Tripping Out Alone

Cushla, Claire and I headed out of the smog of Gurgaon on Sunday afternoon and headed down a manic highway to Agra. Our plan was to spend the day at the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort as well as the deserted city of Fatehapur Sikri. Our inspiration was to meet and celebrate our milestones together, Claire her move to Yangon, Cushla her move to Paris and me, the last year of my masters.We have known each other over some years in South East Asia, Cushla from Bangkok, Claire from HoChiMinh City, and have met up in Bali with regularity. We had our girls own adventure and were individually inspired and awed by the beauty of what we saw. People, buildings and the mad things on the road including strangely shaped bulbous carriages that looked like moving castles. Great food and a welcome bottle of champagne on our arrival back into Dehli provided by Eric, Cushla's husband sealed the trip and then it was home time!

Air Asia stopped flying to Europe, but I had to go, so I researched hard and came up with a great flight in Air France from Singapore to Paris. FIlled in the gaps with Air Asia,Easy Jet, Vueling, British Airways and bmi for a 16 day visit that took in Barcelona, Bilbao in Spain, Menton and Villefanche in France, Monte Carlo in Monaco, Civezza and Imperia in Italy as well as my home neighbourhood, Kew Gardens and Primrose Hill... Not bad. The weather was fantastic, the food superb, the wine flowing and the friends and family warm. I was in the middle of deadlines, had an exam online and an essay to prepare but I managed to find the time for everything, as I discovered it easy to study at airports and I was at quite a few. Highlights of Barcelona and Bilbao Going 'home' to Caversham, it is so evocative that I often forget the simple beauty of it's landscape and very Englishness: London in the spring: After seeing David and m