Updates: doing nothing and Pakistani food

I did my five minutes of doing nothing yesterday and forgot to write about it. I am really having a hard time sticking to writing an entry a day. I only remembered when I woke up to take a pee in the middle of the night.

In my five minutes of doing nothing, I was sitting on the bed with our cat Seven. Nothing was going on the background. I tried hard not to think of anything. I was able to do this for some time but found myself thinking of the phrase "open your eyes". This led me to think about the song Always by Erasure. The lyrics just sneaked in: Open your eyes, I see your eyes are open, wear no disguise for me, come into the open, when it's cold outside, am I here in vain, hold on to the night, there will be no shame, (catchy synth sounds), Always, I wanna be with you, ....

I could not stop myself from thinking about the song and the catchy melody. When I stopped myself and tried to close my eyes, Sweet Dreams by Air Supply went into my mind. Why? Because you have the lyrics: Close your eyes, I want to ride the skies in my sweet dreams, close your eyes, I want to see you tonight in my sweet dreams, ...

So I opened my eyes, and Erasure is playing. Now I am in a loop. Thankfully, the five minutes were up.

On that day, I also made two dishes from the Pakistani and North Indian cookbook. They turned out to be quite good, as all the ingredients (except for the 1 tsp of garam masala) were available. I highly doubt that the garam masala would make a difference, but I might offend other people's sensibilities. I made both Aloo Gosht (Beef and Potato Curry) and Seedha Saadha Raita (Yoghurt with Mint and Cucumber). I used a screw-shaped green chili pepper for the Aloo Gosht. It had quite the kick. I think this beef and potatoes dish was quite good and it has been a while since I ate something like this. But I was farting like crazy.

The yoghurt was an extremely nice surprise and I would consider that an alternative to my usual Greek salad. I did not put in the mint, as I did not have fresh mint leaves. The cookbook actually mentioned that you put the mint if you are brave enough. I found this strange because the mint is probably not controversial for the palate. If it were chopped green chili, then maybe I will need to be brave. This yoghurt dish is tasty and goes well with quinoa.