84th Year: Macy's Thanksgiving Parade

The 84th Macy's Thanksgiving Parade rolled out today in the heart of New York city. It started bang on time, at 9 from Central Park West, 77th street. We waited on the 38th street for more than an hour, before we got the first glimpse of the roaring parade. People started cheering and yes, it was time for the gigantic balloons to float in the air.

                                                                    The Parade begins...

The Parade was started in 1924, by Macy's employees and from then on, it became an annual event. It covers almost two miles and features balloons, floats, marching bands, performers, falloons (balloon on a float) and Santa Clause. This year, the parade started with the NYPD men on bikes, followed by a marching band and the cheerleaders. And then came the clowns holding the Thanksgiving parade banner followed by Macy's star floats. There were almost 36 balloons in this year's parade featuring Greg Heffley from the 'Diary of a Wimpy kid', Kung-Fu Panda, Pumpkins, Turkey, Smurf, Kool-Aid, Shrek, Sailor Mickey, Pillsbury Doughboy and many-many more.

                                                                        Kung-Fu Panda

The Parade was a spectacle with over 800 clowns, 1600 cheerleaders and dancers, and lots of celebrities. The celebrity list included Jessica Simpsons, Singer Kayne West, Kylie Minogue, Jimmy Fallon and more. And the bands entertained with music and marching, most of them represented their home state and the performance groups vowed the crowds with flip-flops, spins, acrobatics and cheered 'We love NYC'; this time there was an Indian performance group too, wearing traditional dresses, carrying embellished umbrellas and dancing to the Bollywood tunes.

                                                                    Ronald McDonald
And the clowns entertained people with funny tricks, especially the children. In all, it was a fabulous show and the performers in the parade were fabulous too. It was incredible to see the Parade again this year, and definitely, it was even more spectacular than before. 

Five Foods: I can do without

Surely can be called an indulgence, but these contain sinful lot of calories. It comes as no surprise, still I like these foods. 

1. Cinnamon Rolls - I must be the biggest fan of cinnamon rolls, as no visit to the mall completes without a bite. And it carries unimaginable load of calories, i.e. 730 calories in one roll (221 g), which amounts to 37% of the total intake of fat and 38% of carbohydrate. I was surprised when I got to know about the calories, but anyways that hasn't stopped me from eating it though I go for the smaller servings now.

2. Bagels - Another heavy-weight in the list, a plain bagel contains 320 calories, that accounts for 27% of daily intake of sodium and 21% of carbohydrates. That's a lot of sodium there, still bagels cannot be resisted and is definitely one of the foods I can do without. 

3. Muffins - My most favorite Blueberry muffin, it is so yummy but it comes packed with large amount of calories. A blueberry muffin has 470 calories, and 26% of the total intake of fat, 20% of cholesterol and 24% of carbohydrates - that's a dampener for sure.

4. Danish Pastry - The easiest take away food, for me. It also lies in the high calorie foods, as one pastry (71 g) has 263 calories, which accounts for 20% of daily intake of fat, 27% of cholesterol and 11% of carbohydrates. I'll have to stop binging on apple danish. 

5. Doritos - The snack I eat almost every weekend. One serving (28 g) of Doritos contain 140 calories, 11% of daily intake of fat and 6% of carbohydrates. Time to look for some alternatives.

These five have been the comfort foods for me, but I can definitely do without all of them.

Links:
1.http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-cinnabon-classic-roll-i52903
2. http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-dunkin-donuts-plain-bagel-i119065
3. http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-dunkin-donuts-blueberry-muffin-i119104
4. http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-danish-pastry-fruit-enriched-i18246?size=4

5. http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-doritos-toasted-corn-tortilla-chips-i83666

Celebrations: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, a festival celebrated in many countries; is a time to express thankfulness to God, family and friends for all the blessings and it is also the harvest festival of the year. The first Thanksgiving  in United States, was celebrated in 1621, when the native Americans and the European settlers shared a feast. It became an official holiday in 1863, and was celebrated on the last Thursday of November till 1939, when it was moved to the third Thursday of November.

The festival today is celebrated with elaborate meals and family get-together. And some things have become synonymous with Thanksgiving.

Turkey - The most important part of the meal on Thanksgiving day, as turkey and its trimmings adorn every dinner table this day.

Thanksgiving Parade - The most awaited part is the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in New York, this year the annual 84th Parade is on November 25th. Extravaganza !!

                                                                      Thanksgiving Parade 

Pumpkin Pie - Another traditional food served on Thanksgiving day is the yummy pumpkin pie, the sweetest thing about the festival.

Football - A game of football is a must on this day, since the first championship held in 1876.

Cracking the Wishbone - The wishbone from a turkey is saved and after the dinner, it is broken to get a bigger half as the saying goes, whoever gets the bigger part, their wish comes true.

Travel - Nowadays, it has also become a time for vacation because of a long weekend and families plan for this holiday long before.

                                                                    Spongebob Squarepants

So, as the time to eat pumpkin pie and watch the parade is just around the corner, am all geared up for vacation time.

Happy Thanksgiving !!

November 7th: Daylight Saving Time ends

The Daylight Saving Time ended last night at 2. The time which was changed on March 14th is back on track again. Earlier it used to happen on the last Sunday of October but this time its on the first Sunday of November and begins on second Sunday of March. With the exception of states of Arizona and Hawaii, which follow standard time all through the year. 

When I woke up in the morning, it was 10:30 but as the daylight savings ended, I turned back the room clock to 9:30, that's nice, an extra weekend hour, who won't like it. So the time right now is 10:30, am already writing this blog. Well, this change in time reminds one of the cold winter ahead and also that spring is four months away. 

Anyways, I changed the time in the room and kitchen clocks, and the laptop and iPhone didn't need any manual change. This change in time effects the day-to-day running in many ways, for eg. Amtrak trains in United States, stop at 2 a.m. and wait for one hour before resuming service; so that the train schedule is not affected. 

As the saying goes, 'Spring Forward, Fall Back'.

Link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_the_United_States#Daylight_saving_time

Movie Review: Golmaal 3

Time for a Bollywood comedy in Newport Mall - 'Golmaal 3'. Third in line of the Golmaal series, this movie is another laugh riot by director Rohit Shetty. The movie starts with a catchy number while actors do some crazy stunts. 

The extremely funny dialogues go on as the movie develops a storyline. Arshad Warsi does a fabulous job again with his impeccable comedy and Kunal Khemu has some really good dialogues to match his acting skills. And Ajay Devgan, as usual plays the lead role in a comedy movie perfectly - with his finger breaking habit (haha!). And  ofcourse, Shreyas Talpade has always done justice to his role - and this time he stammered his way through the movie and Tushar Kapoor didn't utter a word, and continued with his awfully funny dumb role. The heroine of the movie - Kareena Kapoor acts well and does the stunts well too.

Mithun Chakraborty, got a chance to do disco dance again on the big screen along with good comedy and Johnny lever, named as 'puppy' is upto the mark. The dog, is named 'Facebook' in the movie (he he!). The starcast has done good work and so does the director, but who can forget to mention the dialogues which make the movie - a real golmaal. 

The dialogues are hilarious, like Mithun Chakraborty says, ' Jinke ghar sheeshe ke hote hain, woh basement mein kapde badalte hain' and Ajay Devgan says to Tushar Kapoor, 'Tu sach mein upar wale ki lathi hai, tere mein to awaaj hi nahi hai'. And Kunal Khemu's dialogue, 'Josh hain to honsle hain, Chidiyan hain to ghosle hain, Harsha hai to bhogke hai, Asha hai to Bhonsle hai' - just too good.

There are some really well done spoofs of old movies as well. Overall, the movie is a complete 'Paisa Vasool'.    

NYC Carnival: Halloween Parade

On October 31st 2010, at 5:30 pm, we were on 9th street, NY to watch the 'Halloween Parade'. I so wanted to be there this time and I made it, am so happy. It was just like a carnival, people dressed in all kinds of costumes, dancing, scaring other people, posing for photographs and having fun. 

Halloween Parade - Annual night parade held in New York on Halloween, i.e. October 31st, where participants come out in costumes, artists perform dances and live performances, giant floats are up in the air, and almost anyone who is in a costume joins the parade. People in scary costumes come close to the stands and scare everyone, as zombies walk around with blood splattered all over their faces, and as ghosts and witches show their evil teeth. The parade starts in Greenwich Village, this year the route was Sixth Avenue from Spring Street to 15th Street ( 7 - 10:30 p.m.).

                                                 People dressed as Ghosts in the Parade

We went their before time to grab a good place in the stands, as it usually gets very crowded. And by the time it was 7, it got so crowded that there was no place to walk on the side of the streets. And the Parade also started right on time, artists were the first to come performing fire stunts and then a group arrived dancing. After that, it was unstoppable - there were zombies, avatars, superman, Lady Gagas, witches, nurses with blood on their clothes, MnM, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, coffins, man with a knife through his head, Jigsaw from the 'Saw' fame, giant skeletons puppets and floats; and also some chilean miners left behind (haha !!).

                                                      Chilean Miner left behind

The parade was too good and am sure, everyone must have enjoyed it. Its a must for anyone who visits NY at this time of the year. The Halloween Parade was something I have never seen before, people were dressed however they wanted, were dancing, laughing and enjoying themselves - that is what celebration is. But the celebrations don't end here, after the parade people head over to the costume parties.

Halloween deserves 'Hell of a time' celebrations. Ya Ya !!