Nivi's Adventures

Flatwarming!

2009-08-09T20:00:00.000-07:00

So having started work in June it was time to fly the (sister's) nest and find my own place. I did the usual internet searching but ended up answering something akin to a personal ad! ;o) No, not like that! But Carlee and I met up, decided we had comparable living requirements and set about finding a place to live. We moved into a cute little 'penthouse' apartment in King's Cross. Next step = Flatwarming!

The practice flatwarming - Carlee and neighbour Dan discussing the merits of BBQing indoors!

The Flatwarming Proper - with the recently liberated sister and bro-on-law!

And Vas brought cupcakes!!! I love my sis :-D

Nav and Carl

Niv & Nav :)

This somehow seems a funny pic, even tho Fraser is quite far from being a 'fattie' ;)

And last but definitely not least, courtesy of Mark, a photo of the Kings Quarter Crew - me, Steady, Fraser and Carlee. Steady and Fraser were our neighbours who we became firm friends with. Yes, I know, unheard of in a city like London!

Glasgow

2009-07-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

I had to go up to Glasgow for work and managed to score a free afternoon before I had to head back down to London. Luckily it was a beautiful day and so we did a hop-on hop-off tour to check out the sights. We were a little busy nattering so weren't listening to the commentary very much so apologies for the lack of captioning... ;-/

Gotta love Art Deco :)

I am pretty sure this was in a square outside a bus station. Seems an apt kinda scultpure ;)

A most magnificent University!

Fous de Bassin

2009-06-27T18:00:00.000-07:00

Some advertising about a performance on water, complete with fire caught my eye and decided it was worth checking out! http://www.festival.org/fousdebassin2009.htm

I dragged my soon to be neighbour Dan along... It ended up being quite a random show but some of it was spectacular!

Before it started

Ascot

2009-06-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

The races at Ascot is often on of the 'to do' list of antipodeans in the UK. I decided to check out what the fuss was about in June

The Queen! Always a bonus

Some of the Queen's entourage I'm guessing, but definitely lower in the ranks - they only get brown horses!

The ever cute Alpie, with the most important part of the day - champagne!

Miss Ruth

Some racing...

Neela and me!

Lake District

2009-06-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

Kendal was our stop in the Lake District. We didn't have great walking shoes so gave the surrounding peaks a miss and headed to the water instead.

Derwent Water

Luciane & Stella :o)

View from the boat

It's easy to smile when the sun's shining!

The shore of Derwent Water, complete with an Inukshuk!

A fern!

But alas, not a silver fern :(

The cutest couple, still holding hands after what I assume is many years together :)

Road Trippers with our trusty steed! Kindly lent to us by my sis and bro-in-law :-D

Stratford-Upon-Avon

2009-06-13T12:00:00.000-07:00

Luciane and Stella, some Brazilian friends of mine came to visit in June and I managed to take a couple of days off to head up to Stratford-Upon-Avon and the Peak District. Here are some pics from Shakespeare's hometown.

Shakespeare's House

Streetscape, Stratford style!

Boats at rest on the Avon

Arrival in London

2009-05-24T12:00:00.000-07:00

These posts from 2009 are pretty much all being put in well after the fact so I'll dispense with the commentary (unless I'm very taken with something) but leave you with at least a bit of a photo journal.

Big Ben!

Jellyfish at London Aquarium

Fish and dinasours?

Pretty fish!

The resurrection

2009-04-13T03:16:00.000-07:00

So this time of year seems a suitable point at which to start blogging again. Although to be honest it's less about Easter and more because in less than a week I'll be winging my way across the globe again to touch down in London town!

I guess you could say it's OE part II but this time the intent is to give living in the UK a proper go. As such, I shall endeavour to see and do things that are blog worthy, something I'm not sure I've done over the last year I've been back home. In hindsight, I realise there might have been some readers out there who would have found posts about NZ quite interesting so apologies for not being a more faithful blogger during this period.

I promise I won't be so slack in coming months (years?) but in the meantime I've got some pics from my time in NZ. Slim pickings though, as being so slack I'd fallen out of the 'take my camera everywhere' frame of mind and dont have any photos from the 5+ weddings I attended! Shocking eh? ;-)

New baby, JJ

Miss Lucy, not so new, but just as cute :)

Wine weekend in Napier with Bree. Yum!

David Beckham in the flesh *Sigh*

The warriors in the office, like you do ;) Funnily enough, almost 3 years to the day from the last time I'd seen them. Yes it was in the office last time too.

Louis Vuitton Pacific Series

Sailors from Team New Zealand. Well I hope they were from TNZ, otherwise some skullduggery is afoot!

Wicked Winter Weekend Day 2 - Whitianga

2008-08-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

So... the reason I couldn't stay at the mountain longer was because I had a ticket to the Scallop Festival in the Coromandel on Sat 30 Aug! Yum seafood and tasty wine. It's a tough life but someone's got to do it eh? An awesome day and wonderful weekend overall. There aren't many places where you can go from snow to sea in a couple of hours. I'm glad to call NZ home! :D

The cutest and perhaps smallest library I've ever seen.

Macadamia scallops

Happy Alison. Notice how all the glasses are empty!

Bronze, me & Ali! :)

The gang. L-R Sarita, Simon, Bron, Suzette, Matt, Shar, me & Al

Some misty, mystical bay :)

This was such a stereotypical shot of NZ I couldn't resist. And a view many kiwis are prob used to: the queue at Kopu Bridge!

Wicked Winter Weekend Day 1 - Whakapapa

2008-08-29T04:00:00.000-07:00

Much of what I was looking forward to about being home was being surrounded by friends. So when I was presented with the option of doing a day mission to Mt Ruapehu for some snowboarding on what was being touted as perhaps the best day of the season I couldn't really turn down the option.

PS for those that don't know what I mean by day mission it means leaving Auckland on Friday in the morning and coming back home after the lifts close. A bit 'hardcore' considering the drive is 4-5hrs one way!

The approach to Mt Ruapehu. Not a cloud in the sky!

And the biggest snow base they've had for ages! Whakapapa is on 3.5m and Turoa is on 4.5m!

Lunch with the posse. Pretty good turnout considering it was a Friday!

Sigh. I love NZ!

Dusk over Lake Taupo on the drive home.

The day was pretty fabulous, but you'll have to read my next post to find out why I didn't spend longer than a day on the mountain...

A town fit for a Queen!

2008-08-10T19:00:00.000-07:00

and no, I'm not referring to myself when I say that...

When European settlers came upon an area with a gorgeous lake and beautiful snow capped mountains, they proclaimed it a town fit for a queen, which is apparently how Queenstown in the South Island of NZ got its name. It's now the adventure capital of the NZ and the place to go for a fun-filled adventure, which is exactly what I did!

A scenic lookout on the Crown Range road (way to get to Cardrona, a ski field)

Me at Cardrona :)

Perhaps the most quaint pub in NZ and an obligatory stop after a day on the slopes!

The perils of leaving your water bottle in the car overnight in chilly QT.

The view from the deck of the house we hired.

The gang! (And see, I was being honest about the house - check the background is the same as the pic above :)

Lake Wakatipu
The lake is 400m deep (its floor is 100m below sea level) and there's a cool Maori legend which explains why the water level rises and falls 12cm every 5minutes!

And last but not least, Kawarau Bridge, the site of the first commercial bungy jump (and where I did my first jump a couple of years back :)

a REALLY long time between posts...

2008-08-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

Since I started my blog way back in March 2006, I've made at least one post every month, but not in July 2008. Which is a bit lame for those of you who have been following my blog (sorry all, especially you bexy!) but I guess it's because I've been settling back into life in NZ and I haven't been taking many photos - it is a bit strange to be snapping pictures when you're a local...

But that didn't stop me the other day... We've had some serious storm action in New Zealand recently so I couldn't resist taking this picture of a gloriously sunny morning from the bus on the way into work yesterday (yes I did get strange looks).

Auckland city from the Northern Busway

Oh almost forgot to say - watch this space! I'm off to Queenstown, one of the most beautiful places in the world tomorrow so I should hopefully return with some good pics!

The All Blacks vs England, Eden Park

2008-06-14T19:35:00.000-07:00

We had a couple of drinks and did some facepainting before heading out to Eden Park... We were lucky we got there at all considering our bus driver had NO idea where she was going! But some Wendy's, fine weather and a All Black team out to prove their worth resulted in a great night overall!

a long time between posts...

2008-06-12T13:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry about that... I've been a little distracted with being back in Godzone! To you non-kiwis out there, Godzone is an abbreviation for God's Own Country - a term New Zealanders use to describe NZ.

I've been back in the country for just over 2 weeks - I had a week of recuperating from jetlag and being fussed over by my lovely parents, which I perhaps milked a little more than I needed to ;-) but then started work the following week.

I'm slowly settling back into the routine I had before I embarked on my OE - I'm back in pretty much the same job and in fact sit a mere 4 seats along from where I used to sit (now instead of views of the Auckland Harbour Bridge, I have view of Mt Victoria & Rangitoto Island).

Life outside of work is great too, as much as I love meeting new people there's something very right about being with people you've known for years and years...

I confess I was a little worried about coming home to NZ after being in a city the size of London but I'm not having too many difficulties adjusting. The weather has been near phenomenal so far (altho I'm sure that won't last) and I'm finding true pleasure in the simple things like gatecrashing an old friend's family dinner (and being welcomed with open arms, cheers Rach!), planning trips around NZ and buying tickets for the AB's game 2moro!

The walk to work my first morning...

...and the sunny walk back from lunch. My phone camera did it no justice, but the water is amazingly blue! (Just one of the reason's it's called Godzone eh?)

Transient no more!

2008-05-18T15:55:00.000-07:00

So I'm currently still in London, but not for much longer! Just as my working holiday was drawing to a close, I finally decided that this city was a pretty cool place to live and I'd like to stay here a bit longer... Typical eh? ;-) However I've applied for another visa which will allow me to live/work in the UK but as I haven't heard anything back yet, I have been relegated to mere tourist. Sitting idle, unable to work, in one of the most expensive cities in the world while I await the result of my visa application wasn't a particularly appealing (or financially feasible!) option so I cast about looking for work. By quite a stroke of fortune I've scored myself a 6month telecoms contract, starting on the 1st of June... back at Vodafone NZ!

Yes I know not it's not particularly exotic (well to kiwis anyway) and I'm a bit unimpressed to have 2 winters on the trot, but I am quite excited to be coming home for a while to spend time with my family and friends. I intend to return to the UK in 2009 but 'going with the flow' is a skill I've honed over the last 2 years so I guess you'll just have to wait for the next exciting installment to find out what actually pans out.

In the meantime I will keep blogging (already have a week snowboarding in Queenstown sorted) so the posts/photos should keep coming.

Thanks for reading!

Cans Festival

2008-05-10T16:00:00.000-07:00

"A disused road tunnel in south London has been turned into a giant exhibition space by graffiti artist Banksy and 29 others"

I missed out on the full deal as the exhibition was on the weekend that I was in Dublin but I decided to check it out the weekend after... Some of the exhibits had been removed but most of the stuff on the walls was still there so it was still very cool to check it out...

Sam & Lou in London

2008-05-05T06:45:00.000-07:00

My dear friends Sam & Lou from NZ were in town for a couple of days and I really wanted to catch up with them (hence the too-short trip to Dublin). My appreciation for this great city has only grown since I've been here and I've tried to get out and see and experience as much of it as possible so I thought I was up to the task of trying to suggest how to do London in 1 day! (Not an easy task for a city of this size) But nonetheless we gave it a go and after a full on day, I think Sam and Lou had at least a taste of London...

The Tower of London

Trafalgar Square (the dome building is the National Gallery). Was absolutely packed as it was Vaisakhi (Sikh New Year) celebrations.

Sam doing the obligatory tourist shot, with Nelson's Column cleverly captured in the background

The gardens near Buckingham Palace, but um for some reason didn't take any pics at Buckingham Palace itself...

Sam & Lou at drinks on a boat on the Thames

The view from the porthole

View from Waterloo Bridge of the South Bank

Dublin Dabbling

2008-05-03T18:55:00.000-07:00

Not one to keep still for too long, I headed across the ditch to Dublin for a couple of days to visit my cousin Sivani and Bex, my dear friend from NZ. Unfortunately Johnny (Bex's hubby of only a few weeks) was away for work, but I think Bex and I did enough catching up for Johnny as well. :) My trip was only a couple of days but Dublin definitely turned on the weather for me - mainly sun and blue skies, no better way to see a city!

Trinity College

Christ Church Cathedral

Tree of Gold

A river runs through it - River Liffey

The Dublin Spire

Dollymount - the pretty beach by Bex & Johnny's Place

A haunting sculpture to the victims of the Great Famine

My first ever Guinness! Where better than in Ireland eh? ;)

Me & Siv with our coffee cocktails. Yes I may have mixed my drinks a little, resulting in quite an awful hangover the next day :/

Me & Bexy

Temple Bar, the view from the roof terrace of Siv's appartment. The joys of living central!

Transient. Again.

2008-04-30T07:53:00.000-07:00

Well just to keep you guys in the loop, tomorrow is the day my working holiday visa expires... So Friday was my last day at work and I return to the state of transient... I do have another visa application in with the home office, but who know if/when that'll get approved so in the meantime I figure it's time for a bit of adventuring...

Watch this space!

PS I snapped this photo on Hackney Rd, East London, on the walk home from my birthday brunch in Clerkenwell... I liked this 'art' from the moment I saw it, little did I know it would be me so soon!

Milano!

2008-04-05T08:01:00.000-07:00

My friend Nav had a colleague Matt, who's currently seconded to the Milan office. Matt's only in Milan for another month so invited Nav +1 (ie me!) along for a weekend. I jumped at the chance - I'm always keen for travel where possible, especially when there's a pseudo local about to show you the best haunts!

Statue of Leonardo

Duomo di Milano

The doors on the duomo

Which on closer inspection is actually brass!

Idea of scale

A very cool scultpure thingy in a square

A saturday morning trip to Desenzato, a little hamlet on the coast of Lago di Garda.

Niv & Nav

Typical Milan streetscape

And what a way to wrap up a wonderful weekend! Gelato (PS the one the right isn't mine!)

Birthday Celebrations!

2008-03-29T21:00:00.000-07:00

In 2006 I was passing through Canada for my birthday, in 2007 I left NZ on my birthday so 2008 was the first time in 2 years I wasn't travelling on my birthday so I took full advantage of it by going out for drinks with friends in Central London!

Me & my girls - Aneela, Aunty Alpa, me

Me & Hamish! I used to work with Hamish at Vodafone NZ a few moons ago!

Me & my girls from St Christopher's - Hina, me & Navodi

Me and my kiwi boys ;) Dwayne, me & Dan

Friday Late 08 @ V&A

2008-03-28T20:00:00.000-07:00

My friend Hina from Bahrain that I've recently rediscovered in London invited me along to a free music night at The Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington. Saint Etienne were playing which is the main reason I went along, but turned out to be heaps of fun, with some really amazing 'exhibits'. Anna, I hope you got a chance to check this out when you were here!

A sculpture in the foyer - each 'bead' hangs from the ceiling on an individual thread. Very delicate and pretty :)

There was an interactive thing where you could make your own 'sculpture' with the cardboard templates... Our attempt

Peek-a-boo!

I love when art meets functionality - this is a stunning yet functional fruit bowl.

Hina and the funky teapot :)

Museums and Birthday Brunch!

2008-03-24T16:01:00.000-07:00

Vasi's Birthday was on Easter Monday so I caught up with her for brunch. (I've finally moved out of her place - well for a short time anyway - I'm currently house sitting with a friend in Bethnal Green.)

So being one to always seize the day, I decided Monday morning was the day to finally check out an exhibit at the beautiful British Museum that I'd been wanting to see for ages - The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army.

The advance tickets sold out months ago so the only way to see it was to queue for one of the 500 daily tickets released on a first come first served basis... I was on the bus at 6:30, and standing in the queue by 7:00am! I was standing in the cold (prob about 5 deg) for about 2 hours with joints starting to ache, when I should really have been asleep, but I managed to get a ticket so it was worth it in the end!

After the museum, I headed to Fulham for brunch with my big sis and a fun afternoon ensued :)

The queue at about 8:00, one hour before I got there and one hour before it opened. I was about 50 people from the front

The queue, stretching around the block! Heard a staff member saying there were probably about 700 people queued by the time the museum opened!

Not quite as good as the real thing but no photos allowed. The detail on the terracotta soldiers was phenomenal. They were life size, they all different facial features, hairstyles - amazing!

I walked part of the way to brunch - from Holborn to Victoria. Mainly because it was snowing and I've never been in a city during snow! It was cold, but fun :)

I'd been in the cold and not had breakfast- you can understand my joy at having cake!

Birthday cuddles :)

Getting Majuran to join in in the Birthday cuddles :)

The Ides of March

2008-03-15T20:00:00.000-07:00

I for some strange reason seem to remember dates, so it didn't escape me that the 15th March 2008 was my 2 year anniversary of leaving NZ on my OE.

I guess when I left NZ I never had a timeframe for when I would return; I figured I would be away for at least 2 years, but as I hit that milestone I realise that although I miss my family and friends like crazy, I'm not quite ready to come home...

London has so many things to offer - within the last week I went to my first ever gig at the famous Roundhouse (DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist performing the Hard Sell), went to a brilliant hip hop dance adaptation of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' and even managed to get a spot of nature in - I ambled through Regents Park and walked up Primrose Hill admiring the daffodils sprouting in force!

Perhaps the culmination of the week however, was Sat night dinner at Navodi's place with Hina, another friend from the St Christopher's days. The food was v tasty (thanks Nav!), the wine was fine (not hard when it's Oyster Bay) but the company was simply sumptuous! We were friends back in primary school and hadn't been all together for about 15 years but the conversation & laughs flowed like we were the best of friends who'd never been apart :)

Spending the night with some of my oldest friends in the world - not a bad way to celebrate my little milestone :)

A foggy day, in London town

2008-02-21T12:48:00.000-08:00

I doubt that the British Museum could ever lose it's charm, but nevertheless, it was a very foggy day in London yesterday. I have temporarily borrowed my sis' pxt phone and snapped the following shots from Waterloo Bridge.

The Thames is out there somewhere and usually can see the likes of St Paul's, Tower Bridge and the Oxo Tower...

Chillin' in Cambridge

2008-02-17T12:00:00.000-08:00

I headed up to Cambridge for my friend Russ' birthday lunch on Sunday. Seeing as though I'd checked out Oxford (thanks again Em & Peter) I was pretty keen to see the sights Cambridge had to offer.

But, considering just how chilly it's been of late (Saturday night was the coldest night of the winter thus far, -10 in some parts of the country) I decided to do a more comprehensive tour later... However, Russ and a couple other locals managed to give us a bit of a 'tour' after lunch - I think another trip may be in order, least of all to have a punt, but in the meantime, enjoy these pics!

King's College

Um, I think still part of King's College. (The tour guides weren't really that fab ;)

The golden winter sun :)

Other people punting

s St John's College (I think)

Swishing in the Swiss Snow

2008-02-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

I finally got to experience one of the biggest perks about living in London - having the likes of Switzerland on your doorstep. I was lucky enough to get to go on my company's all expenses paid 'conference' in Davos, Switzerland over the weekend. We left work midday Thurs 7th Feb, returned on Sunday night and all I had to pay for was my lunch on Saturday. Nice.

Also rather nice was the fact the conditions at Davos were as perfect as they come. 20cm of powder on Thursday night, sunshine and no clouds all weekend :) Perfect way to become reacquainted with the slopes I've missed while I've been busy chasing summers over the last 2 years!

View from the cable car

Team building activity - make a bar, igloo and sculpture

One of the runs - Phil and Ben (from work) are just in the middle left.

Me, Guido (instructor) and Ben

Sigh. Does it get much better than this?

You can ski right into town and then I had a 5min walk to the hotel.

The coach ride to Zurich on Sunday.

Walking in a winter wonderland, wondering where the year has gone...

2007-12-31T12:00:00.000-08:00

As the year comes to a close, I dont know if I am any closer to figuring out what I'm doing and where I'm going, but I'm still having fun so I guess I can take solace in that. However grown up thoughts are starting to form as I contemplate re-entering the world of professional engineering from which I have taken a leave of absence for almost 2 years! The gay abandon of taking life as
it comes has been lots of fun, but perhaps it's time for more now... Sure enough I'll keep you posted though :)

Below are some random pics from December. My gadding about has meant the last winter I had was in NZ back in July 2005 - 2½ years without a winter meant it was kinda hard getting used to London's winter which has been rather frosty thus far, but it is a rather beautiful city in winter as well!

The Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square which is a present from Oslo to the people of London for their assistance during WWII

The Mighty Big Ben

Brrr. The morning frost on the way into work

The rotunda and ferris wheel in Hyde Park Winter Wonderland

Aneela's Birthday - and a engineering school reunion ;) L-R: Richie, me, Aneela & Joe

A sunday afternoon's walk along the Thames

Thanks everyone for reading in 2007, Happy New Year to you all! :)

Sun? In London? In December???

2007-12-01T13:38:00.000-08:00

It seemed to be too glorious a day to stay inside so instead of tubing, Vasi and I walked to Tower Bridge to catch up with Caroline (an old school friend from NZ). And being eternally snap-happy, my trusty camera came along with me...

Shad Thames - a cute little street lined with boutiques

I know I've probably posted half a dozen photos of Tower Bridge, but I can't help it. I think it's perhaps my fave bridge in the world. (Oooh although maybe tied with Kawarau Bridge)

Some funky building, right across from Tower of London.

Thankfully London Bridge wasn't falling down when I passed by.

I spose this could just be legal speak but when I first read it, it just seemed very olde english, and so British, it warranted capturing!

Crossing the Millennium bridge, heading toward the Tate Modern...

Where I spy a giant spider... Now this really gets me wondering and lo and behold...

I saw this very same sculpture in Tokyo! I copied this photo from my blog Konnichiwa Tokyo. It was a little strange but I didn't think worthy of making another post - until I looked at the dates. I saw the one in London on Sat 1 Dec 2007, and the one in Tokyo on Sat 2 Dec 2006. How freaky random is that!?!

And as I neared the London Bridge tube station, behold the lit up pavement. The blues and greens are so me, and like a child, I always walk on the lights when I go through this tunnel.

The quick brown fox crosses the busy road

2007-11-29T21:28:00.000-08:00

Literally.

I'm walking to the tube station this morning (Canada Water, which is urban and relatively central London) so imagine my surprise to see a fox crossing the road!

Anyway it seemed like enough of an event to prompt me to make another post. So I'm back in London (again!) and I've gone back to the same job I had earlier on in the year. For those of you who managed to escape my bemoaning, I have struggled to find a 'proper engineering job' in London so I am currently a sales ledger clerk. Not very well paying, exciting or challenging but I guess it's a job...

I am however contemplating the benefit of staying in London if I'm squandering all my previous telco knowledge and experience working in a random office job... I'm certainly not squandering my youth, or what's left it ;) cos Lord knows I'm having a great time in this most magnificent of cities, but I am starting to wonder whether the lack of mental stimulation and rather large gap in my CV is worth it...

Ah decisions decisions... I'm sure everything will work out one way or another (and you'll see the progress on my blog) but in the meantime I'll continue to live the life in London!

Hed Kandi @ Pacha

2007-11-24T22:30:00.000-08:00

Hed Kandi was the first house music I ever listened to, after being introduced to it by a friend. My music taste has expanded somewhat over the last couple of years and so when a friend suggested we check out Hed Kandi playing at Pacha, I couldn't say no! Only in London eh?

Alpa & I, before heading out

A poster for Hed Kandi, at the tube station

Pacha is in a beautiful old building with "original oak panelling and a balustraded gallery". Very la-dee-dah

Alpa & I, on the dancefloor...

The massive chandelier

One of the dancers. I'm sure she was in the middle of a funky dance move, but this just looks like she's trying to do a runner ;)

Part of the upstairs

Capturing the crowd, chandelier and glitter rain, all from the 'balustraded gallery' sweetie ;)

It's getting harder and harder...

2007-11-13T20:01:00.000-08:00

The air is redolent with blossoms, the sun is lingering longer and it's getting harder and harder to leave. I have a mere 5 hours before my whirlwind trip home is over (although I'm not sure I can call it whirlwind when it was more than 7 weeks ;)

I'm not sure exactly what the next couple of months will bring... For the first time ever, I'm travelling on a one way ticket, which is a combination of scary and exhilirating. My ticket is to the UK with the intention of working there until my working holiday visa expires in May. Although the difficulty I've faced so far in getting a 'proper' job may mean I head somewhere completely different... Ah well, surely now is the best time to try and make the world my oyster.

I shall endeavour to keep my blog up to date, thanks for watching so far, hopefully the next part will be as much fun as the last bit.

Nothing spells out summer like a Pohutukawa in bloom. Hmm why am I leaving again...

Wedding Aftermath

2007-11-02T12:07:00.000-07:00

Well all wedding visitors have left but the days proceeding the wedding gave us time to relax a little bit with our overseas guests - not to mention giving me the opportunity to play tour guide, which I can assure you is quite a change from what I've been upto for the last 18months!

The joys of having family around - "Folding of table runners and chair accents en masse"

Dad ensuring he gets the most out of the garland (whilst Mum objects to being photographed by hiding behind the bridesmaid's bouquet)

On the left Janani (AUS cuz) and on the right Jeni (UK cousin). To non NZ'ers, the bridge you can see is Auckland Harbour Bridge.

Janani, Abi (NZ cuz), me and Mami (my aunt from Aus) at Ruakaka

Still Ruakaka

Janani & me with Orewa beach in the background

View of Rangitoto from Cheltenham Beach

Dad, Mum, Mami & Janani - all the grass was in the shade so our picnic lunch was taken on a beached raft instead!

North Head, "one of the most significant historical coastal defence sites in NZ", according to DOC

Making sure everything is in order at the "6-Inch Battery"

My Daddy :)

Mami, Dad, Mum, Janani & me. Overexposed hence the dark faces? Sorry it's such a bad photo but it was more for recording the moment rather than facial expressions...

Auckland City with one of the 8-inch disappearing guns in the foreground.

The tour ended at the Pumphouse by Lake Pupuke in Takapuna. Mami even spotted an eel. Eugh

OK so this is a little random, but one of the highlights of my trip back home. I was given this birdbath as a birthday present a few years ago (I'd spent a lot of time that summer gardening) but this was the first time I ever saw a bird drinking out of it! Yay! Finally :)

Vasi & Majuran's Wedding!

2007-10-27T15:00:00.000-07:00

A little overdue I realise, but I've been recovering... I confess I never thought it would be quite so stressful! No matter though, it was a lovely day in the end - although I still can't quite believe my sister is a married woman!

As I'm sure you'll all understand, I didn't have the opportunity to carry my camera around with me on this day so for the first time all the photos in this post are from other sources - a few from Michelle Wöbcke, the official photographer, but some rather spectacular ones from my friend David. I didn't copy all of his photos but if you want to look at some more amazing pics from the day - check out David's blog http://davidstgeorge.blogspot.com

Finishing touches ;)

The ballroom for the ceremony

The mandap or altar

Entrance of Majuran on the right and Nim our cousin the tholan or best man

Arrival of the bride with her posse. Me, Mythily (Majuran's sister & the tholi, sort of chief bridesmaid)

Tying of the thali - the wedding necklace which signifies a woman is married.

Me blessing the newly minted married couple

The newest family pic!

Vasi's Hens Night - Auckland Styles!

2007-10-13T18:00:00.000-07:00

Seeing as though Vasi's hen's weekend in August in Madrid was a little difficult to get to for all her Kiwi friends, it only seemed right that we have another party in NZ for her. Big thanks to Bronwyn, Louisa, Alison and Shardonnay for organising it all!

Marshmallows, cherry blossoms and raspberry liquorice - can't go wrong with that!

Vasi :)

One of the games - rather than making a wedding dress out of toilet roll or newspaper, a sari was provided and the girls had to dress their model in a sari!

I find tying one difficult enough, I guess not having ever worn a sari must make it that little bit trickier :-/

This group probably would have won, except the entire outfit came apart when V did her run on the catwalk...

Me and my girl B

Me, Rathika, Vas and Rekha

The instructors trying to teach us some basic ceroc moves. Hopefully we'll be able to pull out some moves at the wedding.

Jo showing off her lovely twirly dress and cuban tan

Right, time to head into town but there's drink left. Boat race!

Shar practicing how to tip her hat like a real cowgirl ought to.

Even though it was really really windy and rainy, Auckland is still a beautiful city!

Shar, Vas, Bron & Kelly

Bron, Vas & Alice

Anna, Kelly & me

Hometime!

2007-09-22T16:14:00.000-07:00

Dunno about you, but 'hometime' still conjures up images of school for me... Anyway, school's been out for me for a couple of years now, but it's definitely the end of another phase of my life.

After 5 months in London (the most time I've spent in once place since leaving NZ in March '06) I'm off to help prepare for my sister's upcoming wedding in late October - flying outta here in a couple of hours (and only arrive in NZ on Mon arvo - eesh).

Thanks for checking my posts over the last few months, rest assured there will be more to come - not least of all wedding pics! :D

One strike to rule them all...

2007-09-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

Those of you who live in London, or have visited, probably understand just how critical the underground or 'tube' is to London life. It's not always running without a hitch but it is none the less used by over 3 million people every day!

So when Metronet (tube maintenance people) decided to issue strike action I don't think anyone quite expected them to do it quite so comprehensively. They did however issue plenty of notice which meant that people had time to figure out alternative methods of transport. In many cases this meant buses, which was REALLY annoying cos I usually catch the bus to work and had to put up with it being as crowded as tubes normally are - the very reason I started catching buses instead of the tube!

I wasn't kidding about it being a comprehensive strike!

OK Waterloo station is quite busy at the best of times but this was really something special!

Looking west over Waterloo Bridge. Another reason I started catching buses to work - looking out on this every morning is much better than getting up close and personal with someone's armpit!

Sigh, still not quite over the sights of London :)

Afternoon Tea at The Ritz

2007-09-03T19:30:00.000-07:00

I decided to join my cousins Sivani, Janani (J was visiting from Sydney) and their friend Thet for a classy evening at the Ritz.

For £40 we had unlimited tea, scones (warm, with cream & jam - to die for!) and a selection of sandwiches. A lovely evening, but really quite expensive – nice to have done it I suppose, but not sure how highly I would recommend it to others…

As the tube strikes had just started (I will moan about that later) I took advantage of working in the central location of Holborn, as well as the last of the summer warmth and decided to walk to The Ritz from work.

Piccadilly Circus

Foreign kids in (on?) Piccadilly Circus

A waiting area in The Ritz

These were real roses and smelt divine :)

Me & Janani

Even the loos were swanky. Siv and I ended up having quite a yarn in there; not our fault - they put couches in there!

Notting Hill Carnival

2007-08-27T20:00:00.000-07:00

OK I realise my blogging has gotten a bit slack (I'm posting this almost 3 weeks after I went) but I'm sure you'll forgive me!

So apparently Notting Hill Carnival is the second largest street festival (after Carnival in Rio). Wikipedia suggests 'it began in 1959 as a response to the poor race relations' and was a huge success. It's an Africo-Caribbean festival (read good music & good food) so being a fine long weekend, I headed down to check it out.

The streets lined with people, anticipating the floats

She probably didn't take the tube...

Some of the costumes are just so ornate (and LARGE!)

Bit easier to believe it's the second largest street festival after this shot eh?

The highlight of the day for me was dancing away in the streets behind these awesome drummers ;)

Thet, me & Marissa

'The calm in the eye of the storm' My fave pic from the day :)

Vasi's Hens Weekend

2007-08-17T19:00:00.000-07:00

Well after much deviousness on Aneela's & my part, we finally got Vasi to Heathrow airport for her Hen's weekend to Madrid! We'd planned for it to be a complete surprise for Vasi - granted she didn't know that we actually booked the flights months in advance - but in the end I'm not sure how much she actually knew about...

We were a happy group of 7 : Aneela, Alpa, Jo, Caroline (friends from NZ), Mythily (Majuran's sister), Vasi and me! A wonderful fun weekend :) Photos below...

Our flight to Spain was with BA, so complimetary drinks - Start as you mean to go on eh!?!

The lovely Sean - who not only hooked us up with lots of drinks on the plane, but also gave us stuff to take away and enjoy on Sat night!!!

Not that Caroline could be bothered waiting till Sat ;)

Gran Via - the view from the balcony of our hotel, early Sat morn

And the Hotel itself - swanky old building :)

The group in the grounds of Palacio Real de Madrid (Royal Palace)

Me & my sis :)

I figure if we had wanted a stripper, this guy would have been perfect. What a poser!

The palace! It was easy to not realise just how huge it is - look at the security guard standing to the left of the white doors. Gives you an idea of scale eh!?!

This was too amusing to not post. Aneela & Alpa doing their Bollywood movie shot :)

I loved the tree detail over the windows at the top of the building...

The Symbol of Madrid. El Oso y El Madroño - The bear and the strawberry tree. It's apparently not a strawberry tree but bears berries similar to it.

(I hope you loved the pun - 'bears' berries, man I'm hilarious ;)

Journey to the centre of Spain. This is the point from which all Spain's radial highways start (hence the Km 0)

Madrid streetscape, broken by the occasional sparkle of glittery turquoise cowboy hats...

What better way to cool off from the spanish summer sun than some helado!

Alpa & Caroline as suitably impressed with the giant ice creams :)

SATURDAY NIGHT

And so it begins. After a brief rest from the touring of Sat morning we reconvened in the 'party room' to get ready as a group.

Jo getting into it :)

The 3 sisters :)

Presentation of the t-shirts! Before heading out we had a righteous ol' party in the hotel room, courtesy of sean's drink from BA and some hip shaking toons I'd brought along. And of course the inaugural lesson of Vasi's dance school where Vasi taught us some of her dance moves :)

Yeah, read the caption on her shirt!

Trying to get us to follow. I think the bedroom slippers may have hindered Aneela ;)

The rest joining in...

The group :)

And I'm afraid that's all I can share with you guys - 'What goes on tour stays on tour'... Needless to say a fun night was had by all :)

SUNDAY

A beautiful fresco in Rastro Markets

The 'pond' at Parque del Retiro. It used to be the retreat for the Royals, hence the pond being somewhat more magnificent that the usual...

Ángel Caído - Fallen Angel; apparently the world's only statue of the devil...

Funny story: it was a bit difficult trying to locate this statue in the huge park - so we kept stopping and asking people for directions (in spanish). We however didn't know the word for statue so I didn't quite click as to what I was saying till one guy laughing told me "I hope you realise you're asking me where the devil is!"

"Dos cervecas por favor!" One of the few lines of spanish I remember learning at Westlake Boy's night school classes with Jo way back in early 2006. We promised each other that we would use that line at some point on our then upcoming travels. Nice to cross that 'must do' off the list :)

Merchant of Venice @ The Globe

2007-08-07T19:30:00.000-07:00

Time for another dose of culture, and what better than Shakespeare?!? The idea to go to this came a couple of months back when I went for a run through London passing some very iconic sights. I ran along the Thames, across Tower Bridge, past Tower of London, Monument, St Paul's, across Millenium Bridge, Tate Modern and you guessed it, last but not least, Shakespeare's Globe!

We unfortunately didn't get the best seats (we were sitting side-on to the stage) but we were all REALLY glad that we were seated, cos not only would we have been standing for 3 hours, but it also started raining in the middle of the play!

Nerissa (Portia's lady in waiting) receiving the Prince of Morocco who has come seeking Portia's hand in marriage.

Shylock, the Jewish moneylender; "Hath not a Jew eyes? "

The final scenes in the courtroom where Portia, dressed as a laywer saves the day!

Anyway, all in all a wonderful evening and kinda freaky to realise it was the first group gathering I've organised outside of NZ! Hopefully more to come...

Janan's Birthday

2007-07-29T22:00:00.000-07:00

My cousin Janan's 18th Birthday! My aunt in NZ hasn't seen Janan in ages and still thinks of him as a little boy - not any longer! Here are some pics:

Janan with his cake :)

And with the fam, Jeni, Sugirtha Aunty, Janan & Ranjan Uncle

Majuran, Vasi, Janan and me. You can see the mistrust in his eyes- hmm can't blame him really...

And Janan with the newest addition to the family - Prince. A Stafford Bull cross I believe, about 3 months old in this photo

Monument to the Great Fire of London

2007-07-28T15:00:00.000-07:00

As much as one can claim that the Metro & London Lite newspapers don't actually contain much by way of news, they sometimes do have some useful info. For example I found out that Monument was closing for cleaning on Sunday 29 July, for 18th months!!! I wanted to check out Monument at some point and knowing it would be closed for 18months was just the impetus I needed.

As it was a glorious summers day I decided to walk there, along the bank of the Thames, clicking away, again not quite believing that I am indeed living in London!

This is a random sculpture on the South Bank of the River Thames. I find it rather poignant that a creator and inventor like Leonardo Da Vinci wrote such a statement

My favouritest bridge, with the Gherkin making an appearance too.

Monument!

The base of the monument - she is a bit grubby eh?

The view from the top - not the most spectacular of views but you can see St Paul's, which incidentally was destroyed in the Great Fire

311 steps baby ;)

If you click on the photo it should open a larger photo if you want to read the info... The height of the monument is the exact distance from this point that the Great Fire started in 1666.

I'm glad I managed to get to monument - the actual monument wasn't spectacular, nor were the views but some reading that I did about the Great Fire was extremely interesting. For instance, this picture is from Wikipedia:

"Detail of painting from 1666 of the Great Fire of London by an unknown artist, depicting the fire as it would have appeared on the evening of Tuesday, 4 September from a boat in the vicinity of Tower Wharf. The Tower of London is on the right and London Bridge on the left, with St Paul's Cathedral in the distance, surrounded by the tallest flames."

Although London's skyline has changed a bit, it's amazing that parts of it are still the same and hundreds of years old!!!

OK I'm gonna stop ranting about London, this link has some more info so check it out if you're interested and thanks for reading :)

National Portrait Gallery

2007-07-26T22:00:00.000-07:00

Deciding it was time to get a bit of culture, Jo (friend from Auckland) and I decided to catch up and check out the National Portrait Gallery - a gallery that houses portraits of "historically important and famous British people".

I wasn't too sure how interesting a gallery of just portraits would be, but it was fabulous and the £2 audio guide a good investment - overall a great evening out (the yummy food at wagamama's after helped too :)

Photos -as per most galleries, photos weren't allowed but I've got a few snaps...

The impressive facade

Gorgeous mosaic in the foyer.

It was a warm summers night so after dinner I decided to walk to Waterloo before hopping on the bus. This is looking East along the river, taken from Waterloo Bridge (I love being able to say that!)

And looking west - full moon and the London Eye. As you can see I'm still not over my fascination with London - I HAD to stop and take photos of this like a common tourist ;) As much as I miss home, for the time being I'm OK living in this magnificent city!

Oxford - Easy like Sunday morning

2007-07-21T22:00:00.000-07:00

So having thankfully made it through the night (we were issued with a severe flood warning "imminent danger to life and property") we woke to no rain and blue skies :)

After a lazy Sunday breakfast we decided to watch the start of the European Grand Prix (incidentally Peter works for Spyker, one of the smaller teams). I don't usually watch the F1 but boy was this start exciting. The weather prediction was for rain to start JUST as the race did but most teams elected to start with dry tyres (which meant loads of excitement as drivers crashed out).

However Spyker's debutant driver Markus Winkelhock started with wet-weather tyres so as everyone else pulled into the pits to change tyres, Spyker was actually leading the race for a lap or two (which has never happened for Spyker before!) Well I guess maybe you had to be there - but it just seemed so appropriate to share Spykers (albeit short) success with an employee!

Anyways time for photos!

The river was pretty high

Check out how little clearance there is from the bottom of the bridge

This is a shot from Emily & Peter's place - gives you an idea of just how close they were to the river (but thankfully on the first, not ground floor)

This illustrates an important lesson. Beautiful old buildings do NOT look cool with a big green crane behind them!

The grounds of one of the colleges, I think... Anyway I really like the tree on the right - she is funky :)

The roof of the awesome Pitt Rivers Museum. Emily & Peter had been in Oxford for 2 years and had never checked this out! (Em vowed to make sure Peter visited before they left in August - did you ever go again em?)

A friend once likened me to a pufferfish... I don't look like that do I? :(

Oh and this was so very morbidly fascinating. This is an actual shrunken head. It's about the size of my fist. There was a glass case of them but this was the best photo - check out how well preserved it is! I'd go into detail as to how they used to shrink heads but perhaps that's not so cool to post on a blog...

So yet again another wonderful trip to Oxford, hosted even more wonderfully by my dear friends. Thank you Em & Peter, hopefully see you soon in Reading :)

Oxford

2007-07-20T22:00:00.000-07:00

OK I realise I have been exceedingly slack with keeping my blog updated, but I guess better late than never... I visited Emily and Peter in Oxford the weekend of 20/21 July, luckily we managed to find a weekend we were both free as they are about to move to Reading.

I had visited Em & Peter in Oxford before, but it was when my other Kiwi friends (Anna & Matt) were over visiting so I was so distracted by them I never did the touristy stuff. So this time round, I made sure I did a walking tour. It was very interesting to hear detailed info about Oxford - I've had an infatuation with Oxford University since I read an article about it in National Geographic probably about 15 years ago (in fact I'm pretty sure I still have the clipping in my parent's house somewhere). Anyway, enough of the blab, photos!

Exeter College

The Quad of Jesus College

The Dining Room of Jesus College.
Note the portrait of Old Boy, Lawrence of Arabia

The house that Bill Clinton lived in when he studied here as a Rhodes Scholar

Christ Church College - the old college of Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland

After my walking tour, Emily joined me (Peter was recording in the studio with his band) and we checked out the Museum of the History of Science.

Blurry, but check out this magic Tamil Square!

The Tamil has changed a little bit over the times (or maybe I need to start going to Tamil lessons again ;)

Ah, another infatuation I had, with all things related to the Titanic. This newspaper is actually from 1914!

And the last "must do" that I had for Oxford...

Kinda geeky I know, but where better to get an OED but in Oxford! Perhaps one of the most 'grown up' things I have ever purchased :)

Shyam & Anushya's Wedding Reception

2007-07-15T19:00:00.000-07:00

Photos from the wedding reception, also at Kew Gardens.

The handsome couple who up next in October :)

Shyam & Anushya taking their seats

Sivani, me and Vasi

Daddy & Mummy :)

Shyam partaking in a wine to calm his pre-speech nerves

Sivani, me, Nim & Vasi

They're drinking our wine here!

Cutting the cake

First dance

The brothers...

The pond

And that sadly ended the night and my parent's whirlwind week trip to London :( Oh well not too long before heading to NZ for Vasi & Majuran's big day.

Shyam & Anushya's Wedding Ceremony

2007-07-15T09:30:00.000-07:00

My youngest cousin (on dad's side) Shyam, got married to Anushya at Kew Gardens on sunday. A beautiful ceremony, with lots of family from all over the world attending, not least of all my parents :)

Here are some pics

The gates to Kew

The manavarai (altar). Priest, Shyam and Anushya's brother

Both sets of parents

My dad cracking the coconut (some symbolic thing to do in Hinduism)

The bride enters with her parents. Awwww

My dad was the only dude who got onto the altar who could tie his own head dress thingy :D

The priest had to do it for periappa (Shyam's dad)

Mum and Dad were asked to take the tray containing the Koorai (wedding sari) around to the guest for it to be blessed

The bridge in her koorai. Part of the reason Hindu ceremonies take so long, the bride has to change saris, not an easy/quick feat I can tell you!!!

Just about to tie the thali (necklace that symbolises marriage)

Shyam tying the thali, spot the petals in the air, being thrown by guests

Done and dusted :)

Cousins: Dilini (UK), Ramya (AUS) and me

Me and Sivani (AUS)

Family shots

The grooms family, minus Shyam. Periamma, Natalia (Ram's partner), Ram, Periappa & Nim

Periappa's 60th!

2007-07-08T16:00:00.000-07:00

My Periappa (dad's older brother) had his 60th on Sunday and had some of the family round. It doubled as a bit of a gathering before Shyam, his youngest son gets married next week.

Hmmm cake...

The firstborn, feeding his dad :)

Watching proceedings

Shyam knocking back the Lindauer like a man who's getting married in a week ;)

The family shots; Nim, Periamma, Periappa, Ram & Shyam

Mami (my aunt), Periappa & Appa (dad)

The cousins; Ram, Sivani (from Aus), Nim, me, Vas & Shyam

Le Tour de France

2007-07-08T11:50:00.000-07:00

This year London was the city used for Le Grand Depart, the first leg of the Tour de France 2007.

The race went right past my place (man I love living central) and here are a few pics.

This guy was very BLUE!

They had this really good way of making sure spectators didn't get too close to the action and step off the pavement - by getting motorcyclists to drive REALLY close to the curb!

And finally the pack! This was very early on in the race so there was hardly any separation

And then they were gone. Perhaps because it was near the beginning of the race, or maybe because they are all professionals but I was kinda surprised how quickly they were all gone and the roads were reopened etc etc...

The helicopters filming the progress. London finally turned on a good weekend, such perfect timing. :)

And, I've finally moved out of Vasi's! This is my flat, nice and central with the Tour de France going right past here.

Unseasonal weather!

2007-07-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

Wimbledon is going to go into it's third week, hail in July... Hmmm has anyone seen Day After Tomorrow?!?

Thank you for smoking... NOT!

2007-07-01T10:00:00.000-07:00

Almost forgot to mention that from today, it's illegal to smoke in enclosed public places in the UK. This includes bars, pubs, restaurants, train stations etc etc. Yay! I've found it really quite incredible just how few NZers smoke compared to the English. After getting used to the copious amounts of smoke in pubs, it was especially noticeable how few kiwis/aussies smoke when I watched the recent Bledisloe cup game in a pub. Although perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned that game...

Anyway, YAY for the no smoking in pubs, about time! :)

Summer Solstice

2007-06-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

The longest day of the year! I'd forgotten all about it and would probably have spent the night at home in front of the telly, but fortutuously Tim, (Canadian friend whom I visited in Germany) was in London so we were out and about enjoying the summer's eve along the River Thames.

People watching free the movie at The Scoop. Not a bad backdrop for it eh?

I'm kinda in love with this bridge, such a symbol of London.

Tower of London

The funky offices in MoreLondon, a swanky new area by London Bridge

The Tower Bridge going up to let a well-lit boat through. The long exposure kinda captures just how red the sky was.

Ladies who Lunch

2007-06-21T15:15:00.000-07:00

Anna finally returned from her trip of Europe and spent a couple of days in London before returning home to NZ. Vasi and I managed to catch up with her for lunch and hear about her tales before leaving.

I dutifully took along my camera, but forgot to take a pic of us at lunch, so when Anna kindly came by my work to return my phone I'd left at lunch, I seized the opportunity for a photo.

Just outside my work - the security guard we asked to take the photo gave us quite a strange look ;)

Sacred: Discover what we share

2007-06-16T15:24:00.000-07:00

This post is about Sacred, an exhibition on "The world's greatest collection of Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy books" currently on at the British Library. I figured it would be a cultural experience, and it turned out to be quite an interesting exhibition.

The similarities between the religions are interesting to note and I was kinda chuffed to read a note talking about two of the most holy places for all 3 religions: Jerusalem (tick) and Mt Sinai (tick) :D

Unfortunately there was a no photos policy which I decided to follow (check out some more random photos later, or this link for some authorised photos of the texts).

There were some amazingly intricate books on display which was stunning enough but when you considered they were of such importance and age and variance: for instance a Torah scroll from China 17th/18th c (!), part of the Dead Sea Scrolls and a piece of the carpet that was hung over the doors of mecca during hajj one year!

All in all a nice way to spend a saturday afternoon, even though I got soaked in the rain and walked around the exhibition barefoot, carrying my soggy shoes in my hand :)

Sir Eduardo Paolozzi's statue of Isaac Newton

Lotsa books - as one might expect at the British Library!

And a funky bench in the foyer, which is of course art:

Sitting on History by Bill Woodrow (1995)

"With its ball and chain, this bronze sculpture refers to the book as the captor of information from which we cannot escape"

Lunch with Luke

2007-06-13T15:16:00.000-07:00

One of the great things about living in a city like London is it's a central travel point. So not only do you get the benefit of cheap and plentiful travel but most people will probably stop over in London if they are in Europe - a great way to catch up with friends.

Which is exactly what happened with Luke, a friend I went to Engineering School with back in Auckland. He was in London for a couple of days and even though he had a rather busy schedule, we managed to catch up for a (late) lunch. A bit has happened since I last saw Luke before leaving NZ in March 06 - he got engaged and married to Annie and they are now in California as Luke does his MBA at Stanford. So needless to say we had a bit to catch up on and it was wonderful seeing a familiar face :)

Last day in Israel - for real

2007-06-09T15:00:00.000-07:00

So the reason this was our last day 'for real' was cos, as per the entire trip, we got home really late. 04:11 to be precise, and needed to be up at 05:00 to drop Rick and Tom at the airport in time for their flight. I napped for the 45mins and then went along to make sure Asaf stayed awake on the drive home. After getting home I pottered around and slept some more before saying my goodbyes to Asaf's awesome family and the man himself.

I also found out the 'special treatment' I received at the airport wasn't exclusive to me. I got questioned on entering the airport, twice at pre-screening (the girl had to get her supervisor to question me), they did a search of my pack before check-in and then a thorough hand luggage check.

Why were you in Dubai?
Have you kept in touch with anyone you met in Egypt or Jordan?
How long were you in Malaysia?
So you're New Zealander but you live in London now?
Born in Sri Lanka, so what religion are you?
What languages do you speak?

Hard core! I spose the thing I found most surprising was that all the security was leaving the country - I would have thought it would more be entering the country... Ah well you learn something new everyday!

All in all, Israel was a simply magnificent trip, one of the best holidays ever! All the people I encountered were friendly & interesting and everyone seems to speak wonderful english! And the sights were phenomenal!!! It's almost unbelievable to have so much history steeped in one country!

To Asaf and his family (and Rick for insisting I come along) TODA! It was balagan!

Just one last random pic. You know you're in Israel when you have to watch out for bicycles and orthodox jews! ;)

Last day (well ish)

2007-06-08T13:35:00.000-07:00

After yet another late start to the day, we headed to the beach - my very first time in the Mediterranean!!! It was loads of fun: vegging out, swimming and playing frescobol to our hearts content :) Frescobol is the Brazilian name given to the beach sport where 2 people basically try and keep a squash ball alive using a wooden paddle about the size of a tennis racquet. I can't remember what Asaf called the sport (the American name is smashball) but the first time I saw it being played was in Brazil so that's what I'm calling it!

After we'd done chilling out at the beach we headed home for our last supper with Asaf's parents (another beauty) before heading out to a cute little cafe and then a really awesome bar for a few drinks. All the bars we'd been to in Israel had been really cool but this one was the best to me - the DJ was totally wicked and spun some amazing tracks!

The Mediterranean!

The crew

Check out the sign ;) I should have taken the photo earlier in the day when the beach was far more thoroughly packed! (It's forbidden to swim here because there are no lifeguards)

The walk/climb back up to the car - you can just see Maya

Back to Tel Aviv

2007-06-07T23:59:00.000-07:00

We eventually headed back to Tel Aviv, arriving in late afternoon and had a light supper in Rehovot (Asaf's parents were out which is why we weren't provided another feast). We had a coffee and stroll in Tel Aviv then headed to Maya's for a drink before heading out and sampling Tel Aviv's nightlife! Fun night :)

Funky old building

Just some graffiti on a wall which I liked...

Maya and Asaf

The gang - I think someone stole Rick's Bombay ;)

Lunch in the Golan Heights and other stuff

2007-06-06T23:31:00.000-07:00

So as mentioned previously, we spent the night in a Kibbutz in Kefar HaNasie. We lounged for a while in the morning before heading to do some low key kayaking on the Jordan River (like you do!) No pictures of that obviously - luckily my camera didn't meet the same fate my new sunglasses did when Asaf the maniac tipped me over. (The sunnies are still MIA.)

After working up a bit of an appetite we had lunch in the Golan Heights (I still can't get over it - this was the same area where more than 1000 people died in the Lebanon/Israeli conflict last year!!!) We had yet another delicious meal and some even tastier arabic sweets. We then headed to Mt Bental for a dusk view of the Golan Heights.

The view from our room in the Kibbutz

Asaf appreciating the view and Rick, the OJ

Heading through the Golan Heights

Not being able to read Hebrew, I didn't realise this, but Avi informed me that the green sign says stop border crossing - into Syria!

Lunch with the gang - Asaf, Ayala, Rick, Nivi & Tom

This was rather amusing - the guy driving the white car was holding a rope that the 2 horses were tied to. Good way of exercsing the horses but not yourself eh?

The observatory at Mt Bental. Check out the metal silhouettes - a bit eerie

A view from the top. Being such a strategic spot you can see why it's so sought after by both the Israelis and Arabs...

Another day in Israel coming to a close :(

Sea of Galilee, a kibbutz and some rather good wine!

2007-06-05T23:30:00.000-07:00

After a restful night filled with much sleep it was time to head off from Maslul in search of new sights!

Avi and Asaf deciding on the best routes to take

A bit blurry (taken from the car) but you the top white sign is for Gaza! Like Gaza out of THE Gaza Strip! We were about 5km from the Gaza Strip and therefore within range of Qassam rockets...

The Sea of Galilee! It's actually a lake and at some 209m below sea level is the second lowest lake in teh world (the first being the Dead Sea, which also is a lake)

It was such glorious weather and the swimming, lounging and eating that we did was just what the doctor ordered!

Ayala (our friend from Jerusalem) decided that our company was just too great and so decided to bus up and join us. Worked out really well for us as Asaf had initially intended on renting a 'cottage' (ie what Kiwi's would call a bach) but Ayala's brother lived on a Kibbutz in Kefar HaNasie and so we headed there to spend the night.

After arriving and settling in, we decided to go for a few drinks. We drove to Rosh Pina, a little town nearby and walked into a restaurant at 23:10. The waitress let us in even though they looked closed and when I asked what time they shut, she replied 23:00. Wicked! Needless to say a few bottles were consumed amongst us :D

It was a beautiful restaurant with a magnificent view which I unfortunately wasn't able to capture on 'film'. Ah well some things are better remembered in your head eh?

The discarded box used to contain some chocolates, they obviously got demolished pretty quick!

You can see as the night wore on it got a bit blurry ;)

Maslul, Massada and the Dead Sea

2007-06-04T23:00:00.000-07:00

We left Jerusalem on the sunday night to drive to Maslul, the little town where Asaf grew up. As was our style we arrived later than we'd planned and by the time we'd eaten and were ready for bed it was midnight. "Surely midnight isn't late for these harded travellers/partiers?" I hear you ask... Well no, not usually, but we were planning driving to Masada and then an hours climb up a mountain for sunrise - meaning we had to leave at 2am...

Despite Avi's masterly attempts to dissuade us from this ;) we soldiered on (excuse the pun). To those of you who don't get the pun - Masada was a Jewish fortress built by Herod the Great which was later laid siege to by the Romans for 3 years. It was such an effective fortress that in the end the Romans only got to the top by building a ramp made of earth and stones. However when the Romans got to the top they discovered the 936 inhabitants had committed suicide. It is suggested that as it's against Judaism to commit suicide the inhabitants drew lots and killed each other in turn so only one person had to take their own life...

Sunrise! The body of water is the Dead Sea

Asaf doing his contemplative, model thing...

Looking west

The ramp the Romans eventually built to finish the siege.

A columbarium tower or dovecot or place where doves were raised, most probably to provide meat and fertiliser...

Rick checking out the view

A model of the water supply system. Basically water from streams that flooded with the rains would be collected and stored - there was at least 40,000 cubic metres of storage. And of course drinking water wasn't enough for Herod the Great - there were even bath houses and swimming holes (although probably not used during the siege).

You can see the framed stones indicating Herods work!

The bath house, looking down... The colums supported the floor, under which was heated water to provide steam baths.

View out again with the sun a bit more awake this time

With the facade looking in this good nick today (the fortness was built approx 37BC) you can imagine what splendour it must have been more than 2000 years ago. Really quite mind blowing!

THE DEAD SEA!

Well lucky me, twice in less than a year. The Dead Sea was loads of fun and this time I managed to get that classic shot of reading a book in the water.

Rick, Tom, Asaf & me

I'm reading the Economist - check out the cover. Coincidental timing eh?

We returned to Maslul where Avi set about preparing some more delectable treats for us :)

And after such a hard day, what better than some Pimms? (BTW it tastes soooo yummy with mango juice and a splash of cranberry)

Jerusalem - Asaf's turn!

2007-06-03T23:00:00.000-07:00

You could spend many days if not weeks in Jerusalem so we figured we had to spend at least another day there. We checked out a few more sights with Asaf and Ayala as our tour guides.

"What do you mean all my teeth are gonna fall out if I buy all these lollies?"

On the way to the Dome of the Rock

This shows the different layers from the different periods. Foreground is deeper and older compared to the buildings in the background

Check out the size of the door! Had to get a pic in front of that one!

Going to see a boy about a bike...

Part of the Mosque (into which we unfortunately didn't get)

Mosque of Umar. There are Islamic security guards who police what people are wearing - which is why this guy is holding a shawl around his legs - no shorts allowed.

Ayala, Rick Asaf, Nivi and Tom. One of my favourite pictures from Israel!

The intricate mosaics on the Mosque.

Cute kiddies

An underground tour of the Western Wall. Our immaculate planning meant the only tour we could get on was conducted in Hebrew. No worries our locals Asaf and Ayala stepped in and did the interpreter bit rather fabulously :)

A model showing all the sucessive temples that have been on Temple Mount.

The biggest stone, often called the Western Stone. It's more than 13.6 m long and weighs approx 570 tons.

A close up of one of the stones. You can clearly see the 'frame' around the stone which indicates it was from Herod the Great's time.

Part of the excavations. Reminded me of entering Petra (Gosh turning into a bit of a travel snob or what!?!)

Rick enquires "Is that guy A) helping those ladies with their shopping, B) wearing ridiculously tight pants, C) casually sporting a large firearm or D) all of the above?" (You KNOW the answer is D)

Lots of traffic jams in Tel Aviv!

Whilst Rick and Tom napped (soft!) Asaf and I went for a drive and stumbled upon a few cool things...

Firstly the view...

Secondly a sight of the wall built to separate the Arab and Jewish settlements. I didn't realise it, but it was actually built in recent years and has apparently helped in cutting down the number of terrorist attacks.

And the third cool thing was a wedding!

Not a bad spot to have a wedding eh? And my first ever Jewish wedding, although I spose gatecrashing hardly counts ;)

Avi's World Famous Tour of Jerusalem

2007-06-02T22:00:00.000-07:00

So after a slightly later than anticipated start (which became a bit of a recurring theme) Asaf, Rick, Tom and I met up with Asaf's dad Avi for a bit of a tour. We started just out of Tel Aviv and made our way to Jerusalem. Avi was a brilliant tour guide - he gave honest views and opinions with little or no bias which is hard to come by when a local is giving you their take on their city/country, let alone in a country that's had such a controversial past.

After our tour finished, we headed to Ayala's flat. Ayala used to flat with Asaf back before he left Israel and she kindly offered to host us all :) After watching sunset we headed out for an amazingly meal (at a organic vegetarian soup place) and then a few drinks in Jerusalem. Wicked times!

Saturday was an amazing day where everything just seemed quite surreal - perhaps it was the the slight sniffle I'd acquired or the lack of sleep but it was more than likely the simple fact I was in Jerusalem!!! I seriously had to catch myself quite a few times and remind myself I was in the Holy Land!

So as you'll probably understand, I took a huge number of photos. I've tried really hard to cull them but forgive me for still having quite a few...

Avi at the starting point of the tour. This rather unassuming spot is where Israel's border was when it declared independance/Britain's protectorate expired in May 1948. This '48 border (just out of Tel Aviv) meant that 1948 Israel was tiny and Avi speculates, may well have remained so if it hadn't been for the 1948 War of Independance

Driving through an Orthodox Jewish area with the streets deserted as it's Shabbat (Sabbath) and you're not meant to drive.

A few people yelled at us as we drove by, angry that we were driving...

Perhaps the prettiest building I've ever seen...

Jerusalem, viewed from the Mount of Olives. Check out all the tombs in the foreground.

If I recall correctly, Avi wsa saying a plot here could be yours for a cool $ 500,000 US

Father and son :)

Gethsemane - This is where Jesus had his last supper. How trippy is it to think that Jesus really walked around these parts, albeit a few years back...

A corner of the walls of the old city which shows the different parts built at different times. King Herod's beautification work can be identified as the stones have a frame on them. Great quote from Avi "Well you can see the bits on the top are quite new... Well relatively new, they are from 6BC"

Looking back up to the Mount of Olives, looking over all the tombstones

These are the earliest tombs dated approx 1000-500 BC

The name Wailing Wall refers to the Jews mouring the destruction of the sacred temple, Holy of Holies on the Temple Mount, of which only this wall remains.

It's good luck to write notes and stick them in the wall...

The wall, straight up!

The 'streets' of the old city

A quaint furniture shop

Avi buying us some fresh figs to sample

So the V on the bronze plaque shows it's the 5th Station of the Cross. Not for the first time I felt a sense of pity that I was experiencing Jerusalem when Hinduism is arguably the only major religion which has no affiliation with Jerusalem. Especially considering I know quite a few Catholics that would have loved to walked along Via Dolorosa! It definitely didn't go unappreciated though!

Had to take a snap, this was such a picturesque moment.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre Most Christians believe the ground on which the church stands is where Jesus was crucified and also contains the place where Jesus was buried (the sepulchre).

The Sepulchre (thing on the right that all the people are looking at).

Tucking into a most delish lunch of flat bread, heavenly humous and great coffee. Soooo tasty!

The old city has been built upon in areas so this is looking down onto the pathways of the walled city.

Looking onto the western wall complex. The gold dome is the 'Dome of the Rock' which we later visited.

Rick enjoying the sunset :)

Dinner at the funky soup place.

Israel!

2007-06-01T13:21:00.000-07:00

So after spending the night in Fiumicino Airport (the lengths one will go to to get cheaper airfares!) I arrived in Tel Aviv on Fri afternoon where Asaf picked me up from the airport.

FYI Asaf is Israeli and is doing his PhD at Berkeley - I met Asaf March 06 when I was visiting my Kiwi friend Rick in San Francisco. This was the main reason for my trip, Rick and another friend Tom were visiting Israel and with the local knowledge & lingo that Asaf could provide, it seemed foolish to not join in on this most excellent adventure, and I'm glad I did, it turned out to be one of the best trips I've ever had! :)

So anyway after Asaf picked me up we chilled out at his sister Maya's apartment in Tel Aviv before heading out to a birthday party. It was weird to be in a club setting while the sun was still shining! Anyway we stayed for a little while before heading to pick up Rick and Tom and then it was off to Asaf's parent's place in Rehovot for the first of many plentiful and absolutely delicious meals! Like really phenomenally amazing! Asaf's parents are really cool, interesting and wonderful hosts so it was a lovely evening. We headed back out to party and then into Tel Aviv for the first of many late nights ;)

Unfortunately no pictures from the first night but I do have 2 somewhat random pictures from the airport!

Are the Israelis still a bit bitter about being dumped by the British in 1948? The security guard stuck the sticker right over the Queens head...

And this. Check out what's in the bag next to the monk... Cigarettes and booze. I felt kinda bad taking a photo of him but seriously there was no-one else this could have belonged to!

Deutschland!

2007-05-22T18:30:00.000-07:00

OK I realise I'm making a bit of a habit of flitting about here and there but this trip, although kinda last minute, honestly needed to be done. I had an offer of free accommodation AND local knowledge - I am on my OE so Carpe Diem baby!

To explain a little more clearly, last year on my trip across Canada, I rather randomly met a Canadian by the name of Tim. We had a good long yarn (like you do on a 36 hour train trip) and at the end of the trip we exchanged emails and said "we should keep in touch". This may have faded into the usual "let's keep in touch" but it turned out that Tim would be heading to Germany to teach English at a high school, shortly after I arrived in London.

I had intended to visit Tim much earlier but what with Brazil, Egypt, Japan and of course my beloved NZ, I never quite got round to visiting him. So, when I heard that he was leaving Germany at the end of May, I decided I should get my A into G and go and visit him before he left. Courtesy of the wonderful EasyJet, a couple of clicks later I had a ticket for a week in Germany.

The thought crossed my mind that it had been over a year since we'd chatted and suddenly I was turning up on his doorstep for an entire week... However, Tim was a wonderful host and we got on really well - I remember thinking several times when I was in Canada, just how similar Kiwis and Canadians are. We also managed to do quite a bit of travelling around as Tim only had to work 1 day in the week I was there. Tim lives in Lippstadt, a sleepy little town, but we visited Dortmund, Cologne, Dusseldorf and Munster. He had mates in all these places so not only did we have local knowledge but free accommodation too - sweet as eh!

Something I got used to very quickly was having a personal translator! Germany was the first country I've been to in a long time where I couldn't speak the local language but I didn't need to struggle through the language barrier. It was soooo lovely to just say to Tim, "What's this? What does that mean? OK can I pls have it?" and be able to sit back and relax. What a luxury! :)

Anyway enough babble, check out the pics below.

Lippstadt town centre

The river Lippe, from which Lippstadt gets it's name

An old church, built as a competition to see who between Dortmund and Lippstadt could make a nicer church. (Dortmund won)

A cute fountain with surrounding statues. The statues all had articulated limbs which made for some interesting poses.

Tim suggested that this Monk was condemning me to hell... I dunno about that, but he certainly doesn't look all that impressed...

And I reckon these guys were having a bit of an altercation. Fella on the left is totally "Do you wanna take this outside?"

Pretty Lippy :)

Cologne Cathedral. Apparently "one of the best-known architectural monuments in Germany and Cologne's most famous landmark"

Very impressive on the inside too. Construction started in 1248 and took more than 600 years to complete!

The Cathedral's towers are the second tallest gothic structure in the world, at 157m.

But bah, why seek out culture when you can stumble upon a wine fest in the town square?

Elsbeth (our Dortmund/Cologne host) and Tim

Pleasure craft on the river. It's not such a great picture sorry but the only one I got of the River Rhine.

Great Saint Martin Church

Dusseldorf! I think the guy on the horse was the founding father, but Shani, our Dusseldorf host couldn't remember for sure...

A wedding ceremony spilling out of the town hall, where they posed for photos on the steps. Very cute and it kinda felt like something out of a movie...

Tim and I, posing proudly in our patriotic apparel :)

I wasn't gonna put this photo in at first, but then noticed the car behind me was a Mercedes so figured I had to because of zee Germaness of it

Loved this - the balloon was easily bigger than the kid :)

A cool building across from the Dusseldorf HauptBahnHof (main train station)

Tim obviously couldn't believe what he'd heard when I asked if that wasn't enough drink for the party? (Dusseldorf, Sat night.

Münster. It seems random town parties/celebrations were the order of the week. Not that I'm complaining - bring on the revelry! :)

Stopped into a church I passed along the way...

Another cute church

An urban regeneration project as far as I could tell. Still in the early stages but it reminded me of Auckland's Viaduct Harbour before the America's Cup...

It was kinda random, new restaurants and cafes with the old industrial bits still lingering in the background...

We went to Münster with Tim's friends, some of whom I'd met on Sat night at the party. On the right side: me, Becky, Jamin, Andes. Becky & Jamin are Kiwis and the girl in the middle on the left side is Kirthika, from Tamil Nadu in India. We ended up having a bit of yarn in Tamil (I'd never have imagined that I'd be having a conversation in Tamil in Münster!!!)

The masses of bikes parked at the train station. Münster is a student town and all the students leave them at the train station when the head home for the weekend...

A pretty little restaurant, snapped just before leaving Münster to head back to Lippstadt.

We decided to skip visiting any castles and instead biked out to this lake for a bit of swim.

(I know I should have seen the castles instead given NZ has lots of lakes and no castles, but it was such a hot day it was perfect for a swim!)

And my last German supper was in this gorgeous little restaurant with a lovely garden view. With oxen eh Tim?

And how better to end a trip to Germany than with a local beer! :)

Thanks again Tim for being such a wonderful host. I had a simply fabulous time and I'm so glad that I made the decision to come! I'll hopefully be able to repay the hospitality at a later time!

Oxford

2007-05-01T10:20:00.000-07:00

Emily, my good friend from NZ and her partner Peter live in Oxford. I've been so distracted with travelling to foreign countries that I had never visited them in Oxford until now. It was a perfect opportunity as two other kiwi friends of mine, Matthew and Anna would be visiting Emily at the same time.

Oxford was amazing. I've always been really enamoured with the idea of Oxford University - I remember poring over an article about it in National Geographic - and visiting it was awesome. The history is just phenomenal - it's the oldest university in the English speaking world! Seeing all the students wizzing about on bikes was also very funky but by gosh did you need to check before crossing the road as you can't hear the bikes coming up like you can hear cars!

Anyway an awesome time, we spent more time hanging out than properly sightseeing so I'm definitely gonna be visiting Emily and Peter again and doing a proper tour of the university!

I don't know how structurally secure this building was but it looked really quaint :) Apart from the Nokia signage...

A tower right next to Emily and Peter's place. They live in the centre of town, very convenient for us!

Part of the University - talk about being looked down upon ;)

Beautiful old buildings. I can't tell you what any of them are cos we just ambled around soaking up the atmosphere...

This is the Bridge of Sighs - because it was the way students had to go to enter their examination room.

A courtyard, complete with doors leading into different faculties

The aforementioned door, complete with latin signage!

Matthew, Anna and Emily :)

Matthew and I climbed the clock tower and the views were spectacular!

Part of the clock tower

What an amazing view! (sorry I can't tell you what the view is of though - any clues Em?)

We had a lovely picnic dinner in the summer sun. My camera had died by this stage so I've very cheekily just lifted the following photos from Emily & Peter's blog. Thanks guys :)

Peter, Matthew, Nivi & Anna

Matthew

The really cool full orange moon which looked huge!

Peter and Emily, thanks for being such wonderful hosts, I'll definitely be back again :)

Flora London Marathon

2007-04-22T10:19:00.000-07:00

The London marathon was on the first weekend I was in London. I did NOT participate but part of the route was just down the road so Vasi and I checked it out for a while. It was a scorcher of a day and I believe it started quite late, at 10am. Well it seemed late considering my vast experience (I did the Auckland BMW half marathon once, which started at 6am). Anyway, I can't seem to find out how many participants there were, but in 2006 there were 48,000 so I guess prob the same number this year...

Something really cool about the London Marathon is that it's basically just a fundraising event, the biggest in the UK and arguably the biggest single fundraising event in the world (last year £41.5 million was raised!). This means that people are running for more than just getting a good time. One guy did it in 'slow motion' taking one step every 5 second. He 'raced' 10 hours a day and finished 1 week later. Crazy!

Go the purple ballerina!

The Carnival girls in Brazil have nothing on this guy! If you look closely you can see that not only has he large plumes on his head, he's also running with a feather boa!

And what about this guy? Can you imagine running for at least 2 hours (and more likely 3 or 4 hours) in a SpongeBob SquarePants costume? Sheesh!

Great atmosphere and crowd support and I must admit it started a little idea in my head about the possibility of doing a marathon myself one day... Hmmm we'll see but rest assured you'll hear about it if I ever do ;)

back in london... again...

2007-04-18T21:50:00.000-07:00

I have arrived back in London and after 2 weeks of a constant sauna in India, I am sooo grateful that although summer is fast approaching it's not entirely sweltering here... yet anyway...

I've got a few posts to make (doing my usual trick of backdating, sorry if it confuses) but I've got some technical issues at the moment (vista doesnt seem to recognise my camera!). I will definitely post as soon as I can though - I've got some great shots of the crazy as driving!

Incredible India

2007-04-15T14:05:00.000-07:00

So this is my final post for my time in India - what an amazing country filled with such differences. In the past I've never really enjoyed my time in India until after I've gone back to NZ but I spose being older, wiser and generally more mellow meant that I managed to have a wonderful time even though it was busy, crowded and incredibly hot.

THE HEAT

OK, let me rant a little bit about the insane heat we experienced. The absolute temperature wasn't really that bad, but the humidity was a killer! I was taking at least 2 showers a day and 3 whenever possible, just so I could try and stop myself overheating. A bit futile though- even first thing in the morning, by the time you finished drying yourself after your shower, you'd already be sweating! We were in India in April but May is the worst month, and pretty much unbearable according to the locals, so anyone who's considering going to India, stay away from the South in May!

THE SIDEWAYS HEADSHAKE

The beauty of visiting different countries is that you notice some very different mannerisms in people. For instance in India, there's the lack of personal space and the seemly "involved discussions" on the roadside that never escalate. Considering how mental the driving is, I can't believe there's no road rage!

My favourite one however is the aforementioned sideways headshake. Indians do this thing where instead of nodding yes and shaking their heads no, they do a sideways shake which means maybe or ok, but not necessarily. (Try taking your left ear to your left shoulder and then your right ear to right shoulder, the face rotating about the nose. This is the movement, but it only goes about 15 or 20 degrees past vertical. Hopefully this will allow you to visualise it.) Anyway it's highly frustrating to decipher at first, join in my frustration by reading the reproduced conversation below:

Nivi - Do you have this sari in orange?
them - 'sideways shake'
Nivi - so is that a yes?
them - 'sideways shake'
N - arrrgggghhhhh!!!!!

Perhaps one of the scariest things I experienced in India, was catching myself doing the sideways headshake!!! Yikes!

GENERAL RANT

All in all it was a great time in India and a good opportunity to speak Tamil. Although my (poor) "Sri Lankan" tamil was not always understood, it was cool that my perserverance with trying to improve my tamil over the past few years had some payoff. I also found my reading getting a lot better with all the signs and posters around to read.

The food was amazingly delicious, and oh so cheap, but I surprisingly managed to not overeat, probably because of the insane heat :) Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of it, but there was something really cool about sitting crosslegged on the floor, eating delicious food with my hands from a banana leaf (used instead of a plate). Mmmmmmm :D

And perhaps the best thing about India is the people. There is such stark poverty it's heart breaking and even if you're not poor, life is generally hard and lived in tough conditions. However the people just persevere and you're far more likely to get a smile than complaint. It's so very different to life in the West and I wonder if lessons could be learnt from that.

Well I'll cease the rambling now but check out some random pics below.

The Kaveri River. Yeah, excatly, no water in sight. Now do you believe me when I say it was really hot?

Shopping by night in Chennai. I love how it's still really busy even late at night, this was prob about 10pm.

The ubiquitous cellphone. My parents still struggle with cellphones- this lady would be older than my folks, and less well off but she´s obviously got it down pat!

See I was there! Snacking on a yummy treat: a slice of green mango dipped in a mixture of curry powder, salt and water.

The tartness of the mango alleviates the spice of the curry powder and its sooo refreshing. Mmmmmm my mouth is watering just thinking about it :)

The mighty jackfruit! I dont know how to describe the taste (apart from very good). Anyway try it if you ever get the chance!

The beautiful Indian sky with a church in the foreground. The number of Christians and Muslims in Trichy surprised me a bit. You can tell Christians because they don't wear pottus (red dots on the forehead) and Muslim women wear black robes over their saris.

Really liked this pic for some reason...

Yeah, look carefully, this guy is carrying a goat carcass on his lap.

Oh and what about this lady? At least it wasn't the driver though ;)

Beautiful sunset :)

Twilight, with Venus putting in an appearance

Beautiful sunrise :)

I hope you've enjoyed the India posts and do keep checking back as I have more funky places to come :)

Trichy to Chennai by road

2007-04-14T14:03:00.000-07:00

OK time for a rant about the driving in India! The fact that drivers use their bells/horns CONSTANTLY (much like dolphins and bats use sonar) and the reduced amount of personal space in India extends to the roads, being on the roads is quite a hair-raising experience!

So as you can imagine, the 450km / 6hour drive from Trichy to Chennai had us a bit worried. Most of the time the roads are just one lane each way, and as the lines painted on the road seem to be mere decoration, when it comes to overtaking it usually comes down to 'biggest gets right of way'. Seeing a bus or truck hurtling towards you, in your own lane, is pretty freaky!

Anyways below is a collection of some of the more amusing photos taken on the road...

A taste... Please note this is a single carriageway so the cars on the right are in the oncoming lane

One of the reason there is so much overtaking - the tractor on the left laden with sugar cane. Check out its front wheels!

Somewhere under there is a vehicle...

Cows

As if the incessant sound of horns wasn't enough, every vehicle on the road seems to invite you to join in.

This photo doesn't really capture how scary instances like this are. Just remember we were travelling at about 100km/hour!

Shopping!

2007-04-12T17:41:00.000-07:00

Finally, the post that shows you what we spent most of our days doing!

Poring over some wedding saris

Up close. This is the headpiece of the sari, the bit which hangs over the shoulder and therefore the most intricately decorated part of the sari.

An indication of the selection of different saris available. The glass cupboards behind the counter are full of saris - and this is just one side, of one floor, of one sari shop! As you can probably figure out, we had our work cut out for us!

A fair few saris in each of the cupboards too - some of which were gorgeous. The exchange rate was 30 rupees to 1NZD (or 80 rupees to 1GBP) so even the most expensive saris were definitely affordable. I think it's the only time I've been shopping with someone who said to the shop assistant "dont worry about the price, bring out your most expensive pieces"!

Checking out more saris. There are chairs/stools in front of the counters for people that are in it for the long haul. And once it seems like you'll be spending some money, you're offered a drink - often a soft drink or the Indian classic, sweet milky tea, yum!

Mirrors on the ceiling! This shop did this so that you can look at a sari from a distance to get a better idea of what it looks like from afar.

Saris need to be worn with a sari blouse - more expensive saris usually come with the blouse piece, but if you need to buy one, you try and match the blouse piece to the sari. You can usually get quite a good match - look at how many different shade of green there are!?!

Mum with her head in her hands - sometimes choice is a bad thing ;)

Most of the shops had airconditioning, but we had to walk between the shops, which was extremely, extremely hot!

This is in Chennai (Madras) at night. It's not as hot as in the day but it's still quite humid, and the crowds increase because at night you all the work crowd too!