PAYANIGA: The Traveller

Flashback 2011

Jan 8, 2012 General 7 Comments

I tried hard not to write ‘year that was’, but couldn’t contain myself. Hesitation to not write was due to two main reasons – one, travel took a back seat though I flew to a different continent in the beginning of the year and two, writing too took the other remaining back seat.

Long walks on the banks of river Don

First week of the year 2011 saw me packing my bags and travelling to UK, my third visit in as many years – which was exactly on this date. First quarter was dormant one, thanks to winter. I was restrained to four walls except for few long walks along the river Don, which flows right next to the place I was staying.

Balmoral castle, one of the residences of British royal family

Second quarter and first month of third quarter saw me exploring the castles of Scotland, mostly in Aberdeenshire. Castles I visited ranged from completely ruined (Urquhart castle, Dunnotar castle to inhibited by the royal family (Ediniburgh castle, Windsor castle). In between the visits to castles I went on a hike to Bennachie, a mountain west of Aberdeen – a hike after more than two and half years!

St Pauls cathedral, as seen from the far end of the Millenium bridge

Third quarter turned out be a fruitful one in terms of travelling. I was in London for a week – acting as a guide to my mom who was visiting me. I felt strange to visit a place as a tourist where I had lived some time. In a way it helped me to plan our outings during the week and being a guide I ended up revisiting most of the major tourist places in London (Photo sets one and two). In that week’s time I managed to visit Warwick castle and Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare’ birthplace.

Luechars air show

Fourth and final quarter was the pick among all as I paid a visit to home and a well deserved break of two and half weeks. And before my vacation, I got to witness an airshow at Luechars. That was my 2011 in terms of travel, a relatively dull one. But only to start the new year with a bang – we almost got stranded at the base station of Cairngorm mountain due to snow storm. But thanks to the staff of Cas bar at Cairngorm mountain who helped us to safely get back, await for more details.

Edged and taken

Jan 4, 2012 England, London, UK 1 Comment

Cricket to an Indian is what weather to a British – a conversation starter. If I’ve to be a bit superlative, I can say Cricket runs in most of the Indians’ blood. For a person like me who is one of those millions who follow cricket, visiting Lord’s cricket ground was a must. During my six months stay in London in 2009, I set out visiting places on weekends. At last when I roamed around in the Lord’s stadium, I was delighted. But at the same time, I was a bit disappointed to not to see Rahul ‘The Wall’ Dravid’s name on the honor board – who missed scoring a century by just five runs.

While it took fifteen years for Dravid to get a century at Lords, I was back again in Lords within 2 years – just to see Dravid’s name on the ‘Honor board’. But I chose a wrong day to visit the stadium – which was a match day and visitors are not allowed in the pavilion on match days. The match was between Berkshire and Hertfordshire counties.

Instead of getting to see the honor board, I had an opportunity to witness few deliveries from the commentary box. While there was a buzz in the commentary box taking in the beautiful view, it died down as the bowler started his stride for his delivery. The batsman tried chasing a wide one and edged it effortlessly. The ball flew between the wicket keeper and the first slip, amid the oohs and aahs coming out from everyone in the press box. The next delivery was a similar one to the first delivery and the batsman repeated the mistake again and edged it for the second time. This time the keeper was quick to react and pouched the ball. Watching a fall of wicket form the press box compensated with the missed chance to roaming around the pavilion.

Here is a view of the good old Lord’s pavilion from the stands.

Desktop Calendar: January 2012

Dec 31, 2011 Calendar 1 Comment

Wishing all the readers of PAYANIGA, a very happy and prosperous new year. May peace, love and prosperity follow you always and forever!

Background image: A country road north of Aberdeen, leading to Balmedie.

Click here for higher resolution image.

Catalina, the flying boat

Dec 26, 2011 Scotland, UK Leave a comment

More than the display of Vulcans and F16s at the Luechars airshow, what interested me more was the slowest of all the planes, Catalina. Used widely during World War 2, Consolidated PBY Catalina is a flying boat – capable of land/take off both on land and water. Here are couple of photos of Catalina which I captured during the airshow.