The Importance of Looking Up !

Looking up into the night sky is something we all need to do a lot more !

I have been doing some upgrade work on my house in Walton On Thames and have had to sleep in the conservatory !.

It really is not as bad as it sounds.... the spring evenings are long and thankfully, the weather has improved. It is at night however that I am finding myself just staring into the starry sky.

The reason I say we should do it more often is because it seems to allow the brain to take a long deep breath. It is a perfect moment when you look up and all you can feel is awe.....It really does  not matter what is going on around you or in your life, be it good or bad... Look up..... look for the stars. You will feel great :)

Peace and Love

xxx

It's hard... :(

Well it is not so hard for me as I am used to being in different places. Perhaps I did not comprehend how hard it is for others to move home for an indeterminate amount of time.

The decision to fly from Goa to London was not easy especially as the infection rate is low in Goa and the lifestyle is.... well it is a lot nicer than in London.

The issues that helped me make the choice were clear.
Should we have stayed in Goa and potentially risked the following :

1) Food and miscellaneous supplies were non existant at the beginning of he lock down. They were starting to get a lot better but there is nothing to say that they would not suffer again in the future especially as the food factories were all closed and the current supply was from inventory that was already in the warehouses.

2) We were potentially not being told the actual numbers on infected in Goa. Although having said that the situation does look good for Goa.

3) Not knowing when I could leave India to get to work. News is what I do and it was passing me by.

4) To be closer to Nikhil. He probably does not really care where we are but that is not the point... I care where we are. He is going to be 21 years old on the 14th of May and most likely will be on his own but if there is even a slight chance that the lock down lifts a little and we are allowed to go and see him, it is worth it.

5) Most of my friends also thought that it was a good idea to come to the UK as it is more orderly and organised here. Granted the infection rate is high but as with most countries that is mainly in the big cities.

Now the problem is when can we get back... As it stands there is no sign of flights starting up and no information from the Indian government as to when they will start to allow OCI card holders back into India. Right now all OCI cards have been suspended. I hope they will re-instate them soon.

Today was also the first day of being able to get out and about after 14 days of quarantine. It was good to get out. There were a lot of people on the street. Interestingly not many people are wearing masks... not like they do in India. Most people we came across in Goa were wearing their masks even though there was a low infection rate.

I am really looking forward to the drive to work tomorrow. I have been told that the roads are not busy at all. Another positive is that the congestion charge and the ULEZ charge have been suspended. Free parking too very close to the Shard where Aljazeera is. Win Win.!

Peace and Love

The Mission

It has been a busy couple of days in here in Goa.

I was asked to help relocate a British elderly couple as their so called 5 star accommodation in Panjim was effectively kicking them out ! The hotel is called The Crown Goa..... Please never stay here as they offered no help at all in finding alternative accommodation and also refused to offer transportation even though they have three cars sitting in the entrance. Shame on you The Crown.... In these difficult times you could not even help the elderly....shame on you.

Most hotels are closed here in Goa but one hotel, Planet Hollywood, is still taking guests and are offering a very affordable rate to stranded tourists.

This is boring... Suffice to say that despite the police and army being deployed in force to enforce the strict lock down we were able to get permission for them to travel from Panjim to Majorda which is about a 35 minute drive. Without this permission there is no way that this couple would have been able to get to Planet Hollywood. Also ... getting a taxi driver to risk the journey was a challenge. Thanks to the help of lots of people we somehow managed what looked like an impossible task.

India needs to sort out its system and way of doing things. There is an online portal to apply for travel permission but firstly you have to be an Indian citizen and secondly they messed up the date of birth window. One cannot type into it you have to scroll back month by month I am nearly 52 so would have had to click back 600 times before I would have reached my month of birth. Again total lack of thinking/ineptitude.

I know ... I know the world is a mess but if you are gonna set something up just test it and fix it.....Peoples lives are depending on this. Instead you are forced to go out in a strict lock down to the nearest police station to get the permission... it is totally counter intuitive.

Oh and for the first day in 7 days a couple of stores opened up .... Thank goodness.... The problem of course is that there are thousands of people without much food left so chaos at the stores.

Not much humor today I'm afraid....

We are fine. Roochi, Natasha and I together. We have food and shelter. Much more than the thousands of poor labourors who are walking to their villages from the big cities because the government is so stupid it did not predict this when it announced the national shutdown. It beggers belief it really does.

Peace and Love

Parallel Dimensions

That is what it feels like right now.
We are all either living in the Matrix or some higher being has transported us to a parallel dimension!

I am sitting in my kitchen having cooked an absolutely superb sausage and tomato farfalle which I sprinkled with some parmesan that I smuggled in from London and the Indian prime minister Modi has just announced a solid 3 week lockdown ! NO LEAVING HOME. Not even to walk the dog or go for exercise! So very different from the UK for example where you can walk the dog and go out for execise etc.

I do understand the need for this, don't get me wrong, but there has been no indication how we can even get food !

We are waiting for further instructions. Luckily we have enough food for at least 1 week but I doubt we can last 3 weeks !

Looks like I am gonna be losing weight !

Sooo many exclamation marks in this one !!!

Like I said at the beginning of this post ... it is difficult to understand how things can change in 2 weeks. I was in London on the 9th of march and although we knew covid was coming life was relatively normal.

Now look at where we are.

Stay safe
Peace and Love

6 Years later.......

Not quite like the film "28 days later" but not too far off either.

I have re-awoken this blog in the midst of mayhem hitherto to be shortened to MOM.
It crept up on us and then grabbed us by the throat and said "if you don't sort this mess out I am gonna come and kill you"......
All of a sudden within 2 weeks the whole world has gone from a relative state of normality to being in the MOM.
Very few people in their lifetimes have seen anything like this. They say that even in the great wars it was not this bad.
Toilet paper of all things is what is in demand. People desperately grabbing at the last remaining stocks.
Empty pasta shelves
Lockdowns all over the globe.
Infection spreading unabbaited.
In some areas of Italy the whole of the elderly have been killed by this!

But... you know what...I had a great game of poker last night online with a couple of fellas from London and a few from Delhi and me here in Goa. :))) we also logged onto zoom so that we could talk and see each other. Drinks were abound so were snacks! So many snacks that we had to tell one fella to stop eating so close to the microphone. He had been constantly eating crisps for about 2 hours and the noise was grating on us.

But back to being serious.
To all my friends....
Stay safe !

Peace and Much Much Love

The Scots and The art of getting screwed!

I was most disappointed at the result of the Scottish referendum. I am not Scottish but I have been to Scotland and have Scottish friends. My Scottish friends all voted for independence.... What happened? As I suspected. The Scots people are now going to have to go through a rather tough "haggle" to get what they were promised by central government. I suspect that many of the pledges made will not be honoured. 

Why did you vote "no"?

Peace and love

So many new restaurants

In the last few weeks Roochi and I have been to several new restaurants in Delhi.
Some of them very fancy (and expensive !)

Akira Back at the J W Marriott near the airport was one I was looking forward to with great anticipation. They do a kind of Japanese/western fusion.Unfortunately the food we were served was really below par. For main course I had ordered the pan fried salmon. What came was a dry tasteless sorry piece of fish. It was so bad that I had to complain. To their credit my complaint did make it back to the chef who then came out to meet with me and apologize.
Jason the executive chef 100% agreed that the salmon was very overdone and dry. He then went back into the kitchen and personally cooked up another salmon for me. Well .... what came out was very different to the first one. Perfectly cooked tasty and melt in the mouth. Beautiful.... Thanks Jason I hope you have been able to kick the other chefs to get the very best product out.

This is an expensive place to eat so if you do not think your food is cooked properly you must complain. There is nothing worse than going home having spent a fortune and not feeling fulfilled.

Benihana the famous global chain of Tempanyaki eateries has opened in Delhi :)) It is located in what I think is the busiest computer market in Asia.... Nehru Place.
Woo Hoo. I took Roochi and Nikhil there for our 21st wedding anniversary.(I did not make a mistake it was our 21st wedding anniversary !)
I cannot complain about this place at all. The formula was exactly the same as anywhere else in the world. The only difference is that they do not do beef. We opted for the New Zealand lamb instead. It was gorgeous. Tender, tasty and cooked exactly how I like my lamb (medium). They had all the other items that comes with the meal such as a very crunchy salad with their signature dressing, miso soup, rice and what I always like, and invariably need more of, is the dipping sauce........ YUM ! As is also usual the chef was most entertaining which adds a little extra to the evening.

Again not cheap but for a special occasion worth it.

Got more places to talk about but no time at the moment.
Heading off to London on Monday... Woo Hoo :)

Peace and Love