nearly a week in the lone star state...

so my week in Texas is nearly over.......i have had a lot of fun here, and we have done so much!! - not least of all eat and drink!

we went to South By South West (SXSW) on the weekend - it was really really good fun, very very hot and sunny! me jgs and das spent most of the afternoon and early evening at one of the outdoor stages - we saw a fantastic jazz musician that das likes, called Christian Scott and he had a really fab band, then a load more people including Jean Grae - who was suprsingly excellent, and Talib Kweli, who was very good but perhaps not quite as good as I had thought he would be...then we saw loads and loads of unsigned bands - one of my faves were some texas rockers who used lots of instruments including brass (and a guy on strings who looked like jerry springer) we saw them in a bar called darwins - they were very good, no idea what they were called, which is a shame cos I cant look them up or link to them! as festivals go it was very chilled and relaxed - lots of people but space for them all, drinks were not as strong as you would like (are they ever!??) but there is something about drinking frozen margaritas in the Texas sun that you just dont get at British festivals!!! we stayed with some friends of jigs and das's and they were really lovely - it was good to be with Austin people who could suggest stuff and knew the place and the fetsival really well. also - i cannot tell you how amazing the portaloo's were serisouly - toilet paper, cleaner then any i have ever been in and santizing spray everywhere. shocking and amazing.

Austin is the state capital of Texas, and seems to be a very chilled smallish city - very liberal compared to the rest of the state. Before we left we went to the LBJ presidential library - it was really really interesting and I am so pleased we went: i thought I knew a lot about LBJs politics, but turns out I knew more about his foreign policy then anything else. I hadnt realised the full extent of his amazing doemstic policy, the great society, civil rights....its interesting that we are still fighting those evils of povery, lack of eductaion and segregation today, but we use different language - are the issues of today different or do we cloak them and make them seem more complicated so we dont have to admit that to some extent we have failed? being in a presidential library really makes you realise the weight of history. I wonder if any former UK PMs have considered establishing one? I wish Jed Barletts was real.....

on monday jigs and I went to a posh mall and I spent waaaaaaay too much! got lots of lovely things and it was fun cruising the mall with jigs!

lots of other good things that I wont bore the world with, including having eaten some amazing food (super duper tex mex galore here - the really good kind!, great Texas BBQ, amazing eggplant pizza and fab mac and cheese!) some veeeerry nice drinks (margaritas, naturally - including mexican/texas margaritas, they are fab and lethal, appletini's {sour apple martini's}, mojito's served with a stcik of suger cane and beer called shiner which is goooooood)

jigs is a really good driver [yes, its official, I alone am waving the non driving flag in this family!]. Its been soooo good to see my sister and das and spend time with them. their apartment is just what you would expect - a real home, lovely and welcoming,with tasetful decor and furnishing and - its very jgs and woolly, at times I feel like i could be in Maddox street! (after it was done up of course!)

I better go get ready cos Das is gonna take me out for lunch, then i'll use their membership and go check out the Dallas Museum of Art this afternoon - I fly to San Francisco tomorrow, and then snowboarding for 3 days, so thats all till i next have time to post!

Dhara