Our last holiday was in February when Ashwina and I visited Dunwich Heath to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Since we haven’t taken a vacation since then, we planned a week in Cornwall in the first week of September. This was much needed for us to recharge our batteries. And as usual Ashwina made the necessary arrangements for our trip. We booked a cab to Paddington station in London where we caught the Great Western train to Bodmin Parkway, which is the closest station to where we were staying in Boscastle. The journey is nearly 4 hours with views of the countryside that would be be familiar to anyone who leaves…
-
-
Happy Birthday 2013
It’s my birthday today! Check out one of the lovely presents my beautiful wife got me today 🙂
-
Kew Gardens and Kew Palace
The bank holiday weekends in May are always welcome since it means an extra Monday of holidays and a relatively shorter week, even for an investment banker! Ashwina and I decided to visit Kew Gardens and Kew Palace early May. This was one of the many places we had in mind given our Historic Royal Palaces membership. We were joined by Vincent and Indrita. Kew Gardens is located about a short walk from Kew Gardens Underground station which is the second last station on the District Line and good hours journey from where I stay in London. There are four gates where you can enter from and the Victoria Gate…
-
Tales from the Countryside
I grew up reading Enid Blyton‘s series of books especially Famous Five and Secret Seven. And, one thing that is common to them all was the country side. During my trip to Edinburgh and the Isle of Skye, I got a taste of the Scottish countryside and it was befitting that we visited the English countryside as well. A few of my regular readers might recall that I married Ashwina last February and to celebrate our anniversary, I took the week off from work. Ashwina came up with the brilliant suggestion of taking a trip to Dunwich Heath which is located in Saxmundham which lies on the east coast of…
-
A Trip to Paris
In spite of being in London for nearly 3 years now, I applied for a Schengen visa a few months back. To open the visa you’re required to visit the country your applying from and what better place to visit than France and isn’t Paris the romantic capital of the world! So, Ashwina and me planned a three day trip to visit Paris the week before Christmas. Paris is a little over two hours from London with the Eurostar and it is a comfortable trip from St. Pancras International to Gare du Nord. We stayed at Hotel Le Petit Paris, which is just close to the Panthéon. We reached there…
-
Scotland calling: Isle of Skye
I wrote about my trip to Edinburgh with Ashwina as well as the one day tour to the Scottish borders. Edinburgh is a beautiful city, but the beauty of the Isle of Skye blew our minds away! We had booked the Timberbush 3 day tour to the Isle of Skye and the Highlands. Timberbush has an excellent rating on TripAdvisor, and we’ve even read some great reviews of our guide for the tour, Gail Williams. We started off from Edinburgh on a Thursday morning in September what seemed to be a relatively clear day. However, this would soon change as we left Edinburgh.We first made our way to Glasgow to…
-
Scotland calling: Alnwick Castle
Ashwina and I returned from Paris yesterday after taking off for a short break before Christmas. But the story on that will be in a later post. This post is dedicated to the 1 day trip we had back in September during our holiday in Scotland. We had started the holiday in Edinburgh and had booked a day’s tour with Timberbush to Holy Island, Bamburgh & Alnwick Castle – Northumberland & The Scottish Borders. The one day tour started off early in the morning from the foot of Edinburgh Castle. The official tour starts off with the first visit at Lindisfarne Castle and Holy Island, but because of high tide…
-
Scotland Calling: Edinburgh
This post is already 2 months late, because soon after my trip to Scotland, I was immersed deep into work. Better late than never, so here is a brief summary of my holiday in Scotland. It was a good 6 months after my trip to Mumbai for my wedding and a holiday was a necessity. While the I did make a trip to Hampton Court Palace which is outside the M25, the trip to Scotland would be my first trip outside London. Ashwina and I decided to do a 7 day visit to Scotland spread out between Edinburgh and the Isle of Skye. So on a Sunday in mid-September, we…
-
The six month life update 2012
When IÂ was busy changing the theme on this blog, I realised that it’s been five months since my last personal post. Time has become a precious commodity ever since I became an investment banker. As a result the number of personal posts has reduced. And, it unlikely to change in the near future. Back in December, I made a trip down to Mumbai. Besides being Christmas season wasn’t the only reason I was down in the city. While the blog post didn’t say it, the main reason for my trip in December was the first preparatory steps for my wedding in February! After returning from Mumbai, I dived head…
-
Mumbai Calling – December 2011
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.…
