September

Snap Happy

The lils have grown up with at least one camera jammed in their faces on a regular basis, and although they have recently developed and aversion to having their picture taken, they are still delighted to see the results. They would spend hours just watching the images on my computer scroll in a slideshow if I let them, and frequently ask to see the pictures that I have taken at a specific time, or on a recent trip.

Woo received a “toy” camera for Christmas when he was two. He loved to take pictures with it, but we often failed to download the pictures before the battery died. When Woo was almost four, we gave him his first “real” camera. It was my old digital point and shoot, which lay mostly unused; save for when I was going diving (I have an underwater housing for it). He was delighted, a became a very serious photographer:

The camera moved to India with us, but sadly, it was the first casualty of the marble floors in our house. He was doing some self-portraits, and in the rush to get in front of the lens before the timer went off, tripped over the tripod legs. The camera landed on the lens, and it was toast. Woo was crushed. Willy and I secretly hatched a plan to buy a replacement on eBay and have it delivered to Ottawa for our visit this past May. He was still keenly interested, and frequently directed me to take pictures of this or composed the shots that I NEEDED to take.

Under careful supervision, Willy started letting Woo use his DSLR in the spring. He seemed to like it very much, even though he was not used to needing to put his eye to the viewfinder to see the shot. They occasionally went on photowalks in the neighbourhood, but he was happiest to take pictures of his sister. His interest died down when he got the replacement camera, as he could use it all the time. His usage of Willy`s camera was heavily supervised.

A few weeks ago we went to Mysore, and Goose decided that SHE wanted to take pictures now too, and Willy`s camera and then his cellphone camera became hot commodities (I don`t share). The camera strap had to be modified for Goose`s tiny frame, but she too began wandering around, snapping like mad.

Yes, there were lots of shots of the ground, but they each took some pretty cute shots!

Goose’s Shots

I had to crouch to get in the frame 🙂

Working on focussing on the subject

Woo in front of the temple

Woo’s Shots

Hiding from the sun

This is what happens when you try to take a picture of Woo now!

Our driver, Subbu, was very amused by the two lil paparazzi

Talking a picture of me, as I took the picture of him above

I am so looking forward to fostering this in both lils!

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September

Wordless Wednesday – Russell Market

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August

Wordless Wednesday – Mysore palace, day and night

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August

Tiny nibbles

There are people that are ticklish, people that are really ticklish, and then there are people like me, whose entire body is ticklish. I’ve been like this since I was a little girl, and no amount of tickling has desensitized me. I even have trouble at the dentist, as the inside of my mouth is ticklish, which makes the polishing part of a simple cleaning pure torture! It greatly amuses the staff in my dentist’s office, who are happy to have a patient who giggles rather than groans.

Anyone who has been to a pedicure with me knows just how bad the bottoms of my feet are. I often start out by assuring the esthetician that I will not kick them. Then, as the poor esthetician scrubs, I laugh, snort, cry, and writhe around, trying to keep some semblance of normalcy. I fail miserably, and often embarrass my friends. For me, the end result makes it worthwhile, but I have had several friends tell me that they will never accompany me to another pedi…

Given these facts, I was still intrigued when my friend Heather mentioned that she had gone for a “fish pedicure” with her husband and daughter before they left Bangalore. I knew I had to try it. She provided me with the information, and Willy and I went this past Saturday.

They start you off by washing your feet…

You are then brought to a bench in front of an aquarium filled with tiny fish, instructed to sit down and immerse your feet. Willy went first, and the fish moved in…

I then sat beside him and took the plunge. It was so incredibly weird. All of a sudden, hundreds of little fish attached themselves to my legs and started sucking. Well, they tell you it is sucking, but it sure felt like some of them were taking nibbles!

It was way worse than I thought it would be. It felt like there were twenty hands tickling my feet. The fish didn’t stay attached for long, as I kept shaking them off to get a break. In addition to the laughter and the snorting, I squealed. I squealed so loudly that I was SHUSHED because I was disturbing the massage clients!! Trying not to squeal then made it even harder, and more entertaining for Willy. When our ten minutes were up, Willy reported that he quite enjoyed it, while I was just relieved. I was glad that we went, but I think that I will make that my one and only fish pedicure. I am just glad that I hadn’t signed us up for MORE time!

In Bangalore and looking to try it out? I do recommend it for the experience, we went to Kenko, in the Phoenix Market City mall.

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August

The waterslide

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August

My A-ha! moment about Indian architecture

I have never been one to dissect the construction of a building, looking for an architect’s style, or features that can pinpoint the age of the building and the influences at the time it was erected. I generally see a building and decide that I like it, or I don’t. We have toured enough of India for me to note that there are certain recurring themes in the architecture, and one of them I like very much; the scalloped arches that appear on both very old buildings and very new buildings in every city that we have visited. I like them, very much.

I hadn’t given much thought to them until we were in Mysore this weekend, and actually toured the Maharaja’s Palace. These scalloped arches are in virtually every room, and in the decorations that cover the walls and floors in some places. We were standing in the marriage hall (a beautiful room that I wasn’t allowed to photograph) when the moment hit. Armed with my newfound knowledge that the peacock is the National bird of India, I realised that these arches are actually the outline of a peacock’s tail feathers when they are displayed in their full glory. This is quite possibly old news for some, but I am quite proud of myself for making this connection.