Here and there!

Last few days challenged me with zillion tasks flaunting in my mind causing nightmares. I thought there is no "The-End" to these tasks, and I am never going to complete them. To my revelation, I managed to complete a few onus.

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Managed to get registered with a local library.  So this gives me access to large volume of books. Having taken the challenge of reading 100 books in this year and there's no better way for me to carry out this goal.  It's time to awake the slept dormant-reader and get geared up for this challenge.  Will write more about it in subsequent posts.

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Series of bug and applications has completely slowed down the performance of my laptop.  I was never ready for formatting! Finally went for a new lappy!  And now the conflict over lappy is resolved!

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Last week, I was in a situation to confront a few people who had influenza / swine flu and who are taking medication.  I couldn't avoid meeting with them and I was scared that I would get it too. So S & I went for complete vaccination!

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At the recent vacation, I was able to explore the camera really well.  I learnt some of the easiest techniques of photography and was trying to implement them in my pictures.
I tried playing with dew drops from trees, macro shots with reflections, capturing pictures with black background, pictures with bokeh, close up shots, wide angle, night shots, light trials.   I am not perfect at any of these, and I'm still learning them with my Chitti, but I'm excited about this new learning!

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Never in my life had I the desire to cook mouth watery food, or the intention to get appreciations from S for cooking!  Because I knew, if that happens, it should be the 8th wonder in this world!!  And to make Pulikachal (Tamarind paste sauted with spices and red chillies), was a herculean tast for me!  But to my surprise,  I ended up preparing finger-licking yummy Pulikachal!!!

BoIB Contest

Hiya folks,


Unfortunately (fortunate only for me!!) my blog has been selected for the final round of Best of Indian Blogosphere (BoIB) 2010 polls under 2 categories - Travel and Photography.  Request all you folks to vote for me for these two categories below.


I am not promising that I will buy you a colour TV, if you vote for me!
I am not assuring free rice / oil, if you vote for me!
I am not swearing on anything impossible! 
But, I knew you will vote for me! 


Thanks in advance for all your support and votes:)

Winter Wonderland

I was really in need of a work break sans cooking, sans normal household work, sans the urge to meet the deadline. 
That is vacation for me! The lull such a vacation brings to the mind is unstinted.


And my second motive was to delve my camera.  The new born baby was lying at a silent corner of my room, with no single soul to care for him!  I was frantically waiting for such an occasion to explore and exploit him!  

Chitti is his name!

It was long decided that we have to go to Aviemore to spend the winter vacation.  Being in UK is such a big disadvantage if you want to visit a sunny destination.  You need visa for everything.  I never thought about this before making a move to UK.  It has tied our hands to hop over to a city / village for a weekend break.Aviemore is a popular tourist resort all through the year.  


The backdrop of Cairngorm Mountains is what you can see in every feasible direction.With no agenda in hand, we traveled our way to the heavenly winter destination in Scotland.


The scanty day light time lasted for less than 6 hours gave us more scope to spend inside the hotel. Never in our lifetime, when we travel outside, we have come back to our hotel before 10,00 PM, and never had food on time. But this trip broke the record!  Everything was time specific. 8.30 morning breakfast, 1.30 lunch and 7.00 dinner.  And during our entire stay, we were back to hotel by around 4 or 5 max.  But we did maximize the 6 hours of day light optimally! 

Day 1:

Granton on Spey is a silent village near to Aviemore. Having our hotel at this lovely village gave us more time to spend here. 

We stroll along this beautiful park that dressed up with snow, along the River Spey that's half frozen and flowing.  

It was truly picturesque and glee to one's eyes.  Later we walked until the foot of nearby mountain.

Day 2: 
Cairngorm Mountains is the most famous in Aviemore! And a trip to the top of this mountain is a must!  We reached this mountain around 11.00 just to know that the sledging park and funicular service was suspended until 2.30 due to snow forecast. 
  

And it was awfully breezy there.  Spent one hour there just whiling away our time, and we came down.  


We decided to walk until the Glenmore Forest Park's Reindeer Centre.  It's a famous attraction especially in summer.  There is an organised trekking that happens every day.  A group of 10-15 trek up the hill for 45 - 60 minutes to witness the unspoilt nature and herds of 50-60 reindeers freely gazing on the mountain.  You can feed the reindeer as well.  Ain't that a super fun!  Although we did not trek up the mountain, we managed to see some of these reindeers here.  

Here's one of those relaxing in the snow!

Diagonally opposite is the frozen Lake "Loch Morlich" with the backdrop of Cairngorm Mountains!  This sandy-beach-like-lake is a popular water sport destination in summer. 
   

A long walk along the frozen lake was a total bliss! Our memories were frozen for the day with this lake!


Day 3: 
Made another try to reach Cairngorm mountains, and this time the Varun/Vayu and Snow Bhagavan (Rain/Wind/Snow God) were good on us!  Taking the funicular up the mountain is no easy task especially during this peak skiing season! 


We slogged waiting in a mile's que and about 200 people were standing before us! Then came our turn to ride on the funicular ride....

Had some good time up there with sledging and watching other's ski! 
We enjoyed out lunch at the roof top restaurant there viewing the 360 degree of snow clad mountains!  People around were happily skiing!


Below is the Ariel view of frozen Loch Morlich from the mountain!

And by the time we came down to the town, it was already dark. 


Day 4:
We decided to go to Kincraig National Wildlife Reserve! Aviemore and surrounding villages are full of forest reserves and mountains, and it is indeed one of the most beautiful wildlife parks I've seen so far. And animals / wildlife park is one of the best places to explore camera!  We spent almost 5 hours there exploring the Macro lens and trailing with animals.  There is also a hill and view point within the wildlife park which is worth catching up with.


And so ended our camera trial and vacation!  

A new beginning

Only when I jumped into your post to wish you, did I realise that I haven't written a post for a long time. 

Its just 7 days since we got drenched with this new snow called 2011, and I'm already feeling elated about it.   

With that happy note, I wish all my readers a very happy, fun-filled, adventurous, memorable new year 2011.  Let this year bring a lot of health, wealth and peace to each of you.  

You might be wondering where I was all this while, silent! Yes, I was silent, indeed.  

Silently reading your post, 

silently enjoying my 15 day's vacation, 

silently living the relaxed life, 

silently savoring home food, 

silently rejoicing with my friends,

silently entertaining myself,

silently exploring my toy, and

silently appreciating the beauty of my bygone year!!!