The Royal Family

In London, there are only two kinds of tabloid celebrities: Kate Moss & the Royals. Absolutely everyone in & around London loves to talk about the royal family. Diana still makes it to the front page of tabloids! I found it amusing how souvenir shops in London sell these royal family postcards; do they really have such a big fan following? :)The other day at the Harrods, our cabbie was quick to point out how there are so many flags outside the store but not the English flag. Apparently Muhammed Al Fayed decided to take the flag off after his son Dodi's death for which he publicly blamed the Queen. Like a true Londoner, our cabbie thought it was a story worth telling :)

Cambridge

Yesterday, we took a day trip to Cambridge. The weather was awful; but the place was beautiful beyond words! Cambridge is a college-town with 31 colleges...the most breathtaking is the Kings College & its cathedral: The 'Trinity College' is the most coveted and richest college in Cambridge. Prince Charles studied here in the 1970s. As the legend goes, he wanted to have as normal a student life as possible; so there was only one body guard around him who shadowed him around through out his college life. In the end the body guard decided to take exams as well and it so happened that he fared better than the Prince himself :) The best part about Cambridge were the quaint bridges across the River Cam. We went punting along the river and I havent felt so relaxed & peaceful in a long time.

Holiday Part II

On Friday evening, we said our goodbyes to our friends in NYC and left for London. This is my first time in London & I absolutely love the old-ness (if there is a word like that) of this city. Every corner of the city seems to have its own character. Will write more about the fun times we are having in London!!

MoMA

We visited today NYC's Museum of Modern Art. One of the walls on the second floor of the museum is covered with some very witty graffiti-style drawings that in a 'tongue-in-cheek' way talk about how crazy our world has become. I particularly loved these... :)

How true

From a wall of the FDR Memorial in DC....'More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginnings of all wars'...

Huh???

I would've liked to see this exhibition in DC, just because I'm curious what it could be about...this promo picture is so bizzare!! Unfortunately I wouldnt be around for the actual exhibit.

Wall Street

The other day we were walking down Wall Street and apart from a couple of banker-types, the street was filled with a multitude of tourists clicking away at the NYSE building. Isn't it incredible that a single ordinary looking street (and it really is such a narrow ordinary street)with nothing but office spaces & banks should become such a huge tourist attraction and a symbol of American prosperity?

Holiday!!!

H & I decided that we needed a break and took this vacation without much planning. The best part about our vacation this time is that its not about seeing places, but meeting up with dear old friends whom we haven't seen in ages. We landed in NYC two days ago and are at the moment enjoying the view from Meghna's 21st storey apartment facing the Hudson and downtown Manhattan :)
It's the perfect break we had been hoping for!

No more sausages

I was in Frankfurt on work for a good part of last week. My hosts there invited me for authentic Frankfurt dinners & I continue to be amazed by the amount & variety of meat the Germans eat in their daily meal.
The two things I refused to try however were 'blood sausages' and 'liver sausages' (as a matter of principle, I dont like to eat anything with the word 'blood' in it!). I'm a meat-lover, but I've never seen so much meat in one meal anywhere but in Germany!

My visit happened to coincide with a huge 'meat fair' that was being held in Frankfurt; so there were meat adverts & commercials everywhere in the city. In the end, I think it was this advert that finally has put me off sausages for a long time to come....

Little Angel

This little angel is my brand new nephew! I'm so excited, I can't wait to see him when I go to Mumbai next month. My brother & sister-in-law are so proud of him already.
Becoming an aunt, of course comes with the huge responsibility of spoiling the nephew and making sure he gets to do all the cool things his parents won't let him do. So I hope I do my job well! :)

The Yacoubian Building

Last year, when I visited Cairo, I remember thinking how similar it was to my home-city of Bombay. It is a city of contradictions: where the very rich and the very poor live down the same street; where the once-elegant colonial structures blend into the general landscape of indifference; where people come to terms with the lack of fairness in the world & yet dream of good lives for themselves. My impressions of Cairo were confirmed when last week I read Alaa Al Aswany’s controversial ‘The Yacoubian Building’.

I loved the book. Not only is Al Aswany great at story-telling, he is also fearless. He gets his characters to open the closet doors wide, so that the skeletons come tumbling down: political corruption, homosexuality, militant nationalism, sexual repression, exploitation & other such taboo issues. The stories & characters are a slice out of modern Cairo & yet, they could have been in any big third world city. It provides a great insight into why the youth of these cities either leave the cities for the glossier lives in western cities or get misguided into believing that the only solution to their circumstances lies in extremist nationalism. Cynical, but thought provoking & overall, an excellent read. Highly recommended.

Five things you don’t know about me

We were moving apartments last week & I was away from blogging while my internet connection was lost in a big mess of wires waiting to be re-connected. In the meanwhile, Kaya tagged me to write about ‘Five things you don’t know about me!’

So here goes:
1. My favourite way of spending a weekend usually involves one of the following: books, movies, art, friends, nice dinner, and interesting conversations.
2. I am a dud when it comes to electronics, cars & technology. I depend on H completely when having to make decisions involving any of these.
3. I love traveling & taking holidays (who doesn’t!); but I also get home-sick quite quickly.
4. My most horrible habits include biting my nails & checking my blackberry too often.
5. I can be so well-organised & hard-working at work, but I’m a slob at home (I hate doing dishes or ironing clothes!)

Time to tag the next five: they are Clickable, Optimistic Guard, Moi, Mr.J, Happy Reader