Well Tuesday night was a painful experience watching the not so Mighty Hatters on Tuesday night! Still I can trot out the old cliché “We can now concentrate on the league (sic).

It has been a busy couple of days- yesterday I went back to my volunteering at Wick Court taking young people bird watching. Today I got a soaking ding the monthly bird survey out by the river. Sadly not a great morning for birds although we saw 70+ curlew frequently making that evocative call. Later I am off for story telling at Wick Court ( I have had nearly three weeks off!). After that I have a quiz match.

A few more Indian photos to finish off the blog! The first is a fine collection of men in the India dressing room at the Wankhede Stadium!

How many people does it take to lift a manhole cover?

Another shot of our fine wanderers at the colonial Bombay Gymkhana ground- dodgy bloke in the middle wearing the hat!

Useful telephone number below we found in the dressing rooms of the international grounds we played on!

Fingers crossed for the injury ravaged Mighty Hatters tonight in the FA Cup against Manchester City. Not optimistic! I am not going tonight – watching it on TV. I will travel up on Saturday to watch the Villa game.

I managed to get punctures on two different bikes yesterday! Both on the back wheels! I am slowly upping my mileage to get my bike fitness back – amazing how much you lose over a couple of weeks.

Now got to get down to  learning stories for next week!

Will probably do a few more India pictures over the next couple of blogs.

This is supposed to be a story telling blog although recent posts haven’t touched on that! I am story telling at Wick Court on Thursday and the following week is busy (even had to turn away a couple of gigs!) So starting now to relearn some old favourites!

Some more bird pictures from India- I saw plenty of black-winged stilts a bird that is rarity here! Only seen a pair in Gloucestershire once about twenty years ago! Will probably do some more photos tomorrow.

A common sight in Mumbai was black kites all over the city – despite their numbers not easy to photograph!            

All the pictures below I took on the day the cricket finished early – this was a lake near Rajkot. A few more bird pictures tomorrow including black-winged stilts saw loads of them!

Crossing the road in India was a hazardous undertaking! You had to be bold hold your arm out and hope the traffic stopped for you! Mumbai was often clogged with traffic so you could pick your way through. When in a taxi or a rickshaw you frequently winced as cars, motorbikes and rickshaws seemed to come to you from all directions- I never fathomed how roundabouts worked but somehow they did! Rajkot was more difficult to negotiate as the traffic moved faster. Amazingly at times traffic came at you from the wrong side of the road and nobody seemed to be too concerned! Despite all the chaos from my perspective I didn’t see any road rage/aggression like we have at home. Pictures below show some scenes mainly form Rajkot there is also a link to a short video below. One day coming back from the Test Match I sat on the back of the rickshaw and took pictures of the traffic behind one passenger on a motorbike pulled out a bunch of greenery and gestured to me it was a gift- it was passed to me as we were going along. It turned out to be chickpeas!

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A few pictures of temples I visited on my Indian trip including some bloke with one of his story telling shirts on! (some people will do anything for a bit of publicity!) Bird pictures will follow and traffic pictures over the next few days. I will also write a bit more about my fortnight away.

Sitting on a coach just leaving Heathrow after a brilliant fortnight away. A few photos today and a proper blog tomorrow. Went bird watching yesterday morning and washing was taking place. Also visited the Gandhi museum ( more in future blogs).

Due to Englands abject performance in the Test Match we had a day to fill in Rajkot. I persuaded my comrades to visit a lake about a couple of miles from our hotel where it was teaming with bird life ( bird photos will be downloaded when I get home) and many temple ones as well) I was in 7th heaven and aiming to go back in the morning. We also visited two contrasting temples. A montage of photos taken on my phone below.

Any English person you meet out here ( there are quite a few) are bitterly disappointed with England’s sloppy cricket in this Test Match.

it now means we have a free day tomorrow. Aiming to go bird watching, visit some caves and a temple.

pictures today is the food at the cricket!

A disappointing day at the Test Match. Talk about throwing it away! Still tomorrow is a different day! Saw some good birds on my way out! Pictures will follow when home! Picture below is Joe Root bowling the ball for his wicket! Next picture is the army of pitch workers at the end!