Ranting n Raving: Coffee Money

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Coffee Money

I thought I had seen a lot of different scenarios where "coffee money" are being utilized since I have made my way around Asia from home of Malaysia through Thailand and Indonesia rounding out China, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Seychelles, Bahrain and a few other places thanks to my work of the past years ...... but Dubai has certainly something of its own ... just like a lot of its attractions ... here is probably one of the biggest downers ...

If you go to Google or Yahoo or any other search engine, just type words like corruption, bribery along with Dubai and driving and/ or license and you will see what I mean on other people's blogs ... and I kid you not ... they are real ... I don't have a licence yet ... in this country ... but I have driven here on tourist visa and driven in most of the other countries I have worked in ...

Why haven't I gotten a licence? Well because my Malaysian licence is not convertible unlike Singapore or some European country ... in some countries, we are required to do the theory part which is understandable ... but not Dubai ...

We have to sign up in driving schools (all of them are huge chains), pay a hefty chunk of fees ... and pray ... why? All the basic packages begin with a waiting time of anything up to 4 months before your lessons start ... lessons can take about 5 weeks to finish ... then you have a few exams ... and if you pass ... chances are they will ask you to do a few more lessons ... before the final road test ... and for that, no one can answer when you will get it ... waiting time can be up to 2 months ... so worse case scenario, if you pass everything at once, you should be able to get a licence after about 7 to 9 months in the country ...

Of course along the way there are many options wherein you can opt for express or vip or super-vip packages ... mind you ... these are legit ... cos you pay more you get to start lessons first ... you pay more you get tests first ... these the driving schools actually tell you ...

I asked colleagues and friends ... they said as the years go by it is getting harder and harder to pass ... because there is a quota ... and each time you fail the real cost can be about aed1000 ... so people who can afford it are "buying" the quota ... I have no idea how much ... like I said I am new ... and I rather not comment on something I cannot prove ... but you can guess where I am driving this towards .... hah!

Anyway just based on actual costs ... if u factor in the taxis you have to use to driving lessons, taxis to work, taxis on weekend ... a normal licence without any extras thrown in will set u back for easily AED5k to 9.5k ... that's like nearly USD3k ... I kid you not ... you go to all those driving schools on the web and email them about their rates and do the math ... shocking isn't it?

And with that quota system it is not helping to improve the skills of licenced drivers but to assist in ever rampant coffee money situation ... I heard that the inflation on this is astronomical ... up to as much as 50 to 100% year on year ... sigh ... the joys of living in Dubai

Or as the expats here love to say ... Welcome to Dubai!

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Movies Devoured

National Treasure ... Global TV ... 15.10.13 ... well another night another channel with a movie, eh? Hehehe! This is where Nic Cage does an Indy Jones i.e. he tries to create an "adventurer" in the hopes of success. Nic Cage is an interesting actor. To me, his puppy dog faced looks is actually limited in the acting range and whenever he does any character that requires him to get mad, he only has this one psycho look (see Ghost Rider) and yet for some reason he is a famous actor. So some of his movies bombed majorly while others are a success. This one is somewhat of a success I think when it came out. Hence the sequel later on. So what's this about? Nic plays a boy who has heard from his dad about a family treasure. When he grows up, he has decided to continue the family tradition of chasing for this even though his father and grandfather failed and has been labelled by society as such. In his latest quest, apparently, the challenge has always been something from history i.e. the ancestors hid directions to the fabled treasures in various national (US) items of historical note and the big one here is the Declaration of Independence. So Nic and team tries to steal that to find the message while simultaneously he has as a competitor someone doing the same except that the someone is far more ruthless willing to kill to get at the treasure. So there you have it! It's an adventure yarn told quite seriously throughout the movie with little light hearted moments. A bit more of the latter would probably have made the movie a bigger hit! Still, not bad for some TV popcorn (6/10)
AI ... Bali TV ... 14.10.13 ... this movie came at the height of Haley Joel Osment's popularity after his huge success in Sixth Sense. It pairs him as the main star with a host of others including the ever handsome Jude Law. The show starts of strongly but the ending feels unnecessarily rushed just to have a closure. Basically as the title states, in the near future, we have robots for everything. It started with toys like teddy bears and then one scientist decided to create a human boy! This was tested with a family that had a huge emotional hole gaping and he fitted. Dad took him for what he is but mom actually started loving him ... until a new real boy came. Sibling rivalry ensued and what is really sad is that the innocent robot boy was in the end left alone in the woods! He is still a child in his mind. Imagine this! And all he knew is he wanted to find his way home to be loved and in order to be loved, he needs to be ... a real boy. So began his track to find the blue fairy who converted Pinochio to a real boy. Yup, he actually tracked from a story book. The journey took him across all sorts of landscapes including meeting gigolo Joe, a pleasure robot ie Jude Law. Anyway I am going to discuss the ending here. What is sooooo sad is that just as he thought he could have found the answer to his questions, disaster struck and he sank to the bottom of the ocean ... face to face with the statue of the blue fairy. And so our AI prayed to be converted to a real boy ... next thing we know ... the end bit ... 2000 years have passed ... and therein lies the greatess sadness of this entire movie! You have to watch it. Great acting, beautiful sets. Do bear with the slow bits. Even though I found the ending sad and could have ended better, I still enjoyed it and this is my third viewing! (8/10)
Gravity ... Penang ... 10.10.13 ... first up, the show is less than 90 minutes and it is not a cartoon. Next point, it has 2 big stars in the form of Clooney and Bullock. Yet it lasts so short. That should tell you that there is not much meat to the tale. So what's the story? George is a retiring astronaut out on his last mission. His mission is not something earth shattering but merely fixing some equipment. Bullock is the brainy type on her first trip to space. Within a few minutes, the Russians did something that caused debris in outer space. Said debris hit them and they go floating off into space while trying to find their way back to a working satellite so that they can come back to Earth. That's it. Them floating in space and talking to each other and slowly moving back to Earth. Sigh! Thank goodness the sets are great. Otherwise this is a snore fest! (3/10)
2 Guns ... Tropicana ... 24.09.13 ... this is the movie with Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington. With such heavyweight actors, I am surprised that the director is from Iceland! No offence meant to the guy. I just wikipedia him and he has a decent resume but imagine his first big film and he landed 2 good actors, right? Next trivia that caught me by surprise is that this is a movie sourced from Boom Studios' graphic novel (that's comics to you non-comic reading folks out there yo!). And finally, James Marsden plays the bad guy navy chap with shaved head. Why I singled him out? Because he loooooks sooooo hooooot in both brown and white uniforms. Argh! He is not the stick thin type but still! Yummeeeeeeee! As for the movie, its all about double-crossing each other and we meant lots and lots of double crossing. Pay attention now. Denzel and Mark are buddies with Mark playing the psycho trouble maker who is good at shooting while Denzel is the man with the connections. Unknown to each other, Denzel works for the DEA and Mark work for the Navy. They are supposed to rob a bank and what not for USD3million to set them up for life. However, Denzel thought to rob for evidence to nail the kingpin while Mark is thinking the same but for navy as proof of something hanky panky going on. To their shock, when they robbed, the small bank had more than 10x their expectations. Enter: the CIA. Apparently that's one of the many banks where the CIA keeps their slush funds! So the drug kingpin is after them, the CIA is after them, the DEA (turns out that the girlfriend is equally dirty) is after them and even the navy (crooked officers). Yup told you. It' a fun fun fun ride (8/10)
Prisoners ... Tropicana ... 23.09.13 ...this is an interesting movie and a little trivia before we start is this: Mark Wahlberg is the star of 2 Guns out at cineplexes now but here in this movie he is executive producer! How about that? He is certainly branching out, eh? I saw this movie being promoted (sort of) on my friends' FB when they tweeted that they were going to watch it. As the timing is right, I went for this by myself one sunny afternoon (to get away from the neighbours' renovation music!). So here's another movie that I didn't know the contents of or even the stars. It has Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal (trying to look old but failing) as the main stars and is pretty taut. It starts off fast with 2 girls (1 white and 1 black) going missing. A slightly retarded chap was in the vicinity and immediately suspicion fell on him. So Jake the detective (named Loki - seriously?) investigates and in his investigation the quiet little town throws up many surprises that has weight but yet appears to be red herrings. Well I am cautioning you that nothing is a red herring which is a nice twist. The priest? The dried up husk of a man in the basement? The nice looking guy at the candlelight vigil? Even the retard? Everyone is connected. And you are left wondering if this slow simmer of a movie is going to have a happy ending or not or what?!?!?!?!?! I am going to spoil this movie with the ending because it is an ending that I JUST NEED TO DISCUSS. Hehehe! When the first girl was discovered (black girl), and her reaction upon seeing her best friend's dad, we are left wondering what the fuck?!>!! Is he schizo and part of the kidnap group or what? While we and everyone else in the movie is thinking this and before we can react, we see Hugh running out. Guilty? Becoming psychotic? Nope. Apparently he figured out the puzzle. He reached the kindly old aunt of the retard's house again. Turns out after her son died of cancer, she and her husband instead of preaching the good news want to cause people to lose hope (opposite of giving hope). So what they do is kidnap kids from the neighbourhood and keeping them alive until they die or some such shit. Even their nephew Alex is not Alex but the first child they kidnap. Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaa! And if you thought that was bad enough, they even left the ending with a cliffhanger as Hugh may be found alive but we are not sure ... now that is an unnecessary suspense twist. Still with this good a movie ... it's acceptable for some cliches to creep in (7/10)
Paranoia ... 1 U ... 20.09.13 ... I went to this movie with a new movie friend (yaaay) and it's a movie we watched because nothing else caught our attention. So I went in with no idea what it's about and I must admit to actually enjoying it. I mean, the leads are not my gay taste but that's the great thing! I still enjoyed it. It's about a group of young, enthusiastic and hungry corporate types who over-reached and found themselves out of a job. However, the boss of the company then dangles something for their leader. So for the sake of money, what will he do? Will he sacrifice everything? That's the question here. And while the young man goes all out to do his best while fighting his conscience, we have 2 corporate titans (think Apple and Samsung) scheme to outmaneouvre each other in the lucrative mobile phone industry. It's pretty good throughout with not much downtime spent. Even the sequence with the ailing father is relevant and they amped it up with a pretty witty dad and nurse. Harrison Ford didn't pretend to be young or adventurous so he played his role well here as one of the cast. The ending is good and satisfying and for once although this is a review and not a blurb, I am not going to tell you what it is so you can go enjoy it yourself (6/10)
Planes ... Jkt ... 19.09.13 ... hmmm I have seen the posters but not the previews and to my surprise, it is actually set in the world of Cars ... so it can be considered part 3 in that series except featuring different characters ... so first up, try not to think too much about the logic of the movie. All characters are vehicles like cars, planes, ships. If that is so, why is there a farm growing crops when none of them eat the crops? I mean, seriously! And they have tractors being cows. So unless the cars and planes are eating tractors why bother having tractors/ cows? Hahaha! See what I mean? Anyway, I found the movie boring and tiresome and would have walked out if I had been there alone. It's basically about a crop-dusting plane whose ambition is to enter an around the world race even though he is not built for distance or speed. Naturally being the red neck that he is, well he goes all out to compete except that he has a heart of gold and as the race progresses, he earns the friendship of the other competitors even though he seemed to be able to beat them all when it comes to flying a straight route. I mean, the rest are zooming high above while he has twists and turns as he flies low through the terrain so what's up with that, right? The so-called tension comes from race leader who wants to maintain his winning streak, there are no charming sidekick type characters. The inspiration comes from the old war plane who coached him and additional comedy comes from foreign accent planes. Sigh! So suitable for kiddie hour only (5/10)

Comics Review Part 2

X-Men (90s) vol 1 #4 to 7 ... after the huge first arc, how does Claremont and Jim Lee follow it up? They followed it up with something that is another hit, that's how and what! 4 opens with some downtime as the X-Men play their fave baseball while we get glimpses of key events and subplots brewing all the while we also see how they deal with the fallout from 3. Then when 5 hits, it's X-Men trying to find and rescue a missing Wolverine only to learn that he has been caught by Omega Red but is Red acting alone? Well 6 and 7 give us the lowdown where they found out that Omega is with Sabretooth and the Fenris Twins and a few others as well! And it's such a mess that even the X have to call in an old pal of Wolvie's Maverick to help out. Apparently everyone is after something called the Carbonadium Synthesizer and it's something that is imbedded in Wolvie's memories as it was part of a caper he did with Sabretooth and Maverick from his earlier days as an intelligence mercenary! Man this series is sooooo goood. I have read ith eaps of times! (9/10)
Marvel Knights Wolverine vol 2 #20 ... Marvel ... 12.10.13 ... for some unknown reason, they relaunched Wolverine perhaps hoping to give the sagging sales a kick in the nuts but putting serious artists with serious writers (means boring) didn't quite work. Hence they switched writers to up and coming (then) Mark Millar and paired him with fan/ cult fave artist, JR JR and here we have the beginning of a year's run by the creative team. What did they do? Well, Millar showed us why Wolvie is the best there is at what he does. He finally gives us a full on savage Wolverine. And as for JR, he takes his now signature style of 2D full of clean clear lines to the max. And it just so happens to work beautifully. The energy of the action scenes and the facial expressions are spot on! In this opening sequence, we see a child being abducted. However, they failed to understand why a chaffeur's son is being abducted and could this be a case of mistaken identity? Enter: Wolverine. Why? Because said chaffeur is a mate of his! It turns out ... well the intended kid is indeed correct! So what's the game plan here? Read it to find out! (9/10)
Wolverine vol 1 #85 ... Marvel ... 10.10.13 ... first, please take note that there is a foil enhanced cover, though the enhancement is nothing to shout about. Just a narrow strip on the right side of the cover that has a wee bit of foil embedded but hey this issue is from speculator frenzy era. As to the tale, it is part of a huge mutant crossover and quite good actually. Here the villain is the Phalanx as their years of silent planning comes to fruition and they began attacking humanity but starting with the X-Men. So we have our heroes learning who the true villains are, running away to regroup and also encountering and freeing a team of younger mutants! What more can you ask for in this series? As for this particular chapter, you can read it without the earlier chapters as the recap is good. However, to know the ending? You have to buy the remainder chapters! (7/10)
WCA vol 2 #7 ... Marvel ... 08.10.13 ... let's take this review back a few issues. Check out that killer cover of 2 Ultrons tearing one Hank Pym apart. This review is timely thanks to what is going on in the Marvel U with Ultron unlimited. Here in this issue is a time when Hank Pym is on the road to recovery ... to recover himself and his dignity. He doesn't want to be a hero just a scientist and unfortunately, here he finds his robotic son able to love him and wanting to be his son. However, as this is a super hero comic, you just knonw that disaster is waiting in the wings. The disaster? An Ultron that behaves like an Ultron. Hence the robots fights and naturally the good ultron perishes. Otherwise, how can a villain remain eh? Still it is sad, a sad tale not a heroic tale (6/10)
West Coast Avengers vol 2 #10 ... Marvel ... 07.10.03 ... I used to collect this as it comes out every month and it was exciting to follow. Imagine after the hurrah of 9, you woud expect some down time but nope! In 10, we get the Thing out for a visit and finding out that his mutation of being the Thing is getting worse. As the WCA tries to hunt him down to find out what's wrong, they are faced with other villains as well. Not just one but several. On the covers, you get the Griffin (part human part animal hybrid) and old skeletal thin guy who can manipulate minds! So one for the mind and one for the physical and all these with the backstory of the Thing on-going. Let's not forget the newly confident Wonder Man who is bursting at the seams with over-confidence and may just wanna drop the WCA for his career! See? A lot going on in this issue and it's again told in one! (8/10)

Comics to Get Your KFC hands on ...

Uncanny X-Men vol 1 #162 ... Marvel ... 01.02.13 ... to really appreciate the sheer magnificent tapestry of Claremont's work, you have to read these issues of X-Men back to back to see how much is actually going on simultaneously. While the end of last issue has flashbacks to the past, here we are whipped into outer space, the Brood has attacked the X-men and Shiar while they are out to fix problems and like the cover suggests, can Wolverine be infected with a Brood egg? (9/10)
Uncanny X-Men vol 1 #161 ... Marvel ... 31.01.13 ... I got this from the back issue bins and it was a near mint copy. What made this an even better read aside from brilliant artwork is the early days of Hydra, Prof X and Magneto. This is a flashback story where Gabrille Haller fell into a catatonic state and Prof X and Magneto had to try and find a way to free her. Both men are mutants but yet to disclose to each other their true colours. Thanks to Strucker and his Hydra team, they have no choice but to use their abilities out in the open and thus cement their early budding friendship. However, that was in the past. So what is going on in the present to cause Haller that catatonic state? (9/10)
Uncanny X-Men vol 1 #160 ... Marvel ... 30.01.13 ... and now we will do reviews of a batch of single books from the original Uncanny X-Men run. In the olden days of comics, even though there are plenty of sub plots and cliffhangers, a number of stories are generally self contained. So this next batch of reviews are a tribute to those days, not saying they are better or worse, mind you. This is one of those early issues of X-Men that I was fortunate to pick up from secondhand roadside shops on McCallister Road, Penang. Those shops have long since disappeared but way back then ... brings back memories. This issue is great. We have the new X-Men battle weary and coming back to their new hidden base to relax only to have young Illyana, Colossus' sister being whisked away by a light disk. The X-Men tried to help her and reached out only to pull back teenager Illyana. So what transpired in the meantime while she is away? A highlight is given here and it is self-contained but an in-depth story is actually contained in the 4-issue miniseries entitled Magik. Basically, time is different in limbo when compared to Earth. So while Illyana disappeared for seconds here on Earth, in limbo, she had to grow up watching the X-Men die and raised by the demonic lord of the realm, Belasco. She was trained by him in the Dark Arts and that's how she came to possess magical skills and her soulsword! There is so much more going on here and how they crammed all in 22 pages is simply brilliant. Story telling at its best! (9/10)
Ultimate Six #1 to 7 ... Marvel ... 29.01.13 ... Trevor Hairsine kicked all kinds of ass in this series as its artist! I have never been a fan and didn't expect much from this. Hence only picked up one issue from the bargain bins but it was such a great read that I went back diligently hunting down all issues. Basically, it is about Spider-Man's foes deciding to get smart and banding together. Of course, to get all these selfish personalities to gel, there must be someone with that idea and cloud and charisma to band them together against the heroes. So who is it? Doc Ock? Goblin? And as the cover suggests, to give it added weight, we have guest stars in the form of the Ultimates. All in, a fun read. It could have been featured in the regular Spider-Man book though instead of this mini-series but then again, they were trying to give Bendis and Bagley that unbeaten streak of continuous issues so perhaps that's why they had this but hey I loved it whatever Marvel's reason for issuing it as a miniseries (8/10)
Ultimates vol 1 #8 to 13 ... Marvel ... 28.01.13 ... did you watch last years Avengers movie? If you did, well this is where the story is adapted from. O of course there are changes but basically the Chitauri is from this particular arc. And the black Nick Fury naturally! Okay basically in the second outing for the Avengers, we found out that Fury is playing his games. The Hulk has not been terminated but rather shipped elsewhere to live a life of peace until such time as the world may need him again. In the meantime, we see Shield discovering something nasty going on. Infiltration of whole companies by busloads of aliens masquerading as humans and this goes back to even WW2 days. By the time the Ultimates realized how dire it can be, it is really bad. So cue some major action scenes that has artist Bryan Hitch taking nearly forever to come out with the books. I remembered all the online complains way back when but you know what? I didn't give a damn. I rather have a great book that is coming out than some crappy work that looks horrible on my collection. So for me, this entire 13 issue run is just magnificent! (10/10)

Bookworms Unite

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children ... Ransom Riggs ... 06.10.13 ... before I start this review, I have one request to make: BUY THIS BOOK!!! Right, that's out of my system. Now we can proceed. This is the first novel of an author I have never heard of. What caught my attention is the title and odd cover photo. When I flicked through at the airport (seems like my usual shopping place of late), I was surprised and delighted that it is a proper novel and yet uses original old photographs to hold the story through. Something unique and the style of writing is easy to read. With that, I launched into it and for me, it's so hard to stop turning the pages. The story starts off easy enough like a proper children's book about a young man having to work on his family business and trying desperately to get fired. He is not a super star and in fact is rather a loner/ loser/ nerd type. As the pages flow, we are introduced to an odd assortment of people in his life. If you think they are the focus, think again. Because in no time at all, he found the supposedly crazed grandpa dead (or murdered?)! And that's when the book moved at breakneck speed with the oddities! Naturally while our young protagonist tries to come to terms with the oddball grandpa and his tales, the more mundane human world tries to help him via a psyhiatrist that it was all in his mind. There are no demons and fairies and what-not. But is that what it seems? As despair and desperation looms, a stroke of luck brought him to the windy, misty, foggy isles of UK (he is American). What starts off as a therapeutic journey turns out to be something more. Our young hero discovers to his absolute horror and delight that perhaps grandpa was not delusional and his collection of guns has a reason. And he also discovers towards the end that the people in his mundane life are perhaps not as mundane as it seems. This is a novel of a young man's awakening of his senses to his surroundings. It encourages us to re-look at our everyday life and to find the spark that is inherent in most things. A great read! About the only sad part is that ... there is a part 2 forthcoming! ARGH! (8/10)
Seriously ... I'm Kidding ... Ellen Degeneres ... 24.09.13 ... this is Ellen's third book. However, it is my first and I didn't even know she writes. All I know of Ellen is that she is an official Lesbian who was in a relationship with Anne Heche (ended up being straight) and she is now happily married with Portia (ice queen from Ally McBeal). Yup tabloid news because she is like the first major lesbian. Hahaha! Okay. How about the book? It's basically a book on any and all sorts of topics that come to her mind and for every single topic, she will try to make it like a smart remark or a joke i.e. pretty much like a stand up comic. There are pages where it is really funny and there are those where it isn't ... as in at all. Example: pages where shefirst commented about children and then give you a few pictures for kids to colour in. Come in! And then the part about a seriously long chapter. After the first couple of paragraphs, you should have seen the punchline coming! (5/10)
Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls ... David Sedaris ... 03.09.13 ... as usual, for some weird reason, though I enjoyed his previous works tremendously, he is one author I do not use internet to keep track of and was surprised to see his book at the airport. Naturally, I picked it up (this is in T2 Jakarta mind you!). And I thoroughly loved it. Not a single page was boring. Some are interesting, others are literally laugh out loud funny. Basically the book is scribblings by David on various topics. Sometimes it's about his life, his boyfriend, emigration and other times, it is like a normal short story such as when he writes the main character to be a woman. So it's a collection of articles of various lengths all tongue in cheek. You will enjoy the joy of getting a visa in UK, the Obama issue in France and even the colonoscopy he had! (8/10)
I've Got Your Number ... Sophie Kinsella ... 22.08.13 ... hey it's chic-lit time again and it's a new Kinsella novel. So what's not to like, eh? If you have liked any of her previous works, chances are you will enjoy this as she is not trying to break new ground here. The same style of writing, set in jolly old UK and with the same type of characters. We have guys and girls falling in love and problems coming in building up momentum. All that standard Kinsella formula is evident here. I am always amazed at how she plots this type of novel with social and work problems growing with each chapter. About the only new thing she did different is updating her characters knowledge in technology. Hence the title. Bascially we have a young lady who graduated and is a physio with 2 of her mates from the uni (one of them is the owner and the other is a vamp). She falls madly in love with a patient and he proposes. He comes from a family of intellectuals. So naturally she is worried and the more she worries, the more she overassumes things in a negative light. Poor old Poppy Wyatt spends too much time wondering about the ifs and what-nots instead of confronting the real situation. Thrown into the excitement is when she lost her engagement ring prior to her in-laws coming back from a trip to the States and the nightmare that starts when she even has her phone snatched next! In sheer desperation,she saw a found (not hers) being dumped into a bin and she picked it up to use. And thus our adventure properly begins because she didn't want to steal that phone, did she? Only that the phone is not a private phone but a company phone! And so she begins to get to know other contacts not her own and drama escalates as her own life and that of the others on the phone takes a turn for the worse. So what's the ending? Will it be a happy one? It's a Kinsella novel! You should know the answer to that, eh? (8/10)
The Secret Letters of the Monk who sold his Ferrarri ... Robin Sharma ... 30.07.13 ... I have not read the earlier books nor know if this is a true story or not but I have to admit 2 things; first is that the narrative style is dead brilliant - simple, not convoluted yet engaging sentence structures that invites you and draws you in; and secondly the engaging storyline. It opens with a man who is having a wee bit of difficulty with his wife (separated) and work (on the fast track up and considering affairs with co worker). However, from out of the blue, his mom gives him a call about meeting up with a successful cousin whom he knew only once. She wanted him to go see this cousin in another part of the globe as apparently it is a life and death situation. Panicking and thinking it could be mom, he embarked on this journey ... and one journey becomes 7 short trips as the cousin sends him around the globe collecting talismans from his friends, talismans that supposedly will be instrumental in saving the life of the person whom his mom is concerned with. The best part about this book is that each talisman represents a life lesson yet told in a non-preachy manner to make it so interesting. I finished the book in one seating! (9/10)