« April 2005 | Main | August 2005 »

May 18, 2005

Intriguing experience

Meeting a fellow blogger is an experience by itself. This is the first time I am experiencing it. I have commented on his blog and he has commented on my blog. That’s all the connection is. I have noticed somewhere in his website that he lives near London. Once I landed in London, we exchanged some mails and got his address and the phone numbers. We spoke over the phone nearly for half an hour about various things, surprisingly nothing about blogging and decided to meet up at his place.

Chakra a.k.a. Chakrapani, lives in Bournemouth, a peaceful, beach side town in the south west of England. I decided to go by a coach (that was a different story) to Bournemouth on a Saturday morning and was planning to stay with Chakra for the weekend. It took about 2 and half hours to reach Bournemouth and I was there at Chakra’s place at around 12.45.

Unfortunately, Chakra’s wife wasn’t there with him as she had given birth to a baby boy and is in India. My hopes of having a south Indian lunch was dashed, but Chakra made it up for his wife absence. It was a wonderful south Indian meal and he indeed is a very good cook. I really cherished that lunch as it was almost 20 days since I had a good lunch.

We then decided to take a stroll around the place and went to beach first. It was actually very windy and was cold and walking on the beach didn’t help either. It was a nice little town with wonderful long beach, greens all around and serene.

There were few things which were very funny out there. The winch on the foothill was really funny. It will take you little less than 2 minutes to reach the top, still there were quite a few enthusiastic people going on that. And there was this train, the train which goes on the road and not on the track. This runs from one end to the other end of the beach. Probably we can introduce that in Marina and I am sure it will be a huge hit.

We also took a plunge into the casino and watched people play for most of the time. It was amazing that even a 2 year kid was gambling in the casino. We finally decided to throw some money into the casino (Ohh no, it’s really embarrassing to tell the amount) and try our luck. It was good initially, but eventually we lost all the money we played for.

Unfortunately, the Bournemouth Eye wasn’t in operation because of the windy conditions. However, I was told by Chakra that I am not missing anything.

It was a fun filled 6 hours on that day which I really enjoyed and more than that I could share my thoughts in our own tongue. I just can’t imagine this kind of a thing happening, visiting somebody whom you have no clue of? Infact, I and Chakra had lived in the same place in Madras, but has never met.

It was truly intriguing experience!!

Posted by Vasanth at 05:37 PM | Comments (3)

May 12, 2005

Little few things

London is living upto its reputation and you all know what I am talking about which is almost synonymous with London. Yes the weather. It is as usual predictably unpredictable. I am really scared to talk to any Londoners about the weather because that becomes an end less talk for hours.

Last Saturday, I had planned to go to Bournemouth to meet a fellow blogger. I had planned to take a coach which is supposed to leave Victoria coach terminal by 9 in the morning. So got up early in the morning to find that it was quite sunny and I thanked my stars for that. At around 7.30 in the morning went out of the hotel to realize that the weather was too cold outside. I could barely walk for 2 minutes to go to the nearest tube station, eventually could not go any further and retuned to the hotel. Checked the temperature in the net and it was 4 Celsius. Later on I found out from one of my colleagues that more sunny it is, the more chilly it gets in London (funny isn’t?).

However, I somehow managed to go to the coach station at around 9 and went straight to the ticket hall to get the ticket. I asked for a ticket for the earliest bus which is leaving for Bournemouth and the guy promptly asked me whether for one way or return. I was in two minds whether to go for a return or one way, but finally settled for one way since I thought I could buy the ticket from Bournemouth for the return. It cost me £ 16.50 and went to the gate around 9.10 to find that the coach has already left the station. I had to go back to ticket hall to move my ticket from 9 to 10 and I decided to buy a return ticket as well. The guy asked me to give £ 3 more and I thought its for the cancellation charges. So I asked him again to issue me a return and he kept on saying give me £3. I decided not to argue with him and gave him £3 and got my ticket. When I opened the ticket jacket, I could not believe it. There was 2 tickets, one for onward and another for return. When I looked at the receipt everything fell in place, he had charged £2 for the cancellation and £1 for the return journey. Again one of my colleagues told me that it’s the way it works here!!! And he has told me to always check for return journey fare in the ticket hall before booking. Cut.

Imagine the same thing in India. If the ticket counter guy tells you Chennai-Bangalore one way costs Rs.400, would you dare to ask what’s the 2way fare??

Posted by Vasanth at 01:57 AM | Comments (7)

May 02, 2005

An Old City

I have never expected London to be like this. I am a disappointed man today after roaming around London for 2 days in succession. I wanted to make a phone call, so searched for (actually not, you can find it quickly) the famous London red colored phone booths. I stepped into the phone booth, but could not stay there for 10 seconds. It was stinking and is, I think, basically used as a dust bin. I would have tried atleast 10 such booths, it was the same all through.

Thames River doesn’t stink, but the story ends there. It is as good as or as bad as our own rivers in Madras. It was full of filth (could see it if you go on a cruise), water was muddy, couldn’t make out if it was because of the dirt or because of too many cruises on the river.

The parking space at the Heathrow airport, the tube stations all tell the same story. I have heard people saying that it’s a old city, but has never expected it to like this.

Leaving my thoughts here and hoping for pleasant endeavors in London atleast in future.

Posted by Vasanth at 02:38 AM | Comments (12)