These sleepless nights

I didn't quite end up finishing the NaBloPoMo August challenge did I? This time it wasn't laziness though.

I haven't been sleeping well for a few weeks now and I think a lot of it has to do with me not unwinding enough before bed. I am physically exhausted from the lack of sleep so you'd think I would crash as soon as my head hit the pillow but nope, doesn't happen. My mind…has a mind of its own. Haha really it does! I cannot stop thinking, stressing, planning, analysing - just not giving my mind a break!

This is why I'm trying to disconnect, unwind and do other things when I get home. I try to spend as little time in front of the computer. Of course it doesn't always happen. But I'm hoping it will work and I won't wake up feeling so tired every day!

Mundane inanities

Today was my first day back at the gym after many months and I'm so happy I'm finally back :)

It was a struggle for sure but I'm happy I got there and am finally healthy enough to be gymming again. Exercise keeps me sane and so I was obviously going a little crazy not being able to exercise.  I am disappointed with my fitness (naturally) and I know it will take me a while to build it back up again but I'm grateful to be back and at it again. Yay me.

In other news, today I found out they are re-releasing one of my most favourite movies of all time - The Lion King in 3D - for 2 weeks in September.

Besides being one of the best Disney movies (in my opinion) - the movie brings back a lot of wonderful memories. It was 1994 and I was loving my 9 year old life. My parents took my sister, my cousins and me to watch the movie - which was sold out so we had to sit way up in front (in the fifth row) to watch the movie. It didn't matter that our eyes hurt - we loved the movie and we all cried when Mufasa died.

I think 3D still has some way to go before they add a wow factor to regular movies but animated movies in 3D are amazing. So yes, I cannot wait for Lion King in 3D....so excited!

This post is part of the NaBloPoMo August challenge.

Day 5: Stress

I really thought I would write something good today. An actual post, not just some words for the sake of a post.

But I'm very, very stressed right now. Don't really want to say why so I'll just say Hello All and now I'm going back to watching Good News Week.

Oh, and cheer for Netherlands tomorrow. Do.

Day 3: Football - it's in my genes

It's almost time for the Argentina-Germany game so let me hear you say it

A.R.G.E.N.T.I.N.A!!!!

I love the World Cup. I don't follow football as much as my sister and don't know too many players or anything but I love watching it during the World Cup. It's one of the few sports I find interesting (and understand!), plus I think it's also a cultural-genetic-hereditary thing. I'll explain in a bit, but first -

- yes, it *is* football. When you kick a ball with your foot, it's called football. It's not football when you run around a field passing the ball to each other, tackling each other to the ground. Yes, I'm looking at you Aussie rules "football" fans and yes, you American "football" fans too. But back to what I was saying....

Calcutta, the city I grew up in has 2 major football clubs - Mohun Bagan and East Bengal and when they play, the fans can get pretty aggressive.  We also love to claim Baichung Bhutia as our own. Anyway, so for this reason, Bengalis (or Bongs, as we are "fondly" known) are pretty passionate about football. What we're also passionate about is Brazil and Argentina. Football is big in West Bengal (the state in which Calcutta is, for the uninitiated) and if India *ever* qualified for the World Cup, I'm willing to bet anything that the most passionate supporters will be from Bengal. Anyway, so every World Cup the city is divided into its Blue and Yellow factions and well, things can get pretty heated.

I'm not sure exactly when this Brazil-Argentina obsession started but it's pretty strong and I can tell you I was being very un-Calcuttan & un-Bengali by supporting Netherlands last night. Haha ;) So I Googled to see if I could find any answers & I found this (read it!). There were clashes in Bangladesh between Argentine & Brazilian football fans. FYI, Bangladesh & West Bengal share the same language, culture, food etc, back from when we used to be the same country...so there's a shared passion for football as well.

The article says the Bengali obsession for Argentina & Brazil has to do with Pele & Maradona but doesn't explain much else. But anyway, it does explain my point - football, is my genes (watching it, not playing it).

India may have a long way to go till they qualify for the World Cup (if you're interested, this article I read on the BBC website explains a few things about the dismal state of Indian football). In the meanwhile, as the article says "Bengalis are passionate people" and I'm going to cheer loud and hard tonight so let me hear it one more time:

A.R.G.E.N.T.I.N.A!!!!