Basketball - Leeds

Decided to go play some basketball with a couple of people today. The weather was pretty 'Londonlike'. It was overcast, kept drizzling once in a while and all that, but we decided to brave the elements and go out to play. It was just 4 of us so we figured we would manage somehow. The park that we were headed to was in a nice-looking area. Quite green, was fun.

One thing I did not mention before, cars are pretty small in the UK

Some graffiti vandalism

Goodlooking places

Had an interesting hoop, the net was positioned such that a rimless shot would just bounce back out 
Needless to say, it got pretty wet during the course of the game, and by the time we were done, we were pretty drenched

Out and about in Leeds

We decided later on to take a walk around the city (which I was told isn't much). It is pretty small, and looks pretty much like any other modern city, only quieter I guess.





We decided to stop at the institute where my buddy studies for a bit and I noticed some interesting things..
Firstly, accountants are geeks..

Yes, Grand Theft 'Audit'. I kid you not, actual front page of an accounting magazine.
An intriguing (pool?) table. Can someone tell me why it looks so different? Yellow and red only?

Leeds

After my short stay in London, I took a (4.5 hour) bus to Leeds, which is to the north-east. Arun, my friend from way back in the day (HKG or so in the old Asian School) is doing his ACCA here (some accounting stuff :/). He lives in an interesting little house in Leeds. The owner is a Bangladeshi guy, its a 3BR place, and each room is sublet to different people. Since a couple of his roommates were away, we had plenty of room.
Arun's friend from Oman, Fahad, was also staying with us. Leeds is a nice city, pretty small and quiet. There is a very large Pakistani population here, they seem to own most of the local stores and businesses. We had food from Pakistani places for the most part, pretty good food.
Yesterday we decided to eat at a Subway. Pretty much the same as in the US.
with Arun
with Fahad

London

We decided to hop on the tube and go see the 'London Bridge'. I was promptly told that the 'London Bridge' is probably not what I wanted to see, and what I was talking about was the 'Tower Bridge'. Apparently this is a common touristy error.
Exhibit A:

So apparently the 'London Bridge' that I identified with when I saw photographs of London is actually the 'Tower Bridge'. The 'London Bridge', which is also over the Thames, is not really of much consequence.
The pictures I took did not turn out so good, partly because it was quite overcast.
Here are a couple...the river is of course the Thames

London underground to King's Cross

In order to get to the city, we had to take a Bus to Hammersmith, and the underground to King's Cross. The underground has a nice color scheme

Some interesting advertising too..

George Bush arrived the same day as I did, apparently they don't like him much here (surprise surprise)..

Out in Roehampton

After our life threatening run-in with Roehampton's finest, we walked over to the local gas station where I decided to purchase a sandwich for breakfast. It was 1.90 pounds. Reasonable, chicken and bacon on wheat. My friend, being brahmin had to hunt a little extra to get something edible.
Roehampton is an interesting little town, looks to me to be straight out of a show on BBC1.

The Roehampton mafia

For simplicity I have been referring to where I was staying as 'London' but that is inaccurate. The apartment that I was staying at is in a place called Roehampton, around a half hour from the city. We decided to take a walk out and grab a bite to eat before we went anywhere.
We walked out of the apartment building and two minutes hadn't passed before I got an interesting cultural experience.
We were walking to a supermarket and a kid (he must've been 13) was standing across the street. He was dressed quite interestingly, hoodie two sizes large, fitted hat on backwards. Not to be racist, but things like Ali G, "Langley village in the house!" and wigger did come to mind. As he saw the two of us walking out, me being the tourist, camera in hand, he posed an interesting question.

"Aye, you takin a picture of me?"

We looked at him for a bit, I shook my head and walked off. Not before I took this picture of course



I was informed by my friend that he was one of the 'upcoming gangsters' of the area and I should humor him lest his pre-adolecent ego suffer and he goes home to mommy and cries. Danebury's conveinence store, the choice recruiting ground for gangs in Roehampton. Sigh..

Apartment at London

I had a relatively interesting stay in London for a day and a half. I was living in an apartment where there were a couple of Turks, a German and my buddy who is Indian. The people seemed pretty friendly and I got plenty of "so what do you like better, New York or London" type questions. Apparently New York city is the crowning jewel of modern North America :).
The rooms in this apartment are extremely small, there is barely enough room to stand and turn in. A bed, chair and a cupboard barely fit into it. I have heard stories from friends about how rooms in London tend to be on the smaller side, but you need to experience it to truly appreciate what they are talking about. Apart from that it was pretty normal.
Here are some views from the windows.

First meal here

So we decided to stop at McDonalds on the way home to get a bite to eat. It is def. expensive compared to the US, close to 1.5x. But McDonalds at London are definitely not ghetto at all, like the ones we have in Philly. I was able to ninja some shots in..

Finally got to London

arrived at London after a relatively uneventful flight. Virgin Atlantic is not all that bad. Met a friend at the airport and took the subway..i mean the underground to his place. The subway map struck me as a little interesting.. here is a comparison :

The actual trains can get a little claustrophobic...

Newark Airport

I have about 3 hours remaining until i can check in, so I am sitting at a kiosk at the airport, paying 25c a minute for internet. Scary how it is this expensive even today.

Reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, kinda interesting this far.

Can't upload any pics since my phone cant connect to any of the random wireless networks around, most of them are secure.

rain..

So I went to center city to visit a friend of mine this afternoon..seemed like a regular sunny day...

A couple of hours later, when I was headed back, the skies looked a little grey..

Needless to say I was caught in a torrential downpour halfway home...

Hopefully this wont interfere with my flight tomorrow

itinerary

	Flight	VS18
	Depart	Sun, Jun 15 08:05a	Newark Liberty International Apt, US (EWR)
	Arrive	Sun, Jun 15 08:00p	London Heathrow Apt, GB (LHR)
	Flight Time	07hr 55min | Economy
	Aircraft	Airbus A340-600
	Flight	VS350
	Depart	Wed, Jul 02 10:00p	London Heathrow Apt, GB (LHR)
	Arrive	Thu, Jul 03 11:45a	Mumbai, IN (BOM)
	Flight Time	08hr 15min | Economy
	Aircraft	Airbus A340-300
Transfer from Mumbai, IN (BOM) to Delhi, IN (DEL)
	Flight	VS301
	Depart	Wed, Aug 20 01:15p	Delhi, IN (DEL)
	Arrive	Wed, Aug 20 05:55p	London Heathrow Apt, GB (LHR)
	Flight Time	10hr 10min | Economy
	Aircraft	Airbus A340-600
	Flight	VS17
	Depart	Wed, Aug 20 08:25p	London Heathrow Apt, GB (LHR)
	Arrive	Wed, Aug 20 11:05p	Newark Liberty International Apt, US (EWR)
	Flight Time	06hr 40min | Economy
	Aircraft	Airbus A340-600

equipment

Since I wanted to ensure that this whole trip goes well documented, I decided to invest in a camera. I chose the SD1000 cause it was cheap, and cause of CHDK.
I hope I can do something interesting with the latter.
I also invested in an iriver T60.
Both seem to be alright. I haven't loaded CHDK on the camera yet, I guess I'll post again once I've done that.

so, a travel blog

Since I am finally getting a real vacation, after around 3 years, I decided to document it on this little blog of mine. A pretty neat feature that blogger has is the fact that it lets you send an MMS/email from your cellphone that can be automatically posted on your blog. I'm hoping to grab a wireless network or two when I am in London (if they have random wireless networks floating around that is) and upload some interesting pics from my phone.
Also kinda interesting that im starting this on Friday the 13th.