A Weekend of Themes

Friday: Disappointment Night

~ Dinner at a much-hyped Thai restaurant called Erawan of Siam. Started off well - the decor was wonderful, appetizer was great. And then dinner arrived. My Jumbo Rainbow, ordered because of the temptation to try chilli plum sauce, was nothing but steamed veggies with no trace of sauce. Thai Iced Tea left a strange taste in my throat. Sarwar's dish was unnecessarily spicy with no other flavor. Overall - highly disappointing.

~ Watched The Namesake. Decent performances all around, but not a very gripping or well-directed film, which is unsurprising since the book wasn't gripping either (I found Jhumpa Lahiri's entire treatise on the Indian immigrant experience very hypothesized and stylized, as if this is how she "thinks" it would be like to be an immigrant, rather than the story being born of any personal experience or any credible, nuanced insight into the experience) and Mira Nair has never directed a "Inspired by the Book" movie before so one can't expect it to be good. The film was definitely more bearable than the book because the anguish was very diluted and Tabu is always a pleasure to watch, but overall - very easily missable.

Saturday: Do-Something-New Day

~Finally overcame my fear and drove into Boston. Was quite exciting to be behind the wheel again after so many weeks, and actually parked 3 or 4 times without a problem :D

~Wandered around Brookline, stopped for long periods in good bookstores and snacked on a Dulce De Leche crepe at Paris Creperie :D

~Sarwar was feeling creative and decided to bake a Pineapple Upside Down Cake. Eventually became a joint effort in the interest of time, but all kudos goes to him :D







~ Watched The Departed. What a fantastic film, classic Scorsese! Though it's fairly bloody and violent, the drama unfolds beautifully and each character is so well-portrayed. The ending, especially, is just phenomenal. Highly recommended.

Sunday: Other People Day

~Had brunch with some friends, tea with more friends - both long and noisy affairs.

~Watched two new episodes of Planet Earth on Discovery HD. This stuff is amazing. It's not just a documentary, these cameras go into the hidden corners of the earth and show you worlds never encountered and things never recorded or seen by the human eye. The shots are magnificently breathtaking, the story-telling compelling without being intrusive, and just the HD... this series alone is worth buying an HD TV for. Highly recommended.

Overall, a good and busy weekend! :)