The light at the end of the tunnel

It is the last day at UBS for 3 guys in CDR today: Martin Radcliffe, Bright Paramveer, and Manjun Rao. We have a lunch for Bright and Manjun at Mitchell's Fish Market, but Martin of course is a bit far away to come so all the guys and gals in London are giving him a good farewell there. He deserves it, after being in UBS for over 29 years!

We will all miss their smiles and optimism, their beer drinking abilities, their witty comments, and their help and cooperation in all the projects they worked on with us.

Have a great life guys, and all the best wherever you go.

michael, victoria, sruthi, albert, leo, manjun, alok, bright, and nabil

Clever Sex

Lester suggests where we should go for our Thursday night outing. He gets to choose - its only fair since he was let go yesterday :(

He picks Dragonfly, a cool restaurant and lounge with a wonderfully relaxed atmosphere, and quite tasty food. We did Rack 'n' Roll last time, and all agree that we need a change from foosball.

The whole crowd is there, Albert, Leo, Nabil, Sruthi, Lester of course, Alok (he actually came this time!), Tawanda (Alok's new colleague), Manju, Bright, and his carpool buddy Sam.

The place is amazing, plush furnishings, gothic motifs, detailed stonework and carved woodwork. The ornate dragonflies hanging from the rich burgundy velvet drapes add a nice touch.

Nabil is into red wine, Sruthi is drinking some sort of plum martini, I'm having a mojito, everyone is consuming a variety of different cocktails and liquors - most of us have seconds and get very happy. The conversation flows freely, but you wouldn't want to take some of it out of context, or it might sound very suspicious. So here goes:

"Nabil is the best blower in CDR."

"I'm having problems with a vibrator - how do I get it working properly?", asks Lester inncocently. "Let's ask the expert, Sruthi!", everyone says in unison.

Nabil stands up and makes yet another announcement: "Leo shares his towel..." (don't even want to think about that one)

"You want it right now?!" demands Bright (whatever could he be talking about?)

"Banging goes with any alcohol!"

Bright gives us his words of wisdom about how gender and intelligence mix:
A smart man plus a smart woman is a great life;
a smart man and a dumb woman is pregnancy;
a dumb man and a smart woman is an affair;
a dumb man and a dumb woman is a marriage.

We all agreed whole-heartedly :)

Half way through, a live light jazz band starts playing swinging music, adding a lot to the atmosphere. A fantastic night out, we all enjoy ourselves immensely.

"Blow out those candles Nabil!" But he surpises us by extinguishing them with one swift wave of his hand.

Bangers and Mash

Rack'n'Roll, a cheesy dive not far from work with an only half-decent bar (no red bull, but at least they have smirnoff ice) and way too many pool tables. Its only redeeming grace being 2 foosball tables. Bright, Manju, Albert and I turn up tonight to find Leo and Lester already there, so we all order a drink and some medium spicy wings, and start playing. After a couple of games Sruthi turns up as well and joins in the fun.

Bright spins the foosball men with raw power, Albert goes for the cunning corner shots, Sruthi sneaks it past the defence, Manju encourages the ball with "yes, yes, yes!" It's been a while for us all, so we take a little while to warm up and get good again.

"Bang that ball!"
"You really get hot and sweaty when you bang it hard!"
"Go on, ram it in fast!"
"Bang it straight into the hole!"
"Everyone is banging now! Woot!"

Man, did we have a good time or what! High fives all around!! :)))



And the dessert afterwards (tiramisu, pistachio gelato, and chocolate mousse) was just icing on the cake :p

Colorful Cocks

In India they color baby chicks, by injecting the eggs with dye. It doesn't hurt the chicks, and the kids love it. It lasts for only a couple of weeks, until the new feathers grow out.

So instead of just little cute yellow ones, you have little cute yellow, pink, green, and purple ones. "Chicks?" asks Bright facetiously, "you mean, just the female ones?".

"No, no, not at all" replies Sruthi, 'they color the, what do you call them, um, the cocks as well."

Well, I don't know, but for some reason I just can't get the image of glow-in-the-dark green condoms out of my head. As the founder of that particular company said, "We would like to give the phrase 'rise and shine' a whole new meaning." :-)