Dear readers,
Hello! :) This is just to let you know your patience will be rewarded by this weekend :) shall post soon. Thanks for all your support always.
Cheers!
Out of London :)
Remember I’d told you about this Big Bus thingy? Well, they also provide out-of-London whole day trips… and we chose a combination of “Oxford- Stratford upon Avon-
Its clichéd by now, I know, but let me begin it with “it was a fantastic trip”! :) Venkat, my parents, kichu and I went. The bus was due at some 7.25 am and guess what time we boarded it? Nope! You guessed wrong! We were on the bus at 7.25 am! :) Remember, this is not
Well, it was amazing to see the other side of England… the smaller towns, huge farm lands, sheep and cow in herds, poultry, simple folks with vegetable baskets in hand in complete contrast to the concrete, straight roads, trendy, fast, expensive, brand conscious London city.
Our first stop was at 
We also were shown different departments of the college and to everybody’s surprise there was no department of Science! There were departments for grammar, for astronomy(which was not considered science), mathematics, geometry, philosophy, etc, but not science! The reason being: Till the 14th century, science was not an established stream of study. It was kind of tolerated by some people, but never really encouraged! It was looked upon with scepticism and doubt. :) and this college was built in 12 century or so! Centuries before the American Continent was even discovered,
So, well, after this, we went to have lunch… with the bus troop itself. We had hot delicious yummy pasta and bread with butter, a double scoop of ice cream and hot coffee is freezing cold. Oh, I forgot to mention… it was a few degrees colder up north than in
After a good lunch, we were taken to 
During the travel, our guide in the bus recited, and I must say, quite wonderfully, a few Shakespearean sonnets and verses, that if we closed our eyes and listened to him, we felt as if we were actually watching a play! And trust me, we were amazed when we saw 4-5 performers in Shakespeare’s garden who offered a sonnet to kichu, who performed a part of some play for us…! :) They were dressed in some ancient
As a souvenir of the place, I picked up a little stone… from the ground! :) Because everything else was sold over a counter with a label of 7-10-20-50 Pounds… choose what you like! :P And I wasn’t going to spend any more money than I had to! :)
After this, we went to
We came back home around 9 after having had dinner at Mumtaz :) then narrated the day’s events to Harish :) played cards for a while, and finally hit the sack! :)
I’m not promising I will be writing much any time soon. I’m kinda hitting a writer’s block soon… I see it happening :) But thanks for reading till now and for all the encouragement.
Until next time, take good care, have fun and stay happy :) Cheers!
Days 6&7- Lords, Museum, Harrods :)
:) Hi... so sorry for the delay again! Have been very very tired and worn out... Today toh we dint do much at all! :P
Hmm let me begin with yesterday... :) We went to the very famous "Lords Cricket Ground". Needless to say, it was fantastic! :) We went on a guided tour... saw the "Writing room" where the dignatories would sit and enjoy the matches, the adjecent bar cum dining room. (They are not allowed to carry alcohol into the writing room! :P) the home changing room, the visiting team's changing room, the "Long room" where the both teams sat at long tables at either end of the room and the umpires and refrees and other pl sat at a table in the middle of the room and there was little communication between the teams in the lunch room... :)
Some players, we were told, have special preferences in the place where they changed in the changing room... and there are wooden boards in the changing rooms mentioning all the batsmen who scored centuries at Lords, all bowlers who got 5 or more wickets at Lords, etc.. I think it was some Australian bowler who always chose to change under the "5 wickets or more" board hoping he'd get some inspiration from the board... :P there are some 4 floors in the huge imposing building... and the inlay is all very ancient English type- both the furnishings and paintings. We were not allowed any photography inside, so I dont have any interesting pics of the interiors... however we were allowed to take pics outside and I will put up the pics when i get back to
We then went to the place where the queen and other royalties would sit and watch the game. We were told Queen Elizabeth isn't a great fan of the game and neither is her son, Prince Charles. We were taken to the "Media room" where all the authenticated broadcasters would be there... this room was on the 2nd floor... and it stood out among the rest. You'll see in the pictures. Well, this room had slanting glasses as it directly faced the pitch and the batsmen would have had a tough time trying to hit the ball while the afternoon sun blazed and reflected from the glasses of the Media Room. The media people also requested that some provision be made so that the noise of the crowd is there in the back ground because otherwise the Media Room was built in such a way that the noise form the ground or stadiums did not reach there. Upon the request, the constructor of the ground made a special window which allowed noise from the cheering crowd inside. This and the added excitement of the reporters in the Media Room sometimes got very high and the mood would become extremely tensed. Thats why they chose a light blue colour to paint inside the media room. It is supposed to be the most calming and soothing colours. (All this is almost verbatim of what the guide told us) :)
After that, we were taken to the ground itself and I stepped on to the turf by mistake... and the guide asked me to be careful and said that if the groundsmen had seen that, they'd fine me and and may even prosecute me! :P Well, am happy I wasnt caught! :) We took some pictures with then, with the ground in the background... Our tour ended shortly afterwards and we decided it was time for food! :) We were thinking of going to Woodlands again but I found this place called "Mumtaz" on the way. Expensive it luked form outside was pretty decent food and great quantity :) Much better than Woodlands... :) Shifting loyalty :) :D
After food, we went to the
Later played a game of cards with kichu and Harish, fooled around for sometime, and hit the sack. :)
Today got up late (becoming a habit now! :P) Had a leisurely shower, late breakfast, lazy morning, basically! :P We decided we;ll go shopping today... but not actually shopping, just window shopping. Venkat had told us of this place called Harrods, my fren aditi also had told us abt Harrods, (pronounced as Hair-eds :D I used to call it Hair-odds)... it the costliest ever place I have been to. A cermaic horse about half foot tall with some work on it - 11,000 pounds! thats almost 10 lakh rupees! and some plastic like shiny shirts - 3800 pounds... u do the calculations...! its freaking costly here! So, eventually got bored of seeing all the shiny stuff and jazzy things and went for lunch... after lunch, dad said he was tired and had a back ache.. .we decided to come home, rest for an hour or two and go out again. Anyway, sunset is only around 9.30 pm.. so its like evening only till 8.45... :) surprisingly all of us slept off and got up at 7.30 only! We must have been really tired and didnt realise it. Our bodies ached and muscles throbbed... :( Mine sure did! We pulled ourselves out and called venkat... he had an official dinner tonight... and his friends had other plans... so we went to Mumtaz again and had good dinner, got back home, played cards with Harish and Kichu again... and for the record, i've always come 2nd.. never 1st, never last.. :P hehe...
