THE DIARY OF Z

Have you had any problems with the breaks in your Toyota recently? Well, this week the world’s largest car manufacturer recalled nearly half a million of their hybrid model, the Prius, from places all over the world, after finding braking problems in the car. This follows two other recalls last year of up to 8million vehicles worldwide!

Is Toyota losing its touch? My first car was an old blue Toyota Corolla, and despite a few rattles and shakes, it was a very trustworthy car. Even when things did go wrong, it seemed that everyone knew how to get under the bonnet, tinker around and have it running again.  Now in the age of computerized  hybrid engines, can we put our faith in car makers to get it right? In the US, Ford Motor Company has had similar problems with their own Hybrid car models, but has claimed that they can roll out a software patch to fix the problems without having to make a recall.

The good news is that Toyota claims they have fixed the problem. None the less, with share prices dropping, and further speculation around the safety of their vehicles, it seems that to patch up their damaged reputation, Toyota may need a 4WD to get over the rough road ahead.

Contributed by Jeremy Veitch

While reading about India’s unfortunate performance against the South Africans this week in the first test, I realized I have been watching Sachin Tendulkar, the only batter who showed some real fight in the match, play cricket for nearly 20 years!

I am an Australian, and in 1991, I was still looking forward to my ninth birthday. Like other boys my age, I loved my cricket and 1991 was also the year when Sachin, not yet the ‘Little Master’ first strode onto Australian fields and began showing us Aussies how it’s done.

Tendulkar scored two centuries in that tour including an unbeaten 148 in Sydney. From there, well, the rest is history isn’t it? He’s the highest ever run scorer in both one day and test matches, he has an excellent test batting average of 55.35 and he’s said to be the best batter ever, second only to Donald Bradman.  He’s also a straight up gentleman, and is highly respected by cricketers and fans around the world, especially in Australia. We all loved watching his fierce on field battles with Shane Warne, and Warnie himself has said that he’s never played against anyone better.

Now, nearly two decades past, I am astonished to see the Master still out there in the middle swinging the bat with precision and class, even when the soldiers are falling around him. He knocked up a cool 100 in the second innings bringing him even closer now to his next milestone of 50 test match centuries. With seven more to get, it may just be that we’ll all have the privilege of watching Sachin play for a few years more. What a champ.

Contributed by Jeremy Veitch

Dear lovers of history, particularly Japanese and Chinese history. If you want a deeper insight on the rape of Nanking, nothing like reading this internationally award-winning essay written by me and honoured by none other than the Iris Chang Foundation. It was declared an ‘essay of distinction’.

You could download an e-book for $2.48 and make it your own by clicking the button below. Do read and patronise.

Valentine’s is a funny day. People, who are normally sane, staid and composed behave strangely. Grown men are reduced to tears. Mature women become crooning babies. The very mention of a saint called Valentine causes wobbly knees and an expectant sparkle in the eye. If you are the sort who wants to honour the saint anyway, here are a few gifts that could knock the stockings off your Valentine.

•    Gift her a Valentine kit that will make the art of seduction easy. Costing $275 on RedEnvelope.com, it features a Kiki Motif Instrument of Pleasure, an ergonomic, multispeed vibrator adorned with the Kiki motif, handcuff-pattern silk restraints, a massage candle, personal lubricant, Kiki Select Kimono condoms, and before-and-after mints. This gift will set a precedent for fun. It is a gift the two of you can share. It is romantic and adventurous without being scary.

•    If you have money to burn and don’t want to buy islands for her like the other business magnates, buy her a plot on the moon instead. Yes, you can do such a thing in this time of space age technology. Just the way a female fan has been gifting Shah Rukh Khan every year on his birthday.

•    Arrange for a 1-carat solitaire to be delivered to her along with red roses declaring permanent love for her from an admirer. When she gets the little box, the courier boy would declare that the little box comes with a free gift and present a big carton with the label ‘Love Inside’. When she opens it, you’d pop out and plant a kiss on her cheeks she wouldn’t forget.

•    You could get sentimental and walk down memory lane by gifting your love a beautifully decorated frame containing the photo of the place where you proposed to her. Or better still, you could video record your personal thoughts and remembrances about her and play it on V Day by candle light.

•    If you want something small but thoughtful all the way, you could gift her a personalised flower pot with a message that says, “Our love grows”. Or a love letter in a bottle with the message: “Our love is unsinkable”. Or a personalised diamond keepsake that says: “Like a diamond, our love is forever”. Or all of these things to make it a themed gesture.

•    Gift a custom-made book to her, containing all your letters, emails, sms-es until the time you got married. Print them all out and have them bound into a book, with the final page saying that it is NOT the end of your love story, but ONLY the beginning…

•    Go the DIY way. Make a memory box. Glue photos or pictures to the outside of a wooden box. Use Hodge Podge glue to create a sealed glaze over the pictures. Fill the box with tokens and mementos of your time together. Write memories you share on small slips of paper to fill the box. A thoughtful gesture that will last a lifetime.

•    Get a packet of balloons. Fill a few with little things — a cute key chain, a pair of earrings, candies, a little message on paper — anything at all but not too big. Blow up the balloon and write your own personalised romantic message on it and then deflate it and present it to her. She has to blow up the balloon to see what you have written and then pop it to get the stuff inside.

•    How about an aphrodisiac love potion and a Beating Heart Pillow? Yes, UniqueValentineGift.com sells this for $20 and $150 respectively. Organically designed to have the same effect as Spanish Fly, the elixir of love claims to increase the inner sexual conscience of the mind to achieve various sexual advances. Only 20 drops of the love potion in any drink is all that is required. Both males and females can expect increased sexual stimulation, propensity towards sexual activity and improved overall mood. If that doesn’t set her heart racing, there is the Beating Heart Pillow. Hold the heart a moment and you’ll begin to sense your own heartbeat slowly syncing with the pillow’s carefully designed rhythm. It is designed to help you relax, daydream, meditate, and nap. Perfect for Valentine’s.

•    Create your own raffle/coupon book using hand made paper or even coloured drawing sheet paper that has irresistible offers on every leaf of the coupon:
#1. A long lasting kiss with eyes wide open, offer available for 15 mins from receipt of voucher.
#2. Avail a bear hug within 24 hours after Feb 14, 2010.
#3. Luxurious foot massage after 7 days from receipt of voucher.
#4. A sweet honest smile when I am most angry.
#5. Steaming cup of tea within 10 days even when I am dead tired.
#6. A seven-course meal on your birthday with special friends at home.
#7. Looking for car keys (3 times ONLY) even if I am most busy.
#8. Allowing you in the loo even if I woke up first in the morning. Offer valid only for Feb 2010.
#9. Watch Sex & The City (5 times ONLY) when my favourite serial is on; offer valid for the whole of 2010.
#10. Free facial at my home spa after a day out with friends.

If you are a Nokia smartphone buff, here is one cool app you must not miss…Free-isms: runs your apps in comic blurbs like in a conversation; allows you to send fake sms from say a celebrity; schedule an sms and also flash sms where your message will flash on receiver’s screen and vanish.And yes, it’s free. So make the most of it. Just google it and you will get the download link. Happy messaging!Will let you know of more apps in my future posts. If you know of any, feel free to share in Comments.

Who indeed? And does she know about it! She is a fine actress, a busy mother, a wife, a Peace representative….. which of these would suffer if she put up for the Presidency?

How much world and international experience in all things political has she? What does Sarah Palin think about this likely candidate? Could it be a contest between two Amazon lady warriors? Might she succeed where Hillary Clinton failed? (Although in her defence she was unlucky having such a charismatic opponent).

The plot gets curiouser and curiouser! Hold your breath…..
2012 could be a vintage year for the Media!

Contributed by Barbara Turner

In Kerala the answer is yes. Seven bus operators voted in favour. In their defence, they are thinking of students and a suggested decrease of their fares but an increase of minimum fare to Rs 5 for other passengers.

The problem is that an increase might reduce the number of travellers and then jobs will be in jeopardy. For long journeys, the drivers will be safe as they are needed. But if buses run with fewer passengers on short routes, the operators might use fewer buses and students will suffer too.

What to do?

Talks will help but maybe end in stalemate. Will it be checkmate to the drivers or the operators? Will the students be pawns in their hands?

Contributed by Barbara Turner

Read about Kareena Kapoor’s footwear fetish and realised that fetishes vary according to age, sexual orientation, fame, notoriety.

Mine are boring. I make lists and then lists of lists. I check the door lock twice and then return to check if I checked.

Buying exotic shoes makes more sense. I wish I could.

The latest are imitation python. These boots are not made for walking. They are showstoppers. Heads turn, women drool, men smile indulgently, love them only if they don’t have to pay.

The wearer stands six inches taller and ten feet higher in her own esteem. Boyfriends tolerate their girl looking down from a great height and the next day, upwards, adoringly, wearing favourite flatties.

But there’s nothing like a dame in boots, especially if she’s Kareena Kapoor.

Contributed by Barbara Turner

It’s the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

I have been there (1995).

It looks just like an ordinary stone weighing about 2 kilos resting on my mantelpiece in pride of place. But it is special. Not just because I carried it in my rucksack for 1000 miles by train, bus, and on foot. Not just because I “stole” it and only I know that.

It is special because it was part of the infrastructure of the Berlin Wall, still lying on the ground, six years after it was torn down by joyous East and West Berliners. And I searched and found it, determined to own part of what had been and now, no more. Once, guards had trodden it, fired from it, killed from it.

I stole a little piece of history, and called it my own.

Contributed by Barbara Turner

I wonder why it has only just surfaced that American Continental Airlines were not as thorough frisking the former Indian PM, Dr. Abdul Kalam last April as they should have been.

It is possible that he might have been ‘ambushed” on the short distance he had to walk. Considering that  no one should be exempt for obvious reasons didn’t seem to be the airline policy.

Searching  heels of  men’s shoes is regular but not, in my experience, ladies shoes.

In contrast, security at Indian temples is most strict probably because of the large number of visitors.

Although time consuming, it is in our own interests. Temples lost to bomb outrage are irreplaceable but then so are travellers everywhere.

Contributed by Barbara Turner