In search of the perfect gin and tonic

Have you ever found yourself in a pub or bar feeling a little disappointed with your drink? A spirit with a mixer that’s a bit flat? Not enough ice? Could have done with a squeeze of lemon or a wedge of lime? How about a drink that is served a glass that you’re not sure is right? Or how about the opposite – when you get served a drink which has been mixed, fixed, shaken or stirred exactly as you like – even if you didn’t know you’d like it that way when you ordered it? have you ever been blown away by the sharp taste of lime that’s been rubbed on the rim of your glass? or ridiculously enjoyed a drink served in a frozen glass?

Well, as far as spirits and mixers go, the great Gin and Tonic is a firm favourite with all three Vyas sisters - and with many of our friends too. Its fresh, refreshing, light, specific tasting and very yummy. By the power of twitter (and as a result of numerous late night conversations down the pub over the years) we finally got round to holding a G&T club a few weeks ago – with our esteemed friends and co conspirators (and hosts for the night) @headbones and @DeepaUnadkat - also @Stef_W and the non gin fan @anish_rana were in attendance. We’ll be taking it in turns to host, as we continue on our quest to find the perfick G&T, but here is a quick rundown of what we tasted and tested at our first club night:

Gins:	Tonics:	We also had a choice of:
Tanqueray Martin Millers Bombay Saphire, Gordons Greenalls	Fevertree - diet Fevertree – regular Fentimans Waitrose own Tesco’s own with a hint of lime	Lime Ice Ice with grated lime zest frozen in it Stemless martini glass Lowball glass

Winner:

To tell you the truth (and unsurprisingly) there wasn’t a clear cut winner – although we all agreed that Martin Millers (has anyone heard of it?!) was a surprisingly good gin, with a fresh yet smooth cool taste – almost cucumber like. I think my second favourite was tanqueray. Fentimens tonic was the most exciting (cos of the packaging) and fever tree tasted crisp.

We need to draw lots on whether me or @roopavyas host the next one…watch this space for results. (photo credit - squaremeal.com)

Walking in Spring

Over the weekend we went out with friends, dinner and a play. Not so unusual, except for two things:

1. We walked to dinner and the theatre

2. The play was by university/college theatre students.

This is Dallas, walking anywhere is unusual, unless you are walking as a form of exercise and wear the appropriate clothing. It was a great way to enjoy the lovely spring weather and I am so glad our friends suggested that we walk. The total distance walked was around 4 miles, a nice spring leisurely stroll. On the way to the theatre we enjoyed a lovely Italian dinner sitting out on the porch and to finish off the night we stopped to enjoy a yummy chocolate desert. The walking definitely counterbalanced the cheesy pasta and rich chocolate, very nicely.

“Theatre” is not exactly the best way to describe the small room where we ended up watching the play, “The Pillowman”, but the very cosy “theatre” was perfect for this dark comedy, which was well preformed by the students. It was a little strange at first to be a part of an audience for such a small production, but you never know we may have just witnessed the early first steps of a successful thespians career?

Not knowing anything about the play before showing up, the first act was tough going and that shock really did jolt us; especially as we were in the front row and about as close to the actors as you could get without actually being right up there on the stage with them. During the second act the actors and the play itself comes into its own and you are sucked into the narrative and the storytelling, which are the true stars of the play.

The walking also assisted in the post show analysis, the conversation turned to why Football (American) should be a major in its own right, but I think that topic will have to be another post for another time. Jigna

Books 2010 - another Tom Holt novel....

Tom Holt – You don’t have to be evil to work here but it helps

This is a book about JG Wells and co – I have written before about Tom Holt novels about this particular firm here and here. But this is not a story about Paul Carpenter – in this novel Tom Holt introduces pretty much a whole new cast of central characters – notably Connie and Cassie at JG Wells, and Collin Hollingshead, the young non magical man. These novels always seem to centre on a fairly vapid, drippy young man getting entangled in a magical, evil, sarcastic and mean world, and coming up trumps in a weird twisted way. There – I’ve just given the plot away.

Books 2010 - Jerome and Pratchett

Jerome K Jerome - Three men in a boat

(picture credit: www.ralphmag.org/DP/three-men.html)

First published in 1889 this book tells the story of three men (and a dog! You can’t forget Montmerency) who take a boating holiday along the Thames. A thoroughly enjoyable and pleasant read, I enjoyed three main things in particular about this novel:

1) The anecdotes and the language.
The author keeps diverting into random tales to illustrate the point he is making, usually a funny little story here and there which keeps the novel interesting. The entire novel is written in funny old fashioned English colloquial speech always makes me giggle with phrases like ‘drat the man’ ‘bally idiot’ and ‘stupid ass’. Rip roaring jolly good fun and spiffing games.

2) The food and drink
Always a concern for me, I was pleased this was something they took seriously throughout their trip, with lots of discussion about what to pack including detailed discussions about the merits of cheese, as well as a hilarious episode where they cook an ‘Irish stew’.

3) The geographic references
As a Londoner (over ten years means I can call myself a Londoner right?!) its always great to read and hear about your city – however, I am not massively familiar with west London, and the description of the journey they take from Kingston, out west past Hampton court through Marlow and on to Reading so it was also quite educational! The graphic descriptions about the water and the route have the same fun silly twist with anecdotes along the way.


Terry Pratchett – The Carpet People
Co-written by Terry Pratchett aged 17 and Terry Pratchett aged 43, this is the great man’s debut novel. I was looking forward to reading this, and suspected that it was this novel that led to the bromeliad (truckers, diggers and wings) which are some of my favourite books. The carpet people is good fun, and has the trademark Pratchett dry wit and sarcasm throughout it. It’s a funny story, with a common theme that has been used and written about by numerous authors at numerous times in many different ways– think the Borrowers, gullivers travels, honey I shrunk the kids etc etc.

Some of the jokes and themes could be developed more, but I loved the fantastical nature of the different creatures and tribes, and the detailed descriptions of what they looked like and how they behaved. The wry observations about human nature and the anti-monarchy/pro-republic theme throughout this book are in keeping with the discworld novels and is the influence of the 43 year old for sure. I wouldn’t say this is the best Pratchett novel, but I enjoyed it, and I’m sure I’ll read it again.

Why I love hotel bars.......

• quiet - so you can have a conversation
• nice drinks
• seats
• nice service

All the above was true in my 20's and is true now. I am aware that the above may make me seem older than my years. However when I am out for a drink with friends, the above over-rides any desire to be young, hip and trendy in a crowded, noisy bar with crappy drinks. Of course nowadays with trendy bars in hotels not all hotel bars fit the above category. But when I am looking for a quiet place for a nice drink and a natter with friends, the hotel bar in the Radisson in Leeds was always our default. The other night we ended up at the Library Bar at the Melrose Warwick hotel in Dallas. We ended up discussing the joys of hotel bars. I thought, well this is something I need to share. Jigna

International Women’s Day

Here is the text of the short Wiki introduction:

International Women's Day (IWD) is marked on the 8th of March every year. It is a major day of global celebration of women. In different regions the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women's economic, political and social achievements.

Started as a Socialist political event, the holiday blended in the culture of many countries, primarily Eastern Europe, Russia, and the former Soviet block. In many regions, the day lost its political flavour, and became simply an occasion for men to express their love for women in a way somewhat similar to a mixture of Mother's Day and St Valentine's Day. In other regions, however, the original political and human rights theme designated by the United Nations runs strong, and political and social awareness of the struggles of women worldwide are brought out and examined in a hopeful manner.

The IWD is also celebrated as the first spring holiday in the Northern Hemisphere as the first day of March is considered the first day of the spring season.

I think it is wonderful that the day can mean so many different things to different people all across the world, because that is what women are, different, but that does not mean we do not need at least one global day to highlight common “women” causes, because we do.

Women have achieved much over the last 100 years and yet there is still much more to be done. From my own personal experience, a young girl can attend law school and become a lawyer but how many female senior law partners are there, and how many female top ranking judges are there? But it is not all about the “privileged” women of the West trying to shatter through the “glass ceiling”. Many women face life and death choices and situations daily, you do not even have to look very far, how does a single mother recently laid off/made redundant feed her young children? On an unrelated issue but pertinent to this subject, I heard on KERA/NPR today that it can take months to get a food stamp card in Dallas, in one case 140 days, what does that Mother feed her children for 140 days?

Here is the link to the International Women's day website

I think this is a great blog posting: http://www.gracefletcherhackwood.co.uk/

And this is my favourtie tweet today: @SarahBrown10 Any woman who calls herself a post feminist, has kept her wonder bra and burnt her brains. Kathy Lette #IWD

"I followed my husband"

Over the last 3 years I have been repeatedly asked, "So what brought you to Dallas, Texas, the US?” The short answer is, "I followed my husband". The longer answer is, "My husband is a scientist and a scientific career can require that you try to work abroad at some point. We figured now was a good time and Dallas was the best available option for his career and us at the time." Both answers do raise my feminist hackles and I often feel like I need to justify my decision, my life and my career as a distinct being separate from my husband; "This was a good move for me too." My husband is the love of my life and my marriage is important to me, but I am an individual too.

I was a practicing lawyer, a legal career does not always travel well, unless you work for an international law firm, which I didn't and still don't. My bank account routinely regrets this but my heart never does! I have been fortunate in that I have been able to continue working in the legal and non-profit field. This has allowed me to face new challenges and develop skills in an environment I never imagined myself to be in. Although my career trajectory is not the one I may have envisioned for myself when I first started reading Law or when I first qualified as a Lawyer. The diversity, whilst not exactly financially rewarding, is both personally rewarding and challenging.

It is not all about the work, we have lives outside of work too. Again the challenges faced with making new friends, making a home and a life for ourselves have not always been easy. But we have developed great friendships which we hope will endure, wherever we all find ourselves in the future. We have had unique experiences which are not specifically "career" related but do add to our "fun and/or interesting stories." The conscious decision of moving to an English speaking country has of course helped with the, "settling in." Although sometimes the regret of not being forced to learn a new language does rear it's ugly head from time to time, maybe next time?

Amongst my new friends, Ms Jennifer Bradley, has been working on various projects relating to this area, including a really interesting recent project: Career and Work Life Issues for Expatriate Accompanying Spouse or Partners: A Brief Survey. I was lucky enough to be involved and I guess that is what got me started on thinking about how best to describe the last three years of my life.

Watch this space for a brief summary of Jennifer's survey. But for now, I will conclude this post with the following; on the basis of my own conversations with various friends and acquaintances, who are all, "accompanying spouses"; we all made the decision to accompany a spouse, for various reasons and the impact for all of us is very different. Often as, "the follower" it can take that extra step to re-assert ourselves as individuals with our own goals to follow. That extra step can be hindered by various factors (not all of our own making) but with confidence and an open mind; goals can be achieved. They may not be what we first had in mind but they can be important and valuable goals, nonetheless. I am reminded of John Lennon's often repeated quote, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." It is so perfect, and I would not have it any other way. Although, as always, I do reserve the right to amend this point of view, subject to future developments. Jigna.

PS: As promised, here is a link to Jennifer's website and slideshow presentation, "Work Life Issues for Expatriate Accompanying Spouses & Partner". Thank you Jennifer.