Malta Trip #2 - Day 1 - Journey Starts

 

Goes to show you what lengths I would go to for photography, I had slept a few hours in the evening so I could leave in the early hours of the morning. I am one of those people who can sleep at any time, you will hate me. The flight was at 0725 but as I live in Oxford I needed two hours to get to London Gatwick airport as well as some buffer time. Roberta and I agree on that, always get to the airport earlier than you need to. There is a bus that goes from Oxford to London airports called Oxford Airline. It's a nice, comfortable coach that costs between £23 and £28. It used to cost me much less when I was a student but...sigh. Moving on. I took the bus service that picked me up just before 0300 and deposited me at the London Gatwick airport North terminal just before 0500.

 

Roberta had deliberately not picked the cheapest flights this time. She had gone for the flights that could give us the maximum time in Malta for our travel dates and also worked with our accommodation choices. More on that later. We checked-in and dropped our suitcases then directly went to the security rather than hang around.

 

I was really nervous about airport security, I always am. Most of my worry is about holding up the queue behind me. Quick tip, when you get to security, turn left if you can, most people turn right as its their dominant side and as a result the queues are longer on that side. I carry a lot of electronics so I am worried about taking time to take them out of the backpack. No problem this time. I had packed my liquids (just lip balm) in a plastic bag already. My electronics were also packed in small travel boxes with transparent tops. My strategy is to put everything that I can, including my phone, in my jacket pockets before getting to the security conveyor belt. After putting the jacket in a separate tray I walked through the metal detector. I winced as I went through it as I remembered I was still wearing my smartwatch. Then I worried that my expression might trigger an alarm in the security lady watching me walk through the scanner. None of that happened. No beeps or alarms and she didn't pull me aside for personal manhandling. On the return journey, when I was taking my smartwatch off, the security agent there told me not to do it. So, I guess they don't trigger the alarm. My watch is a Ticwatch Pro 3 which is mostly a plastic body anyway.

 

After we went through the security and immigration checks, we still had about half an hour to hang out. So, we had a coffee and shared our Etsy shops with each other. Roberta and I are both new Etsy sellers and didn't know that about each other. Links for our shops in case you want to check them out:

 

Sunny: https://g7printables.etsy.com

Roberta: https://chromaticautomatic.etsy.com

 

The flight was almost full but we got lucky that we didn’t have anybody sitting in the third seat in our row so we had some extra space. Photos from the flight are hardly ever worth the trouble but the views are so amazing that you have to try. I think the ones I got this time were better than I have had before, partially because of my new phone Samsung Note 20 Ultra which has a great camera module, but I am also becoming a better photographer with practice. Some examples here from the airport and the flight.

My Dear Forgotten Friend

 My relationship with my blog has become like that of an old friend you used to meet every day and suddenly there's been a long distance between you two. You haven't talked in such a long time that you don't even know where to start when you meet after a long time. 

मिलते थे उसे हम कभी पल पल के फरक से, 

फिर रफ्ता रफ्ता फर्क ये सालों में आ गया

फिर यूं हुआ की आँख से आँसू निकल पड़े,

चेहरा कभी जो उसका ख्यालों में आ गया 

Milte they use hum kabhi pal pal ke farak se

Phir rafta rafta fark ye saalon mein aa gaya, 

Phir yoon hua ki aankh se aansoon nikal pade, 

Chehra kabhi jo uska khayalon mein aa gaya. 

[I used to meet him every moment 

then this grew into years, 

Then it got so that his face in my thoughts 

filled my eyes with tears.]

(Ha, I made it rhyme this time.) 

I still come on here once in a while and do a movie review or some random post like the friend who never has time to actually talk to you but keeps sending you all these useless forwards on whatsapp. 

But from my side also, I feel like - I am not gonna start telling you my life story just because after six months you suddenly messaged me and said "aur batao"!

So, here's my idea to fill this rift. I will give a very quick summary of some of the things I have done since the last time we actually talked. 

The biggest news is that in September 2019, I moved from Doncaster to Oxford to enrol in a master's degree program. It's called M.Sc. Digital Media Production. Remember I used to be very much into photography, filmmaking and vlogging? Well, that's why. It's going well. It's a one-year program that I am doing in two-years as a part-time student because I still need to earn my daily bread by working full time in IT. 

It's going well so far. I have survived three semesters and need to do 1.5 more. 

I told you this so that we can have more conversations and when I talk about what I am doing for a certain module you wouldn't be lost without a clue. 

More later. Let's keep in touch. 

What Means Christmas - Vlog Episode 3

I don't want you to miss out the cute stories so I am posting the link below:

My Vlog - Episode 1

I have started a Vlog recently. Here is the link for the first episode. I am not giving up on blogging, but planning to use the vlogging as a combination of blog, FB posts, and filmmaking. Enjoying it so far.

Hoping to have my blog audience enjoy the vlog as well.

Purba's Sita

Fellow blogger Purba has written a 3-part story of Sita that is so hilarious that it'd be a crime not to share it.

Therefore, here are the links. Warning: You might fall off the chair with laughter, so if you are reading in office, be careful!

Part 1
http://purba-ray.blogspot.com/2011/10/when-sita-clicked-write.html
Part 2
http://purba-ray.blogspot.com/2011/10/sita-travels-abroad.html
Part 3
http://purba-ray.blogspot.com/2011/10/this-is-sita-reporting-live.html

25000, baby!

This week my visitor counter hit the 25000 mark. It took almost 5 years to do it, but for a personal blog it's still a big deal for me!

I would like to thank all my visitors, especially my blog friends whose regular visits have helped me achieve this Silver Jubilee number.

At this point I want to mention why I still keep blogging. There is no one single reason but the strongest reason is that I enjoy it. Ultimately, I would like people to read what I have written, but just the act of writing a post is also quite enjoyable and gratifying. Another reason is to share stuff. It could be a movie, a funny picture, a touching poem or an amusing anecdote, I love to share these with my readers. I sometimes also use my blog to archive things. For example, my hatred for chatspeak or Apple Inc., my love for Android and books and TV shows. Many times instead of repeating myself I can just give someone a URL to my post for these things.

I don't want to make this unneccessarily long, let me just say I am quite happy about hitting the 25000 mark and thank you again to all my readers. I hope you will keep visiting and leaving your comments.

Apple Sucks Once again

Oh, look, a whole blog dedicated to the universal fact that Apple sucks.

http://applesucks.wordpress.com/

15000 baby!

The visitor counter hit 15000 on Saturday. It's a big number for me and it makes me smile to think about it. A big thank you to all my blogdosts and my visitors. 

Dil Ki Baat - Blog Ke Saath

I have read somewhere that we bloggers think we are changing the world. Ridiculous notion, isn't it? I mean how egotistical can you get? But believe it or not, there are some bloggers in the blogosphere who have my utmost respect. Why? Because their thoughts move me or their analytical skills impress me or their way of expression inspires me...whatever the reason, I am always looking for new, fresh blogs to read, but unfortunately what you find when you search is mostly the commercial blogs and while I love reading what Google have to say, what I enjoy the most is personal blogs from people who philosophize about everything and nothing.

This morning, through a very round-about route, I came upon a blog that delighted me immensely. This girl writes about the simple things in life, her slant is usually heart-touching and positive. The blog is called Dil Ki Baat Blog ke Saath. Loosely translated it means - Using the Blog to Speak from the Heart.

Here is the link:
http://dilkibaatblogkesaath.blogspot.com/

Even though she is Indian and the blog is named in Hindi, she posts in English and is an absolute delight to read! The fact that you read my blog convinces me that you'd love hers! Highly recommended!

Flocking to flock

I just had to test this new browser called Flock. This is based on Mozilla Firefox and is meant for social networking, blogging etc. etc. So I said, "Well, let's see what a browser will have for a blogger when I already have ScribeFire for Firefox 3.0?"

So here's the first post. I am going to embed some pics and videos just to test.

Nope: Can't post a video. With ScribeFire I can.



Well, photo upload is slightly better. But we'll see how it handles Picasa for photos.

For tags also ScribeFire shows me all my available tags, this just gives me a blank line to type in. Well, we'll see which one to use based on what other goodies this Browser offers.

Blogged with the Flock Browser