Once Were Warriors is a New Zealand movie showing the life of urban Maori. It's has some powerful scenes and moving moments broken up with some bits of laughter. Powerful acting, intense story and some shocking scenes make it more than worthwhile.

Auckland is my hometown. I am surprised that it's ranked so high.

Pros:
- Little to no air pollution.
- Good beaches.
- Mild weather most of the year around.
- Good schools.
- Lots of parks.

Cons:
- Poor public transport system. No subway, a few unreliabe trains, infrequent buses and only one bridge crossing the harbour.
- House prices and rent prices very over-priced.
- Highest crime rate in New Zealand.
- Bad traffic, not very good for cyclists.

This was the second film of three to feature both Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, the first being Godfather II of course. Good mix, of suspense, action and drama.

I could just manage to get myself to complete the first season. Those really overbearing Southern accents and cheesy vampires just couldn't do it for me. I won't be watching any more seasons.

"The Shield" is a brilliant action-packed police drama focused around bad cops set in L.A. Thankfully doesn't do the cliche "bad cops are scum" thing. The writers manage to write storylines that at times have you really sympathizing with the bad cops by showing some of their good human nature too.

It also showed the internal politics among the police hierarchy. The main characters normally are usually walking the gray line or crossing right over it.

Brilliant, fast-paced story lines with lots of hooks and twists to keep you riveted. It ran for 7 seasons and finished with an amazing ending. I highly recommend it.

Now that Firefox 3.5 has come along, it's definitely faster and has a few more features like Chrome. Firefox is going from strength to strength.

InfoWars.com is in the category of independent media. It's an anti-establishment news site run buy Alex Jones and his team, which try to point out all the ways human liberties are being taken away by an elite group of bankers, business people and politicians. Is it about conspiracies? Definitely! But that's not the main focus. Their main focus is on free speech, protecting the American Constitution and battling big government and big brother.

The one thing about InfoWars.com that stands out is that they try to show the news from the opposite point of view of all the large news media organisations. InfoWars has some famous fans such as Ralf Nader, Ron Paul, Willie Nelson and Charlie Sheen among many others.

You have to sometimes put up with occasional ranting, but it's a small price to pay for getting the news from a different angle.

The BBC has turned into a socialist, PC propaganda machine in the last few years. It seems as if it's trying to be the Fox News of Britain. It has slid consistently down from being a truly unbiased news organisation down to becoming the establishment's lapdog.

Address: 3F, Building B, Shanggu, Tianta Dao, Nankai District, Tianjin, China.

Address (Chinese): 中国天津市南开区上谷商业街天塔路B座3层

Phone: (022) 2341 2786

Toilets: Shared with other restaurants on the floor.

I have just come back from Bawarchi Indian Restaurant with a friend of mine and must say that in the six and a half years I've been in China, it's honestly one of the best meals I've ever experienced.

It was very clean and very busy. Once we were seated and had ordered, the meal took about 45 minutes to be be prepared and served.

The menu was in Chinese and English. There is also a spiciness rating next to each dish. However, even though I don't like spicy food too much, I found that even their 2 rating was more than bearable. So, if you want spicy dishes, aim for the 3, and if you don't want too spicy you'll be fine with the 1 and 2 ratings.

Here is a list of what we had:

4 x Garlic naan: RMB 48.00
1 x Jeera pulco (spelling?): RMB 18.00
1 x Chicken korma: RMB 52.00
1 x Mutton tikka: RMB 52.00
1 x Beef curry: RMB 49.00
1 x Malasa prawns RMB 65.00
1 x Welch's Grape Juice RMB 15.00

TOTAL SPENT: RMB 299.00

You can see, that by Chinese standards it appears expensive, but it is true Indian food. The flavours are delicious and full.

The environment is clean and comfortable. When the owner, who is Indian came in, he did a circuit of the restaurant saying hello to regular guests and welcoming new guests. He was very friendly and said that if there was anything dissatisfying, just let him know.

The one improvement that could be made is that the waiters could have walked around a bit more filling up water glasses. We had to call them over each time.

Overall, I can't speak highly enough of the place. I will definitely be going back.

Address: No.1 Commercial Section Building B, Jiayi Apartments, off Diantai Dao, Heping District, Tianjin, China.

中国天津市和平区电台道佳怡公寓B座底商1号

Phone: (022) 2783 7764

Free Wireless.

Non-smoking only.

Toilets.

The Spot Cafe is run by an American named Daygan Sobotka. It's been open for about a year now and is fast becoming an icon in Tianjin on the cafe scene. It already has a reputation as being clean and very reasonably priced.

They have a range of hot and cold drinks ranging from different types of coffee and tea drinks through to cold drinks such as shakes, juices and soft drinks. They also have a small range of hot dishes and some snacks. I personally feel their drinks are excellent while their food is good. They don't sell alcohol.

The atmosphere is great with lots of paintings and photos on the wall provided by local artists.

On every Monday evening they have a live guitar performance, and every month they also have a Chinese culture talk and performance and also a open mic night. They owner is trying to make The Spot Cafe into a hub where the different nationalities living in Tianjin can learn and exchange culture.

On every Wednesday evening, they also have a Chinese Corner, where people can go along a practice their Chinese with native speakers. All these events are free.

The location is very close to four major universities: Tianjin University, Nankai University, Tianjin Medical University and Tianjin Normal University.

Overall, I highly recommend it.