A Mamma Amma hug and an apple juice
Got back late last night from Alexandra Palace (you get great views of London from there) where I got a hug from Mamma Amma - the famous Hindu leader, lover, saint, woman of India, celebrity and more... (not sure what her proper description really is? she is likened to the Dalai Lama too). It was a long wait with chanting, meditation, music and speeches before the ultimate hug session starts. She does hug you into her bosom like the picture above and she is heavily perfumed with Jasmine so when she hugs you and murmurs sweet nothings into your ear (she said to me, 'my darling, my darling, my darling') all you can do is scrunch your face into some spot in her breast and inhale the jasmine and try to find enlightenment / enjoy it as much as possible as it is over in a few seconds. After our hug, she gave me a rose petal and a candy and her people quickly ushered me off so the next few thousand people behind us in the queue could get a big, warm, jasmine-scented embrace too.

No photographs were allowed so I couldn't take a picture of the vegetarian Indian meal being served in the restaurant, nor could I take pics of the freshly pressed and frothy, green apple juice that Andrea bought us. The juice break killed a few minutes of the long wait and was tangy, sour and refreshing in a nice Yogic kinda way. There had to be food relevance to this posting, non?

Get onto her site Amma.org to hear about all her charitable projects around the world, her next hug dates, her ashrams in India (Andrea's brother peeled potatoes there a few times in the past few years) and look at or purchase one of her many books that she has written. She is a truly powerful woman who is spreading love around the world one hug at a time. She has been honoured by the Nobel society, the UN and more so it is all very warm and fuzzy seeing her cherub like face smiling at you.

Every time I have a freshly squeezed green apple juice I will remember my hug with Mamma Amma!