It's Deepavali!

I'm working, because I just have so many things to do. But it's Deepavali!





I love this festival.

In England, travelling up to see Nigel's parents, I used to love the lights of Leicester at this time of year.

And six years ago, leaving Australia, Divali in India was our first big thing.

India was the portal into a different phase of life, the "really-living-in-Asia" phase. OK, we'd lived in Singapore, but we'd always planned to go back to Aus, and did. This, on the other hand, was the "living-in-Asia-with-no-plans-to-go-back-for-a-long-time" phase. OK, if you're continuing to be picky, we popped back to Melbourne for four days, en route to Malaysia, but we were already homeless. We'd already moved on.

So India was the launching pad, and India was doing Divali...

The business of settling into a new home and job in Malaysia meant my India post at the time was ridiculously inadequate.

But we spent Divali in Mandawa. We stayed at a haveli, and spent the evening on the roof terrace. There were musicians, and a dancer with a swirly skirt and ankle bells, and a sumptuous buffet, and fireworks. Divali in India. The gateway to Asia...