Aalborg Zoo

30th July 2005

Well the trip to Aalborg Zoo was really mast…. Just sleeping in my room when Sachin my roommate woke me up and said… boss one hour… get ready we are goinf to the zoo….
WTF waking someone from his fav activity and aksing to come to watch those animals…

Very reluctantly I got up and got ready to go there. Deepak and Sarang also joined in …

Well the zoo is not very well stacked but some animals which I saw for the first time were Polar bear, African elephant, flamingoes, sea lions, penguins etc….(bahutchota tha jab delhi ke zoo mein gaya tha.. so don’t remember seeing thse animals earlier)

The polar bear was definitely the highlight of the zoo as I saw more people there as compared to the rest of the zoo… and the bears were also entertaining the people with theior histrionics both above water n under water

It was feeding time for the big cats when we positioned ourselves in front of the feeding places… Big huge and majestic… tigers and lions…

The sea lions were also fantastic…. And there was a show in which the trainers gpt the animals to perform….

The best thing in this zoo was the underwater glass screens through which the people would see the underwater action…

Achchaa thaa !! mazaa aaya !!

Farup

So it was decided that before the weather really turns dull we should have an outing at one of those amusement/Water parks .... Farup came as a unanimous choice(from the old timers.. as new to the place we had no idea what are the places in contention)

So on one sunny but windy Saturday morning woke up early (I usually wake at 1/2 pm on Saturdays n Sundays) and reached the Aalborg Bus terminal at 8:25 am ... just in time to buy ticket for Farup. Its a kind of package deal.. the ticket cost includes the travel from city to Farup,,..which is about 1 hr away from the city... ticket cost 185 DKK per head (INR 1387.5 approx)

Upon entering the bus we realise that the bus is almost full... lotsa people going to Farup this weekend it seems... En-route to Farup i managed to catch a station on FM in my Nokia6610's Radio which was playing some Indian classical instrumental.. it was the santoor...yes it definitely was... in a flash everyone's radio (on their mobiles) was tuned to it and everyone was enjoying it... never caught the name of the artist as they didn’t announce it once the piece got over ... after that came some obscure kinda music... some world music kinda prog it was .. and we all went back to our regular chatting... i kept checking time n again for anything Indian to be playing in the radio lekin nahi.

Anyways .. reached Farup n deposited all our stuff in one of those coin operated lockers that we have at all places in Denmark… and we went after the rides … firs tone being the roller coaster.. waited for a full half an hour to get the first seat… what’s the fun in a roller coaster ride if u aren’t sitting on the first seat… after that came the motor boat and the trampoline… some more rides in air land and water and we were already starting to feel hungry… guess the chocolates in the bus were just not enough…

So soon it was lunch time…. SURPRISE SURPRISE!!! They have the Samosa menu in one of the fast food restaurants..But it is being advertised as a Vietnamese speciality… so we decided against it and went to the good ol’ Mr Mc Donald … it was the water park post lunch…. After an initial shower when we came out we were caught by a strong wind … boy .. was it cold… The slides were great (rather dangerous for some of the people) but the place where everyone enjoyed most was the pool where they were creating waves …. Swati bhabhi lost one of her toe rings in the water and for that I had to swim underwater a lot and as a result my eyes were red for a long time..

Finally the day ended in a scare of sorts … we decided to take a mini train to go till the exit from where we would proceed to the bus which was about to leave in half an hour… the train took us on a tour of the entire park before stopping at the exit gate… with only 5 mins to spare and a lot of ground to cover we all rushed for it… managed to make it just in time…

Slept like a log till GOD-knows-what-time-it-is the other day .

Pot Luck

23rd July 2005

So let me just begin with the party we had on saturday at my apartment..Pot Luck, as desis working in an onsite location like to call it, involves everyone getting something to eat or drink... and then all assembling at one place and partying...The idea begain to boil sometime 2 weeks ago and then finally it was decided that it happens this saturday... about 30 odd people.. and the menu was discussed n distributed amongst the attendees

Well I was incharge of boiled rice .. a dish which i can manage to cook... and apart from that cleaning the apartment so as to make it presentable for saturday...well lemme tell u that any ideas drawn from the above statements clearly do not reflect my culinary skills or the state of my apartment :-)just for the heck of it let me tell u another item that i made .... bar-be-qued chicken marinated in a mixure of curd, lemon, zeera, laung, salt, chilli powder n pepper .. the condiments first roasted n then ground... a small indication of the taste would be the fact that the dish didn’t even last for about 10 seconds from the moment it was served

The cleaning took almost the entire after noon and after that we went for shopping so as to stock the house for the party in the evening and the week ahead.. after that a quick shower n shave and i am ready to P-A-R-T Y? Coz i wanna

Shreerang, the BRM (Business Relationship Manager) was the first to arrive with apple juice french fries and garlic bread... next to come were Sukhbir Singh Lamba(our local WWF wrestler) Rimpy (Sukhbir's better half) and their angel Tavleen Tamba (that's how she pronounces her name)... soon guests followed and the kitchen which was my domain from morning was taken over by the wives club...BTW its a huge club... considering that there are just about 4 bachelor’s in the whole group

The starters started coming and the Johnny Walkers were starting to empty... smell of garlic bread in the air, fries and the irshads and wah wahs from the local mushayara.. wah
all the guys were clubbed together near the place where the local makeshift bar was setup.. non veg jokes in hushed voices were doing the rounds.. and our BRM recording them on his PDA at the same time ..

It was dinner time and our dining table was witnessing such a plethora of dishes perhaps for the first time... shrimp, chicken, navratan korma, poori, icecream, gulab jamun, raita, bobhi, egg biryani and not to forget my good old plain boiled rice
after dinner time it was cardamom n clove served right alongside Stimorol... soon bade goodnight to most of the guests and then started the cleanup process. Datta Manish and my roomie Sachin still being around... and then it was cards till 2:30 ...Sachin n Datta were at the receiving end this time..
Slept till noon today(sunday)... but looking back at the events saying that the party was nice would def be an understatement.

First Day

28th May 2005
Dopahar 1 baje Denmark ke Aalborg airport pe padhare.... weather is a bit windy and chilly but shirt mein kaam chal raha hain....airport se mercedes taxi mein aaya... (Sitting in a Merc for the first time!!) ...

Friend ke ghar pahuch ke chai pee aur nikal pade carnival dekhne....aalborg is a beautiful city.... aaj yahan "karnival aalborg" chal raha hain... karnival aalborg bole to north europe ka sabse mast event.... entire city is filled with people who have been dinking since morning and having a good time...gori gori choriyaan daru peeke dhut.... acres of flesh and cleaveage on display.... danish ladkiyaan bole to ekdum raapchick..... jhakaas would be an understatement....people dressed up as anything and everything.... kapde (rather lack thereof) to poocho mat.... alag alag log perform kar rahe they..... brazilian samba ... drum beats from caribbean.. aur kya dance chal raha tha....

mind boggling...i am totally blown off by all this...

town is a typical smalltown european place... no traffic at all... nukad nukad pe bar/pub hain...dekhte hain kaisa time beet-ta hain yahan

Have my fingers crossed!