Category Archives: General

The Boy is All Grown Up

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It looks like 2008 is the year of the wedding. This morning Akhlaq got wedded to Batool and this evening they had their first reception – it is actually the reception for the bride’s side. I’ve never heard of two wedding receptions but I guess its traditional. Plus from what I could gather from what Akhlaq said they had no shortage of guests to invite … not that Akhlaq or Batool knew many of the guests!

Although I have asked Akhlaq a few things about Muslim weddings James and I still weren’t too sure what was going to happen tonight. The invite said that guests were to arrive at 6.30, speeches at 7.00 and food served at 7.30. Well, not unexpectedly I guess, we were one of the very first to arrive and guests didn’t finish arriving until after 7.30! Arriving early allowed us to get a feel for the room however. Located at The Centre in Slough (a conference centre) and with Akhlaq and Batool expecting up to 800 guests this was definitely one of the bigger wedding receptions I’ve been to. Interestingly men cannot sit in front of women and so with the L-shaped room the men were at the back and the women off to the side. This made for an interesting array of colours with the black of the suits of the men contrasting sharply with the colourful saris of the women.

At about 8pm Akhlaq walked in with a rather large entourage. It was kind of cool actually. He walked in greeting a few people and then went and sat up on stage with his I guess what would be considered his grooms men. About 20 minutes later Batool then walked in surrounded by her entourage to join Akhlaq on stage. It was all rather theatrical!

After that it was a lot of speeches and then at 9pm they started bringing out the food – big time! There were these giant platters of food and we could barely work through half of the platter before it was taken away to be refilled again. As we didn’t now what food was to come we didnt know how to pace ourselves … as a result I ended up seriously over eating.

After dessert there was a bit of time for going up to the stage and sitting with Akhlaq and Batool. It was strange that not many people were going up to talk to them – or mainly it was the same people going up. I don’t think that Akhlaq and Batool actually got a chance to eat which was a shame as there was a LOT of food.

Finally it was cake cutting time. Boy was this a crazy time – I somehow snuck up quite quickly next to the official photographer to take pictures and the next second I turn around and I’m literally surrounded by at least 50 people and their cameras. Bizarre! Because it was so busy and we had to go catch our train James and I didn’t end up getting any of the cake 🙁

So, its now official – the Boy is married! And he couldn’t be married to a nicer woman. In Batool he seems to have the perfect balance to his personality. Definitely great to be here for this part of Akhlaq’s life. Its also really nice to see him so over the moon and happy and confident.

More photos here.

Jenny’s Birthday

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The great thing about our office is that come birthday we know how to celebrate … normally with cake! Today it was Jenny’s birthday and Caroline went to the effort of actually baking a white chocolate and dark chocolate baked cheesecake from scratch. Jealous?

The Oval

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The Oval traditionally hosts the final test match of each English summer but it also hosts the Oval Conference Centre which “contains two large suites, two good sized rooms and 15 executive boxes, perfect venues for all occasions and events” according to the website. Today we had a team day out at The Oval which turned out to be quite a cool venue. We had very good food and we also had the best views of the last day of the match between Surrey County Cricket Club and Kent.

Eurovision

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I can’t remember ever having watched Eurovision from start to finish but this year, thanks to Mirela’s obsession with the event, I’ve not only watched the Final start to finish, I watched one of the semi-finals AND I even voted – not once but twice! ha ha. I voted for Greece’s Kalomira of course (and we were glad to see that the UK gave her the 12 points!)

For the last few weeks all I’ve heard from Mirela is Chiki-Chiki-this and Chiki-Chiki-that (Chiki-Chiki being Spain’s entry) which admittedly is actually a very funny song and to my mind represents the craziness of Eurovision. Her Mum rang up today to tell us that it looks like it, along with the Armenian entry, is actually going to be one of the Greek summer hits in the clubs! Hilarious. Something to look forward to when I visit in July.

We were a bit disappointed with the results of the Eurovision but unfortunately everyone knew it was basically going to be a Russian win. Admittedly the song isn’t so bad and I was quite surprised to see Yevgeny Plyushchenko (defending men’s figure skating olympic champion) out there as part of the act. Now he truly has won everything!

Wii Fit? Me Not

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Last night I finally got to catch up with my good friends Rehana and Ant. I can’t believe that it has over two months (!!!!!!) since I caught up with Rehana at The Sanctuary. Both Rehana and Ant were looking very good – and Rehana was looking especially perky being seven months pregnant and by her own admission a little large! I thought she was handling the pregnancy well. And Hana – wow has she grown. Hard to imagine she’ll be one year old next Saturday. She’s also very perceptive for a one year old – check her out in these photos the little cutie:

So, we caught up over a very nice roast dinner cooked by Ant (prepared by M&S apparently – ha ha) which was very tasty. Time flew by and before we knew it – it was practically bed time. Not before Ant and I did a bit of gaming however on the Wii. Ant is a boy who is really into his gaming – I think he has a Wii, a Gamecube, a PSP, and and xbox (just to make sure he has a sample of gaming machines from all gaming companies I’m sure!)

Wii Fit is one of the latest games to come out for the Wii but Ant’s first challenge, even before trying to get fit, was in setting it up. This proved impossible for him and after 20 minutes he declared that the Wii just wasn’t reading the CD. Rehana bet him her lie-in for his two lie-ins over the weekend that we girls could set it up. Guess who was right? Of course Rehana was. We girls got it set up in no time and were soon trying it out (until way past midnight!)

Nintendo are certainly on to a winner with their Wii console. I think it has totally revolutionised the market and, the best thing, is it doesn’t rely on sex or violence to sell its games. Game designers must have a heck of a time designing the games and must be very creative to think of the new applications.

Here is Ant giving a balance game a go. I wish I’d caught him doing the Hula Hoop Aerobic workout instead – so funny:

The Wii fit is a very fun game (both as a challenge to yourself but also entertaining for spectators.) Sure you can cheat but if you do the exercises within the spirit that they are intended then surely you can be on the way to being a little fitter, more flexible, stronger and balanced (physically that is.) These are the four core aspects Wii Fit tries to work on: Balance, Muscle, Flexibility (Yoga workouts) and Aerobic. Games are very fun and can be addictive when you get close to completing a task. I found the Yoga poses the most difficult to master. Poor Rehana and Ant – I think they were worried that I’d want to stay all weekend to play! 🙂

Pedicure at Nails Designs

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Mirela and I have just come back from having our feet pampered and painted at Nails Design on Porchester Terrace, Bayswater. I didn’t check out other nail salons in the area but this nail salon seemed to be very popular and if you want to guarantee that your nails will actually get done on a certain day within a reasonable time booking is strongly advised. We had actually tried to go in at around lunch time but the wait was going to over an hour (and you know when they tell you that the wait is actually likely to be much longer) we decided to come back with a booking for 5. Even then we had to wait nearly half an hour.

Nail Designs is owned by a Vietnamese man and he is very friendly and seemed quite good at whipping around organising all the manicures. All the nail technicians are also from Far East Asia (sounding Vietnamese too) so you know that they are likely to be quite efficient. After Mirela and I had finished with our pedicures he had left the premises and for some reason things went a little pear-shaped for the ladies who had come in as walk-ins. A number of them were getting frustrated with how long they’d had to wait and and all in brawl nearly started – I think a bit of the fault of the nail technician who was, sorry to say, giving some typical Asian attitude (not good) but also the customers who were being fairly rude. It was only entertaining because we’d finished our pedicures and were just waiting for our toes to dry. The nail jobs at Nail Designs must be pretty good though because despite all the fussing – everyone stayed to get their nails done!

First May Bank Holiday Monday 2008

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All weekend the sun has been desperately trying to break through the clouds that is London’s spring. It was successful to some extent this afternoon so we thought it would be a waste not to take advantage of it and head to the park to do our work instead of being cooped up inside. There was a bit of nip to the air so I think we were slightly overdressed however sitting near the lake in Kensington Gardens the air was extremely sharp coming off it so it was good we were in our work out gear.

Mirela was joking that she hadn’t really dressed up or made an effort at all and that it would be funny if we saw this guy that she used to like and date, who happens to live near us, in Hyde Park. Not two minutes later he sent a text message saying he was in Hyde Park! Very strange timing. He later joined us for a bit of a chat. It was a lovely afternoon.

Four weeks until its summer!

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The day started off promising enough when we hit the Portobello Markets – it was warm, it was relatively sunny and you could smell that summer was just around the corner. Unfortunately after lunch the weather started to go downhill and by the time we hit Hyde Park later that afternoon at about 5pm it was quite chilly!

I only ever seem to go to Portobello Markets when I’m going with other tourists and in fact today was the first time I’d made it all the way to the end! We had lunch at Thai Rice (I think it was called that) which Mirela’s Aunt insisted on shouting for which was quite nice of her. Thai Rice, and to be fair the surrounding restaurants were fairly buzzing at that time of day (around 2pm) so it was quite a good atmosphere. The food was also pretty nice though nothing outstanding (either in taste or portion size) in the selections we went for. Reasonbly priced however and their Thai Iced Tea was nice.

After lunch we headed back to shoeboxes to drop off the shopping before heading out to Hyde Park meeting up with Petros’ Mum and her friend for a walk through Kensington Gardens and to Albert Hall. It felt like we walked for hours and in face it was about 9pm when we got back!

View from Centre Point, Tottenham Court Road

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It probably wouldn’t be in any city guide but the view from the Centre Point at Tottenham Court Road is unsurpassed. Some random facts about this building (courtesy wikipedia): the sight it was built once hosted gallows, it was one of the first skyscrapers in London, the lease for the sight was £18,500 a year for 150 years (I think starting in 1963) but in October 2005 changed hands for £85m, is subject to various conspiracy theories (such as its deep tube lines would make it useful to the government in the event of a nuclear war) and finally it inspired the housing charity Centrepoint after homeless campaigners occupied the building in protest for two days.

Today Jenny and I took advantage of a training course being held inside the building to scoot up to the top floors of the building. Getting back down proved to be a bit more difficult with the way too advanced escalators being much more complex than expected – there weren’t even buttons inside! We managed eventually.

A bit of Regent’s Park and a Bit of Tennis

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After our giant meal in the early hours of this morning 🙂 it turned out that today would actually be a good day for getting some exercise.

We first started with a longish walk through Regent’s Park picking up some coffee and ice cream on our journey. Although it wasn’t blue skies above the day was actually a fairly nice one – not very cold, winds weren’t strong and it wasn’t raining. Thankfully, though Regent’s Park was fairly busy, it was far enough from the Baker Street tube that we were insulated from the madness of the drunken football fans who were around for today’s Carling Cup final between Tottenham and Chelsea.

Our long walk through Regent’s Park was followed with a game of tennis at the Paddington Recreation Grounds near Maida Vale. The Grounds is a hidden gem located only a few tube stops away from my home and offer quite reasonable prices for court hire (for example its £7 p.h. for a hardcourt and £11 p.h. for the synthetic grass court compared with Regent’s Park £11 p.h. for a hardcourt and Hyde Park’s I think £12 p.h.) The courts are also much nicer quality though of course less central than the other two tennis courts.

It must have been about 4 years since I’ve picked up a tennis raquet but playing tennis is clearly just like riding a bike – you never forget! Strangely enough I sometimes think that the longer I don’t play/practise the better I play! Heh heh.

We booked two courts so whilst Enrique (who is also a tennis coach) gave Mirela her tennis lesson I took on Mr A and towards the end we swapped around till we had all had a chance to play each other. Good fun!