Do Not Joke With Immigration Officials

That is the advice given in my guide to travelling round Africa:
"Do not joke with Immigration officials".

I'm flying out tomorrow. I'm going for 5 weeks.
And yet I've only just started reading the guide. Well done me.

I really should be packing right now. Or sleeping.

But no, I'm blogging. Silly, silly, silly.

Then again I probably won't update this blog more than a couple of times in the next few weeks. It's nothing personal, I just don't think there are many Internet Cafes open in the Serengeti (I assume - I haven't seen many zebras on Facebook but they probably hide their profiles to avoid being stalked).


I reckon I will have lots to say when I get back though.

Such as
- it's difficult to sleep in a tent knowing there are lions roaming outside. Or:
- ten things I could've brought with me which would've been more useful than the book Salmon Fishing In The Yemen. Or:
- what use is being a doctor if you don't have any medical equipment with you (actually, half my luggage will be simple medical supplies, just in case... well, I don't want to look silly.)


Enjoy working/studying everyone - I'm gonna have a great holiday!
(seeing as I've emptied my ISA to pay for it!)

Chat soon
-S-

Vampire

Well lookee here...

I got interviewed!

http://london.fridaycities.com/radar/2007/8/23/fridaycities-meets-suman-biswas


Handsome photos too...

The V D Clinic

Well I'm waiting for my copy of the DVD (expecting it today)... but theYouTube clips look great & I hear it's bloody good!

If you are unfortunate enough to have technical problems with the disc, I can't do anything personally, so I recommend you email the distributors.

Try here.

Be nice.

The DVD has landed!

So...

After some massive technical problems from the suppliers of the DVD
(the first batch had to be destroyed - they were like rabid dogs but more dangerous & unpredictable), the DVDs of The Black and White Menstrual Show have finally started to be posted out.

Some of you lucky ones have already received yours, others will get them in the next few days. However you poor buggers who live abroad will still have to wait for the monthly steam-ship to make it to your distant, unBritish shores. Serves you right - move to London.

I'm sorry for the delay. And the communications breakdown.

Let me make it up to you.

On YouTube, there are now ELEVEN songs from the DVD that you can download and watch, albeit in lower quality.

What's the point of buying the DVD then, you might ask? Well there are still LOTS of other songs, old and new, not on YouTube. Including dozens of Snippets...

You can't wait can you...

Here you go - Amateur Transplants Live on YouTube.

Enjoy
-S-

Another New Song

Here's another new song, taken from the Amateur Transplants DVD:

The New Man Song


(Why does nobody love me?)

New Song #1

As promised for ages, here's some completely new Amateur Transplants material!

Very excited to actually be on youtube myself (rather than being mimed over by weirdos or strange photos)

Beautiful Song

Discuss.

(From the DVD - more coming soon)

Amateur Transplants live DVD is on sale!

The Black & White Menstrual Show is now available to buy, watch & love.

Full of classics from Fitness To Practice, as well as songs from the forthcoming new CD Unfit to Practice and songs that should never have been performed in the first place, the 90-minute DVD has been professionally recorded, edited & packaged by a... professional.


Buy several now. NOW dammit!

http://www.fridaytowers.com/fitness/dvd.php

Picture & Piano

At last... I can use my computer again.

My new monitor arrived this morning - it's not that I ordered it ages ago but the opposite - I kept putting it off 'cos I haven't been home much. I only chose one last night and I ordered it about 7pm (thanks eBuyer - bloody good service!)

So now I can see what's on my screen again without developing terrible headaches.

I've been away using my time off for various things (time off following a 90-hour week mind you - I'm not a skiver, I often don't get weekends off, etc).
Went to a friend's wedding which was great fun. We were waiting for the couple at the reception - suddenly the door flew open; there stood the groom proudly in his skirt kilt, his longish hair blowing in the wind, with his new wife next to him in her beautiful bridal dress, bouncing up & down, deliriously happy. Awww... It was a good night - first ceilidh dancing & then rocking out with proper cheesy disco. Exhausting though. How do bridesmaids have so much energy?


And I've carted my digital piano off to a few places (I'm really glad I chose a light one!) Played for some friends in what may have been the oddest venue of my life (so far) - a curry house. The other diners were... surprised to say the least. The curry house owners were just proud to have met a talented Bengali and tried to marry me off to one of their relations... As did the bloke in the kebab shop a week previously. Meh - leave me alone!

Also played for a huge international medical students' conference - it all went surprisingly well, given that a significant proportion of the audience didn't have English as a first language! Plus it was quite amusing watching their faces fall when I did rude songs and they slowly twigged one by one what was going on!


The Amateur Transplants DVD is out this week; and we will record the next CD soon and hopefully have it out in time for Xmas.

I'm back at work after the weekend, then travelling somewhere in September (as yet undecided - I still haven't found any charity/expedition work, so I'm tempted to just go on safari or something instead). I move house in October & start the new job in November.


So really, just about everything's sorted. That's nice.


Which is handy, given that the world has just crashed down around my ears...

Maternity

TRUE STORY*

A young lady in the maternity ward, just prior to labor, is asked by the midwife if she would like her husband to be present at the birth.

"I'm afraid I don't have a husband," she replies.

"O.K. do you have a boyfriend?" asks the Midwife.

"No, no boyfriend either."

"Do you have a partner then?"

"No, I'm unattached, I'll be having the baby on my own."

After the birth the midwife again speaks to the young woman.
"You have a healthy bouncing baby girl, but I must warn you before you see her that the baby is black."

"Well," replies the girl, "I was very down on my luck, with no money and nowhere to live, and so I accepted a job in a Porno movie. The lead man was black."

"Oh," says the midwife, "that's really none of my business and I'm sorry that I have to ask you these awkward questions but I must also tell you that the baby has blonde hair."

"Well yes," the girl again replies, "you see I desperately needed the money and there was this Swedish guy also involved in the movie, what else could I do?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," the midwife repeats, "that's really none of my business and I hate to pry further but your baby has narrow eyes."

"Well yes," continues the girl, "I was incredibly hard up and there was a little Chinese man also in the movie, I really had no choice."

At this the midwife again apologizes collects the baby and presents her to the girl, who immediately proceeds to give baby a slap on the rear. The baby starts crying and the mother exclaims, "Well thank God for that!"

"What do you mean?!" says the midwife, shocked.

"Well," says the girl extremely relieved, "I had this horrible feeling that she was going to bark."




* not a true story