Busted Left Knee & A Crappy New Year

Officially this is the worst New Year’s Eve I have ever had. That I can remember. There have been New Years when I had little money and yet managed to have fun. Those New Years eves were so much better than what I am going through right now. A couple of days ago I busted my left knee by slipping in the bathroom and banging it against the tiled wall. I didn’t think much of it and went about my day and work. However when I work up the next morning my knee hurt like hell. It was swollen and pain everytime I sat down or got up or tried to lie down.

For two days I tried to work through the pain but last night it was very painful so I quit working two hours before my shift ended. Today I took the day off as I wanted to rest my leg. I did that, watching a bunch of CSI and taking naps, like I have been the past couple of days. Tonight my parents came back from my sister’s place. We had a light vegetarian dinner of masala dosa with some chilli Gobi dry. I have been trying to watch some YouTube but my mind keeps wandering. I hope within the next two days I get better and the pain goes away.

What a crappy New Year!

Arsenal Transfer News 30-12-2021 & Arteta Covid Infection

News broke that a deal to send Ainsley Maitland-Niles to Roma on an initial loan move was progressing nicely, suddenly the midfield took over the conversation. If and when he goes Mikel Arteta will have only two senior options to choose from over January: Sambi Lokonga and Xhaka. Arsenal can land Bruno Guimaraes from Lyon on bargain transfer fee of £38m – really, that is a bargain for a player of his quality. It turns attentions to the market where Arsenal must be looking to reinforce given their willingness to sanction Maitland-Niles’ departure. There are internal solutions, but none with the experience needed to aid the cause. One of the players linked with a move to Arsenal back in the summer, when it looked like Xhaka might be on the move, was Bruno Guimarães, and the Brazilian has remained a fan favourite ever since.

Mikel Arteta will miss Arsenal’s match against Manchester City on New Year’s Day after testing positive for Covid-19. The Spaniard, who also contracted the virus in March 2020 prompting the shutdown of football at the start of the pandemic, is now isolating. Despite the positive test, the Arsenal manager is still planning to speak to the media from his home on Thursday to preview the match against City. Arteta will face an isolation period of one week. At present, people who receive negative lateral flow results on day six and day seven of their self-isolation period – with tests taken 24 hours apart – no longer have to stay indoors for a full 10 days.

A mountain of names have been mentioned in recent weeks for strikers with differing profiles, as the likes of Dusan Vlahovic, Arthur Cabral, Jonathan David and Dominic Calvert-Lewin have been banded about in connection with the Gunners. One of the newer names to emerge among the rest is Patrik Schick, who has emerged as a potential 2022 target for a number of Premier League clubs, including Manchester City. A standout name at Euro 2020 in the summer, notably scoring from his own half against Scotland to get a nomination for the Puskas awards, the Czech international has continued his fine form into club level where his tally of 16 goals for Bayer Leverkusen has him second in the Bundesliga top scoring charts.

5 More New Year Traditions From Around The World

Italy: Wearing Red Underwear. Italians have a tradition of wearing red underwear to ring in the new year. In Italian culture, the color red is associated with fertility, and so people wear it under their clothes in the hopes that it will help them conceive in the coming year.

Greece: Hanging Onions. No, this New Year’s Eve tradition has nothing to do with vampires. Rather, the Greeks believe that onions are a symbol of rebirth, and so they hang the pungent vegetable on their doors in order to promote growth throughout the new year. Greek culture has long associated this food with the idea of development, seeing as all the odorous onion ever seemingly wants is to plant its roots and keep growing.

Chile: Chilling in Cemeteries. In Chile, New Year’s Eve masses are held not at church, but in cemeteries. This change of scenery allows for people to sit with their deceased family members and include them in the New Year’s Eve festivities.

Japan: Slurping Some Soba Noodles. In Japanese culture, it is customary to welcome the new year with a bowl of soba noodles in a ritual known as toshikoshi soba, or year-crossing noodles. Though nobody is entirely sure where toshikoshi soba first came from, it is believed that the soba’s thin shape and long length is meant to signify a long and healthy life. Many folks also believe that because the buckwheat plant used to make soba noodles is so resilient, people eat the pasta on New Year’s Eve to signify their strength.

Denmark: Smashing Plates. In Denmark, people take pride in the number of broken dishes outside of their door by the end of New Year’s Eve. It’s a Danish tradition to throw china at your friends’ and neighbors’ front doors on New Year’s Eve—some say it’s a means of leaving any aggression and ill-will behind before the New Year begins—and it is said that the bigger your pile of broken dishes, the more luck you will have in the upcoming year.

5 New Year Traditions From Around The World

Spain: Eating Grapes For Good Luck. In Spain, locals will eat exactly 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight to honor a tradition that started in the late 19th century. Back in the 1800s, vine growers in the Alicante area came up with this tradition as a means of selling more grapes toward the end of the year, but the sweet celebration quickly caught on. Today, Spaniards enjoy eating one grape for each of the first 12 bell strikes after midnight in the hopes that this will bring about a year of good fortune and prosperity.

Scotland: First Footing. In Scotland, the day before January 1 is so important that there’s even an official name for it: Hogmanay. On this day, the Scottish observe many traditions, but easily one of their most famous is first footing. According to Scottish beliefs, the first person who crosses through the threshold of your house after midnight on New Year’s Day should be a dark-haired male if you wish to have good luck in the coming year. Traditionally, these men come bearing gifts of coal, salt, shortbread, and whiskey, all of which further contribute to the idea of having good fortune.

The Netherlands: Chowing Down On Oliebollen. The reasoning behind this Dutch New Year’s Eve tradition is slightly odd, to say the least. Ancient Germanic tribes would eat these pieces of deep-fried dough during the Yule so that when Germanic goddess Perchta, better known as Perchta the Belly Slitter, tried to cut their stomachs open and fill them with trash (a punishment for those who hadn’t sufficiently partaken in yuletide cheer), the fat from the dough would cause her sword to slide right off. Today, oliebollen are enjoyed on New Year’s Eve, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a Dutch food vendor in the winter months who isn’t selling these doughnut-like balls.

Russia: Planting Underwater Trees. For the past 25 years or so, it has been a Russian holiday tradition for two divers, aptly named Father Frost and the Ice Maiden, to venture into a frozen Lake Baikal, the world’s largest freshwater lake, and take a New Year Tree—typically a decorated spruce—more than 100 feet below the surface. Though the temperature is normally well below freezing in Russia on New Year’s Eve, people travel from all over the world to partake in this frozen fête.

Brazil: Throwing White Flowers Into the Ocean. If you happen to be in Brazil for New Year’s Eve, don’t be surprised to find the oceans littered with white flowers and candles. In the South American country, it is commonplace for citizens to take to the shores on New Year’s Eve in order to make offerings to Yemoja, a major water deity who is said to control the seas, to elicit her blessings for the year to come.

The Presents Of The Past

Since we do not give or receive gifts for the holiday season, unlike in some countries, I was thinking about the other gifts that I have received over the years and the ones that stood out. I was thinking about this bike I got from my parents when I was 14 or 15. Back then, 1990 I think, which was something I really wanted. Street Cat, which was an Indian brand, was very popular at the time and their commercials were all over tv. I asked for it and I think for my birthday or maybe for New Year’s or something, I came back home from classes and saw the bicycle waiting for me.

One of my cousins who had come back from Singapore, where she was and still is staying, for a visit brought me some nice men’s cologne and shaving cream that she has selected just for me. A girlfriend of mine gave me a locket, which was made of ivory and something else which I can’t remember, that I absolutely loved and I wore it on my gold chain for a few years. Many years later, from one of my previous offices I was gifted a brass peacock, a large 3d image that you can use as a wall display of 2 parrots, a notebook/calendar and a teddy bear. I still have the first 2 and the 4th ite,.

Ofcourse over the years I have received many comic books and novels as gifts, many toys ofcourse from my uncles, aunts and parents for my birthdays. All were great to receive and were treasure.

Shawarma – The Food Of My Childhood Memories

One of the foods that I associate with my childhood and good times with family is shawarma. Kuboos, hummus, KFC as well but shawarama is up front and center in those memories. That with Coke or Pepsi and French fries. When I was growing up in Kuwait, my older sister, dad, mom would have family meals in front of the tv. Most weekends, my mom’s brother & his wife, and when my cousin was born, she too, would join us.

The exception was my aunt who has always been vegetarian. So she would have kuboos or buns with fallafel and French fries. We either sat around the table in our living room or at my uncle’s place. Meals times were special. We would usually watch a movie or some tv show that was fun at the time and enjoyed these special moments.

I remember when the shawarma craze first came to Cochin & Kerala. This was way back in the early 1990s and there was just that one place that served them – Kentucky Inn on the second floor of GCDA shopping complex on Marine Drive. They cost just Rs.10 and the portions were bigger. Pretty soon they were Rs.12 but the portions stayed the same. Then it was Rs.15, then Rs.20 and 3 or 4 years ago, when I started having them again, they were Rs.25. Smaller portions have been the norm since then but the price kept going up and now you can see them at Rs.120 to 190 depending on the place.

But they have never tasted any better than since my childhood.

Norwich City 0 Arsenal 5

Arsenal secured their fourth Premier League victory in a row as they ran out comfortable winners at Carrow Road and heaped more misery on bottom-of-the-table Norwich. Bukayo Saka opened the scoring after six minutes when he guided a low shot past Angus Gunn at the end of a slick Arsenal attack. The impressive Martin Odegaard, who teed up Saka’s opener, then sent Kieran Tierney through to score the away side’s second just before half-time. Saka added a fine third before Alexandre Lacazette’s penalty and substitute Emile Smith Rowe’s stoppage-time strike wrapped up a stress-free win for Mikel Arteta’s side.

The victory meant the Gunners maintained their six-point lead over fifth-placed Tottenham, while Norwich must regroup after a 12th defeat of the season. Canaries boss Dean Smith admitted he “didn’t see that coming” after watching his side go “toe-to-toe” in defeats by Manchester United and Aston Villa. The game marked two years since Arteta’s first in charge of the Gunners and the Spaniard can be pleased with where his side are ahead of Tuesday’s home encounter against Wolves. They were 11th and 14th after their Boxing Day games in 2019 and 2020 respectively, but have improved enough to suggest that a first top-four finish since 2016 is not beyond their capabilities.

Arsenal looked sharp from the start and were quickly rewarded when Tierney pounced on Ozan Kabak’s poor pass, allowing the visitors to string together a neat passing move involving Gabriel Martinelli, Lacazette and Odegaard that was finished off by Saka. Despite Arsenal’s dominance, Norwich looked as though they would get in at the break just one down before Martinelli’s enthusiasm to win the ball back allowed the Brazilian to find Odegaard in space, who put Tierney through to score via the woodwork. Saka rubbed salt into Norwich wounds when he beat Gunn from outside the box, and while the England attacker went off soon after, the Arsenal goals continued to flow as Lacazette slotted home a penalty after being fouled by Kabak before Smith Rowe netted for the fourth league game in a row.

In The Future People Will Travel By…

In the future people will travel by…

Spaceships. I have written about this before and I honestly belief that we will conquer leaving our planet and colonize other planets and moons and have huge settlements of humanity (plus our pets) living on these planets and moons. Also the spaceships in question would evolve so much thanks to technological advancements that they will resemble luxury 5 star hotels like the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D that you see in Star Trek TNG. And we would have smaller ships, the size of large mansions for families or smaller groups of people.

You will find that people will find it easy to travel between the planets and moons in various systems. In the futuristic world that I have created in my mind – and tried to put on paper with little success – humanity leave the earth behind and settle on 10 large planets and 7 moons in a distant star system in about 500-700 years from now. By the next couple of 1000 years all is peaceful and happy for us, as we have conquered hunger, thirst, homelessness long before we left the earth, crimes and fighting is a thing of the past and we have also no needed to work for money to pay for the things that we need, since replicators are common and easily available in every house and home. A very powerful forcefield also protects us from the elements outside our homes.

Self driving cars with in built protection means no accidents on the large roads we have built on these planets and moon. We have transported most of the wild life from the earth to a couple of the moons and the animals are able to live in large wild areas with human beings monitoring them from a distance and only interfering when the health or safety of an animal is in question. Just like how we have moved onto replicated meats and other food (we can still easily grow vegetables, fruits and grain enough for all our needs as well the needs for all animals) replicated meat is how we feed the animals.

Since humans are curious creatures, we also love to travel the galaxy and see other life and planets out there. As bigger ships are mainly used by the military-esque section of humanity and for larger groups, smaller ships can also be used for travel mainly between to and fro the nearer star systems where there are more human settlements, albeit in smaller groups. So you can be like visiting those star systems, planets and moons to see the sights, animals and visit the people who are living there temporarily or on assignment for scientific purposes of observation and study. When you want to travel further away, you have to book a suite on a larger ship that is headed to that area, enjoy your trip whether you are on your own, with family or just a few friends, and come back home.

Prompt from Lalilo December ’21 Writing Prompt Calendar at Lailo.com

Christmas During Covid 2021

This is just another day, just another Saturday in a long line of Saturdays. Since Christmas day this year falls on a Saturday, I don’t even get an extra day off. Which sucks because most places will close down for a few days during the end of the year but when you work for a BPO, which is 24 hrs a day, 365 days a week, you do not get a proper holiday season. That’s what you get for working in the customer care industry.

Anyways, I worked yesterday till 12:15 am and then watched some tv as I got into bed. I am enjoying this show called Law & Order : Organized Crime which is amazing by the way. by around 2:30 am I shut down the tv and switched the lights off and went to sleep. This morning I woke up around 10 am and then made two cups of coffee – one with milk and one black. I skipped breakfast and instead listened to some music and watched vlogs on travel and football.

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Then it was time for lunch which I had planned on getting a large pizza. P60 was the choice for the day and I also ordered 6 bbq chicken wings. I had 4 slices of the pizza and the wings for lunch and then watched Free Guy before taking an hour’s nap. By evening I was listening to more music, drank more coffee, had a chat with a couple of colleagues and then took a hot shower by 7pm. By 8: 30 I heated up my remaining 4 slices and ate my dinner. Now I am listening to podcasts and I will soon shoot a couple of movie reviews.

I also have some ice cream waiting for me so I better get to that quickly. The last two days have been tough due to the amount of mosquitoes that we’ve been getting in my area. I hate mosquitoes and the way they buzz in your ear and nose and bite you on your feet and ankles. Ugh! Anyway it has been a quiet and peaceful day. Tomorrow, may it be the same.

Online Shopper That I Am

Though I do buy a lot of things online, most of the time it’s smaller things. I also do buy some groceries online from Amazon Pantry or Grocery/Fresh like juice, coffee and chips at times but it has been a while since I have ordered anything other than coffee and things like shampoo, deodorant and shaving cream. I regularly order these last few things as I always seem to get a little offer on these items. Also, I started doing this long before it became easy to get most items on grocery delivery apps.

I also buy my underclothes, a few books, some stationary, sometimes scented candles (like these awesome vanilla latte scented candles I just bought along with a Harley Davidson style lighter) or small little things. I have this thing about coffee mugs and I usually look at getting some different ones here and there. I have recently got a Rs.1000 gift card from the office and I will be getting another Rs.2500 is coming in a few more days. I am looking at a few things, a shirt and maybe an electric body shaver to replace the old one that got defective.

I also want to look at that small table/display case for books which I really like. I think I will get either the shirt plus the razor or get the microphone for my computer that I was looking at. If I have some money left over then I might get another coffee mug, LOL!

Holiday Season Dessert Dishes : A Yule Log

A Yule log or bûche de Noël is a traditional Christmas cake, often served as a dessert near Christmas, especially in France, Belgium, Switzerland, and several former French colonies such as Canada, Vietnam, and Lebanon. Variants are also served in the United States, United Kingdom, Portugal, and Spain. Made of sponge cake, to resemble a miniature actual Yule log, it is a form of sweet roulade. The cake emerged in the 19th century, probably in France, before spreading to other countries. It is traditionally made from a genoise, generally baked in a large, shallow Swiss roll pan, iced, rolled to form a cylinder, and iced again on the outside. The most common combination is basic yellow sponge cake and chocolate buttercream, though many variations that include chocolate cake, ganache, and icings flavored with espresso or liqueurs exist.

Ingredients
For the Filling:
For the Sponge Cake:
For the Ganache Frosting:

Directions

Instructions:

Weird Laws In California

  1. Women are not allowed to drive a motor vehicle while wearing a housecoat.
  2. It is illegal to hunt any game while in a moving vehicle except whaling. However, whaling is also illegal.
  3. No vehicle without a driver may exceed 60 miles an hour. But what’s this mean for self-driving cars?
  4. In Eureka, men with mustaches cannot kiss a woman. A local razor company must’ve been ecstatic when this came into play.
  5. In San Francisco, it is illegal to have a pet bear, gorilla, crocodile, or any other wild animal. This is already state law, so it looks like San Francisco needed to be extra clear about it.
  6. Luckily this law was thrown out in 2012, but before then, no frisbees or footballs were allowed to be used in Los Angeles Beaches without lifeguard permission.
  7. Carmel is home to some of the strangest laws, including this old one, that made it illegal to stand on the sidewalk with ice cream. It was created to keep the streets clean and luckily repealed by Past Mayor Clint Eastwood.
  8. Also, in Carmel, women are required to have a permit to wear heels more than 2 inches in height. This law was authored to defend the city from lawsuits over accidents happening on the irregular pavement, although local police don’t cite any violations.
  9. Thinking about washing your neighbor’s car? In Los Angeles, it is illegal to do so without their permission.
  10. In San Francisco and Long Beach, it is illegal to store anything other than automobiles in a garage. It’s a law that frequently gets broken.

Heated Floors : Comfort & Luxury For Your Feet & Toes

In a colder climate, if there’s one thing that floor heating is, it’s luxurious. It is a popular option to install heated floors in a city like Ottawa. It would be difficult to find someone who is unimpressed by the comfort of a heated floor. That’s because heated floors are known for their upscale appeal.

Are heated floors expensive?

Radiant floor heating cost will range from $10 – $12 per square foot— or about $600 for a typical remodeling project. This price per square foot for electric floor heating elements can go up to $30 for custom underfloor heating mats or down to $5 for large projects using floor heating cables and fixing strips.

Do heated floors use a lot of electricity?

If you’ve ever wondered, “Do heated floors use a lot of electricity?”, the answer is: less than you would think. In reality, a radiant heating system for a small bathroom uses about the same amount of energy as a freezer.

How long do heated floors last?

With proper care and maintenance, a floor heating system can last up to 35 years. It can save money, too. Radiant floor heating warms a room from the floor up. As a result, most people will feel more comfortable with their thermostat set at a lower temperature.

How does Radiant Floor Heating Work?

Traditional heating systems heat the air, which then warms up the people in the room. Radiant heating systems work by directly warming the people and objects in a room. How warm do heated floors get? The floor temperature can be set as high as 104° F but users will typically set it to a more comfortable range of between 80° F and 85° F and control it from a thermostat from there. This type of heating often feels like the warmth of the sun, because radiant heat warms via heat radiation. This allows people to feel warm even when the ambient (air) temperature in the room is actually cooler. It’s the same concept as standing in direct sunlight vs. standing in the shade.