Humanity (HA); "I see the ocean in his eyes" and scandalous stories and ~ scandalous ~ stories; that famous sambar that I've been hearing about for four years; the beautiful pink necklace surprise and eyeshadow and my favourite new lipstick; The Book of Hugs; all of the Harry Potter merch, including the earwax-flavoured every-flavoured beans; new jeans after five hours of indecisive store-hopping and death threats from my favourites.
6. My very own Kindle! 
7. Nights by the basketball court, basking in the starry breeze and quiet chatter- until that last one, of course. A few moments, up on that rooftop, on my birthday, just us (and a million waiters). Terribly unhealthy food, devoured with what I thought was love. Writing that terrible but cathartic rant- writing, after so, so, so long. This song. 

September 

1. Learning I'd got the internship I'd craved this time last year; that I was going to spend a month in my favourite place on the planet with most of my most favourite people on the planet, just when I needed it the most. The internship itself, and wallowing in the simple pleasure of correcting other people's grammatical errors. 
2. Plavi and the Math Geek. Thank you. Empathy Horse. Thank you. Nyancat and the Mosquito- thank you. Dorothy Parker and variously appropriate internet memes, and that one interview that Jen did for Vanity Fair after she and Brad separated- thank you. 
3. A lovely, lovely birthday treat by Pllvi that served up distraction on a plate.
4. Fish and rice from that one delivery place that has ruined me for fish anywhere else, including fancy restaurants. * insert appropriately heart-eyed emoticon* 
5. Othello, finally. God bless you, Shakespeare. 
6. Watching Sarah Kay and a million other talented poets live, and absorbing every word of every poem, and wrapping it around myself in a giant protective blanket and finally, for those few moments, letting myself weep. The crowd at the slam, the most lovely and positive and inclusive bunch of beautiful strangers I have ever wanted to envelop in a group hug; hanging out with new people and new experiences; excellent kathi rolls and the best cookies and cream ice-cream I've ever had. Note to self: go for events in the distant corners of the city and indulge in cheap amazing food more often.
7. My denim skirt and stripey top and, finally, long layered gold necklace and sling bag (perfect apart from being half an inch too small for my wallet to fit into)! 
8. Old Hindi songs, courtesy the Math Geek again. 
9. Random dinner with Pllvishani and backseat bitching-cuddling sessions. 

October & November 

1. A month with my favourites; experiencing the sheer joy of being able to meet without months of planning, of extended sleepovers and a neverending stream of biryani. The beautiful room with the bed with the cushioned headboard and neat perfect bathroom; Starbucks rendezvouses and family-photographer baby showers; gorgeous haircuts and an overdose of Chicken McSpicy's.  Spaghetti and red velvet cupcakes and wife-ing with Koko; the Pirates of the Caribbean marathon and the time we all met just to nap and sing along to Blue. 
2. Prepping for my exchange at Zurich (god, please let that happen) with all of the coats and boots and winter warmness shopping.
3. Long walks with Doobie, just like first year, except that everything is completely different.
4. Dinner with the Doosh, at my favourite Mexican place, back when we could still spend Rs. 500s and I chose to pay by card instead because those are the kind of brilliant decisions I take under stress. 
5. Cosplaying as my favourite badass literally-man-eating witch Manon Blackbeak for Comic Con- all of the pictures and all of the merchandise. Meeting Kim Possible (!) and embracing my inner evilness. It was so much fun being fierce instead of cute that it didn't even matter than only one person kinda sorta knew who I was.
6. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I don't even know where to begin expressing how I feel about this movie, so I won't.

There are other happy things that happened, but I can't remember them right now, and this has gone on long enough. 

~Sam 

August Favourites

For some reason, I'd forgotten to have a running draft of favourites this month, and I'm definitely not in the mood for a favourites post right now, but let's see what I can pull up, because this really has been a mostly lovely month, albeit one of expensive tastes and...expenses, generally. >.<  And embracing my inner basic white girl. (Though let's face it, I've never had much of a problem with that.)

1. Emails! Lovely, long, beautiful emails, from both Jessie and Cookie, at various points of the month, which means my inbox is a happy, happy place right now. (Though it doesn't really help that all I want to do is reply to them, when all I need to do is sit and try to figure out the law on changing service conditions when adjudication is pending, and about the international seabed under the UNCLOS. Why is my life.) 
2. Various and very, very varied amazing songs- at the moment, it's Fight Song which is keeping me going. More than keeping me going, it's actually firing me up, I LOVE THIS SONG. 
3. This is ancient at this point, but Curiosity singing happy birthday to itself just does something nice to me. :') It doesn't help that Curiosity is a really, really cute name for a robot-rover-thing. 
4. Shopping! Lots and lots of pretty clothes shopping, dresses and tops and shoes more dresses! ^_^ I also finally got myself a wallet I'm happy with, after approximately three years of unsatisfactory wallets- I think the last wallet I'd actually really liked was the one that got stolen at the end of twelfth grade. I'll miss you forever, pretty soft grey-black wallet. :( Anyway, this one is a black and white and yellow floral print that I'd love on a dress, but a wallet will have to do for now. 
5. My mum's perfume. I've been too broke to replace my deo, so I've just taken to spritzing myself with this perfume I'd stolen from my mum and damn, I've grown to like it. 
6. I found the PRETTIEST, CLASSIEST, COMFIEST, SEXIEST PAIR OF BLACK HEELS ON THE PLANET but the cashier was being a huge jerk so I decided to leave them, but I'm still really glad to have found that heels like that exist on this earth. 
7. Possible TMI, but deal with it: pretty lacy bra. Also, shopping and lunching and chatting and chilling with Popo. Dayum, that honey chili chicken was beautiful. 
8. Letters, to and from people, and everything in and around them.
9. My treat yo self day! I dolled myself up and went to my favourite breakfast place and wrote happy things in my favourite diary and people-watched and eavesdropped and wandered around my favourite street and bookshop and garden and curled up under a tree with a fun happy meaningful novel which, this reminds me, I really need to finish, and bought myself a beautiful blue-green apple-shaped balloon which I eventually ended up giving away to a baby, and was just really, really, really happy. 
10. Kingsley. I don't think he's ever been introduced here (*gasp*) but just chilling and chatting and eating and talking and walking with him brings a much-needed lightness to my life. 
11. 29.08.15. Music, phad thai and good conversation. 
12. It was birthday month, and I can't remember ever having had a better birthday. Cookie. Jackass. My friends. Me. Everything seemed to come together in harmony that weekend, and even when some of it didn't, so much of it did that it didn't really matter. (Man, I am articulate.) I wish I could write about how every single moment wove together into a tapestry of sheer joy that weekend, but I can't- it'll just make me cry. 
13. Cookie. This has been a month of Cookie, from near-daily phone conversations updating each other on the minutiae of our lives, to the countdown to her getting here, to her getting here and seeing her gorgeous self at one of my happy spots in town; to having her stay over, and showing her around my city, my room, my life; and talking to her, physically just being able to talk to her and hold her and be near her; her presence in my room; breakfast and lunch and dinner with her- dressing and walking and talking with her, it just made life complete- right up until that moment I had to let her go. Come back soon, love.
14. BANANA CHOCOLATE CHIP CAKE OMNOMNOMNOMNOM. Thank you, Cookie Mother. 
15. Birthday month also meant PRESENTS, and I got the loveliest ones! Books, so many books, and more than that- notes and letters and and hugs and words of love and encouragement that mean everything. Thank you, all of you. 
16. Basketball court walks with Doobie and Nags dinners with sparkykitty. 

Other things probably but who has the memories for that, yeah?

Late again,

~Sam 

June, July and August Favorites?????

I'm a horrible person, I know. I've just been so unproductive lately; I have no idea what I'm doing with my time anymore.

1. FOOTBALL- During the months of June and July, Football took over the world. I have watched the 2010 World Cup as well, but I didn't find myself being drawn towards it. However, this time, I established my loyalty to my top teams and supported them till the end. My numero uno team was Brasil, so.....*sighs* yeah, you can imagine how I must have felt when they were eliminated. I can confirm that tears were shed. That match was heart wrenching and organ gutting. I didn't sign up for this emotional torture man. I just wanted to watch a nice sport with hot men who occasionally take their shirts off. If that wasn't enough, just go on and guess who my favorite player was. Go on. Guess. Yup. Neymar. Depressed would be an understatement. I was devastated. I didn't even go to college after that. I couldn't. It was too painful. The good news is, he's A-Okay now and, not only is he back in the game, but he is the captain of the Brasilian team. I am so proud of my boy. I am so in love with him.

2. Neymar- He just deserved his own heading okay. This boy is ruining my life I swear.

3. Italian Food- This should be on my favorites all the time because I can't stop cooking or eating it. I kid you not; I can eat italian all the time.

4. Outlander- It's a Starz show that's based on a novel by Diana Gabaldon. It's basically a historical fiction and fantasy series following Claire, a nurse during World War II who travels back to 18th century Scotland. You can have high expectations knowing that it is a Starz show. If you haven't watched any shows that air on Starz, I highly recommend this and Da Vinci's Demons.

5. Anime- I've watched a lot so I think I'm just going to review it on another post.

That's all for the past few months.

This is Malko saying
Maytheforcebewithyou

August Favourites

This has been a pretty quiet month on the favourites front (I think?? I usually have a post saved in my drafts to record favourites as they happen because I will forget them all by the end of the month, or forget whether they happened in this month or the last one (or five years ago, for that matter) but I didn't do that this month because a) nothing really stood out and b) I was lazy and overworked.).
But from what I can remember:

1) Birthday month!!!! I had a lovely birthday, more or less, and it involved a lot of chocolate, singing and trying on the most amazing (Harry-Potter themed, constellation-having) cape ever (not that I've tried on many. Or any, apart from this one), among other things unfit for public consumption. Birthday also meant that all of my friends wrote me happy mushy messages about how awesome I am, which is always good to hear about, and generally overwhelmed me with all of the love.

2) Birthday month also means that OUR BLOG IS NOW THREE YEARS OLD! Which sounds both very young and very old. I'm glad it's lasted this long, even if our frequency of posting has kind of withered. Speaking of...

3) I wrote stuff this month, after a while. It felt good. ^_^

4) Jessie wrote me a poem! It's the first poem anyone has ever written for me (of course, there will be more), and it's beautiful, and I love it, and I love her, and that is all.

5) I got (even more) posters for my room. Must redecorate and move things around to make space. X_X But now I can have a mini wall mural of baby Po to look at each morning, so it's all worth it.

6) I found (what I think are) amazing presents for some of my friends! :D

7) And got amazing presents from my friends! So many books, I'm so happy! And a lovely tshirt, and poster, and just generally good stuff.

8) I did okay at this thing I thought I would totally suck at. And decided to do this thing I thought I'd never have the courage/stupidity to do. Let's see how it works out though.

9) I went home. ^_^

10) And video-chatted with some of my lovely friends. ^_^

11) And updated my wall of memories (which is basically ticket stubs and coasters and all sorts of memorabilia stuck on my wall) and wallowed in nostalgia for a while. ^_^

12) And reached out to an old friend with whom I now have some of the loveliest email threads ever (I can't believe that only happened in the middle of this month, it feels like so much longer!). Non-work emails are the best.

13) And received and replied to a letter. ^_^ Jess, if you're reading this, I AM WORKING ON YOUR REPLY IT WILL COME SOON I SWEAR.

This is a horribly undetailed post but suffice to say that, now that I think about it, it's been an absolutely lovely month of friends and family and general joy. Touchwood.

OH, HOW COULD I FORGET, 14) I GOT AN ACTUAL DREAMCATCHER!!! Thank you Darren. The internet tells me this is not cultural appropriation so I'm just going to be an ostrich and not think about that anymore.

15) Oh, and I auditioned for a play, like I'd said I would last month! I wasn't great, but it was fun.

16) And today Doobie and I snuck into the teachers' colony and swung on the swings in their playground (the playground is for the teachers' kids, not the teachers. That would be weird. And awesome) and talked and talked and walked and the sky was a stunning blue which turned orange-y and the trees were outlined against the sky and the the swings swung gently in the breeze after we left them for the slide and see-saw, looking very beautiful and vaguely horror-movie-ish, and it was just an excellent evening, all in all.

So yes, good month. I like this favourites thing, it makes me focus on the good.

I shall leave now.

Much love to you all.
~Sam