Florence

Have been in Florence for the last few days and absolutely love it. Went to the Uffizi gallery which contains the most comprehensive collection of art I have seen so far. Saw Michaelangelos David statue. The thing is magnificent. I gotta say..the proportions REALLY are perfect. Somewhat like my own body..ahem..

Went for a drive around the countryside. The original plan was to rent a car and go to the designer outlet malls around Florence, but then we got lost and ended up halfway near Pisa, so drove there instead. Saw the leaning tower and the cathedrals nearby. The leaning tower leans so much you think it will fall over onto your head. But surprisingly, they have no fear of lawsuits and allow tourists to clamber all over it.

Then went to this little town called San Gimigniano which is on top of a hill. Its unchanged since medieval times..and after walking around the town square you do feel like you are in a different age.

Have now returned to Florence and catching the train to Venice. Ciao!!

Roma!

Well well well. Here I am in Rome after a mad drive across England to catch the flight including one part where our car navigation computer went crazy and refused to divulge our location or provide directions. But made it to the airport Ok after breaking many speed records and then were told flight was delayed.

So sat around in the airport for a good 1 hour..and then flew off..

Today went for a chakkar around Rome. Saw the catacombs, some plazas, ate Gelato, threw money in a fountain, ate genuine Italian pizza, acted like Marlon Brando, etc. Tomorrow will see the Vatican, some churches, act like Al Pacino etc.

Have come to the conclusion Italians are similar to Indians. Very passionate about everything, like to argue, eat good food, cultural, and drive like crazy people. People even told me there was a possibility that it might be possible for me to maybe pass off as Italian. But thats because I kept saying Grazie, Grazie, Prego, Prego in this ridiculous accent.

Edinburgh

Have now reached Edinburgh after a days driving. Picked up Dad and car from airport and then started driving yesterday. Went via the lake district. Beautiful..lovely lush green lakes surrounded by trees and then as you leave the lake the countryside becomes almost sparse..with just a few sheep for company. We stopped for the night at Gretna Green which is famous because couples could get married in Scotland at the age of 16. Hence, many English couples eloping would come there and get married. Sort of like the Las Vegas of England.

Have just reached Edinburgh and checked into the bed and breakfast close to where my friend Freja is staying. Am now writing this entry from her place. Now shall go traipse around Edinburgh. Will post some pictures if possible later tonight.

ENO

No..not the tummy settler..the English National Opera. Went there tonight for "Carmen". Have to say..I finally understood why they call it "a night at the opera". Thats cos the darn thing goes on all night loooooong! Even though this one was in English, was bored to tears by the third act and made emergency escape through fire exit. On the plus side, the sets were fantastic, the crowd oh so lah di da and we had pretty good seats by virtue of being late (latecomers get put whereever there is space..which was better than our sasta and tikao nosebleed tickets).

P1010080 Originally uploaded by firdaus.

London Eye

The biggest ferris wheel in existence! Run before it rolls over you! Agh!

P1010066 Originally uploaded by firdaus.

Beautiful!

The ceiling of the English National Opera house..wow!

P1010047 Originally uploaded by firdaus.

English Village

This is how poor English villagers live..poor chaps..wonder if they have running water and electricity

P1010034 Originally uploaded by fvariava.

Funniest Joke..

If you believe the scientists at Britain's Laugh Lab, the following joke is number one--according to the nearly 2 million people from around the world who visited the site and rated jokes:

A couple of New Jersey hunters are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn't seem to be breathing, his eyes are rolled back in his head. The other guy whips out his cell phone and calls emergency services. He gasps to the operator: “My friend is dead! What can I do?” The operator, in a calm soothing voice says: “Just take it easy. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead.” There is a silence, then a shot is heard. The guy's voice comes back on the line. He says: “OK, now what?"

(Editors note: This is NOT funny at all. Ok...little funny..)

England

Arrived London via packed British Airways flight on Saturday morning. Spent most of that day vegging and sleeping and then met up with Nidhis friend Saveri for a huge pitcher of long island iced tea and then weaved our way to a little Turkish restaurant for dinner. Was in such a good mood after the pitcher that I even became vegetarian for dinner and ate veg moussaka. Dont tell anyone about this..they will never believe it.

Went to Burgess Hill the next day to meet up with old friend Tash and her adorable family and undid the previous evenings vegetarianism with plenty of red meat and beer at a barbeque. Felt like new after that. Burp!

Today was out in the English countryside..went to a mall at Crawley and then to various touristy lookout points in the hills around Burgess Hill. Took lots of photos of us with icecream smeared faces (only discovered after all pics taken). Must say..am impressed with the beauty of the countryside and umm..some of its inhabitants.

Funnily enough, a village in England is a very posh place to live. In India, its a dump. One of Tash's friends was telling me at the barbeque that she lived in a nearby village and I sort of gave her a pitying look until Tash jumped in and explained that meant she lived in a half million pound house. I was given an invite to see her 'village' but will have to wait till another trip I suppose.

Have posted loads of photos to this website called 'flickr.com'. If you want to be invited to view the photos, just drop me a line at fvariava@hotmail.com

Europe Trip

Will be off for a vacation in Europe tomorrow. Travel plans include a few days in London, then off to Scotland and then wander around Italy for a while.

Will post photos, travelogue etc as and when I can find cyber cafes..so keep checking!

Elections

So looks like we are going to have an Italian for a prime minister. I personally dont have anything against Italians or women for that matter. But just makes you wonder. What if she drives the ship of state as badly as women seem to drive cars. What if she takes her hands off the wheel to apply some lipstick and the car swerves all over the place. Or what if she gets angry and refuses to drive anymore. Or how about her constant need to stop the car and see things along the way. Or the frequent loo breaks.

The only thing worse I can think of is having her in the back seat!

Har har har

Mundane stuff..

Started playing this game last night called C&C Generals. You get to command and army, build troops, run over your enemies with tanks etc. Most addictive. Went to sleep at 3am and then woke up late for work. Actually, almost didnt go to work. Wanted to start playing again. But then remembered that since I have taken 3 weeks of leave effective friday, I should put in a few hours of work.

Have spent the whole day writing down anything that anybody tells me because I am still so sleepy I forget all within a minute!

But I am still going to rush home now and start playing again. Will lock the door and set a guard dog on anybody who disturbs me.

Have now started telling my enemies I respect them even though I have to kill them. Its nuttin personal eh..just business. Har har..

Dad!

My Dad is in town and so have been spending plenty of quality time with him. The cool thing about Dads is that you know you share a lot of the same interests.

Like for instance, we both like computer games. I remember when Pacman first came out. He played the game so much he hardly went to bed (that explains the 9 year gap between children I suppose). He sucks at games, but he is addicted to playing them badly. I on the other hand am magnificent if no one is looking at me play.

We also like gadgets. He has a brand new palmtop thingy so I load programs onto it and he tries to figure out why it won't work anymore.

And then theres the love of cars. Passionate about cars. Yeah..the fast ones. He pinned his hopes on Naira and me to buy him one when we got rich. At first it was me. Then the first report card came from school. So then hopes were on Naira. Maybe she would turn into a champion tennis player. Nope. Ok...champion table tennis player. Nope. Ok fine then champion karate fighter. Nope.

But she does show every signs of turning into a champion lawyer!

Hanky Spanky

Does Spanking Lead to Trouble Later? - Trustworthy, Physician-Reviewed Information from WebMD

Red bottoms and delicious tingly feelings are obviously bad for you as this article says.

Dangers of talking on your phone while driving

My car music system is no longer working. I tried to remove the front of it to check something at the back and then due to its old age it was obviously pissed off with my heavy handedness and now refuses to work. If I want to listen to the radio I have to push the front in very hard which is quite inconvenient as then I have to steer the car with my knees. This because my other hand is occupied with holding my cellphone to my ear.

Of course, driving with your cellphone is dangerous. I heard all about the dangers of it but never realized just how dangerous it is until the other day when I almost dropped the cellphone out the car. What if someone had run over it?

Also, I frequently read the paper while on my way to work (catch up on the news during my free time y'see) so it becomes very dangerous to turn the pages of the newspaper while talking on the phone and driving my car as frequently the wrong page gets turned.

And then of course, theres my breakfast. I cant eat breakfast while talking on the phone because the phone gets greasy and then the grease gets all over the newspaper and then over my knees which transfer it to the steering wheel. And everyone knows a greasy steering wheel is very dangerous.

We all must do our bit to promote road safety and I hope my little article has gotten all of you thinking about how to make it safer to drive around whichever city you happen to live in.

Gaaah!

Not feeling like saying much. Hence none of my usual inanities for the last few days. Have also been so busy with work. Its amazing how much you can feel sapped at work. Normally, I am a bubbly kind of guy (ok ok..that sounds gay)..so anyways, as I was saying I usually have a lot of energy to go bouncing around. But lately work has become so stressful that even a moment spent in bouncing around means a moment less for getting stuff done. Sheesh..having to work for a living sucks!

Which Friend Are You?

MSNBC -
Im Chandler Bing!!

Films I would Most Like to See - Super Size Me!

Film Threat - Reviews
Spurlock decided to conduct an experiment in which he would subject himself to a diet of nothing but McDonald’s fast food for a month. He only allowed himself to eat what was available over the counter at the restaurant (including water), he couldn’t super size unless asked (he ended up being asked 9 times all told), he had to eat every item on the McDonald’s menu at least once, and he had to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. Throughout his descent into the maelstrom of crappy food, he visited doctors and health professionals to track his decline in health.

Growing up

When you are young, you feel that the world is an essentially good place, that everyone is nice, and that there are happy endings no matter what. There are evil people, but they get their just desserts and chocolate cake is a special and rare treat you absolutely must consume in large quantities due to a shortage in worldwide supply.

Flash forward to some 20 years later and you find yourself questioning people who do good deeds, wonder why no-one can be trusted (most of all the leaders who should be the ones showing the rest of us the way), and anyone offering you a "good deal" is probably out to rip you off. Plus, now chocolate cake is an evil that lurks around ever corner and you must limit the number of slices you eat so you dont bloat up like an elephant.

My theory is that:

The world was a better place 20 years ago..there was a lot of goodness in the world.

This imbalance had to be corrected so a new species was born - to exploit this goodness in human beings for its own gain. Just natural evolution - abundance in any one thing must be countered by its opposite.

In the future, since everyone will become an exploiter, corrupt, mercenary etc., the world will have another imbalance which will again be righted by people of the goody two-shoes variety.

My other theory is that:
I just grew up thats all.

Weekend Over :(

Back from a wonderful weekend with girlfriend. Managed to pacify her on arrival with huuge box of Twix chocolates which I only ate copiously during the weekend. You could say it was a win-win situation heh heh.