A (Short) Day At The Beach.

For the past two New Year's Days I've had a super-frozen, quick-on-the-spot-jumping, run-to-the-fireplace winter swim in the Adriatic Sea with my best friend. I don't do these things normally, he does!
But they've been particularly enjoyable, even if on an unusually chilly way and this year I'll miss it. To make up for this we took a shot at a preemptive swim two weeks ago, more than a month before the proper day. Alas, the weather turned out particularly nasty and we had to abandon the plan... All I have is this pic and the promise to make up in late winter/early spring. I can hold out that long surely.

The Queen's Necklace.

The southern tip of the peninsula housing the metropolis is flanked on the west by a magnificent bay. Starting with Chaupati beach on the north edge, a few thousand sandy footsteps will take you to Nariman Point and the end of what the locals call the Queen's Necklace.
Of course this refers to the lights at night along Marine Drive, the fast-paced, seafront highway. I reckon you can visualize it somehow. I also bet you guessed it, I have no photos of the lights, the necklace or any queen. I was busy strolling aimlessly and people watching.

Juhu!

A northwestern suburb of Bombay and and flanked by a marvelous beach, Juhu is the place to park your bungalow if you're some Bollywood film star or big name cricketer. There's a throng of fancy hotels too. And then there's the weekend destination of many a Mumbaikar family. With kids going berserk, a minefield of food stalls and the omnipresent photographers, sadly decorated with rubbish and stray dogs this is obviously my kind of place for a Saturday stroll.
The little square arrangement of food stalls in flashy pop colours, dubious quality and aggressively animated customer hunters (menu in hand) complete the crazy cornucopia of the suburban family day out. Immensely enjoyable place.

Time Out.

The past few days have been hot and bright. It's the middle of winter and we're blessed with a full blown summer. There's a lot to do and even more going on, tomorrow is a big day, the city is blossoming. But today was too sweet a day to miss and it turned out to be a wonderfully lazy adventure. Beach, good company, nice food and a few drinks. Sometimes things are really simple and should be kept that way.