rooney sells out

It is with a heavy hand I write this. Wayne Rooney has decided to leave Everton for Manchester Utd. It is a good move for his career, and will take him far. I wish him well, as do all the toffee fans over the world. But, there is a widespread feeling of desertion. This season more than any other we needed his services. With the leadership wrangle over the chairman's post, the club has had a steady start to the premiership, and rooney's goals would have taken us to mid-table security again after last season's debacle.

A move to a big club would have suited him just the same at the end of this season. One season less of european soccer would not do him much harm, the lad is only 18 for chrissake!! So despite his big talk of wearing his everton heart on his sleeve, we have been deserted. Roo, kiddo, we wish you all the best, and when you come back to Goodison Park, we will applaud you when you step on the pitch. But mark my words, it stops there. You are going to get hit hard. Your best mates Leon Osman and Lee Carsley are gonna hunt you down. Your little brother who is already in the youth team will hit you harder. And you will remember again what it means to be a true Evertonian, for life.

Norman Hubbard has written an excellent article about this at Soccernet, definitely recommended reading. Hubbard is one of the most intelligent columnists to write about the present English game - read his archive.

school *yawn*

yes, the Fall semester is here, and school is back. at least the college doesn't look like a ghost town anymore. appropriately enough, the monday dawned dull and gloomy. luckily i didn't have my first class till 4.30, so i was in no hurry whatsoever to leave my bed. the class was 'polymeric biomaterials', my advisor's class, so peace. arul will be taking it too.

made some interesting sabzee for dinner using the 'panch foron' (bongs will know what i'm on about!), and it came out pretty good. nats, mal and jase had dropped in for dinner - they're still busy setting up 122. everyone crashed early last night, so it was vip n i, the original nighthawks, watching junk tv at 2 in the morning!!

last night we had brought in dinner from Jim's Steak Out, which we only ate half-heartedly cos we were so whacked. vip was working the graveyard shift again, so by the time he came at 1 everyone was flat. we smoked up and watched the Olympic Games closing ceremony. them greeks did a mighty fine job.. the opening ceremony when they lit the torch was breathtaking! i was up till 9 in the morning after that chatting with my, ahem, 'lady of the night' (hey hon, thank u :-x!!)

movers and shakers

so the boys of 33 Heath can officially be called the moving experts - when moving house, look no further than us. we move anything, anywhere, anyhow, anytime too.. we ask to be paid in kind (beer and cigarettes), and no work is too dirty for us, as our track record shows!!

we helped dan move on thursday, then this weekend was spent on moving into and furnishing 122 Heath (i will in future refer to this house by number, and not by its residents, lest either mal, nats, azmi or jason take load!!) it's been a hot and humid past few days in buffalo, and sweat was in no short supply as we lifted, fought, struggled with, and ultimately conquered various articles of furnishing and other items of daily life. then to top it all, we had to work in the archi. dept. too on sunday afternoon and evening! the HOD kent was nice, but in a very finicky mood too, being the perfectionist he is, and we literally broke our backs (and an assortment of bodily appendages too!) trying to keep him happy.

so i tried to make this 'to do' list today, and did it sincerely, but i gave up when it stretched to the third page!! yeesh! small wake up call that was! tried looking at the course syllabus for both my courses, and yup, again it is going to be a semester where my ability to imbibe all forms of biological titbits of information will be challenged, and my propensity to undertake soporific travails while in the classroom will be brought alive again! yeah, now i'm showing off with my thesauraus!! three big words in one sentence, wowee!!

and in conclusion, despite my sincerest wishes that i would enjoy this last weekend of summer before school starts, and all this manual labor came up, i still did enjoy! we worked our asses off all day, came home really really tired, ate, showered, and smoked up and partied after that all night long! yeah, this is really the life!

NB: this rockstar lifestyle really didn't allow me much rest and relaxation over the summer, am no more in the kind of physical shape to keep it up, but as jason pointed out, school's started, so now we sleep!! jase has this uncanny knack of dropping the really legendary one-liners. beautiful! i on the other hand keep trying sidey-comments, and on sheer statistical probability have my legendary days, as i'm sure mal can attest to, having borne the brunt of most of them, with her cherubic smile! :-)) (any chance i can make some brownie points here??)

entirely leisurely days

ahh, these days of summer.. chilled out yesterday evening with a beer, doing a bit of thesis work.. then cooked and had dinner. we smoked up after that and watched 8 Mile on tv.. and played the C-Mac 2005 demo on ash's comp.. it was amazing, i hit every tree in the section!! the graphics are so damned amazing.. the full effects are mindboggling - i spent more time looking at the scenery then the damned road!! c-mac is Colin Macrae, a rally game on the PC for those uninitiated.

smoked up some more, and was so high i could hear heaven!! then chatted all night, and was in heaven :-)) can't wait for monday morning to swing around again! caught a bit of shut eye in the morning.. woke up all groggy and knew today was gonna be one of those 'mellow-day-after' days. but i still had the huge silly grin on my face!

arul n i went with mal and nats to get their provisional driving licenses.. then off to boulevard mall. got some good stuff there - arul got some great deals on a laptop bag and tshirts at old navy, i got shades and jeans too. today, mal finally joined the ranks of naval (navel?!) officers ;-))!! a beautiful, silver "OM" is on the way.

nats and i were inspired enough to try making chicken biryani. in all humility, it came out awesome!! we then watched LOTR Two Towers on tv.. awesome war scene at the end! smoked up and got dhamaar, and were just chilling out, bonding and stuff ;-)) dammit school starts next week and we'll rarely see each other!

all in all, the last weekend of summer is off to a flyer. gonna have to enjoy every minute of it, carpe diem baby!!

whacked-out wednesday

wow, what a day! have never been gladder to hit the sack than i was today! was up all night chatting, then mucked about the whole morning doing odd jobs. spent the whole afternoon then on the phone, which was actually very very nice :-)) someone out there is making me a very happy man - that person has a lot of good tidings and blessings coming her way! *big, beaming, ear-to-ear smile on face*

went with vip to help dan move. he's at 131 minnesota now. we rented a U-Haul, and man oh man, i sweated my butt off. we were done by 11ish, at which point all i wanted to do is roll over and die!! i came home, showered, grabbed a beer, smoked a joint, had dinner and flopped into bed. barely managed to chat to the few people online (RK CTM almost has a wing complete; my cousin sis in kenya bought a car; my 'sky-blue teddy' was kinda busy) for a few minutes before my hands failed me and my mind gave up making sense.

good times

nats and mal dropped in last nite, all dressed up and with a bottle of bacardi, which we promptly got down to demolishing. arul had his first rum and coke too, and did an admirable job finishing it! we got all nice and buzzed. then smoked up as well, and everything was even more beautiful. hadn't been that kicked in ages!!

pulled an allnighter chatting on msgr, first time in ages i think!! surprising actually, since i was whacked after working all day. it definitely helped that i had awesome company to chat with too! i can hear all the curious cats' minds whirring furiously as to who it could be i was talking to!!

weirdest thing was that i was feeling right fresh in the morning too, and for a few fleeting seconds entertained the sacrilegious thoughts of going to the lab.. luckily the spell passed and all such notions were quickly dispelled.

hail hail!!

i am so damn proud to be kenyan today! oh yes! the lean mean athletics machine has done us proud again!! the 3000m. steeplechase team steamrolled all opposition for a 1-2-3 clean sweep! yeah baby! kenya has been netting gold in the steeplechase for the last five olympics. well done kemboi, kipruto and koech. "pamoja tutashinda! na wale watao tu dharau wata kanyangwa!! ndiyo! sema ndiyo!!" which loosely translates to "say my name! say my name! biatch!!" word up to isabella ochichi and catherine ndereba too for their silvers in the 5000m. and the marathon.

ben lagat pushed hicham el guerrouj to the edge in the 1500m. but lost out on the line.. hard luck dude.. that silver brings the total kenyan tally to 1 Gold, 4 Silver & 1 Bronze for the competition so far. "natujenge taifa letu, kenya istahili heshima!"

house or home?

finally, thanks to mal's initiative, this house is a home! she got ash, vip n arul to sort out the living room, and it looks awesome now. they even got the chandelier up, and changed the main carpet too. hoppefully we'll get her started on the kitchen next time she's seized by the decorating bug.

got the extra speakers from vip's music system hooked up to mine. they come with extra-long wire too, so i have some kick-ass surround system in my room, with 5 speakers strategically placed around the room. anyone remember RK C-313? this would knock its socks off!!

convinced the nice people at NYE Lubricants that my need for the NYE Q oil was genuine, and that i was really a poor grad student.. they offered to send me a 1 oz. bottle of the stuff free, which suits my thesis work just fine!! talking of which, things are going well with the research. i'll quickly run through what it entails.

i'm going to cut/paint/etch a channel on a flat germanium prism, and run biological fluid through it, basically just different water samples but eventually saline with fibrinogen in it. fibrinogen is what causes clotting in blood. so for different flow rates and patterns, i'm gonna be monitoring the amount of biofilm (scum) formation on the germanium using infra-red microscopy. i'll also be trying different methods of surface treatment, mainly glow-discharge treatment. the eventual objective being finding the optimum flow path and surface quality that will allow minimum biofilm formation. failing that i can at least set up a cleaning regime by getting an approximate time frame for the amount of biofouling that would hamper flow in the channel.

for those asking what or where this could be applied, all fluid delivery media are affected by biofouling. the longer we can delay this process the better our flow properties. microdosing drug delivery systems, lab-on-a-chip testers, dialysis machine interfaces, transfusion surfaces are all potential applications for this.

it does help that my advisor dr. baier thinks i'm the bees knees as far as all this is concerned! when i met him after the RSF reunion weekend with some rough ideas, he was so impressed that he went to the extent of complimenting me on my sincerity to the project, since he was so sure that i had spent all weekend working on the drafts etc.!! i don't mind him thinking that way at all!! ;-))

maybe maybe

maybe it's just another blue monday
maybe it's something i don't say
maybe i'm damn pissed for no reason
maybe it's another changing season

maybe it's the why, when and how
maybe it's an ill wind blowing now
maybe i haven't slept well for weeks
maybe it's valhalla my mind seeks

maybe i'm drifting so far away
maybe it's the price that i pay
maybe i have to cut loose sometime
maybe i will hate you for a time

maybe i won't talk to you anymore
maybe i'll say sorry some more
maybe i'll drink a crate, or two
maybe i will stop smoking, too

maybe i'll sink into depression
maybe i will make an impression
maybe i'll be cold to those dear
maybe i end these weird lines here.

different browsers

it has been pointed out to me that sometimes the blog doesn't open properly with browsers other than IE 6.0 - i don't wanna change my template, as what i have here is what gives this page a lot of its identity.. is there anything else i can do? all you users of mozilla and opera.. any suggestions??

'raju guide'!!

mal's friend from undergrad tejaswini and her hubby amit are in buffalo from harrisburg PA.. went with them to the niagara falls - got very aptly named "raju guide" by them too, considering how often i land up there these days! the staff there better be knowing me now too!! it was a beautiful day to be out, so sat around on the grass and chilled out, watching and hearing the 'united nations' being played out at the falls around us. i think we heard every indian dialect there is, as well as a good number of the world's more exotic languages as well. niagara falls seems to have become a pilgrimage spot more than anything! we went to the outlet mall on the way back.. no good sales as such, but i did pick up a nice red old navy tshirt though..

33 heath has really turned into a highway house of sorts now.. i meet more people at home than at Third Base these days!! it's all good..

better for the worse

everytime something happens for the better, things seem to worsen.. 'tis indeed an ill wind that blows through my bedroom at 33 heath street. i don't think i have ever been so happy and yet so sad. i'm loving my life, make no mistake about that, every bit of it.. but alas it seems so hollow too. i am living out each and every one of the scenes in my 'American Dream'.. barbecuing in summer, headbanging at rock concerts, drinking bars dry, doing hi-tech research, smoking entire brazilian junglefuls of weed, watching 400+ channels on cable, hanging out with my friends, collecting rock t-shirts and shot-glasses, downloading movies and music at 400 kbps (at home!!), cooking up spicy fish n' chicken curries, travelling throughout the country, building my CD collection *pause for breath*.. and yet, yet, something's missing.

what?

maurice odumbe

saw the shocking news today that maurice odumbe, one of the faces of kenyan cricket over the last decade, has been suspended for 5 years on match fixing charges!! this was indeed quite a surprise. i have had the honor and pleasure of knowing maurice ('mauro' to all) for quite sometime. mauro played for the AKSC in the kenyan cricket league under his brother Tito's captaincy for years, and that's how i met him, having schooled there. my father is one of the longest standing umpires in kenya (get the pun, umpire.. standing.. ;-))!!), and mauro has always behaved impeccably with him, on and off the field. always the smart gentleman.

he is known for his love of the game, and how he gives his heart and soul to the game. anyone who has seen him field will attest to that whole-heartedly. he throws himself without a slightest care to any previous injuries he might be carrying (as in the last World Cup), and more often than not he is turned to when runs have to be choked in the middle overs. his batting flair and ability have always been one of the foundations of kenyan cricket.

as for the man himself, let me tell you a small story. i know mauro through my father, and sitting near him telling various cricket stories during the lunch break for the kenyan sunday league. so, once the mighty springboks were in town around '98. as usual i was in the pavilion riding on dad's coat-tails! i desperately wanted to meet jonty rhodes and get autographs from the rest of the team. no amount of pleading with the SA team security was going to get me through. then i see mauro sauntering around.. "sasa mauro!! niaje beste!! manze hawa makopa wamenikatsia.. na vile ninataka kumona jonty.. mauro, si unisaidie jo?!" {loosely translated = hi mauro, howsitgoin'? man, i really wanna meet jonty but these cops are like pricks.. can you help me out?} so maurice odumbe, kenyan cricket captain, takes me by the shoulder and marches me past the cops, into the SA changing room.. walks upto jonty, and says "hey dude, here's a good friend of mine, and he's been dying to meet you.. you got a minute to spare?" by which time i was so excited i was buzzing! no matter what evidence you throw at me, i will not believe that mauro accepted money to throw a game. i will not believe that he will throw a game.

he has had brushes with authority before. he has been called arrogant and snooty.. but i feel it is his cockiness more than anything. he will always be a schoolboy in his heart, and will always cock a snook at authorities.. my dad has been ribbed by him in the bar after the game, but again, with all respect. he does hilarious impersonations of umpires and fellow players over a couple of cold beers! he has passion for the game too.. and can be seen spending long hours in heated discussion with steve (tikolo), kennedy (obuya) and ravindu(shah).. and his is the one voice that always accompanies wicketkeeper kennedy's when kenya fields.. pumping up the players, encouraging them more and more: "c'mon marto (martin suji).. toa hawa watu!" "well bowled thomas (thomas odoyo), well bowled" "yes collo (collins obuya), hivo hivo tu!"

i include an excerpt here from wisden, talking about the kind of man maurice is -
Odumbe has never been afraid to speak his mind, as West Indian legend Brian Lara will attest. The Kenyan, looking for an autograph, was snubbed by a young Lara in England several years before the 1996 World Cup, so he took the opportunity after the shock victory in Pune, to go up to the great left-hander and say: "A few years ago you would not give me your autograph. But now I am saying you can have my autograph."

kenya's next generation of players - rageb aga, malhar patel, francis otieno are all proteges of his - have grown up watching mauro, and been inspired too.. he has one 'Man Of The Match' award from each of the last three World Cups. so maurice, here's hoping that justice prevails and your name is cleared; good luck with your appeal, na tunaomba mungu akusaidie kujitoa kutoka hi balaa umepatiwa.

buffalo summer

we're having a very uncharacteristic yet wholly welcome turn of great weather here. all you wanna do is drink beer and barbecue all day, and smoke up and watch comedies all night.. yeah life is good! the RSF reunion was awesome, and i'm sure people are still waking up and remembering the times we had the last few days..

life has gone back to the groove now.. busy doing odd jobs around the house.. dunno when to start up proper with the research that i am supposed to be doing. ash has started up his physio proper now, and is getting more mobile. mal is also here all the time helping him around. nats, azmi and jason are finally done with their competition entry, sank's going to NYC on work for two weeks on monday. vip is keeping busy during the day with his work. arul is settling down too. life is good indeed.

am back again!!

yup, party people.. this RSF reunion is now officially declared "over"!! so as the dust settles in buffalo, i will be bringing to you little vignettes from the reunion.. meanwhile i will have to show my advisor visible signs of my still being alive, as well as clean the house up - mostly pick up all the hundred or so beer bottles which currently grace every flat surface of the house! see you all laters real soon..

the bubble bursts

wow, retribution is swift, and it swept down like the wolf upon the sheep's fold grazing in all serenity. just yesterday i mentioned that it's been long since something rocked my boat.. well, my internship's fallen through. fucking management issues. fucking corporate boardroom whores. fucking sweet-talking gucci suits. fuck. pardon the language, but i'm pissed!!

what we are

going back to the point i raised a few days ago - too many blogs i read these days are tinged with emotion, sentiment and memories. every one's asking questions, of others, of themselves.. of what we are.

i know what i am. i am sick of judging, and being judged. i am tired of having to live conforming to standards. and easy as it is for people to say "break free, live your own life!", no one really does. we pretty much do what we have to do, what we are supposed to do, but rarely what we want to do. i can rarely do what i want to do. and things almost never go the way i want them to. i derive my strength from helping people with their problems, in what is probably a selfish streak of wanting to take parts in everyone's lives. i want control. i want to control. so judge me now! let's hear it!!

i am tired of seeing good people.. my friends usually.. being hurt. i am tired of seeing them being hit by pretty much everything that can go wrong. and i am tired of seeing them battered and bruised, but still struggling to smile and put up brave faces. the scariest thing of it all is that when all is falling apart around me, my little world is still holding up. and all i can think is how long? those favored by fortune say 'touch wood', those upon whom divine light shines, say 'praise the Lord', those who epitomise action over words say 'it is but karma', and i? i say 'we live to fight another day. thank you all'

mindless ramblings seem to be flavor of the week with my postings.. this is nice. i get to say so much, yet say nothing.. except to those who hear what they want to hear here, and to those too who hear what they don't want to hear - for them i say something. and it is upto them to understand what it means to them.

a quick shout out to the boys of RSF - see you all very very soon in buffalo!! let the games begin!! the meat will roast, the alcohol flow freely, and the women.. c'mon guys.. pull your own chicks!! i can't do everything for you!!

time speaketh

time speaks for itself. it needs no introduction, and controls itself. when space and time meet, thought is unleashed. it's free, free to roam as it pleases, free to do as it pleases.. free. night is beyond the meeting of space and time. the nexus of the thought process. night is when belief is suspended, when the unthinkable occurs. mere mortals fall by the wayside at night. those who revel in it draw innate power from it's dark confines.

the same great innate power which brings with it the sword of Damocles hovering above your head, the sword of great responsibility.

doing that thing i do

for me every day of the week has started taking some kind of meaning nowadays:

monday: another weekend down the drain.. time to make a fresh start.. do something meaningful this week

tuesday: good intentions remain exactly that, good intentions.. targets for the week are hastily recalculated and meetings rescheduled

wednesday: *big sigh of relief* halfway down the week, the last two days cannot be that bad at all.. somehow this day always whizzes right by me

thursday: by default we land up at Third Base at night.. so i know whatever happens during the day it will all end well

friday: will actually do some work cos i always catch my advisor on fridays.. and he keeps scaring me with how far he thinks my work can go!

saturday: glad that another week has passed without any major dramas, and i still have full use of all my bodily functions.. usually my most inspired day too

sunday: the one day that everyone sleeps in, i can't! invariably, for some reason or the other, i will be up and about, bright and early on sunday mornings.. and i will be waxing philosophical about the week ahead

wasted weekend

the weekend was so wasted.. in all possible senses of the word.. these days i seem to work on the weekends, and cruise the week.. which is not a bad thing at all, only that everyone else is doing the regular workday schedule..

high praise indeed from reshma; thank you very much! will try to make all posts live up to that ideal.. but the problem's it's kind of tough to replicate the exact chemical stimulation that my brain was on that night! ;-))

one thing is for sure.. am definitely getting too old for this rock n' roll lifestyle we're living! one starts wondering where it'll all end, when it'll all end, how it'll all end.. where do you draw the line as to how hard you party? how much alcohol do you wanna drink? how much do you wanna smoke? hmm.

saturday nite we had smoked up then went to chill out at Paula's.. then came back and was up for more with vip till around 5.. woke up to go to work at 10.. fixed up the archi. dept. straight through till 5.. was so bushed when we came home that i made a twisted screwdriver, had a few sips and crashed flat till 9!

went over to 265 and had pizza and wings with the girls.. and drank up some more.. wasn't really interested in watching 'frida', though it had salma hayek.. so came home, adi and gang landed up too.. after all the dust had settled, vip and i were tripping watching the screen saver thingy on media player, with floyd playing.. beautiful.. i remember having some deep intense thoughts at that time, and i knew that i should have written it down then, cos i was going to forget them.. and guess what, i did forget!!

calling out to my favourite stewardess! farhina! where are you! call me! or come online!

song of the day: 'Home' - Three Days Grace

all in the clouds..

my life seems to be revolving around clouds now.. the clouds over buffalo, the clouds of smoke enveloping my nights, the clouds surrounding my internship, the clouds covering my research, the clouds in my head and my mind, the clouds, the clouds.. been reading quite a few blogs, and everyone seems to be doing an introspective soul-search or the like.. and i wonder why?

watched 'The Terminal' the other day, and was really struck by what Catherine Zeta-Jones said to Tom Hanks about the locket that Napoleon gave to Josephine on their wedding - in it was inscribed 'destiny', and that struck me as amazing. of all the things he could have had engraved, maybe cheesy things like their names, or 'love always' or some other sentimental bullshit, he had 'destiny'. beautiful. think about that, and chew on it. i haven't been able to get over that for days now.. how poignant, yet perfect.

went to the archi. dept. to continue with the set-up work.. then came home in the evening, showered and chilled out with a beer. for those who haven't tried this yet.. get a chilled beer, and drink it while soaking your aching shoulders under a hot shower.. and man will you thank your lucky stars for the little pleasures that life affords us every day.

went for a long relaxing walk with mal in the evening.. we went everywhere yet nowhere.. one thing must be said about the summer evenings.. nothing is more cathartic than just walking and taking the mickey.. i know the day will come, very soon too.. when we'll look back and hark the days of yore (actually the days of college!!) reminiscing on the carelessness of it all..

ash and i dropped mal home, then passed by kenilworth liquors on the way back, and the deed was done - smirnoff twisted raspberry and ballantine's scotch! made a screwdriver using the shaker we bought at chili's.. very comfortable this.. making cocktails and shots at home using the shaker!!

Song of the Day: 'Plush' - Stone Temple Pilots

freakin' cold!

had to go work at 9.30 in the archi. dept. so some how dragged myself to school.. worked till lunch then came home, and took arul to open an account at the HSBC.. elizabeth donofrio, most UB student's first crush in america, is on leave.. damn!
hung out with mal and jo for a bit, then went back to work at the archi. dept.

it was friday, so we cooked up some chicken, got some beer, and chilled out. varsha also came over and we were catching up on missed times.. she's got a job with a startup back in bangy and is leavigng soon.. then adi, gang and 'the pipe' came in around 1!! anup got some brazilian stuff from somewhere, and man, it burned true and burned sweet! shashi is on rehab road, sticking to regular smokes ;-)) gandhi as always was planning on how to rag the shit out of the freshers coming in!! he was even getting on arul's case!

phew, weekend's here

again got up early and went to school with arul.. he had to meet a couple of profs.. then went and hung out with karrishma at starbucks for a couple of of hours or so.. after that i had to meet dr. baier, who gave me an hour-long individual lecture on what direction my thesis should take.. aargh!! but finally i can see exactly what i should be doing with my research work - and now that i know that, i can chill out for another couple of weeks while i "ponder the intricacies of microbiofouling in microfluidic devices"!! ;-))

arul is either still suffering from jet lag or has turned into one lazy bugger!! all he does is sleep!! though he does sometimes sample the pleasures of night-time HBO!! we're still on communal cooking mode, so sank and i whipped up dinner, then we watched 'The Terminal'.. arul spoke to shiv and pinku finally..

the gang (nats, sank, ash, arul n i)then went to Third Base.. it was thursday after all.. and now here's a newsflash for RSF - arul had his first drink!! we had 'mint chocolate chip' shots all around.. arul seemed done after that, so he didn't drink anymore.. now where is the doubting 'thomas' who boldly proclaimed that this was going to be beyond me :-P we got back around 1.30ish and crashed.. i could do with a decent night's sleep, vip and ash are both kinda sick, and arul's just being plain lazy while sank and nats need sleep more than oxygen, or alcohol it seems!!

finally, a quick shout out to david (davo)!! for those who do not understand swahili, please skip. davo, jamaa, finally, a holla out to you in rolla.. and manze, vile umeni threaten and stuff, that aint cool.. na wewe, kwani it's how tough tu just wacha a comment for the masses?!

let's play house!

yeah, the title says it all!! that's what we've been doing since yesterday.. setting up the house and finding place to put all the stuff we dumped in it! everyone has pretty much got their rooms in shape, but the kitchen will need quite some work! we have like 4 different sets of every spice under the sun.. and while that is not a bad thing at all, it is quite a pain since the chilli powders decide to stick together and go missing in one nook of the kitchen cupboard, while the garam masalas have also formed a separate league of their own, and don't even talk about the cloves and cardamoms! we did a shopping trip to Aldi and got two cartfuls worth of supplies.. our refrigerator is already complaining and last time we checked it was contemplating writing a letter to the Secretary of State for Labor!

small world eh, georgie's mom was arul's teacher in school! she sent a parcel for him via arul, so georgie came over. he's done with his defense so he's joined the job search market.. ash made awesome daal, and nats and mal had also come over for dinner.. so we had a small dinner party.. though the girls seemed more interested in watching 'Sex And The City'..

i keep meaning to call it an early night every night, but stuff keeps coming up and i end up crashing around 2ish invariably.. was kinda dazed and sleepy all day today.. will definitely catch myself a small siesta tomorrow.

arul's here!!

went with mayank in the morning to pick up arul from the airport.. he finally got here at 8.30 a.m. he was whacked out.. we continued shaping up the house throughout the day.. in fact i am tired too.. after the heroics of last night.. and the inauguration of the cocktail shaker with shots of tequila and lime cordial.. i was up at 7 too.

we got the gas and cable done today, so we have net again, and are cooking too. called in early tonight.. vip's down with a fever.. dawg's down with rally fever.. arul is still jet lagged.. and we all have 200-channel-fever too!!

U-Haul ahoy!!

we picked up a u-haul today and stuffed it chock-full with all our shit.. by the time we had it loaded then unloaded it was like 1 at night, the house was brimming over with furniture and cartons.. and we had like almost nowhere to crash either!! finally we all sorted out little sleeping 'bubbles' of space and settled down.. mehra and i got the network configured and he whupped my ass in Colin Macrae 2.0 for a few games before we called it a night..

it's unbelievable the amount of stuff we have!! it's gonna take liek a week to sort our own rooms, before we get to work on the kitchen!! we have like 4 containers of each masala!! god only knows when and where we will ever use it all!! right now there's no food in the house, we can make masala sabzi .. using masala and no sabzi! thoda sad state of affairs hain abhi!

arul's flight from india was delayed five hours at heathrow.. consequently he missed his connecting to buffalo, and missed the last flight of the night too.. so he had to sleep over at JFK.. damn, not a very nice welcome to the land of hope and opportunity!

better monday

today dawned well.. looks to be one of the better mondays of my life.. gas and cable connection should be done tomorrow, the U-Haul is booked for today evening.. arul's coming in at 9.30 pm.. and i slept pretty well too last night.. perfect!

was just browsing and came across some really amazing stats for the bestselling artists and albums of all time.. you guys wanna take any guesses as to who topped the categories? if you guessed The Beatles and Greatest Hits - The Eagles, then give yourself a big pat on the back! click to see the Top Artist and Top Album charts.

came across an excellent blog today.. reshma sanyal writes with amazing passion and feeling for life.. a definite must read!

moving, not moving, moving??

damned richard and his man matt.. that asshole was supposed to be here early in the morning with his truck so that we could move into 33 heath.. idiot never showed up! all the U-Hauls were booked for the weekend, so now we'll have to do this tomorrow evening.. very irritating. raghu came by to help so that we could move more of the small stuff.

Song Of The Day: "Thin Air" - Pearl Jam

rallying flashback

came across a very interesting article today..

Michael Schumacher has agreed to take on the current rally world champion Sebastien Loeb in December's Race of Champions. The rally-based event will take place at the Stade de France in Paris on a one kilometre, figure-of-eight track.

Schumacher has previously avoided meddling in other forms of motor sports but has had a change of heart and insists he is looking forward to the event. "I'm really looking forward to it, it looks a lot of fun," said Schumacher. Promoter Michele Mouton said: "We're thrilled he accepted our invitation. Rally drivers will not want to lose to a circuit driver."

that sounds very cool, but what really piqued my interest here was the name michele mouton. she was the fastest woman in rallying back in the early 80s, and no doubt one of the hottest too!! click on this link for a quick bio. this is what she looks like now, trying out the audi nuvolari quattro concept car. this name takes me back to the grand old days of the world rally championship (WRC), when it was still about endurance and car conservation and not the trade plied by the speed merchants today.. the audi quattrowas the meanest sonofabitch on the roads, and it was driven by hannu mikkola, walter rohrl & michele, while peugeot had just gotten out their 205 T16 under ari vatanen & juha kankkunen.. and the strongest car by far was the toyota celica twincam turbo driven by bjorn waldegaard.. good old days.

back then the Safari Rally held in kenya was a 5 day event; unlike what it is today, it was over 5,000 kilometers in length, and it had the name "the toughest rally in the world".. still is, actually. the 50th Safari was held last year following the original format of kenya, uganda and tanzania in the route.. the driver who won was never the fastest guy, always the smartest guy. bjorn waldegaard, juha kankkunen, local boys rob collinge, shekhar mehta and vic preston junior... these were the smart guys.. while ari vatanen, hannu mikkola, walter rohrl, timo salonen & markku alen were the blazers.

some of my most vivid childhood memories of the kenyan countryside were of the safari.. we'd go and camp out in the bush for the period of the rally.. in vast endless savannah plains, with a single rutted dirt track snaking through it.. and a rally car whizzing in from the distance.. trailing clouds of dust behind it.. an orange sunset blazing above the green-brown canopy of thorn acacias that lined the horizon.. a herd of elephants somewhere in the distance trumpet at the intrusion by the turbocharged cars.. giraffe nonchalantly chewing away at the baobab twigs.. antelope grazing shyly, at a respectful distance from the road, casting nervous glances at the thicket behind.. where lions could be lurking, and hyenas behind them, cackling their evil laughs.. yes, those were the days *sentimental flashback memory of home*.. finally, here is a link (click the red tab on the left side that says "TTE's Images", then click on Safari) to some awesome images from the Toyota Team Europe (TTE) site for the '99 Safari, which was special to me as it was eth last Safari i saw before leaving kenya..