Barbecuing

Barbequing or simply the BBQ is my very favourite, for not only that I love eating barbecued chicken, kebabs and tikka, but because I barbeque myself whenever there is family get together or an occasion to celebrate. While the preparation that includes marinating of the chicken or meat or beef is done by my wife, skewering, making the coals ready and then actual barbequing is my specialty.

Barbecuing is synonymous to highly seasoned meat or chicken or beef grilled over burning hot coals. Usually fats are not removed from the meat or beef as these melt over the red hot coals and add more grease to the meat to cook tenderly and crisply. Although in absence of integral fats, oil is applied on the meat with a cloth tied on the end of stick and by dipping it into the oil can and then applying it on the meat.

BBQ is essentially an outdoor activity, in the home lawns or out there in open when on a picnic, hiking or camping. When close to the house, gas or electricity can also be used as an alternative to coals or wood. But the real taste comes when it is done on coals or wood as the internal aroma of the coal and wood gets immersed into the meat which gives a flavour which can be have when BBQ is done on gas or electricity.

In Pakistan, BBQ is very famous and barbequed tikkas and kebabs of meat, chicken and beef are a must dish of all festivities, especially marriage dinners. Even in restaurants, this is the most ordered dish.

Once in Iran, I also had barbequed fish, something that had a taste of its very own kind I haven’t been able to forget till date. I will share more of it some day.

I will add some recipes of BBQ in my future posts.

Related Link: Barbeque (Wikipedia)

Read more »

Hobby Types – Mountaineering

Although mountaineering is a popular sport, it is a popular hobby too. It starts from the basic hobbies like the hiking and trekking, which to me are the basic prerequisites for taking bigger leaps and adventures like mountain climbing. Mountaineering entails the stretching of one’s physical endurance to its extremes as the hobby may entail dangers at a place when one is all by oneself. It is hobby of one’s skills, determination, and endurance by using only a pair of spiked boots, a rope and a hammer to hammer nails into the mountain to make a lifeline for one self both upwards and downwards.

One can say mountaineering for people who want a extreme hobby – a hobby that involves danger, courage, hair-raising moments of one’s life and a sense of great achievement when atop the pinnacle. The hobby is extremely popular in youngsters, which then make them professional mountain climbers. And one should not be amazed to see females too into this deadly and adventurous hobby despite their relatively softer physiques. But they overcome the physical barriers by exercising hard and cling to the rope with determination and courage.

From plain and rugged mountains to icy slopes and steep vertical climbs, one has to tackle some of the most difficult terrains of the world. When going up even slip can cost one’s life or limbs. In fact beside many other factors, mountaineering is a test of one’s concentration – if the concentration is lost even for a second, the results can be disastrous and fatal.

Before undertaking mountaineering as a hobby, one must read a lot about rocks, rock formation, basics of knot fastening as a nylon rope is all that one hangs on and become the only life saving object high up there. There cannot be any short cuts as one has to have a firm grip on the rope and rope must be well fastened both to the individual and t the mountain itself.

Recently rock climbing has also become a popular hobby. The hobby starts from the indoors on a vertical artificial climb and then takes the more adventure seekers to high up on the vertical sides of the mountains. This is fascinating, awesome and very dangerously adventurous.

Pakistan is mountaineers haven – a country which has some of the most challenging mountains of the world. It has many peaks that fall in the exclusive 8,000+ meters category, like the K-2, Nanga Parbat and the Raka Poshi. Mountaineers from all over the world come to Pakistan to climb still many virgin peaks that abound in the Karakoram, the Himalayas, Hindu Kush and the Suleiman ranges. I recommend the hobbyists to meet each other in mountains of Pakistan for adventure, challenge and fun.

We will continue to talk about various aspects of mountaineering in our future posts.

Related Link: Meet me in the mountains (Pakistanpaedia)

Read more »

Hobby Types – Hiking

Those who love nature, hiking is their first choice. In fact from the love of hiking, one creates a love for mountaineering and even skiing. It is also one of the most popular outdoor hobbies around the world. Hiking does not necessarily involve climbing mountains, as some may think that way, but it is usually a strenuous walk with special hiking boots as one would often encounter rough terrain, which normal joggers cannot sustain. Normally hiking is undertaken on difficult and rough terrain to add the tinge of adventure in one’s hobby.

Hiking is often a day long strenuous physical exercise amid raw nature. Thus beside improving one’s health and physical fitness, hiking also brings one close to the nature. Hiking can also be coupled with camping, if one intends staying a night out. And when staying a night out on a beach or a lakeside, it may also trigger a love of fishing or astronomy or simply the sky gazing.

As I said before, one enjoys more if the terrain gets tougher. Therefore hikers normally choose dense jungles, forests, heavily bushed areas, semi mountainous terrain, cross country undulations or even places where one has to wade through knee deep streams. Bushwalking is walking through dense vegetation and may even require chopping tools to clear way ahead. When hiking is undertaken in mountainous terrain or highlands, it becomes trekking. A long distance trail is called thru-hiking.

Due to closeness of nature, hikers normally develop a love and affection for nature and environment. It is for this reason that avid hikers usually join hands against pollution and littering of country side and raise voice to help keep the nature and environment clean and free of pollution.

Pakistan is an ideal place for the hikers as its varying terrain. From deserts dunes to rugged and barren mountains slopes, farmlands with broken grounds, vast stretches of barren lands with no water and a soul to be seen, and of course valleys amid towering mountains. I will introduce to my readers the many hiking and trekking adventures that can be undertaken as individuals or as part of groups in my future posts.

Read more »

3 Very Large Objects In Space Flying To Earth - Canada ufo | Examiner.com

E.T. does not need to phone home anymore, someone, or something is on it’s way to earth.

SETI Astrophysicist Craig Kasnov ( not to be confused with Craig Kasnoff ) has announced the approach to the Earth of 3 very large, very fast moving objects.  The length of the "flying saucers" is in the range of tens of kilometers.  Landing, according to calculations of scientists, should be in mid-December 2012. Date coincides with the end of the Mayan calendar.

A few very large objects rapidly approaching the Earth - says SETI astrophysicist Craig Kasnov.  Don’t take his word for it you can check it out for yourself.  He recommends to go to the site http://www.sky-map.org/ and enter the coordinates of the giant UFO:

19 25 12 -89 46 03 - the first large object
16 19 35 -88 43 10 - a cylindrical object
02 26 39 -89 43 13 - the object as a circle

The project participants are assured that the facilities are absolutely real, and the American space agency NASA is trying to conceal important information.  

None of these objects can be seen from the northern hemisphere. The second set of numbers in each line tells us that the "object" or "objects" is/are coming in from very deep in the southern hemisphere sky.

In any case, the only thing we can do now - wait for it - says Kasnov. - Soon celestial objects will be visible in a good telescope.

Keep your eyes on the skies… the truth is out there.

Original Post by Andrew Wozny at:

3 Very Large Objects In Space Flying To Earth - Canada ufo Examiner.com

Read more »

Astronomy – the dream above

When lying down on a moonless night in the open at night, one is awe stricken by the bright tiny dots studded on the dark sky, glittering mysteriously. A sudden shooting star makes us wonder what that was, was it really a star or something else? This makes one wonder where these stars, how far away from us are and one of the most common questions does anyone lives up there? Are we being watched? Well ask me and I would say yes, because such an enormous world could not have been created just us to watch and get awe stricken.

Ever wondered that our earth is the third planet of a solar system that revolves round a bright star we call sun, which is smellier to those tiny stars we watch above in the sky. And going a little further, our solar system is part of a galaxy consisting of some 200 billion stars or may be a more. And that is not the end, if you may think, since our galaxy is only a part of some 30 or more galaxies called a Local Group. And certainly if it is part of a local group, there have to be more groups elsewhere to. And that’s right, as our Local Group is part of a local super-cluster of over hundred galaxies. This cluster is known as Virgo Super-cluster. And don’t be amazed when I tell you that there are millions of such super-clusters that constitute our universe.

This is the vastness of the Universe the God created from a big bang. Now imagine the vastness of the universe from the fact that after the sun, which is the closest star to our earth, the nest star is 110 light years away from us. Ever wondered what a light year is? I cannot give you the exact measurement, but you can make a guess. The light travels 186,000 miles in second, so basing our calculations on this multiply it with 60 to know how much light travels in a minute, then multiply it with another 60 to know light travel distance in 60 minutes or one hour. Continue to multiply it with 24 to make light travel in a day, then multiply it with 365 for its travel in a year. That is one light year. Multiply it with 110 and that is the distance our next star s located at.

See it mathematically:

186,000 x 60 x 60 x 24 x 365 x 110 = the closet star after the sun

This is astronomy – the science that deals with the study of celestial objects (that includes planets, comets, galaxies, star clusters, nebula beside stars). Astronomy also deals with the phenomena that originate outside the earth’s atmosphere, like the cosmic background radiation.  It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the formation and development of the universe.

And needless to say the complexities and richness of its various facets makes astronomy one of the most liked hobbies around the world. The Hubble Telescope has recently sent back photographs of galaxies located at unknown distances in the universe. This is what the hobbyists try to find – a journey into the unknown. Every day, new stars and constellations are found by novice astronomers around the world. If you area sky gazer, take a journey into the un-measurable world of astronomy – you will love it.

Read more »

Churail in Dolls Village

by Ramla Akhtar

The lives of the residents of this village changed 15 years when a German art teacher took up her student Amjad's invite and visited his village: Thatta Ghulam da Dheroka.

An enterprising spirit, she asked the villagers about their craft. The women showed her hand-made rag dolls. The art teacher, Dr Senta Siller, told the villagers she could teach them to make refined hand-made dolls.

Thus spun off a social enterprise in this 200-house strong village that has changed the way of life and living here. Women have a school. The village has a road. They experimented with alternative energy very early on, and now are undertaking community energy & food projects.

The women from this conservative village now go on study tours with the Germans. The villagers have learned about sanitation, childcare, and eco-friendly living. Cleanliness is rewarded here.

Above all, these changes were brought within the system, without breaking down the structure violently.

The whole village participates in the making of the dolls, which represent the four provinces of Pakistan. The original doll is called, "Churail."

Originally posted at: Dolls Village

Read more »

Baking

Baking is a type of cooking which involves cooking in a pre-heated oven. Generally the oven temperature is maintained at temperatures ranging between 150 – 235 degrees Celsius, or 300 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.  Housewives usually resort to baking for making homemade cookies, pastries, cakes casseroles and various forms of breads and loaves.

My wife is very good at baking and every now and then we can smell that typical aroma of freshly baked cakes when coming home. My younger son is fond of chocolate cakes, so mostly she bakes chocolate related items in her kitchen. The above photo is that of a freshly baked chocolate cake by my wife on my birthday, which vanished within minutes after blowing off the candles and singing the Happy Birthday to Daddy.

Baking is both simple and complicated. Simple for those who know it and love to bake, and obviously complicated and difficult for people like me who are good at eating baked items rather than venturing to bake even the simplest recipe. However, baking is not purely a ladies domain like other cooking techniques and types. Men are also very good at baking; rather some of the best bakers are men, who make mouth watering baked items.

While one can find confectionary in abundance in the bakeries and the super stores, there is no comparable to homemade cookies and cakes. It is the freshness of the baked items at home that gives it an upper edge over the readymade confectionary available on the shelves. Moreso, the homemade cookies and cakes cost almost half the price of the similar kind when purchased. Since kids love baked items, mothers prefer to bake at home, both to add their love into her baking and also avoid extra expenditure.

There is a growing trend in young girls to attend baking classes to learn baking. Besides, baking books and magazines are available in abundance that helps the beginners or even the experts to try simple to very difficult recipes.

Baking is lot of fun and I must say adventurous as one never knows what comes out of the oven when trying a new recipe. Try baking if you haven’t so far – it is interesting and challenging. 

Read more »