Happenings and random rumblings

Happy Vinayaka Chaturthi

2011-08-31T18:37:00.000-07:00

I didn't know Lord Ganesha's birthday was coming up, until Uma told me.
I called up home and mom was preparing a big pooja with Thaathaa in toe with a clay Ganesha.

So now, I am torn between having a lazy simple-lunch Thursday and a special vada-payasam poojai. Should I just take the day-off and watch the TV specials? or go to work like its just another day. Sigh, if only they had religious holidays in US.

Lets see what prevails, my laziness or kozhukattais

First snow of the season

2010-12-18T12:32:00.000-08:00

We at Albuquerque had our first snow of the season this Thursday.
The day was dripping with rain all along and the temperatures were below freezing. I was hoping to see a good snow and nothing happened until the clock stuck 12 in the night. And then it all begun, showers of white pure powders showering non-stop. Midnight had never been so bright. We got out and soaked in it for atleast half an hour and enjoyed the beautiful potraits of snow ladden bushes created in our garden. If only it wasn't a Thrursday and we didn't have to go to office the next day, we would have enjoyed a bit more.
The best thing about Albuquerque is, snow doesn't interfere with our life, except for making it even more beautiful. Don't envy you east coast folks!!
There will be more snow in the coming months, but nothing like the first one of the season, it is pure magic.
Love winters!!! Somehow, winter adds more energy to my spirit and happiness to my mood.

Outliers

2010-10-12T14:15:00.000-07:00

Started reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.

What refreshing thoughts!!
After finishing the first chapter, I decided to do 'a chapter a day', instead of reading it like fiction. I don't believe the book will lead me to success but I think it will change the way I look at certain things. A different angle of thought is what will be achieved.

Musings on a train

2010-08-23T16:01:00.000-07:00

The melody the train sings with the tracks;
The marathon of the greens passing by;
The rustling of the passengers;
The mere idleness of time
Would have been wonderful..If only...U were here......

Herb Garden

2010-08-22T13:21:00.001-07:00

Plants with their new produce bring out a lot of joy in me, even if it is a hot spicy chilli. So when my small thai green chilli plant that I planted few months ago, bore 2 long green chillies, it lit up my day immensely. There is so much happiness in watching something grow to which you contribute even a little.

ode to an iPad

2010-08-16T10:49:00.000-07:00

Bought an IPad and fell in love with it.
eNews articles never looked better
Games never seemed so swifter
"Little things" and "Flight control" so much jazzier

Photos wore much more glitter
Youtube videos were more bigger
and My talkweb blog looked so much prettier
Love the interface and the hardware
No wonder we spent most of the weekend
Fighting for,who would hold it longer

Penned on 08/15 by Kalpana

UP & The magic of animation

2010-08-05T08:49:00.000-07:00

This trailer on UP made me see the movie. I was never into animated movies, until I saw Ratatouille. Not all the animations make it to the mark, but selected ones like Ratatouille, Wall-e , Kung fu panda and the Shrek series got my glued to the screen and made me buy their blue ray versions forever to keep.

Animations are really creativity at its best. These movies carry a very strong story line, soothing music, picturesque backgrounds, artistic renderings and more. There cannot be a bad actor on the screen, unlike the real human movies. The expressions that can be brought on these sketched characters is unbeatable. The way Wall-E looks at Eva, Ratatouille blinks when he gets caught and the expressions of Kungfu Panda when he finds out his father's secret is really nothing are a few to mention. Once you are into the movie, you forget that the cast is not real. Surprisingly these stories also pack a lot of moral in them. Subtle messages are taught to young children watching them.

UP for example is a very heartwarming story. I almost cried when the first song was over. It tells the story of an old man and his wife, who chase their childhood dream all their life, only to get it run over by the nuances of everyday life. It also tells how human relationships value much more than materialistic wishes. And all this in a very colorful setting. UP is definitely getting added to my favorites list.

Please leave your valuable comments and add more animations that I may have missed and please don't include Avatar in the list.

next movie on the "movies to see" : Inception

Mediterranean Diet Pyramid

2010-05-03T14:28:00.000-07:00

Saw this pyramid at my physician's office and liked it.

On a rainy evening.......

2010-02-12T07:36:00.000-08:00

It was a rainy evening. I was all by myself in the house, sipping tea and watching the rain drops fall, with a distant view of the sunset. The rain stopped abruptly, like someone had a switch pulled off. The sun had also finished saying its goodbye for the day.Having robbed off my good view, I let out a small grunt and turned the computer on for some browsing. Quite a few minutes should have passed, and I could hear the clock tick 7.

"shrush.. shrush" . I glanced up from my monitor wondering if I had imagined that noise. A long pause of absolute silence follows and I get back to browsing. The noises start again and I begin to pay more attention. We rarely hear any noise in our apartment except for the occasional cars passing by. I have never heard footsteps rustling and I was clearly hearing some now, right in our backyard. That sent some goose bumps up my arms and I could see small hairs standing up already.

The noises continue to increase and I can sure hear some whispers now.A young male voice was saying "I loved her so much...She shouldn't have.." , another adds in " I am sorry it had to end this way.. " .

My heart started to double its pumping rate and I sure got some sweaty palms. With shaky fingers, I lift the vents to the backyard a little bit. There , I can clearly see two men standing with shovels. My mind starts racing, "Shovels? What would anyone do with shovels at this time of the evening, in the dark?" I have never seen either of them around here. From what I could make out of their silhouette in the dark, one was tall and lean and the other a little shorter. I crane my neck to get a better view and there, I can see a deep pit they have dug out and a huge wooden box near it. My adrenalin pumps up and my brain freezes for a minute. Recovering myself, I start debating if I should call 911. That's when I hear a knock on the front door.

With all the courage I could muster, I drag myself to the door. Thanks to the peepholes on the door, I was able to see that it was none other than my husband. I quickly usher him in and brief him on the details. He wasn't as scared as me and stressed that we should walk out and talk to them. While I hide behind him, he opens the door and takes a peek. As soon as the door opens, one of the men, the tall one, gets on his heels and runs away. Now, very sure that something is definitely not right, I start to type in the number 9 on my phone.

The other man stands there for a second or two and then starts walking towards us, the dirty shovel still in his hand. I back off a little, eying the grill cleaner stick nearby, if at all an emergency calls for it. He greets us " Hi, I am Dave.. I just moved in to your next apartment a week ago". So much for knowing neighbors, we had no clue who was next door. He goes on " I was just burying the person I loved most in my life. You should come see". I try to signal my husband to back-off and run away from there. But he proceeds on, walking towards that big brown box. The other man opens the lid and there she is, a big old German Shepard, peacefully sleeping like a big baby.

Back Notes : k.. this never happened. But it was a vivid dream, I had last week.
I don't think pets gets buried in the backyard in US, but in my home land, pets always have their final resting place at home.
To explain the location better, adjacent houses in my apartment complex, share gardens.

Cure it all without fixing

2010-01-30T14:09:00.000-08:00

This has happened to me all my life and I have never paid attention to it until this week. Three instances in one week made me sit down and take notice.

I fell sick, which is not a very common thing, and then my fever hikes to 102+. Then it reaches 102.9 , I start to have fever chills and cover myself with at least 3 blankets. I remember blanking out a few years back when it reached 104 . So we decide to go to the emergency and hastily pack everything. The triage nurse at the emergency takes my vitals and my temperature is back to 98.6. I didn't know what to think - was it our thermometer that flopped, or the emergency room's or was it just my body faking it out. The nurse mocks us with our thermometer. To save further embarrassment, we get a new thermometer at the nearby Walgreens and head back home.

Back at home, and 30 mins later, I had started to shiver heavily and the new thermometer shows 102.4. We try both the new and old ones interchangeably and end with the same high range. Just to make sure, we test both on the husband, who is perfectly normal at 98+. So much for old thermometers. Back to the emergency again, and believe it or not, it was back to 98.6 and all my shivers were magically gone.

That was the first instance, the same repeated again with a abdominal pain at the end of the week. And when it was time to see the doctor, I am back to being hale , healthy and at the pink of my health.

While I found reasons to brush this off as some vague psychological behavior between my mind and the hospital, something else happens.

My cooking range stopped working and none of the bigger burners would work. That is a total blow to my daily cooking. I was happy to escape a day or two citing that as the reason to eat out. Then home food is home food. We called up the apartment people to report the problem, and boom ..the burners were fine again and started working as though they never stopped. Now, what do I make of this?

Anyone else with the same thoughts or am I the only weirdo?

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya (VTV) Posters

2010-01-12T20:55:00.000-08:00

I am a big fan of Gautham's films, the notable ones being Kakha Kakha, Minnalae and Varanam Ayiram.

I assume the photographers (or whoever is in charge of the posters) of his new film VTV, were suddenly out of creative ideas, that they started copying their posters from some of the older super hit films. These films are my ever green favorites. VTV manages to give a poor imitation of those memories.

Though the group claims it as a tribute to the mid-time hits, all I see in the posters is, intelligent advertising. Now, when I search for Alaipayuthey in Google, I end up with at least one image of VTV. It will also help the film in connecting with the masses easily, projecting familiar images.

The sad part is , Simbu and Trisha are far away from creating the magic that was woven into some of these ManiRatnam films. I just hope that Gautham has made VTV worthy enough, to be compared to these classics. The wait is on until Valentines day, 2010.

Copy Cat 1: Idhyathai Thirudadhae

Copy Cat 2: Minsara Kanavu

Copy Cat 3: Uyirae

Copy Cat 4: Khakha Khakha

Copy Cat 5: Alaipayuthey

AVATAR 3D - Why I didn't like it

2009-12-22T13:36:00.000-08:00

If you haven't seen Avatar yet, please go see it and come back here. It is a must-see movie with its own pitfalls.

There are numerous posts citing why Avatar is the best film of the decade. Avatar totally deserves the best animation of the decade, but not so with the story line and the screen play. So if you are ready to accept it is not an ideal movie, read on.

My first disappointment with the movie,can't be really helped. It is those 3D goose glasses that I have to wear for 3 hrs straight(without a break). US theatres really need to get into the practice of intermissions, with all these new movies(2012) running for more than 200 minutes.

The movie started interesting enough with the concept of Cryonics and the cute Sam Worthington. But as it wore on, I got this nagging feeling that I have seen all these before. Some of the characters seem so unconnected and superficial. I could relate it to the scene where the doc first introduces Jake to his Avatar in a womb(artificial). It was more like, "hey here is your doughnut", and Jake was seeing his Avatar, a combination of human DNA and Navi DNA. Isn't that something to be surprised off or is it just a everyday thing in 2154?

Speaking of 2154, the earth hasn't changed a bit, except for its explorations on Pandora. The handicapped marine remains handicapped (he takes on an epic adventure , just to get an approval to fix his leg, going in for his late brother). The Earth is still on the verge of economic break down(didn't we just almost see that in 2009?) and the unobtanium,which clearly says it is unobtainable would turn the fate of the earth upside down . The same set of bombers , shooting guns and choppers(with 2 fans instead of one), which have made their appearances in dozens of science fictions, including Aliens, Day after tomorrow and movies that I can't even remember the names of.

As the movie strides on, I can't help but the sing the song, "Jungle jungle patha challa hai" from the Jungle book (mogli -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9RVgTX55vo). It is so much like mogli's story, that all this could have happened in any remote jungle on Earth. What is so much the need to create a new planet and paint all humanly traits on it, albeit with a purple color. Here is a list of things, which my mind just couldn't accept as new. The only good thing , I was seeing the best representation of them ever.

Seeking of Unobtanium that happens to be hiding just under the tree where the navi live(so much for a 2154 story, how many science fictions are based on mineral mining ) and will magically make the earth richer and out of a major breakdown
Navi standing 9ft tall(Gulliver's travels with a mix of donkey shrek)
Flying on the back of a dragon ( Mogli flying with the bear)
Living on trees with a bed-nest (Mogli again. there is so much of mogli in everything)
Plants which shrink when touched (Touch me NOT.. 7th grade biology remember??)
The large predator attacking Jake (takes so much from Jurassic park )
Soul tree with fake neon light strings(that was so much visible ) - This is such a common practice in Hinduism, worshiping trees and considering them holy are age old practices
Seeds of Eywa - Have you seen flying cotton seed before?(we call it thaathaa poochi) and we used to catch, close our eyes and blow it in the air to make a wish come true
The final climax with the two fan helis and bombing squads(Didn't Star trek use 'em in the 80's?)

I could go on and on and on...

Despite all the misgivings, I did love certain parts in the film.
me loved...
-- Neytiri's character and facial expressions
-- the purple-mania
-- Cool 3D animations
-- The concept of getting bonded

As my friend put it, I don't see Avatar so much
(meaning I don't love Avatar so much :))

Johnny Depp - The never grow old star

2009-11-18T11:53:00.000-08:00

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/johnny-depp-wins-his-2nd-sexiest-man-alive-title/31404?nc

Depp does it again. Can't believe he is 46 years old already.
There is still so much spark left in those soulful eyes. He is one awesome actor too. Some of Depp's best films - Sleepy Hollow, Finding Neverland, Dan Juan de Marco and of course all the Pirates series.
Way to go Depp. There is no one like you.

Flying rainbows in the sky

2009-10-08T07:26:00.000-07:00

From inside a balloon

This post is about The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. - Oct 3-12 2009
Oct 3, Saturday morning made a perfect dawn for the balloon fiesta to start. Albuquerque Balloon fiesta is the largest in the world. Balloonists from all over the world group here for a whole week and display their proud possessions. We were up at 4:30 in the morning and dashed off to park at my office. This is the only time we have traffic congestion in our town :) . There is this huge sea of people at the Fiesta park and to my glee lot of foot stalls lined up. Balloonists start filling heated air into the balloons and this is a sight to watch. Hundreds of colorful balloons get bloated to mammoth shapes right in front of us. Then start the flickers. Some 12 balloons light up the same time and dim at the same time, resembling huge lanterns. This is followed by the dawn patrol and then the mass ascension. I felt I was in magic land, surrounded by all the colors of the world. One just tends to forget all the crowd around. Special shapes do need a special mention. Be it the smiley sun or the Cream land Cow or the Darth Vader or the Castle or the Pepsi bottle, each one is perfectly designed and make the joy of watching balloons more spectacular. Once the balloons were off, we hit the food stalls for some off-the-stove mini doughnuts, Funnel cakes and burritos. After all the food gets in, the sleep angel calls upon us and off we shoot, back to home. This week will be completely filled with balloons.
To see all the special shapes go to balloonfiesta.com

Creamland Cow

Bee on a flower

Bumble bees holding hands
Castles in the air

Cup-o-Cappuccino

2009-10-04T14:07:00.000-07:00

Nothing like a cup of hot steaming coffee, first thing in the morning. It actually kicks off those lazy,sleepy cells inside my head. More like a head-knocker. When we were in Europe, I didn't like the coffee version much and resorted to Cappuccinos. A typical day would start with a Cup-of-Cappuccino. I had a great time sampling each one. Though Italy is known for these, the one I had in Swiss was the best. More interesting is that the whole thing was out of a pocket, stirred in hot water, which I made by myself :)(tough thing u see ;) .

Apart from being a good subject for the taste buds, they make good photo objects too. Cheersssss , Kalpana

@The Louvre, Paris

@Venice

@Interlaken,Swiss - this was the best

I hate Mondays

2009-09-28T10:53:00.000-07:00

After all the exciting Friday evening, still relaxed Saturday, then comes the Sunday. I spend all of sunday dreading Monday. The most I hate about monday is the routine.Get up at 6:30; get the lunch ready ;pack and leave by 7:45; reach office at 8:00; so on and so on. It never changes. It is such a contrast to Saturday when there is no single waking time; wake up whenever, eat whatever; do nothing on the weekly chores "To do" list and do everything else. How comfortable. Extra cheese if someone invites for lunch/dinner. All the gossip, fun and shopping. And the movies into the night, until the next days ticks. On a more serious thought, I probably wouldn't appreciate weekends if it wasn't for the Monday. Five more days until the next one :).

Back home

2009-09-14T08:48:00.000-07:00

Reached Albuquerque.

Day 8 - Paris - Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Château de Versailles, Seine river cruise

2009-09-14T08:39:00.000-07:00

Day 7 Paris - Louvre Museum, Cathédrale Notre Dame

2009-09-11T18:00:00.000-07:00

Yet another day. Regardless of how tired we were, how bad our feet hurt, how badly sleep deprived we felt, every day holds a promise of something new, something worthwhile to explore and something to marvel at. I love vacations. Bonjour Paris!!

Day 6 Venice

2009-09-10T18:00:00.000-07:00

St.Mark's Basilica

St.Marks Square

Today is our third anniversary and what more special than to celebrate it in Venice.Our day started with a 4.5 hour train journey from Rome to Venice. We arrived at the Santa Lucia station and got in a long queue to check-in our suitcases. Sure cannot drag these along on the narrow streets and bridges of Venice. Then we get into another queue to get tickets to a vaporetto(water-bus). We take line1 which does a 45 min trip down the Grand canal (the main canal of Venice). Venice, once the most wealthiest city of Europe is completely built on water.It was built on the riches of the expanding Roman empire.

Gondolas

As we cruise in our end seats of the vaporetto, we get an awesome view of this water city., where every building touches the water, giving us the impression that they merely float on it.Imagine your door-steps directly dropping down to a canal. After crossing about 16 stops, each of which had at least one historical building on site, we disembark on the stop to St.Mark's Square. By this time, the Grand canal has opened up into a beautiful lagoon. The landscape here is beautiful, with blue waters in the background, marginally decorated by colorful buildings and numerous gondolas, water taxis and water buses studded on it like stars. Anyone with a little artistic mind, will just want to sit down and paint it.

St Marks Square - St Mark's square hosts the St.Marks cathedral, Dodge's palace and the clock tower. Oops I forgot to mention the pigeons, thousands of them. There is a gelato shop here again and since my craving for gelatos has not yet ended, we stop by one and get 2 new flavors. Devouring it all the way, we then play with the pigeons for at least half an hour. Jeevan gets all excited in feeding the pigeons. The pigeons find their loyal home and never leave his shoulder. When we didn't have any more biscuits to feed, we leave the pigeons alone and get a short trip of the St.Mark's Basilica. This is another impressive monument with all its gold marbled ceilings. It has hundreds of thousands of marbles(of the size of a contact lens) paved on a roof top about the size of 2 football fields(courtesy Rick Steves). It was an amazing piece of architecture. With no energy left to climb another monument,we skip the Dodge's palace and the Clock tower. Heard that the clock tower holds the world's first digital clock. It is refreshed every 5 minutes. We then opt to walk all the way back to the train station. This 2.5 hour walk takes through narrow streets of Venice. The streets are lined with all kinds of shops ranging from souvenirs to sweets. I especially liked all the masks from Milan. They come in a wide range of colors and designs.

After reaching the Rialto bridge, we stop at a small open restaurant there and order a pizza and cappuccino. The pizza turned out to be not so good. Rome had the best pizzas.

After loosing our way more than a couple of times, we zip away through the streets and back to the train station. There our overnight train to Paris awaits us. Jeevan makes a final stunt, by disappearing at the last minute to get another gelato. hmm. What is with Italy and gelatos. We ate atleast a dozen in just 2 days. Off the whistle goes, and with that we bid bye to Italy.

Day 5 Rome, Italy

2009-09-09T20:00:00.000-07:00

Day 4 - Entering Italy - Pisa

2009-09-07T18:00:00.000-07:00

Leaving Swiss from Spiez, we take the overnight train to Florence, Italy. Pisa is just a 1 hour ride from this Florence(Firenze).
We made it a point to include Italy in our itenary. Having come this far, we had to see the pages of history coming to life. We trimmed the list only to include the most famous of all, and the "The Leaning Tower" as we know it, is definetly on the list. '
We then take the local bus to the Cathedral Square in Pisa(Piazza dei Miracoli ). As we walk inside the square, the collection of monuments start to show up one by one. There is the tower, beautifully inclined, just like we have seen in it in numerous of photographs. It was smaller than I had expected, but more beautiful and dimensional than in pictures. The gap between the pillars of the tower are so perfectly proportioned and the pillars just pop right-out.
We then took our customary photos, faking to hold the tower straight. It was so funny, when 1000's of others nearby were trying to do exactly the same :) . After taking a dozen shots, we sat on the cold marble slabs nearby. admiring the pure whiteness of the monuments rising over the lush green lawns.
There is a cathedral, baptistery and a museum included in the square. The visit wouldn't have been complete if we didn’t climb it. So climb did we, all of the 8 stories,300 steep steps until the top. The marble steps inside are so slippery and stamped with ages of time, people climbing up and down.
With the climb down, we bid bye to the "The leaning tower" . For more on why the tower leaned, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaning_Tower_of_Pisa

Day 3 Jungfraujoch

2009-09-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

Day 2 Trummelbach falls

2009-09-06T15:27:00.000-07:00

the rightly named Cork screw falls -- see from right to left. This is the place where the falls is horizontally below you.. Totally unique

Day 2 - Trummelbach Today was a slow-run day. That means we didn’t plan to do much. Our itenary was, check out of Zurich, go to Trummelbach falls and if time permits, roam Interlaken. I got up a whole 2 hours late(blame the jet lag),so we ended up leaving Zurich at noon. Jeevan got me a Swatch(the paper thin battery types). Happy me, we boarded the train and left for Interlaken. Checked in Krebs Hotel Interlaken and boarded the next train to Lauterbrunnen. Lauterbrunnen shows the other side of Swiss alps, the glacier white snowy side. We totally enjoyed the views from the train and then took a 10 min bus ride to Trummelbach falls. I guess Trummel means 10, this was a zig-zag series of 10 waterfalls. The falls were one of a kind, it is not a vertical one, but flows through a series of obscure, interesting shaped caves and rocks. I loved the sound of gushing water echoing on the rocks. The climate was crisp, naturally freezing cold and the caves were dark and well, cavy all giving a mystic feel to it. I wouldnt dare to compare it to Niagara, but it was a beauty by itself and is definitely worth a visit.
I still have to write about Lucerne and Interlaken.
Tomorrow is a big day - Here I come Jungfraujoch.

Day 1 - Mount Pilatus continued

2009-09-06T15:15:00.001-07:00

Writing on the way to Interlaken. Yesterday was one awesome day. We got our first taste of Swiss alps and a feel for Swiss. We had booked the golden round trip to Mount Pilatus from Lucerne. This trip comes with a 90 min ride in a ferry + 30 min ride in a cogwheel railway + return trip 10 min in aerial tram + 20 min personal aerial gondola ride + a 10 min bus ride back to Lucerne. Can you see why that was a "golden" roundtrip ? :) We started from the shores of Lucerne with a ferry ride to Alpnachstad.(More on Lucerne in the next post). The slow moving ferry staged a series of alps, one more beautiful than the other. I lost my count of "wow"s somwhere after the 20th alps. These alps without snow, look more like miles and miles of golf courses with thick patch of forests in between. They look so lush, so green with no hint of industrialization. The house are stacked from shore down(remember I am in a ferry now) and extend till the peaks. I probably shouldn't have said stacked, the houses were minimal and scattered. Some houses on the shore had a two boat garage much like our car garages and all the houses had colorful flowers in the front yard, making it a really scenic beauty. Once the ferry ride is over, we hopped on to the Cogwheel railway. This had a 45% gradient and snaked till the top. As we move, a cloud of mist surrounds us. It travels with us to the peak and never leaves us all day. Mount Pilatus, once on the top is just like any other hill station. You get an awesome 360 degree view, all the Swiss pastures and all the Swiss cattle. We did a couple of hikes, Jeevan dragging me through the last two. Back on the tram again. Being in Albuquerque(home of the Sandia tram), the tram really didn’t excite me much and then we took the personal aerial gondola, and back to Lucerne. I had fish and chips for lunch at the summit. Was alright. Nothing to die for. Mt Pilatus is one spectacular day trip when you are in Swiss. I enjoyed the journey to reach the top, rather than the mount itself. We ended the day with a Swiss truffle cream and whole big bar of Swiss choc. Chockie bye for now.

Day 1 - more photos from Mt Pilatus

2009-09-05T20:47:00.001-07:00

Day 1 -Mt Pilatus - Golden round trip

2009-09-05T20:27:00.000-07:00

I am exhausted with

-- all the beauty that switzerland has to offer

--counting all the mist covered alps

--taking infinite number of photos ..even my camera was dead by end of the day

--all the action packed adventure Mt Pilatus had in store

--finally the jet lag

Will update more later today when I am on the train to Trummelbach falls.

Adding some photos for now.

Transit through LHR

2009-09-04T15:00:00.000-07:00

photo 1 :view from my flight window - LHR ; photo 2: Radisson Blu, Zurich

London continued...

Had a good lunch at Giraffe cafe. I liked my falaffel deluxe burger. But the french fries and onion rings were the ones that hit the spot.. They had a sauce which was just like our "kara chutney". The waiter didn't know what ranch was. Gave him a quick explanation and rushed to our gates.

On the flight to Zurich..

I just witnessed something spectacular. We must be atleast 25,000 feet high and I was admirring all the heavenly clouds. Up pops a rainbow lying on the clouds. I swear I saw a 3/4 rainbow and not the usual semi-circle ones that we see. Jeevan tells me it is just a reflection of sorts. I really don't understand.. Year of poor physics reflects :)

Watching clouds below you with the moon travelling with you and not having to look up to it is such a magical thing. ohh. and when the setting sun starts its multi color light show on the clouds, words fall short.

Safely reached Zurich at around 9:30 pm. Best immigration procedues ever, we just walked through with a small stamp. The airport is small and we walk straight into our Radisson Blu hotel which is inside the airport. I am impressed. Its all modern and magnificient. Got to our room and plugged in the US-Europe convertor plugs into the sockets. tut...... the line trips. All the power except for the lights is out. No charging of our mobiles, camera or netbook. Here we wait, for some electrician to turn up.

Starting the vacation

2009-09-04T09:43:00.001-07:00

photo - interesting looking shops at Dallas Fort worth

Starting the vacation Sep 3 - I am starting this journal as we finally depart from Dallas to London. The plane is jittery and my writing is getting worse with every word. This was the worst departure I ever had. This AA flight should be at least 15 years old. It shows all of its age. No seat back entertainment for a 10 hour flight. Guess we have to spend all of it sleeping. What was supposed be a 10 hour flight started with a 4 hour delay. We were stranded in the run way, trapped inside our little economy cabin for 4 hours. First it was maintenance issues with a panel for 3 hours and then a weather delay for one hour. Even more annoying was the captain who announced every 10min that we were ready for departure. We almost started and backed out 3 time. One good thing about the delay was that we got to know some of our fellow passengers. We chatted up with this old lady who had traveled to dozens of countries in all the continents except for Australia. She is now taking a cruise from Stockholm covering 8 countries in 26 days. I am thinking.. ."One day............." hmm.

Update from London Heathrow: Missed our flight to Zurich, as expected.Thankfully we were re booked with another flight after 3 hours. Will have to hunt for food in Terminal 5. Was hoping to meet my cousin Karthick, but we couldn’t come out of the terminal and he couldn't get inside, though he was just 10 min away :(

Mini Europe Getaway - the prep

2009-08-28T11:23:00.000-07:00

I am starting this blog precisely to jot down my thoughts and work for the 10 day Europe trip me and Jeevan are taking. This will be my journal and I will keep updating it as I move on.

It all started in July. We have been longing to see Europe for a long time now. With visa and office vacation issues, we decided September this year would be the best time to go. Celebrating our 3d anniversary in the middle of the trip would be a added bonus.

Connected with my school pal Sangeetha who lives in Germany and worked out the initial details. Schengen Visa- Deciding on what country to get it for was the first issue. Germany was on the top of the list. But travelling to Houston, Texas to get the visa proved impossible. With no vacation holidays whatsoever, we started googling around for more options. Searched all the possible schengen countries and finally decided on Switzerland. As the youngest Schengen country they didn't have much hassles to get the visa and details could be mailed over. That’s a start, once we get into what documents we need, it gets more complicated. We need to have confirmed hotel reservations for all of the 10 days and a confirmed flight. With the help of a travel agent, we booked a flight(wihtout reserving it) and booked a total refund hotel at Swiss for 10 days. Then come the attestations. Every document you ever had,has to be attested. Spent another $60 on getting that done at FedEx Kinkos. It took 2 whole weeks for us to get this all ready and send it to LA through snail mail. To our surprise, they sent us the passport back in 8 days, but only with 10 days of visa on it. The exact 10 days that we asked for.