Annual catch up time.

It was about this time last year that I found myself in the same situation of being negligent on my blogging. I seem to remember, as well, that I vowed to make this a singular event. However, here I am catching up again! This time of year is particularly busy for me as I start making preparation for the coming year, festival and fayre wise. On this note, I am glad to say we have confirmed on Tiddesley Wood Spring Open Day, 3 Wishes Faerie Festival and Blissfields. We just have to wait on the outcome of Beauiful Days and The Big Chill.
Otherwise, I have been busy working on the house getting the main bedroom and French windows done. We should be ready to sell in time for next Spring. Tree and I are going to take time out for our birthdays this year and we are off next week to Joy and Nige's for a long weekend and to get ourselves on some estate agents lists. In April we are going to Venice for a week to celebrate Tree's 40th. We thought about longer, but a shorter break means we can have a better hotel and will be enough time to see all we want to see. Also, this allows us to go to India, The Maldives or Sri Lanka in the Winter of 2008.
On the health front, I am feeling a lot better now my weight is down by one and a half stone despite the tablets I am taking, which should put half a stone ON me a month as a side effect. The tablets are beginning to kick in and my cholesterol count is normal now. The downside is I will have to take them for the rest of my life. A small price to avoid a stroke or heart attack!
Well, that's about it for a catch up...until next year....

I wouldn't wanna be Jade right now !!

As Big Brother is said to represent a microcosmic view of the state of our society it was inevitable that, like all civilizations in the past, it would end up destroying itself. The current debacle about racism is to be the tip of the iceberg in retrospect. Oh well, it was interesting while it lasted, however, I was beginning to tire of it. Even if it manages to continue, it will not be as it was. The interesting concept is that the real Big Brother is now watching Big Brother behave. Orwell knew what he was onto alright!
BB aside, I am getting broadband set up at the shop so I will now be blogging a lot more. Life will be a lot easier being able to do most things at work, rather than eating into my spare time.

Keeping a promise. The Maha Mantra

I almost forgot. Even though Charles, one of the waiters, is Catholic, he asked that I put the Maha Mantra on the blog. We had a discussion about Lord Krishna, Rama and Sita, the Ramayana and The Mahabharata (Hindu bible). He seemed quite impressed that I had read it cover to cover, as it is 9000 pages long and most Hindus only read sections at a time. The recitation of this mantra gives, and brings, favour and reverence to those that recite it and, more importantly, to Lord Krishna.

Hari Krishna Hari Krishna
Krishna Krishna
Hari Hari
Hari Rama Hari Rama
Rama Rama
Hari Hari.

More India photos

These photos are of the Park Hyatt Hotel and Anjuna Market. As I mostly recorded the trip on my digi video, the photos don't show too much. The hotel was surrounded by one big swimming pool, the biggest in India, and as you walked round, you crossed it by a series of bridges. Outside of our rooms was a lagoon with a view to the sea on our right.
Anjuna market was complete madness with everyone hassling, shouting or begging for you to buy. After a while you became immune to the mayhem. The sound of people saying "Na, Na, Na", which means no in Hindi was everywhere you went. However, when considering that you can buy a T-shirt for £1 or incense for 9p, it was a fantastic experience.

India Photos

Solstice Greetings/Hari Rama, Rama Rama, Hari Hari,etc...

Greetings one and all and may your solstice have been as good as ours!! We have been home just 24 hours now and are still a little jet lagged, but relaxed all the same. Goa was everything we expected and the hotel was brilliant. The service was more than I could believe, I swear if you dropped a bit of paper it wouldn't reach the ground before it would be caught by one of the staff, and everyone made every effort to ensure you had a relaxing time. The weather was a steady 34 degrees with a light breeze which was very welcome. We mainly stayed around the hotel or on the beach but ventured North to Anjuna one day to the market there. The market was crazy and a tale in itself, let alone the drive there on majorly potholed roads with a driver who spent most of the trip two inches from the car in front or in the middle of the road!!! We bought loads of crystal, fabrics and incense for the shop and it was good to be buying direct from source, rather than lining someone's pocket over here. We even made arrangements with this guy we met, called Farook, to send stuff direct to us here in the UK !! There were two guys at the hotel who were really friendly called Charles and Richard and we made sure we gave them fat tips when we left. The average wage, in India, is about 700 rupees per month (about £9) so they were well chuffed when we gave them 500 rupee tips on the last day ! As usual, I have shed loads of photos but will only post a few at a time.
Tree and I had a particularly good solstice, watching the sun set on the beach. It was made very special, for reasons to be revealed later, and will be one I will never forget !! Now all that is left is to look forward to the New Year and all that the future holds, a certainly brighter one than in the last few years.
Catch ya soon.

B is for B'ham, I is for India, V is for Visa

What a day ! Tree and I were up at the crack of dawn to go to Birmingham to get our visas for India. We were told, by someone in the know, to get there early, so we arrived about 10 minutes after the doors opened at the consulate. This was not good on our part as everybody who has been before knows to get there about an hour before. We took a ticket, number 422, as they were serving number 315. As you can imagine, we didn't hang about and went round the jewellery quarter instead. We came back about an hour later and still queued for another half hour. That is not the end of it though ! After you have submitted your application you have to go away and come back after 4pm to collect it ! We went back into town for lunch and spent the afternoon at the City Art Gallery. As I pointed out in a previous blog, people don't look up much and in this case I noticed how nearly everyone at the gallery missed the splendour of the building itself. Understandable you might say, given all the fantastic work on show, but I would argue that the ceilings, in particular, are an artform in their own right. There were at least four huge stained glass domes in the roof that were quite spectacular. I lay down on the floor and took several photos, which produced some interest from other gallery visitors. With regard to artwork, the Pre-Raphaelite work was inspiring and the Buddha gallery beautiful. I was also mightily impressed with some textile work using a method I had not come across before and liked the chrysalis, hanging from the ceiling, most.