Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Wild thoughts of MiM! - Part 2

Some wild thoughts running through me...part 2

Being politically correct!

What would you say to your host when you visit their rest room and it smells mucky, yucky and what not?

Well you could say a lot of things...but to be politically correct you will have to say the following...

Your rest room is full of character / your rest room oozes out character / your rest room smells of vintage character [amidst breathlessness and heavy breath (may be even wrap a hand kerchief over your nose)]

Wild Thoughts - Part 1

m.I.m

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Pictures at Wikipedia

Have contributed some pictures to Wikipedia...three cheers to Wikipedia...Wikipedia and Google are currently big time life lines...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Eye

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Eye#Photo_gallery

The beauty of the London Eye at night.




Dense cloud cover over the London Eye in summer



The entire picture set can be found in the below link
MiM_PHOTOGRAPHY

m.I.m

Monday, November 10, 2008

Windsor Castle and Oxford

Had been to a 1000 year old castle - Windsor castle this weekend for a day visit. A few of us from office rented a car and off we went in a Vauxhall Vectra to visit the Castle, in Windsor in the county of Berkshire. It is the largest inhabited castle in the world and is the oldest in continuous occupation.We were surprised to know that the castle's floor area is approximately 484,000 square feet hmm pretty spacious. It is really a place to see with the grand interiors and great architecture and grandiose designs. Were fortunate to spot a few Indian crowns, swords and artifacts from India. The doll rooms and the palace insides are marvelous, words just cant describe them nor pictures as photography is banned in the insides of the palace to preserve the old art and other designs.
For more details click here

Must do activity in Windsor are

1) Take a tour of the Windsor Castle - The castle takes about 3-4 hours on a average.
http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/default.asp?action=article&ID=34

2) St Georges Chapel - The chapel is very beautiful and can be visited with the same ticket of the castle.
http://www.stgeorges-windsor.org/

3) Guard Change - Try catching the guard change, happens on particular dates and only if the weather permits.
http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/default.asp?action=article&ID=34

4) Eton College

5) Royal - Windsor Great Park

Windsor Castle

Outside Windsor Castle

St George Chapel


Guard Change


From Windsor we drove down to Oxford, the only place where the Thames river is called The Isis. Oxford has always been a term well heard surrounding the heights of education, well the University of Oxford, which is one of the earliest universities in the English speaking world (around the 12th century). Oxford is a nice old town with grand buildings and many places to visit and roam around for a day. We had food at pizza hut or must I say pasta hut, I had some Pasta with Arrabiata Sauce and chicken breasts and yummy nachos. We then walked around the high street and then we had a funny goof up with our gps, it lead us into small lanes and then finally into a dead end and it was a pain turning and getting out...finally we parked and we went to the Christ Church College, the famous place where the harry potter series was shot and must the entire place / dining hall was too good. Then we visited their Cathedral and did some shopping and walked down to the high street to visit Carfax tower, University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Radiffe camera, University of Oxford, Queens college, Trinity collage and finally some shopping at westgate plaza and we were off on our way back home...60 minutes later back in Guildford and few minutes later cosyly settled at home....

For more info click here
For more info on the University click here

Must do activity in Oxford are

1) Christ Church Tour
http://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/

2) Carfax Tower

3) Radiffe Camera

4) University Church of St Mary the Virgin

5) Sheldonian Theatre

etc etc...


Carfax Tower-----------------------------------Oxford High Street



Christ College Church-------------------------------Cathedral


Christ College Church(Hogwarts Hall)-------------------------Radiffe Camera


Happy travelling.

Update 27/12/2008: Free ticket to Windsor Castle??? If you have visited Windsor Castle before, you need to get a get a form stamped and take that with the ticket of the last time, you will get a free entry the next time. This is valid for a year.

The entire picture set can be found in the below link
MiM_PHOTOGRAPHY


m.I.m

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Quantum of Solace - need some solace indeed


Quantum of Solace released in the UK, Paris and Sweden earlier than the US or around the world, a week earlier to gain some better ratings. Daniel Craig as usual portrays the human bond factor better than ever, though he kills anybody who moves in front of him mercilessly.

Quantum of Solace one of the first ever close sequels to the previous bond movie (Casino Royale) was a story written and planned when the shooting of Casino Royale was already underway. This one has none of the standard bond gadgets which disappoints majorly for the gadget fans and the techy viewers. The theme music and the opening score don’t get you too involved and is not something that you will remember and hum on your way back home. It was supposed to be done by Amy Winehouse who had to be replaced as she was unwell. Quantum of Solace is the shortest ever bond movies running for about 106 minutes.

Quantum of Solace broke some records in the UK, the highest opening ever at 8 million $ on the opening Friday the 31st of October with the England royals gracing the inaugural opening show hmm a grand royal opening indeed. Quantum of Solace which has attracted attention over its entire period of making with suspicions of voodoo haunting as many of their star technicians and stunt masters have been hurt many a times. For those who think Bond movies are just about music, some action and gadgets you are wrong it’s a pretty tough period of difficult shooting, grandiose sets and tough stunts. Craig as he said at the launch of the shooting "I'm going to get hurt in January - just after filming on his second outing as 007 had commenced and after nine grueling months Craig has his right arm in a sling after a shoulder operation, having also severed his fingertip and had eight stitches in his face after being accidentally kicked by one of his co-stars. This is the just a small example of work that goes into these movies and the hard work that they put in for us to have 2 hours of thrilling entertainment.

Though Quantum of Solace might be the shortest bond movie ever it packs maximum locations (ever in a single bond movie) where the movie was shot, and must add many locations look very beautiful.

Fleming wrote only 12 Bond novels and eight short stories before his death in 1964, and this one is based vaguely on a short story, the other bond movies have spanned a period over 46 years. This movie is more of personal vendetta where Bond goes on to avenge his earlier lover’s murderer who poses as an environmentalist and planning several coups in several countries and is assisted by Olga Kurylenko who wants to avenge her dads murder.
Nice fight sequences but nothing to keep you to keep gripping your seat in tension nor nothing to remember as you get back home. A nice entertainer to while away some time.

Wait till the next bond movie comes out in 2010 ...a long wait for the bond fans...



Courtesy, reviews and more info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_of_Solace
http://www.007.com/#/about-the-film/story
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,445948,00.html
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1855662,00.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7694048.stm


m.I.m

http://minmaxmim.blogspot.com/2006/12/ian-fleming-published-on-1953.html

The other Craig Daniel movie to watch out for : Defiance - a world war II movie based on a true story - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defiance_(2008_film)