Doing the best that I can, at writing, running and living
The Dharavi Slum is a strange place. Some parts of it are made up of quite nice, if small, homes. Some parts do look a little squalid. Within the area itself, a few flats have been built, for the more well off ‘slum’ dwellers. There are jewellery shops as well as street hawkers. There are… Continue reading India: Day Nine – Dharavi Slum
Surprisingly despite getting to bed at around half one in the morning after my trip to the Taj, I was ready for breakfast at nine. Evidently my stomach demanded that I made recompense for having to leave too early the day before. In most English hotels, the posh ones included, you usually get the cooked… Continue reading India: Day Eight – New Year’s Eve
I stood up close to a section of the makrana marble and tried to block everything else out. The thousands of painstaking hours required to shape the green, red and black stones and lay them into the ivory-white with such perfect precision is breathtaking when you think about it. A love story it is said.… Continue reading India: Day Seven – The Taj Mahal
In preparing for this trip, I looked for the nearest Parkrun, naturally. But surprisingly there are none in India, which is a shame. For a place like Mumbai, the starting time would have to be 6am, but there are a lot of possible locations to hold it, and certainly a lot of runners. I didn’t… Continue reading India: Day Six – Bombay Running
Madhu sits on a mat on the ground and works away while she talks to us. Her eight-inch curved blade pushes down the thin bamboo strips as she weaves them through the vertical warp of her basket. She could probably do it with her eyes closed, she has made so many. Her silver jewellery flashes… Continue reading India: Days 4 and 5 – A Field Trip
Well, so much for a blog a day, this is only the third one and we’re already into the second week. It’s New Year’s Eve all of a sudden. But that’s okay, it’s been a great experience so far, and I will get to writing about it all eventually. There is a small building before… Continue reading India: Day Three – Elephanta Island And A Guru Walk
First thing to note about being in Mumbai: Verify all information that is given as fact. It hasn’t just happened with the staff in this hotel, but these are the two examples that come to mind straightaway. ‘Are the banks closed in this holiday period?’ ‘Yes sir, they can close four or five days, you are… Continue reading India: Day Two – Saree Shopping
The plan had been to knock out a blog a day, but until now I’ve not managed to string much time together to write anything. It is our fourth day in India, and it has been an intense jumble of jetlag (5.5 hours ahead of the UK), crazy car rides and activities. My posts, therefore,… Continue reading India: Day One – Getting There
promo posters from the RSC The Red Shoes Fairy tales in the nineteenth century did not have the Disney gilded happy-ever-afters that we expect today. In the original Hans Christian Anderson story, The Red Shoes contained sorcery, amputations and death with a large side of moral instruction. The protagonist’s happiness comes quite literally in the ever after,… Continue reading Two Plays from the RSC: The Red Shoes / Twelfth Night
The clue was in the name: Sunny Hill Parkrun. To be fair, whatever speed I did here was a bonus, considering that wine o’clock had started around lunch time the previous day. Just to roll up for the start was a win. It was yet another murky day, and cold enough to keep my London Marathon consolation… Continue reading Sunny Hill Parkrun
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