Gibraltar Airport : A wonder

Gibraltar Airport is one of the few Class A airports in the world and it has the distinction of being the the closest airport to the city that it serves, being only 500 metres from Gibraltar's city centre. (NOTE: For those who dont know, Gibraltar is a small sweet country near Spain )


The airport here is owned by the Ministry of Defence for use by the Royal Air Force as RAF Gibraltar. Civilian operators use the airport; currently the only scheduled flights operate to the United Kingdom and Spain.


The airport was constructed during World War II , when Gibraltar was an important naval base for the British. Originally opened in 1939, it was only an emergency airfield for the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm. However, Spain also had a great hold in this airport since it claimed to be in its soil. On September 18 2006 the Córdoba Accord was signed by the United Kingdom, the Kingdom of Spain and Gibraltar. This ended all discriminatory restrictions on civilian flights to Gibraltar Airport, including the prohibition of flights over Spanish soil, and exclusion of Gibraltar from all EU agreements on air transport, allowing civilian flights from all nations into Gibraltar Airport.

So that's a brief history of the place. Now the wonder here is ... wait ... see for yourself ...

And from the top ....

FWD: Vanilla ice cream

Well, as part the geek gang, we keep receiving some nice forwards which are you know worth keeping safe ... So just thought of collecting the good Junk in my blog...

A complaint was received by the Pontiac Division of General Motors:

'This is the second time I have written to you, and I don't blame you for not answering me, because I sounded crazy, but it is a fact that we have a tradition in our family of Ice-Cream for dessert after dinner each night, but the kind of ice cream varies so, every night, after we've eaten, the whole family votes on which kind of ice cream we should have and I drive down to the store to get it. It's also a fact that I recently purchased a new Pontiac and since then my trips to the store have created a problem..... You see, every time I buy a vanilla ice-cream, when I start back from the store my car won't start. If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car starts just fine. I want you to know I'm serious about this question, no matter how silly it sounds "What is there about a Pontiac that makes it not start when I get vanilla ice cream, and easy to start whenever I get any other kind?"

The Pontiac President was understandably skeptical about the letter, but sent an Engineer to check it out anyway. The latter was surprised to be greeted by a successful, obviously well educated man in a fine neighborhood. He had arranged to meet the man just after dinner time, so the two hopped into the car and drove to the ice cream store. It was vanilla ice cream that night and, sure enough, after they came back to the car, it wouldn't start. The Engineer returned for three more nights. The first night, they got chocolate. The car started. The second night, he got strawberry. The car started. The third night he ordered vanilla. The car failed to start. Now the engineer, being a logical man, refused to believe that this man's car was allergic to vanilla ice cream. He arranged, therefore, to continue his visits for as long as it took to solve the problem. And toward this end he began to take notes: He jotted down all sorts of data: time of day, type of gas uses, time to drive back and forth etc. In a short time, he had a clue: the man took less time to buy vanilla than any other flavor. Why? The answer was in the layout of the store. Vanilla, being the most popular flavor, was in a separate case at the front of the store for quick pickup. All the other flavors were kept in the back of the store at a different counter where it took considerably longer to check out the flavor.

Now, the question for the Engineer was why the car wouldn't start when it took less time.

Eureka - Time was now the problem - not the vanilla ice cream!!!!

The engineer quickly came up with the answer: "vapor lock". It was happening every night; but the extra time taken to get the other flavors allowed the engine to cool down sufficiently to start. When the man got vanilla, the engine was still too hot for the vapor lock to dissipate.

Even crazy looking problems are sometimes real and all problems seem to be simple only when we find the solution, with cool thinking.

The elephant funda...

I was just going through a video which Sreeja forwarded me early in the morning. It’s about an elephant running to a jeep to crash it down when the driver switches on the head lights bright enough to scare the poor animal!!!
Elephant stories are very interesting to read and I being from Kerala have a natural affection towards these gigantic species. Watching an elephant standing tall with its majestic posture adorned with all its jewels is something so royal that stays in your memories. A festival, what more to say, even a visit to Guruvayoor is not complete if you don’t spot an elephant nearby.
They are the heroes of all the festivals. They are kid's favorites. They will make your heads turn just by walking on the road.
Well, the reason why I started to write about elephants is that I remembered a similar incident which my dad’s friend - Yusuf Uncle mentioned once when he came to our house.
He was a Loco Pilot and was in duty once in the Coimbatore to Palakkad road. In this route is the dense forest of Walayar which is home for quite a number of wild elephants.
It was night time when the Goods train with 65 bogies was crossing Walayar. From a long distance Uncle could see our hero watching the bright lights of the engine. Either it was scared or it had enough courage to face the brightly lit enemy that it didn’t budge from the centre of the track. Uncle tried in vain all the possible methods to move the animal – he put the headlights into high beam and also started blowing the horn. He tried applying brakes but the air brake system in trains will take quite some time before it comes to a halt. Now it was too much for our hero to tolerate and it started attacking back. Nothing was in uncle's hands now and he had to witness the train pushing the elephant forward and it in turn relentlessly resisting it. After some while the train came to a halt and by this time our poor elephant had already developed some wounds in its legs.
He didn’t block the way for a long time and lifted himself and started moving on accepting the defeat as a hero. Uncle was left with a mixed emotion of terror and guilt.
I have heard from many other railway staff that it pains the most when you have to witness the train running down an animal than any humans for the animals like cattle who aimlessly wander through the railway tracks will be amused to see the lights being flashed on them and will keep looking at it with great excitement lest will they be aware of the impending danger. Humans on the other hand would be completely conscious and would have gathered enough mental vigor to end their life – the very act which demands no compassion.

Celebrations

The idle mind is a devils workshop and I guess mine has turned into one. life is monotonous to a good extend and there is nothing interesting happening in work. So I go the way life takes me without much plans for tomorrow.
The above 3 lines may sound like I am one depressed soul roaming in a big city like hundreds. I'am just bored, tired of doing the same things over and over again.

For people to be happy, there should be something to look forward to.Common set of ambitions that rule anyone starting a career will be to earn money, get a house, car, get married, have children and settle down. No disputes, I myself have all these.
But there are some short term things that really drives your day. Like going home after a long gap, your pals birthday, planning for a friends wedding,gifts, much awaited outing, meeting an old buddy...
Well as Rejin told me the other day, my blog sound like the silly fantasies of a stupid girl. I am with you Rejin. These are the traits mostly seen in girls. And according to me these are the things which keeps you going.
OK...coming back to what I was saying. April is a very active month in my calender.Lot of birthdays...which includes mine too.Now that explains why the people with same sunsign go together.

To start with my sis
She turns 20 this year.Its difficult to realise that she has crossed her teens.I can feel to a good extend the anxiety of a parental heart - its strange!!! Ji, I wish you all the good fortune and happiness for the years to come. The most importand era your life starts here - All the best Molu

To my dad
Acha, prayers for your good health and happiness. Will do my best to wipe out those worry lines from your forehead !

To Seeja,
May this be the last birthday away from Akkru. May there be more poovars in the coming year. May the weigh scale and hospital visits stay under control.

To Nami,
Wishing you good health And hoping to hear a gr8 news !!!

To Divya D
Celebrate the last birthday of its kind to the fullest.

To Rejin
Wish you great luck in shares and also in finding someone to manage that !!!

To Sooraj,
Knowing you, Iam waiting for that news to come in with a very short notice.

These were just a set of birthdays, there are more ...

To Lakshmi and Arun
As you start to celebrate a new life of togetherness, wishing you all the wonderful moments that you have dreamed of.May the long wait end with bright colours paving way to new dreams...

To Divya B,
Wish you a great marriage and a superb life to follow that.

To Uncle and Aunty,
As you complete 30 years of companionship, wishing your togetherness to last forever.May the years that follow fill your heart and home with the warmth and happiness that you have always wanted.

To Sivakumar uncle and Jeejaunty: May this year bring good health and well-being to all at home and give a hundred reasons to rejoice and celebrate. Happy Anniversary !!!

April is indeed an eventful month for me!!!

RC Tragedy!!

Of all the treatments that I have undergone, (to those who are not aware I have had a bulk of my share in the past few months) I find the oral ones the most deadly. The last time when I said goodbye to my dentist back in my hometown, I had made a silent resolution that I will take proper care of my teeth and gums just to avoid visiting a dentist again.

So when I sensed that a cavity is comfortably growing in the left rear end of my mouth, I got ultra-alert!!! I was left with no choice - Prevention is better than cure and that thought made me immediately book an appointment with the nearby doc. I just thought that there will be a little patching up required and everything will be fine on track.

The doctor made me feel easy and had a close look at the hole. He had a bad news. In fact the worst that I could think of at that time, the inevitable - yes, you have guessed it right! its RCT. My mind raced thru a sudden flashback and reminded me of all the menace.

He just told me "Am sorry for this, it will be a little painful" - God!! Those three injections in my gums nearly took my life. The war had begun...

The ordeal of keeping your mouth wide open in the most awkward position for hours at a stretch is really something dreadful. You will get to see all deadly tiny needles going in and out of your mouth. This is after the initial groundwork of drilling and grinding. They say that your teeth will go numb and you won’t feel the pain. But these things have more to do with your emotional side. In the end, what they do is to kill your tooth, rip the nerve off, fill the hole with a needle, patch the remaining area with some metal kinda thing and finally put a neat ceramic crown on top and while all this is happening, you stay there fully conscious and helpless.

So moral of the story - Take good care of your teeth or else you are sure to have some great fun - on the unpleasant side!

Two mistakes in a week!

Firstly a big sorry to Mr. Bhagat for stealing his bestseller‘s title. As the header explains I found myself falling prey to silly stupid things, twice in a row.
As any Software Engineer, I didn’t have many plans for the weekend except to hang out with friends, wash tones of clothes, have good food and finally sleep all day. But this list was all that was needed to carry away my long awaited 48 hours of bliss.
I was pondering over the things to be done when I got a call from a friend of mine. In fact she was not just a friend, but the principal of a reputed school to whom I am obliged to in certain way. She called me to attend a business talk @ her school and wanted me to take my friends also. I thought and thought and felt like OK let me give this a chance. God knows… this might change my line of work as she claimed!!
I succeeded in convincing a friend of mine and both of us managed to get to the venue on time. But then we found only a handful people there. After waiting for almost an hour, the session started. The person who did the presentation looked somewhat odd. He looked awkward in his loosely stitched suit and came with a bundle of books on management. Since we didn’t have a hint of what he is gonna speak about, we patiently sat down to listen, constantly monitoring our wrist watches. He talked and talked and talked about various growth prospects in business and tempted, rather tried to lure the gathering to acquire lump sum through “Smart business strategies”. Needless to say, he had enough case studies and examples. After another one hour of beating round the bush, he came to the point. He was to talk about Chain marketing and guess what - it was about AMWAY. God! All that we could think of that time was a reason to get out!!!. To add to the comedy the guy started playing with numbers and started saying absurd facts. Thanks to my friend and thanks to her short temper I didn’t have to do anything. She just walked out of the hall. Now what do I do? Hiding all inhibitions I stood up, passed a stupid comment to my dear Principal and followed my friend. The rest of our day was spent brooding over our stupidity.
Just after 2 days, I got another phone call. Why is that all stupid things start with phone? This time it was different. The person on the other end was very excited and for me the call also was exciting initially. She said that I have been selected on a lucky draw and that I have won many prizes – one holiday with family in Singapore, one Kitchen ware worth 4000, two days stay in their 5 star resorts and so on. I never knew I was this lucky and then we talked for another half an hour regarding her club and various tempting offers. I came jumping to my ODC and told them the exciting news. Was I funny?? I didn’t know… I got confused coz all them were laughing their hearts out. It had only to do with the name – Country Club. Well I realized that it was not just me. In fact I was the last among the crowd to receive such a call! This was another way to tempt people to take membership which almost will cost the entire offer!

Gastroenteritis

Ailments in whichever form is not very comfortable. One will thank god for good health only when inflicted by any disease. Dictionary puts disease as an abnormal medical condition.
Truly said ! It can be a sprain, headache, tooth pain, cold n cough, running nose or even GAS.

I have seen big uncles complain of Gastric disorders when they run their fingers over their huge round tummy. Also after a heavy and sumptuous meal when they take the luxury to release those trapped bubbles with a deep sigh !!!

A day full of oil and potatoes and I find myself in great discomfort. For those who have not experienced it, let me say - Its exactly not as simple as they say.
Its like some ball is trapped in your throat.Like you feel heavily dehydrated but just wont be able quench your thirst even after gulping bottles over bottles of water. You feel like puking to get rid of everything but nothing comes out.

I struggled with it for one whole night and finally in the morning I decided to pay a visit to our medical center in the campus.

So next time you eat more of potatoes, just think of all theeeeeeeeeeeeese