The not-so-secret diary

It is not everyday that I find myself in charming Parisian surroundings where the view inside is something like this. Did I mention time travel? The laptop and smartphones went with us, just so we could capture all of this.   As we stood on the balcony, the Seine gurgled below. But most certainly, it is not every evening I find myself gazing out of a window to this view. It was accompanied by an elegant meal - the kind that only a French person could cook effortlessly while continuing to be an attentive host. Encore s'il vous plait!

A couple of weeks ago, the landladies (ground and first floor) decided it was time to restore the joint front door to its glory days of the late 19th /early 20th century when cows still grazed in parts of Wimbledon. Raise not your eyebrows for the presence of these bovine inhabitants can be confirmed from the photos in Richard Milward's 'Wimbledon Past' , which I  I chanced upon at local charity shop. It has been fascinating reading about the history of  what used to be the village of Wimbledon. Who would have guessed that this would become the bustling Zone 3 (out of 9 zones) in London about 100 years on. The village itself still exists and is home to tennis celebrities, lawyers, bankers and the odd winner of the EuroMillions lottery no doubt. Coming back to my front door which lies in the 'squeezed middle class' part of Wimbledon, I wasn't so sure about the colour when the paint-man did a primer followed by the first coat. It stood there for a few days dryi...

Or rather Chin Chin Labs . Which is where I found myself dragged by two mates about a week ago. Chin Chin Choo is completely unrelated but makes a nice alliteration for my blog title. For those who are interested, Chin Chin Choo occurs in the first line of a famous 1958 Indian song from the film Howrah Bridge . Spring had finally hit London for a day and a couple of us decided to try Venezuelan arepas at the food market in Camden. We chose Sunday as it was supposed to be sunny. Predictably the market was heaving but we navigated out way through the crowds, grabbed some arepas and even found ourselves a vantage point looking out at the market and the canal. Not long after two of my mates started drumming support to go round the corner to Chin Chin labs and try their much-discussed  ice-cream that is frozen using liquid nitrogen. Now I have never been a big ice-cream fan even when I was growing up in India. I probably ate it too slowly so most of it would melt in the searin...

On a trip to Brighton a few days ago, I not only discovered funky shops as mentioned in my last post , I also joined some colleagues for a fantastic 3-course meal by the pier. As we crossed the road to reach the restaurant by the seaside, the sun was setting and a soft mist engulfed us. I noticed an old dilapidated structure in the distance.   It seemed to float up towards us.  It was, as I learnt later, the West Pier of Brighton. Over 100 years old, it has been unloved for a while and  suffered damage first from storms and most recently from a severe fire. No one was believed to be hurt although it is suspected that someone started the fire deliberately. This is how the far side looks with the remaining stumps. Bizarrely some students appeared to be holding a BBQ of some sort near the sea. The pier is a far cry from its glory days in the late 19th century. Today, the red notice states that these structures are hazardous. Unbeknown to m...

Recently I had chance to visit the historic seaside town of Brighton on the south coast of England again. In continuation with the theme encountered in previous visits, this springtime visit culminated in chucking rain as well. Brighton's history and its fancy Regency past is the stuff of books and paintings. However this post is dedicated to the kitsch shop facades in Brighton's city centre. A shop for Friends: This shop below is clearly not selling carcasses: Continuing with the theme some shoes for the serious veggies. Initially this shopfront made me go 'Whaaat' (ala  TheLydiaBennet of LBD ) but then it clicked - shoes made without leather or animal skin. If fact, it shouldn't have surprised me at all. It is not uncommon for some Hindus in India to wear non-leather (canvas/ cloth-based or faux leather) shoes. In fact I can count a few family members who are pretty serious about this and extend the principle to bags/ purses too! This...

Such a commotion. So much discussion. So many protests. The Dame de fer is no more but she appears to be causing as much controversy now as she did when alive. My views on Margaret Thatcher were formed by the international media and particularly South Asian media. Her tribulations in Great Britain or her contribution to the tribulations of some in Great Britain were of less inteerst to the world, or at least I was too young to have read much about them. However in light of all the views floating on social media, newspapers, local radio and television I felt I needed another post- a snapshot of what people are saying in the UK. This quote from Russell Brand's article in The Guardian has been doing the rounds of the internet: " Barack Obama, interestingly, said in his statement that she had "broken the glass ceiling for other women". Only in the sense that all the women beneath her were blinded by falling shards. She is an icon of individualism, not of femi...

Quote from the Evening Standard yesterday about preparations for Thatcher's funeral: "Under the code name Operation True Blue, a special committee to make detailed arrangements will meet everyday in the Cabinet Office..." Umm, just thinking, it's hardly a code name if everyone already knows what this is about ?!

Margaret Thatcher passed away today quietly in her sleep. Over the last decade I have heard several British friends and work colleagues express a dislike for her and her policies. However my impression of Britain's first woman prime minister was of a formidable lady and an astute stateswoman. My first memory of Thatcher is from the 1980s when I was growing up in India. I recall her being mentioned as a fine politician respected by world leaders. Around that time Indira Gandhi was India's first woman prime minister. Thinking back now, here were two women from very different backgrounds ruling two large democracies. Both courted controversy and both took tough decisions undeterred by the fear of becoming unpopular to large parts of society. Their policies were completely different. India, at the time, was a relatively young country and the founding fathers of independent India had seen a form of secular socialism to be the best way of governing the diverse nation. This was a...

Not proud to admit but after an impulsive shopping spree, I spent most of my evening trying to decide which of the three dresses I should keep and which (if any) should be returned. I admit I am well and truly suffering from one of the more serious First World Problems. Yet, it could have been worse. I could have spent yet another weekend agonising about where to holiday in the summer.  Luckily that FWP was resolved successfully last weekend  using a complex decision-matrix involving parameters such as sunlight availability, historical character of target destination, 'exotic' plus 'cool' quota and potential use of air miles. And all this when I'm pretty sure where I live is no longer counted as the  First World. I suppose the zillion dollar/pound/euro debts make it debatable if anywhere is First World at all. Then again where else would we have problems like these in this awesome YouTube video!

.... the piercing sun almost hurt my eyes. It is a strange feeling when you emerge from weeks and months of semi-darkness to find white clouds floating across a pastel-blue sky, the unexpected brightness causing you to blink involuntarily. Like mammals awoken from hibernation, two of my fellow-Londoners and I brunched on some yummy crepes and made our way to Greenwich in south-east London. Enroute we spotted some yellow daffodils, the brave survivors of that unseasonal snow shower that had pelted across town barely 48 hours ago. This was the view at Greenwich today (Naval College Gardens). Standing atop the Cutty Sark (the last surviving tea clipper that sailed a century ago) the gently-curving Thames and the river boats headed for the Greenwich Pier were a sight for sore eyes. The new financial district at Canary Wharf, as seen from the bow of the Cutty Sark, looked deceptively placid in the sunlight. Finally it felt like April had arrived in London, if only for ...

It is the first week of April and the flower buds have long given up trying to come alive. Equally disturbing to read that a large amount of sea life including lobsters, shellfish crabs and puffins have been found in a near-frozen state off the coast of East Yorkshire . In a valiant effort to be a glass-half-full person (with the glass potentially holding some warm soup) I thought hard about some good that may yet come from this unusually long and bitter winter. Well there are those gas companies who are minting it as people like me attempt to create their mini-temperate isles in their heated flats. However I found my answer today as I walked out of Goodge Street station in the morning. An enterprising stall holder who generally sells bags and tourist-luring trivia was setting up a rack of gloves an bright ear-muffs. Two passers-by stopped to browse as he was still arranging the rack Who needs the sun when you can make hay when it snows.

Still unable to recover from the fact the last episode of LBD has been aired and there will be no more coming.  Found satiation by reading all fan blogs including the irrepressible LBD seahorses and thanks also to Lizzie for the ' Post script ' twitpics..... mmmmmmm. I decided to revisit the ITV series Lost in Austen over the weekend. I remember being a big fan when they were first aired over three years ago. But having re-watched them again, for the first time I thought the chemistry and the dialogue between Amanda Price (the leading lady) and Wickham was way more fun than between Amanda and Darcy. In fact this has got to be the most surprisingly witty  Wickham ever. So just as background for those of you not familiar with the series: Amanda from Hammersmith in modern-day London has swapped place with Elizabeth Bennet via time travel through her bathroom plumbing... She finds herself in Georgian England in the Bennet household where the characters are the same but no...