Trip to Manchester - 28th July 2008

Had been to Manchester today (but since it is 3.00 AM so technically it is yesterday ) on business. This is definitely one of my favourite places in UK. Its very very active and full of energy. They have a huge city centre and you can see a lot of street performers. They are generally very good.

 

You got loads of shops there to do your shopping and the city centre is generally very crowded and bustling...

But today I have just been to the airport - hangar to be more specific.. Was literally working inside the hangar.. For people who do not know what a hangar is - it is kind of a garage for aircrafts... One always feels nice to visit these kind of unusual places... you do not always get a chance to go there... so it was fun...

And I got a chance to sit in a Merc convertible... man that is coool...

 

p.s. the car belongs to my manager ;-)

A smile is all I want...

From FRIENDS..

And I realize why my friend said that Rachel and Ross are made for each other and should unite at the end... Initially I was not sure... Let me remind you that I started watching FRIENDS just recently and that is almost July. Ya... I know I am late... but didn't somebody say - "better late than never".... so keep quiet...
Initially I was not sure about Rachel and Ross... I probably was then watching the scene where Joey had a crush on Rachel and I somehow liked that. But then when I saw few more episodes, I probably understood what my friend was referring to... She is anyway one of the biggest fan of FRIENDS on the planet. And today I see the episode where Rachel gets a job offer from Paris and Joey does all he can to stop her... But when he learnt that Rachel wants to go to Paris and that would make her happy, he encourages her to go and helps her though he did not want her to go... That is love - when all it matters to you is a smile on the face of the person you love... isn't that beautiful

If wishes were horses

The second person on earth I wish I could marry...

wall-e

Excellent movie. I do not write movie reviews and I am not going to write one here. Just wanted to mention this movie in my blog. A wonderful and cute movie with the main leads being two robots who fall in love. One of the cutest love stories I have seen in the recent past. A must watch for everybody. Its non stop fun right from the beginning till the end. The PIXAR guys just do not seem to know how to make a bad movie. With all the the social criticism in its place  like - environment issue, control of the world by some huge private company; the movie always stays on track and delivers what it is meant to deliver - unlimited entertainment.

Happy watching...

p.s this is my first animation movie in theatre. Some of my friends here detest animation movie - "these are for kids"... Now fuck off... Being kid is not bad... just do not be stupid...

Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na

Watched the movie this weekend. The whole movie took me into a flashback. Enjoyed every bit of it. Must admit not a great story and very much predictable but is one of the few movies with which I can relate to... Now how many movie makes you smile. This movie is full of moments. Moments which are so true in real life and with which you can connect instantly.... Watch this movie with your best friends from college and I bet you won't sleep until you had a long discussion on this - just relating yourself with the characters portrayed in the movie...

Hamilton

A great race at the end. The safety car which negated all the gains he had made in the race also could not make him loose the game. He just drove brilliantly and overtook both Massa and Piquet with some amazing moves. Now who says that they do not overtake in F1. He had to take second pit stop which almost made him loose the game. Not making the pit stop while the safety cars were on the track could have been a disaster for the McLarens but yesterday was Hamilton's race who drove

It was Hamilton's race through out. He has undoubtedly got the fastest car and he knows how to control the beast. The control on his breaks and the overtaking is just stupendous. He could have won last years championship as a rookie but missed out by a whisker and after a not so great start this season he is back. The boy has become a man now. It was his second win in succession (the last one was the silverstone) and his eight overall. He now looks very much poised to win the championship this year.

All the best.

My Lappy err Notebook problem

Been very busy for the last few days. Not with my work... They always have their own place... This time it is my Laptop which is the culprit. Its a brand new laptop for which I paid close to 650 Quid and it has this noise problem.

There is a constant clicking noise which comes from the hard disk. Now it is a DELL notebook (a customer care executive advised me that now a days the word Laptop is very sparingly used because of the heating problem thanks to the powerful laptop errr notebook in the market) and there is no servicing centre where you can take your laptop errrrrr again... notebook to get it fixed. You have to call the customer care and they will advise you what to do. First, I performed all the diagnostic tests. Second, got my fan replaced and now they have sent me a new hard disk. Now this hard disk is completely blank and I have to reinstall everything. Now that is not a problem, I have reinstalled the OS but I do not have the driver CD. I cannot login to the net to download it because for connecting to the net I need the drivers. And so I had to again connect my old hard disk and then try downloading from the DELL website which surprisingly was unsuccessful. Now that pissed me off. I called up the customer care and was told that they have not updated the service tag. Now fuck that is not my problem. I was a bit mad at that guy (actually at Dell service). Generally I do not get mad at people. Very rarely but this time it was too much. Apologised in the end for getting difficult because I put myself in his position and realised how bad I would have felt  myself. The guy on the other end said, he completely understands my situation and they will send me the CD as soon as possible...

Anyway now I am working from my old hardisk and tonight I will finish up the complete set up on the new one.

The 'F' word

Now this is one of my favourite word. I happen to view the below clip.. its gud...

http://www.funlinks.com/history-of-the-f-word.html

And now how do I use it?

I rarely use it with its sexual connotation. I generally use it when I am frustrated or angry about something. I also use it when I panic because of a mistake of mine or when I am in trouble. But one thing is for sure it relives me of the tension for sometime. But I mostly do not say it loud. Its all in my mind. The only exception being my friends. They have to bear it.

One of the best thing about blogging is it gives me the freedom to use this word as often as I can.

p.s. and I love it the most when girls use it

pps :- after 'M' and 'F' it won't be 'S' as my next blog

The 'M' Word

Is it just a coincidence or what? I happen to hear a lot of buzz around "Marriages" now a days. Now I know you must be thinking that - "Dude!!! you want to get married." Ok hold on to your thoughts. I always am ready to marry, its just that its not a one person act. You need somebody to marry to. The day it all works it will be all here on my blog. I would scream from rooftop (ok do not take me literally ).

Just reminded me, I wanted to scream the F word also sometime back. Forget it...

Somebody is either getting married, is going to get married or thinking about getting married and few are even desperate to get married. Every time a make a phone call to my friend more often than not the 'M' word has to be there. And if that was not all I stay in a hotel which is close to a marriage register office... So I do see a lot of these activities.

Now when am I getting married?
Ans - Do not know and the way things are stacked now does not look very soon either.
Reason - Well nobody seems to agree with my viewpoint that I can be a good husband . So just waiting for somebody to commit a blunder and say yes to me. 
And from where I stand now I do not see any dumbo saying yes. So I am njoying my bachelorhood...

My thoughts on marriage are very simple - Marry the one who loves you and believe in it and the day when you die let him/her be the last person you see. hugh!!! that was simple, guess life is also, but how much I know? I am just 25 (ya!!! its just)

p.s and I saw My big fat Greek wedding yesterday... Is it following me everywhere

Return trip

Now I am in a tricky situation... Muddled in between office politics and personal choice... I want to return back to India this August... Tired of staying all alone in UK.

Now it would be an obvious question - why the heck I want to return back when I am earning in pounds... well its a cliche but money is not everything... the more you earn the more you want. I have made enough money in the last 10 months or so... moreover I am a man with limited want... rather simple want... though paradoxically I am very ambitious when it comes to career. So there are some career aspirations which I want to fulfil...well I have to give my best shot...

Now if I stay there, its money which I will earn which can give a big boost to my career in the later stage as I can take more risk in life and career... now this is tempting...

But I stay away from my family, friends and all...

there are certain things I want to do when I am back home so that I have no regret in my life(now all the dirty mind people move to the next line... that is not what I am thinking)...

but my project management has to agree to that which does not look like from where I see...  its going to be few difficult weeks now...

p.s I am watching Friends and man I can watch it all day!!!

My presentation

My presentation went nice. Was a bit nervous before the start cause had not prepared at all thanks to the tight schedule at work. It was not supposed to be a powerpoint presentation just an application demo but I ended up preparing one just before the presentation.
Had put on my suit, the only one I have. Many people say I look good in that but I think it has got more to do with the suit than me.
Well talking about nervousness, I definitely was before the presentation. Afterall this was my first presentation in front of the client. But to my surprise after few minutes into the presentation I was pretty confident. There was just one thing that I was cautious about - its my speed. I generally tend to rush through my part. But not this time I guess as this thing was always in the back of my mind.

Anyway the presentation ended nicely. It was a big one  (more than 2 hours I guess) and had a break also. Got appreciation from the client also. And the senior manager from the client told that - it was really gud and she asked me If I was nervous to which I replied yes and to which she replied that she did not notice ir. She even sent a mail and thankfully my supervisor was marked cc there..

p.s. there was this beautiful lady who actually said - I looked smart.

A good day

It was a good day today. Was a bit scary in the morning when I read a mail that one of the support calls had missed SLA and I was scared if it was being handled by me. And guess wot it was being handled by me and that freaked me out. I did some analysis and found that no the SLA had to be corrected for some technical reason and it was corrected obviously after I reported it and I kept my record intact...

Rest of the day was good at office.

Did not go to gym today as I have a presentation tomorrow and had to prepare for that. I do not know what to call it but was having this feeling that something is wrong somewhere... cannot explain it... had to call a friend of mine... I cannot miss that call... this friend of mine, I can talk for ages and not get bored or fed up... its just refreshes me... brings back cheer to my face... neway had a good chat... touched upon few things of life which we had not discussed for quiet sometime for reasons known only to us...

told a very stupid thing. I told her that sometimes I am afraid that she might forget me... in the hindsight I realise its such a stupid thing to say... did not realise that it might hurt her... may be it was an apprehension... fear of loosing something which is so dear to you... but yes it was stupid... hmmm fuck...

Its 10.25 and I am yet to start my preparation for tomorrow's presentation (mine first in front of the client)... hope it goes well and one thing that worries me a lot is I should not rush through it...

Got to go now...

p.s composed it yesterday but forgot to post it...

My Day

Its been good for the last two days... Few issues got solved on Friday in office... Had bin into a small deployment issue lately and was not sure where the problem lied and it turned out to be version mismatch...fuck..  Worked late on Thursday and early on Friday but solved it... But its solved now... so happy...

Had a meeting with a senior client manager on Thursday and saw for the first time how difficult they can be... But there was a manager from Accenture also so he somehow handled it... But few learnings to take from the meeting... It is all learning for me now... One can only grow...

Saturday was good... Lazy morning... Had my lazy breakfast and then slept to wake up at 4.30 so that I can get admitted in gym... Had cup noodles lunch and then off to gym.. got admitted for a 21 day course... had some work out done... In the evening made a sudden plan to go for the movie - Jaane tu ya Jaane na only to realise that it has been sold out... wtf... I always see movie in Bradford in empty hall and its fucking sold out!!! so had to return back...Before you conclude that Hindi Film Industry is making good inroads in West then hold on - this is not the right example as Bradford is dominated by Asian community (but I do believe that Hindi film Industry is doing successful business in leading Western Countries)

And as I write this blog I am listening to Oriya songs... I was never a big fan of Oriya songs though I liked few old songs... but today I do not know why but I was in youtube and started listening to few numbers and I am loving it... its late in the night almost 2.30 AM and I am  not feeling sleepy at all... but I am feeling hungry... let me munch some thing...

 

p.s Happy Birthday Paresh and Anil...

Down sick

Horrible day must say... (yesterday)

1st thing- Priyanka (on of my team mate who was with us in UK) left for India. So that means I am all alone in hotel. Made me feel homesick also. Its going to be more boring now. So will now press upon my Team Lead to approve my leave and that means my flyback. Miss all my friends and my family. Have to meet certain special people as well.

2nd thing-Had a bad tummy upset problem. 4 time to the loo is horrible. Could not sit in office anymore. So had to rush to hotel.

3rd thing- India lost the match. hmmm...

One good thing- Slept at 7 Pm and woke up at 4.30 in the morning... I love this part the most...But feeling very hungry...Did not have my dinner and there is nothing to eat as well. Did not realise my favourite Crunchy Nuts (flakes) is over (well almost). But have some milk. So emptied my flakes box and had some biscuits... does not look like I can have a heavy breakfast also... Does that mean I have to remain hungry till lunch... will probably buy some fruits (I am not very fund of fruits but...)

Not joined the gym yet. the one day I went was a free trial. Most probably will join today or tomorrow.

Its 5.21 AM in the morning and I am listening to songs (its Raja ko Rani se pyar ho gaya now on my media player ) and preparing project plan... need to press with it so that I have to work less in office.

Thats it for the day...

Watermelon!!!

Was going through the newspaper and found this.

Watermelon is nature's Viagra!.

And I have the fruit daily in my breakfast...

Just a day...

I am sitting in front of my computer and typing... not sure about the topic, not sure about the words.. I think of a topic, a word or two about it and and even type it but then there it is... the Ctrl+A and delete. I do not know how many times I have selected a topic and then decided against it... Thinking today is not the right day or may be I need to do some research before writing something. I have never written a blog on finance which I wanted to write. This being my favourite topic after IT (I have never written on IT also, but for some reason Finance seems to be more sexy). I do not know the reason for this disarray  in mind. May be it has got something to do with this commitment to self that I will post one daily or at least try for one.. or may be it is because of so many things I am involved in my work in office where I find most of the things very much messed up thanks to some some fractured leadership...

I was also having a bit of fever today in the morning... May be it has got something to do with the number of times I took bath yesterday... it was 3... One in the morning and one in the gym... you heard it right... Went to the gym yesterday for a workout... it was good but guess I did too much and was not feeling very good after the work out... then one in hotel... and if that was not enough - had to wash few essential clothes... now it took a toll on me... and am getting punished today... somehow managed to slip out of office at 6 PM. May be it  might have got something to do with my diet which had been very poor to say the least... Feeling a lot better now... Need some rest and hopefully will feel a lot better tomorrow...

its going to be a hectic day tomorrow also... few important calls to attend to and one support issue which is just getting messier with each passing hour...a fear that it is going to explode... just checked my mail and found a bad mail... replied to that... pissed me off a bit... wish this gets sorted out yesterday... had a big fight with this guy last time was in UK... People at team lead level should know how to write emails...

Anyway hopefully will be back tomorrow... Its a new day tomorrow and will definitely be a better one....