The birds flew past Sutton

Another weekday afternoon in south London. It is still BST. 

A non descript building by the railway station witnesses a flock of white geese slowly rise from the eastern sky.UFOs, said a colleague, unsure of the species.

The dark grey sky on the west, gloriously dotted with moving white silhouettes of the travellers. Rather like a clear night of stars. Croydon to Heathrow, the flight path.

Across and upward, climbing over a rainstorm, spanning large distances in only a few short minutes.

The sky full of birds moves as one towards the north west for possibly a thousand more miles.The city moves on detached and oblivious of this marvellous event!

The Little Prince

Pleased that Google chose to celebrate Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the author of The Little Prince, a book that I can go back to and re-read and re-read. Reinforces a cherished sentiment of never wanting to grow up.

Iyer samayal

Thanks to Neha, I discovered a mami-mama who most helpfully demonstrate terrific south Indian, dare I say tam bram dishes on youtube.

Clan Fire Place

A rather friendly and laid back colleague went on holiday with wife and two toddlers to a place in North Wales. Let us call him Charlie Evans. So Charlie went on holiday exactly last year with his family to llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochuchaf in Anglesey.

Naturally, I was a bit confounded to find out. So I sat down across a coffee table sipping tea and spoke to him. Here is some bits of what we talked.


How do you say the name, Charlie?
I cannot pronounce it, I can only do the beginning and the end.


Is there a shorter name for it?
Yes, can’t remember it though. Something like llanfairgogogoch.


Why did you go there and what did you do there?
Visit a friend who had a Holiday caravan just down the road.


Do you have any pictures from there?
I have a picture of the train station sign on my phone. There is not a lot there. Just a train station, a few shops and a take away.Anglesey has some nice places though, if you are thinking of going.

They also have a website for tourism. As a semi-technical person, jolly good that domain names can take up to 63 letters! This is how to pronounce the name. Some thing like Clan fire...

Happy Vishu From England