Loud Thoughts

George and myself have been planning fo a Europe trip this year. Finally, we decided to make it during the month of August for 3 weeks. Yesterday we booked tickets Bangalore-Amsterdam-Bangalore by Air France. Now we need to plan the trip. We finalized the countries to visit - London, France (Paris), Germany, Amsterdam, Rome, Venice and Belgium. We made the first draft of itinerary. We have to start the visa processing tomorrow and decide on how to travel within the countries. Ooooo.. the very thought of the trip thrills me.

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The trip to Singapore this week was a memorable one. Apparently, Christmas is the best time in Singapore with all streets especially the Orchard Road being fully lit up. It was wonderful. Liza also enjoyed the trip with the visit to Dolphin Lagoon, Jurong Bird Park and Night Safari. When we returned to Bangalore, she started crying saying that she wants to go back to the home in Singapore!!
George has posted a few snaps at http://www.flickr.com/photos/georgeck

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Right now I am in the city of Grodno in Belarus, a CIS country that lies between Poland and Russia. This is a very beautiful place. It is an old city with very friendly people who live a peaceful life. Some things I noticed about this place are:
1. People are very calm and friendly.
2. People are hard-working and they do not mix work and family life. They work with full attention during the day and leave office by 6:00 or 6:30. This is very good.
The EPAM colleagues whom we came to meet in Grodno are real fundoo guys. Yauheni, the project co-ordinator accompanies us for lunch everyday to help us with the Russian menu in restaurants. Another colleague Aliaksandr (Shuck as we call him) gives us a lift from office to Hotel everyday. Another guy - Dzmitry (Dzeema) arranged for a place where our colleague Asif could say his Friday prayer. All of them are very helpful. They are technically strong and very nice chaps.
We had a Bowling party yesterday with the EPAM colleagues. We all enjoyed to the core. Some of them-especially Ramesh and Shuck were trying to attain the highest level of enlightenment (even beyond Nirvana) :-)
Tomorrow they have planned for a barbeque party in some place here. I am looking forward for that.
At one side, I feel attached to this place and the people here. But on the other side, I am yearning to return to Bangalore and meet my family. In fact, I am more inclined to the latter. It was hard for me to assimilate the information that my return journey would be postponed by a day.
But one thing for sure- I enjoyed every minute I spent here and I shall never forget this trip.
I have uploaded some good snaps of the trip to my flickr site. Enjoy.
I shall write more on this trip later. Watch this space.

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George has uploaded snaps taken in his Canon 350D to flickr. The snaps are wonderful. The camera is one reason. But his photography skills also matter a lot.

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Benny Hinn has landed in Bangalore to Pray for India and that has set fire to riots in many parts of the city. People are throwing stones at vehicles, flattening tyres and what not! Apparently, Jakur Aircraft ground has taken a Security deposit of Rs. 20 lakhs before they allowed the convention to be held there. I feel Benny Hinn could have tried to save India in a better way with the 20 lakhs rupees.

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I am back to blogging after a long time. I always wanted to blog regularly, but I haven't done it. Hope this is a good start. Anyway, I haven't dared to take this as a New Year resolution. :-)
Watch this space for my loud thoughts.

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Yesterday, we went to Landmark and as always I was tempted to pick a few books. But then I tried to calculate the time that I spend on reading nowadays. I realised that of late, I have been reading almost nothing apart from newspaper and some technical articles. I felt very guilty when I thought about the abundant time that I used to spend on reading during my break from work. After I started working, I terribly fail to find time to read. So I took a bold decision not to buy a book unless I finish one from my collection. Hence I picked up the book The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum. I have already seen the movie based on this book. I started reading at 11:00 pm and soon realised that the book is really gripping. I read till 4 am! But the whole of this day, I could not continue my reading. I shall wait for 11 pm and read it. Watch the space My Reviews in my site for my review on this book.

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I just finished revamping our family website. Till now, the site was running on MySQL database along with a few static XML files for configuration. I removed the use of this XML and used the database instead. I also implemented the side navigation tabs for the site so that all of us can put more content in a more structured fashion. It is 2:00 am and I am the only one awake. Tomorrow I shall add content to the site.

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Here am I back to blogging after a long time. Today is a bright new beginning for me. Lot of changes...
My daughter Liza called me up today. She talked to me like a mature girl. I wonder when she would grow up.. go to school.. get a job.. And I am going to watch her grow up. By the time she is sixteen or perhaps even earlier she would tell me and my husband "Mom, Dad, you don't understand". If we don't understand her, who would?

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This week was good for me. I got a job in Digital. I am planning to join work on 1st April. I am little apprehensive about how my kiddo would be. At the same time, I am excited.
Today my article on Aspect Oriented programming in ASP.NET got published in the ASPToday site. It is very nice to see my article in the home page!
I am proud of the fact that I utilised my break period in the best way possible.

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Today we noticed a few boils on his skin. He was feeling slightly feverish also. In the evening,we went to Manipal Hospital and he was tested positive for chicken pox. He decided to stay in the isolation ward. He is in the same room as Rijo. Hope he comes out of it soon.

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BSNL people came and installed their DIAS(Direct Internet Access Service) facility today. It is working fine. The technical skill of the technicians who came to installwere amazing. It was cool.
I checked the speed using CNet Bandwidth meter. It gave 64 kbps. Much better.

Posted by Ann Catherine at 3:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today my friend came to shoot a few clippings of her dancing as a part of making a demo CD for her new class. It was a good time. I could suggest some steps which would look good in the video. I just went back to my college days when I used to learn and practise Bharatanatyam. I have written a write-up for a brochure of her dance school. It was well-appreciated.

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Liza made her first two steps today. A major milestone in her life. We were all thrilled. Now she can move.. Ooo.. would be more difficult now :)

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At last, I submitted the article. The editor has replied saying that it will take one or two weeks to get it reviewed by different people. Altogether, it was a nice experience. I learned a lot from that work. We are planning to write more articles.

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Today morning, Liza got up from her sleep and looked at Joju. Then she said in a sweet tone "Achachacha.."(That is what she has to call him..).. It was damn cute. Joju was in the air. This is another milestone in her life..
We are just waiting for her to start talking endlessly... You never know.. perhaps then I would tell her "Would you please keep quiet fo sometime?"

Posted by Ann Catherine at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)