Do you have a steady stream of guests?

As is always the case, when you move to a new city, especially an international city, you are bound to get a steady stream of guests. There is no way to avoid it and it's best to embrace it head on and get all the equipment you need to make it pleasant for yourself and your guests. The one thing that will help you get set is to get one of these mattress sets, which will ensure that your guests sleep comfortably which will make them cheerful and easier to be around. Good enough reason, right? I thought so too. Nothing like having grouchy guests and this is one easy way to ensure it never happens. I always sleep better once I'm in my own bed and most people never really sleep that good when they are traveling, not surprisingly since a lot of guest beds are the left over or oldest pieces in the house. Best to invest in quality beds and mattresses now and enjoy your guests!

Pro on flickr

Well, I finally got my pro account on Flickr! I am so thrilled with it, that I could spend all day uploading pics, seeing my friends latest shots, surfing through explore and commenting on cool photos. It has been such an interesting journey for me, since I got started in earnest with uploading photos on Flickr, which was just a few months back in January. I opened my account way back in Feb 2006, but never really bothered to do anything with it, or look through other people's photos. Oh, so much time I have wasted! The best part is that I am learning to notice the little things in life, just like I am noticing the small and simple things that I have been taking photographs of.

Here's a screen shot of my first upload after becoming pro!

packing and moving

Some time back a college friend relocated to NYC and had to move bag and baggage to her new apartment by herself. She almost didn't move due to the huge hassle of packing and shipping things via courier companies, but if only she had enlisted a mover NYC company, she could have just supervised and had everything organized and packed for her in a professional and neat manner. I have moved several times, to different cities, to different countries and to different continents, and there is no better way to move than to leave it all to a professional moving company. There are a million other things to worry about, and if you're going to focus your energy on packing and sorting, it's going to be a real messy move. I like to pack my personal things myself, but everything else I leave to the packers and movers. It's really the best and only way to do things.

working ways

Working has never meant so many different thing to different people. At one time, work had a very narrow and specific meaning and one conjured up images of men in ties going to work carrying briefcases. Now days, it is sometimes hard to tell who is working or not just be looking at what they are wearing. The places of work have changed so radically as well, with wireless Internet becoming so popular, and cafes offering free wi-fi connections for people sitting in the cafe. You can also see people sitting in the park connected to the Internet through their cell phones and working just as hard as those sitting in offices. As easy as it is to judge people who work this way, it is important to first understand the nature of jobs and how well matched they are to these working environments.

Doing business when you're not even there

Continuing on from what I was writing in my earlier post, about how the internet and technology has changed the way we work today. Let's say you're moving to a new city and need to find some office space in Connecticut immediately, so you can move in as soon as you get there. Well all you have to do is search for office space Connecticut on the Internet, and you will find lots of options. It's really as simple as that. In fact, it's so simple and has simplified our lives so much that one wonders just how one managed to live and work before the Internet came along.

We have moved homes several times and each time I have used the internet to find apartments, car rentals, household help, air conditioning servicemen and so on. The list is endless about how useful it can be, one just has to know how to use it. Here's to new technology and to new ways of improving our lives!

The concept of work

There has been so much change in the way we work and what we even consider work that our definitions and concepts have had to change as well. Take my case for instance, I am a researcher and retail analyst and work from home, so for a lot of people this is not really working, even though I work full time, sometimes a bit less and sometimes a bit more. But it is work, serious work. I do follow a 9-5 routine of sorts, but have the flexibility to take an afternoon off, if I want to. The concept of work has completely changed and if you've read Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat, you know exactly what I mean.

Don't you just love funny t-shirts?

One of my earliest assignments for my marketing class was a really fun write-up on funny t-shirts on campus. I got myself a nice spot where I could watch people and read their t-shirts and try and figure out why they were wearing it; was it something they loved or were they making fun of it and how many people were wearing similar t-shirts, such as fraternity based funny t-shirts or those affiliated with some other club or bar etc. As consumers go, there is no other group of individuals who love wearing something written on their t-shirts than college students. They are willing to try out a variety of trends as long as it fits in their budget, which is the primary deciding factor.

kasauli church sketched

Here's a photo that I took last month, my first attempt at processing or rather post processing! I wasn't too happy with the way the photograph turned out, the angle was bad, the view wasn't the one I wanted, but there wasn't time to go back and take it again, so I decided to test it out on adobe's photoshop express, the new free version of their famous software. This is the end result using the sketch option, which ended up giving a nice result, I thought.

Here it is, enjoy!

the official age for anti-wrinke creams

Last month I did a lot of reading and one of the books I read was about three young working girls who have come to the big city to work, earn some money and find someone to love. What was so interesting is that the main character states that 28 is the official age of women that marketers target anti-wrinkle creams. I found that very interesting since a lot of women buy wrinkle cream based on advertisements in fashion magazines as well as based on their friends and colleagues usage of these creams. This is a new trend, of marketing these products at such a young audience and it seems to be working out quite well.

how to travel

As far as travel planning goes, it is essential that you plan as much in advance as possible, so that you can make full use of your time at your destination seeing and relaxing rather than trying to decide what to do and where to go. A lot of people only for package tours that organize everything from the time you leave to the time you return, so that you can maximize the time you have to see and do things while you are traveling. Then there are those travelers who like to decide what to do at the spur of the moment and do not like to have anything planned for the duration of their trip. I am somewhere in the middle as I like to have some basic plans made of the places I want to go to, but don't really require every minute to be planned from before.

Beach vacations for relaxation

As vacations go, an island or beach vacation is usually at the top of my list. There is something mesmerizing about sitting on a beach and watching the surf come in, listen to the soothing sounds of the ocean and enjoy the beautiful breeze. Well, if you go for a vacation to one of these St. Thomas villa rentals, then you will be able to experience all of this and much, much more. There really is no better way to relax than go for a beach vacation, I feel. For a more rejuvenating and holistic experience, I prefer to go to the mountains, where I can walk endlessly and introspect. For now, a beach vacation it is!

Are you into eco-friendly travel?

When it comes to making plans for travel, there are ways of doing it completely low budget and those of over the top extravagance, and both can be found on the web. There is a significant trend towards these two spheres of travel and the common thread between them is travel with a eco-friendly twist. A greater number of travelers today are opting for places that offer eco-friendly and organic products so as to protect and preserve the environment. In Hawaii especially, this form of travel is very popular. The amount of water, detergent and chemicals an average hotel uses just to do its daily laundry is enormous and the burden this puts on the environment is growing day by day. As travelers, it is our choice to select one of these hotels and by doing this it will only serve to allow more people to use the services of places like these.

on making travel plans

As usual, as I get back from one trip, I start plotting and planning for the next one! I've got some great ideas for our next trip, but nothing concrete as yet, since there are several pending issues that need to be sorted out first. As soon as they are taken care of, then I can start making definite plans for a trip. I simply love the anticipation of a trip, it's half as good as the trip itself, I find. There is so much excitement once you know you will be going on a trip somewhere or the other. I simply love it!

Finding good travel deals

For a avid travel bug like me, I find that thanks to the Internet, I have immediate access to all the travel sites and travel deals that I could want. It has made our lives so much simpler to be able to find new places to go to, at very competitive rates, and do the booking from the comfort of one's own home. For most of our recent trips, I have done my research online, found great places to stay, superb restaurants to eat in and interesting places to explore. What else does one want from a trip, really? I'm quite for taking trips that don't tire you out needlessly, and I can certainly avoid trips to the malls and the such, much preferring to visit the local market for a couple of interesting trinkets or two to bring home.

traveling light...

As much as I travel, I hope never to tire of it. The way one travels and what one travels for changes constantly, but I've realized that I really want to go back to being a bit more basic in my needs when I travel, go for treks and nature basic activities instead of star hotels in big cities, opt for a simpler way of seeing things rather than complicating life and making things harder for oneself. It's all a question of perspective, I think, as things change with time and what one wants changes as well.