(June 24th Evening to July 3rd Evening)
Intro
Life was generally boring. Work was becoming routine and monotonous after almost 10 years at the same organisation. There was no silver lining in the horizon. Add to it the chaotic way things are run in the organisation. Also I have accumulated a lot of vacation time by virtue being in the company for so long and which would go waste by end of the year if I don’t use it thanks to a new leave policy. It is in these circumstances I struck upon this brilliant idea to take 2 weeks off work. I didn’t have any clue on what to do in that time. Originally I planned this vacation to coincide with my friends visit to his native Chennai so that we could hang around and also go to Bangalore to meet some more friends. But his dad was unwell and hospitalised and he had to take care of him. As the vacation neared, I tried to list down things that I should do during this time and I couldn’t come up with many! So I decided to take one day at a time and not plan much in advance. So in due course of time, the last working day before the vacation arrived and I duly notified all and sundry about my vacation plan and put on the out of notification in my outlook mailbox and headed out….
Boredom Log - Day Zero (Friday evening to Sunday Evening)
The vacation started on a good note with a Friday evening dinner at the newly opened Tuscana @Chamiers Road with a very good friend. Great “thin crust with wheat base” Pizzas and excellent desserts. Had a good time. Heavy rains on Friday night washed out my plans for running and Tennis on Saturday morning. Just relaxed the whole day doing nothing and went to a relative’s wedding reception and had a go on the rich food on offer - sweets, cashew and paneer stuff. Went to attend the wedding on Sunday morning. The fact about these family events is that I am more required for driver duty to ferry my family members to and fro the mandapams. Was back Sunday noon and in between eating, sleeping, talking to friends, spent a few hours online to support my team members who were working to validating a new release to customers. The sudden idea to create the Boredom Log also happened during day zero.
Boredom Log - Day 1 - Monday
Decided to start the day 1 on a healthy note and also wanted to make up for missing out on Saturday morning run. So went to Marina early morning and did a combination of walking and running for 5.5Kms. Usually I run the whole distance, but today I was feeling a bit weak and not upto it. Anyways it is still better than sitting at home. While returning back, was in two minds whether to stop at Saravana Bhavan for Coffee, but skipped it at the last moment. Back home, finished the usual morning rituals – reading Hindu, Bath, Breakfast and some time on the net. I booked the movie “180” for the 12.30pm show. One of my friends sent me the details about the Leh/Ladakh trip they are planning in August. I had wanted to go to Ladakh, ever since I saw 3 Idiots movie! Some of the time was spent in talking and getting the details and checking out travel options to Leh. I am most likely to go for part of the trip.
Went to Escape Cinemas @Express Avenue and watched 180. I liked the movie. Not much of story, but visually rich and a light subject. I could relate with the concept behind the movie. It fit well into the Monday mood. BTW, the sandwich at Satyam is really good. Back from the movie, took a short nap @home and later in the evening a stroll in the park during power cut time. Had an early dinner and spent some time writing the blog and checking office mails
Went to Escape Cinemas @Express Avenue and watched 180. I liked the movie. Not much of story, but visually rich and a light subject. I could relate with the concept behind the movie. It fit well into the Monday mood. BTW, the sandwich at Satyam is really good. Back from the movie, took a short nap @home and later in the evening a stroll in the park during power cut time. Had an early dinner and spent some time writing the blog and checking office mails
Boredom Log - Day 2 - Tuesday
Before starting Day 2, there is some unfinished Day 1 business. Before signing off for Day 1, I booked the to and fro tickets for the Leh Trip. So it is confirmed. I will be leaving on Aug 21st and back on 29th. And as a result, I will be cancelling the 2nd week (next week) of this vacation and take in end of August for the Leh trip. So Day 1 has been a busy day! Seems like vacation days are more hectic than work days! Boredom Log becomes a Busy Log. Ok enough I think!
Day 2 started with the Marina run again. Chennai is blessed to have Marina and other beaches, but unfortunately we don’t know how to maintain them cleanly. It is not just the responsibility of the Government, but also that of the people using them. It is sad to see hundreds of people sleeping on the beach sands. The government should construct halls where the homeless can sleep. On a positive note, I was surprised to see Marina teeming with morning walkers even on weekdays. On way back, stopped at Saravana Bhavan for Filter Kapi, the cost of which seem to have increased from 19 to 21 since last week. Inflation! Then headed to YMCA to surprise my Tennis friends who are not used to seeing me on weekdays. Dragged them to some more running there – mainly short sprints. Then a stop at the canteen for the popular “Lemon Dew” (mountain dew with lemon and salt) and now back home. Reading Hindu, Breakfast and some time spent online and now I am sleepy and ready for a nap!
Day 2 started with the Marina run again. Chennai is blessed to have Marina and other beaches, but unfortunately we don’t know how to maintain them cleanly. It is not just the responsibility of the Government, but also that of the people using them. It is sad to see hundreds of people sleeping on the beach sands. The government should construct halls where the homeless can sleep. On a positive note, I was surprised to see Marina teeming with morning walkers even on weekdays. On way back, stopped at Saravana Bhavan for Filter Kapi, the cost of which seem to have increased from 19 to 21 since last week. Inflation! Then headed to YMCA to surprise my Tennis friends who are not used to seeing me on weekdays. Dragged them to some more running there – mainly short sprints. Then a stop at the canteen for the popular “Lemon Dew” (mountain dew with lemon and salt) and now back home. Reading Hindu, Breakfast and some time spent online and now I am sleepy and ready for a nap!
Post nap, few hours in afternoon was spent on work and meetings. I need to be away from town, laptop and blackberry to be really away from work. Himalayas is ideal! Evening in a rare event, I went with mom to Pazhamudir Nilayam to get fruits. You see I want to eat lots of fruits to avoid snaking at home and try to maintain the weight! J Then my friend Susee called me. He had come to a hospital close by and I went to meet him and then we went to Barbeque Nation for dinner. I took the veggie option for the first time. It was good. I had been to this restaurant a few times and I have never tried their main course even once. Always it was the barbeques and desserts. It was no different this time also. After dinner drove down to adambakkam to drop him at his house. The traffic hadn’t subsided at that time. Now back home and joined into a work related call and listened to for some time and ready to call it a day. By the way, I booked a ticket for movie Aaranya Kandam for tomorrow. So some part of tomorrow is already planned for!
Boredom Log - Day 3 - Wednesday
Day 3, I decided to skip Marina and head towards YMCA. It has been a couple of weeks since I played Tennis. Played 2 sets and then did some running and came back home. The usual activities followed and took a short nap and then headed to express avenue to watch Aaranya Kaandam. Now I knew this movie is going to be a dark and violent film, completely different from 180. The movie was quite good and different, but dark (even lighting wise) and violent as expected. Not for those looking for usual masala stuff. So during the course of the week, I had moved from watching a light and urban to a dark gangster movie. May be I should watch a comedy or animation later this week and complete the cycle. For a change I had fruits for lunch replacing the regular rice/wheat based food. Need to balance yesterday’s dinner @Barbeque Nation! In the evening spent some time online checking work related mails and chatting with colleagues. No evening activity today and I just relaxed at home. Had dinner and now signing off for the day
Boredom Log - Day 4 - Thursday
Day 4 started with running at Marina. Took a break from Tennis as I had to go outside in the morning. The plan was to visit Hirco Palace Gardens with my mother at Oragadam and see my apartment. It has been 4 months or so since I last visited the site. I also wanted to meet the property management staff to discuss about renting out my apartment. I had talked and written to them in the past, but I wanted to discuss in person. All but one of the low rise blocks looks complete. The buildings looked awesome and grand as usual. It would be a great place to live in a few years once the amenities come up. It felt weird that I had to be escorted to my own apartment by Hirco staff. I used to drive to my apartment before except for the last 2 visits. Now due to some new security policy, I had to go to their office and they will take me to the apartment in their vehicle. Also I couldn’t understand that a company which can construct such good buildings can be so poor in customer service. As it so happens, the person I had to meet regarding the apartment lease was on leave today and the alternate person was just 1 week old in the company. So I left my contact information and headed back. On way, we had lunch at Ananda Bhavan at Chromepet. All sorts of restaurants and shops have mushroomed in the Tambaram – Chromepet area in the last 3 years and all of them seem crowded. Only Saravana Bhavan is missing. After lunch the plan was to go to my friend place in adambakkam as my mother wanted to visit and enquire about his father’s health. My friend couldn’t be reached on his mobile (it was battery down as I later found out) and so we came back home. It was scorching hot outside and to add to it, had to endure a 3 hour power cut! Took care of some pending office related work. In the evening, a good friend and colleague dropped at
Boredom Log - Day 5 - Friday
Day 5 started with me heading out to YMCA. None of my friends were around. So I ran 5 laps in the adjacent ground and warmed up. Then went to canteen and had a cup of tea and by then people started coming in and we manage to play 2 sets for the day. Coming to think of it, running or tennis all days this week is probably the best and most useful thing I have done so far in the vacation. It might even help me to come lighter out of the vacation... quite an achievement! Back home and usual routine done with. I had no specific plans for the day. Today is going to be a rest and relax day. So had a longish mid-morning nap!
In the afternoon, I tried my hand in making a “new” type of omelette courtesy a friend’s suggestion! It was a egg omelette with regular onions, tomato and small slices of mushroom and panneer thrown in. The end result looked good and colourful and taste was not bad. I have taken a picture as a proof for all you doubters! As you can understand, my modest nature prevents me from shouting “Awesome”. LOL. Thought today was supposed to be a rest day, I was getting bored and restless. So I decided to go Spencer’s Plaza. It had been a while since I went there. I used to go there a lot for shopping. West Side used to be my favourite store for my dresses. No longer. I wanted to get get some T-Shirts at Proline store and some dri-fit T-Shirts at Reebok store for running and tennis. Picked up a 3 T-Shirts at Proline. Reebok store did not have much variety and I picked 1 T-Shirt. A 60% sale board pulled me into Westside and I picked up a couple of Shorts. So my rest and relaxation package for the day included a sound sleep, exotic food (Omlette!!!) and Shopping Therapy @Spencer’s. :-) In the evening dropped in at my sister’s place and chatted with my nephews for some time. Nothing more to add and done for the day!
In the afternoon, I tried my hand in making a “new” type of omelette courtesy a friend’s suggestion! It was a egg omelette with regular onions, tomato and small slices of mushroom and panneer thrown in. The end result looked good and colourful and taste was not bad. I have taken a picture as a proof for all you doubters! As you can understand, my modest nature prevents me from shouting “Awesome”. LOL. Thought today was supposed to be a rest day, I was getting bored and restless. So I decided to go Spencer’s Plaza. It had been a while since I went there. I used to go there a lot for shopping. West Side used to be my favourite store for my dresses. No longer. I wanted to get get some T-Shirts at Proline store and some dri-fit T-Shirts at Reebok store for running and tennis. Picked up a 3 T-Shirts at Proline. Reebok store did not have much variety and I picked 1 T-Shirt. A 60% sale board pulled me into Westside and I picked up a couple of Shorts. So my rest and relaxation package for the day included a sound sleep, exotic food (Omlette!!!) and Shopping Therapy @Spencer’s. :-) In the evening dropped in at my sister’s place and chatted with my nephews for some time. Nothing more to add and done for the day!
Boredom Log - Day 6 and 7 – Winding up!
I will keep this short. Running low on fuel after a tiring vacation I suppose! I did nothing much this weekend except relaxing and getting ready to get back to the grind. It rained a bit on the nights, but still I was able to make it to Tennis on Saturday and Running on Sunday. Not bad! Went for a friend’s kid b’day party Saturday evening and got to spend time with YMCA friends. Good food and ice cream! Sunday I got the much needed Haircut and now feeling a lot lighter in the head! :-) Other than that, it is the routine eat, sleep, browse… I might try out a new juice bar that opened in T.Nagar in the evening. And then there are the Wimbledon Tennis finals in the evening. Strangely I haven’t been watching the matches so far despite being a tennis enthusiast. Don’t know why... maybe it is because of the decline of Federer! I did watch and it was a good match. Djokovic was a deserving winner. He was awesome in the 2nd set and I have never seen anyone toying with Rafa like that.
Boredom Log - Retrospective
As I had mentioned earlier that I had decided to cut short the 2 week vacation to 1 week as I will be using the other week in end of august to go to Leh. In any case, it would have been difficult for me to continue the vacation for another week. As Comedian Vadivelu said in a movie, it is not easy to be doing nothing! The only way for me to have a real vacation is to get out of town, preferably to an out of mobile coverage area to really get work out of my mind. Himalayas had been perfect for the previous 2 years. The planned Leh trip in August should be a good break. Nevertheless, I did enjoy the 1 week break. Took it one day at a time and didn’t plan too much. I am sort of guy who gets a bit restless if I stay at home and do nothing even on a normal weekend. I did work a small part of the time. One thing I realised is it not only work that ties me to the workplace/office. My immediate social/friendship network exists in the office. I could be away from work, but I may still miss the workplace. It may not be true for everyone, specifically the “family” folks, but for a singleton like me, whose most “non-office” friends reside out of state or country, it holds true!
And finally blogging daily has not been easy! It is sort of easy if you have interesting things to blog every day. What might be an interesting thing to blog or read one day will quickly become routine if repeated. The blog has to sustain your interest before it can sustain other’s interest!
And finally blogging daily has not been easy! It is sort of easy if you have interesting things to blog every day. What might be an interesting thing to blog or read one day will quickly become routine if repeated. The blog has to sustain your interest before it can sustain other’s interest!
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