Archive | Project 100 RSS feed for this section

Day 90 – The Arcelor-Mittal Orbit

31 Mar

Billed as “Britain’s answer to the Eiffel Tower”, London’s Mayor Boris Johnson today unveiled plans for a steel tower to be located in East London as part of the London 2012 Olympic Park. The tower has been designed by the much acclaimed sculptor Anish Kapoor and will be named after the steel company ArcelorMittal owned by UK’s richest man Lakshmi Mittal who will be donating appoximately 1,400 tonnes of steel for the constuction.

My first impression looking at it was quite literally “WTF!!”, it looks like a horrendously messed up slinky. I understand the fact that Anish has gone for a modernist abstract style but it is seriously sore on the eyes. This is something that you would expect on the forecourt of council estates and not something that you would want to be a lasting legacy of the London Olympics.

The Arcelor-Mittal Orbit

The Arcelor-Mittal Orbit

Day 89 – Karthik calling Karthik

30 Mar

I love Farhan Akhtar’s movies ever since I watched Dil Chahta Hai back in the day. Then came Rock On and today I got to watch his latest movie Karthik calling Karthik. I love the fact that his movies lean more towards Hollywood than Bollywood while maintaining an authentic Indian feel though out.

Karthik calling Karthik is no exception, it is a stylishly filmed Bollywood thriller, that keeps you intrigued and guessing till the end. The songs in the movie are excellent and I have been listening to them pretty much everyday for the past week.

Trailer for Karthik calling Karthik

Hey Ya song from Karthik calling Karthik

Day 88 – Captcha nightmare

29 Mar

Those dreaded CAPTCHAs

Those dreaded CAPTCHAs

Before you ask what a Captcha is, it is a distorted image of letters and numbers used to prevent automated use of websites. You have probably come across it while filling out forms. CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Human Apart.

I absolutely abhor them. I find that most of them are so distorted it brinks on the edge of being squiggly lines. One of the worst offenders is Google, it literally drove me mad today. Below are the CAPTCHAs I had to type in the box to get an analytics report. Everytime I refereshed it, I got an even more meaningless CAPTCHA, it took me 4 attempts to finally crack it.  Damn you CAPTCHAs!!

Day 87 – Kickass

28 Mar

Yes I am a comic book geek; I grew up on Superman, Spiderman, Batman and Marvel comics. And after hearing rave reviews about Kickass went to watch it at the cinema. It is unlike any superhero movie you are ever likely to see. It is a portrayal of how people in real life would react to a dude in spandex with a cape. It shows the trials and tribulations of trying to be a superhero without any real superpowers except the desire to display goodwill to fellow men.

Aaron Johnston looks like a complete geek and played the part of Kick Ass to perfection. I am still trying to figure out how he got the hot girl though. Nicolas Cage as big daddy in a fake batman suit was a tad bit weird but he did look the part of a complete lunatic especially when he shoots his daughter multiple times (which might I add was totally awesome)

But definitely the best performance of the movie was by little Chloe Moretz who was Hit Girl. She had the best one-liners and she probably also slaughtered the most number of people in the movie.

A definite must watch. 8/10.

Day 86 – Belly Dancing

27 Mar

Me and a couple of mates fancied some good old proper Middle Eastern food today, so headed down to Souk Medina in Covent Garden. The ambience was excellent, the interior looked like a traditional Arab village house. The waitresses were absolutely stunning and the waiters were very friendly though they did mix up our orders with the adjacent table.

As the saying goes, when you are in a Moroccan restaurant do what the Morrocans do (well I am assuming this is what they do), order the Ali Baba cocktail (Vodka, Amaretto, fresh lime and apple juice)! Then we sat back on our extremely uncomfortable chairs, to watch the highlight of visiting any Moroccan restaurant, Belly Dancing. The belly dancer had all the right moves but I reckon I could hip roll better than her.

The food finally arrived after a table mixup, and to be honest I really expected my Kefta (Minced Lamb) to be more than a plate with 6 minced lamb balls, especially since it cost £13. Saying that my mate did get more than a plateful when he ordered Cous cous with Chicken. I guess he was the luckier one.

I couldn’t take a proper picture on my Iphone due to it being too dark, but since I did go to Souk Medina’s sister restaurant Souk Bazaar a couple of years ago, my picture of the day is of the Belly Dancer from my visit to Souk Bazaar.

Belly Dancer strutting her moves

Belly Dancer strutting her moves

Day 85 – Gun Slinger

26 Mar Frank and Jesse James

I wanna be an ol’ western gun slinger,
Finger planted on the trigger,
Rob trains, build my fame,
Play games like Jesse James,
Wear boots with shiny spurs,
Sharper than a swagger dagger,
My faces up in all them places,
On wanted posters dressed in haute couture,
Outlaw to the reigning status quo,
Penning my fate with each new date,
Challenge me and you will see,
A duel where I will kill thee,
Shackle me and I will break free,
Ride away sunset bound on my trusted steed.

Copyright © 2010 by Niro N

Jesse and Frank James

Jesse and Frank James

Day 84 – Discovering Tamil Rap

25 Mar

It is not often I appreciate Tamil music, in fact I don’t remember the last time I bought a Tamil album. I guess I never liked it because I never understood the lyrics and even if I did,the lyrics in most modern Tamil music is completely nonsensical. But today I came aross some beautifully written and catchy Tamil rap music on YouTube.

The rappers are mostly of SriLankan Tamil descent like myself and the lyrics are their views of the war in Sri Lanka. Though I do not necessarily share their views, I do think that they are extremely talented and their musical skills should be showcased and promoted.

Tha Prophecy ft. Senthuran A. – I Have A Dream

Chikaadee Ft. Parthi & Uma Nanthini – Fire In The Booth

Day 83 – Overture

24 Mar Overture highway

Dark cloudy skies on bright sunny days,
Raindrops, teardrops saturates,
My semi-conformed sense of reality,
As madness encroaches sanity,

Running briskly through the motions of life,
Yet standing still to the notions of time,
Clarity lost to mental myopia,
Absolution in spirits not spirit,

Clinging on to past moments,
Living in a soapy bubble of hope,
Unquenchable thirst quenched,
Through half empty glasses of expectation,

Ray of light come shine upon me,
Give order to the randomness,
Provide an overture to the musical,
That mirrors my nonchalant existence.

Copyright © 2010 by Niro N

Overture highway

Overture highway

Day 82 – The Pot Noodle furore

23 Mar

I love Fried chicken, but eating it everyday does get a bit boring. So thought I had slum it, be a bit chavvy, and brought in Pot Noodles (yes, the slag of all snacks) to work today and as soon as I took it out of the bag, I had a barrage of insults and put downs thrown my way from the usual suspects at the office. I was called unhealthy and lazy for not making my own food. The Pot noodles was branded as something that was full of salt and contained way too many “E” numbers.

Usually I would accept it on the chin and succumb to defeat, but today I knew I had victory in my hands as the new flavoured Pot Noodles that I had contained no preservatives and significant reduction in salt content. Proudly I pointed this out to them and this shut them up. So I dug into my pot noodles enjoying the sweet taste of victory but funnily enough that is all I could taste. The pot noodles was bland and tasteless, in fact it felt like soggy cardboard, i guess in the process of removing the salt and preservatives they also removed the taste. :-|

I can’t handle these risks….best play it safe, back to fried chicken tomorrow :-|

Pot Noodles - The Slag of all snacks

Pot Noodles - The Slag of all snacks

Day 81 – Missing the Pearl of the Gulf

22 Mar

Even though I consider London my home and love it to bits, there are times when I do miss the country where I grew up and spent most of my life – Bahrain. I do visit the country every year and always thoroughly enjoy my time there.

The pace of life there is much slower and it always feels weird taking it easy in Bahrain after living life in Londin at full throttle. Bahrain means “Two Seas”  and is an archipelago of 33 islands located in the heart of the Gulf. Unlike most of the Middle East, Bahrain is much more liberal and has a wonderful cosmopolitan feel about it. People from all around the world live and work in the country alongside the local Arabs.

The country itself would be hard to find on a world map due to it’s size but every year the eyes of the world are focussed firmly on it when the Bahrain F1 takes centre stage. Arabs are known for their love of speed, and the number of supercars and hypercars you see on the normal roads in Bahrain are just mind boggling.

Bahrain definitely has plenty of sun and sand, and some of the smaller islands in the archipelago have some truly beautiful beaches. Watersports galore. If shopping is more your idea of a good time, there is a huge shopping complex/mall on almost every street. But for a true shopping experience a visit to the traditional Manama Souk (market in Arabic) is a must.

Here is a little video that I found, probably not the best intro video to the country as it definitely is a lot more stunning but it provides a taster anyway…

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 156 other followers