Hellooooo... just got back from a lovely well-deserved (in my opinion, anyways) holiday with friends - Sabita, her brother Sanjay, his girlfriend Sarah, Prince and his girlfriend Julie... we went to the lovely hillside town of Haputale - stayed at Kelburne Mountain View.. Nisal and i stayed there on our honeymoon, it was fantastic then and it was awesome now.. its always fun to travel in a crowd and when you are with friends, its always fun... BTW in the pic, i look so awful so please excuse me.. BAD BAD BAD hairday!

Highlights from the Trip

• Eating McDonalds right before going - Nisal arguing with the lady at the counter as she was completely incompentant to handle our order


• Listening to corny music which we could all sing along to


• Playing the always-fun Settlers of Catan (Nisal won once, and i won once too!!)


• Watching Fallen (with Denzel Washington, John Goodman, Donald Sutherland) and the Departed (Leo - he's grown up from Titanic, Mark Wahlberg [yum], Martin Sheen


• Going upto Lipton Seat and watching everyone run back up the hill


• The beautiful scenery - the mist was like fountains, rising up the mountains


• The clean air !!


• Watching Prince getting all competive on us and saying "i am playing just for fun" and him winning twice


• Talking about Hollywood gossip with the girls - always fun


• The food at Kelburne is absolutely amazing... the cook ther, Stanley can cook practically anything your heart desires - i recommend the Stringhopper buriyani with a nice chicken curry... yum!!!

Anyways, it was a good get-away from the city and the hustle and bustle.. we were lucky we had decent weather, although in the evenings, there seemed to be gale-force winds outside.. but overall, it was a wonderful trip..

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Let me talk a bit about The Departed though... for the people who know me, know that i did have a massive crush on Mark Wahlberg (aka Marky Mark) for quite a while.. and no, thats not the reason why i ran to rent/buy The Departed.. i did actually hear some good things about it and was curious about the film.. overall it was a fun movie.. although lots of swearing.. but it kept you quite entertained till the end.. As i mentioned before, Leo has definitely grown up quite a bit since his days in the cutie roles in Titanic and Romeo and Juliet.. he's beginning to finally look like a grown-up man.. and i think its the first time Mark and Leo have been reunited since The Basketball Diaries.. that is also a good film..

Talking about Mark, he does have some fun in this movie.. but two things, unfortunately.. he does look older, and HIS HAIR???!! why does he have this old-fashioned haircut.. it looks like his mother spat on his hair and pushed it down.. ugh.. i hate hair like that.. he could have just had a crew cut.. but i guess they (the producers, directors etc.) wanted him to look mature.. BUT WHY!!! tragic... just tragic...

anyways, another reason to watch The Departed is Matt Damon.. he's quite good in the film and his Boston accent really comes out.. its quite funny to hear it, esp. because he hides it in all his other movies... Mark has his accent in full force.. The movie is based in Boston and it really takes me back to living in Worcester.. yes, Boston does look quite dodgy in the movie but it does deal with the Irish mob so it really is no surprise.. but still, listening to the accents and looking at the scenery really does remind me of living at Clark..

One of my favorite things about the movie though, is the dialog.. it had some awesome lines.. let me demonstrate (dont worry, no spoilers)

Dignam (Mark's character): Who am I? I'm the guy that does his f****** job! You must be the other guy!

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Ellerby (Alec Baldwin): Go f***yourself.

Dignam (Mark): I'm tired from f****** your wife.

Ellerby: How is your mother?

Dignam: Good, she's tired from f****** my father.

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Just quite funny.. but it was a good film :)