Catching Up: Goa, Goa, Gone! The One Where Maddy's Parents Come to Visit

This post was originally sent out in March by email.

This is part 2 of our adventures in Goa, you can read part 1 here. 

Dearest lovelies, 

So in the last three or four weeks since sending you an instalment of our adventures you will be relieved to hear that no more pig castrations have been witnessed, but lots of deluxe food has been consumed, Madeleine’s parents have been to see us for ten days…

…and we have said our goodbyes to Goa with a tear in our eye. 

So what have we been up to? With Kate & Robert (Maddy’s parents) we visited a spice plantation in the Goa backwaters…

…where Simon just had to try the seventh hottest chili in the world, the piri piri, where he chewed on it without breaking into a sweat (though it did remind him of a rather tempestuous chicken phal he once had in a north London curry house in ’97). We drank fenny out of coconut shells (fermented cashew fruit, hold on to the top of your heads, it’s that strong!)...

…we almost rode an elephant until we realised the ride would be through the car park rather than the plantation, and stocked up on natural oils for Kate and her massage clients. Robert took photos of snakes, and Kate tried not to freak out about the snakes given she was already being terribly brave standing on a bridge with gaps in a la Indiana Jones. We took the ferry over the Tiracol river just north of Arambol...

…and visited Fort Tiracol, drank lime sodas, marvelled at the majestic eagles soaring overhead (Simon counted 16 at one time), enjoyed the beauty of the waves breaking over the barely submerged sandbars that appear at low tide. 

Robert brought his “small” camera to snap away… 

 …whilst Kate and Maddy sat outside St Anthony’s chapel within the fort and reminisced about school days (they went to the same convent school) Kate taught Madeleine this rhyme which you were supposed to say at school whenever you had lost something: 

 “St Anthony, St Anthony, you’re a very holy man, please help me find my (insert lost object) as fast as you can” 

We’ve been to Old Goa which used to be Goa’s capital when the Portuguese still ruled, so think plenty of old churches full of churchy things...

 …and visited 10 rupee museums, filled with huge portraits of stern-looking European men trying not to laugh having just gotten away with pillaging half the local towns. We also learnt what a hero stone was, which was simply a carved bit of stone depicting well, heroic sort of things. Either that or it was depicting a group love-in. Taking a photo in these museums meant a six month stretch in a Goan prison (not for the sensitive souls) so no photo evidence we’re afraid. 

We watched the sun go down over many a gin and tonic in a beachside restaurant, where Robert and Simon calculated that one Goan gin was the equivalent of five UK measures, which explains a lot really... 

We’ve been chilling/clinging in the hammocks at their resort Yab Yum, where Kate & Robert had originally booked into a cottage but after Simon had shown Kate round the cool eco-pods on offer and had reassured her that there were no bugs, they moved in and the hammock clinging could begin… 

We’ve been swimming in the sea, whilst being attacked every which way by strong waves, the shrieks of laughter from Kate and Madeleine could be heard by most of Goa. 

We took Kate & Robert to a Balanced View meeting and everyone was super lovely to them of course, which we think put their minds at ease. The pointed hoods, white robes and virgin sacrifice were saved for another day ;o) They also joined a Community Movie Night where we watched Life of Pi under the stars – an amazing film. 

We’ve eaten amazing food at La Plage (thank you to Jen and Gordon who bought this as a wedding present for us!) – mango and beetroot carpaccio, goat cheese bubbles, tomato crumble, potato ravioli with tomato coulis were all sampled with great relish – yum. 

Maddy's favourite: mango and beetroot carpaccio with goats cheese!

We took them to the now renowned Laughing Buddha for banana lassis and dinner where after a round of musical chairs trying to escape the drunk Americans, Kate tried the infamous Brinjal Rogan Josh having seen us mention it once or twice on this blog – we’re not sure she was as big a fan of it as Simon, so it may be a little while before Waitrose adds this particular curry to their “Foods around the world” section. Madeleine took Kate shopping to the local market – haggling for beautiful fabrics and blinged up edging so Kate can make some dresses when she gets back to the UK. 

After we waved a sad goodbye to Kate & Robert, we immersed ourselves in volunteering at the Balanced View centre. Madeleine got up at 6.30am to juice, blend and chop in the kitchen, surprising all and sundry, not least her husband who had yet to witness such a monumental event, whilst Simon donned his sublime figure-hugging rose printed apron and rubber clogs once more to help prep delicious brunches. 

As we write this (and we assure you, contrary to some opinions, we both write this blog for you all to enjoy), we are on a hot and sticky train heading north to Rishikesh, in the foothills of the Himalayas. 


We will be travelling for about 40 hours but by the time we send this out to you we will have arrived safely in Rishikesh. So now to the “real” India, no more medium rare rump steak with Roquefort sauce nestling beside a crispy Laotian salad and wasabi mash, washed down with a cheeky Sauvignon. 


It is now to £1 thalis, skipping hastily between cow poos and monkeys on the road, chai so sweet it makes your fillings dissolve, and beggars dressed in orange thrusting their shaky bowls at you. 

Until next time… 


With much love as always Maddy and Paddy xxx

Catching Up: It's all Goa-n on!

Dearest lovelies,

This post was originally written in March updating you on our adventures in Goa! It was sent out by email, following requests by you our lovely readers, you can read it here for your viewing pleasure!

Editor update: a map!

And so it is after our cricket/art jolly in Kerala, time moves on and we have now moved back into our old house, the one that we rented for four months in 2011, here in Arambol, Goa. It has been upgraded since our last visit, and the landlady with the paan-stained teeth, Maria, has insisted on showing us how to fix our bedroom door - with her favourite machete, if you must know.  It was fixed for a day, which is just long enough for us to forget about...she has also invited Paddy to join her for Mass next Sunday at 6am...he's tempted!

Anyway, it's wonderful to have a gold painted kitchen, a western style bathroom with periodic warm water, psychedelic dolphins on the bathroom walls, a slow release toilet seat (so to speak), a 3D relief model of the Last Supper on the kitchen wall and kitchen tiles advertising chocolate, oh and pink and purple walls - all the home comforts!

And the porch, ahh, our second home. Also the home of Hunter, our electric mosquito frazzling tennis racket. Karma be damned, it gets plenty of use usually around 6pm, or G&T o'clock as it is fondly known.  

Our dear friend Lindsey arrived for a two week beach jolly straight from freezing cold London town. Rather than giving her much time to recover from the 90 minute Indian taxi experience from the airport (is it strange that we've become used to double overtaking?) we pushed her straight into the Goa hippie life by taking her to a party at a house in the jungle full of hippies who have been here since 1975. Well, they think it might have been 75, or maybe that's just when their visas ran out. It was awesome, seriously talented musicians were jamming, disco lights were twinkling, Paddy was (in the loosest sense of the term) dancing to some kind of techno flamenco. We think the night can be summed up in the words overheard by us, spoken by a fellow guest at the party when a waiter said "The king fish is ready if you'd like to help yourself" to which the guest replied "No thanks, I'm waiting for the lobster."

Paddy's been busy working in the Balanced View cafe kitchen, serving up delicious meals for all to enjoy, and bringing total benefit to our marriage as a result! He has been wearing a very fetching apron complete with rubber clogs and frankly has been quite manly about the whole thing! He was recently promoted to iced coffee extraordinaire - delicious!

So whilst Paddy has been busy, Maddy and Lindsey were tanning perfectly on the beach...tough times.

Last Saturday we went to a beautiful swanky Greek restaurant called Thalassa, where we drank cocktails and wine, and ate souvlakis – om nom nom - thanks to Usher Adam and his wife Victoria for this wedding gift! 

Afterwards we went on to the Saturday Night Market; this market is like no other, think of it more like a festival with live music, at least three dance floors, plenty of eateries, drinking establishments, amazing clothes and jewellery stalls, and most importantly for Paddy, a sports bar where he could catch up on the latest soccer matches. Paddy later joined Maddy & Lindsey on the dance floor to learn some of their moves though after one outrageously strong Long Island Iced Tea, let’s say it was less Saturday Night Fever and more Do the Funky Chicken. The Mumbai-ites who had come down to the market to witness this spectacle were, oddly, perplexed: Paddy goes to Bollywood?!

We have been taking Lindsey round to sample all the curries of course – current favourites include chana masala (chickpeas), garlic cheese naan, masala dosas (massive crispy pancake with curry inside) and vegetable pakora (think deep fried Mars bars but replace the Mars bar with chills, peppers and potatoes) and of course the Laughing Buddha’s winning brinjal rogan josh (aubergine).

We went to a friend’s movie night where they put up a giant screen in the jungle, and watched “Beasts of the Southern Wild” – it’s a fantastic movie but we were almost too busy to notice what with all the fruit bats pooping and spitting on us throughout, and we got the giggles instead.

We celebrated six months of marriage at the local pub quiz – we didn’t win, worse, we didn’t even come last and therefore were not eligible for the booby prize – free desserts for the team. There was a puppy that proved a distraction, but in any case, we thought it might be fun to share some of the questions we learnt/stole/guessed with you all, so without using Google, send us your answers to these questions!

1.     Where was former UN Secretary General Buchas Buchas Gali born?

2.     In which language was the novel Lolita written?

3.      What is the name of the protagonist in Lolita?

4.      Which company supplies the crystal that sits atop of the Rockefeller Centre Christmas tree in New York? (Maddy was fined a beer for not getting this one as it falls under the sparkles category)

5.      Which country was the first in the world to adopt Christianity as its national religion?

6.      4x² – 2 = x² + 5     What is x?

(As an aside, all the teams at the quiz got this question correct – whoever says that hippies don’t know their algebra from their elbow, we say this: navel gazing works! Fact!)

On Valentine’s Day the three of us decided to go all out on the romance front. We bought a bottle of Indian champagne (not too shabby actually) and then went on to martinis and posh nosh at Café Nu, an Asian fusion restaurant on the next beach down. We danced home along on the beach underneath the starlight sky. Lovely.

Maddy was asked to do some babysitting for a two year old named Grace. She was completely adorable, sticking bindis all over her tummy and legs…

  

On Lindsey's last night we had a very unseasonable rainstorm and so we line-danced to Dolly Parton on our porch, much to the bemusement of our drunken landlord who waddled past twice just to check what his eyes were seeing - next stop, Bollywood!

Oh and let’s not forget the pig castration by torchlight that happened outside our front door this week. Apparently a cut and two stitches and some tumeric and the pig fattens up nicely and tastes much better. Needless to say, bacon butties are off the menu for a while…

And so it is that we wave a sad goodbye to Lindsey, and get ready for the next week when Maddy’s parents come to India – it’s all go here!

With much love,

Maddy & Paddy xxx

Catching Up: A Keralan Adventure Part 2 Art and Elephants!

This is part 2 of the blog post we previously sent out by email in January 2013. 

You can read part 1 here.

So we stayed for a couple more days in Fort Kochi, where we visited a contemporary art exhibition, India's first Biennale, a showcase of where India sees itself in the world of modern art, something that, to be honest, wasn't really on our radar when we left the UK. 
However, at 50 rupees to get out of the furnace that is an Indian afternoon in January, it is money well spent. 

Catching Up: A Keralan Adventure Part 1 (Fort Kochin and the Cricket)

On our recent unexpected trip to England, we found out from some of you that you would prefer to see all our adventures right here on the blog, so over the coming weeks, we will updating this blog to bring you the adventures that were previously sent out by email only...

Without further ado, here's Part 1 of A Keralan Adventure from January 2013...