On my way!

I'm at Kuwait international airport and waiting to board. killing time by blogging from my mobile. :)

Bangalore here I come !!

I'm going on a very very short trip to India this week, I'll be visiting Bangalore and Trivandrum. Really looking forward to meeting friends and family and I have a few things to get done once I'm there.


ps... Also eagerly waiting to have some pork and good old Kingfisher Draught Beer !

Settled

Home Sweet Home

Rain

It rained on my way to work today ! It wasn't much but something is better than nothing.

Moving

I moved into a new apartment this weekend and I'll be glad if I never see another cardboard box for the rest of my life :) After we spent all night boxing our belongings the movers came at 7am and started loading the stuff onto the truck for transportation. Man ! you never realize how much junk you own till you move !

Back in college when I needed to move it meant packing up my computer, stereo, a few clothes and a tooth brush, but now it involves packing everything except the kitchen sink ! And once you get there you have to unpack everything and put things "where they belong" (something which I have trouble doing but thank God for my dear wife :) )

It might take a couple of days for us to settle down and get familiar with the new place which is much bigger and comfier than our old apartment. :)

Healthy lunches

I've been packing on a few extra kilos lately because I've been too busy to go to the gym and its too cold to go swimming. All I'm doing now is spending about 40 mins on the treadmill which burns off about 250-300 cals and I've switched to salads for lunch.

This is my typical home packed lunch...


It's got the essential food groups except carbs. I'm gonna include some potatoes or pasta along with the salad to cover that.

Update: this is what I'm having for lunch today. Its a salad box from Americana.

Great Kuwait Sunset Challenge voting begins !

Guys, a few posts ago I had mentioned a contest hosted by a fellow blogger "Intlxpatr. She was kind enough to mention me in her blog and comment on my photos. Now its time to bring in the votes and show how much you love me ! :P

Please visit this excellent blog and kindly cast your votes for the best sunset in Kuwait.

Vote here :

The Great Kuwait Sunset Challenge Poll

Thanks !! :)

They're not toys!

"They're not toys!" is what I usually say in my defense when my parents/wife accuses me of 'playing' my anime scale models. Yes I have a collection of action figures and robot models, but hey! they're collector's items and I like to photograph them.

There are thousands of people out there like me who like to collect and display their prized collections for all the world to see. Kids from my generation grew up watching shows like Mazinjer, Grendizer, Thundercats, Voltron and many other great shows ! It gives me a warm nostalgic feeling when I see the figures my brother and I collected in the 80's. We currently have a good amount of them.. GI Joes, Thundercats, Batman, Gundams etc. And once again I'd like to say...
They're not toys!! :)

Here are some shots I took recently...

Hooked on Anime

I've been watching a few anime series lately and now the inevitable has happened... I'm addicted !! I just finished Season 1 of Gundam oo. Now the second season has just started to air in Japan and I'll be watching it soon. This anime series is in HD and its awesome to watch on a big screen TV !
The other one I'm currently watching is Gurren Lagann, another cool anime series. This series is so cool I even bought a revoltech figure of the title robot ! I get the feeling that I may be watching too much Japanese TV. It wont be long before I say "Domo Aregato" to my wife when she brings me my coffee !

Al Mulla Service

I had to send in my car for the 10,000 KM service this weekend and thats when I realised that I've had this car for about 8 months and have never posted anything about it !

This is my baby with the Liberation tower in the background.

I dropped of the car at the Mitsubishi service center at Al-Rai today morning at 8 and was promised delivery at 2pm but since today was a holiday I told them I'll pick it up in the evening.
A lot of people have told me that the service at Al Mulla sucks and that I should have reconsidered buying from them but I've yet to come across any bad incidents. From the time I went there to take a look at the car till date I've had really good service. But please avoid the showroom at Soor street. The salesmen over there hardly have time to take you over the features of the car. Maybe they didnt think I was a potential customer... well bad luck suckers !!! I bought the fully loaded model from the Al Rai showroom so you can kiss that commission goodbye !


If you are going to the Al Rai service center, there's a service rep called Mr. Janson who will take good care of you but all the staff there are very nice anyways.

Avial Album Review

I've had the Avial album for a couple of weeks in my car now and i've listened to all the tracks a million times (well.. not that much :P ) The first word to come to mind when I describe is just 'wow'. I mean its just great to hear rock music in my own language, Malayalam. I'm really glad that they didnt follow the other Indian rock bands and cut an album with English lyrics. And this has worked wonderfully well in their favor. The whole album has got an earthy, natural folksy feel and the instruments blend in perfectly with the lyrics, giving it a strong rock energy but with an ethnic twist !

For someone whos listened to rock music for a long time, some of the songs in this album has a familiar feeling, almost like a long lost friend. After some careful listening you can see the influence of bands like Soundgarden, Rage Against The Machine, Dream Theatre and maybe a little hint of Linkin Park. The best thing about the album is "The BASS" , I'm a bass head and I love the deep rumble of a well tuned Bass guitar. My hats off to the bass player.

My favorite songs on this album are Karukara ( I'm in love with Aparnasree's voice), Chekele, Aadu Pambe and Njaan Aara. I think the crowd favorite is Nada Nada but guys please listen to the other tracks as well.
Finally, guys please buy the real deal coz the original CD has write-ups about the songs and background info. So collectors would be better off buying the cd rather than downloading it from iTunes.

You can also buy the songs from Amazon

Kuwait Sunsets

These are from my archives, I've posted them here to take part in the "Great Kuwait Sunset Challenge"
hosted by Intlxpatr


All these pictures were taken at the Souk Sharq Marina .
You can view the pictures in their full resolution on my flickr page.

Here are the links;



1 2 3 4

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World Press Photo Exhibition at Avenues

I just found out about this,

[..]The Avenues, the iconic shopping destination developed by Mabanee in Kuwait, will host the world's largest and most prestigious photo exhibition from the 4th to 18th of October 2008, under the patronage of H.H. Sheikha Sheikha Al Abdullah El Sabah - Honorary Chairperson - Kuwait Disabled Sports Club.[]

Link : ameinfo

Clear blue skies

Aah ! back to the same old grind, the same old traffic jams and work as usual. Now I can take a sip of water in public and not be arrested/deported and I don't have to worry about hooligans showing off their driving skills at busy intersections.

And the best part ? Well instead of me telling you take a look at this...



This is the view from my office window and this is how the city looked at 7.30 AM today ! Clear blue skies and a gentle cool breeze signaling that the harsh summer is finally over.