Cooking and the rest

Another uneventful week, or so it seemed. But not quite. Unknowingly we have embarked on projects and learnt new things, had new experiences - enriched life. To begin with, the return from Bath took us directly to the planning for dinner on Monday evening. There was cooking to be done on Sunday. While nothing very interesting, we made very good Couscous, the French way. In fact we had managed the taste in Rennes but this is the first time in Cambridge we got it so tasty. Unfortunately for Souj who had trouble eating it when we cooked for her.

The cooking saga continues with Palak Paneer, Baingan Bartha - recipes borrowed from internet, and Tiramisu which a colleague helped us design. We also had Mathieu for dinner after the badminton Wednesday. And were promptly invited to his house Saturday. We saw a French movie there, QUELQUES MESSIEURS TROP TRANQUILLES, very funny. And played golf on the Wii.
Ended the week with doll on another lovely drive; finishing with a beautiful sunset and ghazals with chai.

Looking forward to more fun ... here is Soumya with Mathieu

Beginning or End

The last day of our voyages across the west and journey across the Midlands to the East of Anglia. But bfore that, a dolls house and market. Its a fanstasy of ours to have a dolls house resembling the one we would like to live in, a melange of Indian, French styles reflecting our travels and experiences. Could not buy anything but got plenty of ideas for future projects.

The journey was long and we returned home to prepare us for the week ahead, back to routine or normalcy.

That was yesterday.
We just could not resist a small drive again today which took us to many villages around and Newmarket, the home of horse racing. Had a glimpse of the studs around and Racecourse. The majestic horses we see around must run here for our entertainment! The countryside is not quite as spectacular as Wales yet nice little villages with big beautiful houses away from civilisation, or so it seems.

The plan for tomorrow is to find a farm to buy fresh fruits and vegetables. Some people just never stop.
Here is a picture from the entrance to Newmarket

Roman Bath

Beep, beep. Wake up for breakfast. Alas, it is raining! The only place we can escape to are the Roman Baths.

Built by the Romans for a daily bathing ritual around hot springs, believed to be blessed by the goddess Minerva, the Baths take us back 2000 years to a history which we all share. The paved streets, or their remains, remind us of the streets in the villages in India. The ruins consist of a temple to which visitors came from far and wide to get cured, blessed, curse others and offer prayers. There is an excellent display of brass plates and coins. The similarity of Roman life with that of South Indian, I can say safely, is astonishingly similar. So maybe Guillaume and me do share a common genealogy or maybe its taking things a bit too far.

We continue our stroll through the sunny afternoon along the alleyways of Bath overlooking the hills around. the architecture is really different from the rest of England. Could be the Roman influence; no bricks but stone and plenty of stone columns to resemble a Roman town.

Among the curious things is a vinegar and oil shop selling different kinds of vinegar in casks as well as olive oil from different parts. We buy fig vinegar and basil oil for salad dressing. We drive over the hills to look down at the valley below where Bath is situated on the bank of river Avon to get the shades of sunset.

Looking forward to some more good food and experience something new tomorrow...

Fairy tales and fables

This should be a short entry to outline the events of a long day. Of Castell Coch a fairy tale castle built by William Burges with paintings of fables al over the walls. Never seen anything like it before! It stands aslope in a wooden forest away from civilization; we were alomst the only people there. A fantasy built on the ruins of a real Middle Age castle. The views accross the canopy extending to the valley and the Cardiff bay were absolutely magnificent!
A coffee and picnic later we left Wales to return to England on a typical rainy journey, decided to come back, listening to Irish folk music.

Bath, our next stop, has a lovely and lively city centre, from what we saw by night. Tomorrow is going to be yet another discovery of the Roman Baths!

To compensate for the short entry, here is our short portrait:

Plans and Changes

Today was one of the days that appear in every trip, lot of plans not going according to plan.
Lets start with the plan; Pembroke and in particular Stackpole estate and then a possible visit to dolphins to return for a rendezvous with folk music and Moroccan cuisine.

None of it happened.

The morning saw us embroiled in getting insurance for doll, who got herself a name today(Gui wants to call her Laila). At last we did secure European coverage but it did take the better part of the morning. Proceeding to find lunch, we spotted a Veggie Indian resto run by Gujjus with really good home-made food and pan to boot. The issue, if any, was that we rather felt like overstuffed turkeys.

Finally about 230pm, we started our drive to Pembroke and promptly got lost in the numerous round abouts and signs (when present) in Welsh and English. We managed just about 50 miles and decided it best to roam the beaches closer to Cardiff. Alas, we missed one vital factor when planning a seaside jaunt; it was too cold to get close to the sea, let alone relax on the beach for a catnip. In half hour, we were just frozen and began our drive back and I dozed off. In fact the doze continued until 8pm to dissolve our plan for the evening.

Yet all is not lost. We did go to the "Cwld ifor Bach" to listen to some punk which the guide book said should be folk! Then realised we need food. Its almost impossible out of London to get a decent meal after 9pm. So we made up our mind to go to bed hungry as lunch had kept us well stocked. Whilst on a walk trying to get a glimpse of the nightlife here, or the lack of it, we came across an arcade of all kinds of restaurants and found ourselves a cozy corner with Thai cuisine to spend whatever was left of the day uneventfully.

It went very well with us discussing the fact we know nothing about Thailand which is much closer to my country of birth while being able to rattle away names of Italian dishes. I wonder why we do not give enough importance to- shall I say other third world countries like ourselves. Politically incorrect of course. As my aunt loves to say, the grass is always greener on the other side. We did resolve to explore these lovely parts of the planet too with impartiality. Only the travelogue will tell.

Meanwhile there will be plans and they will go wrong, if they can. One of my discoveries is the meaning of the word Blitz, a very interesting origin. Keep reading this space ...

Cardiff Center

Today has been a day of discovering Cardiff. We started early this morning from the hotel which is someplace between the bay and the city center. So the walk took us soon to the arcades of shops, like in Paris, which are small enough for slow shopping yet offer almost everything. Somehow the feel reminded us of Brittany, probably due to the Celtic influence and we were at home.

End of the high street is the castle maintained by Romans, Normands and the Bute family from Scotland who developed Cardiff from a sleepy town to the port it is today. Finding a guided tour for an hour to show us through helped appreciate its many architectural fantasies of William Burges who has run riot with colours and patters on every wall and ceiling. curiously there seems to be an eastern influence as well with a room floored with 17 types of marble. Other rooms included a huge banquet hall, nursery with antique toys and fairy tales depicted on the walls, clock tower outlining the days, months and seasons ... once outside we saw peacocks on the grounds and climbed the Norman Keep tower to get a beautiful view of Cardiff, intercepting the ancient with the modern.

We find the castles here rich castles curious in England when compared to the pigeon holes ordinary folks lived in during the Victorian times continuing to date clearly dividing the society of rich from that of the less fortunate.

The pm found us in a Frenchish cafe serving lunch, Breton style, galettes and bread and soup to the music of harps and pipes, so unique to the Celts. Taking us back in those moments to our life in Rennes; as should be the norm in a good economy, we loitered among the shops to see the wares and spend a few pennies.

We follow the sun now to the bay for dinner and hopefully some music.

On the Road

Hullo everyone. Here i am blogging again. Most of you would have been spared the misery of the previous one. I promise you this one is more informative about stuff, you know what I mean! So we have been traveling with our doll, a Mazda MX-5 which we adore already. And we do what we love the most, travel and see the world. The big WORLD you see in the little places here and there. The picturesque villages, winding roads promising more yet to come and round-a-abouts.

Let me start with the start. We finally got the car yesterday and started immediately. No time wasted here. Went to a Manor house and farm called Wimpole Hall. Its a lovely property spread across acres of serene gardens and pastures, colourful and bright under a lovely September sun. Saw among other things, the biggest pig ever with her little piglets, horses, rabbits, close to nature; away from mundane everyday lives.
Continued onto Birmingham, nee mini India with a Balaji temple et al. It was nice to celebrate the festival, eat the chitrana and ladoo. The drive was lovely and the doll was perfect. Growling now and again, purring like a cat and sliding like one.

Today we could not be kept away from her and decided to roll again, this time toward South Wales, Cardiff. On route we went to Waddesdon Manor. A grand chateau a la francaise, overlooking the beautiful valley of Aylesbury. Owned by Rothschild previously, its been maintained very well. Though we were too late to see the complete manor, had the glimpse of the kitchen and its magnificient. We hope to return on the way back to see more.

From there on, it was smooth sailing back on the motorway after a halt for dinner in a lovely village pub. The car just glided on the roads and we reached Cardiff in good time. We crossed the Severn bridge from England to South Wales over the sea, Settled to a three days stay here, hope to know more about Wales and enjoy being near the sea.

A demain, until tomorrow.