Of This and That

This was our second trip to Alibaug and unlike the earlier one, was intended to be a pure relaxation weekend. One of the best places to stay there is Radisson Blu and this is where I got the booking, with a great deal which had all meals inclusive. It worked best for us since our intention was to get away from routine work and have weekend where we will just relax and eat and sleep. The last few months had been busy (trip to our native and then home renovation work) and hence the interest of a work free weekend and also enjoy a weekend before kid's school would reopen. We spent the weekend of 7 th June 2013 there. The monsoon arrived a few days earlier, so this weekend ended up with a rainy spell, but it did mean that we had a lovely drive to Alibaug and nice stay at the hotel. We had left from home around 1 pm and drove down in our Mahindra XUV. Since the time I had bought XUV, this was first time I got to take it on the Pune Mumbai expressway and it sure was a ple...

Over the years I have looked at various SUVs and Jeeps and always wanted to get one, but when it comes to family needs, smaller cars or sedan usually take preference. When I had decided to upgrade from my first car, a Santro, I was exploring Scorpio, but wife finally narrowed down to Honda City. Driving it has been a pleasure, no doubt and it has been an absolutely hassle free car. When Mahindra launched XUV 500 the desire to buy an SUV resurfaced again and the price point and the feature packed alongside where the key pulling factors. But unfortunately for me, the booking closed almost as soon as it started (within 8 days). I went around and looked at loads of other SUVs, but they were either too costly or lacked some of the features. XUV was almost like the ideal combination of price, looks and features. At one point I had almost given up hope of buying it, but then in July 2012 the booking opened again and this time without any lottery and I promptly booked one. They had said 3 ...