Tag: elephant

Start of a September vacation!

Hai to all my readers,

I had been in and out of hospital in June and had to take some time for myself. So, naturally,  the blog took back seat. Now that I am up and about, I am getting my blog game-face on and back here.

Now for the actual post…..

What with lots happening in our lives, Mr.Bee, who has the most cortisol in our family, since he is the central pillar post, decided we need a long overdue vacation in September. (Both the kids have schools and all, but we decided to take a chance at going on vacation!)

Since Mr.Bee has always been a fan of Coorg like almost all software engineers, we charted our plans, made itinerary, jotted down the list and finalized our tour plan.

Day 1 :

We had Mr.Bee’s cousins visiting us and our house was buzzing with activity.  We made some last minute additions to our luggage,  went to my parents house to bid them farewell before our 11 day vacation.

Initially, the bus we were travelling was supposed to start at 9:30 p.m. at Kukatpally, Hyderabad. But, they called us at 7:30 p.m. to inform us to reach the stop at 8:30 p.m., as the departure has been pre-poned! (The sudden change in time meant we had little time for dinner!)

We got ready, made it on time and occupied our seats. Mr. Bee and KBee, I and GBee divided into teams of two. Thanks to the bus driver  constantly reminding us of the existence of the break pedal, I felt nauseous! Mr.Bee bought me some mango candy and Kurkure at the first stop after boarding, to help me beat nausea, but it didn’t help me at all.

The only idea I came up with is to sleep and that subsided my nausea. (Since it was MIL’s birthday, we had biryani for dinner and that caused me nausea. Word of advice, eat atleast an hour before travelling and eat light!)

Before sleeping, KBee , GBee and I had played ATLAS game, which was like Antyakshari, except here we tell any nouns starting with last letter of a word. So if we start the game with ‘S’ as in (A-T-L-A-‘S’), a word like Singapore,  the other player needs to think of a word with E (last letter of the word, Singapore), like an Elephant and so on.

Later, GBee and I chatted and played “country flag” game, where we guessed the flags of different countries.

We called it a night at 10 p.m. and slept.

Day 2 :

The next morning, at around 6 a.m. we reached the outskirts of Bangalore and GBee and I enjoyed looking out of the windows at the windmills, hills and the tiny towns, which were in the midst of nature. (The townsfolk don’t even know that some people like me are envious of them!)

By the time we reached our stop, at the Silk Board, it was already past 10:30 a.m.!

We reached R’s house, who is a close friend and colleague of Mr.Bee. He wondered why we had booked a bus service, which had been recently involved in a major fire accident! The bus driver was going slow for a reason,  their service was under scrutiny, thanks to the fire accident  and Mr.Bee had booked us in the same service, without any idea!

I should say I was actually worried about fire accidents in buses, but I refrained from sharing my concerns with Mr.Bee. Interestingly, I didn’t recall that the fire accident had been in the same bus service we were travelling in. If I had known, I wouldn’t have slept the whole night, like a scaredy cat!

Anyway,  we had a hearty breakfast of idli sambar, had our baths, because it was nearly 11 a.m. and eating breakfast after bath seemed stupid.

We bade goodbye to R’s family, got into the taxi we had hired for the whole trip and started for Mysore.

P.S :

1. I admire the outskirts of Bangalore, with a tiny town, hills in the background and wind mills doing their job! It looked so beautiful that, it reinforced my desire to visit Mount Fuji, Japan. Once I visit Mt.Fuji, I can check it off my bucket list. (I checked off Australian Kangaroo in 2016, which had been in my list since my 10th grade.)

2. Although I admire the scenic beauty, I wonder how it would be to live in a scenic town.

3. I pity the Generation Alpha. Even when the scenery outside our bus window was exquisite,  GBee wanted nothing to do with it. He kept demanding for the Samsung Tab, to play his Minecraft! (He got good many scoldings, so early in the morning)

Sketch Please!

If all you have with you are different pencils, a couple of white papers and time to kill, then , sketching is a good hobby for you! I started to sketch during my class 8 summer vacation and continued it well into my early twenties. But then, life happened and my hobby took a back seat!

For S, let’s go with Sketching!

According to the great internet God, Wikipedia, Sketching is the process of drawing of a rough outline  of a final piece of art.

Drawing a rough outline of fighter figures! – Basics of Sketching

Sketching is also about using different strokes to complete the drawing. The different strokes of sketching are..

A sketch made with basic pencil strokes…

Tree during the Fall

One fine day, Mr.Bee and I decided to see who was better at sketching and the winner is obviously not me! Mr.Bee and I decided to sketch Marilyn Monroe and see who was better, but mine sucks. I have refrained from showing my piece. This one is Mr.Bee’s sketch.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Marilyn Monroe! – by Mr.Bee

While I am not posting my Marilyn Monroe sketch, to save my face, I would like to post, something else…

Girl in a Flower Crown – by QB

The easiest of all the sketches are the ones of nature, landscapes and hills. I have loads of those in my sketch book. Will post more of my sketches in later posts.

Sketch of a Hill Station – Probably Ooty! – by QB

All you need to start sketching are H and B pencils. H is the hardest pencil and so lighter in drawing, whereas, B is for darker shading, since they are softer.

Graphite Drawing Pencil guide

If you want to start sketching, why not start with a simple one like this …

Fallen leaves – Best beginner’s sketch for learning to shade

Go ahead, get sketching!

P.S:

  1. The other hobbies starting with S are Sky Diving, Soap Making, Star Gazing (or Amateur Astronomy) and Snorkelling.

Mr.Bee tried his hand at Sky Diving, in Charlotte,NC,USA and enjoyed it thoroughly. You can watch the video here.

2. The images which don’t have my logo on them have been freely copied from the internet. Thanks to all the sources.

3. During our stay in USA, when Mr.Bee was busy in his office working, I would either go and make dozens of pottery or sit and watch movies.That is how I ended watching some of the movies of Marilyn Monroe, Cary Grant,  Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, from Netflix. I loved watching Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the Seven Year Itch, Roman Proposal, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Good, Bad and the Ugly,to name a few. (I need more time to refresh my memory to remember the other movie names!)

Passion for Pottery!

Have you watched the 1997 film, Titanic, directed by James Cameron? What is the most memorable scene that comes to your mind when you think of the movie ?

Some remember the last scene of Rose on the wooden plank and Jack freezing to death in the ocean, some remember an old couple dying together in their bed,  some cheerful people remember the famous titanic pose! But what I remember is the 100 Yr old Rose making pottery, in her very first scene! That was the moment I thought, wait, I need to learn pottery! (Love at first sight!)

Bam! More than 15 yrs after watching the scene, I land in Charlotte and learn pottery for nearly 2 years, spending minimum of 24 hrs, each week!

My first love is, was and will be pottery!

So today, P for Pottery.

Pottery done by Queen Bee!

The above image shows part of the collection of pottery I made. I have nearly 60 pieces of pottery with me. (I, especially shipped them to India, thanks to Mr.Bee for understanding my passion for pottery. One or two pieces of my collection ended up broken, but its fine. I can live with that!)

Pottery is the art or process of making articles or vessels with clay. There are two basic techniques in pottery,  hand building and wheel throwing.

Let’s see what wheel throwing is about….

Firstly, the required lump of clay is shaped or kneaded, just like how we do with roti dough! This is the most important step. The air bubbles are pottery’s worst enemy. They can cause cracks.

There are different methods of kneading too!

Then the kneaded or prepped clay is thrown on the potter’s wheel, which is run through an electric motor and different articles of varied shapes are made.

A creamer pot and a cookie jar – Any external design is added at this stage.

Once the required shapes are made, they are let to dry and then fired in the kiln. There are many different firing techniques too. But I only tried electric firing. I wish I had tried the Japanese Raku. (I was expecting my first baby GBee when we were taught Raku firing and I skipped the class!)

Bisque fired Creamer pot and Cookie Jar

Once the pottery is bisque fired, it is then glazed with different colours. They look something like this.

Glazed pottery is fired and the finished pottery looks something like this.

That’s the process of wheel thrown pottery. But if are into creating something unique, then hand building is for you.

I tried my hand at hand building to make an elephant. It is a tedious process but very gratifying and satisfying! Even bowls , cups  and vases also can be made through hand building.

The Elephant – My only hand built pottery! 

So, did you like pottery?

P.S:
1. Pottery is an ocean of an art! More posts on pottery will be out in future. I can’t fit everything about it in a single post.

I miss pottery. Hope to get back to it. The couple of coffee mugs in the first image are the ones I made for me and Mr.Bee.  All the images except the one with the kneading of clay are my own.

2. Some glazes are not safe for food consumption. Proper warning is generally given, if the pottery is unsafe for food consumption.

3. The only advice I would like to give as a former potter, is that, if at all any or the porcelain or ceramic articles you have at your house is chipped or develops a crack(even a hairline crack), do dispose it and don’t try eating/drinking in those. It is highly dangerous chemically as well as a hazard if you end up consuming the chips of the articles by mistake!

4. The other hobbies starting with a P are Polo, Painting, Para-sailing, Para- gliding and Photography. (which is Mr.Bee’s passion!)

Till the next post, alvida!

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