Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Little Punjab

For ages & ages Clarissa has been telling me to go to Southall in West London. She says it's just like India.
On the weekend after waking up in a wheat field somewhere in Suffolk we headed off to Southall to pick up my NEW sewing machine (well new to me that is).
WOW. I haven't been to India but Richard has, he said it was just the same, but without the cows walking through the streets.
An amazing array of people. All the Indian women looking absolutely gorgeous in sarees of every hue. Us whities looked really boring in comparison. We bought a box of Mangoes for £2.50 (that's 6 for the price of one here in sleepy old whitey Norfolk.) As we walked & stared we ate pistachio kulfi (icecream). We stopped at a cafe for samosas & chai tea. I didn't take many photo's, I was too overwhelmed by it all, but here are a few from Inglia at Flickr
Here's one of Richard though looking a little tired (after sleeping on a lilo all night & then driving for 3 hours to London), at the lunch cafe. The shop behind him must have had 300 pairs of shoes tipped out on the floor as they searched for the right size for a very tall Indian boy who was buying his wedding outfit.

And last but not least here is a photo of my new Singer Walking foot sewing machine that sews through layers of curtaining like it's warm butter. I know it's not much to look at but it's all mine.

2 comments:

kelly said...

That looked like so much fun ... I am a sucker for Indian silks and embroideries. I would love nothing better than to be able to walk around in an assortment of brightly colored salwar kameez all day. Sounds like a lovely day.

And congrats on the new sewing machine!

JoeyJoJo said...

Thanks buddy.
Just as well my money was already spent on machinery, otherwise I'd have bought home lots of things I didn't really need but really wanted.