Saturday, December 31, 2005

Happy New year

Feeling weird, sleepy and dizzy and to put it in short terrible right now. Slept for just 3 or a little more than that, hours last night and being up since 6. Already had two cups of coffee but it seems like it backfired and now in a pretty irritated mood, even listening to music doesn’t seem to help, grrrrrrrr. Weekend was fun, went to Dubai to meet this old friend of mine who moved to UAE just around the same time I did. His company owner owns a club too so at night we decided to check it out. It was a nice place, small, not crowded, though DJ wasn’t great but guzara tha. Hanged out there for couple of hours and came back. Next day after prayers, weather suddenly turned pleasant so we decided to head off to Jumeira beech. Nice beech, clean sand and water and crowd of all sorts. Came back from Dubai late at night.

Oh yea I did pass the reverse/parking test(Thanks to everyone who prayed and wished) had to wait for an eternity for my turn, infact I was the last one to take it so you guys can imagine how much frustrated I must have gotten plus it got quite dark too so had few problems in sighting the marks during reverse and had my tire scratched a bit against the boundary but got out of it :P. Then late at night went to watch HP and Goblet of fire on its first day. Missed first fifteen minutes though because of some confusion with the venue because initially I had reached the wrong cinema which had an early show, khair it was a fun movie. I guess so far the best in Harry Potter’s series, cool effects but it felt like I was watching the highlights of the book , quite fast paced movie maybe a three hour duration next time would do slight more justice to the book. Though the death scene of Cedric could have been performed a lot better, it was weird felt as if they just wanted to end the movie.

For cooking Yesterday was white karahi day from shaan masala, it tasted good. Today I am heading back to Dubai for new year’s eve (sound idiot, rite?).

Btw I have a strong feeling that my stupid writing style and bad bad English has turned many readers away :P, though I claim to not think about readers much but it is always good to few people as readers :P so it is a sad discovery.

Just went out for couple of minutes back and weather is nice (that has cheered me up), windy, for a while no sun and it was quite chill so I guess it will be one cold night here in UAE.

Happy New Year to all of you, may you guys have an even better year this time inshAllah and loads of happiness and success in your way. Same goes for our country.

For me 2005 was one roller coaster ride, started off with me winning a bronze medal for performance at work, then a promotion, then series of idiotic mistakes at work making me fall. 10 days of “official” trip to Dubai for work, later on getting an offer from my current place. Moved to UAE in September, got committed in November so yea some year and now looking forward to 2006 ;).

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Money is an Evil Thing and all Good Materials in life cost hell lot of it.

Life is back on its routine track with occasional one or two hiccups. Cooking is kewl, gaming on PSP tough, laptop doesn’t have enough space left to install any new games. Driving lessons are going quite satisfactory and for that matter tomorrow is my parking and reverse test. Considered to be one of the halwa ones and it is first step towards getting the UAE license. It is simple in a sense that one is required to maintain control, proper distance from blocks and control pace and that should do. Buttttt the freaky kind I am, it is getting (kind of) on my nerves errrrrrrrrrrrr *drinks water. I mean it is like playing against Bangladesh, you know should win but the fear of losing and getting humiliated gets a bit on you, hehe. But khair I know once I will have the wheel in my hands everything will be normal :P. aaaaaa just pray I don’t make any silly mistakes :P (no room for errors, not even a single one). Sports front is kinda quiet except for English Premier league with its usual busy Christmas week. Things are getting hotter on up coming Pak vs India up coming test series, with Imran Khan joining in war of words and declaring Pakistan as favorites. South Africa fighting well Down Under and it might just turn out to be one hell of a series. Baqee sub kewl aur haan Tennis mein Australian open is coming up so watch out people, Tennis season starts again.

On blog front, Hira’s gone missing no wonder what happened there, hoping that she comes back soon and alls well. Hmmm yea money, it’s a stupid thing really, flows out of your hands right, left and center and it is amazing how rapidly your savings shrunk up and before you know it, you have already hit the danger level. It is like a river, collect as much as you can with your both hands because you gonna loose it anyways. Oh started this post at 4 in afternoon and now after a long break at 1 AM finishing it so there are some updates.

Hira is back, yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay :D, wb u were missed. Reports are she was on “sugherapay ki nishani” kee training :P.

Marat Safin withdrew from the Australian Open , this is a sad news sidz :(.

Do check out new Entries in my blog site, couple of really nice blogs I should have added lone time back.

Oh well time to sleep now, do pray guys ;).

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Cooking Tries

There are times when you want to write but just cant make urself to do that. Simply cant bring out words inside you, infact cant even make yourself open a word processor to type. Exactly that happened to me after my last post. I was planning to write about my initial cooking experiences but couldn’t do so, perhaps lack of motivation or effort anyhow I am gonna give it another try. Even for that matter I haven’t been visiting any of your blogs either :S bad bad. Hokay so, so far I have cooked umm Qeema, Chicken Karahi, one desi salan (mutton ka), Chicken jalfrezi (courtesy of National Foods Masala), Chicken Qourma (this time Shaan Masala) and not to mention tries at omelet and yea macaronis for quick food. Ummm Qeema was almost tasteless I have no idea what and where went wrong but there was hardly any taste in it and I had to eat it just for the sake of eating it and haven’t tried cooking it since then but will do. I guess I messed up onion and salt and I guess didn’t really cooked it well enough errr don’t really know what you call it in English.

Anyhow next thing was a try at omelet and obviously I don’t need to tell what happened to it, burnt from one side :P and felt like a folded soft leather hehehe, ok but my next try was way better and it turned out to be kaafi tameez ka :P. For Karahi mom got this real easy recipe (from some channel) I would call it one jugaroo recipe :P and it was quite easy so I gave it a go and it turned out to be quite well. Proportions were balanced and was cooked well. Felt good about it :D. Next one was Jalfrezi from National foods I did mess up some yogurt and veggies proportions and it took some time to prepare it but worth the effort. Taste was great but hell spicy aaaaaaaaaaa, waisay hee I am not used to having much spices and am sure I added green chilies bit too much *water please.

Next thing I tried was macaroni with corned beef( I had no idea that it would smell that bad). Also I fried that beef just with some salt and some stuff here and there but the smell aaaaaaaaaaaa *puts on a mask. Had some tuff time eating that though taste wasn’t bad. It might have been lot better if I had used that karahi technique, oh well maybe next time still got some in the fridge anyone for the takers? And yea yesterday tried Chicken quorma lol it was funny. One of its requirement was to fry onions till they get golden and after cooling crush them into pieces. Looks simple? Ok its not when you have nothing absolutely nothing to crush :P and it was kinda funny when I was trying all different utensils to actually crush fried onions. But even before that I had no idea how much to fry them hehe I mean I had never ever watched mom doing it so I had no idea how much brown should they get and how much crispy shud they look so it was one plain guess work and I guess it didn’t turn out that well , ok Hira stop laughing :P. but anyhow overall the dish turned out to be good or was it because I was starving then :P, pata lug jaye ga in next eating. Yes I do freeze my food for later use :P. and yea yea one more thing didn’t I tell you guys I cooked rice :P yaaay ok they look simple but it aint, such a delicate balance act is required :P. Actually I was planning to go for rice cooker but my cooking mentor forbade me to go for it so I was left with no other choice but to try on my own, thank you mam :P. and yea with the help of Saeed and one frantic call to dad back home (since mom was in the stadium watching Karachi fixture of England and Pak) got them fine the very first time :D. now I am looking for ways to spend those 100 dhs which I was gonna do on that rice cooker :P somewhere else. So here there were my cooking experiences so far and oh btw how does one keep omelet from being getting so spongy :P? keep temperature cool maybe??

Ok ok one thing tu I left out completely, yup and that was my try on chocolate cookies :D, hahaha it was funny experience. Got all the required stuff, discovered there were no cookie pans :P. Khair got them too. Start could not have been any more worst, when I had already started with couple of ingredients it was discovered that my weighing machine wasn’t working errrrr, stupid thing its spring got off the hook or something similar. Good thing most of the stuff had measurements with respect to cups and only chocolate chips and coconut were in gms and since those were kinda harmless ingredients(means even if I screwed their ratio a bit wont hurt) so phew bachat. Flour stiffing wasn’t easy because the sieve I was using was of small size so it took loads of time, sigh. Oh well now came the most intresting and funny part yup beating :D. hahaha bowl was kinda small then the comfortable size and because of weird geometry of my kitchen I didn’t have enough space to keep stuff around. So after a while of beating I noticed mixture flying all over the place hahaha, it was one messy scene ok I got it under control (A), but a bit of damage was done to my toaster and frying pan :P. anyhow after that small skirmish came the part of actually baking. Ok people repeat after me “Whenever you plan bake, PreHeat the Oven even if your recipe doesn’t say so, Yes Preheat at high temperature” such a basic concept of Thermodynamics which Hira will explain to you people :P. and if you don’t, your baking time will exceed from 20 mins to 45 or even more and your cookies will be more like brownies and not actually cookies ok but I think brownie thing was also due to the fact that pan shapes were bit deep, rite? after first batch I had still some mixture left with me so used my cake pan for that and though it took some time I guess 30 mins but it was a more civilized cookie and I think it was because of oven already warm as a result of previous try and plus pan was more suited to cookies :P. so that was zee baking venture, but yea they tasted really well yums :D.

woah another big post errrrrr *bangs his head. But yea people cooking umm its fun, baking is more fun :D. so am gonna try more and of course will need more yummy and easy recipes so keep them coming.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Cooking attempts and a Birthday Wish

hokay I haven’t posted anything yet about my attempts on cooking, nope not. So this post is dedicated to those tries. But before that Ladies and Gentlemen(if any) Let us first Congratulate a fellow blogger and a frand Heewa on her birthday. She an ipod lover, George Clooney lover, soccer fan, Chelsea fan, Jose Mourinho fan, F1 fan, tennis fan, Agassi fan, U2 fan, bearer of ghunda language these days :D. ummm ok what else I have missed oh yea Toblerone craver and A person who would take a 360 turn at 80 km that too on third gear :P and claims to be a rude and snob but fails miserably (or maybe I am lucky). But above all one good frand :D and a great blogger.

Ohkay I fink I have described enough rite? rite. so now everyone of you do congratulate her although this post is officially 15 hours late but it mite do, so here

Happy Birthday Hira, have a blast!!!!.

Ending with your favorite Quote “chill kero”

PS: I believe this person deserves a dedicated so kitchen stories will come ins next post, till then adios.

Monday, December 12, 2005

Its all Soccer

Yup as the title says this post is all about soccer and just soccer and the reason simple being the draws for World Cup 2006 have been made, yes all the groups and dates have been finalized and the biggest soccer show is just few months away. Here are the Groups.

Group A
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Germany
Costa Rica
Poland
Ecuador

Group B
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England
Paraguay
Trinidad & Tobago
Sweden

Group C
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Argentina
Ivory Coast
Serbia & Montenegro
Netherlands

Group D
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Mexico
Iran
Angola
Portugal

Group E
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Italy
Ghana
United States
Czech Republic

Group F
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Brazil
Croatia
Australia
Japan

Group G
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France
Switzerland
South Korea
Togo

Group H
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Spain
Ukraine
Tunisia
Saudi Arabia

This time in quite a complicated way FIFA seeded the teams for the draws which resulted in many eye brows to be raised. But now as the picture looks like couple of groups are what we call the groups of death(meaning the kind of groups where easily one big team can be easily knocked out). Group C and Group E are the two of them, Group E teams have more reasons to worry about because even if they qualify for the knockout stage, second placed team from this group will be playing Brazil (yikes) that means early elimination on the cards. Since Italy aka Azzurri have been my favorite team since World cup 1990(yes people am that old :P), am particularly worried about them. Firstly they are always known as slow or shaky starters to any cup which more than often results in their last group match to be a do or die situation and often it depends on the result from other match too. Secondly they have Czechs, US and Ghana in their group. Czechs attacking qualities are well known to everyone but even US can easily cause an upset or two with some quality young players. As for Ghana simply being Africans means they can easily be another Senegal. So its must for Italians to start the group well and try to finish on top in order to avoid Brazilians so early in tourney but even if they do face them you never know what might happen. They do have some young quality players with the likes of strikers Luca Toni and Alberto Gildarno and in midfield they have Pirlo who is considered to be the best in taking free kicks in Europe right now. Plus some hard working mid fielders as Gennaro Gattuso, Mauro Camoranesi and Gianluca Zambrotta . And world famous defenders Fabio Cannavaro and Alessandro Nesta. Not to forget under achievers Francesco Totti and Del Piero(not sure will he make up in the final squad or not). Only problem for them is to linkup together as a team and control their nerves.

In other groups England vs. Sweden, Argentina vs. Dutch and Spain vs. Ukraine seem to be mouth watering. Plus there are chances of the warlike clash of England and Germany in the 2nd round and Dutch vs. Portugal again in round 2. So some really hot matches on store. I just seriously hope that of eight teams who make it into the quarters six are the big ones and two the underdogs.

Predictions ummmm if World cup maintains its history of an European team winning in Europe then it will be either England or Germany but me really hoping it will be The Azzurri :D , Spain or France might but highly unlikely. Other wise from Non-Europeans it will be either Brazil (not again) or Argentina(that would be awesome) and if you want a team with flair to win then hope for Czechs to play an outstanding tourney and keep their nerves intact.

To end the post Inter Milan has won the Milan Derby Brazilian Adriano involved in all three inter goals while from Milan side Pirlo’s(the man) free kicks were the casue of two goals. Tomorrow’s ,actually Today’s eurosportsnews will make a good watch.

PS: can someone tell me how can I align that groups into layout of 2 rows and 4 columns, wasted whole stupid an hour or maybe more on that. no Tables dont work for some odd reason this stupid blogspot was creating that table half of the size of the page errrrrrrr. VL is needed but that dodo has stopped visiting blogs sigh.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Tale of the Weekend

Oh well I have been really busy these days, not with work though but thanks to these daily 3 hour driving theory classes which are must for us third world country citizens. Timings are from 19:00 till 22:00 and by the time I get home and done with dinner its usually past 23:00, so that is why I haven’t been able to visit any of your blogs *apologies.

Weekend was fun, started with my trip to Global Village( http://www.globalvillage.ae ) and boy that place is fun to visit (only if world cultures interests you). With around 40 countries setting up their pavilions, a huge food area and an another big sector for rides(which surely do host some really exciting for most and scary for me rides). I was having butterflies just staring at one, I wonder what the guys who were riding it must be feeling :P. Pavilions are designed in such a way from exterior, that they represent some famous monument or architect from that particular country. Indian pavilion is one huge area and with loads of stuff for ladies but Pakistani stall was closed because of the concert which was my primary reason to go there. Initially concert was damn boring with all those non-inspiring artists and a weirdo host were trying their luck. Then it was turn of Omar Shareef, he started with all his corny jokes and suddenly his session turned into Jumma sermon when he started appealing for funds for quake victims, quite a weird tone. Then came Ali Azmat start wasn’t good, chords and his own voice weren’t matching up plus sound quality wasn’t great. Anyhow he ended on high note and quite made up for a bad start. Though I was hoping he would do “mein” which he didn’t .

Next day around 22:00 hours my colleague took me to bottom of Jabel(hill) Hafeet. Arabs know how to utilize money that is for sure, there they have turned this complete barren land into one lush green landscape, with hot water being pulled from underground and made to flow through land and it was really hot. We wondered maybe they warm it themselves and its no natural :P. but that place was filled with people, some camping up and some having barbeque. Good place for a nighter but not when its filled.

Sunday was my visit to top of Jabel Hafeet, hired a cab and went up there. Road is very well made, no bad turns so no drowsiness. On the way up there was this beautiful hotel and even further up Sheikh’s place(managed to took a nice snap of it , shall upload). But top was kinda disappointing , like people say it is a huge parking lot and nothing, yea nothing. It is covered with boundary and on one side you can view Al-Ain and on the other side Oman. But you cant actually see much since its so much dusty which hides the view. The cab driver was suggesting me to go there once after it rains, he was like then its all clear and I would be able to view the city much clearly. Now I am eagerly awaiting for my first rain in Al-Ain. As Mitra once mentioned it is chilly up there. Indeed It got quite chilly after sunset and damn I missed the shot of sun setting :(. On our way back we had a look at the hotel, took snaps and later on the way down I tried hard to take snaps of the city below glowing with lights but sigh I don’t think my cam is made for night shots. So that was my looooong weekend , today(since its way passed 0 hours) I got my theory test and then in evening university has arranged this cultural show with money going to earthquake victims so inshAllah I will be going there. Do pray for the theory test though I have heard its easy to pass :P it is the damn practical test which is tuffy.

PS: ohh how can I forgot to mention, famous Pakistan series victory on England. Last day demolition of Pomps batting was worthy of Oscar winning performance. Reminded me of the days when Great Wasim and Waqar used to demolish any batting lineup. Special joy to watch rebirth of Shoaib as the match winner(I hope he continues to do so) and Inzamam's further proof of why he is one of the very best batsman in the current era. More Importantly improvement in his captaincy was clearly visible during the entire series. Lastly, farewell to George Best as they call him legend of Old Trafford, I haven’t seen any of his footage but am sure whenever I will, I shall definitely be an instant fan of his.

Yea one more thing here the pics of Dubai Artificial Skiing Resort, have fun ;).

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Long Weekend

UAE National Day and we have 4 days weekend :D, going to Dubai tonite for Global Village Concert and I guess will be on Friday inshAllah. c ya all, Take Good Care.