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Travel time…
Not sure if you’ve noticed but I’ve been a bit pre-occupied the last while.
Lots happening behind the curtain with the upshot that in just a few hours I will be on a plane from Mumbai to London… enjoy the weekend there catching up with my partner, seeing him perform, hopefully meet a few friends!
Partner and I last year at BAFTA
Then hop on another plane to Toronto. Hope and pray everything goes smoothly with my Indian visa submission.
Hop on another plane to Winnipeg to spend some much needed time with family and friends.
2015 family reunion
Then hop on yet another plane back to Toronto where my sincere wish is that a lovely new visa will be ready and waiting for me. Pretty please!
And then, yes you got it… hop on another plane back to London then home to Mumbai.
My adopted home…
Won’t bore you with the details but this is a big change for me. Til now I’ve been terribly spoilt in the visa department. With a flourish of a pen all that changed. So now… my fate is in the hands of some random stranger. Just as it is for many people. Wish me well!!
Related posts:
London Theatre – Past and Present
I came across a playbill from our July trip to London… and it got me thinking that we just might have another experience or two worthy of a post. (Yes we DID manage to do more than just hang out at BAFTA!)
Well in advance of our trip, a Canadian friend living in Essex kindly offered to arrange an evening of dinner and theatre together for our single Saturday night in London. Sounded just right!
Before the performance, to get into a theatrical frame of mind, we met near the Tate Gallery and then took a little stroll along the South Bank to glimpse Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. (more…)
And the BAFTA Award goes to…
We landed in London on Friday morning and managed to fit in a couple ageless pubs in Ealing, train, tube and taxi travels, a touristy wander around Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, St Martin-in-the-Fields, saw part of an opera at Trafalgar Square, skirted the edge of China Town, chowed down on fab Caribbean cuisine and rum at Dub Pub in Covent Garden…
However one of the highlights was a stop most tourists miss… the hallowed halls of BAFTA – the British Academy of Film and Television. (more…)
The Sounds of Silence… London, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto vs Mumbai
Asia can be a sensory cacophony… Mumbai means living with an everyday decibel level that you just come to accept. Even the background sounds that fade from consciousness are ever present – crows, pigeons, hawkers, traffic, construction, music or TVs blaring, animated conversations at all hours… there is always something day or night.
Average noise levels of our city are at least triple that of your normal North American city. Throw in a festival or two and you can see decibel levels of 140 and above (let’s just say that far worse than jumbo jets taking off!)
If in doubt, check out some of the articles in AcuosticBlok on the Rising Noise Pollution in Mumbai. (more…)
So long, farewell!
As we prepared our home for the demolition gang, completed last-minute shopping, we struggled with the internet… Yes… living in Mumbai you cannot rely on having one internet alone!
You would think having easy access to four options (yeah that’s 1..2..3..4…) would be enough:
- My so-called ‘high speed’ internet has been down for two days and counting…
- My partner’s slow but steady MTNL internet was sorta kinda working but now has gone from barely functioning to not…
- Our recently re-charged data card isn’t compatible with my MacBook Air…
- So I’m on my back-up to the back-up to the back-up… using my phone as a ‘hot spot’… however the signal keeps dashing off leaving me intermittently ‘high and dry’ as the city drowns in monsoon floods
Because ultimately the monsoon is the real culprit in this equation. And the poor drainage conditions in this city that leads to regular flooding, damaging cable connections and more.
I’m not sure how often I will post over the coming weeks while we trot around the globe to London, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto and back to London… so quick before I lose this precious connection… ciao for now and catch you in a bit!
Looking to London, then Van-Groovy… then Winterpeg… T.O. and back to Big Ben!
Related posts:
London Calling… Watch out Winnipeg!!
There is something just so joyful about hitting the ‘confirm’ button when purchasing long haul flights. That extra thrill that tells you… soon… soon… you will be back to the international airport, whip out that passport and wing your way around the globe to a place where your morning is night and your sleep time is a sunny day!
Yup! We just booked our Canada flights… and decided to jazz things up a little this time with multiple stops. Just because we can. 🙂
Time travel triggers – Hanif Kureishi
I was an 80’s punk rock teenager who sported spiked hair, delighted in the unconventional, read voraciously and snuck into bars to see bands way before I was legal drinking age. We weren’t the Nazi skinhead types – instead our agenda was “Ban the bomb” and an intolerance for intolerance – finding it absurd that anyone would have a problem with same- sex partnerships or different cultures, communities and traditions mixing, mingling and blending in new and fascinating ways.
Our Winnipeg “gang” mid-80s (Photo: ??)
There were a few films and books that not only had an impact, they spoke to us even across continents: (more…)
“Your flight is cancelled”
It was not a promising beginning…. “I’m so sorry but your flight from Winnipeg to Toronto is cancelled.” Stunned, we explained we had onward flights to Brussels then Bombay so we really HAD to reach Toronto.
En route to the airport, we had just been discussing how in Canada planes now never fly empty. Why? If there aren’t enough passengers to make it somewhat viable, the flight is cancelled.
Ottawa Off & On (photo: Carissa Hickling)
The good thing was the woman helping us immediately grasped our quandary and overcame all sorts of impediments to get us on the next flight to Ottawa connecting immediately to Toronto in time to change terminals and catch our international flight – provided NOTHING was delayed.
Everyday Asia 