Cricket me a pitch !

We won today. I had an okay day, but hey, we won !

We batted first and put up a 201 in 35 overs. I went in to open with Freddie and we didn't exactly get off to a flier but we didn't lose a wicket either. 10 overs in and we were 40/0. Decent start considering we were always 2o/2 or something like that in like 4 overs. Although the pitch was very dry, it was really slow, low and unpredectible. We soon stumbled to 52/2 with both the openers, me and Freddie back in the pavilion. I scored 20. Don't know what I was thinking and decided to play on the back foot to a short pitch delivery on our home pitch, a pitch where the ball is never where you expect it to be was caught plumb in front of the wickets. So plumb that even our own empire couldn't save me. Anyway, the middle order also collapsed until we were rescued by a 75 run 6th wicket partnership and some late order hitting got us to 201. This was a very good score on our home wicket where usually 150 is a winning total.

Our opening bowlers started off well and we had them 20/2 in 5 overs. But some good hitting by one of their openers got them back into the game and they were soon at 75/2 in 15 overs. This was until the spin duo came on. One left arm spinner (Singh) complimented by a right hand leg spin bowler from the other end (Me) and very soon the match changed shape. Singh ended up with figures of 7-1-14-4 and I from the other end got 6-3-4-2. We got the quickies to come back in and close the match off and they were all out for about 120. :-)

My batting average is in a bit of a mess this season. So far 5 matches with scores of 25, 14, 4, 0 and 20. Last season I averaged a little over 30. Well, I will be out of London next weekend and so no match, but am hoping to improve the scores in the coming matches.

At least my bowling has been going better. I kept wickets in 2 of the 5 matches but in the other three that I have bowled in, I have ended up with about 10-5-16-3. Not too bad for a leggie in a 35 over run riot.

Wales Day 3

Unlike the first two days, this day started off relatively early. We were ready, all breakfasted and out of the hostel by 9am. We had a 1-hour drive to the station and had to take the 11am train up the hill. The train was expected to go only 3/4th of the way up the hill and we had to walk the other 1/4th, about 45 minutes.

We got there with enough time to spare and decided to get something to munch on. By the time we finished the food and got to the train, the coach was very full and we struggled to find any place to sit. After packing us all in like sardines, the train started on the slow ascent up the mountain. A really really slow ascent. The train journey was a bit of a letdown. Although it was sunny at the base, it was cloudy, cold and raining at the top. After a fairly boring 45 minute journey, we got off at the station. Instead of making our way up to the summit in the rain and cold, we decided to head down the trail to the base of the mountain.

The path was slippery and rocky and quite steep in places but was an amazing trek down. With amazing views all the way down, I kept on clicking pictures.

The weather improved with the decreasing altitude and it got more sunny and warm. Smita trotted (literally like a horse) her way down the steep incline. She seems to think this reduces the stress on her knees and reduces her health insurance premium. All I know is that we had a good laugh at her expense. A couple of hours after we had started on our trek down, we found ourselves back at the station cafe feeding our even increasing appetites.

Waving our goodbyes to Wales, we started off on our 5 hour return drive to Hitchin. All I can say about the drive is that, 5 hours in the backseat of a car sucks big time especially when all you want to do is get back home, shower, get a good cup of chai and go to sleep!

I would classify Wales as a poor man's Switzerland. My summary is that it is a good place to go for hiking and camping etc. in pretty surroundings, provided you have a better way to incorporate weather predictions into the holiday planning model.

Wales Day 2: and you thought yesterday was lazy

Most of our trips have been 3 day trips and Day 2 is usually the most exciting day of these trips.

Not this time. Day 2 was started off as one of the laziest days, even more so when you think that this was to be a full-on hiking day. We were supposed to hike up mount Snowdon. Guess what we ended up doing.... if you know us, you have guessed right. We woke up late, lazed around and finally made our way into town and had the biggest & best breakfast possible :-) Well, in all honesty, weather was a big spoilsport today. It was a horrible day with non-stop rain till late afternoon.

After the filling brunch, we got to the station to take the mountain rail up to Snowdon and even bought the tickets but then exchanged them for tickets for tomorrow, since tomorrow is expected to be sunny and bright. So with tickets and a plan for tomorrow but no plan for today, we all kind of stood there scratching our heads as to what to do and we started walking back to the car.

Before getting into the car, I saw this interesting sight of the parking attendant talking to a Ferrari driver. In order to just talk to the guy, he had to take a knee and salute the Ferrari. Thought this was interesting.

Right beside the carpark was a stream, a crystal clear stream which Anusha wanted to pollute by plonking her feet in it. Oh! did I mention that it was cold and we all were pretty sure that the water would be freezing. But then again Anusha's 'feet in streams' fascination knows no sense. For the next few minutes, we all watched her hop and scream in the cold water. Well, you had to be there to truly enjoy it.

After our little scream-stream episode, we spotted a small trail off the back of the parking lot. We decided to take that and landed up at the old ruins of what was once a small fort with amazing views. I'll let the pictures do the talking. Take special notice of the details like the faces by the hanging jacket from the window of the ruin and the mountain rail in the background of the second picture.

With Smita navigating and Raghav driving, the infamous four headed off once again in search of exotic locations and prettier locations. A beautiful 2-hour drive took us through many a curvy roads, each with a better picturesque view. It was one of those stop - look around - soak the scenery - off again journeys. We finally ended up in island county of Anglesey, an island with some awesome views of the Welsh coast of the Irish sea.

We stopped by a local pub on the way back to grab some food. As usual we overstuffed ourselves and crawled our way back to our hotel room. Somehow, all of us got re energized by looking at the pictures from the day and a cup of tea and finally decided to embark on that elusive hike. It was a really nice hike up the hills & away from the village. We were supposed to be on this circular path that would get us back to the village from another side. However, we strayed off our path because the one we were supposed to take was being guarded by some really mean looking bulls that were watching our every move. We trekked for a little over an hour along whatever path we could find and finally with Raghav claiming 'aama yaar, idu straighta bullukke poharade!' (this path is heading straight towards the bulls again!), we turned around and came back to our village.

Finally going to be sleeping light after the hike. Have a fairly full day ahead of us with the train ride up the mountain, another hike and the drive back to Hitchin. Stay tuned ....

Wales Day 1: The lazy Welsh

As we walked into their place, Raghav warned us that Smita is planning to make us all get out at 7am the next day. We all knew at that point itself that we weren't leaving before noon the next day. This was supposed to be an adrenaline high, pushing the physical boundaries type holiday. Coming off of a hectic project, I knew that wasn't going to be the case.

True to form, we all woke up late and lazed the morning away chatting and playing the piano. Finally we got ready and got out just after noon. We had decided that we were going to drive to Snowdonia. A couple of pit stops on the way to fill up our pits and 4 hours got us nicely to within striking distance of Snowdon. Smita had booked us in a hostel in some village no one had ever heard of - Penmachno.

Penmachno is a village in an isolated upland valley, about 4 miles south of Betws-y-Coed (which we still don't know how to pronounce) in Conwy, North Wales. Beautiful surroundings, small windy roads, old church, nice people, cozy cottages and green hills and valleys.

We had booked a bunk-bed room with shared bathroom facilities. While we all settled down, Smita the brilliant planner realized that she had forgotten her hiking boots for this hiking trip. Of course we all made fun of her !

Given that we had a couple of hours of sunlight left, we thought it would be nice to just explore the area a little bit. All jumped back into the car and drove off to Conwy falls. Once we got to Conwy falls, we walked around for about half an hour trying to get to the bottom of the falls, the top of the falls etc. without much success. The authorities had barricaded the falls because it was raining and slippery. After all the waltzing around, I came to the conclusion that Conwy falls is just a false falls.

Making our way back to the Conwy cafe, we ordered pizza and salad for dinner. Or at least so we had thought. While the three of us ate our food, Raghav was sitting twiddling his thumbs because the waiter has never taken down his order. Of course we ordered again and Raghav got his pizza. I ordered a melt-in-your-mouth brownie with some local Bara Brith, a local Welsh ice cream, all this of course to keep Raghav company. I didn't particularly like the Bara Brith, tested coconuty but the brownie was awesome!

Once back in our hostel, some more researching and some Uno and we were all ready for bed.

Many superheroes, 3 movies - 1 winner.

Recent superhero movies have all been a letdown. Last couple of weeks, I have seen three superhero movies. Prince Caspian, Kung-fu panda and Hancock. Here's what I thought of them...

Finishing last was Hancock. I did expect more laughs from this movie. There were some scenes and dialogues that were funny but I guess my expectations from this movie were high. I did like the twist in the middle but then the second half of the movie spiralled off into this whole new movie, belonging to a completely different genre without much connection to the first half. The movie had way too much happening and made for, at best, an okay movie.

Prince Caspian and the Kings and Queens of old come in at second place. Decent animation, good visual effects, with child actors growing up into their roles and some good fight sequences made for an entertaining couple of hours. Peter Dinklage, as Trumpkin the dwarf, is amazing in the movie and I loved the accent. Also refreshing, was the comedy by the mouse king. these supporting actors, by far, have the best dialogues and the best dialogue delivery of the lot. Notable mention should be the centaur leader. He did seem like the one ideal to lead the Narnians instead of Aslan. Then again, I didn't write the book.

The winning superhero by a clear margin is the the fearless dragon warrior. Jack Black is in top form as the Kung-fu Panda and so is Dustin Hoffman as the master Shifu. Probably one of the best animated movies I have seen to date. (well, maybe Monsters Inc. was better) Amazing animation, breathtaking action sequences, very funny dialogues and a strong supporting cast set this movie up well. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the movie and will definitely buy the DVD when it comes out.