The Thames and boats

Last weekend we thought we’d head out to the fun fair and check out the rides. Unfortunately it hadn’t opened yet and since we had a few hours left, we decided to rent out these small motor boats. These boats can fit four people in it and the best part was we got to do the ‘driving’ ourselves. Fortunately, the weather held out while we were out and it was just a beautiful day to go on the river Thames. We went close to the locks by Mapledurham and came right back. Along the way, we were able to see some really nice houses which had their own mooring (really cool). I'm sure these houses must cost a fortune. It was a really nice two hour boat ride. However, my only complaint was the boat wasn’t as fast as I hoped it to be. It moved quite well with only the driver in it, but with three adults and a two year old in it, the boat struggled. I found out we can rent bigger (faster) boats and I think our next rendezvous on the river will be on one of these.

Reading Festival 2008

Well, it's that time of the year again. Lots of teeny bops running around Reading carrying gear half their size. The Reading Festival gets underway today and for the next couple of days the visitors will be VERY prominent in Reading. It's nice in many ways, so long as they don't make a mess of things. I do know they have some really good bands playing this year. I found out Slipknot won't come due to some injury, which is a bit of shame. However, festival goers will be fortunate to see Rage against the machine and Metallica. It would have been nice to go and check them out but unfortunately won't be possible this year. There is always next year.

British summer

I seem to have slowly gotten used to the concept of a ‘British summer’. For those of you not familiar with it, it’s simply put as a summer which doesn’t have much sun, rains, and gets cold every now and then. In a word: unpredictable. For the first year, I kept complaining and couldn’t understand how people here put up with it. After staying here for nearly two years now, I have unfortunately become ‘British’ in my attitude towards the weather. I don’t complain, and try to go on with our plans despite what mother nature brings down on us. For those of you who know me, don’t worry I’m not becoming completely ‘British’. That would be a very scary thought, but I’m certain I’ll hold my own as I just can’t (and won’t) give up my American accent for that of a British one. Not that anything is wrong with a 'British' accent, but I just can't bring myself to speaking like that. Reminds me of Jennifer Coolidge from the episode of Friends where she acts as 'Amanda Buffamonteezi' (the girl with the fake british accent).

Argos'ing it

The well known retailer Argos's catch phrase is 'Don't shop for it....Argos it'. Well it seems like Argos'ing it would mean anything but purchasing the item you want to buy.

I went to Argos today to get light bulbs, not some rare antique table or the Nintendo Wii, but ‘light bulbs’! I went to the kiosk, typed in the code and saw they had two left in stock so I happily paid for it and waited for my number to come up. Six minutes later, my number gets called and I go to ‘pickup point A’ to collect my item. What do you think happens? I get my light bulbs and go home?..... Nooo, that would be too simple now. Why would they want to ensure a streamlined, painless buying process for the consumer.

I ended up waiting for another 20 minutes at ‘pickup point A’ just to find out they had only one item in stock and that one item was just the packaging. It didn’t have any light bulbs in it! How weird is that? I have no clue how a) their systems are not updated properly to reflect the right quantities and b) how they can stock just the ‘packaging’ without the actual item inside. Oh and its’ not like you couldn’t see if the bulbs were there or not; it was just a clear plastic covering.

So if you want to waste your time, get misleading information, and NOT get what you want to buy, Argos it.

2009 ICC World Twenty20

I don’t know how many of you out there are cricket fans but about two months ago (June 30, 2008 to be exact), the tickets for the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 were up for grabs. Given it is hosted in England, I decided I would buy some tickets and see some interesting matches. It took me ages to get through and register and by the time I went through to the actual location where I could buy tickets, all the final tickets were sold. I was surprised in a matter of a few hours, all these tickets were gone. Fortunately, I was able to get tickets for one of the Super 8s (India vs. Australia) in Lord’s and the Semis in the Oval. All I have to do now is wait until it starts in June 2009.

Foot Guitar?

While going through some of the Bath pics, I realized I had left out this great picture of a guitar machine some guy had built. I have a penchant for innovation and creating new contraptions just for the heck of it.

This guy who made this 'machine' was playing the violin and this ‘guitar’ with his feet, which looked really cool. The board he had read ‘I built this machine because of unreliable guitars. It don’t smoke! It don’t drink! And it’s never late.’. I didn’t quite get it. I think he may have meant ‘I built this machine because of unreliable guitarists?’. I don’t know. I wanted to ask him what he meant by it and how long he spent building this but as you can tell from the crowd, there were quite a lot of people observing him and I didn’t feel like disturbing him. This just goes to show you how innovative people can get if they apply themselves.