Blackpool trip

This one was for the Bank holiday weekend in the first weekend of 2007. Plan was to visit Blackpool, a la Atlantic City if not LV of UK. One of the places where you find a lot of theme parks and casinos to spend your money on. This was to be followed by beautiful Snowdonia Mountain ranges in Wales.

05 May, 2007

This was supposed to be one of the busiest weekends and all motorways going out of London were supposed to have been flooded with over 5 million vehicles moving out of London. THe forecast had started close to a week ahead of time. Still we took chance to start at 10am from home. Luckily, the forecast was very similar to the weather forecast, we get sometimes in India. Though there were a lot of vehicles on road, there was no hurry and we arrived at Blackpool at 3pm in the evening.

Hot Ice This one took us high up at a very high speed and drop you suddenly, so much that you just lose touch of your seat. It was OK, but Wonderla was better on a similar ride.

Pepsi - big one This is supposed to be the steepest fall in Europe's rides. Couple of my nerves between the neck and upper back got intertwined I think. But it was worth it. Amaayyyzziiiinnnnggg ride and couple of photos on the ride.

InFusion This was the best I enjoyed the most. The seat doesn't have a leg rest and it turns you up and down quite a few times. This was

IRN-BRU - This was a plain straight ride with one full swing, goes in one direction and come back in reverse.

Space invasion 2 Lesser I say about this, the better. We waited for 45 mins for this ride and turned out to be a damp squib.

Valhalla This was a simulation of some dark tunnels and dungeons with bhoots and some dark, wet coal mines.. the boat goes around these things and fire at some places and ice in some. Kinda nice.. and different.

There was this mystery place, which had a lot of things like the crystal ball and funny mirrors. It had a room, where we sat on a jhoola and it started rotating round and round on its axis. It was actually the room which was turning around this jhoola, but it did give us an illusion as if our jhoola was rotating. whoa!!!

Airplane Simple and good way to end the rides. This reminded me of the roller costers we had in our melas and habbas.

We went to Liverpool to sleep.

scotland trip - day 3

08-apr-2007

We knew this was going to be a long day since we wanted to reach London this day itself and we were close to 500 miles away from London. So we started early, went north towards Stirling to see the castle. This was some sort of an excavation from which they got the castle out, so many of the things in the castle are still unpolished and some of the things are unexplained. There were dungeons showing the brutality which could have taken place there, not without a proof, like the bones which were found during the excavation.
Not too impressed, we exercised the cameras a bit and headed towards the main attraction of the day, the Edinburgh castle. Another beautiful drive, and we were there.

This was worth the price with the nice museums about the kings, queens and soldiers. The cathedral and the canons were there as usual and the museum had the jewel-studded crown and the swords which was used by the king of Scotland.


Narrow streets of Edinburgh..

It was close to 3:30 and we were all hungry. Luckily we found an Indian restaurant there, which was opened there in 1947. After hogging for a good couple of hours, we started driving towards London. I tend to compare US and UK and for once, I had to raise UK's hand when it came to motorways. They were better than GSP or 270 in NJ, more smoother and well maintained. For the first time in my life, I hit 120mph.

Thought Picasso would fail me, but it didn't. It was a pleasure, very similar to the roller-coaster rides that we were used to in childhood. The best part and the one good thing we did was to enter into London in the middle of the night. The roads were empty and we could reach the destination without having to go through the traffic.

End of another memorable trip..

scotland trip - day 2

Day 2, 07-apr-2007

After having a continental breakfast in a mini castle- mini museum like house, we went to Historic Quay (read the second word like key). It was supposed to have been used in one of the wars Brits fought. I forgot the war though. I'm bad in memory as well as history.. :P..

There was one more beach we found, a dirty one this time. There were a few fishermen taking a break on their weekend, lazing in the sun with thier dog singing and playing guitar. It was a view worth watching. These westerners enjoy their life to full. It would look good as a sepia. :)



We were to head towards Edinborough, which was again quite a drive away. So there was no stopping for lunch. But JRA had sandwich plans and Subway was inside the car. Yummmyyyyyyyyy... What more could one ask for? Burp Burp.. This drive did not have any motorways and it was all either a short term dual carriage one or a two way lanes, which meant we couldn't hit the best of speeds. But we did enjoy the drive with beautiful country sides with small yellow flowers at places in the field.


Forgot to mention the RJing which KLP and JKM did. JKM bought a FM transmitter and that served as a good entertainment tool. We could enjoy over 12GB of MP3 in his iPod without having a MP3 player in the car. It was a mix of classics, Tamil/kannada dummutaKa and some English Dhinchak Dhikchik. Boleto fultu timepass kya?

On the way to Edinburgh, we saw Bamburgh castle. It was a nice one just next to the sea. View was good, breeze was cool and beach was clean. I did like this castle since they had preserved most of the artifacts which the king used to use. The road which lead to this place was also very country like and it was just like going to one of your relative's place who stay in a village. Tried to stitch the view from this castle. Try clicking and you may find a bigger than usual photo.



Before that, these castles are nothing but huge houses the kings built for themselves. Sometimes palatial and sometimes ordinary. If we preserve some of the old homes in our villages, with a huge hebbagilu, chaavaDi, aDuge mane and bachhalu outside the house with a baavi, even we can start a castle business in India. Since they are deep in the jungles or villages, we can make a good road leading there and charge 50-60Rs. What say?

Some photos again and we were on our way to Holy Island. This is supposed to be the place where Christianity came to UK from eastern Europe. The speciality of this place is that this becomes an island only after 4-4:40pm everyday. This is a naturally created island and the road was just built so people could get there. We stayed there from about 3:45pm to 5pm and we could see the entire road get submerged under water. It was a sight to watch, something which I would have missed, had I taken an organised tour or a standard Scotland package.



Next was Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. First thing that struck me was 'This is better than London'.. :D.. My personal opinion. No offence meant. But the city layout and architecture resembles in many ways NYC, which still remains a hot favorite of mine.

We then walked to a place called hollyrood, which is a hill and more of a trekking place. It was quite dark and the hike was not lit as well. So we planned to get back after covering half way. We did get some nice pics of Edinburgh.


And this is Edinburgh castle at night. More about it a bit later.


Our destination was a BnB in Falkirk, the historic place where the Brits were beaten by the Scots (or the other way round.. ;D..). This was JKM's contribution.

scotland trip - day 1

4 days of easter weekend combined with Bank holidays gave us enough reasons to plan for a longer trip. JS was flying down from US and LP, JKM also joined. Scotland it was to be.. We got a red Citroen Picasso this time. Not too impressed with it. Though the power was good at times, I felt it was too light for its size. Here's the crew and the ship.

06-apr-2007, Friday

We started by 10am and headed towards Cambridge. It was a nice drive,, though a bit crowded on M25. Reached there by around 11am and started walking around the city. We found King's college very attractive with its Victorian architecture and majestic stature. The lawns and park gave some nice photographs too.

We did cross the river which has given the city its name.. the Cam river. The entire university is interspersed with the city such that you never know whether you are in the city or in the university.


Some narrow gullies reminded me of Udupi and India in general. Since it was a holiday we were not allowed into any of these buildings. But the city itself was beautiful enough for a good timepass.


We headed out and had a nice lunch by the roadside. Thanks to JRA for the delicious Puliyogare and Chitranna.

Our next destination was Redcar, which was quite a drive away and we planned to see the North easter coast of England, which was supposedly one of the most beautiful drives one could have.


This was proved right by Scarborough and its neighbours, all the way till Redcar. The roads were very close to the coast and the curvy roads made for a fun drive. We shouted like kids in a roller coaster ride when we hit a downhill.


On the way to Scarborough we had to go through Tyne Tunnel, which was an underwater tunnel under the river Tyne. This was one of the longest tunnels I've seen. Couldn't enjoy a high speed in the tunnel due to traffic.


We reached Scarborough at around 7 in the evening and hit directly to the beach.


Roamed around on the beach for sometime and headed towards Redcar where our acco had been arranged. We crashed after a long tiring day of fun. Here's a pic of our Redcar. ;).. hahaha..


Picasso was giving some problems. It would automatically slide to the left of the lane. Not a good sign if we are to hit 120mph on the motorways. Anyways. There was no looking back now.

Bristol Bath and Cardiff trip..

After a 5 month long work-work-work schedule, I set out for a trip, thanks to JA and AP. We were to drive since taking a train was a less exciting. It was the first time in UK for me. Though driving in India and US is not different, first time is always first time and my fears were reinstated by 3-4 honks I got as soon as I decorated the UK roads. I recovered soon. :).

Since its a travelogue and I love the cars, here's a mention of our other companion. Peugeot 307. A small car by size but no small from the response it gave. It was spacious and is kinda similar to apna Santro and Getz. I could reach 90 without any rumblings of the engine. But could not go beyond that.


Getting out of London was the toughest part and I couldn't read maps while driving. AP guided us, but after some discovery (read roaming around), we found ourselves out of London and on M25. M stands for motorway which is supposed to be the 3 lane expressway. This was at places reminding of namm Hosur Roadu. Got stuck at a point for 15-30 mins. Lets get to the interesting part now.

Day 1: Stonehenge, Bath

Our first destination was stonehenge, the world famous Windows wall paper, which shows some 4-5 stones standing in a circle and couple of them lying on top of the others. Here it is.


Nothing great about these stones. They are neither natural nor a miracle of nature. They are just famous because hype and Windows has made them so. It was cold and windy there. But bright. We finished the rituals of photos and food there and started towards Bath. The drive was amazing with beautiful country side on a bright day with speedometer reading close to 90mph.


Bath has a bit of history and was supposed to be the fashion capital of UK at some point of time. It has a lot of Roman baths and quite a bit of history.


We reached Bath at around 4:30pm. We were late to do any sightseeing that day. Trying to find a good accommodation (we hadn't booked for any accommodation anywhere), we roamed around the city a bit. Bath is very similar to namma Madikeri when it comes to narrow winding roads and tiled roofs and cold weather and rich people. We lost our way and to take a U turn, we jumped into a golf course. A good samaritan there, guided us back into the city and showed us where to find a good BnB. If you happen to go there like us, make sure you find your way to Charlotte Street. You'll find many of them on that road and people are courteous enough to welcome you even without any reservations.

Day 2: Bath, Bristol

Next morning, we set out to discover Bath. Since everything is in a walking distance, we just roamed around and hit Roman Bath first. It was a historic one and had lots of types of baths to cater to all seasons of the year and all age groups. There was a bit of engineering involved with different baths for various seasons and age groups. There were rooms built to get the body close to the hot water temperature. I hope the fumes are visible in the picture shown belolw.


Here's one more showing the place from where the hot water enters the bath.


Then we visited the Bath Abbey, a cathedral and a majestic architectural beauty.The very symmetry was baffling. The glass paintings, though didn't make much sense to me, gave a classy look to the interiors.



As I mentioned earlier, Bath was once a fashion capital of England and it would be incomplete without a costume museum. It had the costumes of all periods from 1900's to 2000's. The portion under repairs also had some Roman and greek costumes. But it remained Greek and Roman to our eyes since we could not see it.. :P..

Bath is also the place where the famous author Jane Austen worked. There was a Jane Austen Museum which showcased her life and works.


'Circus' sounded like a circus, but is actually a roundabout with a buildings built around it. It had a huge tree in the middle.



Post lunch we drove towards Bristol. Our destination there was Zoo and the clifton bridge. It was a short drive and we reached quickly and got into the zoo. Zoo was well maintained with glass enclosures for the inmates. It keeps it clean and prevented visitors from disturbing the inmates. The variety of animals was not too great. There was a lion, gorilla, lots of insects, lizards, penguins and birds and lots more.


Clifton bridge is a suspension bridge at a very high altitude, could be around 200m above ground. The cliff gave a nice view of the city.


We spent sometime at the top of the hill and took a short walk there. We wanted to see the city centre in Bristol so went to the millenium centre.



Took a walk about the city and then started towards Cardiff, which is in Wales. This was about 45 mins drive. Reached Cardiff by around 8pm and after some roaming around, found a street which had lots of hotels. We got into a hotel whose owner was just about to turn off the calling bell when we went and was planning not to take any guests for the weekend, since he had a busy week and was expecting a busy week ahead. Phew… Can we find this mentality in India?


Day 3: Cardiff

Cardiff is famous for its castle. There is a guided tour of the castle and a small protected piece of fort in front of it. Guided tour was nice and it gave a clear picture of the lavishness with which the Bute family built the castle. They went to a trip to gulf (read it the arabian countries. It’s the Mangalore slang to call it gulf. No. Its not Mallu. Mallu is ghelffu.. ;).. No offence meant.) and designed a room with architecture of gulf, with walls and ceiling with gold. Guide was good with usual sense of humor.


The protected fort I was talking about is just in the front yard of this castle. Apparently, it was built by some Romans. It was the usual architecure where this fort is surrounded by water body and I expect there would have been some crocodiles in them in those days. It had about 50 steps to climb and there was a quadrangle and a room on it. There was also a well, small one very similar to the ones we would find in India.




Our next destination was Mermaid Quay (pronounced as Mermaid key) which is nothing but the Bay area. It has been developed into an area with art and science museums, some old building, some new buildings and a few art centres. We spent some time in the Bay area, went into the art centre. A band was playing nice foot tapping music with lots of saxophones and similar instruments. To end it, we just grabbed a cup of large Starbucks coffee and started driving back to London.

One contrast I find between India and here is that people or the govt. here creates something with nothing (by nothing I mean no substance or a USP behind it) in it and hypes it (with all the free audio tour) and people like us visit it paying anywhere between 5-10£. India has many such places like Hampi, Badami which has a lot of history, are arhitectural and scientific wonders. But they are left there to rot like a drunkards hangout or a haunted place. And the worst part is though we know they are wonders, we don’t visit them.

Woman.. part 3

Can't resist but expressing a touchy topic. Its touchy because I've taken the beating many a times whenever I've started this. The italics in the previous sentence is because everytime its been the case that I get the beating before I finish my sentence. Its such a topic which makes women defensive and offensive at the same time. Judgement is out before even taking me through trials. If there is a jury, its worse.. :D. But since its my blog, I shall exercise full freedom. Afterall, thats what I'm writing about here. Beatings welcome only online.. :). End of crap. Story starts.

Asked many women a simple question, 'why do some women wear revealing cloths even when it is damn cold?'.. the only answer I got was 'Let them wear anything they want. Why are you bothered?'. Though my question remains unanswered (and I'm not too keen on getting an answer either.. :P), what makes me wonder is how can the answers from 6-7 different women - different in terms of generation, background, upbringing and enviornment - be the same? Either they follow some sort of religion to support a woman no matter what, or they are just absolutely right.

I'm not blaming. I believe freedom is something everyone loves. So it is not specific to a woman or a man. Even a child hates it when someone tries to disturb him or her when he/she is involved in something interesting. It is not new either. I'm reading 'The story of my experiments with truth'. Even Kasturba was like that even at the age of 13. When Bapu used to boss around trying to restrict her to the confines of home, she would revolt and go about wherever she liked. The point is not about exercising freedom. Its about the attitude one throws while one senses that she is being taken for granted or that she is losing that 'personal space'. For her, this is one of those things which money can't buy, which a woman treasures more than anything else.

Of west and the concept of vegetarianism..

After spending 26 years in India, one has a picture of vegetarianism. The picture looks something like

• Not bringing in meat into the house, let alone kitchen
• Meat includes anything starting from fish, chicken all the way upto beef and pork
• If it is a hotel, it means keeping the kitchens and/or dishes separate
• Separation in terms of eating places. Sitting away from the places where meat is being consumed. I must say this statement is outdated.

Then I went to US for a short visit. :). Here's the story.

My roomie had clearly told that 'cheese burger' (though the name has no part of non-vegetarian item) will have 'beef' in between the harmless looking bread pieces; when ordering food in McDonalds or burger king, make sure you tell 'no meat', 'no fish', 'no chicken', 'no egg' and 'no mushroom' (the last 2 are my own preferences.. no arguments whether they are non-veg or veg).

Inspite of these, on my first visit to McDonalds, I repeated the above sentence without fault and in one breath. I could find the lady behind the counter make a face (as if saying 'which galaxy are you from?') and say 'You dont even eat chicken?' .. phew..

And in my office cafeteria, I asked for a veggie burger. The guy (without changing the gloves which served non-veg before me) just brought a chicken burger and replaced the chicken part with lettuce and handed it over to me. I didn't have a choice but to pay him and throw the burger.

Later on, my US manager mentioned that the concept of vegetarianism was nothing but not eating meat. This was by choice and not by religion. By default, they are non-vegetarians and hence preparation doesn't matter to them (They eat only bread anyways.. :P..). Only the followers of Buddhism were supposed to follow such strict practices of food preparation.

Forward 3 years.. around the same time, but slightly easter than US, in UK this time. I went to Subway to have a sub to satiate the paapi peth. The lady in front of me took a sub with Tuna and some onions. Next was me.

Her - :) Hello.. what're you having?
Me - :) A veggie delite.
Her - :) 6 inch or a foot?
Me - :) 6 inch
Her - :) Which bread?
Me - :) Italian

At this point, I was planning to break the turns and ask 'can you please change the gloves please?'. But she didn't give me a chance.

Her - :) You want me to change the gloves?
Me - Yes please... :D..
Her: :)

Looks like either the world is accepting the Indian concept of vegetarianism or it could just be a quality process which is doing the trick. Whatever it is, does help the old fashioned vegetarian.


Closing credits: Picture courtesy: Vinodhini.

Murphy's laws and..

my experiences..

• It rains the day I wash my vehicle. It always does.
• Your subordinate falls sick when he is needed most.
• - corollary: When you feel you'll fall sick, you know there will be lot of work.
• When the bladder is about to burst, closest one has 'cleaning in progress' blocker.
• When everyone praises you for something, you'll prove them wrong soon.
• When things go as planned for the most awaited event, a stupid reason postpones it.
• You sleep more and better, if you think you want to jog in the morning.

But the list seems endless. Its the same old feel.


Disclaimer and closing credits: GR triggered this blog.

times of India

I feel my generation.. those born in the 70's have had to witness the maximum change in India, more than any other generation. (My father agrees. Not sure about his father though.. ;D..) . There have been so many changes over a period of 10 years that sometimes I find it hard to figure out which side of India I am in.. the one about 10 years ago or the one which just passed around 3 years ago or the one which is there right now. But the rules of open mind give some solace by just accepting changes as they are and me being what I am at that moment.

What changes am I talking about?

Lifestyle?

The overall lifestyle of people has changed. Blame it on mobile revolution, cable TV and boom of consumerism, we are far better than where we were 10 years ago. The pace which took my parents to get to a level of comfort in life took exponentially less time for me to reach there and beyond. For my juniors, much much lesser. Its not about money, but the mindset.

Mindset?

Comes in easy money, comes with it the liberation of thoughts. Blame it on IT/BPO revolution and American influence on philosophy, thoughts and urge for expression of those thoughts. From single track (which seems mostly due to around three and a half centuries of captivation), goal oriented restless one, Indian mind seems to have matured into a far more relaxed, looking-at-the-big-picture-of-life kind of a mind.. (phew.. :)..). Its not all about mind, but freedom.

Freedom?

The very picture of freedom has changed. Blame it on educated analytical mind, internet, and the haute couture of being different and individualistic opinionism (makes sense?). Freedom meant responsibility. It meant to be one-in-the-crowd. This crowd could mean a family, a community, a city or the country. An unwritten code of conduct was followed. Crowd meant more to the individual, than himself or herself. This has changed today. It means freedom to be yourself. It means voicing your opinion and not be obliged to be one-in-the-crowd. It means being assertive enough not to follow the crowd if that is not where one wants to go. Its not all about freedom, but started with family.

Family?

Joint families were common around 30 years ago. They still exist, but are exceptions than common. Blame it on population explosion, globalization and industrialization. The joint families broke into nuclear families. The next thing is what I call unclear families. Unclear yet? Its not all about family, but woman.

Woman?

Woman has changed. Blame it on financial freedom and woman's liberation. The family used to be woman centric with man earning the bread and the lady managing the home. This has changed with both man and the lady working both at home and outside. Then there is the next one, where there is no marriage(or a Gandharva Vivaha?), rather the commitment to relationship/family. Unclear family is just relative to the nuclear family as I described earlier.

Huh.. I've hit the end of tunnel for today. I don't find the need for a conclusion of this topic since this is just an observation and not meant to conclude anything. No judgments to be made nor a statement. On a weekend I would rather save those grey cells than burn them. mmm.. Did I succeed?