20 vs 30 years old

               It’s been a while since I’ve blogged having taken a break period. I have been trying to channel that energy to focus on more healthy lifestyle practices such as exercising regularly and eating less processed foods and sugars (Side Note: a great healthy option if you’re also looking to make similar choices is @low_cal_palate. Check them out on Instagram!). This has been proving to be quite challenging, even more so as a Hindu during the fasting period of Navratri and Divali but one must never give up, after all consistency is key.

               Having entered the thirtieth decade myself last year, I am now aptly qualified to share some thoughts on why we trinis like to tell you “yuh getting ole boy” when anyone turns 30. Age is just a number, but energy levels and pains are constant elements of physicality that seem to increase exponentially when crossing certain landmark ages. These are some sentiments that I’m sure you guys can relate to when crossing 30 as well:

 • You no longer have two knees but rather describe them as your good knee and your bad knee.

 

 • Joint pains and more specifically, knee pains can now be used to predict an incoming cold front better than trini weathermen (or women, hey @Seigonie!)  

 

 • You put on pyjamas after you bathe in the afternoon / evening no matter the time of day 

 

 • A late movie is now as early as 7pm 

 

 • Going to the grocery or making a bank run now qualifies as going out, even going just for gasoline up the street! 

 

 • Having a fairly fixed and regular toilet time is a priority. 

 

 • Watching what you eat means Doubles and pepper intake is rationed; only some doubles vendors are worth the burn of reflux (or otherwise, if you know what I mean lol) shoutout to my main doubles vendors Sleepy and Son Doubles in the town of St Helena and The original Sauce (green shed) near Curepe Junction. Both are highly recommended! 

                Personally, I now exercise with 2 or sometimes 3 bands- knee, ankle and back. My “good knee” has changed from being my left to my right knee. The treadmill used to be a routine and go to exercise for me, but over the past few years it has become increasingly more difficult to manoeuvre. Something which used to be my favourite exercise; it is mundane and involved no after effects or post workout pains, and along with time on the elliptical, I would burn significant calories from cardio.

The new normal

Trinidad and Tobago, currently, has very few active cases and a number of people under quarantine across the islands within medical facilities. As a result of very few community acquired cases our government has decided on a phased re opening of our lovely islands.

We have slowly opened sectors of our economy and have now arrived at the fun things.

Restaurants have now resumed indoor dining with reduced capacity of course and with strict adherence to social distancing and wearing of masks; also cinemas and other social places have resumed function.

Now Ronnie and I usually go out once a week and twice on a rare occasion. The reason for this is not that we love to eat out or that we have a lot of friends to meet, remember that both our moms are great cooks, we usually go out in order to spend time with each other without the ultra-conservative eyes of parents or even the distraction of the PS4.

As all essential shift workers can attest to, I am sure, our date nights were usually on an odd day during the week and sometimes at an odd time as well. I can’t say we minded it much as we were usually one of the very few patrons there at 2pm on a Wednesday afternoon and the staff was usually extra attentive as we were the only things that required their attention.

When I imagined married life, I always wondered how much we would go out as we would be with each other all the time and that’s why we used to go out anyway.

After that horrid quarantined period left us without our favorite take out food, we were eager to get some good food and have our first date night as a married couple!

I had it planned in my head. I have the day off, I can drop him to work (as he hates the traffic) then when I pick him up after work we could go for lunch! Destination unknown but I always secretly hope for sushi.

Great! I am set, the plan sounds concrete.

I drop him to work in the morning with my sleepy face and non- morning person demeanor but still happy to have saved him from the dreaded traffic.

I get home and I do some chores and I get ready for our date. I wear something casual but upscale and I put on contacts, I do my hair (my secret weapon) and I do my makeup and I head out the door.
I wait for Ronnie in the carpark and as I see him walking towards me I open the door and step out to greet him. I could see that his entire expression changed. From at work doctor face to OMG my baby is here.

I thought to myself I haven’t seen this face in a while. When we went out pre wedding he would usually pick me up, I would smile at him as I walk towards him and his goofy OMG smile would come across his face.

He got into the car and proceeded to tell me some nice things and then we were off to the date. The restaurant was quaint and had a variety of new options for us to try. The meal was great. Ronnie had a Greek lamb with cous cous and I had a tortellini with spinach and ricotta cheese with chicken.
I was in a state of euphoria! Maybe it was just the food, maybe it was the drinks or maybe it was something else.

Hmmmm..

What I figured out when we got home was that it wasn’t the food from the restaurants we were missing all the time, it was the looking good for one another, the giggles as we drive to our destination listening to music and doing silly dances in the car, the fighting over the menu choices and even the people watching at the restaurant (or as we say in Trinidad the maco-ing). It was all these things that made our date great. It was this that bonded us together and made us feel closer together. It was a shared experience that we could look back on and say, ‘remember when we went to..’

The best part of the whole thing was that it never really ended as we came home to the same place and the conversation from our date just continued as if we never even left the restaurant.

I concluded that my initial thoughts about going out were a bit underestimated and even though I still maintain that we won’t go out as much, I think that a date night is required every once in a while.

What do you all do for date night? Does anyone do at home date nights? Feel free to comment below and let us know these married people secrets.

Yummy in my tummy

Hey everyone.

As I mentioned in the last post I am a 'spoil' child. I must follow this up by saying that my parents have provided me with everything that I have ever needed and have looked after my needs as I went through grueling rotations in medical school and also working and studying at a postgraduate level.

Now I know that this is no excuse for not taking care of myself but as I like to say,
I KNOW HOW TO DO IT (in theory). (insert WINK emoji)

The one thing that I always wanted to be good at is cooking and this is the one area that you need to have practical knowledge and no matter how much I observed, I was always nervous.

Now you have to understand that my mom has been hailed as a great cook by all of my family members, friends and even in laws.
 Now that’s tough to follow. I am pretty sure Ronnie thinks that one of the perks of marrying me is that my mom’s food lashes (meaning it tastes good).

So in 2018 I decided that I was going to learn to cook. Of course I could not start with roti and curry.

If the food came out bad and Ronnie tasted it, then there was no turning back. So I started small, I had some themed nights. Italian, Mexican and Indian to just name a few. I would research various recipes after coming up with the theme and then set myself up for the day.

Since our schedules at that time was rather erratic, we would usually have these dinners during the week. So all set, my mom and dad were banned from the kitchen apart from looking over my shoulder to make sure I didn’t serve any raw food and I would do my thing.

Most of the food tasted great, I always judge it based on my brethren’s comments as he is definitely not afraid to tell me the truth. I did have a little mishap with some lemon chicken but let us focus on the positives.

Throwback to 2018 when i made chicken Parmesan!

Fast forward 2 years , I let the training go to the wayside as I had exams and life in general. So I was faced with a dilemma. About to be married and can’t cook apart from maybe some pancakes.

PANIC !!

WE CANT SURVIVE ON PANCAKES ALONE!!!

Add to that the fact that in the quarantine restrictions, we could not order takeout.

I spent the days before the wedding on Pinterest trying to find easy and quick recipes that I could make for my new hubby.

I can proudly say that for the last two months I have survived and so has Ronnie. We have made pancakes, but we have also made chicken parmesan, some chicken tacos, a broccoli mushroom stir-fry and a few other things!

Some sheet pan chicken and vegetables. The easiest meal I ever made.

I have suffered some extremely superficial burns to my hand but those are usually from using the toaster oven to make toast... 

Ohhh yes. I am that clumsy guys,

My culinary journey still continues as I have to learn how to make curry everything and even the Trini Favourite ROTI.

A video of my mom’s tutorial on how to make curry goat can be yours, just please subscribe and message us to receive the full instructional video.

I must shout out my mom and mother in law as they have helped keep both Ronnie and I fed and happy as I sometimes have work duties and I cannot cook. I will have to figure out how people do this in due time!