Twice in the past people who googled my hobbies have met me in Mangalore.

Meeting in real life. Mr Krishnanand Pai from Mumbai, who is my father's cousin's husband, contacted me and later met me when he googled Indian coins in 2006.

Meeting in real life. II Mr Ajit Laxmirathan from Bangalore, after googling Indian currency notes.

And so it was for a third time yesterday and day before. Mr Kumar Biswas had contacted me regarding my Antarctic Covers post I had made for the Stamps of India newsletter which is e-mailed frequently. [Readers letters are un-failingly published.] Reading this Kumar e-mailed me last July as to the address to were the covers are to me posted. His was BTW the only response for the Antarctic covers letter. And then in May this year he replied saying he had received it back with the cancellations and everything.

Then surprisingly he e-mailed once again saying he would be in Mangalore [for a visit to Manipal] this month and if we could meet, I agreed. He arrived in Mangalore day before yesterday, he had come for the admission of his son to Manipal Institute of Technology [where I studied 25 years ago] We met in my office where we went through my stamp collection, spoke about his collection and I dropped him back at his hotel.

Yesterday evening we went out for dinner when he mentioned that when he first e-mailed me regarding the covers he never thought he would be heading towards Mangalore any time soon;-) Now it looks he will here more often than not.

So now all three hobbies have been covered, coins, notes and now stamps:-) Next on the line I suppose will be scale model cars, and comic books. Heh! Heh! Heh!

Rural U.S. Takes Worst Hit as Gas Tops $4 Average
Here in the Mississippi Delta, some farm workers are borrowing money from their bosses so they can fill their tanks and get to work. Some are switching jobs for shorter commutes.

Airlines Seek Out New Ways to Save on Fuel as Costs Soar
Here I think the airports should chip in to help too. Airplanes don't idle their engines on the apron, taxiway or runway for the fun of it. At Changi airport our plane pulled out of the gate and waited for a full 7 to 10 minutes before it started taxing. I could see two airport personnel [who arrived in a battery operated cart] go towards the cockpit and then depart. Only after they went did the plane move. Naturally I don't know what that was all about.

At BIAL [okay teething problems maybe] our plane comes to Gate 10 and waits there for a full 10 minutes! Then moves towards the gate where the aerobridge takes somemore time before we disembark. While departing for Mangalore later our plane is parked at the gate [after all passengers are in] for enough time that the air hostesses are able to run their emergency demo completely [usually it is done when the plane is on the move]

The plane then creaks and groans and rumbles across to our runway. It finally reaches take off position were the plane is waiting for a few minutes. In 1992 at St Louis airport if the plane lingered at the take off point for more than two seconds the plane behind it in the air would have to abort landing! Not just at BIAL, even at Bombay I find that the plane lingers at the take off point for sometimes several minutes till ATC gives them permission to take off.

Why! Maybe they have certain procedures in place, but these are difficult times dudes! Time to buck up.

At Airports, Lines Made for Speed

The above articles says that "Transportation Security Administration is trying to speed up airport screening by asking passengers to choose a line based on their familiarity with checkpoint procedures."

This reminds me of a passenger behind be at a security check in Mangalore a few years ago. I could hear the CISF chap tell him "you cannot take this item on board, you will have to check it it" and guy is trying to explain something. I looked at the item, it was a nice velvet lined box, you know the kind, that you present to someone.

Yeah that kind of a box.

Except that it was filled with...( Read more... )

Hublot

Like the Titan site I mentioned sometime ago, this one too displays the current time [which is set on your PC] on its watch face.

Stewart makes fun of Bush who said this end February who said "that's interesting I didn't hear that!".