Ireland

In August, this year we went to Ireland.

The Crowne Plaza Hotel near Northwood Park in Dublin really enchanted us with its nice decor, cleanliness, good customer service and superb delicacies.

It also had free shuttle service from the airport.

Our hotel room had wonderful views of Northwood Park.

We went walking there and loved the lush green trees, the fresh breeze and the glistening sunshine. It was a sunny day :-)

On another day of our week-long stay, we took boat rides on Dublin Bay and it was adventurous. The weather was cold, cloudy and a bit stormy with some lashing rain. The waves were turbulent but we still enjoyed the experience. It was awesome :-)

We also hired a car and drove down to Wicklow National Park. It was also a beautiful sight of absolute delight with narrow, winding roads taking us up the mountains, surrounded by hills, valleys, trees and picturesque countryside.

We didn’t get the best of weather every day but we tried to make the most of it. In August, when UK was going through a heatwave, Ireland was relatively cold and it felt autumnal out there. People were very warm and friendly. Wish the weather was warmer too….a nice, pleasant summer would have made our trip more enjoyable. However, you can’t get everything in life. By God’s Grace, this was the 17th country I’ve visited in my life and I’m thankful for this blessing.

So here’s sharing this blessing with you

Some photos of Ireland for you to view :)



https://www.flickr.com/photos/aparnaonline/sets/72157703016782431/

Happy Viewing,
Love, ~ Aparna

North Sea

Earlier this year, we went to Norfolk and drove down to various beaches to catch glimpses of the North Sea.

We drove through Mundesley, Bacton, Overstrand, Walcott, Cromer, East Runton, Happisburgh and West Runton.

Of course, West Runton was our favourite beach in Norfolk. It was simply superb with magnificent views of the North Sea.

Feel like going there again and again and again.....perhaps if the weather gets warmer there, we might think of settling there.

For now, some pix for you :-)

Hope you also savour the view.

Please see and share.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/aparnaonline/sets/72157704472104645/

Thanks

Aparna

Eastbourne

Hope you like these Pix :)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/aparnaonline/albums/72157674343622167

If you do, please share :-)

Thanks
Aparna

Nice Thoughts

All wish to possess knowledge, but few, comparatively speaking, are willing to pay the price. - Juvenal

Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time. - Theodore Roosevelt

If the world seems cold to you, kindle fires to warm it. - Lucy Larcom

I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of Beauty.- Edgar Allan Poe

The essential conditions of everything you do must be choice, love, passion. - Nadia Boulanger

Nobody on this earth has the right to tell anyone that their love for another human being is morally wrong. - Barbara Streisand

There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way. - Christopher Morley

If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it. - John Irving

Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only. - Samuel Butler

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together. - Georg C. Lichtenberg

You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need. - Vernon Howard

Freedom means the opportunity to be what we never thought we would be. - Daniel J. Boorstin

What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes. - Marcus Tullius Cicero

Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life. - Simone Weil

To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven. -  J. B. Priestley

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing. - Marcus Aurelius

The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it. - Jean Paul

I have no methods; all I do is accept people as they are. - Joan Rivers

People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them. - James A. Baldwin

We may pass violets looking for roses. We may pass contentment looking for victory. - Bernard Williams

Patience is the companion of wisdom. - Saint Augustine

The long sleep of death closes our scars, and the short sleep of life our wounds. - Jean Paul

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. - Winston Churchill

When

When people
You've seen
Throughout
Your life,
They pass
Away....
You know
People have
Seen you
Throughout
Their life,
And one day
You too will
Pass away....

It's the same
Old cycle of
Emergence,
Presence,
Disappearance
And then
Perpetual absence

One

With one more
Year, I age some more
With my heart being
Young, wanting to live more

(based on the phrase - young at heart)

Here's a very interesting article on how emotions affect the heart

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/well/live/how-emotions-can-affect-the-heart.html

Bed

Embed from Getty Images

The beds
Keep changing
So do the rooms

In every house
The beds and the
Rooms....

What remain
The same
Are the 
Overlapping
Feelings
Overflowing
In those
Bedrooms

Like

Like a child
I'll smile
In my sleep

Forgetting
Everything
I'll smile
In my sleep

Peaceful and
Happy, I'll
Smile in my
Sleep

Sleeping
Eternally
I'll smile
In my sleep

Be

You need
To forget
Who you are
When you write

Your caste, class
Status shouldn't
Come in the way
When you write

Shed all your
Inhibitions
And give a
Good write...

Be a natural
Be your own self
Be genuine
When you write
Be candid
When you write

Superficiality
Won't charm
Your readers
Be earthy when
You write

Just be easy
On yourself
And it would
Be easy for you
To give a good
Write :-)

Last Time

Last time when my son asked me: Mummy, how was my show?

I said it was OK. I liked the way he spoke but the songs were slow making me drowsy.

My son keeps insisting that I listen to his 2-hour radio show that he does every week.

As the time slot is in the night, 8-10 pm, not always I'm able to lend my ears as I'm busy making dinner, setting up the beds or winding up pending tasks for the day.

But my son values my opinions and always asks my views.

So I said that he can begin the programme with some nice, peppy numbers to keep it buoyant and energetic and as he winds up his show, he can slow down to some soft, lilting numbers towards the end.

This time when he asked me to tune in, not only were the songs really nice, they were all hits, and as I kept listening, I discovered that most of them were from my English playlist :-)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAP2Wr4O1Jak3pATcv2X29FhJyprJHfFI

When he came home, I asked him if he had peeped into my playlist before he went.

He said: Yes.

Cheeky fellow :-) No wonder, I enjoyed his programme so much as he played some of my favourite songs.

God Bless Him. Because of him, I could end my day with some nice memories wrapped up in a pleasant surprise :-)

That's my blogging for now.

Leaving you with a nice, naughty song.



Enjoy :)
Aparna

6th July

Today is the
50th wedding
Anniversary of
My parents

They've spent
50 years together

Long back
When they wedded
Each other, had
A love marriage
Did they know
They were
Always meant to
Be together?! :-)

God bless them
On this golden
Anniversary
And may they have
Many more years
Together :-)

(Touch Wood)

Sonali

The golden girl of Bollywood - Sonali Bendre is afflicted with high-grade metastatic cancer and is now undergoing treatment in New York.

My thoughts are with her and her family - her husband Goldie (her name and her husband's name mean the same) and their son Ranveer who's going to be 13 this August.

Sonali has charmed us all with her good looks that shine like gold, good acting ability and dancing skills.

She's given us some very good movies and some very nice songs have been picturised on her and her co-stars.

I've made a playlist on her so that you can see how talented she is and we'll all miss her if she doesn't recover.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAP2Wr4O1Jam54egbIOlEB_FiyxeDAjsl

Hope she gets well soon and comes back to us and we get to see her in many more glamorous roles.

Wish her speedy recovery. She's just 43 and I want her to live long and healthy, esp. thinking about her very young son who's just stepping into his teens.

My prayers and good wishes are with her. May God save her.

Regards
APARNA

What A Song :-)

Sung by Udit Narayan and Alka Yagnik, Lyrics by Sameer, Music by Himesh Reshammiya

It's one of my all-time favourite duets. A superb creation - thanks to the superb efforts of Udit, Alka, Sameer and Himesh. Kudos to their creative teamwork.

This song just floated in my mind while I was soaking up the sun in my leafy backyard full of trees and soothing breeze, birds chirping and the sun smiling :-)

Enjoying the British summer....

What more to write except that I'm loving the warm weather till it lasts....Loving every bit of it, and when I'm in love and feeling happy, such nice songs come to me.

So here it is for you. 

Hope you savour it too. Time and weather permitting :-) I'll bring you some more. Soon Boloji will become BoloRadio :-)

LOL :D

Reminds me of my good old days when I used to be a radio presenter in AIR (All India Radio) and did some English and Hindi shows for Yuv-Vani channel.

As they say, history repeats itself....

My son is now a RJ in our local radio station and he's loving every bit of it :-)

I'm glad he's loving it :-) and I hope he continues entertaining the masses.

I like the way he RJs but I wish some Hindi songs were played as it's all English music here.

That's all for now. The sun is calling me and so I better be going....

Regards
APARNA

Interesting Finding :-)

Next time you walk into a restaurant, if the music is too loud or the lighting is too low, ask them to lower the volume and brighten up the room, because it's been found that loud music and low lighting make you go for unhealthy food choices.

It's all about how the surroundings impact your psyche.

If you need to know more, click here :-)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/31/well/eat/ill-have-the-cake-the-music-made-me-do-it.html

Now, do you see this article with Ads or without Ads? I see it without Ads :-)

If you are being bothered by pesky ads, you can use Google Chrome or Opera as both of them have ad-blockers.

If after some months of using, your ad-blockers stop functioning, just un-install and re-install your GC and Opera browsers and they'll again start blocking those annoying Ads.

That's all for now. Let me leave you with a nice song.



Enjoy :)
Aparna

Badhiya and Ambarsariya

2 nice songs coming your way...

One is hilariously funny. Ranbir Kapoor is brilliant in this video and so are his co-stars.



Ambarsariya is sweet and sentimental. Nice lyrics and soothing music. The couple look cute in this video.




And here are some Quotes for you to read and relish :-)

Nothing is work unless you'd rather be doing something else. - George Halas

If you want a thing done well, do it yourself. - Napoleon Bonaparte

Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get. - Dale Carnegie

A person will sometimes devote all his life to the development of one part of his body - the wishbone. -- Robert Frost

A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down. - Arnold H. Glasow

Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life - and travel - leaves marks on you. Most of the time, those marks - on your body or on your heart - are beautiful. Often, though, they hurt. - Anthony Bourdain

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever. - Napoleon Bonaparte

The most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to give a large part of one's self to others. - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Hope is independent of the apparatus of logic. - Norman Cousins

Fear is the mother of foresight. - Thomas Hardy

Perfection itself is imperfection. - Vladimir Horowitz

He who angers you conquers you. - Elizabeth Kenny

Necessity dispenseth with decorum. - Thomas Carlyle

I hear, I know. I see, I remember. I do, I understand. - Confucius

When you can’t tell the difference between your own pleasure and your pain then you’re an addict. - Margaret Atwood

We are all gifted. That is our inheritance. - Ethel Waters

It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference. - Tom Brokaw

Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity, or registering wrongs. - Charlotte Bronte

Maybe that's enlightenment enough: to know that there is no final resting place of the mind; no moment of smug clarity. Perhaps wisdom is realising how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go. - Anthony Bourdain

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings. - Eric Hoffer

So, till next time
Good luck, goodbye
And stay blessed

Yours,
Aparna

Mind

My mind is

All over the
Place...
Searching for a
Resting place,
A place with
You, where
There is
Love and
You :-)

Where I can
Rest awhile
Loving you

Dual

Embed from Getty Images

Me and you
At night
Together

Lying awake
Or sleeping
Together

Mulling over
Or dreaming
Together

Breathing in
And out
Together

Embracing
Each other
Together...

What a lovely
Sight together
Be it moonless
Or moonlit night
Together....

Every day and night
Together
Just being with each
Other, together
Living life forever,
Together

If death comes
Let it let us die
Together

Hire

Approaching
Fifty in five years'
Time, twenty to
Thirty years more
To keep this body
On hire, till it gets
Doused in fire on a
Funeral pyre

(I'll be 45 this year)

Score

Somewhat
Bored
Somewhat
Gored
Twenty
Years
Together
We've scored
 
Both roared
Had each other
Floored
 
He poured
And I stored
Thus, twenty
Years together
We've scored
 
Somewhat
Abhorred
Somewhat
Adored :-)
Is this institution
Of marriage
 
We've got
Institutionalised
Thus, twenty
Years together
We've scored
 
All said and done
We've fallen
We've soared
But our friendship
We've adored,
And so, twenty
Years of marriage
We've scored :)