Talking with your hands

I was on the way to pick up my brother-in-law from the airport and I took the MRT to Changi Airport.

Sitting next to me were two people talking in hand gestures. And the conversation was a really lively one, judging by the speed of the hand motions. And they were having so much fun, laughing with each other (presumably the result of a joke made by one of them).

It was so refreshing to see a conversation without the need for words and yet being able to convey exactly what you want.

I wish I could do it.

Wish you a Merry Christmas

The holiday season is upon us.

Wish all of a Merry Christmas and hope you have a great holiday.

I pick up my brother-in-law from the airport on Sunday and from then on, it's a great time. We are planning on taking a cruise to Malaysia and Thailand. So that should make a good start to the new year.

So I say this again. Have a great Christmas.

Don't drink and drive.

Hrmmph

I'm so bored.

It's almost like the second hand of my wristwatch has slowed down to the pace of the glaciers. Time is just refusing to move today.

To top that, the weather outside is really murky and depressing. It's been raining quite a bit out there and the atmosphere is really gloomy.

My brain is getting into suspend mode. My eyes are closing.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

Flaw with Disapparation - Part II

I discovered another one.

Remember when Malfoy tells Dumbledore (towards the end) that he found out the connection between the two Vanishing Cabinets when Montague was pushed into it.

He says Montague "disapparated" out of it to finally escape. Now if you remember the "Order of the Phoenix", Montague is discovered very much in Hogwarts, jammed in a toilet.

Now how could he have disapparated from the Vanishing Cabinet into Hogwarts when it's not possible.

Hmmmmm....

Flaw with Disapparation

There is a flaw in JK Rowling's world.

At least the way she has written it in her books. You ask what it is? Here it comes.

Through all of the six Harry Potter books she has written so far, there is a constant mention that "Hogwarts: A History" says no one can apparate of disapparate inside Hogwarts. This is the unique nature of the building which makes sure there are no intruders.

This concept is made stronger in "The half blood prince" where she writes that the enchantment against apparation is temporarily lifted only for the Great Hall so that sixth year students can practice.

So here's the flaw.

If no one can apparate or disapparate from within Hogwarts, how do the house elves do it?


STUNNED INTO SILENCE????

Yes. There it is. Even in the half blood prince, Kreacher and Dobby regularly apparate and disapparate when Harry wants to meet them. Ron even comments on this ability and wishes he had it so that he would not have any trouble during his apparation examination.

So there you go. Flaw pointed out.

Now it's time to sleep.

What a thumping!

Chelsea whacked Arsenal with a 2-0 victory at Highbury, Arsenal's home (at least for a few more months).

Arsenal never looked threatening. In fact, they looked like we did when we played in school. No particular strategy, no game plan, no coordinated moves toward goal. Just everybody throwing themselves at the ball (or sometimes not).

Chelsea, as usual, put up a clinical performance and ensured that a few records were broken in the process. Arsenal lost at home after 7 straight wins there. Arsenal, also for the first time in 17 matches, did not score at home.

They did come very close when Henry's brilliant touch hit the post and went away. Of course, Van Persie's attempt was termed off-side even though he was onside when he got the ball and it was Henry who was off side. That ruling will be talked about for a while.

Joe Cole put in the finishing touches to make sure that Arsenal are down to 8th position in the league, a staggering 20 points away from the leaders. Arsenal are in no position to fight back. In fact, they look like the fight has completely gone out of them.

No ammunition in Arsenal's arsenal!

To the Zoo, to the Zoo

That's where we went today with the kids.

I'm not sure if I posted about this earlier, but my sister's in town visiting us. She and her three year old daughter been here the last few days and we're showing her around.

Her daughter is practically my second baby. So when she's around, it's party time at home.

My daughters (both of them) are fabulous together. Sometimes, you wouldn't know these two devils were in the house. Other times, the house is in an uproar. And all the time, it's a great feeling to see both of them together.

Enough of the ramble. So we went to the Zoo yesterday.

One thing strikingly different in this Zoo (as compared to all the other zoos I have been to in my life) was the fact that most of the animals were not in cages! Most of them, including a lion and a few rhinos, were in the open. Only a few (like the grumpy looking leopard) were in a cage. Just as well.

Because of this, my younger daughter almost ended up stepping on a baby Komodo dragon. Inadvertently, of course. Then the howling started.

Needless to say, the adults enjoyed the zoo a lot more than the kids. They wanted to get back home and the walking did not do them a lot of good. I would have thought the tram system in the zoo should have been like the Bus service at Sentosa. Free for all from one point to another. But no. You had to pay every single time you got on. That, I thought, was a bit too much.

I wish I could say I was really impressed with the Zoo, but I wasn't. It was an OK experience.

Maybe the bird park will be better. Cause that's where we are headed next.

My mouth is on England

People usually say "Put your money where your mouth is". But I have no money, so I will just put my mouth.

I think England has a shot at the FIFA World Cup in Germany next year. This time, almost all the key slots are in place for them. The reason I say almost is because they have fairly lousy goalkeepers.

Look at the positions:

Strikers: Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen, Darren Bent, Peter Crouch
Midfield: David Beckham, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerraed, Joe Cole
Defenders: John Terry, Sol Campbell, Rio Ferdinand
Goalkeeper: David James, Paul Robinson

As you can see, it's a star studded line-up, except for the goal side.

Of course, having a lot of stars does not mean the team will be the best. Real Madrid the classic example. But there is a lot of quality in the England side this time and the threat is a lot more serious. Mainly because of one major factor.

ROONEY!

If there is a fantastic player in a league of his own, Wayne Rooney is the one. The ability of this guy to create opportunities and to score goals is unbelievable. It's almost like he can play any position as good as or even better than some of the stars in the team. I am counting on him to contribute significantly to the team's success.

Keep an eye out for a lot of Beckham patented accurate deliveries into the box and Rooney getting them into the goal.

Just a walk in Villa Park

Man U cruised to a 2-0 away win against Astom Villa.

With a fairly dominating performance, Man U are now 6 points away from leaders Chelsea (with one more match, of course).

Villa never looked seriously threatening and it was Man U all the way. The score line could have been 3-0, but Park Ji Soon's attempt brushed off goal and the Korean International was denied his first premiership goal. The pass from Rooney was breathtakingly beautiful and Park's finish was fantastic. Just unlucky to hit the bar.

Van Nistelrooy put a nice, almost similar to Rooney, pass into the back of the net and then Rooney himself added the second with a brilliant run into the box.

Sir Alex was smiling away when the three minutes of extra time were added.

Way to go, Man U. Keep it up.

A year's worth of blogging

It's been a year!

Yep, that's right. It's been a year since I started to blog, my first post being on the 16th of December.

Funny coincidence really. I was just looking at my blog history today and realized the significant milestone I was about to cross. And I noticed another funny thing.

For the last few months, I averaged about 13 posts a month. That's almost once in two days. And that was the best average. Hmmm...

Now, that's not so good, it it? And considering the fact that the number of posts dropped dramatically during the NaNoWriMo contest during November.

So here's what I am going to do.

I am going to attempt and up the number of posts per month to around 20. Which would make it two posts in three days.

Only problem will be writing something sensible :-)

Ho Hum...

God, it's a slow few weeks!

Everybody in the office is already in holiday mood. A lot of them are in the holiday mood and are, coincidentally, on a holiday. Somewhere great, I imagine.

As for me, I'm still here. Putting up with the glacier like speed of the week going by.

Why then, you ask, dont I take a vacation myself? Hmmm, good question. Fact is, I will take one, but only in the beginning of the new year.

You see, I want to make the coming year begin with a bang rather than end this year with one.

This year has been sort of a mixed bag for me. A lot of good things, a lot of crap. (Now don't scream thats everybody's story). All in all, I think it's been a positive trend year-on-year.

From where I was three years ago to where I am now (mentally, of course), it's a huge change. Completely positive. Some of you unfortunate souls who have known me for the last few years would know exactly what I am talking about. For the rest of you, I guess it's too long a story to get into.

Another week and a half until Christmas and another 2 weeks to go before I go on vacation.

Maybe a bit of golf will brighten the day.

I'm not the only one missing short putts

Even the Professional players do it.

I am one of the priveleged people to see some of the top women golfers in the world play at the Lexus Cup at the Tanah Merah Country Club in Singapore. Eleven of the top 13 players in the world were there. Yes, you heard me right. That included the likes of Annika Sorenstam, Paula Creamer, Grace Park, Jiang Jang, Birdie Kim, Jill McGill, Natalie Gulbis.... The one notably absent from the line-up was Michelle Wie.

The tournament was Asia Vs the International team. Grace Park assumed the role of the leader for the Asian team, while Annika righfully assumed her place at the top of the International side. The final day started out with a slug between the captains teeing off first in a singles contest. I followed that round until the 13th hole where Annika was leading Grace 2up. The crowd just got a bit too much for me and I was missing a lot of the game because of the jostling. From the way Annika was playing, I knew that match would be over before they reached the 18th tee. It only looked like a matter of time before Annika finished Grace off.

So I waited at the 12th green to follow the next match. But even before the players had teed off from the 12th, I knew following the match was useless. The scoreboard placed to the left had side of the 12th green was screaming 5up in favour of Paula Creamer who was playing against Birdie Kim. Paula's approach landed six feet from pin and Birdie's landed in the greenside rough. Looking at Birdie's chip from the rough, I knew she had no chance of catching Paula. Indeed, Paula won the next couple of holes and won 7&5 winning the second straight point for the international team for the day.

Gladly for me, the next match proved to be a cracker. Jill McGill was playing the reigning British Open Champion Jiang Jang. JJ came to the 13th trailing one down and looked to be making a move. The picture on the right (with Jill smiling) was the only one where the player was nice enough to smile at the audience. It was great to talk to a player of the caliber of Jill McGill and get that feeling of humility despite all her achievements.

As I anticipated, the match was an absolute cracker. Both players played some fantastic shots. Jill played, according to me, the shot of the tournament. She had hooked her drive into a fairway bunker on the 15th (I think) while JJ was on the fairway. JJ's approach landed on the right edge of the green in the rough. Jill had a tough approach from the fairway bunker with the bunker lip around 3 feet high.

What a shot it was! The ball shot off the face of what I believe was a seven iron, neatly crossed the lip of the bunker and landed five feet from pin with enough spin to make the ball stop dead. It was a fabulous shot. Made my trip to the TMCC worth it.

Jill eventually lost on the last hole due to some bad luck. Her second shot hit a tree and went close to entering the water on the right hand side of the 18th fairway. It was a good recovery for bogey, but JJ was on track for a par and won by one hole.

All in all, it was a great experience for me to watch all these great players in action. Especially Annika. She is a treat to watch. She is so focused and so consistent, it's unbelievable. And she showed why she is the number one player in the world.

I learnt a lot.

You are responsible, Sir Alex

Manchester United is out of the Champions League.

Yes, the famous club has been unceremoniously kicked out of Europe's premier competition after their 1-2 defeat against Benfica last night.

There has been a lot of blame throwing following the match, mainly from the media. The usual suspects list has been narrowed down to Christiano Ronaldo and Rio Ferdinand.

While I agree that Ronaldo could have played a better role last night and that Rio is increasingly looking distracted and getting caught unawares more often, I don't think the blame lies solely with them.

One of the reports mentioned "Ronaldo was given the responsibility to dribble the ball towards the box and feed Ruud Van Nistelrooy". Why? Is Van Nistelrooy incapable of taking the ball to the box himself and finishing? Is his job just to sit in the box and await feeds from his collegues?

In my opinion, Van Nistelrooy is a piece of SHIT! That's right, I said it! It had to be said. All the idiot will do is to stay near the box and wait for the ball to be passed to him. If you look at the number of times he gets the ball in the midfield, you will see that he almost always never manages to dribble the ball away towards the goal and the defenders take it right back.

The only reason Van Nistelrooy has been successful at ManU is because they had Beckham to feed the ball into the box for this idiot to finish. And they don't have him any more. And they don't have Roy Keane any more, either.

Look at the people ManU has. Scholes is a natural striker who is being forced to play as a midfielder. So is Smith. Giggs, Ronaldo, Park are all very good wingers. Two jackasses in the form of Ferdinand and Silvestre form the heart of the ManU defense. There is no proper midfielder, no one who will make the play, who will lead the team. No one to orchestrate the game for them.

And that is the sole responsibility of Sir Alex Ferguson. For a club the stature of ManU, they deserve a lot better. Instead, long standing fans like me are increasingly getting frustrated with the way the club is playing.

Do we ever learn?

"Give peace a chance" was the statement John Lennon made 35 years ago. Paying no heed to that statement, someone shot him 10 years later. How screwed up is that?

The song went on to become the anthem for almost every peace protest ever since. But that is all it has become. Just an anthem for a bunch of protests.

People haven't learnt anything from it. Society hasn't turned a corner. We are still doing the same hateful things that have now become tradition for the last few dacades.

Look at the pointless war in Iraq. Look at terrorists in Bangaladesh, Kashmir, Malaysia, Indonesia, ....

It's like they never asked each other "What then?". OK, so you've killed a lot of people and managed to make a seperate independant state based on religious law. What next? How does that help in making life better? Where does the new state and its populace go from there? What is the end objective? Are people even thinking about these things?

I'm sorry if I sound bitter, but the sheer futility of some of the things going on around the world, it just sucks. Innocent people are dying every day for no reason. Armies are invading other countries for no rhyme or reason (oh sure, the politicians will find a reason for anything. remember the "Weapons of Mass Distruction" excuse against Iraq?).

Why poeple cannot just take a chill pill and learn to relax is just beyond me. I am glad to say that I have friends from all walks of life and from religions I cannot even keep track of. Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Chinese, Christians, Jews, Buddhists...

The only thing that brings us together is the fact that we like being with each other. We talk about so many different things. And there is nothing wrong with an alternative opinion. Just cause you like being around these people does not mean that you have to agree with everything they say, nor does it mean that they have to agree with you.

Debate and discussion is always good. Learning different points of view is important. It is only when you learn to comprehend the different views to the same situation is when you can see it in totality. And that is learning.

Is there a point to this post? I am not sure. But the thing is, as long as we agree to disagree and learn to "live and let live", there need not be a point.

Butterfly in the MRT

Remember the scene in "You've got Mail!" where Meg Ryan recounts her experience in the subway. She sees a butterfly get on the train and get off at Broadway.

Well, I had the same experience yesterday. Not exactly, since I am in Singapore and so Broadway is way too far away.

A butterfly got into the MRT at Braddell and got off with me at Novena. It just hopped on and sat there on the ceiling of the train for a while and then calmly (I presume) got off at the Novena MRT station.

Maybe it was getting through it's Christmas shopping list and wasn't impressed with the stuff available at Braddell.

These youngsters are amazing

I was recently at the "Thank God It's Over (TGIO)" party which celebrated the end of the month long, frantic wrting contest that is NaNoWriMo.

I realized that I was the oldest bloke there (if you ignore the Municipal Liason, that is) and most of the people were youngsters in their early teens.

A couple of them were just entering their teens. And these two were amazing. One of them wrote a - trust me when I say this - 101000 word novel! You heard me right, a hundred and one THOUSAND word novel. And she did this in two weeks instead of four. Whoa!

The other did not churn out a tome this big, but beat the teen by being the youngest WriMo in Singapore. Coolio.

And here I was, looking old and foolish in the middle of these young people who were having a lot of fun. They obviously knew each other from the write-in's and the meetings, but it was a first time for me.

The only thing that made me feel good about myself is that I managed to get to the Winner spot despite having a full time job and a family that screams for my time. That is a good experience.

No more crouching at Anfield

Peter Crouch finally managed to score.

He did it after spending a collective 24hrs on the football pitch without a single goal...until today, that is. And today, many would say he scored twice.

He definately has one goal and can claim the other as well.
So Liverpool Manager Rafael Benitez' faith in Crouch has been well placed and the rewards were reaped well as Liverpool collected all three points from their home encounter against Wigan. Both teams, before this match, were tied for the fifth place.

With this win, Liverpool will be in sole second position...awaiting the outcome of the ManU and Arsenal games later today.

All said and done, all the Peter Crouch jokes should stop now that he has actually scored.

From Bulimic to Bohemian

Conversations can hop along so fast, it's hard to keep track of what started them and where they will lead.

Take this conversation over lunch yesterday. A few collegues and I had stepped out for lunch and as usual, there was this inane conversation which has some of us holding our respective heads and the rest of us rolling on the floor laughing.

This conversation was shifting tracks so fast, it was difficult to say when the topic of Bulimia (the binge eating disorder) came in. Even while we were marvelling at the topic cropping up during lunch, one of us rhymed it with Bohemia and the topic ran off into a completely different direction.

We finally ended up with a discussion on - you won't believe this - Copyright and Copyright Violation laws. Wonky, huh?

The only reason we didn't have our thought running wilder was the office were we all had to get back and work. Had it been a beer session on a Friday evening, only God knows where it would have gone.

NaNoWriMo Winner!

Yes, you heard me right!

I am now officially a NaNoWriMo Winner! I finally finished my novel just now and according to the NaNoWriMo word counters, my novel word count stands at 51162 words.

Aah, the satisfaction of completing my novel! Of getting the job done.

I have this smug grin on my face for the last one hour.

Oh, the agony...

I played the worst round of golf in my entire life!

I have never played this poorly since, let me think, FOREVER! And the funny thing was, this round I had the lowest putts I have ever taken in a full round. 29 putts.

Problem was getting to the green. If I was anywhere close to the green, I was much better. Even from bunkers (which I surprisingly found myself in a lot of times). My swing was completely off. Sometimes, I was striking the ball really well. Other times, I was hitting the ball all over the place.

Only compensation was that I was comfortable hitting my new R5 driver. I must have hit it consistently to around 280 yards. But after that, I was constantly battling to get to the green.

So, it's back to the range for me. It's an extremely rude wake up call for me. Serves me right for neglecting the game for so long.

Time to get better acquianted with the driving range.

I can smell the finish line

Yep, you heard me right.

My word count stands at 43838, a mere 6162 words away from the golden 50000 word mark. I am slap bang into the climax of my novel and the build up so far has been to my satisfaction. But I haven't read it as a whole novel yet and so don't know how the script has gelled together. I hope it has, but I will know only when it's done, won't I?

I have a few hours of writing tonight before I pick up my friend from the airport. He and his family are landing tonight and staying with us for a day before they leave for India. So my plan is to carry my trusted Ferrari notebook (don't I just love to rub it in?) and write while I wait for their flight to come in.

I should have a few thousand words in by then. Then I will be just a few thousand words away from the end of my first novel. I think it has turned out well so far, but since I have been the only critic (it has been written in extreme secrecy, so no one but me has seen is), I can't really say.

Any of you wanting to criticise my literary skills? I didn't think so.

Less than 13000 to go

Just when you thought I had given up on NaNoWriMo, ha ha... guess what?

I have less than 13000 words to go to hit the magic 50000 word mark. Pretty crazy, huh? And I am smiling cause I know I hit 13000 words with 3 days of crazy writing when I actually started writing on the 6th of this month.

Why did I start so late, you ask? Cause I had my oldest friend visiting me at that time. I had started writing on the 1st like a good WriMo, but then he landed here on the 3rd and there went my writing.

So I started again when he left on the 6th and in the panic attack, blazed through to 15ooo by the time I hit the 12th of the month.

Now I am at 37075 words. A couple of thousand words every day and I will be sitting pretty with more than 50000 words before the end of the month. Just to be sure, I want to be well over the number to make sure I dont fall short of it after all this effort.

That does not mean I will compromise on the quality of my novel. It is going to be my best literary work till date. Come to think of it, it will be my FIRST literary work as well.

What a coincedence, huh?

93

Yep, that's what I shot!

After a break of more than four months, I finally played a round of golf! YESSS!!!

I, along with a few people, went to the Palm Resort golf resort in Johor Bahru to play the Melati course, which is one of the three courses the resort has to offer.

I was quite impressed with the efficiency of the immigration procedure at the First Link between Singapore and Malaysia. After about 15 minutes of queuing up, we were on our way to the course. As we neared, the skyline seemed to get darker and darker. We only hoped that it would not rain.

But it was not to be. The rain came down, a drizzle at first and then pouring down. We, however, decided to go ahead with the round. We didn't actually think that the rain would get worse. I guess we are really bad weathermen.

As there were a few groups waiting on the first tee, we decided to start from the 15th hole. I was going to use my new Taylor Made R5 driver for the first time and frankly, even a blind man could have made out that I was not hitting it right. I struggled off the tee for the first few holes, but managed to scramble to five bogeys in a row.

For someone who has not played for a while, bogeys are welcome. It meant that I was doing something right. Honestly, the swing was there, just that there was no feel for the chipping and putting part of the game. So lost a few holes because of the chipping.

Then a few pars and a few more bogeys later, I was still playing to 11 over after 14 holes. The rain was now steadly comind down, affording only so much visibility and messing up the grips. Then disaster struck.

I hit a really beautiful drive, smack in the center of the fairway. Mighty pleased with myself, I walked over to my ball. I noticed that it was just off the drain cover, so it was an awkward lie, but not completely unplayable.

Then I shanked, got it back and shanked again. By the time, I was on the green I was already playing my 8th stroke and then single putted to a quadruple bogey. My card was destroyed.

The game, thinking I could handle a little more devastation, put another double bogey on my card at the very next hole. By the time I located my disappeared swing, I was already eight strokes off where I wanted to be.

So finally, I played to 93 on a par 72 course. Not bad, I try to convince myself, considering the fact that I was playing for the first time in four months and that it was pouring on course. Also, I was playing the course for the first time, which I think does play a role.

The high point of the day was the return of the putting feel. I finished the round with 34 putts and had only a single three putt (when I was on the green in regulation on a long par 5, can you believe it?)

So armed with the knowledge (or the lack) of my swing, I will be playing a friendly tournament on Sunday. And this time, I will keep the driver in the bag. Unless I can spend some time with it at the driving range.

Wish me luck!

Adios, Roy

Yep, it's official. Roy Keane has decided to leave Manchester United, effective immediately.

I personally am sad. Keane is a big loss for ManU. He was probably the only one ManU had who was a true midfielder. After Beckham left, he was the one creating a lot of opportunities.

ManU has a lot of talent in some areas. They have a great stiker in Rooney (I personally think Ruud Van Nistelrooy is highly over rated and is a complete idiot who waits for the ball rather than taking it to goal a la Henry), a brilliant flanker in Ronaldo and some really good talent in Scholes, Giggs and the gang. But there is no real playmaker.

If you watch the recent games, Rooney is the guy who is creating a lot of chances. He is usually involved in all the goals, even if he is not the person scoring them.

Keane departure, tho, has not been a surprise. He recently made scathing remarks on the performance of certain people which, I am sure, did not go down well with Sir Alex.

His move from ManU does leave a hole in the midfield section. I know that Alan Smith and Paul Scholes have been trying to fit into that slot and full marks to Smith for putting so much effort on the field. But they are not natural midfielders. They are strikers who have been forced to play midfield and so are still learning the nuances of the position.

I just hope that ManU gets a good replacement for him.

Not that I am complaining, tho. ManU beat Charlton Athletico convincingly today with a 3-1 scoreline at full time. That too a day after Keane's announcement. Hats off to them for playing like the great team they are.

Go on, you Red Devils. My support remains unwavering.

27500...and still going

Ho hmmm... yeah, I am still going on about that.

Yep, I have touched 27500 words and have another 22500 to go before the 30th of this month. That makes it around 2000 words a day on an average. I hope I make it. I really do.

So now you know why most of my recent post have been at unearthly timings. Cause I have been burning the midnight oil (yeah, I still use oil) and putting my words down to become immortal.

Maybe someday, I will put up my novel on this blog.

I have no sense of mercy, so I will put you through it! He he.

Ferrari once more

And this time I am not talking about the car.

I bought the Acer Ferrari 4005, a super powerful notebook, for myself. Obviously it's a work machine, but this is the first computer that I have bought for myself and so the decision makes me tremendously happy.

I am sure you have noticed from a few previous posts that I am a major Ferrari nut. Well, actually I am primarily a Michael Schumaker nut and then a Ferrari nut, but that's just a techincality. So the brand was definately important to me. I would have to live with an Acer logo on my notebook as well, but then the Ferrari Prancing Horse clearly dominated the notebook. So that problem was not so much of an issue.

The configuration of the machine is killer. It's an AMD Turion 64bit processor running at 2GHz, has a gig of RAM and a 100gig 5400RPM disk. It also has a Panasonic optical drive which will amost write anything (DVD, CD, etc...)

The display is a crisp 15.4 inches wide screen delight. The display is powered by an ATI X700 graphics card which has it's own dedicated 128MB graphics memory. So the graphics are fab.

It's such a great feeling to use the machine. The keyboard layout is a bit different to my earlier Toshiba notebook, so am in the midst of getting used to it.

Way to go Ferrari. If you want to read more reviews on the norebook, just do a search for Ferrari 4005 (duh!)

18030...the numbers are looking better

Yep, that's the latest tally for the novel.

I know that I am only 36% ow the way at the 50% mark, but my effort the last few days has made me believe that this will be fine.

I need to write around 1800 words every day now for the next twenty or so days to finish comfortably ahead of time. And considering the fact that I am now up to around 1700 words per hour, I need to put in slightly more than an hour to keep on track. If I can manage more, then nothing like it. I will be able to keep some buffer (in case I go out for a round of golf and return bone tired to write even my obituary)

Tally ho!

7299

That's where I am at the moment with my quest to reach NaNoWriMo glory.

In case you did not read my previous blog, the point of the whole thingy is that you need to churn out a 50,000 (that's right, you read it correct. It IS fifty thousand) word novel in the month of November. So basically you start writing (about bloody well anything in the whole bloody world) from the first of November and end writing on the thirtieth of November and hope that your month long toil has resulted in a tome which crosses the mark. And if you do, then you are added to the Winner's page. And you get ........


Ta ta ra raaaaa.....

A certificate for your effort and a web icon. How cool is that? Isn't that worth getting carpal tunnel syndrome?

Now, why am I wasting my time posting this, you ask? Cause I don't want my dedicated blog followers to think that I have abandoned them. Fear not, my mateys. I will return with the web icon. I just need to get back to my novel right now.

Man U (1) - Chelsea (0)

I know I haven't had a post for a while, but I have to write about this.

Manchester United beat Chelsea 1-0 at Old Trafford tonight! (YESSS!!!) And what a game it was. MU was on the ball from the whistle. The forst half, it looked like they were in exclusive control of the ball. And the Premier League champions looked completely out of sorts on the field.

Nothing the truely great Lampard, the inspirational Terry or the lightning quick Drogba could do to break the MU defense. And I must say this, Rio Ferdinand was excellant today. (Looks like he took the criticism of Roy Keane to heart). So was Darren Fletcher, who was the lone goal scorer of the match. And you should have seen Alan Smith throw himself at the ball.

It was like MU was obsessed with winning the game.

What an entertainer! The quality of the game was phenomenal! Just top class!

I guess MU just out-gunned Chelsea today, bringing their unbeaten run in the premiership season to an end.

Aaaaaaahhhhh! That is so so so satisfying.

Now back to NaNoWriMo (which is keeping me busy these last few days)

200mts and still going

Yippeeeeeee!!!

If you don't understand why I am so happy, let me elaborate.

For all the while I have played golf, I have never used woods. The biggest reason for this is that all the driving ranges that I have practised at, my 3i would very regularly cross the range boundary. Being a long hitter, this causes a problems. I need to know where my ball is going to go before I hit it (cause if I hit it long in the wrong direction, that's not of any help) and so I need practise to know where the ball will go (generally).

So I never played woods thus far & thanx to that strategy, I am very very comfortable with my iron play. Cause I tee off with my irons, I approach with them. So I know how each of my irons feel. And I don't have a problem with my long irons like most amatuers do.

Now that my handicap has been stagnant around the 16 mark for a while and my swing has been quite consistent, I thought that moving on to the woods makes sense. Mainly because if they get me closer to the green, chances for par & birdie go up & therefore lower scores.

So I bought the TaylorMade R5 driver a couple of days back. It's a 10.5 degree, stiff shaft, Type-N driver. And it's a thing of beauty, I tell you. It's just gorgeous.

I took it to the driving range on the weekend and had a go. And boy, was I pleased.

I was hitting the ball consistently into the fence at the other end of the driving range (which is 200mts away from me) 20 feet in the air. Consistently.

Then I pushed my luck to see if I could work the ball with the club. Cause I regularly try and work the ball to the left or right depending on the way the course shapes. And to my astonishment, I could do that too. I could do a fade or a draw. I could do a slice or a hook (tho, I had more trouble making the slice than the hook, more because of the way I swing...not the way the driver is). And that's just terrific! Cause now I have a club that I can shape like I normally shape my other clubs.

I don't have to overswing or hit it too hard. My swing speed is enough to hit the ball really long.

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Thank you, Mr Taylor!

186 goals and a brand new record

Thierry Henry (Arsenal Football Club captain, premier stiker, one of the best players in the world) added another distinction to his already formidable list.

Yesterday, he became the highest scorer for Arsenal by scoring his 186th goal.

In scoring twice in Arsenal's Champions League match, Thierry broke the long standing Ian Wright record and became the Gunner's most prolific scorer ever. What is even more interesting is not the goals that he has scored (which is huge) but also the number of goals that he has helped to create.

A truely classy player, Henry currently stands alone at the peak of Mount Football as the best striker in the world.

As if to emphasize this, he came back into the Arsenal side after weeks of recuperating from injury. He came on after half time and, within 5 minutes, had scored the first goal. He would score another.

I wish Manchester United had him.

Snow? In Singapore?

A place smack on the equator getting snow? Not possible, you say huh?

Singapore goes out of the way to prove you wrong.

The Singapore Science Center has a fairly large facility where the temperature is maintained at 2.9 degrees below zero (or sometimes lower). And there is a lot of snow in there!

That's where we went on Sunday. The initial plan for the Sunday was a visit to the Singapore Zoo. But the rains here don't have a 5 day week. They have a 2 day week, starting on the weekend. The heavens opened up & showered Singapore with all gusto. So in this marvelously wet condition, we didn't think the zoo would be the best place to go.

So the Snow City it was. The place is a bit far from our house & so my daughter did her famous impression of Donkey from "Shrek" (going "Are we there yet?") about 20 times. Boy, were we glad when the cab stopped in front of the Snow City Lobby.

Here's the deal. You get jackets & gloves & snow shoes. And then you get into this vault kind of thing, which by the way, gets you starting to feel really cold.

And then you step into a space which is dominated by white. Snow all around! They even have this snow ramp where you can sit on rubber tyre tubes & slide down.

So we did a lot of snowballing, especially my daughter as it was her first experience with snow. Then some more stuff like putting the nose back on the snowman. A crawl thro the metal igloo (wow, that rhymes!) and then we headed for the slopes.

Now this is no slalom slope, but it's good enough for a slide! The three of us sat ourselves on these rubber tubes, locked our arms together at the elbow & wheeeeee......

I thought my daughter would crib about the place being cold & the ride being scary. But she was the first one on her feet going "Let's do that again". So we did. Again. Again. Again.

We must have climbed up to the top of the slope & slid down around 20 times! And each was better than the last. Cause we were spinning around & going down faster than the last time. Wheee...

Great fun. Nice place to go. You should try it.

What image association!

My daughter and I were sitting in the living room watching TV on a lazy saturday night. And "The Parent Trap" was playing on cable.

So we're there watching it. And suddenly my daughter has a glint in her eye & she goes "that's woman is Violet's mother from Willy Wonka".

And I sit up & realise that she's right. The woman playing the part of the to-be-stepmother (don't ask me her name, I couldn't care less) was actually the one playing the mother of the obnoxious, constantly gum chewing, self possessed teenager in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory). And I say "Wow, that is amazing face recollection for a face that you've seen in a movie just once, that too a month ago".

And then, my wife stunned me with another. She just went "Isn't the little girl in the movei the same as the one in Herbie Fully Loaded?" And it's only then that I realised that it WAS indeed Lindsey Lohan who acted as the twins in the movie.

Wahow! Talk about face recall!

All you potential writers out there...

This is a great opportunity to get from being a potential writer to an actual writer.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) allows people to register on their site & write a novel of more than 50,000 words within the month of November.

And in case you do manage to write one which is 50,000 words and more, then your reward is....

Ta tara rattaraa raa...

Your very own novel! And a certificate from NaNoWriMo confirming that you, in fact, submitted this novel & appreciating your effort.

It's a great way to encourage people to write. I think all of us should have a go.

I think I will.

Only problem is...What do I write about? Writer's block setting in already? This is not supposed to happen! Aaaaaaaaaaaa........

I can't wait...

I know that my Home Theatre setup does not land up until this evening, but I am getting impatient as hell!

I just cannot wait to get my hands on the little devils & set them up & configure each and every component to sound the way I like them to sound.

AAAAAAARRRRRRGH! Why does time have to move so slow when you want it to speed by? Why? Why? Wwhhhhhyyyyyy?

I wanna get to 5pm now.

I went, I saw & I floored

That is exactly what happened. Exactly. "How? Pray tell", you say? Then lend me your ears, cause that's what this is all about.

Have I confused you enough? He he.

I was in the market for a home theatre setup for quite some time. I left my old Yamaha home theatre back in India with my parents (my mom would love to watch all her Hindi TV serials in surround sound). And so I was living with the really crappy sound of my Panasonic TV.

Now, for those who don't know me well, there is this quirk in me. I am extremely picky about a few things. Most of all, about my music. When it comes to my music, I think I have OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, for the uninitiated). My CDs have to be in a certain order, my iTunes library is always with all information including album picture (which shows quite well on my colour iPod), and I like my music to sound just this way.

So you can imagine the frustration that I put this poor sales guy when I sampled some of the speakers that he had to offer.

And then I heard the KEF Q series. And I fell in love with them! Cause the sound is so clean, so pure that you just want to keep listening to them. And I decided right then and there that I wanted these particular speakers. And so I bought them, just like that. Of course it helped that my wife loved them too & my decision to buy had her blessings :-)

So my setup is going to be the following:
Two KEF Q3 front floor standing speakers (main L & R)
One KEF Q6c center channel speaker
Two KEF Q Compact rear speakers (surround L & R)
One Wharfdale PC10+ (a 10 inch bottom firing subwoofer to add that slam)

To drive all of this, I chose to go with a Cambridge Audio Azur 540R amplifier. This is a 100 watts RMS per channel DTS 6.1 capable amp. From all my research, this was the best in the price range that I was looking at.

All of this gets delivered to my place in the evening tomorrow. I can hardly wait.

I can almost see myself inventing a reason to get back home early.

And that's the car right there

Did I tell you? Or did I tell you? Here is the great man's car again.



It was something...standing right next to it. The machine looks gorgeous!

What a way to end a great weekend

Now this, I gotta tell you.

We had planned on going to Sentosa island on Saturday, but it rained durians on saturday morning. So we had to push our Sentosa plans ahead by a day. And assuming that the rain would hold up for the whole day, we decided to just go around for a bit of shopping (the other sport widely practised in Singapore).

Only thing is, the rain just disappeared by afternoon, leaving half a saturday with perfect weather.

And so, shop we did. Not anything to write about, but a tiny hole in the wallet nonetheless.

And so my daughter, my wife & I were looking forward to a clear sky on Sunday. But the rain had other plans. It came crashing down on Sunday morning as well. So we decided to take a chance with the rain & head out to Sentosa anyways. And it turned out to be a good decision. The rain vanished, just like it had on the previous day, by afternoon & we were heading out to Sentosa with perfect weather on our side.

I have been to Sentosa a few times (as a tourist) and so most of the attrations were not new to me. But my daughter was going there for the first time (technically, her second time...but she was just two years old then & so could not remember anything from her last visit).

So we took the cable car ride into Singapore. I have a photograph with my daughter's awestruck face as the cage hovered over the Singapore water on the way to the island strip.

Then we took her to the Underwater World. My daughter was a bit hesitant on touching the live fish in the "Touch Pool" they have there. But it was cool to touch a shark!

They now have this cool ride called Cinemania which is a 3D ride which simulates a Roller Coaster. And it is pretty convincing too. Something that all 3 of us enjoyed, mostly my wife.

Then we hopped on a Sentosa island bus (they have free shuttles running around the island every few minutes) and made our way to the Dolphin Lagoon. There we got to see two Pink Dolphins perform amazing tricks & had a great time. We even stepped into the water to pet Jumbo, a 30 year old dolphin, on his back & got our pictures taken with him.

After that, we decided that only knee deep water was not going to be good enough. So the beach it was.

We went to the Tanjong Beach which also has the lively KM8 bar. This piece of the beach was packed with people sunbathing, playing beach volleyball, sipping their favourite (or not) cocktails & just having a great time swinging to the rhythm of the music.

My daughter had her first experience of sea water swimming & she was a bit scared of seeing the waves come on the beach & leave. She spent most of the time on the sand making a castle (it didn't look like one, but the intent was there) and then making bunny rabbits next to them. That gave me and my wife some time by ourself in the water. And that is always welcome, if you catch my drift!

We intended to stay for some good time at KM8, but my daughter, tired from the busy day, was sleepy. And so we headed out to a place somewhere close to home to catch a bite.

And here is the great ending to my weekend.

There was a Bridgestone booth on Orchard Road. And they actually had Michael Schumaker's F1 Ferrari car on display, obviously flaunting the Bridgestone tires with it.

So we all got our pictures clicked alongside the car. Being a complete Schumi nut myself, this was a great gift at the end of a superb weekend.

That just set the bar pretty high for all the weekends to come.

1-0 and ridiculous refereeing

Yes, I am talking about England's World Cup qualifier against Austria tonight at Old Trafford.

The one thing I took away from the game was the competency (or the lack of) of the referee. There were enough and more controversial decisions made during the game.

First, there was a penalty accorded to England when Michael Owen's arm was tugged inside the box as he was moving towards goal. A penalty beautifully converted by Frank Lampard. The second was another tackle on Owen inside the box which was a sure shot penalty, but was ignored by the ref.

Then there were the 2 quickfire Yellow Cards handed out to David Beckham. Neither of them was a bookable offense & repeated plays of the incidents showed extraordinary playacting skills on part of the Austrian team members.

And so Beckham, captain of the England side, was sent off & England was forced to defend their slender one goal lead with 10 men for more than 30 minutes. And the Austrians piled on a lot of pressure, action concentrating mainly around the England box.

But when the final whistle came, England collect full points from the match & moved into near certain qualification position for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Hope the refereeing in Germany is better.

Two months and Bogey Golf

Aaaah! It's good to be back.

I played 9 holes a few days ago. And I was playing golf after almost 2 months. You cannot imagine the feeling I had on the first tee. One side of me was elated to be back on the course. The other side of me was petrified at the fact that I might have lost my swing & that the first ball I hit would, in fact, go out of bounds.

All my fears were for nothing. Despite a poor start (I blame it solely on my layoff from the game & therefore the loss of touch in my short game), I made 3 pars in the last 4 holes to end the round at a net bogey round. Three pars, bogeys & double bogeys respectively.

And most of the bogeys because of poor chipping & putting. And I realised how much feel I have lost by not playing all this time.

But what was great to see was my swing hasn't disintegrated as I though it would have. In fact, there was no change. The same predictable draw. The same distance. The same unhurried downswing. COOLIO!!!

Now that I have started, I intend to keep going. The goal is to get as close to single digit as possible.

Please don't scoff at the goal. "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one" - John Lennon.

Anfield ... Or Lost Battlefield?

I just had to write about this.

Chelsea just decimated Liverpool at home by 4 to 1.

And for those who dont follow the English Premier League (EPL) or soccer in general, this is going to be completely Zamonian to you.

Liverpool, as the champions of Europe, took on the EPL Championship title holders Chelsea at their home in Anfield. And the match prefaced with the Liverpool coach Rafael Benitez making rather loud statements about Liverpool being the one team handing Chelsea their first defeat of the season (Chelsea were 7 wins out of 7 since the beginning of this season). And the reason these statement were coming was that Liverpool held Chelsea to a draw during their Champions League fixture a few days ago to a goalless draw.

What eventually happened was Chelsea handed a humiliating 4-1 drubbing to Liverpool!

And if you watched the game, you cannot fault Chelsea. They played magnificently...in all departments of the game. And Didier Drogba was superb. He had a hand in all the goals Chelsea scored.

I don't see any side in the Premier League which looks so much like a well woven unit as Chelsea (and coming from a hard core Manchester United fan, that's saying a lot).

Jose Morhinho (Chelsea Manager) has done a fabulous job (there's an understatement right there) and Chelsea deserve to be at the top of the table. They just happen to be top of the table by 8 points.

Many a team would love to have this kind of leadership at the end of the championship. Chelsea has it at the beginning. And they only look like they are going to extend the lead.

Looks like the record Tottenham set back in the '60s of 11 straight wins at the start of the season is in jeopardy.

I got myself a Ferrari!

Ok, maybe I'm being overdramatic here.

I got myself the limited edition Michael Schumacher Ferrari miniature car (my serial number stands at 4907 out of a total 15000 made world wide).

It's an exact replica miniaturized to an 18th of the original size. This is the one made to commemorate his win at the Bahrain Grand Prix at Sakhir last year (incidentally winning on the date 04/04/04). It was also the car that made all sorts of history in Formula 1.

And for an out-and-out Tifosi, it's a beauty that just begs to be taken home. Schumi with his fist in the air, doing the customary victory lap in the beautifully crafted scarlet Ferrari.

The only difference is... the tyres dont look worn out at all :-)

I have an idea for a book

It's been circulating in my mind for a few weeks now.

I have the basic idea, the approximate plot. I just haven't got the end figured out. And I think that a good book is only good if it has a good ending. So I don't have much right now. But I will work on the idea for a while, let it brew. Maybe it will come to me, just like the idea came to me in the first place.

Maybe I'll get another writer to collaborate with me. Then again, maybe not. I don't have a good ending for this post too. So by my own rating, this post is pretty poor. Then again, maybe not :-)

One Two Carrefour...

For the non-Indian folk, the title does not make a lot of sense. For the Hindi movie watching Indians (and specifically those who watched the movie Ram Lakhan) should be screaming bloody murder right now :-)

Yep, this time we did a full shopping fest at the massive hypermarket called Carrefour. Now let me tell you something about Carrefour. It is really big, and yet is very efficiently organised. Staff there are extremely helpful (one guy went all over the place to search me & hand me some stuff that I was looking for), the layout is extremely conducive to shopping, some really convenient stuff is on display at the right places and the prices are really good.

When we first arrived in Singapore, we were told (by a few friends) that NTUC Fairprice is the best place to shop, mainly because it has a lot of stuff and the prices are really low. So we did shop at Fairprice, but the experience was not exactly the best.

Firstly it was EXTREMELY crowded. It was not organised (or at least my wife & I thought it wasn't). And it offered the same prices as Carrefour does. We actually checked it out.

And we got a variety of stuff in Carrefour that we didn't even see in Fairprice.

So my wife & I are completely sold on Carrefour as the hypermarket of choice.

Cold Storage, tho, remains our grocery store of choice, mainly because it is close to home, it usually has presence in the basement of almost every mall, and it's just convenient.

Thanx for tolerating this crap

My page load tracker showed me that since this blog has come up (less than a year), more than a thousand page loads have happened on this site.

Which means, quite a few people have come to read my trash. And the tracker also showed me that these people are coming in from all over the world.

WOW, I never anticipated people actually reading the crap that I dish out.

Thanx, Anyways!

Internet, meet my Daughter. Daughter, meet the Internet!

I created an email account on Gmail for my five year old yesterday. And she sent her first mail (she typed the whole mail herself) to.... her Grandpa!

No, she didn't send it to me, cause that would be a wasted effort, since I was sitting right next to her, showing her how to use the iBook on her lap. And since her Grandpa (my Dad) is the only one in the family who checks his mail on a regular basis (apart from the fact that he is the one who will most appreciate an e-mail from his grand-daughter), he was the obvious choice.

I am just waiting for him to see the mail. And I am sure this is going to be around for quite a while. I can even hear my Dad proudly say "She wrote her first e-mail to me!".

My baby's first e-mail! Whee!

What other company has this kind of freedom?

I vowed never to write anything about my place of work on my personal blog, but I am going to make this one exception.

The Founder, Chairman & CEO of the company that I work for was in Singapore this week. He is a legendary figure in the company & has, literally, thousands of "fans". He is like a Rock Star in the company.

And yesterday, some of us, the feet on the street, got spend time with him!

That he managed to squeeze some time in his already hectic schedule speaks volumes of his commitment to the company & its people. And it was a great experience standing around with him & chatting freely, asking him questions & getting candid answers.

And as I mentioned earlier, being the Rock Star that he is, some of us, one by on, sat next to him and clicked piuctures. I even got his John Hancock on one of my business cards!

I don't know any other company which has this kind of freedom. I don't know of any CEO who is as accessible or as friendly.

This is a great company to work for. It truely gives its employees the freedom to do their job.

My Little Princess

I have my wife to thank for this.

On the way back home from the local supermarket, she happened to see that there was this promotion happening at the mall. What they were offering was a complete makeover for kids. Complete with their favourite character's costume, make up, hairdo & a full offering of photo sizes.

So my baby dressed up as Cinderella! And she looked so pretty.

I get the photos in a couple of days. Can't wait to get my hands on them.

I have my Friends back!

And Google has made it! As you may remember quite well, I complained in my No "Friends" blog that Google Talk, when reinstalled, does not see my Friends list.

Well, true to the Google word, the list has magically reappeared! I have friends again.

What I am going to say next has got nothing to do with the Friends list, but I am going to say it anyways. Try out the new Google Desktop 2.0 Beta. It is really good, it collapses Google talk & Google Desktop search within the same space & gives you a neat sidebar (which you can hide) which houses al lot more apart from the Google stuff.

And this version of GDS also indexes your Gmail messages in case you want it to. So now you can read your mail, have ur chat and do a lot more from the same (hideable) sidebar. Cool, huh?

Who's Pink Floyd?

That's a question a collegue of mine asked me when we were driving down for a team meeting.

I don't think I can describe my expression when I heard that.

No "Friends"

I recently upgraded the hard disk on my notebook. That meant I had to go about installing all my applications all over again.

Luckily for me, I always keep my data & applications on seperate areas & so it's easy to destroy the OS & not lose the data.

The only surprise came from a Google product. I am not sure how many of you use Google Talk, but I must say it's a great IM tool which allows you to do Voice over IP. And the voice quality is quite good. So I am quite happy with the software.

But when I reinstalled the software, all my Friends were missing. Google Friends are the equivalents of MSN buddies or Yahoo contacts. The entire list of people who had joined my Friends network is gone.

I sent feedback to Google on this & am still awaiting their response. I hope they dont say my buddies are stored locally and that they cannot do anything about it. That would really be crappy.

Or maybe they'll just say "It's still in Beta, register your friends again".

Water, water, everywhere...

The recent floods in Mumbai, India & in New Orleans, USA brought out some startling facts. This is from a mail going around & since I dont know the person who has compiled this information, I cannot put a dedication here. Thanx Govind, for sending me the mail.

	New Orleans	Mumbai
Inches of rain	18	37.1
Population	484,674	12,622,500
Deaths within 48 hours	100	37
Number of people to be evacuated	Entire city (WOW)	10,000
Cases of looting & violence	Countless	None
Time taken for army to reach	48 hours	12 hours
Status 48 hours later	Still waiting for relief	Business as usual

I'm just wondering. Which country is the developed nation & which one is the emerging Third World country.

Kinda puts things in perspective, doesn't it?

Dumbledore's dead!

Now that "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" has been out for more than a month & half, I can say it out aloud. Dumbledore is dead! And for those who are annoyed at me saying it out aloud, they should be ashamed of not reading the book yet.

Since my shipment landed on the weekend, I have got a chance to get my books out & the one on top (since it was the last that went in) was the Potter book.

Now I have a hypothesis:

In the beginning of the book, when the new Minister for Magic meets with the Muggle Prime Minister, the PM screams "You're Wizards, you can solve anything with magic" and Fudge replies "The problem, Prime Minister, is the other side can do magic too".

Why am I telling you this? If Voldemort (Yeah, I'm not afraid to say his name out aloud :-) ) can split his soul into 7 Horcruxes to stay alive, who's to say Dumbledore cannot do the same?

Think about it. By all accounts from the book, Dumbledore should be around 100 years old. When Harry sees him in Tom Riddle's memory, he's already greying quite extensively. And that was 50 years before Harry came to Hogwarts.

Also Dumbledore should have been older to work with Nicholas Flamel (the guy who had the Philosopher's Stone) since he was supposed to be more than 300 years old.

Who's to say Dumbledore, in cahoots with Snape, staged his own death?

That's just a theory. I could be wrong (and most probably will be).

The second theory is: Snape killed Dumbledore (go away, you screaming people) on Dumbledore's instructions. Dumbledore sacrificed his life so that Snape can continue to be close to Voldemort & also help Harry to kill Voldemort.

And I think I know who R.A.B is. I think it's Regulus Black, Sirius' brother. He is mentioned in the "Order of the Phoenix" as being murdered either by Voldemort or on his orders. I think Voldemort killed him / had him killed because he destroyed one of his horcruxes.

What says you?

And I had already predicted (to a few friends) that Ron & Hermione would get together. But I have no proof to this prediction other than the fact that I "did" predict it!

So that's that.

Three shopping complexes and a house...

After that perversion of the famous title, I will quickly try and move your attention to the obviously different things that I want to say here.

We did the Holy Journey (called Teerath Yaatra in Hindi) to the three major shopping complexes here. We did Carrefour, Mustafa Center & IKEA. And lived to tell the tale.

Carrefour was for the basic stocking...stuff like kitchen napkins & what have you. Mustafa Center is a great boon to all the Indians here in Singapore. It stocks almost everything an Indian family would need to cook their food. And that too in an extremely convenient way (like grated coconuts, for example). And then there's IKEA.

A lot of people have failed (miserably, I might add) at describing how much IKEA has to offer. I believe I am going to fail in even greater proportions. That place is just teeming with great ideas & stuff that you see & go "Wow, that would go famously with...." So we bought loads of stuff, enough to qualify for the IKEA Friends clubs. Now we can go again and spend & hopefully get better prices (from the already fantastic prices) and a few other priveleges as well.

My daughter helped me build all the things that we bought at IKEA, so it was a great evening for both of us.

This move looks promising.

Land Ahoy!

The sight of land in the vast expanse of sea. The sound of sea gulls. The beautiful view of green vegetation on a piece of land. The idea of having land under your feet rather than the wood from the ship deck.

This would be the feeling of a ship crew which has been at sea for a while & who has just sighted land.

How is that relevant to me? Cause I just moved into my piece of land here in Singapore!

Yes, I am finally into my apartment (which I mentioned in my earlier post). My shipment from India landed on the weekend, so we have a few days of hectic unpacking to do. Also there is the bit about making the house a home. So we need to get quite a few things to make the place properly habitable for my baby, my wife and myself.

Stake is in the ground.

Willi Wonka, Willi Wonka

You may recall from my last post that my family had landed in Singapore. And I had planned to do a few things so that their forst few days are fun & memorable.

So we went around town, walked around the river, popped into shopping malls, had food at all sorts of places...all of this very nice for my wife. My daughter wouldn't care two shakes of a rat's tail for all that. So we took her to a children's play area, a kids art center, a music teacher & to top it, we took her to the "Charlie & the Chocolate Factory" movie.

That took the cake. Literally.

My daughter was sad when Charlie didn't get the ticked at first, thrilled when he did get it, was laughing & rolling & dancing with the "Alumpalumpa songs" and having a ball.

And when she snuggled next to me in bed, she said that she had a great time & that she loved the place.

Sigh!

I am complete

Yes, I am. My family landed here in Singapore on Friday!

I left office a couple of hours early...mainly because I could not help looking at the weather reports & the Singapore Airlines landing schedule every few minutes. And so I went & bought a "Welcome to Singapore" kind of gift for my daughter & went to the airport to pick them up.

As I reached, I realised from the Arrivals information that their flight had recieved clearance from the Changi ATC to commence landing sequence. Which meant that they would touch down any time now.

And then the Arrivals information changed to show that they had landed.

However, at Changi, having landed is one thing. Finding a parking bay is another. So the aircraft goes around a cool 15 minutes getting to its bay & finally opening the doors.

Knowing which belt their luggage was coming, I went to the exit of the belt. And then I waited...

The luggage from their flight started coming in about 20 minutes after the confirmation of landing. And then another 15 minutes or so later, people started to come to the belt & pick their stuff up. And my eyes started darting around the place to see if I can see my wife & my daughter anywhere.

I kept this up till a point came where the number of people coming to the belt started thinning & the staff at Changi started taking the bags off the belt so that the next airline could use it.

I got so worried. I didn't know why they were so late. Was something wrong? Did they have trouble at Immigration? All sorts of things popped into my paranoid mind.

And a full 10 minutes into my paranoia, I saw my family coming to the belt!

And I waved like a madman at my daughter. And she came rushing to me & hugged me so tight for 5 minutes which made all of that worry go away.

A small reunion later, we were all headed with their luggage to our hotel.

Happy Day Are Here Again! Thumbs Up! Thumbs Up!

Now that's creativity

Before a Brazil - Argentina game, an Argentinian condom company came up with this advert.

Brazil won the match. The Brazilian Football Association responded with this advert. Now, that's a creative slap on the face. What say?

Sand can, and does, hurt

Some of us in office planned a Sunday beach volleyball excusion to the Tanjong Beach on Sentosa island. It looked (at least from the mailing list) that there were around 10 of us in the going.

As I landed up there, the heavens decided to spice things up by pouring down. And when I say pouring down, I mean visibility of a few hundred feet!

So I'm thinking "These guys aren't going to turn up, so I might as well order a few drinks and get drunk in the rain". So I did...order drinks, I mean. The getting drunk part comes later! And I met a couple of folks who were planning to do the same thing. A guy from Finland, one from Sweden and we had a regular UN tribunal happening over Vodka & Cranberry.

And then a few of us showed up. And I thought "This has promise". And then a few more arrived. And the heavens parted as if to say "Let there be light ... & then some". I don't think any of us needed any more invitations to get the party going.

So we limbered up with a bit of frisbee & then a bit of American Football. It's then that I noticed a peculiar phenomenon (and I have a collegue to thank for pointing it out to me).

There were couples who had come there in their wedding ensemble to get their pictures taken. And these were pictures with them walking into the sunset (on a murky rainy day? That picture needs to be digitally touched up pronto), the holding hands pose, the "You may kiss the Bride" pose, and many more. And I had to say, "Wow, these people have some real patience in life to do this on a Sunday evening".

After quite a few jugs of alcohol, we decided to brave it to the volleyball pitch. And that was a lot of fun, trying to play a game that is really really difficult on sand & especially so when one is not used to it. And after I tried to dive at the ball a couple of times, I realised that sand really hurts.

Then back to the jug of alcohol (replenishment, you see) and then getting wet a bit. By this time, the DJ had decided to wake up & shake the rain water out of his plugs. Audio system plugs, clarification for all you perverted thinkers. And so we danced.

All in all, taking into account the rain & everything, it was a great evening. A lot of fun, a lot of play & a lot of alcohol being shared by quite a few people.

Only problem is, I woke up to cuts & scratches, thanks to the sand. And my lower torso hurts like hell!

What's common between Harry Potter & The Da Vinci Code?

Apart from the fact that Jesus Christ gets mentioned a lot in the Harry Potter series & Harry gets mentioned by Robert Langdon's editor in The Da Vinci Code, there is a name that is common to both the books.

Do you know which one?

No?

Want me to tell you?

Sure?

It's Nicholas Flamel.

Now if you scream "Who's that?", I would very strongly suggest you read the first installment of Harry Potter (The Philosopher's Stone). As per Ms. Rowling, Nicholas Flamel has in his possession the only known Philosopher's Stone. And if you think she made that up, I would have to say "You're wrong"!

Nicholas Flamel was a highly accomplished French Alchemist. It is claimed that he was able to create the Philosopher's Stone which, apart from turning lead into gold, also created the Elixer of Life which, as you might have guessed, makes you immortal. Along with Aqua Regia, both of these were the goals alchemists were trying to achieve back then. While the rest of them managed to create Aqua Regia, which could dissolve gold, Flamel is rumoured to have had success with the other two goals of Alchemy.

Now what does this have to do with The Da Vinci Code, you say?

Nicholas Flamel is mentioned as one of the Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion!

Cool, huh? How modern authors are using actual historical figures to make their stories sound more plausible.

Not sure how many of you caught that while reading the books.

Or maybe you are the type who does not like the Harry Potter series. Or The Da Vinci Code. Or both.

i Passed out, dude...

That should be the Apple iPod service station motto. Cause that's what customers go thro when they call the service station. I almost passed out myself!

I recently bought a 20gig colour iPod and after a couple of days, the left earbud of the headphones started to crackle, as if something has come loose inside & that is hitting the membrane.

So I went to the Apple site & registered a complaint requesting for a replacement of the headset. I got a Case Number & everything. And I was told to wait for a couple of days.

When I checked my case, it showed up as "Closed" and no other information.

So I called Apple and asked them for an explanation. The service rep said that that system is not valid for Singapore (THEN WHY HAVE IT THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?). The rep also suggested that I take the pod to a service center.

When I did, the service center told me that Apple does not allow it's service centers to stock replacements & that they would have to send my headphones to Apple for "problem analysis" and to "ascertain if it has to be replaced" and that it will take, get this, a minimum of 10 days!

Now for a device that I bought a few days ago to listen to music & which broke down to no fault of mine, I think 10 days is unacceptable. So I decided not to give my headphones to them & tried calling Apple instead.

This time around, the conversation lasted for less than two minutes...with me being on hold for more than fifteen minutes.

Now I have been told that the replacement headphones for my pod will be shipped to me and should reach me "within the next two weeks". It "might be sooner", but there is no guarantee on the time it will take. And they "dont know whether the delivery is international or local".

All of this for a pair of earphones.

It would have been easier to just go out & buy another set. But then, I would be helping Apple sell a piece (which is bad & something that they should pay for) and another piece since the first didn't work OK.

There's a principle involved here. If you can find it, tho, let me know.

And I have a house!

Sure enough, after going thro a lot of anxiety, it is confirmed. I will finally move into my rented apartment beginning September. As promised, here are a few pictures of the place.

This is the apartment complex. It has a few nice touches, you will notice them in the following photos.

I personally think that this is a great place. Very cozy, very comfortable. And it is very close to my daughter's school as well as my office. Just a hop-skip-and-jump away.

The complex has a nice patio for having barbeque parties or just simply chilling out. The pool is also very nice with a water slide, just perfect for my daughter. And there is a small little putting green for me to practise! What more can I ask for in an apartment?



Now the only thing that remains is for my family to get here and we can all live happily ever after! I have a thing for fairy tails...But don' t get me started on that.

Am I in Singapore or in India?

I went to visit a customer a couple of days ago. And from the moment I entered the building, I realized that I saw more Indians than people of any other nationality.

As I took the elevator, there were seven people in there and six were Indians.

For a moment, I could not believe I was in the right country.

Then I entered the floor & saw an overwhelming majority of my fellow countrymen there too! And the person who I was supposed to meet was, as you must have guessed by now, Indian.

Good to see so many of us here. There is hope for me!

Maybe I'll have a house...

The house, being the only significant thing pending on my list, looks like it might come thro. If everything else goes smoothly, the landlord & I will have signed the agreement for the house. And then I will go "SIGH!"

Cause that is the single biggest uncertainty for me right now. Everything else on the personal front looks OK for the time being.

If things go smoothly, I will take possession of my house in Singapore on the 1st of next month.

Pray for me.

Along Came Polly

And I am not talking about the Ben Stiller / Jennifer Aniston movie. This is another story & a real one, at that.

Yesterday, after a really lazy morning, I went to IKEA to check out their new sale. (Just a bit of digression...here in Singapore, they pronounce it E-KEA as opposed to the rest of the world which does it as Eye-KEA). After getting dropped there in a blue coloured cab, I went around the store looking at some of the new interesting designs that IKEA has come out with. And an hour or so later, I realized that my phone was missing!

After a mad scramble through the store, I went and reported this to the Lost & Found department of IKEA. Then I called up & did the same with the blue cab company. And they all said they will get back to me as soon as they get some news.

I was really depressed. As you can see from my last post, I had just taken a new local connection and now I had to get that line suspended, get a replacement SIM card, get a new phone & all of that takes a lot of time & effort & money.

And then in the evening, Polly called!

This kindly lady had taken the cab after I got out & found my phone stuck to the seatbelt. So this blessed woman took the phone, found my hotel room card key in the phone & called me up to tell me that the phone was with her & that I can pick it up anytime.

I was halfway through the door when she said this. I was so thrilled to get me phone back. This is my only connection to the world & let me tell you...after getting used to having a phone with you all the time, it is pretty difficult to live without it for even a very short time.

So I went all the way to Punggol, one of the furthest points in the Singapore transit system & sure enough, there was Polly waiting for me with my phone.

I cannot thank you enough, Polly Wee.

Singtel Rocks!

Efficiency like this can only be marvelled at.

I finally got my Employment Pass (EP) which basically means I am recognised by the Singapore Government as someone who works here & it acts as a multiple entry VISA for me into Singapore for the tenure of my pass.

Using this, I walked into a Hello store (Hello stores are Singtel retail outlets) and asked for a connection. All that was needed was a copy of my EP, my passport & my signature with my thumbprint. I chose my number, it was added into the system & I walked out with an activated Singtel connection.

Just swapped my old SIM with the new one & I was ready to go. GPRS already setup & going, SMS/MMS all set.

As they say in the US, "You're all set!" ... Yes, indeedee. I'm all set.

What else can be new?

Here I am starting a new life in Singapore. And it looks like it's gonna be a bit more difficult than earlier thought.

To start with, there's usual things like finding a new house that you & your family will think habitable, a school where your child will actually learn a lot & enjoy going to.

To top that, my boss, who was a part of my big move here, has moved on. And by moved on, I mean he has joined another company. While I sincerely wish him all the best, I am in a complete state of flux.

The manager standing in for my boss is a great guy. He really helped me out with my relocation & made sure that I was comfortable, despite the fact that he knows I will be out of his hair in a few days...when my actual manager comes online.

So as you can see, my move to Singapore is, to say the very least, looking quite interesting.

However, I am quite sure that everything will work out just fine & that I will be a lot better off once things settle down.

I have no idea where I get the optimism from.

It's a week!

Now that I am in Singapore to stay rather than on a business trip, I am seeing it in a completely different light.

Things that you woiuld not notice as a business traveller. Things like how convenient the infrastructure is to get around, how wide the culinary range is, how easy it is to get a bank account, how much you have to walk.

During this last week, a company called Asian Welcome introduced the city of Singapore to me. A very nice lady called Janis drove me around pointing all the important / nice things in Singapore. She also took me to a few schools that we had picked out for my daughter.

And I think I have a great school for her. I haven't seen the way they teach there, but I just have a good feeling about this. I really hope she likes the school & settles in quickly.

Now that I am done with the school, the hunt for accomodation begins. I am currently in a hotel in Singapore (Marriott, of course) which is slap bang on Orchard Road. Orchard, for people who have never been to Singapore, is the shopping Mecca here. On weekends, you would be lucky to walk without bumping into anyone constantly. It sometimes looks like the whole of Singapore is on Orchard. Just like the whole of Bangalore is on Brigade Road on the weekends!

Hopefully the accomodation will be close enough for my daughter to get to her school without too much time travelling. And hopefully it will be close to my office too. Let's see how that goes.

More on my Singapore situation coming soon. Stay tuned.

Moving to Singapore...

Now you know why the long gap between posts.

It's cause I am moving, lock stock & barrel, to the city state of Singapore. I will still be working for the same company, but in Singapore instead of India.

The reasons for the move are many.

I personally think that Singapore is a very nice place. Very clean, very safe. Has all the trimmings of a first world country & still has a very Asian touch.

Singapore is, and has been trying to maintain this for some time, the hub for a lot of things in this part of the world. It competes with the likes of Hong King for the status of the financial hub for Asia Pacific. It has a huge telecommunications infrastructure, it has one of the busiest ports in the world. So despite all the things being talked about the Singapore economy, it is far from being a sleepy economy.

I am sure the way business is done in Singapore as compared to the way it is done back home in India is very different. It will be a good learning experience to see how business is done in other parts of the world.

Another reason is travel. When you are in India, you have to travel...whether you like it or not. That's cause there is business happening all over the country & there is no way you can just stay in one place. Not so for Singapore, primarily because it is a very small country. All business happens here & people catering to the business in Singapore dont have to travel out of the country at all. So I will now get to go back home every evening & spend time with my wife & daughter.

And there a lot of things to do for kids. So many places for kids to have a lot of fun. Just hoping my daughter likes this place.

So, all in all, I think this move will be good for me personally as well as professionally and will be good for family as well.

From now on, all the posts are from Singapore. So you can definately expect Singlish to be the medium of communication sometimes :-)

Advertising Bribery

In a world getting into the moral sphere, with every world leader justifying decisions with a moral highground, the necessity to act & live morally is the way of life today.

Evils like bribery, unjustified payment for getting your work done, are the problems the modern world faces.

And bribery comes in many shapes & forms. From paying an employee of the local magistrate to sucking up to your boss, there are many types of bribery with money not being the only commodity being used as currency.

Which brings me to a completely different, & yet related, point.

I see adverts which show a man setting up a great dinner for his woman, a man rushing to pick up his partner at the airport & gifting her a diamond ring, a woman being serenaded by a group picked out by her partner,....

The number of adverts soft selling to women is staggering and, in my opinion, extremely irritating.

Not that I dont plan a dinner for my wife or not gift here jewellery when the occasion calls for it. My objection is to the sheer onesidedness of the ad world in targetting women.

There is not a single ad, not one, which depicts a woman going out of the way to do something special for the man. Not one. Doesn't it look like a weird thing?

Why should that happen? I understand that women are more susceptible to this kind of soft sell, but men like to be flattered too. We like being pampered once in a while.

But that's not what the ads are showing. What I think they show is blatant bribery.

I'll buy you stuff, you stay happy. Or better still, I'll buy you jewellery, don't get grumpy.

Have these ad people thought for a moment that a single ad showing the reverse of the situation will feel SO GOOD to the all ignored male group. But I'm sure the ad will get rejected by the female group as they are not used to this kind of idea.

Heaven forbid if an ad comes out where the woman surprises her man with a great golf set. Most of the women would go around thinking "that's a collosal waste of money, especially on a golf course. I could get so many diamonds in my next bracelet."

Outright bribery, I say. We men would genuinely gift our women if the same rule applied to us. The fact that jewellery is taken to be a "great gift" whereas something like a golf set or an iPod is taken as a waste of money is where the problem is.

And we actually advertise & promote bribery. Yeck!

Where was the BPO industry when we were growing up?

I tell you...the BPO industry is growing at an enormous pace here in India.

In case you dont know what BPO is, it stands for Business Process Outsourcing. When large organisations realise that they have more people in their backend operations than they have in their core business, they outsource these non-business-critical (or sometimes NOT) functions to companies who specialize in these activities.

What that has resulted in India is an explosion of call centers manned by young 20-somethings who have found a great way to make money right after finishing college (or NOT). A direct outcome of this is a lot of young people with a lot of cash to blow.

While I am not against young people having a lot of money to freak out, I have my reservations. This access to money so early in life, I feel, makes these people to lose sight of the simple fact that there is life beyond being a call center operator. So, instead of learning skills which may take these people to better & brighter futures, the lure of currency is a strong distraction for these people. What I fear is they will end up as a bunch of angry & miserable 30-somethings if they carry on.

Another "distraction" (no pun intended here) for a lot of these people here is the number of people of the opposite sex working with them for the same long hours. These are the people they spend more than half their lives with in office & maybe more after office hours. The proximity of so many like minded people does push a lot of people, lonely or otherwise, down the path towards intimacy.

Recently, The Register (a site which I like both for their incisive journalism and witty commentary) and the India Times reported this:

"For many BPO employees, the office space is not just a professional domain.
Instead, it symbolises one's personal space, thanks to long hours being spent in
office. From making friends to cultivating relationships, BPO units are slowly
becoming hubs where inter-personal bonding takes place. And it comes as little
surprise that many also give vent to their sexual urges in the office space."

Whoa! What the hell was I thinking when I was studying to get some decent job? The perks on this one just cannot be matched!

A recently published report in a local newspaper mentioned a BPO (name not disclosed, obviously) had to get it's drainage system fixed due to excessive number of condoms being flushed down the toilets.

Now if I was growing up in today's BPO-dominated India and had just passed out of college, what job could have offered me the chance to earn money & get laid at the same time?

The temptation is too great.

All I can say is... earning a salary which pays me to listen patiently to irate customers & having carnal knowledge of a collegue (or more) on the side does not sound like a bad idea. But I would rather sit in my cosy office & blog about it.

Way to go, BPO!

That's more like it!

Played to 86 today!

For people who didn't get what I am talking about, this is about golf. I'm sure you would also not know (how could you?) that my best score so far is an 85. So it feels good to play close to your best score.

After cribbing (in my last post) about the round of golf I had last time, I think this is a good comeback. The last time, I had 7 pars which is the highest that I had ever got in a round. Well, this time, I had NINE!!!

The round went thus:

Front 9: Par-Double bogey-Par-Double bogey-Par-Par-Bogey-Double bogey-Par
Back 9: Par-Double bogey-Quadruple bogey-Par-Bogey-Bogey-Par-Par-Bogey

I was on green in regulation on the final hole & all set to par it when I made the only 3-putt of the round to bogey the last hole. Had I not done that, I would have tied my best ever score.

In all, I was quite happy with my putting. I made 30 putts in the whole round, 7 of which were single putts (some of them clutch putts for par) and only one 3-putt, as I mentioned, on the 18th hole.

I hit more than 70% of fairways, hit 50% of the greens in regulation & putting was a lot better. A couple of holes where my shank made it's mysterious appearance cost me a lower score & therefore a double bogey & a Quadruple one as well!

All in all, an eventful round. A hope that the game is improving. A fact that in the last month, my worst score has been a 93. I have hit around the 86 number a few times & the frequency is going up.

Game getting better. More consistent! Yea!

Pathetic round of golf

I am a 18 handicapper & so usually play every round to between 86 and 88.

Just when I thought my swing was coming together & felt consistent, it had to disappear right in the middle of a the round, right after a fairly decent front nine.

I was playing to 9 over after nine holes and the triple bogey at the 1st had a significant contribution to the score.

I really hate that first hole at the Bangalore Golf Club (BGC). Not that it's a very difficult hole. It is, in fact a fairly easy hole. Problem is, at the start of the round, I tend to miss to the left (as I am natural drawer of the ball) and so I end up on the 18th fairway with no approach to the green & I am left with the only option of chipping back to the 1st fairway & get going.

As luck would have it, my putts on the 1st green refused steadfastly to drop & so I three putted to make my triple bogey. Not a good start to a round, I assure you.

But then, the fighter in me came back to life. I parred the next 2 holes, double bogeyed the 4th & parred the next. Bogeyed the really long par 4 index one 6th, parred the 7th & missed par by a whisker on the 9th. That left me with 9 over on the back nine. Not something out of the blue for an 18 handicapper. So I was playing to my handicap.

I started the back nine by parring the 10th. And I thought I was on a roll. It looked like my swing was back & it was consitently swishing down the path that took the ball where it was supposed to go. Boy, was I wrong!

The double bogey jamboree started from the 11th tee & did not relent until the 16th & 17th, which of which I parred. That was 10 strokes in 5 holes. All my dreams of making a good round were shattered. Then I had to go and miss par by a whisker on the 18th as well. What is it with me and the final holes of the front and back nines?

I finally wound up my game with a 91. Now most people on the golf course would be happy to go back home with a 91. But I was really pissed. I hit 7 pars & missed 4 birdie chances. At this rate, I should have had a lot better score. But I did not.

Hitting 7 pars in a round is the maximum I have done...EVER! And yet, I am pissed. I am not at all satisfied with the way I played today. I think I need to start being a lot more consistent, even with my pre-shot routine. That is the only way I am going to get my scores down & feel happy with my game.

Problem is: I don't think I am ever going to feel happy with my game. I realised that as you start playing better & better, you want to get even better & there lies the misery.

What a game! Makes you miserable after you played a reasonably good round of golf. But that does not stop die-hard golfers like me. The next round is already planned! Hopefully the next post on my golfing will be a lot more cheerful!

Or maybe not!

You'll know when it gets here.

A mighty fine collaboration...

I have been using the imate as my PDA phone for quite some time. The PDA phone runs the Microsoft Windows Mobile Edition 2003 platform.

Around the time that I bought the phone, I also enrolled in a newly formed yahoo group called xdaindia, whose sole intentions (?) are to help people know their device better & to attempt top solve any problems they might have.

What has resulted is a great place for the people on the group to have a discussion on the WM technology & a great exchange of ideas.

Of course, there are a lot of people who do not take the effort to check the group archives before asking a question & there are a lot more who want to use the forum as a platform to SELL the device or it's accessories.

Despite all this, I think the forum is doing a great job of helping people with knowing their device better, understanding how the device can be used to the fullest & more.

Now we (I am part of the small group of active members) have gotten a forum started. The forum is to be a place where a lot of information & experience can be hosted so that a lot of people can share their ideas & their pains while other people can take advantage of their knowledge.

The forum is at http://xdaindia.myfreeforum.org and is a must-go-to for anyone interested in the PDA phone technology based on the Microsoft platform.

This is the greatest gift of technology. Where people unknown to one another go out of their way to help others. Where a lot of friends are made without prejudice, without physical limitations.

This is the boon of the Internet!