MBA not for me...

Today marks the last day of a 3-week long graduate training program at an investment bank which for obvious reasons I am going to refer to as IB. After 2 weeks of mandatory training, I went into work energised and relieved to be back at my desk. Not that I did not enjoy the training, but I was not particularly enjoying the strict 9-5 schedule. Unfortunately my relief was very short lived when my manager announced I should go on further training on a subject which I thought was entirely irrelevant to my work. To be perfectly honest, in the past 3 years of my professional career I have never been sure of what I wanted to do or what I enjoyed doing. I find it very hard to cook up an answer to the wretched question "where do you see yourself in 5 years". At least my boss knew what I should be doing. Hence without any hesitation I agreed to go on the three day course on Project planning, analysis and control.

Just three days of droning lectures and pointless case studies forced me into making a very important decision in life, that I would never pursue an MBA degree. So far, all the management lectures I have attended have been extremely vague and theoretical. I do not think I can go into work thinking "I am so excited about performing risk analysis on this project. I am going to do an amazing job at it by following the 7 steps outlined in the ****** guide". To me it all seems a bit of b***s***. Risk analysis is vital, but the idea of doing it by drawing decision trees seems silly from my perspective. Nevertheless I passed the assessment with flying colours!

There was one aspect of the training that I thoroughly enjoyed. Being the only girl, not to mention the only Indian girl amongst 10 Irish guys with the thickest accents I have come across was fun! There were times when my mind went blank seeing one of them talk so fast. It made me wonder if they were still speaking English or some unknown Irish language! They were so amused that I found it difficult understanding their accent. But after a day of hearing them crack jokes, I can now proudly state that I am actually able to laugh with them and not just stare blankly at them. I also loved their interesting names some of which are Dermot, Rory, Fergal, Damien and Cormac. After seeing only Johns and Toms everywhere, it was fun to hear such innovative names! At least I took something out of the course, not to mention that now I know a thing or two about Ireland. Apparently Ireland has only one climatic season through the year (Discovered from one of our discussions on weather which the Britons love to crib about!).

Leeds Castle

My routine every Friday evening has been 

• Search for interesting days out from London
• Get tired of looking
• Give up
• End up going to Oxford street!

Hence I decided to document some of the interesting places I go to during my weekends (In the tag "London days out"), the number one on that list being Leeds Castle

Contrary to the name itself, the castle is not in the West Yorkshire city of Leeds. Instead it is in the county of Kent. After much frustration of wasting a number of weekends, we decided to make an impulse driving trip to the white cliffs of Dover. Just over a 45 minute drive from London Docklands, on the way to Dover is located the Leeds castle, one of the best castles I have been to so far. It totally made me wonder what all the fuss surrounding the Edinburgh castle being the top tourist destination is all about. While the Edinburgh castle does not have much to offer apart from a couple of walls and a good top view of the city, the entry fee I felt was not worth it. Whereas the Leeds castle makes a superb family day out with acres of beautiful parkland where the kids can enjoy and you get to see history nicely preserved and displayed.  On the two occasions I have been to the castle there have been good entertainments in the grounds, once a garden sale and once an ancient game on horses being enacted. It is also good fun seeing all the rooms inside the castle maintained from the past, the most beautiful ones being the library with book shelves shooting from the floor to the ceiling and the tastefully decorated dining room. The parkland is well maintained with lots of flower plants and trees and I even got to see a black swan and a few white peacocks! Parking space is ample, the entry ticket though on the pricey side, gives you unlimited entry through the year and the castle offers fantastic photo opportunities. Overall Leeds castle is a lovely place well worth visiting on a nice sunny day.

The white cliffs of Dover is exactly what it says, white cliffs facing the sea. From the top of the cliffs you can see the French coast and the innumerable ships crossing the English channel carrying freight, passengers, cars, buses etc. I recommend visiting this area if you have enough energy left from the trip to the Leeds castle.

Cornwall

Cornwall is the southern-most and probably the western-most county in England. It has some of the most stunning landscapes and unspoilt country side I have seen so far. Thanks to the royal wedding, we had a 4 day weekend and made a swift decision to do a short trip to Cornwall.

This is my second time visiting this county and I was more than excited to go back to the white sandy beaches, blue-green ocean and amazing views of the Atlantic. Although New Quay is the most popular tourist destination in Cornwall, it is one of those nice cities you can stay at and drive around the rest of Cornwall. But for two people without a driving license, relying on public transport was the only option. We wanted to stay as south as possible, since most of the tourist attractions in Cornwall lie down south. Our search for a nice location boiled down to St Ives and Penzance. St Ives is a small touristic town with lots of beaches whereas Penzance is a more commercial town with good rail links from London King's Cross. We were more inclined towards St Ives after reading about its vast stretches of beautiful beaches. But our hunt for accommodation in St Ives proved futile since everyone visiting the south end of Cornwall stayed in this rather small beach town. After much searching, we managed to find an accommodation at a farm house a few miles from the Penzance city centre.

We reached Penzance and were kindly offered a ride home by Terry, the landlord of the Lower Treave farmhouse we were going to stay at. We passed just 3 or 4 farmhouses during the entire 20 minute drive and each one of them was such a gem. With their own chickens, horses, potted plants and pretty country cottages it looked like the most peaceful way to lead one's life. After settling in, we had to rush to catch the bus to Land's End.Unlike in London where trains and buses run every two minutes, in Penzance there were only 3 buses running per day! So one will have to wait at least half a day before getting on the next bus. Luckily for us the bus stop was just up the driveway. The view from the stop was so beautiful, majestic horses in the farm surrounded by greenery and mountains, I could have waited for the bus forever. We waited 10 minutes and the bus had not arrived yet. Being so used to buses being punctual by the second, we got a bit worried we might have missed our ride. But luckily we hadn't! I recommend to those using the bus service in Cornwall to sit on the top deck. We promptly did and the next stop was at Sennen Cove. From the top, the view of the cove was absolutely brilliant. The beach looked so inviting that I immediately wanted to get off the bus. But we decided to control the urge and do Lands end first.

Lands end is the southernmost tip of England with awesome views over the Atlantic ocean. A number of cycle races happen between here and John'O Groats which is the northernmost point of England. For a while we were just standing on the edge of the cliff looking at the vast blue ocean. There is an RSPB centre, more like a shack with some enthusiastic bird watchers who were more than willing to lend us one of their ultra-powerful binoculars we used to view the dilapidated lighthouse and some sea birds chilling on it. I instantly fell in love with their work and signed up for a membership program, which came with a glossy sea life book with amazing pictures of birds and sea life. From Lands end one can go on a number of picturesque coastal walks and obviously we decided to go on the one leading to Sennen Cove. Soaked the beauty of the cove while enjoying a delicious icecream topped with cornish whipped cream and fish & chips! That brought an end to our first day in Cornwall. We took the bus back to the farmhouse from the cove.

Day 2 of this trip is what I was most looking forward to. We planned a day trip to the Scilly isles. Isles of Scilly is a part of the British isles about 28 miles south of Lands end famous for its clear water beaches, big houses with well kept gardens and abundant sea life. We took the Sky bus to St Mary's island from the Lands end airport. It truly was a small bus in the sky, the smallest flight I have been on from the smallest airport ever. We were 8 passengers in total and it felt like all of were crammed into the cockpit. The island was filled with pretty houses with beautiful gardens. It was a good change from the hustle and bustle in Penzance. Everything seemed very laid back and it is an ideal retirement place literally away from the rest of the world. We took a stroll along the streets of St Mary's island. We then treated ourselves to coffee and more cornish ice cream while sitting on a sea facing bench with not a worry in the world. We then decided to go on the wildlife watching cruise to the eastern isles. It was a beautiful boat trip, made us wonder if all of the land masses scattered across the ocean were a part of England ages ago. Spotted a few birds and got off at St Martin's island wondering why we had not spotted any seals yet. After the boat left us at the island, we discovered much to our foolishness that we should have stayed on the boat to continue on the cruise. It was just the two of us on the endless white sandy beach with amazing mountain views. How often in life do we get stranded like this?! So we decided to make the most of it, had some lunch on the beachfront and played frisbee until the boat came back to the island. Since we so badly wanted to see the seals, we hopped on a glass-floored boat to go seal spotting. It was an amazing experience to see the vegetation on the sea bed and shoals of fish whizz past the boat. Finally we saw seals lazing on the rocks, every now n then a head popping out of water. I love watching wild animals in their natural habitat and this was a fantastic experience.  After the cruise, we went back to the Cornish mainland on a cruise ship which left us at Penzance train station.

The next day we decided to take it easy and visited just the Minack theatre and the adjacent Porthcurno beach. The weather wasn't so great and it was a bit of a struggle getting back to the farmhouse. We decided to stay in the rest of the day. On the final day of our trip, we went around the garden and the rest of the farmhouse and left to the train station after a nice goodbye to Jill and Terry! But we sure made a mental note to come back to Cornwall when one of us gets a driving license. Overall cornwall is an extremely beautiful place to visit during the summer. I suggest 3-4 days as being just enough to get the most out of the county. For anyone with a car, I also recommend visiting the Eden project on the way back to London.