New Zealand Trip - Travel Diary (4)

A few pictures I took in Auckland, New Zealand.

Hotel Room - TV in Room.

Place to relax in a corner of the room.

King Size Bed.

View of Sky Tower from Hotel Room.

Metro Train - Interior.

Bus Station in "Britomart Transport Center".

A Ferry going to a nearby Island - Due to budget constraints couldn't travel in the Ferry.

A Vintage Light - In the fence near the Ferry Station.

Z-Energy - A gas station in Auckland.

A beautiful building in Auckland.

- SPGR.

New Zealand Trip - Travel Diary (3)

Auckland City

I got into the habit of walking down the streets of Auckland in the evenings. I will back from office around 6 and spent most of my evenings walking along the roads. The city is perfectly planned for walking, many walk and use bus or train for their commutation. Very few use personal vehicles like car or a scooter. On the second day, my colleagues in office took me for a short walk to a Mall in the Remuera area.

From the third day onward, I sort of got into a routine, and it started boring a bit. I could see many beggars on the roads, but unlike our beggars they are posh and hi-fi. Another thing I noticed is that there are no babies. In my whole stay I saw only 3 babies in Auckland City. Got to know that people here do not marry, they just live together and do not have kids, and they keep changing their partners. So the population is thin. The Govt is taking many steps to increase the population. Also got to know that Education and healthcare is free.


Facebook

During the On journey and Return journey observed that the whole world was on facebook. Airport terminals, coffee shops, everywhere people were on the facebook. In my earlier trips, I have seen people using they mobile phones all the time, but on different things like calling or messaging or browsing, but this time all were invariably on facebook. Also I could notice a difference in the way people talk on their phones. They hold the phone in front of them and talk on speaker. After observing for sometime found that they were all video calls, and that they were seeing the other person on the screen and talking to them. I could realize soon in India too, we will be holding the phone in front of us and talking on speaker.


Food

A Mutton dish in New Zealand

Breakfast served in Malaysian Airlines.

For most part, I cooked my own food as there was a kitchen attached to the hotel. In the Project Go Live success party given by the client, tasted the mutton there. It looked entirely different. But when I tasted it, it was soft and had a divine taste.

The food served in Malaysian Airlines was also good.

- SPGR.

New Zealand Trip - Travel Diary (2)

New Zealand Trip - Travel Diary (1)

Morning woke up at 7:20 AM, quickly got ready, cooked and had breakfast and started to office. Asked the person at the hotel reception about how I can reach the office, showing the address that I had already written on a paper. He gave me a small map of Auckland, and showed how I can reach there. Actually he had shown the path to the nearest railway station. But I thought that the office itself is there. I thought I had to go to office by bus and asked if I had to take a taxi. He said its walk-able and it will take around 10 minutes. I was so happy that the office is at a walk-able distance. I happily came out of the hotel, took left on the Victoria street, and after 50 feet, took a left turn onto the Queen's street and continued to walk. I reached the Custom's road, and started searching for the building where office is located. But it was not there. I could only find a posh railway station "Britomart Transport Center". I walked up and down for sometime and then decided to call a college on mobile phone. I told him the station where I was, but he said that he doesn't know all those, and asked me check in the google maps. But, unfortunately, for some reason, net was not working on my mobile phone.

Lighting in Britomart Railway Station - The actual light is at the bottom, from which the rays are reflected by the steel ball to the dome from where it is reflected downwards, uniformly.

A train in "Britomart Transport Center".

Train Ticket.

"Britomart Transport Center" -  Common place where we get bus, train or ferries(boats).

A ferry in Britomart, that goes to a nearby island.

Another view of the Britomart Ferry Station.

[pic: Britomart Transport Center]

I went to one old gentleman who was waiting for the bus, who upon seeing the address "Remuera Road" said that its is not here and I have to take train to the next station, and from there it is at a walk-able distance. I entered the railway station, identified the ticket counter, took ticket to the next station "Newmarket" and went inside. The ticket checkers there helped me to get into the train that goes to Newmarket The trains were more or less like the new metro trains of Chennai. Time was close to 8:30 AM, and I was getting scared, I thought that I was lost and also I would be reporting very late on the very first day. I got down at Newmarkt, went out of the station, and saw the Remuera road, walked towards the left, and located the board of the client's office. Went into the office, took the lift to level 1(first floor). The receptionist looked like an Indian. Later got to know that she is form South Africa. Got introduced to the clients and started the day's work - making preliminary preparations for launching the new software in production.

An office in the Remuera Road, Auckland

Sign boards on Remuera Road, Auckland.

The Software:

In the client's company there was a room called the operations room, where many computers with lot of big monitors were connected to the production servers and the logs and the transactions were continuously monitored by people from a team called the operations team, round the clock, working on shifts. Every minute detail is noted down, and during shift change the person leaving the shift have to hand over the status and updates and many meticulous details to the next person taking up the shift. It was just a small web-services application to me, but was surprised to see how the software is closely monitored. In this particular software that is going for production, for the purpose of simplicity in developing the software, I have included some manual process in the design. Found that in actual production, this part of running the software required manual intervention for the operations team. I was a bit sad to see this, as with some more effort I could have easily avoided that manual process, it would have saved human time and effort, as this manual process has to be done everyday at 11:30 in the mid-night, during which the server has to be briefly stopped. A simple decision by me, to keep my work simple, had a huge impact in the way in which the software is run in production. That was a big learning for me, and for sure will have its impact in my software designs in future.

On the first day, while taking ticket for the return journey, I forgot the station name to which I have to go. All that I remembered was "Brito-something", tried to recall and was trying different combinations like "Brit-town", "Brit-man". So, while asking for ticket, I said "Brito-" and mumbled something for the second half. The person at the counter gave ticket for "Britomart".


The receptionist in the hotel, an Indian Guy, kept asking me various questions about the software, as he was surprised that how I can afford to stay in a posh three star hotel in the prime area of New Zealand. He asked what (computer) language he has to study to get into such jobs. I told "Java, Java is ruling the world, The mobile you have with Android is completely run by Java... the TV, the lift, the microwave oven, 70% of large enterprise production servers, all are run by Java... Java is here to stay at-least for the next 20 years."


- SPGR.

New Zealand Trip - Travel Diary (1)

[pic: Chennai Airport]

The much awaited official visit to New Zealand finally materialized on July 25th, when I boarded into the Malaysia Airlines flight in Chennai. Its a trip to New Zealand with a 3 hours transit break in Malaysia. The security check in the airport was not so severe as it was in my earlier trips in . This time they didn't ask to remove the shoes. Earlier we have to remove the shoes, shocks and wear them again, a pain. For the first time, I saw pretty women in the cabin crew (air-hostess). In my earlier trips, it was not so, most of them were aged women.  It took about 4 hours to reach Malaysia. The Malaysia airport was beautiful with lot of duty free shops. Especially I liked one bay with lot of shops selling exquisite fancy and cosmetic items. Thought what would have happened if my friend had been with me, may be she would have spent the whole of those 4 hours in browsing through the items in those shops.

[pic: Malaysia Airport]


I noticed that some high school children were in the terminal, who probably had come for some school related visits. They all traveled in the same flight, and next to me seated were two girls from that group, who kept on chatting all through the journey. The journey of eleven hours was a bit boring. But I should mention about the tasty food that was served. I was seated almost near the tail, and was always served at the last. Once, by the time food came to me, I asked for chicken and my neighbor - an old gentleman from Scotland - on the right side too asked for chicken. There was only one chicken meal left, which the gentleman offered to me, though I offered it back to me, he refused and asked me to take it. He took fish. I was a bit scared to take fish outside, due to the possibility of allergies it may cause.

[pic: Statue in Auckland Airport]

Exit From Auckland Airport - New Zealand

Pretty Auckland, New Zealand

A Traffic Signal, Auckland, New Zealand

Beautiful Houses, Auckland, New Zealand

Reached Auckland airport around 11:45 AM on July 26. Exchanged a few US Dollars into New Zealand Dollars in the Airport. The New Zealand Dollars were colorful and appeared that they were made of plastic. Also got a local prepaid SIM and called home. Then I went to to withdraw some more local currency, as I was not sure if the amount I got will be sufficient to pay for the taxi. I first put my travel card into an ATM, the display came in some Chinese characters, so I cancelled it and again tried in the next ATM. This machine gave new New Zealand dollars. I came out of the Airport and found a few taxis waiting outside. I went near and one guy, dressed in white and white, with a cap, came nearby, and asked "Where do you want to go Sir?", I replied "Do you give bill?", since I have to get it reimbursed. He said "Yes Sir" and then I said that I have to go to the Best Western President Hotel in Auckland.

Queen's Street, Auckland, New Zealand

Queen's Street, Auckland, New Zealand

Queen's Street, Auckland, New Zealand

View From Hotel-Victoria Street, Auckland, New Zealand

[pic: Auckland Streets]

New Zealand Currency

Items in the Kitchenette

Wardrobe - Arranged

The moment the taxi went out of the Airport I realized that New Zealand is a pretty city. I checked-in in the hotel, occupied room no 45 and took rest for sometime. Then set up the laptop, arranged dress in the wardrobe, kept all the cooking items in the kitchenette (a small kitchen with microwave oven and fridge). After sometime thought of going around the city and went for a walk on the roads around the hotel. The hotel was on Victoria road, it is adjacent Queen's road - is the main road of the city - went for a walk almost till the end of that road. Clicked a few selfies and pictures all along. Went back to the hotel, attended a few work related tasks, cooked dinner and slept. I was informed that I had to report for work at 7 AM in the morning, but I decided to report at 8 AM, as I got to know that even clients will be coming to office around 7:30 AM.

New Zealand Trip - Travel Diary (2)


-SPGR.

Nagercoil Trip April 2013 - Tamil New Year & "Kai-Neettam"

This year our Tamil New Year started in my in-laws place - Nagerkoil. Before going into those details, let me tell about my encounters with this city. Nagerkoil is a small(but growing) city in the southmost part of Tamil Nadu, just above Kanniyakumari(19 kilometers from Kanniyakumari). I have first heard the name of this city during my childhood from our Shanmugam Mama, my Dad's friend. Mams's native was Nagercoil. Whenever Mama visits our home, we hear the word "Nagerkoil" atleast 10 times.

Way back in 2003, I was travelling by train to Trivandrum, for joining in my first company. I was sleeping in the side-lower birth. Around 1:30 in the night, when the train was passing across Nagerkoil Junction. I was disturbed from my sleep by people getting ready to get down at Nagerkoil and at that time I peeped out of the window. I saw a couple of big white colored fans rotating. Actually they were power generating windmills. At that time (and even now) I had a special interest over the city, as it was my friend's native and I kept awake and kept gazing out through the window till the train crossed Nagerkoil.

While returning from Trivandrum - this time by bus - it was raining heavily. I kept looking through the window when the bus was crossing Nagerkoil. While at Trivandrum, I liked the city felt that I should settle down in such a small, calm and beautiful city. Nagerkoil was also close to that - a small & calm city. But nowadays its gradually changing. 

Now, lets come back to our Tamil New Year celebrations. The specialty of Tamil New Year in Nagerkoil is - "Kai-Neettam"(in Tamil this means "extending the hand"), a custom in while elders give money to the younger generations and bless them. So, a nice custom... We get blessings & money too. On April 14th, as usual I woke up around 9:00 AM, when my Sister-in-law gave "Kai-Neettam" to my little friends and blessed them. Then my Parents-in-law gave "Kai-Neettams" to all of us. And the "Kai-Neettams" continued. Around the same time I started getting New Year wishes over phone from parents and sisters. Thus we got a considerable amount in hand and I thought why dont such a function come every month :-).

Then we all got ready and went to the nearby Krishnankoil Temple. I was surprised to find that my friend had never been there. It was a nice temple. We prayed to God peacefully. These days our Deepu kutty starts praying by folding his hands whenever he sees God.

Overall it was a happy day and we all had a good time.

First Long Drive from Chennai to Trichy.

Unexpectedly I got an opportunity to drive from Chennai to Trichy, with family - My friend, little friends, Mama and Athai. A couple of days before the actual journey when I drove around the city, I found it a bit difficult to drive, due to the heavy traffic and I started feeling tired after every trip. I also started getting news from native about en-queries like whether I have prior experience, whether I will manage, whether I know the intricacies of driving for more than 4 hours, etc. But I have to agree that these queries at one point of time, made me a little frightened, and for a moment thought about getting a driver for driving from Chennai to Trichy.

But with blind guts, but believing my will power, I declared to my friend "Mun vaicha kaala pin vaikka matten..."(Will not withdraw my decision for any reason...). She was also happy to know my firm decision to drive. Two days before the actual journey, I called up my friend Aravind, who frequently drives from Chennai to Karur to know about the general guidelines to be followed and precautions to be taken. The main thing he pointed to me was to take a 5 minutes break after every 1 hour. Earlier I was planning to take a 5-minutes break after every 1.5 hours. He also added that we can drive continuously without taking any break, but after reaching the destination we will start feeling very tired. Also he advised not to eat heavily before or during the journey, as we may fall asleep if we do so. But later, I forgot this point, and as usual had a heavy breakfast on the way during the journey :-), more about it later.

On the day before the journey I wanted to simulate the actual scenario (as one could expect from a software engineer, by profession :-)...). We had decided to start from home at 4:30 early in the morning. So on the previous day I woke up at 4:30 to check if I am able to be alert and awake. All else were sleeping in home, so, after taking bath, I took a Sujatha's novel and started reading it. After 40 minutes, I started feeling so tired and sleepy that I was not able to be awake any more. It could be due to the novel I read, since reading requires more effort. So, around 5:30 I started sleeping. When I woke up at around 7:30, I declared that the time of journey is postponed to 6:00 am, since the simulation failed. But my friend told that I will not sleep while driving since all will be around and will be talking to each-other. But still to be on the safer side, I told that lets target for 5:30, so that we can start at least by 6:00 am.

The previous night, while going to bed, I told my friend to wake me as the last person and that too after everyone is ready. But I woke up as the first person around 4:45 in the morning, probably due to anxiety. I went out and wiped the car once will a soft cloth. Then took bath, and by this time all are ready. I had earlier filled a pen drive will our favorite songs for listening on the way. Then after getting ready, I brought the car near the main door and I and Mama started keeping the luggage inside the dicky. Then we locked the home and we all boarded. Then, I kept the 4 limes, one each under each wheel, and lit a camphor placing it on top of a coconut and rotated it thrice to the left and thrice to the right, standing in front of the car and facing the car. Then, I broke the coconut on the road. To our surprise it broke exactly into 2 halves.

I occupied the driver's seat, put on the belt, prayed to God and started driving. Halted in-front of the nearby Vinayaka temple to pray for a couple of seconds and the journey started. I took all the short-cuts, until we came out the city to Tambaram. My friend and little friends were singing and happy. Till that time I was driving at 50 to 60 kmph. After hitting the highway at Gooduvanchery, I raised to 80 and drove for another half an hour. After crossing the SRM university, it was time for halt. I stopped under a tree on the main road and took a small break.

Then started again and continued to drive at 80 to 90 kmpl for the next one hour. By this time it was time for breakfast, and we stopped on a roadside motel for breakfast. It was a small one and mostly lorry drivers were having breakfast there. Since its our first trip, we didnt know which motel to take, so we selected this one randomly. But the people there were kind and the service was good. As it was around 9:00 am, the items were getting over one by one and so we got only idlis, poori with sambhar(masala over). I had 4 idlis and 2 poori's, forgetting Aravind's advice to eat less during the journey. The breakfast was good and we had a good time there. I called up Appa and informed our position. He asked the speed at which I am driving. I told him that its around 80 to 100 kmph. Based on that it seems that they assumed that we will reach home around 2:00 pm. Even my friend came to the conclusion that we will be reaching home around 1:00 pm. But the end, everyone's calculation failed.

At a toll plaza

 By now I got used to the highway driving and raised the speed to see if I am able to control. I raised up to 120, and kept driving between 100 to 120 kmph. Was able to control the car comfortably at that speed. Then I further raised to 135 and then to 140 kmph. At this speed, we were passing ahead of all the vehicles. At this speed I noticed that while changing from one lane to another, the vehicle was dragging a bit forward and then moving the other lane, and also its not moving to the other lane at the point that I had assumed, but it was happening after that. All these were clear indications that the vehicle is not under our control, and in case of emergency, I may not be able to control the vehicle properly. So, finally decided to stick to the safe controllable speed of 110 to 120 kmpl. Rest of the journey continued at this speed and we reached home at 12:00 noon, to everyone's surprise. We halted twice after this, once for fuelling and once for a short break of 5 minutes, where we clicked pictures.

I honked from outside on reaching home, but no one came out. After repeated honking, Mom and sister came and they were surprised to see us at that time. Mom said that she expected us around 2:00 pm and sister was expecting us around 4:00 pm :-).

That concluded that my long drive in car from Chennai and Trichy. From now on no one can ask me whether I have long driving experience or whether I know the intricacies of long driving. Yes, somehow I got that first time experience :-).

- Pavala.

Travel Diary : Nagerkoil Trip May 2012 - (4) - Food in Nagerkoil:

The travel diary will not be complete if I do not write about the food I had in Nagerkoil. I came to know about some of the dishes that are unique to this place like Paniyaram, Avaiyal, Aaapam and some more, the names I do not remember. Actually these are the food items of Ancient South India and it was a surprise that these items are still made and had by people here. In my earlier trips, I had all these items, but since the primary  purpose of this trip was to attend a marriage, I didn't get a chance to have those food items. Nonetheless, I had many tasty items this time, some of which are here for your view.

On the first day morning, Mama bought breakfast from the famous Udipi International.

[Pic: Poori, Masala, Vadai]

Lunch feast in Kumar's marriage

[Pic: Lunch in Kumar's marriage]

Nongu Sarbath. It is actually Sarbath in which Nongus are dropped even without their outer cover peeled off. The Sarbath & Nongu tastes good invidually, but when they are mixed like this, it finally ends up in a Mokkai mixture called the Nongu Sarbath. Refrain from taking it. When I first heard of Nongu Sarbath, I thought Nongu will be ground and the paste will be mixed in Sarbath.


Read more about the Nongu juice here:Dhanesh Amma post on Nongu juice.

[Pic:Nongu Sarbath]

Beeda in Kumar Marriage Reception

[Pic: Beeda]

Dosa with Mutton Kurma in Kumar's Reception

[Pic: Dosa with Mutton Kurma]

Ice-cream in Kumar's Reception

[Pic: Ice-Cream]

Fruits in Kumar's Reception

[Pic: Fruits]

Travel Diary : Nagerkoil Trip May 2012 - (3) - Around the city:

One of my aim during the trip was to go around the city, alone and also with family. Fortunately, got lot of opportunities to go around the city.

At first I wanted to see the clock which I came to know was in the middle of the city. It is referred to as the "Manimedai" there. The tower houses one of the oldest clocks which is running for more than 100 years. I followed the directions of Mama and went and located a clock tower. But I was dis-appointed to see that it was rather a small one. When I came home back, I got to know that it is not the one I was looking for and I had to go further down to see that vintage clock tower.

Meenakshipuram Clock tower

[Pic: This is the one I mis-took for the "Manimedai" clock tower]

Again I started making trips, and located a big red-coloured tower, but there was no clock in it. Later I found that it is indeed the clock tower and now the clock doesnt have 4 faces, but only one face and the remaining 3 faces were removed. The remaining 1 face of the clock didnt show the correct time. There was a statue of the actor "N.S.Krishnan" in front of the tower.

[Pic: Clock tower with N.SKrishnan statue in the front]

Then I wanted to see the house of N.S.Krishnan and the Pioneer Muthu theatre. N.S.Krishnan was a famous comedian in the olden days. His wife Madhuram was also a comedian and they co-started in many old black & white movies. His house and the Pioneer Muthu theatre were on the same road. His house is about 1.5 kms from the main road. It now serves as a Godown for some transport company.

The house looks very very old, no proper maintainance, no painting, nothing. It had very big doors which seemed to be kept open all the time. This was not the house I had in mind. I was expecting a posh house with security guards. I thought how this house should have been some 50-60 years back. Mama explained that though N.S.Krishnan built this house, most of the time he lived in Chennai and after his death, his son lived here. He was stabbed to death during a quarrel when he was drunk, and that the house was let out and mostly ignored. I had plans to go inside and see the house. But upon see the condition of the house, I dropped that idea and returned.

N.S.Krishnan & his wife T.A.Maduram

A view of the house from entrance

Another view

This  is the office that is functioning there now

[Pic: N.S.Krishnan's House]

On the way back saw the Pioneer Muthu theatre. Since it was closed, took a picture from outside and returned home.

[Pic: Pioneer Muthu Theatre]