Indian Cooking without condiments, well, cannot be called Cooking; anything without the flavors of Vinegar and Soya Sauce, Chillies and Chilli powder, garlic, Ginger paste, Pepper, Garam Masala, Turmeric Powder (that adds the color) is not good food/good cooking sense

I can’t live without my masalas. If nothing else black pepper HAS to be added. True, life without condiments is unimaginable.

Tecra is amazing with built in Wi-Fi. Just got a Vaio myself a couple of hours back :) My first laptop. Amazingly cool. A friend is setting up wi-fi in college soon so that should be cool with a wi-fi card. Am making your aloo gobi tomorrow for my mum! Lets hope that turns out decent. :)

Sat: well said indeed!

Amrita: yes - I didn’t mention the built in WiFi since for me this has been the norm for the last 3 years. WiFi at the office - and WiFi at home. My last three laptops had WiFi - Ms.79s laptop has WiFi - even our XBOX has WiFi! My next-door neighbour’s kids also use my WiFi when they need to do a big download from Internet. (They don’t have DSL.) Just like we cannot eat/cook without condiments - we cannot be tech-happy at work or home without WiFi!

Check out a report I did nearly a year ago on getting my new Psion NetBook working at home: http://www.jag.me.uk/misc/netbook/ - there are some shots of my “comms” rack in my bedroom - and you can also get a better picture of my home network architecture at: http://inside.minhas.org.uk/netarch.htm - enjoy the pics at the bottom of the latter page!

I don’t condiment as much as I used to. England has a way of dulling down my cooking, although it must be said that I’ve re-discovered my steamer and so have been eating a lot of plain steamed veg of late.

Still, couldn’t live without the odd dash of Susie’s or Tabasco or a handful of fresh coriander. I’d say mint sauce as well, but we over-did it last Sunday lunch and have gone off it now…

Oh, and hot dogs aren’t quite right with Colemans, imo - they do need the slightly sweeter American gloop. ;-)

Yeah - you are probably right Lisa re hot dogs - the American gloop is squeezed on in thick trail over the top of the hot dog - but with Colman’s you don’t do that unless you want your head blown off! Instead, with Colman’s you spread inside of finger roll with mustard - a bit more sparingly.

Ahhh: fresh coriander and mint sauce. There is a home-made sauce/dip/chutney that I will post up sometime whhich I’m sure you will love - uses fresh coriander and mint leaf as well as apple and onion. When I was young - my Dad and I used to make this every weekend from those ingredients that we used to grow in our back garden!

Oh - and thanks for the ref to Susie’s sauce - I had never heard about that before - and now I have found her website: http://www.susieshotsauce.com

Habanero and Scotch Bonnet pepper sauces! Me thinks I’ll get some of those …

Wow your home network is even better than my college! Well college can be equivalent to your home..one teensy building with no campus or canteen.

And the Netbook is amazing :) Am yet on the lowest rung of the tech-gadgets ladder. :)

Wi-Fi has just landed in India..gonna take sometime to get big.

You have a network that would put any decent office in India to shame. You put that all by yourself. Way to go - they must have costed a lot.
And is your house nettled with wires?

BTW are you providing any domain hosting service - you have webserver and all.?

Hi Sat - yes I put that all myself - it’s not really that much you know. Didn’t cost much more than what one would normally have at home anyway: A very large proportion of UK has Satellite TV piped to one or two outlets in home. From there I just plug into a Tivo (PVR - OK so I am prob an early adopter with that) - and I also have a CCTV system for security (also out of curiosity) - so that leaves the wireless phones, ADSL and WiFi - which is also very popular over here. Then I also got myself a firewall and web server - but because these boxes are in my bedroom - they have no moving parts - i.e. they are solid state so don’t make any noise. The webserver is a Cisco Microwebserver - and is a rare prototype that they only made for a few months in 1997! They gave me it all that time ago and it still works! (It has a ZIP drive for loading content - which is cached in memory.)

If you think what I have is complex - then I wonder what you would have thought of the setup at my old house. At this house I decided to cut down on computers in the house - but at my old house I had servers everywhere! I was even wanting to get hold of a “cheap” atomic clock - and was prepared to fly all the way to Moscow a few years ago to buy one - but Ms.79 persuaded me not to! Pity - because I wanted to run my own stratum 1 time server! These days you can just use GPS .… anyway I should be working right now …

my mum would be shocked. Why? Because you’re meant to make all your pickles and chutneys at home.. all home made! shame on you jag!

Oops! Well - we normally make a mint chutney at home - but if for achaar: well we’ve always bought this - either in a jar (as in Rajah or Pataks) - or from the big white bins at VB’s. And since there are many thousands like me who do this - how can it be that you’re supposed to make it at home? Perhaps I need your mum to explain to me how to make it home-made!

Actually - i think you’re right though - ‘cos my Aunt turns her nose up at the stuff in jars - she makes her own - and she always brings some over to our house when she visits!

Wow! Very clear photo and well lit for an indoor shot. Are you using any software for yr digital images? We are debating if it wd be worthwhile to get Photoshop Elements or MS PictureIt, thot I wd ask for yr expert opinion…thank u! BTW, the techie comments above just went over my head.

Oh my god. Perhaps that is what I would call the digital divide. I cant even think of having a laptop, let alone a webserver; things are way too costly here (due to the high tax on electronic items); the only way to get many “hot” items is to please some relative living in Singapore or the USA to bring it along with them when they grace the shores of India.
I read an article that states that UK has a lot of CCTV penetration - not in households, but in public places - you noticed any recently?

Hi Ritu - yes I’m using Photoshop Elements. I have to admit that I haven’t used MS PictureIt so cannot really compare - but Photoshop Elements is very good. It came free with my scanner - and is very powerful - but also easy to use for the simple stuff. The picture I took of the jars in the cupboard was taken with my new camera (see a few postings previously) - and when I put it into Photoshop there was really not much that needed doing apart from cropping and re-sizing! With my old camera I had to do sharpening, colour balancing and lots more - but with my new one it just produces excellent quality pics.

Hi Sat - CCTV in UK is EVERYWHERE. It is very noticeable too. I think I read somewhere very recently that in some places you can be imaged on up to 300 different camera per day.

My typical journey to work:

• Walk to bus stop - no cameras.
• Get on bus - cam on bottom deck near driver. Flash my ticket - go upsatirs to top deck - 2 cams upstairs.
• Bus route goes through streets with police CCTV cams monitoring the roads. I’ve counted at least 6 on Wembley High Road - very powerful ones.
• Bus goes through Ealing Road - probably another 6 down there too.
• Get off bus - go into tube station. 2 cams inside tube station concourse.
• Go upstairs to platform - 4 cams on platform.
• Get on tube when it arrives - cam on each carriage.
• Get off tube at Hammersmith - at least 12 cams in the platform area of this station as this is a very busy station.
• Exit station - must be caught on at least 4 cams as I exit station.
• Station exits into Hammersmith Broadway shopping mall - it’s around 200 metres to the street outside - I think I’m caught on at least 3 cams as I walk through the mall.
• Get to the street and short walk to my office. Must get caught on at least 2 (out of several) high power police cams on street.
• Then get to my office. Cam in reception. Cam in lift lobby. No cam in the lift - there is a mirror which I can use to adjust my hair if it’s in a mess. (I wonder if there is a hidden cam behind the mirror?)
• On my floor there are no wall mounted cams - but I am prob caught on several webcams as I walk past people’s desks.

So - given that I go in and out of the office around three times a day - and then I go home again if I try to count the number of times I am caught on cam (ignoring webcams) - it is probably about 60 to 70 per day.

Which explains why many more crimes are now being solved with the assistance of CCTV evidence.

It also explains the rise in importance of the Data Protection act. Any private CCTV that images in a “public” area (e.g. outside an office reception area say) needs to be registered with the autorities - and a sign needs to be displayed warning the public that images are being recorded. Also - the law courts are very strict on the use of CCTV images as evidence: it’s no good having CCTV recording images unless a) the images are completely tamperproof (encrypted) and b) have the date and time encrypted and stamped into them - and not every CCTV technology for home-use has those. My CCTV at home does have it - but cheaper models may not.

Re: Susies - excellent stuff, it has actual taste, not just heat. Probably my favourite. We brought some back from Antigua and have never looked back - even saw it on a holiday show the other night!

You know, I never really notice the CCTVs. I know there are a few in the Quayside where I used to work, but considering that there are also a couple of bars and a bunch of yobs throwing bottles, bins and chairs into the river of a night, it seems to me a fine idea…

Thanks Jag. Will consider Photoshop if hubby gets his share of annual bonus!! Talking about CCTV, there was a sign in the ladies room someplace, I thinks it was in one of the movie halls, with a sign,”Be warned, there’s a camera in this area”…something to that effect just above the wash basins…gosh, but didn’t see any in the cubicles!! I know, you’ll be wandering what I notice in washrooms after the ad I wrote about earlier :)

Oh, wow, UK invests so much on Crime Prevention and Solving, and you are so cautious to buy high end CCTV cameras.
In Chennai, CCTV’s are present in some places :crowded places, ATMs, but mainly in privately owned shops.
The best sign I have seen for warning people in a Jewellery showroom is a cardboard cutout hanging from a camers, showing a smilie, telling people “Smile You are on Camera”

hey Jag, HAPPY NEW YEAR buddy. so howz life? me absolutely busy these days. no time for much bloggin’. i enjoy ur blog man. keep it up. take care. see ya.

‘Relishing’ in the choice - ba-doom-tish!

Quite agree, but may I recommend Encona’s Hot Pepper Sauce and/or their Sweet Chili sauce instead of the Masala stuff (Tesco sell it)

jag, don’t you keep the condiments in the fridge?

Hi Zen: hey - long time! Happy New Year to you too! Glad you are busy - that’s the way to be. Me too! Thanks for your kind words.

Vicky: I have the Encona stuff too! It’s in the fridge though - so not in the picture. But thanks for visiting!

M: No - not all the condiments kept in the fridge. Hey - this is UK - room temperature is fine enough for most condiments - which by their very nature are “preserve” in quality. Nobody in UK keeps the Indian pickles in the fridge anyway - and they last just fine for months!