Rum & Dal

A milestone has been reached, 12th August we had our first visitor from the UK - Jas Chatta.  Yep, the rest of you failed to achieve this honour and we always thought it would be you Parm.   Dal has never met Jas before but she was the first to spot him at Melbourne Central.  ” is that him over there he looks like a Telford boy…” were her exact words.  Low and behold there he was looking a bit worse for wear in his baseball cap.  In true Punjabi fashion we got over the greetings and headed straight to the bar. Jug of Carlton larger soon stacked the table along with Jas’s tales of his latest triumphs. He kept us entertained giving an account of his crazy bungy jump and skydiving feats.  Good company and a familiar face from the UK - all the right ingredients for a Rum and Dal session, wouldn’t you say?

We sat and talked for ages, listening to Jas and his adventures around the world, made our migration look like a walk in the park.   After all of his travelling and months on the road moving from one hostel to another (even at a Red Indian reservation, but I’ll let him fill you in on that) he longed for his home cooked roti, well that was it; the next session was pretty much booked. 

We invited him around to our humble abode the following night (Monday 13th)  Dal was supposed to cook but strangely enough she didn’t make it out of work until about 8pm so I got my cooking hat on and those all important herbs and spices.  Jas was going to be treated to some homemade authentic chicken thari followed by blue ribbon ice cream and cookies.  Sorry Jas, I forget about the ice cream after the food I was a bit tipsy.  Oh! Did I mention starters, a few bottles of bud and Bacardi Black?  Unfortunately Jas was still under the weather and I couldn’t convince him that my medicine would make him feel better.

I let Jas loose on my Sipgate account which was all too funny as his family couldn’t understand how he was talking to them via a Telford number.  At first he told them he was at the Telford train station and wanted them to pick him up.  It was a surreal conversation and it came to a point they wouldn’t believe it was Jas talking to them. 

The evening however was not meant to last.  Jas’s dad had arranged for him to meet up with a family friend and after an abysmal attempt at Guitar Hero our time was cut short.  It was great fun seeing Jas and I believe we all felt that much close to home. We laughed at how our parents get excited when someone comes to see them from India, now we know how it feels when someone comes to see us from the UK!  Best of luck Jas, on your onward travels.  Bon voyage.