India. It's a crazy, topsy-turvy, curly-wurly, contradictory bubble of mayhem - and I love it. Love it. Despite all of its kooky madness, India has well & truly won me over. It's been about 10 days since I checked myself out of the spiritual confines of ashram life - and what a 10 days it's been.

I was collected from the ashram by the lovely Ritesh - he & his business partner Chandru are overseeing my DJ bookings for me whilst in India. He travelled for the best part of 24 hours from his hometown in Bangalore to pick me up from Kerela to accompany me to Goa. And here we arrive at my very first Indian train journey. It was a fun experience - it took about 18 hours on the train for us to creep northwards up the Kerelan coastline to Goa. The train was huge - super long - and not particularly fast. We stopped at stations for about an hour on  more than one occasion, but hey...it's India...what's the rush? Chai & coffee sellers walked up & down the train "chai, chai, chai" "coffee, coffee, coffee" literally every minute. Then came the food guys "biriyani, biriyani, biriyani". Thankfully they paused overnight...and resumed promptly at 5am the following morning.

I was to spend one night in Goa before heading to Pune for my first gig. We opted to stay in Arambol - and upon first impressions I have to say I was not overly enamored with the place. It was a bit of a hippy overload for me - and it had a bit of a strange vibe. Fun place to shop (although the shopping was almost identical to Camden Town, but just hotter - and cheaper), but it just felt a little too much like a home from home. I wasn't really there long enough to absorb it fully, but that was what immediately struck me.

Next was Pune for my gig. A bumpy 12 hour bus ride on a sleeper bus took us there. But when your head is getting bounced around all over the place on the pillow it's pretty hard to sleep - so I meditated & tried really hard not to need to pee (there are no toilets on the long haul buses. Yes, really - although they do make the odd pee stop here & there...if you don't mind bushing it). The club put me up in a lovely hotel for the night - I had my first hot shower in a month (it felt amazing) and slept in probably the biggest bed on the planet. Treats. The gig was super fun - I met some incredible people - mostly friends of Ritesh & Chandru - and had a total blast. The next day we headed back to Goa, this time to the sleepy little town of Morjim, where my good buddy & fellow DJ / music producer, Pawas was staying.

Pawas has some good friends here in Morjim - Navin, who runs the beach huts where I'm staying - and Chetan, who runs an Ayurveda centre about 5 minutes from Navin's huts. They are such amazing guys - all of them. They have been totally looking after me, spoiling me rotten & making me feel so welcome - I am so thankful to have been lucky enough to have such amazing people surrounding me. Despite not really being fully convinced about Goa initially, it has managed to creep under my skin and I am slowly falling in love with it. At this time of year it's pretty crazy - the traffic jams are incredible (trust me, you haven't experienced a traffic jam until you've been in an Indian traffic jam) and there is a dark side to the place - but if you put your judgement aside & accept it for what it is you do find yourself having a stupid amount of fun here.

I've been treated to some incredible meals, have indulged in fabulous massages and have taken beautiful night time strolls along the beach. And yes, for sure I've been partying. I don't think I could have made a more polarized transition if I'd tried - from ashram to Goa. So far I've had one gig here - at a beachfront bar - which was amazing - I had the whole place dancing & fully impressed Ritesh & Chandru and the incredibly lovely venue owners, so that was wonderful. Tonight I have my second Goan gig at what I'm told is a very cool venue. Excited!

Since leaving the ashram I've been continuing to digest the valuable lessons I learnt there - and without a shadow of a doubt I can say they are fully serving to enrich my life on a daily basis. My meditations have become deeply profound, during which I've had some incredible realizations. I've always believed in the interconnectedness of all life, but the other evening whilst meditating I actually came to fully understand precisely what this means - it's one thing believing something, it's totally another actually understanding it. Since then, I have naturally found myself to be much more accepting and far, far less judgemental. Resultantly, I have been fully able to immerse myself in the here & now and relish each & every experience. I feel protected, safe & loved, wherever I am. I really do feel like the luckiest girl alive.

I hope 2012 brings you all everything you hope, wish and pray for. Never lose sight of your goals - focus on the end point & everything else will fall in to place. Have amazing new year's eve celebrations, whatever you chose to do :) xxx