There I was, trying to rectify the slight photographic error kindly highlighted by Mr Mackenzie (see or don't see Jodhpur Album) when the tinternet cafe CD rom drive decided to eat/crush my CD. Therefore it may be a little while before you see any more groundbreaking shots although fear not - I didn't lose any of my snaps as they're on the memory card. By the way, Mike R and Lisa (soon to be R) will most likely have organised a whole wedding (nice one btw) before Macca's housewarming party! Or was I merely de-looped?

Apart from congratulating and ticking people off for parties I may or may not have missed, I was struggling to know what to write on here or what's interesting. Not really being in touch with the latest Heat magazine gossip nor keeping myself up to date with the football rumour mill leaves me in a weird position. Nevertheless, this blogging malarky seems a good way to voice my opinions (little man with the microphone syndrome?) so I guess I'll just carry on. You may even find out some stuff about India!

After mostly 2 nights in any one place I was starting to wonder what I'm doing here and how anyone can get under the skin of a country or place unless they work or live there. To hell with that. After 3 nights in Bombay, having ticked off: markets, cathedrals, synagogues, cricket watching, eating Belpuri on Chowpatty Beach (still no sign of Shilpa) from my tourist hitlist, I actually still like the place. I did leave out Elephanta Island but took a stroll around the harbour instead where the 'Gateway to India' stands, symbolically important as the place from which Britain departed India. Also important from the perspective that you can be offered the most amount of tat in just 5 seconds of loitering. Think, little annoying dancing figurines, postcards from the 1970s, hash and last but by no means least - some odd gigantic phallic shaped balloons that have no place (and would certainly not fit) in a 27 year olds crammed backpack. Bizzare? Perhaps, but not as weird as what looks like a normal car reversing until you hear it's reverse siren. No, not beep beep beep but a very high pitched Jingle Bells. India, cars, scorching heat and Jingle Bells, aaah now it all makes sense! The place is crazy, I was hanging out with some friendly Germans (casual racism coming up..) who wanted to show us the restaurant they ate at the previous night. On arrival we found merely a huge pile of rubble! I didn't have the heart to suggest blitzkrieg (knew I'd get it in!) but it's just another sign of the chaos which exists around here. Today I walked down a road which was mostly dug up. Yet life goes on and cars and buses still thunder down it. I try not to ask too much except for my Hotel to remain standing and so far, all is well. Suppose it's just a sign of the pace of development over here and I was going to say that India should slow down, take stock and maybe modernise steadily taking heed of all the Wests mistakes. But they seem to be embracing modernity all at once and why should we/I lecture? It's like a massive Berlin wall crashed down a while back but is still being swept aside as India tries to absorb everything. Sorry if this is all a bit OTT but it's odd soaking up a country while the man next to me in the internet cafe looks for brides online.

Not much left to do now before my sleeper train to Goa tonight. Possibly worth mentioning that I watched a bit more cricket on the ubiquitous maidans over here (why isn't football or cricket in everyone's faces when you walk around London? It should be) and was impressed by some wristy strokeplay (that's not a dodgy phrase non cricket people) but most stunning of all was the extremely iffy fielding. Long Barriers really do not exist over here! I also took a stroll up to w***hede Stadium (this paragraph is becoming pretty iffy) which was thrilling. Even though the security guard turned me away, and there was no game on, I did manage to get a shot of the Sunil Gavaskar stand and my mind wondered how amazing it would be to watch an England game out here or anywhere abroad for that matter. Cue more travel..

ps - Really really looking forward to Beth arriving in June by which point these blogs may take a non sporty turn for the better..