POLAND - Warsaw, Arun and Kaajal's Stag and Hens... the Hens party

Arun and Kaajal are getting married January next year, so it was time to get the party underway with a couple of time honoured foreign country booze trips.

Inga went off with Kaajal and a gaggle of Indians (and a few whities of course) to Warsaw in Poland for the hens, and Matt went off with the opposing gaggle of Indians to Bucharest in Romania (with a few of them token whities thrown in for good measure as well).

I believe that you could safely say that - whilst I'm sure everyone had the same amount of fun - the experiences between the two groups was rather, umm, different. Yes, different.

Ladies: 5 star hotel, spas, massages, fine dining, Christmas markets (warm spiced beer!), city tours. Looking around the 'old town' rebuilt after WWII to look like to some renaissance paintings. Being serenaded by a 'professional' (and drunk) singer in a basement bar and asked by all the locals: 'why warsaw?'

Gentlemen: Give a man a huge wad of cash and watch him run away as fast as his little legs could carry him, whilst we head to our Soviet-era communist block "apartments" that didn't seem to be... what we had booked. Don't get me wrong now, 'roaches, lifts that stop between floors and crazy old ladies just add to the ambience. All good. Eat McDonalds. Eat KFC. Eat KFC. Go out for dinner and destroy multiple 3.5l kegs in the middle of the table. Eat KFC. Fight on the street. Get annoyed at racist taxi drives that won't let Indians in the cab. Get annoyed at racist bouncers that won't let Indians in the club. Fall over and get blood noses. Dance on bars. Do the conga (eh? don't ask). Do it all again the next day. Champs. Awesome. Would do it all again.


A few pikkys from the ladies in Warsaw (stolen from Tootie, thanks Tootie)...

Puppets all around us!

We managed to get to a few of the fantastic puppet shows for the London Puppetry Festival - including 'Out of the Heart of Darkness', performed at the Puppet Barge in Little Venice...

Out of the Heart of Darkness is based on Joseph Conrad’s diary and novella and is a marionette drama - a rare event - that explores and reflects on the corruption and decadence of powerful Europeans and Africans, who contribute to the debilitating situation in Africa. The drama takes an imaginative look at Africa today and how diamonds still create tension, greed, darkness and dishonesty. The presentation uses hand carved long-string marionettes that are worked from above. The action moves dramatically from the Thames to a river in Africa and is supported by exciting music, complete with a tribal ceremony, giving the viewer a powerful experience of the continent.

The photos are of the old retired puppets that now adorn the walls of the floating theatre - really neat place to go see puppets!

I spy with my little eye... an autumnal London

Dave and Silvia move to London

Dave and Silvia have finally left the homely shores of Bogotá in Colombia to join the London fight for survival. They're camping out at Dave's brother's place till things fall into place - until then it's jobs jobs jobs.

Yaaaaaay, how much fun is that in a recession, eh! At least they've got their official "I'm English" CAMRA cards now though (English person says "what is CAMRA?" pfffftt).

Below was from a Wednesday drinks waaaay down south somethere at a Hopback brewery pub. Mmmm Entire Stout sooo goood...

Now Tamlyn just needs to get off his arse!

Stephen and Taraia's visit

We managed to catch up with Stephen and Taraia on either side of their whirlwind European tour - just don't ask them about the keys in a bowl. Bit sensitive about that.

Good to catch up and reminisce. Good times, good times.

Danae's visit

Danae stopped with us before she went over to France to work for the winter...

She stayed at ours for about a week (and brought a 'stray' friend to stay too). Inga showed her around the four markets nearest us, up Primrose Hill, out to Notting Hill and her friend got us all lost in Kensington looking for what turned out to be a really nice Iranian restaurant.

It was great to see my lil' sis after such a long time even if she gave me a nasty cold. And we even got to meet the boyfriend as they spun back through London on the way to Egypt.

Playing with the light

Ingredients: playing with a new camera, backlit keyboard, 20-30 second exposures, zoom adjustment, camera movement.

Makes for some interesting photos:

Minster Court from Matt's work...

... glowing through the blinds in the late afternoon sun ...

Setal and Mark's wedding

Setal and Mark's wedding was Matt's second wedding at the same Krishna temple in 3 months! It was actually inside Bhaktivedanta Manor this time instead of outside in a big tent - a good change of scenery.

It was also the second wedding for Setal and Mark, they had the first one (the whities version) in the Maldives, so this one was for the Indian side of the family. Everyone gets what they want eh?

The priest was pretty good at explaining why he was burning stuff, tying them up and making them walk in circles and all the other whatnot, so the ceremony went pretty well - all followed up with a scrummy Hare Krishna vege feast. mmmmm...

Bhaktivedanta Manor, previously known as Piggots Manor nursing home, was purchased for the Hare Krishna movement by George Harrison (of Beatles fame) in the early 70s.