My Birthday in UK

November 18th is my birthday. On November 18th 2008 it was my second birthday which I celebrated out of my country. The first one was to celebrate out of country was in UK 2007, which was celebrated in Leeds with one of my senior colleague named Anantha. This time I celebrated my B’day in Sunderland with 3 of my colleagues who were working with me. It was yet another normal celebration. That night we went to dinner to an Indian Restaurant called Blue Cobra, which was not an Indian Hotel but a Bangladeshi hotel. The food was not to the expected taste. But it was OK. Later we came back to the guest house and took rest.

Diwali celebrations in Leicester!!!

Finally it was the Diwali Day in UK. First time I was not celebrating Diwali in India. I was missing my parents. People in Leicester used to celebrate Diwali in a grand way. Leicester is 15 miles away from Hinckley where I was staying. On Tuesday 28th of October 2008, Diwali was celebrated in a massive way. I traveled from Hinckley to Leicester in a local train and reached train station from there I took a taxi to the place where the fireworks took place. It was in belgrave road. Because of the festival a bridge and the complete belgrave road was closed. Where ever u see there were people enjoying the festival. The belgrave raod was completely filled with the Asian community. I was able to people dancing, chanting Hare Ram, Hare Krishna, there were people selling kids playing stuffs on the roadside. It was looking like a typical Indian street with festive mood filled in. I had to go to Leicester, as my friends were not able to accompany me. There was a ground nearby to Belgrave road, where there was cultural events showing. Lots of kids took part in the event dancing. The crowd enjoyed the show with enthu and enjoyed. But the day was a terrible day, because the temperature out was in minus around -3 degree. Even in that cold climate people were gathered in thousands. Finally at 8:30 PM the firework began. It was amazing and fantastic. It went for around 20-25 mints. There are some pictures and videos of this event. View and enjoy!!!

First Weekend in Sunderland, UK

This was my first weekend experience in Sunderland, North East England. The very first thing I had to do on this weekend was to search a house to stay, since I was staying in a B&B. I booked a taxi to go to view the house, which the agent had told which was situated in Bourn park road. But the taxi driver could not find the address, so he thought it might be Barnes park road and he dropped me there. But it was totally a mess. Then the agent called me to find where I am, and then I explained him what happened. The agent was a nice guy called Chris, came in search of me and finally took me to the places he wanted to show. I was convinced with one of the apartment which he had shown. Later another agent called me to show their property. The agent was a lady, she was huge in size but a nice women. She showed couple of property, but which I did not liked them. Then the agent had to fix a lock in another area, where there was one more apartment but which was far for my office. Anyways she took me there and we viewed the apartment and then we repaired the lock and finally she dropped me in the city center, it was a nice experience on that day. In the mean time, I had visited one of the letting offices, where she had given me an appointment to view another house. I took a bus and reached the property, where I found the owner was friendly and we came to a deal between us. This is was the story which happened on Saturday.

On Sunday, I had not much of work, so walked to the city center, where the city was very quite in the morning 10.30. From there I took a bus to SEABURN, where I could see the first beach in UK. It was a nice place to see. Roamed there for a while and returned back to city center, where I finished my lunch in a Indian hotel, the food was not of great. After my lunch I spent time in roaming in the shopping complex. Then I bought a Data card (Broadband) which was 100 pounds, but it was worth buying because it had a features’ of 12GB download for 1 year. After which I spent most of the time in roaming in the bus to view the city and finally reached B&B.

Experience in UK

Hi,

I am Sudhakar Manoharan. New to this blog. First time i am trying to explore this kind of tool. Trying to learn new things.

I travelled to Sunderland, which is in North East England on 11th october 2008. This was the fourth visit to UK. My first 3 visits in UK were to Coventry, Hinckley. I am pretty much used to those places. Sunderland which is nearby to New Castle. This time i had to travel from Bangalore to Mumbai. From Bangalore, my flight was at 9.30 pm. I reached mumbai around 11.50 pm. There i had to wait for 4-5 hours. I landed in Domestic airport, from there they took me to International airport by a Bus. To go in that bus, we need to take a token from the counter there. Then reached international airport at 12.45 pm. There i met my old colleague Johnson, my Ex PM who was traveling to US. Had a chat with for a while and then moved to Check In. Finished my security check - in and waited in the lounge for 2-3 hours. From mumbai i flew to dubai, which reached at 6.10 am. From dubai i flew to New castle and landed there at 1.00 pm. From New castle i catched a taxi to reach Sunderland, which costed me around 45 pounds. I reached to my B&B, which i had booked from bangalore. The B&B was "Acron Guest House" which was situated in Mowbray Road. For one night the B&B costs around 23 pounds. Which was worth stay. They provide the breakfast and very good hospitality and excellent service. I had a very good sleep there and got up early in the morning around 6.00 am. Got ready and booked a taxi to go to the office, which is situated in Mooreside park. Unfortunately the taxi driver landed me in a different location. From there i had to walk around 15 Min's to the actual office.

Once I reached Acron guest house, I dumped my stuff in the room. The room I stayed was in 2nd floor. I need to carry my 27 kilo weight suitcase right top and settled it. Took around 10-15 mins rest and went out to top up my mobiles. I somehow found a place nearby to the guest house, by walk it took me around 15-20 mins to go there. I top up my mobiles and bought some groceries. Then I went to city centre which was 25 min walk. Roamed in the city center and explored what is in the city. Then went in to SUBWAY and parceled a chicken subway and purchased some daily required stuff from the shops there. Finally reached room and had a good sleep.

Finding a house in UK is the toughest job. I am still reaching for a house that suits my requirements. I would have called more than 50 guys. Yet to find a house to the best & economical. I had to search in internet to find the house. There are lot of websites which shows the vacancies. The websites are like rightmove.co.uk, gumtree, findproperty and many more. Initially we need to search in website and then call the letting agent to arrange for a view of the house. Then if we are interested in the house, we have the pay the letting agent an amount of 120-200 pounds. Apart from this we need to give him the income proof, identity proof and bond to be prepared for either 6 months or 1 year.