It was a big day for me! I had been looking forward to it ever since my intern in UK got finalised. It was the day when i visit London first! Monday 28th of May 2007.. And it began all wrong!
My coach for London was booked for 7 AM. I clearly remembered seeing the Uni Link city buss time table and getting a connection for the Central coach station as i was sure i cant walk till there early morning. Central coach station is atleast 40 mins walk from my hostel. So, there were 2 buses which could take me there in time
6:06 and 6:26...
I woke up quite early, 4 30 or so.. Got ready and packed my bag, took something to eat on the way, everything done by 5 45. I was seeing outside and was very very worried about the weather in London. Hell it was a stormy morning in Southampton! It had been raining all night and from the looks of it, rains were going to continue for quite some time. Still, remembered the BBC forecast for London predicting light rains and was smiling a bit! :-)
5 55 sharp i leave the hostel for the bus stop which is just 2 mins away. 6 06 bus might come early, some weird thinking, i shud be ready and all that! After i stepped out of the hostel, i realised that i had made a big big mistake leaving early! It was freezing cold! Temperature of about 5 degrees, heavy rains and even wind to top it all!!! Went and stood at the bus stop praying that the bus arrives soon!
It was 6 06, then 6 10 and then 6 15 too! No sign of a bus...Noone walking in the streets (well who wud!) and no taxis too! Getting nervous about the whole thing i decided to go to a bigger bus station hoping to find another bus there. I reach there and there are 3 people standing! One of them came and went off in a bus going in opposite direction. The other one asked me "Man its a cold morning, do u have a smoke", I said No and got back to the time table of buses.. There was no Bus which i wanted scheduled for the next 40 mins!!! This is CRAZY!!!
I was all down by then and started walking towards the coach station. It would take me atleast 45 mins to walk to the place, and it was already 6 25 in my watch! In a desperate attempt i even ran 2-3 kms in between! All the while i was searching for a taxi, asking passers by for lift, but no luck! I think i asked atleast 10 cars for lift!!! But things just go wrong somedays! :-(
It was 7 and it was going to take me atleast 10 more minutes to reach the coach station... Gave up there and walked at an easy pace. Reached coach station at 7 15...Noone was there. Even the office was closed, last bus had left and obviously i had missed my coach!!!
Felt terrible and it looked like the day i had been looking forward to was going to end there witha a big flop show!
Managed to think a bit. Saw the next coach time...It was 8. I had time in hand to go to railway station and check if i cud get a train! Went there and was truely stumped by the ticket cost! 28 GBP for 1 and half hour journey!!! Silently cursed the rains and the Uni link bus service and decided to take a risk by waiting for the 8 o clock coach!
The coach arrived at 7 45 and i showed my 7 o clock ticket to the driver. Told him what had happened and how i missed the bus and also that i need to reach London for some URGENT work! :P The driver, an old man obviously rejected giving me entry in the bus. Then it was requesting him for a ticket! I told i will buy one as there seems to be place in the coach! Finally he agreed and said that no credit card business... You pay cash to me! I gladly accepted and purchased the 14 pound one way ticket! The one which i had missed was just 6 pounds! :((
So, it was a bad start! My jacket meant for light rain was completely wet, even from inside! I had 2 shirts on me but none of them full sleeved and i was shivering inside the bus! Decided to remove the jacket and sleep off immediately! Just when i was removing the jacket, noticed the same Uni Link time table claiming 6 06 and 6 26 buses on Monday and it looked so different now!
Saw a footnote saying, buses will operate according to Sunday time table on bank holidays!!! SHIT, how the hell did i miss that was all i could say and there was nothing more to do than to listen to songs on my player and just wait for London to come!!!
This was the most careless incident ever in my life!!! I saw the Uni Link time table wrong and payed dearly for it! :(
London was GODmax and a happy post next one! Keep reading! :-)
Wednesday, 30 May 2007
Sunday, 27 May 2007
First Long Weekend
This was our first long weekend here and its still not over.
Saturday!
Was quite an eventful day. Friday evening it all started with me getting tickets for New Forest National Park. The tickets allowed us to board any train anytime so obviously there were no alarms ringing in the morning. Finally woke up at 9 and was ready by 10 15 or so. Then it was time to cook and it turned out that we just missed the bus to Airport station. That meant that we had to wait for 1 more hour. Reached station right on time and boarded UK train for the first time. Trains were nice and quite different from Indian trains.. It was a seater car and the environment was similar to what we find in a 2nd AC compartment of Indian Rail.
New Forest was about 20 mins journey from Southampton. The feel of the forest was evident from the natural beauty we could see around us! After getting down at Ashurst Station we had to walk and walk and walk...
Walked for about 2 hours in one direction.. A nice walkway was clearly visible even in the dense vegetation. Some other tourists were walking too.. Was a wonderful experience to walk through nature literally! Saw many things on the way like camp sites, huge pasture lands, infinite horses grazing on them, hundreds of varieties of different flowers, small bushes, tall and dwarf trees, some huge trees too.. Went into 3-4 different woods altogether.. But due to the routine sighting a good tree/flower and taking a pic near it became boring we decided to turn back after 2 hours. Walked back through the same way, clicked few more snaps and returned to Ashurst Station before time for the train.
It was quite chill weather and found a shade to sit down on station. Also went around in the small village and general window shopping a bit.
Return train was right on time and i got down 1 stop before the destination. Picked up some stuff needed for cooking and returned in bus to hostel after 2 hours or so...
Overall it was a nice experience, but could have been better if more number of animals were involved in the whole story. But anyways, ditch.. a walk totally memorable...
pics are uploaded at
http://picasaweb.google.com/tejaskulkarni
Sunday!
Slept quite late Saturday night and hence again no alarms on Sunday. Finally woke up at 10 45 and then it was pretty much usual business. It was a very cold day. Perhaps the coldest since i have been here. It had been raining all morning and into the afternoon too...
Cooked Alu Gobi today and it was really tasty! Loved it! Due to misjudgement, it was left over for night too! Nice! :-)
In the afternoon the idea that i am going to London tomorrow suddenly struck me. All shops get closed at 5 on Sunday and i really needed an Umbrella for London trip. It was already close to 2 30! Hurried to the city centre and even returned before 3 30!!
After this it has been quite an uneventful day. Have done some work and wasted time too.. Nevertheless, the bbc says that weather in London is improving and the forecast has changed from heavy rains to light rain!!! Yay!
Really looking forward for tomorrows trip.. Have to wake up quite early so will shut down now..
About London in next post! London Baby! :D
Saturday!
Was quite an eventful day. Friday evening it all started with me getting tickets for New Forest National Park. The tickets allowed us to board any train anytime so obviously there were no alarms ringing in the morning. Finally woke up at 9 and was ready by 10 15 or so. Then it was time to cook and it turned out that we just missed the bus to Airport station. That meant that we had to wait for 1 more hour. Reached station right on time and boarded UK train for the first time. Trains were nice and quite different from Indian trains.. It was a seater car and the environment was similar to what we find in a 2nd AC compartment of Indian Rail.
New Forest was about 20 mins journey from Southampton. The feel of the forest was evident from the natural beauty we could see around us! After getting down at Ashurst Station we had to walk and walk and walk...
Walked for about 2 hours in one direction.. A nice walkway was clearly visible even in the dense vegetation. Some other tourists were walking too.. Was a wonderful experience to walk through nature literally! Saw many things on the way like camp sites, huge pasture lands, infinite horses grazing on them, hundreds of varieties of different flowers, small bushes, tall and dwarf trees, some huge trees too.. Went into 3-4 different woods altogether.. But due to the routine sighting a good tree/flower and taking a pic near it became boring we decided to turn back after 2 hours. Walked back through the same way, clicked few more snaps and returned to Ashurst Station before time for the train.
It was quite chill weather and found a shade to sit down on station. Also went around in the small village and general window shopping a bit.
Return train was right on time and i got down 1 stop before the destination. Picked up some stuff needed for cooking and returned in bus to hostel after 2 hours or so...
Overall it was a nice experience, but could have been better if more number of animals were involved in the whole story. But anyways, ditch.. a walk totally memorable...
pics are uploaded at
http://picasaweb.google.com/tejaskulkarni
Sunday!
Slept quite late Saturday night and hence again no alarms on Sunday. Finally woke up at 10 45 and then it was pretty much usual business. It was a very cold day. Perhaps the coldest since i have been here. It had been raining all morning and into the afternoon too...
Cooked Alu Gobi today and it was really tasty! Loved it! Due to misjudgement, it was left over for night too! Nice! :-)
In the afternoon the idea that i am going to London tomorrow suddenly struck me. All shops get closed at 5 on Sunday and i really needed an Umbrella for London trip. It was already close to 2 30! Hurried to the city centre and even returned before 3 30!!
After this it has been quite an uneventful day. Have done some work and wasted time too.. Nevertheless, the bbc says that weather in London is improving and the forecast has changed from heavy rains to light rain!!! Yay!
Really looking forward for tomorrows trip.. Have to wake up quite early so will shut down now..
About London in next post! London Baby! :D
Saturday, 26 May 2007
First one!
Finally got down to business by starting the blog. Hope i can keep it updated as and when required.
Will first of all write something about UK..
The part of UK which i am living in comes in not-so-cold part of it. Still being in Chennai for the last 3 years make me suffer from the cold (whatever it is) here. I usually sleep with 3 sheets on me and in the early morning hours this also seems a bit less. Nevertheless, a track pant makes it ok!
There are no tall buildings in UK. All the houses here are small 1-2 floored at max. Most of the times they are occupied by 2 families. Big buildings in Southampton can easily be counted and i bet that the count wont go beyond 15! That is less for a city!!!
People in UK are really really helpful. They always greet you with a smile. Even a stranger passing by you will give a smile and go! If you are listening well, then you might also notice a small Hi / Hello from his mouth. Its wonderful to have such people around. Brings a smile to my face unknowingly when someone says hi without any reason...
Hall of residence...
I stay in a flat which has 6 rooms out of 7 occupied. We share a kitchen between us. Laura and Ester are 2 Spanish girls who are here only for 1 semester (sort of an exchange program), Chris is a guy doing PhD in Biology (something related to flies i think) from Wales, Moe is a German doing Organic Chemistry.
Costly UK!
Everything here is very very costly (ofcourse by Indian Standards). It is not unusual if you have to pay about 1 GBP for a kilo of potatoes or onions too! Even clothes seem costly...and i think only juices, squashes etc qualify in the category of same price as India... Still doesnt matter as a whole as we are paid in GBP too! On talking to Sangram one day, also came to know that some things like bread and eggs are cheaper than they are in Swissland.. Well that was a relief! :P
Cooking!!
Have started cooking and started cooking well too( well for me!). We generally cook breakfast and dinner and have lunch at University. Till now several dishes have been tried and tested (tasted! :P). Can cook the following dishes now... Fried rice, egg fried rice, pohe, potato dry sabji, potato rassa, egg bhurji, egg omlette, fried egg, egg curry, cabbage sabji etc...
We usually have everything with bread as the chapatis which i found in some supermarket were bad!
Will write soon again..
Do visit the following link for the pictures
http://picasaweb.google.com/tejaskulkarni
Will first of all write something about UK..
The part of UK which i am living in comes in not-so-cold part of it. Still being in Chennai for the last 3 years make me suffer from the cold (whatever it is) here. I usually sleep with 3 sheets on me and in the early morning hours this also seems a bit less. Nevertheless, a track pant makes it ok!
There are no tall buildings in UK. All the houses here are small 1-2 floored at max. Most of the times they are occupied by 2 families. Big buildings in Southampton can easily be counted and i bet that the count wont go beyond 15! That is less for a city!!!
People in UK are really really helpful. They always greet you with a smile. Even a stranger passing by you will give a smile and go! If you are listening well, then you might also notice a small Hi / Hello from his mouth. Its wonderful to have such people around. Brings a smile to my face unknowingly when someone says hi without any reason...
Hall of residence...
I stay in a flat which has 6 rooms out of 7 occupied. We share a kitchen between us. Laura and Ester are 2 Spanish girls who are here only for 1 semester (sort of an exchange program), Chris is a guy doing PhD in Biology (something related to flies i think) from Wales, Moe is a German doing Organic Chemistry.
Costly UK!
Everything here is very very costly (ofcourse by Indian Standards). It is not unusual if you have to pay about 1 GBP for a kilo of potatoes or onions too! Even clothes seem costly...and i think only juices, squashes etc qualify in the category of same price as India... Still doesnt matter as a whole as we are paid in GBP too! On talking to Sangram one day, also came to know that some things like bread and eggs are cheaper than they are in Swissland.. Well that was a relief! :P
Cooking!!
Have started cooking and started cooking well too( well for me!). We generally cook breakfast and dinner and have lunch at University. Till now several dishes have been tried and tested (tasted! :P). Can cook the following dishes now... Fried rice, egg fried rice, pohe, potato dry sabji, potato rassa, egg bhurji, egg omlette, fried egg, egg curry, cabbage sabji etc...
We usually have everything with bread as the chapatis which i found in some supermarket were bad!
Will write soon again..
Do visit the following link for the pictures
http://picasaweb.google.com/tejaskulkarni
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