Birthday

Kathkaliki dancing - plays told through the medium of hand gestures and eyebrow waggeling

My awesome four poster

           It has been a little time since I made friends so I was on my own today and so thought my birthday might be one to forget. Things however worked out beautifully. Wondered around in the morning and saw the old Portuguese palace - complete with colourful murals and fine carvings - and the church where Vasco de Gama was buried.
I then saw some Keralan martial arts which were, well, totally brutal with the combatants armed to the teeth. People were justifiably advised to not sit in the front row of the theatre. A bamboo cane, a very evil looking steel slashing device and one of the participants ended up flying down from the stage into those seats at various times. The level of intensity of the fighting was staggering. I am sure a mistake would have resulted in serious and permanent injury. One particular combatant - only two thirds the size of the other three - was doing back flips and hand springs. Completely fucking crazy. Lamont would have loved it.
In the evening I went round to a local lady's house for a cooking lesson and this is where things really came together. There were six tourists in attendance and they turned out to be cracking people. Joe and Amy from Manchester, another Manc called Jodie, me, a french girl called Perriene, and a Dutch fellow called Wim. We made - well really Leeloy made and we watched - four superb dishes (Keralan Fish Curry, Potato and Aubergine Masala and Daal) and then had a bit of a dinner party. Everyone got on really well so the afterwards we went out for beers and talked about travelling and so on. It really made the day for me. A bit of company and good conversation.