A day trip to Isle of Wight Island

Isle of wight is an island south of mainland Great Britain, it is divided by The Solvant. If we were staying in southern part of UK, then it is a must visit place in my view.

Since I stayed in Southampton, there was a frequent ferry service to this island. The ferry service are operated by many companies. I booked in Red Funnel company; they operate ferry service every one hour and they have spacious lounge, restaurant, kids play area etc. They even carry the 4 wheeler, so people can use to drive in the island. Most of the transportation in UK is animal friendly, so they can carry their pet animals with them; so even in the ferry we can see people boarding the ship with dogs.

Southampton has so many docks and the famous RMS Titanic, Mayflower, RMS Queenmary cruise started their journey from one of these docks.

Below link takes to the ferry service time table, this ferry takes us to East Cowes dock in Isle of Wight island.

http://www.redfunnel.co.uk/ferry-travel/passenger-vehicle-ferry-service/timetable/

Red Funnel Ferry Ship

As we leaves the dock, we could see the wide view of the city port and docks; there will not be much tide as these docks are in river Test which has its origin from Ashe, 60 kms away from Southampton. Also row of yachts could been seen clearly. 

View Ocean Cruise from our ferry

Yachts in the dock  

The Ferry we went has 3 deck, C deck is for complete 4 wheeler and goods, deck B has refreshing lounge, deck A has coffee bar with children pay area and sun deck. All these deck are pet friendly area.

In Deck B

Deck C carrying vehicles

Refreshment shop in Deck A

Travel time to Isle of Wight island was nearly an hour, till then we can enjoy the AV service provided in TV. Also they will update the vessel position now and then in TV. They have free literature section with choices of books to read, we could take free maps, pamphlets and some information & reference brochure which are there in the ship. 

Approaching East Cowes in Isle of Wight island

After getting down from ship, we went to the nearest bus pickup point. It would be always good to talk with the bus driver for knowing the best deal of bus ticket; they even have a family full-day ticket which saves more bucks than individual full-day ticket.

There are no taxi service in this island but all the parts are well connected by public transport. It would be very difficult to cover the whole island in a day, most people stay here for couple of nights to visit all the places. Our plan is only for a day and we shortlisted 'The Needles' which is in western region of the island. 

Bus service in Island

Have a look into below website to know more about their services

http://www.islandbuses.info/

Uniform house structures in island

This island became very popular after queen Victoria built her summer home here. This Osborne house (the summer home) is now open to public to visit. Not only this, the island has so many interesting historical facts which was kept secret for long years (keep reading to know ;)) & lots of entertainment, sport activities which attracts tourists all over the year.

The Needles

1. The Chalk Cliff

The needles is a white chalk rock that rise out of the sea. And to reach there we should take the bus that goes to Alum Bay. It got the name needles from the pinnacle of chalk which was 120ft high, in 1764 it fall with such a great force that people in mainland Britain could hear it. In-front of the rock is the lighthouse which was built in 1859. This unusual vertical rock claims to be the most photographed group of rocks in the world.

Chalk cliff

Same Cliff from other side

Standing in the view point of chalk rock

2. Old and New battery

First, battery means cluster of cannons, guns or missiles grouped together for better battlefield communication and commanding. There are two battery in  The Needles; these are constructed during Victorian time. These are used during both world wars to protect against the enemies. Both the batteries are now decommissioned after the war. 

Old battery entrance

Couple of battery kept for visitors

New Battery

New Battery in action

3. Secrete rocket program

British rockets were initially tested in parts here before using them for launching it from Australia. Since the old battery was deactivated, they used this space for rocket testing. This was a very secrete program carried out by British that even the family members of the people who worked here do not know about it.

Today they have a small museum there and cardboard model of workstations.

4. Alum Bay multi colored sand cliff

This we could see when we are coming down from The Needles peek. This multi color rock is because of the geological changes some million years age. 

Multi color rock

5. Marconi Monument

Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of radio did his first investigation and experiments with wireless radio communication in The Needles.

This place could be told as birth place of all modern communications. There is no museum or exhibit kind of sort; they kept a monument in remembrance of this historic event and we could breath and imagine how it might be during late 19th century.

Monument in Alum Bay

6. Amusement & Attractions

Always something will be there for everyone. The attractions ranges from 4D film, chairlift travel, pleasure boat, glass manufacturing demonstration, sweet manufacturing demonstration, pebble beach, restaurants, shopping and much more

The Needles Park

Pebble beach

In the far, we could see chairlift bringing people down to beach

One of the experience that we should not miss was this open bus travel in The Needles; it was a 30 mins journey and our normal day pass was accepted. It takes us via hairpin bend turnings in cliffs and most important is they have recorded audio which says about the importance of each place we across.

Sitting in the top

Open double deck bus

 The bus drops us at The Needles peak, and we can spend some time there with sight seeing, photo shoot, enjoying the breeze, playing 

Trying different poses in photo shoot

We could see the mainland Britain from The Needles peak. Recently they found dinosaurs fossils in this island which proofs that this island was once part of mainland.

View of Mainland from The Needles (it is farther,  may not be seen clearly in this photo)

Travelling to England

Applying visa for UK is made simple by filling out the online application form and scheduling the date & time of appointment. All short time visa (upto 6 months), we will get it in 10 working days. We need to go in person to give our thumb imprints, photo and signature; the good thing is we don't have to visit only the British consulate for this, we can visit the nearest VFS Global office for this. In Bangalore we don't have the consulate, so scheduled my appointment to VFS office.

I started from Bangalore airport heading towards London. I couldn't find a best airfare deal to London from Bangalore airport; so I booked it via Mumbai in Jet Airways. The choices of food is limited only to Veg & Non-Veg but the AV entertainment contains full desi choices.

In CS International Airport, Mumbai,
waiting to board the flight
1:15 AM IST

The flight running time from Mumbai to London is 9 hours approximately. It is good to land London in day time because the aircraft will start flying in low altitude when we are 100 miles to London. We can enjoy the spectacular view of the country side, areal view of Thames river with its twist, turn and sailing ships on it. We will get the clear view of London Tower Bridge, most of the historical buildings, modern high raised buildings and much more.

Reached London Heathrow Airport
6:45 AM GMT

We say following sentences in synonymous 'Travelling to Britain', 'Travelling to England', 'Travelling to UK', 'Travelling to London'. In this blog I wanted to write a little about its differences.

Britain: Britain was the name made popular by the Romans when they came to the British islands. Great Britain refer to the separate kingdoms of England and Scotland on the same landmass, that were ruled over by the same monarch.

England: England used to be known as Engla land, meaning the land of the Angles, people from continental Germany, who began to invade Britain in the late 5th century, along with the Saxons and Jute. 

UK: refers to the union of what were once four separate nations: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. 

London: It is the capital of both England and UK.

From London Heathrow airport, we would find plenty of commutation options to the city like private taxi, city buses and inter-city buses. I booked my apartment in Southampton city; on my way to the city, I witnessed the beauty of Winchester city and Southampton University.

Inter city bus

City Taxi service

City Bus

Winchester City - On my way to Southampton

We selected and booked the apartment prior to our arrival from the below link

http://www.silverdoor.co.uk/

On arrival we collected the key from the office to check-in, the apartment which we booked is self check-in type. We spent nearly 20 mins inside the apartment to find the flat, it was like a maze but was fun going around the property to find it.

General Information:

(1) Buying SIM card is very easy and they are not asking for any proof also. Lycamobile is popular among people who make frequent international calls. In Lycamobile, the call to local UK number is costlier than calling an international number.  We can also order SIM card online at free of cost.

http://www.lycamobile.co.uk/en/

(2) Tap water is good for drinking. Packaged drinking water priced 4 times the price of a soft drinks.

(3) City is very clean, filled with green trees but breathing is not pleasant always. People keeps smocking in public which causes inconveniences to others.

(4) If we step out from apartment, there is a 99.99 % chance we will meet an Indian.

(5) For inter-city travel, travelling by bus is cheaper than travelling by train

(6) In the era of mobile telephone, we could still see telephone booth in many parts of the city

Running Wetty.js in MIPS platform

The objective of this post is to explain the step-by-step procedure on bringing up wetty node-module in a linux OS based on MIPS architecture.

About Wetty

Wetty is a web based tty. It allows us to open a tty (text terminal) session in a web browser to access the remote machine. Normally we use a standard tty client such as putty or Xshell to access the remote machine. Wetty gives us the flexibility of accessing remote machine from a browser without the need of any other software.

Wetty is a node.js module and it runs on top of node.js

Prerequisites:

1. Download node.js source code (https://nodejs.org/download/); v0.12.7 is the current version during the time of writing
2. Clone wetty (https://github.com/krishnasrinivas/wetty)
3. Host Linux (virtual) machine for cross compiling
4. MIPS toolchain

I prefer to run a virtual machine in vagrant environment, it is so easy to configure and bring up a VM in vagrant. And file sharing between virtual machine and host is also so simple.

Cross compiling Node.js

|> Download node.js source code and prepare the build folder

# mkdir -p /usr/venkateshm/source/nodejs
# cd /usr/venkateshm/source/nodejs
# curl -O https://nodejs.org/dist/v0.12.7/node-v0.12.7.tar.gz
# tar xvf node-v0.12.7.tar.gz
# cd node-v0.12.7

|> Set the necessary terminal variables

# export TC_PATH=/usr/venkateshm/toolchain/stbgcc-4.5.3-2.4/bin
# export CC=$TC_PATH/mipsel-linux-gcc
# export AR=$TC_PATH/mipsel-linux-ar
# export CXX=$TC_PATH/mipsel-linux-g++
# export LINK=$TC_PATH/mipsel-linux-g++

|> Configure the make; the configuration for node.js is written is python so python 2.5 or 2.6 is required before running the below command

# ./configure --dest-cpu=mipsel --dest-os=linux --prefix=/usr/local/nodejs --without-snapshot
# vi config.gypi

|> Add following entry under variables 

'mips_arch_variant': 'mips32r1'

|> Make

# make
# make install


copy out/Release/node and put it in /usr/local/bin folder of MIPS machine

Installing wetty in MIPS

Most of the nodejs modules are platform independent as they will be written in javascript. But few modules like websocket are dependent on platform as they use platform specific implementation. 

Wetty is platform independent but its dependencies modules websocket and pts.js are platform dependent. 

Node.js ships with a utility called node.gyp to handle the cases like machine dependent node-module, this utility builds the node-module and generates .node file.

The easy approach is to install wetty first in host virtual machine

# git clone https://github.com/krishnasrinivas/wetty.git
# cd wetty
# npm install

Now all the dependencies of wetty are successful downloaded and can be found inside node_modules folder.

Now download the source of websocket and pty.js node-module

# git clone https://github.com/theturtle32/WebSocket-Node.git
# cd WebSocket-Node
# npm install nan
# /usr/venkateshm/source/nodejs/node-v0.12.7/deps/npm/bin/node-gyp-bin/node-gyp --arch mipsel configure build


If the build is successful, copy the generated build folder and replace it in wetty/node_modules/websocket/build

Similarly steps for pty.js

# git clone https://github.com/chjj/pty.js.git
# cd pty.js
# npm install nan
# /usr/venkateshm/source/nodejs/node-v0.12.7/deps/npm/bin/node-gyp-bin/node-gyp --arch mipsel configure build


DIY : Pizza Dosa

Dosa is a staple food in southern region of India. The first step of dosa preparation is its batter; the batter is prepared from urad dal (white lentils) and rice. Once the batter is ready, it will be poured on a hot pan. 

As it is boredom to have same dosa everyday, people came up with onion dosa, masala dosa, podi dosa and much more varieties like that. One such variety that recently started up among younger generation is 'Pizza Dosa'; this after the mania on Pizza.

I use to make this pizza dosa on a relaxed Saturday afternoon for a delicious & drooling lunch. The main ingredients is a set of favorite vegetables. One of my friend told me the secrete of cooking is on how we cut vegetables; for each dish the type of cutting differs and it plays important role is taste & easiness in eating.

Main ingredients are as follows

1. Dosa batter
2. Set of vegetables
3. Cheese
4. Ghee
5. Chili flakes 
6. Oregano flakes
7. Dry fruits (Optional)

Cut Vegetables

 As I mentioned earlier; the shape of cut matters for best taste of vegetables and easiness in eating. I sliced the onion, did round cut the tomato & horizontal cut for capsicum.

TIP: Watch Youtube videos on cutting different vegetables if very new to cooking.

While making pizza dosa, keep the flame low, this is because it need more time bake the upper part of dosa. In hot pan, pour one or two ladle of batter (depending on the size of pizza we want), spread the cut vegetables on top of it, Lay cheese on top it and pour ghee on the sides. Sprinkle oregano & chili flakes and close it with lid. Open it after couple of minutes, we can feel the smell of oregano. 

Ready to eat Pizza Dosa

Closer look

Now the vegetables would have cooked properly and it will cut easily when we bite. Enjoy & indulge into the taste of freshly prepared Pizza Dosa. 

Connecting to Google Cloud SQL from SQuirreL SQL

Objective:

The objective of this post is to explain how to access Google Cloud SQL from third party tools like SQuirrel SQL.

About Google Cloud SQL:

Is a MySQL DB running in google cloud. This facility is charged by google based on type of instance we select.

https://cloud.google.com/sql/docs/introduction

About SQuirreL SQL:

SQuirrel SQL is an open source universal SQL client. It comes as a jar file and the concept that it uses to connect to SQL server is JDBC; thus we should have the corresponding JDBC driver for different types of databases.

http://squirrel-sql.sourceforge.net/

Accessing Google Cloud SQL server from SQuirrel SQL client:

The SQuirrel SQL is very much helpful in doing administration kind of work with databases.

Step 1: Create cloud sql instance in google developer console. The instance name is always prefixed with project name. While creating the instance, we need to select the type of instance and billing type.

Step 2: For safety and security, Google does not allow request from every IP to access the database. Hence we need to explicitly add our PC/laptop IP where SQuirrel SQL is running. Also we need to provide the public IP address and not the proxy IP.

Step 3: Create an user under 'Users' tab and provide % for client host

Step 4: SQuirrel SQL is not supporting IPV6, so we need to request IPV4 under IP address tab. Be aware if we are not using the IPV4 address then google will charge us. So once the work is completed, release IPV4 address.

Now all set in developer console. Now time to bring up SQuirrel SQL.

Step 5: When we launch SQuirrel SQL for the first time, the MySQL Driver may be missing, We can see the list of drivers in Driver tab.

Step 6: If the driver for MySQL is missing then download the mysql-connector-java-<x.x.x>-bin.jar and add it in class path as shown below.

Step 7: Create an aliases and provide proper JDBC URL and username & password given in developer console. Test the connection. The thing that will need change in the URL is the IP address and database name.

DIY : Delicious and simple dessert

I prepared this very simple yet delicious dessert. It wont take more than 5 mins to prepare. I first ate this dessert in VV Puram food streets in Bangalore. When you are going to VV Puram, try it out. It is available in the corner shop which is diagonally opposite to Nandini milk parlor.

Ingredients:

1. Banana
2. Gulqand/Gulkand (Rose petals jam)
3. Almonds
4. Cashew
5. Ghee
6. Honey
7. Vanilla ice cream (optional)

Slice the banana into equal pieces and arrange it properly in serving plate, spread 3 spoons of Gulkand above the sliced bananas. Put broken cashew and almonds above it, now pour one spoon of ghee and honey. Optionally we can add a scope of vanilla ice cream before pouring ghee and honey.

Must try dessert

Now its ready and time to get mesmerized by the mixed taste of gulqand and banana. Enjoy !!! :)

DIY: Indoor water fountain

All of us might have seen many different varieties of indoor water fountain in all stores and in all ranges.

After seeing the beauty and hearing its soothing sound, I wanted to make one by myself :) While thinking for the kind of material, first my thought went towards molding with white cement but that need lots of effort and precision in making the mold and then filling it with white cement. This seems to be imperfect and too messy.

Few days later when I went for a casual shopping, I saw a good deal put on plastic garden pots. Suddenly a thought stricken me 'why I should not use it for my fountain?'. So I started taking pots of different sizes and stacked it in different order. I was taking the pots of all sizes and playing with it. One guy in the store came close to me after seeing my actions and asked do I need any help? :D I told 'No, No'. Finally purchased few sets of pots, plates, hanging pots as per my design idea in my mind.

Next main thing to buy was the electrical water pump; for this I went to SP Road in Bangalore with my friend. We inquired in many shops and finally found one which sells it. The shop keeper showed us pump of different qualities, I chose one which costed 350 INR. In the same shop, I purchased tube, connector and water flow controller. When the seller asked me the reason for buying, I told college project :D. College days are the days which we can cherish till our last breath.

Apart from this I purchased few pebbles in different colors from a  nearby aquarium shop.

Now all set, ready for the day to fit all things together. In the process of fitting, my father helped me a lot in fine tuning the alignment and controlling the water flow. We may use m-seal adhesive to seal the parts permanently.

Three Tier fountain

One more snap

Closer look with the pebbles