Scotland and Highland's tour

After Ireland adventure, we decided to go to Scotland before end of autumn. A nice place but it always rains :). Edinburgh is awesome. I have not seen such a royal city. Glencoe and Speen bridge are terrific. Glencoe remembers me of Gap of Dunloe. The highlight is Loch Ness boating.
Inverness is a beautiful and small city (capital of Highlands). You can literally walk around easily.
Ness bridge is amazing. The illumination at night is mind blowing.

I wanted to enjoy Scottish Highlands and went for a 2 day trip, but I realised that I was robbed by http://www.scottishtours.co.uk/ onlt at 4 pm on my first day of the tour. The 2nd day was just 4.3 hours starting at 9.30 am till 2.10 pm. I paid a whopping £155 per person. A 1 day tour by Scotline tours is £35, which is awesome.

Because http://www.scottishtours.co.uk/ is not having any buses or vans to tour they depend on Scotline tours (and others) and you end up paying double fare. An operator should be honest. scottish tours are not the right people for scotland tours. They just do business with a web site that usually does not work for booking tickets. There are no testimonials that can explain their history or customer satisfaction. They are not award winners.

Rabbie's and Haggis are recognised tour operators and generally offer good deals.

This is a good lessons learnt by me. If you want to enjoy tours then go for local operators and not fall in the hands of third parties.

Some sites are powered by google. So when you search do not just stick to the first link.

Shakira is sensational!

Watch out this video
http://www.ndtv.com/news/videos/video_player.php?id=146042

watch in HD @ youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRpeEdMmmQ0

Home made hindi play by students

One of the best video seen recently

http://teezvideo.blogspot.com/2010/04/love-in-decemberit-students-movie5-star.html

I think it is a must watch!!

Bing or Google ?

http://www.bing-vs-google.com/

Electronic Voting Machines - cracked

Made in India

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/10123478.stm

Flying abroad from India

When travelling abroad please make sure that you have the required documents listed below
1. Passport with Visa
2. E-ticket or ticket
3. Destination Address
4. Foreign currency
5. Zip lock covers (if you have any small liquid items)

Once you reach the airport, you need to go to the luggage check-in counter and collect the boarding pass. You may receive more than 1 boarding pass, as your journey may include a transfer flight.

Note: Make sure you collect the baggage tickets (bar code stickers). You will receive one sticker per bag. The stickers may be required when collecting your bags at your destination, so keep them safe.

Check list before leaving Check-in counter

1. Passport
2. Boarding pass(es)
3. Check-in baggage sticker(s)
4. Departure card
5. Tags for all the cabin bags

Please fill the departure card and go ahead for immigration. Please find the sample form above.

Note: It is possible that certain names overrun the blocks provided, in such cases fill as many as you can in the provided blocks. Also make sure the dates are entered in DD|MM|YYYY format

Now that you have completed the departure card, go ahead and wait in the immigration queue for your turn.

Present your passport and departure card at the immigration counter and get the passport stamped. You may need to tell the officials the purpose of your visit and visa type.

Once immigration is completed you need to go for security check. Please make sure that you do not carry liquids/fluids more than 50 -100 ml. All such items must be placed in a transparent closed bags (zip lock transparent covers).

Make sure that you do not carry items like scissors, match box, lighters, umbrellas etc.

Once security check is complete, you can head to the terminal gate. When the flight is ready for boarding, present your boarding pass and passport with picture page open.

Flight journey is not really comfortable for many because of the high pressure inside the cabin. Make sure you stretch your legs once in a while, just to keep your muscle from getting stiff. Drink plenty of water, as adviced.

The flight attendants may provide you with a landing card, for immigration purpose at the destination. The sample UK landing card is provided above. Please fill it, and join the immigration queue. Make sure you join the queue based on Visa type. There could be queues for students, Non-EU and EU citizens or similar.

The immigration official needs your landing card and passport with Visa. pay attention to the questions he/she may ask. You may be required to provide chest scan or other health related documents.

Reclaim your baggage and exit.

Funny IPL Awards

After looking at the awards categories like
BEST GROUND
BEST STADIUM EXPERIENCE

I could not resist myself to include a few more
BEST CROWD (even when the bombs blast)
BEST AUDIENCE
BEST GRASS
BEST LIGHTS
BEST STRATEGIC TIME OUT
BEST BAT
BEST BALL
BEST SUNGLASSES
BEST DRESS
BEST INSECT (when the lights were on)
BEST CHEER LEADER
BEST GRUMPY CRICKETER
BEST SCAMMER
BEST SUPPORTER
BEST MOTIVATOR (come on boys!)
BEST TWITTER POSTER

Well you can also add a few....

The Best of Dilbert

1.
Dilbert: As usual I worked until midnight last night, Mom
Mom:Well at least you made some extra money
Dilbert: I don't get paid for over-time
Mom: Well, at least it was important work.
Dilbert: Not really. My boss made me change my power point slides. But the changes make them worse
Mom: Well, at least you are prepared for the meeting
Dilbert: It was cancelled

Dilbert: But that's ok, the project isn't funded any way
Mom: So...you worked for free to worsen a presentation for a meeting that wont happen for a project that doesn't exist?
Dilbert: Yup.

HAHAHAHA

2.

Manager: Emails two copies to me when you're done
Dilbert: two copies? Its email
Manager: So?
Dilbert: Never mind..i will email two copies
Manager: and fax a copy on green paper for my files
Dilbert: Green? It's a Fax!
Manager:and bring me a hard copy of the Internet so I can do some serious surfing
Dilbert: Motivation... gone....losing... consciousness... (and falls unconscious)
Manager: How can I end up with all the lazy employees

HAHAHAHA!!

The Tan side

It is really pathetic to tell the fact that the Indian society is colour prejudiced. Other parts of the world like to get tan and we are fascinated towards white??
I was going through Mumbai Mirror, a couple of days back and found a shocking news, that a husband threw his wife in the middle of the night citing that she is of dark complexion. This clearly indicates the lack of common sense. India is a country where the temperatures go as high as 50C, and how can the complexion be white. Indian's are brown's and not white's.

I like to blame the fairness cream ads that show dark complexion people as dull and lack energy.
Folks glamour does not come with 20 rupees fairness cream. Its all in broadmindedness. Our thinking needs a change.

No race, religion, region, gender or disability

Equal opportunity is the way to go!

This article is to bring awareness and not to insult or abuse anyone personally.

Cryogenic story

Cryogenic relates to low temperatures. Cryogenic engines are considered the highest performing rocket engines. These can hold gases as at liquid state at temperatures as low as -423F (hydrogen) and -297F(oxygen). Well the otherside of this is the engines are bulkier, and (obviously) will need lot of insulation.

ISRO recently failed to launch of GSLV (because they used Indian made cryogenic engine?)

Could you believe the size of GSLV? My goodness the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle is as tall as a 25-storey building and weighs 416 tons.

ISRO has now decided to use Russian cryogenic engine for the relaunch of GSLV in september.

Lets hope the Best

The T issue

Time and again the telugu media is poking into "T" issue every day. Do the media be asked not to discuss too much on the issue?

The media should show some responsibility and contribute to normalcy.
Today's politicians are using media just to make popularity and exploitation. Common man should now learn the tricks of the politicians and behave sensibly.

What we lack is patriotism.

The ASH vs JET

Nature can hit you left, right and center. The latest disaster is the Iceland volcano eruption. It was a shock to all the air travel passengers. After a holiday who ever planned to return home would have been puzzled by looking at the airport flickering boards showing one word "CANCELLED".
The Iceland volcanic eruption and the subsequent ashes got spread for over 1000KM in just 2 days. It will be a surprise to know that Iceland has around 130 volcanoes (sitting within glaciers).
In 1821, the same volcano erupted for 2 years. It was also believed that it has taken a fifth of life on the Island.
The Airline carriers are expected to have incurred a loss of $200 million on each day.
So if you go on a holiday in future, make sure that you have a Plan B for contingency.

Is there an error in Slumdog Millionaire

Lately, I was watching the Slumdog Millionaire and noticed that there is a possible flaw in the movie.
Anil Kapoor (quiz master) asks the question and calls for a short break, without locking the answer.
I believe this is absolute blunder. In the regular soap series, the answer is locked, but to keep the audience pulse tense, the answer is revealed after the break.

The movie director gets OSCAR!! HAHAHA

Thrilling rides of Blackpool Pleasure beach

Friday the 2nd April, I went to the Pleasure Beach, Blackpool. It was over crowded, being a bank holiday.
What an experience with thrilling set of rides. The wait time for major attractions is up to 1 hour.
It is composed of both major rides and family rides.

BIG ONE: This is the center of the attraction. A ride that takes a free fall from 210 feet.
some one posted the ride video in youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i5FhJlze4Q
This looks to me like the iPhone app that I used to play

AVALANCHE: This is another major ride. I had a similar game on my iPhone. cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWfdywlZwJI

Even though BIG ONE is the major, the most exciting ride I felt the most is the INFUSION. This has a lot of twists and turns and your ears get hit to the side rubbers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NETMRVcL9iY&feature=related

Revolution (and Reverse): This is another cool ride
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81WD5P715WU&feature=related

Apart from this the roller coaster, flying machines, Ice blast are all exciting.

Over all it is so big that it needs at least 2 days to enjoy all the available rides.

A 94 year lady going on Ice blast
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww4qLpk7REY&feature=related

Hope to see you soon here

What happened today?

A cable that is related to train signal was stolen in Burnley, UK at 4 am BST.
The cable length is said to be around 100 meters. Unbelievable!!
Lucky that the transport authorities have arranged a few replacement buses for the passengers.

Thanks, at least the network rail knows that the issue is because of the stolen cable.

Tollywood's fight against piracy

Tollywood, the telugu film industry, is struggling from piracy. It is unbelievable that
all latest movies, like Magadheera DVD version is on youtube.
I feel sorry, but I do not have too much sympathy towards them. After all they make
huge amount of unaccounted black money.
There are many instances where the stories and/or tunes are copied from other
languages, without buying the rights. How can this be justified?

Chirunavvutho is a copy of Italian movie LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL
Stalin (chiranjeevi movie) is a copy of the english movie PAY IT FORWARD


Listen to the song "All that she wants" (Ace of the base) and figure out who used that tune and in which movie :)

Also try "Love is Gone" (David Guetta) and figure out similarity with our latest telugu song

I am not concerned on how much money the actors and producers are making.I am looking for honesty. Be honest and appeal others to be honest.
This also does not mean that we can go ahead and download stuff illegally.

Do not download stuff!
Never make DVD's of downloaded movies. If you really like it, then buy it. It will not cost you a fortune.

If human tendency is copying then piracy is unstoppable!

Blackpool to be transformed as the most exciting European resort

This is a fantastic news.

Blackpool is the most popular tourist destination in the UK, but the authorities have plans to double the number of visitors. This is really great!

I have to stroll down the Golden Mile. Anyways booked tickets for the Pleasure Beach this FRIDAY

I hope it will be a bright and sunny

Prayer deep from the heart

Suklambaradaram Vishnum
(one who wears a white garment, and always present)
Sasivarnam Chathurbhujam
(one who has a brilliant moon's complexion and the one with four hands)
prasannavadanam dhyayet
(one who has an ever smiling and peaceful facial look and make us meditate upon)
sarvavighnopa shantaye
(for the removal of all our obstacles)

It is a traditional ritual for many Indians to start any task thinking of god
and especially GANESH MAHARAJ.

Ganesha is the remover of all the obstacles. It is truly believed that whatever
good work is started taking the name of the Lord Ganesha, it will become a great
success.

My mom has given me a golden ring embossed with the image of Ganesha, a present
which is the most precious.