Quiet & Smoky New Year’s Eve

It was a very chaotic New Year’s Eve this time around, surprisingly so. Normally M and I have a quiet New Year’s Eve with pyjamas on, a good jazz stream on, and some nice alcohol and smokes. The plan was the same this time around. Planned menu was a simple pasta, gin and tonic (thanks to a good gin gifted by a good friend), and a good cigar. All good and simple. Till I got addicted to following Kirby Allison videos.

His videos popped up when I was checking out some data on cigars, but it soon took me down a rabbit hole of dressing up. He has made some really good videos on dressing like Bertie Wooster. For an Anglophile like me this was a motherlode of good content.

Coming back to the NYE, I wanted to dress up for the night, despite no plans to leave home. M gave in to me and everything was set. Till it wasn’t. A couple of hours before midnight we found we seemed to have misplaced an important key. Now we were upturning the entire home trying to find it. Total chaos. The good news was we found the key between two file folders; the bad news – we had hardly 10 mins to midnight.

So now it was a race to midnight, three piece suit on, pasta served, G&T idea dropped and instead a ready pina colada mix with Absolut picked up, and the cigar lighted just in time for midnight –

“HAPPY NEW YEAR” to all.

This was the most sweaty new year I had without any dancing preceding the ball drop. The rest of night/morning was peaceful. The pina colada mix was ok. Music was fabulous. Cigar was alright – good but not great. It was an LB1 by Rocky Patel. I am not sure if it had anything to do with the fact that I was all worked up before smoking, rather than the more sedate environment I am in when I sit to enjoy a cigar. Or it could be the fact that I had the Decade by Rocky Patel some weeks ago and that is a FABULOUS cigar. So my expectations might have been a tad too high.

I do find that for key days like Christmas, Diwali or New Year’s having a quiet party at home is much more fun than going out and struggling with traffic, crowds, and overpaid services. Do you feel the same?

Speaking of Kirby Allison here are the links to some of his videos that I enjoyed:

• You Tube Profile page for Kirby Allison – https://www.youtube.com/@kirbyallison
• Two bespoke suits made by superstar tailors John Kent & Terry Haste – Double Bespoke Commission with London Tailors Kent & Haste
• This one gave me strong Wooster vibes – From Suit To Shoot – Series
• A quick look at a gentleman’s club – Touring One Of London’s Oldest Clubs | Walking Tour With Simon Cundey
• I love all of the videos of Kirby with Edward or Eddie Sahakian – some times it works as a back ground ASMR – Inside London’s Best Cigar Lounge | With Eddie Sahakian | Kirby Allison
• Loved this series on Cowboy Boots created by Lee Miller for Kirby – Cowboy Boot Fitting | Texas Traditions Handmade Boots | Lee Miller
• This was a fun round table – again with my favourite Edward in it – A Special Evening With Cigar Legends | Davidoff of London & The Foulkes

Good riddance to 2022

There were so many hopes for 2022, considering it was coming after two years of Covid, with a possibility of Covid having been defeated. Alas, it has been a wretched year for most, and especially for me. Though there have indeed been a lot of things to be thankful for at the personal level overall it has been a testing year both personal and professional.

My state of mind can be gauged by the fact that I have recorded having read less than 10 books this year, and my podcast listening has been minimal too. Hence good riddance to 2022, thanks for the little good done, but happy to see it go.

I have promised myself that I will write a post a day, get back into some routines, and try and take control if that is ever possible. And to shake it all up starting it on New Year’s Eve rather than on the 1st 🙂

Here’s wishing everyone a Very Happy New Year. May your year be successful, peaceful, healthy, and possibly wealthy too 🙂

Poonawalla, adjuvants and vials in the time of Covid

Yesterday I read two articles about the infrastructure required for any Covid vaccine. Over the last few months, I have been militant about avoiding the news. It seems to me that all news have become tabloid news, with the associated muck. The only reason I picked up these articles was thanks to twitter link shared by Samanth. I am happy I did read them as they are good and informative.

The first article is The World’s Best Hope for Enough Covid-19 Vaccine Comes from India by Ari Altstedter. It is a summary of how the Poonawallas climbed to the top of the vaccine production business. The article also highlights their plan to produce billions of doses of Covid vaccines. For a person like me who only knew the page 3 status of the Poonawallas, it was a good primer on their history. I found the scaling efforts of Mr. Poonawalla instructive and informational. In a surprising way the article actually made me feel optimistic after a long time. Most interesting was the direct connection between stud farms and vaccine production. This was actually a question I had for the longest time but was too lazy to research.

If I could critique any part of the article it would be the last 3 paragraphs. Somewhere towards the end, it shifted to a Page 3 celeb observational piece. It was jarring especially in comparison to the main article itself. I felt like a voyeur which was most unpleasant. What was the intent of this , I wonder?. Did the article expect me to feel jealous of the Poonawallas? Or condemn them for their luxury?

I would still recommend this article for its main body. Let’s forgive the reporter for the ending as the main piece is a well written, fast, and informative read.

The second article I read was “Without Vials and Needles, a Virus Vaccine Is Just a Formula” by Sampath Subramanian. Thanks to The Seen And The Unseen podcast which introduced me recently to Sampath. (The related episode was Episode 183: The Art of Narrative Nonfiction (+ JBS Haldane) ).

I love his writing style and this article was no different. Simple, factual, and straight to the point. Reading it was a pleasure. Along the way, I learned about the needs of the various gear needed to have the vaccines reach the target. I never knew reading about adjuvants, vials and hypodermic would be this interesting. I think I have found my idol to try and mimic in my own writing.

So that’s it. If you have a few minutes read these two articles. Both of them are much better than than the bombast on television.

I must thank the cohort of Clear Writing course assembled by Amit Verma and his The Seen And The Unseen podcast. Thanks to them I am introduced to true journalists, excellent in their profession. I am hopeful that this will rekindle my love and faith in journalism itself.

French knockout Argentines with flair

Wow! What a match. The score line at the end of it looks like a nail biter, to be honest it was not. However it was tense for sure.

Final score France Argentina from Fifa site

 

It started with a penalty, a direct result of the Argentine back not able to contain the explosive speed of Mbappe. Greizmann slotted in a good penalty for France to take lead 1 – 0.

All was ok as the match had only just begun, but it made two things evident immediately. Mbappe was too fast for the Argentine defence, and it was clear that overall Argentina had a weak defence. This came to fore almost immediately when one more foul was drawn by Mbappe but luckily for Argentina it was at the edge of the box. Further Greizmann’s beautiful free kick rattled the bar giving a lifeline to Argentina.

France 1 – 0 Argentina

The rest of the first half was underscoring the French game, with decent defence and great counter attacks. Till Di Maria conjured up a goal out of nowhere, a fantastic curving rocket of a ball. Could have been the goal of the night if it was not for what was to follow. At least it helped Argentina to go into half time equal at 1-1.

France 1 – 1 Argentina

Argentina made a change which was confusing and I don’t think it really helped. If anything it seems to confuse the back even more.

Within 5 mins finally we saw a Messi kick. To be honest while timely it might have gone straight to the goalkeeper if not for a struggling Mercado trying to get his leg out of the way, failing but providing just the right deflection for the ball to go into the French net. Messi was not complaining and Argentina had their hopes up again with 2-1 lead.

France 1 – 2 Argentina

And then came a great goal followed by a force of nature against an useless defence.

First a fantastic curving half volley from Benjamin Pavard. I believe his first world cup goal ever and at what a time. Beautiful one that.

France 2 – 2 Argentina.

Then Argentina sleep at the back and basically allow Mbappe a free way to attack the Argentine goal. This after the defence almost gave away a goal by kicking it beyond Armani just a few minutes ago. Well Mbappe was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth again, and easily scored, taking France ahead 3-2

France 3-2 Argentina.

And then again Argentina could make no impact and France counter attacked well. And Mbappe again created a chance and scored. Armani could have probably stopped the ball with his legs but the question is what was the defence doing?

France 4-2 Argentina

In principle Argentina still have a chance as the time was just 68′. Also Aguero was finally in the game (god knows why he was not starting) However watching the game it felt like Los Albicelestes and Messi did not seem to be effective. So as an Argentina supporter it was a painful 30 mins or so when Argentina was ineffectual in scoring.

 

In the 3rd minute of extra time we finally see some magic with Messi kicking a beautiful pass to the front and Aguero slipping past the defence to head it in. GOOOAL! A beautiful goal, but would it be too little too late?

France 4-3 Argentina

A miracle almost happened in the final seconds with the ball going tantalizingly close to the goal, but it was not to be. Argentina is out and Messi’s world cup journeys are done. The coach and the team have a lot to answer too, and their fans surely deserve to know why many of the decisions were taken.

However for anyone watching the entire match it was very clear that the better team won. In fact France played solidly enough that they could go the whole way if they continue to play like this.

As a football fan it was a great match to watch for sure. Just feel sad for the Argentinian fans as they would surely have expected much more. Though the early fouls made me feel like it might be a very physical match, it turned out to be a much more fluid encounter with a lot for football fans to enjoy.

 

Knockout stages are here – 2018 World Cup

Well I have been lax about writing here. Watching the matches and work have taken up all my life this past couple of weeks with very little sleep in the middle. Have really enjoyed the games I have watched though. No Maradona, Pele, Zidane or Van Basten but still fun.

While I will revisit the group stages again just wanted to put in my thoughts around the Knockouts. Looking at the 16 teams that made, it I went with my heart for the top half and with the head for the second half 🙂

The fixtures are as below:

Knockout fixtures for World Cup 2018 – from the Fifa.com site

 

My predictions:

1. Argentina to defeat France:
   • France has not really given much confidence and Argentina have played dismally and then wonderfully. No idea which game Argentina will play. Would love to see a Messi – Ronaldo play off so voting for Argentina.
   • France are already up 1 goal through penalty as I write this 🙂
   • France get another free kick at the edge of the penalty box. Mbappe is too fast for this Argentinian defence. Argentina was luck to not have that free kick work in France’s favor.
2. Portugal to defeat Uruguay:
   • Again no real reason to choose one over the other. Portugal will absolutely depend on Ronaldo while Uruguay may depend less on Suarez. Eitherways their games have confused me so going with my hope of seeing Messi and Ronaldo face off. So Portugal to win.
3. Spain to defeat Russia:
   • Russia impressed with the first two games and then totally let it go in the third. So I will vote on Spain hoping that they can shut out Russia and win.
4. Croatia to defeat Denmark:
   • Coming into the Finals I felt Denmark would do well. They are okay. But Croatia really impressed so my vote is for them. In fact currently I expect them to reach the finals.
5. Brazil to defeat Mexico:
   • Mexico has played well but my heart is with Brazil, with Tiago Silva and Neymar and Marcelo. So I have to hope for a Brazilian victory. In fact I want them to take the whole shebang.
6. Belgium to defeat Japan:
   • While I would love to support an Asian team, Japan’s game has not given a confidence that they are intent on winning. And Belgium seem unbeatable with many expecting them to win the Cup itself. So it feels fair to vote for the stronger team.
7. Sweden to beat Switzerland:
   • This should be a tight match. I would have voted for Switzerland till I saw the final games of Sweden. If they play like in those games I think they should win.
8. England to beat Colombia:
   • England, especially Kane, has really impressed me. I can see them go to next round if they play to their potential.

 

Now to get back to the Argentina game!