Guess who's Back?

Long time no chat, so sorry I haven’t been able to write up some new blogs. I suppose you could call it writers block. Still working, wrapping up everything for next week when I finish. But the good news is that I’m coming back after april for another year! So looking forward to it though I am going to have no savings to back this trip up. So first off, congrads to Slumdog Millionaire on its seven Oscars. I think it deserves the ones it won, and a special shout out to Danny Boyle, first for jumping around the stage when he won and second for being very smart about the way he’s paying the slum kids. They are all getting a trust fund set up for themselves as well as an apartment I believe. Also a big section of the profits from Slumdog are going to go towards helping those in the slums here. Of course there are all theses stories in the news of family members trying to get money and long lost parents coming back to see their children etc. etc.
So what other news is there. Well a very good friend of mine, Daniel Callanan is coming on the 4th to spend 3 weeks in India with me, and then coming back with me to Ireland. I’m looking forward to this so much like nothing else. My only regret is that not everyone I know is coming. I think at one point or another I’ve thought how much each one of my friends and family would love this sight/sound/experience in India. The plan is to take Dan to Goa and Thakur Sai, a small village where Gayle’s uncle has a holiday home (one of the coolest places you can ever go see, more on that when I come back from the visit). I’m also planning on taking him to Mahabaleshwar, a beautiful hill station 400 miles south of Mumbai (around a 6hour highway drive). Mahabaleshwar is frickin’ cool. They are places where the British used to go to escape the Summer heat in India, often ruling from there for months at a time. It’s a huge plateau, not sure of the size, maybe the size of Cork city. To get up there you literally have to drive up the side of a mountain. For those that know it think the pass between Castlegregory and Dingle town only bigger and badder….and with Indian drivers. Our driver, though a very good driver zoomed up it like I don’t know what, cutting a large bus on the outside of a sheer cliff turn….not for the faint hearted. The reason we were going was work related, KN ARCON are restoring this beautiful old bungalow up there called Reay Villa. Unfortunately it’s privately owned so I can’t say come and visit, but there is a whole lot more to see there. The restoration process has taken 4 years to complete, with only the landscaping left to do, and it certainly shows the work and skill the guys at KN ARCON have put into it. The inside is beautiful, with a fully resorted decorated Tin ceiling (see the pic attached) in the main room. Mahabaleshwar is famous for a couple of things, the bungalows, the view, the climate but it also has some really nice treats for the visitor to indulge in. Strawberries grow here aplenty so all the shops stock lot sof strawberry-based treats. We had strawberries, ice cream and cream. Sinful but something that still haunts my hungry dreams! Also available was some of the nicest Chikki I’ve had, look back and you;ll find a post on them. I call them Tooth Suicides! But the coolest thing I found there was the juice syrup, the original dilutable. The juices in Mahabaleshwar are something else, being made of a syrupy liquid with mushed fruit stuffed in. The two I bought, Kiwi and Strawberry are just amazing, we still have them and it’s my daily treat to myself. The strawberry one has whole strawberries floating in it! If you don’t have a sweet tooth I wouldn’t recommend them however, the leftover at the bottom of the glass is liquid sugar. MMmmmm After Mahabaeshwar we drove to North of Bombay, to the town of Bhiwandi, a satellite town of the Metropolis. It has a big muslim population there, and a deep history, possibly older than Bombays as it lies a small bit inland, past an impressive wall of mountains that have temples dotted on their sides. The reason we were going to this town was to see a new project, another Juma Masjid, which the Juma Trust who run the Juma Masjid in Bombay town also have an interest in. It’s quite a nice Mosque, similar in style and layout to Juma though not half as elaborate and big. It seems that repairs made a while back are now damaging the walls and pulling a section down, causing major cracks to appear all along the west, south and north wall.

Okay I must go, boss is back so I need to look busy. I will talk to you all later. And again, sorry for the delay in blogging this month.