I was on Twitter this morning after my walk with Gypsy, just checking to see what people were saying. I saw Janie Haddad's tweet saying her husband Paul F. Tompkins (One of the funniest men I know) was going to do a live chat at 7pm. That meant, that this was going to happen at 7:30am my time. It was 6:45am then and I looked at the website and decided to go on for half an hour before I had to leave for work!
I registered or RSVP'd as they called it and got ready before 7:30am. I had no clue how this would work and the website kept asking me if my web cam was working and if I could hear! I said yes to both!
By the time I figured all this out, Paul had already come on and was answering questions. I saw the "Ask a question" tab and clicked on it. I asked my question and then tried once again to figure out how it worked and when my question would be answered. Suddenly, my web cam came on and a pop-up said that my question was voted to the top and that I had to get ready to answer it! Then I got a little nervous!
I mean, I was going to talk to one of the world's funniest people, and I certainly didn't want to sound idiotic! I rehearsed my question in my head and then my face filled the screen! Paul recognised me from Twitter (We've had our conversations!) and said "Ah, Romy Skye from Bangalore! How are you? It's good to finally see (or meet?) you!" (I have a somewhat eidetic memory) and I said "It's great to see you too" and then proceeded to blurt out my question, jumbling words (of course this would happen)!! Luckily Paul was kind enough to blame the great distance between us for static and I repeated the question slowly and he got it! My question was "What is your favourite worst food combination?" Mine is a jam, ketchup and cheese sandwich. He said something about a Philadelphia specialty with the leftovers of a hot dog and eggs.
At least that is what I think he said, since I am not American and I am a vegetarian and have limited knowledge of meat and eggs! He then said that Janie liked boiled peanuts and made fun of wet peanuts until I told him I loved them too!!! I died laughing at his pained what-is-the-world-coming-to expression!
For those of you who don't know, boiled peanuts is a VERY popular snack here! It's boiled in salt water and sometimes people put some lime, cut up some onions and tomatoes and eat it as a snack with beer!
I found out that you type a question, the other people online vote for it and if it's popular, you get lined up and get to ask Paul your question. I asked two more - "What is your favourite TV show right now?" and "Describe your first stand-up performance". My TV show thing was picked up and I asked him. He said that it was Mad Men and Breaking Bad on the drama side and The Colbert Report on the comedy side.
I have to say that I do not watch Mad Men or Breaking Bad - they don't air here (But I have watched Panel discussions with Janie Haddad! HA!) but I have watched The Colbert Report (YouTube) and that is just amazing!
As I was running out of time and a lot of the video chatters were asking multiple questions, I asked if I could ask another question and he said that I could. I asked about stand-up and he said that he didn't remember anything about the actual show, but he remembered everything before (feeling nervous/excited) and after - the exhilaration of having done it!
Then I had to leave as it was 7:57 and I had to be out the door at 8! The funny thing was that just as I was leaving, the website asked if I was ready to have my stand up question lined up!!! HA! I didn't feel bad cause I asked him two questions then!
It was such an amazing Thursday morning!!! Thanks so much Paul for doing this and I really hope you can come to India one day and thanks Janie for tweeting about it!!
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Saying goodbye...
As you grow up, there are very few people who grow up the same way as you do. Most of the time, you and your childhood friends grow into different people, with different interests and they stop becoming your best friends.
I transferred to a new school when I was twelve, where most of the people belonged to the Jain community. As a result, people were more comfortable speaking in their own language (Marvadi). I didn't know this language and was finding it very hard! I also had a new language to study - Kannada, which I had never studied before and was doing an advanced version of this. Let's just say, there wasn't a lot going for me.
In a Kannada class, the teacher made me sit next to a girl from a different section (The school had each grade/standard divided into 3 sections. I was in Section B.) so that I wouldn't talk. I sat next to this girl who's hair was cropped as short as a boy's and we didn't talk the whole period. After the class, she introduced herself as Swathi. I introduced myself back. Did I know that this was the start of a lifelong friendship? Nope!
We were made to sit together in the next Kannada class and this time, we talked. We found out that we were the only people in the whole school that watched Friends and one of the very few who watched English TV and movies and were fluent in English. Friends became the base of our conversations and our friendship.
There are so many memories, like getting out of Kannada class by going for yoga practice (She was as flexible as I was, so we put that into good use!), competing in various inter-house competitions, competing in Dumb-Charades (We actually won a few inter-school competitions!), her playing table-tennis while watched disdainfully (It was only because I sucked at it! I had no eye-hand coordination!), sitting at the back in Kannada class, memorising passages that we were supposed to read so that we could sound fluent in them, watching a couple of boys go wide-eyed at a copy of Cosmo that they had bought and playing tricks on the poor unsuspecting teacher (Remember the "dandruff" and the jamming of the bolt?)!
Some of my favourite times together are flicking paper balls at my friend Nikhil at a bowling alley, her coming over and me making her watch b=Baywatch (Yes, I was obsessed with it, and till today, I don't understand why!!), her waking my mum up at 8am on a Sunday because I was never at home, her playing the accordion and my dog going behind the sofa whining (Oh that was hysterical!), my grandmum and her cracking jokes and laughing at my expense and most of all, our Goa trip!
It's hard to believe that it's been more than ten years and we're still the best of friends. Swathi's literally been adopted by my family as my sister, and sometimes, especially at various family events, my mum actually prefers her!!
I love that I can say that I taught her not to be afraid of dogs and she taught me not to run away from the ball while playing throw ball! I still remember Gypsy racing through her garden, literally tearing it apart! I'll never forget her holding the 6 week old Gypsy going "Saromaaaaaa" and then being totally comfortable with the 6 month old Gypsy jumping all over her!
She's off to London to study and this is the first time where I can't pick up the phone and meet her randomly to discuss my latest boy issue or whine about how hard my life is (not). It's going to be strange not having her here, but I think we'll survive!
Here's to an awesome year ahead, where we're both gonna go through some serious adventures and here's to a LOT of Skyping! Like everyday!
I transferred to a new school when I was twelve, where most of the people belonged to the Jain community. As a result, people were more comfortable speaking in their own language (Marvadi). I didn't know this language and was finding it very hard! I also had a new language to study - Kannada, which I had never studied before and was doing an advanced version of this. Let's just say, there wasn't a lot going for me.
In a Kannada class, the teacher made me sit next to a girl from a different section (The school had each grade/standard divided into 3 sections. I was in Section B.) so that I wouldn't talk. I sat next to this girl who's hair was cropped as short as a boy's and we didn't talk the whole period. After the class, she introduced herself as Swathi. I introduced myself back. Did I know that this was the start of a lifelong friendship? Nope!
We were made to sit together in the next Kannada class and this time, we talked. We found out that we were the only people in the whole school that watched Friends and one of the very few who watched English TV and movies and were fluent in English. Friends became the base of our conversations and our friendship.
There are so many memories, like getting out of Kannada class by going for yoga practice (She was as flexible as I was, so we put that into good use!), competing in various inter-house competitions, competing in Dumb-Charades (We actually won a few inter-school competitions!), her playing table-tennis while watched disdainfully (It was only because I sucked at it! I had no eye-hand coordination!), sitting at the back in Kannada class, memorising passages that we were supposed to read so that we could sound fluent in them, watching a couple of boys go wide-eyed at a copy of Cosmo that they had bought and playing tricks on the poor unsuspecting teacher (Remember the "dandruff" and the jamming of the bolt?)!
Some of my favourite times together are flicking paper balls at my friend Nikhil at a bowling alley, her coming over and me making her watch b=Baywatch (Yes, I was obsessed with it, and till today, I don't understand why!!), her waking my mum up at 8am on a Sunday because I was never at home, her playing the accordion and my dog going behind the sofa whining (Oh that was hysterical!), my grandmum and her cracking jokes and laughing at my expense and most of all, our Goa trip!
It's hard to believe that it's been more than ten years and we're still the best of friends. Swathi's literally been adopted by my family as my sister, and sometimes, especially at various family events, my mum actually prefers her!!
I love that I can say that I taught her not to be afraid of dogs and she taught me not to run away from the ball while playing throw ball! I still remember Gypsy racing through her garden, literally tearing it apart! I'll never forget her holding the 6 week old Gypsy going "Saromaaaaaa" and then being totally comfortable with the 6 month old Gypsy jumping all over her!
She's off to London to study and this is the first time where I can't pick up the phone and meet her randomly to discuss my latest boy issue or whine about how hard my life is (not). It's going to be strange not having her here, but I think we'll survive!
Here's to an awesome year ahead, where we're both gonna go through some serious adventures and here's to a LOT of Skyping! Like everyday!
Friday, August 27, 2010
How to explode an egg!
If you follow me on Twitter or know me personally, you know my eggsploding escapades. Well, this is a post teaching one how to do it perfectly, from start to finish, with helpful tips!
First, this method must be done by boiling eggs in a saucepan over the stove. No fancy egg-boiler machine thing will work.
Now, you set the eggs to boil and your timer for 8 minutes. You then leave your kitchen and take said timer with you. Then, figuring you have 8 minutes to kill, you can watch a YouTube video or the start of a TV show before the opening credits... Something.
The timer goes off. You march back into the kitchen and look at the eggs. Now, the water hasn't really decreased, so how boiled can they really be right? So you go back to your video / playing with your dog / reading your book / talking to your friend / whatever it was that you were doing.
Then suddenly, you hear some thudding noise and the smell hits you. You squawk like an inelegant chicken and run into the kitchen, switch off the stove and look in dismay. The saucepan is black and charred, egg pieces are ALL over the kitchen and the smell that causes you to literally rush back to the loo and hurl!
Once you're sure your stomach is emptied, you open all the windows in the house and put on the fans! This is because, in a matter of seconds, the burnt egg smell has taken over your house. You have to use room freshener to mask the smell. Here is a tip. DO NOT use lavender. It makes the smell so bad that you have to take a very long walk! Use freesia and ocean breeze. These work well. I speak from experience. trust me.
Then you put the saucepan under running water to cool it down and then you scrape off the eggs with a plastic spoon, which can be ditched. Once that is done, you pour water into the saucepan and leave it there for a few minutes while you go egg hunting. Which basically is finding the pieces of exploded egg around your kitchen. Then you get back to the saucepan, scrub it like there is no tomorrow and it is done.
Another round of room freshener, some water for you to hydrate yourself after this ordeal and then you swear to yourself, never again!
Then, just like it says on the shampoo bottle - lather, rinse and repeat, you boil, explode and clean.
Monday, August 23, 2010
The supernatural or the paranormal.
For the longest time, I've debated the issue of ghosts or spirits or whatever you want to call it existing. I swing back and forth, finding the topic fascinating. I've never personally had any encounter with this kind, so have never been able to say anything for sure.
This morning, the unexplainable happened. I was asleep and was startled awake by a loud crash and my dog barking. I was unsure as to what it was, but grabbed my trusty rolling pin and went to check it out. The crash came from the kitchen. The last time this had happened, there were pigeons trying to nest there! But the windows were boarded up now, so it could not have been a pigeon.
I found 4 Tupperware boxes on the floor and nothing else. It couldn't have been rats, cause we don't have a problem, the windows were shut, so it wasn't the wind, no cats, Gyp is too small to push the containers down from such a height, no loud noise to shake the shelf, no minor earthquake. There is nothing that I can think of that would cause the containers to fall!!
It is truly the weirdest thing ever! By the time I finished checking the whole house, I had the brilliant idea to try and see if Gyp would come with me into the kitchen, because I've read that animals can sense spirits or anything unusual, but I found her asleep on my bed. So that was a no go.
I'm a little weirded out by this. It totally brings up the topic of the supernatural for me. Do you guys have any thoughts about this particular incident or any thing that may have happened to you?
This morning, the unexplainable happened. I was asleep and was startled awake by a loud crash and my dog barking. I was unsure as to what it was, but grabbed my trusty rolling pin and went to check it out. The crash came from the kitchen. The last time this had happened, there were pigeons trying to nest there! But the windows were boarded up now, so it could not have been a pigeon.
I found 4 Tupperware boxes on the floor and nothing else. It couldn't have been rats, cause we don't have a problem, the windows were shut, so it wasn't the wind, no cats, Gyp is too small to push the containers down from such a height, no loud noise to shake the shelf, no minor earthquake. There is nothing that I can think of that would cause the containers to fall!!
It is truly the weirdest thing ever! By the time I finished checking the whole house, I had the brilliant idea to try and see if Gyp would come with me into the kitchen, because I've read that animals can sense spirits or anything unusual, but I found her asleep on my bed. So that was a no go.
I'm a little weirded out by this. It totally brings up the topic of the supernatural for me. Do you guys have any thoughts about this particular incident or any thing that may have happened to you?
Friday, August 20, 2010
Mission: Paul F tompkins in India.
Lets talk Paul F Tompkins! A lot of comedians are coming to Bangalore (FINALLY!). A couple of weeks ago, we had the guys from "Whose line was it anyway?" come in - Brad Sherwood and Colin Mochrie and we also had Russell Peters come. They both came back for a second time because the demand was so much!! So it's not like no one's going to see the show!
I really want Paul F Tompkins to come here! I spoke to a bunch of people at work and a lot of my friends and they have heard of him here and would definitely be interested to go for this! Paul told me that he wants to come here too. Now I wish it were that easy! A lot of event management has to go into this and I'm a green girl in this field! I've never done anything like this, I have no clue how to go about this or what to do.
I think it would be a hoot if he came. I've seen all possible videos of him on YouTube and now I'm looking at the stuff on funnyordie.com. He is a laugh riot and I got to see him live for the 3 minutes he performed at The Thrilling Adventure and Supernatural Suspense Hour, just before the show.
I just need to find an event management company who would be willing to, well, manage this event. It's just not as easy as it seems cause you need one of the bigger companies to handle this. I've spoken to some people who know some people in these companies, so let's see what happens. Cross your fingers and hope we get to see him here! It would be so awesome!
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