Meetup at Stephens Green park

Nothing much to say, but it was another meetup activity by the Dublin amateur meetup group.

http://www.meetup.com/Dublinamateurphotographer/

It had been a long time since I joined them. The weather was reasonable and so I headed out. I met my Philippino friend Rey and his friend another Rey, who had brought along a fantastic D700 camera with some fantastic lens. the 70-300 VR!! Richard was the professional Nikonian of the group and he for one had superb exposure to every culture in the world. When I told him that I am from Bangalore he greeted me with "Namaskara" . My surprise was written all over my face. Ronanld was a German project manager who got into photography just the way I did and in love with it. We took some good snaps and here are the pictures if you fancy them

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/badri.nair/StephensGreen#

Visit to Dalkey Castle

Irish weather has turned around in the past few weeks and its been splendid. To prove the same the birds acknowledged with their sweet chirps and songs. To make the most of It, as usual I googled up a palce that is nearby. Dalkey is an island jsut off the coast of the seaside town of Dunloghaire and it has a great history. Before the Dublin and Dun laoghaire harbour were built to accomdate the larger merchant ships that needed deeper waters Dalkey was the main harbor to Dublin. Merchant ships offloaded their goods here and over road merchandise was carried over. After a few fatalities at Dalkey the harbour was built in late 1800's. To protect the warehouse at Dalkey small forts were built and the one I visited today was one of the best preserved Dalkey castle which is now a heritage center. To my surprise this was one of the best experience I have had of a historic site. There were two hostesses who were dressed the old ways and talked the old talk.

The first one was a housekeeper who told us how the archers would attack the ever present looters and what food was the most sought after. If you insist I will tell you that it was boar brain and boar eyeball stew. They even had an olden version of WC there which was in first floor, the house keepers duty is to flush it with a bucket after everyone uses it and shout out to notify soldiers below to stay clear and not to lookup or open their mouth. She even told her that she is totally looking forward to her bath which will be on her birthday every year. Following her amusing and entertaining presentation was the barber surgeon. Back in those days both profession was one and the same. She showed some of her archaic medical tools. Tools that she use to use to remove a tooth or amputate. Her philosophy is remove all the good tooth before they go bad and tonsure before you catch fleas. One of her first steps in diagnosis is taste the urine.'eeeewwwww'.
She sang the song ,which is to invite the people of the town to her for a medical treatment.

I loved how the atmosphere was created by these two artist, they kept addressing us as 'My lords' and for the contemporary answers I gave them they looked dumb found. The penultimate part of the heritage center was a DVD video presentation of Dalkey's history and then a tour by the grave yard and Church. I was impressed and it did get reflected on the Guests comments book.

I cycled around the Dun laoghaire town to end a very gratifying weekend.

For more pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/badri.nair/DalkeyCastle#

St Patricks day, 2010

This is my second Paddy's day in Dublin. I remember the first one where it was a huge group of us who went together and this time it was just me. Its like recession took a toll. Most of them were'nt in Dublin anymore. On the contrary this year the Parade was much grander in scale. Bigger floats and more people. It really made Dublin come alive; if you ask me. The royal family did not make an appearance in the Royal chariot this time, but other than that things went about in a much more pompous way than I had expected. There was a huge turnout of people and clinging on to the rails were some Spanish folks, right behind them was me an Indian, left to me was a French family with their daughter and to my right was a Japaneese newely married couple and behind me was a Romaninan old couple. It truly brought a feeling of unity amongst different races across the world all trying to catch a glimpse of what beautiful Ireland has to offer. I adore this country.

For more pictures

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/badri.nair/StPatricksDay2010#

Rangantittu

It was last weekend in Bangalore and the last thing I wanted to do is spend it doing nothing at home.I was yearning to take my new cute little car out on the highway and see what she could do. At 8 am switched on the TV for some news and thats when i heard that many migratory birds have flocked down to one of India's finest bird sanctuary ; Rangantittu. Two birds , one shot!. Called up my sister and asked her to be ready within one hour and by 9 am we are out on the road heading to this destination 110 km from home. The news was true, there were more than 20 species of birds and the density was at least 3 birds for every sq ft.Most of these birds from Russia and Europe. Went around in a boat and saw these masters of air basking in the sun. With such concentration of birds, the stench was intolerable. The tall bamboo shoots was dotted with bats hanging upside down. I for one first thought it was bin bags lifted by the wind into the bamboo thorns. The river has more than thirty crocodiles which sometimes were very near to the boat but seemed to be docile. Atleast I was told that way by the boats-man. Just a few kilometers from there was my uncles house, dropped by there for a quick lunch and catch up and headed back home. For the ornithologist in you here are some pictures.

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/badri.nair/Ranganathitu#

Hogenikal falls

On one of my visits to my cousins place when they came down to walk us till the parking lot is when an idea of all of the bangalore settled cousins going out for a picnic struck me. From then on it snowballed into being a reality. I love long drives anyway and hence we decide to go to the border of karnataka and tamil nadu. One of natures wonders was there, the Hogenikal falls. Its a deep gorge with each shore belonging to the two rival states. My mom packed breakfast for 14 of us and in three cars five families headed off. Stopped for packed breakfast at a jungle and then we reached the tourist spot to hire three saucer shaped boats for a fantastic four hour joy ride. There were more than twenty different falls where with utter delight we were soaked in some of the lighter ones.

We stopped at a shore for a long relaxing swim/paddle in the shallow river. Fresh fish was caught by the local fisher men which was fried right in front of us for sheer pleasure for some of my hungry fish loving cat of a cousin.The 190 km long road was pothole less and pleasure to drive.

Honestly I did miss my partner more than once during the trip.

Here are some pictures

http://picasaweb.google.com/badri.nair/HogenikalFalls#

First Wheelz

We had an old Diesel hatch back since donkeys years as the beast of burden. With my family I did go on yet another trip to my native place .i.e Kasargod. On the return trip, the final leg of the jorney, the last kilometre to my home is when the car broke down. That is when I decided that my parents deserve better and I had a few choices in the market, but you know when it comes to choices, it takes time. Time is one thing not on my side. I headed straight to the general Motors showroom and booked the hottest hatch in town. The bookings were way too high that I asked them for the high end Display piece. On 24 th of Jan I got my not so cute little red hot Chevy. It has a pointy nose and an aggressive stance. Its poise definitely stands out compared to the rest of all the small hatch backs. its peppy 1.2 litre engine, ready to unleash 80 horse display a very zippy performance in the congested, Bangalore traffic.I am enjoying it. Now I finally reveal the name, its the Chevy BEAT.

http://picasaweb.google.com/badri.nair/MyBeat#

Mr Sunrise

I have seen many sun sets in my life. I am not trying to be philosophical and sentimental here. I literally mean I have seen many Sunsets, but I never have seen a sun rise. So today got up early and checked the sun rise timings, and it was 8:48am. The temerature was minus 2 deg but clear skies. I kept saying to myself that I cant allow the temperature get the better off me so I headed off to the beach with my trusty camera and tripod. My finger tips begin to hurt in spite of the gloves, but that wasn't enough to make me go back. After taking quite a few snaps I do have the satisfaction that "Finally saw the Sun rise,before my sun sets". Now i am being philosophical. Few more pictures on the link below.

http://picasaweb.google.com/badri.nair/SunRise#