Making Monday not MournDay!

Ok so I HATE MONDAY MORNINGS! I mean I start stressing on Sunday night about the week that’s about to happen…not that the week isn’t totally exciting, glorious and fun…I’m the eternal stressed and so I stress!

This morning was particularly hard! There was too much to do and too little time- scripts to finalise, meetings to attend, chores to complete at home and to finish assignments for two online courses that i had signed up for (like I don’t have enough on my plate already)!

So in between my dialogues with God (my prayers) I was trying to sort out all the hundred things that needed to be done urgently and then I had / God gave me a much simpler plan! i have almost finished everything i needed to today and this is how I did it!

  1. I made a list! Often we think there are more things we have to do but when you write them down…it isn’t that many or that scary!
  2. I started early and started positive!
  3. I took a mid morning break to coffee and to just breathe!
  4. I focussed on single-tasking as opposed to multi-tasking like I always do. that way I have completed 5 jobs fully rather than 30 %  of 7 jobs!
  5. Take your lunch break. It’s not productive to not get up and to just keep working…that’s where the errors start! So take your breaks and come back more refreshed and ready to work more!
  6. Treat yourself after you complete your tasks. Whether it’s taking a walk outside, a cup of coffee or updating a facebook status- reward yourself! The more tasks completed …the more rewards!
  7. Celebrate Monday evenings! Why just celebrate Fridays…? Do a movie, meet with friends or go on a drive…the week is long but life is short so go out there and make Monday evenings a celebration of completing your Monday!

 

Write in…tell me what you think or what peps you up every Monday and do also check out my new Luxury travel Blog http://www.travelwithdivya.com

The Wonders of Kangaroo Island aka My Best Vacay ever (thus far)

Writing about memorable anniversaries would be incomplete without writing about my Anniversary last year where we did a spectacular tour of Australia. Most notable among the places we visited was Kangaroo Island native name Karta or Island of the Dead! Not a particularly exciting name, I really wasn’t initially looking forward to this particular leg of our trip! The hotel we were staying in was called Southern Ocean Lodge , another cause for serious concern. In India you NEVER stay in a Lodge….I mean it’s not even a hotel or a Guest House. A lodge here is a surefire recipe for YECH! I put up a fight but was too bogged down with work to really work on getting my way….A good thing I didn’t….This turned out to be my most memorable vacation ever and my favourite place in the world thus far!

To get to Kingscote, the only airport on Kangaroo Island you need to take a flight from Adelaide. The flight is barely 30 minutes and though you have a seat belt sign and an announcement saying you may move/ switch on electrical equipment when the sign goes off- it never really does go off and barely have you reached a cruising altitude you are on your way down.

The airport is small and basic and we were greeted by a car from the Lodge. The drive to the Lodge takes about 45 minutes but it often takes longer as you see Kangaroos crossing, wallabies in the middle of the road and ever so often and eagle swooping down and sitting poised in the centre of the road. This was where I first fell in love with the island. The island is straight out of a novel. With narrow roads ,shaded by beautiful, think, green foliage your car moves slowly towards an unknown destination. You see very few cars, several animals and have just a driver to keep you company as he explains the history behind the island. The drive reminded me of all the Agatha Christie novels I had read and suddenly I was more than intrigued to see our final destination!

The Southern Ocean Lodge is TRULY SPECTACULAR. Almost like a diamond placed on the edge of a cliff, when you walk in you are suddenly struck by the quiet fabulousness of the Hotel. It is beauty at its most natural best! The lobby has fabulous ceiling to floor windows which overlook the sea and the entire hotel is perfectly placed at the edge of a cliff. All of only 21 luxe suites the Lodge looks after each guest like they are family and our check in was warm and comfortable. It was like I was coming home!

And what a home! The rooms are spacious and large. Each room overlooks the sea and has the same huge bay windows as the lobby. When you book at Southern Ocean Lodge, you book ALL INCLUSIVE Luxury stays and the tasty treats included in our room were a delicious welcome!

All Inclusive has always been another thing that worried me. What if the tastes were different? What if the chef wasn’t good? How do you know you like the food? And are you paying too much extra for meals you may not even have!? These questions were unnecessary. The food at SOL is made from the finest local produce and from fresh salads to fresh cheeses and the tastiest of sea food; every imaginable choice was given to us! The chef at the Lodge is remarkable and every meal was a gastronomical delight! Also the special snacks that were in our room daily including the fabulous chocolates and brownies, ensured I’d never be able to look at food the same way again!

SOL organises itineraries for each guest and these are remarkably comprehensive and great fun to do! Right at the start of our stay we were given a personal itinerary and every day was packed with nature walks, trips and more Exclusive experiences! The trip to Seal Bay was easily my favourite. Being an animal lover, or even if you are not–watching seals in their natural habitat with their big brown eyes and floppy feet was the best way to spend a morning! Watching a baby cry to find his mother and then watching 4 mothers rush over was funny, delightful and so so touching!

The other must do trip is the Wonders of Kangaroo Island trip. A 4 hour trip , you get to see the Remarkable rocks, more seals and even spot some fabulous koalas in their natural habitat! A photographer’s dream, this is an exceptional tour! I’m not one for 4 hour tours but here I made the exception and I’m so delighted I did!

The Kangaroos and Canapés is another wonderful way to spend the evening. Watching tens of wild kangaroos graze, stare and even box each other while we drank champagne and ate some fabulous food was a perfect end to a day at SOL!

The evenings have cocktails at the fire place and it was fun to meet with fellow guests, discuss sightings and tours and just generally bond! With such few guests and staff who address you by name every time it’s like joining a new family or just extending yours!

The suite we booked didn’t have a TV and the phone connections were terrible, at best! But cut off from the rest of the world, I have never felt so at peace and oddly enough so connected! I talked. I listened. I saw. I experience. I touched. I felt. I came alive!

My greatest trip ever!

The Anniversary

This blog is courtesy my new blog site  on Luxury Travel – http://www.travelwithdivya.com .

Do check it out !

I am very much the romantic and love celebrating every milestone in my romantic life BUT MOST OF ALL I love that Anniversary’s are the PERFECT excuse to hop out of town and take a much needed mini lux vacay!

This year was our sixth anniversary and if there’s anything I’ve learnt in our 15 years of friendship/ 10 years of being together/ 6 years of marriage is that my husband is a beach boy! He’s happiest tanning and lounging and happy husband=lots more gifts for me!

So off we headed to a small Exclusive Private Resort off the coast of Phuket to Naka Island a wonderful property recently taken over from Six Senses by the Starwood Luxury Collection.

The trip to the Island started off rather iffy though. The car (a BMW 7 series… my husband loves to pamper me in style!) that we had booked did not turn up at the airport and we had to travel in a lovely (yet NOT the car chosen for us and smaller!) Mercedes. We later learned that the cars are outsourced by the Resort to a Private company. In fact there are several cases of incorrect cars at passenger pick ups and sometimes no cars at all. This CANNOT be an excuse for a Luxury Property and after an awful 2 am flight and over 8 hrs of traveling I made my annoyance apparent! The pier is approximately 10 minutes away by car. Once there the Outsourced company driver had no idea what to do with us and we had to fend for ourselves by picking up a much needed latte at the very well stocked cafe by the pier while the husband had a black coffee which woke him up so much- he picked up the phone and fired the Resort for their complete disorganization! An angry wife he has come to realise equals a difficult few days! Within a few minutes a boat pulled up and several people from Naka Island came to greet us. Their disorganization we later realised is because of the fact that the new management has recently taken over and everything is still in it’s teething stage!

A tough start…. but all would be forgiven soon!

The boat ride takes barely 5 minutes to the Island…so if you want some great snaps , you’d better start clicking immediately.

The island’s approach is magnificent and seconds after stepping on the island we were whisked away to the Gong on the mainland where they promise that  ‘any wish you make will come true!’ We both hit the gong with all our remaining strength and I wished and wished with all my heart!

Check in happens in your rooms. And my what rooms they are! The rooms are gigantic with a lovely cottage like feel. 1/3 of the room is indoors and the rest is outdoors including a beautiful outdoor jacuzzi and a fabulous rain shower! The husband had booked us the highest room category (save for the 6 person Presidential suite) which had private beach access and  your very own sunbathing sala among other amenities! The room pool was incredible but nothing can beat the Hotel’s main pool!

The hotel’s main pool is a 3 layer infinity pool. Tanning on your own beach chair in the middle of a pool of water is fabulous especially since you can walk barely a foot away and then jump into a pool to cool off after a great tan! The beach chairs are in Pool 1 which leads on to Pool 2 which leads on to Pool 3 so even if you have the Pool in your room you end up rushing to use the Big main pool just because it is so unique and much larger!

The Luxury Romance package was well worth the spend. With lazy breakfast in beds and quick swims in the sea ; we only left our rooms by the afternoon to tan some more in the main pool area!

The Resort has lots of activities. We signed up for Muay Thai- a thai boxing class and TBB- a leg work out and both were well instructed, well trained and kept us very busy and me very happy! The island is huge with the Resort occupying part of the Island and a local village occupying the rest. To get around from your sala you have bicycles and this very soon became one of the nicest, but fittest vacations we’d ever done! Between the swimming, the activities and the cycling….we were always ravenous! That was great though because the food ranging from burgers and fish and chips to Thai cuisine to sushi was across the board spectacular. Tasty, well portioned and beautifully seasoned…this trip was a Foodie’s delight!

From the in room dining, to the bar , to the main restaurants…we were always surpassed, always delighted!

To pamper ourselves on the anniversary we also tried the spa. The spa with its many treatments on offer was wonderful. Large- it was like walking into a hidden garden Nestled in between the resort but shaded by trees, it was like you walked up a forgotten path and were magically transported into an Enchanted garden. The treatments were very good but if a spa is supposed to make you forget about your daily worries and tensions and relax…well then this one did just that–I forgot for a few hours that I even lived on Earth….I was transported to a private, beautiful heaven- in short…I loved it!

The vacation finished too soon and despite I was going back via Bangkok to shop…I found myself wishing I could stay a bit longer on this personal paradise!

The trip back was perfect! The boat was wonderful, the car was just right….and I’m already planning a vacay back soon with the family ! My husband got this anniversary JUST RIGHT!

Welcome to my new Luxury Travel blog

A blog on travel and not just any blog – a Luxury travel blog! Because what is travel if you can’t enjoy the world in style! A blog dedicated to the best of the best! To amazing experiences, custom-tailor made travel must-do’s and of course the must-stays in destinations across the world!

This will be your one stop read for LUXURY TRAVEL!

Travel! Travel well! And live it up!

Jet lagging and CSIA woes!

So you know the feeling you get when you think after a vacation…you simply want another vacation to recover ! Well I don’t have that feeling! I simply almost never want to come back! Not that I hate the trip back to reality….my life is great…but with the welcome home you get to the city…you simply want to run away!

Our International Airport in it’s recently upgraded avatar is still possibly the WORST INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTS EVER!

Forget the fact that we walked on the tarmac to get a bus!?! …no aerobridge YET; and then even forget the fact that you then have to walk a couple of kilometers in long ,ugly,chillingly cold corridors- you are then greeted with swarms of hungry mosquitos! Once you then get past immigration , you are in for another treat….more walking , to the conveyor belts which start late and then stop for no reason at all for minutes on end till some wise baggage handler says…. ” check karma chahiye, na” to another equally bored fellow baggage handler!

The entire airport exiting process can take anywhere from half an hour to 5 depending on the luck of the draw that day and depending on your trolley…ours which had one wheel creaking and then eventually stopped in protest of having actually being used for moving!

And I’m not being overly critical but if millions are being spent on our airport….why can’t we see even a marginally decent airport…or are we just too satisfied with accepting substandard crap! And no the ‘It happens only in India’ line CANNOT APPLY! We have some of the world’s most luxurious resorts…surely we can give a tourist or a resident a good welcome !

I want to be happy to be back. I really do!

Some of Life’s irrefutable truths

  1. You can take a day off from work. Your company will not collapse. The world will not end. If it did, you would be God. You are not God.
  2. You don’t need to wait till you have an incurable disease to make a bucket list.Makeone today. A bucket list is not a pre- celebration of death…it should be a celebration of life.
  3. You are not as ugly as this think you are and the love of your life is not as amazing as you the he/ she is! But guess what if they love you too….in their eyes you are equally that amazing to them!
  4. Today may be the best day of your life or the worst….but in a few hours it will be tomorrow…so know that neither pain nor elation are constant. It’s only our attitude and our fears that define us? Don’t be afraid.
  5. Laugh openly and honestly. Cry unashamedly. It’s your life. Live it with feeling.
  6. You have never traveled too much or learnt too much. Life is a journey….Keep traveling. Keep learning.
  7. Expect to be treated by others the way you treat them.
  8. Don’t treat relationships as ‘Optionals’ else soon you’ll remain the ‘optional’ in everyone else’s life.
  9. Grow up but never stop being a child.
  10. Try and mean ‘how are you?’ the next time you say it…instead of just hoping everyone will just say ‘I’m fine.’

The most creative you can be is when you stop over-thinking it!

More blogs, more script ideas, more show thoughts and it’s been just a few days away from the rat race!

Sometimes a little distance does a lot of good..I am back tomorrow with more energy and enthusiasm and more ideas! Am gonna try and let the rat race NOT suck it out of me again!

Work starts on the finished script as I return! Yay to new beginnings!

Also signed up for some online courses for classes I never got the chance to take while in college!!!! So new classes starting soon……double YAY!!

To new adventures….

The last leg of a 2 part anniversary adventure starts today!And as travel goes ….on travel days I’m exhilarated yet totally exhausted today ! But now my part of the anniversary starts…. Shopping and more shopping and when men asks how much shopping is enough…it’s never enough even when you think it is….so shops ahoy ;)!

(‘Ahoy’ personal joke between the husband and me)

To …making more dreams come true!!!

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Doing nothing has never been more perfect!

Away from the crowds, the drama, the gossip…the same news, different day newspapers!

I want this! Well time to update the Vision board then, huh!!!

Because dreams don’t have to remain dreams especially when we have the power to make them come true!!!

To another anniversary….To more dreams merging with new realities!