The Marathon
7th September 2003 would be etched in goldens in my short athletic life. It was when I finished my first ever and longest run of 10 Kms

The occaassion was the Annual Nike Run London Marathon on the picturesque Richmond Gardens. The first thing I noticed when I reached there was the presence of an Ambulance..you never know when you need it..do you? :D
So the race began..The start wasn't particularly pretty and there were steep hills just at the 3rd KM. However there was a huge crowd cheering us on the 4th which gave me some strength. I was totally wasted by the time I was at the 8th Mark. It became an intense battle between the mind and body but somehow I kept going.
I finally crossed the finishing line. cheered by hosts of pretty things and got a medal as well .... well all the 20,000 of us got the medal anyway.

My legs were useless for couple of days..but life returned in them now.
Can't thank Mandy enough for poking me every now and then so that I won't give up to my incorrigible laziness.

London Underground
The daily rigueurs of travelling on a London Tube are some times made interesting by jolly drivers...English have a very subtle but distinct sense of humor

A list of actual announcements that London Tube train drivers have made to their passengers...

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I do apologise for the delay to your service. I know you're all dying to get home, unless, of course, you happen to be married to my ex-wife, in which case you'll want to cross over to the Westbound and go in the opposite direction".

"Your delay this evening is caused by the line controller suffering from E & B syndrome, not knowing his elbow from his backside. I'll let you know any further information as soon as I'm given any."

"Do you want the good news first or the bad news? The good news is that last Friday was my birthday and I hit the town and had a great time. The bad news is that there is a points failure somewhere between Stratford and East Ham, which means we probably won't reach our destination."

"Ladies and gentlemen, we apologise for the delay, but there is a security alert at Victoria station and we are therefore stuck here for the foreseeable future, so let's take our minds off it and pass some time together. All together now....'Ten green bottles, hanging on a wall.....'".

"We are now travelling through Baker Street, as you can see Baker Street is closed. It would have been nice if they had actually told me, so I could tell you earlier, but no, they don't think about things like that".

During an extremely hot rush hour on the Central Line, the driver announced in a West Indian drawl: " Step right dis way for de sauna, ladies and gentleman... unfortunately towels are not provided".

"Let the passengers off the train FIRST!" (Pause ...) "Oh go on then, stuff yourselves in like sardines, see if I care - I'm going home...."

"Please allow the doors to close. Try not to confuse this with 'Please hold the doors open'. The two are distinct and separate instructions."

"Please note that the beeping noise coming from the doors means that the doors are about to close. It does not mean throw yourself or your bags into the doors."

"Please move all baggage away from the doors (Pause..) Please move ALL belongings away from the doors (Pause...) This is a personal message to the man in the brown suit wearing glasses at the rear of the train - put the pie down, four-eyes, and move your bloody golf clubs away from the door before I come down there and shove them up your arse sideways"

The Trip that was :-)
Back from Belgium!
Its been two hectic but exciting days in the city of Bruges.
First things first :- Belgium is amongst the most versatile producers of beer. This restaurant there served 300 varieties of local belgian beer.That means even if you are guzzling every other day for an year, you still probably won't be able to taste all of them ...
Well that was one reason we hardly drank any water for the last two days. ;)

The Trip that wasn't
We planned to go on this trip to Snowdonia for over a month now.
The big day was last friday (15th August)

We had my bags ready. Preparations were elaborate, hiking pants were out, swiss Knives sharpened,sunglasses buffed and md players and Mandy's Camcorder fully charged.

The picking point was Acton Town Station, about an hour away from our place. We reached a little late on the Ilford station and blimey...the bloody train was late... We were counting our options..As soon as we decided to catch a bus, the train touched the platform.

We were a few minutes late..Fortunately Paul (our tour manager) was very understanding. But this was not the end of our agony. The train was awfully slow.
Time was passing by as I was wiping sweet off my palms. By the time we reached near Acton Town, it was over half an hour late..Paul called and gave us the frustating news..They have setoff leaving us off-board. Can't blame him for that. He had the rest of crew to consider.

Its time like these when I appreciate the excellent service of Indian trains/buses.. half an hour is just so normal there ..


Anyway..i am settting off to Belgium in an hour now.
We learned our lessons well and going well ahead of time..

Apparently this is not the first time when something like this happened with me and Mandy.....don't ask..the other occasion is unprintable..:D:D

The Laptop
For the past few weeks, my mind has been rambling on and on over the acquisition of a state-of-the-art Laptop.

Some of those to whom I confessed about this called this as a new dimension of my spending-binge, while others stated this as a great investment.

Mandy gave a bizarre reason in the favour of the machine " You have earned all your life owing to this computer, now you owe some to this machine as well.So buy it"

I won't say that convinced me, but what the hell, I decided to go ahead with this. Afterall you only live once.

I had my eyes on G4 Powerbook from Apple, but that was well beyond my budget and there were compatibility issues as well. My P800 Smart phone is not compatible with Mac and neither is my Net MD. So back to conspicuous Pentiums.

So, soon I will be the proud owner of Dell Inspiron 500m notebook.My budget is strained to the limits, I am looking for some encouraging words to justify it.

New Earphones
I have a somewhat bizarre inclination towards headphones.
Ever since I bought my MD player, I have changed around four headphones.
But this new one is way over the top.It cost me a cool 100$ !! (no kidding!)
They come from a specialist company called Shure.
Have a look at the links

www.shure.com/earphones/eseries_e2c.asp
www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,1204999,00.asp

They sound incredible.
I am happy as a kid :D

PDA
Adisa, the guy sitting behind me, bought a second hand Sony PDA from Loot and was very excited about it.

He thought he has had a bargain until I showed him the same thing but brand new on expansys at a cheaper price..

Wicked isn't it ? LOL

On the London Underground
If you have ever travelled on the London Tube, you would be well aware of this funny little phrase.
Its supposed to warn you against the gap between the train and the platform. This phrase has achieved a cult status now and is synonymous with the Tube.
It simply says

MIND THE GAP.

Well today morning , I didn't !

It happened when we were coming back from work after the G-Y shift. As I was about to board the train, one of my sandals which was a little loose slipped into that damn GAP. I told Mandy (the corn-flour guy) about it and he gave me a look as if saying " Why do you have to be a frickin' idiot at all times?" .I had inadvertently delayed his union with his bed.

So we let the train pass and looked for an official.Had it been in Mumbai, I would have jumped on the rails and picked up the little thing myself but I didn't risk it here.Besides, the rails were electrified.

Mandy was good enough to get hold of one of the officials and they came back with a wooden stick with a clip on front of it. Now if you are wondering where he got that stick, let me tell you that it is the standard device for picking up umm... garbage.

The official looked at me first and then at my barefoot leg and probably had the same thoughts as Mandy. I imagined them sharing a vile sneer.

So the sandal was finally restored on my feet, not before I got more sneering glances from people all around..

Life has a way of giving you a smile (or rather make you laugh loudly as in this case) when you least expect it.

Run London
Now this might come as a surprise to most of you..

I am running a Marathon .. well not in the classical sense as it is just 10Kms. But this is quite a task for someone who has seldom walked for more than a Km in a single go.

The great thing is I may be running alongside Paula Radcliffe ( not alongside really, I am sure she would be well ahead of me :D )

http://www.runlondon.com

Will keep you updated with my preparations..

Passing the Buck
I have informed some of the guys about this blog.

I am not sure many will be interested in my culinary skills with half the ingredients :(