The White Cliffs of Dover and Hever Castle
We’re now in our 6th week of working from home and the most I’ve gone out has been a few jogs earlier this week –… Read More »The White Cliffs of Dover and Hever Castle
Personal
Happy New Year 2020!
If you were born in the 80s, raised in the 90s and made it to 2020: You have lived in 4 different decades, 2 different… Read More »Happy New Year 2020!
Exploring Bath and Stonehenge
The last weekend was a long one cause of Easter and we’ve typically not done much on the Easter Monday bank holiday. However, Seema and Rodney, who were in London and bunking with us, had already booked tickets to visit Bath and Stonehenge. So, Ashwina and I also tagged along.
We arrived at Victoria before 8am well ahead of our scheduled departure. It allowed us to get some decent seats in the middle of the bus. We set out towards Bath first which is about 2.5 hours away from London. We luckily didn’t encounter much traffic given the early start.
Bath
We reached Bath around 11am on a relatively bright and shiny day. Our ticket did not include the entry into the Roman Baths as we weren’t convinced it was worth the cost.
However, we did visit Bath Abbey. The foundation of the abbey dates back to the 7th century. We didn’t spend a lot of time there as it is relatively small and parts of it under restoration.
Holiday in Mumbai
Ashwina and I embarked on our annual visit to Mumbai and Pune on Feb 1. In 2018, we visited India in March. However, this year we decided to stick to our Feb schedule.
To Mumbai
We booked ourselves on premium economy with British Airways as this was the best deal we could find. Unfortunately, as I did the bookings in October, we couldn’t take advantage of the reward flights and the Amex BA voucher. Speaking about reward flights, I feel that British Airways has gotten quite miserly about them!
I’ve always loved Heathrow Terminal 5 and we took advantage of my status to use the First check-in and security which opens up directly into the lounge! We got some food into our bellies before heading out to do some shopping at the Duty Free.
The flight was definitely one of the most uncomfortable ones I’ve been on. BA used an older plane on this flight which meant even the premium economy felt like economy. The food wasn’t very great either!
We landed in Mumbai after a painful overnight flight to bright sunshine and a relatively empty airport. As a result, we went through immigration swiftly and waited a bit for our baggage before taking a taxi home.
Read More »Holiday in Mumbai
Happy New Year 2019!
Sitting here on the final day of 2018, I’d like to wish all my regular and irregular readers a Happy New Year 2019. Keeping with my long tradition, here’s my life in review post for 2018. Do you agree with Dilbert’s view on resolutions? I know I’ve barely kept mine from last year.
Work
Work takes up a significant portion of our lives, mine included. 2018 was a long year for me at work including a tonne of projects, long hours and quite a bit of travel.
Life
2018 involved quite a bit of travelling for Ashwina and me.
India
We started the year with our annual trip to India. India was slightly different this time around. Since both Dad and Arun were in town, Ashwina and I booked a long stay at the ITC Maratha in Mumbai. Our stay turned out to be fabulous with excellent service, good food and we both got lovely gifts from the hospitality team there.
After Mumbai, we headed off to Mangalore. The first time for me after over 30 years! We toured quite a bit especially visiting a few churches.
Pune followed Mangalore where I managed to get some rest. We also met with Rhea for dinner on one day and Saby on another.
We headed back to Mumbai for a day and then returned to London getting Mom back with us for a few months.
New York calling!
This year has been a relatively eventful one when it comes to holidays… also expensive! I know I haven’t blogged much about personal life, but… Read More »New York calling!
Happy birthday to me!
It sure has been a while since I wrote a personal post and today is definitely a good day to write one as I celebrate… Read More »Happy birthday to me!
Photos from Gunby Hall
Taking advantage of the bank holiday, Ashwina and I took a trip to Gunby Hall which is a National Trust property in Skegness. The Orchard… Read More »Photos from Gunby Hall
Happy New Year 2016
Happy New Year to everyone reading this. I wish you the very best for 2016. It’s definitely going to be more awesome than 2015.
2015 – Year in Review
For a change at the start of 2015, I didn’t make any major resolutions, but instead decided to take the year as it came. What’s the point of resolutions when you don’t keep them, right?
On work…
2015 started out to be a year like any other year, busy and in fact ended as busy as it started. However, that being said a good portion of the year was definitely better with me stepping up my role and desperately fighting to maintain a work-life balance.
On life…
2015 was a great year on the life front.
We started off the year by moving into a new larger flat in the area. It was a long pending decision and we finally took the plunge trading our skyline views for the view of the water, boats, ducks and other birds.
Happy Birthday 2013
It’s my birthday today! Check out one of the lovely presents my beautiful wife got me today 🙂