I spent the past few days at Kuredu resort. I have not been to a resort for years now and this was certainly a good relaxation getaway. The resort promotes "no shoes, no mobiles" and had only one little (expensive) cybercafe for internet. Thank god for the presence of Dhiraagu GPRS, otherwise I'd have been left dead in the water with no internet access. That can be very scary, indeed. The island the resort was on was quite big in comparison to most Maldivian islands I'd say. It took me a good hour to walk much of it. The resort seemed to have a large number of Maldivian employees and they were all (surprisingly) a very helpful and smily bunch.

The lagoon surrounding the resort was rich with manta rays and baby sharks. In fact, one of the most memorable moments at the resort was seeing the emergence of four large black manta rays swimming together in unison under the well lit lagoon surrounding the jetty protruding into the sea. The elegance of their movements and the ease with they seemed to glide in the water was just amazing. Additionally, the side of the island facing the famous Maldivian sea known as "baraveli kandu" sure seemed to be abundunt with "baraveli". It was quite amazing to watch baby baraveli tag along with the mama/papa baraveli along the beach line. "Baraveli" is called "hermit crab" in English and are a very interesting animal. My brother brought home three big hermit crabs late 2004 and they've lived in our house since then, subsisting by themselves in the "kashi veli" sand that texturizes mom's home garden/veranda!

Here are a few photos of the resort...

I am back to Reading from Manchester after spending time with my girlfriend since the exams ended. I met a few new people and some old school buddies and even had a handful of memorable moments.

I am on a mini break away in Manchester at the moment.

My exams finished peacefully except for one day when I absent-mindedly walked over to the wrong examination hall - thankfully, a short sprint had me at the correct hall in time. Anyway, no university obligations for another week, after which I have some compulsory sessions in preparation for a mobile robot we will be constructing next year as part of our cybernetics module. I am really looking forward to that!

TV series and movies frequent my daily schedule now. I watched X-Men 3 recently. It wasn't too bad a movie I guess, atleast I didn't fall asleep like the last time I hit the cinema and watched Silent Hill which turned out to be total disappointment - but then, that's just my opinion. I watched "Road to Guantanamo" last nite - the film is based on a real life account of a few who were (wrongly) imprisoned in Guantanamo by the Americans. I've also devoted a whole load of time numbing my brain with a couple of TV series since the exams - namely, House M.D. seasons 1 & 2 ( i liikkeee), Joey seasons 1 & 2 (funny, sort of), Sleeper Cell season 1 (nice!).

Easter holidays went off quite quickly - the five weeks off university that I got surely seemed to whizz past anyway. I attended the MSA Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) 2006 in Bristol from 14th-17th April. The new website for MSA that I worked on got launched at the meeting. The EGM event, which was filled with various activities and spread over 4 days, was quite fun!

It is back to university now and exams are looming right around the corner - starts end of May to be more precise. Grrr. I have got a load of assignments and project works to hand in over the next few weeks as well. Wish me luck

A few photos from past weeks...

The sun granted us a cheerfully sunny day all throughout today. The wind had, meanwhile, taken a break from moving bone-chilling cold air around and let people go out without turning into a popsicle. The day looked so good that I just had to go for a walk - I haven't seen this much sunshine for almost 5 months now! (Err, that and the need to stock up milk from the convenience store up the road. )

Here are some shots from my "walk".

The winter is almost over and despite the weather forecaster's warning that this would be one of the colder winters, the temperatures have been surprisingly high. It only went sub zero a few times and never for too long. Snow never fell as more than a slight drizzle of white wispy flakes. It is saddening to see a winter end without much snow.

Now, some snow shots from yesterday!

These photos were taken a few nights back when I went around Bristol city with a few mates. They looked so trippy that I just had to share them. If only real life looked as colorful as this, always (sigh).