Why Rainy Days Smell of Romance

I remember being in Stockholm a while back, pondering the leisure of waking up to sunshine beaming in through the window - one of life's greatest pleasures, I said, but I think I might have to repeal my words. One of life's little pleasures, it is, but it's just that being woken by the gentle pitter-patter of a spring shower probably comes in a marginal winner. Sunshine gives you motivation to get out of bed and get on with your day, whereas the rain and the expectant, overcast skies provide justification for cuddling back down, making yourself a coffee and watching movies in bed. There’s something so refreshing about rain, the earthy smell and cool moist breeze that comes with it. It's massively romanticised in Bollywood movies, (for those who don’t know, I post a clip for your reference – it’s from a rather quirky little movie called ‘Wake Up Sid’) so having grown up watching them I guess it’s a pretty clear explanation as to why I find the rains so evocative. It’s been a long spell of warm, dry weather and today, the rain was a revitalizing break (almost) like the Mumbai monsoons (mini-heatweave, followed by a mini-monsoon, if you catch my drift?) Ahhhh the monsoons - I think it’s time we met again.

I feel it’s been a while since I blogged about day-to-day happenings. It’s so easy to be pretentious (or 'poncy' as my friend puts it) in writing but that’s definitely not how I’d like to come across - I’ve been through a bit of rough patch in life and while break-ups, agreed, aren’t the end of the world, it can be hard to accept that someone walked away from you as though you didn't give them anything worth staying for. And that’s what my past few blog posts have been about; just trying to understand, accept, embrace and move on with some grace.

So now here’s a slightly overdue catch up :) Exams are creeping up on me pretty fast, my first being on 31^st May and I wish I could say I am “revising”. In truth it’s a case of learning the entire syllabus first (otherwise known to students as "cramming"). I know many of you are probably sitting there thinking exactly the same thing – but seriously, do you think a year’s curriculum can be learnt in a few weeks??! I’m still swinging it at the hotel, and things are getting really busy now; I s’pose peak season has commenced so each week we’re inundated by tour groups from various pockets of the world – last week China and Poland, this week Germany and India. I was baffled to get to work at 6.57am and find the restaurant already filled with 100 very hungry Germans. Strictly speaking our breakfast service doesn’t begin until 8am so you can probably guess how much we were just rushed off our feet. I really enjoy my job though, especially as now that I've been there a while I feel I know what I’m doing. I can waltz in and out of the kitchen, make my own lunches, help Chef finish dishes – and I love it. It makes me very sure that I’d like to run a restaurant of my own one day. It’s a real eye-opener as well, for example, it’s pretty obvious that you’d keep pasta and sauce separately prepared in advance and then combine and heat them when you get an order – but until I didn’t see it, I didn’t really think about it, if you know what I mean?

Well, the night is nigh now and I’ve probably bored you enough for a Saturday evening already lol...so whatever it is you’re up to, whoever you're spending it with just be sure enjoy it.

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