This evening I went to the opening of an art exhibition which the British Council is supporting in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata: Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane's Folk Archive (see here). It's a collection of examples of erm ... British culture which, as the High Commissioner described it, 'you don't hear about in guidebooks'. Anyway, one section of the exhibition is of 'prison art', including a case full of confiscated homemade tattoo guns and this diagram to explain how they're made.
We went to the cinema this evening. My friend bought the tickets and she said 'it's gold class, is that ok?' and I just said yes because I didn't know what she was talking about. Turns out 'gold class' is a separate cinema in a bigger screen complex which has huge armchair reclining seats (there's a button you can press to put the leg rest up). I'm reading the menu, just before I press the button to call the waiter who will come to my seat and take my order. Next to me you can see my blanket, in case I get cold. And my lamp to help me read my menu. It's like flying business class and watching a movie, but with a much bigger screen. Not sure I'll be able to go back to normal cinemas now. Oh and we watched Birdman, which we all loved.
No Hindi on this one, which according to my research so far is quite unusual. It's quite a random one but I like it.
I think this counts as a bike shop, even though it's got three wheels. And selling palm trees on the back of a bike - that's pretty funny, right?
I love this postcard. I bought it when we were away somewhere but I can't remember exactly where. It's Shiva and Hanuman. I thought it was a suitable post given the unexpected cuddle that Modi gave Obama at the airport when he arrived. So sweet.
Incidentally, there are just 50 more days until Delhi 730 reaches its target ...
We finally sorted it out and bought a new food processor to replace the one that broke ... over two years ago. This has many advantages but especially fantastic is the return of nut roast. Mmmmmmm.
And so begins the three day weekend where our movements around the city are restricted by the arrival of the VVIPs and the Republic Day parade on Monday. Obama has a lot to answer for.
Even more exciting than the fire alarm is the fact that I have discovered a new place to have lunch just round the corner from work. It's a Bombay-based chain specialising in Bombay street food ... but about ten times the price of what you'd pay for it on the actual street in actual Bombay. Nevertheless, I liked these light shades. Next time I will take a photo of the food.
Great excitement at work today: a fire drill. It was made considerably more exciting by the arrival of Delhi police who told us off for having such a large group congregating out on the pavement while the whole of central Delhi is supposed to be on high security alert because of POTUS and FLOTUS' imminent arrival.
Oslo's drawing off a stag beetle using wax resist and crayons was chosen for the poster for the 1st grade art exhibition this year. You can't really tell in this photo, but the picture is pretty cool. They do some nice stuff in their art classes.
This is the milk shop just down the street from our house. We have our milk delivered every day from here. It comes in a plastic bag (remember Day 150?)- I still find that strange.
So remember the cute little dog that we all fell in love with back on Day 616? Well he stuck around, and was more or less adopted by our landlord's son and daughter-in-law who live downstairs from us. And now he's quite grown up. Ed and the boys have taken him for a walk a couple of times. He's still super cute. He came into our house the other day but he peed on one of our nice Afghan carpets so I'm not sure he'll be allowed back in again. Ah well.
It's not really that exciting I suppose, but I really loved this sack being used as a door mat outside a shop when I saw it the other day. I think it might be because on first glance, I thought the two horses were zebras. And also the name of the brand 'Double ghoda' means 'Double horses' which is somehow funny.
Right. I think I should start a new photo label: Delhi cars. Look at this beautiful old Mercedes parked just round the corner from our house. Check out the hub caps!
One small flat. Twelve 7-9 year old boys. A movie. Popcorn. Chocolate cake. What could go wrong?
Matchbox #16. Again, it says 'Robin' in Hindi, just written in Hindi script - not the actual word for Robin. And anyway, that doesn't look like any robin I've ever seen.
This truck was parked in our building today, delivering supplies for the refurbishment that is still going on. I love the typography that is a feature of so many Indian trucks. So brilliant!
Dubai wins the prize for being the weirdest place I have ever been. It is very, very odd. I can't really explain it, but it feels like it has no soul. And I expected there to be loads of skyscrapers, like Hong Kong, but in fact it's just this fairly small cluster downtown. If I had zoomed out a bit in this photo you would see that the rest of the city is pretty flat, but sprawling. It was cool seeing the Burj Khalifa though.
Today I am in ... Dubai! Enjoying the glamour of room service mezze. It was as good as it looks.
Louie loves the subbuteo set he got for Christmas, to the point where he is planning a subbuteo tournament with the ten kids who are coming over to our house on Friday for his birthday party. I just hope they're as enthusiastic as he is.
I hadn't seen a yellow one before!
For some reason before Christmas I thought it would be a good idea to schedule a three day meeting the same week that everyone got back from leave ... it was a bit of a rush getting ready for it but in the end it was great. I work with such a fantastic team. These are just the academics. There are many more of us!
Been a while since we had one of these. Looks a bit boring, but it's Howrah Bridge from Kolkata and in Hindi it says 'Howrah', as it should.
The construction opposite has made lots of progress while we've been away. See 60 days ago on Day 599 for a comparison. Now we have the marble cutting phase to look forward to. Can't wait.
Back in Delhi for Louie's birthday and a Christmas present opening bonanza.
We stay at the Phranakorn Norn Len guesthouse in Thewet in Bangkok. It was great. This was painted on the wall in our room. In the lobby area there are little boothes that have been made to look like old fashioned shops. It's hard to explain, but we really liked staying here.
We did a brilliant bike tour of Chinatown and Thonburi which is on the other side of the Chao Phraya River. There were about ten people including Louie on his own bike. It was really lovely.
