March Interlude 1

Although Interlude denotes a pause/break, I prefer using this to post my thoughts on multiple things which I don’t want to dedicate an entire post to.

So the 1st interlude of the month-

I watched ‘Vantage Point’ finally after repeated recommendation at the retail outlet where I purchase DVDs. The sales folks were disappointed when I didn’t buy the DVD, but I rented it out at the online rental store.

Basically, the story is an assassination plot against none other than the American president (we have so many of those) with his royal secret force risking their lives to protect him. The only twist here is it’s a rather elaborate and very deviant plot that diverts your attention in multiple directions. The story is retold from the perspective of 6 witnesses and with each version you piece together the truth.

The last perspective (the one from Dennis Quaid) makes all the sense. I don’t know what the scriptwriter was thinking of but it was movie that could’ve done away with in less than an hour. Dennis Quaid does nothing much expect running after the terrorists. Ok so I wasn’t paying attention to it most of the time but what the heck! I watched it anyways.

2nd in list is the short stories book - ‘The Puffugees Club’ by Jasper Utley. I found this book at the library ofcourse and found it rather entertaining. Its about a club in Chennai (for those of you who don’t know… it’s a metro in South India) and it specifically focuses on a General who narrates rather amusing incidents to his motley group of fellow smokers and club members.

I also browsed the ‘1001 Foods You Must Try Before You Die’ one of the many ‘try before you die’ books that are being published these days. The plus point is it provides good information on various herbs, vegetables and fruits as well as exotic & unappealing carnivorous stuff. Notable among them are Bird’s Nest Soup, Blowfish delicacy (the poisonous ones), Geoduck, Durian (supposedly the ‘king of fruits’ simply because it has too many thorns, smells and doesn’t taste like butter so much so that its considered a delicacy in Asia) to mention a few. I wish they had a book on the 1001 delicacies to try. I could recommend a couple of them myself.

The other book that I’m currently reading or perusing through is a lovely coffee table book ‘Hidden Britain’ (not sure about the author). Like I said, cover pages do influence my buying decision and the nicer the better. I picked this book at the library and the reason - sheer architectural beauty depicting eras bygone. I’m a sucker for architecture specially the gothic and the Victorian ones. And this had a mix of everything! I would be posting my thoughts section wise though as each section covers a couple of counties.

Although I’ve been only to London and its suburbs, UK rather grew on me owing to its pastoral beauty and greenery (I haven’t seen so much greenery anywhere) as well as its quaint markets, fairs and bookstores. Of course, the Tube system is one of the best in the world and you see fashion at its best!! One of my fav destinations!