Outing @ London Eye - tips

London eye - on a bright sunny day providing a spectacular view of the whole of London. We talk about London and this is the iconic landmark that comes to our mind - located on the banks of Thames, overlooking the Big Ben and Houses of Parliament.
I have been twice on London eye and still everytime I look at it I marvel at the amazing design and its  architectural ingenuity. London eye, initially known as Millennium eye, was inaugurated in 2000 and is the most visited tourist attractions in UK.Go on the weekends, and you have a long queue to ride the wheel. London eye takes half an hour to complete one full rotation. So before you plan the trip to this attraction, ensure that you have accommodated sufficient time for the queue and actual ride.
London eye timings differ during the summer(till 9.30 pm) and winter seasons(till 8.30 pm), however the views are spectacular whichever season you pick. During the winter season, try going on London eye, closer to the christmas and you would be spell bound by the lights shining on the banks of the Thames.
London eye also offers something called as a Cupid's capsule - which is a perfect romantic place if you want to pop the question or just want to enjoy a romantic drink atop London.

London eye ticket offers a 4D experience of the views, this is located near to the ticket counter -If you have time, you should view this short film.
There are different kinds of tickets available -

1. Standard ticket - If you are already at London eye and based on the queue you can decide to take this ticket. This is for immediate boarding (obviously you would still have to wait in the queue)
2. Flexi standard ticket - If you planned a complete day out in London and are not sure when you would visit London eye, then this is the ticket for you.
3. Flexi fast track - This would give you priority boarding. There is a seperate queue for this and is much faster.

There are also various offers available online.

1. London Eye's official site provides around 10% discount on the tickets if purchased online.
2. Combination tickets are also available that would allow you to combine two or three attractions in one ticket and pay a cheaper price for the same. Please remember that the combination tickets would need to be converted to London eye tickets before boarding the London Eye. 
3. Sometimes, a 2 for 1 offer is also available from Days out Guide

I believe for anyone visiting London, this would be an amazing experience.

A day trip to Seven Sisters Country Park

After long months of cold, sun was finally shining down upon London. Me and my hubby decided to take advantage of this beautiful weather to go out of London. After searching for a nice place to visit, we finalised on Seven Sisters Country Park. I hope that this abstract can help you if you wish to visit the place.

Seven Sisters Country Park is part of South Downs National park, situated at Exceat in East Sussex. It comprises of chalk cliffs, vast Greenland and meandering river valley.  Seven sisters were created when ancient rivers cut the valleys into chalk, creating seven peaks. The highest of the peak stands at 253 feet and is named Haven Brow, This peak is followed by Short Brow, Rough Brow, Brass Point, Flagstaff Point, Baily’s Brow and Went Hill Brow.

Seven sisters country park is the best place to be if you are looking for natural beauty unhindered by tourists. The chalky cliffs overlooking the ocean, the shining sun, the vast greenery, away from all the hustle bustle – it feels like heaven,  a reprieve from the daily routine.

Visitor centre is situated in a 18-century barn and you can get map and routes for walking, cycling from here. Cross the road from the visitor centre to enter the park. There are two walking trails at the Park – Park trail, marked with purple arrowed posts is 5 km long. Habitat trail, marked with green arrowed posts is 7 km long circular trail around the perimeter of the park.  Be-aware that this is not a sandy beach but has lots of small rocks and pebbles.

You can start your walk from the park entrance towards the beach. On the return trip, you can climb up the cliffs and walk down over the hills back to the park entrance. The seaside and the cliffs look amazing from the cliff tops. If you are interested, you can walk over the hills towards the South Downs enjoying the beauty.

How to get here: Catch the southern train from London Victoria / London Bridge to Brighton. Once you get out of Brighton, catch bus 12, 12x or 13 towards Eastbourne via Seaford. On weekdays, you can get the bus from stop D outside the station. However on weekends, the buses start from Churchill Square. In order to reach Churchill Square, walk from the station towards the ocean (straight road), when you reach the clock tower, take a right uphill road to reach the bus stop. The bus journey is roughly 60 minutes and reach just outside the Seven sisters country park.

Cycling: You can hire a bike and cycle on the valley floor. Or if you are interested, you can use the more adventurous trails and routes from the Cuckmere cycle hire shop.  

Time for visit: 3-4 hours

The Bombmaker - By Stephen Leather

This novel has it all – crime, suspense, thrill. It has been a long time since I have read such a thrilling novel waiting to know what happens in the end. So here is a brief which may inspire you to read the novel as well.

 

The story revolves around a woman named Andrea Hayes(Andy), who, until 10 years ago, was the best master bombmaker in IRA. It all went wrong one day when a bomb killed 4 school children and crippled another. Andrea turned away from her trade. Today, she lives a quite life with her husband Martin and a young daughter Katie, who have no idea about her past life. Together they have a perfect life, a life to be envious of, until one day Andy’s past comes knocking at her door.

Two people kidnap their daughter, Katie, in the middle of night from the sanctity of their home. Andy and Martin are devastated, when they get the kidnapper’s note mentioning that Andy should travel to London alone while Martin should stay at home and continue his daily routine. If they contact the police they would never see their daughter again. Andy travels to London while Martin makes preparations to gather all his finances together so that they can pay the required ransom to the kidnappers and get their beloved daughter back.  Andy travels to London and checks in at the hotel mentioned by the kidnappers. She decides to contact her husband to let him know that she reached and is now awaiting further directions or call for the ransom.

Life takes another turn for Andy, when she is contacted again by the kidnappers at the hotel but without any ransom for money. She is asked to travel to another location where the kidnappers pick her up and take her to a warehouse. They now tell her about their real motive for the kidnapping – they want Andy to build a four thousand pound fertiliser bomb. The deal is for her to build the bomb and in return she would get her daughter back.

Andy struggles to understand why the bomb is required now that peace is restored in Britian, is this threat political or is this revenge? A bomb of this intensity could wipe out hundreds of lives and the city would be set back by billions of pounds.

Is Andy ready to sacrifice the lives of so many people for the life of her daughter? Is there any guarantee that they would let her and her daughter live after the bomb was made? Who is behind this terrorism – Is it the IRA, the Republicans, an external terrorist group? Who is the mastermind behind all this and what is his master plan – Is it terrorism? Does he intend to detonate the bomb or use it only as a threat?

 

Read the complete novel and I believe you would also praise Stephen for his fantastic way of writing and making the story feel real to you …

 

Tipping Point - Review

I am usually into a lot of fiction and mystery books, and dont usually venture into the non-fiction area. However, for those of you who do love these books, I think 'Tipping Point' would be a good one.
After reading this review, I am definitely going to read this one ...
http://thoughtmazes.blogspot.com/2010/08/tipping-point.html

Khatta Meetha

Khatta Meetha is a light comedy of corruption in the contractor’s business. Anybody who has been to the municipal corporation office for getting a particular work done would know about it. Starting with the peon to the top engineers, bribe is the way to go ahead. (Not that there are no honest people, but very few).

Sachin Tichkule is a descendant of a royal family, a budding contractor who has huge dreams of starting Tichkule and Tichkule Company. He is well known in the municipal corporation office for creating issues. His elder brother and one brother-in-law are corrupt contractors, who walk alongside politicians, minting money by all means possible. His other brother-in-law is in the inspection department in the municipal commission office, and is in cahoots with Sachin’s elder brother.

Sachin has logged a complaint against the municipal corporation, for not clearing his cheque on time, and this gets him blacklisted in office. If they were not helping Sachin earlier, the court case hinders the cause further. His situation at home is also not that good, with everyone in the family thinking him to be a lazy, corrupt person. Things start getting worse when a new commissioner comes into town, who happens to be Sachin’s ex-girlfriend – Gehna Ganphule and who makes life worse for him. Though Gehna is against corruption, her prejudice against Sachin is so strong, that she does not realize the corruption around her in the office. As usual, things work out in the end with bad people getting punished and all.

The first half of the movie is comedy, but the second half does not have you laughing always. The movie even has some fight scenes. Trisha, a new comer to Bollywood, is ok, but her acting does not stand out.

Overall, I would say it is an ok to watch movie, but not that great. After all, movies like Hera Pheri are not made everyday.

Ravaan - Mani Ratnam's new movie

 Ravaan - zhang zhang zhang zhang zhang ...... story of 21st century Ramayan(hindu epic saga).
A Mani Ratnam venture, shot in 3 languages - Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. When we hear about the film, hear about the director, thats all, we are ready to go for the movie. But are all movies really worth all the hype? I was eagerly waiting for the release of Ravaan, and today, in betwix a lot of things, I went to watch that movie. and BOY it was such a disaster for me.

Ravaan is the story of Beera(Abhishek Bachaan), a terror in a place called Lalmati. Some think of him as Robin Hood and some call him "Ravaan". The movie starts with a lot of police killings, where they show people burning policemen within the station and outside. Rajini (Aishwarya) is the wife of the Dev (Vikram), the new SP of Lalmati.

Beera kidnaps Rajini and vows to kill her in the coming 14 hours. However, seeing how Rajini has no fear of death, Beera is awed, and cannot kill her. The entire first half of the movie is about how Rajini tries to run away from Beera and how he keeps holding her back. A lot of drama with Beera mainly saying the same dialogues again and again, (looks a little psycho here) ... "bakbak, bakbak, bakbak". And atleast I thought that there were a lot of songs in the first half. Rajini's fighiting spirit makes Beera fall in love with her.

The reason why Beera kidnaps Rajini becomes clear in the second half. Lakshman, Ram's brother, had cut off the nose of Shurpanakha, Ravaan's sister. In the movie the scene is a little bit more tragic and makes our police look really bad. Govinda has played the role of "Hanuman", with him finding Sita - Rajini, at Beera's (Ravaan) lair. However, here the "Ramayan" takes a turn. I was expecting Hanuman to light up Ravaan's Lanka, but instead it is Ravaan who burns up Ram's tents, as a revenge for Ram killing Ravaan's brother, who had come to make a truce with Ram. The story takes quite a turn here, with a little bit of pieces taken from Ramayan, but not coming out that well.

I would have been more happy if the movie was named "Beera" instead of "Ravaan". Just because you take a similar type of story as Ramayan and make Beera say dialogues like "Das sir vala hun .." does not make the story about Ravaan. Beera has been shown as a person from adivasi area. So, just like we cannot comment on the naxalites - what their needs are, why they are as they are, we cannot say why Beera is such a terror in the first place. Why he kidnaps Rajini is clear in the movie. But, that does not make him a Ravaan. I am not saying that Beera is good, but guess he is the villian of the movie, from the start. Some people are villians, without any reason. What can I say!!
Overall, for me the movie was a very bad idea. 
If you have liked "Guru" and/or "Yuva", then beware, this movie might be a disappointment to you.

Twilight Book review

The first thing that people know about me is that I am books’ fan – mostly fiction, but when I have time at hand, then I can pick up any book and start reading it. The other thing is –I always like to complete a book that I have taken up, I cannot leave it incomplete however boring or sad the book might be. The only exception to that rule was the “Wuthering Heights”. I had so many people tell me that the book is impossible to complete and the movie has so many characters that you forget who is who. When I picked up Wuthering Heights, I was prejudiced and ultimately my record of unfinished books was broken. I could not get past the first 10 pages, though someday I would be finishing this book.

I heard about Twilight saga when my friends started telling me that they had gone to watch the movie and all females loved it. I am usually not a romantic novel person,  I am all into Robin Cook type  books, but after hearing their comments, my curiosity was piqued.  Twilight saga is the story of love between a human and vampire, the story where legends of vampires, werewolves become true. A love story, that too between vampires and humans, I had serious doubts about how good this book would be. But today, I have read the complete books twice and I can read them again. They have a different quality about them , not a typical romance novel neither an action or suspense novel.

In Twilight, 16-year old Bella comes to stay with her father, Charlie, in a small town named Forks, to give her mom and step-father a chance at their own life.  She hates the weather in Forks which is always cloudy and rainy, she hates being the pale girl and expects her first day in school to be worst. Her fears are confirmed when Edward Cullen, her biology partner, turns away from her and runs off at the first chance he gets, trying not to sit in her class again. However, luck turns her away, when Edward saves her from an accident with amazing speed and strength. Bella does not understand how Edward could have saved her, but Edward refuses to explain and refuses to be friends with her mentioning that it is not the right thing for them.  Bella, being a magnet for trouble, again comes across Edward when he saves her from some goons.

Jacob Black, son of Billy – Charlie’s friend, explains to Bella the Quileute legends of vampire and werewolves. Jacob’s grandfather had come across the vampire family  - Cullens a long time ago and the leader of the family had mentioned that they were vegetarians – the name being a joke within the family, drank only animal blood and did not kill humans. A truce was made between the Black family and the Cullen family mentioning that both can live in harmony as long as Cullens did not kill any human. Though Jacob himself does not believe in these legends, he knows something is not right with the Cullens.

The love story between Edward and Bella gets a little bit of action here when a series of animal killings start in the town.  The killers are however not animals but vampires. With the killing spree going on and the Quileute legends fresh in her mind, Bella puts two and two together and confronts Edward with the truth.  Bella mentions that she is not afraid of Edward but still loves hi,. Edward who reciprocates her feelings takes her to meet the rest of the family. Charlisle – Edward’s father, is the original vampire. Edward is his adopted son, whom he had created due to his loneliness and at Edward’s deathbed as a promise to Edward’s dying real mother. Esme had tried to commit suicide after losing her family, and Charlisle had converted her as well. So was the case with Emmett  and Rosalie. Alice had joined the Cullens family along with Jasper, her mate. Edward has the gift of reading everybody’s mind, however he is surprised to realize that Bella’s mind is a mystery to him. Alice, can see the future and Jasper can control the emotions. Charlisle is a practicing doctor and has never killed a human since his birth as a vampire. He values the human life and being a doctor helps him to save them.

The book describes Edward’s journey of how he has to conquer his thirst for Bella’s blood and love her truly. The love story takes a turn when the blood-thirsty vampires – James, Victoria and Laurent find Bella among the humans and want to make a meal out of her. James, a tracker, wants to find Bella and hunt her. The entire Cullen family now struggles to get Bella out of this mess. The end comes when Edward finally kills James and rescues Bella, but not before James has bitten her. Edward passes the test when he sucks out the venom from Bella’s blood, keeping her alive and human. The book ends with Victoria seeking revenge for her mate – James’ death.

I had not thought that the book would be this interesting but it held me in a grasp that I could not keep the book away. Stephnie Meyer has kept the thrill in the story alive, the flow of the story consistent. My recommendation to all you females would be to read it once and then you can judge for yourselves whether you agree to me or not. For my male friends, I am not sure how much you would enjoy this, if you have lived through the movie then you can take a quick peek through the book, though no guarantees from me to you at all.

Further reviews on the next books will continue …..

A small peek if you wanna watch the movie ..

Queens' restaurant

Queens’ Restaurant – how many Bangalore people have heard about this small restaurant on Church Street? Among all the shiny, sparkling restaurants present on the church street, Bangalore, I doubt if anyone would have given a second glance to the small huddled up place next to a juice centre. I have passed it so many times before, but had never understood why so much crowd was present in front of the particular shop. I had not even known that it was a restaurant till I went to the place along with my some friends a few days back.

Queen’s restaurant is rightly named after the amazing food that they serve. The restaurant is very small with sitting place for about 30 – 40 people at a time. If you are one of the unlucky people who come late, then you might have to wait for some time to get a seat. Though once seated you would be served quickly. The food is really amazing with mouth watering dishes – panner and chicken very nicely marinated and with the right amount of spices – neither too spicy nor too bland. Even if the weather is hot outside, be sure that you would feel very comfortable within the restaurant. The place is very cozy and with amazing food.

If you are one of those who believe the restaurant has to look good to serve good food, then think twice. I would highly recommend this place for you to review your views.

Dishes that I recommend are –  (though these are the only ones that I have tasted till now, I have enjoyed them a lot)

Mango lassi – I am not a lassi fan, but everytime I have been here, I was unable to stop myself from taking a sip of this delicious drink. A true “thandai” in  this blasting hot weather of Bangalore. The

Chicken methi something – though I do not like methi much, this dish tastes really nice

Veg korma

Chicken bhartha – the chicken is in very small pieces and the curry tastes yumm …

Location  - Church street, Bangalore.  Not exactly in front of Mast Kalandar and Oye Amritsar, but towards Brigade road. Next to a small juice counter.

 
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Rajneeti - Movie Review

When I thought of Rajneeti, I had great expectations of an excellent story line, brilliant acting of the wide range of actors and overall entertainment. Reality, however, was much different. Yes, the movie shows the political battles which are true, but I would have wanted a little less murders.  I am not sure how many of you who have seen the movie would agree to me, but for me not much of the expectations I had were fulfilled.

The movie starts with Naseruddin Shah who is the good person against the Indian political battle, raising his voice for the poor and asking difficult questions to the politicians. The politician’s daughter, Bharti, is his prime disciple, going against her father in this war. Then one day, they get together in a moment of passion and Naseruddin realizing his mistake goes out of her life. Bharti conceives a child who is dumped away on the ghats of Banaras by her brother – Nana Patekar. Bharti is then married off to the rival politican’s son and an alliance party is formed out of this new relationship. Now, the scene turns to current day where Bharati has two sons – Ranbir (screen name - Samar) who is doing his PHD outside India and Arjun Ranpal is handling the political party along with his father and uncle who is the leader. The political party leader has a paralysis attack and this triggers off the war to identify the leader of the party.  Manoj Bajpai, who is the son of the political leader thinks that since his dad was the leader, in his absence he should get leadership. However, when Arjun and his dad are given the leadership of the party, sparks fly everywhere. Along comes, Bharti’s long lost son, Ajay Devgan, brought up as a Dalit by the driver of this family. He wants a ticket to stand up in the election and joins the party with Manoj. A war explodes to get hold of the party leadership. Arjun’s dad is murdered, and Arjun is arrested by police on various charges, all brought about by Ajay. A romance is sizzling on the other end between Ranbir and Kathirna (Indu) – a businesman’s daughter. However, Ranbir does not reciprocate Katty’s feelings, and his love is there in his college. With the death of Arjun’s father and arrest of Arjun, Ranbir moves to come into politics to save his brother’s future. Nana Patekar is the brain behind Arjun’s political decisions, with him hovering over all the meetings and subtly giving hints.  A new party is formed by Arjun with his supporters. To obtain the money for elections, a pact is made between Katrina’s dad and Nana Patekar, with Katty to be married off to the chief minister – in this case Arjun. A typical case where the female is sacrificed for the “greater good”. Nana Patekar, with his great move, brings Ranbir’s girl friend, Sarah Thompson Kane, to India. The move was to bring Katty closer to Arjun. A wide hunt is made to identify the murderer by Ranbir, and this leads to some more murders. Somewhere along the line, Katty falls in love with Arjun, realizing that Arjun is  a better man than Ranbir. However, the murders are still not over, and to bring things back to war front, a bomb is blasted which kills Sarah and Arjun. Again, with the question of who the leader would be for the new party, a new move is made and Arjun’s widow – Katty is brought into picture as the new leader and future chief minister on success of the elections. Nana Patekar who goes to avenge the death of Arjun at Ajay’s house, reaizes that Ajay is his nephew, and informs Bharti of the same. Bharti in turn tries to get him to join the party with Ranbir and forget Manoj Bajpai and the rivalry between the two parties. However, Ajay refuses to leave Manoj’s party. While the poll counting is ongoing, Manoj is called at a secluded place on a false pretence and Ajay follows him. Ranbir avenges the deaths of his father, brother and girlfriend by killing Manoj and Ajay. Katty wins the elections and is elected the chief minister. Ranbir flies off again to complete his PHD.

The movie as you see had a good plot, but look at it closely and you would find that it was a mixture of too many things. Scenes from Sarkar with car being blasted off killing Ranbir’s pregnant girl friend, Mahabharat with Ranbir as “Arjun”, Nana Patekar as “Krishna”, Ajay as “Karna”- Ranbir does not want to kill Ajay since he has no weapons but Nana Patekar tells him to complete the job and avenge the death.  Also, I am not sure whether the script writer forgot about Naseruddin Shah completely, what was his role in the movie apart from fathering Ajay. And the dialogues are the best – who has heard these dialogues these days – Nana Patekar tells Bharti about Ajay – “wo tumhara pehla jana hain” and Bharti tells Ajay that he is her son – “tum mere jeshta putra ho”. They are hilarious and do not fit in the movie at all. There are however some dialogues that are very catching – “karara jawab milega” being one among them.

 The acting is good, but you cant say that for all actors – of course Nana Patekar is always brilliant, Ranbir has done a good role as mature actor, Katty still cant get her hindi correct, Arjun needs a course in acting school and Manoj Bajpai is definitely good.

Overall, the movie is worth a once watch. Watch the official movie trailer at youtube

Harry Potter- part 4

Harry Potter

Saw Harry Potter part 4 movie on saturday. That was one book which I really loved, best among all the series that J.K.Rowling has written.
It is nice that the movie captured all the important events described in the book in 2.5 hours.
For people who love Harry Potter, I am sure this movie would be loved by all.

This movie has brought Harry to his adolescent phase. And along with the magic he is trying to acquire, he now has to face another mysetry which he might not be able to solve easily- girls.
The way his feelings take a turn for girls, the way he admires them is now seen in the coming parts.

This year they have a new Defense against the Arts teacher - Alastor Moody, an ex-auror.
Till now on this post, they have had a teacher who was taken over by the dark lord and died, a teacher who lost his mind, a teacher who is a were wolf and now a teacher who is actually an impostor. This post is actually jinxed with the teachers lasting for only one year ...

Harry has to take part in the Triwizard championship. This championship is supposed to be very hard and has rules that students below 17 age will not compete. However, Harry's name still ends up in the list and he is among the chosen ones.
Viktor Krum, Fleur, Cedric and Harry now have three tasks ahead of them and one of them will win the glory of the Triwizard champion.

Hermonie is looking great in this movie. And Ron who I believe has a secret crush on her, is very jealous when he sees her with other guys. But he is too afraid to ask her to dance with her, or rather takes her for granted. So when he learns that she is going to the dance with his favourite hero Viktor Krum, he is not ready to accept it. Harry is sad that his crush Cho has accepted Cedric's invitation for the dance. In the end, they are left with Padma and Parvati as their dance partners. Well, Ron and Harry are the only people who donot enjoy the party.

The only unfortunate thing is that after this part , in every part some one or the other who is beloved to Harry will die.

So whoever has not seen the movie till now, go on... You will like it .