Pistons misfiring

It's been a while since I put up a new post.  My wife has inspired me by her own blog, so here goes.... Last night I went to see the Knicks play the Pistons at the O2.  I think this is probably the first or second NBA season game that was played in London.  I unfortunately didn't get to sit as close as I would have liked to.  I went with a friend of mine and he just didn't want to drop the dough to sit closer.  We were sitting in the nosebleed section with some uncouth individuals.  Fortunately they weren't Pistons fans.  

All in all a good night out.  The Pistons just weren't as competitive as I would have hoped they would be.  I was hoping for the game to end with a last second buzzer shot to win the game, but hey there's always next time.  Being a New Yorker, I supported the home team and fortunately they won.  There were a few scary moments when they blew their 20 pt lead but they held on.  Eagerly looking forward to the next NBA match in London.  Well done Knicks.

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.

More .... and a Bear in Bath

I completely forgot to put up this one picture I had showing a fairly quiet road lined with columns. Since I’ve been seeing the first season of ‘Rome’, this looked like it could have been an actual road way back then.



There was also this lovely park right across the Bath Abbey with people soaking up the sun and lounging in these comfy looking beach chairs. I found out the parks department make a different animal every year with the hedge that's there. This year it was the bear.

A revolution against Revolution

P.S. The 'Revolution' bar/restaurant in Bath sucks. I think there is only one in Bath, but this one was on George Street. The cup I got for my tea was stained and dirty and they don't serve any beverages not on the menu, especially when they have a well stocked display of liquor. It doesn't stop at that but this was just a sad experience for us and I'll guarantee you we WON'T be going there again.

Blah Blah Blah and .... Bath

I’ve unfortunately been extremely busy with work or something else which is why I haven’t been very prompt in putting up new stuff. I’ve decided to take the first step in amending this by putting something up today.

This weekend was surprisingly beautiful, sunny and believe it or not HOT. The weather forecast on Friday for the weekend was rain rain and more rain, however it turned out to be picture perfect. On Saturday we went to one of my wife’s friends wedding in Bath. As the name implies, this is where the Romans built baths probably around the 3rd century due to the naturally occurring hot springs in that area. It was interesting not because it was the first wedding I’ve ever attended but it was the first traditional British wedding I’ve attended. A beautiful day, a beautiful wedding followed by a great reception and good food. Can’t ask for more on such a lovely day.

Since it was our first time in Bath, we went there a few hours before the wedding so we can look around the city. I was taken aback as I never expected to see such a beautiful city. Although there were quite a lot of tourists, we were still able to see a good portion of it. The city has retained it’s old charm and you can just sit out in one of the plethora of cafés and just soak up the environment around you. It’s just one of those cities you have to go and see for yourself. It was a shame we didn’t get to spend more time since we had to run to the wedding. However, we certainly plan on heading back there and discovering it in greater detail. We also didn’t get to see the Roman baths, but did get a few snaps of the building façade from the outside.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

I thought I'd start out with a title of a movie which happens to be one of my favorites but also had relevance to the actual content. Two weekends ago I had the distinct pleasure of trying something not many people get to try. Clay Pigeon shooting! You would have never guessed this but it was something I could have never imagined myself doing in some other countries I’ve lived in. This made me appreciate the UK more. Since this was my first time holding a real 12 gauge shotgun, I was enthused. I sincerely enjoyed firing away at clays and decided I have to do it again. I also wasn’t a bad shot. The only thing is, my shoulder started hurting a bit after some time. Well I highly recommend this to anyone who hasn’t tried it already, it can be very addictive.

Day out in London

Beautiful day in London (surprisingly)

I’ve been meaning to put this up some time ago but work keeps coming in the way. ;) Anyways, we had a day out in London (a few weeks ago) and visited a few museums. It was such a nice bright and sunny beautiful day without any rain (no honest). It was so nice that I decided to take a few pictures to show you how nice it really was.

Anyways we went to the Tate Modern, which is OK if you like that kinda stuff but it doesn’t impress me. I ended up getting bored after 10 minutes. I guess I’m just not the type to appreciate art as one would expect. Anyways, the best part of the day was visiting the Imperial War Museum. Given I’m such a big history buff (especially when it comes to wars), it was no wonder I thoroughly enjoyed this museum. It really is a fabulous place to visit and it’s so much bigger than it appears. I'm not gonna go into details of everything you have there because it's just so much. If you have kids, they'll also enjoy it alot. My two year old didn't even care if we existed as she just kept running off to see different things. You really need to spend the whole day there (ideally without a kid so you can see everything in peace). I definitely plan on heading back there to see it properly and in peace. It’s about a leisurely 5 minute walk from the Lambeth North tube station and just look out for the two huge naval cannons on the front lawn.

Red Bull: A lot of bull

I decided to get a can of Red Bull yesterday with my Boots meal deal, thinking I never tried this and I wanted it to 'give me wings' as per the ad. Well..... it certainly did give me wings, but these wings were not a result of drinking Red Bull; they sprouted wanting to fly to the nearest garbage bin to get this can of Red Bull into it as quickly as possible. I don't know what it is about it, but the taste sucks and the worse part was after taking two sips, my lips started to itch. God knows what chemicals they put in it. I found out from wiki they put a synthetically produced version of 'Taurine', which is a naturally occurring amino acid in the human body. Some people told me the taste grows on you. I think it's alot like marmite, you either love it or you hate it. Well, that's my two cents on this.

From Bangalore with love

I know the title is very 'Bond' esque but I've always wanted to use it. It's been two and a half weeks since I went on vacation and I'm nearing the end of it. I've been meaning to put a few posts since I got here but I just haven't had the time. So much to tell and so little time. I guess I'll just have to save it for when I get back. In the mean time I thought I'd put something up. Though Bangalore has been developing at an incredible pace and I'm sure many of you have seen pictures of the fancy ritzy parts of B'lore, I thought I'd post a pic of the following showing some of the older times of Bangalore.



It's become a rarity to find cows walking about. You might be wondering why this is so great, but it just brings back some memories of old bangalore. The air was cleaner and there was a distinct fragrance in the air which was a combination of the clean air, flowers and nature. It's also quite sad because there was alot of land allocated for grazing but due to greediness and people illegally acquiring such lands, many animals that used to have a place to graze and left to wandering the roads. This was taken on the outer ring road by Nagarbhavi.

Brownsea Island

Well, two more days till we head away for three nice weeks to India via Dubai. I'm so looking forward to it, I can't wait. It's good incentive to work hard to try and wrap everything up before leaving. Anyways as promised earlier, here go some pictures from Brownsea Island. By the way for those Boy Scouts among you, this is where Lord Baden-Powell took his first set of 'scouts' and hence there is a scout stone to commemorate this. For more details about Brownsea, go here.




The scout stone commemorating the first scout camp

Lovely Easter weekend.

Well, it was a nice long easter weekend. Although we got Friday and Monday off giving us a total of four days, it still went by too fast. We ended up going down to Bournemouth again to visit my wife's cousin. This time we went to Brownsea Island which is a nature reserve and part of the National Trust. Unfortunately, I haven't downloaded all the pictures from my camera, but I shall do it soon and put them up. I'm actually looking forward to my vacation in a couple of days. I'm off to sunny, hot India via Dubai. Stay tuned for more pictures.

Windsor Castle

Although we had gone to see Windsor Castle towards the end of last year, I thought I should put up some pics of it now and describe how nice it was to see the place. I'm not a huge fan of visiting things associated to the 'monarchy' as it reflects (to me) the days of imperialism and subsequently plundering of the respective countries resources. I'm divulging here, so I'll stop my ranting.

On the upside, we got a chance to view some of the stately rooms inside and were able to find out the history behind it, which is what I found to be interesting. The rooms were beautifully done and I couldn't imagine how amazing it would be to live in such a place. Oh by the way, it's an official residence of the Queen and the largest occupied castle in the world. Apart from seeing the castle, we strolled around the high street and around Windsor castle. It's seemed like a nice town to live in, however I don't think I would ever want to live there. I'm a big city person and don't think I can do with such a small town feeling. On the upside, it is very close to London which kinda makes up for it. Anyways, I do recommend visiting this place as it does have alot of interesting history and you get to see where the Queen stays.

P.S. The views from the castle is amazing as you can see the remaining parts of Windsor and Eton College.

More southall pics

Almost forgot, am putting up a picture of the movie theater there called 'Himalaya Place'. It looks like it used to be some chinese restaurant but the owners never bothered changing the facade. Anyways I thought it was a bit confusing and interesting at the same time.

We also came across this store called 'Bhai Bhai Cash & Carry', which I found sooo amusing I decided it had to come up on my blog. When translated it literally means 'Brother Brother Cash & Carry'. Not sure what prompted the owners to name their store as such but it certainly gave us something to talk about for some time.

Southall

We recently visited Southall, the place where there is supposed to be a high concentration of punjabi folks. Good visit overall, we visited the Vishwa Hindu Temple there and decided to shop around and see how the place was. We ended up eating at a highly recommended place 'Chandni Chowk', which I would say was 'Decent'. I think it was over-rated as the food wasn't the 'BEST', but it was OK. The korma we ordered was stale, however the "chat's" were quite good. I'm sure there must be better places there and I'll make it a point to check out the other restaurants next time I'm there. I do recommend people to take the trip there as it is a completely different environment to those found elsewhere.

Merry christmas and a Happy New Year.

Well, it was that time of the year again. Christmas shopping, cold weather, lights all arounds, holiday food, .... and the list keeps going on. For this Christmas, I had my in laws over and we went over to my wife's cousin's place in Bournemouth. It was a better than expected get together as we had amazing food and on Christmas day decided to spontaneously pack seven adults and a child in a Ford Mondeo and go to a place on the Jurassic coast called Lulworth Cover. For those of you more interested in the details of location, history, go here.

Needless to say, it was beautiful. Driving was lovely as barely anyone was on the road. The most interesting part of the journey was passing through a military firing range. The signs gave me a good scare as I expected tanks and soldiers to come out of nowhere and start firing across the road. Fortunately or unfortunately, that didn't happen. We were also fortunate to reach the top by sunset, which gave us a fantastic view.

I highly recommend anyone going down to Bournemouth to take a drive to this place and check it out. The only problem was the hike upto the top of the hill. It's really not that bad but if you are pushing a pram with a 21 month old child in the cold, it's not the best experience. Fortunately since so many of us went, there were many helpful hands helping out. I can just imagine how beautiful and packed this place would be in the summer.