All my great friends and girlfriends,

I thought we must have another topic to discuss besides the one we all console each other on. That part will always remain - but what do you all feel of taking all the members to the your parts of the world where most have not been.
I think it would be great if one would talk about the norms, eating habits etc from each area.
This is just a thought as I again feel this is also another way one can stop crazy thoughts from entering our heads and imagine - Sue, Michelle, Deborah, Trev, Alan each in their own sorroundings and we dropping in a guests and learn something about the way from each ( County) Country, Village, State they belong to. I would love to start a quiz and lest see who can score the maximum points at the end of every 15 days or as decided by all as to how many. The quiz master could change every 15 days.
I am pretty tired thinking of just Cancer and even though I have had my share of the worst of the worst do not want anyone to ever think adverse on the situation they are in. This kind of a mind game would help a lot in getting everyone find some peace and solace amid all friends here.
If I am wrong - please do let me know and if I am not do let me know also !! I know this sounds pretty much childish on my part but keeping your brain power sharp is as important as fighting your way to a great life.

I love you all and its the only place I can relate to each ones joys, miseries, pains, cures and that will always be the prime objective.

What say???
Al my love and Big bear hugs to each one you'll.
Ananth

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Dr Vinod K Joshi,

This could be a great idea! But we need volunteer 'tour guides' to take it forward.

For each volunteer 'tour guide', I can set up a photo album for each so that you can put up photos of your area. You could use the comments area for each album to talk discuss your place and views. So let's see who's game

Best wishes
Vinod

Sounds like fun to me!
My name's Michelle, and i'll be your tour guide of Hastings & '1066 country'
More pubs per squre meter than just about anu other town! & our lovely castle!
Photo albums a great idea!
I think we can get all wrapped up in our cancer roles but there's more to us than that right?!
& i'd love to learn more about down under - like what's it like being upside down?
& India etc.
Lets do this!

Hello Michelle

I have created an album for you called 'Michelle's World' but you have been given 'moderator's rights' so you can delete it and create your own photo album, upload attachments and manage content for this specific forum. If you need help with this, you will find it under 'Tools' in the specific forum.

If anyone else would like an album, let me know.

Best wishes
Vinod

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Dr Vinod K Joshi,

I really like the sound of this one. Just one MAJOR problem, I'm not computer literate. How would I do the whole photo thingy? I'd love to give you all a glimpse at life in topsy turvy land!
My off sider is very much out of sorts at the moment so I can't really count on Tricky Trev.
Please advise
Cheers from the Land Down Under
Deborah

Wale fit like ye ah? ken i'm spearin this is a richt braw idea. Noo ah hale frae a place cad aiberdeen but am bidin in the toon o' Inverurie jist at the meenit. Scoatlan's a fine bonnie place tae bide richt ehnuff. ah hiv a wee dug cad Lana that is aulder an me in duggie years she's a fine bitch but hisnae the first idea o' road sense sos eh hiv tae tak her ahwi oan a leash. ah dinna ken foo ta pit picters oan es place but fin am oan holydays frae next wik ill tak a few and add em in fin ah can. micchty me but ye michtnae ken fit am spikking aboot in ma local twang so let mah translate.

Quote
Well how are you all, I do think that this is a very good idea. Born in Aberdeen I now live in Inverurie. Scotland is a very nice place to stay. I have a dog called Lana who in doggie years is even older than me but has little road sense so I take her everywhere on the lead. Like many of us I can't upload photos but will take some when I am on holiday from next week and find out how to put them in later. Oh I forgot you may be unable to understand my dialect so I had better translate. Unquote

sic. for the sassenachs and foreigners amongst us you can't help where your born - so I don't hold that against you!! Ha ha ha love you all. Alan

Dear Dr. Joshi,
I think its great that we were able to get this off and am grateful to you. However, it strange how things just seem to go wrong at times and I owe you an explaination which I will do so via telephone as that would make more sense. If there is anyone with bad luck but great freinds - you are reading his post.
Will call you on the 01st. of September.
With warm regards,
Ananth

Dear Alan,
I had no idea you speak Greek and I do not how many greeks we actually have here. All Greeks are Shipping tycoons who live a life like the romans elite did. We did not understand a word of what they said. Please, please, please give us all a chance to understand what you said or start teaching us the langauge.
Love,
Ananth.

Dear Michelle,
There is no better choice Dr. Joshi could have made to kick start this new discussion. You will make an excellent moderator and am sure you will not anyone pass the line.
You are so right when you say there is much more to life then just talking about it(you know what I mean!!). We all have so many diverse traditions, religions, festivals that I am sure we all can imagine on how life is there - how greener is the grass on the other side of the fence!! LETS GO......
luv you,
Ananth

Hi Alan
I loved your post and actually understood most of it once I started reading with a Scottish accent! Knowing how you sound will add another dimension when I read your entries in future. This is fun! I always read Ananth's posts with an Indian accent.
Do tell us some more about Lana. We have three dogs here (two of ours and one belonging to our son ~ she's a whole different story!!!) My dog is the big mumma and her name (officially) is Mopsorden Black Pearl but we just call her Pearl and she's gorgeous ~ different, but gorgeous nonetheless. Then comes Trevor's dog (who is Pearl's daughter) and her name is Bellatrix Simply Precious. Perhaps Simply Precocious may have been more appropriate!!! They are pugs and as the name suggests, Pearl is black but Precious is a fawn.
Cheers
Deborah

Hi Deborah,

Three dogs Jeez, but you have all the space you need in South Australia I guess. Your dogs sound pedigree by their names, mine is a mongrel she is we believe about 12 years old now though we have had her for 8 years when we rescued her from the local cat and dog pound. There's a bit of collie and more than a bit of red setter in her and she has a mind of her own. We have always had a dog since we were engaged, and we have been married 35 years in November. Our first two dogs we had from pups and they were very close: Lana we are sure was badly abused and very very nervous when we got her, and would snap against any sudden movement. She would bare her teeth if anyone got near her food. But she is as soft as putty now and will not let anyone pass by without saying hello. She is black with a curly coat developing arthritis and getting deaf, but her favourite game is tag but I must always be IT.

I wonder sometimes who is master and who is pet but she is now as much a part of the family as my sons and daughter in law. She is off to kennels on Friday as we leave for two weeks up on Kinlochleven mid way between Oban and Fort William in Argyll up in North West Scotland living in a residential caravan. Lana loves the company of other dogs and the Kennel staff adore her, but the welcome I will get when I collect her in a fortnight will be ecstatic and it will take me several minutes to calm the cuddles and kisses so that I can get her harness and lead on. She really has no road sense and would be a road kill in no time if given her head. When I get back from my break I will take her photo in the garden and find out how to put it up. Dogs I find are lke children they put their entire trust and devotion into you and no matter what your mood the welcome never changes, she lies at my feet while I am on the PC speaking to herself, I wish I knew what was going through her lovely head.

Best wishes from Bonnie Scotland to all you sundowners, be in touch when I get Back, love Alan

Posted 31 August 2007 08:14 PM Hide Post
Michelle, my bell......
I have really been out of touch for a few days now -three to be precise. And during this period I missed you soooo much.
However am back again, the same old (young)Ananth (what was that one in a billion?-right?). All my family members ganged up against me and forced me to take a visit to the hospital for a normal check up. I had decided que sera sera I would never aagin ever go a hopital but there I was and ushered in with an appointment (being a freak fruit cake who refuses to kick the bucket had its advantages!). As usual my doctor asked me to cut down on my weight and were now working towards creating new trach for me. I am neither overjoyed nor eager as I dont want any disspointments. I have lived long enough with this alternate life style and have got very much use to it anmd the only thing missing that Deborah got wrong was my accent - which is more spanish then anything else. You may not believe it but at times, I have to think of the english word to connect with a sentence in English and its worse when I have my Spanish friends across and then we talk only in Spanish all the time. Once that happens my english is sickening and my wife and sons have to keep corecting me. I was taught to think in Spanish and hence once I am thinking in the same, and I have to also use english, I make a mess!
I really cannot claim to have any pets as I had one very special Aphso -. He was really handsome with a little bit of his toungue sticking out. He was treated with royalty and at times it really took the cake. I recall once when we went for a picnic to the beach when my father lived there and I was there for a holiday and the guy got a sunstroke. My God !!!! The calls that were made had all the doctors (vets and others) rush to duty and he was brought in!Needless to say he died a very natural death after which we all decided that no other could take 'pixie's' place in our lives.
I do not know how many people have visited India or Barcelona - my two haunts. I have started taking some decent snaps of all the heritige sites in North India which includes the Taj Mahal and would love to post them on the site. Another thing I would love to post is how the dressing changes from state to state and the langauge too. Its really mind boggling and I still recall once when I went to my ancestrol home in Mangalore - just off the western coast towards Goa (it explains my Portuguese). My second cousins had all decided that family ties were very important and should always be mantained and Boy! did I have some time trying to talk in my mother tongue - Konkani, which is a dialect and not a langauge and unless it passed down the line one can forget about the same. Its only the surname that helps. I have never seen so many people laugh at both my sons and I - but in good fun. Sonya was spared as she is a north Indian and is not expected to know the langauge. Anyway to cut the story short - we came back to Delhi and realised that our tryst with our community was over and the last of the pure blooded people from this end were the true konkanis ( as we are known). None of the kids of the next generation are not eligible to be call them selves Konkanis - though my two sons do get a certain amount of respect being the only boy amid eight girls - belonging to my brother and sister. You know something funny - its more then normal that all marraiges in the clan are arranged by the families and the boy or the girl have no say in the issue - would you believe it every konakni family would pick my brothers but I a was no no! I used to have a great laugh but my dad used to get hyper. He would then start off on lectures on smoking, drinking, womanising and living abroad. I am really grateful to the communtity that they kept me out as I would have been miserable with a woman who would cover her face, wear saris and lots of jewellry all the time and would have no idea of what the outside world was all about... and I was not in a mood to teach any of them. I kept wondering if this was the case in Delhi ( seeing other marraiges) she would have probably died of a heart attack in Spain (even if she saw the way we greet by kisses on eih cheek . The message,however, was very clear -marriage proposals were limited only to my two brothers and my name should not even be mentioned and would never be!
I have travelled extensively all over India as much as abroad and would love to take snaps of places which today serve as lovely memories which I may never get to see the actual places ever again. These are snaps I would like to post and all these monuments or heretige sites are around my place and and are accessable in ten minutes from home. I would like to post - the Qutub Minar, the Safdarjung tomb, Humayuns tomb (on which the Taj Mahal took its design) Even the history behind it is amazing. The Qutub Minar is one of the highest towers among the sites and unfortunately the top two floor wer destroyed by lightining. It also became a favorite for lovers to commit suicide (morons) and so the governement decided to shut of the entrance and one can see the tower fro close and its wall are just fantastic with the sayings from the Koran are engraved. The place also boasts of the Ashoka Pillar made of metal unknown to man. It has never rusted thorugh all these centuries. It is said that is you can hug the pillar by touching both you hands/ fingers standng in a position where one is facing away from the pillar. Trust me its tough but if you do .... you are one lucky person.
I would love to take you all on a trip to not just agra for the Taj Mahal and the red fort (which are excatly the same - one in Delhi and one in Agra), but to carry on to Rajasthan via Jaipur which is full of palaces and kings still hand around. Tourists go ga ga when the confront the maharaja! This is the area where all the celebs want to get married in ( Hurley for example).Jaipur is a lovely place and is known as the "pink City" of India and thats because all the building are in pink. The Queen like the one in the UK refuses to hand over the reigens to the lawful heirs and its creating some bitter in house fights. She has two lovely palaces and a third whch is high on top of a mountain and is just something amazzing. The hotels she has got converted to hotels are also the most expensive. One room night ( off season) in any hotel in Delhi / Agra or Delhi costs one around 300 US$ per night and booking have to be done well in advance. To be fair - I have never seen such lovely hotels anywhere in the world. Jaipur also has two forts along the mountains which engulf the valley and were the perfect defence for any attacks by the Mughals. And they worked. Now being a tourist spot its pretty good fun going up the mountain by way of riding an elephant (you heard right!). The econd fort has been sealed off to everyone by the Indian government and noone can access it - not even the maharaja. It is said that the fort contains all the priceless stuff and now belongs to the Indian government. None of us know how true this is but with so much effort going into it, I am sure there is something more then that meets the eye. Rajasthan is a desert and its winds are nothing short of the Sahara. Wow that was a small discreption of many things to comeas we have just skimmed the suface. We still have a "famous snake charmers" and a whole lot more on the Elephants and monkeys that live around all these areas.

I really do not want to bore you all - but if you do wnat to hear maore - say AYE and I will continue or just say Ananth - SHUT UP and I'll end my travelogue.

Love to all - Alan, Suzie, Deborah, Paul and all each and every one here who as I always mantain is my extended family. Love you all and ending here with one bear hug- big enough to engulf all of you'll. Michelle you get a another special hug.
Ananth

PS : I really want to know - is it wrong if a I give a woman, a lady or a girl by way of saying Hi, thanks or bye in the UK ? I have met a number of guys who did try and got snubbed very badly.

Between the two "C's - I think 'Cricket' goes far ahead of the secondary one. One can live with the one but no way without cricket.

Hey You!

Glad you went for a check-up. I know what you mean about not wanting people poking and prodding you unless its actualy necessary! Don't hold any high expection so then you wont be dissapointed, but always keep that glimmer of hope!
Your stories never bore anyone Ananth, Plus - we could always skip through the boring bits *lol* just playing!

Re. Whether or not ou can hug a british woman- we're a bit particular about who we let in our personal space... hence the guys getting snubbed!
We generally ony hug when we're drunk, or our family/best fried/partners.
But you could hug me any day!

As i said, we love your tales & misadventures!

*huggs*
Michelle

Hi Michelle,
Wow you have made my day, my pretty one. Actually I think I bungled up my question slightly - I missed out on an important word. I am not talking about hugs but am talking about a peck ( a kiss ) on either cheek?.Even after having been to England so many times I have wondered as I told you a couple of my friends really got the royal snub ( no - they did not go to give kisses to the Queen ). In Spain it is a very normal practise where not just men kiss women on both the cheeks but also men kiss men and women to women (no they are not gay!!). To be even more honest - even I got snubbed! I was sittinng in the Concord lounge after having had a nice hot shower, a fresh change of clothes and smelling pretty ok with Paco Rabbane - mt favorite aftershave lotion. I went into the lounge and helped my self to the food there and the drinks. It was just fantastic. I managed to et one computer ro surf and called Sonya to chat.
The young lady who was looking after me refused to accept a tip and then I tried to give her a peck on either cheek and she just jumped back as though I was going to do something much more. I apologised and asked her the same question and she somehow did not give me a proper answer.

Love u Michelle,
Ananth

Mmmm... Paco Rabanne...
I wear Thierry Muggler - Angel.

As for the kisses on the cheek - BIG NO NO!!
If some randome guy tryed to kiss me on cheeks when i just met him i'd be freaked out! WHO IS THIS WEIRDO?? GET OUT OF MY SPACE! Shaking hands would be more apropriate. She probably thought you were making a ove on her Ananth - you little smoothie!
No, no, no... we just don't DO that here! Especialy us southerners, we're faaaaar too prudish!