Basingstoke - Day 6

Day 6 (Thursday 26th Aug 04’):
Slept late, woke up late, spent the first half of the day browsing the net, checking/ replying to emails etc. Finally made friends with Yash who is always shy when he meets me first, but opens up the next day. That is also when he starts barging you with numerous questions in his cute little accent.
Met Sandra, Ichhita’s English friend. Sandra is a single mom, whose son Jack is Yash’s best mate (pronounce as “might”) in school. Jack is an adorable six yr old, white, quite podgy and an extremely cute little gentleman. He and Yash argue a lot, but really have not much choice but to get along, as their Mom’s are great friends. Sandra came over to meet me, (this whole meet-the-guest-from-NYC fest had begun I gathered, with more of it to continue in Bombay as well). As I chatted with Sandra, I discovered that she had been born in London, but had just recently visited it for the first time ever after she moved out to live in B’toke. She worked with the City of B’toke and as a hobby, practiced hair-dressing. That’s when the whole “let-me-colour-your-hair” stint started and as ready as I always am to experiment with my locks, I gave in. The choice was two colours, a dull red of course ( this is the third time I am colouring my hair red) and a shiny brown to complement it, as Sandra said, over the crown. So her visit more or less became like a pre-colouring session, as we went through the various shades of colour and she explained to me how she did Icchita’s hair (Ichhita has this really cool bob with red streaks which makes her look very European, quite a transition from how I had seen her last time in Edinburgh, two years ago).
After a while, Sandra and Ichhita left for work and Yash and I chilled out at home, making a colour-paper house together, over watching Thomas (Yash’s favourite engine) run along the tracks with his friends. When Ichhita returned, we ate a fabulous desi home-cooked meal and Yash, Icchita and I set out towards the bus stop to get to the Town Centre to window-shop. While there, I came across a good book sale and a few books (each worth 99p) and some good crepes later, we were back at the bus stop. V called and I invited him home for dinner. We co-ordinated our plans so that he could meet us at the Bus stop and we all got back home together.
Ichhita cooked up some fabulous Soul Kadhi and a million other tasty delicacies while SD, V and I chatted up. V was happy (His happiness is directly proportional to the food you provide him) as this was the first desi home he was visiting in B’toke. So after 4 hours of time well spent discussing anything from Working in the US Vs Working in the UK, to my hair-colouring stint next afternoon, V bid us goodbye and thus ended my least-hectic day in the UK, as far this trip was concerned.