Postcards from London

Sorry to keep up this lazy approach to blogging -- but promise to be back to my verbose self soon!

xoxo

BB

Postcards from Paris

BB is back in B(ombay)

Hi folks,

Sorry for the longish silence. I'm back in Bombay for some quality weeks with the aged M & P. My time here always follows the same pattern, and that is part of the pleasure -- harmonizing my schedule with parents' so I get to see as much of them as possible. That includes rising very early (how early you ask? do you really want to know? something like 5.30 am...) and getting to the club by about 6.30.  There I have two choices. Follow my mother to the gym (while she does a stately walk on the treadmill, I sweat it out on one of those elliptical torture machines). Or follow my father to the tennis courts. There another ritual unfolds. You leave your racket on a court to claim it. The you sit and wait while a number of other pretty old members wander in, and begin a ritual mating dance of tennis partners -- sometimes there are regular groups, but often it's like a high school dance for the 70 + set with me, the youngster, tagging along.

I'm not really good at tennis, but there is something sublime about the mornings there. It's hot, but the harder you play and the more out of breath you are, the more you begin to notice things. First off that damn ball flying right at you (right at you because people are polite enough to hit the ball in your direction if you're a weaker player), but also the trees, the fallen leaves and flowers, the bird calls...

It's fun and frustrating to be transformed into a child again -- a baby or a baba. The oldest baba I've seen is a 55 year old man who was with his 80+ father. Although now that I think about it, my mother is still "baby" when she is with older relatives and she a little beyond 70...  Everyone treats me like I'm between 18 and 22. Sometimes this is nice (to be that age again!) other times less so (when people speak about you in third person while you're present -- mental note, must never do this to children older than 10 -- it's quite annoying...) 

A few other particularities of how things are done:

* No one fetches their own balls. There are ball boys for the that. And they get annoyed if you do their work, because if they do it then you have to tip them afterwards.

* You get service in the terrace cafe by ringing a little brass bell on your tables. The waiters uniformly ignore the ringing bells, but one rings anyway. One gets service by employing a series of coded signals that range from snapping, clapping, something between shushing and shouting... I usually have to wait quite a while to get served...

Another few days of the being the baby in the house before I'm off to Paris and Basel!

Hope all your summers have started well!

xoxo

BB

Some pictures from a recent Manhattan-Brooklyn Stroll

Greetings from an alien planet. There are hieroglyphics and fences, but one can't tell whether they are meant to keep the inside safe from the outside or the reverse...

BB

Where have the last two weeks gone?

It's been one of those fortnights. You look down, and by the time you look up two weeks have passed! Well, I promise to get back to it soon, with some new posts and updates on my new adventures. Right now it has been more about planning a trip that looks something like this: NY-London-Bombay, Bombay-London-Paris-Benelux-German-Switzerland-London-New York. All simple enough, no?

But the complications... Where to stay in Paris? In Paris I've been pretty lucky with cheap, well-located hotels, but do I want to try my luck with something that is approaching 100 Euros a night? Or should I splash out on something nicer? But why? There are so many better ways to spend that kind of money in Paris. Deep questions with no clear answers.

I've been enjoying a few weekends out in the country (which in my lexicon means anywhere outside New York, so for example it includes other metro areas like DC, Philadelphia, and Boston). One could get used to small town living, especially knowing that one will be back in NYC in a few hours...

Hope all your weekends are going well.

xo

BB

Some musical gems

Some musical gems. The first with thanks to Her Serene Highness Princess Stéphanie Marie Elisabeth Grimaldi of Monaco and Armand Limnander on the NYT.



And the second with thanks to a friend who wrote the words to this song...

Le Tone - Lake Of Udaipur
Uploaded by Le-TONE - Explore other music videos.

xoxo

BB

P.S. Here's a riddle for you (or perhaps not). Last night I saw Siegfried & Roy. Without Roy. And without the lions. Post answers (even though there's no question) in the comments section...

Some pictures from Stockholm

Stockholm is an interesting place. As I mentioned last time, they like precise signage in Stockholm, some examples of which you'll below along with a few random snaps...



(The Swedes are strong, silent types. Who needs postcards anyway?)

(This looks like fun!)
(Really out of focus, but the first two look to me like instructions on the latest dance steps.)