Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

I was hoping for a white Christmas,but unfortunately it didn't snow here. It did snow here few weeks back. Everything covered with white snow, made the city look so pretty and pure. Everybody could leave their footprints behind. There wasn't enough snow, but still kids came out to play in the snow with their parents. Even we tried our hands at making the snow man, didn't quite turn out as we imagined. It definitely is harder than we thought.
Most of the famous shopping streets are decorated in festive lighting now, which is so lovely to see. And you could see shoppers running around for their last minute shopping.

But, in contrast to that, come Christmas Eve and the city seems to have been evacuated. Am sure at least half of the population moves out either for a vacation abroad or to their family homes out of the town. And so we are feeling a bit restless, as we have never seen (or heard) the city go so quite. No traffic noise, no sirens, no 'Happy' people laughing and chatting loudly on the streets. Seems like London is on curfew. And today especially, almost everything comes to a standstill. No commercial establishments and corporate offices are open, tubes are not running and if you have forgotten to take your weekly groceries- forget it! You can't go anywhere to get food either.
Some of our friends had warned us about this, so we did our grocery shopping early:).

We have no plans for today, but given the situation we have no choice but to laze around and relax ;)

Little South India

During a coversation with my colleague at office, she mentioned this place. And she mentioned the most important fact- that it has many Indian restaurants and mostly south Indian ones. Knowing that how could we resist going there. The immediate next weekend, we visited East ham which is close to West ham. Don't laugh. By mentioning West Ham, I am referring to the West Ham United football clubs which play in the Enlgish Premiere Leagues.We didn't really visit the stadium, but am educated by my husband that this club runs the best training academy for upcoming footballers. So am impressed.
Anyways, after a short tube ride later we were in East Ham and could smell and see some familiar sights back from India. After some Grocery shopping, we headed straight for the Saravana Bhavan. And I must say, I have never been more excited about being at 'Bhavan's or 'Sagar's. Strangely enough,these places are 'Therapy' for my India-deprived soul :p.

East Ham also has a Sri Mahalakshmi temple, which made us go back there again today -on our anniversary to seek blessings. So funnily, instead of a typical romantic candle lit dinner on our anniversary, we went to Saravana Bhavan instead! And none of us complained about it :). I can see clearly now why most of the Indian community prefer to stay in places like East Ham,West Ham or Wembley.

A small taste of English country side

Well, maybe it was more of a modern english country side. But a beautiful countrside nonethless.
My husband's hockey match took us to a place called Chigwell, on the outskirts of London. We took the usual london tube ride to reach there. The feeling as soon as we stepped out of the station was that of a peaceful little town. A place where any kind of tension or worry could never seem to exist.

We had to walk about 15 minutes from the station to the hockey ground. And it was such a lovely sight all the way through. It made the long , 2 interchanging tube rides worth it.

Lovely big houses with a lush green lawn in the front. The white fencing and old style architecture. A garden full of colourful flowers, and just 3 or 4 nice cars parked outside!
oh! what a perfect picture, isn't it? It did seem like a dream world.

All through the walk I kept saying to my husband, 'I want this house' and 'this too'! Although he agreed to most of what i said for obvious reasons, am sure he was quitely thinking 'there goes my retirement plan'.

Someday, we will have a house with a garden too. Probably not as expensive as that- after all we don't want to be working all our lives to afford it :)

Loong weekend

Its a long weekend this time. Easter bank holidays clubbed with the weekend. One of the few bank holidays that UK has. Unfortunately we couldn't plan a trip outside London, So we decided to explore London instead.
A colleague of my husband's gave us 'A guide to City walks'. Very nicely packaged set of 50 cards, describing 50 different walking paths across different areas within London. Each card describes briefly things or building and other bits of interest that one could visit/see while walking on the suggested routes.

Thursday, we took the route close to old street (which is closer to our house). We saw the bar 'The Ten Bells' where apparently victims(mainly prostitutes) of 'Jack the Ripper' used to stop by for drinks. Close to this place is also Brick lane, where majority of Bangladeshi community live. A supermarket 'Bangla city' selling mainly South Asian food items and groceries, was a good discovery for us. I just realised, I could buy most of the Indian groceries here, and its quite close to where we live. We walked around the place, and it started to rain a bit heavily.
It was noon, and we were hungry. So we decided to buy some lunch and head home. We got into a Bengali restaurant and bought some Roti and curry. I have probably not had as much Indian food back in Bangalore :) (Considering the Chinese and the Pizzas we would usually order)

The next day being a Saturday, we wanted to visit a temple. We googled and found a 'Murugan temple' a bus ride away. The temple wasn't exactly what I was expecting. It was just some hall that was converted into a temple and was mainly visited by the Sri lankans I think. Nonetheless we waited for the pooja to get over and left. I had initially thought of walking one of the routes suggested by the guide. but decided against it. We decided to take the same bus back to London Bridge instead. After getting down at the Monument stop,bought some lunch, and headed for a nice walk alongside the river. Its a pretty long walk, from London bridge to Tower Bridge, and back (on the other side of the river). There are a lot of things to do around that area. There is a ferry ride. A tour on the HMS Belfast. A shopping mall. A climb up the Tower Bridge.
There is also the London Tower, which we decided to visit some other day as its a pretty massive fort and could spend the whole day walking inside.
While walking back, the sun came out so we decided to sit on the bench and rest for a while under the warm sun.
It was a good outing, and a tiring one as well. Time to head home.

Arrived finally!

Arrived and a week is over already!!. So soon!

The weather is much better compared to the last time, although the locals wouldn't really agree with me. But frankly, its lot less cold now. And in another few weeks its going to be pleasant - I am hoping.

I have joined back work. Getting to office is a bit of travel compared to the fact that earlier it would take me just 15min walk to get to office. But travelling is quite convenient here, with the well connected tubes and buses. In fact walking is a pleasure too!

Food is something I am still taking a long time to get used to. The local food is not bad, but for us Indians, if continued over a long period can lead to spice deprivation!
I will have to start cooking at home soon. Which I will, once our stuff arrives(hopefully in another 2 weeks time).

Tonight we have been invited to one of our friend's house for dinner, so we are going to feast on some indian food finally :). Weekend is here, so going to just relax and maybe visit some of those museums or parks . Who knows I might meet Sharukh Khan and his family at the park ;).

Pack up!

The time for the actual move is nearing. It makes me nervous, sad and excited all at the same time. Am trying not to think about it. Just keeping myself busy with all the packing .

Am actually enjoying this packing business. Its like a treasure hunt, because packing for me currently also involves going through all the stuff that we have at home. Opening all the cupboards, over head racks and under the bed storages. And like a small child, I am discovering a lot of things that i didn't know existed in the world (in my own house!).

Like that dress which I had kept it tucked inside as I couldn't fit in it anymore, but now I can. Well, not really. Its not like I have lost weight. But the thought of finding a 'new' dress, why wouldn't I be happy? Someday when I lose weight, i WILL fit into it. I know!

But all this packing is also making the mess of our home. Everything is lying around. In a few days, hopefully everything will be in order. A place for everything, and everything in its place.

This saturday, the packers and movers will come. So that should definitely make the whole process more organised and 'labeled'.

And once thats done, and we have our visa (hopefully in the next few days), will be flying out soon. Oh, thats making me feel so sad. I hate goodbyes. And I hate the fact that ill miss my dad.
Not that I was the best daughter around, always keeping in touch and visiting often(confession). But still.....

But it should be okay, I guess time will fly by there as well. Settling into the new environment. And then soon, Dad will visit us, when it gets a little warmer.

Oh wait!, whats in this box. My! I didn't know I still had this leather hand bag :)

Time seems to fly by

Its new year and already 15 days are over. Time is sure flying by.

Yesterday was Makar sankranti and so it was a holiday. Although I did come to work as I had some work to finish, i wish all days would be like that. Half a days of work, half day family time!

Well, thats not going to happen, I know.

its a dull day outside today. Bit cloudy. There is a solar eclipse happening from 11 in the afternoon to 3pm. And am told that during this eclipse period, we are not supposed to look at the sun, go out in the sun and worst of all, not to eat anything!!. The last one there is already making me think of food!

As I write this, the sun is coming out of the clouds and its getting a bit brighter. From my window , I can see the traffic moving. Cars, motorcycles and buses driving almost in a hurry. And there are some of those who aren't able to decide the right moment to cross that road, amongst that busy traffic. And to think of it the traffic is lot lesser than the usual, due to the solar eclipse.
Bangalore definitely needs some solutions to curb the increasing number of vehicles on the road.
Its a luxury to get a house in the quiet lanes of this ever noisey city.

The phone on my desk is ringing. Reminding me that its time to get back to work.