Monday, May 23, 2005

Weekend at San Antonio

It was a very interesting weekend, most of which was spent with Ashwin. On Friday evening, had a quiz in office and it was very interesting.Managed 3 answers, after which all of us left office.Ashwin had rented a car, a nice Ford Focus!We made plans of eating out and seeing the city of San Antonio on this lovely Friday night!

Reached the hotel,refreshed, got into some dashing clothes and off we went for dinner first. Reached Taco Cabanas,a Mexican restaurant near our hotel. Just didn't undertand one word on the menu card, and Ashwin did all the explaining to the waiter about our need for veg food.No meat,no frying in non-veg pans etc!It was an effort.Finally had a strange item that was a combination of rice,roti,rajma and papads - sorry, can't pronounce the name of the dish even now!Generally fooling around the place on the dinner table, with full manners - fork, spoon,towel on the lap etc - oof, just wish I could eat with my hands, full Indian style!So much easier!

We then took off to the city side of San Antonio.Was struck by the huge malls,arcades,car dealer joints,roads,lights,hoardings etc.As Ashwin said,"Everything in the US is big".Naughty fellow!On the way back, we stopped at iHOP, a coffee joint.Am not usually too much of a coffee drinker,prefer good old tea,but this iHOP coffee was quite something else.And the pancake with the banana sauce to go with it made my mouth water.Lip smacking dish!Reached the hotel after that and was in deep conversation with the crowd, before hitting the sack at around 3 a.m.

Saturday,ah, the laziest morning of the week!Got up at 11.30 a.m(mom would've freaked had I done that at home, but well, charms of being alone!).Went to the bank near our hotel and encashed the cheque for the month.Was half-expecting a nice, attractive blonde at the teller counter,only to run into a hunk with a crew-cut!Groan!Collected the cash,stopped at the nearby foodmart,bought milk and Pringles wafers and back to the room and watched a nice Michelle Pfeifer movie, Dangerous Minds. It was about a bunch of students who did everything but study in school and how she transforms them into good human beings. Good that I was indoors,as it was just too hot outside,almost a 100 degrees Fahrenheit!

Spent the evening in the electronics world at Circuit City and Best Buy.What products!What a range of electronic goodies!Incredible product features,amazing utility value,tremendous value for money.Checked out a couple of laptops and digital cameras.Will indulge in them before I leave for India in August!Mind blowing stuff!
The best part of the day was Saturday night, where we sat back and laughed our gut out watching Dil Chahta hai for the umpteenth time, still not getting tired of it!I added further flavours while watching the movie, by chatting with Namrata,Arundhati and Pranit for close to 2 hours,right there in the hotel room!Felt on top of the world!Nothing like a good old Indian friend to make the day!Slept at 4 a.m!

Sunday began with another laidback morning. Nothing too spectacular till the evening, actually.Watched The Untouchables in the afternoon.Will just say that I was speechless at the end of it!Must see movie,for anybody even remotely interested in classy movies.Sunday evening was big bang!Ashwin turned up with his brand new Nissan Centra car, with a crocodile frontage.And we hit the road for a long drive on IH 10,a lovely freeway,just outside San Antonio!Beautiful car,lovely moon up above and was left wondering what I am doing with guys around me in a brand new car on a warm summer's night on a Sunday night!Groan!We ordered food from Papa John's and it definitely has to rank as the best pizza I have ever had.This is the second time in two weeks that I've tried that place and its quite something else.Wish they open an outlet in India, I will surely be one of their regular customers!

After the pizza,it was back to the room and a long walk around our Budget Suites hotel just past 11 p.m. with Roopa.Nice,engaging conversation!Walked her back to her room,chatted for another hour and then went off to my room to sleep.Further conversation with my room mate,Hari before we hit the sack at 3 a.m.!

Interesting weekend,I must say, a nice mixture of rest,sleep,doing nothing,and then overbalancing that with outings,drives,pizzas and internet chats!

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