A Night in London

Recently, by a stroke of luck, I got a chance to see London. My incoming flight to London from Colombo was delayed and I missed my connecting flight to Boston. I was the only passenger who was elated to miss flight and work. I was allowed to stay in London for 24 hours and they gave me accommodation in a nice hotel. I wanted to get out of Airport ASAP and go sight seeing in London. But, it took a long time to finish immigration and other formalities at the airport. London's Heathrow airport is very big, but I really hated travelling from one terminal to other. We have to take a bus for terminal connections and they have security check at every terminal. By the time I reached my hotel, it was almost 7pm. Even thought I was dead tired, I decided to go out and see London at night.

Usually, I prepare well before I go to any new place. But since this was unplanned, I was not sure of what to do and where to go. I just took a tube(London Subway) map from the hotel and started my trip with that. I took a train from Heathrow to the center of London. I got down at Piccadilly circus, which is a mini version of the Times square with all its lights and stuff. From there, I walked all the way till Big Ben. No wonder that it's called the most famous Clock Tower in the world. The clock tower is situated at the north-eastern end of the Houses of Parliament and it was just spectacular at night. I found out that it is often mistakenly called "Big Ben" — which is actually the main bell housed within the Clock Tower. Right across it is the London eye, which was closed at night and I missed the chance to get into the tallest observation wheel in the world. I really liked that area, especially crossing Thames river on the Millennium bridge. The London Millennium Footbridge is a pedestrian-only steel suspension bridge crossing the River Thames.

I spent most of the time that night asking people for directions, nearby attractions and their significance. I walked for couple of hours and bumped into famous places like Trafalgar square, Downing Street and Diana Memorial. By the time, I was done with my walking trip, it was 1pm and I was totally exhausted and I had a morning flight to catch. I found out that it will take one day to see Tower of London and so it was ruled out for me. I badly wanted to see London Bridge at least, but it was too far from where I was. I decided to see Buckingham Palace before heading back to my hotel.Tube stops running around midnight and so I took this rickshaw to the Buckingham Palace. I was surprised to find our Desi rickshaw kind of transportation there. Buckingham Palace was huge and very beautiful. I ended my trip by taking a black cab back to my hotel to get the much needed few hours of sleep.

On the whole, it was an exciting night at London. Apart from the Tower of London and changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, I have seen most of the sights. London is a very nice, grand and an expensive place. It has history, Royal majesty, traditional Black cabs and old-fashioned Red phone booths.

Kyle is the man

I wanted to write about Kyle MacDonald and his blog since one year. He stays in Montreal, Canada. On July 12th 2005, he started with a blog and a red paper clip. His goal - to own a house or an island or an island with a house. His modus operandi - Trade the red clip with any thing bigger or better and keep trading until he gets his house. And for this purpose,he is willing to travel anywhere in the world - he will even come to your house if you make an offer he can't refuse.

Initially, I thought he was crazy. But, now after seeing the way he got his house, I am very impressed.

His story - he has traded the red clip with different people from different countries as below:

Red paper clip -> Fish-shaped pen
Fish-shaped pen -> doorknob with a funny face
doorknob -> stove
stove -> Red generator
Red generator -> Instant party (beer-keg)
Instant party -> Snowmobile
Snowmobile -> Paid trip to Yahk, British Columbia
Paid trip to Yahk -> 1995 Ford Diesel Van
Van -> Recording contract
Recording contract -> 1-year free rental apartment in Phoenix, Arizona.

After 14 trades and within 9 months, he has managed to get a 1-year rental apartment in Phoenix in exchange of just a small red insignificant paper clip.

Once in a while, someone or the other comes up with such a simple yet extraordinary idea that it leaves everyone thinking "Wow!

Life finds a way

Atacama Desert in Chile is the driest place on earth. Parts of Atacama Desert haven't seen a drop of rain since record keeping began. All other desert life we know of, requires at least occasional rain or fog to supply water, but this region of the Atacama has neither. It's almost total lack of water seemed to be an insuperable barrier to life. Inspite of all this, it's a shock to learn some life forms do exist and more than a millioon people live there. Although rain rarely falls on the Atacama's coastline, a dense fog known as camanchaca is abundant. The fog nourishes plant communities called lomas, isolated islands of vegetation that can contain a wide variety of species, from cactuses to ferns. Human residents take advantage of the camanchaca and found a way to generate water from fog. The people there are aptly called as fog-catchers.

Recently, researchers found evidence of photosynthesis deep within the ocean. They found a bacterium that is the first photosynthetic organism that doesn't live off sunlight but from the dim light coming from hydrothermal vents nearly 2,400 meters deep in the ocean. The bacteria apparently live in the razor thin interface between the extremely hot water coming from a flange vent and the very cold water surrounding it. This is startling in the sense that you do not expect to find photosynthesis in a region of the world that is so completely dark.

The Most Powerful Volcanic Eruption of the 20th Century occured on 1912 in Novarota, Alaska. Enormous quantities of hot, glowing pumice and ash were ejected from Novarupta destroying all life in its path. Lushgreen forest was changed to a barren land filled with ash. The landscape is slowly recovering now. You can see life starting to grow in the form of small green sprouts.The soil there is full of ash and it has no nitrogen. Nitrogen is essential for plants to grow. The rocks there gathers nitrogen from atmosphere and deposits that in the soil, thereby enabling the plant growth.

These are the examples of life in extreme environments.This shows that there is this ability of humans/organisms to survive and live in areas that we wouldn't have imagined possible, and that life is much stronger than what we realized.

It's just amazing to see how life finds a way!!