Christmas Lights

I am feeling bad that something in me has made me stay away from blogging. I can never put the blame on my 14 month baby as he is such a sweet boy who gives me atleast 2 hrs daily for internet!!


Being Christmas time, I found that there are number of places where they have special Christmas lights and decoration as part of celebration. Having found such a place some 20 miles from home, we decided to visit last Saturday. When we read about this place, I did find people commenting that weekends traffic would be pretty heavy. Since the lights are open until 11PM we decided go still give it a try and went there by 8PM. We were just 2 miles from destination and realised that cars are waiting to move for nearly 2 miles from that place. Still we believed we would drive thru that 2 miles atleast in 30 min. But after 45 minutes I checked in my GPS to only find we have crossed only 0.2 miles of the 2 mile traffic stretch!! 


The 45 min wait reminded me of tidal park and IIT area traffic jam. But then having been away from such traffic problems in the last few months, this 45 min wait for Christmas lights seemed too irritating and horrible!! We lost patience, moved to next lane changed route and got home :(

We decided to go again on Monday evening as it would be a working day with lesser traffic and thankfully we cleared that slow traffic this time in 20 min and reached the Christmas lights area. 


I have never had the opportunity to see Christmas decoration all these years. The lights were stretched out for a distance of 1.5 miles and it was indeed a beautiful sight to watch.  If only the temperature had not been so chilly we could have walked that stretch. I am hoping to find more Christmas lights decoration this week as well!!


Advance Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all :-)

Traffic

For the first time in 8 months, I was struck in traffic in Minneapolis in a weekend. To clear 2 miles, it took us an hr. We dint check the traffic info online before leaving home and that was our fault else we could have taken a local route and cleared the area in 10 min. We ended up getting in the highway and finding ourself in trouble. But this traffic issue was purely due to some bridge construction and when people were driving, I could see how well mannered and professional the driving was. I could not find one car who was trying to overtake the other in the small available space. Every person was courteous of the other drivers and gave way as needed to the other person. I cant imagine people being that way in India :(The complete one hr I was discussing in the car if there is ever a chance that we can see such neat handling of traffic issues in Chennai.

At the same time I feel this is a major problem for us also because we have different kind of vehicles even in our main areas from Mount Road to ECR/ OMR. We see from cycles, bikes, Auto, cars to big trucks. May be this adds trouble. Anyways the first thing needed is the step to be taken from the drivers to feel they are going to lose nothing in life by maintaining a basic gap from the vehicle in front and also giving way for some one else to drive forward and not create a jam in the place by trying to fight it with his co-driver.

Wish things change for good and everyone has a safe drive!!