Diwali in Leicester

i took a 5 o'clock bus thinking that would give me plenty of time before it got dark
but....
since we're now on daylight saving time, it got dark at quarter past five
O_o
so instead of getting down at Belgrave road where the lights are, i went to the bus station and waited for Erin and Dave to come meet me

the lights were a bit disappointing
but then, not many places has as much money to spend on festivals as singapore does
so.. to make use of the DSLR, i took pictures of the only church on the road
Christina said it's St Margaret's church

and then.. there was light!
tho not much of it

other than lights, there wasn't much activity though
which was a bit anti-climax
people seem rather pre-occupied with shopping for sweets
and eating in vegetarian restaurants

we had a hard time trying to find a non-vegetarian indian restaurant
we must have walked the length 3 times while squinting for signs that didn't say vegetarian
in the end, we settled on one that said "Curry Fever" in pink and purple neon signs
luckily, the food was good and authentic i.e. spicy :)
i even had sweet lassi
it was a refreshing change after eating duck rice drowned in soggy oyster vegetables, and pad thai in sweet tomato sauce
bleargh!

it was funny that we were starving and..it was only 630
(it could have been the change in time)
and vegetarian restaurants had patrons but the non-vegetarian ones had none until after 7.30-8
how strange..

the sad thing though is that.. i forgot to buy indian sweets
it was just as well..
i resolve to get out more over weekends and actually see this country