Friday, June 11, 2010

My Virtual Playground

We have all been in the world of computers for a little over a decade and with that we entered the whole world of Online Games, computer games of all kinds. Though I have never been a great sportsperson, I always seemed to enjoy the outdoor sport more, I was into cycling, badminton and skating mainly, but enjoyed trying my hands at Tennis and even Cricket! I also played the very Indian games of Lagori and Kunte bille….

I was never really into Computer games... but looking back at it, I have quite a few things to recollect and pen down.

It all mainly started when my dad got us our first computer - I remember that we were ecstatic that it had a hard drive of 4.2GB!!!!!- these days you get a memory stick with more capacity!

Well... I started playing minesweeper, solitaire and the other card game (you know.. something like free....Oh! I don't remember the name!)....mainly played these games to get control of the mouse...as I found it quite hard to navigate from one end of the screen to the other!

Later, I remember playing Dave...the first one which I saw with 10 levels and remember that it was quite a feat to finish the game....later it was playing it over and over to better the timing.

Stepping it up a bit was playing Road Rash and NFS, the bike and car game with my brother... and well! I never won any...but it was fun to play together...The game mainly looked good ...it was all about speed, the UI of the game was pretty...

I am sure there were many more like this, but I never got my hands on it...guess one of them was Tomb Raider….

There were also little flash games that we played…..the most popular being the bricks and eggs in a basket....

....All this while at every stage, I remember that I had enjoyed playing these and had at that point got addicted to it.

There were a few years in between when I totally lost touch with the virtual world of sport until work happened and the concept of forwarded emails began…..with it came some intelligent excel games, some brain teasers, some quizzes and the one I enjoyed was the logo quiz - had to pick the names of companies based on their logo.

The other game which was big in office was the bursting the bubbles one.. there was a time when all the computer screens had the colourful bubbles on....

We then had "Sudoku' columns in the newspaper and that became an addiction too…. started off with easy and then reached a day when I didn’t want to do it unless and until it's Hard! I remember playing this in our office meetings too!!!

…...I did go past all this....and then the completely different world of Facebook happened and with it came some really interesting games... the ones I was hooked onto were Farmville and Cafe World...there was a time when I started telling everyone that I have grown grapes and my watermelon plants died and that I managed to buy a farm house too!

.....Well...like all the other games, this one too died down....It just was too much work to maintain a Farm and a Cafe!!!!!

Laziness...made me do Sudoku online...well! It even tells you if you have made a mistake and highlights the row in which there is an error - Not sure whether I like it!

Well....I might have missed out a few in between, but the trend through these years is that when the game in new, I got hooked to it, enjoyed it, got addicted to it and passed it on to my friends....

…..However on the flip side, I still enjoy playing badminton or tennis or any outdoor sport and don't remember a day when I said I was bored of it...I enjoyed it, was never addicted to it, but when there is a chance to play, I have my sports shoe on!!!
…...Guess it's a complete circle....I started with my set of outdoor sports and I am back there again!

Monday, June 07, 2010

Cheat's Cookery - Pizza

While I was chatting with my friend this afternoon, we happened to talk about Pizzas. This pal loved Pizza Hut
Pizzas...the Pan Crust….big fat cheesy pizzas as I was terming it...Well! Who doesn't like pizzas????

There was a day when I attempted my Cheat's pizza @ home and I thought today as it was nostalgic talking about Pizzas and the times spent together with my buddy @ Pizza hut made the right day to pen this up..

Well, I have been thinking of writing a food blog about all my trials (and errors ;-) at cooking, however, I don't seem to have the patience to do it!

Well... today it happened!...
My idea of cooking....keep it simple.... nothing over an hour....tasty, spicy, colourful and easy....
I don't make all the base ingredients at home...so I have labelled it my Cheat cookery!

Ingredients:
Wheat Tortillas/Chapathis.. left overs would do :)
Tomato chutney/salsa (prepared)/ tomato sauce+ chilli sauce
Mozzarella Cheese - Grated
Kidney Beans - soft & boiled - 1 cup
Coriander - I love it! Loads of it... well... Indian cooking is not complete without this..
Butter - for spreading.


Steps:
- Apply butter on the tortilla/chapathi
- Spread the salsa evenly on the chapathi
- sprinkle the Rajma on it.
- Add the grated mozzarella

Turn on the Oven (Gas Mark 5/6, Electric 200/250deg), Place the created Pizza on the middle shelf and wait for the cheese to melt.

Garnish with Coriander and serve hot!!!

Hurray!...I managed to write this up!!!! Phew! I wonder how the cook books do this!!!! I know it's not quite a pizza...well..it's mine...so I can call it that :) and look I even have a pic of this...