My travel diary - Part I

Machines, broadband everywhere, but not any time to blog. That’s my status over the last few days that I have spent here. Work has been hectic. Coordinating, trying hard to understand European multi-accented English, reviews, meetings, discussions, deadlines and so on and so forth. Only good thing thus far has been my weekend trip to London. Today, I sit here in the comforts of my corner cubicle at work, sipping earl grey Tea and deciding not to work too hard.

I camped at a cousin's place in London and got an amazingly royal treatment with sightseeing, yummy homemade food (I am so tired of living on Maggie and fries already), long drives and two adorable kids. No they were older than the brat I met on the flight and so I could gel better answering their countless questions and fooling around with them. They are so much better when they are 5-6 and older. Saturday was spent on the customary London darshan. Started with Madame Tussaud. There was an hour-long queue to get into the museum and most of my enthusiasm fizzled out in waiting on forever. The museum was too crowded like a movie hall during interval with people clicking away pictures with Brad Pitt (standing next to Angelina Jolie!), Pierce Brosnan, David Beckham, The Royal family, Princess Di, heads of other countries etc. There was a huge desi population clicking away pictures with Aishwarya Rai and Amitabh Bachchan. I think they were the worst of the lot. Aishwarya Rai, overly made up with glittering-blue eye-shadow on a magenta sari looked horrendous, like one of those yesteryear vamps of bollywood (Nope, I dont mean the Helen, Nadira varieties. I mean the insignificant ones with a bad wig, tight clothes and powdered faces and caked make-up). Amitabh Bachchan was equally sad. The wig just did not suit him. Imagine jet-black well-conditioned silky-haired wig that would put any of these "Heads and Shoulders" models to shame, on an icy white french beard. It looked totally fake. I mean I know they are all fake but this was nowhere close to the original. :-)

Lingered around for a while clicking pictures and then made way to Greenwich to see the observatory. Nothing much there except to realize that you are walking on Longitude 0 deg 0' 0". In fact, there was this shop near Greenwich Observatory called The first shop of the world 0 deg 0' 1". :)
Then did the customary Big Ben, London Bridge, the unassuming Buckingham Palace with loud golden gates, Piccadilly circus, Trafalgar square etc. And the next day went for a nice countryside drive to a beach in southern England in a picturesque village called Gorring. The beach shore was full of pebbles. No sand whatsoever and apparently all England seashores were like that. Was a hectic but satisfying weekend trip.

Weekdays are spent at work mostly and evenings on strolls to buy petty sundry things. It anyways remains bright and sunny until 10PM in the evening, which is kinda funny. Freaking out on lasagne, pies, quiches and stuff at work for food and settling for boring Maggie and other packaged food for the night. But so far it’s been good. The weather is perfect. Reminds me of the onset of Delhi winter except that it’s far less polluted and clean. Its pure bliss to sit by the window doing nothing but just smell hot brewing tea and feel the warmth building within you after the first sip and snuggling up into warm quilts. Planning to visit Lake District and Wales this weekend. Lets see how it all goes…:-)

Oh and thats the picture of the motorway right outside where I stay. Very picturesque, na?

To be continued....