Thursday challenge – Ripples within Ripples

Its been ages since I took up a Thursday Challenge post. Thanks to Ash (of Krishnaleela fame), who kindly mentioned it on FB (actually, ahem, she said she found my blog thrown up on Google when she looked up Thursday challenge .. He he 🙂 talk about ‘cheap thrills’ :lol:), I was motivated to try it again.

So, this week’s theme is ‘LIQUID’. I just took these pictures the other day, because I found it fascinating to see – Ripples WITHIN ripples 🙂

Ripples within ripples! - A shot of the river Thames

On closer look, I found that the ripples were being caused by rain water leaking from the train tracks that ran overground, just above the river 🙂 How beautiful is that!!!!

The whole picture!

And on that note, Happy Thursday folks. Can’t wait for Friday evening, as this week has been manic, with the weather touching 24 degrees, which is ‘HOT’ by London standards!

Thursday Challenge – TC 4

(Apologies to my FB friends, this is going to be a repeat!!)

I should have waited until today, to post the autumn pictures! For that is exactly what this week’s Thursday Challenge is all about!!!

 

A fascinating path of leaves across the river!!

 

 

My all-time favourite - Glorious autumn!!!

Live Death

Innumerable homes in London are built on the banks of the river Thames. Every weekend, we see lines of middle-aged men seated patiently by the river, with a fishing rod in hand. They just sit there from morning till noon, calm, serene and absolutely content (atleast, that’s the way it seems).

Once the Brat actually went up to an elderly gentleman and asked him ‘Excuse me, Mr.Fisherman, can you teach me how to fish?’ To which the old man gave him a wry look and said ‘I’ve been here all day, and haven’t caught a single fish!‘. The brat didn’t get the irony ofcourse 😉 but it was funny!

Last Sunday, there was this much awaited SALE (:-)) at NeXt. So as soon as I woke up, I grabbed my purse and headed to the mall 😉 Knight in shining armour declared I was ‘official'(ly crazy). But then, the stores had all opened by 5:30 am, and on the high street, serpentine queues would have formed that early!! Technically, I was running late by almost 3 hours!!

Anyway, I digress. So as I crossed this little bridge across my house, I saw two Chinese guys apparently fishing in the river. ‘What a waste of time, they aren’t going to catch anything here!’ I thought to myself. But suddenly one of the guys jumped excitedly. He had caught a fish!! It was a nice silvery one, and not small by any means. Not too big either. From where I was watching, it seemed to be just a little bigger than the size of a palm.

I was quite excited for them! In the last six years here, I have never seen anybody actually catching a fish 🙂

But what followed after that, busted my bubble of joy 😦 The fish started jumping about, obviously struggling to get back into the water. I felt a little sorry for the fish. And then, while one guy tried to hold the fish down to the ground, the other guy took out his camera and took a video recording 😦 That was when I felt sick at the pit of my stomach.

This has nothing to do with being a vegetarian (which I am) or a non-vegetarian (which I used to be). I don’t wish to discuss ethics/morality/vaues in being or not being a vegetarian.

This is beyond that. It is about some creature that was alive and kicking a minute ago, but struggling now, to simply breathe and live.

And more importantly, this is about how someone can derive pleasure out of watching it die 😦 😦 😦 I don’t understand this.

The joys of a shopaholic (55-er)

‘Going shopping!!!’ she exclaimed.

It was a good two hours when she returned. She was beaming. Loaded with shopper bags from the ASDA sale. Jeans, Perfume, Shoes!!!

She sipped her coffee languorously, savouring the breeze that blew over the Thames.

Her smile suddenly disappeared. It was her neighbour. Returning home with dainty bags from L’occitane.