A month in review - April 2013

April 2013 was a pretty good month for me so i thought i would look back on this first weekend in May and share some of my favourite things from the month with you!

Book
I read a LOT of books in April, not just because I was lounging on the beach a fair bit, but also as the IPL (Indian Premier League - not hair removal!) started so I was, and still am, subjected to cricket games on TV every single night! My book of the month has to be The Expats by Chris Pavone. This was recommended to me by my favourite author of all time, Emily Barr. The Expats is primarily set in Luxembourg but it does hop about all over Europe, and I cannot resist a book which transports me around the globe. I won't spoil it for you, but the book is about a married american couple and the wife is an ex CIA agent, however her husband doesn't know. This book is a really good thriller that literally had me on the edge of my seat and i did shout out in a couple of parts, Sushil was rather concerned about me! Anyway if you want a good read that you will not be able to put down with a few twists that will keep you guessing, then get The Expats.

Restaurant
We eat out once or twice a week and love trying new places, but, my restaurant of the month has to be Magic Italy in Palolem, Goa. We have been there countless times and just cannot get enough of the place, i have never had Pizza so good!!! The restaurant is just off the main beach and if you ever go to Goa you MUST try it! The place is run by an italian family and is really chilled out, we sat on cushions on the floor around a low table with our friends Helen and Ziggy and had a delicious meal. I had the 4 cheese pizza with extra mushrooms and Sushil had half a lasagne and half a spinach mascarpone raviloli. We ate here the night after our wedding and it certainly removed any post wedding blues! Pizzas are huge and about £2, lovely! It is worth the 10 hour drive to Goa if you ask me!

Drink
I love my wine, especially fizz, champagne, prosecco or cava - in that order. Indian wine has a really bad rep, and to buy imported wine here you need to own a small country, a bottle of blossom chavvy hill costs almost £20 due to the laws on import tax! For our wedding I had all our UK guests organised to bring 2 bottles of prosecco over each so you can imagine my panic when I was left with only 4 guests coming from the UK, which was multiplied when 2 of said guests (parents) couldn't fit 4 bottles in their bags!!! We managed with a combination of forward thinking and begging favours so ended up with 10 bottles, but then I discovered indian champagne, Sula Brut. At 850rs a bottle its about a tenner and you know what, it isn't bad! Dry and very fizzy, the taste reminds me of my wedding(s) and is that good that I am currently planning a visit to the Sula vineyard! Cheers!

Outfit
Has to be my 1950's style wedding dress! I felt like a princess!

Recipe
As I am now a wifey I seem to have become some kind of masterchef, honestly I just cook and cook and cook! My 15 year old feminist self would be outraged! Even now I wonder, what have I become, cooking for my husband every night? But why should I feel bad? I enjoy it! Here is my mother in laws recipe for channa dhal with Ghiya, Sushils favourite dinner. I make this in advance as there is usually enough for a couple of days dinners, and we wolf it down with rotis - which I can finally make to the perfect softness and thickness but sadly still more shaped like India than a perfect circle. Ghiya is a vegetable quite common in India, I googled for the english translation and it is bottle gourd, if you cant find it dont worry, it's delicous without too!

A little hint for indian cooking is to buy the frozen ready prepared ginger and garlic cubes, if you use them they save a lot of time and for this you need one of each.

Also, the most important bit of equipment in Indian cooking as far as I am concerned, is a pressure cooker, I use mine every day!

Channa dahl with Ghiya
1 cup Channa Dahl
Half tsp mirchi (red chilli powder), haldi (turmeric) & salt
3 glass water
1/2 a ghiya
2 tbsp ghee
1 inch Ginger
6 small cloves garlic
1 onion
2 tsp jeera (cumin seeds)
1 tomato
Handful dhania (fresh coriander) washed and chopped (i just hack at it with scissors!)
1/2 tsp dhania (coriander) powder
1/2 tsp garam masala


Wash dhal and bring water to boil in pressure cooker uncovered with mirchi, haldi and salt
Put dahl in when washed
Peel Ghiya and cut in small pieces
Wash Ghiya and add to pot
Add 1 tbsp ghee
Put lid on pressure cooker and cook on medium flame, after first whistle reduce to low flame - cook for half an hour
Meanwhile, chop ginger and garlic
Chop onion
In another pan make tadka - Fry garlic in 1 tbsp ghee for 2 min then add jeera til brown on medium flame
add onion ginger - reduce to low flame
Chop tomato
Chop dhania
After 10 mins of cooking tadka add tomato
After 1-2 mins add dhania powder and garam masala powder
Stir then add fresh dhania, stir then remove flame & cover
After 30 mins open channa dhal and stir, mashing as you go
Combine with tarka

Serve !

Thats it from me then, I hope you liked this little review of my month, I'll do it again next month but I'd like to mix up the categories, maybe next time I'll talk favourite films, purchases, places etc! Happy bank holiday weekend all! X my photo of the month of April was created using Project 365, one of the best apps you'll ever come across! X

My Big Fat Indian Wedding (part 2)

I promised a few weeks ago i would blog about my wedding once it was over, so i sit as the new Mrs Goyal to tell you all about it!

I had the nerves any bride would, and having 3 weddings (yep!) you would think that would mean 3 times the nerves, but actually, knowing our first wedding was going to be a simple affair in court with our parents as witnesses, I felt quite calm as this also meant that by the BIG big day, we would already be married legally! I think my nerves weren't helped by my choice of reading material in the weeks prior to it, I read Gone Girl, The Expats, Amity & Sorrow, Fleet Street Fox and Silver Linings Playbook which are all books about messed up relationships and most have spouses keeping secrets from one another. Great wedding Prep!

So, 10 April 2013 is the day I became Mrs Emily Goyal on paper in a tiny little building in Pune. Mum and Dad arrived the day before and Sushils Mum was already staying with us. I had a lovely 50's prom style dress with a huge underskirt and I wore the jewellery my Nan wore for her wedding to my Poppa in 1956. 10 April is also my Poppa's birthday so I hope I did him proud. It was the weirdest feeling getting ready and I was overcome with excitement! We all went down to the court and hung around outside where I spun around and around in my dress because I was the bride and could do what I wanted! I had a lovely arrangement of roses purchased the night before for £4! We were eventually called into "court" where we signed a few forms then went into another room where we said our oath, which went something along the lines of "I, Emily clare Latham take Sushil Goyal as my husband from today". Bish bash bosh, marriage, done!

We came home and I made halva (a sweet dish) as Hindu tradition dictates for my new mother in law, then we opened champagne as our tradition dictates and them went out for lunch. By 3pm we were home, hot and tired so everyone went to bed. My 6pm we were all coughing and feeling dreadful! My mum had a very high temperature so Sushil and I ended up giving my parents our room which is the only one with AC in the hope they would get some sleep before the journey to Goa the next day! Not the wedding night I imagined!

We drove down to Goa the next day leaving Pune at 5am and reaching our far south beach destination by 3pm! We met our wedding planner and some friends, sorted out everyones accommodation (we had booked out a load of beach shacks) then on the Saturday once everyone arrived we had our mehndi party which was brilliant. At one point i was sat alone having my henna applied, hungry and thirsty but unable to eat or drink due to my hands being coated i looked out on the crowd of our friends and family and just thought, this is perfect. The gin and tonic with a straw from my mum was most welcome!

After an evening of dancing to bollywood hits we collapsed into bed knowing we had a big day ahead!

Wedding day morning and we had a hectic day! The wedding planner and his team were all at the beach putting up canopies and the like, I was stressing out about the order of events which was still unclear (India!!) so I went off to my mani pedi appointment with my good friend Helen. It was not a relaxing experience! After an hour of filing, scraping, massaging and long pauses, my toes were still not painted and they hadn't even started my manicure! It was 1:30pm and I was due to be married at 4, before that we had a hindu tradition which I couldn't shower before, needless to say I was in full on panic mode! We managed to get out by 2:15 and race back to the venue to meet sushils family & carry out a ritual of having turmeric applied to our faces, shoulders, knees and feet! I got a bit emosh when my sis in law applied it to me and said, "I'm doing this for your sister" (who couldn't be there). I jumped in the shower to find no clean towels so had to dry myself on the minging towel I'd used to wipe the turmeric off! I did my hair and then it hit me, I was about to get married and I was getting ready on my own! No bridesmaids, no friends, no sister. I had a little wobble then pulled myself together and stomped down to my mums beach shack with a bag full of make up and my dress!

By 4:30 I was ready but not all our guests had arrived! Only in India can you tell everyone to be there by 4 and still be waiting half an hour later! By about 4:45 I got the nod from my friend and photographer that everyone was in situ, and my Dad walked me down the "aisle". It was beautiful, there were gorgeous flowers everywhere, it was sunny, I was beaming. When the first bars of Halo by Beyonce played (I very nearly walked down the aisle to the Rocky theme thanks to Sushil playing a prank!) my legs turned to jelly and I got teary. Dad and I paused for a moment then we went for it. Some how i managed to walk across the sand to Sushil and we exchanged vows, randomly there was a guy with a guitar who serenaded us with Elvis and Stevie Wonder, my mum and Helen did beautiful readings, and then we were married!

We had a lot of photos on the beach, did i mention we had an elephant? I didn't ride it but I don't regret that decision as I am sure I would have fallen off or at least ripped my dress!
As the sun set I remember feeling incredibly happy and then it was time to do it all again, Hindu style!

I raced to my room and changed into my sari with the help of my mother in law. I can see now why indian brides often look so miserable, it was hot, i had a LOT of make up on, I was silently praying to the gods of perspiration to go easy on me, and my jewellery was damn heavy, not to mention the weight of my sari!

We sat down for the hindu ceremony which is all a bit of a blur now! The priest was chanting away while Sushil was whispering to me "this isn't a punjabi style wedding!" I was whispering back "we're in Goa!!!". The only word I thought I understood the hindu priest say was Machete which made me giggle, then he started throwing rice at us and that was it, I had a full on giggling fit! I hadn't eaten all day so when the moment came to feed each other indian sweets I almost bit Sushils hand off! We then had to stand and make 7 promises to each other (which we had hastily scribbled down the night before) and walk around a fire after each promise, the promises ranged from "I promise to make you proud" to "Impromise to pick up my laundry" to "I promise to love you and tell you I do every day". After all that we finally sat down to have a drink and chat with our guests. We went to grab some food and realised someone had already cut our wedding cake, and half of it had been eaten! We had our speeches, I did one, so did Sushil and then my dad said some lovely words. We then hit the dance floor to our first dance, I love you baby (frankie valli NOT The 90's dance hit) which was closely followed by Jai Ho! We danced, we drank, we laughed and we went to bed pretty early as Sushil was feeling so ill! The next day when we got up most of the evidence of our wedding was gone from the beach, I kept looking out and thinking how mad the day before had been. We spent 4 more days at the beach and then moved on to a 5* in Goa for a few days of pampering and relaxation!

I keep being asked if I feel different now, and its hard to say! My name has changed and that is definitely going to take some getting used to. I already feel more secure and happy, but I also feel like I need something else to plan! I keep telling myself instead of hopes and dreams, i've got amazing memories. I can see now why so many people have kids so soon after marriage, its another project! Not that we'll be hearing the pitter patter of tiny feet anytime soon, our energy is now focused on getting a life set up in the UK and seeing as much of the world together as we can, just the 2 of us.

People say your wedding is the best day of your life, I never thought that could be true, there's so much to stress about, but when I look back now, I think these "people" may just be right! I just wish we could do it a fourth time!

My Big Fat Indian Wedding (part one)

As the big day approaches I thought I would share my experience of preparing for my wedding with you. Luckily I am the anti-bridezilla and have been pretty relaxed about the whole thing (well in comparison to a lot of brides in my experience) which has been useful with our... lets call it "Fluid" guest list ("we have 40 guests, definitely." "Shiiiiit the UK list is down to 10% of the confirmed, we now have less than 30...".) Now apparently we have cousins (his), cousins of in laws (again his), and erm an elephant (claiming that as MINE) so a guest list of about 55, however, there is a week to go so who knows what we'll actually end up with!

So, I hate most weddingy things, never been one to plan my magical day with my prince charming, never really thought about my dress, I absolutely HATE wedding fairs, I find wedding magazines an absolutely obscene waste of money (are you classical? Rockabilly? Shabby chic? Obsessed with VW's? Downton abbey? How about your cake, and have you got your bridesmaids in a lovely shade of dishwater? are you jazz band or ironic dj? Hog roast or buffet? BORE OFF!!!) and i cannot imagine anything more tedious and soul destroying than picking out chair covers, I hadn't even realised that was an actual thing. Next time you're at a wedding please take a moment to appreciate the well used piece of fabric tied round your chair, it probably cost about £5! The wedding industry must be huge, people just seem to go mental and think spending £500+ on flowers is totally normal. For me, it's about making a life long commitment to the person you want to spend the rest of your life with and celebrating the joining together of 2 families with said families and friends.

In spite of all this anti weddingness we are having 3 weddings! A court wedding, a hindu ceremony and a traditional beach wedding. Well, as traditional as you can get with an elephant in the crowd!

When it comes to a colour scheme, I have 3 rules. 1 - there is no colour scheme, 2 - NO PASTEL COLOURS 3 - nothing too matchy matchy.

I had a teensy bride panic when it transpired the only thing I had done traditionally, order stuff to make favours, had gone wrong! We got a load of sweets, some a bit personalised (check out the vast array on ebay) and we ordered some little bags to put them in.... Which never arrived! My parents were due to bring them over with them but they just never turned up! Weirdly these were the only thing I bought based on a recommendation in one of the bridal mags my mum got me. So today I decided, I can sort this, I'll just buy a load of fabric, some ribbon and make my own little pouches - easy!

Yeah, it would have been if there wasn't a strike going on and all the shops are closed! We walked and walked through central Pune, it was extremely hot and a bit weird, what with most of the shops being shut. We found a couple of shops with their doors half open so slipped in and sneakily got a load of brightly coloured fabric, 4 metres for about £3. So far so simple.ish. We then needed ribbon, i could see loads of roadside tailors hunched over their sewing machines so figured they would be able to help... Wrong! All the shops selling ribbon were shut. Amazing HOW many shops in Pune sell ribbon when you look. I was a bride on a mission though and eventually found a man selling sequins and ribbon out of a window, I could have cried. He charged us 60p for 50 metres, I thought I was hallucinating ! I got home and spent the afternoon crafting our little creations with Sushil and his Mum. I am quite proud of our efforts and now feel like we've added a very personal touch to the event, as well as brightening everything up! I'll let you know how the gifts went down in a couple of weeks!

Wish me luck, and if you are a bride to be yourself, save your cash, do your research online rather than through magazines, I could go on but i kind of feel unqualified to dish out advice until my wedding is done!

Thirsty for Thirty!

Firstly huge apologies for lack of blogging lately! I was home for 6 weeks and in that time i saw as many people as possible, dragged sushil up and down the country for 2 weeks and ate and drank a LOT! Since being back in India i have been busy planning my big fat indian wedding which is in just over a week - argh! You can expect a post about that in the future as i'm sure i'll have loads to share!

So as i was thinking about what to write next i realised this time in my life is pretty significant, this year is my last one of my 20's, i'm about to get married... Its all change for me so i figured a coming of age/self indulgent blog post was about due!

I really feel as though things are falling into place for me now. My early 20's were a whirlwind, i went to new zealand with my ex, ended that relationship on my 21st and then went on to have a lot of dates, a lot of dalliances and a few pathetic relationships. None of which i regret, you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince! I partied hard, watched my younger sister get married and basically went in the opposite direction, living alone surrounded by girl friends and gay friends and a lot of sauvignon blanc. My mid to late 20's have mostly been spent in India where i feel i have experienced and learnt enough for a lifetime. I've learned to be patient, to reserve judgement, to just say no, to be selfless (ok, less selfish!) and to embrace life. I have also been lucky enough to visit Thailand, take in quite a bit of Europe, have a few mad minibreaks and do some charity work in Uganda. The constant throughout my twenties has been my friends, funnily the people i am closest to now are the ones i went to school with. I haven't learnt anything from the stream of "inspiring" quotes we seem to be subjected to on Facebook (maybe a friend cleanse is also due?).

Now as i face turning 30 in a few months, i also will become a wife, i will stop travelling to India so much and i'm starting university. This does all scare me, who isn't fearful of change after-all? But if my 20's taught me anything its that it will all be ok in the end, nights spent awake worrying about men, money, my weight, my job, my family, only give you dark circles. I'm so excited for the future, the adventures i will have with my new husband, the lessons i will learn, the sights i'll see, the people i'll meet.

As i approach 30 so too are a lot of my friends and peers, facebook is a constant reminder. I see a lot of friends (sadly mostly girls) talking about "that birthday", i say bring it on! Its a lovely milestone and an opportunity to look back on a decade of fun and look forward to the future! I like my laughter lines, i don't have frown lines yet but i'm armed and ready for when they attack, i am a sucker for soap and glory products!

I may be starting uni 10 years late but i think its ideal timing, I'm studying something which i am passionate about and care about - international studies. When i was 18 i didn't know what i wanted to do next week never mind the rest of my life! I am lucky the job i fell into ended up taking me halfway across the world where i met my fiance and now i feel i have the experience, the stability and the will to study and learn, i really am Thirsty for Thirty!