Spot fixing IPL, long weekend and my tablet_wk21

This week was roller coaster ride...as mentioned in my last note, i ordered for samsung 10.1 tab2 from amazon and was waiting for it to arrive, it came with its cover(not free!!) on saturday..dot on the date amazon has promised..hence i became owner of samsung P5110 tab2 10.1 tablet, officially:)...it was a long weekend as monday, 20th is the final holiday before christmas this year..its usual lazy day with lots of rain out there...last week, one more thing happened, my decision not to follow cricket became all the more strong, the last time i watched a match was unforgettable ICC world cup final...but good that i am not following IPL and various other tournaments these days...there are much better things to do in this world, o galib, than just sitting and munching popcorn and watching cricket..with due respect to galib saheb..by the way i firmly believe that tournaments like IPL are needed to bolster the prospect of domestic cricket..looking at cricket history where only heroes are remembered and not so popular ones are lost forever...its good that there is a platform away normal playing 11 country team, where people can slug it out and make some money(in legal ways!!) but then things like spot fixing will continue to happen as well, after all its business and some one has to make money, very few people choose to do that in legal ways...meanwhile, our kerala hero sreesanth has been caught here and god knows if he will be forgiven or not...but to assume that its only bad that happens to defaulter is not right...dear readers!!, mohd azharuddin(most successful captain of India till Ganguly arrived on the scene) was caught in match fixing scandal and where is he now..exactly at the right place, parliament..member of our own indian national congress party...heaven to the wretched souls:)...
coming back to where i started, tablet is working good, i have to find a way to read amazon books and to arrange to read 'Harvard business review' subscribed...that is this year's agenda...to start HBR and make efforts to read through the 10 editions of this magazine in the year...rest is good..this week would be hectic and coming week too, there is a marriage at home to attend:)

Week20_2013

Few days went by...sometimes i am surprised by the speed of time..just few days back we were struggling with project problems in January and it seems like the matter was discussed ages ago...Life is on the run...today i ordered my first tablet on amazon...samsung won the research war:)...actually there is a tale behind it...i and vivek were investigating and discussing for a good e-reader...the e-reader war is already won by kindle...so after discussing like hours over few weeks, i zeroed in on Kindle fire HD 8.9 and vivek decided on kindle e-reader...between the decision and day of ordering, vivek got other thoughts and decided for kindle fire hd 7...so now we both were on same page...still we were contemplating and debate was in a settling stage..suddenly vivek found that samsung tab 7" was available in 9999 on flipkart...now the scale tilted towards samsung tablet..another round of discussion ensued...somehow we both agreed that its not a good choice and we should stick to kindle one...so came 12-may, we decided to order kindle fire hd...first it was supposed to be ordered for vivek...so we filled the order form etc and reached to the final order page...and guess what!!...kindle fire hd cant be delivered in netherlands:)..we both were pissed off but still decided to give kindle one more chance, and went to international page, hehe...why did we even bother to try..kindle doesn't deliver to netherlands even through international website...hence we left at that and 12th ended with a sad feeling that we were so close to the tab and still were far from it...now another round of research started..i reached on samsung tablet P5110 and vivek reached on the same tablet through his independent research...this was awesome...finally vivek's first tablet was bought yesterday from media markt and i decided to order it from amazon...hence, i am yet to lay my hands on my first tablet...but happy that i have ordered it already now:)...project work is going well, nothing much on that front, SEPA program is another story to be told separately...in the meantime, watched 'Go goa gone' : one time watch...good performances and decent comedy...planning to watch 'shootout at wadala' this weekend...lets see...majak majak main june 13 aa gaya:)

Week went by_wk18

From 1st may to 7th may, i could not count the days passing by...these days i am going to office on cycle and looking at myself, that is an amazing feat..so evenings are mostly tired ones...last few days went by just like that...busy at work and restless in preparation for exam at home...sunday went in monitoring karnataka elections...only navin chawla could have competed with me on last sunday in monitoring elections...only difference was he has a paid job to do this and i was doing this voluntarily...work place seems more interesting as got a chance to learn something new these days...so i actually look forward to go to office on few days:)..thursday is also a holiday so have to see what can be planned...its a nice weather out there at the moment...looks like sullen trees have come to life, sun is just setting and proper bridge(not wind) is blowing, pleasant cloudy sky...its difficult to wait for sun to set during fast(Puja was fasting today) these days:)..its too late by then...oh by the way, today was extensive research day on tablets...hopefully i will get my tablet soon, but depends on several conditions, will tell you about conditions later...many of the colleagues in office are taking friday off to enjoy extended weekend...but i will work, for reasons unknown to me...no plans as of now to go anywhere but will roam around amsterdam...there is a marine museum which opens only in summer..possibly will go for that...not decided yet...applications have opened for this year...lets see how it goes:)

Iron Man3_added to the list_1st may

After queen's day trip on 30th april, we (with a group of friends) decided to celebrate May day with Iron man..Pathe is a popular theater complex in Amsterdam and we, being loyal customers of Pathe, had only choice of Pathe to go to...so may day, 18:00 hrs, we decided to meet Iron man, finally..movie was good and  worthy of Iron man movie type...Robert Downey Jr paid final tribute in this movie...overall, day ended well...though i must say movie was not worthy of another attempt...and 3D part was very limited...this time i understood the meaning of the phrase, 30% of the movie was shot in 3D and 70% non 3D :)....Nothing much to say for last 2 days after 1st, usual work schedule, these days i am learning about data warehouse testing, its interesting in first impression, waiting for the first pitfall in the project for hard landing...that's where the real learning will happen.

Queen's day_30th april

Queen's day is a very big day of Netherlands..you are free to set up your shops..no shop lets you use the PIN, so cash is mandatory...oh forgot the historical reason!!..it is Queen Beatrix's mother's birthday...but 30th april 2013 is very special for another reason: Queen Beatrix is handing over the reins to her eldest kid(son)...this point is important, because had the eldest kid be a daughter, she would be the next queen...here goes my recount of this day...

We planned to start from home at 12:30 pm, and coincidentally we actually started at this hour:) no delays...trams would not be running on the defined route and there would be deviations, i knew that but still boarded the tram for a destination of which i didn't know any thing about...thoda toofani ho jaye kinda...landed in surinamplein..last stop of tram number 5 on queen's day..the couple who were roaming around with us wanted to definitely go to leidsaplein..after browsing through maps and whatever resource we had(we didn't have steve job's support either)...we just started in a direction in which max people were going...any way, roaming around and scourging through streets, we reached leidsaplein..lot of crowd, rather drunk crowd...concerts going on mid roads...it must have been hell of a time for police to maintain the sanity of the country:)...i think you can do yearly census of the country on this day...roaming free on roads, i saw people hugging the police men as well...drunk ladies are allowed to do anything...after passing through the leidsplein area..i insisted on going towards centraal as i expected the fair at the center...but this year, being swearing in ceremony and all..and royal family was out on streets with multiple distinguished guests, fair was missing from centraal...that also meant i managed to skip rides (which i am scared off but not Puja)...while walking for centraal, we were passing through DAM area..and coincidentally, we saw lot of security arrangements..a siren immediately ticked off in the head...some special security arrangement and its queen's day...so definitely queen or someone i could see..with this hope we reached a good point from where we could see the security guards, royal marines, musicians playing army song and saw three sides of the main street cordoned off...that means 4th side would be where the one queen would be coming or going through...i told Puja  to stay put for some time...those were the longest waiting hour of yesterday..i stood there, took some pics, here and there, imagined what would security guard be thinking of himself looking at this crowd, counted the number of vehicles moving in and moving out etc...but to no avail..finally after one hour of wait, we left reluctantly..and thus queen lost a chance to see me:)...came to centraal and walked back to surinamplein again..total duration of only  walking was 1:15pm to 6:30 pm...its really amazing how comfortable do you feel on getting a chance to sit after such long journeys on foot:)..on the way got a chance to see 3 different african groups dancing on the street...had vegetarian food in a turkish restaurant(ok ok types)....

Day ended with tired eyes and legs screaming for rest and a good sleep..that was 30th april,2013..queen's day special:)