April 11, 2005

Another day spent in London!

It was a lovely day yesterday in London. We decided to go on the London Eye. This was something I missed doing the last time around, there was apparently a long waiting list at that time, it was the new millenium and everything. We had great weather, it makes sense to go on the London eye on a clear bright day as opposed to a crappy clouded one so we were blessed with good sunshine.

So, here's the story of the day, in pictures ofcourse :

This is Beckenham Junction, we took a train to Victoria from here




..And a 2 minute walk from Victoria brings you to Westminster Abbey




This is me in front of one of the churches next to the abbey




We didn't waste much time, we walked across from Parliament square, over the bridge and landed up at the London Eye







Here are some scenes from within the capsule on the London Eye. The scenery is breathtaking and yet boring in a way..

Yeah, it is a long way down and you could get dizzy up there!



The capsule next to us




The Houses of Parliament from the London eye




Us!!




Just me





I will bring you down to China Town!

After we were done with the London Eye, we decided to head towards China Town in London. We walked through this place last week and it came across as a very lively, vibrant, colorful part of town and it smelt grat. There were all these beautiful restaurants selling all kinds of oriental food and we just couldn't leave without tasting some of the stuff.




We settled for a place called "Ye Tung", this guy was handing out flyers for a buffet at this place and when we came across it, the pretty waitress pointed upstairs to us. We were sold. Now, this place had 2 kinda buffets, one with 40 items for 8 quid and another lesser one for 5 quid, they were on seperate floors,ofcourse we went for the cheaper one and we were dissapointed.

This is what the place looked like, I imagine restaurants in Beijing being something like this!








This was round 1 of the feast :




...and how I tucked it all in :)




...and not much else happened after that really. Just some general lazing about London. I'm starting to get kinda sick of this place. I really like it that I heard 50 accents from 50 different nationalities all in one day, this is a great city to walk about in, really is. Here's a final pic of Piccadilly circus in the afternoon :





Posted by me on Monday, April 11, 2005

April 07, 2005

Dinner At Maroush

This is what we did in the evening. We had such a good time, this event deserved a post for itself.

So, we had to meet up with the Geller Family at Maroush on Bond street at 8 PM. Because my mum has a bad foot, we had to drive to the place, we checked it out earlier in the day when we went for our walk. Anyways, so we leave at around 6.40 in the evening and end up late at 8.30. It was a crazy, harrowing experience was navigationg the streets of London city, as any london driver will tell you!

We got dropped off at Maroush while my brother went looking for some place to park the car. We were immeditaley greeted by Uri and the rest of the family who were seated on the upper floor. Now Maroush is a fancy Lebanese restaurant, yet it didn't have the stuffy atmosphere of a fine dining place. This was the kind of place I'd set up if I ever open a restaurant myself :)

So we hugged and greeted one another, it was great to meet with the kids, Dan & Nat after 5 whole years. It felt just like 5 years ago, everyone's grown out of their teen years, so much has happened in the 5 years, yet when we're back together it's like a moment frozen in time. This is what it means to be back with friends after years. Just awesome.

A word about the kids, Daniel and Natalie. Daniel is a member of the conservative party, he's an LSE Graduate and has completed Law school as well, he was on his way to becoming a barrister when the politics bug bit him and he is doing fantastically well. He's the most humble and gentlest soul on the planet. This guy has a great future ahead of me, I get greatness vibes from him I've never gotten from anyone else ever!

Natalie is the younger of the kids, again very humble and very kind. She wants to become an actress and is working hard towards it. She's beautiful and I know she's going to make it big one day, I can sense there's a burning desire to do well in her.

These two are the nicest kids anywhere in the world. I am so happy and proud to know them!

Here are some photos from the evening :

Maroush : The Venue



Daniel & I



(l-r) Uri, Daniel, Bobby, myself



Uri Geller & I



Bobby, Uri and Myself



I and Natalie



I really liked it that my Mum was having a good time with the people she's met only once before. Everyone was warm and friendly with her, especially the women! Ofcourse none of the photos have my Mum or Hannah in them, they're in Shipi's camera!

The evening ended with warm goodbyes and a promise to meetup again before the end of the trip!


Posted by me on Thursday, April 07, 2005

A day out in London

My brother took a day off from work yesterday, we decided to make the best use of it by taking a train to London and spend some time walking about the city to see parts we missed out last time. We're fast walkers, we covered good ground and had a pretty nice time. The weather was okay when we left, it was gray and cold but I like it that way for change, otherwise you don't feel like you're in England! Last thing I want is to return to Bombay with a tan from the English sun!!!!

It wasn't the longest walkabout ever, we had to get back to Beckenham to get ready for dinner in the city at 8 again so we walked as fast as we could. We get off at Victoria station, walk towards Parliament square, pass by Downing street, got on the tube at piccadilly and got off at Bond street, walked about on Bond street for a while, got on the tube at Green Park station, back to Victoria station and from Victoria staion back to Beckenham junction.

I could go on about the stuff I saw and how I felt but I'd prefer this to be more like a photoblog from now on, cos they're worth a thousand words, so here goes, some pics from our day yesterday :

Me at St. James's Park




Entrance to St. James's Park :




Flowers at St. James's :




Pond at St. Jame's Parks



Buckingham Palace from St. James's




Yep, thats us!




Big Ben in B&W




London Cab in B&W!




The roof of a shopping centre on Bond street





Posted by me on Thursday, April 07, 2005

April 04, 2005

And so we're in England...

So, I arrived in London at around 9.30 on the 2nd. It was an okay flight over on Virgin Atlantic. They need to get their act together, the flight crew were sloppy in parts and I really found their attempts at being peppy and funny as being quite annoying. The seats were cramped and awful the only reason I amde it through the flight was because of the awesome in-flight entertainment system they have on Virgin. I saw two whole movies, Fahrenheit 9/11 and Meet the Fockers, I enjoyed the former more. But it was good to laugh for a while on the plane too. I watched a few episodes of the Simpsons too! Amazinglym your eyes didn't start hurting after a few hours of watching the tiny screen, unlike on my Emirates flight last time around.

Here are a few pictures :

About to Board the aircraft



The God Awful Food served on the flight (Bad on your Virgin Atlantic!)



Yep, the inside



2nd time First impressions

Heathrow was full of Asians and Carribean people, didn't feel like London at all. Anyways, so we get into my brothers tiny car and drive over to his place which is about an hour from Heathrow. It was 10 at night so it was dark n very boring looking outside. I knew what England essentially looks like from last time so I didn't feel surprised or wowed or anything.

Woke up on Sunday morning and just sat around for a while looking through the windows to see England bathed in brilliant sunshine. We call up Uri Geller and decide to meet at 3. We drive all the way over to Reading. We get lost in Reading and have to ask for directions. Now Reading in Berkshire is a beautiful town. I liked the looks of it so much better than the crappy surroundings of Croydon which is near from here. Seriously, This is such a bland country, and it's very generic all throughout, my eyes could do with some bright colours now!

The Geller Family

The long and boring drive westwards brought us to Sonning in the royal county of Berkshire and into the home of my good friend Uri Geller. How good it was to see everyone again after 5 years, there were warm embraces, lots of jokes, a few awkward moments and some serious business to talk about. All in all a very good meeting. I'm happy for my mum who's wanted to meet the family for years now, a bit of a dream come true.

Some photos from the afternoon :

Uri's brother-in-law Shipi Takes a picture :




Mom and Uri Geller



The Desi crew at Sonning Court!



Mum watches spoonbending with muffin in hand



Me standing outside Uri's Pyramid



Boat behind Uri's house. Thats the river thames you see.




Posted by me on Monday, April 04, 2005

April 01, 2005

London, Here I come!

My bags are packed, my clothes are ironed, I feel awful but I'm ready to leave for England for this 2 week stay.

I had the most horrid expereince today, the PC started acting funny and I needed to re-install Win 98, ofcourse that meant installing back all the stuff that was in it so that my dad could use it when I'm not here. Well, I've done most of the stuff he uses so it should be all good.

Seriously, with the news of my tooth, the PC conking off and some other stuff, I really feel I'm riding a bad luck wave right now. It feels horrible, like there's an unseen force out there who's plotting against you, on the other hand this could be a test for me. I cannot believe how much I've had to think over the past 7 days, just crazy. This is gonna be the craziest trip ever.

Anyways, I sign off now and get some final stuff done. Hopefully my next post is from London!


Posted by me on Friday, April 01, 2005