Aerobics

One of my friend S is training to be an aerobics tutor and as a part of her course she is required to learn all exercises and be able to teach her students. She also needs 2 people to accompany her on her assessment day where she is expected to lead an aerobics session for 60 minutes. So, I volunteered as it sounds like super fun.

It was real good fun this weekend, we spent about 2.5 hours on Saturday and Sunday learning exercises and actually doing it to the tune and count. S needs to be able to run a class for 60 minutes, without any mistakes and therefore requires a lot of practise. She is expected to give instructions, watch her students, maintain the count, stick to the beat & change steps correctly ..sigh!. Too many things to do together so we have decided to practice for everyday for at least an hour each weekday and more on a weekend until she is perfect and can get through her assessment with flying colours

Aerobics is such a fun way of exercising, there is a music, a bit of dance, being a part of the team, looking at each other and catching up steps when you miss a beat In a way, it's a good practise for my friend S, but its also a much need exercise for me. I only hope that my knee does not play up and behaves until she finishes her assessment. But I am having a ball of a time doing aerobics. Sooper fun it is..

A visit to Cotswold

Cotswold is a bunch of towns, cities and villages in the central western part of England. It runs across a few counties like Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire & Warwickshire. It’s apparently a range of hills the highest point of it being the Cleeve Hill.

This stretch is made up of a number of villages and towns with beautiful architecture. Most of the structures here are built with a yellow limestone that is found in this area.

Cotswold has some of the prettiest sights of England and is also regarded as a place of ‘outstanding natural beauty’. The Cotswold can be explored in many ways and we chose the easy one of driving. Moreover we only had a weekend (August Bank holiday weekend 2010) to explore the area with some friends who had to leave on Monday.

We headed off on Saturday morning after breakfast towards Oxford which is famous for its universities. Swiftly moved from there and headed towards Burford for the first glimpse of Cotswold villages.

The next village we went to was called ‘Burton on Water’. This is a typical English village is set around River Windrush. Clear water, the small bridges, lush green trees was such a pleasure to see. It’s also called ‘Venice of Cotswold’. Since it was the bank holiday weekend, there were just too many people in the village, so we decided to go back later in the year, in the autumn when there would be fewer tourists.

We headed up towards the north of the Cotswold covering a few more villages on the way. Some of the villages we visited were; The slaughters, Stow on the wold, Moreton-on-marsh, Chipping Camden, Broadway and finally Snowshill. On the way to these villages we saw some amazing cottages. Some cottages had different roofs, looked like thatched roofs, but very stylish ones.

As it was the bank holiday weekend, most places that we wanted to stay were fully booked so; we ended up staying in a town called Cirencester.
English villages have traditional tea rooms that serve Creme teas. This means, they serve scones, jam, fresh clotted creme and black tea. They were delicious.

The second day, we headed off towards a village called Lacock and then headed of towards a Castle Coombe. Castle Coombe was beautiful, it had some nice streets with good looking cottages. I wish I could just sit there and stare at those streets forever. We accidentally managed to bump into an English gentleman who works for a big consultancy and has been to India a number of times. He manages a few teams in Hyderabad and Mumbai from the UK. He was quite friendly and also managed to utter a few Hindi words.

After Castle Coombe, we headed towards the north of the Cotswold again covering Malmesbury, Tetbury, Nailsworth, Stroud, Painswick, Winchcombe, and back to Broadway & Snowshill. After which we headed home. Although, it was just a weekend.. we had a great time and it still reminds us of some really good conversations.

Another summer weekend..

Kent popularly known as 'Garden of England' is the home for the beautiful Leeds Castle. Its not only famous for its beautiful structure but also its natural flora and fauna..

The English castles are well known for their massive gardens. These are some of the views of the gardens on the way to the castle. These pictures were taken on a gloomy summer day, but on a nice summer day, with bluer skies.. they look even better..

Every season, the flora of this places changes.. These lovely white bush of flowers is British summer speciality.. It can be found all over England through out Summer

The Castle is surrounded by River Len, and the views are absolutely stunning.
The castle with its lush green gardens and River Len...

As you walk through the gardens you find Peacocks and peahens fearlessly walking around and wondering as to what humans(intruders) are doing in their land.

I was really happy to see this lovely bird with beautiful feathers march in front of us with pride.

Some lucky little kids found feathers of peacocks in the bushes. They seemed extremely proud of their possessions

Another beauty.. White peacock in the green gardens was a beautiful sight.

There are few castles that are really beautiful and worth going to in England and Leeds castle is one of them.. We had a lovely day out this Saturday at Leeds castle.

Limousine Ride..

One of our good friends(lets call them Y&S) are leaving the UK for good and moving back to Bangalore.. and a few of us wanted to do something special for them, that they could remember for ever… So we decided, as a complete surprise, we shall take them to dinner to a restaurant in Central London in a white stretch Limousine.

As always, I was given the task of organising the event. I went away and contacted a number of limo provides for quotes. First we wanted to get a Hummer Stretch Limo, but figured that its too expensive and also too big for 8 people. So, we finally settled for a normal white stretch limo.

There was a bit of confusion as to how we actually invite the couple without letting them know what we plan to do. As they have kids, they need advance notice unlike us, who can get ready in a jiffy. In the end, we managed it somehow and they were ready at 6.45 PM. They were pleasantly surprised, when they say a stretch limo outside their door, ready to take them for a ride.
The interiors of the limo was fantastic. They had wine and champagne glasses everywhere. There were dim inset sparkly lights inside, nice steel interiors and leather seats. We were 8 adults and 2 kids and not once before this we had been together in one vehicle. We normally need 2 or sometimes 3 cars to comfortably fit all of us. It was a great experience, all of us in one car, drinking and chatting away..

It was a great evening out that all of us will remember..

Phew...

We have a really nice pin bowling alley really close to the Cinema hall that we always go to. I sometimes take my friends daughter out to Cinema, a 6 year old who loves to go to Cinema. One such day, while we were heading to watch a movie, she asked, if we could go bowling another day… I welcomed the idea. and thought the kid will enjoy so will I, if we did go bowling.. So I promised her that I will take her another day..

So, after consulting her parents, we (me and MR) took her bowling, and as her mother was pregnant with their second child, they decided that they would join us later. She was all excited and happy that we were going to play etc..

As usual, we were playing the game… and I did not realise what was going on in her mind… In the beginning she was happy and cheerful.. half way through the game, she was glum and grumpy… and towards the end.. she had teary eyes and started howling.. and guess what.. her parents arrived just then.

I did not know why she was crying in the first place, I did not know what to do to calm her down. Tried enticing her with chocolates, ice creams etc, but she would not budge.

She finally disclosed to her father, why she was weeping.. I was confused and did not know what to do! I went back to her, hugged and kissed her and said to her that I was sorry for WINNING!

Yeah.. She was unhappy because I got the most points and I won the game of bowling, so she started howling that I won the game and she did not.

How on earth am I supposed to know that I am not to win the game.. Neither do I have kids of my own nor, when I was a child allowed to cry because I lost a game. As a child, if I lost a game, I was either told to try harder next time or learn the game!

Sigh.. Man, the kids these days.. confuse me!

Strawberry picking…

Sunday, 21st June was my birthday.. and we decided to go strawberry picking… Strawberry picking is an activity we discovered last year and decided to go every year.

There are lots of farms around London, where fruits and vegetables are grown. They allow people to pick their own fruits and vegetables. Its great fun to actually pick strawberries and raspberries straight from the plant, rather than the ones you get in supermarkets. The freshness in the fruit is felt almost immediately as they are more juicy and feel fresh.

It’s a great experience and lots of fun… it’s an excellent family outing as even kids enjoy it. We were a group of 18 with adults and kids… The kids had a blast, they were running around the farms, playing hide and seek, having competition as to who is going to find the biggest strawberry etc.

On the whole, it was a fantastic day out and thankfully the British weather was kind to us. Last year, we were also able to pick sweet corn and French beans. It was the first time ever; I actually ate fresh corn straight from the plant, yes fresh corn, neither grilled nor boiled. It was really tasty. We were all looking forward to have some more this time around; but it was too early in the season for corn and was asked to come back later, end of August or so. So we are definitely going back later this year.