I look forward to Christmas every single year. It’s the time of cheer and happiness with the place all lit up and decorated. I usually spend Christmas in Mumbai with an exception being last year, when I was stuck in London waiting for my visa.

This year, I booked my tickets in early August to take advantage of prices when booking early. I must admit that I am sceptical of this so called price advantage! Come December, as expected the pressures at work go through the roof as everyone tries to complete 31 days work in 15 before Europe and the UK starts to slow down for the holiday period. In my line of work, the word slow down is a mirage and this year was no exception.

Anyway, I flew BA to Mumbai on 15 December. The flight was rather uneventful, though severely delayed due to strong winds at London Heathrow. We reached around 40 minutes late at Mumbai airport. Ever since the privatisation of Mumbai airport, we have seen drastic improvements in the infrastructure and going through immigrations is usually a breeze. This time I had to wait a while since quite a few flights seemed to have landed at the same time.

One major issue at Mumbai airport is the terrible state of the baggage handling facilities. I have had to wait for at least 15-20 minutes for my baggage and this time it was a lot worse. After a rather long wait, that seemed like eternity in a terminal that seemed like a furnace my lone yellow bag rambled down the conveyor belt towards me. I managed to fish out the bag and slowly made my way through a sea of people all waiting for their luggage. With no trolleys available on a seemingly busy night, the wheels of my bags were put in motion as I spent another 20 minutes for the pre-paid taxis. By now, you would have expected that somebody would have realised that the biggest delays at the airport are the baggage handling facilities and the pre-paid taxis!

My stay in Mumbai was a lot more pleasant, which saw me visit several restaurants, few shops, a mall and a hospital. And, of course try to get some work done during my supposed “core leave”. Though, this time it was very limited since I wasn’t at home most of the time.

I made my way back to London on 2 Jan, taking advantage of the long weekend. It was back to work after I landed and back to grind for little over a month.

My next trip to Mumbai is in another 45 days!

I booked my tickets to come to Mumbai last month, when my plans for a trip to the USA and Canada fell apart due to my crazy work schedule.

My past two trips have been on British Airways, but this time I booked tickets for our very own Jet Airways. I booked a cab to the airport and reached Heathrow Terminal 4 with time to spare. I must admit that I missed the awesomeness of Terminal 5.

The flight was very comfortable, though I did feel the service was all over the place. The flight was a good 10 hours with minimal turbulence and I did catch up on some sleep and three movies, viz. The Lincoln Lawyer, Rio and Pay Check.

I prefer landing at Mumbai Airport over any other airport in India because of the really quick immigration counters. During my last trip to Bangalore Airport, I spent a good amount of time waiting to get through immigration and then had to wait for my baggage. This time it was only the wait for the baggage that I had to handle. What can be improved is the pre-paid taxi desk at which I had to wait nearly 20 minutes.

Now, I need to book tickets for my trip to Mumbai in December. And, the prices are already over the roof!

I began my trip in Mumbai by going for Sunday mass in my church. It sure has been a while… Sunday continued to be a very quiet day with me spending the rest of the day at home.

August 15 is the Feast of Annunciation of Mother Mary as well as India’s Independence Day which we love to celebrate The day began quietly with mass in the morning and lunch at home. Mom and me went over to my Grandmas place. I also met up with Cloreisha after a long long time at Mocha Mojo in Bandra. Mocha’s definitely has a whole new atmosphere now that hookahs have been banned in Mumbai. Another stupid rule after the "no serving alcohol to persons below 25". I am waiting for Starbucks to set up shop in Mumbai.

Dinner was back at my Grandma’s place, who is always enthusiastic to order in! So, I had my first taste of Indian Chinese cuisine after a long time.

I celebrated my 29th birthday on August 16. This time it was a lot different from the years before. Last year, I had a very sad birthday stuck at work till 2am. This time was a lot different. I brought in the day with true geek style by redesigning this blog. I have a bit more website and WordPress work to do in the next two weeks.

Birthday lunch was with Ramya at Global Fusion in Bandra which is a place I will definitely recommend. The prices are a bit on the higher side and the place only has buffet. But, the food was really amazing and the ambience is pretty good.

Next stop was to buy me lots of really cool gifts at Shopper’s Stop. I was definitely disappointed because I didn’t find anything good at the sale. Managed a pair of jeans and some good Adidas deo, but the place was rather dry. I plan on visiting the one at Irla to see if I can find something good.

Spent the rest of the day at my Grandma’s place followed by dinner at home. A quiet, uneventful day to celebrate my birthday.

Yesterday and today have been quiet days with some bank work that didn’t happen and an internet connection that didn’t work and lots and lots of rains!

Little above a year back, a young man of 20 something, having finished a year at his new job, received the good news of his secondment to London. In preparation for his six weeks in London, the young man set out to a few shops in the city to buy the necessary attire for the new job profile that he would be in.

On 3 May 2010, this young man took his first long haul flight from Bangalore to London. As he walked out of the airplane and took the cab to his apartment, he fell in love with the city and hoped that those six weeks would be a lot more. Little did he know that his wish would come true. However, his work was recognised and he was given an offer he could not refuse. And, he didn’t.

The six weeks turned to six months and the six months turned to nine, as he waited for his visa. After a brief visit in Bangalore, he packed up his belongings and returned home to Mumbai. In Mumbai, as he struggled to adjust to the time zone difference, he tried to put his affairs in order and met a few friends. He was back to London in early March to begin his new job in a role where his friends would refer to him as “Banker”.

I don’t need to tell you that the young man is me and am happy to say that I have completed my first year in London, in a job I grew to love!

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. This isn’t the case with Ajay (yes, sad joke!), who is perfectly at home at his work place. But, I do go out and have my share of fun and this included a wardrobe improvement with the help of his new found friend Sveccha (introduced by the great Idea-smithy.

We went to Westfield mall, which is one of the largest malls in Europe (view on Google Maps). I picked up a few shirts at the T.M.Lewin store and at Marks & Spencer, a pair of shoes and something that makes me smell real good!

Some Vietnamese food, pastries and Starbucks completed the rest of the day. This was the first day of the long two weekends, the Easter weekend and the Royal Wedding weekend, most of which were spent in the confines of my super sexy apartment!

What use is a good, well furnished kitchen (courtesy Tesco Direct), when you don’t put it to use. Met up with Sveccha on Saturday and we decided to cook at home. She did the cooking and we did the eating. The prawns turned out to be super awesome and the rice and the dal were yum! Need, I say, I need to take up cooking as a hobby!

And, work continues as usual…

Come new years eve, most people stop and take a look at the year that was past. I am no different. The end of 2010 also brings together the end of the first decade of the new millennium. And, what a decade it has been! And, what a year 2010 has been!

For me 2010 has been one of best years professionally and one of my worst personally (or so I think currently). I began 2010 with a clear future in mind. I had my usual 5 year plan ready, complete with a Plan B in place!

But, as they say, man proposes, God disposes, little did I know how my plans would all go for a toss.

In March, I was informed that my secondment to London has been finalised. It took nearly a month for the entire paperwork to be completed and I finally made by way to London on May 3. The first four months of 2010 had already been tough with extremely long hours and at work and little did I realise that those would pale in comparison to what I would have in store.

I jumped right into the fight and my body did not have time to understand the meaning of jet lag, so if anybody were to ask me, I am totally clueless as to what jet lag is!

The next two weeks would see my role change from the junior-most junior to the senior-most junior. With this came a lot of responsibility and I must say I am happy that I was able to deliver. My secondment was initially meant to be for six weeks but this got extended till end October. My plans of coming down in July were also thrown out of the window when I realised that it takes six weeks to get a visa extension!

In August, I spent my birthday in office till 2am, definitely not one of my greatest moments. Starting a week later and for the month following that would be the worst days of my personal life, maybe even the worst days of this decade. Most of you who know me will know the reason for this and I thank everyone who was there during those trying times. This is a shock I am still reeling from, but not for long.

The last week of September was excellent for my career when two of the deals I was working on got announced in the same week. This would be followed by two more deals in December, with me closing the year with four deals on my resume

October was another excellent month, when I signed my contract to move permanently to London. I have applied for my visa (which is taking forever to come) and this is the final stage of the process of turning me into a frontend investment banker.

I hope to be home by end January to pack up my stuff in Bangalore, before stopping over in Mumbai for a while, before I head back to London.

Thanks for reading. Have a Happy New Year and a prosperous 2011! Keep reading and commenting.

I made my last personal blog post four months back. Since that very date, my life has changed, a change I never expected to come to pass, a change that till today makes me wonder if it is for the better or worse.

Since then I have been involved in many things, including a few parties and the Arsenal vs. Fulham game.

And, if you missed the match, here’s a video of Samir Nasri scoring the first goal

I also had my first experience with snow about two weeks back when I woke up to falling snow. Set out with great excitement, took two steps and landed flat on my back. The next time I set our I slid the way to work. Still need to go out and buy good shoes, scarf and some head gear.

Currently am sitting at home on a two week break, twiddling my thumbs and wondering about the possibilities.

Met up with Clayton, my good old friend from my days of choir singing. He decided to take me to Chennai Dosa, which is a popular Indian cuisine restaurant in Wembley and other places in London.

Travelling to Wembley on a weekend from Canary Wharf is always a pain because the Jubilee line has “planned engineering works”. So, instead of taking the Jubilee straight to Wembley, I took the Jubilee to Stratford (opposite direction), which will soon be the place of the London Olympics.

From Stratford, I took the Overground to Gospel Oak where Clayton came with his car. Going by road today turned out to be rather painful since we came across three accidents yesterday. The first one made us take an alternate route which was several kilometres all over the area. The second one didn’t restrict our travel.

Chennai Dosa turned out to be a pleasant surprise. The rates are much lower by London standards, but I couldn’t help running a quick 70x conversion to INR! The place was filled with Indians and is apparently run by Indians.

The mutton biryani wasn’t too good, but the other prawns and chicken lollipop was yummy

Clayton decided to drop me back to Canary Wharf, but for the third accident near London Bridge and I chose to get off at Waterloo and take the Jubilee back home.

Tomorrow is a new day and we’re still debating if we should go watch a movie or not.

Surprise! An update in less than  one month

Two weeks back I went off to the O2 to watch Inception. Since then I have caught three more movies, viz. A-Team, Knight and Day and Karate Kid.

I have taken the unlimited movies plan at Cineworld, and I have already made that up for this month by watching two movies in the last two days By my math, I’ll need to watch just 18 movies in the next three months. Call me thrifty

Work has been crazy as usual with me finishing my fourth all-nighter at work in the three months that I have been here. Not something to be proud about, but hey, it happens! This week promises to be light. Then again promises are meant to be broken.

Back to movies, there is a whole set of movies in the pipeline that I plan on watching:

• Toy Story 3
• Shrek Forever After
• The Last Airbender
• The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
• The Expendables
• Salt
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
• Piranha 3D
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I

So, which movies do you plan on watching?

Decided to look back into my blog to figure out when I had last posted and let’s just say that it was a long long time ago!

So, am going to make a quick post to tell people that I am still alive and kicking; ok, not kicking…

The past month has been extremely busy with longer days and even longer nights. But, that’s work.

On the personal front, I finally got the chance to catch Inception. This time the theatre we caught it at the Cineworld theatre in O2 Arena.

The break was well enjoyed, though we spent a good time actually getting to the place! We got onto the DLR to head toward Greenwich, only to realise that we had to get to North Greenwich, which is on the Jubilee line. As expected, the Jubilee line was down, but we thought that we’d be able to get a bus to the O2, only to find out that one of the buses that goes to the O2 passes through Greenwich. So, we headed back to the DLR station and headed off to Greenwich. After a good deal of searching and an equal amount of walking, we found the bus stop and I enjoyed my first bus-ride in London.

The O2 arena has been built really well with a host of restaurants, the stadium, games areas, a roller-skating rink and of course, the movie theatre. We bought the tickets and settled in at Nando’s for food. This is one place I haven’t gotten fed up of the food.

The movie was spectacular. I don’t know when I will actually get down to writing a full fledged review of the movie, but the ending was excellent, though I did expect it. The best part of the entire movie was the concept. The special effects were good, especially the last 30 minutes or so.

The best part of the day was the return journey. Because the DLR was down, boat replacements were put in place from the O2 to East India, which we took full advantage of.

That’s one pic above from the London Calling album

Was at work today and this week promises to be as work filled as ever. So, am hoping to see if I can get a post across next week.

It was a really short visit about two weeks back, when I went to meet Akshat and Neha at the Cafe Coffee Day in Indiranagar.

Those who know me do not find it hard to imagine that I haven’t seen Bangalore even though I have been here for nearly 11 months.

I also realized that Indiranagar is not as far as I thought it to be! It’s about 7-8km from where I stay. But, it doesn’t take too long because of the wide open roads leading to the place. It has been a while since I cruised along so sweetly.

I’m still waiting to go out to Barista sometime soon. One day, when I am not that lazy!

Met up with Suchita today and we went to Fiorama, which is an Italian restaurant in Koramangala itself. The place turned out to have a good ambience, but unfortunately it was way to expensive for the portions and quality of food they had to offer. Reminds me of a non-veg Little Italy!

I also have clarity on the PayPal issue I cribbed about last time. Seems like the Reserve Bank of India woke up suddenly and asked PayPal to stop all operations in India until they “register” with RBI. This means that for at least another few months, Indian users will have a to suffer. Those who are freelancing and rely on PayPal as their main source of payment receipts are in for a major issue. I believe goods and services may still work, but that is left to be determined.

I don’t really blame PayPal on this, except for the total lack of communication before they took action, which is not acceptable for an organization like PayPal. Read PayPal’s update on the situation.

When I wrote Light weeks, these past two weeks has been, I was well aware that this was a temporary situation. And I wasn’t “disappointed”. I’ve been slogging it out for the past three weeks with life peaking last week.

While I worked from home two weekends back, I spent almost whole of last weekend in office. Thankfully, I enjoy my job, otherwise, I would have gone crazy.

I did manage to find some time to release a few updates to my plugins.

And, then I woke up last week to find out that PayPal has stopped personal payments to India.

And, the worst part is that all this is without warning. Now, I’m not really sure as to why this has been implemented. But, according to PayPal, they are waiting for some of their “business partners” to approve.

While we can still receive and send payments as “goods”, I find this entire workaround really stupid. And, once again we see PayPal’s lack of professionalism.

As for me, now I have to patiently wait it out and see what happens with PayPal. Unfortunately for them, I see a major move away from all parties, since we Indians form a really big part of the internet!