Monopoly..

..was ALL we did this weekend! On Friday at 4pm, GDJ [my cubiclemate] n’ I went to GV [new office campus] to check out the rock auditions- bands of Christ, RVCE, BMS n’ some other unheard-of colleges were there. Their drummers/vocalists were pretty bad- GV’s bl**dy far away n’ the stuff started only at 7, so I got back only at 9.30 😦 Tahir had landed- we played Monopoly at night- wuz good!

Harith n’ Aashish woke us up Sat’day morn n’ we played again- Lunched at Nandhini, K’mangle and in the evening, I took em all for the new office inauguration. Drivin’ there wuz hell.. (I’m happy Anoop n’ I are drivin’ the car back this weekend 🙂 The rock show sucked predictably n’ thanx to the crowd, I didn’t get much to eat either.. so it was a total fiasco, except that I liked the new facility..!! Got back n’ crashed out..

We woke up on Sunday, played two games n’ the day was over! Saw Tahir off.. dined at a place in K’mangla [their service sucked], took ice-cream home n’ slept afterward..
That was the fastest weekend ever.. Btw, it looks like the grid’ll never get to see any saffron..

Caraassh!!

Forgot to blog about the latest debacle re. the car. Came back from Chennai to discover someone had hauled a stone in through the windshield.. from the building across the office wall. So now, thanks to gravity and some f***ed up barbaric M**sis, I’ve to spend 5k on replacing it. I told Suddu this.. he said his HR pal had had his glass replaced too.

When I inquired with the security, he told me it was a common occurrence which had driven them to raise the compound wall. It apparently wasn’t enough, ‘cuz there is still a sole building which rises above it. Ignoramus that I am, I parked the car bang opposite it.. for four days whilst I was in Chennai. Now thats one good side to having your office in a vast campus outside city limits.. At least you’re spared being at the mercy of the uncivilised uncouth public in Bangalore’s slum areas.

I’m just waiting for company to drive the car back to Chennai and return it, regardless of the fact that its gonna lie waste there, with my BIL in the US for the next coupla months..

[Listening to: Flamenco guitar- – Paco De Lucia – Siboney – (2:45)]

P-F1

Check out P-F1.. The stuff up there today is the best I’ve seen yet! A sneak peek:
* Jense Has To Join Wills In ’06!
* Testing: Schumi Is Red Hot At A Rather Wet Valencia
* Unhappy Williams: ‘F1 Stinks’ | And Rages At Mosley
* Williams And Head Predict Red Bull To Surprise In 05
* BMW Agree To Supply Sauber With Engines In 2006
* Ron Dennis Doesn’t Regret Not Signing Schumacher
* Flav Defends ‘Wild Boy’ Raikkonen | ‘Pressure Schu’
* Eddie: ‘I Sacrificed Frentzen’
Latest Poll: Would you go on a night out with Kimi?

[Listening to: I Will Always Return – Bryan Adams – Spirit (3:58)]

Chen

Back from Chennai.. The trip on the Volvo was terrible. I already had a runny nose and it only got worse in the bus. Paled at the prospect of paying an auto from Majestic to BTM when I discovered that the bus was taking the Kolar route, so I got off at Ulsoor and crashed out at Rakesh’s place.. I had gas n’ other tummy problems- Nelson told me he’d had the same problems on his Volvo trip too!! Thats the last non-sleeper trip I’m making..!!

I finished ‘Digital Fortress‘- its definitely Dan Brown’s worst book.. Being in the software industry, I found a lot of hyped-up stuff and other laughable flaws in it.. Nevertheless, it kept me busy on the bus to Chennai. All the time there, I spent playing with Darshan (my nephew) leaving scarce time to even ring up my friends.. I bought him a Fisher-Price tricycle from Shopper’s Stop, Chennai- also Monopoly and UNO to fill our bored hours at home on weekends n’ weeknights.. Got Amma a ‘Kaleidoscope‘ too. Quite a time-pass!!

Lunched at ‘Kadalivanam‘, a “natural” restaurant at Mogappair- trust me, you just don’t wanna go there!! It had me literally begging for rice..

[Listening to: Midsummer Night – Paco DeLucia, Al Di Meola, & The Guitar Trio (4:00)]

Blum

Tried w.bloggar 4.00 y’day, but it didn’t work, giving me a httpsendrequest failed! So I removed it and re-installed v3.03. Suddu told me about the SC banning unsolicited calls. I just hope its true, ‘cuz I’m getting bugged by such calls on a daily basis!

I’ve cancelled plans of going home this weekend, ‘cuz Anoop ditched at the last moment. He got a SAP proj., so he can’t bunk Mon/Tue.. n’ he doesnt wanna go home for just 2 days. So I’ve to go alone. Thats crap when Amma n’ Chechi are in Chennai, so I’ve decided to go there instead! I couldnt get a tick at such short notice, so I booked by the Sat’day noon A/C Volvo (just Rs.300!!) I’ll probably reach Chennai only by 6 p.m. Anyway, thats that..

[Listening to: Come Undone – Duran Duran – (4:35)]

F-1

Kimi injured his thumb. It wasn’t the only fiasco at Barcelona today though. Karthikeyan was testing… He’s more than 5 secs off Alonso’s pace! But whats interesting is that he still went 2 secs faster than his teammate Monteiro! Subhash mailed me saying he thought NK would put together 3-5 pts. at the end of the season.

Normally, he wouldn’t manage even 1pt, but this season is gonna be different. With all the rule changes and engines having to last two weekends, I’m sure there will be races where better cars will be demoted behind the Jordan.. n’ there is a freak chance NK might just finish in the top 8 in one or max. two races.. but that’ll be only ‘cuz there won’t be more than ten cars finishing the race at all! :p

[Listening to: Bruce Springsteen – Secret Garden – (4:28)]

Book

Just read ‘Deception Point‘. My first complete e-book. Microsoft Reader files (.lit) sure are a hell of a lot better than pdf’s to read.
Dan Brown is quite a storyteller.. n’ I’ll bet no-one has a wilder imagination than he does!

Lata M. and Asha B. are grannies- They’re defly too old to be singing love/film songs. I think its high time they quit. Yesudas wasn’t wrong when he commented the same..

(Listening to Fuzon – Mora Saiyaan…)

Weak-end

Did nothing this weekend except eat n’ sleep.. Plans of going to Trichy had to be cancelled. Harith came over on Sat’day- we played a game of chess, where he thrashed me. I showed him the magnificent houses near Suddu‘s house, when we went to return his bike and get back my car. Collected Subbu, Anoop n’ Basu for lunch at Akshaya near my office- got back for siesta till 8 (!!!)… then went to the gym with Suddu.

Y’day, we went out for lunch again- the others to Nandini Paradise, whilst Basu n’ I had a Medium Pizza each at Domino’s!! Got back n’ then went to spend 10 min. with Anuj who wuz here for his XL GD-PI training. Vineesh called in the evening.. had a pathetic dinner at the Andhra mess near home. Thats my last time. Basu n’ I are resuming Rakesh’s dibba..

Seal..

..is one of my all-time favorite artists.. Most people have listened only to one song of his, viz. Kiss from a Rose..

I remember the time when Dad got the Akai VCD player (in ’97 or so). I used to borrow VCD’s for Rs.30 from Digital House, under South Overbridge at Ernaks. One day, I chanced upon an old audio CD there, which the guy lent for just Rs.20. I fell in love with ALL the songs in it.. particularly Fast Changes. I begged him to sell it to me and got it for Rs.250. It became a permanent fixture in Disc 3 in my tray.. until I lent it out to someone who never returned it. I had the songs encoded, but lost ’em when my hard disk crashed..

Today, I’m in seal mode. At the website, I found a lovely Seal Player…

(Listening to Seal – Prayer for the Dying…)