Cocktails are my cuppa tea! (heh!) :P

Remember that day when I told you I make the best Mojitos in the world? Make that the best goddamn cocktails in the world! (ever wondered why are they called cock-tails?!! heh!) There is something incredible sexy about mixing the various sinful liquids and then giving them that chic look. Isn't that why the bartenders get hit on so often?

I can tell you, I feel extremely sexy and in an odd way, empowered when I am mixing spirits. Another cool fact: When you confidently walk into a shop and ask for serious booze, nobody questions your age! :P Hehe, cool, no? I remember the first time I bought alcohol here, (I was trying to buy some cider! Hardly qualifies for alcohol! :P) I was asked for a proof of age and my student ID card didn't have my date of birth on it. (It beats me why wouldn't they put DOB on an ID! It seems such an important detail!) So, I had to go back to my flat and bring back another form of identification! And anyway, since I look all small and too young for my age, I am always ID-ed everywhere. But last time I walked in the store and asked for a big bottle of rum and yesterday, I went in and asked for triple sec/ cointreau and both times I wasn't asked to produce a proof of age! Oh, and all this was in different stores, just in case you are thinking that maybe it's because the people there know me by now. :P Though I'm sure if I went to just one place, they'd place me in the category of an alcoholic! :P Hee.

Anyway, so, once every week, all of us house-mates meet for dinner. There is a great international atmosphere and various cuisines on the table. In fact, I think all of us bond most over food talk! :P And I had volunteered to cook this week. I cooked that particular species of typically Indian food - "Indian Chinese." :D It is very different from Chinese food and I think the closest thing that would come to it would be the cheap South Asian Chinese joints in the UK. It tastes awesome and I'll put up the recipes sometime soon on the food blog. Well, since I don't know what alcohol goes the best with any kind of Indian food, I decided I'll just make some cocktails. (ahem, very original excuse, you have to agree! :P) I just wanted to feel all sexy! :P And as soon as I thought of "sexy," I knew I'd make the Sex and the City signature drink - the Cosmopolitan. And boy, did it look all pretty in pink! :P :D See, see!! :D I even frosted the glasses and made them look all professional cocktail types! Yay! I feel all proud and awesome! :D Now, if only my poor, neglected dissertation went as well as my alcohol exploits! Sigh! :P

Of Alcoholics and Drinking Games

S and her Italian Lover-boy (lets call him, ummmm, oh, I know! M for Mafia! We could've kept calling him Italian Loverboy but M is just easier and also funnier. It's funny because he's SO not like Mafia. He's all gentle and caring and goofy types. But because S's father and brothers have not met him, they just assume the worst and bring out all stereotypes. Hee.) just came back from their holidays a few days ago and guess what they brought back from Italy for our house-mates? A bottle of Lemoncino! That sweet, warm, citrus-ey alcohol which will become your undoing because you will not know when to stop. As you see, I talk from experience here. :P

So, last night, after dinner, S and I  both had a bit of it and while she was being intelligent and sipping it, I decided to do a shot. For a moment there, I was totally disoriented and again found myself sitting in M's living room a few months ago and playing drinking games and having much of that dangerous liquid! It was one of the best house parties I've had in England. We were all being very adult about it and letting everyone have whatever they wanted and nobody was forced to shots or anything. Did you just say boring? Nonononono, not boring. It's called being adult abbavibba. Well, we had fun anyway. So, yea, it doesn't matter. And I think except for one of our friends, the rest of us got very drunk. Now see, when I get drunk, I get very chummy-chummy with M. Generally, in all sobriety I and M keep taking snipes at each other. He just keeps pulling my leg and annoying me. So, I retaliate. (Yes, ::nod solemnly:: it's always he who starts it. :P) If anybody so much as dares to even whisper the word 'jealous', I'll block them from reading my blog. Honest. Alright, now that we have cleared that out, where was I? Oh, yea, so, but when he gets drunk, he just sits quietly in a corner. Ok, not so quietly and not so much in a corner. But, he doesn't try to annoy me. And since I'm all happy and giggly and am also not being bothered, I get all chummy-chummy with M. That day, I defended him against some accusations. I forget what but I bet it was something silly seeing as we were all pissed. And so, everyone was rather amused by my chummy-ness. But, then, when we woke up the next day (News flash: Lemoncino doesn't give me as bad a hangover as wine and vodka do! YAY!)  I immediately cleared up all the misunderstandings about the previous evening and everyone was amused again. It was just the booze talking, said she in a matter-of-fact voice. Sigh, no one seems to take me seriously. I wonder why! :P Also, I was the cheater on the table that night! As in, I did all my shots (or sips of coke and vodka :P) but whenever I picked up a card that had something I didn't want to perform, I'd just mix it back in the pile of cards and pick another one! :P Hee. I love being myself and I also love all my friends and oh, I probably might love vodka more that I love my friends when I'm having it but I'm not sure.

Another time I had great fun playing drinking games was with Kyra, Sara and JD. (As, everyone who reads this blog knows! :P) I'm sorry for mentioning it so many times and not elaborating. Here's my apology, in the form of a whole paragraph! :P :D Ta da!!!! So, I made mojitos (Aside: I make the world's BEST mojitos. Ok, maybe not the world's best. But they are pretty damn good. Pssssst. My secret: FRESH mint and lime. The freshness of your mojitos will help them take on the world. Uhhh....as you can see, I'm in the hyperbole mood today! :P Ok, Aside over.) And then, we all played never have I ever and many secrets were revealed. :D I think everyone should play never have I ever at least once in their lives. Because you know, once you play it, you'll want to play it again and again and again, sometimes to get people very very drunk and sometimes, to know everyone's secrets. ;) Being evil is fun, ain't it? :P As far as drinking games go, this is the best one. Really. So, basically, we all drank mojitos, wine and rum and coke and smoked pot. And when we were all out of alcohol but too lazy to go out and buy more, but we were still not done with the game, we just ate the mint leaves from our mojitos instead of taking shots. Hmmm, I don't really remember being that drunk. Maybe I was wrong! :P And then, we also made Gulab Jamuns when we were all high and listened to Emotional Attyachar and Jumma Chumma De De. Fun, fun!! No? :D

Free Booze (Music :P)!!!

Since we, here at Bookshelf, promised you all a party and free booze, we must fulfil that promise or else people will think we're a lousy party-thrower! (I mean, people probably might think that anyway, but meh! Might as well have fun trying to party than not try at all! :P) Sooooooooooo, welcome to our new place!! :D Hope you enjoy yourselves! :)

Here's a collection-of sorts of some famous Bollywood sharabi-type songs! The best one in the history of Bollywood has to be this:

Mungda has got such a sexy groove in it, any party with daaru and this song has to rock! ;)

Another one of my favourites, featuring the delectable Shabbir Ahluwalia and other not-so-delectable-regularly-but-quite-mouth-watering-in-this-one men:

Oh, I hate to admit this but it definitely seems like there is something about bad boys that attract women! Never did I like Tushar Kapoor except in this film. He generally looks so humdrum, like you know, daft, insipid and listless! But in this one, quite good, even though not Oh-My-God-he's-so-hot good. Hmmm, food for thought: maybe I have been single for so long because I get bored easily and only a smuggler or a murder can give me the excitement that I look for in my life and relationships! ::shudder:: 

Oh, this is a party and we should let go of scary thoughts and focus on some bad music but good drunken dancing! Thus, two more videos:

(Alright, since I'm having problems uploading the other video, here's the link for it!)

And since it is about drinking, I think Devdas should definitely figure in this post. Even though he was a complete loser and that film doesn't have any shake-your-booty type music, I think you can dance for at least a minute or two to this song. Oh, and Madhuri Dixit is *SO* pretty!!! There are a few women for whom I might consider changing my sexuality (but that is a topic which deserves a whole post for itself!) and Madhuri Dixit, especially when she is dancing, is definitely one of them!

And since we talked about Devdas, I HAVE to mention DevD. Otherwise there would be no sense left in this world! Btw, DevD is also, along with Om Shanti Om, the best man-made invention (that is correct, man-made invention) ever! And, in this song, just look at Abhay Deol, looking all seksi seksi while chugging his alcohol as if it is juice! Ah, what poetry is that frame! And the best part of the song is Paro, dancing in happy knowledge that she wasn't meant to be with that loser. One of my friends, Sara, happily pointed out the bewildered expression on Paro's husband's face and said, "Dude, when we get married, our husbands will look at us with exactly the same expressions!" Hee, fun, no?!! But so true! Incidentally, that was the day we were playing drinking games and revealing a lot of secrets to each other!! But again, THAT day definitely deserves a whole post (or maybe, even two) of its own! 

Did you see the brilliance in that?!! Man, I can live Dev D ANYTIME!!!! Now, that's a collection of (mostly) ghaat Bollywood songs I can dance on when I'm drunk!! :D Ok, so, just as a parting shot, here (video uploading problems again) are a few songs by a band called The Booze (an excellent band really!!) Hope you enjoy it! :) 

Oh Torture, thy name is Hangover!!!

Aaaaaargghhhhhh!!!

That's my headache, which has been threatening to kill me ALL day long today!! Isn't hangover just supposed to last for some time and then go away when you take measures like drink lime juice, eat greasy food, take an aspirin and sleep well? Well, apparently, not all hangovers go away so easily. How else would I learn my lesson? Never again will I drink because I'm angry or upset. I was fine with just being a social drinker. I won't turn into Devdas' female colleague.

But honestly, why did I get the world's worst hangover after just 3 glasses of wine, I will never understand! Maybe, like Sun told me, it is because I might have had the "special vintage wine from the region of Migrainia." Now, if only they wrote out warnings on the labels, "Beware! Migraine Wine ahead" at least naive people like me would know what NOT to buy. Hmph. So, basically, I just wasted my whole day today, sleeping off my hangover and not even getting much better.

The only "work" I did in the whole day today was publish recipes for the cake and the brownies that I had baked yesterday on my other blog. (Oooh, they were yummy! Recipes can be found here and here. But, unfortunately, I wasn't sober enough to appreciate them well enough yesterday. And, today, I find out that my house mates had finished ALL of both yesterday!!) Well, I'll look at the positive side and think what a big compliment that is, instead of cribbing about not even having a chance to properly enjoy my own baked goods. I guess, this is a part of the "lesson" I needed to learn. Oh Providence, lesson learnt! I'll never again drink to drown my sorrows (that sounds so dramatic!! Hehe, I should be renamed as Drama Queen! :P) and I'll never again be so drunk that I can't appreciate food! There. Now, please take away this horrible headache!