Saturday 25 October 2008

Cycling morning

I have been feeling the need to cycle a bit around since my last cycle trip with a MIRM mate in Maremma Italy. I decided to combine it with a noble act, i.e. waste disposal at a Civic Amenity Sites. These sites accept all kinds of waste from the usual paper/plastic/glass/metal to electronic and hazardous waste.

For no reason at all, I have been collecting endless amounts of old PC motherboards, CD-ROM drives, graphic cards etc. I had lots to throw away. I packed all the stuff in Baanisuu's backpack. This included 2 power supplies, 2 motherboards, 2 hard disks, a discman, a joystick, some RAM, a CD-ROM, an old car stereo and an old phone. I straped the backpack to my back and off I went.

I set off from my home in Safi and cycled all the way to the Hal Far Civic Amenity Site. It was pleasant, at times bumby and noisy (hunting season you know). I could not notice the smell of carob, the pleasent colour of green and also a particular and long crawling species that I am sorry I did not have a camera to take a picture of.

Anyway, it took me one hour in total to disposte of the waste and arrive back home. I used the cycle lanes on the urban roads. They are not bad but a little akward with lots of breaches.

Nonetheless, it was some good exercise on the thighs for sure and some long-awaited fresh air.

Wednesday 22 October 2008

Eating fast makes you fat

While reading this article on the BBC website, a number of people whose eating habits I know came to my mind. The study by Osaka University scientists found that fast-eating men were 84% more likely to be overweight. Women were just over twice as likely. Also those, who, in addition to wolfing down their meals, tended to eat until they felt full, were more than three times more likely to be overweight.

In other words, if you eat slowly, savor your food and enjoy the company, you will probably eat less and live a healthier life.

Sunday 19 October 2008

Let's go Indian!

Indian food is an occasional must. Both Baanisuu and I adore it, the spices, the thickness, the bread, the rice. It's a Sunday morning and just thinking of it wets my appetite.

Anyway, so yesterday (Saturday) we decided to indulge ourselves in our favourite cuisine. I came up with the brilliant idea to go to a new place called Ganeesha at Xemxija. I got to know of the place the day before during some work related travelling. I saw a sign by the road of this new place and thought we could try it out.

Anyway, so after around 40 minutes to reach Xemxija, we started following these signs but got to a dead end. We drove around every street of Xemxija without success. That's strange. We ended up asking a local who pointed us to the corner we just drove around but remarked...'if it's open!'.

So we drove back around this corner and finally found it. But it was closed! We were going to try a new Indian restaurant that was not yet open! We should be invited to the opening night for our dedication.

Anyway, so we ended up applying Plan B, i.e. dining at the Star of India (also at Xemxija). We can safely say that this is our favourite Indian place. It is actually the first Indian restaurant we ate at, four years ago, to celebrate Baanisuu's birthday. And as with most first timers, it remains special.

Our second visit (we rarely revisit restaurants, if though they may be favourites) was no exception. As starters, we had vegetable pakoras and onion bhaji. For the main course, our choices fell on Pulao rice, garlic Nan bread, Chicken Chettinad and Jeera Ghost. Yes, the Jeera Ghost. I learned the hard way that Ghost means lamb in Indian. I made a complete fool of myself by telling the waiter "...and I would like to order Lamb Ghost." It is like saying: "I would like to order fish huta (fish in Maltese) or meat carne (meat in Italian)".

Apart from that, the food was excellent, the setting quiet, uncrowded and with a beautiful view of St. Paul's Bay. It is highly recommended and also well priced. The meal cost us Eur19 (Lm8) each, including a bottle of sparkling water.

Thursday 9 October 2008

Panasonic Lumix TZ5

I have recently decided to go for a new digital camera. My current one is a Nikon 3100 that I purchased almost 5 years ago from Liverpool. It has served me well, taking so many memorable pictures of student days, travels, Baanisuu and other events. But, the time is up for it and hence my search for a new one.

My eyes almost immediately fell on the Lumix TZ5. I still wanted to go for a compact camera, since I do not considered myself a pro or semi-pro. Plus, I'd rather have a camera that can fit in my jeans pocket. What struck me of the TZ5 is its optical range (280mm or 10x) and its wide angle (28mm) lens. It comes with a lithium ion battery pack which is what I was after after a not-so-happy relationship with rechargeable AA batteries. I had a look at several reviews which gave it quite a positive ratings:

Digital Camera HQ

Image Resource

DPReview

It also is capable of shooting HD video with sound (My Nikon shot videos without sound).

One of the downsides seems to be pictures taken indoors and at low light. As for the dimensions, it it a typical point and click measuring 104x 62 x 35 millimetres. Here below are some pictures of it. I quite like the blue one.



In terms of price, I found the item on eBay for Eur 260 (Lm111) including shipping costs, a 4GB SD memory card and other 7 goodies. What do you think?

Friday 3 October 2008

2 October 2008

Yesterday, back from training, I had a quick shower to get ready for a traditional Maltese horse meat dinner. After the shower, I grabbed my mobile and found a missed call. Interesting!

I tried calling back on my way to the bar&restaurant but the caller did not reply.

I arrived at the bar&restaurant.

The caller might have phoned me in error. It happens sometimes. I considered sending an sms, wrote half of it but then discarded the idea. As soon as I put my mobile back in my pocket, it rang. I went outside and answered the phone:

(lots of background noise)

Caller: Hello! Who is this?

Me: Hi! It's me! I have found a missed call from you and tried phoning you back.

Caller: I am sorry who?

Me: It's me!

Caller: Oh yes, I have some news for you!

(to be continued next week)

Wednesday 1 October 2008

Andrew Simms, Met Office and Sarah Palin

Wonder what the above have in common? They all featured in articles on The Guardian today. All were related to climate change.

The article in The Guardian by Andrew Simms it is related to climate change and the need to avert significant change by doing action now. From the whole article, the following paragraph stuck out:

Considering that it took governments in the UK and US just a week to drop decades of hardened economic practice to save the financial system (a subsidiary of the environment) from meltdown, nationalising banks at great public expense, we should be asking why it takes any longer to act to save the planet from runaway warming.

Very true!

The author goes also about the environmental deficit, ie, the use of resources and disposal of waste at a rate which nature cannot recover from. This complements the article on a Met Office report that urges governments to start reducing emissions now before it is too late:

Professor Bob Watson, chief scientific adviser for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said..."If we act now, maybe we have got a fighting chance,"

Very sad!

To close it off, a third article on The Guardian identifies Sarah Palin's (running mate of McCain (Republican)) environmental credentials. Actually, she does not have much. She denies man-made climate change:
"I'm not one though who would attribute it to being man-made"
and would rather have oil drilling companies doing their job in Alaska rather than declaring the polar bear as an endangered specie. Luckily, she lost the case. However, she has placed an appeal against the decision!

In May the US department of the interior rejected Palin's objections and listed the bear as a threatened species, saying that two-thirds of the world's polar bears were likely to be extinct by 2050 due to the rapid melting of the sea ice. Palin, governor of Alaska and the Republican nominee for US vice-president, responded last month by suing the federal government, to try to overturn the ruling.


Outrageous!