The Power of Retail

Been spending a lot of time lately uploading pictures onto Flickr. Ever since Yahoo photos shut down and I transferred all my photographs onto Flickr, I have got addicted to taking photographs and trying to get better at it. The variety of photographs on Flickr is pretty amazing as is the skill level. I haven’t got into photoshop and stuff, but would want to and just need to spend some time to read up on stuff and try it out on my photographs. Here’s a photograph that my father took on their trip to Ladakh in summer of 2006.

It’s been an interesting start to the year. Work is already picking up and travel plans are being made for some interesting trips, so it definitely looks very promising indeed. Not really going to say too much about my travel plans as yet, not until it’s all confirmed, but they definitely will be very interesting and memorable. Work started picking up from mid-December and it looks like it’s going to be a busy year. Since I pretty much decide how much work I want to do, this year I want to do a lot and I am getting some really interesting assignments that will keep me busy.

A couple of months back we had to return our sofa bed due to a defect and as usual the timing was just perfect, since we needed it at that very time. We didn’t have an extra mattress to use in the meantime either, so it was a mad dash to find a temporary solution. What I was looking for was something that could be used as required and then put away, out of sight once its use was over. After traipsing through several stores, we finally did find a folding mattress that I now use over our mattress, as a topper. So, there were no hassles on storing it, and it was pretty cheap, so even if it lasts just a couple of months, it’s quite all right. As with everything in retail, you have to balance price and longevity.

We have a long list of items to buy this weekend, everything from a new set of curtains and cushion covers, to HDMI switches, audio CDs of Seal and Rod Stewart, some DVDs, a kitchen trolley and a couple of other assorted items like a shelf unit etc. The list of things we need to buy for our new home never seems to get done, and just as we finish off one list at one store, there are a few more waiting for us at another store. We’re past the fun stage of buying things now, and look at it just as a job that needs to be done. We did get some nice lamps from Ikea last weekend they look really nice and give a lovely glow to the room. Wish we had got around to buying them a week earlier so we had them when we had a nice get together of some of our neighbors here.

After downloading the Adobe Album Photo Starter, I decided to go back to using Picassa, which I was already familiar from before. Picasa makes it easier to edit pictures and to create new folders and albums so you can create smaller versions of albums to friends and family, instead of the entire album. I uploaded all my pictures in Picasa and created a new album of select photographs of the wedding that I can now send to those who were not there.

I like the basic Adobe photoshop, but quite frankly have been a bit disappointed with this Photo Album Starter that I downloaded a week or so back. Even the photo’s that it auto fixed are not that great and I had to go in and redo lots of the pictures manually. Lets hope that I like Picasa better this time round. My favorite one is actually Flickr, but unfortunately it does not work in this part of the world, so its of no use to me for the time being.

Well, I’m back home now after a break of over three weeks, which turned out to be one helluva fun time. The wedding was by far the most fun weddings I have ever attended and  I’m so glad that I was able to make it. It was one of those decisions that one makes that turn out being just right and if I hadn’t gone home, I would have ended up regretting it for the rest of my life. Well, no time to be philosophical about it, it’s time to get started on work in a few days now.

Back to catching up with a bit of work now that the wedding is over. It was one helluva wedding, definitely one of the most fun ones that I have attended and been part of and it’s hard to believe that it’s actually over. It was great to catch up with everyone after over two years and I wonder when I’ll get the next opportunity to meet everyone like this again. Do hope it happens on a regular basis on occasions like this. But for now, its time to slowly get back to work especially once I head back home in a week or so.

Setting up a house is a work in progress. Just when you think you’re getting done, you realize there is something else that needs your attention. Even though the building is relatively new, we’ve been having constant problems with the plumbing systems and find that the only alternative would be to change all the fixtures in the bathroom, and install something with Delta faucets that you can be assured of not leaking or dripping etc. We’ve been trying to get everything fixed, but each time one thing works, something else gets broken, so the best alternative would be to change everything. Quite a task, but looks like it just has to be done.

Almost time for my trip back home, so there seems to be a lot of work to do all of a sudden. I didn’t think I would be making a trip back so soon after coming, so am barely settled myself and need to do some shopping for things to take back and things to buy for the home while I am away. Alng with all of this I have to finish off my work before I go home as well, since I definitely do not want any work to do while I am away.

So a trip back home is on the cards for early next month, and this time I am going to try my best not to even try to continue working, since I lose out both ways. I might as well have a full out vacation and chill out time, and come back to working hard, rather than trying to keep up with a bit of work while on vacation, and managing to neither relax or work properly. So that is my agenda for the trip. Pretty simple right. Yes, it is. I am looking forward to taking a trip to the hills, where it will be nice and chilly, a complete different scenario from here.