i suppose i have a bit of free time....

Godt Nytt År

london couldn't quite keep me entertained this festive season although i did see a great exhibit at the portrait gallery (extended till feb 1st i'll have you know). so i sneaked off and headed to bristol, devon, back to london briefly, stansted (i think it deserves a mention because of the amount of unnecessary time i spent there), norway and then back to town. where i got very drunk on cider and knocked over (i suppose) my coffee table, cooked a christmas meal, cooked another christmas meal, partook in the present giving and taking, sat round fires, walked the dog (it kind of walked me), went to hospital, enjoyed the m5 and 4s hospitality, queued with ryanair, payed ryanair more money, queued, squeezed myself into a small yellow and blue plane only to be bombarded with what i can only assume was the music thats even cheaper than the stuff for supermarkets, bought vodka, played guitar, drunk vodka, ate takeout, cooked, ice was a bit slippy, cooked, plane, brixton, pub.

it was good.

some pictures from the norge adventure.

nice light..

i've just returned from a lovely weekend in the Chilterns (my my that sentence has a lovely ring to it).  i didn't know it was the aforementioned area until i had to get a train from said place into the big city....now i do. anyway i had a lovely tour guide and i enjoyed every minute of it. we (thats me and the guide) didn't take any pictures though. it was mainly dark so they wouldn't have come out.

i did however find a few frames on my camera from the other evening when there was particularly nice light coming through my office/bedroom window.

christmas spirit..

its not particularly christmas like around here as the run up to the festive seasons grand finale happens on the london streets. how about this for starters..

i know who it is - i just can't say...

almost working...

little fiats with big engines racing at the Race of Champions at Wembley.

india makes brixton market seem clean..

i must admit that our original plan of catching a train across india to darjeeling from delhi may have been inspired in some small way by a certain film...yeh that was well out of the window pretty quick. but i think i could get to enjoy the train travel. you just need to be relaxed, have a sense of humour and not be in a rush. otherwise your fucked.

we were constantly bombarded with other travellers who didn't think much of our two stop trip to darjeeling and jodhpur.  the usual went a bit liek ' so your not seeing the taj mahal'...'your not going to goa...oh'.  but i really enjoyed spending a little more time in a place...it made you feel relaxed enough to enjoy it.  the stress can sneak in pretty quick in india.

as the pictures describe the two places were pretty different....from lush moutain tops which dropped to minus temperatures as soon as the sun went down to arid deserts where i could barely sleep due t the heat....is a bit of a change . something that with the added pollution really worked the sniffling at times.

my favourite things....the food, the colours, the good smells, the weather, the size, the diversity, tuktuks, the people, the unnerving driving, chai, dal, that scarf, the train, the view, the history, saffron lassi, kashmiri dum aloo

and i didn't particularly enjoy...the taxis, delhi airport security, the (bad) smells, the facilities, the phone networks, the stray dogs, being a toursit, the trains, the delays, spicejet, people who have no idea what hand luggage is, being ill, dubai airport, bald tyres, the rubbish, the pollution, the poverty

twenty hours and counting...

so we booked a plane and got out of that mess and finally managed to pick up our next train in delhi to the wonderful town of jodhpur.

i cant put a picture here because this computer is made from rocks and i don't think it will do that.....i can tell you that the smells, sights and sounds of this wonderful place are fantastic and i am now over my dissapointing train wait.

there are still lots of dogs which i am keeping well clear of due to the 'leg' thing and more cows filling the ever smaller streets.....so when i am not walking around in amazement i am dodging cowpats, leeky drains and leftover dahl

rough tot up of the currys consumed so far.....15....nice....and the mango lassi....mmm

(i've added a pic of this lovely web cafe now....)