Star Trek - 2009

These days it’s rare to watch a film when you leave the cinema with an overflowing quantity of exuberance and joy so it was a pleasure to watch Star Trek. It gladly retains its geeky sci-fi flavour for all those Trekkie fans and there were plenty of those in the cinema cheering each time a scene relevant to the past Star Trek genre appeared especially when Leonard Nimoy who gets to reprise his familiar role as Spock the human/Vulcan hybrid. Pine, Quinto, Saldana et al all gave justice to their respective characters except for Chekov, who let alone sounding the part, didn’t even look the part, nevertheless this didn’t impact the overall movie. Star Trek has always catered for the public even transcending racial boundaries and in the 1960’s this was big so even Star Trek then was well ahead of its time. This movie is no different but has catered for the old fans as well as the new and considered so uber cool thanks to the youthful sexy crew.

However don’t expect a really great story-line, it’s not about that as much as it’s about laying down the foundation for the relationships about to develop between the crew of U.S.S Enterprise.

The special effects are awesome however maybe a tad too much. Watching it on big screen can mean you get lost in the major scenes. Nevertheless these days that’s a given with movies if they are to meet box-office success and with movie-goers expecting nothing less. I must admit for a moment the A40 was space and my Peugeot transformed into the U.S.S Enterprise even excelling to warp speed on a few occasion on the stretch of the A40 where speed cameras were scarce.

So good film, lots and lots of action, eye candy for those bothered (Ahura for the chaps) and a over-all feel good movie for those who love the Star Trek genre series/movies and no doubt J.J Abrams has kick started a series of movies which will win new fans as well as old.

BTW look out for “Bones”, in terms of most plausible original character, Carl Urban has got Dr Leonard “Bones” McCoy nailed better than any other character in the movie as he demonstrates in the line “Dammit Jim, I’m a Doctor”.

Go watch it!

Voluntary redundancy November 2008

About time too! I was planning to resign and leave the company so you can imagine how thrilled I was to hear about the voluntary redundancy package being offered to EDS employees worldwide. It was not connected to the financial meltdown the world in facing but was connected to HP buying out EDS. I'd been with EDS just over 3 years and with the internal politics, lack of stimulating roles and overall lack of motivation it was inevitable I would leave the company sooner or later. So the voluntary redundancy (VR) was a god send.

My colleagues however were slightly more hesitant in comparison to me perhaps because of global financial climate but nevertheless they were all envious of me when they heard that I had taken the bait and was leaving on the 31st October 08.

Anyhow not sure what the future holds but then currently i'm only focused on the time off in terms of taking the opportunity to "catch-up" as opposed to getting back into the rat race.

The VR package will get me by for the next couple of months and I intend to go travelling, pursuing challenging recreational tasks (maybe) and ofcourse not having to wake up at ridiculous hours of the morning (except for fajr).

Hopefully I'll get the chance to blog my travels.

Qatar Dec 2008

This was my third trip to Qatar and by far was the most exciting and alluring. I was jobless so the holiday period was extended from the standard two week holiday to a whole month of unadulterated, pure pleasure and relaxation. Maybe too optimistic from my end because going on holiday with family including children is hardly right to assume peace and quiet but nevertheless it was awesome.

Qatar, a former pearl-fishing centre and once one of the poorest Gulf states, is now one of the richest countries in the region, thanks to the exploitation of large oil and gas fields since the 1940s.

Dominated by the Al-Thani family for almost 150 years, the mainly barren country was a British protectorate until 1971, when it declared its independence after following suit with Bahrain and refusing to join the United Arab Emirates.

All in all the Qatar holiday was interesting with the beach hut Eid parties, quad biking, sailing near the corniche and jet skiing to mention just a few of the activities. The weather was pleasant and it was great to see the family and spend quality time with them all.