the Namesake

Sometime last week,my sister sent me a very formal sms addressed to me by my official name.I figured she had sent it to the wrong person or on second thoughts,she may have been in one of her formal moods.Long and short of it was that either ways I didn't quiet get it.Something to do with a baby being born to someone and being named Rebecca
Silly me had forgotten that in far away Australia lived a niece who was expecting a baby.After a few phone calls from excited members of my family it dawned on me that there was a new baby who had become my namesake.
I am (according to most normal people)expected to be very happy that the latest addition to our family has been named after me.Its a rare honour,rarer because the niece in question is no great fan of mine (or so I believe).The entire family had various explanations as to why the child was allegedly named after me.The first and most amusing one was that she was named after a favourite aunt.(give me a break,I am no ones favourite).A friend said that she was conceived in my home (the maths just didn't work out so we killed that).Most of the family went with the first one.I didn't react,didn't blog on this either as I wasn't sure what I am expected to feel.
Ha but the niece put it all to rest.She wanted to know what I felt about her daughters name(what can I say,except that since its my name it is obviously a wise choice).Then the big question was she named after me (she says yes) Last and final question...why me (hey that is still unanswered,because my clever niece is thinking up some wisecrack answer to that one.
Suffice to say that with my name to begin life with,what more can a child ask for!!!!!
Perhaps I should hop on my broomstick and take a trip to Australia and wave a magic wand.Me thinks its a good idea.

fishy tales

Things have gotten real fishy of late.To begin with the temperatures sored suddenly and the heat became unbearable.The first causality was diet,so as executive chef of our household I took the decision to ban chicken and red meat from our diet.That left sea food as the only option as we are not very fond of vegetables it has to be something that once swam or crawled.
Decision taken,the next stop was the fish stall.Now this is an interesting place.It smells to high heaven but has the most amazing variety of seafood.Pearl spot,trout,angelfish and the list is endless.There are fresh squids with their ink intact and prawns and lovely lobsters to die for.
The fun of being in a fish shop is to check all the fish out so I start with checking the gills,if they are not red then I refuse to buy them,next step is to plod the stomach,it has to be firm to the touch or the fish is not fresh.Its more of a ritual and all this ads to the fun of checking it all out.
Then I made the mistake of checking the price.Something very fishy has happened in this city.Prawns were the most expensive normally and this was one of those Sunday special treats,but with all the heat,the fish was selling at trice the price of prawns.Shocked out of my skin I quickly reversed my earlier rule of no red meat.Out of the shop in a hurry,I hurried to charm my butcher for a nice good piece of steak.Oh well I never was fishy so why start now.