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.

When I grow up...

My dear friend M has tagged me, and this is the first time, I have been tagged..:)

1) Swimming - Learnt it recently.. love it.. try and do it whenever possible
2) Musical Instrument - Learnt a little bit of Veena when I was a child, left it because the teacher used to leave me with her dog while I practiced :( .. Always wanted to learn Guitar.. Lets see...
3) Meditation - Somehow feel that meditation can be done only in a peaceful, green, serene place and not at home.. Just cannot get to terms with meditating at home.. May be its just me.. may be I need some enlightenment on this topic !
4) Foreign language - Wanted to learn French while I was in Bangalore, but classes were too expensive.. and after being in London for a while, meeting a few French people, think that its also difficult to learn.. so.. need to consider the language selection.. May be I will settle for Spanish.. just for fun.. Dont know
(5) Hair styles - I love experimenting with my hair.. and I am glad that my hair grows at super speed.. so I can keep playing with it.. I have wavy hair.. so try various styles with it.. Own a hair straightener.. and use it quite a lot these days.. normally my hair is layered.. and shoulder length.. and sometimes, I get bored and cut them really short.. just for fun..:)
(6) Walk in high heels - No way.. ! I cannot wear more than 2 inches.. This is something that amazes me, about women in London, they were about 4 inches of pointed heels and survive in them all day.. and recently I heard that the ladies here were heels from the age of 12..
(7) Teach - I think I will be a very good tutor, I have done training/ teaching in almost all my jobs after college. Even while I was doing ACCA, I was considering taking up teaching as a profession, but somehow did not pursue it..

M thanks to you for tagging me, I actually enjoyed doing this..

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.

Random weekend update..

I think I spoke too early about the World cup.. Brazil lost the match against Holland.. so I decided that i will not support any team, just watch the final and support the winning team :) This way I will not be disappointed when all the teams I support go out of the world cup.

This weekend we went to a farm where we could pick our own cherries. We have been to a lot of places where they let us pick our own Strawberries and we normally tend to go atleast once a year, but this time, wanted to pick cherries as we have heard a lot about it. It was quite nice to see massive trees full of cherries of all different colours. It was a great experience and super fun.

Watched the Wimbledon Men's Final on Sunday, which was a bit boring, I love watching tennis, but slept through the last set, it was that boring. The mixes doubles was good fun, Leander Paes was playing on one team and was really nice to see someone from India win the Wimbledon Mixed Doubles title.

World cup

After all the excitement of supporting England, it all came to a disastrous end yesterday. The England team lost quite badly yesterday against Germany at a score of 4-1.

So, I now have to choose another team to supportJ. It does not take long for me to change sides. Some of the favourite teams are Argentina, Brazil, Holland (who have not lost even one match so far) and Germany.

I was deciding between Brazil and Argentina, but I made up my mind to support Brazil.

Footy

I normally tend to avoid going to pubs with office colleagues, firstly because they have loud music, therefore it’s impossible to have a conversation, without screaming down one’s ear and secondly I don't drink (like) alcohol!

But yesterday, everyone in my new project office were going to the pub to watch an important England football world cup match, I had to go with them as this meant we left office at 3.00 and went home early too.. :) How could I miss that? I am making all attempt to follow the world cup at least until such time that England are out. It was a new experience for me, watching football game in the pub.

There were a lot of people shouting and screaming and enjoying the game. Luckily, England won the game, which meant that they are not out of the world cup (yet)! The weather was very good, which meant the celebration continued for a lot of people even after the game, a lot of people moved out of the pubs to continue drinking and I headed home to catch up on some Wimbledon action.
I have never been this interested in football, but I always loved watching tennis. Football is new to me and I am slowly starting to learn the rules of the game. I am looking forward to the game this Sunday between Germany and England. Go England!

First Contact with Contacts...

This time while I was in Bangalore, I got my eyes tested. I wanted to get it tested here, but always kept pushing it. Finally, when I was walking around in Commercial Street, trying to find a pair of sunglasses for my husband whose luggage was misplaced– courtesy British Airways, I spotted a vision express and decided to get my eyes tested. I was 100 % sure that I will come out of there with a prescription for a pair of glasses and that’s exactly what happened. A week later, just a couple of days before I was to come back to London, I got my new glasses and actually, I could see much better. Initially, I though I did not have a problem with my eyes, but the glasses made realise that I did have a problem (clearly- I was being stupid). I was prescribed a distance vision of -1.75 for left eye and -1.5 for the right eye.

After coming back to London, I used them everyday and then got so used to them and found that I wanted them all the time. I was not able to use my sunglasses as much as I wanted to (considering Sunshine rare here) I could not benefit from both proper vision and sunglasses, as I could not use them together. Some of my friends recommended that I get a photo-chromic glass which reacts to the light. Somehow, the idea of just sticking to one pair of sunglasses and not being able to use my own sunglasses did not go down too well… so I decided I needed contact lenses. Therefore, booked an appointment for getting contacts.. I was told; I needed to get a new eye test for it, after which there would be more tests for contact lens fitting. They also told me, the whole process is going to take 2 hours, I was a bit worried as to what are they going to do with me for 2 hours!

Went to specsavers(store) this Saturday, got my eye test. I was told I had more power when compared to the tests that was done in India, so I was prescribed to wear -2.25 left eye and -1.75 right eye. I was a bit worried as it had only been 2 months since my first test. Anyways, I have to trust someone, so I had to spend some more money and get a new pair of glasses. Then came the contact lens fit time, underwent some more tests, looked in to strange machines, the doctor looked through my eyes with some strange pen like things with lights coming off them etc. After about 20 minutes, the doctor said, my contact lens power is different from the specs power. Its -2.00 for the left and -1.5 for the right and by this stage, I was confused as to what is going on? The doctor addressed my concern, by saying that this is quite common and used some medical terms that went well above my head. He placed the contact lens in my eye; it was more comfortable than I thought its going to be. Then came the fun part.

He sent me to another lady who gave me a session of the do’s and don’ts of contact lens world. She even taught me how to put them on and take them off, she got me to do it myself twice, I was quite happy that I could do it. I was actually dreading the whole idea of placing something in my eye, with the eye wide open. It’s a weird experience, but it’s easy with some practice. I had seen some of my friends do it, and I used to wonder how they do it with such ease and will I ever be able to do something like that?

They sent me off, with contact lenses in my eyes and gave me about 5 pairs of lenses to try. I went home, went to play tennis, and had them on for about 5 hours. I had some trouble taking of the lenses off my eye as it was the first time I was doing it all by myself. On Sunday, I wore them all day, had slight trouble getting them on, as the lenses would not stick to my eye at all. In the end, somehow got them on.. and got them off before going to sleep. I was chuffed :)

I kind of liked the idea of contact lenses, and also the idea of wearing glasses to work. Thoroughly confused - Now I have to decide how often do I want to wear them? Do I want to wear glasses to work? Do I want contact lenses? Do I need contact lenses for leisure or everyday use? Do I go for monthly/daily/yearly? Don’t know the answers to all questions yet, but that’s probably why they have sent me off with some lenses to try and see how I feel with them.