Happy 2010!!!

2010 and North Wales.

Well, we were on the other side of our planet, for the past one week and just managed to be back in town, a culture shock indeed!

There were thirteen of us for this last minute getaway to a northern Wales cottage house in a place called Llanbedr, Harlech. 

We arrived at the cottage on the bank holiday Monday for a week’s stay, like the previous year, which, however, soon turned out to be an interesting mixed baggage of surprises, unlike the dawn of 2009.

Obviously, there was no internet connection to relax us (!) and therefore no Facebook, email or internet explorer!! The signals were patchy even for mobile phones and at times all of us had to huddle into a corner in one of the first floor rooms, for a quickie! Even then the talk time never went beyond few minutes and at times possibly few seconds. I meant a real quickie over the phone!

Lots of time was spent as usual on gabbing and gassing about life and the world. We sneaked at quite a few movies on the wide screen with the Optima projector, enhanced by Chandru’s new portable, Bose system; strolled a few miles, enjoying the eerie silence around us; trekked quite a few kilometers into the Nature’s trail and around a waterfall, a popular tourist spot.

Cards, carom board (nearly after 20 years), Monopoly, Wii games and Nintendo DS kept us all and the kiddies well engaged, whilst the snow was battering the very vast land and the well insulated sheep.

While we managed to pile quite a few pounds on hogging wide variety of rice and curries, Maestro Ilayaraja as usual, continued to stimulate our appetite for the nuances of Tamil Film Music.

For a change, we binged on Jack Daniels on the New Year eve, which went on till the early morning hours of New Year day. The Gins, Vodka’s and beers were not spared either during the other days.

However the 2010, right from the first minute and hour turned out to be so hilarious and also very thought provoking!! No pun intended.

The kiddies, soon after the dong striking 12: 01, one by one came down with symptoms of a suspicious sickie bug, which soon got hold of the seniors too!!!

The Tyldseley family took a hasty retreat for the benefit of the twins and was back in Manchester the same noon, whilst we continued to plod along with our sickies.More nausea and vomiting continued, whilst we continued watching films and playing cards. Quite a few of us spent our valuable time in the loo too, engrossed in the aftermath.

It was bit depressing and very intriguing to repack our things on Saturday, preparing for our return journey back to the civilised world; whilst it was no less joy to know that we all as usual would have more time for the work, outside world, colleagues, mobile phones, internet, chats, Face book (? Friends), twitters but possibly little time for…… family.

Wish you all a very Happy and a successful 2010 and my sincere apologies for the delay in doing so (please refer to my second paragraph)!!

And this is my take on a mountain in Harlech, which looked like mount Kailas (!), with the poor sheepish sheep of the Wales in the fore ground.