Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Of holidays and laptops

Sigh .. the Easter weekend just flew past as expected. Since we're changing from one visa type to another, our passport is with the 'home office' and that made sure that we couldn't leave the country for the long Easter break. The choice was between staying in London and just chilling out..and going to someplace within the UK. Imagine a Sunday .. which is actually like a Friday with two more days of holiday left .. but that was outweighed by the attraction of getting out of here, switching off for a few days and getting a much needed break.

That worked out fine (except that I hadn't thought through the cost implication properly!). We decided to drive around Devon and Cornwall with a couple of friends. It was beautiful ... though very cold. The fun with driving is that it can be totally impromptu. Find a place on the map, read about it in Lonely Planet and off you go. The wind and cold were a pain though .. but the beauty made up for it. The country side and villages in UK are so picturesque, it's looks directly out of a picture book (ofcourse I have considered the fact that the picture books might have been based on this in the first place thereby creating quite a skew!).

In all .. it was good to get away. Though one thing I would do differently in hindsight is not carry my laptop and blackberry. Life pre laptop and blackberry meant that I could really switch off on holidays and relax. While it was fun to have Internet access, I think it stopped me from really switching off. On Monday evening I was actually replying to a work mail -  not good. So next time it shall be a no blackberry/laptop holiday ... or so I think ... might just give in at the last moment.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

I have take such a long blog break,  it's become like a sabbatical. At work, amongst other things, I have been working on a few re-launches in the last few months.  That got me thinking about a blog re-launch ... new colour, design and some general newness and excitement.

I tried for few hours .. but just could not get my head around xml code to use an image for the background. Well, I could keep trying, but I figured I could get writing before I get my little head to figure out code writing ... something which is I know so little of that it's like going to primary school for the web world.

After many months of stress and over-work, I am finally getting to sit in a comfortable chair with a footstool and not worry about work. I have been waiting for the Easter weekend for a long long time. This year is not quite as exciting as previous holidays. Though it's freezing cold ... it feels great to be in the country side. Away from the chaos of London .. in  a nice B&B where the nearest neighbour is over a mile away. It's past midnight and B and a friend are playing some game where you need to think. Soo not my kind of thing to do on a holiday.. left to me, the brain shall remain switched-off till Tuesday. So I've been reading Economist, listening to Virgin radio (by far the best radio station in the UK) enjoying some good red wine .. and decided to stop waiting for the perfect moment or re-launch and just get back to the blog world .....