Cooking and Music

So I've been cooking for a little bit more than a year. By that I mean, at least one night a week, mostly two, when my wife has night classes.

I'll admit that before that, all I knew how to cook was spanish vegetarian omelettes and other varieties off egg-based breakfast dishes. And baked beans too, that's just re-heating the canned beans, so maybe it doesn't really count.

But then when we moved to South Tampa, it was hard for my stomach when my wife had either night classes or was working late. So, in conformance with Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution and Natural Selection, I started to help out in the kitchen and observe her cook. Then, I started with a few simple dishes, mostly gravyish curries like lentils, kidney beans, black-eyed peas, etc etc. She didn't insult my cooking, just gave a bit of positive criticism. And the occasional compliment.

I've noticed I cook better when I'm listing to good music, like Pink Floyd, Kula Shaker, BBC Asian Radio's weekly chart, West African singers like Salif Keita, Fela Kuti, Habib Koite, etc. I'm much more relaxed and love smelling the food as it goes through the various stages of cooking. It's like chemistry lab back in high school.

So wish me luck, I'm cooking bhinda (okra) for the first time tonight (actually while I'm blogging).

Pedal Power

In the latter half of 2007, a co-worker gave me his old Trek 400, made in 1985-86. It has the old-style friction shifters and it's only a 12 speed (2x6) but it works flawlessly. That's the great quality of Trek's technology. I recently upgraded it by replacing the 27x1 tires with 27x1&1/4 (the local bike shop didn't have any 27x1s), replaced the original pedals with Shimano's RD-540 road pedals.

I've been riding with another co-worker every Friday evening (ok, we haven't rode the last two Fridays due to really bad weather) on the Friendship Trail (parallel to Gandy Bridge) and the East-West Trail from Safety Harbor to Clearwater. Each trail is different: Friendship is completely flat with a hump offset from the center and it's 5.2 miles roundtrip; East-West is 8.8 miles round trip but you can do an extension into Safety Harbor upto the spa.

It's quite funny to see motorists stuck in traffic on the Gandy bridge while you cycle parallel to them. What a waste sitting in traffic and doing nothing productive. Which is why I go to work late (relative to others) and come home late. I tell everyone that traffic conditions determine my working hours. Fortunately my boss is cool about it.

Before I forget, here's a photo of the bike taken before I installed the new pedals.

















Happy cycling!

State of Mind

Just to let you know how mental I am (I leave the wife out of this, I'm the crazy one - el loco):
On my honeymoon in South Africa, we did the world's deepest bungee jump (I don't say highest because you go down, not up. Do you say how 'high did you dive?'). This was the Bloukrans Bridge, which is a national highway on the famed Garden Route. (photo by Thomas from our Bokbus group.)

Another beautiful place we hiked was up a hill in Tsitsikamma National Park, by Storm's River Mouth. (photo by Thomas from our Bokbus group.) That's me taking a photo. The picture does not truly reflect the beauty of the area.









And finally, penguins having a 'good time'. (photo by yours truly.)



















Just proves that nature is good for adventure, beauty, and procreation.

What does this blog's URL mean?

Before anyone asks that question, here's the breakdown:

andy: my nickname from days of yore - Andy Boy (from my uncles'), Bad Andy (college nickname after the pizza advert 'Bad Andy - Good Pizza'), Hollywood Andy (after I was on a news clip when interviewed at college if I felt safe on campus, what???), Handy Andy (wife's name for me as I'm useful around the house and skilled with tools).

kelele: Swahili for 'Shout'. Yes, I'm loud, ask anyone who knows me well. Too damn loud.

why andykelele? that's because all the other ones were taken.

Q: Why the swahili name for your blog, andy, when you're indian?
A: Well, buddy, I'm of Indian descent, but I was born and raised in Kenya (my paternal grandparents were born there too), and I'm an American now. So, I have an identity crisis and henceforth call myself a 'human'. What are you?

Hey Hey Hey!

Hey!

It's me! Since I have too many musings and no time to write, I thought I may as well write a blog. My wife rants that I spend too much time internet-ting, so I better do something productive, hence this blog-thing-a-ma-jiggy.

I'll try and write every couple of days, no guarantees, warrantees, or any other such legal BS.

Eat, drink and be merry.

And give a few moments to think of those less unfortunate around us, globally as well.

Peace, Love & Unity - for my brothers and sisters in Kenya. Let's get 'nchi yetu' (our country) back on track.