Friday, February 24, 2012

dOn'T dRivE, sTaY aT homE

6946 TG
you are an idiot. an idiot who does not know how to drive a car.

you should not be allowed to cycle on the road , let alone drive a car in a single lane road, tapping your stupid breaks every 3 sec.
while i was suffering tailgating you for the 16 mile journey on highway 28, i pondered which one of the curses in my arsenal should i offer on your head. how about the one for ur puny brain ? nah too tame.. don't worry it will come to me. 16 miles is a long way to sit behind an idiot without being inspired.

argh stop tapping ur stupid brakes , if there is nto a single blooming soul in front of you and you have no intention of slowing down.

well yes ofcourse i honked at him very angrily. i am turning into quite a victim of road rage these days..



Friday, February 10, 2012

pLanniNg a dAy iN LaPLanD .... noT sO eAsY

head aches like hell. i'm contemplating spending 300 dollars for a 2 day trip to lapland. don't know if its worth it just to go touch the arctic circle. but then how often do you get the chance ?

but 300 bucks is a lot of dough and then if its cloudy i won't even see the lights.

it's kind of giving me a headache trying to decide. what do you think? is it worth it ?

the rooms are so hot, i had to crack open a window. imagine that, its -12C outside and ive cracked open a window and i'm still so hot. like a friggin sauna in here.

here are my options. i can take the 10:00PM train to rovaniemi to reach there at 8 in the morning. i won't be able to have a bath ofcourse. i can see a couple of reindeer if i'm lucky then  i can catch the 4PM train back and reach late night back at the hotel , something like 4AM.
total trip might cost around 300-400 dollars.
and i have to be in office monday morning.

the chances of getting the lights is slim since i won't be spending midnight in the north. i'll be there during the day time.. but the only chance is if i get to see something while i'm actually in the train.

so what do you think?

hmm the voices in my head are awfully quiet. must be the blasted headache. 

Thursday, February 9, 2012

hALf hoUr iN aMsTerDam


it's been a long day. i'm exhausted. i left eindhoven at 8 in the morning and somehow i reached tampere at 8 in the night. its been a really long day, so i'm just gonna leave these pics for you. 

lobby in eindhoven. some fancy shmancy hotel. 


the train station in amsterdam


was this the entrance to the red light street ? i really don't know.




airport stuff.



riDiCULousLy hoT iN fiNLanD

i think the Fins like to turn all their rooms into mini sauna's

its just ridiculously hot in my room. outside its what ? -24 C and everytime i'm indoors i have to literally do a hurried and not so pretty strip show before i faint from overheating my skin too quickly.

but its frickin awesome.

you can't imagine the amount of snow that's just piled up on the roadside casual as you please. ofcourse the roads are all nice and clean, but the tarmac had a layer of snow, ice.. whatevs and they landed on that !
on the way to the hotel, i see about 4 feet of snow just piled on the sides like sand and miles and miles of snow as far as i could see in the dark.

i wonder how much more i can see tomorrow.

i've just been told, it's 10 hours to santa claus land. i guess that's just too far. unless i take a short flight, i don't think i can make it to the arctic circle this time. aaaw

view from my room in tampere


i'd say they've done a fantastic job of utilizing space. wall mounted phones, embedded lights into the furniture, rolling desk top, it's pretty stylish and amazingly innovative !




Monday, February 6, 2012

aLL biKed oUT

i'm inspired by all these ppl cycling everywhere.

i'm planning to rent a cycle and cycle to work ! at -3C . awesome huh ?

not tomorrow. tomorrow is -18C... i'm crazy but i'm not insane.

uitgaan en heers !!

***

rented a cycle. lets see what my brain says in the mornign. am i MAD ?? YES.

you'll get a pic out of it atleast. waiting for 7:30 AM.

this blog is turning into a twitter update. hmm i don't think i like it ...


uitgaan en heers !!


***

allright ! so i did it. i'm hot as heck now. and i have too many layers on for indoors.. but it was Amazing !

you should try it too. make sure not to freeze your ears off !

gets so hot after ur done... i'm just waaaay to sleepy now !!

****

i finally made it back, returned the bike , spent more than it would have cost going by bus to the office,

almost lost my way back... it was freaky awesome !

some say i have a fair bit of will power... some call it mad cow disease....




onwards to Finland next !!

i tOoK tHe buS, tHe oTHerS weRe cYcLinG

it's not so cold. naah it's not so cold. sure i'm wearing 4 layers of clothes , 3 of which are heavy duty sweaters.
sure i'm wearing 2 gloves, 2 caps, 2 pair of socks and snow boots. and a GIGANTIC woolen muffler seems i knitted just for this trip.

the GIGANTIC woolen muffler is helping. sure i might have lost 20% of my hearing ability as my ears are permanently numb.

so K told me, i wouldn't have much trouble with my legs. my legs wouldnt get so cold. my thighs that is.

well.. K... YOUR ARE WRONG. they are frozen solid chunks of fat i have to lug around. my Torso is not cold since i have four layers. but my poor legs . between my knees and my torso. they are gone man. gone.

ofcourse when they ask me if its cold, i tell them na. its like boston. which it kind of is on a bad day.
-8 C. apparently its record cold that they havent seen in 15 years. well gee , all this for me ? thanks mum nature.

it is like boston , on its worst day possible.

apparently its only like 5C on regular winters. i'm beginning to think 5C is not so bad. 5C is beginning to look good to me right now. its one less layer of sweater and non-frozen thighs. i mean 5C is practically WARM man.

***

i had this really strange dream yesterday. there was a trapeze involved. some kind of rope acrobatics where you stand on a looped rope and swing yourself upside down. there was vin van diesel who was my tutor. and i think i woke up when he cut one end of the rope and held it in his hand. and i think, thats when my brain said. stop, this is against the law of physics as we know it !

Sunday, February 5, 2012

sHouLd i CyCLe tO woRk toMoRrOw ?

i can't believe my recent losses led me to watch the most abominable movie of all times.

i tried to drown my sorrows in a movie. unfortunately the only one left was this. aargh.

Ra.one
OMG its so horrible. what were they thinking?

curly haired sharukh khan who speaks English with a fake south indian accent, i mean really horrible south indian accent and then speaks some Hindi poem or shit with a perfect delhi accent.
eating noodles with curd. effing noodles man. NOODLES ?? i can think of  semige, but noodles ? YUck

ok its not helping. even this horrid movie can't get my mind off my poor phone. who knows where you are. in which trash dump your lying around...argh why is he trying to do kung fu. i can't take it anymore, i feel like gouging out my eyes with this plastic fork.

stop it ... STOP. this is gonna me nightmares for sure.

you know what ? amsterdam is a nice city. its pretty cool. ppl talk english, their friendly. the air smells a little different. like flowers and fresh baked bread. i can't really describe it very well... i think it has a hint of purple-pink too... sometimes if you pass a eatery though, it smells really yuck. like some fried meat or some sort of cooked meat. and not chicken meat. its different meat. cause i think chicken meat hardly smells at all, and infact might be confusing in the fact that it doesnt smell so much.. ok i'm blabbering. the second sign of madness.






isn't the room tiny but adorable ? like a mini replica of an actual room. i think i'd be a happy person once i lived in europe for a couple of years. i'd be so happy to see the space back in blore compared to the tiny dollhouses we live in here. what's space anyways ? as long as i have a high ceiling and floor to ceiling windows, i don't care about the sq foot. i declare! and its pretty sleek kind of furniture too. makes me positively giidy with all the culture i'm supposedly soaking in. or maybe its the jetlag.

i saw happy feet, part TWO. god i wish i hadn't. but really choices are limited when ur flying and ur depressed enough to be sobbing on the lapels of the gentleman next to you. qucik turn on a cartoon and hope you don't start bawling at him like a 3 day old infant. 

aCroSs tHe pOnD ... it'S fRozeN



It's not even Monday yet, and I feel exhausted. Things don't look much different from across the pond. Except for the folks cycling away happily in snow. Are you ppl kidding me ? On the west side of the pond, ppl can barely drive for heaven's sake. No not even for their own mum's sake can they drive in snow. And kids ! Mind you kids are cycling away.
Snow covers the wast flatlands.

The canals are cute. And I catch glimpses of the amsterdam as I breeze right through in a train. My phone is stolen. So now I have to open my laptop to know the time. When did my phone replace everything else I own in my life ? Why is my phone now more needed than my own brain ?

Atleast I'm on the right train. After the kind ticketmaster gives me a ticket, and prints out the route,all in dutch mind you. thank you my good man. And I really can't understand him , I think he said platform 3, but turns out it was 2. and turns out he thought my Thursday was Tuesday and gave me the return ticket for the wrong day. My good man ! Please don't torture me today.

I ask these nice ppl for confirmation that I'm finally standing on the right platform. I was counting on my google translate and google maps. Both of which I don't have right now.

And they tell me to get on the next train with them. Well I did.

After a couple of stops I'm a little uneasy. My plan says I need to get off at 8:40. its 8:39 and I'm not at the right station. I'm fidgeting now.. Ready to panic any minute. Any minute now.

Luckily a conductor stops by. Aaah ! My good man, you can help me.

"hi, so is my stop [ I show him ] the next stop?"
"nope, your on the wrong train"
"wat?!?!"
"yes your on the wrong train. This train doesn’t go to that stop."
"but …but.."
"you should check the time", he insists while his finger stabs my paper and he admonishes me with a.. with an admonishing look.. [ ok little lame ]
"but I did, this train came at the time printed on my plan !"
"oh the train was late", he shrugs
"but… but…"
 Aah! But you want to go to eindhoven. That is still possible. Get off in amsterdam central and take this train."
"The 8:46 ?"
"yes, you have 5 minutes to make it to platform 4b, maybe that train is late too….wait a minute this is not for today"
"yes pls check for today"
"ok you have a train at 9:08, you got plenty of time. "
"ok is there a name on the trains?"
He looks at me to see if I'm being sarcastic, I'm not ! I'm dead serious. How the fuck do you tell where the train is going? All the announcements are in dutch !
"you just ask somebody before you get on."
ok , my stop is here. I gotta go now. Nice friendly ppl in amsterdam.

I'm happy to see that there at least a few non-dutch folk waiting to go to eindhoven. they look about as perplexed as i do. infact i notice a couple of dutch speaking natives looking perplexed. let me just follow the black guy.. i mean african american who seems to be heading to eindhoven too... wait a minute. what if he's following me ??

Thanks to yesterday's fiasco, I have no idea how I'll get to my hotel when I get off in eindhoven. I have a vague idea of seeing the map 2 days ago. Someone said the hotel was just 2 blocks away. Luckily its only -4C and my face only feels like a few hundred needles are poking it.

I guess I'll be fine. I have the whole day to reach my hotel. Just a wee bit hungry that's all. But thanks to my unplanned route across amsterdam city, I did get a glimpse of the canals. The tiny dutch houses. Couple of windmills. Lot of barge like structures stuck in the frozen water. Cobbled stone roads,  which looked too narrow to let a standard car through ..
Looks like an awesome place to visit in summer. 

hOW cAn iT noT Be?


Cop uncle your not much help. Neither are you phone ppl, all u call service ppl. At&t is the worst. Most difficult to get hold of. I mean seriously, is that what they call customer service ? They treat their customers like shit. After being kept on hold for what seemed like forever [ more like 10 min ] I was speaking to a cheery lady who's tone didn't skip a beat when I mentioned I was robbed. ROBBED goddamn it. I'm not inviting you to high noon tea. Sure she said she was sorry that it happened to me , but she wasn't really. Well no need to take out your anger on her QoD.
Take a deep breath. Focus your anger on the assholes who threw a rock at ur car and broke the window and stole the phone.
So I explain to her what happened and what I need.

"I understand, Do you want to suspend the service ? ", she asks in that sickeningly sweet voice.
I'm confused," is there some other choice ?"
"well you could leave the service active, or suspend it "
"how would leaving the device active help ?"

LADY it doesn’t help me at all. Infact those morons might be making calls to mongolia for all I know.

Well seems like there has been no activity on the phone since yesterday afternoon. Maybe they're still hungover and haven't recovered yet.
Cops weren't too helpful either. He says the best case scenario is that it might be lying in some dump. My poor phone ! And no hope of ever recovering it.

Good lord. This is the best day ever. 

i tRuSteD thE uniVErSe aNd iT sLLaPpEd mE riGHt baCk



so i admit it. i did... no make that DO walk around staring at some infinite point in space. with my head far far away.and hardly any attention paid to my surroundings. trusting in the innate goodness of the ppl around me and the universe to take care of one of it's own.

well that taught me. taught me good.

today i walked to my car. it was parked right in front of my appt. i walked there barefoot to get my phone.
as usual i had forgotten my phone in the car. so ive forgotten other things before.

ive forgotten my wallet in the office. my phone in the car, my wallet in the car, my gps in the car in wide view, my passport in an auto.. my keys in the door and slept the night away inside... the list is endless it seems. this is just another time i've forgotten just another thing. and i'm going to get it. K is beyond frustrated. he's beyond mad. he's just resigned to me ever learning to be careful.

so i walk to the car. and as i move towards the passenger seat, i notice some glass on the ground.

that's funny. did i park my car around all that glass. it cant be good for my tires. and then my eyes move up towards the key lock to unlock the door.
they widen in shock and i stiffen. I suck in my breadth sharply. the window is broken. my car doesnt look right. it looks somewhat naked.

but everything is still there. why is the window broken ?? Is that how my car is normally ? No. my brain is frantically trying to comprehend. But I don't. comprehend that is.
All the papers. It looks exactly the same. Why is there an ugly rock on the seat ? And where the fuck is my phone ??
Now it hits me. my heart sinks to soles of my shoes.

I am totally fucked.

Yes I know I have finally broken my golden rule of not swearing in public. well screw it.  

If ever I deserved my title, it is now. If ever you had doubt that I didn't deserve the title of the Queen of Disaster, well let your doubts be cleared. For here is final proof that no matter how much I lament that my life is routine and boring now, mayhem is always by my side.



fLaShBaCK sERiEs oNe


I am shocked. Aghast is more like it.
my heartrate slowly returns to normal… as I'm sitting on this flight, I'm forced to wonder, "if this happens on Monday morning, how's the rest of the week going to be?"
Imagine my consternation, when I'm all ready and kind of packed and about to leave home to catch my 8AM shuttle to Santa Clara.
Imagine me casually looking at emails on my phone and seeing a no-show penalty for my actual 6AM flight.

I read the email with a growing sense of horror, with about a thousand, no lets be realistic about 4 voices in my head clamoring for my attention. The words no-show, fees, department, manager all floating over the screen , and my dazed eyes trying to understand how this could happen.

Sh&% s&^% sh&^!!
I am so screwed. So I race to the airport, explain my goofup to the lady.

Luckily since I showed up, they'll waive the no show fee against my dept. well phew dat.

She eyes me with a semi-steely glint and tells me I can wait for someone to not show up on the next flight if I want. If I don't get on that 8AM flight, then I'll just have to cancel for the day.
So now I'm sitting in the seat, hoping someone has a bad day and can't make it. sucks man!

She tells me the checkin closes at 7:45 and till then she doesn’t know.
It's 7:05 now.

So there I sit chewing my nails, metaphorically.

7:15

7:26

7:35

Ppl keep entering and I'm wincing with every person who walks in through the door for a boarding pass.

7:48 and I walk up to the desk.

"any seat left?"

She looks around, calls for a lady and someone walks in through the door. My heart drops to the bottom of my shoes and I think, "ok better let my manager know I won't make it.  But wait… the lady looks slightly bored. Not at all like someon trying to desperately make it on time before checkin closes.
So she looks at me, and says well. "looks like you made it"

PHEW

Now I'm sitting in the flight. My heartrate's trying to get back to normal. Sipping my da^& tea.

Btw I finished all 7 seasons of the star trek TnG. Am I a trekkie? Not yet. I just thought it was amusing. Hey! They used tablets back then !! Mebe that's where jobs got his ideas from.

Friday, February 3, 2012

pOinT B? whAt aBoUt C?



i was fwded this

TED talks - spoken poetry


it's pretty good. did i connect... hmm not really. is there something wrong with me for not finding her an amazing inspiration and awe inspiring? or am i already too cynical... hmm. or perhaps my depth peaked in my teenage years and now i'm just a shallow workaholic who can't think beyond my petty insignificant life.

shrug.. do i care.

i remember a time when i was tortured by my own purpose, and days and nights spent wondering what i was born for. i think i came to think conclusion that i was born for nothing. i was just born. and i will just die. and its just my id that craves for a meaning because i cant handle the reality that i'm just a random spark in a random universe who just exists for a random amount of time. can YOU handle that thought? it's pretty tough going through life thinking that, right ? no?
have you tried it? really? i wonder at ur capacity to speak the truth to urself. there IS NO purpose. the best you can do is probably have a few laughs, help some folks around, well atleast help urself if nothing else. create a few ripples if needed and then try to die without troubling others too much. [ no i don't need you to change my old person diaper, i can do it myself ]

but then look at that video. listen to it. did you really feel it. connect to her? she's just .... pop poetry. like justin bieber. all wide eyed and wondering. and who's to say that's not poetry. sure it could be i guess. but my experiences have not been all wide eyed and doe eyed and wondering. i feel a little more wonder when i read that poem. about the hour in a grain of sand and flower something.. u know the one.

read the comments and i think lot of ppl felt that way. they didnt connect. felt it was a bit too sappy. too heavy on the feel-good and high on the cheesy sentiments.

it's an interesting way to share ur ideas sure. but... old eyes. lady you don't know how old eyes look. old eyes are not filled with wonder. point B? why? is her daughter called point A ? i don't get it.


now


she writes poetry.
she speaks to me. well if not her words, her voice does.



most of what she writes are variations of unrequited love poems. so i can't say i really feel it. wait, am i allowed to say that. K is going to mad.... :/ ooops i'm in the doghouse aren't I.
but i did feel it once. maybe. [ not that i'd easily admit it anyways ]. man though she has a voice.

note to self: adelle, set fire to rain