Half the country on a bicycle!

I had promised more details regarding the bicycle expedition last weekend, a week has gone by and now I have a scooter and a cycle!
But I keep my word, here is a brilliant (& fantastic, fabulous, awesome etc etc) map I made, that shows the cycle trail we took to ride through half the country :)

Click on the picture to enlarge

Saturday on the island - Biking

We hired bicycles, took a ferry to the western tip of the country and managed to cycle half the country in 5 hours! and all this while drinking in the sights Bermuda had to offer and eating some great food at a beautiful place. Bermuda is a hilly place and we were tired by the end of 5 hours but it was an unmatched experience biking along the coast, and visiting the beaches.

Here are some pictures of the day, as always with Bermuda, there is a lot of blue, lots of water and skies !

On the ferry from Hamilton (capital) to Naval Dockyard







On the Road






The Food place!!






The rain approaches






Horseshoe Bay (A popular Beach)





A Beautiful evening (View of Hamilton Parish, Bermudian capital)

Here I stay!!

Bermudian Roofs

All the roofs in Bermuda are white pyramid shaped ones, This helps the Bermudians do some rain water harvesting, they use this water even for drinking at times!
When we landed, we were told, "if someone offers you water to drink, go out and look at their roof, if its white and clean, the water would be good to drink" :)

Oh, and that is indeed a rainbow that greeted me last morning when I walked out of the Hotel !

There is a huuuge cruise ship on my street and other observations in Bermuda...

Oh yes! I walked out of office and lo behold there was a massive "building" right in front of me that had not existed 4 hours ago!



This picture may convey some of the effect it had on us, but its just not enough!!

this ocean Liner is about 8 storeys tall and two city blocks long.

I have been slogging it out for the past 3 days I have been here, but have managed to get a few snaps. Definitely more about the place in the days to come, for now here are some pictures

Quest for the Rest - Awesone Awesome Awesome

The Polyphonic Spree have come up with some new songs, I never before have heard of the Polyphonic spree, however I happened to stumble upon their launch website, now this website is designed as a game where you need to find ways to re-unite 3 band members with the rest of the band.

Wonderful animation, a very nice game and some nice music, the overlying theme of the game being "overcoming obstacles"
You have to check this out!

Weekend of Work and Chak De! with Rats and a District Collector

I signed up for a weekend recruitment event in Vellore, at ThoughtWorks, we (Developers, BA's and QA's) help out the recruiters recruit people. This time volunteering meant going off on a weekend to Vellore (Tamilnadu) to hire students from VIT (Vellore Institute of Technology).

The group was fun and VIT has a huge, beautiful campus, with a wonderful guest-house. So the whole set-up was fun!
Especially because the profs at VIT were expecting a group of experienced looking professionals in jackets n ties and there we were the 6 of us in jeans and T-shirts looking like students ourselves! hehehe
After the first day of presentations, the initial logic tests (The super cool Flow Chart thingys that had me hooked 3 yrs ago!) and the code pairing sessions, we decided to go watch a movie!

The movie was supposed to begin at 9:45pm in a theatre 8 kms away from VIT , we just had time to grab quick dinner and leave!

We got there just in time (or so it seemed then), and while waiting for the ticket counter to open - spent our time betting on the price of the tickets and arguing with a local shopkeeper about whether a Chikki is called a Chikki or a Burfi :-|
At 10 a school bell rang, announcing the opening of the ticket counter (the price of the ticket was 25 rupees!!!)
There were a few rats in the theatre and the movie did not begin until the arrival of the vvip, in this case the District Collector, by the time the DC arrived with his family it was already 11pm and most people in the motley crowd gathered to watch the movie were grumbling. The rendition of The national Anthem before the movie began, however set the mood for the evening!
I must say it was not the best of theatre experiences, but a good movie and a good group made the entire weekend a fun-filled one!

oh and we hired a couple of ppl from VIT too :)

The Best movie in a long time

The best gift I have received in recent times, is a dvd of the Iranian movie "Children of Heaven"

I began watching it on a sunday afternoon and 15mins into the movie I decided, "I have to watch this with Mom and Dad!" which I did later that night.

Children of Heaven is a piece of cinematic brilliance, I would easily rate it alongside Shawshank Redemption, the only difference being, SR has a hollywoodish feel and a great storyline,

Whereas 'Children..." is a very simple movie and has the simplest of storylines, now that I think of it, hey! I would rate Children of Heaven higher than Shawshank redemption.

A simple story about a 10 year old boy, Ali, his little sister Zahra and a pair of (missing) shoes.

No matter who you are, how old you are or how you think... you cannot help but enjoy this movie!

beg, borrow or steal to watch this movie!

You know its not your day when...

• you cross the road and almost get run over by a speeding auto
• Someone calls u to say lets have lunch and when u reach there you get "hey I am busy" :-|
• you lose 3 times out of 4 at ping-pong
• you come back home to watch Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir struggling to score against a schoolboy bowling attack

Fantastic Karaoke

Check out this sing along song :D

Its Volare - Gypsy Kings

It lifted my mood to a completely new high
fantastic is an understatement...go get Rhythm!!

Kids, I say!

Recently a few of us went to a Happy Budday Party of a 7 year old, now none of us are the subject matter experts on how to behave at a little girl's party, but each of us knew that we had the ability to entertain the tots.

What we did not foresee was that a group of 7 year olds is a much tougher proposition than a single 7 year old. All my self professed ability of being good at handling kids vanished in ether when a little girl (a guest at the party) came up to us.

This is what followed:

Us: (*patting the lil girl on the head*) hellooooo whats your name??
lil girl: yo dudes! wassssup duuuude! (*in impeccable rapper accent*)
Us: errr, uh, well, how are you?
lil girl:( *making some complicated gestures with her fingers*) "duuuude SEE IT! REMEMBER IT and EAT IT MAN! EAT IT!"

-- I only hope that the girl was not displaying a centrally located finger to us --
:-|

I have decided to avoid Budday parties henceforth, and hey the term 'Bundle of joy' is a misnomer.

Movies

Trainspotting

Well this dopchi goes right into my list of weirdo movies to join movies such as 'I love Huckabees', 'Earth Girls are easy', 'The Cable guy', 'Jacob's Ladder' etc
Trainspotting seems to be a very well known movie, but it did not move me too much.


Glengary Glen Ross


A starstudded cast consisting of Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Ed Harris, Alec Baldwin, make this adaptation of a play watchable with some very good acting :)
About 4 real estate salesmen, a sales contest (1st prize - a car, 2nd place - a set of steak knives, 3rd place - you are fired) and a robbery.
slow paced but interesting.

Holidays

Done with the project I was on, I decided to take a few days off. Normally when I get or take a few days off, I try and fit in quite a bit of travel during that period. but this time around I decided to do nothing.

Now I am good at sitting and doing nothing, you may laugh, but if are one who thinks doing nothing is a waste of time or how can one do nothing, then forget it, you just wouldn't understand :D

Well this is what nothing consists of

- Wake up late
- Read
- A bit of Scrabble and other word games
- Watch Cricket on tv

that is it!

Some clowns told me "So you are going on holidays and sitting at home!" well yeah that is my style really .

What is coming up? I do have a lot of travel that I would like to do, and that is something that I look forward to.

oh reading the second in the Bartimaeus Triolgy btw, and a friend promised me some super Terry Pratchett books that I haven't read before so quite a bit on the reading front :D

Irritating scrabble tips!

Lol, This is how I DON'T play scrabble, check out the tips this LINK provides, used on a regular basis by "Hardcore" Scrabble players.



Krymsson and I just enjoy playing the game to make and learn truly beautiful English words, and not high scoring words that mean nothing. heh.

Books are weapons... (of mass distraction ?)

Here I found a list of top 10 Banned Books of the 20th Century

Kangaroo Words

A fun concept for all ye Word Smiths -> Joey to the World

Fair Share of Hair

I am not one of those who go to a glitzy saloon, where the tresses are pampered and cut as if engaging in topiary.

I belong to the category of people, who find the place most close to home, that offers to chop off the hair, hence getting the hair cut with minimalistic effort.

“HARE CUTTING SALOON” shouts the lettering neatly stenciled on the door of the Saloon I visit on a not so regular basis, yes this is the same place that used to have the Himesh Reshamiya look alike (cap and all).

The girl thinks I look " ‘funny’ with my hair all around the place ",

well at the moment it does indeed look like it is defying the laws of gravity :(

siiiggghh it definitely is time to go get a haircut. Yaaaawn.

When do I get to go bald ?? *taps fingers impatiently*

Been Reading

American Gods

True to my word, I went back to Gaiman, was not disappointed, American Gods is supposedly Gaiman's best book. I would not go as far to categorise it as his best work, but definitely a good read if you are used to reading Gaiman, else it gets a little dark and confusing.

The Bartimaeus Trilogy - The Amulet of Samarkand

The first book of the Bartimaeus Series, was recommended to me as being very Pratchett like. I was promised I would enjoy it. I promptly bought it and began reading, and boy! is it wonderful?
I am about halfway through the book and am thoroughly enjoying it! A must read for all lovers of fantasy, the way fantasy must be.
Very funny, laden with sarcasm and oodles of magic.

Hilarious!!

I loved the 300 trailer, here is something I found on you tube that takes it all to a new level.

300 - Southpark Spoof

Movers and Doers

The Movers are the people who delegate, they see a need and then are able to talk some other people into fulfilling this need, they are a different breed , a necessary breed, without whom the push may not exist.
The Doers are the people who do the work, they may do this because they either enjoy doing the work or because the Movers hold some power over them (positive or negative)

Many a time the Movers and the Doers exchange roles, depending on the need.

I have been both a mover and a doer on different occasions, everything has worked fine.
However, the balance is gone, when there is unnecessary interference.

As a Mover, if you do not know what is being done or how it is being done, then it is better to shut up and trust the doer.