Unwind in the Forest!

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Forest trip...def super exciting it sounds when u say i m gonna spend this weekend in the forest n unwind ...last few days i have been noticin that work has grown super hectic as there so many thingz to do at the same time.

Sometimes I feel multi tasking is inevitable at jobs like ours but also a performance killer and as babo tells "a time waster!” In otherwords there is no multi tasking but we switch between tasks and assume we are doing more...y do this mess when u can finish work one by one and still complete 5 tasks in a day rather than leave the office with a heavy heart that you have 8 tasks completed upto (almost) 50% which only adds pressure-max on our little brains :'(
This week i could notice so many instances where i was multitaskin and gettin drained out. In such hectic times u long for a nice break to gain the energy lost…badly needed to unwind!

Friday evening when a state of dormancy sets in me…Basically there is no way i can do anything productive on a friday evening after coming back from work (or school). Not only now, but from childhood, school days i have had this problem.


if (TIME= friday evening )
{Do nothing &
Enter into state of bliss }
else
{do homework}


This friday the day i mean was all different from any other friday. We had to leave at 4 so it left me only from 8 am to 4 pm to race and complete all the tasks for the day. This added too much pressure to multitask and waste more time! It was 4.30 i had not moved an inch from my desk. Then me n phani scrammed n closed all the work we had and realised it was 4.45 and we were left with picking up the 7 seater van we ordered (else imagine dissapointing the gang…oops sorry we were so bulbed at work n could not pick the van so lets go tomorrow afternoon instead of today...all we lose is 1 day out of the 2 day weekend we have - i would not have the heart to see the disappointment on junta faces). We hard-stopped the work (too much of service assurance :-( ) and ran (quite literally ) to enterprise cars to pick up our van.

Got a decent van (it looked like innova) ...larger the vehicle the better i drive (that’s what i think atleast ;-)
Took the car, rushed home to make maggi and do last min packing (like toothbrush- thanks to my super teeth.. i have a compulsive disorder to brush anytime i wake up)

After 1hr of packing, cleaning and a shower we were all set to start the drive to new forest...babo, uthra, praveen & me set out to pick up the phani couple..once we picked them we started off on the road.

Road was not so empty it seems everybody wanted to go to the the forest...we were stuck near London for 45 min before we could hit M23 after which we could catch up for lost time. Driving at near 90 Miles in a road with 60miles limit with three cautious girls was a pain.. but thanks to phani who covered the digital speedometer to the girls...i could hit the gas pedal and hit the place with jus one costa coffee break.

Finally entered lyndhurst the town near the forest where the road got narrower n slightly difficult to drive. But thanks to the Tom Tom we managed to brave around those torturous roads n reached our destination - heatherview cottage

A neat n cute cottage which was kept open for us to occupy- the nicest things about this cottage -
1. A play room - for long me and babo are dreaming of having in our house -a cute room with a shelf of books and board games (ahha heaven) and a couch which can be pulled to a bed - i found my ideal holiday bedroom (thankfully nobody was dreaming about this place like me)

2. Set of cute instructions which were written for the usage of things in the house - that made the difference instead of a nagging hotel manager coming and asking us not to put wet clothes to avoid fine which he would impose for our bad behaviour - these small things only make u take an oath u will never return to this place ever even it was the last hotel resort in the world

After settling in the house n deciding where each one will be sleeping in which bed. I got the playroom ;-)
We got settled in the hall n babo n phani started planning the next day forest trip but rest of us were more interested in talkin about horror stories, esp with our official story teller nikkima ...story was inevitable!

We started a late night walk and walked out of the house, torches in hand...fear in eyes..smiles on our lips - this was the state of play till we walked till the end of the street where we found a graveyard which was scary to look at...troops retreat we went back home and settled to gossiping rather than any adventure...all of us except phani crashmaxed...

Forest walk day...

Plan was to start the day with an early morning but Mr. Phani bulbed by going to bed at 5 bcoz of his phenomenon “cannot sleep if cool air hits my face"

I woke with full enthu for a morning walk only to be sent back like a bulb (like a beaten dog)!
Kept tossing n turning till 8.00 but could not sleep so got up to see the kitchen garden.. it was fully sunny and these houses r not made for a hot weather...being from chennai i shouldnt be tellin this but it was slightly unbearable without a fan:-)
Sipped on coffee, streched my legs out of the window, put on vinaithndi varuvaya music n started reading an interesting book from the collection which was stacked in my room...what way to start the day! ahh that was heaven....but the bliss exactly lasted for 37 min bcoz rest of the gang woke up and ran all over the place n pushed me out of the way :'(

We had a quick breakfast of bread and eggs and started our day. We packed our bags n packed our van with food n set out. Our host told there was a flower festival in Sway (that is the nearest village to new forest)...so first stop flowershow in the local church..one thing we noticed about sway was it had a huge population of retired people who had settled in the country side. In this church people from an old age home had organized this flower shop with the help of kids from local school.

Each exhibit was in the theme of a book - "iungle book", "black beauty ", "caterpillar"....the list was endless

Next stop was rhine forest walk path...what is the point of coming to the forest without getting lost in the forest...esp our gang which is super strong in geography and getting lost...but before this walk all we did was to equip ourselves with icecream.

20 min of dodge ball in the sun(which chennaites like me hate) and kept hitting the ball deep into those thorny bushes...our fetish for deeper and deeper forest dodge ball was finally cured by an innocent snake which scrammed by us...he was in such hurry...
Next phase of our jungle walk was called “get me out of here”...everybody proposed their own route to walk and reach the car park...finally under able leadership of phani and manan we reached out to our van.

This forest walk made all of us super hungry so pit stop...a pizza place...that is the only place we could find food for the veggies too.
We picked up pooma (who had bowled to Andrew Symonds that morning) from southampton. Drove home and reached near 11.45 just enough time to set up the party for Phani for his bday :-)

The garden was setup for the bday party by the girls and we to keep phani away and act as if nobody cares about his bday ;-)
We also made a crown for the bday boy and dragged him to the garden...

Post settling after the party we sat in the living around and it was near 1 am it was the time in the forest when there will be an eeire silence setting in..good time to talk about horror stories! The major story tellers were nikki n praveen...as time went on the huddle kept becoming closer n closer :-P

That was the way to end our perfect forest trip..with the most chillax gang!

Next day we got up in our own pace, and made the breakfast. Babo and uthra went on to set a complicated 1000 piece jig saw puzzle...a commendable effort to set in 4hrs that too on a holiday. They never gave up ...(for more details..click on the pic…please read through the photo frame titles!)

We started off near 6 pm and reached home near 10 with 2 breaks in between..what a weekend it has been!


PS: Trivia: This blog has been completely done with my new phone - Sony Experia…photos captured through the phone, notes captured on a daily basis in the trip…(collages made on Picasa!)…Andriod rocks man!

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