Chp 546. Once in a Blue Moon

Continued from my previous update - After a relaxing and much deserved weekend vacation at the scenic Villa Almitra last weekend, I left the place early and headed back to Mumbai.

Why? Because it was time to partaaaay :D

The thing is, I haven't invited my Mizo friends over at our apartment in a really long time because (a) I’ve been really busy at work with such hectic schedules and deadlines, (b) My flatmate is not a Mizo, so sometimes I feel bad inviting a large number of Mizos to our place. 4-5 Mizo friends coming over is fine. But 20+ Mizos chatting in Mizo and getting drunk and singing Mizo songs in 10 different pitches can be quite irritating for those who don't speak our language :) And as we say in Mizo, "Ka inthlahrung". That night, he wasn't at home.

Even though a couple of friends couldn't make it, we had a great time...

The only problem with a Mizo dinner party is that people don't wanna arrive too early or be one of the firsts to arrive because that means they have to cook for the others :D A Mizo dinner party means cooking Mizo cuisines and delicacies ourselves, and ordering food from outside is unheard of.

And since most Mizos, male or female, can cook, the early bird catches the pressure cooker I guess. Here we have our first two arrivals who immediately got to work...

As more and more people started arriving, the salon and the kitchen started filling up...

Five kgs of beef was prepared! In Mizo ishtyle of course, which means more of boiling than frying.

I bought two bottles of red wine to marinate the meat, but my friends drank them all up... :D aahhhh Mizos... :D  :P

Abby gifted me this really awesome Polo tee shirt, which fitted perfectly. Thank you so much thenawmnu.

She even bought her Karaoke machine over, and she was on it the entire night...

Others sang romantic duet together...

And then Mumbai's very own "My name is Bond, Bee Bond" B. Ramhluna arrived. Here Bee is trying his best to look all serious and sombre as if he didn't just hop over to my place from Gokuls.

Bee came late (because he had to drop off so many chicas) and left quickly again (because he had to pick up so many chicas). But in between that, he bought me this awesome cake wishing me all the best in my ongoing project involving a new game concept.

Some more random group photos...

Those in charge of the food took a long time preparing it, leaving many of us hungry because they were more busy taking selfies...

Soon the guitar came out, which is a compulsory element at any Mizo social gathering. And as usual, most of the songs sung that night were 80's and 90's glam rock :D

Others started eating while the rest were too busy screaming out, "You're all I need beside me girllll, you're all I need to turn my worldddd"

Chow time... Check out the girl in green below. Even though she was busy eating, she managed to be there at every location where a pic was being taken... :)

Comon, eat, eat, eat... :D

And then of course there was this guy, the HERO of the night!

Maybe the less said about him, the better... for now :D I still have a lot of awesome pics and videos of him that night, which I may or may not upload, depending on my mood :D

Finally everybody had their fill and it was time to go home. I didn't want my building society president banging on my door at 3 in the morning :D

A closing pic... somehow, this came out quite well, maybe because of the lights in the elevator.

Over all, it was a happy and memorable night indeed. A successful "once in a blue moon" party. Now back to the work grind...

Chp 545. Weekend getaway - Almitra Villa

Photoblog update.

So this weekend, my friends and I decided to go on a weekend vacation. We’ve been overworking almost every day for the past few months, and even when we do take a break, we rarely do it together. This time, we decided to plan a really nice relaxing weekend cum road-trip together.

And here is just how relaxing it was!

Blissful escapade indeed. So how did we end up here and what was our experience? Read further below. Also, click on all photos to enlarge to a new tab.

The place we decided to go to is called Almitra Villa. We slept early on Friday night, having bought all our stuff in advance.

Woke up at 7 on Saturday, all excited and ready to go. Breakfast was packed.

Left our house by 8 AM. We hired an Innova, so five of us along with the driver, the cat and the dog fitted in comfortably. Faced the usual heavy traffic in Mumbai, which became thinner and thinner as we headed more and more away from the city…

Controlling our dog was the biggest problem of our journey. He was everywhere, that window, this window, that seat, this seat, etc etc bow bow…

Amidst a lot of internal wrestlings with our dog, we finally reached the first toll gate. After that, traffic was relatively much lighter.

After another hour or so, we finally reached the Khapoli junction, from where we had to take a right.

The timing was perfect, as our friends travelling in another cab also reached at the same time!

And if you think our cab is quite a mess because we had a dog on board, well the other cab had a baby on board! :D

After a brief stop at a roadside dhaba to pee and stuff, we continued on our journey again. We had the packed breakfast inside the cab. Again we had to fight off our dog who wanted a piece of the food!

Soon we reached Adlabs Imagica, which is a very popular theme park. I definitely wanna go there someday. Unfortunately, that was not our destination and we quickly drove past it.

From Imagica, it was approximately another hour’s drive. We drove through small winding roads with beautiful rural scenery around. The only bummer was, it was in the plains. It would have been more beautiful if it was the hills or ghats.

Soon we reached the Vasudha Gates entrance, from where we had to take an even smaller road. Our destination, Almitra Villa is one of the many farm houses located within this Vasudha society.

Finally, yayyyy, we reached.

Lunch was already made, waiting for us.

I checked out the area quickly, taking pics of the surroundings etc.

All the beds were double beds.

The pic below is the bedroom where I stayed. Alone.

Even the bathroom was spacious and elitified.

It even had a nice balcony view too, as it was situated on the first floor.

Here’s a view of downstairs from my room.

And here’s a view of my bedroom from the ground floor inside… Saddam was busy checking out where I was going to sleep for the night. Kinda like he gave me his approval :D

Meanwhile we kept all the food we brought along inside the fridge. So this place provides basic food, but we have to bring our own supply of special meats and alcohol.

After that it was to the POOL!!!

I was the first one in of course! :P

After that, lots of drinks and more drinks inside the pool. Good times indeed :)

The next pic I took was only after dark :)

We also had a barbeque by the pool. We made sheek kebabs and lots of seafood.

The kitchen inside too kept providing us with more snacks as we let our hair down and enjoyed by the pool…

For dinner, the cooks made Mutton gosht which was utterly butterly delicious.

Night meant bringing out the Mizo shawl. It was quite freezing once we were out of the pool.

The next morning, I was like, aaaahhhh :)

The cooks made maggi and poha for breakfast. I had my fill.

After that, I roamed around the farmhouse, exploring the place as my friends were still passed out sleeping. Took a few photos as well. Almitra Villa is situated right on the banks of the river Amba.

Loved the lawn as well. This is where they have the bonfire parties.

There was also this really cozy hammock at the lawn too. Took this pic from the hammock. Sheer paradise indeed. The beauty of nature.

Meanwhile Saddam was busy marking his territory everywhere. So many trees. Mine mine mine, all mine! :D

I love their sprinklers also. Makes the lazy hungover morning even more perfect…

For lunch, the cooks made chicken biryani, which was REALLY good!

Random pics I took…

Our cat and dog had their own siesta after a good lunch…

Soon it was time for me to head back to Mumbai as I already had plans. Bye bye Almitra Villa.

Crossed the river Amba for the second time…

Hello again Mumbai. Idyllic view from my taxi.

What an awesome weekend it was. I will update my blog next with what happened after reaching Mumbai. Cheers till then :)