Bug Jam 2016

From 21^st July to 24^th July I was at Bug Jam at Santa Pod Raceway.  For anyone who knows me you will know my love for Formula 1 and cars that go fast, and for those of you who don’t know what Bug Jam is then you better get reading.

 

Bug Jam is a giant car festival with a VW (Volkswagen) theme.  People from around the world turn up to race, drink and be merry in VW’s.  I went with my mate Hiren, he is the biggest VW fan I know and he has been going for the past 2 years.  I am not a ‘dubba’ but I like racing and fast cars and this festival has lots of that.  The only way I can describe the atmosphere is like the end of Fast and Furious where they go to the desert to race Brian’s new Supra.

We are somewhere on the right

 

Our first drink run, we topped it up

I finished work at 4pm on Thursday and rushed home threw my things in the back of Hiren’s car and we started our Journey.  We had until 8pm to get to Santa Pod before they closed the doors otherwise we would have to camp outside the race track until the next day.  We thought we would be ok as it is a 2 and half hour journey we would be fine.  For some reason that day every major road we needed was either closed or down to 1 lane.  We ended up taking the B roads through little villages and country lanes to avoid the motorways, at 8pm we were 4 miles away from the race track hoping they would let us in.  We rocked up at 8.20pm and they then informed us that they don’t close the gate until 9pm.  Phew!

 

Our Camp

We found Hiren’s mate ‘Ishy’ , and Ishy’s friends Bob, Margret and their daughter Megan. We cracked open the first of many ciders and pitched our tents and made friends with the people around us.  Immediately you got a taste of how the festival was going to be, we had random people come over to chat and have a beer… there was a general hippy like feeling of friendship around the place.

 

Our Camp

We woke up early on Friday morning and Margret started cooked bacon for bacon butties.  So at 8am we cracked open a cider to have with our bacon butties.  We loaded a back pack with some drinks and headed over to the main area where there was a fun fair, a car lot for people selling their VW’s, a main stage for bands, a couple of massive dance tents, markets, beer tents, food stalls, monster trucks, a giant drag strip for racing and race teams setting up cars.  We spent the afternoon there and then went back for more drink.  We came back to the main area to watch the live bands and go to the dance tents.  Honestly I cannot tell you what time we got back to the tent, I don’t even know how I managed to misplace Hiren and Ishy, but I got myself some fried chicken and headed back to camp.  When I got there Hiren and Ishy were with some random’s we met in the tent.  Bob and Margret were fast asleep since they left after the live bands.  Our neighbours were 3 brothers from Wales, (I think one was called Owen) I saw one of them sat on the roof of his yellow, ex AA VW van… so like you do when you’re drunk… I climbed up and helped him drink his beers.  I sat there for a while then thought, oh shit how do I get down.  I jumped down and stumbled to the people camping behind us.  Had a drink with them sat by their fire and decided to call it a night.  In my head it was about 12am.  In reality I have no idea. 

I woke up to the sound of someone throwing up, it sounded like it was next to my head, turns out Hiren was being sick in the gap between my tent and Bob’s tent. Minger!

 

The View

I started Saturday in the same way I started Friday, a can of cider and a bacon butty.  We head into the main area and had a drink in the beer tent walked round for a while and came back.  Hiren was still feeling fragile and didn’t touch any alcohol, I think we peer pressured him into having a beer and burger and then he was back on it.  The day was so hot and sunny it felt like I was in Spain.  We went to the main bit again but this time we loaded Hiren’s little red pull along wagon with a cooler box full of drink and chairs to watch “bug Jams Got Talent” We sat in the middle of a black tarmacked carpark in front of the main stage watching the show.  I was glowing red, my shoulders arms and the back of my neck were burnt, and I thought I was born with natural sun block but it turns out I can burn.  I’ve not had sun burn since I was 10years old it was not fun.  Whilst we were in the main bit we got to see the jet engine car power along a quarter mile drag strip from a standing start in just 5.5 second.  It was so loud I thought my ears were going to burst.  It was mega!!!!  We saw people take their pride and joy’s the cars they spent thousands of pounds on and race them just to do something they can’t do at home.  It was insane.  By the time we got to Saturday Night I couldn’t drink anymore cider, it tasted like the smell of a portaloo, every drink felt like I was swallowing acid.  I had drank too much cider and now I had indigestion and heart burn, they had Scouting for Girls headlining the main stage, they were really good, but I had sobered up and I wasn’t in the mood for shouting and chanting along to their hits.  We went in the dance tent for about 30mins and then went back to the camp.   When we got there a lot of people had the same idea so we chilled with the people camping behind us.  I went to bed about 3.30am as some wanker started lecturing about politics.  Drinking and politics is not a good idea people!

Sunday we woke up early packed up and then waited for Ishy to contact some guys who he had swapped his T4 Camper Van with.  He swapped it for a VW Caddy pick up… for no reason other than he could.  We went for one last walk around the main area and we were treated to see a customised VW Beetle eat up the drag strip.  It managed to nail a quarter mile from a standing start in 8.5secs.  The crowd went wild!  As we walked back to the car to go home I felt a little sad it was a good weekend and I didn’t want it to finish but at the same time I was tired and needed some modern luxuries like warm water for a shower or a clean toilet.  On the way out we stopped over to swap Ishy’s van.  Whilst emptying his stuff from the van to the back of the pickup a guy came over to look at the bright yellow pick up, he started talking to us he wanted to know if the Caddy was for sale. Hiren told them they can have if for £5k as a joke and I believe that on the way home the guy called Ishy and offered him some money for the car.

The weekend was a blast, it was a little random and hopefully I will be going next year and it will be just as good.   met a bunch of cool people.  I forgot how much I loved festivals and how much I hate a portaloo.  I also learned that I am too old to sleep on the floor in a tent and will need to get an airbed or a camp bed.  I left the place really wanting a campervan. 

Memory Walk - Remembering Ba

Those of you who know me know that earlier this year my family lost our Ba to Dementia.  It was one of the worse things my family had to endure.  We watched helplessly as our Ba forgot us all slowly and we became strangers in her life.  In Gujarati (the language my family speak) the word Ba means grandmother and mother.  To us all our Ba was both.  She treated everyone equally and somehow managed to not divide her love or attention for us but to provide another equal amount for each new member of the family, whether it was a new born, spouse or pet.  In her 85 years she accomplished what most people can only dream of she had 7 children, 6 daughter-in-laws and 1 son-in-law, 17 grand children and 7 great grandchildren, she attended the weddings of 7 of her grandchildren and took centre stage for each one.

A couple of months ago I was watching TV when I saw an advert for Dementia, its funny how before I witnessed the devastation of it I never even knew a thing about Dementia.  It is a cruel illness and it is increasing, roughly 1 person every 3 minutes develops this problem.  Dementia is caused by diseases of the brain, the most common one people have heard of is Alzheimer's disease.  Ba had a lesser know disease called Vascular Dementia, which was most likely caused by a stroke she had many years ago.

My first birthday

The advert got me thinking about my charity work… every year for some years now I have tried to push my self to raise money for charity.  I have completed some amazing challenges, such as the national 3 peaks challenge, Manchester's survival of the fittest and I attempted the 100k walk from London to Brighton (couldn't complete the challenge due to my other gran passing).  This year I didn't have a challenge worth raising money for.  I have done my half marathon, but I didn't raise money for charity as I wanted to do that for myself to prove I could push my self beyond my comfort zone.  So the advert inspired me to set a different challenge for myself.  This was not to push myself but to see if I could do something for my grans memory.  I googled the The Alzheimer's Society to see what events they were running, they had a series of different events, running, cycling, swimming etc. One particular event got my brain ticking over.  The Memory Walk!


The Memory walk was perfect.  The challenge for me was to get the family involved (the thing Ba treasured the most), and do something fun that was reminiscent of my childhood, when the whole family would drive somewhere like Blackpool or The Lakes and spend a day walking around laughing with a little picnic.  The memory walk was suitable for all abilities from babies to elderly, fit athletes to couch potatoes.  I wanted everyone to have ownership as well so I set a ridiculous fundraising target of £1000 and sent it to the family (you can still visit the JustGiving site).  The response was over whelming!  Everyone was interested.  We all signed up and we set off fundraising in our own way.  I never thought we would get near the target however we not only collect a £1000 but we smashed it.  On Saturday we had £1179 with donations still coming in from our friends and family.  I now hope to make £1500 by the time the final collections are made.

Donate

Team Fakira before the walk

Saturday 26th September 2015 - The walk

Start of the event

After all the anticipation and the brilliant fund-raising the Fakiras gathered at Heaton Park in Manchester, the weather was perfect! it was sunny and warm, but not to warm to make it hard to walk. As we waited for the walk to start I was met a few friends I haven't seen for years and it was amazing how their experience with the Dementia was same as mine.  There were 5,000 people at the event it was amazing.  It took us 15 minutes to cross the start line, we must of walked 50 yards before we encountered our first problem.  My uncle Dinesh (aka Daji) had a trainer issue and the soles of his trainers started to come loose.  By the time we got round the first corner the soles had completely fallen off both trainers.  He was now walking on the inner lining, we all advised that maybe he should sit this one out, but he was adamant about completing the full 10k walk.  If you know my Daji you will know that walking is not in his DNA, so to do the walk practically barefooted on gravel was going to be hard.    

Me and Daji

As the field started stretching out so did our group.  I decided that I will try and stay in the middle and make sure that the less fit were ok.  For some reason my back pack was being filled slowly with unwanted drinks and jackets, and it was getting heavier and heavier.  By the end it must of weighed 15-20Kg.  The walk was pleasant and we got to meet up with the members of the family who couldn't join in with the walk but came to support. 

The course was 2 laps and at the end of the first lap the kids had to call it quits as their tiny little legs couldn't keep up, but I was really impressed that they managed to walk 5k and they did it with a smile.  We all said to Daji that he has done brilliantly well with first 5k but it probably better if he stops, but he was not quitting! 

Dip and Bhav

Some of us had a quit pit stop for a drink and the toilet break.  As we got to the top of the hill my uncle Dee had a brain wave and gave Daji the insoles of his trainers to put inside his trainers to make the walk less painful.  As we got to the end it was like a carnival, there was a band playing and a DJ.  We posed for a picture as we crossed the line and met up with the rest of the family.  We also received pictures from my cousin's Dipendra and Bhavisha who were on holiday in Turkey on the day but they signed up and did a walk round the resort in their memory walk T-Shirts.  Thankfully we got medals for them as well.

Better view than Manchester

Although the walk wasn't a physical challenge for me it was a great experience that allowed the family to get together and remember the reason we are still close to this day.  I know that Ba would be very proud of us all and how everyone put effort in for her. 

Finisher Medal

My medal is proudly hanging on my picture of Ba… after all the medal was for her.

A Big Fat Fakira Wedding

If you know me well you know I have a big family that mean a lot to me, there are 48 Fakira's and we are very close.  Last year my cousin Suraj decided he was going to marry his girlfriend, Roshni.  For those of you who have been involved in an indian wedding you will know that there is a lot of organising and people management to get right, and it generally falls on the shoulders of the parents.  Only 12 months earlier myself and my mum went through this for my sister's wedding.  My uncle Nillan and auntie Hansa, set off on a 12 month journey of stress and handwork.  

WARNING this is a long read!

In our family we have a tradition to hand deliver wedding invites to our close relatives. In May, me and my mum were lucky to be able to go with Nillan, Hansa and Suraj's brother Mithan to deliver the invites to Hansa's family in Leicester.  We set off on the Saturday of the bank holiday in May and arrived in Leicester on a warm, sunny day.  We visited Hansa's 2 brothers, her niece's house, where we had a few beers and lots of food.  My mums brother, Pravin lives in Leicester about 10min away from Hansa's older brother so me and mum went to my uncles house in the evening to sleep.  When we got to my uncles house he and my cousin had a couple of bottles of Whisky open and had started having a few Saturday night beverages.  I joined them and for a drink and one Whisky lead to another.  My uncle was sent to bed slurring his words and staggering.  Between 3 of us we finished about a bottle of Whisky needless to say I was feeling rough the next day and the journey home was grim.

My Cousins and their partners

2 weeks before the wedding my uncle Nillan and his family came round to give us our official wedding invite.  I specifically asked them to leave my house to the end as we live 7 doors apart on the same street and we could have some good food, drink and relax without worrying about working the next day.  Tradition in our family says we do not cook any meat when wedding invites are being given out.  A month before they arrived me and my mum had a few discussions about the menu.  I wanted to make something contemporary and light, whilst my mum wanted to keep it traditional.  As we got closer to the day we struck a compromise and with the good weather we did a Sea food BBQ.  The weather was perfect, I fired up the BBQ and cooked my home made crab cakes on the BBQ, my mum marinaded some Prawns, Salmon and Cod, along with my crushed potatoes we had a feast.  I was made up with the evening I think everyone had fun and we sent the family on their way to a happy wedding.

Wedding Week 

After 12 months of planning it was wedding week.  The weekend before the wedding weekend me, Nillan and Mithan moved out some of the large furniture from their house to my garage and we emptied their garage into mine to make space for all the guests who will be attending the Hindu ceremonies… And of course its a wedding so the furniture move was followed by a beer.  Tuesday 14th July the Marquee arrived at Nillan's house.  After work I went to the house to help continue the preparations.  We covered the carpet and decorated the Marquee.  There was a good bunch of us at the house that night and it turned into a little bit of a party.  We enjoyed a few family drinks, Nillan even got the Sambuca out.  Wednesday there was less to do so we enjoyed a little more of Nillan's hospitality.

Thursday

Thursday finally arrived and it was the official start of the wedding, Hansa's family arrived from across the country and the Fakira's all finished work.  Traditionally the start of the wedding is marked by a party and pampering for the females of the family.  The evening started with Hansa sitting down for her traditional mother of the groom henna.  Everyone got time to socialise and catch up with each other over several drinks.  By the end of the night some people were a little worse for wear and had to be carried out.

Friday 

For those of you who have never been to a Hindu wedding, there are many ceremonies to ensure that the mind and body are both prepared for the wedding. Hindu's are very spiritual.  Friday saw the start of the religious ceremonies.  The whole family headed to wedding HQ early in the morning.  The wedding started with a small ceremony to Ganesh (Elephant God) to bless luck on the all the activities that are to follow.  

Mandap Muhurat/Pithi

Suraj getting yellow

Following the blessing a purification ceremony is performed.  The groom is covered in a paste mixed of oil and turmeric, this is a natural antiseptic and reduces the risk of spots and blemishes for the wedding day, and more importantly you look good for the pictures.  Traditionally this is applied to the bride and groom a week before the wedding.  The next ceremony performed is to remember the close family members who have past away and will not attend.  A symbolic ceremony is done to invite the spirits of the loved ones to the wedding.  Even though I am not particularly religious, I think this is a good way to ensure that in the buzz you remember the important people in your life who are no longer here.  After this we finally got some lunch, and a quick outfit change, it already felt like I had a long day at the half way point.

  

Remembering our loved ones

Satak

After lunch we all showered and made an quick outfit change to complete the final religious ceremony.  This is ceremony where Ganesh is invited to the house,  this ceremony is carried out by the groom and his parents.  The priest tied a red thread to Suraj's turmeric covered right hand, symbolising purity. He is also given a Manek Sthumbh - the pillar of gems - expressing the sign of good luck and wealth.  PS I googled all of that, but there was a fire and no drinking involved. 

Moshaal

Following religious ceremonies we then formally invited Hansa's family to the wedding, even though they had been here since Thursday they get a formal invite especially as the job of Hansa's brothers is to provide the wedding outfit for the groom.  Hansa's family came to my house to get ready, and they walked from my house to wedding HQ carrying all gifts.  God knows what was going through my neighbours mind.

Whilst they were giving the gifts and taking pictures I slipped out with a few of the lads to Formby Hall where we were having dinner and drinks.  I helped setup the bar and the serve the snacks for all the guests who arrived.  My job for the evening was to ensure everyone had a full glass.  I obviously had to have a sample of the drinks… its part of the rules, don't worry I am not an alcoholic, I was drinking rum… That makes me a pirate!!  

The mood was a little less loud and crazy as Thursday mainly because most people were hungover and also tried from the long day, we finished pretty early and head home.  It was going to be a early start.

Wedding Day 

Suraj ready to go meet Roshni

Saturday morning my alarm was set at 5.30am but I was woken up by a knock on the door.  My mum had a makeup artist booked to do her hair and makeup, I don't know why it wasn't her wedding ha.  I was up early with nothing to do, we had my cousin Nayan and his wife Sivan stayed at mine so I made everyone breakfast.  I stood outside my house watching my street fill up with cars and a bad ass coach driver reversing up the street.  I put on my new Indian suit and headed up the street, before we set off me and Mithan grabbed hold of a new 1LTR bottle of Whisky and Vodka and put it on the coach.  We had 2 coaches, but for some reason 1 coach was just the Fakira's and the other coach had the remaining wedding party.  Suraj went in the wedding car he hired and we all set off to Leicester on time-ish.  We arrived in Leicester and we were greeted by the Brides family, we went into the venue for a quick breakfast, of muffins and masala tea (yes my second, its hard work all this wedding work).  After breakfast we all went back outside for the official welcome and to take Suraj into the venue.  This was pretty dramatic. There were guys playing big indian drums (Dhol) and the family dancing.  I am not a dancer so I stand in the back just nodding my head.  Its a traditional welcome to the groom and in the olden days in India the whole village would come out and party as the groom walks in. 

Me and Dip

I missed most of the ceremony as I was helping out with collecting the wedding gifts.  I was honoured by my uncle to do one of the most important and responsible jobs as the wedding, so me and Dip sat at the back collecting the wedding gifts and money the guests gave to Suraj and Roshni.  After the wedding my dad's sister took a bunch of us to the hotel bar to get a quick drink whilst the bride and groom went to take pictures.  Ok I maybe turning into a alcoholic… but its not my fault its traditional.  We said our goodbyes about 5.30pm and got on the coach back to Atherton.  The Fakira coach was divided in half, me and my cousins were at the back and my auntie and uncles were at the front.  We must of got half a mile down the road before my oldest uncle (Mota) cracked open a beer and a bottle of wine, he went to the shop before we set off. So we cracked open our bottles.  We sang we danced and between the coach we went through a lot of booze.  This was one of the best journey's I have ever done.  We were so drunk and didn't stop laughing.  Apart from the kids and the driver I don't think there was a sober person. We got back to the house and Suraj was already waiting outside.  They played a few traditional wedding games, sorry I was too drunk to watch so I am not sure what games they played.  We all went home early and relaxed.  Brilliant day, we could not of hoped for better weather, clearer roads and hospitality of Roshni's family, not to mention the bad ass coach driver who let us party.

Sunday

Varsha and Me

The next day we had an intimate wedding reception in Alberts on the East Lancs.  I used the opportunity to bring Varsha to her first Fakira gathering, she had met the family previously but not as one big mass.  I have to say the food was amazing at Alberts and the atmosphere was brilliant.  It was just like how Suraj and Roshni wanted, it was relaxed, everyone could chat and laugh with a little background music.  We sat outside on the balcony in the sun drinking and relaxing after the busy week.  Suraj and Roshni were heading off to Mauritius that evening too have their civil wedding, so we gave them a send off with confetti.  After they left the party came to a natural end and we all went home.  On the way home we had one more bright idea and half the family ended up in the Far Pav indian restaurant for one last gathering.  It was a perfect end to a brilliant wedding.  I have to say it was well organised and so much fun, it was what the family needed especially after my gran leaving.