Wanderberry Tales

There are days when my mind wanders to my home country and my desire to go back there gets stronger. I am sure these thoughts resonate with atleast a few of the expats. Sometimes I busy myself with some work to shut away these thoughts and other days I whine and whine. After some whining, I turn to my laptop to cheer me up. The one show that makes all the worry lines cease to exist is FRIENDS. I just can't have enough of it. I have watched season by season and now go on to youtube to catch some scenes from it. All the characters have become so etched in me that I feel they live around me. Like any other Friends fan, I would love to see that Reunion happening till then I can continue to watch it in a loop.  Cooking does cheer me up but imagine cooking and watching Friends at the same time :P I do it often these days.( I hate it when I have to turn on the blender, the noise is such a distraction:P) From Monica's jam to Ross' Fajita , Rachel's English Truffle to Joey...

Walk across the Tiber I am not sure when the idea of travel blogging became a part of our vacation planning but now, it has become so embedded in us that everything we do and see needs to get immortalized ( too grand a word right!!) here. Visiting Italy was something we had on our minds since 2015 - somehow things never fell in place - it was either that it coincided with our India trip plans or finances never fell in place or our visa was getting renewed - something always ensured that our plans went down the drain. Everything did fit into the puzzle last month and our long awaited Italy trip was planned, executed and we are now reveling the glory. Oh, we are finally ‘Italy-cised’, that is our way of expressing our happiness in ultimately touring Italy. Well, it doesn’t mean that we toured the whole of Italy, we were able to fit in as much we could without rushing, and giving time to take in the fragrance of the blossoms. Italy is adorned by beautiful historic church...

This is my first month in the MENA Cooking Club   with Jordan being the chosen country of the month. I am not familiar with Jordanian cuisine except that my last birthday dinner was at a Jordanian restaurant where I relished on Jordanian Mansaf and Mint Tea. Oh and I loved the tea! With Famidha from My life in Yanbu  suggesting that I join the MENA club, I decided to put on my boots and get going with the club. I have never been a part of any such food blogging venture before - so it is my first and if laziness does not get the better of me, I intend to keep going:) I chose the Jordanian coffee for my kitchen to kick start. I am not a great fan of black coffee, so when 2 years ago I ordered a cup of coffee at Cyprus and I was given a small shot glass with dark coffee inside and that smelled so strong, I was bewildered. With great difficulty I gulped it down. I have no idea what made me go back to the same place the next day and order the same coffee. And I did it for an...

With mothers day around the corner it is only apt that I write about my mom today. If my dad happens to read this write up about mom, he is going to be upset that I did not mention him and he says they come as a package. There is no mom or dad individually but dad and mom together. So I do not have a choice but write about the whole package:) My sister can wait! I do not wish to pen down the whole story here but few things which I feel every parent should do that I learnt from my parents. Like every parent, they struggled to ensure that we have a good life. We are two - me and my sis both of us are away from home, there is always an empty nest feeling but they don't let that become a hindrance in life. They do go out for dinner just like we did when we were together as a family. They have their occasional trip to beaches and drives to Mangalore as well. It is ok to have your life revolving around your kids but have a life of your own too when life allows you that. Grades ...