Budday Bash updates!!

I know am too late on updating this budday bash but damn work and my newly found *ahem ahem* is keeping me busy 24*7 ;-) LOL

Anyway here goes the updates

May 7th

I started getting calls from my sleepy friends who couldn't wait till the clock struck 12 or the sick ones and also the working ones to wish me sooner rather than later on my special day. I had to manage the phone calls and it was damn difficult having two phones :P *i know am blowing my own trumpet, but hey!! I was the princess for the day :) *
I was on call till 2 AM and then forced myself to sleep , as I had to work on my budday *I know Sad :P)

May 8th ...the D DAY!!

The had a wonderful start as my mom hugged me and wished me :-D *the wonders a mothers hug can do for an already special day...WOW I was already on cloud 9 !!*

and then a few of my friends called me before i could get ready for work *it made me late for work but what the heck :P*

Then I went to work and CUT A BLACK FOREST CAKE with my colleagues and had cake smeared all over me * good to know, i can still be treated like a kid :-D*

PS: the cake vanished in thin air before i could have a third helping ;-) :-D :-P

And then I had to wrap up my work by 12:30 and rush back home for my second budday bash with my family, in between calls and work, i somehow managed to get out by 12:30 and reached home by 1 .

Drools my Black forest Cake !! =p~



At home there was another huge black forest cake waiting for me , i even had a tiara hehe....adorning my tiara to emphasis that am a true princess LOL i walked triumphantly to cut my cake with an audience in the number of THREE haha , it was just my mom, my bro and my another BRO RAM ...it was so chweet and simple, i cut the cake again and took my family out for lunch and MAN was I hungry , i hogged like a pig.

Look at the princess ;-) :P



The sweetest family affair !! :)



The princess finally poses...hows my tiara by the way *Ahem Ahem* :P




after this I and ram went out and bought myself my SUNGLASSES back *that a long story will explain later hehe* and then started packing for my adventurous romantic weekend ;-)

I spent some time with my family after long amidst my hectic work and felt very very happy :) then i left for my trip to the mangrove forest !!

May 9th

Here we are an hour away from the mangrove forest and I am too excited by the extension of my birthday to such a beautiful place. I know I cant explain the beauty of this place , so let me just try ...this place is like 3000 acres of backwater and the whole place is surrounded by beautiful trees which looks like huge gigantic shrubs and it is a marvel that these trees grow in salt water. we had to go boating in these waters for 4 hours to reach the beach where the water ends....and MANNNNNN that is the most beautiful beach I have ever seen so far. the sand was glittering ...and since not much people come here (as the only way to go there is by boat) it was isolated from human beings and clean and Perfect. I bought home some SAND , as i was too mesmerized by seeing such pure and glittering sand. and again the sand did not look like lumps as we normally see, but it looked like waves as the water keeps going in and out of the beach. Boating was simply a pleasure and worth sooo much , am glad i went here . especially the place where the boat can hardly go but we are surrounded by a natural tunnel made of these mangrove trees ! I know am not making a very good impression of what i saw, but trust me I cannot, you should see this place to experience it ! I was irritated even to take these pictures, as i wanted to take everything IN at first sight. And i realized one more thing. LOVE at first sight happens for sure with NATURE lol :P ...here is a small collection of pictures from my album to make sense of the above blabbered place LOL :P

We are all set to go in the BOAT :-D :P Oh yeaH , I forgot Motor boats are not allowed as they will spoil the beauty of this place and that is competely justifyable.



Lookie the mangrove trees!! :) This is the path we traveled in...beautiful aint it ??



The path with a natural tunnel!! look we are surrounded by these shrubbery



One more of my Fav pics...look at the sun creeping in at the other side



Our mini TITANIC moving along with the grooves :P



Natural tunnel to protect thy skin LOL




We are moving along awaiting for more scenic beauty


Can you believe this is the path our comparatively huge boat has to go through to view this??



Anyway this is me and my long overdue birthday update :)

Love always
ME

Fossil woods :: Expedition number THREE!!!

My next expedition was to an archeological site. I had been wanting to visit this place since I heard about it. No prizes for guessing who enlightened me about this place LOL *Blush blush* :-D

This place is near to Pondicherry. So here I was with one hardly free day MAY 1st on Laborer's day all planned to see the wood fossils of Tiruvakarai. I had to leave by 7 AM (SO sad but def'ly worth it :P). The bus stand really irritated me and almost spoiled my mood, when a cranky fully crowded bus came up, I made up my mind to go for this bus, cos standing in the bus stand wasn't fascinating me in the least. So even though the ride was extremely horrible, i had the pleasure of being seated on the engine right next to the driver hehe. It was kind of fun ;-).

We reached Pondicherry around 11 and then got an vehicle to go to Tiruvakarai. But bloody office can't leave an lady alone to have fun right? they called me 2-3 times and asked me to come to office. Here I am almost 4 hours away from Chennai and they expect me to leave my expedition to go and work for them !!!! Duhh I had better plans. Even though I had to waste almost an hour convincing them that I would be back by evening and work, I had the satisfaction of scolding my HR for trying to drag me on a holiday and that too on laborer's day. ;-D

Anyway the drive was almost an hour and I visited a chicken farm on the way and then reached this place.

Hey look at this cute little Chick ;-)



We keep going Qwack Qwack Qwack :P



Man was i dumb founded, the rock fossils no way look like stone, they look like wood pieces scattered around only. But when you touch them you can feel the texture of the stone rather than wood. This region in and around teh fossil park has these wood barks scattered all around in the natural scenery and you will be amazed as I was to know that, they are 20 million years old. I was so intrigued by the fact that I wanted to snap some of my pictures with these fossils , cos I will be long gone but the fossils will still be there in the same place for years and generations to come.

When I came back, I googled some of the information about this place but sadly even though this is almost an marvel, there are not much people who know about this place or much promotion for this wonder. All i could manage to get was this


"It's the only Petrified Forest in India. Other petrified wood forests are in Santa Cruz, Argentina, National park in northeastern Arizona, Lesvos (Greece), Curio Bay (New Zealand), and Nová Paka (Czech Republic). Southern Alberta in Canada has the largest petrified forest in the world, covering thousands of kilometers.

Petrified wood is a type of fossil where all the organic materials are replaced with minerals (silicate such as quartz). It is amazing to note that the original structure of the wood is retained. The petrification process occurs underground. When mineral rich water flows through the sediment, it deposits minerals in the plant's cells. The plant's lignin and cellulose decay away and a stone mold forms in its place. The wood is preserved due to lack of oxygen. Elements such as manganese, iron and copper in the water give petrified wood a variety of color ranges. The wood fossil at Thiruvakarai was brown in color which shows the presence of iron oxide. Petrified wood preserves the original structure of the wood in all its detail. Structures such as tree rings can be seen with the naked eye.

People who visit South India should not miss this petrified wood forest. One can travel from Chennai to Pondicherry or Chennai to Tindivanam. Thiruvakarai is located between Tindivanam and Pondicherry. It is better to get down at Mylam and then go to Thiruvakarai."



Welcome :P !!



One of the Huger Fossils lying around!



One of the longer ones!! Imagine how mighty it might have looked 20 million years back :O



These looked kind of kewl, and they were among the first which captured my attention!



Can you believe this is a fossil aka Stone??



My Foot Prints on a fossil!! b-)



I will be long gone, but be sure you remember me after a million years ;-)



Cute small ones!!



Anyone who wants to know more about this place, do let me know, I will be more than glad to help you see 'an one of of a kind' PLACE .


Isn't it amazing that these wood fossils have survived for so long? But trust me this is a place which is a must visit and am very very glad that I could go and view them. I wouldn't suggest you to go from April - June as the heat is too high , the rainy season would be more preferable .


Come what may , this was truly one of the amazing trips of my life.

PS: I have a lot of my birthday pictures and will update you on that soon. watch this place for my visit to the MANGROVE forest in INDIA, ranking second only after Sunderbans :)