Falling ain’t that bad, you know.

Before you start reading this post, I’ll introduce you to an inspirational youtube video I’ve seen many many times.. the best bit starts at 00:45.

Till now, I had watched it for a little extra dose of motivation. And then posted it on facebook everytime. 5-7 friends would like it. After a few times, one or two would even ask – ‘Haven’t you posted this a hundred times already‘?

But I never really ‘utilized’ the video.

 

Until two days back.

 

My hands felt cold and wet. My feet were aching with pain. And I could hear people whizzing past me. But I didn’t hear any other voices. Except one. That of Rocky saying – ‘Keep moving forward!‘ And so, I got back up on my knees. Dragged myself to the edge of the ice rink. And got myself back up. And went back to skate-walking my way holding on to the edge of the ice skating rink. Who knew the voice of Sylvester Stallone had so much magic! 😛

This was my first time at an ice-skating rink. Ever.

It was an easy option to just keep  going around the rink holding on to the edge. But that felt so boring. So, I acted all brave and let go of the edge. A few tentative steps and slides on the ice. And felt like I could did it. And the dream story goes on..

.. not exactly. I did manage to fall over 3 more times. I think I am still as crap at ice-skating. But it was fun. It wouldn’t have been as fun if I hadn’t fallen a single time. Falling ain’t that bad, you know.

None of those feet are mine. But my ice skating shoes looked just like those.

I have also taken up another hobby recently. Climbing. Well, bouldering, to be precise.

I’ve joined the Nottingham Climbing Centre which has some interesting climbing walls and a very fun logo (this happens to be on my keychain as well, and I feel incredibly proud of it)

A really cool logo 🙂

I have been stuck on a particular ‘problem’ for a couple of weeks. I refer to it as ‘the yellow one that I’ve been stuck on’. Till a week back, I was stuck on one of the moves, which required a bit of hold and stretch that I was unable to manage. But with my new climbing shoes, I managed to do that easily last Wednesday. But looks like the big bad yellow problem had another surprise for me. I was just a few centimeters from the top, but couldn’t reach the last hold. And so, I went for it. It was a little bit risky, but was worth it. Oops. I slipped and fell. Of course, there was big thick mat below and I didn’t hurt myself at all, and I brushed the fall off. And along with it, brushed of all the chalk powder that I had fallen into too. 🙂

I had a go at the yellow one 2 more times, and fell 2 more times, trying different ways to get to the top. Each fall was disappointing. But equally satisfying. Because, I knew I went for it. Without the fear of falling. Or failing.

 

My only regret: Nobody took a photo or video of me falling at either the ice rink or the climbing wall. That would have made a hilarious post, or even a youtube viral video – fat man falls from the top of the climbing wall. 🙂

Best of Travel 2011: Because it’s never too late!

One of my favourite travel bloggers, Angela, of Chasing the Unexpected, tagged me on this a couple of weeks back. Of course, I’ve been a bit lazy in completing it – The Best of travel 2011 rules indicate that the series ran through till Jan 16. But, bah, I still want to write this – reminisce in some of my favourite memories of 2011, and plan ahead for 2012.

2011 has been a pretty good year of travel for me – starting from the fact that the definition of ‘home’ changed right on January 1 on the midnight hour (well, not exactly, but sometime during my 10 hour long flight from Bangalore to London) as I moved to work in Nottingham, UK.

You might see a lot of destinations here that I haven’t written much about. Hopefully, this year, I’ll be documenting a lot more of my trips in both 2011 and 2012.

So, I’ll jump right in..

Best Domestic Travel Destination

Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland

It’s a surprisingly forgotten domestic travel destination, considering that very few Britons had even heard about it when I told them about my plans to go to see this Natural Wonder of the World. Giant’s Causeway, a naturally-formed collection of thousands of hexagonal shaped rocks, is located on northern edge of Northern Ireland, about 60-70 miles away from Belfast. Not only is the location itself very beautiful, it is also accompanied by a picturesque rope bridge a few miles of cliff-walks away.

Best Travel Experience

Paragliding in the Alps

When I signed up for the Contiki Eurotrip in early summers, this was one of the optional activities I was dead certain that I’d be signing up for – Paragliding. An unmissable opportunity – the feeling of flying, that too in the middle of the Alps – turned out to be as good as I had expected it to be. The wind fluttering against your face, the icecaps on the peaks of Alps shining on the horizon and the greenery and streams of water below – it was a very beautiful experience.

Also, got the opportunity to take some really nice photographs! 🙂

Paraglider at Hopfgarten

Best International Destination

La Pedrara (The Quarry), Barcelona

A 10-day trip to Barcelona turned out to be one of my best experiences in terms of solo-travel and immersing into the culture of a place. I was fortunate to have timed the trip to happen at the same time as La Merce, the annual festival of the city. So, not only did I get to see the architectural gems by Gaudi but also felt the real vibe of the city through the evening jaunts to cultural performances and carnivals, amidst visiting some classical pieces of art by masters like Picasso and Gaudi.

Watching Messi-magic at Camp Nou

Worst Travel Experience

This was the closest I got to the Colosseum - photo from a taxi rushing me back to our campsite

Although I haven’t had too many bad travel experiences (thank god!), falling ill with fever and unforgiving cough and cold in Rome, during my Eurotrip, was a very tough one to deal with. I didn’t want to miss any of the travelling, but did not want to fall ill further. I completely lost my voice and felt like I had zero stamina to walk. Thankfully, some rest and a cancelled visit to Colosseum helped me recuperate and enjoy the rest of the trip.

Most Embarrassing Travel Moment

Another one from the Eurotrip. Our tour bus made a surprise stop in Verona – the home to the legend of Romeo and Juliet. At the mansion claimed to Juliet’s house, there is a statue of Julietta. You aur supposed to cup her breast for good luck – every tourist does it. So did I. And it was very embarrassing.

I did manage to force through a very sheepish smile.

Best Local Destination

Alley Cafe, image courtesy http://www.alleycafe.co.uk/

Not sure how different this is from the first category, so I chose to talk about a local Nottingham treasure. Alley Cafe is a vegan cafe bar, tucked into an alley right next to the city centre , has an atmosphere right from Paris of 1920s with quirky music and artwork. I have found the place to be absolutely delightful every time I’ve been there. Make sure you visit it if you ever visit Nottingham.

Best Travel Lesson

The travel lesson from 2011 for me is to live life to the fullest, without regrets. And  that there is absolutely no harm in trying out something offbeat, something different. For example, I went to the Toone Theatre in Brussels (actually, stumbled on to it quiet accidentally) on my recent trip around Christmas time. Although I didn’t understand a single word of it, it was all in French, I still found it very funny and a very amusing experience.

Toone theatre in Brussels

So, here we go, that was the best of 2011 from my trips! And I have already planned a couple of interesting trips to Rome, Paris and India! 🙂

Keep watching this space!

Panthers in Nottingham!

I mentioned in my first post on this blog that I’ve moved to UK recently. To be precise, that would be the charming east midlands city of Nottingham – a familiar name if you’ve heard of the tales of Robin Hood – who used to live with his Merry Men in the neighboring Sherwood Forest  and was famous for stealing from the rich and distributing to the poor.

In the context of this post, I am more interested in the panthers prowling here. Panthers? In England??

Yes, GMB Nottingham Panthers – the ice hockey team from Nottingham! I was lucky to win tickets to watch Nottingham Panthers play against Braehead Clan in the second leg of quarterfinal play-offs. Having won these tickets through an office competition, I had a great opportunity to enjoy the game from an executive suite in the highest stands of the stadium.

I haven’t watched a lot of ice hockey before, in fact, this was only my second game of ice hockey. For someone who’s never watched it before, let me try to give a description of how it’ll sound like..

Swish! Swish! Swish! (sound from all the skating)!
Boom-dash-boom (a couple of collisions against the glass)! .. followed by applause from the crowd.
(Note the absence of no whistles by referee for stopping play)
More swish.. screeching.. swish.. swish!
Boom-dhush-dhush! (more collisions and banging against the glass walls)
Peeeeeeeep.. (referee whistle)
” AH, STOMP ON HIM! KICK HIM!” – shouted by a hyperexcited fan sitting right next to you..

So, yes, it’s a bit violent, and often there are fights between players (mostly between players of opposite team but I did see a fight between players of same team as well in the previous match I). And these are not silly-one-little-push-and-player-falls-down-like-a-heap-of-cards fights one often gets to see in football these days. These are full-bloodied street brawls with jabs and punches and elbows and sticks!

One of the fights during the game : note a couple of gloves, sticks lying around the arena as the players huddled off in a corner for the fight

However, the game is not all brawl and has its moments of good passing, speed and possession tactics. Good build up play and counter-attacking ice hockey is very exciting to watch because of the speed of the game – something playing on ice has a natural advantage over playing on a football field. And you do get to see a couple of goals too! Luckily for me, I saw 15-0 and 3-0 scorelines in favour of the Panthers in the two games I watched – and every time Panthers scored, everyone would get up and start dancing to the song Chelsea Dagger with funny pumping-arms-up-and-down hand motion.

Panthers celebrating after a goal during their 3-0 win over Braehead Clan

All in all, it was good fun to watch with a lot of entertainment as the Panthers moved on to the semifinal round of play-offs, applauded by the home crowd in full gusto!

Victory lap by Nottingham Panthers - I wonder why their mascot is a bear and not a panther (?)

Have you watched any sporting events recently? How has your experience been?