Update...
Found a job, rented an apartment, bought a car... settled in... rolling away here now as I was back home.
When I first got here, I had taken the big steps (huge ones for me)... given up a good job, left friends and a life I knew (the only one I knew I guess... the last drastic change for me was moving out of my parents home for college!) to move here.
I arrived, in a state of paranoia, in such a rush to get things back to what they used to be that I never once stopped to think of this break from the usual as an opportunity ... to glance at the rear view mirror while cruising along to reflect on whether I really wanted my life to continue in the same way as before or if I should be changing lanes now.
I guess it's a catch 22 really, when you're speeding along in one routine existence, you normally don't think too much about it and then when you develop starting trouble ,all you can think of in the short term is how to get moving again, without really sparing a thought to whether you're in the right direction in the first place!
Not being well, I've been forced to take some time out from work these days and free from the anxiety of having not having options, I've been doing some soul searching and I'm surprising myself with what is important to me now ...
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
first impressions
i'm finally here, though not completely (baggage still being shipped but more importantly, it's still not completely sunk in that I'm now living in UK) but here's what's been happening
landed here on the 26Th and with all the immigration formalities blah blah, managed to reach the place we're staying for the next month only by evening.
we;ll be based out of Richmond (surrey) for a month.
Richmond's pretty commercial looking... very organised and pretty classy. Very quiet, though I think that applies to most places in the UK and as an Indian, I'm not really used to the "sounds of silence". No honking on the roads, no kids creating a ruckus, no sounds of activity, it's like resident alien after the zombies hit it :). Seriously though, pretty peaceful neighbourhood is probably the better way to describe it !
Day 2 went by exploring the place on foot (how much the British walk!!!). Very pleasant. Would've been wheezing and cribbing back home but there's much less dust here, broad pavements and the traffic stops for you when you cross so no hassle.
Maybe it's because I'm very new here but I didn't even notice how much I'd walked as I just spent all my time ogling at the buildings and the people!
Two quick observations - the British are always very well dressed. Haven't spotted a single slob about (i guess I could probably qualify...no matter how much you dandy up, there's a certain classiness about them you just can't seem to match up to)
The buildings are so beautiful and quaint and so totally out of line with our images of what the financial capital of the world should look like! Very few high rises (at least in the places I've been to so far), lots of brownstones, old fashioned chimneys with spires of smoke... very captivatingly Victorian!
Okay, now the weather report... it's COLD and the second i step out of the centrally heated apartment it's like being instantly teleported from the the Sahara to the Arctic!
From inside it looks bright and sunny on the outside but once you step out... well it's still bright and sunny... but also rainy and windy and freezing... ALL AT THE SAME TIME !!!
Shall take a bit of getting used to :D
landed here on the 26Th and with all the immigration formalities blah blah, managed to reach the place we're staying for the next month only by evening.
we;ll be based out of Richmond (surrey) for a month.
Richmond's pretty commercial looking... very organised and pretty classy. Very quiet, though I think that applies to most places in the UK and as an Indian, I'm not really used to the "sounds of silence". No honking on the roads, no kids creating a ruckus, no sounds of activity, it's like resident alien after the zombies hit it :). Seriously though, pretty peaceful neighbourhood is probably the better way to describe it !
Day 2 went by exploring the place on foot (how much the British walk!!!). Very pleasant. Would've been wheezing and cribbing back home but there's much less dust here, broad pavements and the traffic stops for you when you cross so no hassle.
Maybe it's because I'm very new here but I didn't even notice how much I'd walked as I just spent all my time ogling at the buildings and the people!
Two quick observations - the British are always very well dressed. Haven't spotted a single slob about (i guess I could probably qualify...no matter how much you dandy up, there's a certain classiness about them you just can't seem to match up to)
The buildings are so beautiful and quaint and so totally out of line with our images of what the financial capital of the world should look like! Very few high rises (at least in the places I've been to so far), lots of brownstones, old fashioned chimneys with spires of smoke... very captivatingly Victorian!
Okay, now the weather report... it's COLD and the second i step out of the centrally heated apartment it's like being instantly teleported from the the Sahara to the Arctic!
From inside it looks bright and sunny on the outside but once you step out... well it's still bright and sunny... but also rainy and windy and freezing... ALL AT THE SAME TIME !!!
Shall take a bit of getting used to :D
Friday, March 21, 2008
Unto her Majesty's Land
well, as Russell Peters said...
The English ruled us for 200 years and then when they packed up, we were like.."oh no, we're coming with you!" lol
but seriously, England apparently has the second highest population of Indians (no prizes for guessing where the highest is) and it's soon going to add a couple more to the list. The news is I'm moving to the UK this month end for quite some time and though there are a million anxieties I'm facing everyday, at the bottom of it all, it's quite an experience for someone whose last vacation abroad was when she was 6 years old (I'm not counting Nepal :-) )
I'm tremendously excited about the 'big move' to E'h'ngland and can't wait to already be there! Any tips on living in the UK (especially around the Watford area which is where I'm probably going to be at after a month in Richmond) are much appreciated.
Though there is the anxiety of settling into a foreign land, finding a job and dealing with the day to day routine, I'm hoping for the best... but right now at home things are pretty much a mess with all the packing going on, especially considering we've pretty much settled in where we are - bought a house, car, furniture, mutual funds, blah blah... and while I'm writing the last line, it strikes me.... 27 isn't any age to 'settle' like a mossy stone... so here I am, ready to roll !
shall keep you posted !
The English ruled us for 200 years and then when they packed up, we were like.."oh no, we're coming with you!" lol
but seriously, England apparently has the second highest population of Indians (no prizes for guessing where the highest is) and it's soon going to add a couple more to the list. The news is I'm moving to the UK this month end for quite some time and though there are a million anxieties I'm facing everyday, at the bottom of it all, it's quite an experience for someone whose last vacation abroad was when she was 6 years old (I'm not counting Nepal :-) )
I'm tremendously excited about the 'big move' to E'h'ngland and can't wait to already be there! Any tips on living in the UK (especially around the Watford area which is where I'm probably going to be at after a month in Richmond) are much appreciated.
Though there is the anxiety of settling into a foreign land, finding a job and dealing with the day to day routine, I'm hoping for the best... but right now at home things are pretty much a mess with all the packing going on, especially considering we've pretty much settled in where we are - bought a house, car, furniture, mutual funds, blah blah... and while I'm writing the last line, it strikes me.... 27 isn't any age to 'settle' like a mossy stone... so here I am, ready to roll !
shall keep you posted !
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
working in goa
Quick recap since the last post - worked some, lived some :-)
okay now the wave that outta the way, let's get down to business
I need to go to Goa .i simply NEED to be at Anjuma at Primrose, RIGHT NOW - i can imagine the sun and the sticky sand and THIS time, I'm not going to be afraid of diving straight in
can anyone tell me where you get good pork vindaloo in Bangalore if there is anything beyond the usual fare they pass off as Continental/italian/Punjabi/whatever here? There simply is nothing as amazing tasting as pork vindaloo with naan (okay there might be but as i said, i don' handle these cravings well)
what do you do when you have these irresistible sudden craving for something you simply must have/do right now but you know for sure that that is the ONE thing you cannot right now... as for me, i suspect I don't really handle it too well... which is what happens to me at odd hours lie 4 pm on a Tuesday when work is supposed to pick up pace , hare brained ideas like going to Goa hit...
okay now the wave that outta the way, let's get down to business
I need to go to Goa .i simply NEED to be at Anjuma at Primrose, RIGHT NOW - i can imagine the sun and the sticky sand and THIS time, I'm not going to be afraid of diving straight in
can anyone tell me where you get good pork vindaloo in Bangalore if there is anything beyond the usual fare they pass off as Continental/italian/Punjabi/whatever here? There simply is nothing as amazing tasting as pork vindaloo with naan (okay there might be but as i said, i don' handle these cravings well)
what do you do when you have these irresistible sudden craving for something you simply must have/do right now but you know for sure that that is the ONE thing you cannot right now... as for me, i suspect I don't really handle it too well... which is what happens to me at odd hours lie 4 pm on a Tuesday when work is supposed to pick up pace , hare brained ideas like going to Goa hit...
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Wayanad
Wayand was easily one of the most scenic places i've seen down south! We packed bags on an impulse and drove down 290 kms from bangalore through Kerala's twisty curvy beautifully green roads to reach the city
Jungle park resort has no electricity and no swimming pool and no TVs in its rooms.. i guess that would turn some people off but for us it was a haven.. mist at 3 in the afternoon, an atmosphere that epitomized tranquility and of course... great company! the USP of the place is that it's 10kms on top of a hill and the only way to get there is in the resort's jeeps.. its like ascending heaven ..i almost go tthe pearly gates feeling when we reached the top :-P
We trekked through elakkad caves (can someone please remove the misnomer.. the caves are NOT the attraction, the trek is) - there are actually very few caves and they're not really worth sightseeing, what makes the trip to the caves memorable is the steep climb through the rocks where you spend a good half an hour moving through a winding, rocky mountain (what can i guess be described as a) path to suddenly see open out before you a glorious expanse of lush green ... and that's another thing so great about God's own country... the dark green of the flora unlike the faded hay colour of trees in Ooty and elsewhere!
Shuchipaara waterfalls isn't too great a sight...perhaps it's better in the winter months... but we had a good enough time i guess!
We stayed for a couple of nights and drove back early , takes about 6 hours to reach the heart of Bangalore from the place
Jungle park resort has no electricity and no swimming pool and no TVs in its rooms.. i guess that would turn some people off but for us it was a haven.. mist at 3 in the afternoon, an atmosphere that epitomized tranquility and of course... great company! the USP of the place is that it's 10kms on top of a hill and the only way to get there is in the resort's jeeps.. its like ascending heaven ..i almost go tthe pearly gates feeling when we reached the top :-P
We trekked through elakkad caves (can someone please remove the misnomer.. the caves are NOT the attraction, the trek is) - there are actually very few caves and they're not really worth sightseeing, what makes the trip to the caves memorable is the steep climb through the rocks where you spend a good half an hour moving through a winding, rocky mountain (what can i guess be described as a) path to suddenly see open out before you a glorious expanse of lush green ... and that's another thing so great about God's own country... the dark green of the flora unlike the faded hay colour of trees in Ooty and elsewhere!
Shuchipaara waterfalls isn't too great a sight...perhaps it's better in the winter months... but we had a good enough time i guess!
We stayed for a couple of nights and drove back early , takes about 6 hours to reach the heart of Bangalore from the place
red earth and pouring rain
RAIN NOW !
bangalore usually sucks this time of the year every year... it's awful the waiting period... when you know it just might rain anytime, but the heat never lets up.. you walk in the bright hot ray of eternal opimism that today the gods will be kind.. but no luck !
this year is suckier than usual... it's UNBEARABLY HOT ! (this coming from a delhi person...pretty ironical) i'm all grumpy and it had better rain NOW !
bangalore usually sucks this time of the year every year... it's awful the waiting period... when you know it just might rain anytime, but the heat never lets up.. you walk in the bright hot ray of eternal opimism that today the gods will be kind.. but no luck !
this year is suckier than usual... it's UNBEARABLY HOT ! (this coming from a delhi person...pretty ironical) i'm all grumpy and it had better rain NOW !
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