Not that 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 ?!