India, here we come...

Its been 5 years since I first arrived here in the UK. The journey has been long and eventful. There have been ups and downs along the way, some that have changed me as a person and some that opened up worlds I never knew existed. It has been fun, it has been hard and it has been unpredictable. Like everything, good or bad, this part of the journey also has to end.
While Rosa and I have enjoyed the past year here in UK together, I cant express how much we missed India and all our loved ones back there. We have seriously considered heading back to settle in India on several occasions in the past, but work and study commitments had gotten in the way. As of now we have a chance and we are ready to take it.
We may be living in a country with an advanced standard of living, but it comes at a cost. We 've come to realise that it's the simple joys in life which one takes so much for granted that really matters. The joy of being a citizen in your own country. The freedom of being able to reach out and be with family. The joy of being surrounded by life and nature in its truest forms. of home food, of the monsoons, of family gatherings....
I`m not sure what awaits us in India. I will shortly have my PhD (I hope) and Rosa will have her 2nd masters. Ideally staying on for another year and gaining a bit more experience would have been a good option, but right now that is looking unlikely.I still have a few months to explore last minute options while I finish writing up my thesis but as of now our intention is to return. I have no idea how employable we will be in the Indian scheme of things. However, we have always wanted to eventually settle in India and this is our chance to lay out the roots and we are looking forward to it.

Bristol is all snowed in!!!

Most  of you must be aware of snow storm that’s taken over U.K. Buses and trains have come to a halt and schools and colleges have shut. Our universities too have been closed for two days too…The authorities are struggling to cope with the iced up roads and keep public services running. For us meanwhile, its a bit of fun and play. Here is some pics from snowed up Britain.

Some views out of our window on the first day of snow.

A view of the traffic jam caused by the snowy conditions.

The next morning, there’s several inches of it in our garden. Here’s a bird looking for its regular supply of food at our bird feeder which has been enveloped by the snow:

Some more shots on the next morning.

The kids are out causing mischief. Below some kids took to pelting windows, cars, passerby's and each other with snow balls.

After they left, we decided to step out and have a little bit of fun.

Our first ever snowman slowly began to take shape.

We didnt have a carrot for the snowman’s nose, so he had to make do with a pen cap.

Rosa poses with with her snowman before he melts away.

He turned out to be a happy looking snowman.

Heres another snowman built by our neighbours.

Meanwhile the snow still keeps coming down. The forecast is not so bad for tomorrow. The sun should be out and the snow should melt away. It hasn’t snowed so bad in Bristol for about 18 years but we prefer the snow to that miserable rain. At least we get to stay at home and do nothing while the chaos continues around us.

Christmas holidays- the final days.

Our last two days in Skye were freezing and temperatures were less than zero degrees all time.

We first drove around trying to catch a glimpse of the Cuillin mountains. When that didn’t materialise, we drove down to a place called Drumbuie for some more sight seeing.

The temperature was around –3 degrees that day and everything around had frozen or was covered with frost.

Even the trees had turned white making for some astounding picture postcard scenery.

From there we drove into the town of Plockton which was supposed to experience a milder climate due to the influence of the Gulfstream current.

However, even here it was below freezing. We got out to venture across the low tide onto a little island in plockton.

The frost on the greens made for great scenes. Even these photographs don’t do justice to the true beauty.

 

 

We had fun collecting the accumulated frosted over dew and throwing it about.

Rosa is yet to experience her first snow, but with all that frost, we came pretty close.

Some of the puddles had frozen over, below Rose holds up a sheet of frozen water.

Rose and Rosa make a mini snow castle!

Rosa posing beside some lobster traps:

The Skye bridge which connects the mainland to the Isle of Skye, on our way:

A view of Dunvegan from our cottage lawn:

Stalactites formed by water freezing overnight:

Even the streams were semi frozen:

We headed over to Portree to try and catch a view of the white-tailed Sea eagle.

There were boat trips on offer but we we opted out of it.

We finally caught sight of the Cuillin mountains on our way to Loch Eynort.

A lone house in the valley of Eynort:

After an unsuccessful attempt to catch a glimpse of the white tailed sea eagle we started our trip back to Stirling.

While we were at Skye, everything on route had frozen over and we were treated to some frozen scenery on the way back:

Rosa and Rose get under a frozen tree to shake some snow down:

half way down, we encountered a thick fog which appeared almost as thick as a cloud as seen behind me in the photo below:

Here we are driving through that fog:

On the way, we stopped at the Ben Nevis range which is the highest mountain range in Britain.

Here we got onto a cable car to head to the visitor centre on top :

On reaching the top, we just had enough time to get a cup of coffee

…and take a few photos…

…before it was time to head back on the last gondola…else we would have had to walk back down the mountail in sub zero conditions.

We then continued our journey back to Stirling, where we spent the night before heading back to Bristol the following day. We had a fabulous holiday in Scotland. Josi and Rose were very warm hosts and we do miss leaving them. For now its us back home and as we head into 2009, Rosa and I  wish you all a very happy new year .