Life, or something like it.

Ink blots

2012-01-27T01:45:00.000+05:30

There are times when a purge button for the mind would come in real handy. Or so it seems. Unfortunately, it turns out, this is the next best thing I've got. So bear with me. Alternatively, ignore what follows.

A drop of ink in water. Patterns form, for an instant. And then the colour is sucked by the colourlessness that surrounds it. Which reminds me, I have, somewhat recently, come in possession of an ink pen! It was a gift too, one without an occasion. I used to have a couple of bottles of ink at my desk back in school. Of course, when the parents moved, the desk moved... and now serves as this PC desk. Uh huh. One moment.

Right, they're still here. Buried in one of these rather cavernous drawers full of too many things. At times like these I am forced to face the fact that I am a hoarder. Dunno what level. (Apparently there are levels.) Which, incidentally is rather at odds with my usual travel baggage. Anyway, I'm a little afraid to actually open either of the bottles after all this time. Maybe there's nothing left. Either way, what's the point? The hazards of a proper ink pen, while not fresh, haven't all been blotted away from memory just yet.

I hate waiting in general. Well, perhaps hate is too strong a word. Anyhoo, ordinarily I'd deal with it by scheduling. Yes, I'm weird like that. Trouble is, to do that the time-frame needs to be not indeterminate! Point is, now this is beginning to really bug me.

Feeling: well, bugged!
Listening to: Adele - Chasing pavements

Limbo

2012-01-21T12:31:00.000+05:30

Watched Inception again last night. Realized that explaining films while watching them is awfully frustrating. It's true for any film I suppose, but some more than others. Also realized that limbo as a free reign to one's imagination in a world of infinite possibility is probably not a particularly accurate representation :).

My expectation of an impending end to fretful waiting was rather premature, it would appear. Not only do I not know the when, but through a twist of fate I no longer even know the where! Of course, not being able to travel to Angola couldn't be considered all bad I suppose.

It is rare for the weather to be particularly chilly in Kolkata. At any time of the year :). So single digit temperatures are quite a treat! Of course, the downside is having to live with the stares from woolly, shawl-smothered, monkey-capped passers-by when venturing outdoors in shorts and a t-shirt...

Currently: still waiting :(
Listening to: Arcade Fire - Ocean of noise

Of hidden suns and Bones

2012-01-10T15:49:00.000+05:30

It's been a quiet start to the year. Foggy wet mornings and hazy lazy days :). And lots and lots of waiting. It's been awesome for catching up on some TV watching. Well, without actually watching any TV. I find I haven't got the temperament for watching serials on TV. Can't wait that long between episodes :P.

Intimate acquaintance is best avoided with the Indian bureaucratic system. Unfortunately, it is not always a matter of choice. So, amidst the waiting, there have been short bursts of frantic activity, frustration and a sense of utter helplessness.

All that, however, might be coming to an end. Or not. I still have to get that visa.

Currently: waiting
Listening to: Regina Spektor - Buildings

You've come a long way, baby

2011-12-31T22:30:00.001+05:30

As it turned out, I ended up extending my stay on the Trident a total of three days. Yes, it wasn't fun, but hey, those were about the quietest laziest days I'd had all trip! So that was nice, being able to take the time to take a look around. And then I was off on my first helo ride in eighteen months!

This is supposed to be a short break for me, barely a couple of weeks left. Assuming I get the visa in time that is. Ah yes, my favourite travel prerequisite strikes again! Turns out I'm headed for Angola again. Those who've read some of my posts from about three years ago would know exactly how that makes me feel... I have been told, however, that there is a new airport in Luanda. I will reserve judgement for now.

A new boat, a new crew, lots of things and people I don't know the first thing about, and all that in waters that bring back the worst memories. Seems like the new year is about to get to a fun start :(. But let's ignore that for the moment.

It looks like I never quite managed to get to writing about those last couple of days in Lisbon, neither did I manage that detailed account of the surfing and diving trip from last break. I can only say that this year seems to have pulled the throttle wide open and left me somewhat out of breath right at the end!

It's been one of those years, I bounced around all over the place! For work, and otherwise, come to think of it. Starting with the mountains and desert trails of Saudi Arabia and the Connecticut snow, through the seriously insane distances driven on interstate highways, Mexico, the cruise through the Med and that week spent mostly in or around water at Mulki and Murudeshwar, and finally the utterly crazy last trip on the Trident and festive times spent at home. It's been a year with a bit of everything. Except office rotations, of course :).

I figure there isn't much point saving up these photographs for later, so this is pretty much all that I've been waiting to put up for the last couple of months.

Let's hope the new year brings more moments worthy of photographs (and that I'm in a position to click 'em as they come :D). And while I'm only too aware of the dangers of getting what I ask for, I wouldn't mind another year of (hopefully) nice surprises and crazy travelling and running into all those people I want to run into, somewhere, somehow.

Happy New Year! :)

Currently: crossing fingers
Listening to: Adele - Someone like you

Groundhog day

2011-12-20T14:54:00.001+05:30

I'm repeating myself, but this needs to be here as a reminder. You shouldn't make too big a deal out of the last day. If you do, they'll cancel your chopper and give you another day on the boat :|.

I've missed crew change lots of times. But this would have to be the first time because of weather. I know, I know, I've come close a few times! But the irony of it is that the weather's not even really that bad! Just bad enough.

In an attempt to keep things somewhat adult and avoid turning this into a complete 'waa-haa I wanna go home' rant, I shall admit to the fact that I have finally decided to give in. I'm planning on getting myself a Kindle. Not the Fire. Just one of those regular little ones, maybe the touch.

Not sure how fine-print laden the two month battery life spec is. But the whole carrying books around and worrying about running out of stuff to read thing is getting old. Maybe I'll carry around a paperback too. But just one :).

Not looking forward to the unavoidable check-in bag...

Currently: still here
Listening to: Groove Armada - My friend

Curtain call

2011-12-17T17:22:00.001+05:30

Now that it's almost done, I suppose I should mention some of the good things this trip. (What good things?! One part of my mind, benumbed by much of what has gone on these past five weeks, asks incredulously!)

I'd pick the 'window', I think, as the real high point! Matched with a sunrise to sunset shift at a respectably ordinary latitude, it doesn't trouble the sleep cycle, but does give you a better bearing of what's up with the world, so to speak. I even caught a sunrise this morning! Too bad the salt stains make for horrible photos :).

It's been a busy trip. Which is probably a good thing. Seeing how for over a week now I've known that this is my last trip here, and with more time on my hands, I'd undoubtedly have obsessed about it. More than I already am that is :D.

There's some symmetry to it I suppose. But in retrospect, I think I'll rather keep that to myself. Something about perceived significance versus reality.... One thing is true though, the only other trip when I was quite certain I was unlikely to ever see the Trident again as it disappeared over the horizon, was my first! Six and a half years later, am I leaving a very different person?

I guess I'll find out when I get to my next new boat :).

Currently: facing the 'to take or not to take' quandary
Listening to: Nirvana - Jesus don't want me for a sunbeam

Ending

2011-12-08T22:14:00.001+05:30

Sometimes life is being left suspended. With other lives swirling all about you. For the most part you're in the thick of things. But then something makes you stop, take a look around. And you feel left out. And it hurts.

Life's like that. And when it's the beginning of an end you think about everything else. A lot of little things, mostly. But then it's something you've been expecting, and you don't know what to think.

There's that thing about Chinese curses isn't it? May you live in interesting times. Well, it appears I am about to. And I'm dreading it.

Currently: disconnected
Listening to: Radiohead - Worrywort

Alt + Enter

2011-12-07T14:29:00.004+05:30

We're back in the Gulf. Have been for about a week now, actually. But the way things have been going has been, shall we say, less then ideal. But such is life.

I still haven't been able to get around to taking pictures. I mean not really. One sunset, a couple of sunrises. That's not much to show for over three weeks at sea :). But it's better than nothing.

Which kinda sums this trip up for me really. Much of the time I find myself tempted to run around yelling, "Really?!! Really?!!! This had to happen? Right now?!!!" But before I do, I remember that it could be worse :).

Currently: Radioheaded
Listening to: Radiohead - Idioteque

Vanishing act?

2011-11-28T17:02:00.000+05:30

The Bermuda Triangle! I remember reading a book once, and this must have been close to twenty years ago now, but it had made quite an impression! Of course, the exact details of the matter are a bit hazy. But now that we are sailing through the very same waters, I can't stop feeling intrigued by the whole mystery.

Physically the Bermuda Triangle has the island of Bermuda, San Juan (the capital of Puerto Rico) and Miami as its three extreme points. So, given the present day state of sea freight in and out of the Gulf of Mexico to the east, on any given day there are many vessels within this once feared part of the ocean and clearly, it's lost some of that fearsome reputation :).

The theories behind the supposed disappearances are as varied as they are spectacular. But none of them seem quite credible enough. And given that we've been sailing across the triangle under clear skies and fairly beautiful weather for over half a day, I suppose the terror has disappeared just like all those ships!

Currently: trailing Sargasso
Listening to: Creed - With arms wide open

A sea of shadows

2011-11-23T18:02:00.003+05:30

I think I've mentioned this before, but not in some time. Seeing how I haven't actually been on the boat during a transit in three years :). I love bad weather at sea, but only when we are transiting. Otherwise, there's the headache caused by fear of losing the tons of really expensive annoyance we tow around.

Unfortunately, this time I haven't been able to spend as much time as I would like to staring at the wilderness of white-capped waves. Nonetheless, the transit has had the calming effect of an interlude. We've got another week or so till we land up in the West Indies.

It's been a rather strange week :). I find myself rather surprised at how I seem to be doing quite okay, really! Not that I shouldn't be doing okay. Or so I am told :). It's quite nice of people to lie to you once in a while.

While I have taken absolutely no photos yet this trip (despite being awake for sunrises and sunsets) I should really get to the ones from what appears to be my last visit to Lisbon for the foreseeable future. But time has this uncanny ability to slip by even as it seems to be standing quite still...

Currently: trans-Atlantic
Listening to: Chicane - What am I doing here? (part 2)

Bubbles in an empty glass

2011-11-18T20:32:00.000+05:30

Sometimes you've just got to let go of some part of your mind. Preferably the bit that keeps reminding you that you are this close to losing it! Every other waking second! Yup, it's been that kind of a start to the trip. What can I say? :)

I'm tired, unbelievably so. But I'm hoping the next two weeks weathering the Atlantic will help. The odds of that aren't exactly staggeringly awesome though. Oh well. Anyway, point of this exercise was supposedly to post some parting shots of Lisbon. It appears I'm too tired to do even that :-<.

Feeling: battered
Listening to: Feist - Comfort me

Here and there

2011-11-11T12:32:00.004+05:30

So what have I been up to the last couple of weeks then? Travelling mostly! And for the first week, to out of the way places I'd barely even heard of before :).

The original plan was to head to the Lakshadeep Islands for a week of diving. But last minute cancellations from the dive centre left us in a bit of a lurch, and the need was for some drastic steps. These ended up taking the form of a few days at an ashram about 30 km from Mangalore where we tried to learn to surf as best as we could. And then another few days at Murudeshwar, diving!

While I was at it, I even managed to get that Advanced OWD certification :D. To top it off we decided to spend a supremely lazy few hours in Goa on the way back to Bombay, which is where I am now!

As usual, the city continues to surprise me with the ever increasing volumes of traffic it seems to be able to fit within its narrow congested roads while maintaining a certain festivity about it all. But maybe that's just me visiting after a couple of years.

Well, that'll be all in this rather hurried update. A more detailed account of the surfing/ diving trip will have to wait. I'm not here for long, unfortunately, the weekend will see me heading back to the ship. A process that promises to be rather long. Let's hope the unpleasantness is restricted to that.

Currently: marvelling at the multitude of surfing/ diving bruises!
Listening to: Red Hot Chili Peppers - The adventures of Rain Dance Maggie

PS: Finally! Photos!

Fountains of sparks

2011-10-30T19:42:00.000+05:30

I hate it when things begin to happen all at once. Ok, let me rephrase that, I get annoyed when things I don't care about in the least, start intruding on time I'd set aside for other things. Like sorting out my coin collection for instance. Something I haven't done in years! The fact that others may find the priorities precisely reversed doesn't really make it any less annoying :|. I guess that makes me a selfish person. Oh well.

Anyway, a rather belated Happy Diwali to all! As it turned out, this was the first time I was back with family and celebrating the Festival of Lights with fireworks in a decade! (I hate round numbers like that. Seems made up. Nonetheless, it is actually true in this case. I checked :|.)

Of course, that merely meant that I was hanging around the fringes, trying not to choke on the concentrated fumes of spent fireworks while grinning profusely as the often unpredictable, occasionally belligerent but always delightfully colourful and bright fireworks worked their magic! Ever since a misguided rocket had charred some of my clothing back in junior school, I've been rather circumspect about these things. It was endlessly amusing however, to see my mum join my aunts, uncles, neighbours and some completely random party crashers in having an absolute blast :D.

Around the same time, I decided it would be a good idea to get some serious reading done. I'd started with Sea of Poppies sometime during my flights back home. Somehow, the story, almost from the beginning, caught me a little unaware, beginning as it does somewhere in the middle. But it might also be because being settled firmly in a reality quite familiar to me, it was at odds to most of my reading of the past few months.

The familiarity, however, was riddled with such a profusion of languages (or rather variations thereof) that it added a whole sub-plot by itself, it seemed to me :). Thing with reading a book quickly is that the days seem to intertwine with the story. I was so immersed in the goings-on aboard the Ibis that the end came upon me quite suddenly!

One might say the book begins and ends somewhere in the middle. We are left to devise any future we wish for the protagonists. But such is life, I suppose, and any tale can merely touch upon some small part of its flow. I couldn't really have asked for a better break from my immersion in fantasy :). But now, as I prepare to run away again, chasing haphazardly made plans towards a dubiously diaphanous kind of joy (hopefully, that is, and no broken bits), I've got the next two Artemis Fowl books to keep me company :).

Currently: looking forward to the next fortnight!
Listening to: KT Tunstall - Uummannaq song

Zig zags

2011-10-23T23:36:00.002+05:30

It's shaping up to be something of a busy break. Already! Ah yes, I am on break :). Got off on time too! Despite the weather throwing more last minute curve balls.

Anyway, like I said, busy break. Within five hours of landing up in Cal, I was off already. And within 48 I was back again! Incidentally, as it turns out, the name of the state has changed since I'd been in country last, and no one seems absolutely sure as to how it is spelt any more :|.

Not that I particularly mind spending all of six days in town, in three pieces. It's Diwali time, and the thunderous fireworks have begun early! Can be rather uncomfortably startling when one goes off particularly close by :(.

To top it all off though, there is that diving trip to look forward to!! Right, I've had enough of trying to type sensibly on this stupid keyboard in the dark, so I'm just gonna stop.

Currently: sleepy :)
Listening to: KT Tunstall - The entertainer

Mighty rollers

2011-10-18T03:48:00.001+05:30

Data, I suppose, is only as good as one's ability to interpret it. Happily so, in this case :).

The weather is awful! We are sitting around twiddling our thumbs at the moment. But at the same time it is benign enough to render all the doubts and drama over crew-change completely unnecessary! I shall not bother explaining how that is ;).

Having said that, of course, we are not off the boat yet, so I shall not get too carried away.

Currently: counting down hours!
Listening to: Black Eyed Peas - Just can't get enough

Blow

2011-10-13T04:05:00.004+05:30

It was all going so well :|. Well, nothing earth-shatteringly awesome or anything, but things were definitely not going terribly. I'm almost done with Season 5 of NCIS, slowly warming up to the new book. Quietly slipping into the last week rituals... Not any more!

The bad thing about 5-day weather forecasts is that you know what's about to happen, but can do absolutely nothing about it :(. (I suppose one could choose to ignore the info, but thus far the thing's never been wrong. :S)

Just when I'd started making more last-minute(ish) plans too!! I could resort to the usual 'why me?!!' type rant I guess, but why bother? And no, I have to admit, this doesn't happen all the time. Come to think of it, working where we are and the time of the year, it would've been nothing short of miraculous if we didn't have at least one or two crew changes blown off the tracks by the weather.

That, and the dozen or so days of buffer time is currently keeping me from going completely ape shit. I mean come on!! I haven't been diving in like two years!!! And now that I have a plan, things have to... Okay, I did say I wouldn't. So I wont. For now. And maybe, they've got it wrong! (I know, even I don't really believe that :-<.)

Currently: grrrrr
Listening to: Radiohead - Bulletproof... I wish I was

Experiments in nocturnal illumination

2011-10-07T16:19:00.002+05:30

Ever follow a train of thought till it makes absolutely no sense?

Here's an idea, the devil in the details. The small, everyday, supposedly ordinary details. There appear to be in most of us a number of idiosyncrasies that masquerade like any other completely natural thing to do. Music, or rather the ever-growing confusion of random favourites. Shifting priorities on things that do or do not happen while you are sleep... (I mean, why even bother?! You're asleep!) Anyway, you get the idea. Or not.

Which brings me right to something that's been at the back of my mind for a while now. Assumptions, the really basic ones. For the longest time I held the notion, probably like anyone with a reasonably developed ego, that I know best what's going on inside my head. After all, it is, in fact, my head. Or rather, that if I were to make an effort, put some work into it, then I'd most likely be the one with the best chance of figuring things out.

And then someone I have infinite respect for literally laughed to my face. Well, didn't laugh out loud. More like an amused sigh while muttering under her breath something to the effect that there were whole books that proved me precisely wrong. And that it had nothing to do with one's proficiency in psychology. After the customary initial violent indignation subsided, I decided to take her word for it.

Makes you wonder, doesn't it? Of all the things that we take as self evident, with or without proof in any form. Foundations for our very lives. Built slowly and probably (although admittedly, not necessarily) meticulously. How much of it is really just hollow? About to crumble at the slightest test of real weight.

Damn! Right? Or maybe, who cares?! But shouldn't we? Care that is. And that's just one thing. You see what I mean?

Currently: weathered down
Listening to: Red House Painters - All mixed up

Randomness

2011-10-04T17:06:00.001+05:30

There has appeared on our boat, quite recently, a person who looks almost exactly like Hugh Jackman's Wolverine! He had a full beard, and then I suppose he took it upon himself to experiment with facial hair for want of anything better to do... Why is that worth the time it took to type it? Dunno, I was just sufficiently amused to make the effort :).

I have long had a grievance against browser sourced geographical info based advertising. But this I thought was really quite annoying. I was immersed within the pages of IMDb, as I often am, poring over new releases I won't get the chance to see on a proper big screen. Which is when I noticed a new innovation. Well, it might not be new, but I only just noticed. Anyway, down one side there's this whole list of movies 'in theatres near you'. Or so they say. Only, I find it irritating in the extreme when someone (or something) tries to tell me that there are at least a dozen films I want to watch 'showing within five miles' of me as I sit on a boat, sailing around in circles, half a day's ride away from the nearest point of land :|.

Yes, this title was more to the point than most. On other fronts, this year's Durga Pujo is halfway over by now I suppose. So is this trip. Yay.

Currently: bored, kinda
Listening to: Skunk Anansie - Search and destroy

In between minds

2011-09-30T03:55:00.002+05:30

I've been wondering lately, about things we do and say. And things we don't.

For a change, I've been getting some boating opportunities this trip. Despite the weather. Bad weather's something of an acquired taste, I reckon :). Takes a little getting used to, but if (and that is definitely an if, not a when) you do, it's a hell of a lot more entertaining!

On the one hand, saying everything you feel like can be a harrowing experience. Ex post facto, usually. On the other hand, not saying has its own clogged pressure-cooker effects...

Somehow or other, thanks to accidental memories or aimless browsing, or sometimes through sheer dumb luck, I've been reading a lot of my old posts. The déjà vu is not always instantaneous. Sometimes the momentousness of an occasion just does not age well I guess :).

Looking forward to finishing off the second Artemis Fowl soon. I mean no offense to Colfer, but I think I need something a little heavier (read substantial) to sink into for a change. Despite prior suggestions, I never got around to Amitav Ghosh. I guess this is as good a time as any.

On the plus side, I think I've managed to overcome a moment of weakness in which I almost thought of getting one of those space saving e-book readers. There are enough books to tide me over for now :).

Currently: hanging
Listening to: Nicki Minaj - Super Bass (do not judge! I like it)

Back to the deep

2011-09-25T15:58:00.006+05:30

I suppose I have been rather remiss with regards to keeping up with events lately. Well, I've been busy! Sort of :). Actually, now that I look back on it, this was probably the busiest break I've had in a long time. Assuming travelling was the primary scale of reference. For one thing, I managed to clock four beds, three couches, one bare mattress and a floor :D.

The last week was a pretty perfect wind-down. The weather was quite nice, allowing me to actually step out with fair regularity. Something that had definitely not happened the last time I was visiting New Haven :). As always though, it was an awesome food-week :D.

I think I'd somehow managed to forget about the Thunderbolt Kid in my last post! So it turns out, my cousin is a major Bryson buff, only bad thing is, he loves hard backs, i.e. no can borrow :(. I proceeded instead, to finish up the one with the catchiest of starting lines while I was there :). Having not read a word of anything in over a month, I was aching to gobble up the pages! Oh but what pages! Who could have thought half a century ago the world was such a wildly different place?! :)

It's the doses of often startling reality though, the ones Bryson nails dead between the eyes with such aplomb while weaving a superhero story, that got me. I, for one, would love to read his dad's baseball reports, even though I understand next to nothing of that game.

Speaking of books, I finally managed to lay hands on another author I'd been trying to read for a while, Neil Gaiman. My choices were Stardust, yes, the one of the 2007 movie fame, and Neverwhere. I settled for the latter, having never even heard of the TV series, I happily avoided comparisons. No matter which way I turn, there's no escaping fantasy, it would appear :). I wish all things in life worked out as well...

So yeah, between reading and checking out eating places and being generally useless while others cooked.. well, it was pretty awesomely lazy :D. That trend more or less continued on to the last day and a bit in NYC. Except that meant it was pretty much time-up.

I can distinctly remember the last time I had a single flight for a crew change, all the way back in January '06 :). Even that one wasn't a non-stop flight. So flying Newark - Lisbon direct to work was something of a novelty! But the following immigration wait wasn't :|. Eventually, after a couple of days of travelling I did make it back to the boat in the middle of some rather awful weather. Now it's just a matter of trying to settle back down after what's been, on balance, a pretty awesome month...

Turns out it's okay to slip up once in a blue moon. The trick, I suppose, is not to make a habit of it.

Currently: weather-watching
Listening to: The Band Perry - If I die young

Raindrops and detours

2011-09-15T14:32:00.001+05:30

It's almost like the rain was hell bent on chasing me all the way to Ohio. And how! If I say I've never seen it rain that hard, it would probably be over stating things, but not my much. On the other hand, to say that I've never seen it rain that hard for that long over that much distance, that would definitely be understating it!

And of course, there were the consequences. People, it seems, do not have enough respect for the elements, especially water on the highway. I ran into the aftermath of at least four significant road accidents on my way and one of them so severe as to cause the complete shutdown of a huge portion of I-80! Thankfully, I made it to my destination, a bit tired and much later than anticipated, but safe and sound :).

I seem to time my visits to Bowling Green rather well when it comes to local events. This time it was the annual Black Swamp Arts Festival! Something of a high point in these parts. There's live bands, playing a fairly wide variety of music. There are numerous stalls selling strangely named and sometimes innovatively created food (the cheesecake, dipped in chocolate, on a stick, for example). There are also stalls set up all down the length of Main Street selling all kinds of things. Clothes, furniture, decorative items of all shapes and sizes. But everything has a touch of local colour.

A by-product of visiting my cousin has always been unusual spikes in sporting activity :). This time it was volleyball, and when those courts were unavailable, wallyball. In a week I had played more of those two sports than in the rest of my life! Given that the weather situation was tenuous at best, it was probably a good thing we left other outdoor activities more or less alone.

I suppose the tennis is better left alone. It is a difficult thing to watch your heroes being dismantled. Sooner than I would have thought, it was time to leave. It was on the way back that I actually got to see Pennsylvania in its green, mountainous glory. It was a beautiful bright day, thank heavens :). So, despite the weather scare, my driving expeditions around the country ended on a high.

Currently: in Connecticut, without snow :)
Listening to: Citizen King - Better days (and the bottom drops out)

Indios en México

2011-09-09T13:52:00.002+05:30

Given sufficient time, one might actually be able to do justice to the gloriously confused riot of contradictions that is Mexico City. All we had were three and a half days, so we did what we could. And even though I say so myself, I don't think we did too badly :).

The first thing that struck me, as soon as the cab had made its way out of the airport was how familiar things looked! It was almost as if India had been crossed with California. But in most ways it resembled the former more than the latter.

What was left of the first day after travelling was spent catching up with friends, some old, some not. But while we were at it, we also managed a fairly informative and very intriguing trip through a selection of what the city had to offer in food, drink and music. On each count, there was enough to thrill!

I suppose if I tried to do justice to our trip in its entirety, I would have to make do without too many details. It's rather like how I went about exploring the bits of Mexico City that we did explore anyway. I decided to forget about all the minute details and just immerse myself in the sea of experiences to maybe obtain some sense of this world, sometimes so strange, and at other times intensely familiar.

The Centro Historico is definitely a place worth a visit. But the sheer number of people you might see on any given weekend might be intimidating for those not used to a literal experience with masses of humanity :). And all that, with an absolutely minimal contribution from foreign tourists!

We spent one whole day crisscrossing back and forth the several square miles that comprise the historical center and managed to go through the Templo Mayor complex, the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Palacio de Bellas Artes, several restaurants and bars and one supremely novel experience of eating at a Mexico City food market at the Mercado San Juan :).

In comparison, the Sunday was most relaxed! We were staying rather close to the Castillo Chapultepec complex, so we simply ambled into the park and decided to walk up the hill for a better look around. While we were at it, we also toured the Museum of National History, which was a little difficult to ingest due to the lack of English. The views were quite nice though.

It was the afternoon spent at the Anthropological Museum that was really the high point! The entire time we spent in Mexico City was overcast and peppered with drizzling rain, but that one afternoon the skies really broke down upon us. So you see, we really didn't have much of a choice but to pick our way through some several thousand years of history of Mesoamerica and its peoples. It was an enlightening experience indeed!

The section on Teotihuacan was especially of interest seeing how the very next morning we were headed for those very ruins! The weather, quite miraculously, held up for the whole day, making the trip a most exhilarating experience!

We decided to climb both the Moon and the Sun temples. Or rather what was left of them. We of course, also learned that these are not in fact pyramids, but merely elevating bases for temples. On the way back, our guide even took us on a tour of that holiest of Mexican shrines, the cathedral of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

With that, it was time to pretty much wrap up a fairly whirlwind trip! There was just enough time for one more relaxed dinner made up entirely of local specialties :). Then it was off to catch our red-eye back to New York.

I suppose I should add while I'm at it that my one day in NYC coincided with TS Lee, so I was quite content to stay indoors. It wasn't the most sentient day I've had, but oh well :). It was good to take a day off before attempting my next big road trip! I guess I'll leave the interesting bits from that drive for later.

Currently: catching up!
Listening to: Eliza Doolittle - Rollerblades

Wandering star

2011-08-31T15:30:00.005+05:30

It's been a good couple of weeks. On balance. The couple of days back in Houston seem like a while back now :). My luck with fortuitous run-ins seemed unabated. My dislike of the city itself, likewise :|.

The rest of the time has been really well spent I'd say! Smaller places, familiar faces. And lots and lots and lots of miles of highway in between. Perfect weather days. Blue skies, green fields and the road that keeps going on forever.

There are good things to be said of road-trips. Not necessarily solo ones, but one does what one has to. At least I wasn't flying. I do suppose spanning six states in a day was a little bit ambitious, but it worked out pretty well :).

Of course, when I stopped to think about it, I had done almost as much in one day here as we'd done in the entire week driving around South Island in New Zealand. And then I did it all over again a couple of days later. Man, this place is just perfect for driving!!

Other than that though, it's been a lot of quiet conversations, reminiscence, contemplation of the future. And battling with Bay-Blades. (Anyone older than 10 will probably have to look that one up. :P)

We stumble and we pick ourselves up. How else can it work. After all one has to live with oneself.

Next stop, Mexico!!

Currently: just chillin'
Listening to: B.o.B - Airplanes (feat Hayley Williams)

:(

2011-08-17T12:24:00.000+05:30

There are so many bad things to be said about missed flights.

Especially when the reasons are less than justifiable.

Well, at least things work out. Eventually.

Currently: bummed out :(
Listening to: loud airport announcements in Portuguese

Exit planet work!

2011-08-16T02:36:00.000+05:30

Right, I've been quiet all week, now can we just get out of here already?!! The weather, well... it's been up and down. For all the goodness the first three weeks of this trip brought, the last two have more than made up for I'd say :(.

The famous North Atlantic swell is quite impressive, even this far south. But that doesn't do us any good at all, as we bounce around trying to keep chairs from sliding, food from leaving plates and bowls without help, the shower from spraying water everywhere but where needed...

So assuming we do manage to get off the boat later this morning, I'm off to Houston again. It appears further adventures are likely to ensue, including some of the Mexican persuasion... As always, one lives in hope :).

Currently: can't wait for the break to begin :)
Listening to: Groove Armada - My friend

Sea-legs wanted!

2011-08-09T10:38:00.002+05:30

This is exactly why I don't drink coffee on the boat :(. Perfect awful weather for it though. Gives you something to think about as you are climbing up and down the decks carrying a mostly full mug with the stairwell dancing a jig about you.

In three mugs I've figured out the workings of the somewhat fancy coffee machine in the galley to where it produces results to my liking. But I think this is a good time to stop. Psyched up on caffeine is the last thing I want to be on here!

It's been a while since we've been actually down for weather. I'm just hoping things are looking significantly better in a week's time!

Currently: overly caffeinated
Listening to: Massive Attack - Dissolved girl

Half a dozen rainy seasons

2011-08-07T16:00:00.001+05:30

I just felt like a bit of typing actually :). Not that other things cannot be written about. But see, when I started off with this thing, oh about six years ago now... (Heh, had to bring it up. Forgot again, but was too busy snapping up Lisbon at the time. But I hardly think my blog would mind. :P)

Anyway, like I was saying, when I started, I hardly thought this would be much of a travelogue. I hadn't really been anywhere, yet, I mean, not really. It was more to be the thinking out loud space. The bin you throw those crumpled up thought bubbles into.

I guess at some point I went back to leaving the junk inside my head.

So why this now? It's much more befitting the traditional end of year glad/not so glad randomness (depending on offshore/onshore status mostly :)). I guess I'm just feeling good after a nice long run.

Feeling: tired
Listening to: Chantal Kreviazuk - Weight of the world

Oh Lisbon

2011-07-31T16:42:00.001+05:30

City of fortuitous coincidences and blinding fog. Of sudden meetings and hurried departures. Of being lost and being found again.

I got more than I thought I should hope for, but now we're are sailing off all in a rush. Of course, I'm rather glad we're doing it only figuratively speaking, in one sense :).

Come darkness, it will be back to the wilderness of the usual.

This has been a good three weeks :).

Feeling: glad
Listening to: Wolfmother - Vagabond

The times, they are a-changin'

2011-07-28T15:40:00.004+05:30

Quite literally in this case. But that's what you get when you go flat west straight across the Med. And in-between the sailing, there were an interesting few days, to say the least :).

So what was supposed to be a quick dash in and out of Valletta, turned into a week-long stay alongside arguably the best spot on the Grand Harbour :).

I made the most of it, went strolling along the stony, narrow and almost roller-coaster like streets of the fortified town almost every single day.

Needless to say, I took way too many photos :D. So much so that I'm actually considering a return to that awesomely convenient dumping ground of photographs in bulk :|. Anyway, enough of that.

So Malta! In a week I didn't even make it out of the old town part of Valletta and Floriana. There are old fort walls all around, quite literally, in fact. For the most part, the walls are quite well preserved too!

I suppose the volume of tourists visiting this part of town to some extent has contributed to the low number of actual residents, but there are still enough! As such Valletta has to be the most lived in fort I've ever personally seen :).

Speaking of tourists, this place is like the centre of the world for cruise ships! And big ones!! (The largest one was over a thousand feet long!) Given our prime location flanked by the two cruise ship berths, we saw, from quite up close, no less than seven of these giants during our stay. Quite used to being comfortably the largest object from horizon to horizon, we were suitably humbled :).

Each one would arrive, accompanied by much fanfare and unload a genuinely mind boggling number of holiday makers from all over the place. Soon enough they'd disappear through the gaps in the walls on buses and horse cabs and harbour cruise ferries and any other means of transportation available. But before the day was over, they'd be back and the ship would cast off for the next destination, looking festive as ever!

I suppose eight days was quite a bit more than I could have expected, and as such I am indeed thankful. But just as we were beginning to rather look forward to stretching our legs further across the island, almost suddenly, we were off!

So we set off to traverse the rest of the Mediterranean. Unfortunately the passage through the strait of Gibraltar was completed in the utter darkness of the early hours of this morning. All I managed to see were the lights spiralling up The Rock blinking quietly in the distance.

Tomorrow we arrive in Lisbon. And as much as I wish for a repeat of the Maltese experience, I rather expect this one to indeed be the planned one day affair :(.Currently: burrowing through hundreds and hundreds of Malta photos :)
Listening to: Apollo 440 - Make my dreams come true

New shores

2011-07-15T13:56:00.000+05:30

Technically, we aren't working. So why is it that I seem to have been busy non-stop for the last five days?! Not fair, is it? Well, at least some of it was time well spent.

I was a bit worried with the two-hour stopover at Delhi, but my god, was I surprised?!! In the best way possible that is! IGI Terminal 3 is an absolute miracle! How else could one possibly describe disembarking the domestic flight, checking in for the international, going through immigration and then security, all in a half hour flat?!!

After that, the rest of the travelling was decidedly ordinary :). Bahrain leans distinctly more towards the UAE side of the Arab world rather than the Saudi, IMHO. But I suppose that's not really that surprising.

Arrival into Cyprus was such a benign affair that the scary memories of Saudi immigration began to seem like a bad dream :). Unfortunately, we were greeted by this mushroom cloud of the explosion that seemed to have almost coincided with our landing :(.

Despite the hustle and bustle of joining the boat at port, some of us managed to make some time and had a very brief look around Limassol. The place, apparently, is not even called that. Lemessos it is. And like the name, everything else is Greek. Quite literally!

Despite the allure of the beaches of Santorini, and the Parthenon and the rest, I haven't yet made it to any part of Greece, but this definitely was close. The beaches seemed way too busy for a Monday afternoon, till we realised exactly how popular a tourist destination Cyprus is.

Oh, and by the way, the police there have totally awesome stuff by way of transportation :D.

Meandering along narrow alleys and undistinguished looking buildings of stone and peeling plaster, we quite suddenly landed up in the middle of the old town. It was quaint, I suppose, but rather short-lived. And the 'castle' left much to be desired. Unfortunately, that was all we had time for, as the very next afternoon we set sail. Not before this rather interesting spectacle though :).

Right, so since then we've been sailing pretty much right through the middle of the Med. (And I thought the Red Sea was a busy waterway :|.) Imagine a straight line from the bottom of Cyprus to an imaginary point about 20 miles off the south-western tip of Crete. Then another straight line from there right into the heart of Valletta. We're about half-way down that second bit.

That's right, Malta, here I come! And having been disappointed by one castle, I'm indeed looking forward to the famed fortifications that overlook the entry to the harbour! Now let's hope we make our entry to port before I go to bed tomorrow :|.

Currently: in transit
Listening to: Chapeaumelon - Nonchalant

Smoky mirror

2011-07-07T23:51:00.002+05:30

The sky, so long shrouded in thunderous clouds chooses that exact moment to go supernova. The sun, in its dying moments bursts forth heroically one last time. Every shade of grey, from the depressing to the downright frightening, is consigned to the sideline as an explosion of hues lights up the sunset.

Unfortunately, there's a veritable profusion of concrete and metal in my way. Short lived as it is, the moment doesn't allow for one's convenience. It's funny how that works out, more often than not.

Suppose you know you are not being the most gracious version of yourself. You know it, but there appear to be reasons. It seems to me, awareness only goes so far to mitigate the effects of circumstance. Beyond that, I guess a little bit of venting becomes rather necessary. One can only hope no one gets too badly singed by the fallout.

Apparently, I'm headed to the Med. Given the relative lack of certainty surrounding everything to do with me lately, I shall hold off on definitive statements of any sort till a more opportune moment.

Feeling: listless
Listening to: Bob Dylan - Standing in the doorway

Of stars and woods, and the world's longest footpath

2011-06-26T23:57:00.004+05:30

Having not read a single scrap since flying to the boat last time, I was actually quite happy to spend these somewhat unsettled days catching up. I finished what Asimovs I had left unread in my possession and duly noted how, somehow, it all seems to tie back in. Sometimes rather obviously, sometimes with a somewhat more liberal use of imagination :).

I have to say though, The End of Eternity is indeed quite something. Unlike much of the Foundation universe books (which, wildly removed from our reality as they are, always seemed to me to be something not that far out of reach or beyond say a couple of fortuitous, albeit highly improbable breakthroughs in science or whatever :), and for all their other-worldliness they seemed to involve a humanity not that far from home), this one raised such fundamental questions of the point of existence for me that I was quite surprised, shocked even, for a bit!

In any case, suspecting that I'd be running thin of reading material before long (not counting GRRMs, still) I'd acquired Artemis Fowl from the store under the escalator in an attempt to move from the sci-fi to the magical. (Having failed to locate any of the other books that populate my 'recommended' list.) But that still didn't seem to provide an appreciable enough departure. Then I happened upon that rather unscrupulously appropriated Christmas gift from last year!

Thus it was that I started on my first foray into non-fiction in quite some time with Bryson's A Walk in the Woods! A couple of days, and what was it, 870 miles later, I'm a devout fan!! The man is pure genius!!! What else can one possibly say? Thoroughly entertaining, equally funny and depressing in his observations regarding the general world all around, quite enlightening in many - possibly sometimes unnecessary - ways. These are just some of the things that come to mind.

Of course, having read the lengthy excerpt from The Thunderbolt Kid, I'm absolutely dying to lay hands on that one. (These people certainly know how to sell books, I tell you!) But even more than that, I'd like to have a go at Neither Here Nor There first, primarily to read more about the often incorrigible yet rather lovable Katz! And yes, I shall also get to A Brief History of Nearly Everything someday soon, as my biologist cousin keeps telling me I absolutely must :).

Right. So on to Ireland's most notorious criminal then! All the while holding on to the thin ray of hope that sometime this week I might finally hear something of my expected whereabouts at the end of the next fortnight :|.

Man! Has it been raining a lot or what?!

Currently: waiting, wishing...
Listening to: Chicane - No ordinary morning

Monsoon has landed!

2011-06-17T12:17:00.000+05:30

Once again I find myself staring out at the incessant pouring and cant help but be impressed by the sheer persistence of the monsoon rains here. It's been at it for over half a day now, and no half measures, this is consistent heavy downpour with howling wind and everything!

I decided to go on my mandatory round trip of family visits early this break, in case I get stuck home with visa issues later on. Plus it gave me an excuse to get out of the stifling Cal humidity. Halfway through the three day trip though, the rain had arrived.

The drive back home was rendered quite interesting, what with sudden trysts with passing clouds that would choose to unload significant portions of their water right on top of the bit of highway I might be on at the time. Not that I was complaining. The only trouble arose when the rain came with high winds. With empty fields all the way to the horizon on either side of the highway, stability was becoming slightly suspect at times :). But good fun all in all.

It was, however, a completely different city I returned to, cooled down significantly by some opening bouts of thunderous rain. And since then the weather's been quite chilly even. Accompanied by the constant pattering outside as pinpricks of water appear on the other side of frosted glass windows and the occasional shudder of the panes at some particularly forceful gusts of wind...

I guess my only regret is that the clouds pretty much wiped out that lunar eclipse. Oh well, one cant have everything I suppose :).

Currently: marooned!
Listening to: Chicane - Nothing

The colour of dust

2011-06-12T20:39:00.000+05:30

Let me share a revelation. It's nothing new, has happened over and over again, quite a few times now. Landscapes, cityscapes, seascapes, you name it - they all look so much better on the way off the boat than while heading the other way :D.

This being the last time I should have to sample the dry and dusty barrenness that is the road between Duba and Tabuk, I made sure I managed a nice window seat with great visibility all around! All the better to capture everything that I will be missing terribly in the foreseeable future. Not!!

You can tell how much I've loved working there can't you? However, some of the pictures did come out okay :).

As for the rest of the trip back home, unfortunate seating and topsy turvy sleep patterns made sure that I arrived at home quite heavily jet-lagged. The one thing I was not expecting was for Cal to actually be hotter than the Red Sea :(. Thankfully, it appears that the monsoon rains are not far away!

Now of course there is the uncertainty of waiting without knowing. I hate that part. And ending up sick right at the start of the break doesn't help one bit :(. There's still a month left though, and hopefully some of the travel plans I was making might even work out!

Currently: stuffed
Listening to: Moby - Victoria Lucas

Here today, where tomorrow?

2011-06-06T04:58:00.002+05:30

Now that it looks like we're leaving for sure, I thought about listing a few things that were interesting about this part of the (sea-) world, not in a bad way :). I must say, despite all our fears, it never really got that hot! Then again, it appears we timed it right and beat the worst part of the year to be here, which is the next couple of months.

What we have had, are the fringe effects of proximity to the Suez traffic. For one thing, I've never heard so many different languages spoken over the radio. To put it in perspective, our crew at this point collectively speak almost twenty languages, and there were still many we couldn't understand!

I have to admit, on the whole, the sunrises were rather more picturesque than the sunsets :). The band of haze that seems to be permanently stuck on the horizon does have its uses though. That's what makes sunsets every day look like pottery in reverse, what with the disc of the setting sun constantly being dismantled ever so subtly, and continuously, until it disappears with that unheard whoosh. I'm still waiting for the green flash to go with it :).

The moon-rises have tried to keep up. Sometimes with fascinating God of War looks. But I guess there's just so much less light to work with that it's a losing battle...

It's those hours just beyond daylight though, that are the best. Whether it is when ruddy darkness resigns to be blown apart by the rising sun, or when it prepares to repossess the sky as its foe sinks below the edge of the sea. When the breeze is soothing and you close your eyes and breathe in the salty air, it is difficult to imagine that you are surrounded by desert to the east and west, pirate infested seas to the south and an unending stream of strange tongued ships just over the horizon.

And then of course I get back to work and find all hell has broken loose and those few moments of peace and equanimity evaporate like they never were. Yup, I love my job... In all fairness though, I'm kidding only some of the time when I say that :).

Currently: one and a wake-up!
Listening to: Alison Mossheart and Carla Assar - Tomorrow never knows

Arabian nights

2011-06-01T23:33:00.001+05:30

Into no-mores, and so far so good. Hopefully this would be the last week I spend in this country for a while. Then again, who knows. I don't even know where we are headed to next! And no, I'm not the only one :P.

However, there is the break to look forward to in the mean time! :) And some random plans being hatched. Well, not so much hatched as idly contemplated and sometimes whispered out loud (well, relatively speaking) to see what they sound like...

At some point in the last week or so, my mind seems to have engaged in a partial shutdown of sorts. I'm hoping I'd get through the next six days on auto-pilot :D. We shall see.

Currently: no more Wednesdays!!
Listening to: Marilyn Manson - Sweet dreams

Chicken soup

2011-05-26T00:45:00.000+05:30

There isn't really much to say. Except that I'm quite comfy with the reversal of day and night I guess. What with the sunsets, when I can make it out of the windowless-ness that is work. And the bustling afternoons. And the midnight soup experiments! That would actually make a cool name for a band! No? :)

Still can't get used to the almost ghostly silence of these early hours of the morning though. There's a whole lot less people around to play table tennis with. Which has made me start practising darts some days. With decidedly mixed results :S.

Right, so no, not really much to talk about. Just needed an excuse to put up some pics. No, no one plays basketball at night either, which is a shame. With the kind of weather we've had lately though, might just wake up one of these days and find the back-board missing or something!

Currently: rolling, rolling!
Listening to: KT Tunstall - Paper aeroplane

Afterlight

2011-05-16T22:25:00.001+05:30

The sun is a light bulb...

So says Steven Wilson. I now have proof!

I might be wrong here, but are sunsets longer than sunrises?! It sure feels like it :). Several possible reasons suggested themselves as I lingered on in the unseasonally cool breeze as the orange darkened to crimson and then to something more sinister.

I discarded each one in turn and eventually decided, it didn't matter. I like the fact that sunsets seem to bring the promise of quiet. Yes, the trip's not going badly, one might say :).

I suppose I should really get out more during the night. But as on the night shift, it seems there's never quite enough time off shift :D.

Currently: practicing knot tricks
Listening to: Chicane - Red skies

Upside-down

2011-05-08T21:37:00.001+05:30

So far, this trip hasn't been very nice. Granted, it could be worse, but then it could always be worse, so that's not saying much. The trip to the boat wouldn't have been too bad, even with the unexpected nine-hour wait at Duba. Except that I was then informed I was to do day shifts this trip instead of nights.

I suppose on the face of it, it's not that big a deal. However, take into consideration that I've done nights for the last five years, and it becomes somewhat significant. Habits, I tell you, they are at once brilliant and terrible things :(.

For one thing, it took me a while to get used to the fact that the sun is up way before I wake up every morning! And of course, there are way too many people up and about at midday, which puts in rather sharp contrast my usually groggy appearance at work. Then there is the food situation. Lunch has turned into breakfast, dinner into lunch and breakfast has disappeared altogether :|.

Sunrises have been replaced by sunsets. Not unexpectedly, decent examples if the latter aren't any less elusive than of the former.

But the worst part really is how at the end of shift there's no longer the forays into sunshine. There's only darkness through the port holes. And since sunset, there's only the slow trudging progress towards eventual slumber...

True, there are the charms of the clear night sky. But that presupposes decent weather at night. Which is sadly lacking these days. And to top it off, I, along with at least a third of the crew, am in the clutches of a rather annoying bout of cold :(.

Sounds rather miserable doesn't it? After five days, it's beginning to get a little better I think. One set of habits grudgingly giving way to another. I shudder to think what will happen when, eventually, I get bumped off to another boat altogether :-S.

Currently: sore and sniffing :(
Listening to: Massive Attack - Teardrop

Debaser

2011-05-03T17:54:00.001+05:30

How often is it that you find yourself stuck in a place surrounded by mountains and desert, with nothing by way of significant evidence of civilization visible as far as the eye can see, and in the middle of this, there's free (albeit somewhat slow) wi-fi?

Okay, it is possible that the no 'significant evidence of civilization' bit might have been a little harsh, but not very. Welcome to Duba. No, again, I haven't missed the i. And we're stuck here with no boat to take us to the ship and rather tired after the long bus ride from Tabuk and the early flight out of Jeddah before that. Yes, mountains, desert, astonishing rock displaying fascinating erosion patterns whose astonishing and fascinating nature respectively themselves get quite eroded by the fourth trip through the otherwise barren, dry and forbidding landscape.

It is on that bus ride that some profound (but thoroughly pointless) thoughts occurred to me, as they tend to do when I make the mistake of leaving the book in the backpack instead of within quick reach and subsequently find nothing else with which to occupy my mind :|.

I shall spare you said profundity. However, having noticed the somewhat ravaged copy of Shantaram the chap in the seat next to mine seemed to be trying to read rather distractedly, I asked him about it. It's one of those books that I'd heard a lot about, but heard nothing specific at all. For instance, I had no idea about the plot, premise, or anything of that nature. I get the feeling I know a lot of people who've read it, but I don't remember ever having received a substantial opinion of any sort about it.

I soon found out that a lot of Australians that my friend hangs out with back home in Brisbane absolutely loved it... So I decided to give the first chapter a read. I must say, it was intriguing. Not least because of the nature of observations regarding Bombay. The foreign nature of the eye doing the observing rather patently evident. But then I should read more than a single chapter before forming an opinion, I think.

There is a method to approaching new places, I reckon. And it is by no means uniform across people. Take me for instance, the first thing I do in a new place is systematically reduce it down to known elements and patterns. It is actually quite interesting how easily this can be done with almost any given environment. All airports are essentially the same, all ports, city subway systems, hotels/motels/inns/lodges, food, traffic... It is possible to distil them all down to some universal fundamentals.

I suppose I really do it to prevent myself from completely freaking out in any new place, which, almost without exception, I find scary :(. It's kinda sad I suppose, but once I've managed to calm down enough, having found the symmetries and similarities and thus having brought the 'freaky newness' of the place within manageable limits, only then can I start looking at all the stuff that is in fact not the same. The stuff that gives each place its character.

Why am I going on about this? Besides the necessity to while away some of this wretched hot afternoon in the desert with not much else to do? I think I've only just figured this out. And I'm not sure if it's a particularly good way of going about things... Either way, I must say, I am extremely happy to be able to use a proper camera again while travelling :).

Currently: whiling life away
Listening to: Emily Browning - Sweet Dreams (are made of these)

The stars, like dust...

2011-04-30T23:59:00.003+05:30

What's up with the weather? It's been raining almost everyday, and this is supposed to be summer! Well, I'm not complaining. If I manage to sneak out before the heat really kicks in, all the better. That would be day after. Yes, the flights came in. Of course, seeing how I'm travelling to... yup, you guessed it, the Red Sea again, the escape from heat might not actually work out. Still, I suppose it's better than tornadoes bringing hailstorms that put holes through your car! Which is what apparently happened to my aunt in Tennessee earlier today :S.

Right, so I'm finally done, with everything written by Asimov himself in the Foundation universe!! Yay! :) The pile of unread books in my shelf right now has been reduced to only GRRMs, and those I'm going to keep that way till book six comes out. Or till such a time when I've finished reading everything else I've ever wanted to read, in case said book takes a really long time coming.. who knows right?

And having started my foray into the rest of Asimov's formidable works with Nemesis, I was struck by the publishers' sense of humour. I mean, who feels the need to put this disclaimer in a sci-fi novel?!!

"All of the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental."

But it was the Author's Note that really embodied some of the reasons that make reading Asimov a delight for me :).

"... I made up my mind long ago to follow one cardinal rule in all my writing - to be clear. ... I would write merely clearly and in this way establish a warm relationship between myself and my readers, and the professional critics - Well, they can do whatever they wish.
However, my stories write themselves, I'm afraid, and in this one, I was rather appalled to find out that I was writing it in two strands. ... I am sure you will have no trouble following the pattern, but since we are all friends, I thought I would let you know."
- Isaac Asimov, Nemesis

Currently: procrastinating
Listening to: The Cinematic Orchestra - Breathe

Burnt rubber

2011-04-24T22:52:00.001+05:30

Emptiness has a way of spreading itself, sometimes. No matter what you throw at it, it just gets swallowed up. I guess black holes tend to be like that, don't they? Then again, those aren't exactly nothing. Oh never mind.

In the mean time, not a lot has happened. Actually, I suppose that's not entirely true.. Road-tripping happened, the usual family visits thing. Somewhat brief, given the length of the break, but more pressing matters have kept me home for much of the break.

If one were to discount a duck-stop, a few cattle-traffic jams, one blown tyre and almost running out of gas on the empty highway, the driving part was pretty much the usual. It definitely is nice to take some alone time every now and then.

For a change, I decided to re-familiarise myself with the sights by the highway - the drying river beds, the banana tree forest, the broken, overgrown chimneys... All I seem to remember from the last few times are snaking dashed white lines marking the lanes.

On the other hand, the not-driving part, that brought up some interesting realizations. Growing up is a sticky business isn't it? As is growing old.

Well, I suppose there's less than a week left for me to head back to work. And, somewhat annoyingly, I still have no idea when that is. Don't get me wrong, I'm not exactly itching to get back to work, but it would be nice to know how much longer I have till that happens.

Currently: finding KKR's IPL fate amusing
Listening to: Anna Nalick - Wreck of the day

Still life

2011-04-16T22:33:00.000+05:30

Weather's not been too bad lately. I'd been expecting the full force of the oppressive Cal summer heat. However, the rain has helped :).

Surprisingly enough, it took me all of two weeks to get around to using my cam since I was re-united with it. Yes, I've been lazy mostly. And quite unashamedly so. Did finish off with Larsson's third though!

Was it just me or did the ending seem a little weird? Almost as if someone else had written it! A rather jarring attempt at tying up the trailing threads. Nonetheless, it was definitely worth the time! All three books actually. The only thing I regret is the fact that I kept confusing some of the Swedish addresses :|. But I don't think being able to read a trilogy more conveniently is a justifiable reason for trying to learn a language :).

Right, and now I'm back to the comforting world of sci-fi intrigue! Somehow Asimov's just easier to read :). And now that I have all three Empire novels, let's see if I can finish them off so that the next time I leave I can get books on the fly with a clear conscience!

Currently: bleh
Listening to: Sara Bareilles - King of anything

Super-mayhem!

2011-04-08T16:05:00.001+05:30

I think the cricket fever's run its course :). No, I'm not a big IPL or T20 fan, so.

So, flashback to the flights back home. One might question the sense in choosing a book titled Turbulence for reading on flights, but that's what I did. Promptly, I was transported back by Basu's trademark haphazardness (possibly unintentional, but whatever) to the Game World universe! It was quite entertaining actually :).

The crazy start, a storyline that got even crazier. Lots of chatter interspersed with bits of action in the start and middle giving way to exactly the opposite towards the latter part. I love the way he does it. The sense of almost tumbling from one page to the next in a mad rush to find out what happens next! But in the process, you end up lunging headlong into an ending that is, quite frankly, bewildering.

I think he should just have skipped the end entirely :|. I mean, seriously?!!! Cringe-inducing is an understatement!! And of course, there's ample opportunity for sequels. But I'm not quite certain which side of that fence to stand on...

Anyhoo, now that I'm done with that, it's high time I finished off with Hornet's Nest! This vacation so far has a pretty cool feel to it :). Like a proper break from things. You know, like summer breaks used to be in-between school years!

Currently: on break, from everything :D
Listening to: Jaime Wyatt - Light Switch

Yes it is!!!

2011-04-03T17:00:00.001+05:30

I must say, for a while now, every India cricket match I watched, we seem to have lost. However, this one, I wasn't going to pass up on, no matter what :). Back at home, watching it with family, it was like the good old days!

And of course, there was the palpable tension. You know how it is, when India's bowling, every run scored seems like a nail in the coffin. When we bat, every ball a potential disaster :|. It's quite terrible really :).

But what a match that was! Between lunch and a late dinner, I don't remember much else! I know while it was on, I kept worrying someone would do something stupid, but thinking about it now, we did play quite well didn't we?! I mean seeing the pacers diving around the outfield and the Yuvis and Rainas bouncing around in the infield was quite spectacular. Not to mention Zak's opening spell.

The last 5 overs... well, that and India's opening 7 overs were difficult, to say the least :(. I suppose it is indeed too much to ask for an easy World Cup final win :). But soon enough every run was being cheered. The din rising out from the windows all around, the whoops and shouts, the whistles, the impromptu percussion bands using plates and god knows what other utensils, kept getting louder and louder!!

And then Gambhir threw away his wicket! Dead silence pretty much. My dad wasn't being allowed out of his seat. (When he watches, India win! That's the rule in this household!) I kept switching channels in the same order every over-break. Yes, yes, I don't believe in superstitions, but can't hurt the chances :P.

That last six of course, let loose all sorts of celebratory madness :). People jumping in every window you could see :D. Fireworks, music and whistles and victory chants, the whole nine yards! And this is supposed to be the quiet part of town. What can I say? It was indeed a dream come true!

A few excited phone calls later (achieved through persistence in the face of 'all lines on this network are currently busy' on three different networks) things began to calm down a bit at home :). The fireworks took another couple of hours. But by 0100 things were quiet and dark.

That's the thing, isn't it? Once it's over, it's over. And things will, sooner or later, get back to normal. People are still studying for exams. Monday morning traffic will be just as mad as every other week. But in that one moment, it was as if we were all there. We were all world champions :).

Who cares if most people in the world don't even understand the game let alone play it?! :)

Feeling: gloriously smug :D
Listening to: Aqualung - Brighter than sunshine

Is this it?!

2011-04-01T19:22:00.001+05:30

Well, that went well! ~~Saw~~ Followed about a third of Sri Lanka's innings while waiting for the supply boat to finally come alongside so we could actually get off of the Trident. (Took them forever! :|) But that was it. Since then no net, no useful TV, nothing.

So yes, I missed out on the IND-PAK semi. Well, almost. Someone sort of eavesdropped on someone else in Tabouk airport (random deserty place somewhere in the north of The Kingdom) with India at 25 overs or so and Tendulkar still batting. Later on in Jeddah something similar happened but this time all I got was a cryptic 'India one wicket from victory'!! Then nothing for fifteen hours :S.

Finally when I did land up in Cal yesterday morning and called home at once, I found out the result! There was almost nothing else in the newspapers or on the telly for the rest of the day :). Since then of course, I've managed to catch most of the significant bits of both that match and the Oz-thrashing quarter-final on TV. Oh, how I've missed the gazillion cricket channels this last month!

At least I get to watch one India match live! Well, on TV. I'm too late and too tired to have had any inkling of hope of a ticket to Wankhede :|. But the big question is, will the boys in blue give us our first Cup since (just) before I was born? Or will there be a repeat of '96, when India clobbered Pakistan in the quarter-final only to be humiliated in the semi by, yes, none other than Sri Lanka?

I guess by tomorrow night we'll find out! Good luck to all 1.21 billion of us! (Apparently, or so the 2011 census says.)

Currently: praying for that win!!
Listening to: The Postal Service - Such great heights

Come on weather, be nice!

2011-03-28T16:33:00.001+05:30

It worked!!!! We beat Australia! Now if only we can manage to do that against Pakistan. Easily the biggest match of the Cup, and I'll be in transit. Hopefully, I should say. Weather's been pretty crap lately. It's supposed to be nice here, the weather. But I'm beginning to trust these things less and less.

So I finished Juliet. That's about it really. I'm wondering whether to rate it above or below How to Be Good, which is the only Hornby I properly hate. It's a close run thing :|. Might be the way I read it. Or might not.

It's been one of those trips. The ones when a lot seemed to have happened, but when I try to put a finger on it, I keep drawing blanks. And through it all, somehow, managed to run over a 100k listening to exactly one song.

Really wasn't expecting to spend these last two shifts this trip on the back deck, but I suppose that makes time go by quick. Doesn't feel like it, but it does.

Currently: ready to leave!
Listening to: Flunk - Play

Chords, discord and Julie Beatty

2011-03-24T16:59:00.010+05:30

For a few days now, I've been struggling through Juliet, Naked. Well, perhaps struggling is a bit strong. I'd start reading, laugh away on my own for a bit at some particularly original bit of wit, and then be unable to carry on any further. Good thing the book's quite short. I'm well over halfway done already!

But the trouble really is of the noise inside the head variety. Static, rushing wind, that sort of thing. Happens an awful lot when I've got things to do, but can't really be bothered. Which isn't the case at the moment, come to think of it. So maybe I've got that one backwards. Either way, trying to drown it out with music. Working only some of the time.

On top of that, for some reason this time the whole "Oh my god! It's time to go on break!" thing's started building up way too early. Normally it's a couple of days. Maybe. This time it started with well over a week to go!! It's quite annoying to be honest, gets in the way of things. And there's still four and a wake-up to go!

Anyhoo. It's not that I've forgotten about the India quarter-final that's going on right now. I just decided that since I can't watch it, I will not follow it at all. At least that way, in my head, the possibility of a longer run to the finals, and Sachin's last chance at that trophy, stays alive and well till tomorrow morning. It would appear that the only match I have any hope of catching a live telecast of will be the final :(.

Feeling: lost-ish, but in a good way, sort of
Listening to: Charles Atlas - The snow before us

Moonshine

2011-03-21T11:59:00.002+05:30

I like 20-25 knots of wind. You can quite comfortably lean into it. Of course, if it were to suddenly drop, or change direction for a moment, you would be left clutching thin air as you fell forward. And beyond that speed it gets a bit annoying. Especially so if it's cold :).

It's been a while since I've been out on deck in the middle of the night. Provided you position yourself right, all you see is the dark expanse of inky ocean, fading into a somewhat lighter darkness of the night sky. Barring the twinkling of the lanternas and maybe distant lights from ashore, when you can see shore, that is.

On occasion, there are other boats, lit up, sometimes quite festive looking from a little distance away. But recently, after a space of a couple of years, we are working solo. No more keeping pace, alone, somewhat unfettered even.

But on some nights, others intrude on the brooding darkness. The moon, for instance. Giant, at rise and set as it hovers near the horizon. Or merely bright, melting part of the world into a flow of liquid moonshine reaching out towards the edge of sea and sky. Or dusky sometimes, flitting between ghostly clouds.

Did it really look any bigger than every other night? Any closer? Not that I could tell. Probably the trouble there is that the moon is kinda far away to begin with :).

Currently: single digits!!!
Listening to: Mumm-Ra - She's got you high

Fires in the distance

2011-03-18T10:06:00.002+05:30

This World Cup's been a bit of a hopeless situation so far :(. First I discover that none of the stupid sat TV channels airing here are telecasting the matches. Live or otherwise :|. And then the two India matches I try to follow, on Cricinfo over a very flaky net connection, end up in disaster. There's even a possibility we might get kicked out in the group stages again I think, isn't there?

It isn't too long before I manage to get off for the first proper break I guess. Should be interesting...

There's just that slight inkling of falling. Not like a rock. More like a somewhat wet feather. One of these days I need to get on a roller coaster. Just to see how much it is (or isn't) like being on a boat in rough weather, or a flight through turbulence.

Beginning to feel a bit like doomsday, isn't it? What with floods and earthquakes and tsunamis and nuclear disasters and god knows what else just around the corner. Not to mention war, either actual or simmering beneath a sea of unrest. What is the world coming to, one wonders.

Currently: brooding, possibly unnecessarily
Listening to: Coldplay - Warning sign

Hazy horizons

2011-03-10T17:10:00.000+05:30

Wow, it seems to be going pretty quick, this trip! (Oh no! Please let the Seismic Gods not hear that! :S) (Yes, there is such a thing, and even those who do not believe in God(s), or any other form of conventional supernatural interventionist entity, believe in the Seismic Gods. They are scary and are always listening in case you do something stupid. Like mention in passing that the trip has been going by pretty quick :|. The consequences can be trying, at the very least.)

Anyway, enough of that. I did finish with The Girl Who Played with Fire, and now I'm in serious pain. I mean, come on!!! How can you do that?! Leave it hanging like that?! Point being that my copy of The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is sitting in my book shelf at home :|. On top of that, Juliet, Naked is proving to be a pretty difficult switch of gears. Should I nip into Turbulence instead? Hmm, that's a thought.

By the looks of it, we're about half way through with the Arabian campaign, so to speak. But since that means another couple of trips, and with absolutely no clue as to where we might be headed next, that doesn't really mean much by way of anything. Except that we have a good chance of exiting the Red Sea sometime in the middle of summer. I keep hoping one of these days I'll make it through the Suez. On a boat. Maybe it'll happen. One can always hope.

In the mean time, here we are, with this super awful weather to keep us company, close to the tip of Sinai, where the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba empty into the Red Sea. (End of geography lesson.)

Currently: agonizing over possible consequences of a .22 in the head
Listening to: Vetiver - You may be blue

Sunstroke

2011-03-06T15:29:00.002+05:30

It's been very quiet on the reading front for a while. But something caught my attention the other day and I found myself laughing quietly at the memory of a certain grammar lesson. And the incorrigible Jess from A Long Way Down. Somehow, re-reads don't seem to add much to Hornby, but the first time was definitely an experience :).

Which is probably why I'm once again ploughing through the last few pages of The Girl Who Played With Fire. I don't have book three here with me, but with five other unread books on my cabin shelf, lack of material is really not the worry. Once I'm done with this one, I think I'll start with Juliet, Naked. Yes, still haven't gone past the first page on that :|.

Then of course there's the news on A Song of Ice and Fire!! Apparently in three months the next book will be out. Of course, this is no longer the last volume, so the wait continues :-<. I tried to recall the last part of the story that I remember reading. It was a doomed enterprise, obviously, but I think I'll hold my horses on the full re-read till a more opportune time :).

It's a shame The Ring of Solomon isn't releasing in paperback for ages!!! Evil publishers X-(. I'm rather happy this is a prequel. Still trying to shake off the feeling from the end of Ptolemy's Gate, and I think a bit more of Bartimaeus would definitely help with that!
--

So the question really is, I suppose, whether things do indeed feel any less hectic now. Yes and no, actually. This trip's been fairly eventful already, barely a couple of weeks in! Blinking solitons and what not. It's quite intriguing, the concept of a gigantic ball of water intent specifically on causing us grief :).
--

A flicker of a fleeting feeling. Untended, fading away into nothingness. A sun gliding in-between strangely insubstantial yet dark clouds. The sliver of a rising crescent moon, precariously balancing over the leaping, foaming waves. In the midst of the onrushing tide, moments of serenity, life in slow motion.

Feeling: nothing
Listening to: Flunk - Play

Pocketful of sunshine

2011-02-22T17:09:00.007+05:30

I'm done :).

I'm also back on the boat, and fully sympathetic to those of the crew who have to regularly travel from the US to the Red Sea. It takes a really really long time! But between finishing up and leaving for work, I did have two days.

Turns out I've never rented a car with the purpose of driving around all by myself. Till the trip to Austin that is. The drive was quite nice. But the day and a half spent in Austin, between that final presentation at Houston and flying out, that was indeed quite something :).

Relationships come in all shapes and sizes don't they? Some defying all logic, others, the very embodiment of the inevitability of it. Or so it would seem.

The Austin weather, while I was there, quite happily decided to defy predictions and allowed for a perfectly lazy day outdoors! Odd timed meals, rippled lights reflected on a lake, one super-sized moon, walks - by the river, around quiet campus buildings, and coffee, lots of coffee :). And of course, hours and hours of chatting about pretty much everything under the sun...

The drive back to Houston was probably the best part of the four days spent travelling! At least this time I got more than four hours of sleep in the hotel at Jeddah!

But sometime on my way back to the boat, it started sinking in. That inescapable feeling that everything will be all right. That somehow, beginnings are within reach. Things are beginning to look up then :). We shall see...

Currently: optimistic
Listening to: Sad Brad Smith - Help yourself (Up in the Air soundtrack)

Are we there yet?

2011-02-16T23:02:00.003+05:30

The answer is almost, but not quite :|.

I mean come on! It's only been like almost three weeks!! (Not to mention the five years before that :|. But let's not go there.) I will say this though, I can prove unequivocally that you learn more over a shared lunch than in any operations meeting /:).

By the weekend though, I was well and truly tired of being here. Of the nice enough hotel room and the quiet and peaceful enough days at the office. So it was really really awesome when one of my mates from the ship (who lives in the neighbourhood, sort of) picked me up Sunday morning.

The better part of the next two days was spent driving through pine forests and past large blue lakes. And some time driving on one of those lakes in a boat too! The plan was to maybe go fishing, but there wasn't enough time for that, sadly. I did get to spend a lot of time with a bunch of dogs though :).

It was enough of a boost to keep me going for a little bit longer. Coincidences stacked upon one another to even make for a pretty decent Tuesday night out with a few people from Asker who were visiting, or just passing through. Yup, it's a small world is marine seismic.

This afternoon I went and got my own ride out of here. Let's just hope I manage to drag myself over that last step tomorrow morning, then Austin, here I come! The only thing is, after such a long and stretched out process, I'm way more excited about leaving Houston than anything else. Including preparing for tomorrow's final presentation :|.

And of course, with barely any warning, my five weeks on land are all but over.

Currently: tired
Listening to: Sad Brad Smith - Help yourself

10 + 1 down, 1 + 1 to go!

2011-02-12T00:46:00.000+05:30

I was this close! No matter, just more time.

I've definitely developed some sort of an addiction to NCIS :|. And to Bones in the ad breaks. (They air at the same time, most days, it would seem.) For some reason, every time I see Emily Deschanel I keep trying to find similarities with her sister...

Incidentally, the weekend might be somewhat interesting. It's supposed to be a little warmer. Let's hope that turns out to be true. Beginning to feel just a little bit drained. Desperately need to recharge the old batteries.

Currently: oh so close!
Listening to: Snow Patrol - The finish line

Once more to the...

2011-02-07T23:26:00.001+05:30

It actually did snow last Friday!! To my utter amazement, I saw some fragile remnants of what could not have been more than barely an inch of snowfall in the morning. And icicles skirting the fenders of cars in the parking lot. Didn't last long though. Soon enough all that was left was puddles drying in the chilly sunshine.

Now it's back to much more reasonable temperatures. But I will tell you what is utterly unreasonable. Went for the medical this morning. Starving since dinner last night, no breakfast. After hours of tests and waiting and several test-tubes of blood, they make you wait in a rather nice waiting room with a big TV, and what's on? The Food channel X-(.

Haven't been very social lately. But did manage to meet up with a friend over the weekend. After almost six years of mostly not keeping in touch... I figure the easiest thing to do in such situations is apply the brute force method :). Start from the last known point and keep asking "So then what happened?!!" :P It works!

Currently: bit tired of pizza...
Listening to: Duck Sauce - Barbara Streisand

2 + 1 down, 9 + 1 to go...

2011-02-02T10:02:00.003+05:30

So far so good. I'm half way through round one and have only had pleasant surprises thus far.

The whole trip from New Haven to Houston was somewhat circuitous, mostly by choice. Saw daylight while on a train for a change. It was predictably all white, reminding me of the massive, massive mountains of snow on Orange.

NYC was interesting. Crab and lobster ale. Baby book buying. Catching up after years of barely keeping in touch. Entertaining a one year old. Korean barbecue-at-the-table! Soju (:-&). Absenthe (note the e, :D). Cigar :-<. Eight months down the drain. But I'm back up to 4 days.

And of course, landing up in Houston was just so warm at almost 20° C! But guess what? Today it's 0°. I mean, seriously? Come on! Oh well, we'll see if it really does snow on Friday as predicted. In the mean time, onward to freedom. Let's hope.

Currently: cold! again!
Listening to: Kina Grannis - Cambridge

Snow flower

2011-01-27T18:19:00.002+05:30

Right. So I've been on land for a bit now. But have been fairly occupied.

Finally got that new phone I'd been meaning to get for a while. My old one's really getting on now. Plus I needed a camera, till I can get back to using my EOS and IXUS duo that is. So I settled for the Nokia C3-01. It's handy. Small. Has a touch screen and doesn't look anything like the iPhone! Plus the 5MP cam is adequate for most situations. It also has Arabic on the keypad :|.

Trip back to the US was actually rather uneventful. Though by the time I managed to find my way back to New Haven, I was running seriously low on sleep! Nothing a few days of peace and quiet couldn't take care of though :).

Only trouble was the temperatures were rather significantly lower that I'd anticipated (or was prepared for :S). And in due course of the visit to NYC over the weekend, the cold struck with some ferocity. As luck would have it some people had decided to go run a half marathon in the middle of that! Impromptu anti-hypothermia action had to be taken in a hurry!!

I've landed up here with nothing besides my usual bare-minimum clothing. Unfortunately, interviews and presentations, especially ones with corporate overtones (and significant interests depending on them, like getting 6 months off a year!!) don't look kindly on jeans and snow boots. So I have now acquired yet another pair of black trousers and a blue shirt :|. And shoes! Question is, how on earth am I going to fit all of this in my Zoomiverse?!

Since the weekend though, I've been busy. Thankfully the weather's cooperated. It snowed pretty much every day and kept me from even thinking of going out :). Others have not been so lucky. And to top it off it snowed over a foot just overnight last night!!! I don't think I've seen anything like this!! Weather was nice today though! Good enough to shovel snow in shorts :D.

I guess my quiet interlude here is about to end. Heading out tomorrow, and hoping that the journey will get me in the vicinity of Houston without too much tribulation. Let's see how things go thereafter. True to form (just like every other thing I really really want) unusual, unnecessary and extremely annoying roadblocks keep throwing themselves at me. Fortunately, thus far, they also seem to be sweeping themselves out of the way :).

Currently: already missing daal bhaat :-<
Listening to: Kina Grannis - Delicate

Around the bend

2011-01-17T05:32:00.001+05:30

Have I mentioned that Norway and India form no part of my plans for this coming break? I will be back stateside. And while there, try and be done with the whole office rotation thing for good. It goes without saying that the usual terms and conditions apply...

I've never been to Houston. Beyond the airport that is. I wonder what two weeks there will be like. A bit warmer than ten days in Connecticut, I imagine :). Apparently it's even been snowing in N. Carolina! It never snows there! My aunt is understandably quite frantic :D.

I am looking forward to this more than anything I can remember in the recent past. Obviously. And that inevitably leads to anxiety. I'm trying not to think about it too much, but naturally, that's not working out too well :).

But it's crew-change tomorrow. So that's keeping things in perspective somewhat :D. I even had confirmed flights almost a week before the day this time!!

There have been some nice sunrises these last few days. Just enough clouds to dazzle.

Looking forward to chilling out for a bit. And hoping that the next time I'm here, life will begin to feel a little less rushed :).

Currently: studying!
Listening to: Salmonella Dub - Ramblings from the Anatoki

Strings that tie...

2011-01-11T16:29:00.000+05:30

I know there's been no solid reason to expect otherwise, but I was kinda hoping I'd not be this clueless about how things would work out by now :|. Yes, we grow up, and then realise it didn't do any good :).

Looks like the little break in reading's given a new lease of life to my enthusiasm for Larsson's Second :).

In the mean time I decided to attempt further craziness. A half-marathon row. (Isn't it ironic? I row on an indoor-rower set up close to the bow of a ship, inside, of course. It even points the right way!) End result? A highly respectable time (in my own opinion only, but still!), and cramps in muscles I didn't even know you could possibly cramp :|. Felt good though :).

Almost into no-mores. Should be a good thing shouldn't it?

Currently: in-between hopes and rocks
Listening to: Vitamin String Quartet - Be my escape

Staring into the void

2011-01-06T16:29:00.003+05:30

Finding yourself out on the back deck at midnight on 1st Jan probably isn't the best start to the year. But as a friend pointed out, it's likely that the year would get better from that point :). Thus far, I can't disagree.

Even managed a boat trip, a first this trip. If only the weather had been better. It's been quite unusually rough actually! The Red Sea's normally supposed to be a pretty calm place. I guess heading further towards the Gulf of Aden hasn't helped our cause any on that front. Thus far it has also not helped my luck with sighting any of the supposedly prolific Red Sea Shark :|.

Can't say a whole lot is happening. The wind's howling and the waves are thrashing about the resolute bow of the ship. But within there's a sense of quiet.

For a number of reasons, my reading's stalled a little. I'm not too distressed. The days seem to be slipping past regardless. Rather contrary to the usual, I almost caught myself thinking about New Year resolutions. :)) It would appear that few of the things I really want to happen this year allow much by way of direct intervention from myself :).

Bright blue skies and white-capped rollers. Not a combination you get to see often. How much longer will we be in this part of the world? Months? Years? What about just me?

Feeling: repressed anxiety blues
Listening to: The Weepies - Be my thrill/ Vitamin String Quartet - Back in black

PS: It appears that the last of the Christmas and New Year decorations on the boat have been taken down... At least now I have a choice of portholes to look out of the mess again :).

Turning another page

2010-12-31T15:51:00.002+05:30

So it does rain in the desert, it would appear :). The blindingly bright blue skies have disappeared for a bit and rolling thunder heads have blanketed the world in a deep grey. We are almost exactly halfway through this trip, and almost through with another year. This has been a somewhat odd one :).

For one thing I've had the most fun ever travelling while on office time :). And somewhat unexpectedly so, seeing how the last ten months in and out of Oslo have been strung together by a fortuitous (and sometimes not so fortuitous) series of coincidences. It was almost as if I hung around another year for no particular reason, but had some fun in the bargain...

I'm beginning to lose my sense of time a little. On the one hand it feels like it was hardly any time back that we were blasting down the highway to Key West. On the other, so much seems to have happened since! Road-trips, snowboarding weekends! The drama with the lost wallet =)). Oh dear, this is beginning to feel all too familiar.

Things I wish hadn't happened, happened anyway, and left some of us a little different. Or a lot. I'm still no good at saying the right thing. But at least sometimes it's enough to just be.

And a lot of time spent in hyperspace :). I'm glad I've started reading a little more these days. I think I have anyway, it's hard to keep track, the way I keep weaving in and out of books. But like they say, there's always so much more, just waiting. I think at this point the only non-optimal for travel thing left in my packing is the fact that I don't have an electronic book reader. And I'm glad that is so. Somehow I can't bring myself to let go of the comforting and endearing feeling of the paperback :).

There's also been a lot of new music. I should listen to more of it!

I am looking forward to so many things in the coming months. And of course, I'm wondering what it'll be like in another four or six months. My life that is. If there's something of use I've learnt this year it would be that there's no point wondering how the last year was :). There's never quite anything to compare with, is there?

On the other side of the edge of midnight I'll be busy bringing in 2011 hard at work on the back deck. I wont be the only one, and to you lot I've got to say, this too shall pass!! :) And to everyone, wish you all a happier, brighter New Year!

Currently: waiting, wishing, hoping...
Listening to: Flunk - Play

Ho Ho Ho!

2010-12-26T04:20:00.002+05:30

This is usually not a good time to be on the boat :). Through the gaps in the general efforts at merriment and in-between the awesome lunch and dinner spreads and the other things we do to make the holiday season feel festive, that feeling leaks through, that we would all much rather be elsewhere.

But, the Christmas celebrations help :). This time as it turned out Santa didn't even need a false beard (or an artificial waistline :D)! I was quite happy with my gift :D. It was exactly what I wanted! Not that that was a complete coincidence... :P. But I don't think too many others would have wanted the Bill Bryson anyway :).

And in keeping with my on-board Christmas luck, our table managed to completely blow everyone else out of the water in the inaugural (and possibly only) Trident Annual Christmas 'Pub' Quiz, complete with alcohol free Budweiser and lots of photos of pubs (and presumably not alcohol-free beer) on the super size screen /:). I think it may have helped a little that the quiz-setter and I have discussed favourite music in the not too distant past ;).In the mean time I pretty much raced through the rest of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The strange thing is that the end seemed to go a little sideways when it came to the plot, but the pace stayed relentless. So I ended up screaming through the first few chapters of The Girl Who Played with Fire before running out of steam somewhat.
I think I should really start studying :-<. Maybe after the New Year. We'll see.

Currently: wondering why Guinness World Records exist
Listening to: Aerosmith - Sunshine

Män Som Hatar Kvinnor

2010-12-21T15:54:00.002+05:30

Looks like the snow's causing a bit of drama up in the European region. Which is a shame, imagine the kind of snowboarding that could have happened in January! And that is a shame because, contrary to all my expectations, it appears that I wont in fact be returning to Norway next break.Or at all, quite possibly. Not for office rotations anyway. Of course, there are still a lot of ifs and maybes and so forth. Still, I'm now wondering if it was an oversight to not have carried those two bags back home the last time. I wonder how long they'll remain in the narrow confines of that store room shelf in Asker.In the mean time, I've managed to get about halfway through The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (they should have kept the name Men who hate Women, like in the original Swedish, if you ask me). So far it's a pretty gripping read. You know, the kind which if you try reading in bed before you go to sleep, you end up wide awake an hour later, cursing yourself for having missed that precious hour of sleep! But the artifacts of translation remain. I'd really like to know Pippi Longstocking a little better, for instance :|.I'm quite looking forward to reading the whole trilogy, but I realised with a jolt that I hadn't anticipated the immediate future travel possibilities too well. I left the third book at home, but I'm not sure if I'm heading back there before June even!!! Oh well, such is life :-<. (I wont even go into the amount of time I'll possibly have to spend apart from my cameras...)But between the two Larssons, the Hornby and the new Samit Basu (of Simoqin fame) I picked up in Mumbai airport on the way out, I should be set on the reading front for at least a significant fraction of whatever time it takes me to get back home. Oh! And there are those last two Empire books that I am quite likely to get my hands on before long :).

Clearly, work's been not awful thus far :). That wont last too long, I know. But hey, this first week's been infinitely better than the last one!

Currently: wondering at changing fortunes and shifting futures
Listening to: Taylor Swift - Enchanted

Bring out the tree, break out the (alcohol-free) champagne!

2010-12-16T16:25:00.004+05:30

I'm getting that distinct feeling of déjà vu. Not the good kind :|. I'm referring here to how progressive crew changes to and from Angola got increasingly difficult :S. In fact, this crew change marked two years since the first one in Luanda, to the day. This time getting to the Red Sea was not outright awful though. Barring the no camera thing, obviously. The day spent on the crew boat in pretty bumpy weather was good in a way. I managed to sleep for about 15 hours and was in reasonable shape by the time the Trident showed up this side of the horizon. I'd had barely 3 hours the previous night to clean up in Jeddah in absolutely the hugest, fanciest hotel suite I've ever been in! Oh the irony :|.The bad thing was that my flight out of Cal got delayed a solid three hours, and all my plans of meeting up with people in Bombay were shot through the head :(. But there might be other unexpected opportunities on that front before too long. We shall see.

On the other hand, the good thing was that some people managed to get their cameras through to the boat! (Of course, if I were to think that I could easily have slipped in my IXUS, then that's not such a good thing, but I'm trying to be positive.) So I've got some choice of equipment to use while on the boat. Hence the photos :).My boss very kindly offered his slightly old Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ8. It's not bad actually. One of those super-zooms. Only trouble is the rather pedestrian 36mm low end. But I'm not going to complain. We even had a laugh when someone joked that my 450D seemed to have shrunk to get past immigration :). I must say though, once you are used to the SLR, the awkward in-between-ness of the compact super-zoom can never feel right :-<. Be that as it may, I'm here, back in the Red Sea. A bit further south this time, and quite close to the coast. And the weather's perfect. Cool enough that I can actually step out-doors with the camera without an instantly fogged lens :). Let's hope the trip goes by in reasonable peace.

Currently: settling down for the watery year end
Listening to: Taylor Swift - Back to December

Memories beyond memory

2010-12-11T21:28:00.002+05:30

I obviously don't remember that one being taken! It was quite a surprise when it landed up in my inbox! The subsequent hunt through over-crowded drawers past years of accumulated stuff caused a bit of an avalanche of old photographs in 'hard copy' :).I wish there was some way I could tell what the subjects were thinking in some of those photographs. The expressions are often priceless :D.

And out of the lot you could tell which ones were mine. It appears my habit of ignoring people and clicking just about everything else is an old one :P.

Right, on to another turn of the desert then.

Currently: in an enormously good mood :D
Listening to: Milosh - World

De-lensing life

2010-12-10T23:45:00.002+05:30

This break was going quite well. Till yesterday that is. I shall come back to that later, but first, other things. Turns out I'll be flying out Sunday, and through Bombay for the first time in a fair while! Years even, I think. (That is not counting the times I've flown to Bombay, of course.) And I have a long stop-over!

When I explained to a friend that it was only about 4 hours of actual free time, he wasn't amused, but that's the only time I have in that city in the foreseeable future, so I'm hoping to make the most of it. Return that book, for one thing! The Pullman I borrowed in January :).

Speaking of books, I am officially finished with my (now almost two year long) chronological Asimov run-through :D. There were a lot of other books in between, and I had to skip two of the three Empire books as I never managed to get them. But the rest, Robots, one Empire and Foundation are done! Finished the last Foundation book last night. I'm still in a sort of afterglow :). It's a shame he didn't write those two more pre/sequels to fill in some of the larger chronological gaps.

I get the distinct feeling though that, contrary to my previous belief, I may have never actually read Foundation and Earth. Or maybe I did, but the only thing I seemed to recall was a vague notion of the ending. Which is strange, as I remember the rest of the books in somewhat better detail.

Anyhow, seeing that the remaining Empire books await my return to Connecticut, I am for now, Sci-Fi free for a little bit :). As I mentioned before, got a hopelessly overpriced copy of Juliet, Naked from Norway. And on my visit to the book-store under the escalator here I picked up Larsson's trilogy. I've heard good things about it!

Oh but wait, I do have a couple of other unread Asimovs lying about somewhere.... hmm :).

Then yesterday I got my new updated joining instructions for KSA this time, and the bomb dropped. Apparently we're travelling through some port this time that makes it illegal to carry cameras across the border and confiscates any that are found!! X-(((((

I thought about carrying a sacrificial piece, just in case it could be slipped through. But the potential hassles, not limited to the mere loss of the camera, make it far from worthwhile :(. And the resultant alternative? Camera-less existence for a minimum of 5 weeks, and quite possibly much more, depending on what happens after. Then again, that 'what happens after' is at this point, such a foggy business, I'll just leave it be for now.
Bottom-line, these are probably the last pics from me for a while :-<.

Currently: fairly distraught about the imminent lack of photographic equipment in life =((
Listening to: Maps - Die happy, die smiling

A shot in the dark

2010-12-04T00:41:00.003+05:30

Every time there's a chance I'm leaving somewhere for good, I get these slight pangs of sadness. It's not even straight up sadness. More like two-thirds a rather misplaced sadness with a quarter something akin to regret and the remainder made up of varying amounts of relief and other such incongruous stuff.

Yes, the sadness is mostly caused by the faces we'll never see again. But not entirely. There's a little bit of it solely reserved for the empty street corners. And heated foot-paths. And quiet walks down to still, sometimes partly-frozen lakes.
And that sound through the silence as I float down some frozen hill-side. (Have I ever mentioned how snow seems to act as an acoustic damper?)
Need I have clarified that this only applies to places I've actually had some chance to acquaint myself with? Oh!! I finally managed to grab a copy of Juliet, Naked on a random walk through the mall before I left Asker :).
However, there was not even the faintest hint of sadness or regret when I exited the airport at Kolkata to find the temperature a beautiful 17 °C! Yes, that's right, positive, and quite cold for here! A 30+ degree jump again, but at least this time it went the right way :).
For several reasons I hope I don't end up back in Norway come the new year. But there are a couple that keep me from being too unhappy, knowing that that hope is all but futile.Currently: warmer :)
Listening to: Maps - Valium in the sunshine

Magic white powder!

2010-11-29T18:59:00.003+05:30

And just like that, the whole current state of life improved vastly over one week. Having heard that the ski slopes were finally open for this season, (and with more and more people landing up here who I could drag along with me :D) I did a bit of further research to ensure we didn't find ourselves shivering in the cold wind with no snow covered slopes to slide down :S.Wednesday night was quite cold, at -10 C. It was also quite windy. No matter, armed with our unlimited runs passes we started off :D. It was good. I was very very impressed with the lack of persistent aches and pains by the end of the night. At least for me :). But having been down that slope in Tryvann three years running, it was beginning to get a bit boring.

And that's when the weekend plan was hatched: another skiing weekend! This time at Hemsedal! The rest of the week seemed to barely creep by till Friday afternoon, and then off we went!
Having seen the scale of Trysil last winter, I wasn't too surprised by the gorgeous lit up slopes when we arrived there, but I was definitely quite in awe of the cabin we'd managed to rent :D.What followed was quite simply bliss :). And of course frozen finger and toe tips. And huge steaming cups of hot chocolate. And the occasional stopped chair-lift, mid air, with the wind howling (brrrrr).Also, home cooked dinners and breakfasts. More hot cocoa and marshmallows. Sleepy conversations. Serious straight hair discussions /:). Miles and miles of brilliant slopes.By the end of it I'd probably managed my longest set of fall free runs down long slopes. And then I decided to go for one more :D. Collected more falls than the whole weekend put together, and then called it a day.Never-ending trails of tail-lights. Driving snow. Pizza. Random soundtracks.By the time we were back in Asker it had easily been the best weekend in a long long time. And I still have my wallet :P.Currently: regretting leaving all this snow behind in another day
Listening to: Eagle Eye Cherry - Save tonight

Snow covered train tracks

2010-11-21T21:05:00.005+05:30

It's been an interesting couple of weeks :). Well. More like there have been a few interesting things in the last couple of weeks, and the rest of the time things have been mostly nice and quiet.

There weren't a whole lot of people in town. People I know that is. But we did go and watch Red. It was quite hilarious :D. I like Bruce Willis' choice of characters lately :P.
Last weekend it was not raining/snowing one afternoon, so we went out for a bit of a walk to the lake. No running. Too much ice/snow on the ground for that. For me anyway, have noticed a few people running even now.
There's already ice on the lake! With weird spider-webby holes. Albeit a somewhat slushy kind of ice. Although that was last weekend. It's been even colder since then. Oh! There were a couple of divers in the lake! Why would you go diving in a lake? It's not even particularly big. And it's bloody cold!!Then of course, Bolli finally managed to land up in Norway! It's funny how that worked out, he left the middle east and I landed up there. Now I'm trying to get out of Norway for good, plus my work permit runs out in not too long, and he lands up here :|.
Still, that meant I could go over to Bergen and help him move in. Well, I ended up usurping his bed for the most part and hijacking his newly unpacked X-box 360 to play Forza Motorsport :P. Okay, so I also took him around a little bit, braved some frostbite and showed him random bits of the town.It looks very different from what it did last summer! But I was glad to see that the only visible snow was on the hills in the distance :). Now of course I'm headed back to Asker where it's been really cold over the weekend. I'm hoping it's snowed. You see, it appears the slopes are apparently beginning to open up!!!I took the train both ways this time. The overnight trip Friday night was a bit surreal. Stuck as I was between the rankest smelling coat and the rankest smelling beard I've ever had the misfortune of being near (both belonging to the same kindly old man :&), I couldn't help notice the ghostly picture the moonlight made of the snow covered landscape.
Unfortunately the return trip's also in darkness. And without the moon, it's all black :-<. I'm hoping I'm well insulated enough to make it back to the apartment from the station without too much trouble :). Currently: watching the dim distant street lamps racing by
Listening to: Darude - Drums of New York

The dusty road back to snow.

2010-11-11T17:30:00.001+05:30

I'm still tired... Honestly! This is getting a bit bugging now. I've been in Asker a round total of 3 days, had three nights of fairly decent sleep, and yet the heavy eyelids refuse to go away. Might be the gloomy weather.

Well, I really should write about crew change! I'll skip all the bad parts and stick to the somewhat cool things! I am somewhat determined to make this sound not like a rant. (Heh, let's see how that goes :P.)In brief, here's what I survived to get off the boat: Overnight on a(nother) boat. Half a day in a bus through the mountains and bits of the desert. A day and a half in a hotel with a pool and a pool table (!\:D/!) outside a city (town?) that looked sort of big from a distance, but we didn't dare look any closer. Overnight flight to Jeddah and ensuing confusion thanks to intense fog over Istanbul. Flight to Istanbul. Sudden tap on shoulder while I was trying to explain to random fellow passenger that he'd missed his onward flight. Run-in with officemate (and eventual stand-in boss) travelling to OSL on same flight!! Last ditch attempt at securing a bed for the night thanks to suggestions from aforementioned officemate and free wi-fi at IST. Flight to OSL and train to Asker. Increasingly groggy state of being. Miraculously pre-booked hotel room (yay!!!). Herculean effort to drag even groggier self all the way to the pub for dinner (just to avoid the McDonald's next door). All systems down before 1930.Oh! Did I mention intermittent involuntary shivers thanks to the 30 degree temperature drop?Anyway, the cool bits!! So that bus ride?! It was pretty awesome!! Actually the ride was too long and cramped, but the view out of the window was awesome :). A landscape barren to an extent and scale that made it quite majestic! The rocks eventually grew less and less continuous and the sand started creeping up the sides and through the gaps until it was practically all over. With just two narrow ribbons of tarmac slithering along their winding way. Initially through the rocky passes, and eventually amidst the sand from horizon to horizon.
The rocks that remained, large, defiant and eroded, seemed scattered at random. Their nature changing quite rapidly, from pockmarked sandstone to straight-faced granite. Or what looked like it anyway. I'm not exactly your average rock geek, and neither was I about to step from the air-conditioned cab into the nearly cloudless bright blue-skied oven outside to take a closer look! And, not surprisingly, there were camels.The quick swim in the pool once we finally got to the airport hotel outside Tabuk was nice. Except that by then the sun was low in the sky and the water was pretty darned cold! The pool table on the other hand, posed no such problems, and some of us proceeded to make really good use of it :). Oh, and while on the subject of cool things, one mustn't forget the awesome chicken curry!The next cool thing really, was the 12 hour sleep I managed once I finally crash-landed on that hotel bed Monday night :).

Eventually got put up in a different apartment this time. No cool view of the fjord. A longer walk to and from the office. But it's a lot closer to the stores, restaurants and the Kino! Which is the cinema, btw. And tonight, the plan is to go watch Red, despite the sub-zero temperatures.

Oh, it's snowing! Well, it was snowing yesterday. I was a little pre-occupied while trying to find my way out of the apartment block on my way to work. Ironically the same building I mentioned here, lots of doors, hard to tell which ones to go through to get out :|.

The first snow flakes I noticed were the ones that hit me in the face :). It was nice and light. And only after I was safely inside the office building did it turn into a bit of a blizzard. I wasted a bit of extra time staring out through the big glass walls on my way to and from a few extra mugs of hot chocolate.

Like I mentioned elsewhere earlier, it's definitely been a pretty shitty few days to make me feel that good about the stupid snow. My proper snow boots I left at home, and none of the slopes here are even close to opening :(.Currently: hoping Dame Helen Mirren kicks ass with a sniper rifle!
Listening to: Pearl Jam - RVM live in Indianapolis

Tired eyes

2010-11-08T19:17:00.002+05:30

So I did get off the boat on the 5th. And it's only late this afternoon that a very sleep-deprived, frazzled me managed to drag myself into a hotel for the night in Asker. Yup, no apartment till tomorrow. I shall go into annoying details later. Or maybe never.

At least an extremely fortunate chance meeting in Istanbul ensured that I did have a place to sleep in for the night. It's cold! But no snow :(. I need my jacket. And my beanie. But I was too tired to bother trudging all the way to the office to get them out of my bags in the store :(.

Right, time to crash. I shall elaborate on mountains and deserts later.

Currently: bushed
Listening to: Ellen Allien & Apparat - Sleepless

Slow-motion desperation

2010-11-04T04:14:00.003+05:30

Well, it's not been two weeks. In fact, it's been only one, but a lot has come up in the mean time. Unfortunately, the drama in this case has been very much centered right here. And it's all about the all-important crew change :-<. Still don't have flights, but for the first time in three years, we're supposed to be getting off earlier than originally planned!!! (Whoa!!! Wheee! Whoop-whoop, etc. :|)

I seem to have lost the plot a bit here. There's that trapped in a pressure cooker feeling again. Nothing to do with work. Well, as far as work on the boat goes anyway.
By this time next week I'm supposed to be back in Asker. Not quite the middle of the winter. Is there proper snow yet? Hopefully by the end of the month I'll know if I can haul my bags out of that store room for good. Or not.
Oh! Have I mentioned the mountains? Somehow I don't associate those with deserts. But it appears there's a whole range of proper, fully qualified mountains all along the coastline towards the east, Al-Sarawat. And it's getting steadily larger in the window as the days go by. Metaphorically. I don't have a window.
Might get to drive through them, and even fly over them, in a couple of days. One can always hope.Currently: waiting impatiently
Listening to: Kina Grannis - Stars falling down

Far from the maddening crowds

2010-10-27T15:34:00.004+05:30

It hasn't been too bad lately. Life's not been entirely devoid of drama, but said drama being mostly somewhat vicarious in nature, it has been pretty okay all in all :). For us, not for the subjects of the drama, of course.

It occurred to me that I don't often take pictures of the inside of the boat. Beyond the first trip enthusiasm of 'Oh! This is where I lived for the last month!' etc. I spend enough time lugging my camera(s) through these spaces as it is, so figured I'd snap a few.
Seeing how other things have elevated themselves somewhat off our minds and allowed most of the crew some idle time, the matter of most popular and vigorous discussion these days is, obviously, crew-change :). Unfortunately details are still far beyond the horizon. (That is if, in fact, they do at all exist.)That is not to say that there is a dearth of possibilities by any means. Anything and everything from boats, buses, ferries and planes, Jeddah, Egypt and Jordan even! It's all being considered, apparently.
Our venerable Irish chief mate Tom and I decided we'd start our own rumour: possibilities of crew-change through Israel!! Unfortunately, even the most gullible of the crew refused to fall for that one :). (In case you didn't know, previous or even intended travel to Israel automatically bans one from entry to The Kingdom.)
Right, so let's see what comes up in the next couple of weeks.

Currently: en'trance'd
Listening to: Chicane - Lost you somewhere

So far out to sea

2010-10-21T11:15:00.000+05:30

So I've been thinking... (Yes, I've now got plenty of time to think, most days.) Once the mad rush of the job start abated, there's been more or less a slightly strained sort of calm. But calm nonetheless. Plus, they tell us that we might, in fact, make crew change on time!I have been around too long however, to take that last bit at face value :-<. But, we've been told that to avoid the devilish complications of getting some hundred odd people in and out through Jeddah at the precise time of the Haj pilgrimage, we will be flying out through Egypt! However, further details at this point are like the proverbial footprints on desert sands. None of it seems to last for long :). I suppose it's good to have things to look forward to. Scratch that, it's quite necessary to have things to look forward to. But some things, once you begin to look forward to them, they grab you and refuse to let go. Not necessarily a bad thing, but a bit of extra stress I could do without I suppose :-<. In the mean time, it's all about keeping it low on the drama and high on the boring :). Oh, and to all those that it makes sense to, Shubho Bijoya!

Currently: okay, sort of...
Listening to: Chicane - Poppiholla (5am mix)

Surviving on Giants, and not much else

2010-10-15T13:34:00.003+05:30

I've been better. Then again, I've been worse. But not often and not by much. It's getting better though. Sort of. I have a little breathing space. The fact that I have no idea when I will touch dry land again isn't looming as large in my mind as it ordinarily would, or should I suppose, 'cos I'm simply too tired to go into the implications.

Flashback to the start of the month, and I was quite happily surprised to find the entry into Saudi Arabia and the subsequent trip out to the boat, which was tied up alongside Jeddah at the time, to be quite painless really! Much better than Angola, thankyouverymuch! The first day of steaming out of port was expectedly peaceful.Things sort of went downhill from there. I was so deep into the deployment muck that even the fact that my newest trainee (and only helping hand on shift) has a name starting with X, didn't strike me till only yesterday. I needn't have bothered, he assured me that X.Z. were perfectly common initials. Numerous even :|.It's hot here! And this is well into the nice and cool part of the year, apparently!

I've been reading a bit these days. Starting with the time I was at home really! Haven't finished a whole book in less than a day in a couple of years. But just had to get through Second Foundation double quick on my last day home just so I could carry the last two Foundation books with me when I left. It helped that I didn't remember much of the details from the last time I read them all, over seven years back.

Unfortunately it's been down to a couple of pages a day just before I pass out over these last weeks. I think I've said this before. I like the four other books of Foundation better than the original trilogy, somehow :).
Oh well. It's comforting to feel the muted thunder of the guns reverberating through the boat to reach me in my cabin, which is about as far away from any outer bulkhead of the boat as physically possible. Sweet lullaby. The better part of a year, we are supposed to be here. Oh boy.
Oh! Been taking some pictures! Not many. Just enough to keep the shutters from sticking shut with disuse :). It's Durga Pujo time back home.

Currently: wishing I could catch up on some of that sleep I've lost these last 2 weeks!
Listening to: Chicane - From where I stand

Sleeping awake

2010-09-30T01:15:00.000+05:30

Well, I'm back home again. But no sooner had I stepped in through the door, than my outbound flight details found their way into my inbox :|. Nope, no luck with the Mediterranean hopes... Jeddah it is.

And that means of course, going through the 11 pages of joining instructions that came with the flights. Mostly a huge list of what not to do, with frequent reminders that the penalty for disobedience could quite likely be incarceration, 'or worse' :-<.

I'm getting a very Angola-esque vibe from all of this :(. At least for the first crew change there I didn't really have a clue how bad it could be. This time I have a benchmark :|.

Oh well. I still have another couple of days. And no, I am not getting the expected 2 weeks off, as it turns out. What is it with us and early on-signing crew changes?!

I get the feeling there was something not particularly depressing I was about to put in when I started. But somehow I cant seem to remember what that was :|.

It's almost, but not quite, a whole month since I last took a picture...

Currently:*sigh*
Listening to: Chicane - What am I doing here? (Part 1/Part 2)

Lost sunsets

2010-09-22T22:39:00.001+05:30

It's been a while since I unpacked in Cal, but this time I figured I'd just do it as a matter of form, before I packed for the usual family trip starting tomorrow. Somehow, I was a little surprised to find my slightly battered copy of On the Road. It seems like my extended office stay has completely warped my sense of time for the last few months.

Before I put the book away on my shelf though, I leafed through it and found no less than nine boarding pass stubs, and one hotel receipt. Couldn't resist reading scraps from here and there. Well, it turned into somewhat more than scraps, and an inexplicable feeling of aircraft turbulence came over me...

Been here since Saturday night, following a remarkably uneventful one stop trip from Oslo, supposedly, on a full two week time off. I say supposedly, because in reality, I haven't a clue when I'm supposed to leave. Or where I'm going for that matter. Vague rumours hint at possibilities including Sicily, Malta and of course some sandy port or other in Saudi. I guess in the mean time I'll chill out here. The temperature's almost about the same as it was in Asker when I got there in July. A bit more humid maybe :).

Currently: home!
Listening to: Chicane - Sunstroke

Sense and beyond

2010-09-16T14:38:00.002+05:30

Sight:

Have I ever mentioned (read gone gaga over) The Big Picture? I don't think I have. Surprisingly. When it comes to visuals, stills are my preferred choice for memory preservation. Videos are too realistic for my liking :). Either way, this guy really really blows you away! I mean would you look at that?!!!

Touch:

Raindrops. The kind where you can tell them apart. I looked up yesterday afternoon and there were hardly any clouds! Honestly! There was more blue than anything else straight up. But instantly, there I was, watching someone literally dancing in the rain. In the front yard that felt distinctly like a back yard. How long ago was that? Three years? Maybe longer.

Smell:

It came from somewhere within the maze of a completely nondescript apartment block as I was walking unsuspectingly by. The kind of building with a hundred doors and windows all around, but no obvious way to enter. I'm not particularly crazy about food. Most of the time. But memories have a funny way of resurfacing at the oddest of moments.

Taste:

:D That not crazy about food thing does not apply to desserts. I have one word for you, Tiramisu. And I have a tub of that sitting in my fridge right now :).

Sound:

Surprise of the month. I was at work. Plugged into the music as usual. The playlist was heavy on Chicane and I though I heard something that had no business being there! But the distorted Bangla lyrics amidst a sea of electro trance wasn't the end of it! Some people had clearly way too much time on their hands and had come up with some interesting lyrics of their own! Of course my cousin and I had a fun time trying to translate it for ourselves :D.
--

This is probably the closest I've ever come to being 'home'sick, for lack of a better expression. The definition of home here is a bit... well, ... hmm.

Currently: one and a wake up!!
Listening to: Chicane - Daylight/ Locking down

Sing along to songs you dont know

2010-09-14T14:22:00.004+05:30

It's been a quiet couple of weeks :). For the most part anyway. Barring the couple of Friday night (mis?)adventures that is :D.

Oh!! Oh!!! Completely forgot about the last day - last show viewing of Inception :D. I figured I might as well take the last chance (for the time being anyway) to satisfy my curiosity regarding the mystery of the white sleeve :P. And of course I promptly figured out how even that does not necessarily prove anything. Then again, it's just a movie, so.

There was the US Open in the mean time. And I'd been watching quite a few of the matches. Was rather surprised to see Nadal fly relatively under the radar all the way into the finals! I was all set to watch it Sunday night, then of course they had to postpone it. Managed to have a pretty good time watching the match last night, all the way until the rain break. After that of course the time difference and work in the morning meant the I only heard of the Career Slam this morning :-<. I wonder if they'll show a replay of the match today.

On a side note, browsing through some player stats the other day I came upon a rather intriguing bit of info. Anyone remember Nicole Vaidisova? Young Czech girl that back in the '06 French Open blasted her way past Mauresmo and Venus in consecutive matches! That obviously made me an instant fan. However, as usual, I lost track and it turns out she retired earlier this year! At 20!!!! And here's the kicker, the reason was "due to a lack of interest in tennis"! I guess when you take into account the fact that she started at 6, that's already 14 years of tennis! Who said starting early is a good thing then?

Most importantly though, I'm finally into the last week of my stay here this time! Phew! I'll be honest and admit that there really wasn't a whole lot of careful planning that lead me to do what I do for a living, I mean, not really. But there are times when I'm extremely glad it is the way it is! Imagine me trying to do an office job full time! Recipe for disaster! Big time :|.

Been listening to a lot of electronicky stuff these days, múm, Bonobo, Gui Boratto, Chicane, Boards of Canada, Etro Anime, Ellen Allien... Side effects seem to include but are not limited to comfy isolation from everyone and everything else at work, weird dreams, the fact that I actually remember said dreams, more or less happy thoughts in the absence of any thread or structured thinking, surprised and sometimes amused stares from passers by on the street at my ill-advised attempts to sing along on my way back and forth from work... So mostly good stuff then.

Currently: three and a wake up!
Listening to: múm - Don't be afraid, you have just got your eyes closed

Braaaaaaappp

2010-08-31T10:20:00.003+05:30

Some days you get out of bed and there's this feeling right away that it's not going to be a great one. Feeling completely awake even before stepping out of bed is a sure-shot sign for me :|. Believe me. Good days start with me wanting to sleep blissfully a little bit longer. No matter the time, or the time spent sleeping.

But of course, it's not just that flimsy sort of reasoning, there have been other signs. And I can't even say, "Oh look! At least it'll be over soon." :| This is just mid-morning dammit!

No, there are no pics. Haven't been taking that many anyway. And the ones I had, I blew on that rather pointless I'm-bored-and-have-nothing-better-to-do rant last night.

Oh! Went and saw The Expendables first day first show here! That was Friday. Good fun it was. Totally god-awful script :P. But the actions sequences! Whoa! I've been reading reviews saying it's a throwback on 80's action, hell no! It is 80's action!!! I'm serious! Explosions that totally and completely defy any logical parameters. Plus massive helpings of pure ass-whooping, and of course that stuff looks real enough 'cos it's proper stunt work! And some quite unforgettable lines :P. Did I mention that I loved it?!! :D

Right, so when things get especially annoying at work, it helps to find something completely mindless to do and hope it lasts till the end of the day :|. Here we go.

Currently: very annoyed
Listening to: Shontelle - T-shirt

Eavesdropping on broken dreams

2010-08-30T18:01:00.002+05:30

Sound for silence. Pity there isn't something for touch. Walls, nonetheless, solid as can be. Made with all of thin air.

There are times I wish I could go deaf and numb to the world. Well, most of it anyway. I'll just keep my eyes open. The colours are worth it.
I don't particularly like working in open areas in an office. The boat's different.

Currently: here
Listening to: Lifehouse - Broken

Spray

2010-08-19T21:44:00.001+05:30

It's not even like proper rain! Just sort of like mist, only wetter :|. And it's reduced the usually spectacular view from my window to nothing. I'm actually reduced to poking my arm out the window every now and then to see if those drops are at all falling, or just sitting there, suspended in thin air.

And it's beginning to get colder. Already!! So I suppose there goes the barely-there Norwegian summer. If only it was snowing instead of raining :). At least that would have been of some use!
Beginning to settle into some sort of a rhythm. It's already just one day to the end of the week and I'm not really that sick and tired of the office yet!! Oh boy. Please please let this not be me getting used to the office :O! That could be potentially disastrous :P.

Currently: sinking, slowly but surely
Listening to: Guitar - Hot sun trail

The spinning top topples, or maybe it doesn't...

2010-08-12T21:45:00.001+05:30

I've seen it once. Now I've gone and seen it twice. This is probably going to last me a little while. But thing is, even though I was looking for it, I'm still not absolutely sure if I saw it. Not that it matters :).

I was watching The Matrix last night. After a few years probably. And wishing that there was some way I could un-watch it first :). Inception is not quite like that. But seeing that I knew the plot inside out, I still couldn't find much by way of a flaw.

Granted, the limbo takes some pretty active imagination to sort out and render as consistent with the rest of it, but there isn't anything in there quite like that mortifying 'kiss of life'! I mean, as much as I love The Matrix, and the sequels (although those two get more points for effort rather than on actual ability, so to speak), I can never quite forgive them that one awful sequence, and the one in Reloaded, of course.

Anyhoo, getting back to what I was looking for. I'll try to keep this sort of spoiler free (and if you haven't seen the movie yet, chances are you wouldn't be particularly bothered I suppose). Was I just imagining it or was Phillipa wearing that white top only in the last scene and not in the memories?

Damn, I've gotto see this again :|.

Currently: still awesome! unbelievably enough
Listening to: Moby - Nearer

The river ran dry

2010-08-09T23:07:00.001+05:30

I'm listening to The Weepies on repeat. That's not as bad as it sounds :). I know, I've done it before...

It always rained around you
We tried to go inside and it would rain there too
It came pouring through the roof when we traveled underground
Whiskey, water and tears 'til I thought that we would drown, Jolene

Jolene, Jolene
Is it still raining everywhere you are?

We didn't hide from it at all
No we just let it fall
In the morning she was gone and everything was dry
The city streets were crowded and I felt like I would die, Jolene

Jolene, Jolene
Is it still raining everywhere you are?

Now there's sunshine and flowers everywhere
And I don't care

All of these clouds will disappear
Like we were never here
But I swear there was a time I thought, it would never stop
And now I only think about you if it's raining or it's not, Jolene

Jolene, Jolene
Is it still raining everywhere you are?
Is it still raining everywhere you are?
Jolene, Jolene

The weather's suddenly cleared up. Not a dark cloud to be seen anywhere. Just when I need them to give me the excuses.

Currently: watching the traffic that never seems to stop
Listening to: The Weepies - Jolene

Be still my soul

2010-08-05T17:04:00.001+05:30

Having decided I should post more often when things happen, I promptly proceeded to do quite the opposite, didn't I? Oh well.

Been watching lot's of movies lately :). There was Inception, of course, and more recently The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Have I aired my reaction to M. Night's The Last Airbender? So here's the thing. I like both movies on principle, however, I believe both of them should have been made a lot better to really count as anywhere near decent and watchable :|. There's some good bits, but they are strung together in such a lacklustre fashion that the overall impression one is left with is somewhat underwhelming :(.

On the other hand, I quite liked Fever Pitch. The British one, that actually is about football, not the American version. I should read the book, I think. Going by previous experience, it'll probably be better than the film version :). Also, this is the first character played by Mark Strong that I can recall being cool and funny, and generally non-evil :D. He's pretty good at it!
Right, so what should by rights be a totally huge piece of news: I finally got my wallet back. Like, actually back, back in my hand :D. This was Monday, and I wasn't really expecting even a whisper of it till Friday at the earliest! So yeah, I was pretty happy with the start of the week :). Imagine that, they spend my money, send it via registered parcel, and it takes weeks to land up and ends up getting returned. That was last break. And this time they used just the basic regular mail, posted it Friday afternoon, and voilà! I have it waiting for me at the reception first thing Monday morning :D. I think I might have had a few people somewhat concerned with my subsequent reaction. I suppose it might be termed slightly over the top by the prim and proper types :).

And the other bit of news is that the length of my stay here is no longer a matter of speculation. I'll be here till mid September. That's a long time to be in one place :-<. I did say I wanted to sit still for a little while didn't I? Why do I do this to myself? To be fair though, I did say little while. But there be varying interpretations of that word.

Currently: settling in for a bit longer then :)
Listening to: Nick Drake - Here come the blues

Cinq

2010-08-02T00:51:00.000+05:30

All that time I did nothing, and now that I do have something to do, I blog as a distraction :|. But since I've started, I may as well put down the stuff that needs putting down.

I think I've been here long enough now. Here being Asker, and the reason I say this is that I get that feeling of utter familiarity now. And the security that brings. When the aircraft lands, when I walk through the arrival halls. When I gaze blankly out of the window on the airport train. I like the weather here. Coming from most parts of the world, chances are, it will be cooler here. The wet I don't mind so much any more. In case it wasn't obvious, I meant this as a good thing :).
--

Now that I've finally finished it, let me say something about the last book I read. Jack Kerouac's On The Road. I came across it in a book store in Chicago airport on my way off the ship. (I was newly in possession of a working bank card, and was itching to make amends for the failure to buy Juliet, Naked last time around. Which I still haven't bought, or read, come to think of it.) Kerouac had been referred to me by a friend sometime back, and I was immediately struck by lyrics of a Waifs' song that I am never sure why I even remember in the first place...

I ditched the book I was reading and read the Kerouac entirely on flights or in airports, or in quiet living rooms on lazy afternoons. And having finished it on the last flight into Oslo, I still have no idea whether I like it or not! One thing I do know, I have never read anything like it! I wonder if my own zigzagging further enhanced the sense of madness?

Then there is the Gypsy jazz. I've recently re-discovered Django Reinhardt, and since then have been unable almost, to listen to anything else. The music is old, over half a century old. But I find it soothing. Becoming of a certain peace and quiet I am trying hard to achieve.
--

I might stay here a while. Heh, that sounded like a choice on my part. Hmm, well, it is not. But we shall see. It might even be a welcome change.

Oh! We went and saw Inception the other day!! And it was totally awesome!!!! I was so caught up in it, it was probably a good thing I had the last occupied seat in the top row :). I shall not elaborate, but let me say instead, that this is the best thing I have seen in a long long time!! No doubt, you have to watch carefully, and keep a close eye on the loops and bounds of the plot, but it is totally worth the effort :). Do I want to go see it again? Hmm, we'll see.
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What I should really do, is stop procrastinating and write more often. That way at least we won't have the unfortunately gigantic posts. Hmm. At five, my blog should probably be forgiven its eccentricities :).

Currently: settling slowly
Listening to: Django Reinhardt - Moppin' the Blues