Anokaa, is one of the best Indian Restaurants that we have ever been too, it’s almost worth a trip to Salisbury on that strength alone. Amazing too, is that we all agree. Fantastic…it’s a little of the modern, stylized sort of Indian restaurants, where the dishes are prepared with the visual in mind, and usually, we would generally stay away from those kind of places. Simla Pinks comes to mind, I think there are a few of these Shimla Pinks, but I’m familiar with the Shimla Pinks in Birmingham, where the food is fancy and expensive, and the presentation is artistic, and the food isn’t that great. We alway use to say it’s an Indian restaurant for people who are not really too sure about Indian food…anyway, I’m drifting off topic…Anokaa, somehow manages to give you some wonderful new flavors and combinations, and yet satisfy all those taste buds that you expect in an Indian meal. Everybody ordered different things and all agreed that their choices were top, top shelf. Even the condiments are great, Phil and I are fond of good lime pickle, and Anokaa’s was the best..

One time that we were in Anokaa, we were entertained by a card expert that the restaurant has hired to come around to the tables and do some card tricks, while you are waiting for your meals to be prepared…

Anticipation……

This time we had a full table...

After the curry, we retired to an amazing old pub, where we enjoyed an after dinner drink. This is one of the rooms in the pub..... it was bittersweet, because we had enjoyed the same evening a year ago, with Kelly......and I had some very strong feelings and memories of sitting in this lovely old room in this lovely old pub, laughing and listening to Kelly tell stories...sigh...

Bookmarks:

This hotel is awesome. It's one of the reasons that we chose to come to Salisbury for our days off, when were in the area....also, there's the cathedral; an especially great Indian restaurant; and then this hotel, what more could you ask for!....and a very hospitable and comfortable city, too..

This is me giving a little tour of my room, which was pretty nice, although not even the largest or nicest of the rooms. The floors are crooked, every room is different, things roll right off the night tables, and there are many passageways, and steps up and steps down between all of the sections of this hotel. It started as a small inn, and they just expanded into adjacent houses and buildings over the centuries, so it’s a really unusual place.

This is me giving the tour again, because I thought at first that the camera didn’t record the first tour, duh…so, it’s a bit repetitious…..

getting ready to leave

some of us with Gill, I'm on the phone with Anthony, our bus driver, wondering where he is...

Bookmarks:

Years ago we stayed at this place, and at that time, somehow we lucked into getting some very fancy rooms…simply amazing…but, this time the rooms weren’t that fancy, but the hotel is still a treat…

This is from out on the front lawn of the hotel. You can get an idea about how huge this place is.

This is a sun room or sitting room just off the lobby

More from the outside of the hotel

I wanted to give a little tour of the hotel interior but it was very dark, and my video camera isn’t that good…also, I was a little too shaky…and, I don’t know why I was whispering…i guess i didn’t want to disturb all the ghosts that are inhabiting this place..it’s old, and the walls feel like there’s some spirits hanging about…beside I didn’t want to appear to be a prat, ( no comments please!) taking videos and giving a tour guide’s spiel!

more pics….

Bookmarks:

Life on the bus is interesting…everyone has there spot, their seat, their routine….there are times when we try to stay out of each other’s way, as much as possible, and have some quiet time by ourselves, and there also some interesting discussion on the bus, jokes, and stories…lot’s of stories.. lot’s of Beatle’s discussions…I’ll get some more video…

Phil, Mik, and introducing, Anthony, our bus driver for this tour, he’s from Wales

Gordon and I have a conversation about broken lifts (elevators) in the hotels…conspiracy theories are discussed..and Gill make an appearance. Gill Thomas is our merchandiser for our UK tours, she’s has also done some design work for us over the years, too, and is responsible for the Anthology art work…well done, Gill!

Bookmarks:

Glen goes all Spinal Tap at the sight of Stonehenge sorry about the lousy audio, it was very windy that day, and my video camera is cheap!!

another short video clip of Stonehenge…Feel the excitement!!

Bookmarks:

This is what i had started to write…and it’s not complete but, I feel like I should just post it…and try to keep going…but, because of the schedule so far, and the fact that i have so much to do getting ready for the Eastern European tour coming right after the UK tour, I just seem to spend all my spare time emailing about all sorts of things…so below was a failed attempt to give a running commentary on what’s happened so far:

Friday, October 2^nd, we got up real early, about 4 am, and got to Newark Airport by around 7am, Glen was there waiting, and we checked in. We were bringing a lot of gear, we had a total of 11 mostly overweight and oversized bags…Ouch, it was expensive…

Anyway, that daytime flight to the UK is wonderful. You fly all day, and arrive at night in London. The usual trans-Atlantic flights are through the night, like, you leave at 8pm and arrive at around 8am in London. If you are lucky you might have gotten some sleep, but basically you are shattered…and you need to get some sleep…

So, this was great.

We rehearsed at the Terminal Studios in London for 2 days, and last night the 5^th, we started the tour. We played Dartford. We were a little shaky, we have some new keyboards that Lou and I are just getting used to, and it’s not easy. Roland is supplying them for us, and they sound amazing. We are so pleased to be working with Roland, and we are really trying to get up to speed quickly with these great new keyboards…

Let me back up a little bit….

Back in September, Phil flew over to my place in New Jersey, and with Gordon and Glen, we did some preliminary rehearsing, working out the new material for this tour. We sent mp3’s all around after the rehearsals, and Mik and Lou added their magic, and we all did our own rehearsing individually, so that when we got together in London a few days ago, we had a pretty good handle on the new stuff, but, we needed quite a bit of work, too. We got to it, and only had time for one curry! Bummer!! We will soon make up for that.

By the way, we have scheduled a few days off on this tour in Salisbury, specifically because we have found the best curry restaurant ever!!! I will give a full report in a few days.

So, this was it, so far, pretty boring….i’ll try to spice it up more in the future…we have done 4 gigs now, and we are heading in High Wycombe now, about to do The Swan…every show has gotten better and better, so after these next four shows, we should really be in good shape….

more later…

Bookmarks:

I will get cracking with some updates soon, it’s just been so busy with everything….i’m exausted…but it’s going really well, and we are starting to get into the groove again…more soon…

Bookmarks:

And it will never be the same….

Lindsay is a Junior at Rutgers University this year, and today was her first day.

she was ready to go, and I snapped a few pics to memorialize the occasion.

notice the de-caf ice coffee in a mason jar ( please don’t ask), the ripped up jeans, the bags of books, lunch, water bottles….she would’ve been taking a bike, also, but the bike was not working…we will have to get one, she has some long treks across campus.

Bookmarks: