Noulakaz

The blog of Avinash, Christina, Anya and Kyan Meetoo.

Mauritius

Great carnival, worst traffic jams ever!

By 5 Comments

Yesterday, we were in Flic-en-Flac to enjoy the carnival! I took many pictures and I’ve just uploaded them to Flickr for your enjoyment. The costumes were very interesting (e.g. the African tribe), the Brazilian dancers and musicians were great (and very photographer friendly) and the various Misses all beautiful (with a special mention to the Indian Miss naturally!).

The traffic though was absolutely abysmal.

It took more than one and a half hour to get there as there were simply too many cars converging to Flic-en-Flac. And, at the end of the carnival, the traffic jams were the worst I’ve ever experienced in my life! Whoever decided that the carnival was going to be held in Flic-en-Flac (which has the peculiarity of being served by one road only) and didn’t plan for the traffic did an act of negligence. It was a nightmare!

Once again, planning was lacking.

No HD for Euro 2012 matches on CanalSat

By 11 Comments

Euro 2012 is starting in one week. The other day, I called Canal Satellite and talked to a nice lady there:

Me: Hi, I would like to know if I’ll be able to watch all the Euro 2012 matches on Canal Satellite?

Her: Yes. All the matches are going to be  shown on channel 72 except a few which will be shown on channel 77.

Me: Channels 72 and 77 are not HD channels so are you implying that we won’t have any Euro 2012 matches in HD on Canal Satellite?

Her: Yes.

Me: What about matches being shown on TF1 and M6. Surely, those are going to be in HD?

Her: We will blank the screen during matches on TF1 and M6 because, well, they haven’t secured the rights to broadcast in Mauritius.

So no Euro 2012 matches in HD for Mauritians this year. Pity so many of us have invested thousands and thousands of rupees over the years to have a nice HD installation at home to watch football.

Maurice, c’est un plaisir… en SD.

Glossary

  • HD: High definition = great looking pictures on your new LCD TV.
  • SD: Standard definition = you could have used your old TV, you know the one which looked like an aquarium.

I Say No

By 6 Comments

A country needs to have good politicians. As most of the existing ones in Mauritius are not that good, I Say No!

Today, instead of wasting my time going to one of the political meetings, I’m staying at home, doing some productive work, playing with the kids, repairing a bloody door which had been bothering me since a few days, listening to the radio from time to time to see if  any of the politicians is saying something worthwhile (and, no, that’s not the case).

Time to start thinking about Mauritius 2.0 I guess.