Filed under Life, eurecom, special day by barkha | 3 comments
I left home yesterday night to get a Masters degree at Eurecom, Sophia-Antipolis, near Nice, France. The first flight to London was good (and yeah, I did not require a transit visa - Thanks guys!) The one from London to Nice was even better. 
First impressions of Nice - Wow! (The shoreline is beautiful!) It looked as though the pilot is going to land on water! (Thankfully, he didn’t) It is very quiet here - its taking time to adjust to silence.
Now, we await the shifting from the hotel to the residence in a few days’ time. Pictures will be up soon. For the moment, I’m on an insanely expensive wi-fi connection.
In other news, I’m off to Paris next weekend. In another news, I have openSuse on my laptop now - Thanks to Mrugesh!
Filed under bah, mumbai, weird by barkha | 8 comments
Dear Lazyweb,
With all the idiots that I end up talking to, and all of them giving me different answers, I resort to you, O Lazyweb!
Q: Do I need a transit visa?
I’m travelling on a French type D visa, to Nice via London Heathrow. The time between the two BA flights (BOM-LHR and LHR-NCE) is 2h 40 mins. I don’t change airports, but I do change terminals and go from t5 to t1.
Quite a few people commented that I don’t need a transit visa, then some said I do. If you do know a definite answer to this, please leave a comment. You could also point me to some phone / email id that you think might help. Any help is appreciated!
Filed under Adobe, flex, foss, friends, geeks, heh, mumbai by barkha | 5 comments
Met Pradeepto and Missus, and Anurag at our usual hangout place - Pizzeria - to get the update on their Akademy visit. Need to try out the Bachelor’s ice cream next time, now that I know the location.
I went down South last weekend for the Bangalore Flex User Group meet that Mrinal tweeted about. I reached halfway through Vandana’s OpenLaszlo talk. (Thanks to Bangalore’s famed traffic jams). The part that I attended went well, with flex users trying to grasp laszlo’s components and comparing similar alternatives available in Flex. Quite a few new people joined in too, I was told. The meet ended well with discussions on how should laszlo save its backside 
As always, coffee time is the best time to get a feel of the group. Met some people with brilliant ideas and trying to get them into action. Nice!
Headed to some shopping and thought of picking up something to eat at MG Road. Wasn’t hungry, so headed back with some coffee instead.
Next day was spent trying to figure out what OS to install on the new laptop, at Parthan’s place, after an awesome Thali at Nandhinee. A few hours later, I ended up buying two waitlisted tickets (both of which got confirmed btw - separate trains ofcourse) to Chennai for the next day, all the while having a confirmed KSRTC bus ticket. More has been blogged about this meet (and the goofups) by Parthan, Aanjhan and Onkar.
Next day was spent in Chennai. The flight out was delayed by almost two hours. Landed up at home at 1.45 am with Mom yelling. All attempts at breaking in quietly failed terribly.
Note to self: Next time, plan things out! (but unplanned trips like this one are awesome fun too! :D)
I head out to France to pursue a Masters degree next this month. Now, for the first time in my life, shopping seems like a daunting task.