I don’t get Apollo 11

The Eagle has indeed landed and I will not be dwelling on conspiracy theories rather the fact that I don’t quite get Apollo 11 as much as I do Apollo 13! Of course this is purely personal and has nothing to do with the stereotyping of my gender or my generation. There could be the geek factor or lack thereof but then that could be discounted due to my fair bit of interest in anything that flies, no not anything! gadgets that fly, strike that too, planes it is. I dream of Jeannie, X-Flies, JAG should be proof of that, just don’t ask me for the how and why!

Another pretty obvious factor is that the event happened before I was born, but then so did the World War, so did West Bank! On the other hand is Apollo 13, forever etched and its fascinating portrayal of the turn of events by Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise, Kevin Bacon, Ed Harris and 'Houston, we have a problem'. Brilliance overflowing.



Not to take anything anyway from One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind moment!
(The feminists would have been all over that one if Armstrong used that statement 20 years ago)


Neil Armstrong’s footprint on the moon.


Here’s my own little moon moment!

A holiday to remember

This has been one long break on my blog accentuated by the fact that I already got the pizza coupons due to the recall in the mail today, (and no, I did not eat that pizza, although I was pretty confident there would have been no after effects!). At times I wish my work would present me with such a break! Bench sounds awesome at this time, but probably in a month I would be writing about the ill-effects on being on bench. Typical grass is greener on the other side attitude.

Back to business, and it has been an erratic, unpredictable and enjoyable past month culminating with yet another 'change of address'. Erratic is the perfect way to describe my work at this point without getting into details! Unpredictable are my plans for myself and others for me! Let's not talk about that too, I can talk about the enjoyable at length.

The start to the thanksgiving weekend seemed anything but perfect. Decided to avoid the traffic rush and headed out to IAH only about 1.5 hours before my departure time and as fate would have it, the rain God decided to shower us! A treacherous drive got me in time for my 9:15 PM flight and the first thing I noticed on entering the airport was the two hour delay on my flight. Continental did a good job of finding another plane despite the fact that the original aircraft seemed stranded in New Orleans, due to all the rain!(pity those folks).

My destination was Santa Clara, landed at SFO airport, and somehow ended up at the departure terminal (Set to go back already?) Nothing as relaxing as seeing a familiar face after a long time and I was mentally preparing myself to enjoy the holiday. I wouldn't say it was not to be, as I found myself logging into work…just to make sure! And issues there were, although I was spared to quite an extent!!

Thanksgiving Day was reserved for 'The Rock', and the other regular touristy stuff around SFO including the Golden Gate, Fisherman's Wharf and Sausalito. Of course it seemed like one couldn't do without trying out the world famous ice-cream at the Ghirardelli Square. I enjoyed the world famous Hot Fudge Sundae but still think it can't be compared to our own Ideal's.

Lake Tahoe is beautiful in all respects; the drive was scenic and enchanting. It was not snowing, and yet the temperatures were in the late 20's. Since Skiing was first on our list of things to do, we decided to head out to the Boreal ski resort where fake snow was being churned out on the slopes and yet it looked welcoming. Geared up literally with the ski's, ski poles, clothing and the boots all inclusive in a package which included the ski lesson too.

The ski boots are insanely heavy and after trudging in them for a little, I felt like taking them off. A little more than an hour of ski instruction and I knew how to put on my ski's! and the theory of skiing and controlling my speed and stopping although I wasn't able to completely put it to practice. The 2-5 ° slopes sufficed me, yet the chair lift was beckoning us, all I wanted to do was get on them and get back down on the same lifts. Who would have realized that it was only a one-way ticket!.

I didn't even feel confident of getting up on to the beginner slope and how we ended on the inter/expert slope is hence no question of debate. Getting on and off the chairlift itself was such a joke and of -course the staff there probably are used to people who know what to do!

The top of the slope!, an almost 60° slope which looked beautiful and scary!!!, We just stood on the top for a few minutes gazing in awe and I thinking up tactics on how I could ski or rather slide down. Despite all this, a photo op was not to be missed; after all I was one of the few people who decided to carry a camera on a ski slope!!! All the worry of ‘how to get down a ski slope when you did not even get down a beginner slope’ was set to later!

Down we had to go, there was no other way. With kids zooming by and me feeling extremely foolish, I managed to slide down the ski slope!!! With one ski on my foot and the other in hand…Gosh, am I glad there was no one with a video cam! And despite the initial mishaps I managed to get down the slope with minor bruises and in good time!

That was enough skiing for a lifetime and I couldn’t wait to rest my feet and rest we did at the Ferrari Crown Motel, would recommend this place to anyone visiting the area. After a delicious dinner at a local steakhouse, we decided to call it a night and after a scrumptious breakfast the next day, we set out to the casino’s to utilize some of my beginner’s luck only to realize that there’s no such thing as beginner's luck!!! A drive down to South Lake Tahoe and after more oohing and aahing about the vista, we headed back to San Francisco. Eventide had set in when we reached Santa Clara. It was Nov 24th, 2007.

The rest of my vacation was reserved for relaxing and personal time, meeting up with relatives and friends and more drives into San Francisco and the many neighboring towns!

My first experience on a red-eye flight was awesome and I awoke only in time to hear the announcement that we were set to land in Houston. And you know you are in Houston with all the Tuesday morning traffic snarls, and despite that you make it in time for a day at work.

4 years in a single and only organization and the date didn't even register!

Writing about San Francisco and thereabouts (PST), started the post in Houston (CST), wrote the major sections in schiphol airport (CET) and publishing it from Mangalore (IST)...

Excuse the mess up of timelines in this post as it was started a couple of weeks ago and published only today.

e Coli anyone?

The first time I heard about e coli was in regard to the recall of some brands of spinach almost a year ago, but then who cared?...not that i would pick up the secret of Mr. Popeye's strength from a supermarket aisle!


Totino's pizza, well this strikes close to home... right in the freezer to be precise. Saying I live off frozen foods would be an exaggeration, however the frozen pizza rolls and pizza are a life saver for me at times....infact I almost ate one of these yesterday but then decided to order a nice fresh pizza from pizzahut online( something to do with Halloween?)

This press release talks about destroying the pizza, but what about those that have already been consumed... anyway, I've still got one of these lying in my freezer, don't think it would contaminate the rest of the items in the freezer!!!

All the recalls, well it makes me think twice before buying a gift for a kid, after all the tainted food, tainted toys, what's next... well then i guess there are some things that should be taken with a pinch of salt and despite not being a health freak, i will still have to destroy the pizza!

48 hours

It was my first experience at a parish bazaar here in the US. We stumbled upon it by chance; our intention was to attend mass and while we found the church under lock and key decided to find the reason for the cancellation of the evening mass. Blame it on me for not reading the parish bulletin.

The limited time we spent there, was splendid, as with everything else, there seemed to be no lack of enthusiasm for a church bazaar. As is human nature, follow the crowd and we found ourselves queuing up in front of the funnel cakes stall! Not that we knew anything at all about funnel cakes! If people can wait in a queue while there are many other stalls with no queues, there should be some reason. The cakes were good….didn't resemble a funnel in any way though, the name could be because of the use of a funnel while making the cake, wouldn't even call it a cake...

The stores comprised from regular flea market kind of stuff, to live music, an auction, raffle games, and of course food and drinks. The rains seemed to have been kept at bay just enough for the occasion.

A visit to an art exhibition yesterday featuring Annu Naik and my second visit to SJV in as many days, this seemed like a perfect weekend.

t'was a tax free weekend and t'was a long time ago!

its quite a novel concept, especially with the sales tax rates at 8.25%... tax free weekend seems like the perfect time to shop for all those shoes and clothes which you probably don't really need! Sometimes I do think, the only thing you can do in Houston is shop! Anyway, this time around the state administration themselves told us to go out and shop, well... they did mean to fill up the gas tanks and stock up on groceries but whatever.... and all that in anticipation of Dean, who had other plans!

and back to the movies, seems like that's the only one thing I write about these days... two movies, the only semblance between them is the setting... i.e Britain

Becoming Jane: A simple yet wonderful narration of what is definitely an exaggeration of one of the incidents in Jane Austen's life. Nevertheless, the intricate portrayal of a young girl's life, the difficult choices she has to make... was somewhat poignant. Despite being set in the 18th century, the truths we believe in are all the same, the taste of forbidden fruit seems really exciting! Anne Hathaway made the Jane Austen look glamorous to an extent although her pulling off a slightly older Jane in the last scene of the movie seemed a trifle unnecessary.

and the other movie: there wasn't any hype, well there couldn't have been.... I mean, I seriously did not get the point. This movie is so uninteresting, you could watch the news instead! there's no plot, no story... have to admit the term Caesar was most confusing...the kid from Love Actually(the little boy who falls in love!, the most cliched storyline of all the plots in that movie!) is Caesar huh! and what's with Aiswariya Rai's role... She says in almost quote I'm Mira, from South India, Kerala unquote and talks about her country being an ally of who? the British or the Romans... whatever and who cares, and she is trying to be a Jhansi ki Rani... she's gotta know it, she didn't pull it off. And all this despite the presence of Ben Kingsley and Colin Firth and well the movie was called 'The Last Legion'.

blame it on the rain!

I thought I'd dwell on and find a reason for my recent lack of interest in blogging... well reasons i did find. I think it all started with the shifting plan, settled in my new apartment with cable TV and over 200 channels, if not for the hours of movies, x-files, alias, sabrina that are already lying recorded on my dvr, then Anderson Cooper seems to have me hooked onto CNN... and then there have been all those amazing F1 races, including today's, if only Kimi had managed to win as it had seemed, this weekend would have been great.

Houston public library, lets put that one on my list too... always have a armful of books whenever i get in and out of that place! Certification coming up in two days, work and calls, and then more calls - that about makes my list.

Its been a while since I made it for the Sunday morning service at St. John's Vianney, evening service is wonderful too. Fr. Jose from Kerala, has joined the parish as an assistant pastor, truly a small world and he seemed pleased to have met a few Indians, M'lore/Karnataka is after all a neighbor to his home state!

and how can i forget the rain, its been raining cats and dogs, off and on and the rain in Houston, is as unpredictable as the politics in India, its raining in Mangalore too, so much so that some areas were flooded, now that's a first since i always believed the drainage system in M'lore was excellent, the adverse effects of growth and development...so like Milli Vanili said, whatever you do don't put the blame on you, blame it on the rain!

Back to Houston

Well, this post is finally here and after a particularly depressing finale episode of Grey's Anatomy last night, i decided to start on this. I'll probably talk about the anatomy of Grey's, well technically it can't be called Grey's Anatomy anymore!, sorry rambling, will probably write on that later if in the spirit!

It's more than a month since I got back and my travel memoirs are still not on paper or more appropriately on the www!, well who can I blame this time! Well for once I'd probably blame it my lethargy. yea that's a step in the right direction.. Acceptance! here we go...

April 14th, 2007: Mangalore is hot during this time of the year and it was unusually very so this time around, hoped for a few showers but there were none and it was time to leave.

Kingfisher Airlines (IXE - BLR): All red all beautiful :- ), found myself in a small ATR jet, a 46 seater with only one entrance. Ended up waiting on the runway for a little more than half an hour, the showers and thunderstorms finally decided to make their presence felt while I was cooped inside the plane! The flight was comfortable and they seemed to have a good menu but I decided to abstain! So can't comment on the food.

On the ground in Bangalore, and in the coach that was going to take us to the terminal we learned that there could be a delay. APJ Abdul Kalam had landed in a chopper and was in the process of boarding an IAF airplane. We were stuck on the runway for about 30 minutes, watching the IAF plane, not really hoping to catch a glimpse of the President. (This reminded me of the time in MIT, all of us on the terrace of the NLHostel!!!, the first time they let us get there and all we could hear was the whirring of the Presi's helicopter). Finally his plane took off, much to the pleasure of all of us stuck in the coach.

Bangalore Airport: Literally a parade of people, no indication again whatsoever which conveyor belt is going to bring in your baggage! I got out of the terminal and was so glad to see my friend and roomie of 3 years while at MIT, Pearl waiting outside. Unfortunately once you get out of the terminal, there's no real place you can make yourself comfortable in, we ending up sitting on some sort of elevated pavement, right across from where cars would attempt to crawl by. If not for the reminiscing about the past and catching up on the present, I would have gone insane in this place amidst all the human form of life and the not so human form of life (read stray dogs and mosquitoes! Don't get me wrong, I love dogs, just not the ones who wander outside airport terminals! And No, I don't love mosquitoes!). Thanks Pearl for your presence.

I had to kill 7 hours until my flight and there's no entry into the international departure terminal until about 3 hours before the scheduled departure time, there's just no room as the security guard pointed out.

There however seems to be no end to the parade, and the queue to get into the departure terminal was miles and miles long! The flight was overbooked, read about it here, specifically asked for window seats and nominated myself for Lufthansa's 'Miles and more' program.

The waiting terminal is really bad; almost every seat was occupied, ended up on an uncomfortable seat in front of the TV and found myself watching some show on Pogo, 'Just gags', I think it was. 4 international flights take off within a few hours of the other and there's just one gate!. We truly need the Devanhalli airport to be up and running soon, 8 years to completion, better late than never! I boarded with two hand bags, there's always an exception to the rule!

The flight was full, cringy despite the window seat. Don't know what movie was playing, had to strain to watch the screen! Was so glad when the 'fasten seat belts sign came on and we landed in Frankfurt, had about an 1 hour to make the connection and did so comfortably. We did have a security check, but the wait was peaceful and the atmosphere unbelievably calming. The aircraft was parked in some corner of the airport, a long ride in the coach!

FRA-IAH: The flight was only half-full, lot of empty seats and I found myself sitting next to the emergency exit door, was asked to go through some reading material on how to open the door. A teeny voice in my head (not sure if it came from the head) wished that I could open that door. The seat was the best I've had on all my flights with Lufthansa, lot of leg space, we also had side trays, nah... all the seats are not like this, just the few lucky ones who may have to open exit doors in case of an emergency!... better make sure they are comfortable and not cranky!!!

I say it again, the in-flight entertainment aboard Lufthansa sucks, headphones were again not working and they just shrug their heads!, asked me to move into another seat, well i looked around and decided not to leave my exit seat, after all I may get a chance to open the exit door( wow, dangerous wishful thinking). 'The holiday' was on and anyway with or without headphones i couldn't see the TV screen, neither could half the people in our section!

Landed on time, despite the delay and it was good to be on the ground

04/14/07 5:15 PM IST to 04/15/07 1:40 PM CST to Houston...

to IXE

12:00 AM: The Boeing 747 jet swooned low over the city, right by the roads and the apartments, and there was a difference, yea it was the lack of skyscrapers unlike most of the US cities and international stopovers. There we were at Bangalore 'international' airport.

Disembarkation was a short smart process. Once outside of the immigration zone, you get a true feeling of being in India. Haphazard crowds waiting for their baggage, no indication whatsoever of which one of the conveyor belts we needed to be at, when we did find the right conveyor belt for our baggage, we were pointed to a few pieces of luggage strewn over the floor near the belt, don't know how it ended up on the floor... After a long wait for the luggage… yea the bags did travel long from IAH to FRA and then to BLR! and amidst the typical Indian scenes of an official on the conveyor belt and after testing my kannada with the porters who seemed to think I wouldn't be able to push around a trolley with my luggage on, it was to the customs, just walked right through.

Based on advice which turned out to be invaluable, I decided to wait out 6 of those 8 hours in the sitting area within the departure terminal itself. An 8 hour wait for a 30 minute flight! With my Toshiba gigabeat and its excellent battery life and Mary Jane Clark's 'Hide yourself away' to keep me company I still can't say the 8 hours felt like 2 hours!!

It is a virtual pounding once outside the departure terminal, 'Taxi, Madam'...'Auto, Madam' I wonder at the sanity of that statement, would I have been able to fit my entire luggage into an auto?

The domestic terminal is okay, almost good…anyway my flight was advanced by half an hour and I had to check the additional luggage in!, Indian flight standards… allowing only one handbag!

We had to walk to the airline… I've always loved walking to the plane, triggering memories of all the times as kids when we walked to the board the flight at bajpe.

Jet Airways, BLR- IXE : Despite us boarding on time, we ended up waiting on the runway as a number of flights were queued up to take off. A drink and breakfast later, that's all this short flight has time for, we could see the familiar plains of Mangalore... The landing awesome as always, amidst the elevation almost as if into a gorge... Jet Airways, no complains almost always...

Mangalore international airport, yes, in this one year it has been elevated to international status and the signage looked welcoming.

03/28/07 3:25 PM CST to 03/30/07 9:30 AM IST
to Home sweet home

10000 miles

A journey of a close to 10000 miles to and fro and 6 flights later...

The journey started at Houston - IAH, George Bush airport, my first time in the international terminal here and its not unlike any other airport I've seen in the US, infact all of them are pretty similar. However the duty free seemed good, lot of Texas souvenir stuff to choose from, bought a couple and a couple of 'Don't Mess with Texas tees'. The only other airlines I've traveled with in the past... East West, Indian Airlines, Air India and British Airways not including the domestic US airlines. Enough for a comparison?, maybe, maybe not...

On flight :- Lets start with IAH to Frankfurt on Lufthansa...Pricey but comfortable is what I'd heard of this airline from a few of my colleagues, pricey yea it was...but comfortable....hmm... well... the experience wasn't particularly great or better than the only other long distance carrier, BA, I've traveled with in the past, more so it was slightly horrendous. The journey was jerky and turbulent but obviously that's just beyond a muggler's( is that the plural of muggle)control.

Economy class seats... well they are just like economy class seats! even tho the business and first class looked really cool...complete with top level seating. Dinner was okay, complete with a number of rounds of beverages, alcoholic and not.
Inflight entertainment totally sucks in EClass. I wasn't even able to switch to Video mode on my headphones, the flight attendant tried all that i tried and then just gave up, Marie Antoinette was one of the movies on, but couldn't watch it. The headphones, not international standards at all, kept slipping off, size fits a person with a big head, and adjustable only a certain limit!.. continental airlines provides the better clip on type ones! take a page from their book lufthansa!

This was the worst one: Every time i tried reclining my seat even a little bit the passenger from behind(lets call her backseat lady) would completely push it upright, tried it a couple of times only to hear muttering and cursing from behind. Finally I could take it no longer and had to summon the flight attendant, she spoke about rights to the backseat lady!!! and reclined my seat, finally i thought i could get some sleep... weird thing was that backseat lady had reclined her own seat... wow

I was sitting in the middle section, four seats and i had an aisle seat. My co-passenger... well he reeked when he got into his seat itself and a number of Lufthansa served 'beverages' later including a spill of wine on my shirt sleeve and after all the passing around of 'beverages', and hanging out with friends in the aisle, he wanted to switch seats with me. I must say this, I hate middle seats but if I had to count the number of times he had got out of his seat and the number of times he was likely to get out of his seat, well the mathematics and statistics was starting to give me a headache, even though i had a 100 and 99 in these subjects respectively in my PU2 boards...ditching the numbers and using my better judgment i took up on his offer and switched seats. Some hours of sleep later and we were in Germany.

Frankfurt airport: Huge and beautiful, the duty free shops...very inviting, very European. Passengers from US flights could directly go the gates without a security check, with my previous experience in an aisle seat, i decided to switch the seat allocated to me which was 'aisle' again for a window and was able to get one, the last one available. A cursory check of the bags is done at the gate itself before boarding, he just lifts up the bag with his hand and if he feels its over then asks you to check it in. I was carrying a trolley kind of bag, which was beyond permissible hand baggage limits and was asked to check it in, but since i was one of the last passengers to get my bags checked, and all the luggage was already sent to the cargo hold or wherever... they let me board with my extra 4 kgs worth of goods!

On flight : The seat change was a good one, found myself in the tail of the airplane. The usual side section held 3 seats , however the last three only had 2 and i was in the penultimate row. There's a little space between the seat and the window, i.e. i couldn't lean against the window. Nice co-passenger, cute well-behaved kid in the seat in front and a comfortable seat for a good sleep. Headphones were working fine this time around but same style and they kept slipping off, no chance that my head could have grown bigger en route to Frankfurt from Houston. A Boolywood flick was on, watched only a bit before dozing off, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Preity Zinta, don't care enough to look up the name... some day.

Adjusted my watch to IST and some 9 hours later we landed in Bangalore, India... back after exactly a year.

my tryst with an overbooked flight

Lufthansa on my flight out from Bangalore to Frankfurt offered me 600 euros, acco and a guaranteed flight out exactly 24 hrs later if I was willing to give up my seat, seems like they were overbooked by quite a few numbers. The deal was awesome; I would have recovered half my trip cost and needless to say I pondered on it for a second and sadly only for a second and none too longer.

Well, I’ll blame it on the Bangalore airport for the lack of pondering time, after an awful long wait outside the departure terminal in abject conditions made better only by the fact that I had a friend waiting with me and an equally long wait in a queue to get into the ‘departure’ terminal I seemed to have lost all ability to ponder for more than a second, and if I do believe under any other circumstances and greater than a second of pondering time, I would have pounced on the deal!

rodeo pics

 

 
 

 

Thanks to Shyam and his Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTfor these pics.Windows Live Writer did not let me post these pics without a FTP server, hence did it using Picasa

Technorati tags: Rodeo, Canon, Windows Live Writer, Picasa

houston livestock rodeo & Sheryl Crow

Despite all the traffic snarls on 610 we made it in good time (only 45 mins late) for yesterday's SuperSeries Championship round at the Houston livestock and rodeo event to witness some of the rodeo events and the concert performance at the reliant stadium.

And witness we did, in some instances more so than humankind's cruelty to animal, it was the animal's cruelty to man!

Saddle bronc riding is it some sort of rhythmic gymnastics, only not as graceful and on horses!, almost like the horse guffawing at every step! And then the Steer wrestling, where the wrestler who is on a horse has to stop a young bull and pin it to the ground, very cruel

The most popular event did seem like the Bull Riding, cruel again! man on a bull trying to tame it for a few seconds and then running away when he comes chasing after you! And justly so the 2006 champion emerged with flying colors, but then I guess there ain't anything like a winner, they all feel like winners in their own right in this mad mad ride! The Wagon Race was a fast event with horses racing all over. Calf scramble was a fun event with hilarious moments and teens in their quest to tame the calf, a few were successful, it may seem easy but it's not, as of course the calf has a mind of its own!

Barrel racing a ladies horse riding event - graceful and flamboyant event of the evening, cowgirls and graceful, a girl can be graceful on a horse as much as prince charming can be on his!

The lights went out for Sheryl Crow's performance, this being my first time inside reliant stadium for a concert, the atmosphere was electric, the fireworks superb.

Sheryl who last year had to cancel her performance at this same event after being diagnosed with breast cancer, made her way to the stage on a beautiful horse that didn't seem to want her to disembark! Take me for a ride lady!

She started off with a bunch of numbers I couldn't hum to and then got into the groove with First cut is the deepest, If it makes you happy, Are you strong enough to be my man ( An invitation to the Texan cowboys only!), All I wanna do I have some fun and Soak up the sun

The acoustics seemed a little screwed up as while she was talking I could barely understand her and most of the crowd too I presume as they couldn't respond well enough to her!

 

Technorati tags: Houston, Sheryl Crow, Rodeo

Today is Fat Tuesday!

Heard this phrase first when I came across Sandra Brown’s novel with the same title, which by the way is an okay read. The association is relevant, Mardi gras which literally means Fat Tuesday in French, the day before Ash Wednesday, the day for gluttony and extravagance. The last hurrah heralding the start of a somber season.
The name comes from the tradition of slaughtering and feasting upon a fattened calf on the last day of the Carnival. Also known as Shrove Tuesday (to shrive, or hear confessions), Pancake Tuesday and fetter Dienstag. The custom of making pancakes comes from the need to use up eggs and dairy before the fasting and abstinence of Lent begins. The official colors of Mardi gras are purple, a symbol of justice; green, representing faith; and gold, to signify power… symbolic.

I think the carnival in Goa too is linked to this event only that it lasts for three days. The Carnival season here in the US starts off with Epiphany, (the feast of the three kings, Jan 6th and back home this has traditionally been the day when we pull down the Christmas tree, the Star and all the other Christmas decorations) and culminates on the day before Ash Wednesday.

Mardi gras is a popular event in down south Texas i.e. Galveston and New Orleans too and being as close to these as we could possibly be, the thought did cross our minds, but like some thoughts that never get to see the light of the day… add plus 1 to that count! Add life to the event with a few snaps and commercials on TV with all the masked balls and tableaus and lots of beads, yeah lots of them…. It does seem like tossing of chain beads is quite popular in this part of the world, Infact have always managed to get hold of a few during our visits to Kemah (people partying on boats toss these to the crowds on the pier)

No partying, just a Welcome to the Lenten Season and plans…yea, have lots of them!

la la LA

This is not a tour diary; I don’t think I can write a tour diary after a couple of unsuccessful attempts. Those were the days when I could write 5 page essays on a trip!

Back to the thanksgiving weekend with the two holidays and the fact that Binaisha was traveling to LA. LA is different, as is NY from Houston …. I can hear obviously! All unique and beautiful in their own way

We made it to the airport on time, well in time despite all the traffic snarls on the freeway. Traveling for the first time post the transatlantic air scare, and I had to dump a couple of containers in the thrash can, blame it on the manufacturing co. - travel size packs and exceeding 3 oz….huh!

Somehow Continental airlines always seem to land ahead of schedule and that meant a long wait at LAX for my pickup…. Catching up with Bin for the second time since I got here

The USC campus was our first stop followed by the thanksgiving dinner at Sandeep’s. What’s special about thanksgiving, leaving aside the traditional meaning, for us it meant shopping and what better than the Friday madness shopping, headed to Camarillo and partook in the madness, from midnight to about 10 AM… was truly maddening.

The rest of the Friday was for Hollywood , Rajesh drove all the way down from San Diego to meet us ;-) Hollywood here I come!
Hollywood Street is like any commercial street in the US , predominately of souvenir stores and eat out places with an occasional piece of ‘fame’, like the Kodak theater and the wax museum. Reminded me of the 6th street in Austin that’s full of pubs and tattoo stores! Ripley’s was our first stop and it lived upto expectations while I had to settle with Harrison Ford for a picture on the walk of fame star. We tried unsuccessfully to get below the Hollywood sign after a treacherous drive into the Hollywood hills! And that was the end of the day 2.

Universal Studios deserves a complete post but I’ll try my best here – simply amazing is all I can say. The Universal studio tour is a must-visit, well-organized and informative, we even saw the ‘desperate housewives’ set among others! Not a fan of those thrilling rides as they call it but these were something else. The ‘Mummy returns’ ride looked a lot similar to the setting in the movie ‘Final Destination 3’ but I didn’t let that jitter me. The rest of the rides and shows were all truly worthy of the time we spent waiting for our turn in winding queues. Water World truly deserves a mention here along with those photo ops with Zorro and Shrek :- )

The entertainment capital of LA totally appealed to me, with an excellent on the feedback form

Sunday was reserved for Mass, Promenade, Santa Monica Pier, Beverly Hills and a second unsuccessful attempt at getting to the Hollywood sign as the path leading to it from Griffith park was closed!.

Houston welcomes me back by with a huge downpour! Nice$@

Kemah

There’s not really much to talk about Kemah, Kemah the entrance to the bay area, was hoping to get my feet wet, but no chance of that. Parking space is a real issue here, took us about 20 minutes to find one. Kemah boardwalk is what it’s called, there’s the view of the bay, cruises and ski-jets line the bay area, there are a lot of amusement rides such as the Carousel, Aviator, pharaoh’s fury and stuff like that. We took a ride on the Boardwalk tower; the views from the top are breathtaking to say the least.

Spacey Saturday(06/24/06)

For a change, all went according to schedule, the rain God decided to bear with us too, we (my roomie; team-mate, his friend and myself) rented out a car for our visit to the Space Center and Kemah beach. A teeny weenie bit of a delay turned out to my advantage as I could catch Germany’s two goals against Sweden and they didn’t score anymore after that, so didn’t really miss much.

Back to our jaunt, it's about a two hour journey, with all the induced delays, so we were right on time for lunch which we had at an Indian restaurant close to NASA, buffet style, but too spicy for my liking. All the camera’s were loaded and we reached the Johnson Space Center, the Manned Spacecraft Center was renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in 1973. He during his tenure as President and VP supported the space program as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences. It was during this reign that the decision to land a man on the moon was made.

Since we had already booked our tickets online, we went right in. My first thought on entry was ‘Oh my God, we’ve come to the wrong place', lottsa kid rides around the entrance, lots of terminals with different astronaut themed games and stuff. Kids can basically have a good time here.

We sat through a demonstration on ‘Feel of space’; it was a demo of a day in the life of an astronaut/cosmonaut on the International space station (ISS). Its almost hilarious, I said almost … the mundane tasks such as eating or relieving oneself, seem, well, extraordinary.

ISS is pretty significant but of course, there’s a miniature model, along with a larger more detailed model suspended from the ceiling, you can also take a virtual tour of the ISS, and you don’t even have to worry about the laws of gravity!

The walls and ceilings are pretty much covered with dials, medallions and various other exhibits and a handful of astronauts suspended in air.

The astronaut gallery houses a whole lot of spacesuits (ejection suits and flight suits) complete with a detailed listing; the adjacent wall has portraits and crew photos of every US astronaut who has flown in space. There were a couple of paid rides, one was a sort of a Shuttle mock-up, Blast-Off. We also toured a section of a mock-up space ship complete with a hanger for the spacesuits, dials, controls and such stuff.

The tram tour was next; we were in the blue line, waiting endlessly, curving through a maze of rope dividers! The tour was within the gates of the space center, the real place where the people (astronauts too!) work, these are the people involved in all those numerous space missions, must be one exciting life!, this is the ‘Houston’ Neil Armstrong was referring to when Apollo 11 landed on the moon.

It was a three stop tour, the first one at the actual mission control room used for the Apollo missions. The tour narration was on a pre-recorded tape, but at the mission control center there was a guide who took us through the history of the MCC and the adjacent blue room which supports ISS.

Stop 2 was the Astronaut Memorial ground, Oak trees planted in honor of all the astronauts who have lost their lives for the space missions. The most recent addition was of seven oaks planted in honor of the crew members of the ill-fated Columbia which included India’s very own Kalpana Chawla, the moment was almost nostalgic, a minute silence was observed for all those souls, at last count it is 40.

Stop 3, Rocket park was an optional stop, a number of people in the group didn’t get off, coz the tram just goes on and we need to wait and get in the next one, the park has a couple of space rockets, engines and then there’s a long building at the corner of the park, we almost didn’t go in there…it was amazing….a Saturn V rocket sitting horizontally inside and boy was it huge, it stands almost 36 stories tall. Looked up some material, this is one of only three extant Saturn V’s..used to launch the apollo spacecraft, made up entirely of rocket stages intended for flight. It’s so huge that they built the building around it instead of moving it and is currently undergoing restoration, due to the damage caused by the weather.

That's about it, sadly we missed a few exhibits, significantly the Starship Gallery which features the largest collection of moon-rocks, it was buried in one corner, somehow the setting of the place is a little haphazard, quite easy to miss shows.

A suggestion, don't forget to pick up the 'Map & Show Schedule' at the entrance!
All said, a must-visit if you are in Houston, Kemah in the next post!
Some problem with uploading pics, will do that soon.

The weekend of June 3rd, 2006

No intellectual words or advice, only a bit of rambling, that seems like what I do best and most lately :- )

Binaisha was here!, she traveled from LA to Dallas and then to here, amazing don’t you think? To all who said this was a God-forsaken place, it's not true, it's not like I've changed my previous view but I do think there’s a lot that can be seen/done if you put your mind to it :- ) After all Houston is the 4th largest city in the US. Did some reading, might as well start TRYING to enjoy living here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston 

Okay, back to the weekend. Downtown aquarium was our first stop in Downtown Houston; boy was that a long journey. The skyline is beautiful, the tall buildings running parallel and perpendicular all along the avenue almost made me feel claustrophobic. The aquarium itself was pretty small and seemed hyped, but it was beautiful and tastefully decorated, lunch in the company of the fishes I can’t even name!

The shark voyage, which was supposed to be thrilling somehow didn’t give me a thrill despite an enthralling experience with the creatures of the sea! However it’s as if we were doomed/jinxed when it came to transport, either the long wait or the non-arrival or the non-inclusion of routes huh! right until Sunday. We seemed to have it all. to be contd. finally the continuation!, has been some time coming, but think about it, it's more Binzi's story than mine, so will let her complete :)she would have a lot to say! all in all a great week with Binaisha :)

Plano to Houston

An hour in the air and much more than hours spent in DFW and yet there isn’t much change to the view, not that I expected it. Okay, maybe I can point out the differences, or rather to the one striking difference! Plano was much more refined, Houston just seems a little unkempt ... :- ) not sure if it’s the right word to use.

My apologies. It could be a harsh view since it’s not even been a week since I landed here and I’ve basically only been on the Enclave Pkwy, will write in when/if I change my mind. Oh, and how I am gonna miss Prince of Peace and the beautiful Sunday service there, the so typical mass, the melodious singing and yes and it pours here.

The weather is a talking issue, one minute it can be so hot and humid and the next it’s raining, guess it’s the wrong time of the year to be in Houston. Who can forget Rita (not my Ma, but God Bless her), the much talked about hurricane of 2005.

It so reminds me of Mangalore, where no surprise, it’s pouring.