Supercycle Watering Stand

What do you do if you are tired after a day's work in the yard and need to water the lawn? In particular you have to focus on watering a particular spot of the lawn for a concentrated amount of time, as its a 'brown' spot? You use the Supercycle Watering Stand, of course!


Supercycle to the rescue

Pros: You can go back to your BBQ.
Cons: After some time you have to move the bike to water another spot.

Coming soon: A way to use the variable Toronto water pressure to automatically turn the front wheel of the bike to and fro, enabling a sprinkler like system to water all around.
Paradox: This will create a Perpetual energy machine.


A closer look

Yard Work Ahead

Gotta do some yard work today. Weeding. Watering. Mowing. Raking. Have been really putting it off.

Will get a better picture of Dad's apple "tree". Just fooling around with a camera on hand. Too lazy to get to the yard now.


Dad's Apple Tree

Fishing Is A Cruel Sport

I say this not because we did not have much luck today. We did - caught several, most of which were thrown away, 1 keeper bass, 2 others lost (right at the moment of haul), discovery of one "aquarium" spot - so called because the just dropping the line meant you caught a fish. However the fish we were fishing for - largemouth bass - was unfortunately in short supply.

Why is fishing cruel. Consider how we put the live bait. A bunch of worms, kept in soil and stored in a small cardboard box in a freezer, is our bait. Before casting, a worm is selected and taken out, and cut into pieces (while alive) with a scissor. One of the still wriggling pieces is then attached to a hook (sorry - driven through the hook, impaling the part), before the whole arrangement is submerged into water.

Today we went one step better. Having negligible luck with our worms, we saw what the Oriental anglers next to us were doing. They were using crayfish (a cray fish is a very mini lobster, the size of your little finger). And so we bought a bunch of them (live ofcourse), and then proceeded to do the following:

A crayfish was selected. Its arms (pincers) were then cut/broken/torn off. The tail was then cut/broken. What is left of the now writhing creature is then impaled on the hook, like a stake being driven through its body, entering the soft underbelly and piercing the rigid shell on the other side. Then ofcourse it's thrown into the water to be bitten by a fish that will taken get its lip stuck to the hook and move and cause the hook to pierce through from under the skin and come out impaling the fish through its gills.

As I said, a cruel sport.

Ottawa Trip

Below the Parliament buildings


What's growing out of Rupam B.'s head?


Canada or Bangladesh?


Size doesn't worry Rupam B.


Nazneen Bhabi sure knows how to pick 'em


Fupa-fupu trying fishing Canadian style


The Catch of the Day


Lights and Sound Show - Parliament Hill


The Eternal Flame at Parliament Hill


Ottawa Night Life - It Ain't John and Richmond


The Pike - 24 hours later

It's London in 2012

On the drive to work listened live as the IOC awarded the Olympics to London for 2012. I had hoped it would be London, it's just one of the greatest cities (and a great multi-cultural one at that) of the world. What made this even better was that London beat Paris in the final round. Chirac and Blair had been having a go at each other for some time, including the most recent - a food fight! Whenever I was at London, I was struck by the history, culture and atmosphere of London. I am sure they will have a great Olympics.

Bengali Mela at Dentonia

Dentonia always beings to my mind the image of a dentist, with his painful scapel ready to drill into your mouth. Thus Dentonia park always brings to mind a scruciating slow torture image. Which is usually what these Bengali melas are. Two years ago they had a fight over a soccer match that resulted in a stabbing - no kidding! And it was because of some silly reason such as one team having one player missing or something like that.

There was one such mela today at Dentonia but unlike the previous ones this one seemed to go on well... for most part. The performances were half decent, but the stalls weren't. Most of them sold ladies' clothes only, that too outdated styles that many women had no problem buying. And if you read my gripe before about local food being overpriced, one stall was selling biryani for 9 bucks. Who in their right mind would buy biryani for 9 bucks?

I met one of the volunteers who told me the amazing story about the power supply. Apparently the power for the concert was supposed to be supplied by the city. For some reason something happened and in the end, the organizers cobbled 100 feet of electric wire and got the power from a nearby house! They plugged it into the wall socket where the stove usually goes!

Which was unfortunate because the power went out just when Ms Alamgir was warming up the crowd with her songs (the one really decent act on the show). Probably some one in the house turned on the light and the fuse blew.

This was touted as a Canada Day Bengali Mela (for whatever reason). There were actually lots of people with a bunch of Canadian flags, handing them out freely. Probably more of our sponsorship scandal money at work. Later we actually went and did something about Canada Day by watching the fireworks at Mel Lastman Square.


Say cheese before you take th--what the ****!


As with any Bengali event, there was no shortage of people.


What's the guy behind me looking at?

Rosti

Rosti is described by some as an "easy version of a Swiss potato cake". I don't know how accurate that is as I have never had Swiss potato cake, but Rosti looks a bit like this. As we were dining at Marche at the BCE Place, after watching War of the Worlds, I remarked that the food there was very European. We blabbed the usual about the ambience and the food making it pricy but justified because of the 'ambience'. Ether, being very blunt, said Rosi was just 'aloo bhorta' in French (or German, or whatever).

Later I reflected that this is why Toronto's ethnic restaurants are pricy. They take some common dish, put it in italics on the menu and it becomes exotic. Thus we have 'samosas', 'shik kebab', 'naan', 'dosa', 'tandoori' - all common back home but here an exotic expensive dish. Some dishes I understand - such as 'kotu roti' and 'shwarma' - but why is naan exotic?

I didn't put an extensive review of War of the Worlds as I noticed recently I have doing a lot of that on the blog. This blog is not just about movies. Even though I have watching a lot of them lately (this is summer after all). Suffice it to say the movie was faithful to the book, except for some 'minor' changes such as changing the locale of the story from London, UK, to some some place in USA, and the hero getting a family, as well as some other flaws. Even though I found it good, something prevents me from recommending it, and I will leave it at that.

Peterborough Fishing Mine

Went fishing to Peterborough this morning. We struck a gold mine. Any line cast seemed to come back with fish (sometimes two!). All sort of fish were caught: bass, perch, sunfish. We intended to go for carp, but later we got too tired due to the sapping heat.

Total fish count: 150 (no kidding!). I took 10 home, we gave ten each to our neighbors, and even then had lots left, which went to Fahad's uncle's friend. He loves sunfish.


Our Fishing Hole


Everyone Is Busy Catching Fish


Some Distractions Were Present As Well


150 Fish Being Kept Fresh


Packing The Haul

Paheli Is Good

Saw Paheli (starring SRK, Rani). It's good. Those who don't like Hindi movies may not like this one. It's a love story. It has emotions. It has lots of colors. And it has lots of songs. I thought the songs were a bit too much (some could have been removed for faster flow) but on the whole, if you like Indian movies, you will like Paheli.

Gone Fishing

Just got back from fishing. We tried this new place just around 20 minutes away from home. Boy was I surprised to find such a town so close to Toronto. It was a postcard-style town, with beautiful mosaic pavements, old style (18th century) houses, and the air of a bygone era. The lake (pond, rather) where we fished was very surreal. It was quiet, and lots of creatures around. Although didn't get any keepers, nevertheless a morning well-spent.


The Loons


Fahad's Batfish

Noha's Wedding

Just came back from attending Noha's wedding/reception. The usual crowd (read the-Donmills-people-who-were-once-in-UAE-but-now-mostly-in-Brampton-but-still-called-Donmills-people) attended. Atleast Jaber and others still are in North York.

The ceremony itself was a good affair. Jaber said a few quotes, while Isra recited a great poem. Babu and Mehboob (of BSA fame) sang some songs. The dinner was very good. The menu was South Asian, with some spicy tandoori chicken and a kabab (making us loosen our ties) being the best. One cannot fault Jaber's organization (meticulous) nor the food (really scrumptious). He should become a Bengali wedding planner. He even printed a schedule (or program guide, whatever it's called).

On a sidenote, it always seems a point of EXTREME importance at Bengali weddings - the food has to be good. I have attended some weddings where there is no organization to speak of, it's as boring as hell, but the food was good and no one complained. Bengalis. Go figure.

Going back to the wedding, after dinner, there were a few songs and dances. Jaber also displayed a slideshow, which showed the couples' pictures from childhood to present times. It was a nice and different touch.


The 'Just Married' car


The spread was tasty


Here's to still being single (it's Coke BTW)


Who's next?

The Koreans Are Coming

It was shaping up to be just another Friday at work. I was at my desk, coding away, while my boss was away (his kid was sick). The operational engineers were busy at their workstations. Suddenly there was a knock on our office door, before it slammed open, and a gentleman (who worked upstairs) ran in, a little short of breath.

Searching for my boss, and not finding him, he turned to me and announced:

"The Koreans Are Coming!"

The reactions from the guys was immediate and hilarious:

"So should we lock the doors?"

"Don't you mean the Russians?"

"Koreans? North or South?"

Further clarification led to the fact that a delegation from the University of Korea in Seoul was visiting University of Toronto and they wanted to see how the building controls and management operated here. In any case, they did come within a few minutes, and were a very nice (and courteous) bunch of guys, along with their interpreter. They visited for 15 minutes, asked lots of questions, took a few pictures of my coffee cup before taking our leave.

Played Some Cricket Today

Got together with some friends for cricket at North York. Was feeling very hyped-up about Bangladesh winning (a rarity). Played good cricket too. Played 2 matches. Me and Gazi were the mainstay for our team for both the games. In the first game we bowled them out for an on-par target before Gazi and I overhauled it with lots of overs to spare. In the second game we again chased. This time the target was higher, and we both batted down the order to give the others a bat. But there was a collapse and we again found ourselves together, with only one more wicket to follow. First we repaired the innings, then built it, before finally racing towards the target in a surprisingly less than tight finish.

Bangladesh beats Australia

This morning was crazy. I was following the Bangladesh game vs Australia. Around the half way stage, I had reasonable hope that Bangladesh could pull off the unthinkable. But as always, it was Bangladesh, and I must admit that I did not expect them to last beyond 180. And at 80 odd for 3 around the 27th over, a familiar pattern was beginning to repeat itself.

Then Ashraful happened. He and Bashar began to nudge the singles and take very little risks, yet keep the wickets in hand for the final dash. If that was the game plan, today it was executed to perfection. And when it finally happened, a Bangladesh victory over Australia that BBC (a bastion of anti-Bangladesh commentators) called "the pinnacle of Bangladesh achievements in one-day internationals" and Cricinfo labeled "the greatest giant-slaying of all time", I let out a medieval scream. I switched ON MY CAPS LOOK KEY TO SHOW MY EXCITEMENT ONLINE TO ALL OTHERS ON MY MSN LIST FOLLOWING THE GAME ON CRICINFO. Many of them had changed their nicks as well. 'Aus Banged', 'BD Kicks Ass(Aus)' and 'Holy Crap - BD actually beat Aus' were some of the most memorable ones.

Rony Bhaia called from Bangladesh. They are pretty excited too. Last time I was in Bangladesh, they beat India and then Zimbabwe. This time my folks are there, they beat Australia. He pointed that out to me, with some theory of us brining luck. Ofcourse the fact that the next day I was there India made 345 against Bangladesh was conveniently ignored.

At then end, though, Bangladesh cricket also owes a lot to Australians. It was Eddie Barlow, an Australian, who first set up Bangladesh cricket administration. It was the Australian cricket board's support that Bangladesh got Test status. It was their memorandum of Understanding signed with the BCB that Bangladesh got good training and infrastructure for their youth teams (under-15,19,21). It was their team's attitude during the Bangladesh tour of Australia that Bangladesh cricketers matured. Steve Waugh made his players go to the Bangladesh dressing room and talk to our cricketers, and tell them not to despair or listen to the critics. After all, Waugh knew what it was like to belong to a team that had potential but never achieved. That was Australia prior to 1987. And finally, it was Australia again, who today, was beaten, but never made an condescending comment about Bangladesh that the Pakis made.

The Interpreter Rankles

Watched The Interpreter tonight. Before going into what I don't like about the movie - a brief synopsis: Kidman is Silvia Broome, working at the UN in NYC. Sean Penn is Tobin Keller, a Secret Service agent that protects foreign dignitaries. An african dictator accused of genocide is coming to NYC to make a speech at the UN Security Council, and Kidman overhears a plot to kill him. Movie starts.

Overall, it wasn't half bad. It started well, then got right into the middle of it. Character development of the main duo was good. It had the ambience of a slow European mystery, with a cop who has personal issues (always), a victim who is not all that she appears (and blonde - always), and a bunch of criminals, the head of whom is the one the hero has to protect. All-in-all, a good mix for a good movie.

Unfortunately there are several flaws. First, the dialogue. Some of the conversations between Kidman and Penns ' characters are downright cheesy.

"Why do you guys who carry guns always act like cowboys?"

Moreover, at one stage, everyone in Africa is introduced as either black or white. They seemed to have forgotten that brown people played big roles in Africa's history as well. Gandhi of India was originally from South Africa. Many of South Africa's, Kenya's, Tanzania's movers and shakers are of Indian or South Asian origin.

Then there's the characters. Penn's assistant (his colleague/partner) is more like his secretary. She has hardly a role in the movie. *BIG SPOILER ALERT* Nicole we find out is heavily involved in African politics. She IS African. She was even a rebel. Her brother still is. What nonsense. We are supposed to believe that just because her parents were killed in an African accident, her brother and she took up arms and joined the black militia. Um.. they were white. And not just white, blondes. Fighting alongside the very people taken advantage of by whites in Africa. And they comrades accepted them! And she was the rebel leader's lover!

Many times during the movie Nicole says she joined the UN because it's the only thing she thinks works in Africa, and she wants to help. Um... hullo! You are just a lowly interpreter (in fact one person in the movie even tells her that, then everyone seems to forget she said that). What do you think she will do for the UN?

Overall, it's a 6/10 movie, and takes a long time to get to the ending. The Interpreter looks nice and the acting is terrific, but that's just on the surface. Could-have-been-but-was-not an absorbing thriller. Ultimately forgettable.

Beef is better than chicken

I can cook. I discovered that this week. I don't know how moms do it every day though. I don't mind cutting, chopping, cooking and cleaning for 1 day, and then storing it in the fridge so I have something to eat when I come back from work for the next 2 days.

1 day cooking 3 day eating.

One other thing I also discovered - beef is infinitely way easier to cook than chicken. If you overcook chicken, or add too much water, or spice, or salt, it's gone. You can eat it but you have to make a face. The ten chicken pieces I saw in the freezer I guess I will BBQ next week (read: not cook). I guess I added too much water, the chicken was very loose. And somewhat yucky.

Beef on the other hand - the longer it remains on the oven the tender it gets (my theory). Some mother somewhere is probably getting a heart attack at the sacrilegious statements I am making here.

But yesterday even I was surprised as to how good the beef I prepared was. It was spicy (very), not hard at all (bite-able), had the proper proportion of salt, and very, very tasty. Yummy. The first day when I cooked chicken I was like crap - I have to eat this slop for the next three months I am home alone, but now I have some hope. Yup -until next time.

Blo(ck)spot dot com

I sent my blog and picture link to someone in UAE.

This is what popped up on their screen.

"We apologize the site you are attempting to visit has been blocked due to its content being inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates. If you think this site should not be blocked, please visit the Feedback Form available on our website. "

Priceless.

Masala BBQ and A. Jolie Good Movie

BBQs and Nahda alumni don't go well together. Whenever we try to do a BBQ the weather plays havoc. Last time it rained. Today, it was unbearably hot, close to 40 degrees (with humidex, smog, etc.). I was taken back to the last days of high school, when we foolishly attempted to have a BBQ in the middle of Abu Dhabi summer. Atleast this time I got the BBQ started! Ofcourse being a gas grill it was way easier.

The food turned out tasty, even though the masala made the chicken very, very spicy at certain portions (that was fine though - I just had to have a bottle of water after one chicken leg). The burgers were the best, as were the sausages, fresh out of the grill and into our mouths. It being such a hot day, the juice-filled jug was well emptied. There were two Casualty Burgers though.


It burns!

Angelina Jolie sparkles in Mr and Mrs Smith. Throughout the movie, which we saw after eating (dinner and a show!), that was the only thing I could think of. It seemed some people have been made by God with a lot of time. Then again Tauhid told me some lip surgeons may have had a crack at her as well.

The movie was entertaining as a whole, though in the end it started to drag a bit before an abrupt ending, which was again funny. The jokes and action were nonstop, and its a good escapist movie.

Pulling Out A Rabbit

Last time I checked Toronto was a major concrete metropolis. Wildlife attacks are very rare, other than the occasional psycho bulldog. Which is why today I was surprised when my backyard was invaded by a pair of rabbits.


It's not always this black and white

There I was, minding my own business, just about to mow the jungle that is my backyard, when all of a sudden I saw a black something dart behind me. My first thought was that my sister's cat escaped, but then I saw a white something follow the black I knew it was no ordinary pet. It was rabbits!

My neighbor's (two houses away) kids' pets had escaped. They were so cute! But munching on my dad's apple tree was definite no-no. And so I moved in a stomping motion and made what I thought was a menacing shout. Other than the next door kid looking at me like I was practicing for some sort of Bengali opera, they had no effect. The rabbits paused, looked at me, and went back to munching. Is there an expression, cool as a rabbit?

Ofcourse the kids came to reclaim their pet. And this moment the rabbits chose to dart into the next door neighbor's yard. The game was afoot, the hunt continued. But that was to be the last I saw of those intruders.

What a hot day

It is really getting hot in Toronto. Not that I mind, I will take +40 over -40 any day - but what I hate is the smog. I have to walk in the morning from my parking spot at the university to Eaton's, and then back again in the afternoon heat, a good 20 min each way, and what gets me each time is the pollution. It really sticks to you. I also went out for a walk around lunch and within 20 minutes was starting to feel lethargic and sick.

The Unix course is coming along well. I am learning lots of new admin stuff I didn't know before. I also spoke with a colleague at work, he's going to give me a PC so I can install some flavor of Unix on it at home, just to play with.

I paid my last dues as a student to UofT today - 3 years after graduation. I got my degree framed. It's convocation this week at UofT, and they had stalls for framing the degrees that the graduates get at the ceremony. They had it when I graduated too, except that I didn't want to frame it at that time. I thought I would get it framed somewhere else later.

After three years of it sitting in an envelope at the bottom of my closet, I decided I am going to get it framed in an official UofT crest-filled frame. It cost me 86 dollars and change. Yes - I know they were ripping me off - but it's my degree and they were fleecing me for the last time. Besides, I did throw tons of money at the university for four years, so what's a few doubloons more!