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Welcome
This is a place for friends and family to keep in touch with me and to know what I've been up to... ;-)
Friday night, Julie lands at heathrow airport terminal. Harry n I go to pick her up. Harry stayed awake past his bedtime, chatting and drinking pretty good Italian wine ;) We made plans for the next day and went off to bed.
Satuday, we head off to leicester square to meet Julie's friend Helen from her course. Walked and talked, lunch at chiquitos and then down to embankment for a cup of coffee., stopping at Trafalgar square on the way. Met becky on the way there, been almost a year that I had seen her.
Regular chit chat planning for our graduation on the 10th June. We waited near the London eye for Sujay and Alex to join us, but they were late, so we sat outside the embankment station observing people.
Enter Sujay and alex, loads of laughs, stories and gossip get thrown around, while we sip coffee starbucks waiting for Alex's collegue joana or 'just Jo'. She's polish speaks several languages and a bit hyper.
The pub- two bottle of wine chosen by Julie, is gulped down by the five of us in no time, making sure we look into everyones eyes while we say cheers. Loads more of laughs, alex is drunk and Sujay is happy, the girls are doing well so far.
China town- we head off to china town for dinner while alex talks to random people on the street and goes in random restraunts to use their restroom :P
The food is good, sufficient, and suprisingly cheap. One more rose wine later, the boys are even more tippsy, while the girls still holding strong and in control.
Club/bar- back to leicester square into a nice club/bar. Great music, ambiance and company. One more bottle of wine, and this time both the boys and girls are happy, turning the space around our seats into a dance floor. I have pictures to show, but they have been censorsed for the health and safety of public interest.
Time to head home and Sujay still wants to drink, but we call it a night and go to our respected abodes. Worked on my new wordpress blog at night, it's looking cool.
Sunday- woke up late, had samosas for breakfast and plan to meet alex and Sujay at Liverpool station.
Spent the morning helping Harry fix his stereo in the classic, we are geniuses ;)
Met Alex and Sujay at hounslow, next stop Liverpool station. Starving, and craving bagels that julie had been telling us about for 2 days. Walked from one end of Brick lane to the other to try the famous bagels at 159 brick lane. They were ok and I was cheated 5 pounds extra, realised it too late. The lane was bubbling with people and shops, food and street performers. It's like Camden town only better and bigger. Ate some other stuff, I tried Cuban chicken sandwich while Sujay had masala tea, Julie had japenese and Alex had coke (he works for coke!).
Then we entered the coolest place to hang out- Truman brewery, it is just amazing, great music, lots of places to eat, drink and sit. We got ourseleves some nutella crepe and very comfortable sofas.
Explored the other markets int he area - Sunday up Market and Spiterfield Market. Interesting but we were already tired.
Sujay had to leave for Euston before 6 to catch a train up north, so we said our byes and headed home.
Planned indian dinner (lamb chops) with Harry, Julie, Alex and me.
Unfortunatly Julie had to leave, but we went on with the dinner at Punjabi Karahi... Yummy!
Tired after a long fun filled weekend. Now off to bed. Goodnight ;)
- Posted using my iPhone
Tiring day today. Been cleaning and mowing the lawn with Karan. Got some cool toys from Savi and went crazy cutting the backyard and the front. Awesome fun.
Some pics for entertainment ;)
Before (yes, that's a big fat squirrel running away!)
After
Some behind the scene pictures
- Posted using my iPhone
Location:The Dr,Hounslow,United Kingdom
Wierd days before my birthday, friends (Asad,dolly, karan, harry) made me feel like a little kid who's birthday is coming soon. Good fun, planning and rethinking what to do. The major question was 'to barbecue or not to barbecue'.
Eventually decided on simple get together, eat samosas and talk. Later those interested would go for dinner.
Today arrived, lovely day, the sun is out, birds singing, squirells jumping about, beautiful. got loads of birthday wishes on facebook, Orkut and calls. Good start, went for a jog with Karan, won a speaker bid on eBay for harry, cleant the house and waited for 3 when everyone started coming.
Harry n family n surya, drove down from Grimsby, had desi ghar ka khana and chit chatted.
Enter Asad, dolly n Tejas with samosas and dal wade. Awesome! Later Savi n Kavlin joined us for a while, good fun.
Some more chit chatting, followed by a long walk in Osterly park. Picked up Peter from outside the park. Videos and pics from there.
That's harry doing the 'Rocky'. Will add music later but had to put up the original. Too funny ;)
Back home, eating, drinking and chatting. Boy we chat a lot. Lol.
Dinner at 'Karam' Lebanese restraunt. Good food, ok service. Joined by Keyur, Harsh and Sam for dinner. Nice suprise at the end of the meal - birthday cake and happy b'day song on the speakers.
Felt like a little kid again.
Great friends, I had a lovely day. Thanx again for today.
Wow! I'm 29, feels like 15 ;)
- Posted using my iPhone
Location:The Dr,Hounslow,United Kingdom
It was cloudy day in Tehran, our bags 
were packed, and the three of us set off towards Esfahan (nesfe jahan - half the world - specifically, half the world's beauty). Maryam was driving, I was navigating and aunty (Maryam's mom) was feeding us :)
were packed, and the three of us set off towards Esfahan (nesfe jahan - half the world - specifically, half the world's beauty). Maryam was driving, I was navigating and aunty (Maryam's mom) was feeding us :) Open roads, very little traffic, we
were lucky, soon we touched the highway with even less traffic and were speeding towards our destination almost 350km south of Tehran. On either side there were small hills but mainly desert area.After crossing Qom, I took the wheel while Maryam was clicking away. We decided to visit Abyaneh which is on the way and quite famous for its beauty and history.
On one of the check points just
before Abyaneh we were stopped by cops, who seemed very interested in my license. Had a little chat and we were off once again with directions to turn right after - Aga Ali Abbass (whatever that meant). After another 20-30 km we finally saw a sign for Abyaneh and took it.Ah! Abyaneh, what a place !!!! The word Abyaneh has been derived from the word "viona" which means "willow grove". (In the local dialect "vey" means willow - yeah I did my research thoroughly ;))
Did I mention that it was AUTUMN, well now you know. From desert hills and now clear skies, we entered a land full of colours, actually COLOURS !!!!!!!!!
We were shocked by the beauty
of this place. These pictures do not do any justice to what we saw there.I was stopping the car every 2 seconds to take as many pictures as possible, and boy did I shoot away. After taking a million pictures, we slowly drove off the winding roads to "Abyaneh village", the real reason why this place is famous.
With a unique reddish hue, the village is one of the oldest in Iran,
attracting numerous native and foreign tourists year-round, especially during traditional feasts and ceremonies. High up in the Karkas
mountains, the village is based along a river at 2500m. There are some archeological sites there, that date back to 550 BC.Abyaneh has been called
an entrance to Iranian history.Abyaneh also resisted conversion to Islam throughout the ages, and stayed Zoroastrian until it was forced to convert to Islam in the time of the Saffavid Shahs, as were many other villages and towns that had held onto the Zoroastrian religion until then. Many people living there still follow Zoroastrian religion.
One of the most
interesting thing about this place were its people, they all seemed around 4ft tall. Unfortunately taking photos of the locals is prohibited so I don't have much to show except a few blurry shots.Here's Maryam standing
next to one of their passages.
Well that's it for Abyaneh, next stop Esfahan...
Picture taken by Maryam.
- Posted using my iPhone
After several days of dull grey skies, today turned out to be surprisingly sunny.
Surya, a friend of Amar's and the boys stayed the night and made amazing Aaloo ka paratha for us.
Later Asad drops in saying 'let's go to Richmond'. So here I am in Richmond starbucks having a hot chocolate.
The day is beautiful and bright, but my camera battery died out. Should have charged them before leaving.
Here are a few pics from my Canon and the rest from trusty old iPhone ;)
Location:Richmond,United Kingdom
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