WE WERE ON A BREAK

Hello i am Leiana previously the blog was written and updated by my farther Nirish. I was born in 2010 and currently i am 11 years old and turning 12 on December 28. As you can see i love friends(the tv show)and i have decided it is time to update the blog. I only found out about the blog a couple years ago so today i have decided to start this journey again. i will try my best to do at least a blog a week so please read the blogs so u can read about my life and and experiences. XOXO-Leiana

Daunted by the amount of things to write about, Nyeshka has delegated the job of updating the site to me.

Well where do we start ?
At the beginning of November we went for an impromptu picnic  ( as all good picnic's are) at Belle Mare Plage- the Beach not the hotel; as Nyeshka was disappointed to find out .
As usual, we all had a great time, Tuv, Avi, Ajeeve and family as well as Nishal were all present . The kids really enjoyed themselves, swimming and climbing trees- of which I have posted some great pictures via the link below.
Around mid November we had Divali, this was so much fun, we made gato Patatt & Ladoo's, and shared them amongst friends and family. We also held a Small Luxmi Pooja at home to cater for the religious aspects .
After Divali we had Heista's birthday party.  Heista had her party at the excellent Lemonade Tree coffee shop in Forbach. The kids got to make there own Pizzas, Cupcakes and biscuits ! How amazing is that? ! They LOVED it. Avi already shared some great pictures of the event on his Flkr account and you should check it out .
After all the cake and biscuit making, the kids  spent the afternoon having fun in the pool - they tried syncopated swimming , various forms of jumping and throwing each other into the pool, and us parents really had a hard time getting them to get ready for home.
Anyway as usual, there are some great photo's of the events for you to enjoy.
Also Cha Cha Kevin  came to visit , and took some really nice pictures of which I have added to the photo stream- Hope you don't mind Kev.
just click the LINK and off you go.

Don't forget to post comments !!

Happy Diwali everyone, today we are going to making cakes, and set off FIREWORKS .

We will post some pictures later.

HAPPY DIWALI !! ! 

ANYA and KYAN'S fancy dress party

Hi Everyone ,
on the ninth of September we went to Anya and Kyan's birthday party. It was a fancy dress party.
Everybody  dressed up as different monsters and superheroes. I went as a witch and Leiana went as a little demon.
My favorite fancy dress outfit was cha cha Tuvin's . I like it because it was scary and had blood.
Something else I liked was super spider man dancing, you can see the video under.
My daddy has also put the pictures HERE.  (click the word HERE).

Enjoy the pictures and video, please leave comments.
from NY.

.. the funny thing is that as I sit here on my Sony Vaio , I'm at a loss as to where to begin...
Like i say every year- 2009 has definitely been challenging...
The house construction has been - not difficult- but definitely a challenge.
when you are building a house from scratch - that really takes precedence over everything !!!
which is tough when you gotta balance work, Family, life and Mid life crisis all at the same time LOL.
But we are getting there .
construction has been going on for just over a year , and we are what is ( ironically) called the finishing stages .
Its true its definitely the hardest part , you see ; the architect takes care of the design.. you tell him what you want and he'll try to put that dream in 3D. The builder takes care of the bricks and mortar stuff... you kick up a fuss here and there ... but that's about it ...
BUT ( let me say that again!!!) BUT !!!!!
The finishing just does not finish!!
Now, I consider myself a big-picture person , I like the strategic aspects of life , but getting down to deciding on what colour paint , what type or handles to have on the door... the types of styles that will bring out the stone wall in the front room the paint texture god damn it !!!!! lol
Anyhow I'm sure it will be worth it in the end ....
... as i sit (or float) in my swimming pool , G&T in hand , smooth jazz playing out of my Harmon Kardon outdoor system, kids playing on the grass... I imagine that i shall be contented...
At least until the the need to keep up with the Joneses takes over again.

PICTURES

One of the most important and time consuming things that has been going on in recent months has been the construction of our new house at Callodyne. And this has kept us away from the 'party and get-together circuit '.

Seriously, building a house in Mauritius is an experience that I will never forget.... 12 months ago I thought that concrete was concrete... and that you add it to water and you can build a house... now ask me about architects ( luckily we have a very good one), about building contractors , and workmen , and rock sand and metal bars... ( did you know that you can spend a few cool millions (MUR) just on the metal framework that goes into a construction project????

As anyone who has gone through this in Mtius can tell you - you need to be on site almost everyday ... and that has been the reason why I've not updated as much as i should... all my spare time is spent on-site.

But now I've remedied that so i hope you enjoy the picture-set HERE.

As usual just click HERE and off you go.

...Once again back is the incredible!!!!!

Those of you who know me or have read the previous posts in this blog would remember me lusting over a JVC Everio hard disc Camcorder.
At the time it was relatively new formt for camcorders , and as such it was a bit early to say what direction the major electronics companies were gonna take the format.
1 year Later has seen the format really begin to take charge.... Well this year for my birthday i decided to bite the bullet a get a camcorder... was i gonna stick with the traditional DV Tapes or was I gonna take the plunge into the newer world.... THATS WHEN I CAME ACROSS THIS BABY.. Friends, family, foes, and jealous types... Meet the Sony HDR SR11, little brother to the Sony HDR SR120. Both are full HD, AVCHD,Hard Disk camcorders.The SR11 has a built in 60 GB internal HD. No more tapes, no more 1:1 download times for transferring DV to PC then to disc....hell no more rewinding and forwarding to find the part you want to delete....
Th main specs of the model are FULL HD quality recording on the internal 60GM hard disk drive... yep I'm a getting ready for that 42 inch Bravia X series which will be gracing my living room in the near future.
Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T lens, 5.1 surround sound and Face Detection.
The Independent reviewers on camcorderinfo.com as well as some independent blogs of note such as the brilliant seansense, really helped me make my choice.
There are some challenges such as the editing/rendering of AVCHD video which seem somewhat easier with a MAC (so maybe for x-mas..), and in any case require some major power.
I've beenmessing about with Sony's own Vegas Pro and am still working through the tutorials.
So in a few months, if you need a camera man, feel free to contact me for wedding's Bhamitzvas, or foam party's .

Ambre Hotel

We spent the weekend after my birthday at the Ambre Hotel in Belle Mare in the East of the island.
It was a ( I have to say) that on the whole it was a very good experience.
we had, previously stayed at the Plantation Hotel which is part of the same group about 2 years ago ; and it was such a bad experience that from then on we never stayed anywhere but Beachcomber hotels.
Here at Ambre it was a completely different experience.
Now there were some reservations... staying at Ambre one sees that the hotel is in some need of renovation... little things like a bath tub in Prestige rooms rather than Jacuzzis , cement tiled pathways rather than more modern cut stone look are clues that the hotel would benefit from re-looking . But the hotel is well maintained, and clean with no security issues.
The only complain I had was the price of the drinks... it cost me 500 Rupees Mtian for a JD and coke!!!!! which is very steep if you consider that had i known; i could have brought a bottle at the price of 2 shots!!!!
At Ambre all drinks are charged in Euros , and at hotel exchange rates.
My advice would be to pop down the closest supermarket and buy drinks there, and stick em in the mini bar.
I did complain of the drink prices and the manager promptly acted and charged at a more reasonable Rupee price.
But.... that's it.... no other negatives... AT ALL.
The service was warm, and friendly. for example Jen planned a surprise birthday cake for me and the surprise was almost spoilt by ALL the staff wishing me Happy Birthday everywhere I went ... how did they know who i was???
The rooms were cleaned and tidied promptly , which for us is one of those things that we love about hotels... that you can get dressed and and make a mess but when you come back from diner .. the bed is made, your clothes are folded and placed in the wardrobe....
We stayed 1/2 board and Ate predominantly from the main restaurant.
Breakfast and dinner were both buffet affairs will a very wide range of fare. Ranging from Indian, to Chinese, to Italian, to Brit .
I Would recommend Ambre to anyone wanting a family friendly hotel at a reasonable price.
Just buy your drinks in advance...
Click HERE for pictures from our stay.

PIC finaly for ya's

And that's when I came across this baby...this Harmon Kardon Baby is the bomb!!!

I did a bit of research on the net and the link to iLounge offers a good idea of the system.
there are other systems with more features , even much less expensive...But i think the design AND the sound quality really sets it apart.
I've currently got 'Bombay' by Timbo bussin out and the depth of Field is amazing and with out any distortion... absolutely...
anyway given that the iphone belongs to Jen, logic implies that this system does too...
anyhow i reckon it'll look great on the kitchen top in the new house.
So all this leaves me with one issue......what am i gonna buy myself for my birthday???....

NEW TOY

Do you remember Those???
In fact I'm sure I've still got some old mix tapes somewhere under the bed...
Or how about those compilation tapes that peeps used to do ? I remember doing one that took something like 8 hours , choosing each tune one by one... and in those days it wasn't just a case of 'drag and drop' nah man.... you had to play each one off of vinyl.... those were the days.
Moving on; I recently managed to pick up an iPhone from the states. And had originally brought it for Jen as her birthday pressie ( even though i use it more :-) )
BUT having brought it , and having loaded it with my pretty large collection of mp3's I needed a good set of speakers ...

Return of the Space Cowboy

Hi everyone, well finally managed to get internet connection here.
As a result of moving from Quatre Bornes (the 'real' capital of Mauritius) to the more ascetic though rural part of mauritius , we lost access to decent Internet access. But FINALLY technology has caught up with us.....and one of the local ISP Emtel has recently started to offer the WiMax service.( see god does listen to prayers.... eventually.....) Trust me; I was first at the door with cheque book in hand....
Obviously sooo much has happened since the last post about 1 year ago... Jen changed Job, she's now with the Mtian Inland Revenue- so fun eh.... (be careful what comments you may leave....:)
And while she's busy taxing you , I'm now even busier trying to get you into debt... we have finally began the construction of our 'dream house' also in the North which is A very interesting process- so much so I'm considering weather to create an additional Blog to share the process......
Nyeshka is growing up at a tremendous rate, and my friends who have young children I'm sure would vouch for me on this, that its; not the rate of their growth that is worrying rather; its the rate at which WE are getting old which is rather frightening. anyhow take this as a note that NY World is back!!!! Expect to see some exciting changes to look and content as I become IT Savvy again....

2006 A Retrospective

What a year2006 has been .
As a family a lot of the goals and personal objectives that we set out to achieve in the last year were somewhat realised.
2006, saw me get that promotion I had worked so hard for( no seriously ).
I did my first interview in 'Eco Austral' a french language Business magazine ( which is a BIG thing considering I'm not too hot in French).
Of course Jen's Graduation stands out as one of our great achievement.
Other highlights have been the number of friends and family who have gotten in touch this past year,through this weblog over the last year that has truly been a welcome surprise.
Anyhow I hope that you all had a great time over the new year , whether in Londinium, Dubai, Wolverhampton , Palmer's Green, Tottenham, Wales, Belarus, ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD!!!
I look forward to hearing about it.
In regards to he pictures Ive posted its basically everything we have gotten up to since my last set of pictures..
From the charity event planed with my Direct Sales Team for underprivileged orphans, to the Beeharry's X-mas party...
as usual click the PICLINK and off you go.

Techno Lust 2

Regular readers to this site will remember me lusting over an JVC Everio Hard Disk Video cam- about this time last year...
I still think its a beautiful little machine( it'd fit in the palm of your hand....).
Though it did come highly recommended ( apparently Tarantino always has one with him )but due to poor reviews in regards to its poor light performance etc i never brought one....
NOW THIS BABY!!!!
This babe is the way forward.... You cant really go wrong with Sony....I've has a Cannon camera which stopped working after a short while and Cannon didn't want anything to do with it , poor customer service- enough to put me off the brand.... whereas now i have a top of the line Digicam Sony Cybershot DSCT7 which I have taken underwater ,right up to the tops of hills and no problems whatsoever....
And anyway the videocam brings with it :

2.1 Mega pixel VIDEO recording - which is HIGH DEFINITION which should go nicely with the Plasma screen next year:)( haven't convinced the Mrs yet on that one yet....:)

10 x optical zoom

Dolby® Digital 5.1ch Recording- I will be the next Scorsese

And of course NO Tape whatsoever!!! This is the future of media products... [an article in yesterday's London Times stated how sales of DVDs has dropped significantly over the last year and media companies were anticipating further drops over the next year.
The market favouring downloads, and on demand media rather that removable...]
Aslo the camera was recently voted best camera in its catergory by camcorderinco.com which is a highly restpected camcoredr specialist site...
So all left to do is wait for that performance bonus in January ... and whoo hoo!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!

Hey all , just a quick note to wish you all a great New Year as well as a belated Christmas.
may 2007 bring all the happiness in the world!!!
all the best Nirish & Jheneeta & of course NYESHKA
XXXX

T'was the season to be jolly....

X-mas in Paradise...
I was talking to an old friend [he in London] recently comparing what we had planned for Christmas and New Year..
And it got me thinking about the different the Xmas/N-year experiences between UK and Mauritius.
In U.K Christmas's tended to be more of a family thing , with everyone opening presents together early in the morning , followed by the obligatory tantrums ....
This would be normally followed by a VERY large Christmas Lunch with various close aunts cousins, uncles-throw in loads of those paper crowns and dry jokes that come out of Tesco crackers...:)- you get the idea?
You would eat all the Turkey you possibly could , compare presents with your cousins who almost always had better ...... and then of course, T.V!!!!
(Man!!!) Christmas was perhaps one of the few times that we as a family would watch T.V together...
Only Fools and Horses Omnibuses, Black adder Christmas specials, Friends specials, .... ET AL.
In comparison Christmas here does tend to be much more hectic as far as shopping for presents is concerned (buying presents for this aunt, that cousin third removed etc...) but a lot more quiet on the events side... One does tend to get invited to the family lunch but instead of turkey its the local delicacies that tend to get served... all good.But there isn't the 'over eating ' /drinking ( unfortunately) - a laid back affair.
Now all of this has started me thinking about New Year this year.What we gonna do!!!!There are choices (I have to be careful; here as some of the people mentioned read this blog:)

1) go to a relatively dull get together at which there will undeniably be loads of alcohol ( not all bad then)

2)Nice formal Family do , very elegant and laid back loads of kids so less looking after the little one. A little drinking, no overdoing it . wake up the next day regretting that i didn't get totally mashed( this is not an option as i will drive ).

3)Sod everyone , get a BBQ set, Bottle of champagne, and go to the beach and chill and picnic our way to 2007.

ooh decisions decisions....

OOF!!!!!

Oh My GOSH!!!
well its certainly been a few months since i managed to sit down and update this blog... and i sincerely appologise to all of you who were waiting ( Tango in Wales, Joshan in Ukrain( sorry Belarus) etc as well as the Couze Fc Group, some of whom we met last night at Avi's -Cheers Avi).
But i finaly got round to doing it ...
In the last 3 months since my last update... Jen had her finals, started a new job... Ny started School on the 'otherside' of the island , and I finally got the promotion i'd been working for.
its all good stuff so im not complaining but it does leave me with very little free time.
Aside from that Ny is growing up so fast .. she's talks and comunicates with great confidence . and due to her mixed parentage , -speaks a mixute of English, French and Creole.
sometimes the the words get mixed up and instead of saying 'apple'( for instance) she'll say "appomme"... which her parrents think is toooo cute and start hugging her till she starts to get irrate.
ok to the nitty gritty some good pics for you , from home , Shanes Birthday at P.Aux Piment, some wicked Ilse Aux Cerf pics when i went fishing for my birthday, and loads loads more...
so just click the PIC LINK and off you go.
Enjoy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NYESHKA

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NYESHKAAAAA.....
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUUU.....
Hi all as some of you are aware it was Ny's 2nd birthday on the 1st of April.
we had originally planned to hold a Teletubbies themed children's party on that date.(Dont worry no way you were gonna get to see the pics of me in a Po costume).
But due to it being a long bank holiday weekend it was impossible to find a decent bungalow by the beach which had not already been booked for that weekend.
But don't worry; given that it will be Jen's birthday midway through the month, and MINE ON THE 30th OF APRIL (HINT HINT!!!!!!!), we probaly will have a party, at some point.
Anyhow, my cousin Ajeeve calle me on the preceding Wednesday and asked us if we wanted to check out a relatively new hotel on the south of the island.
and that was it .... The weekend planned!!!!
The 'Le Voile D'or', is a 5 star hotel situated on the very southern tip on the island, and as we normally stay in the north; this was a BIG change.
The countryside around the south is a lot less refined than the tourist friendly north of the island, with loads of luscious (damn I never thought I'd ever use that word) greenery, mountains and palm trees.
The beaches aren't as clinically perfect as the north but they are not the primary focus.
Instead, as you look out of the window from your twin jacuzzi you get a wonderful view of mountains and vast sugar cane Fields.
The hotel itself had just changed hands from some French group to that of Movenpicke group(didn't they have a Swiss Center in leiscester Square I know that I used to go to eat there relatively often but I cant remember with whom????). :)
The fallout from such a change tends to be poor service and a drop in culinary standards.
Though it did feel that there were very little staff , we didn't feel that this was a fault . In fact at this level the staff tend to be in the background, and only appear in needed.
as we arrived , somebody took my car keys and offered to parked my car...
of course he may have just finished his shift for the weekend and took my car for a weekend joyride.... But I didn't care as it was the first time anyone has ever parked my car for me so I was well impressed.
aside from that the food was good not brilliant but good.
The facilities on the other hand were truly excellent. We spent almost whole days in the swimming pool.
the spa is one of the finest on the island and that is saying something as it competes with the likes of 'The One And Only Touresrock' as well as 'The St Geran'.
Anyhow the bottom line is Yes I would recommend it to my friends and family.
Of course I took LOADS of pictures, including of a little cut cake party we had for Ny in lieu of a proper party.
as usual just click the PICLINK and off you go.

Mixed Pics

PIC LINK