(Image source: www.artslink.wordpress.com)

I am sorry for not writing very regularly for the blog.

It is just that I have been busy with work and during the night and on the weekends, I have been “burning the midnight oil” on my novel for the NaNoWriMo 2009. Since I have been concentrating all my free times on this venture, as at todate I have completed almost 92% of the 50,000 words which was required to win the NaNoWriMo 2009 and I still have another 8 days to complete the balance 8% words. In other words, I am ahead of the scheduled words by almost 11,000 words.

I figured that I would be able to complete the 50,000 words, probably 5 days before the official closing date.

Thinking about the plots to write on daily basis has not been easy and every night I go to bed thinking on how I can expand the novel by another 1,000 – 2,000 words the next day. Sometimes I do get some inspiration but other times, I get blank inspirations.

But as the promoters of NaNoWriMo have said, just keep writing no matter how the plot is turning out to be, no matter how bad the paragraphs may be. Just think of expanding the novel on a smaller scales rather than expanding it on a larger scales and so far it has turned out well. I need to do plenty of revisions and re-writes of the current novel and probably the long cold December (it is already getting below 10’C at night lately) will be just the right time for that.

Can’t wait for the finishing line at the 50,000 words!

By the way, Chilly means Chinese…

(One good sign is red lights and tang-lungs on the inside and on the outside)

From day 1 after we had arrived here, we have been looking for cheap Chinese restaurant and thus far, we have been unsuccessful.

Some of our colleagues who have been in this part of the world had recommended us to visit one restaurant which is located about 2 kilometres walk from our apartment. But once we reached the place, we found the gates to the front doors was locked and no one on sight. At first, we thought we came on the wrong day or the wrong time (perhaps it was still too early). So we went to the same restaurant on different days and time and yet it was still closed.

We were unable to eat Chinese food but what the heck, we got plenty of exercise – just imagine 4 kilometres walk to and fro. One day we saw someone coming out from the restaurant – we asked and were informed that the restaurant was undergoing renovation and will be opening in 2 weeks time. Unfortunately the 2 weeks was almost a month ago and the renovation is still undergoing. I guess it take another 2 weeks from the time of writing this post for the ‘official’ reopening.

(It looks big on photo but in reality the servings are small and expensive)

So, we dropped our hopes for Chinese restaurant until one of the taxi drivers mentioned another in the city. But once again we had to abort the trip to that Chinese restaurant as we found that it will cost us at least USD35 for meals for each of us.

Last week, however, we got a breakthrough. One of our colleagues had found another ‘chilly’ restaurant and after a long tele conversation, it was found that the price was very reasonable – about 20,000 Rial for a plate of fried rice. With 4 of us who have decided to go and share out the cost, there were plenty of dishes that we were able to order. The restaurant was not easy to find for it was tucked away from the usual busy roads and given the roads were jammed, the taxi driver took some time to locate the restaurant and that too, after getting lost several times and had to stop and ask people.

(A close-up of all the dishes in one plate…my plate)

The restaurant, when we walked in, was empty with no one in sight except for the lonely restaurant manager. Later we found that we came too early to the restaurant for the crowd only came in when we about to leave after spending almost one hour in the restaurant. The manager remarked that the foreigners would usually come in early before the locals come in. Coming in early was also a blessing in disguise as the chef was not busy with other orders and had time to cook our dishes without any necessary rush (no half cooked dishes were found).

Admittedly at the end of the day, the price of the dishes and the taste can never come close to what we have back home in Malaysia but it was a relieve to see something that were very familiar such as ‘taugeh’, ‘onion leave’, ‘noodles’ and etc.

At the end of the day, 3 bowls of different types of soup, 2 bowl of fried rice (with different ingredients), 2 plate of mixed vegetables, 2 plate of noodles with different ingredients and a free flow of green tea, cost us about 500,000 Rial for 4 of us.

(To be continued)

(Image source: www.world-mysteries.com)

In my earlier post on 2012, it was stated that the Hindus believed that there will be a golden year within Kali Yuga. But what is Kali Yuga anyway.

From About Hinduism:-

According to Hindu scriptures, all mortal beings are destined to pass through four great epochs in every cycle of creation and destruction.

The four great epochs in Hinduism are: Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dwapar Yuga and Kali Yuga. Satya Yug or the Age of Truth is said to last for four thousand divine years, Treta Yuga for three thousand, Dwapara Yug for two thousand and Kali Yuga will last for one thousand divine Years that equals to 432,000 earthly years.

Throughout these four yugas, Lord Vishnu is said to incarnate ten times in ten different avatars. During the Age of Truth (Satya Yuga), human beings were spiritually most advanced and had great psychic powers. In the Treta Yuga people still remained righteous and adhered to moral ways of life. Lord Rama of the fabled Ramayana lived in Treta Yuga.

In the Dwapara Yuga, men had lost all knowledge of the intelligence and bliss bodies. Lord Krishna was born in this age. The present Kali Yuga is the most degenerated of the Hindu epochs.

Another theory explains these epochs of time on the basis of the degree of loss of righteousness in the world. It says, during Satya Yuga only truth prevailed (Sanskrit Satya = truth), Treta lost ¼ truth, Dwapar lost ½ truth and Kali is left with only ¼ truth. Evil and dishonesty has replaced truth in the last three ages or yugs.

Wikipedia on the other hand reports:-

Kali Yuga is the last of the four stages that the world goes through as part of the cycle of yugas described in the Indian scriptures. The other ages are Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga and Dvapara Yuga.

According to the Surya Siddhanta, an astronomical treatise that forms the basis of all Hindu and Buddhist calendars, Kali Yuga began at midnight (00:00) on 18 February 3102 BCE in the proleptic Julian calendar, or 23 January 3102 BC in the proleptic Gregorian calendar

Veda Online explains in details what happens during Kali Yuga:-

Hindu astrologers have calculated this to have been 2:27 a.m. on February 18, 3102 BC. This took place some 36 years after Lord Krsna spoke Bhagavad-gita to Arjuna.

The scriptures like SB 12.2 teach that during the 432,000 year age of Kali, humanity deteriorates and falls into barbarism. Humans begin to kill animals for food. They fall under the spell of intoxication. They lose all sexual restraint. Families break up. Women and children are abused and abandoned.

The saints and sages of ancient India describe the people of this age as greedy, ill-behaved, and merciless. In this age, says Srimad-Bhagavatam, merely possessing wealth is considered a sign of good birth, proper behaviour, and fine qualities. Law and justice are determined by one’s prestige and power

Severe droughts and plagues are everywhere. Slovenliness, illness, hunger and fear spread. Nations are continually at war with one another.

The men of Kali-yuga seek only money. Only the richest have power. People without money are their slaves.

Now the question arises – when does Kali Yuga ends? There seems to be many different interpretation of the end on different websites. Wikipedia simply mentions it as “When flowers will be begot within flowers, and fruits within fruits, then will the Yuga come to an end. And the clouds will pour rain unseasonably when the end of the Yuga approaches”

Interestingly it is also mentioned that “since only 5,000 years is past from the beginning of Kali-yuga, there is still 427,000 left for the end of Kali yuga. Even the Kali-yuga is not the end. After the end of Kali-yuga, again Satya yuga starts”

The last statement is interesting since we take into account the predicted golden years that may start in 2012, then it may be true that there is another 427,000 years to go before the end of Kali Yuga. And the golden years within Kali Yuga is expected to last for 10,000 years.

2012 will be an interesting year if all the ancient predications falls in place.

Read Also

Year 2012

Why We Pray?

(Cooked chicken cocktail with fried eggs and good dose of Maggi sauce)

Lately we have been finding harder to get by without having a good dose of vegetables – going for the ‘big job’ has not been as smooth as it used to be.

Unlike Malaysia where vegetables are abundant, in Iran, there is nothing much other than plain onion (to be eaten with a thin slice of bread) or salad (a mixture of minced carrot, cucumbers and salad leaves). No doubt that the Persian diet consists of a lot of yoghurts and yoghurt drinks which is good for digestions (although it takes some time to acquire the plain yoghurt taste) but nothing beats having a good dose of green vegetables.

We have noticed that some of the shops here do sell vegetables but it is not easy to cook them as we do not have other ingredients to go along with the vegetables. I guess this is why the vegetables in the Persian diet in restaurants consist nothing but fresh salads (perhaps we did not ask about this).

On other days, we eat a lot of fruits namely red apples but we soon get tired of eating just apples. Another alternative is of course, to take in high fibre tablets which does the ‘job’ the same.

When it comes to cooking our self, other than cooking the good old Maggi Mee, we managed to cook eggs (another easy one to do), sausages, nuggets, chicken and vegetables (Chinese style). Buying processed meat can be tricky here. What looks like processed chicken meat can turn out to processed red meat.

(Boiling is one good way to de-ice the meat and ensure the inside is cooked well)

Recently I just found out that ‘Chicken Cocktail’ is really made of chicken so it has been my ‘main’ choice when looking for items to cook at home – DIY style. It comes handy to just boil it and added the sliced chicken cocktails into the pot and has it together with instant noodles or fry it until it is well done and have it with scramble eggs.

Talking about eggs, we have been shopping around and found onions in one of the shops, so now we can also cook onion with eggs (instead of just plain eggs). Yesterday we found fresh gingers but we have to determine how best to cook something with ginger in it (we are goggling for easy ideas).

(To be continued)

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DIY Chef

Instant Dinner

Posted in Food, Travel Tagged: Chicken, Chilly Sauce, Cooking, Eggs, Food, Iran, Maggi ]]> http://balajoe27.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/diy-chef-part-2/feed/ 0 B.Joe Cocktail Cocktail 1 http://balajoe27.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/movie-review-the-lost-city/ http://balajoe27.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/movie-review-the-lost-city/#comments Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:55:40 +0000 B.Joe http://balajoe27.wordpress.com/?p=2856 ]]>

If one is surprised with Joaquin Phoenix singing and playing guitar in “Walk the Line”, one will get more surprised to note that Andy Garcia is also music director for his movie “The Lost City”

(Poster of the movie – source: www.newsletter.overdrive.com)

The Plot

Read the details of the plot here

(The closing scene of the movie where Andy manages to escape to America and opens his own night club)

Storyline

It was reported that it took almost 16 years for this story, written by a Cuban novelist and it deals with Cuba before and after the revolution and the aftermath of it when Fidel Castro takes over the Cuban administration.

The movie was produced, acted, directed and music composed by Andy Garcia and the story gave some glimpses on the old Cuba and the new one after the revolution. Andy Garcia ends up giving up his love life and also his night club in Cuba when his love life becomes a pro-revolution supporter and his night club is deemed to be part of the imperialism. Andy ends up fleeing to the United States to start his life all over again

The storyline is not without its criticism. Humberto Fontova of Newsmax reported:-

The film’s offences are many and varied. Most unforgivable of all, Che Guevara is shown killing people in cold blood. Who ever heard of such nonsense? And just where does this uppity Andy Garcia get the effrontery to portray such things? The man obviously doesn’t know his place.

And just where did Garcia get this preposterous notion of pre-Castro Cuba as a relatively prosperous but politically troubled place, they ask. All the Cubans he portrays seem middle class. Where in his movie is the tsunami of stooped and starving peasants that carried Fidel and Che into Havana on its crest, they ask.

Where are all those diseased and illiterate labourers and peasants my professors, Dan Rather, CNN and Oliver Stone told me about, ask the critics

Whilst the criticism may be valid but if one looks at the story from the rich and middle class point of view, it seems like that they had more to lose when Fidel Castro came in power. Andy for example, loses his key member of his band and later loses the night club itself. When he is leaving the country, his father watch is taken away by Fidel’s comrades.

(Che Guevara and his pro Fidel Castro revolution comrades emerging from the woods and confronts one of Andy’s younger brother, Ricardo)

Acting

Andy Garcia who is a night club owner is caught between his younger brothers who are keen on a revolution to overthrown the Cuba’s president and dictator, Fulgencio Batista’s and his father who wishes to do the same through democratic ways. Things get worse as Cuba leans towards revolution and Garcia loses his brothers – one dies after a failed attempt to assassinate the President and taking over of the palace and another who leaves the family to be become a Communist fanatic. Andy is the focus of the movie and on how he deals with the problems affecting his night club, his family and the country.

(Ricardo heart-broken when his uncle dies in front of him and leaves the funeral after crying on the coffin)

Another character that excels in the movie is Andy’s brother, Ricardo who turns a fanatic Communist. The character was well played by Enrique Murciano (who by the way is a Cuba descent).

One of the more touching moment that Enrique truly excels is when Ricardo goes to see his uncle who is landowner of a large tobacco plantation. He firmly informs that the land is now belongs to the revolution. His uncle gets angry and gets a heart attack and dies. Ricardo goes to his uncle’s funeral and cries. He then heads back to the uncle’s plantation and shoots himself in the head.

Another interesting character in the movie is simply known as “The Comedian’ played by Bill Murray. Bill Murray has one the best lines to say in this movie, often in form of sugar coated criticism. Watch out for the line where Bill Murray says that he likes the beginning more than the ending and he gives interesting reasons for it.

(Plenty of music and dance scenes in this movie – something that Andy could have reduced and be more focussed on the actual storyline)

Music

Andy Garcia is also the music director for the movie and whilst we are not treated to any cinematic, John Williams alike kind of music. However Andy does shines when it comes to Cuban music and the performance in the night club. Accompanying the music is a great mambo dance steps but in this movie, Andy does go overboard with the music and dance. It is nice to hear and see but not when revolution is just around the corner and there are far more important things to worry about.

Final say

The plus points: Unique storyline, the background, cast and cinematography

The negative points: Too little focus on Cuba’s historical events, too much musical / dance scenes

(Click here for other movie reviews)