Mango Lassi recipe

Here's the recipe of my home made mango lassi. This drink is very popular in the North Indian states especially Punjab and I developed a love for this drink during my undergraduate days in Himachal Pradesh.

It's really easy to make. Normally it is made using fresh dahi (whole milk yogurt with live culture). Unfortunately as I don't have dahi, I have to make do with yogurt sold in Tesco in packs.

Ingredients (for 4 people)

• 1 mango chopped
• 100ml Mango juice
• 250 g yogurt ( I have used Tesco Light Greek Style Yogurt)
  
• 1 tbsp Sugar

Add all the ingredients together and mix



I added the mango juice as using only yogurt makes the lassi too thick.



Finally we have delicious Mango Lassi ready to be gulped down.

First commentator
Babypink

A plant to brighten up the bathroom

Our bathroom was looking a bit dull and as I was cleaning it up this Friday, I decided that maybe I should introduce a plant to the room, just to brighten it up a little.

This is Flaming Katy, a Kalanchoe. This succulent needs little care and is long-flowering. Just ideal for the bathroom and it cost me only 98p from B & Q.



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BMW's new marketing direction

BMW TV is today launching it's expanded IPTV offering online globally following the successful two-year beta-phase at http://bmw-web.tv/. According to a report I received, their German webpage and its international site registered a total of more than 70 million video views.

They plan to roll out thirteen other local-language websites shortly.

In case you were not aware, they also have an official BMW YouTube Channel. This is all part of their move to attract online consumers.

Check out this "teaser" clip of their new concept car featuring what they call BMW EfficientDynamics technology. I put teaser inside quotes because it's kind of funny. You only get to see the tail lights for a few seconds.

Ikea the supermarket

Last week I was leaving the office when I met a friend. He was so surprised when I told him that I was going to the Ikea Coventry store to have lunch with my wife and son. "Are you sure?" he asked.

He is looking forward to visiting the restaurant on his first ever trip soon.


My son fell asleep in the shopping trolley during a recent trip to the Coventry store.


Anyway, most people still see Ikea as a furniture store but strangely we rarely buy furniture though we are regulars at the store. Most of the time, we usually go to eat there but we do end up buying something or the other - a picture frame, candles, rugs or even plants. This may be de to the fact that we don't change furniture that often.

They have also started selling luggage, books, electrical equipment and even soap. In the future we may actually see Ikea transformed into something like Marks and Spencer (another favourite store of ours) selling everything from food and clothes to furniture and electrical equipment.

First Commentator:
Lynne

Visit to the Falkirk Wheel

More pictures from our trip to Edinburgh some time back.

One of our friends recommended that we visit the Falkirk wheel near Edinburgh. Driving, it took us nearly 50 minutes to get there from Edinburgh. It is a great engineering feat connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal and is named after the nearby town.


View of the wheel





We got into the boat which was then moved to the docking-pit. We were then slowly lifted to the union canal on the top.



Celtic inspired design




Inside the boat


The wheel was built by Butterly engineering which have now sadly gone out of business like so many companies in the UK.





It was a short ride on the canal and back down again to the basin and my daughter thought it was boring. She was more excited playing at the small playground near the wheel.

In the auto car wash for the first time

We were getting a bit bored stuck at home and decided to go out for lunch at the city centre today. After a heavy meal at Nando's we were on our way back when my wife noticed that our son was dozing off and asked me to drive around a bit so that he could go to sleep as he usually does. However, after several minutes he was still awake and we decided to get our car washed.

It's been ages since I had it washed and it was filthy looking. We drove to the Tesco car wash at the Arena park. Their cheapest rate is only £1.99 but I decided to go for the £6 package with wax and stuff.

After we got into the wash, we were pleasantly surprised when the car was sprayed with blue and pink foam.




See the look on my son's face.


Both anxious and excited at the same time. Not surprising after all it was his first time in a car wash.



To be honest, it was my first time as well. My wife was shocked when I told her that I have never gone into a car wash. I have personally avoided car washes all this time because I have heard so many horror stories of machines scratching the cars.

In the end, realised that I was scared for nothing and the car is now sparking clean. It's faster and more importantly, much cheaper than my usual car wash.

Will definitely be going back again.

Blogger and I

Recently found out that Blogger turns 10 next month. It made me think about my blogging experiences and how it has changed my life. I had actually forgotten but after checking out my first post, I discovered that I am also going to celebrate six long years of blogging very soon as well.

I had been following various blogs and commenting on them for quite sometime when one fine day in the September of 2003, I started my own blog with Blogger and wrote my very first post . And as they say, the rest is history.

In the beginning it was more of a hobby and I used to post anonymously. I just used my nick name and a profile picture of me snorkelling in Redang.



I made a lot of blogger friends from all around the World, some of whom are still blogging while others have simply disappeared without a trace. Many of my old blogging pals have since then moved onto Wordpress and their own domains, while I stuck with good old Blogger. I have seen a lot of positive changes since Google took over blogger and I guess my decision to stick with Blogger has been the right choice.

Later on, I gradually lost my anonymity and started posting up pictures of myself, friends and family. It also became a place for friends and family to find out what I had been doing all the time.

The year 2006 was a landmark year in my life. I took the very huge decision to quit my comfy lecturing job at a public university in Malaysia and moved to the UK. I was a stay-at-home dad for a year -changing diapers, cooking and hoovering among others while my wife was away at the university. As I was looking after the kids, I couldn't go and get a job outside the house. Was really frustrating, depending on the meagre allowance that my wife received. One of the lowest points in my life.

As they say, necessity is the mother of invention, I noticed that other people were making money from their blogs (at least that was what they were saying), I decided to give it a go.

Becoming a full time blogger changed my life entirely - I started several other blogs with focussed themes including my car blog - Auto Lah, Freebies - on free stuff on the net and my technology and gadget blog - Adamok.net. I was also blogging more frequently, sometimes making as many as 7 posts in a day on various blogs.

Being able to contribute to the household expenditure did a great deal for my self-confidence. In the process, I started dabbling with CSS, web site design and search engine optimisation. This later helped me secure a part time job as a web developer in one of the centres in the University of Warwick. Web advertising projects followed. Since then I have worked with various companies including 3 mobilebuzz and bmw-web.tv among others.

Blogging has been a wonderful experience and quite rewarding as well. However, more was yet to come. In 2008, my PhD proposal to the Warwick Business School to study the attitude of consumers towards blogs was accepted and I received a scholarship as well.

I am now about to start the 3rd year of my study and have discovered so many interesting aspects about this wonderful online interactive media. I still have some way to go before I complete my research. One thing is certain though - I will still be involved in this intellectual cyberspace which we call the blogosphere in one way or the other.

First Commentator
Daddypapersurfer