Sunday, July 25, 2010

The UK files

Ok, I've put it off for too long, but finally I've got the urge to write all about our UK visit. It was a wonderful visit, something I'd been looking forward to for a long, long time. Of course, writing about it is going to be a long-drawn affair, interspersed with regular topics.

Puttachi and I landed on March 25th, and S~ joined us on April 30th. All of us returned to Bangalore on May 20th.

We stayed with my aunt near Reading. She is great company, and very inspiring. We had hours and hours of lovely long chats, she treated us to the most lipsmacking dishes (the visit was a foodlover's dream), and we watched hours of murder mysteries on television, and the entire series of Fawlty Towers. My cousin V and Puttachi had some good times together, though he is a very busy guy! My uncle and Puttachi got on famously, she telling him stories all the time. Many times, when we were watching/doing something particularly engrossing, and Puttachi was disturbing us, my uncle would slowly lure her away and listen to her non-stop-nonsense until she didn't care if we existed or not.

Their house has a beautiful garden, and we spent hours in it. Mostly watching my aunt garden, but helping out a bit too. There is something to be said for walking barefoot on grass. It is so rare for us to have that pleasure. Lawns in India have "Keep off the grass" boards - but naturally. How difficult it is to maintain a lawn here! But in England, lawns maintain themselves - and so we had some beautiful moments sitting on the grass (me) and rolling about (Puttachi).

My aunt took us to a number of places - very untouristy things, and made it a point to show me interesting things and explain them to me - things which gave me an idea of life in the UK.

Next: The green and the weather.

5 comments:

sandhya said...

Hey, we had stayed at Maidenhead near Reading for a year, and it is a beautiful place. Looking forward to reading your posts and comparing notes.

Brinda said...

good shru! At last! Get going. I am also eager to know in detail ;)
shruthi's mom

rajk said...

Thanks for this post, Shruti! Glad you had so much fun with your aunt ;-). I agree with everything you say about her. In one word, she's amazing!
Please tell her to start blogging again; she's not listening to me!
P.S.: Can we expect some pictures of the trip>

praneshachar said...

shruthi at last series is getting started wish to have some gr8 experince shared here for our pleasure thanks for sharing in advance
looking forward for the next

Shruthi said...

Sandhya, good to hear that! We'd been to Maidenhead once, and driven by it a couple of times. Lovely scenes everywhere.

Amma, what has this world come to?

Rajk, oh if it was that easy!

Praneshachar, I hope you enjoy it!

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