the marmalade pantry is a really good fashion-spotting place. today i spotted three balenciagas, one luella and a really great pair of jeans. but i'm getting tired of going there, especially since they have only two vegetarian options for a proper main course. two very good ones, but still. i've had the penne twice, and today i tried the risotto -- it was supposed to have eggplant, artichoke, and zucchini. got them to replace eggplant with butternut (pumpkin) because my mom doesn't eat eggplant because she hates it, so my whole life i've never really eaten eggplant so i don't like it much either. anyway the butternut was good, i like butternut although i have to ask why a pumpkin's called a nut. but i decided i only like really like zucchini in soup, and artichoke is really really hard and tastes quite funny. but the rice part of the risotto was very good, and like the penne they put cheese shavings over the top, and the serving's just the right size. kitson's club sandwich, however, was ENORMOUS. like two triple layer sandwiches, plus a big fried egg on top. and lots of chips and things. but of course he managed to finish it. he's been having even huger meals in the US the past two weeks -- apparently there was one meal he actually couldn't finish! amazing, no?

and i'm so jealoussss that he stayed at a suite in the venetian!!! the venetian is one of the prettiest hotels i've ever seen. and the shops inside are amazing. and the gondola ride is much fun! last time we went we stayed in some hotel called the circus circus hotel, because apparently it's the most kid-friendly hotel in vegas. it was quite nice to be honest, but it wasn't the luxor or the excalibur or the bellagio. or the venetian! oh i wouldn't want to stay in the luxor because although it looks really cool, i'd feel nauseous standing in the atrium or the balconies outside the rooms because the inside of the hotel is literally like the inside of a pyramid so if you're on a balcony on the top floor it's like you're kindof suspended in midair. and i have problems with being suspended in midair. and the lift doesn't go straight, it goes along the side of the building meaning diagonally. but otherwise a very cool hotel. the excalibur casino's huge. the bellagio's where ocean's eleven was shot, if i'm not wrong. but the venetian's the prettiest. and all the staff are dressed in nautical outfits. atleast they were when i was there. anyway i was complaining to my mom and she said okok she'll take me to vegas again and we can stay in the hotel of my choice. but i don't know when that'll be, and i'd rather go at a time when i can actually gamble! oh and i'll definitely catch the blue man group if i go, meaning i'll have to book tickets far far in advance. i think.

ugh from planning birthday bags for my mom here i am planning a vegas vacation that isn't likely to happen in the near future! when the fact is i didn't like vegas much last time i went, but then i was 13 or 14. ah well. my mom loves vegas, she loves gambling.

oh the dkny at palais renaissance has reopened! it's really nice now -- a lot more comprehensive than the old layout, and somehow it makes the prices seem less terrible, because they're putting really nice outfits together on the hangers. yeah i'm such perfect prey for the exploitative capitalists. they have some fantastic coats. really really gorgeous. (i'll need coats next year, mummy dearest!) i was terribly attracted to a bright red short corduroy belted concoction. it was really marvellously red.

we caught charlie and the chocolate factory. kitson'd seen it already, i don't quite know why he agreed to see it again. i mean, it was rather entertaining, the oompa loompas were suitably scary, the kids were funny and all. but there were some supremely painfully cheesy bits, it was rather draggy in parts, and it definitely isn't johnny depp's best role. it probably wasn't helped by the fact that late nights and a full lunch made me a very sleepy aparna. kitson predicted that the sight of johnny depp would keep me awake, but johnny didn't look like himself! the teeth were too perfect and the hair too anna wintour. i like jack sparrow a hundred thousand times better. far more endearing.

talking about endearing! i've decided that vince vaughn is really very endearing. the wedding crashers trailer is very very attractive. must catch that soon. i think bradley cooper has a small role in it.

i need to stop going to school. it makes me very unproductive. here it's 1030 and i have done nothing useful all day. and the lack of math lecture attendance has led to me not receiving an entire set of notes. must remember to photocopy tomorrow. oh you know yesterday at the library, i was going to photocopy something, i put the card in then decided to photocopy later. and i left the card in! realised about two hours later and the card was gone of course. during the time in the library i developed a small hunch. i wonder if i might finally be proven perceptive. (oh dear i'm accepting my abyss status. this is very bad. need to climb up.)

ooh when we were coming out of the theatre i saw my aunt and cousins! i think they must've been in the same theatre as us, but i don't think they actually noticed me. anyway i wasn't going to say hi because they're the sort of relatives i rarely have anything to say to. haha i came home and told my mom that i'd seen them at orchard and she was all "omg! did they see you with kitson? what'll they think!" i think she imagines them spreading scandalous rumours about Aparna and the White Boy to the more, ahem, conservative relatives? in which case my mom will be seen as the Too Liberal, when the truth is that my mom herself would be more than a little disturbed if i were dating a white boy. indians are amazingly insular like that.

i think if i were ever to date a white boy -- or for that matter any non-indian boy -- i wouldn't tell my parents unless i eloped in which case i'd make it a nice little fait accompli, maybe even present the prospect of a half-indian grandchild although then they'd assume the boy knocked me up or something, and presumably it'll be a rich non-indian so even if my parents decide to cut off all financial support it'll be ok. but then i'll miss them. but i also believe that they love me enough to get over it and not disown me. HAHA omg i live such soap opera fantasies in my head.

incredibly tangential post. it's past eleven already! i always do this -- write posts in bits and pieces over a period of many hours, all the while accomplishing nothing else. to wrap up, kitson amused me with some fantastically interesting mental images while walking me to the busstop, i got home and decided to go for a run, procrastinated for about an hour, finally hit the gym and had a fairly good workout, got home, had a very nice shower, dinner, and then basically wrote this post while going off at random intervals to talk to my mom about what she should wear for her lunch or coffee morning or something tomorrow, to help my brother with some math problem, try and read a page of history, talk to dad, talk to nasty, talk to sophie etc.

and now i'll probably just go off and sleep. i've been sleeping relatively early of late, don't know why i'm so sleepy today!

PS --- reason number 39097237 that aparna is a really Sad, Crazy Alias Junkie: i finally finished pondering why the guy playing the clone of the President of the USA on "The Island" looked so familiar: he had a small role as a CIA agent in a season 1 episode of Alias called Doppelganger. And, of course, I've repeatedly proven myself a walking talking dictionary of Alias music. Particularly the music used in premieres and finales. I just get a lot of good music off TV shows, what to do.

and i just remembered: the leather texture i was talking about for the ideal chanel bag i covet, is a pebbled texture. it can be seen on the new banana republic line of 'bloomsbury' bags, which are kinda ripoffs of a mixture of marc jacobs and botkier.