January, where did it go?

This blog needs an overhaul and I haven’t had time to do it. I really want to change the template and put some time into it but various distractions in life have so far kept me from doing so. This past Christmas and New Years were quite busy for me. I spent some time in London and then spent New Years in Berlin. My parents soon visited from Canada after I got back to Dublin and therefore the first week of January was largely spent with showing them around town.

The month of January also seems to have passed me by rather quickly. I started going back to the gym after work which takes up considerable time. I have been busy researching and planning a road trip to Andalusia. The plan is to fly to Marbella and drive to Ronda, Seville, Cordoba, Granada and back to Marbella within 5 days. I leave on the 5th of February. I recently bought a Nikon D90 and I’ve been busy trying to learn it’s feature in whatever spare time I have left over from my other responsibilities. I have also been trying to involve myself with other activies that interest me. I have been exploring Dublin and will write about some of the interesting things that I found in the near future. This past weekend I attended an inspirational talk by Hajo Meyer. He is a survivor of the holocaust and spent some time in Auschwitz. He spoke of Isreali attrocities in Gaza and how the issue of holocause has been hijacked for political movites of the state.

The year has barely begun and I have already seen some fantastic films. The first good movie that I saw this year was ‘The Road’. I felt drained and emotionally exhausted from it. I then saw George Clooney’s ‘Up in the Air’ which deals with the selfish and self serving but emotinally shallow corporate culture of our times. The film cleverly hightlights how corporations use and discard employees while creating a false sense of concern and care for people. People are deluded into a sense of belonging but they are easily dispensed when the need arises. Employees sometimes forget that the ultimate but perhaps not so obvious goal of a corporation is to increase profits and a corporation will attempt to take any measures to achieve that goal. I really liked how the film delivered the message without being pretentious or didactic. Last week I saw ‘A Prophet’ or ‘Un Prophete’ which turned out to be one of the best crime films that I have seen in a long time. Directed by Jacques Audiard and starring Tahar Rahim, this French prison drama is quite the tour de force. Finally, I saw ‘Two Brother’s’ last Sunday which was quite mediocre but not disappointing either.

I read ‘Duende’ by Jason Webster in Janaury and also read parts of ‘Adalucia: A Cultural History’ by John Gill. Duende is a must read for those who have an interest in Flamenco and since it happends to be one of my favorite types of music, I really enjoyed reading it. Yet it’s not just a book about music but also about the experiences of the author living in various parts of Andalusia and discussing the culture and history of the region. I have just begun reading the awfully interesting ‘The Last Jews of Kerala’ by Edna Fernandes.

I got the CISM exam results and I passed by a good margin. I should start to study for the GMAT exam as I intend to enroll in an MBA program but right now I feel the need to relax and take a break from studies. The only thing that’s really on my mind these days is Andalusia. I guess the blog refurbishment will have to wait until I come back.