Stirred and yes, Shaken.

Long day at work analyzing Financial Reports

Excitement of seeing friend who is moving to Oz for good!

45 mins wait at the Bar of an overrated Covent Garden venue

Participation in a forced banter with the Bartender

2 Chocolate Martinis

One careless Head flick from a girl at the adjacent Table

Sky Dive - The one where the Plane Crashed

For people who religiously follow my clockworkish Status updates and moans in the form of Notes, here is another one. Things have gone up a notch in seriousness.

So, sky dive attempt number 1 happened in February. In short, after a 6am train to Cambridge and a wait that was longer than 9 hours, I had to return unjumped and dissatisfied because the cloud happened to be too low and the Plane wouldn't take off.

Sky dive attempt 2 was scheduled for yesterday after much careful syncing with other equally busy Consultant pals. Got there (again a 6am train on a Saturday) and after a few hours wait, finally got on the plane. Camera rolling, plane going steadily higher. We got to about 13,000 Ft and the crappy plane shutters (yes!) opened to give me the biggest scare of my life. Instructor gave us a final nudge to jump which is when an alarm sort of went off that very second. It was discovered that it was way too windy to jump. Shutters went down and plane started descending. We were told that we'll have to wait a couple of hours for the winds to die down.
I was disappointed but perversely happy not to have jumped out into that ridiculously clear sunny sky above Cambridge.

Plane came to 1000ft...then some more and then it was touchdown time!
This very moment, we hit the ground with the biggest thud I have ever experienced. We were given full emergency briefing in about a second and I was just asked to run as quick as I could away from the plane. I looked back....we had crashed!!! The Wheel apparatus was in the ground and the plane was almost buried into the ground on one side. Very unsettlingly wonky. The instructors were desperately trying to make light of the situation but one of them did point out to the vehicle in question and came up with this little gem: "I don't know how familiar you are with aircrafts, but it's not supposed to look like that!"

I could only smile. Why me!? Why, the hell me! Every time?
Here's to sky dive attempt number 3.

Tale of the Oversized Suitcase

My generously proportioned suitcase and the contents therein survived the tremors of the Piccadilly line, Heathrow, a 10 hour flight, taxi ride to hotel room in Delhi. Disaster struck when said monster was being loaded onto the train back home from Delhi. After much hassle of plonking the thing remotely close to my seat, I heard excited shouts from passengers in the seats behind, alongside and everywhere really. The shouts translated to "Your suitcase is leaking!". On closer inspection I discovered that my precious container had left a trail of red liquid across the coach.

A swift mental checklist followed:

1. Do I have a body (Human/Animal) in the suitcase, chopped into fine bits but without adequate fluid limiting features in the lining?

2. Am I carrying pricey red wine inside with the only protection in the form of a light blue cashmere jumper wrapped around the bottle? Were both these things intended to be gifts for people back in India?

This precise line of questioning yielded a "No" to the first and a sad affirmatory nod to the second.
I now have a suitcase full of stinking,semi-red stuff and the first friendly face in the home-town would have to be the dry-cleaners. And I cut myself while rescuing the shattered contents. Nice.