Cruise on Baltic

Our plans of the long 4 day weekend was shattered when our client informed us that they would be working on Friday. Support work Sucks. But our PM here asked us to plan some kinda get together during the weekend. My colleague started enquiring and finally we ended up with a trip to Mariahme (Why is it that i am always confused when it comes to spelling strange places??) on a one day cruise. We booked for 13 people. The plan was to start from SM on Saturday (27-05-2006) morning, reach the place on one ship and return back to SM by another ship.
Could not have asked for a better start to the day when we saw the bus that would take us to Fruången, pass us when we were so close to the bus stop. Managed to reach Slussen when I received a call from my team mate that the cruise was about to begin and we were the ones who had not reached yet. Had an extended morning walk (rather morning run) from Slussen station to the cruise. Were among the last ones to board the ship.
"Isabella" as the ship was called was good. Went to the deck of the ship directly. We had not booked any cabin as it was only an all day journey. Had discussions on multiple topics there. Came down to the restaurant for breakfast. Went to the liveband and listened to songs from Frensh, Swedish and in all other languages that i do not understand. Went to the buffet section when it was time for lunch. All the dishes looked beautiful except for the ones that were on my plate. Had to be content with dry and hard bread slices, bun, saltless smashed potatoes and salads. My main course for lunch consisted of pateries and ice creams. If its mouth watering, do try it once and second thoughts would start creeping in your mind. Our destination got changed and we were shipped to a place near Finland. Mangaed to catch up some five minutes of my lost sleep during the twenty minute break.
"Amorella" arrived and we all got into it for our retutn trip back to SM. If i found it hard to drag time during my onward journey, it was no better in the return journey. Spent half of my six hour journey with the playing cards. The live band in this ship was a compulsory "Not-to-be-visited" place for non-smokers and non-boozers. Experienced the phrase "Place smelt of alcohol" there. Could not resist the temptation to get out of there for more than ten minutes. Bought Rochere from the tax free shop. Reached SM by 2030 hrs and reached home after an hours travel. My eyes woke up from their deep slumber after having some home made food but by then it was time for me to get some sleep. At the end of the day i was left wondering the answer to the question "How was the cruise??"
P.S:Initially had plans of taking Titanic snaps on the ship. But the ship had no "Rose" on it and I realized at the end of the day, I was not "Jack" either.

Pub visit @ SM

It was friday(May 19) and all folks in the account over here in SM received a mail from a colleague of ours who was returning on sunday and he wanted to arrange for a get together and the place suggested was a PUB. Did i really want to join these folks to a Pub??That was the first question that stuck me. Then i realized that there were going to be no parties or get togethers other than in bars and pubs and hence made up my mind to visit the place.
It was somewhere near "Skharolmen". We (myself and my colleague) decided to go there directly from office we had no time to go home and start again. Left to the station. There were actually streets that were full of Pubs. I got really amazed at the number of pubs into which we entered only to come out finding that there were no place in it. Finally we ended at a place which though did not look too beautiful from outside.
The pub was a much decent one and the ambience was decent. I was not sure whether it was my feeling or was this the way pubs across the globe look like? I was to be content with a dumb fruit drink and a veg pasta. The entire team was having drinks and we all had a good time. Had my self control over my heart and did not touch any drinks this time. Hope the same continues and i get back to India the same way i had left it. We managed to finish the dinner and came out at around 11 in the night. Finally reached home by midnight. It was a decent outing.

Noodles all over

I have always wondered why people moving out of India take Maggi with them?? Guess manufacturesrs of Maggi could make a better turnover if they have stalls in all airports in India.Realized its importance first hand when i landed in SM and stayted in a hotel for a week. There hardly is a concept of veggie over here. Have really started to wonder if it would be the case throughout Europe.My wild plans of visiting unimaginable places within Europe might go for a big toss. Well, I went to office on the very day i landed in SM. Got an overall view of whatz happening here and left early for the day.
It would be bad if i do not mention my colleague here. She (J******) was the one whom i had to work with over here during my initial days. Right on the first day, she left the office early, helped me get the stuffs required for a week. Had it not been for her, i would either have shelled out more Kronors out of my pocket or would have starved for most of my first week.
The first week in SM was really gud except for the nights. Did not have anything to eat except for the Maggi that i had taken from India. Noodles are fun to have for a day, maybe one more. Imagine eating the same noodles again and again for a period spanning 5 days. My only solace in this grief was that my colleague (mentioned earlier) was kind enough to bring lunch for me during all these days. Finally my dinner got changed from noodles when i moved into an apartment with my colleague on sunday. Misery ended and noodle rains stopped after 5 horrible days.

Initial hours in Stockholm

Initially had plans of writing about my first flight journey but then had second thoughts and felt writing abou this would be much better first.

I landed at Arlanda airport (stockholm) on 10th May at something around 9.10a.m local time. The weather was real cold. Had to scamper for my sweater that had got settled somewhere deep in my hand luggage. Got my cabin baggage and was among the early ones to depart from the airport. Enquired with the information desk as to where i could get a taxi and came out of the airport.

Boy..i felt the scene at the airport entrance really fascinating. There were actually a lot of taxis as the informant had told. But there was just this problem. All of the taxis were MERCs. My god, being in India for all this time and seeing one of my real favourite car as a taxi was just different. A taxi driver signalled for me and asked if we could leave. Though i had got some cash in swedish kronors (thanks to my teammate who had just reached India on the day when i was leaving), i was not sure if that would be sufficient for my journey. So, started enquiring with him about the price that it would cost to take me to the hotel that another teamamate of mine had booked for my first few days. He started explaining that his was a fixed price one and he will not charge more. I started explaining him that i had limited swedish currency and finally managed him to check out the prices before i got into the taxi. Was really happy when he told me the amount as I was told earlier about the amount that it might cost.

That was the first time i had a ride on a MERC and really understood the difference of that and the rest of the cars. Also had the pleasure of watching a lot of other cars om road of which I had either read about in magazines or seen on TVs. All in all the initial few hours were really good.

Onsite (???)

It was somewhere in march when a senior in my project account approached and asked if I was ready for onsite rotation. A particular question that was posed included if I had any plans for the upcoming year. I informed them about the sashtiabthapoorthi (60th birthday) of my father. I also informed them about my leave plans during august for the same. During all this talk one more senior resource @ offshore got involved in this. Together they started asking me like if it was possible to cancel the trip. I tried explaining the importance of the event and how necessary my presence was at such an event. Eventually they agreed to send this moron onsite.

After all this drama I actually started thinking about what was so special about onsite. Is it that new country, new people, new culture and new PROBLEMS that make it more interesting. Guess I would be able to answer this in a couple of months time. Or would I revert back to the thought of whether onsite was actually special where you miss your parents, your close friends and what not.