Jul 9
What am I thinking about at 7.30 am on a Monday morning?
About a ‘Full English Breakfast’!
This one greeted me at the end of my 12-mile long tiring night trek around Edale-Hope (in Peak District). And what a treat it was! And oh yes, a nice mug of hot chocolate too! 🙂
Yum! Not very healthy though 😛
Hot Chocolate served by a very cute-looking waitress.
Have a great Monday and a good week ahead! 🙂
Aug 30
‘Look out for the VIP signs‘ – Mike’s dad had said. As we drove onwards towards the car-parking fields, to every fluorescent-coloured jacket wearing steward, we claimed – ‘VIP, VIP‘. ‘Which way to the VIP car park please?‘ With out wristbands and invitation letter in top pocket of our bags, ready to be taken out , we were ready to be checked, verified and plunged into the world of VIP festivalling. But noone asked for any proofs. They just directed us through. We were VIP, of course! – how could we be troubled with such trifle details as proofs of age and entry passes.
So, we walked on. Feeling special. The special few.
Until we reached the camping area. Hundreds and hundreds of tents pitched all over, sitting silently in the dark like brooding gorillas. And this was the state of guest and VIP camping! We didn’t even want to think about the ‘massive brothel’ (in Mike’s words) that was the other ‘Yellow’ camping area, which from miles away, reeked of liquor, hooliganism and absence of clothes, common sense and hygiene.
I couldn’t help but feel out of place, walking through the narrow path between those uncountable number of tents – which were mostly silent, but some suddenly erupting with loud clamour from campers who had reached a bit before we did and had had the time to gulp down a couple of pints, I’d guess.
As I kept walking with measured slow steps through this sea of tents, Mike noticed the mixture of apprehension, surprise and excitement on my face and joked – ‘Are you feeling like you’ve reached a surreal place?‘.
‘Not surreal. Just strange. Very strange.‘
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I went to V-festival at Chelmsford last weekend with my friends Mike, Ivan and Maryse. This was my first experience of a music festival in England. Oh, by the way, we later found out – we were not really VIP. We were really just ‘Red Camping’. But somehow, by chance and overlooked by the stewards, we had managed to park in VIP carpark and pitched tents in the VIP camping. Oh, well. 🙂
Ivan, Maryse, me and Mike at V-festival. p.s. Thanks for inviting me guys! 🙂
Dec 11
I wasn’t aware of the concept of Bank Holiday before I reached UK, and it was on my first Monday in Bath. Anyway, a surprise holiday is always welcome *grin* and I went down to the main town for a shopping expedition when I came across this exciting race happening at the Pulteney Bridge.
I’ll try to capture the event in a few pictures..
Nov 16
It all started with the idea of going for a walk. This mostly happens when you are clumsy enough not to book tickets and make plans for ‘nice’ places, and you feel suffocated staying at your lodge because its a weekend. So, we decided to go for a walk.
Luckily for us, one of our friends in the university had suggested us to go for the ‘Bath Skyline Walk’. And surprisingly, we even found a map for the path or trail of the walk on the net. So, we started.
We started from right behind the Eastwood hostels, crossed a rough patch and arrived on beautiful looking greens… And a few sand traps as well. Bells ringing.. ummm.. it seemed familiar. Just as we reached for the printout of the map, we saw a small flagpost as well.
That’s when we realized, there was a huge beautiful golf course right behind the university! It extended as far as we could see, and the lush green (I know we are not allowed to walk on the greenest part). Since the university located on a hill, the golf course also provided an amazing view of the entire area. Awesome! 
Thankfully, nobody was actually playing golf at that time. It was not the best idea to walk right across the course, as we later came to know.
We walked along the edge of the golfcourse and finally reached what we called as the first checkpoint. The Sham Castle, apparently an iron age castle. I may just be using my creativity here, but looking at the enormity and the magnificence of the castle, it is very likely that some bored Indian tourist (who has seen the likes of Red Fort, Delhi) must have given it the name ‘the sham castle’. Or rather, a sham in the name of a castles.
What you see here.. IS the castle. Thats all of it. No illusions. And if you were wondering, yes, its actually possible for a 6 foot tall guy to climb it up. Though, what I fail to understand is, if this is the castle, what were they trying to protect ‘around’ which they built the castle.
Clearly, the English must have different ideas about building a castle (the last assumption is obviously wrong as they do have some real good big castles).
Moving on, we crossed a couple of high-traffic roads as we headed towards the ‘Prior Park’, a National Trust establishment. The guys there did probably con us into buying year-long membership for the National Trust since a ‘lot’ of ‘great’ places come under National Trust and we would be exempt from entrance fees. Which turned out be, well, slightly incorrect.
Anyway, after crossing some construction going on in the park, all the while cussing the guy at the entrance, who didn’t let us enter for free, we reached a boarding school that looked like a palace. That’s the thing about foreign architecture. Everything looks palatial. Then, we finally reached the main attraction of the park. It was a beautiful little bridge across a small lake, a ‘palladian’ bridge (one of only 4 left in the world). It is so nicely set that, somehow, it gives the feeling of, sitting down, relaxing and writing a poem or something like that. (We later came to know that the park was designed by the poet Alexander Pope).
It is not often that you can just sit at a place, look over towards the horizon, see the beauty of nature and human architecture, in harmony, and feel at peace with life. Well, we felt that way that day. Bliss! 🙂
Oh yeah, lest I forget to mention, after the long walk, steep climbs and walks through muddy forest trails, we did realize one thing. We forgot to pack a lunch for ourselves.
Nov 15
We had talked about faint recollections from the novel about Newton’s grave being there. But when we reached the place, the Abbey was already closed for tourists. Anyway, if you have a new camera, you never miss a chance to take a lot of pics. From every possible angle. Thinking that this might come out to be that wonderful photograph that would one day find a place in some famous magazine. When the truth is that, what we really want to capture is the mood of the moment – the touristy hustle-bustle, the evening cacophony of birds and the general sense of admiration with the Big Ben right in front of you.
We moved closer to the giant clock. Eager to take more pics. However, it’s not an easy task to capture the complete monument along with an obstruction in front (you). Its just too tall and there is too less space to bring it all in a single frame. And don’t forget the fact that you’ll be almost swept away with the tide of crowds moving towards the banks.
(Oh, by the way, did I mention that 10 Downing Street was just down the road. But didn’t look like they were interested in inviting tourists over for a jolly walk)
After completing the photo-shoot in front of Big Ben, we moved on down the street. And that’s when we got a view of the river Thames. Calm and smooth in its flow, the magnificient river was lined with a string of bridges, a horde of cruise boats, and even an untrained eye would not miss the giant ferris wheel adorning the beautiful London skyline.
I Drink My Tea Sweet 