Anand's Scribbles

Invite for the Big Day - Nov 27

2006-11-13T16:46:00.000Z

Friends

It's been long time since my last post ... I know few of you wld have been disappointed to see no posts in the last 2 weeks...sorry for that...

I did travel to chennai on last weekend of Oct.. You know it's tough to find time amidst the last min marriage purchases/preparation and other imp personal works (he he he)..

I know whoever reads this post is current or future friend of mine... I have put down my marriage invite (Nov 27)...Pls treat this as my personal invite and pls try your best to make it.. Wld defn post the marriage pics once it is available..

Hope to see you at the Wedding ...

Diwali 2006 - Dublin Sparkles

2006-10-23T20:42:00.000+01:00

Hey , its diwali time... We did plan to go out and do some outdoor activity.. Weather was predicted to be awful during the weekend. So we were forced to stay indoors.. Each one of us (Me , Bala's family , Nirmala and Vidhya ) agreed to cook diff items and decided to celebrate diwali at Bala's house.

We did have diff items lined up. I did take the challenge of making semiya payasam..(indian pudding made of vermicilli and milk).. i did exactly followed the recipe from bawarchi.com ..it came out fentastic..its not a big deal any more as long as i can find the recipe on the web..

Hats off to Selvi , Nirmala , bala and Vidhya for the fentastic menu sambhar,rasam,vad, gulob jamun , jeavarisi payasam, brocolli curry , carrot , pulav and curd rice.. Its too much food at one go.. somehow managed to get everything in..

Our new friend Satish and his wife joined for a cards game (rummy)... It was good craic..

Fentastic day ... A day to remember...

Interesting one

2006-10-21T07:49:00.000+01:00

In Year 1981

1. Prince Charles got married
2. Liverpool crowned Champions of Europe
3. Australia lost the Ashes
4. Pope Died

In Year 2005

1. Prince Charles got married (again)
2. Liverpool crowned Champions of Europe (again)
3. Australia lost the Ashes (again)
4. Pope Died (again)

Moral of the story -
In future, if Prince Charles decides to re-marry....

Please warn the Pope....!!

Entering 30's ............. - Happy Diwali

2006-10-21T07:11:00.000+01:00

WISHING YOU HAPPY , DELIGHTFUL , COLORFUL & SAFE DIWALI .......

Diwali int clip
http://youtube.com/watch?v=WynGGWbDjg8

Entered into 30's on Oct 17... cld not believe that I am 30 now. Completely diff and exciting year ahead. Looking forward to it.

Its been a eventful week. Went out for dinner at Maloti Indian restaurant with Anglo team on Oct 17th.. to celebrate my B'day , engagement,Diwali.. Had good time.. Ambience was good , food was ok and service wasn't good..

Went for a dinner with Pscubed guys on 19th to celebrate Diwali.. Again its indian cuisine , this time its at Monsoon.... ambience and food was excellent.. everyone enjoyed the food.

Few of my Indian friends are having a get together on saturday to celebrate diwali..

Achintya Naming Day Celebration - Reading, UK , Sep 2006

2006-10-21T06:21:00.000+01:00

It has been while since my last post ... bit busy ....

Went to reading on Sep 22 fri eve for Achintya 's naming celebration(sat). Had gud time with Anna, Manni , Adith , Adith Patti... puthu veedu nalla irukku..

The party was good...veedu was filled with kuttis.. gr8 fun.. played poker game with Anna's friends and the food was fentastic.. kanchi idli was the highlight..

Travelled back to Dublin on monday morning.

Pscubed dinner at Dogs Shelbourne - 21 Sep 2006

2006-09-27T20:03:00.001+01:00

Joe & Eugene did organize a dinner for all Pscubed employees (Joe, Eugene,Ann,Anand,Jop,Bala,Prakash,Nirmala) at restaurant in Shelbourne racing club. Its a unique atmosphere where we could place bets on dog races while dining . Ideal place for a social event. There are TV screens before each table to track your dogs..

We had good fun. Nobody was concentrating on the food..Even betting novices Nirmala & Selvi (bala's wife) had a field day. I did win close to 25 Euros.

http://www.dublinevents.com/dublin-sports/Greyhound-racing.php

When we were in the restaurant, messages were pouring about a hurricane approaching north dublin..Everybody was saying its quite windy outside and people started worrying about the Ryder cup starting next day(sep 22) in Ireland. We did come out of the club around 10.30 pm and it was very very windy outside. Water level at the Liffey below the bridge near Custom house was alarmingly high..We were thinking we may not be able to go to work on friday..But the next day morning,surprising the weather was normal and Ryder cup started on scheduled time..

IT Professionals after death - Nice pics

2006-09-27T19:51:00.000+01:00

Good One !! - Husband Store

2006-09-19T17:06:00.000+01:00

The Husband Store!
A store that sells husbands has just opened inNew York City, where a woman may go to choose a husband.
Among the instructions at the entrance
is a description of how the store operates. You may visit the store ONLY ONCE!
There are six floors and the attributes of the men increase as the shopper ascends the flights. There is, however, a catch. ... You may choose any man from a particular floor, or you may choose to go up a floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit the building!

So, a woman goes to the Husband Store to find a husband. .

On the first floor the sign on the door reads:
Floor 1 - These men have jobs and love the Lord.

The second floor sign reads:
Floor 2 - These men have jobs, love the Lord, and love kids.

The third floor sign reads:
Floor 3 - These men have jobs, love the Lord, love kids, and are extremely good looking.
"Wow," she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going.

She goes to the fourth floor and sign reads:
Floor 4 - These men have jobs, love the Lord, love kids, are drop-
dead good looking and help with the housework.
"Oh, mercy me!" she exclaims, "I can hardly stand it!"

Still, she goes to the fifth floor and sign reads:
Floor 5 - These men have jobs, love the Lord, love kids, are drop- dead
gorgeous, help with the housework, and have a strong romantic streak.

She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the sixth floor and the
sign reads:
Floor 6 - You are visitor 14,363,012 to this floor. There are no men on
this floor. This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible
to please. Thank you for shopping at the Husband Store.
Watch your step as you exit the building, and have a nice day!
Please pass on this article to all men for a good laugh and to all the women who
can handle the truth!

Recap - Jul/Aug 2006 - Break back home - Got engaged !!

2006-09-12T21:43:00.000+01:00

As ususual going home(chennai) was sweet. It was much sweeter this time becoz of the prospect of finding a partner..

I met Niranjana on Jul 6th ..She's a classical dancer by profession.. With our consent our parents agreed to proceed further and we got engaged on Aug 20th ..No more a free bird.. Cld feel the weight of the responsibilities on the shoulder. The big day is on Nov 27, 2006 @ Chennai. Formal invitation to follow in the coming months. Pls block your calendar now itself.
Travelled back to Dublin on Aug 28th .

Also, my Cousin Sridhar got engaged with Srividhya at Bangalore...Congrats Sris... Advance wishes for the marriage... He's getting married on Nov 10th..Won the race by few weeks..

FIFA WorldCup 2006(Jun/July) - Predictions league

2006-09-12T20:54:00.000+01:00

One of the world's biggest sporting event FIFA world cup kicked off in Germany.. We were hooked up to the TV everyday..Quite good to be in europe during this time..everybody talks,breathe football. I was in Germany during the last 2002 worldcup(Japan/Korea).

Germany/Italy/France had a great worldcup..I did want germany to win ..unfortunately they lost in epic battle with Italy in the semifinal (cld be the match of the w'cup).. Italy's defence and zidane's head butt decided the w'cup in favor of Italy..

""Italy's Fabio Cannavaro lifts the trophy after defeating France 5-3 in a shotout in the final of the soccer World Cup between Italy and France in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Sunday, July 9, 2006. (AP Photo/Jasper Juinen) ""

I did participate in a exciting football predictions league with my colleagues at my workplace.. we were asked to predict the scores for each game. 3points for the correct score and 1 point for correct result. This kept us motivated for 6 weeks ..made us to look in matches like Iran-Angola game Believe it or not, i did win the league did share the top spot and the prize money.. i went for a 1-0 win for italy in final against france and jan got the scores right(3 points) that left us at the same scores.. cricket crazy indian winning against football crazy europeans is quite an achievement.

Here is the mail from organizing committee of predictions league
"Gentlemen,
Well, the World Cup is over for another four years. And with last night's final, we now have a winner of the title of the WCP Championship ..... well winners actually. Jan had the 1-1 for the final with Anand only having a 1-0 win to Italy . So both finish with a tally of 59pts. Jan does have 1 more correct score (with 10) but after some detailed investigation into the WCP rules archive, it was decided by the board of directors that the prize would be split.

Congrats to both Jan and Anand on fantastic predictions over the course of the World Cup.
Also, Shane should be mentioned with the least amount of 'Completely Wrong' scores with only 22. No prize for this but the respect of your peers.

I'll pass on prizes over the next few days.

And that's it. Thanks to all for entering this thing and making the World Cup just that bit more interesting."

Best Regards
Managing Director of the World Cup Predictathon (WCP)"

Recap - Akira's Visit - May 2006

2006-09-11T19:26:00.000+01:00

My Brazilian friend Akira visited me in Dublin dur May 2006. Everybody assumes he's from Japan becoz of his looks.. he's brazilian of japanese descent.. He's from Sao Paulo ..i have a place to stay if i go to brazil..

To introduce Akira , he's working on the same product as me for the last 10 years (may be..hey akira this shows ur age mate..u r still single...find out a partner mate). He did work with me in Chennai & Hamburg , Germany for a while. He has travelled to almost all main places in India. He has even been to kanchi mutt.. he was stunned when i said that mutt head was arrested.. One day he was telling the story how god ganesh got the elephant face. Hatts off to him.. We lived in the stayed aptmt block in hamburg. we became closer here ..very nice chap..He used to come to my house for indian dinner...trust me he likes my spinach and potato...this guy is a gr8 photographer ..he does take stunning pics.. Now hes working in Zurich,Switzerland.

He did come down to Dublin during a long weekend in May 2006. He enjoyed his time in dublin..on his first day , i took him for a stroll across the dublin city centre...his first impression was its very similar to London.. next day he went on a tour to Glendalough (irish name means place between two valleys) , Wicklow mountains...very scenic place.. few hollywood films were shot here (brave heart)..must to see place.. and the same night we went to indian restaurant..this chap loves indian food if its not spicy.. then we went to see glimpse of Irish dancing ,Arlington hotel ..this pub full of tourists from diff parts of the world..this irish dancing was the highlight of his trip..

His favourite Tamil film : 12B
Tamil Music : Hariharan
Tamil words : vanakam , dhayavu seithu kathavai moodavum (he told me he wld
have hear this word in his aptmt lift many many times).

Recap We went Live - Anglo Irish Bank - End of May 2006

2006-09-09T08:02:00.000+01:00

Oh !!! Finally it happened... We went live on our full banking system T24 rollout for Anglo Irish bank's London branch. It was a long struggle..have been working on this since Aug 2004 ...

Our team is fentastic bunch of hard working , cheerful and playful blokes of diff nationalities(Irish,british,Polish,Indian,Estonian,Nigerian,Russian,Kiwi) with diff cultural backgrnds.. Everyone in the bank were happy ...

Eventhough we went live everyone was having one thing in mind..system cld break anytime...everyone were surprised that nothing untoward happened..One of the best rollouts i have ever seen.

Here is the testimonial mail from Proj Manager
""Team,
After many versions, routines, late nights, just under 6000 issues, not to mention a few interesting challenges we are now live!!!!!! I just wanted to thank everyone for there hard work and dedication to getting us live, not just over the last weekend but over the last few years. It was great to see everyone working as a team together (8 Different Nationalities!) and helping each other out to ensure we got to the position we are in today.

Note, I will mostly be working full-time this week on the important task of organising some celebratory drinks in the near future....
Cheers
""

Unfortunately I cld not make it to the go live party at London eye as I was in a break in chennai..

Cheers !!

Recap - Easter / Tamil New year 2006 - UK

2006-09-09T07:23:00.000+01:00

I went on a 4 day trip to UK during easter break... Spent TamilNew year's day with Anna , Manni and Adithya at Reading..Got a Fab shirt as a gift... the shirt is very gud...Thanx ...whenever i wear it i defn get questions where did i buy this..??gud buy... Went out to Saravana's had a buffet lunch (party) with anna's friends/family..

The next day i travelled to Manchester to meet my balya snegidhan..ramamoorthy..schld frnd and college frnd .. we did study together at St Xaviers, Tuticorin and AKCE , Srivilliputhur.. i was telling him for a while that i wld visit him...finally it happened...It was a long jrny from reading and the train tckt was expensive arnd 60 GBP return (costs almost same as flight tickets from dublin)..When i met him at Manchester on Apr 15 night around 10 pm, we were thrilled. u feel gr8 if u cld meet ur fellow schl mate in a foreign ctry.. Next day , he drove me arnd Manchester..we took a tour @ Man U stadium.. brilliant stadium and then i travlled back to reading.. Defn a day to remember..

Spent a day/played with Adithya..he posed brilliantly for pics. finally it was time to leave and was bac in dublin by evening 8 pm... My mates at Dublin were waiting for me for the dinner..Nice gesture and they did travel to Galway dur this easter brk..they were shwng off the pics..

Welcome on Board - New Member to the family

2006-09-09T06:42:00.000+01:00

Rajeev Anna and Manni gave birth to a wonderful boy dur the early hrs (1.17 am GMT 5.47 am IST) of Sep 9 2006. Mother and the baby are keeping gud...

Congrats Anna , Manni !!! It was nice to see the pics of the baby so soon.. Thanks Anna... The kid looks fabulous.. to be honest this is the first time I have seen a pic taken just after delivery...looks very similar to Adithya (first son)..

Got an SMS at 3.30 am (GMT) and later realised i have replied instantly. that too a relevant reply... Of late my texting sills has improved..(he he he)..obviously have to reply instantly these days..

End of my first day Blogs

2006-09-09T00:01:00.000+01:00

Long day !! couple of hrs of blogging was gr8 !! not sure whether it has come gud.. bit tiring now...have to go to sleep.. more recaps from early 2006 to follow in the coming weeks...

keep an eye on my blog..

Cheers Guys!!

Recap - Ireland at its best- St Patricks Day- Mar 17th 2006

2006-09-08T23:06:00.000+01:00

The Day to be in Ireland !! Most colorful , funny , freaky day.. My second st patricks day in Ireland..In this day everybody wants to be irish , wear green, funny hats , dresses etc..

It was freezing cold out there...cld be arnd zero degrees... still we (me , prakash & nirmala) went out to see the parade.. Bala & wife was late ..i did paint my face with green shamrock ..we did buy fancy hats just want to be crazy as everyone else.. (pics below) ...the parade was colorful.. for me parade didn't interest much(same as last year)..nirmala and prksh were busy taking pics of the parade i was enjoying the atmosphere , jam packed in a place surrounded by few portuguese,french tourists..people were staying very very close btw keeping themselves warm...cld not hear english for a while.. foreigners were watching the parade while the irish were enjoying the guiness at pubs.. After the parade, we went to ceili more open dance floor..were everyone old, young , kids,guys,girls,all races,ethnic grps were dancing to the music on the road..so frndly atmosphere.. we were dancing with people we never know..this cld happen only on paddy's day... we had a galla time.. The next day we went to diff fantasy rides and did c fentastic dance on air... only thing missing this time was the fireworks show..its a pity the new guys cld not watch the firewrks. it was fentastic last year...hope we cld c next year..

Not To Miss day in Ireland !!!

Recap - Swiss Trip - dec 2005

2006-09-08T22:31:00.000+01:00

I was dreaming to be at Swiss for quite sometime.. Finally it materialised dur christmas break 2005.
Myself and my Thesys friends and family at Dublin (Bala,Bala's wife Selvi,Prakash,Nirmala) went to Zurich,swizerland. Pizza in the swiss flight was out of the world..never had such a nice food inflight..we weren't shy to ask few more...

few of our colleagues(Vijay's family wife and kids,Rajaprabu,Babu,Ganesh) were working in zurich. We did base ourselevs at their houses in zurich and we did travel to Mt Titlus, Zurich and surroundings,Rhein Falls. Had a gr8 time.. It was like a big family 10 adults and two fentastic kids (Vijay's son Koushic and swt talkative daughter nithya)..Fentastic.. Tried my german after few years...was happy still works...

Overall to summarize Gr8 time with friends, Wondeful place , quite expensive (believe it or not it costed us arnd 600 Euros for a dinner at indian restaurant for whole grp at zurich..most expensive shit food i ever had in my life)...

I wld cherish this trip for ever.. It was sad that we have to end this wonderful trip with a very thin wallet...

Last but not the least .. Thanks Vijay , Vijay's wife , Rajaprabhu , Ganesh and Babu for wonderful hospitality.. Dosai and sambhar at vijay's house was great..

I have Started blogging !!! Cant beleive !!!

2006-09-08T21:02:00.000+01:00

Quite new to Blogging !! quite fascinated ...Hope this interest continues for long long time.............. dont know what to scribble .. have to look into few other blogs to get a idea..

Thx for reading

Cheers!!!