3 girly stereotypes...

Was speaking to a young cousin of mine in her late teenage. To my surprise the cliches which were prevalent during my teenage are still there and the girls are still falling for those. Some of the cliches that I found  very prevalent are listen below.

If you are a girl, these are some of the things or behavioral patter that society/media/peer/boy friends expect you to like and follow...but if you think about it, they are pretty clichéd and just another stereotyping excecise. Ultimately limiting a girl and taking away her individuality.

• Pink has to be your favorite colour...says who? Oh well if you are a girl, the idea is that pink has to be your favorite colour-- baby pink, hot pink, fuschia ...it is so tiring to see girls dressed in pink (right from the really young ones to the teenage girls), shoes and accessories too, decorate their rooms in shades of pink, even have pink birthday cakes and pink cocktails. This colour has become synonymous with all things girly and is used to portray girly traits like innocence and sweetness. But in the process it has become so boringly clichéd.  Come on girls it is time to move beyond pink and explore other colors-- the blues, the greens, the russets, the maroons, the reds, the yellows...there is a whole vibgiyor  waiting for you....

• Cuddly teddy bears...God knows which movie started this trend...as far as I remember all the movies in my teenage had a scene or two where the heroine cuddles a teddy, be it QSQT or Maine Pyar Kiya. Val Days meant an Archies card and a small teddy for a gift. Archie and Hallmark sold this whole range of teddies in various sizes. It was the dream of every teenage girl to receive the biggest teddy in the shop as a gift from her boy friend. Even now I see pics of young girls posing with teddies. Maybe for young girls teddies still hold a lot of excitement but for an old pro like me it is exceedingly boring and clichéd and very 90s. And if the teddy is pink, you cannot go more filmy than that. Come on girls time to let go of the teddy and move onto something better...explore other favorites.

• A man has to propose-- to my dismay many of my ultra modern girl friends are also waiting for the men in their lives to propose marriage to them. These women otherwise so very confident and smart, seem to turn completely traditional when it comes to proposing.  Come on women be pro active, take the bull by the horns and just pop the question. Been there, done that and as a result can gloat over it for a lifetime. There is lots to gain, believe me. As for the young girls, stop dreaming about the knight in shinning armour coming to sweep you off your feet. Yes I am saying this even after reading all those M&Bs for the last 15 years. In real life, it just does not happen that way. For starters you fall for guys your age, who are just as clumsy and inexperienced as you and they have not been given given any reference books on how to please girls. So stop expecting all things romantic and make a team effort of create romantic times with your boy friend. 

I am sure there are many others. This is just my reaction after speaking to her. If you have some in mind, please do share.

Disclaimer: The photos are all taken from Google images.

Able & Cole organic veggies and fruits...

One of the main problems of super market shopping is the not so tasty veggies they sell. Ever since coming to the UK, I was feeling really fed up with the tepid veggies. Once or twice in Oxford we visited the farmer's markets...we loved exploring the markets and then picking up the fresh veggies. Also we did that from the Covered Market veggie stalls. They so reminded me of the veggie stalls in the markets back home. But somehow that did not become a habit and we mostly sourced our veggies and fruits from the super markets.
When we moved to London I was determined to break this habit. And just when I was wondering what to do, Able & Cole's leaflet came through the door. It seemed just like the thing we wanted...organic, chemical free, fresh and produced locally. We started ordering.

I must say its been a really long time since I tasted such lovely veggies. We get the deliveries on Tuesdays...I love opening the boxes and finding out what is there each week. Thanks to Abel & Cole, we have tried lots of new veggies. Normally if we are shopping in the super market or any other market for that matter, we hardly ever pick up strange veggies. But this box has loads of those. To simplify matters, their website has recipes or if you want to be more adventurous try other recipes. I have been using a lot of Jamie Oliver recipes and they have all come out lovely. So my cooking horizon has also expanded and I have learnt to cook veggies like celeriac, zucchini, red cabbage and lots more new ones.
Another important thing is our eating out has reduced a lot. When you have a fridge full of veggies, you hardly feel like wasting those and eating out.  So eating out has become twice a week, which is pretty healthy I think.
Right now we are taking the medium veg and fruit box, but they give so much stuff in this box, that our fridge is literally swimming with veggies. I cannot keep up cooking or eating them up. I am thinking of reducing the box size and see if the small box is better for us.