I returned to Bangalore nearly two weeks back. And, as is expected, the frequency of my blog posts has dropped. However, I must confess that  for a change I’ve actually had two relatively light weeks.

By light, I mean, I have been able to leave at a official times or maybe an hour later.

Last week was also eventful. Maria celebrated her birthday on the 8th and she invited me for dinner at Magnolia, the most convenient place in Koramangala.

I reached there a bit earlier and before Magnolia we went to the Cafe Coffee Day nearby. This one is in a rather weird location. This one is located on the first floor of a supermarket!

While I spent last Saturday at home lazily around, I spent a good portion of Sunday outside the house. Vincent and me first went to the Pizza Hut in Forum. This was under renovation the last time we went there and so we couldn’t eat there.

After pizza, we watched Sherlock Holmes at the PVR in Forum, followed by some window shopping at Landmark.

Work caught up this week, again, not as bad as last year. Won’t be heading off to work tomorrow, however, I will be working from home.

On the WordPress plugins front, I have two new plugins that I plan to work on over the next two weeks. I also have updates for three of my plugins. Should start on the updates tomorrow.

I published last week that I was house hunting all of last weekend and I had managed to successfully locate and finalize a house in Koramangala, 4th Block.

We met the owner of the house on Thursday and finalized the deal. Our plan was to move in on Saturday, which was also the last day of our scheduled stay at the guesthouse.

So, early Saturday morning, after we settled our bills at the guesthouse, we hired cabs and headed to what will become our new home. I hired a Meru cab, which is more easily available here in Bangalore than in Mumbai, where you struggle to find one. It was a nice comfortable journey. At the same time, my goods from Mumbai also arrived. Was a little irritated that the boxes weren?t plastic coated like they were supposed to be and one box had broken open. The bike handle was also bent a bit. Will have to get this fixed. First, I got to get the road tax done. May also get the number changed, but that is at a later date.

After settling in, we decided to shop for mattresses which was a necessity. We first grabbed some lunch at the Pizza Hut in Forum and after that, we went over to Star Bazaar to pick up mattresses. Didn?t find them there, so the next stop was Big Bazaar. We found one there and others had a delivery period of a week, so we dropped that place. The next stop was Total Mall in Madiwala, where we finally purchased two Kurl-On mattresses and got them delivered home by night.

After we got back, we also realized (much to our stupidity), that there is a Kurl-On dealer five minutes from our house! That?s where we will pick up the remaining two mattresses.

Dinner was at The Rendezvous which is also where we had dinner tonight as well. Seems like this is going to become one of our favorite joints. We did tonnes of shopping at the Smart Mart that is located near our place. We are very pleased by the location because almost everything is available here.

Today was yet another visit at Star Bazaar. This time we totally intended to shop and picked up tonnes of goods, buckets and other items, that we fondly refer to as ?restructuring charges?.

I begin another work week tomorrow, which may be more than just five days long.

Even before I came down to Bangalore, I was warned and scared into understanding that finding a house in Bangalore is one of the toughest things I could encounter.

So, as I landed in Bangalore, I made all the necessary plans to begin the house hunt from last Tuesday itself, but work doesn?t allow us the luxury of the same.

Hence, the entire house hunting experience was postponed to Saturday and three of us contacted brokers and owners and hunted all through Koramangala. Aditya came down from Mysore and met up with me in the evening as he joined me in hunting a place in 4th Block and 7th Block. I liked the house in 7th Block, however, the availability is only from May 1. So, after hanging out at a coffee shop in the area, Aditya dropped me back to the guesthouse, before going off to meet his friends.

Sunday began with the same purpose of finding a house. We headed off to 4th Block of Koramangala once again to meet the broker who would be showing us a few houses.

The area has some flats that are really beautiful and well beyond our budget, while others were not places I would even think of living in. Then, we stumbled upon a flat…

This one is located in one of the few apartment buildings of Koramangala. When Vincent and me walked into the flat we realized this is one place we would love to stay in. It also made us change our mind from staying alone, to sharing a house. Sharing turned out to be a good idea, as we end up splitting the rent and the cost of other appliances. We sign the agreement on 16th along with the advance and other details.

Having closed the deal, we went to Forum to meet Aditya. Forum is one of Bangalore?s larger malls. It wasn?t that large, but definitely quite old and way too crowded on a Sunday. But, well, crowds aren?t something new to me!

We had lunch there and hung out for quite a while, before heading back to the guesthouse. And, yesterday I began a new work week. I?ll be moving my things on Saturday. Also, need to get all my things from Mumbai transported out here.