TIA

TIA - This is Africa..
Finally I sat down and saw the movie BLOOD DIAMOND after hearing so much about it... I was so rivetted to the tv while watching this movie... making you think about the atrocities brought upon in many African countries by any kind of wealth, the corrupt governments, civil wars and lack of peace.... I couldn't help but shed a tear or two for all those people who die in such civil wars throughout the ages in Africa due to power struggle and civil wars and when you see those refugee camps and the children carrying guns, you really want to scream and shout.. somebody please help them... but what can you do.. send a cheque or cry for them... one can only hope that sanity prevails and these people find their peace.. and you realise that at the back of your mind that you are very lucky not to be there in their situations and you proably never want to go there and witness such a scene...

Makes you wonder... Are diamonds really worth so many people's lives and their freedom.. and so does oil or drugs or any other thing that makes people so greedy that gets them to kill their fellow beings ??

Quite a poignant movie.. If nothing atleast an eye opener... Do watch if you haven't watched it before...

Some quotes that stuck to my head:

Sometimes I wonder... will God ever forgive us for what we've done to each other? Then I look around and I realize... God left this place a long time ago

You come here with your laptop computers, your malaria medicine and you little bottles of hand sanitizer and think you can change the outcome, huh? ..

My new board...

With my new born craze for snow boarding antics, i started looking to buy a snow board pack and found it quite expensive 500-600 $ and more... so i started looking out for used boards on the internet and look what i found... A nice K2 snow board and bindings (almost my size) fully intact with my size of boots... all for 600 NOKs ~ 120$... Its a deal.. Its a steal.. Although the seller said hes used it few years, it still looks quite neat and needs just a little bit of touch-up... Guess i would take her out for a spin hopefully next weekend if theres more snow... expect a few falls, few bruises... I am ok with that as long as i can confidently go down the slope properly turning both ways... just waiting for more snow now.. :)

boarding on snow...

It is such a great feeling to be able to go down the hill on a snowboard... the rush you get when you go down the hill fast enough to feel the speed.. its just amazing.. ... It looks so cool when you see an expert do it on tv .. and it feels cooler when you actually try it yourself.. 2 years back when i tried for the first time, i fell down so many times and had a few horrible falls which made me think i will never try this again in my life... i took a lesson this year and it made so much difference that I got the courage to try it again and this time i managed to go down the hill 7 times in a day and i was so proud of myself.. just the feeling of acheiving something which you thought you were never going to succeed.. its just a great feeling... and the fact that if you continue doing this you can actually be good in something is also great... anyway... long story short... it just feels amazing. to be able to spray the snow all over and sometimes even get it all over your face when you fall down... i should thank my friend for letting me borrow his board... maybe thats my next target.. buy a good board and wait for more snow and give it a go again... better to try it on fresh snow which cushions your falls than hard compacted snow which is too fast when you have little control over the board... :)