Black berry slave no more…

When everyone around me was shifting to android based phones and i-phones I held on to my black berry tight. Regardless of what was happening around me. Regardless of the taunts from people telling me  how old fashioned and  how out of date I was. The i-phone was nice but I did not want to be an i-clone. None of the other android based phones really tickled my fancy. One other major fact which contributed to the fact of me hesitating to switch was my complete dislike to be typing on a touch screen opposed to a normal key board. I loved my Blackberry and it suited my personality like some people like their Volvos. Not as aggressive as a BMW or loud as  a Mercedes Benz. Quiet, sophisticated and understated that’s exactly what I wanted. And I was ready to compromise because I was in my comfort zone
Then I got myself a Blackberry 9900 which was the beginning of the end. For a top end phone it was bad. Really bad. Firstly the battery did not last long it gave me less than two hours talk time. Which means I had to walk all over the place with lots of spare batteries around. Which was an absolute pain in the ass. To add insult to injury the processor could not keep up with the capacity of the phone which meant constant hard restarts and the phone getting stuck midway of some action. Finally I could not take it no more and I made the move to a Samsung Note 2.
Holy Cow! What a change it was. It was so fast and reliable. The freedom of having to move about without lugging stand by battery packs was exhilarating. What a lot I have been missing out on.
But you know the amazing thing? I still miss my Blackberry.

I finally found the ultimate burger... yeah!

I am always on the lookout for a good burger joint.
I mean I have had a few good burgers in my forays into the world of all things food but none of them have made me stand up on my chair and sing hosannas as to how good it is.
At least till now.
Finally I believe that I have found the ultimate burger.
And it was in the last place I expected to find a burger instead of the ultimate burger.
Believe it or not I found it in the Paradise Road Gallery Café.
Yes, it is renowned for its good food in the fine dining arena. But what they have done to the burger is amazing. Just writing about it makes my mouth water.
 They generally say a picture says a thousand words. Sadly in this case it only tells half the story. One has to experience the flavor and bask in its bliss to really appreciate it. Trust me when I say this  it could be easily described as orgasmic.

Dichotomy

Her hands were clasped together tightly…

her face  was contorted

her eyes closed tight 

One could have assumed she was crying

But instead she was praying fervently

That is when I saw her at church

But just a few weeks ago

I saw her in an office

She was arrogant her nose was up in the air

And she gave me a most disdainful and evil look

As if I was something distasteful that the cat dragged in

As she walked passed me

Because I had asked some wrong information

Made me wonder if it was the same person I saw this Sunday

It was… some people!

Blood in your hands...

They all knew that they will execute her in early December. By then all hopes of a settlement had disappeared.  She was to be executed by the 23rd of December.
Sadly she did not know it. In fact they had assured her everything will be ok. And that she would receive a pardon soon.
But on that fateful day they asked her to take a bath early in the morning. That was the first sign that something unusual was going to happen. Something, dangerous.
There was a lady who looked after her interests who had gone to visit her that day. She was told that she could not see her as a fire drill was in progress. Even she did not know the tragedy or is it better to call it travesty which was about to unfold.
The family of the dead child had gathered to witness the execution. So did some villagers from that area. She begged and pleaded for their Mercy. Ironically the lady of the household who insisted that she had to be executed remained tight lipped. One word from her and all this could have, NO would have come to a halt. But she did not utter a word. Her silence spoke loudly. Just like the cries of “kill her! kill her!” by her husband – the person who was open to a negotiated settlement in the first place. The villagers joined in enthusiastically and vociferously.
And thus a young and innocent life was  ended.
Many have written about this incident before and one of the most informative articles is the one by D.B.S Jeyaraj. We all know about the Indian translator who was used by the police to take her statement in Tamil. But what I have not read was about the translator who went to see her couple of hours later from the Sri Lankan embassy. The translator that endorsed the statement which she had been forced to make! Only if this official had made a hue and cry about it and protested at that point in time we would not be shaking our heads in dismay today. I think of all the people who were involved in this fiasco this guy has the most blood in his hands.

They walk amongst us...

From Thomas Cook Holidays listing some of their UK clientele’s genuine complaints.

1. "I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local store in Indian villages does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts."

2. "It's lazy of the local shopkeepers to close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during 'siesta' time -- this should be banned."

3. "On my holiday to Goa in India, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don't like spicy food at all."

4. "We booked an excursion to a water park but no-one told us we had to bring our swimming costumes and towels."

7. "The beach was too sandy."

8. "We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your brochure shows the sand as yellow but it was white."

10. "Topless sunbathing on the beach should be banned. The holiday was ruined as my husband spent all day looking at other women."

12. "No-one told us there would be fish in the sea. The children were startled."

13. "There was no egg-slicer in the apartment."

14. "We went on holiday to Spain and had a problem with the taxi drivers as they were all Spanish."

15. "The roads were uneven.."

16. "It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England. It took the Americans only three hours to get home."

17. "I compared the size of our one-bedroom apartment to our friends' three-bedroom apartment and ours was significantly smaller."

18. "The brochure stated: 'No hairdressers at the accommodation'. We're trainee hairdressers -- will we be OK staying there?"

19. "There are too many Spanish people. The receptionist speaks Spanish. The food is Spanish. Too many foreigners now live abroad."

20. "We had to queue outside with no air-conditioning."

21. "It is your duty as a tour operator to advise us of noisy or unruly guests before we travel."

22. "I was bitten by a mosquito. No-one said they could bite."

23. "My fiancé and I booked a twin-bedded room but we were placed in a double-bedded room.
We now hold you responsible for the fact that I find myself pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room that we booked."

I wish you enough...

"I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.

I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.

I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye."

this is something I found on facebook and wanted to keep on record because I felt that it had so much meaning.

An irreversible decision regarding reversing!

Sometimes trying to correct a minor irritant for just one person can cause suffering for many. We saw it a few years back when the roads were closed under the guise of security for the convoys of (useless) parliamentarians.

 I experienced this one more when I was driving down Jawatte Road near the area where there is a KFC and Food City outlet opposite one another.  The police were insisting that all the vehicles were reversed park into the parking slots of both these outlets.

Now you might ask what is wrong with that. After all if you are parking in any high rise parking facility you always reverse the vehicle in mainly because it helps the vehicle owner to evacuate fast in case of an emergency.

But this is the main road we are talking about.

No one reverses on the main road.

Just picture yourself driving down this main road and you decide to turn in and park your vehicle at one of these outlets. You switch on your indicator lights and then drive past the free parking bay and stop and tries to reverse into position. But the guy behind you expects you to turn in. So instead of providing room for you – which would rarely happen in Sri Lanka anyway – his vehicle is virtually kissing your boot. And now you are stuck and so is everybody else unless you abandon your visit and decide to move on. To ensure that everyone toes the line there is always two traffic cops on duty at this location.

It was only after I stepped into KFC and had a chat with an officer over there I understood why it was done.

Apparently GR passes this way every day when travelling to and fro from work. Once he has got stuck near this place as one or two vehicles was trying to reverse out. The fact that half the road was being dug up due to repairs had contributed to the jam around this place to be dense than usual.

This has led to a decree that from henceforth that all vehicles should reverse park so there won’t be any traffic jams created when they are driving out.

Of course it begs the question does that mean when a vehicle is reversing into a parking lot from a main road does NOT cause a traffic jam? I doubt it in fact I would say the traffic jam created by this would be worse.

Sadly it has contributed to one thing.  That is to reduce the footfall into both stores which in turn affect the commissions of the employees of both those establishments. 

After all we can always find another location to do some grocery shopping or eat a piece of fried chicken.  A place where they DON’T ask you to reverse park.