First gold medal for India in Beijing 2008

India has won gold medal after 28 years.. Thanks to Abinav Bindra from Chandigarh! He has won the gold medal in 10m air rifle shooting event. Abinav is also the first ever Indian individual to win a gold in Olympic in 108 years!

Indians all over the world are rejoicing his win! Congrats Abinav! You made us proud!

Australia: Time Zones and Daylight Saving

Australia has 3 different time zones :

1. Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) : UTC + 10 hours

Queensland(QLD) , New South Wales (NSW), Victoria (VIC), Australian Capital Territory(ACT), Tasmania (TAS)

2. Australian Central Standard Time (ACST): UTC + 9.5 hours

Northern Territory(NT), South Australia,(SA) Broken Hills- NSW

3. Australian Western Standard Time (AWST): UTC + 8 hours

Western Australia(WA)

DAYLIGHT SAVING

Except Queensland and Northern Territory, all other states in Australia observe Daylight saving. Relevant State Government Authority (which can vary between states) is responsible for managing Daylight Saving Time.

Daylight saving starts from late spring (late October) and lasts till early autumn(end of March). The start and end date of it can differ from State to State. For 2007-2008, for NSW,ACT,VIC and SA the daylight savings started on 28/Oct/07 and ended on 6/Mar/08.

At the start of the daylight saving, the clocks are advanced by an hour. Normally it takes place at 0200 Local Standard Time on the day concerned.

At the end of the daylight saving, the clocks are put back an hour and that happens at Local Time 0300 on the day concerned.

When daylight saving is observed, the 'Standard' time becomes 'Daylight' time (also called Summer time or Daylight saving time)

1. Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT) : UTC +11 hours

New South Wales, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory, Tasmania

2. Australian Central Daylight Time (ACDT): UTC +10.5 hours

South Australia, Broken Hills- NSW

3. Australian Western Daylight Time (AWDT): UTC +9 hours

Western Australia

World Youth Day 2008 - Sydney

The week long 'World Youth Day 08' celebrations started in Sydney on 15July. With Pope Benedict XVI  and hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in Sydney, the city became lively like never before. Wearing colourful  costumes, waving their national flags, singing carols, playing musical instruments and carrying banners the pilgrims made this event special.

 

 

For History Buffs , 'World Youth Day' was initially started by Pope John Paul II in 1986(at Rome). Purpose of the celebrations were to bring the youth Catholics together and reinforce their faith and confidence. The Catholic church organizes these events now once in every 2,3 years at an international location. 

PAPAL MOTORCADE

Highlights of the WyD08 were the Papal motorcade and Pilgrimage Walk.  On Thursday people thronged to the harbour and city to see Pope on his Boat-a-cade & motorcade.  Pope waved past the crowd with a smile, who were giving him a rock star welcome. 

 

PILGRIMAGE WALK - HARBOUR BRIDGE

The pilgrimage walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to the Randwick Racecourse on Saturday was one event to remember. After the walk the pilgrims had to spend the night under the open sky in Randwick Racecourse. But nobody seemed to mind the below 10 degree temperature in the night.

As with any event, there were some anti-pope demonstrations but they did so without disturbing the spirit of the pilgrims. Neither the media nor Pope ignored the couple who were victims of church and fighting for justice. And there were a few touching moments as well. The last wish of one patient fighting for a long time with cancer was to meet Pope. Hearing that Pope took time to fulfil his wish. Incidentally the person had his last breath two days later.

WYD08 came to an end with a final mass by Pope. It was time for the pilgrims to go back home. So they did carrying with them not only the WYD merchandise & memorabilia but also some wonderful memories.

For more information: http://www.wyd2008.org/

Soloman Pappaya in Sydney

Soloman Pappaya and his group were in Sydney last sunday 22nd June.
The pattimandram title was ' Thirumanam inipadhu 25-ila, 65-ila'...
Bharati Bhaskar, Ramachandran (25il)
Rama Soundaravalli, (Shivaji Pughazh) Raja (65-il)

Titbits..

>> The mayor and thunai mayor of Ryde inaugurated the function and gave a speech.. and said vanakam and all.. :-)

>> There was a Bharathanatyam program.. and one person who danced is an Australian. It was interesting to watch him dance for a tamil song (Aanandha nadanam aadinar) .. ore claps

>> It seems when Soundaravalli mam was passing through the metal detector it kept beeping even after removing jewelry and all that. Then they found that the silk saree she was wearing had pure gold jari.. and that has set the metal detector go wild .. :-)

>> It was Bharathi Baskar's birthday that day and one of the organizers found that from her passport and arranged a birthday cake .. surprise .. surprise..

>> In spite of the chill weather they all came in traditional dress veshti, sattai and saree.. and literally shivering in the stage. The organizers then had to switch on the heaters and it took sometime for them to settle down.. but still Soloman pappaya could keep the audience entertained with his humorous speech..

>> As always the comedy battle and the opponents pulling each other's legs made the audience roar with laughter..

Overall it was very nice evening.. it was as if we were in Chennai but with the climate of Ooty...

Though the one thing I missed is the smell of jasmine flowers !!!

Yummy Banana Bread Recipe!!

I didn't actually think that 'Banana Bread' had bananas in them... honest. But of course it was tasting so good, I had to search for the recipe in the Internet and found a good one in taste.com.au. I was determined to bake it at home and it came out really well. We loved it.

A slice of banana bread costs around AUD3.50.. and the cost of making a loaf at home was not even AUD5.0. The smell of freshly baked bread filling the room on a chilly winter day.. priceless :-)

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/3118/banana+bread

Dasavadharam

Watched Dasavadharam yesterday.. overall I did'nt like the movie..too much of violence and an unappealing storyline.. :-( a few characters were totally wasted.. for example the female characterizations were so dissappointing.. songs and BG music did'nt live upto all those hype.. 'mukundha mukundha' was o.k.. KSRavikumar,Himesh - 'thums down' :-(

Its a movie which you would'nt want to watch it with the family. Kids might not like it either.. if they like it..well start worrying.

But I did'nt mind watching the movie once for the 10 amazing disguises of Kamal.. :-)
Not only did he modify the face.. he has done a wonderful job changing his body language, his voice and his accent to suit those characters he had disguised himself into... an excellence that he mastered in Avvai Shanmugi & Aboorva Sagodharargal is taken to the next level.. another surprising aspect is the modification inthe physique of those characters.. I would leave it to you to figure that out when you watch the movie..

And one character that brought life to the movie and few laughs is the telugu-guy working in chennai airport.. watch out for him...to me he is the best.. ;-)