IKKE I RUTE

IKKE I RUTE (not in route) - one sight during the snow blizzard that happened in Aalborg couple of weeks ago.

Vacation time!

I was away from the blogworld for quite a long time because of many reasons (I really don't know what), but wai,t I am not actually back now but just going for another break from here. After spending almost 18months in this happiest country, I am off to 3 weeks vacation to India!!!!! I will be reaching on Aug 12th and will be back on Sept 3rd.....I am well excited to be back in my Home!

The Royal tag of Four

Sorry Dhanush for not taking your old tag, But I am the first to take this tag from you :-) Here we go!

4 jobs I’ve had:

1. Teaching basic Computer courses, Programming, small scale marketing to get projects (All this was part of a small software organization that we started after graduation)
2. Project coordinator to support 2-3 final year Engineering project.
3. Software Engineer, Giving demo of sw Product by going to client sites (this work sucks!)
4. Technical Project Associate, Senior Software Engineer and now Software Consultant.
   

4 films I could watch again and again:

I cannot limit this to just 4, so adding more

1. Thaniyavarthanam, Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha, Any of Priyadarshan-Mohanlal's old comedy classics
2. Sholay, Goolmaal, DDLJ, Munnabhai MBBS
3. Silence of the Lambs, Cast Away, Forrest Gump, Brave heart
4. Nayakan

4 places I’ve lived in:

1. Naduvil (My home, a small village in Kannur, Kerala)
2. Thrissur (4 years of Engineering)
3. Cochin, Chennai, Bangalore
4. Now in Aalborg (Denmark)

4 TV series I like to watch:
Basically I am a TV addict and like to watch anything & everything, here are a few:

1. Any programs related to Music - interviews, songs related programs.
2. Good Comedy shows (film comedy related)
3. Friends, American Idol
4. Yes Minister, Late Show with David Letterman

4 places that I’ve been on vacation to:

1. Munnar, Ootty, Kodaikkanal & Mysore
2. Copenhagen, Malmo
3. Vienna (Austria)
4. Rome, Vatican, Venice, Florence (Italy)

4 websites I visit everyday:

1. Google search, Gmail, News sites - rediff, BBC, malayalamanorama etc
2. On a cricket day, cricinfo.com
3. All my friend's blogs
4. Moneycontrol.com (where Sensex is heading to, what is my profit/loss today??)

4 books I’d love to read again and again:

Well, I am not a good reader and I don't think I have the passion to read books again and again. But I would like to read the following again as I have read them long back

1. Sherlock Homes
2. Oru Deshathinte Katha
3. Khasakinte Ithihaasam
4. Randaamoozham

4 favourite dishes:

1. Nan/Roti with Chicken Manchurian
2. Chicken Biriyani
3. Neriya Dosa (a thin dosa) with a special 'Cucumber tamarind curry', which my Mother used to make.
4. Traditional Kerala "Sadya"

4 places where I’d like to be right now:

1. Home!!!!
2. Thrissur Engineering College & My hostel room there
3. Switzerland
4. Las Vegas

4 people I’m gonna tag:

Anybody interested? Please feel free to take this tag

FIFA World Cup 2006

FIFA world cup 2006 football tournament has begun; most of the evenings in next one month will be spent in watching my favourite teams and players in action. My favourite team in this tournament is England and favourite players are Steven Gerrard (England), Ronaldinho (Brazil) and Thierry Henry (France). All the best guys!

There is a betting competition in our company here, each team have points based on their ranking and one can select 3 teams with a total point of 100. Every win, draw and advancement to next level by your selected teams will add up your total points. The problem with this betting is that if you select heavy weight teams like Brazil, England as your first team, then you can select only low ranked teams as your second and third. So the best way is to select 3 average teams. Thus, I have selected my teams as France, Sweden and Mexico. The first prize is 1000 Danish krones (around Rs 7500), eagerly waiting to see me winning this bet :-)

Aalborg Carnival

It was Carnival in Aaalborg on May 27 and 28. On the first day, the evening was exciting and colorful with Carnival groups making processions through the city to the city park, Kildeparken where each group performed on stage. Among these, 5 groups were selected to perform the next day for the titles.

The second day was the real "Carnival" and the Grand Parade was for everyone. The city centre was full of life. The streets were filled with people with different kind of costumes making parade through the city and everybody was in real fun mood, doing all kind of crazy things. In Kildeparken concerts were given from various stages all day to midnight. The Carnival ended with a grand firework display.

Chekout my webshots for some photos from the event

The Da Vinci Code

It was almost a month ago that I had picked the novel "Da Vinci Code" from the Library. And ever since I started reading it, I was fascinated by the intriguing story and thrilling moments in the novel - it was really a page turner. Dan Brown, the author was successful in creating a fiction thriller from a very sensitive subject. Altogether it was _not_so_bad_ reading experience and I was looking forward to see how the mystery might unfold on the screen.

At last yesterday, I watched the film “Da Vinci Code”, and it is sad to say that the film is a let down compared to the novel. In the film, many details are glossed over, making it feel rushed and sketchy at times. Too much occurs that is confusingly explained or hardly explained at all. This may be a disadvantage of making a 2 hours film from a novel which has around 600 pages. I really wonder a viewer who hasn’t read the novel will be more confused than entertained after watching this film. Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon has nothing much to do and so is other casts in the movie, though they all looks right selection for the character they played. The only mildly engaging characters are Holy Grail scholar Leigh Teabing (played by Ian McKellen) and Silas (played by Paul Bettany)

Checkout this interesting video of the television program "The Real Da Vinci Code", a Wildfire Television production for Channel 4 - the mystery that surrounds the "Holy Grail" and historians opinions about it.

Italy Trip - Part IV - Pisa, Florence

We reached Florence on 16th April at 11pm. Our hotel was quite near to the main railway station ‘Santa Maria Novella’. Having only one day for both Pisa and Florence, we had decided to visit Pisa the next day morning and spend rest of the time in Florence.

Pisa is situated 90kms away from Florence and it took us 1hour journey in the train to finally reach there at 10am. There was a sign board outside the railway station about where the tower is located, we walked almost 15 minutes according to the directions and at last, after taking a curve, we saw this amazing structure – the great leaning tower of Pisa – it was a wonderful sight.

Some facts about the Leaning Tower of Pisa –

“The construction of the Tower of Pisa was performed in three stages over a period of about 200 years. The tower was intended to stand vertically, to serve as a bell tower, but began leaning soon after construction started in August of 1173”


It is possible to climb the tower till top, but only 10 people are allowed to enter the tower at a time. And unfortunately all the booking till 2pm was already over, and as we wanted to go back Florence and continue site seeing there, waiting till 2pm to climb the tower was conditionally unacceptable – so we missed climbing the tower :-(

There is a Duomo and a Cathedral (with museum) nearby the leaning tower and there are enormous numbers of small shops in the roadside, where you can find different kinds of tower models and other cute little items. We did some shopping there and also bought leaning tower model.

Cathedral near Pisa tower

We took the next train to go back Florence, and after having lunch, we first visited the ‘Palazzo Vecchio’ - the palace to many old royal families and now a museum. Outside to the Palazzo there is a copy of Michelangelo’s David, the most famous sculpture of all times. In the Palazzo Vecchio, you can also find a nice courtyard, the 'Salone Cinquecento' (in the first floor), The 'Cappela della Signoria' (second floor) and the 'Sala dell’Udienza' (second floor) among other rooms full of works of art

Sculptures outside ‘Palazzo Vecchio’ - David, Neptune Fountain

In front of the 'Palazzo Vecchio', in the 'Piazza della Signoria', there is an arcade with several sculptures. Next place we visited was a famous Cathedral. There is a tower next to the Cathedral and is called the "Campanile" and it is 82 meter high. We climbed to the top of this tower (which has almost 500 steps) and the view from the top was just amazing, it gave a wonderful landscape view of the city.

Cathedral

A view from top of Campanile

Finally we walked down to the famous old bridge in Florence – The ‘Ponte Vechio’ which was constructed in 1345. On the bridge, you can see lots of shops too. We crossed the bridge and walked further to some more places. In the late evening we came back, a view from the bridge that time was really nice.

‘Ponte Vechio’ bridge at night

The next day morning we traveled from Florence to Milan to catch the flight to Copenhagen and from there a train back to Aalborg. And that was the end of our wonderful memorable 5 days trip to Italy.