Category: post

Friday, the 13th – fornicating cows!

Nothing too special about this Friday the 13th. Slightly less productive than usual, and an encounter with fornicating cows.

Yup, that was the highlight of the day – an encounter with the fornicating cows.

I mentioned earlier that the cows are back on the mount. We’ve been passing them often on our walks, and they’re usually the meek creatures they’re made up to be.

Today, as we entered the last section of the mount, some of the cows moved towards us instead of moving away. Their manner of movement, too, was more aggressive than curious. Out of concern for my safety, and Chewie’s sanity, I backed off, and went back out the gate.

Just as we crossed back, one of the cows mounted another and started humping her. The reason for their aggression was well visible!

Continue reading Friday, the 13th – fornicating cows!

London town

The day had a good start – ½ kg weight drop, 0.5% fat loss, 0.3% water gain – all moving in the positive direction. Thank you weighing scale :)

Protein smoothie, bit of work, quick morning walk with Chewie, and I went off to London for meetings and meetups.

The meetings went well.
The post meeting coffee was good.
The walk from coffee shop to next meeting/up went quite well too.
Missing all the torrential showers we had today, and still getting all that walking in – excellent.
Hitting the step target just as I walked into the meetup room – perfect.

The meetup went well, though I couldn’t close the loop on a few conversations since I had to leave early, and couldn’t stay for the networking session after the Q&A.

First seat on top floor of the bus while going through some beautiful bits of dusk time central London – heartwarmingly good.

Got a good seat in the train, and it left within minutes of me getting in – ‘British efficiency’ good.

R & Chewie waiting in the car outside the station before I got there – ‘German efficiency’ good.

Happy dinner, catch-up of Gotham and, finally, getting crushed by R & Chewie as they lovingly plonked over my legs – good, good, and good.

Just making it under 2000kcal (1,973) – good!

When the worst thing about a day is that I went over my step target by 15%, it has to be called a good day, right? :)

A happy, summery spring day

It’s still spring time, but the weather today belonged in mid summer – temperatures in high 20s, bright sunshine with no clouds in sight, and a gentle breeze just to help stay cool

I went for my first bike ride (non commute/transport) in almost 11 months – the first since the mammoth 150+mile day in Wales last June.

It. Was. Beautiful.

Loved the feel of rolling along on a road bike on our Surrey roads and lanes. Beautiful sunshine, and fresh green leaves everywhere. The gentle SSE breeze helping stay cool on the way out, and helping out the tiring legs on the way back. The beautiful stream side in Shere, and a happy ride partner. It was so good that even the 3-4 dickheads in cars who attempted injury/murder couldn’t piss me off for too long.

Loved it! :)

(Returning to news of City & Arsenal drawing helped too – that 4th place is now in our own hands, 2 wins away.)

Add in an evening spent playing with Chewie, listening to soft jazz and enjoying the (now) pleasant chill in the air. The day could scarcely have been better.

On to the work week tomorrow – lots of SMR follow-ups, and IDT feature devs for me, and likely the last week in office for R.

Happy end to a happy week :)

View on Chewie’s morning walk – towards town center
View on Chewie’s morning walk – towards Cathedra
The oh-so-inviting stream in Shere
View on Chewie’s morning walk – towards Newlands corner
Moi at halfway point break in Shere

Marvel’s Defenders

I quite enjoy Marvel’s movies & TV series – all the ones based around Avengers and related characters, as well as Daredevil and Jessica Jones.

But I refuse to get my head around why are they called Avengers? If they have the power, and the freedom, to act and intervene as they please, why do the superheroes wait for bad things to happen before they can avenge them?

Why not act proactively to prevent and defend? I’m starting a petition to name them Marvel’s Defenders. We want prevention, not just cure!

Peppy music, warm days, and the Apple invasion

The day began well, with me polishing off a few long-pending long posts in my Pocket. The walk got delayed, due to reasons coming below, but was a brisk, happy one when it came.

Thank you for the music

One of those rare days when I felt like listening to music on the walk. Not sure about what to play, just asked Google to play a random playlist of songs I like. It was fun!

  • Vangelis’ Chariots of fire theme,
  • Rolling in the deep, by Adele,
  • The man, by Aloe Blacc,
  • Hello, by Adele,
  • All cried out, by Blonde,
  • Peace on Earth, by Bing Crosby & David Bowie,
  • Khalbali, from Rang de basanti
  • Rumour has it, by Adele
  • Eko ile, by Fela Kuti & the Africa 70,
  • Feel, by Bombay bicycle club,
  • Kandisa, by Indian Ocean
    and continuing…

Charlie (a young Vizsla), and Monty (a forever young Jack Russel) wrestling each other to get more attention from me, halfway through the walk, just added to the delight.

Rarely have I returned from a hot weather, brisk walk so energised. (The brisk bit, and the protein smoothie may have helped too)

Warm, dry, dull days of my youth

The region of India I grew up in has a long, dry and hot summer. 2 decades of living there have trained my brain to expect (imagine) things when the weather turns warm and dry. Like today.

Thoughts of watermelon, cool water dips in tube wells & canals, hanging with friends from undergrad, cycling around with the only friend from my first school, smell of the earth.

Beautiful, torturous memories :)

Continue reading Peppy music, warm days, and the Apple invasion

The cows are back

Cows

Cows on the mount are back. A different herd this year, and fewer too – 6-7 against 18 last year.

Don’t mind the cows themselves, but their presence means that there’ll be cowdung mounds all over the place soon, and that we (Chewie & Me) won’t be able to play at our favourite much longer.

On the other hand, we’ve recently discovered a load of beautiful routes around our area, and this might just be incentive to insert more variety into our daily walks.

Pilates

Didn’t think that I’d get to chat and be friend(ly) with more people in a 4-7 person pilates class, than in a 300+ park run that I’ve volunteered at 7 times in last few months. But it is so. Funny world :)

May bank holiday checklist: part deux

Continuing with yesterday’s update on the May bank holiday weekend:

✓ Shoddy DIY

Not really DIY, but assembled R’s new IKEA desk

DIY - IKEA assembly

✓ Suggest bike ride

Suggested, quite strongly, a bike ride to R. Got dismissed out of hand.

Thought of going for a short, solo one. Dozed off.

End of.

Misc

Went for a walk around Puttenham common. It’s a huge, beautiful green area just outside the next village, with everything – rolling hills with views of South downs and the Hog’s back, beautiful ponds (with swimming for both dogs and humans allowed), dense woodland (with colours varying from bright, adolescent green, to purple and brown), and lovely, dog & kid friendly pubs.

Had a lovely time. Even the lately tired, and grumpy, R was enjoying it today :)

And so the long weekend, with a happy, surprisingly good-weathered staycation, comes to an end.

Onwards!

Just another bank holiday weekend

Friday night movie.

Saturday – I worked in the garden, and R volunteered at Thames Path 100 (a 100 mile running race along the Thames path from London to Oxford).

I sweated in the yards – mowing the lawns and trimming the daffodils. R cheered, helped, and (most importantly obsessed and tweeted) over the competitors.

Continue reading Just another bank holiday weekend

Tid bits

Started a new book. And abandoned it within 10 pages. It was a business book with too much ‘values & beliefs’ and barely any nitty gritty of ops and customer service (the reason I picked it).

Lost my phone. And found it within 5 minutes thanks to the new watch. Had kept the phone on a shelf in Tesco while picking something, and forgotten it there. As I moved out of bluetooth range of the phone, the watch lost its connection and buzzed with the notification – reminding me that I’d left the phone behind.

Without being a smart watch, my watch is smarter than me!

Ran a marathon. Not that a 4:36 marathon requires much running. Continue reading Tid bits

Sensitive

An old acquaintance was cribbing about ads following her on every site, begging Indian e-commerce sites to stop tracking her.

Thought of telling her about remarketing, and advising about blocking 3rd party cookies, using adblockers.

Didn’t.

Didn’t want to be called a mansplainer again.