Settling in UK!

After a brief vacation at India during christmas, and trysts with Tsunami & Tirupati, am back to UK and kind of settled down! Got a house and moving in on Wednesday -- paal kaaichi kudikkaren!

Came back last Sunday by Srilankan airlines with 2 stops from Chennai -- Colombo and Madlives. In-flight entertainment wasn't all that good. Gilli was the movie screened. It was really hilarious to see the English sub-titles for songs like "Kokkarakokkarako" and "Apdi podu, apdi podu". Best one was ttitle song "Gilli, gilli". Sun TV must start airing such songs with similar english sub-titles during "Comedy Time"

Its cold out here; cold wind blows but temperature doesn't drop; it's at lowest 5; That’s ok in winter - I understand. Foodwise - not an issue at all; There are Indian restaurants run by Bangladeshis and Pakistanis all round UK. Some Tamil restaurants that I saw in East Ham part of London. We even got a warm "vaanga annay" in one of the south indian restaurants in East Ham. Indian spices are available in all supermarkets. If you want pure authentic "made in India" spices, you can always get in East Ham. There are also many Londis shops that have "Made in India" spices.

Last weekend, I went to Kensington Palace garden with my close friend from Pondy Univ days -- Karthik, and another Pondy Univ friend of Karthik -- Vignesh. First on that Sunday, I thought of going to office to complete some work, so cooked some chapathis and got some ready-to-cook onion bajjis alongwith side-dish -- Tamizh guys ever-handy food item -- Pulikaaichal. There is no bus service from Brentwood on sundays -- athu oru kugiramam --, normally, there is a change of train from an intermediary station called Romford to another by name Upminster. From Upminster to Basildon, it is 20 minutes. On reaching Romford station, I was told there are no trains between Romford-Upminster on sundays. Fantastic! No work. In railway station, finished the chapathi-pulikaaichal and the bajji. Had an apple. Gobbled that too. And waited for Karthik's call.

Karthik called up and said "Guru, let us meet at Liverpool street station by 2pm?". It was 1:30. I asked him the agenda. Karthik said "you come over to Liverpool street. Am with Vignesh and his family at Gloucester. Let us catch up from there". Off to Liverpool street.

(To be continued In next part)