Weekend 13/7/08 & 14/7/08

Good morning everyone, its Saturday morning and Laura and Gemma have decided to get their nails done, me Chai and Nelly tagged along for the ride. Heres me on the roundabout waiting for them.

Having got tired of waiting for them, we decided to go for coffee. Heres Chai at a famous coffee bar at Locumwalla (I've probably spelt it wrong but no worries), this is where they filmed the 'Shoot out at Locumwalle' Bollywood film.

Heres me showing concern about diabetes.

You know I was't going to miss out on a swingy seat

Well its been 3.5 hours and this is the result, a very upset Laura, they messed up her nails.

Gemma wasn't too pleased either, I kept well out of her way that day

After the nailing episode, we all made our way to Inorbit to meet Nikil since he had invited us to his house that day.

Here we all are at Nikils where we met his family. Nikil's wife Ritu is infront of Nikil and the girl in pink is Nikils sister who popped over to see us as well.

I believe this truely defines Indian hospitality, something that we are not accustumed to but we should be. Not one person from our group regretted comming to Nikils place.

After Nikils place, we went back to the hotel, where me and Nelly were recognised as superstars, and theres a whole blog devoted to that.

Its Sunday morning and we've decided to go to the cinema to watch Hancock on recliner seats, here we are getting ready for the movie.

Those with sharp eyes will have noticed 2 large boxes of popcorn next to Ryan, the small pack of popcorn that Ryan is holding is mine. But the question is where did the big box of popcorn end up? In Ryans stomach or on the floor. Well yes you guessed right Ryan has not changed, he dropped it all over me as i was sittting next to him.

This may give you a better idea of recliners

Well that was a thoroughly enjoyable film and here we are after the film posing infront of the camera, Chai & Gemma as usual trying to ruin a perfectly good photo with me, Meril and her boyfriend, lets see if we can do better next time.

Girly pose

Group pose, this time we have Irene joing the motley crewe

Gemma asked me to take some shots of her team, here they are

Still no good, Chai is still there with a grining Laura in the background causing mischief.

Would have been a good shot of me and Meril had it not of been for Colin trying to make a strange exit from the scene.

A different combination of Gemmas team

OK Gemma, I promise to pass on all these photographs to you

All good memories to show your grand children

This too

After the photoshoot, its back to the hotel, and heres Irene, Cherry and Ryan enjoying the ride in a Rickshaw

After dropping everyone off at the hotel, me and the 3 scottish guys decided to go to Leopoulds at Calaba. I wanted to go shopping for teeshirts for my team in UK and the Scottish guys just wanted to get hammered, and I think we all got what we wanted. Heres a shot of the necklas at Chapati beech

This is the 4 of us at the necklas, then it was straight back to the hotel.

Got back to the hotel and here they all are at the Peshwari with their bibs on. Unfortunely as you can see, Lauras head has got in the way but you can just make out Jamie face. Yes everyone in the UK, Jamie has arrived safely and as you can see, he is surrounded by hardend Indians who will guide him through these trechorous waters.

A day out with me, Laura & Chai + another team outing

Well its 10/7/08 and Chai arranged for us to go to Barbeque Nation, here we are split into 2 tables.

One new face, Cherry Foster has joined us for a few weeks and I believe its her third trip, so if you think I've been milking it, think again.

Well I guess you want to know who she is next to me & Collin. Her name is Nera and she works for Capita in London my new Yoga partner. She works in our office as well.

Incidently, she is Malaysian married to a Gujerati man living in London. She can understand Gujerati and speak a little and I believe she makes a mean Dar bhat and curry bhat, just up my street

I need to back track a bit now, its Sunday afternoon 7/7/08 and the deadly threesome in the picture decided to go to Inorbit Mall and Hyper City for a spot of shopping, this is us in Nando's.
Quite a successful days shopping for me, I was able to get my Kurta to wear on Independance day and I found a Yoga DVD for diabetics. Laura unfortunately could not find a hand bag, despite a shop full of them. Theres just no pleasing some women.

After a hard days shopping, theres nothing better than to have your feet massaged, very impressive, must search for one of these contraptions on Ebay.

Laura was obviously not going to be left out.

Unfortunately, theres no more pictures of us three shopping at Inorbit.

Laura's hiding here since I think she is getting alot of stick from my blog back home.
Can we now get one thing straight, whilst I am in India theres only one rule that I go by, and that is anything goes and nothing is off limits, if you don't like it tough. Everyone should have made this clear before comming to India, I did. If you haven't I hope I have done so on your behalf.

Catch up

This blog includes all the bits and pieces which I have not shown before not exactly earth shattering, but it gives you an idea of other aspects of this holiday. Lets start with the hotel I'm staying at.

This is where we have breakfast each morning, quite immpresive isn't it.

This is how I get ready in the morning after my shower, a fully creamed body.

Before I cream myself however, I like to see that I rub talcom powder into myself, sorry for getting the photos wrong way round.

Nelly & Gemma making full use of Austin's ball.

Nelly & Gemma trying out the lion pose

I know you've seen this before but I want to know, who's got the best girls, is it me?

or Nelly?

One day I decided to walk to work, and these are the sites I saw, a machine that cuts metal.

A man making chapatis.

A day out near Juhu beach

Nelly's girls

Sharukh Khan's residence on Juhu, For non Indian readers, this block is owned by one of Bollywood's biggest stars

Nelly's back

Two questions to ask yourself

1/ Is he naked?
2/ Were the bubbles created by the jakuzee or Nelly?

I'll give you a clue for the 2nd question, he had a very hot chicken vindaloo the night before.

Anyone recognise this character? Yes its Gary Kirston, the Indian cricket team coach at the Holiday Inn with the rest of the Indian team before they went to Pakistan for the Asia cup. Unfortunately I missed the press conference by 30 mins, but I got to see a few stars in the flesh like Dhoni.
Next blog is on my trip to Lonavla.

A day out with the ladies

Well today is 5/7/2008, the day after the night club party. Woke up late with a small hangover from the previous nights clubbing and arranged with Linthoi and Monisha to go shopping for a sari for Rajani, well lets face it, what do I know about choosing a sari, besides the section outing to Saroj Water Park was cancelled due to too many drop outs. That happened to be a blessing in disguise and you will see why later. Anyway after showing a photo of Rajani, we agreed to meet at Paaneri which we did as you see above and suprisingly served by the same person we saw last christmas.

I think you will agree this is a better shot of us all in Paaneri, with a few choice saris

Lets start with a mini fashion show, what do you think Rajani? Do you like this one?

Or maybe this one?

I think this suits Linthoi more, quite expensive but I may even buy it for her, oh sorry Rajni I'm shopping for you arn't I.

Hmm very tasty don't you think? Well Rajani, hope you like this one because all 3 of us agreed on this one for you, please don't say you don't like this!!!!!!

After shopping for saris, the next was a surprise, the girls took me to Calaba Causeway and this is what we got up to, more shopping.
Unfotunately, the girls were not looking at me when I took this shot, lets see if we can improve on this.

Thats better girls you look much better when your smiling.

Calaba is full of shops selling nik naks and teeshirts, so we spent about 2 hours there, spending money (lots of it).

After a hard days shopping, we popped into the famous Leopold, it may not be a great looking place but it is frequented by many foreigners and this place has appeard in English films. The food was excellent as well as the company of course, cheers everyone.
Funny thing is I get paid an inconvenience fee for all this, work that out.

We were a bit rushed here but I wanted to show you the shirt that the girls had bought me, but no worries I will try it on one day and show you in my later bloggs.
We are now comming to the end of this blog, but theres a tiny bit more to come.

What better way to end a fantastic day by taking the girls on a horse and carriage ride.

I think this is a better picture than the one above. Spotted the roses?

Yes everyone, there was no way I could let the girls go home empty handed after such a brilliant day.

This picture says it all.

This I guess puts the finishing touches to one hell of a day.
If I said to Rajani to go and find herself a good solicitor, what do you think her response will be? Answers on a post card.

Boy do I love Mumbai and I really don't want to come back to UK

Happy suffering!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!