(c) ShotDeadintheHead

Mad Men time (or related ephemera) again … an offer to buy one of these mugs has just popped into my in-box ( available as a t-shirt too – why, hello, Peggy).

You can also get Mr Sterling, Mr Campbell (why, though?), Mr Draper,  Little Miss Betty and Little Miss Peggy immortalised in earthenware and 100% cotton.

And I received a copy of this book – Women’s Roles in Twentieth Century America – through the actual post today – together with an invitation to go along to the launch of the new Sky TV channel,  Sky Atlantic and attend a cinema based screening of their 1920s set flagship series Boardwalk Empire.

I was very excited,  as I don’t usually get to hang out at such meeja events, but, due to the PR connectivity of the TV channel and the book,  I’m somehow on the guest list as a blogger.  Fame at last.  However,  upon closer examination of the invitation (“we’d love to take you for a drink first before Prohibition kicks in …”) – I see that the meeting point is at that oh-so-glamorous venue,  Yates Wine Bar.

British readers will sense my hesitation immediately;  American readers: it’s somewhat the equivalent of holding an event in a Denny’s,  ie,  dialled down a fair way on the Glam-o-Meter.

(Unless of course that’s the point and it’s been converted into a speakeasy,  where they’re serving gin in teacups and the like).

Still,  at least I won’t have to dress up … I hope. No mention made of fancy dress required.

Watch this space … will report back –  if I can get there in time from my interim job on the other side of London.

Sadly,  the market site is also rife with beggars,  very often women holding babies (who never ever seem to cry and in fact are completely dormant and static at all times; a fellow traveller told me that he’d heard that the babies are drugged to make them sleep – what a horrible thought if true).

Here are some of the women at work on their stalls -

And here is one particular seller: proud, fierce and a demon haggler in terms of bargaining with me for a price for having her photograph taken! I think we agreed on about 20p in the end.

El Shaddai,  the charity I support in Goa,  also have a stand at the market,  in order to fund raise and let more people know about their work. I called in to say hello to the team and dropped off my used paperbacks (15!) so that they can sell them on their second hand books stall.

I’ve also now been to Rainbow House and visited Renuka,  the little girl who I sponsor.  More on that to follow – quite a long post, I think,  as it was an amazing and thought provoking experience.

• Jewellery
• Fruit (bananas, mango, pineapple, etc)
• Nuts (cashews, almonds)
• Maps of India
• Ripped off DVDs (specifically, “Slumdog Millionaire”)
• Drums (a particular source of irritation)
• Sarongs
• Towels
• Massage instruments (a sort of metal contraption,  which looks more like a gardening tool to me)
• Sunglasses
• Sponges (bath not cake)
• Joss sticks
• Massages (of your feet,  performed by men, or of the whole body, by women)
• Manicures
• Pedicures

And maybe more …

The beach sellers seem to have acquired some rudimentary Russian, too, for use,  when haggling with the Russian tourists.  As I mentioned previously,  the Russians are very happy to hand over money to both those who are begging and those who are selling;  I sat next to a party of 4 the other day and,  between them,  they bought about 80% of the items offered from the above list over the course of four hours.

One of the beach shack owners told me that the Russians don’t currently require visas to holiday in India,  possibly one of the reasons why they travel in such great numbers – but that this situation is due to change in 2010. The locals are quite worried about this and you can see why,  given that there are fewer western European tourists each year and the ones who are here are more careful with their rupees than the free spending Russians.

“Is the credit crunch in your country madam – British peoples are poor now.”

Apparently.