A short blog from me today, mainly because I’ve not been up to anything existing and I can’t be bothered trying to dress up the mundane with wordplay!

The weather’s been as gloomy as a post-brexit economic forecast – but I won’t go there tonight, honest! I’ve not been able to see the valley tops all day and tonight the weather’s closed in even more. I went out to do some shopping in the late afternoon and by the time I climbed up the valley side from Sowerby Bridge I was in the cloud line where the visibility would have been akin to one of the old London ‘pea-souper’ fogs. I half expected to see ‘Dixon of Dock Green’ come strolling towards me out of the murk to recite his iconic “Evening all”.

With the weather as it is I suffered a severe disinclination to venture anywhere else and enjoyed the rest of the evening at home on cooking duty, rustling up a new batch of Thai Green curry for tonight’s meal (and the freezer) whilst Dawn’s out making the final preparations for heading South for Christmas, taking her folks (and a friends dog) to Surrey for the annual family bash. This year I’m staying behind as I’ve work I want to do to the cottage before I fly out to Asia for a few months in the New Year.

Tempting as it was to post another food picture, I’ve decided you can have too much of a good thing. Instead, here’s a picture from the Hindi festival of Thaipusam. I *should* be back in Malaysia for this as this year it’s on February 5th. I last experienced it in 2009. It’s been banned in India due to the nature of sacrifice/penance people put themselves through, but it’s still a big event elsewhere. If you’re of a squeamish nature – look away now…

Four hours after leaving the temple in Little India, this pilgrim (who has pulled a chariot attached to his body by hooks) arrives at the The Nattukkottai Chettiar Temple. And yes, that ARE a real metal rods all the way through his cheeks and his tongue. (you should have seen the hooks in his back, but that’s another picture)..

If you want to see more pictures from Thaipusam, just follow this link.

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