Over a Year ago...
Not sure if anyone still reads this thing. Actually, I'm pretty sure no one does. And really, why would they? Cause I haven't been here and while I was away, I was keeping my MSN Spaces site.
Anyway - I've been thinking about starting to write again. And do you wanna know what has prompted me? Well, it's non other than my beloved Toronto Raptors. And I've gotta tell ya that although I love them - man they are PISSING me off. In the two games in New Jersey, actually, in this ENTIRE series - they have played like crap. Tonight is Game 4 and they are actually lucky that it's not the sweep game because that's how horrible they have been. They won Game 2 (which I attended) but that was damn lucky and Game 3 (Friday) and Game 4 (tonight) have been absolutely embarassing and just plain silly. They have no life. They are not executing. They look like a bunch of varsity players out there - HIGH SCHOOL VARSITY. There is no cohesion on the floor. They are not doing anything they are supposed to. How many f-in turnovers do they have? How many lazy fouls? Bosh? WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU??? Ford? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU RUNNING AROUND EVERYWHERE FOR??? Right now, there are about 9 mins left in the 4th quarter and the score is 94 - 62. Yes, that's what I said. THIS IS RIDICULOUS.
You know what is comes down to? I know this team was not expected to do anything at all this year. But their play this season has completely changed those expectations. They looked like an amazing team all year. People were crying about their lack of publicity and airtime in the US. So, tonight they are on TNT in the States. Their first appearance on US TV and man, they are showing a huge stinker.
The thing I can't stand is that they aren't competing at all. They just look like they care. 10 mins ago, I saw MoPete smiling on the court after a foul was called on him. I'm not calling out MoPete. I'm calling out the whole team b/c it's just their general demeanor all over the court. It's purely unacceptable.
Game 5 is Tuesday night and they have a chance to win it (solely because of the Home Crowd advantage). But even if they do that, they will go back to NJ for Game 6 on Friday night and I don't expect anything different.
This team is done unless they have a supreme change in attitude. But more importantly, they don't deserve anything right now. They just look like a bunch of chumps on the court.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Changing Sites...
Quick message and link to let you know that I'm switching websites. For this trip, I have created an MSN spaces site that allows me to easily upload photos while I am traveling. So, check out the new site and bookmark it for my travel updates over the next 4.5 months. It's also called Goks World
Quick message and link to let you know that I'm switching websites. For this trip, I have created an MSN spaces site that allows me to easily upload photos while I am traveling. So, check out the new site and bookmark it for my travel updates over the next 4.5 months. It's also called Goks World
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Update # 1 - live from London, England
Hi everyone, I arrived safely yesterday morning and now, I'm at my brother's flat in London. It's about 12:35 am on March 2 and I have been here since yesterday morning (arrived at around 8:30 am on Feb 28).
My flight over was pretty good although the plane was quite empty. And Air Canada - I've got one beef. I know you don't have the individual seat back tv's/entertainment centres yet but CAN YOU PLEASE CHOOSE SOME BETTER MOVIES??!!!?!?!!?! The Corpse Bride and Shakespeare in Love! What the "@$%* is that??? I tried to sleep instead and I was especially full after my 2 dinners. 2 dinners you ask? Well, I ordered a special meal on this flight. I got the "low fat, low cholesterol" meal so I got served first. It was quite dry and not that tasty. When I finished my meal, the guy right next to me just got his so I was sitting there just smelling his food and I was still hungry. So I asked the flight attendant if they had any extra food and they did so they hooked me up. Mental note - if you want to ensure you get served first or at least get served warm food - make a special dietary request and then, you'll get your food first. I also listened to my new iPod a lot and decided that I really like it but man, it's gonna take some getting used to that whole click wheel concept to navigate around (and to control the volume)
It's been a great couple days in London. First off, it's been VERY SUNNY which has been great. I haven't seen a drop of rain. I told Raj and Pari before arriving that I would be bringing the sun with me. And I didn't lie! Yesterday, after a bit of an ordeal getting to Raj's flat from the airport (there were all these tube delays), I tried to sleep throughout the afternoon. By about 4:00 pm, Pari (my brother's fiance) arrived home from work and we chatted and got caught up. Raj got home around 6:00 and after chilling for a bit, we headed out for Al-Onaak, a Lebanese restaurant in their neighbourhood. The food was quite nice, especially the baba ganoush and the lamb kebab. After dinner, our friend Sonu arrived an we went to a bar in Oxford Circus to meet up with some of my Aussie friends and other Londoners. Sam, Kat, Lindsey, Tony and Clara came out. We went to this bar called Firevault which was really cool cause they sell Fireplaces by day and at night, there is a trendy restaurant and bar downstairs. Very cool decor and some really neat fireplaces and drinks... After that, the five of us that were remaining proceeded to head to Match Bar (also in Oxford Circus) where we had some good times. They had this one drink on the menu called the Breakfast Club which sounded GROSS. It had a couple shots of bourbon, an egg white, orange marmalade and other raunchy stuff. Tony volunteered to try it and the bartender was all excited to make it. He came back a few minutes later and apologized cause they were out of Orange Marmalade. So, Tony then gave the bartender free rain and said "You make whatever you want, just do gin or absinthe". The bartender was smiling a lot and left. We must have waited for nearly 10 minutes and he finally returned with what he called "The Strawberry Delicious". That drink was HUGE and quite tasty. The bartender was so pumped about it - it was great. Good on ya Tony for being such a great sport about it!
This morning, I got up kinda late (but who cares cause I'm unemployed and on vacation). My brother did a little work in the morning and then had decided to take the rest of the day off. We had an excellent day and thanks to his amazing suggestion, I got to see a lot of London. Raj has a Vespa scooter and we rode around all afternoon checking out different sites around the city. Again, the weather was gorgeous and sunny so it made it perfect. The only problem was that when you're on a scooter, it gets considerably colder cause of the wind. We had some fish and chips in Notting Hill for lunch. They were pretty good (apparently one of the top 10 in London). I'm not quite sure about that though. After lunch, we rode up to the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Neasdon which was absolutely fantastic. I'm really glad that Raj brought me here cause I hadn't seen it during my previous 2 trips to London the last couple of years. Unfortunately, we missed darshan by about 45 minutes but we still got to see some of the deities and also got to see the incredible stone work, wood work and especially the Haveli architecture. I also learned about an amazing movie called Mystic India . Apparently, it's an IMAX film and I just missed it in London (at South Kensington). It's playing in Mumbai and in Sydney so I should be able to see it at some point during this trip. Otherwise, maybe it'll come to Toronto in the summer. After the temple, we drove back into the city and met Pari for some drinks at a neat coffee shop near her school. When we left the coffee shop, it started to snow!!! (okay, so maybe I brought this from Canada along with the beautiful sun) It was the perfect "first snowfall of winter" kinda snow - it was really beautiful. So many people (including me of course) were taking pics of the falling snow. Since London is such a cosmopolitan city, there are probably tonnes of people that have never seen it so I think they were quite excited today.
For dinner, Raj made spaghetti with meatballs, Pari made a salad and I made tuna cakes (but used yogurt instead of mayo) so they were definitely healthier (but just not solid enough). Rajs' coworker Salo came by and so did Sonu. It was a fun night just chilling out, eating, drinking and watching the England - Uruguay friendly match that England one with a late goal during injury time - definitely a last minute win!
London is a funny place. One thing I've noticed is that it is quite transient here. So many people come and go so often. I was asking my Australian friends who've been here anywhere from 2 - 4 years. All of them are sure they won't stay here forever and most seem to think that 4 or 5 is enough. Raj's friends even feel the same way. It's so cosmopolitan and there is so much to do but I guess it just doesn't have the long term appeal to many people. Maybe with all the constant moving around, people just find it hard to establish and maintain solid relationships with people. The cost of living in this city is absurd too and for students or people with entry level jobs, it is very difficult to save up or survive because rent, food, etc just adds up. Another observation is that there is a bar/pub or restaurant everywhere you turn in this city. On the scooter today, we went through a lot of old neighbourhoods and all I kept seeing were different restaurants (and all were from various parts of the world). It's a fun and exciting city and I love coming to visit. Just don't know if I could live here full time.
I reckon that it's time for bed as I've got a full day of bumming around to accomplish tomorrow before my flight to Mumbai leaves at 9:30 pm. Oh yeah, did I mention that it's about 37 - 39 degrees celcius right now in Mumbai??? Man, I am going to sweat my butt off.
Night all.
Hi everyone, I arrived safely yesterday morning and now, I'm at my brother's flat in London. It's about 12:35 am on March 2 and I have been here since yesterday morning (arrived at around 8:30 am on Feb 28).
My flight over was pretty good although the plane was quite empty. And Air Canada - I've got one beef. I know you don't have the individual seat back tv's/entertainment centres yet but CAN YOU PLEASE CHOOSE SOME BETTER MOVIES??!!!?!?!!?! The Corpse Bride and Shakespeare in Love! What the "@$%* is that??? I tried to sleep instead and I was especially full after my 2 dinners. 2 dinners you ask? Well, I ordered a special meal on this flight. I got the "low fat, low cholesterol" meal so I got served first. It was quite dry and not that tasty. When I finished my meal, the guy right next to me just got his so I was sitting there just smelling his food and I was still hungry. So I asked the flight attendant if they had any extra food and they did so they hooked me up. Mental note - if you want to ensure you get served first or at least get served warm food - make a special dietary request and then, you'll get your food first. I also listened to my new iPod a lot and decided that I really like it but man, it's gonna take some getting used to that whole click wheel concept to navigate around (and to control the volume)
It's been a great couple days in London. First off, it's been VERY SUNNY which has been great. I haven't seen a drop of rain. I told Raj and Pari before arriving that I would be bringing the sun with me. And I didn't lie! Yesterday, after a bit of an ordeal getting to Raj's flat from the airport (there were all these tube delays), I tried to sleep throughout the afternoon. By about 4:00 pm, Pari (my brother's fiance) arrived home from work and we chatted and got caught up. Raj got home around 6:00 and after chilling for a bit, we headed out for Al-Onaak, a Lebanese restaurant in their neighbourhood. The food was quite nice, especially the baba ganoush and the lamb kebab. After dinner, our friend Sonu arrived an we went to a bar in Oxford Circus to meet up with some of my Aussie friends and other Londoners. Sam, Kat, Lindsey, Tony and Clara came out. We went to this bar called Firevault which was really cool cause they sell Fireplaces by day and at night, there is a trendy restaurant and bar downstairs. Very cool decor and some really neat fireplaces and drinks... After that, the five of us that were remaining proceeded to head to Match Bar (also in Oxford Circus) where we had some good times. They had this one drink on the menu called the Breakfast Club which sounded GROSS. It had a couple shots of bourbon, an egg white, orange marmalade and other raunchy stuff. Tony volunteered to try it and the bartender was all excited to make it. He came back a few minutes later and apologized cause they were out of Orange Marmalade. So, Tony then gave the bartender free rain and said "You make whatever you want, just do gin or absinthe". The bartender was smiling a lot and left. We must have waited for nearly 10 minutes and he finally returned with what he called "The Strawberry Delicious". That drink was HUGE and quite tasty. The bartender was so pumped about it - it was great. Good on ya Tony for being such a great sport about it!
This morning, I got up kinda late (but who cares cause I'm unemployed and on vacation). My brother did a little work in the morning and then had decided to take the rest of the day off. We had an excellent day and thanks to his amazing suggestion, I got to see a lot of London. Raj has a Vespa scooter and we rode around all afternoon checking out different sites around the city. Again, the weather was gorgeous and sunny so it made it perfect. The only problem was that when you're on a scooter, it gets considerably colder cause of the wind. We had some fish and chips in Notting Hill for lunch. They were pretty good (apparently one of the top 10 in London). I'm not quite sure about that though. After lunch, we rode up to the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Neasdon which was absolutely fantastic. I'm really glad that Raj brought me here cause I hadn't seen it during my previous 2 trips to London the last couple of years. Unfortunately, we missed darshan by about 45 minutes but we still got to see some of the deities and also got to see the incredible stone work, wood work and especially the Haveli architecture. I also learned about an amazing movie called Mystic India . Apparently, it's an IMAX film and I just missed it in London (at South Kensington). It's playing in Mumbai and in Sydney so I should be able to see it at some point during this trip. Otherwise, maybe it'll come to Toronto in the summer. After the temple, we drove back into the city and met Pari for some drinks at a neat coffee shop near her school. When we left the coffee shop, it started to snow!!! (okay, so maybe I brought this from Canada along with the beautiful sun) It was the perfect "first snowfall of winter" kinda snow - it was really beautiful. So many people (including me of course) were taking pics of the falling snow. Since London is such a cosmopolitan city, there are probably tonnes of people that have never seen it so I think they were quite excited today.
For dinner, Raj made spaghetti with meatballs, Pari made a salad and I made tuna cakes (but used yogurt instead of mayo) so they were definitely healthier (but just not solid enough). Rajs' coworker Salo came by and so did Sonu. It was a fun night just chilling out, eating, drinking and watching the England - Uruguay friendly match that England one with a late goal during injury time - definitely a last minute win!
London is a funny place. One thing I've noticed is that it is quite transient here. So many people come and go so often. I was asking my Australian friends who've been here anywhere from 2 - 4 years. All of them are sure they won't stay here forever and most seem to think that 4 or 5 is enough. Raj's friends even feel the same way. It's so cosmopolitan and there is so much to do but I guess it just doesn't have the long term appeal to many people. Maybe with all the constant moving around, people just find it hard to establish and maintain solid relationships with people. The cost of living in this city is absurd too and for students or people with entry level jobs, it is very difficult to save up or survive because rent, food, etc just adds up. Another observation is that there is a bar/pub or restaurant everywhere you turn in this city. On the scooter today, we went through a lot of old neighbourhoods and all I kept seeing were different restaurants (and all were from various parts of the world). It's a fun and exciting city and I love coming to visit. Just don't know if I could live here full time.
I reckon that it's time for bed as I've got a full day of bumming around to accomplish tomorrow before my flight to Mumbai leaves at 9:30 pm. Oh yeah, did I mention that it's about 37 - 39 degrees celcius right now in Mumbai??? Man, I am going to sweat my butt off.
Night all.
Monday, February 27, 2006
life changing?
Well, in about 4 hours, I am leaving my house to head to the airport for a trip that many are calling "one of a lifetime". I will be gone until July 13 so in total, that is 137 days (I had to total it up for travel insurance purposes).
I was up till 4 am last night and I'm still doing stuff. Man, so many last minute things that I left too late - my fault of course. And that new iPod Nano is amazing but wow, that was a bit of a LONG process to load it up. I even had to call Apple Tech support - man I'm a loser.
Stay tuned for several updates and I hope I'll be able to figure out how to upload photos to this site too.
Thanks for all the well wishes from everyone. It really means a lot and definitely - thanks for coming out to Sage last week for my party. That was a blast. And, here are some pics from that night.
Until we meet again...
Well, in about 4 hours, I am leaving my house to head to the airport for a trip that many are calling "one of a lifetime". I will be gone until July 13 so in total, that is 137 days (I had to total it up for travel insurance purposes).
I was up till 4 am last night and I'm still doing stuff. Man, so many last minute things that I left too late - my fault of course. And that new iPod Nano is amazing but wow, that was a bit of a LONG process to load it up. I even had to call Apple Tech support - man I'm a loser.
Stay tuned for several updates and I hope I'll be able to figure out how to upload photos to this site too.
Thanks for all the well wishes from everyone. It really means a lot and definitely - thanks for coming out to Sage last week for my party. That was a blast. And, here are some pics from that night.
Until we meet again...
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
February is here?
Wow, this month is going by fast. Not sure if all of you know but this is my LAST week of work. I have officially resigned from my job and this Friday February 17th is my last day. On February 27 (less than 2 weeks from now), I take off for a little journey. I'll be hitting England, India, Australia, New Zealand and other parts of Europe - returning by the middle of July.
It's kinda nuts and I'm definitely a little scared about the whole thing but I think it'll be a fantastic experience and one that I never regret. If I didn't go - that would have been my only regret cause once it was in my head, it was just something that made sense and something I had to do.
I like to plan everything and make sure that I know what's going on. So far, I haven't really been able to wrap my head around this trip. It's coming so fast and I am still working till Friday. AND work is VERY busy right now. So, next week is gonna be a blur and before I know it, I'll be on a plane heading out. I've got this list of "to do's" and it is only growing even thought I am tackling things on it.
Gotta get back to work but before I go. Some shoutouts...
1. Congrats to Bobby and Bonnie on their engagement. It was a lot of fun at your party on Saturday night and my apologies about the ICICI jab - hopefully no one was too vexed about that ;o)
2. Happy Birthdays go out to Byron, Ian, Sherry, Arthur, Anh, Vip, Bobby, Sarah and Julie.
Wow, this month is going by fast. Not sure if all of you know but this is my LAST week of work. I have officially resigned from my job and this Friday February 17th is my last day. On February 27 (less than 2 weeks from now), I take off for a little journey. I'll be hitting England, India, Australia, New Zealand and other parts of Europe - returning by the middle of July.
It's kinda nuts and I'm definitely a little scared about the whole thing but I think it'll be a fantastic experience and one that I never regret. If I didn't go - that would have been my only regret cause once it was in my head, it was just something that made sense and something I had to do.
I like to plan everything and make sure that I know what's going on. So far, I haven't really been able to wrap my head around this trip. It's coming so fast and I am still working till Friday. AND work is VERY busy right now. So, next week is gonna be a blur and before I know it, I'll be on a plane heading out. I've got this list of "to do's" and it is only growing even thought I am tackling things on it.
Gotta get back to work but before I go. Some shoutouts...
1. Congrats to Bobby and Bonnie on their engagement. It was a lot of fun at your party on Saturday night and my apologies about the ICICI jab - hopefully no one was too vexed about that ;o)
2. Happy Birthdays go out to Byron, Ian, Sherry, Arthur, Anh, Vip, Bobby, Sarah and Julie.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
trash filled evening
Last night was Ketan's birthday and the posse got together to go out and the theme was "trash". Yep, that's right. So where did we go? Well, we went to Hooters for dinner of course and then Cockodile (oops, Crocodile) Rock for drinks. It started off with a bang at Hooters. Sam and Raquel got there first and told the servers that we had a reservation cause we had reserved the couches by the big TV (since there were 7 of us and we wanted to watch the Leafs-Habs game). Apparently when they got there, there were these 3 black guys sitting in the couches and they had to be moved to accomodate us. When the rest of us got there, we were just sitting around shooting the $hit, etc and then we noticed that those three guys that were sitting in the couches AND were now sitting on some crappy benches were actually NBA players. They were Mike Bibby, Francisco Garcia and none other than Ron Artest (as an aside - Ron Artest is the guy that got suspended for the entire season last year cause he got in a fight with fans in Detroit and he's also the guy who said he needed to take time off to work on his album so the suspension was no problem).
Anyway, these guys were having their night before a game dinner at Hooters. They were eating curly fries, wings, burgers but no booze - just water bottles. It was hilarious seeing these guys eating in Hooters. No one was really bothering them and they eventually took off anyway. But man, they are tall. So, we asked our waitress what kind of tip they left. She went and asked the waitress that was taking care of them and apparently, they left a tip BELOW 15%. Can you believe that??? Their total bill was probably no more than $50 CDN and they left below a 15% tip. Wow. That is totally tight! But a story nonetheless.
The fun continued at Cock Rock where of course, the music sucked and so did most of the people. It definitely made for fun people watching. Ketan and I started playing pool and were running the table for a bit. At one point, I was shooting and had one ball left before going for the 8-ball. As I was lining up my shot, there was this girl leaning on the table and her butt was right in my line of site. I joking said to Ketan and Nikhil - what if I hit that girl in the butt with the ball? We all started laughing. It was too perfect. Well, as I was winding up my shot, my conscious got the better of me and I decided - No, I shouldn't do it. But in the end, I said Fugg it and I went for it so as I did my shot, I hit under the cue ball so it hit my ball and then bounced and boom - hit her right in the cheeks. She was so startled and look around and we were all killing ourselves. I went over and apologized and after the game bought her a drink to say I was sorry. But man, that was totally priceless. I couldn't believe it actually worked so well. I didn't get my shot in by the way (it missed by inches). But, we did win the game so that was good.
Off to Quebec City tomorrow morning for the next 4 days for work. Talk later.
Last night was Ketan's birthday and the posse got together to go out and the theme was "trash". Yep, that's right. So where did we go? Well, we went to Hooters for dinner of course and then Cockodile (oops, Crocodile) Rock for drinks. It started off with a bang at Hooters. Sam and Raquel got there first and told the servers that we had a reservation cause we had reserved the couches by the big TV (since there were 7 of us and we wanted to watch the Leafs-Habs game). Apparently when they got there, there were these 3 black guys sitting in the couches and they had to be moved to accomodate us. When the rest of us got there, we were just sitting around shooting the $hit, etc and then we noticed that those three guys that were sitting in the couches AND were now sitting on some crappy benches were actually NBA players. They were Mike Bibby, Francisco Garcia and none other than Ron Artest (as an aside - Ron Artest is the guy that got suspended for the entire season last year cause he got in a fight with fans in Detroit and he's also the guy who said he needed to take time off to work on his album so the suspension was no problem).
Anyway, these guys were having their night before a game dinner at Hooters. They were eating curly fries, wings, burgers but no booze - just water bottles. It was hilarious seeing these guys eating in Hooters. No one was really bothering them and they eventually took off anyway. But man, they are tall. So, we asked our waitress what kind of tip they left. She went and asked the waitress that was taking care of them and apparently, they left a tip BELOW 15%. Can you believe that??? Their total bill was probably no more than $50 CDN and they left below a 15% tip. Wow. That is totally tight! But a story nonetheless.
The fun continued at Cock Rock where of course, the music sucked and so did most of the people. It definitely made for fun people watching. Ketan and I started playing pool and were running the table for a bit. At one point, I was shooting and had one ball left before going for the 8-ball. As I was lining up my shot, there was this girl leaning on the table and her butt was right in my line of site. I joking said to Ketan and Nikhil - what if I hit that girl in the butt with the ball? We all started laughing. It was too perfect. Well, as I was winding up my shot, my conscious got the better of me and I decided - No, I shouldn't do it. But in the end, I said Fugg it and I went for it so as I did my shot, I hit under the cue ball so it hit my ball and then bounced and boom - hit her right in the cheeks. She was so startled and look around and we were all killing ourselves. I went over and apologized and after the game bought her a drink to say I was sorry. But man, that was totally priceless. I couldn't believe it actually worked so well. I didn't get my shot in by the way (it missed by inches). But, we did win the game so that was good.
Off to Quebec City tomorrow morning for the next 4 days for work. Talk later.