Abi:original - If you aren't original, what are you?

There are probably a few people in the world who haven’t heard of Mother Teresa. She treated the sick and destitute in India but managed to touch countless lives around the world. I am not someone who believed in wearing religious medals. I was taking my first holiday without parents or siblings and my mother insisted I wear a silver medal which had an image of Mother Mary on it. I wore the medal, grudgingly. We were a class of 25 women who travelled with two teachers to visit a few Indian cities and practise photography. Our first stop was Calcutta. We had heard of the mouth watering sweets that the city is known for and a few of us headed out to the local sweet shop. It wasn’t long before the residents noticed us. As we relished our desserts and made our way back to the hotel, a few miscreants started hurling stones in our direction. I was shocked when a large stone came straight at me. Perhaps it was luck or divine intervention that I was saved from a serious wound because the stone...

Cooking has suddenly become my new obsession. The healthier the better actually. From merely collecting loads of recipes, I've finally started creating my own dishes. Baked bacon pasta, bean and cauliflower casserole...The helpless tasters being the husband and son, most often like what they consume. But they may be suspected to be partial to the cook -- their only food provider. Blame it on the cooking channel but I've now realised that cooking is really all about presentation. I'm not just talking about Nigella Lawson. Of course a good looking chef can make or break a tv show, but I think a neatly presented salmon bake is just as important as a well prepared slice of the same fish. Of course I have miles to go before I can reach the cooking standards of my mother and some of my aunts and uncles. I'm not even going there! For now I'm happy to try a new dish every other day and hope that the effort isn't in vain. Like most busy mothers, I have no time for labori...