I've not flown in 2 weeks now. Why??? What happened? Well, nothing much happened. Just that besides the flying, I have to study a bunch of theory as well, and write exams. So that's what I'm doing now - studying. And sitting down with books after a so many years, it takes sooooo much effort to get every little bit into my head, it's not funny. I'm spending much of my time in the public library, or at home. And there's so many wierd things I have to study - air laws, regulations, all the aircraft physics, weather, what not. Trust me, if I get through this, I'll be competent enough to be a weather forecaster too. There's so much.

The other night, went downtown Vancouver with my school buddies - Santosh and Ankit. We ate at this place Sammy's Hot Wings. Oh blimy. The food was fabulous. Maybe I liked it all the more because I was eating out after a long long long time. This place was a like a mini sports bar. Had only about 8 tables in all, they served beer, and all this fabulous food. The chicken wings were too good, except that they used so much red chilli that my lips were burnt. And when your lips are burning, there's 3 things you can do to extinguish the flames. First is the most natural thing - water. Unfortunately, water doesn't come free out here. Second is the other natural thing - sweet lips (smack!). Fortunately, I'm not that handsome looking (eeeee!!!). Lastly, ICECREAM! So Santosh treated us to the best icecream I've ever had in my entire life. Better than Corner House, better than Baskin Robins, better than Hagen Das. It was an Italian icecream joint - Mondo Gelato. I took Dark Chocolate, the others took regular Chocolate. And that was bliss. Extinguished the flames, and it felt like eternity. After a little lick of dark chocolate, the others were so disappointed at their choice - everybody should have taken that. Better luck next time. On Saturday night, Santosh and I went back downtown, just to eat icecream. We reached too late, the shop had closed already. So we found another eatery, that made crepes. And what do we get - nothing less than Dark Chocolate Crepe. Bliss.

In the middle of all this, also try to keep my life balanced. Some exercise, some yoga, some bicycling. Actually lots of biking - I do a 12 KM track every other day. And it gets me tired. Some day I hope to do the track twice. And some movies. I borrowed two movies from the library - Pink Panther Series: A shot in the Dark and Link King 1 1/2. Enjoyed both the movies. The Pink Panther was hilarious. So it does seem like I'm just having a huge gala time here. Sometimes, shouldn't you? And that's why, life is uncertain ... eat dessert first.

Cheers
Mayur Poddar