when life gives you a lemon festival

Lemon festival happened practically in our backyard so we went to see what its all about. The first thing we saw was kids jumping on bouncers, their heads popping out of the grass surrounding Girsh Park.

There were too many sponsors and  there was struggle to catch sight of lemons. The real ones, not the pictures. There were plenty of pictures and posters. The lemon meringue pie was definitely worth mentions, and we would have bought one too, had our fridge not been clogged with delicious chocolate cake(s).

Every three years I have to eat cotton candy to remind myself that I don’t like cotton candy. The lemon candy was good in spite of my dislike for candies. I could even taste the lemon (flavor), sidelined by overwhelming amount of sugar.

The live music was pretty good too. I apologize for the cheesy title. The festival indeed turned out to be a lemon compared to other festivals in SB.  However, I can see why its great for kids. The avocado festival which happened same day also, is much bigger, I am told.

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to market, to market

I love going to the farmer’s market in Goleta. This is what I bought on Thursday:

red white and golden

Farmers markets in SB remind me a lot of Indian markets. Really, the only thing these two have in common is that they are open air.

Up close. A friend though the flowers were fake. That’s a good thing, right?

Talking of shopping in India, I grew up thinking that bargaining is the thing you do when you shop, by default. Even in a shop which has a notice saying

‘FIXED PRICE’

As a child I would look in awe, as my mother would buy things from street vendors for half their price. I learnt as I went along. I haggled with rickshaw-wallahs in Chennai.

I bargained even when I was in Rio de Janeiro; two Portuguese girls in tow. That was indeed taxing. Especially since I couldn’t count in Portuguese and didn’t know if the vendor was cursing me or calling me back as I prepared to leave, acting all devastated by his asking price.

Anyway, living in Santa Barbara for a year without bargaining has made me rusty. Also, my attitude has changed. While earlier, I would usually try to buy as much as I could in as little as possible, these days, I ask myself more philosophical questions like ‘how much is something worth to me?’ and ‘what would be a fair price to pay for it?’. Don’t they say,

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

And I like it this way. It makes so much sense to buy something I really want for a fair price; Not more, not less.

The other day, I bought a microwave via Craigslist. The microwave obviously has issues, as I discovered only later. It just dies in the middle of things and smells weird. No wonder the owner wanted to get rid of it. Want to guess how much I paid for it?

In full.

I guess my shopping philosophy is definitely up for some shift again. I am thinking of following the Iron Rule

Do unto others before they do unto you.

The yellow buds by the way, bloomed into beautiful orange flowers.

An odd shot. Regardless of the angle I used, the flower looked like a shy kid not wanting to show her face.

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