Badly Planned but Well Executed Trip

Last night I landed in Singapore after a badly planned yet very well executed trip from Manila. I couldn't stop my self from posting this even though I am not feeling well. My health is badly affected and I am hoping for a quick recovery as I have lot of things to finish at work. Anyways I shall update you with details of the trip very soon.

See you at Manila

When we were flying to Kota Kinabalu, we saw an article on Taal Lake Volcano in Manila, Philippines. That moment itself we all decided to go there someday. And finally the day has come and in another 7 hours, I will be flying to Manila. Hopefully even this trip should be successful, as all other trips.

About Taal Volcano: (Info from Wikipedia)
Taal Volcano is a complex volcano on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. It is situated between the towns of Talisay and San Nicolas in Batangas. It consists of an island in Lake Taal, which is situated within a caldera formed by an earlier, very powerful eruption. It is located about 50 km (31 Miles) from the capital, Manila. It is one of the active volcanoes in the Philippines, all part of the Pacific ring of fire.

The volcano has erupted violently several times, causing loss of life in the populated areas surrounding the lake, the current death toll standing at around 5,000 - 6,000. Because of its proximity to populated areas and eruptive history, the volcano has been designated a Decade Volcano worthy of close study to prevent future natural disasters. It was thought to be named as "a volcano inside a volcano" because many believed that the lake that circles the volcano was once a crater or mouth of a volcano.

A level 1 Alert is in force for Taal which is giving signs of increased activity in June/July 2009.

1. For the first time all my roommates are accompanying for a trip with me. (Nag, Surya, Srini, Mahi, Santu)
2. For the first time we have not done any bookings till the last day and there is no plan in the place.
3. This is the costliest visa fee we have ever paid ($110.50)
4. This is the first time ever we were asked for a bank statement for the visa.
5. This is the first time ever that we were not asked for our passport numbers while booking an international flight.

Public Enemies

After a long wait for the much hyped movie Public Enemies, last night I was able to see it on the first day of release in Singapore. I had high expectations on the movie. Why not as Johny Depp was in the movie and it was about the most famous bank robber John Dillinger. Before watching the movie I had gone through wikipedia about John Dillinger and understood about his heroics and hence expected the same in the movie.

The Cinematography and Screenplay were awesome. The acting of all the characters were very good. But the only thing which disappointed me is the shooting and the running scenes. They were dragged a bit and lost the charm of the scenes. Overall I found that the movie did not live upto its expectations.

Other than this movie, I saw two other movies this week at my home. Both are old movies but best movies. Toy Story 1 and Wall-E. I and Swetha couldnt stop laughing at most of the scenes in these movies. Also the way emotions were animated in these movies was simply superb.

Finally below is my rating for movies this week
Toy Story - 5/5
Wall-E - 5/5
Public Enemies - 3/5

Qasab's Confession

Here is the link for the confession of Qasab.

Invasion of Privacy

How can someone peep into my system when I am doing something personal. I have never tried to know what others are doing at their personal front. If I feel like telling then I myself would share the things. I don't understand when people will understand that invasion of one's privacy is stupidness.

Have you ever gone through this phase?

When your own thoughts clogging you. Totally exhausted by thinking about the same thing. Ive been traveling a lot in the mind. In my past physical journeys it was never that exhausting, while the latter has really drained me out of energy. I guess I am just having a real bad phase in my thoughts. This is because I am missing some key factor in balancing my professional and personal life. In order to give justice to both, I am unable to give justice to any of them. I have never felt so, but past 1 week I started thinking about work at home which is a very very bad sign for me. I hope I can come over this very soon.

Recent Changes in Life

Daily Breakfast
Daily lunch box
Daily dinner at home
Less Junk in food
No Ice Milo
Less waste expenditure
Less number of movies
No contact with friends
No mails to anyone
No time for chatting
No orkutting
No blogging at home
More and more work
Very less travel and outings during weekends
More music
Gained weight
Stopped running
Started weight training at Gym

How can he ask me?

Friday night at 7.45 PM when I came home and was talking to Swetha, I got a call. I could see that it was someone from my office. I hate to receive calls about work after office hours. But what can we do, its recession time and have to be in my limits. I picked up the call and below is the conversation.

I: Hello, Who is this?
Other Side: Hi Sudheendra, this is P*****.

It was my manager.

I: Yeah tell me P*****.

Next 10 minutes blah blah blah about work. You dont believe what he has asked to do. It was not my work nor it was so urgent nor it was something to do with me and still he asked me this.

Manager: Have you planned to work this weekend?



I was so angry on him. First thing how can he call me on my personal mobile at that time after office hours and ask me if I was planning to come to office on a weekend without any work from my side but to cover someone else's mistake and save their arse. I dont like anyone calling me on a weekend for any work related matters. What will they do for the whole week. Managers just want to cover the arse of their favorites.

I dont know what and why I am writing this, but I was frustrated and spoiled my whole weekend mood because of that.

Travel Plans

Its been a long time I have posted my travel plans here. As of now I have many plans in my mind and I am penning down some of them which I feel are feasible with the time and money constraints I have.

July 25th and 26th - Manila to see TAAL lake and climb VOLCANO

Aug 8th to 11th - Malaysia Road Trip (Singapore - Johor Bahru - Kuala Rompin - Pekan - Kuantan - Kijal - Cherating - Marang - Kapas Island or Blue Coral Island - Tasik Kenyir - Sungai Tong - Bandar Permaisuri - Besut - Kota Bharu - Tasik Kenyir - Cherating - Kuantan - Johor Bahru - Singapore)

Sep 19th to 22nd - Columbo in Sri Lanka to climb ADAM's PEAK

Nov 20th to 29th - India for Rinesh and Shradha marriage

Dec 25th to 28th - Planning for Cambodia.

Note: These itenaries are subjected to change depending on the situation.

A Parting Note

Same as last 3 days even today morning everything seemed very good and I was hoping the day to go well. I was not aware of what was in stock for me on this fateful afternoon. It was 3 hours ago when she decided to leave me. Everything happened all of a sudden. Neither me nor anybody else could see it coming. I never anticipated this to happen.

She was very very very important to me for so many reasons. She was always with me in both happy and sad occasions. She stood by me in both tough and glory times. She have always taken care and made sure that I was never alone, and left out. She was my beautiful personal secretary and would do everything for me that is there in her limits - right from waking me up, to help me organize myself, to help me reach my friends, to book my movie tickets, to check my balance sheet etc. She would sing and entertain me when ever I was bored or stressed out. I was always connected with the world when she was with me. I say that she is everything in my life but still she meant a lot in my life. She came into my life unexpectedly and left in the same way abruptly. Neither her arrival nor her departure from my life was expected by me.

Yes, you expected it correctly, I lost my mobile in my gym :(. That means - no calls, no FM on the move, no alarm clock in the morning, no organizer to remember important dates and activities, no pastime games when bored and no SMS to friends just to kill time during the meetings. I can overcome all this just by buying any other stupid phone. But here comes the worst part - I have already lost my 350+ contacts - something I always feared when I heard about this from friends.

I have been depressed since afternoon. I have been calling my number and I can hear only one voice: "The number you are calling is not available". I called customer support and blocked my Sim and the only positive point out of this is that I can retain my number, so there is no need to update my phone number to all my friends.

My friends at work were upset with me because I did not shout at the gym staff and demand for the phone. I repent for not being aggressive with the gym staff. But things have ended there. Now I have started working looking for a 'replacement' for ‘her’.

Officially Dependant

Day before yesterday Swetha has got her Dependant Pass here in Singapore. Now she is officially dependant on me and has to show the pass every where and for everything. Its a bit difficult to digest that somebody is dependant on me as I myself depend on my friends for many things. I shall try to do my best and be responsible with this new role :-)

Movie Updates

In contrary to my previous week, I have seen many movies this week.

When Harry met Sally - What can I say about this classic (4.5/5)
As Good as it Gets - Jack Nicholson's one more master piece (4.5/5)
Ice Age 3 - Awesome (4.5/5)
Nirnayam - Great Comedy (4/5)
Vision Quest - Average (2.5/5)
Race - Musical (3/5)
Mental Krishna - Could watch only for 15 minutes (0/5)
We are Marshall - Nice movie (3.5/5)
Surya s/o Krishnan - Musical and first half is good (3.5/5)
Kotha Bangaru Lokam - Musical and good movie (4/5)
Bonnie and Clyde - Expectations were high and movie was average (2.5/5)
Without Limits - Good film and came to know about Steve Prefontaine (3.5/5)
What about Bob - Nice film (3.5/5)
Naa Girlfriend baga rich - Could watch only for 15 minutes (0/5)

I guess I am forgetting some .. I shall update them once I reach home.