Tag Archives: Bangalore

I get on my electric bike – hey it’s fun

IT WAS a misty Sunday morning, misted particularly so by the fact that I was in North Parade’s Rose & Crown hostelry and I somehow lost my way, last night

Woke up and it wasn’t a Chelsea morning but realised I really needed to get my electric bike into gear and get going, as the Americans say.

I got a Smarta LX bike. It’s cute. But no manual. Don’t these guys realise that we need to read something to learn? Next photo, you’ll see me on my bike.  Don’t mention the solar panels. Or the centre of laundry excellence!

And does an electric bike really need nine gears? Anyway it wasn’t nearly as scary as I thought it would be – and it went up hills magnificently, and down dales. I reached my destination, maybe three or four miles away in twenty minutes or so, including fag break.  I’m  getting to like my electric bike.

The drongos appear to have righted the matter

VOLESOFT is now looking like its former self. I am way too old to want to have to mess about with CSS stylesheets, even though on the face of it, they’re easy enough. The picture above is of a huge banyan tree near Bangalore, India. Spot the monkey?

Bath is Aquae Svlis, wonder why?

THE ROMANS didn’t bother with Oxford – they lived on the hills, Oxford was and is a flood plain. But they didn’t half like Bath (Aquae Svlis) when they trudged down west.

First Western Direct, or whatever they’re called now, is a pretty crap railway but by dint of perseverence we had a train sandwich between two buses to get down to Bath. The tourists shunted from Oxford train station onto a bus looked suitably bemused, but we knuckled down to the journey, no problem!

Here, first of all, is The Huntsman, where we duly gave the talk we gave – a nice pub with a beautiful front and an upstairs room where the carpet was just that bit tacky. Are you wondering what we talked about? Go no further than Shiva Shakti Mandalam – the audience was wonderful, the occasion was sundar and we were so welcomed into Aquae Sulis it lifted our soul. If I have one, that is.

huntsman

Just round the corner was the Roman baths – the Centurions loved this stuff. Can’t think why.

soak
Bath is in a bowl, innit?

bathbowl

The compulsory bit of video is required, naturally. See if you can spot Alex Bennett asking a local copper for directions.

A sadhu from Hampi

THAT’S WHO HE is.

hampiguy

Only in Oxford, only in Oxford

OUTSIDE THE RANDOLPH HOTEL in Oxford, a purportedly five star hotel and opposite the Ashmolean, due to re-open real soon now, we spotted a different kind of marriage carriage.

randolph

Yes, an auto rickshaw – just like in Bangalore!

And then, outside the HSBC bank on Cornmarket, this! Sorry for the sound quality – watch the moves!

Robins fledge – a living nightmare

I WAS TRYING to work for TG Daily today but when I went out into my little back garden space a strange sight awaited me.

This little fledgling, probably a bit up more in intelligence than a bee, was gazing at me, wondering what was going to happen to it.

I hadn’t a clue myself – the Robin fledgling – and by the way the European Robin is way different from the American Robin – seemed to be dashing its brains in my little back area, trying to fledge.

The birds must just have fledged today. The parent were tirelessly and unceasingly trying to persuade the kids to flee the nest. Every time there was a little cheep, one of the parents came up with a tidbit to attempt to persuade it to fly.

Naturally a small mammal like me didn’t make things easier, crashing around as I did. I wish I’d videoed the sequence. Eventually the one trapped fledgling managed to get over the garden wall. But it won’t stop tweeting. Ah yes, Twitter. And twittering.

With a bit of luck, the Robin family will all fledge. There are few katz in this part of Oxford. The tigers were all killed by the ubergraduates.

Robins are way harder to rescue than bees, because relatively speaking they have higher intelligence. Probably more intelligence than humans. Must be tough to have been shoved out of the nest to make your own way in the world!