A second Christmas without Madeleine

A letter from Gerry and Kate McCann (see website for letter and more information)

Dear Supporter,

First of all we would like to take this opportunity to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support. Your solidarity has helped maintain our strength and our hope - especially at this difficult time of year.

A quick update on what has been happening:
As you may have seen in the media, the Portuguese authorities have lifted our ‘arguido’ status and in July 2008 closed the investigation to find Madeleine. It is therefore even more important now that we, Madeleine's family, do everything we possibly can to try and find our little girl.

Reassuringly, we know that there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever to suggest that Madeleine has been seriously harmed (and this has been further confirmed after studying the recently released Portuguese police files). In light of this, we passionately believe that there is a very strong likelihood that Madeleine is out there and can be found.

With your support we will NEVER give up looking for Madeleine.

Like any family who suddenly find themselves in such a confusing and terrifying situation, we don't know if any of us could have got through all this without the support of people like you. So thank you so much for your help. Without your prayers and efforts, the confusion, isolation and heartache our family has faced would have been so much harder.

Yours sincerely

Gerry and Kate McCann

R.I.P

Alan Hazeldine

Conductor and Musical Director

Still Missing

It'll soon be two months since we left England. Seems like yesterday. Seems like a life-time ago.

When I left, I knew I'd miss some bits of England - the landscape for one meant a lot to me. I miss waking up to utter silence, drawing the curtains of the full-length bedroom windows and looking out into our little patch of pristine green. That combination of serenity, solitude and soothing green is hard to find here. But we're looking and I'm sure it's not too far away.

The other day, just out of the blue, I missed the sight of seeing Autumn's first leaves changing color. My cherry blossom trees would be yellow by now, the green flush of summer fading fast. Soon the drive will be littered with a carpet of golden leaves, soggy from the constant rain.

I look out of my bedroom window here and watch a huge tree, worshipped and loved, shedding its leaves onto the road. One day it was rich with foliage, the next morning every leaf is a dry one.

And of course, I miss being surgically attached to my laptop. We now have broadband, but it's still too early to break out the champagne. Connectivity is sporadic, unsteady and phone help non-existent.

Mr. R, I know, is missing the Proms season this year. Internet radio can make up only so much for actually being there.

Oh well, England's only a plane ride away. In the meantime, there's a lot of India to discover. Life here is only just beginning.

It Paes to be at Wimbledon.

On a whim, considering that we have very (very) few days left here, we thought we'd see if we could get into Wimbledon.

On the day tickets are difficult to get. Or so they say. The Wimbledon website agrees and tells you how to queue for tickets.

Armed with the 'Guide to Queueing' (yes, there is such a publication), we were expecting long lines of hungry people baking in the sun. No such joy. We got there at about noon and just breezed in. Tickets were easily available. Expensive, but I guess you get your money's worth the longer you stay. Ground tickets (at £17 per head) allow you entry, access to Court 2 (standing) and all courts from 3-18. Only Centre Court, Court 1 are not included.

Our timing was perfect. The first match of the day on Court 2 was the Gentlemen's Doubles Quarter Finals starring Leander Paes. We were lucky to see him play, I guess. A superb coincidence.

The match itself was fun. Paes & Dlouhy (CZE) beat the two Israeli players in straight sets 6-3.6-3, 6-3. Paes was easily the better player of all four. Some of his serves went over the court boundaries, prompting an Indian lady to quip that 'This is not cricket!'

A lovely day for tennis (supposedly the hottest day of the year so far), the grounds were packed with girls in summer dresses, barely-there shorts and red, sun-burnt skin. Also spotted one of the Amritraj brothers. I think it was Vijay, but he looked too 'grungy' for me to be sure.

If you can make it one of these days, I recommend it highly. It is a fun experience and something to do when you're in England. If we had known it was this easy to get in, we'd have gone every year.

Getting there
Take the District Line to Wimbledon. Get off at Southfields (2 stops before Wimbledon). You can wait for the bus to the Championships (£2 per ticket, flat fee), take a shared taxi (£2.50 each) or do what everybody else does - walk. A short walk from Southfields (about 10-15 minutes) takes you to 2 separate routes for Ticket Holders and Non-Ticket Holders. Get through the right route and you'll be fine.

I will miss

• The sight of our patch of landscaped lawn surrounded by tall hedges (like a secret garden) in sunlight
• Motorways and lanes
• The delicious green quietness of England
• The robins & blackbirds wallowing in our make-shift bird-baths
• Acres of public parkland
• Cherry blossoms in April
• The possibilities (very important word) for running, cycling or walking alone without being harassed
• Blueberry muffins from Morrisons
• The snugness of a good winter coat

Isle of Wight

Mr.R goes kite flying

Seaside fun - desi style

Of Tigers and other beasts (on the road)

The next two days were spent in a flurry. We went to see the famous IoW Zoo - home to ITV's Tiger Island. The tigers were lovely, mostly hand-reared. Zoo's are always depressing, though. No matter how well the animals are cared for, you'd think they would be happier in the wild. Lots of Indian tigers here.

We went cycling on the morning of our return. Having reached the shop as soon as it was open, the bikes were, unfortunately available. I could see Mr.R's joy. I haven't cycled *properly* in years (well, if you count that time in Cambridge in 2005...) so my apprehension was natural. We decided to follow the 'Sunshine Route' a pre-planned path for cycling and walking. It took us out of Sandown (watch out for that car!)and onto the main road. At one point, my concern about getting back in time to pick up our bags took the fun out of the ride. We decided to stick by the sea - it made for a more picturesque ride and we'd have our bearings as well.

Riding a cycle with a hard seat is no fun. But at that time, it wasn't an issue. The gears, however, took some getting used to. We cycled all the way upto the cliff, past the zoo and onto the flower filled meadow where I gave my bike a break (on the pretext of taking pictures) while Mr R explored on.

Two hours of cycling was more fun than I thought it would be (don't tell Mr.R I said that, though). We returned the bikes about noon, had an early lunch and headed back. Transfers back were as smooth as before.

So, our recommendation?

The IoW is good for walks, cycling and other leisurely activities. Read up on it before you go, though, so you can explore a bit more. There was a walking festival on when we were there, but we found out too late. The island is pretty small and if you've got a car, great. Public transport, as usual, is a little tricky, especially the buses. Take the island train instead and explore.

Next stop, Brussels.

Sand in my eyes

Exploring our room took us a brief two seconds and then we were off to explore the English seaside. This was my first ever visit to the English coast and I was looking forward to the sun and sand.

Boy, were we glad we had our woollens with us. It was cold!

The pier had an amusement arcade full of mean machines that took your money - we'd explore those corridors later. We walked down the High Street to the Information Centre to check on cycling and other things to do. Armed with brochures, we headed to the beach. Beige sands stretched into the distance ending with a rather imposing white cliff topped with green. Looked enticing.

The sand was pretty firm, relatively clean and not very crowded. Some brave children in their swimsuits frolicked in the water. Mr.R, always game to try things, decided to give it a shot too. The water was freezing - he came back pretty quickly. The only other people in the water were Indians. Really.

The Saturday was a lovely day for pictures. The sun was out (doesn't stop it from being cold), there were large stretches of unoccupied sand and sailboats bobbing in the wind made a pretty picture. Mr. R and I walked down to the cliff, followed the route to the cycle rental place (no bikes available), then walked on, found the Zoo at the end of the road, made a note of timings and headed back.

Dinner was a nice meal along the promenade. We were glad to be indoors, safe and warm.

I want to be bee-side the sea-side

Google is our best friend. Not knowing anything about the Isle of Wight, a quick search revealed that it is a favourite holiday destination and easy to get to.

So, for a change, we took the train. From home to London Waterloo (1 hour), then a South-West train to Portsmouth (2 hours), then a FastCat ferry from Portsmouth to Ryde on the IoW (18 minutes), then a train from Ryde to Sandown (20 minutes) where we had a B&B booking.

It was a lovely journey.

The transfers were smooth, no hassles, no delays, no stress of driving on the motorway at the break of dawn. It's expensive, what with all those tickets, but I still think it made a better experience than the motorway.

Once at Sandown, we walked toward the beach to find our B&B. Sandown is on a bit of a slope - no escaping hills in England - and we were grateful to find a friendly postman who dropped us to the doorstep of the hotel. Once there, we rang the bell and waited. And waited. Then waited some more. Did they forget we were coming?

Tired and a little bit irritated (check in was 2 pm, it was now 1:45), we went next door to the little restaurant with the intention of having a meal. With the rotten luck that was starting to stick to us like sand, they had closed for lunch and were laying the tables for a school dinner party later that night. Like school-boys on hearing the bell, we beat a retreat and lugged our luggage downhill to the High Street, where (thank God) there was a Chinese place open. After a hearty meal (the only other customers were a noisy Keralite family) we called the B&B and were glad to find the owners home. They were out stocking up on groceries, apparently ("We have to go out when we can make the time.")

Grumbling under our breath, we were shown to our room, which was nice, but smaller than what I'd expected.

Anyway, you could see the sea - although it was just a patch above the neighbours rooftop.

A weekend by the sea-side. Surely life couldn't get more exciting?

Rewind

Hello!

It's been a while since the last post. We've returned from India one recent weekend in April, barely unpacked, then re-packed and headed to the Isle of Wight for the first bank holiday of May.

IoW was an unusual choice for us for many reasons. The biggest was that we've run out of a Schengen visa and no appointments were available at short notice. Switzerland was the other choice (the only country an Indian pp holder on a UK residence permit can go to without a visa). We've already been to Zürich and Mr. R has seen Geneva. Plus, the prices for this time of year are mad. It just didn't seem so appealing.

So, we looked once again, to the UK. I was looking at the map trying to figure out if the Channel islands was an option (you need a visa), when out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the IoW. It looked lovely - sitting in the middle of the sea with nothing to the south of it except water.

Islands are always good for an escape - this one would do for now.

An evening with the LSO

We had complimentary tickets to see the LSO perform at the Barbican yesterday.

The Programme :
- Prokofiev Violin Concerto No 2 (Viktoria Mullova violin)
- Britten Spring Symphony (Susan Gritton soprano, Sarah Connolly Alto, Mark Padmore tenor, Tiffin Boy's Choir, London Symphony Chorus)

Before the concert. A lone drummer rehearses.

The London Symphony Chorus takes its place.

The orchestra tunes up.

Viktoria Mullova comes on stage.

At Blenheim Palace, Woodstock

We spent part of Saturday at Blenheim Palace, near Oxford. Billed as one of the top three most beautiful private residences (don't know which are the other two) and the only non-royal residence to be granted the title of 'Palace', the building is set in over 2000 acres of parkland and countryside.

Entry is a very steep £16.50 and includes the palace, gardens and parks. Just for the parks and gardens is £9.50. The charges might be worth it (not!) on a sunny day, but Saturday was wet and very miserable. So bad that we took very few pictures.

Here are some that we did take:

A partial view of the imposing entrance

In the Marlborough gardens : A Model Village

In the Marlborough gardens : giant games

The butterfly garden. Quite a few butterflies, but strangely, not one was moving. Were they props?

Bath

The Roman Bath in evening rain. See the steam rising.

First views of Longleat Safari Park. On a bank holiday, cars pile up.

One of the pride of lions.

The Royal Crescent, Bath.

The Circus, Bath (part of it).

Bath and Beyond

I'm swamped with assignments. We've been travelling. Weekends are busy.

Those are my excuses for not posting.

Over the Easter bank holiday, we went to Bath. Our Schengen visas have expired and we've been too busy to take a day off to get an appointment, so something local seemed the only option.

Things to do in Bath (and surrounding areas):

1. Visit the Roman Baths : The heart of Bath's attractions are the Roman baths. The only hot water spring in the UK brought people to Bath from far and wide centuries ago. The tradition still continues. Entry is a bit pricey around £10.50, but includes a free audio guide, entry to the museum and if you can remember, a glass of hot spring water (ordinary cost 50p).

2. See the lovely Georgian architecture: Visit the Royal Crescent and the Circus.

3. Do a free walking tour. Starts from the Abbey churchyard (outside the Pump Rooms) and takes about 2 hours. Very good. Gives you an over-view of the city at no cost. Carry an umbrella.

4. Visit the Holborne Museum (closed for restoration now). See Jane Austen's house opposite (no.4 Sydney Place)

5. See Bath Abbey. It's free.

Other touristy favourites tend to be:

The Jane Austen Centre : Bath's most famous resident, Jane Austen lived here for a few years and mentioned the city in some of her books. The Centre itself isn't so great - not much info on her itself. The current exhibition focuses on a new BBC film called 'Jane Austen Regrets'. It's not expensive (£6.50), but don't expect too much. Ogle at the Mr.Darcy posters in the shop.

The Fashion Museum and Assembly Rooms: If you're interested in clothing, this could be a place to visit. Similar to the V&A in London, the museum follows the history of clothing and has some unique collections. The entry there is £7.50, but the Assembly Rooms are free.

Longleat Safari Park (about 40 mins drive from Bath): Imagine a pride of lions in the English countryside. Then imagine a pile of cars peering at them. That's Longleat for you, in a nutshell. Great to see all the animals. Not so great to queue up to see them - don't they get affected by car pollution?

Not Shaken, Not Stirred

An earthquake hit Britain early this morning. Measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale, it shook the country from London to Manchester and places in between.

Although Mr.R and I tossed and turned most of the night, we didn't feel the quake. The first we heard of it was when our friend H, up north, sent a message on Skype asking us if we felt it too. He's having structural work done in his house and understandably cursed the builders, thinking that their handy work was coming undone!

Looks like Mr.R and I slept through the strongest earthquake Britain has felt in 25 years!

Discovering the Terracotta Army and other treasures

Mr. R and I finally made it to the British Museum to see the Terracotta Army.

The exhibition is a peek into one of the twentieth centuries greatest archeological discoveries and the legacy of China’s First Emperor, Qin Shihuangdi.

The Terracotta Army was buried with the Emperor of Qin (Qin Shi Huangdi) in 210-209 BC. Their purpose was to help rule another empire with Shi Huangdi in the afterlife.

The Army was discovered in March 1974 by local farmers drilling a water well to the east of Mount Lishan. In addition to the warriors, an entire man-made necropolis for the emperor has been excavated. The Emperor's tomb, however, has been left undisturbed so far.

You can get a glimpse of the actual exhibition in the video (below):



From 210 BC to 1974 AD - the underground city has been secret a long time. We are privileged, I think, to be able to witness a part of something so old.

Want a weekend job? Willing to travel 12 hours? Try the NHS

We've all heard stories about the NHS. Here's another one that makes you shake your head and wonder what they were thinking.

One of the doctors working in Aberdeen's (Scotland) out of hours service travels a fair distance to get to work. Every Friday morning, he leaves his home in Poland, takes a flight to Glasgow, is picked up at the airport and driven four hours to Aberdeen, where he works the weekend covering the out-of-hours shift. The journey takes him 13 hours. This is on top of a full working week as a doctor in Poland.

Foolhardy? Or desperate? Read the full story here.

PS: All those stories that you hear about GP's earning hundreds of thousands of pounds are false. Really.

Wembley - first impressions

Our Dosa brunch was my first foray into Wembley proper.

What can I say about first impressions? Well, for starters, it was a greyer version of 'back-home'. The streets were dirty - plastic bags abandoned on pavements, people spitting and litter being chucked gaily. There was the general cacophony of a predominantly Asian neighbourhood. It felt like a mela. Perhaps the atmosphere was charged because it was NY's day, but I suspect it is like this all the time.

On our way to the restaurant, our car was tailed (and I mean that literally - any closer and the two vehicles would have to be surgically separated) by a battered car (looking at the way they drove, it was no surprise) filled with 3 youngish looking men and one old man. It was scary (for us) and an obvious source of amusement to them. Mr.R and I live in an town that has a significant Asian population (more Pakistani than Indian), but we have never experienced something like this in the 3 years that we've lived here.

Strike one against Wembley.

The general decay and squalor of the place made me want to shudder. If I wanted to be in a place like this, I'd go back home. A quick chakkar around any local railway station in Mumbai - you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. For me, the charm of England is in its sense of pride and place. And there was no pride of place here.

I left with another, more important feeling - I wouldn't want to walk alone on those streets after dark. It's not an unreasonable feeling and I'm not going to be apologetic about it. My instincts about street safety have always served me well. I've never felt insecure walking in a street full of Pakistani boys - they may look, but they don't say or do anything to make me uncomfortable. I cannot say the same about the Indian men. May God prove me wrong.

I guess many immigrants to London feel more comfortable or secure in such neighbourhoods precisely because it reminds them at home. Here they can speak their own language, eat their own food, recreate a little of what they left behind. While every newcomer deserves to have a feeling of security and safety in a new country, surely there should come a point where you think that it's time to do better?

Clean houses, clean pavements, pride in your surroundings. Is that too much to expect?

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas...

In case you've been wondering where I've been (you have, haven't you?), I've been busy planning my first Christmas in England.

Every year for the last two years,we've gone home for the holidays. This year, we've just returned from a trip in Oct/Nov, so here we are, all wrapped up for Santa.

It's our first 'independent' Christmas. Playing host seemed like a good idea four weeks earlier when the glint of Christmas spreads in glossy magazines and webpages promised hundreds of easy ways to have a fah-bulous Christmas for friends and family.

So, enthusiatically, we invited A&P and their little daughter over for Christmas lunch. Also invited were Baby brother and his new bride, the Namesake, who will be on duty and in London on Christmas Day.

Guest list done. We were quite pleased about our planning!

Then work took over and then our weekends were taken over by a trip to Bridgnorth to visit friends. The other two weekends went in carol singing - our church choir (Mr.R including) sang from 10am-12pm at one of the local shopping malls, raising over £1000 for Cancer Research.

Yesterday, we had a lovely candle-light carol service at 4 pm with the church choir and the school choir in attendance. Very festive. The church was decorated in red and green wreaths and it all looked very welcoming.

With all this excitement, one can hardly blame us for not thinking about Christmas day itself.

So with barely 24 hours to go, the menu is now almost done. The shops will go on a long holiday starting 5pm tonight. There's nothing left to buy, yet the streets are full of last minute frantic shoppers. Buy, Buy, Buy.

This evening will be spent in preparation for tomorrow. The table is already set for six. My lovely Indian tablemats will glow in the candlelight. The Christmas tree gleams and the dozens of cards (the most either of us have ever received in a long, long time) remind us that we are remembered fondly during this season.

Under the tree are tiny gifts for each guest - nothing expensive at all, just tokens of the festivities. In India, gift giving is not really a big thing, but here it tends to be.

What's left to do? Well, the cooking! Then there's midnight mass and the day ahead tomorrow.

I hope you are all having a good time too. Stay warm, Stay happy.

Come back for seconds!

Merry Christmas.

Perlman at the Barbican

Mr.R and I were at the Barbican last night for a recital by Itzhak Perlman. With tickets booked as far back as March, the concert was not a disappointment - Perlman is one of the world's greatest living violinists and it was a treat to watch him in action. The audience enjoyed the encore which was full of Perlman's trademark puns and witty asides. The music was lovely and the pianist, Bruno Canino, was remarkable too.

I'm no classical music expert, so I'll leave the reviewing to someone else. Suffice to say that it was a very nice evening. It was a bit cold on the outside of the building, but a short chakkar in the Barbican library, then an early dinner at the Balcony Bistro on the first floor prepped us up for the rest of the evening.