Link of the Day

The Big Lies People Tell In Online Dating

My no longer frequenting Twitter means the return of Link of the Day! Yay! Maybe. And what better way to mark the occasion than a dating link? Whether this vindicates your own experiences (or more likely shows you up to be a big fat liar yourself) there's no doubting that not only do people turn all creative when pimping themselves out, but also that it seems to work.

My advice? Well, be honest yes, but not only in terms of how you choose to describe yourself; we have to equally be honest about how the world works and what we want but can't admit to wanting. Which could mean a pretty face, fat wallet or decent height. Denial is both wasteful and unhelpful, so just cut it out already.

Link of the Day

What If? Soul Mates

There's a new slot on XKCD exploring various situations and hypothesises and then handling them in the way XKCD does best - with a little bit of maths, cynicism and curmudgeon-ness. This week the topic was that of Soul Mates. Uh oh.

Of course anyone who has an account on an online matrimonial site has pretty much already figured out most of the odds concluded here. But it's nice to see a more technical analysis.

Food: Spice Village

Ah, Southall. The Promised Land. I've only really been here a couple of times before, so to visit is still very exciting for me. But this trip wasn't to shop or even to cruise, but to actually grab dinner with a friend who was local to the area. And unlike last time where we didn't have a native to guide us, our friend specifically took us to Spice Village.

And it wasn't that bad actually. It was hardly novel - we had the typical curries and kebabs and naans, and nothing in particular stood out. But the food was good, the service decent and the buzz... well buzzy, and we had a nice time at the end of it.

The price was a little more than I would have been used to, with the total coming to £17 per head, but we did have drinks and what can only be described as the best falooda in the world. Really I would say it's worth visiting just for dessert alone.

So no, it's not really a reason to go to Southall in the first place, but since there are many more reasons for that anyway you can't really do that much worse than to eat here while you're there.

Shakespeare staging the world

The British Museum's current main exhibition attempts to cover all things Shakespeare. It does this by focussing mainly on the life of the world during his time, and then loosely coupling these presentations with the main themes from his plays. I found this strategy to be a little tenuous and even weak, but as soon as I stopped trying to see Shakespeare everywhere I found myself enjoying the exhibition much more, purely from a "randomly historical" account of England and London during the 1600s.

Overall though apart from being a decent distraction I wouldn't say there was anything essential that needed to be seen here.

Lucky Eight

I'm the first to realise the irony in marking the anniversary of starting this blog - for sure, eight years is a long time. But I've long come to the conclusion that this blog is kind of on life support. But hey, on the bright side at least it seems to have outlived my use of Twitter.

Of course the true demise of these pages (and Twitter, and before even that Facebook) is correlated with my increasing curmudgeonous hatred of all things social on the Internet. Who would have thought I'd grow out of it? Bah humbug I guess.

When the rest of you realise the same, just make sure you remember who left cyberspace first.

Film: The Dark Knight Rises

Despite the countless plot-holes and the awful dialogue and soundtrack I have to say that I still found Rises to be a brilliantly enjoyable few hours at the cinema. It wasn't the same kind of deep and respectful enjoyment I got from the last one though - no this was much more lightweight; in fact I would say it was a bit of a throwback to the Tim Burton era of Batman films.

I'm not sure how I feel about that, but instead of thinking about it too much I will say that Rises was very satisfying and definitely recommended.

SMBC

Just so you know:

Book: A Clash of Kings, George R.R. Martin

More disconnected and "bridging" than A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings may have been better for that as it served to open up more of the world the saga is set in. The number of protagonists, locations and arcs have all increased, setting up an even larger story than the detail alone would have indicated. The characters managed to gain even more depth as they flip between being good and bad, and it's hard to remain neutral as the reader is forced to take sides in the story.

All that, and it's not even a chore to read. Great stuff.

Film: The Amazing Spider-Man

You know you're old when you go to the cinema to watch a reboot of a reboot.

But it goes without saying that The Amazing Spider-Man looked good. There was swooshing and swinging and great action and fight scenes. I'd say that there wasn't quite enough of these things, although the film did follow a brisk pace so I guess there wasn't much room for any more without it becoming a little over saturated.

Overall though, there was something a little... two bit about this incarnation of Spiderman. It was almost Dawson's Creekish in fact, with the focus being on "the journey" and personal relationships rather than comic book shallowness and action. This change of direction laboured the film I thought and so made it a bit less enjoyable than the Toby McGuire version we loved from a decade ago (a decade ago!).

But it was enjoyable all the same so it gets a mild recommendation from me.

Santorini, Day Seven: Kissing Fish

Our last day was pretty much as all the others, however in the morning we did decide to visit the local fish therapy spa. For those of you who haven't tried, this is a weird set up where you sit with your feet in a tank of fish which nibble/suck at your feet. After the initial ick factor, for me it felt like sitting in a pool of bubbles and it was actually quite relaxing and maybe even cleansing.

Lunch was in Amoudi Bay, which I decided to walk to instead of taking a taxi. We got to pick the fresh fish we eventually ate, and after a hearty meal I took some time to explore the bay proper. I found a little alcove where people were enjoying the water, complete with some classic 25 feet high jumping into water action - if it wasn't our last day I would have loved to have come back with my trunks.

The afternoon was spent chilling by the pool - poignant seeing as it was to be our last time doing so. Dinner was had indoors, after which we rounded off the day and holiday as a whole with a friendly game of Scrabble.

Good times.

Santorini, Day Six: Jummah

Today was all about Jummah. As with most holiday of this type, my biggest concern was always how to offer Jummah (and I've written elsewhere why this would be so important to me) on an island with no mosques. Internet research came up with nothing, and our host at the villa equally dismissed the idea of any organised congregation on Santorini. Our only hope was to see if we could tap into a hidden local Muslim community and to either join their congregation or make our own.

Our Afghani friend turned out to be a useful and enthusiastic contact to have on the island. As I wrote before he confirmed that although there were Muslims on the island they weren't organised to establish a regular Jummah, but he said he would try to get as many people to join our initiative as he could.

Unfortunately despite his best efforts our small adhoc Jummah turned out to consist of only him, a Muslim friend who was staying at the villa and myself. Nevertheless it was a decent Jummah and well worth doing.

After prayers our friend cooked us the best lunch I had in Santorini yet; fried masala beans with crusty bread. Honestly it was pretty amazing and my mouth waters just thinking about it now. Oh and as aside amazingly enough the local supermarket sells halal chicken. Yes, I was shocked too.

After saying our goodbyes I then headed home for... that's right, some more chilling by the pool. After only six days I have to admit that I was starting to feel a little homesick; a feeling compounded by the realisation that Santorini may have been a little wasted on a single guy like myself.

Santorini, Day Five: Diving

The second item on my sparse agenda for this trip was to get a few dives in. I had no idea if Santorini had any decent diving sites, but since I got my licence last year I've made it a point to dive when I can. Which hasn't been since last year.

The two dives I did this morning were very similar - not much life but lots of interesting rock (and I don't mean that as sarcastically as it sounds). I even managed to swim through a cave which was fun. Apparently there are two shipwrecks on the island, but we weren't due to visit them today. Bummer. On the plus side I did borrow a friend's underwater camera so have some pretty decent video of the two dives.

On the bus back to Oia I made friends with a random person, which whom I also had lunch. Once again, it seems Santorini is more about people and relationships than the island itself, but it's all good; I'm sure we'll remain committed Facebook friends for years to come (and I don't mean that as sarcastically as it sounds).

And of course the rest of the day... we just chilled by the pool.

Santorini, Day Four: We Are Sailing

We met more Muslims on our morning walk today. Again they were hawking stuff on the street, but they were friendly and open to conversation which was nice. It seems that Greek Austerity is hitting everyone in the region.

Today we actually had something to do as we booked a private boat to take us around the island. That said it was pretty uneventful (with the captain making a spectacular effort in telling us how there isn't much to do with a boat in Santorini) and there weren't many sights to see - even the snorkelling was pretty quiet, and once more I realised that Santorini was more about doing nothing than something.

And that was the point - a great bunch of friends on their own boat having a laugh and diving into the (kind of) open sea. Lunch was awesome too, as was my second viewing of Santorini's sunset.

Santorini, Day Three: Have I Mentioned The Pool Yet?

The trouble with a place like Santorini is that there really isn't much to write about. My notes are particularly sparse about today and pretty much consist of the following:

Pool, lunch, chill, snooze, dinner, pool, chill.

Apologies for the lack of creativity.

Santorini, Day Two: Grilled Squid

Since there's quite a few of us friends in the villa things like being served a shared breakfast are scheduled, and since most of the friends have kids this means early starts. This is a good thing; it gets way too hot mid day so at least there'll be a chance to get stuff done in the mornings while it's still cool.

After lunch a few of us went to the main village of Fira. Compared to Oia where we are staying, Fira was much more commercial and rushed... yet not really compared to most other places.

It was in Fira that we met a Afghan Muslim guy. He told us about Islam on the island (there isn't much), but we left him with a loose plan to offer Jummah on Friday together.

After returning to the villa, we hit the pool. It seems that the pool will feature a lot on this trip. Dinner was had on a high roof terrace overlooking sunset - apparently one of the most famous in the world (although I didn't see the fuss myself).

Santorini, Day One: OMG the Pool

Some holidays are just built to be dossy from day one, but you wouldn't have thought it about this one - an insanely early flight and budget-airline-hand-lugguge-only made getting here much harder than it should have been. I've not done the budget airline thing for a while now; it was the type of thing to remind you exactly how young you're not any more.

But the underwhelming start was soon forgotten once we checked into our pretty gorgeous villa and after we grabbed a late lunch we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in the pool.

Yep, this is so gonna be a dossy holiday.

Food: The Savoy River Restaurant

Possibly one of the fancier places I've been to in a while, the River Restaurant certainly starts to impress well before you even get there, the Savoy itself being pretty darned lush and decadent. Of course the service that comes with such a place is also of a high standard too, with all being immediately polite and accommodating - particularly since this was actually a surprise party of 12 people.

As usual we stuck to the set menu, myself going for the chicken and mango starter (the meat and chicken are halal), the salmon main and the apple tart dessert. If I'm totally honest I was only really taken with the dessert, with the other dishes being well under the par I had experienced in other hotel restaurants recently.

The disappointment in food made the bill of £37 per person even more of a sting - if I factor in character and service of the place I would call that a fair price, so I guess it's up to the individual to decide what they value in a restaurant. For me though I would say it's not really something I would choose to go to too often and doesn't quite get the same recommendation alternatives would.

Katie, Freed

I'm sure all of you would have heard the amazing, yet sadly unsurprising, news by now. Of course, I'm not the kind of guy to say "I told you sohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif", so instead I shall link you to all my commentary on the whole saga:

28th April, 2005: I Have Straight(ish) Teeth Too

11th June, 2005: Link of the Day

6th January, 2006: Link(s) of The Day

13 December, 2007: Katie Holmes In No More Babies With Tom Shocker!

Being a mature gentleman, I am of course still able to express affection for dear Katie. Just so she knows. If she's reading.

City Circle: Ten Things You Should Know About Happiness

First of all: yikes! Has it really been that long since I last came to City Circle? Crazy stuff. Still, it was pretty poignant seeing the place again - some things had changed, a lot yet hadn't really.
But yes, seeing as my days as a pseudo-regular attendee are long gone, it took something a little more than the usual to grab my attention. And this was it: a talk on how to be happy, a topic I've covered a little here on this blog and elsewhere (in reality). I admit it: I didn't really come for guidance, but more for vindication.

Ajmal Masroor is a Cool Enough Dude. He's concise and accessible, although I wouldn't really call him "one of us" quite yet. A lot of what he says is common sense and he didn't really surprise today either, pretty much telling us all stuff we should have already known. In brief, here are those ten things:

1. Happiness is all around us already (or, be happy with your lot, there is always someone worse off).
2. Happiness is not found in material gain.
3. Happiness comes from within.
4. A content heart is vital to be happy.
5. A happy person is one of sound character.
6. A happy person shares their happiness, their wealth, their time.
7. Happiness stems from true and meaningful relationships.
8. Happiness is correlated with simplicity.
9. Happiness comes from serving others.
10. Those who celebrate life are happy.

I may have paraphrased a little but you get the picture. The talk was a good one and it was good to have attended.

I left the talk after Masroor was done, hoping to avoid the inevitable annoyance brought by an inane Q&A (see? I know how to be happy); it's a little depressing that the majority of people will miss the point of what was being said.

No, you don't have to point out the irony in that.

Food: Nabrasa

Ah but it should have been so much better. Go on, take a look at the website yourself. This was supposed to solve all of the problems we had with Cabana; a fully halal menu and an "all you can eat" pricing structure getting rid of all any fear of racking up a high bill.

But to be honest Nabrasa was all it claimed to be. The non meat buffet was pretty nice; varied and plentiful there was enough there alone to keep you busy - and indeed there is an option (albeit a pricey one) if you would want to stick to that. But no, we, and I'm guessing everyone else there, came for the meat on tap, the servers who come around with skewers to cut off all types of grilled meat straight into your plate as you ask for it.

The trouble is that the food wasn't that great. Out of the five types of skewer (the variety alone was kinda disappointing), I only really enjoyed the chicken wrapped in turkey bacon; the other meats proving to be a little too fatty and chewy for my liking. The thing is that the lack of quality didn't seem due to cost-cutting, but just a lack of cooking talent. As such, it wasn't the idea that was at fault here but the execution. For those of you interested the final bill came to 26 quid for the buffet and pricey mocktail.

So yes, as a novelty the place was pretty cool, but I don't think I'll be coming to eat here any time soon unless the quality of the food changes.

Film: Snow White and the Huntsman

I should have listened to my gut really. I mean, hey, I'm not the type to write off a film just because it has a certain actor in it (Salman Khan aside), but anything that had anything to do with Twilight (aka, those sorry excuses for movies) I should have known would be bad.

And Snow White was indeed bad. Choosing to go all "dark" and arty, it ends up being as dry as a bone, ironically soulless and just plain boring. The classic story doesn't even save the film; nothing much really happens in the movie and it feels like a big lump of middle with not much beginning or end to talk about.

Avoid.

Book: Holes, Louis Sachar

Sometimes there comes a book that makes it all seem so easy. Characterisation, plot, drama - Holes has it all, and all in under 240 pages of wonderful prose.

Stanley is a kid who, after being accused of the major crime of stealing a pair of trainers, gets sent to Camp Green Lake to do some time. The holes he and his co-inhabitants have to dig seem at first to be an exercise in character building, but it soon becomes apparent that there is more to their punishment than that. And it is on this mystery that the whole book is built.

Flashing between Stanley's present and his ancestral past, a tale is spun that was such a joy to read that I was a little upset when it ended. The bottom like is that if you claim to like books then you must read this. Recommended.

Food: The Montagu

Today's fancy dinner was at the five-star Hyatt Regency Hotel. The Montagu was certainly fancy from the start - the decor and service both being top notch before we even sat down to look at the menu.

As is the usual, we stuck to the set menu. However as the meat and chicken served there was all halal, we had more than the fish and veggie dishes to choose from. Nevertheless, I stuck to the razor clam and herb soup for my starter, the fish for the main and an apple tart for dessert. The starter was an easy win, adding to my increasingly growing taste for soups, while the dessert was generous. The main was a little dry and although wasn't bad was a little disappointing.

But a good time was had by all, proving once again that a restaurant is about slightly more than just the food. And at around £25 (via TopTable) for the three courses, a mocktail and sides shared between pairs there really wasn't any complaints about value either. Recommended.

Indexed

Ah, vindication:



While I have no doubt that seeing the world is an amazing thing to do, I do think that many of us take for granted how much we love home.

SMBC

Here's a new strip that I've started reading:



Proof that women don't appreciate what they have available, or that men are fickle scum? You decide. Either way I guess the lesson here is to expect someone who walks on coals for you to have, uh, leathery soles. Or something.

Film: Prometheus

Maybe I just didn't get it? Perhaps I should have seen the movie as an arthouse flick instead of science fiction? I dunno. All I know is that I didn't really enjoy this film that much. My only surprise is my surprise, since I got exactly what I expected after watching the trailer.

But let me try to remain objective here. The plot was pretty nonsensical (which was impressive considering how simple it was), the acting shabby, the direction poor and stuttery. There wasn't even a technical basis on which to watch this film.

I've already spent more words on this than I wanted to. Totally not recommended. In fact, I think I'll watch Alien over the weekend to get the taste of Prometheus out of my mouth.

Khalid and Rifat

I've long become desensitised to amazing things. For whatever reason over the past decade I've been lucky enough to meet a whole bunch of authors, politicians, entrepreneurs, PhDs, film directors - the list really goes on. But what makes my meetings invariably special is that I didn't meet these people as authors, politicians, entrepreneurs, PhDs or film directors, but as normal people. It's this normality that desensitised me to their achievements - not in a bad way but in a more inspiring one, because if normal people like these can achieve such great things, then surely the rest of us can too?

Anyway, opening waffle aside, Khalid is one of these inspiring people. It'll take me many fingers to list exactly how many pies he's had his in, but for me personally the most important must have been his involvement in establishing ICSS. I think the key characteristic I admire about Khalid is how unafraid of failure he is, or rather his ability to recognise that sometimes an effort is worth more than the result.

It was great to see him get hitched today, and I can't wait to see him out and about as a married. Inspiring once again for sure, and not least because of the constant reminders during his nuptials of how I was "next" in the group (even though I blatantly am not).

Wah! Wah! Girls

Oh look! Another British Bollywood play set in London! I think I must have seen at least ten of these in the past decade, and at the time of writing this review can't really remember enjoying any of them too much. So yes, colour me cynical as yet another one makes the scene - I still had to watch it of course.

But wait! What's this? Could it be that Wah Wah is actually pretty good? Well let's see: first of all, it was blindingly funny. This, coming from someone who doesn't think it's possible for brown people to raise any kind of laugh (except perhaps out of pity). Next up, the plot was actually quite good in a KISS way - there wasn't any self-hating of Asian culture (quite the opposite in fact) and none of the victim mentality (usually of a poor repressed girl) that is the staple of every Asian story that makes it to the west. I guess that makes it rather original then?

The music and choreography was brilliant and engaging, with the acting more than good enough and most certainly endearing (of which Sophiya Haque was a part of bringing this whole review full circle). Production values were good with everyone looking fab in their wardrobes with the stage coming a close second in terms of how it was dressed (I especially loved the huge "curtain screens" per location). Actually on that note, it was so refreshing to see "East London" finally translating to Leyton/Leytonstone/Walthamstow. Represent.

So yes. It may have taken ten years to finally find it, but Wah Wah Girls actually was an Asian play that I really really enjoyed. I'm still gushing a little just writing about it, so it kind of goes without saying exactly how thoroughly it gets a recommendation from me.

Food: Automat

We ended up in this American themed brasserie (no I don't know what that means either) after looking for a place that did decent fish and chips. That is, by total mistake. Still the fact that the chicken happened to be halal was a saving grace and so we stuck around anyway.

And it was a decent enough place I suppose. The food wasn't spectacular and very much on the bland side; certainly not worth the 18 quid we paid for it. The service and atmosphere made up for this in some sense though, the place packed for a Tuesday night in a town that's supposed to suffering from a recession.

Overall though one to skip.

Book: Out of Our Heads, Alva Noe

Some books make me feel something. Usually the book is fiction and that feeling is joy. In this case the book was non-fiction and the feeling was irritation. Since I'm too old and tired to write about a book I didn't really like that much, I'm just going to list a few adjectives that came to mind while I was reading it:

Laboured, offensive, confrontational, petty, semantic, vacuous, non-progressive.

If you're still bothered, Out of Our Heads is a discussion on what consciousness is, or rather what it is not - in particular how it's not something that resides inside the brain. Yes, exactly, zzz.

So no, not recommended then. Thankfully it was pretty short though.