Biking 2 work

Been biking to work a couple of times a week of late. Reach 5 minutes quicker, not because of the speed, but by simply sticking to the sides and not getting stuck behind cars, trucks and tractors that hog half the available roads in Udyog Vihar (UV). The other half is taken by multitudes of labour making it to the various factories that pepper UV. The sight of all this humanity has to be seen to be believed. Must remember to click a pic and post it here for posterity.

On days I bike to office I join the legions of guy's who rush to the loo to wash their eyes and hands, off the city grim. Reminds me of my first job (and 2nd!) when I used to do just this 1st thing on reaching work. It's a typical water cooler moment with guy's discussing traffic and various other things congregated in the loo! Also biking gives your clothes a funny, street smell. Since one usually gets into an AC car (with windows that are hardly rolled down.....come to think of it the auto window button must be the least used gizmo in cars these days) one never smells the city,the whiff of diesel, dhaba food being cooked (in the evenings on the way back home), general muck etc.....not that I miss it. Biking is a bit of a leveling experience and put's you in touch with the streets a bit. But I bought the bike to be in touch with the highway and it's cleaner smells and certainly not what the city and a grotty one as Gurgaon has to offer.

GQ India - A swiss watch catalog

Got my hands on the 1st issue of what is probably the best men's magazine in the world (at least the UK edition is, the US issue is rather vapid). The inaugural issue reads a bit like a swiss watch catalog with ads from every conceivable watch company. There is even a piece on watches as if the were not enough. The content seem to veer towards the ultra rich with a piece on The contiental Flying Spur and the Cayanne GTS. And then there si something on the Nano! As is wont with a lot of western brands, backward Indian's are fed with stale stuff. The article on Charleze Theron is from their June issue (UK edition). Also Vir Sanghvi's article seems liek something I read in HT Brunch or watched on his show on Discovery T&L! But the fresh stuff by sanjay Manjrekar, Rajeev Masand, one Mortimer Chaterjee and the usually readable Suhel Seth are good and then there is Chastity (I bet the editors refer to this fictional person as Tity!) Fernandes to add some spice. Wonder who wnt's to read about KArishma Kapoors husband who has been profiled. Raghu Rai's piece on Meghalaya's rock music scene is clearly the best of the lot with atmospheric pictures. For all my bitching I'll go buy the November issue for sure:-)

Samsung SGH 480, Tocco - Poor mans BlackBerry

Gave up my BB (will only use it when I travel) and the withdrawal cycle was quite smooth. Family is super happy as I'm not distracted constantly to check arbit mails from one and all. Got my hands on this new Samsung touch screen phone (with a Haptic screen, from the Greek word for touch - Haptos I read somewhere) with a 5 MP camera! My first and previous Canon Digi Cam had 5MP!! the cameras not as sharp on similar Sony E phones, but does a decent job. also has a regular flash and not xeon. But the over all phone si sexy and a breeze to use (if u r not a heavy SMS user). The Haptic touchsreen gently vibrates each time to press it to access widgets or type (has a regular key pad and not QWERTY). over all a good buy at 19.5K + whatever it costs to get a 2-4 GB card (though it can take an 8 GB).

Movie fest at home....

......this long weekend. Trainspotting, I Love Huckabees, Breaking and Entering, Artificial Intelligence. Had enough of Jude Law for sure. Trainspotting was brilliant. Could not really figure out the 2nd one. Breaking and entering though well made was too contrived. Ditto AI. so a bit of a wasted weekend:-) would have been better off rafting.

Bullet TBTS

Bought the new Bullet ThunderBird Twin Spark to commemorate my mid-life crisis! and what a gift. Got a spanking new black Bull. Bullets have come a long way since I last owned 1 12 years ago with an auto-start switch and auto-decompression. The current model boasts of a very compact engine that also houses the clutch and gear-box within the crank-shaft. more importantly it comes with twin spark plugs promising higher speed, mileage and torque. Though I suspect (have only been driving it for 2 days) the higher torque would be at high RPM. Looks good, feels better and I welcome myself once again to the fraternity of Bulletheads! wathc this space for more on this and maybe detaisl on long distance rides!

Navratras @ KFC

Going by the near packed KFC (@ Ambi Mall in Gurgaon), it did not seem like Navratras has a huge impact in the NCR. Before I walked in I was sure it would be quite desolate.....but it was packed nearly to capacity with the chicken literally flying of the shelf and that to in buckets! Unfortunately like always at this outlet the staff is really at sea. Well meaning boys but very poorly trained. Totally blame the franchisee and KFC management for this.

TripIt

USed an interesting site launched 10 months ago that organises your travel itinerary wherever you book it. Typically for a holiday one might book air tickets from one site, hotels from another, transfers and sightseeing from a 3rd and get myriad confirmation eMails. One simply needs to forward these mails to TripIt and they create one single itinerary with all the details in addition to providing info on maps, weather, city guides etc.

Also different trips are sometimes booked on different sites and TripIt then becomes useful to aggregate all the trip information for posterity. A traveler doing a multi-day and multi city trip will find it most useful.

TripIt can process eMails from all leading OTAs (including MakeMyTrip), reservation systems, car rental sites, hotel websites, restaurant reservation services like Open Table etc and present it in a very user friendly itinerary that can be accessed online or even the mobile. Calendar Sync is possible too. They have elements of social networking built in too where you can track trips of friends or even share your trip itinerary. The user interface is highly intuitive and tasks like accessing one’s address book to view other TripIt users or invite people is enabled very simply.


It also has some basic meta functionalities that one can use for bookings too, but I would rather use a specialist site like Kayak or mobissimo for this. Also it cannot process mails from each and every supplier for eg Air Asia or Disney Hotels.

Hancock & Wanted

Saw Hancock with Will Smith, week before last. The story of a drunk, misunderstood super hero sure has potential and would have made for a great dark comedy. But the movie fails to hold with a very weak storyline. The surprise is Charlize Theron who I failed to notice in any of the pre-launch promos, but she too failed to enthrall like she usually does. Avoidable.

Also saw Wanted! Actually saw them both back – to – back with little do do on a Sunday in Bangkok (which does sound a little hard to believe!). It’s an over stylised action film again with a rather weak plot. Angelina Jolie seems a bit wasted. James McAvoy is rather decent, especially since one is seeing him in a role very different to the one in Atonement. The action sequences are over the top but interesting and so is the final attack. Morgan Freeman seems to be doing very similar / typecast roles it seems with Lucky Number Sleven (a much better movie) and now as head of a bunch of assassins, who pass of as weavers. Give me a break. But worth a watch.......

Saw both these movies at the SF Cinema in Central World, bangkok. SF makes most PVRs look like village theatre halls. And the ticket prices is less than what PVR charges!

New Unilever Ads

watched TV after a bit of hiatus and noticed a lot of Unilever ads....each weirder than the other! there was one with Saif and Priyanka running around an airport, another one for Lux with Aishwaria which was even stranger. is this a new direction the brand is moving in? very strange or maybe I don't get them.

Batman - The Dark Knight

Spectacular movie, better than the previous one....which was awesome too. each actor / character has a clear place in the movie and a definitive role. Heath Ledger is great, though I doubt he woudl have got a nominaiton was it not was his untimely and sad demise. The movie is much larger than the enigmatic Batman, with a very profiled Joker and Harvey Dent (should not have killed the guy in the movie, unless they intend to miraculously get him back in the next one). Harvey Dent / Two-faced is among the most interesting villans ever created by DC. Also soem fo the best one liners out of Hollywood for a bit. A must watch move and look out for the BatPod!

Hao Shi Nian Nian - Restaurant

The worst Chinese food ever from the most over rated restaurant. 2nd terrible experience. went their a few month s ago and had very average, though expensive food. Heard a lot of raves so decided to visit on friday night with soem friends. The foods gotten worse and the prices more. The sweet and sour crispy lamb would have made it to a dessert list with it's sweetness! staff is courteous though and they currently have an awesome Philipino band...the guitarist is a magician. my vote for the worst chinese restaurant in NCR goes to Hao Shi Nian Nian. Also what's with the name??