Farewell Gilli & Potluck Party

Adam Gilchrist redefined cricket in so many ways. He has set the benchmark for a wicketkeeper batsman and I'll be surprised if ever there was someone close to him again. While it is mostly exciting to watch all the Australian batsmen in test matches, Gilchrist was the man I used to wait for. I still remember his 152 against England on his Ashes debut, especially because he added 63 runs for the final wicket with Glenn McGrath in 8 overs and he scored 62 of those. To me, he was a more consistent "Michael Jordan of cricket" than even Sachin (although I love Sachin more), and by MJ of cricket I mean, someone who can single-handedly take the game away from the opposition, someone who gives sports lovers goose pimples, someone who defines the very reason I watch sports. It's good that he went before he was pushed (by the board, the "experts" who write newspaper columns already did push him).

In every All Time Greatest World XIs of cricket, Adam Gilchrist will probably be the only man who will appear in both the test and one day teams.

Pic courtesy: Google Images

In other news, we had a potluck party at a friend's place last weekend. It was good fun and good food. It was a gathering of "new" friends, and it helped in accelerating the path to becoming normal friends. Some photos from the event:

Some great food on display.....all dishes were delicious because everyone (or every couple) had made their specialty!!

A closer look at the spread...

Prasi's (and hence, mine also) dish for the day - Chocolate Cake....Sinful Temptation

Dumb Charades in full flow...kind of the unplanned ice-breaker at the party...

Special thanks to the host for the day, Divya (extreme left in the pic) for keeping the party atmosphere and the finger food flowing for the entire day. It did take 2 hours to ge to her house, but it was completely worth it. Next on the agenda is a barbeque party...

10 Random thoughts

1. Sniffing nose drops in both your nostrils at the same time is not as easy as you think
2. Been a long time since I've been this happy about a sporting event - India beat Australia at Perth!!
3. Apparently, I can have 2 breakfasts in one day and still end up hungry after the second one...
4. Lollipops are awesome at any age..
5. Henry leaves Arsenal because there are not many experienced players around him...and he starts a game with a 17 year old and a 18 year old next to him at Barca (he's starting to look good btw..about time!!)
6. Apricot juice is pretty good..so don't judge a fruit by its name
7. Nichoas Cage has completely converted from being an accomplished actor to a shameless entertainer and doesn't seem to be going back..not that I'm complaining or critiquing
8. The sound "aiyoo" can be really funny in certain contexts..
9. You can't do anything when they're averaging 2.5 points a game except hope for the law of averages to catch up
10. Concentration is more than just a state of mind; it's about accepting the situation you're in and convincing yourself that you cannot be doing anything better..

Thailand...Shockingly Amazing

I'd never been a traveler until Prasi happened to me. The conversion process was slow and steady and now it's complete after our 12 day trip to three far eastern countries - Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. While I mostly have only good things to say about the latter two countries, the outright highlight of the trip was the 5 days we spent in Thailand. Malaysia and Singapore are great cosmopolitan countries but I've seen nothing quite like Thailand. I mean it has an identity of its own. Everything is so open!! Do what you want, where you want, how you want, when you want and so on. The culture coupled with all the amazing water sports, the Tiffany's show, the cheapest stuff (their attention to detail in replicas of international brands is excellent), the beauty of their Buddha temples..all led to a jaw dropping experience. The only downer was the smell of the food. While I consider myself quite tolerant of sights and smells of all sorts of food, the smell of Thai food completely knocked me out, the sight of it I was still OK with. After asking around, we found the smell to be caused by fried garlic, but I still think there is something else to that smell. Someday I'll find out. Oh! and the unusually high water level in their commodes was also weird!! In all we visited Bangkok, Pattaya, Kuala Lumpur, Sunway Lagoon, Genting Highlands and Singapore.

This was a nice moment in Safari World and Marine Park in Bangkok. The tiger was literally just one big pussy cat. He kept adjusting my hand with his left front paw, so that he may drink the milk right. I completely loved holding him.

This statue at Marine Park kept cracking me up. This kind of defines Thailand's spirit in a way. Every time someone walks past the statue, 2 jets of water would squirt on that person. Look closely at the picture to see the jets of water squirting.

The Orangutan, Sea-Lion, Dolphin and "James Bond" shows were good fun. Considering the sheer number of Indians in the crowd, the DJ at the show got the crowd going by playing Himesh Reshammiya (love him or hate him, he's FAMOUS) followed by a patriotic Indian song.

The Reclining Buddha was so overwhelming that i couldn't stop taking the same picture in the same angle over and over again. Its magnificence has to be seen to be believed.

The skytrain was a great way to get around the city of Bangkok, and it was from one of the stations that we saw a street with Bangkok's famous nightclubs. We managed to walk in one of these alleys in the night market. There were quite a few excited "businessmen" trying to sell us a good time through live beer shows or DVD sex!! We didn't take up the offers, so we'll never know what either of them constituted, but I'll never forget the one pimp who on seeing us, went "AAAHHH!!! I can see it in your eyes. I know what you want. Ok!! C'mon C'mon" Talk about a pull marketing strategy!!

Walking Street in Pattaya was the experience of a lifetime. We had never seen anything even remotely close to it. While the streets in the night market in Bangkok had a shady red light area feel to it, this street was so brightly lit and teeming with life and every other shop was a beer bar with special offers lined up. I couldn't wipe the grin of my face when walking through this street, cos I had never imagined something like this existed. The Tiffany Alcazar show was like watching a Sanjay Leela Bhansali movie live with so much colour and gigantic sets and it was performed entirely by (as our local Thai guide put it) boy-ladies. Yes, the "girls" in the pic were men once upon a time.



The adventure sports in Pattaya were also great. Para-sailing is totally awesome, especially if you do it with a dip in the water included. You feel so light and free when you're up in the air. The under-water walk and jet-ski ride were also good fun. The beach in Coral Island was beautiful, but unfortunately, we spent too little time there.

The most impressive thing about KL was the street decorations. Sunway Lagoon was enjoyable with the artificial beaches and water rides. Genting Highlands was impresessive and Prasi and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in our first visit to the huge Genting Casino. We ended up playing only slots for about 4 hours but it was something we'll never forget. The cable car ride down from Genting was pretty scary considering the speed at which the car was travelling.

The highlight of our trip to Singapore was the Songs of the Sea show in Sentosa Island with brilliant laser lights on the beach. No picture can do justice to just how spectacular the show was. We did not get a chance to experiece the night life, so I guess our Singapore experience is still incomplete. So one more visit to Singapore is pending.