After every weekend when I go back to work on Monday's, some of my colleagues namely Dave and myself discuss as to where we went on the weekends, while he shares some of his ideas and I share too and in many ways this is an idyllic scene, but to be honest , for a while today I was feeling a bit tired and jaded about travel. When you're going out almost every other week the spark of newness fades, and travel can feel like a long, pointless slog, a detour from life. It makes me laugh sometimes and wince at times. But more often reminds me of why I travel: to learn and grow, to challenge myself, stretch my limits and foster an appreciation of both the world at large, imparts new vigor to the mind and most importantly instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.
For me ever since I came back from India, seeing places has been like a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living. Once traveled the voyage never ends, the mind can never break off from the journey. Truly "We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventures. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open" as rightfully quoted by Jawaharlal Nehru.
So our first stop was Springridge Farm. I have been wanting to visit a farm for the longest time and then came Easter when I found out about this Farm, not very far from my place and located on the side of the Niagara Escarpment in Milton. The lush farmlands throughout the Niagara Escarpment gives us nature's bounty and they were having Easter Egg Hunt at the Farm. So off we went. My kids enjoyed Easter Egg Hunt with the Easter Bunny, Wagon Ride and Farm Tour, Access to the Fun Farmyard: animal barn, Giant Sandbox, Corn Trail, Face Painting and many more. Last but not the least enjoyed the mouthwatering hot dogs.
Atleast I was happy that we've started to venture out and see different places and things.
P.S: Sorry guys no pictures as I lost them even though all my pictures are saved in my back up machine but unable to locate them.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Away and Beyond!
Hi Everybody,
Hope everybody's doing great!
Wow! can't believe that I vanished for good three months. Well I have been away for 3 weeks in March to Paris, Belgium and to India and trust me this is going to be more of a travel blog this time and to add to it ever since I came back from my vacation, have been on a major travel spree, constantly thinking of where to go next.
So our first stop was at Paris but we didn't get chance to see much of Paris except Eiffel Tower and Moulin Rouge which were steps away from our hotel. But what I thoroughly enjoyed was our trip to Belgium, rather Ieper, Belgium. Ieper is an ancient city located in the Flemish province of West Flandres in the westhoek region of Belgium. We took the TGV train to Lille Flandres, northern Frances's largest city by far, surprises many visitors with its impressive architecture, the winding streets of its tastefully restored old quarter. At the same time, the city spreads far into the countryside in every direction. The city is now becoming a fashionable place to spend a weekend.
What we saw in Ieper:
Cloth Hall (Lakenhalle): which is situated in the heart of the city on the market place, the Grote Markt. The market square is surrounded by a range of building . Several shops sell the famed Belgian chocolates.
Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Belgium: contains the names of 54,896 officers and men from all the overseas British and Commonwealth forces who fell in the Ypres Salient before 16th August, 1917. Names are engraved in Portland stone panels fixed to the inner walls of the Hall. The memorial does not include name of the missing of New Zealand and Newfoundland forces, who are named on separate memorials.
Even though the weather wasn't supportive enough and with young kids, not much was possible, but we had a wonderful time.
Our next stop was our final destination which is India --- my native country. The weather was exactly what we were hoping for. Warm and lots of sunshine. Lots of delicious food and we did get to play the festival of colour meaning "HOLI" which occurs @ that time. In addition to it lots of quality family time, fun n frolic.
Memories that I will cherish forever.
Hope everybody's doing great!
Wow! can't believe that I vanished for good three months. Well I have been away for 3 weeks in March to Paris, Belgium and to India and trust me this is going to be more of a travel blog this time and to add to it ever since I came back from my vacation, have been on a major travel spree, constantly thinking of where to go next.
So our first stop was at Paris but we didn't get chance to see much of Paris except Eiffel Tower and Moulin Rouge which were steps away from our hotel. But what I thoroughly enjoyed was our trip to Belgium, rather Ieper, Belgium. Ieper is an ancient city located in the Flemish province of West Flandres in the westhoek region of Belgium. We took the TGV train to Lille Flandres, northern Frances's largest city by far, surprises many visitors with its impressive architecture, the winding streets of its tastefully restored old quarter. At the same time, the city spreads far into the countryside in every direction. The city is now becoming a fashionable place to spend a weekend.
What we saw in Ieper:
Cloth Hall (Lakenhalle): which is situated in the heart of the city on the market place, the Grote Markt. The market square is surrounded by a range of building . Several shops sell the famed Belgian chocolates.
Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Belgium: contains the names of 54,896 officers and men from all the overseas British and Commonwealth forces who fell in the Ypres Salient before 16th August, 1917. Names are engraved in Portland stone panels fixed to the inner walls of the Hall. The memorial does not include name of the missing of New Zealand and Newfoundland forces, who are named on separate memorials.
Even though the weather wasn't supportive enough and with young kids, not much was possible, but we had a wonderful time.
Our next stop was our final destination which is India --- my native country. The weather was exactly what we were hoping for. Warm and lots of sunshine. Lots of delicious food and we did get to play the festival of colour meaning "HOLI" which occurs @ that time. In addition to it lots of quality family time, fun n frolic.
Memories that I will cherish forever.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Age as another place!
Hey Folks!
Hope everybody is doing well and in good spirits. I know no excuses work here for me disappearing for good two months when I myself posted blog stating "Strike a Balance". Believe it or not : just have been simply busy, ever since started work time has been a constrain big time. Finally managed and forced myself to get down to blogging.
Often I hear colleagues (including me) at work talking about age and how things change with age, what I mean here is everything right from what one looked like then and now, from being super active to not being able to do much, perception of life, experience and knowledge, getting to know all the ways the world turns etc and thereof a question raises in my mind: A very particularly interesting subject. Is age a passage of time or does it carry with it other transformations that fundamentally change the same way the same individual is viewed? Put another way, does age add an additional lens, one that subtly changes the way human beings are seen and responded to? And if one were to push the question to the limits of reason, does one become someone else in one's older incarnation or does the world see us as someone else as we grow older? Of course, a simple explanation is that it seems so because age is relative to the vantage point of the other person. Hmm a question of mind over matter! I guess.
Therefore leading to the next obvious question: Were our grandparents ever really young? Of course, we have all seen their photographs, those sepia- tinted assertions of their once youth. But it seems as if the people in those photographs are other people, with an admittedly striking faded resemblance to the real ones. Their youth seems to us like a land far, far away and stories about the times when they young have a dreamy, fable- like quality. One doesn't quite locate those stories in the same terrain as one on which we lead our lives. Their youth seems like an aberration or at best, a vehicle for getting them to this point and making them whatever they are today.
I think what happens early on in life is that at a certain stage one stands still and stagnates and every age gets the science it deserves. We also work hard at defanging age by emphasizing its toothlessness, I find it to be an inordinate passion for pleasure though the best is yet to be , the last of life, for which the first was made. Therefore to conclude I would say "There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age" by Sophia Loren.
Happy Sunday to all of you!
Cheers!
Hope everybody is doing well and in good spirits. I know no excuses work here for me disappearing for good two months when I myself posted blog stating "Strike a Balance". Believe it or not : just have been simply busy, ever since started work time has been a constrain big time. Finally managed and forced myself to get down to blogging.
Often I hear colleagues (including me) at work talking about age and how things change with age, what I mean here is everything right from what one looked like then and now, from being super active to not being able to do much, perception of life, experience and knowledge, getting to know all the ways the world turns etc and thereof a question raises in my mind: A very particularly interesting subject. Is age a passage of time or does it carry with it other transformations that fundamentally change the same way the same individual is viewed? Put another way, does age add an additional lens, one that subtly changes the way human beings are seen and responded to? And if one were to push the question to the limits of reason, does one become someone else in one's older incarnation or does the world see us as someone else as we grow older? Of course, a simple explanation is that it seems so because age is relative to the vantage point of the other person. Hmm a question of mind over matter! I guess.
Therefore leading to the next obvious question: Were our grandparents ever really young? Of course, we have all seen their photographs, those sepia- tinted assertions of their once youth. But it seems as if the people in those photographs are other people, with an admittedly striking faded resemblance to the real ones. Their youth seems to us like a land far, far away and stories about the times when they young have a dreamy, fable- like quality. One doesn't quite locate those stories in the same terrain as one on which we lead our lives. Their youth seems like an aberration or at best, a vehicle for getting them to this point and making them whatever they are today.
I think what happens early on in life is that at a certain stage one stands still and stagnates and every age gets the science it deserves. We also work hard at defanging age by emphasizing its toothlessness, I find it to be an inordinate passion for pleasure though the best is yet to be , the last of life, for which the first was made. Therefore to conclude I would say "There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age" by Sophia Loren.
Happy Sunday to all of you!
Cheers!
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