Day 224-225: This is when we were interviewed for Indonesian National television infront of an erupting volcano

Oh! It's all in a days work for your intrepid Team 365... :)

Let me start at the beginning - which is in the dark and distant past before a 12-hour day in a number of minibuses from Yogyakarta to Ceromo Lewang, a small and sleepy village positioned in the Javanese mountains with a picture-perfect view of Mount Bromo. We had heard of lots of scams (faux break-downs conveniently next to high-charging hotels that were mates with the driver etc.) on this particular route but - apart from sever numb-bum experienced by all - our trip went without a hitch. We even managed to negotiate ourselves a discount for the drive to Mount Bromo in the morning.

And it was an early start; we left our wonderful guest house, Yoschis, at the un-godly hour of 4am and made the short and winding drive up to the view-point in the dark. From the viewpoint we got our first glimpse of Bromo; surrounded by soft white mist like an island in a cloudy ocean, the sight was spectacular. From the view-point we walked about 2km further up the mountain (4x4s can't go there but horses and feet can) for an even more panoramic view. By now the sun was rising and the golden and pinks in the sky were turning to blues.

Ash was billowing out of Mount Bromo at a fairly constant rate, with occasional bigger bursts and even a few puffs from the volcano behind it (apologies, I'm not sure of the name) - it was incredible. Now I've never seen a volcano before so I can't really compare but surely this is one of the most breath-taking views of tectonic activity that it is safe to see in person?

Which leads me on nicely to the interview. Was it our good looks and charm? Our obvious on-screen chemistry? Was it that they recognised us from those Bollywood roles that bagged us this slot on Indonesian TV? Who knows...though I would hazard a guess that just being English was what swung it. We shared our awe at Bromo and confirmed that we felt perfectly safe in its presence.

Little did we know that the safety-line of questioning was probably because Bromo has only done the ash-billowing thing 3 times in the last 10 years (last in 2006) and what we were watching and happily smiling-for-the-camera in front of was considered an eruption. A real eruption. A very unusual, real, volcano erupting - and us. Finally it seemed our luck with volcanoes was in!

Some people arrive in the evening, like we did, see Bromo in the morning, like we did, and jump straight onto a bus to Bali; we did not do this. Instead we decided to spend the day wandering around Ceromo Lewang - there's not much going on, but the locals are friendly and the cool climate was a welcome relief, I'd definitely recommend it. It's certainly better than back-to-back days on a minibus.

This was one of our shortest stays but it was certainly one of the most memorable.

Day 62: Fame!

Have we learned how to live forever? Have we learned how to fly - high? ...will anybody even remember our names?

Truthfully: no. But that is not to say that in the last three days Team 365 have featured in no less than two more Bollywood hits.

That's right folks: we're basically famous.

On Monday we secured the lucrative positions of "background scientists" on blockbuster-budget film Robo. No white coats here though - we were only bringing our dulcet English tones to the dubbing desk i.e. we wandered a "conference hall" around feigning interest in a humanoid robot and then, you know, spending some time in the studio laying down some lyrics*

But today - today - ooh let me tell you, we got stuck in with all sorts of stardom! I answered phones, arranged meetings with 'the boss' and lay on a sunlounger next to one of the 'Nadu's biggest stars. Rob kept his Bollywood speaking part at an impressive 100% swearing statistic as he typed numbers into a laptop, paused and swore in faux frustration (x2)

I do not wish to exaggerate our importance in the film (whose name we, very upsettingly cannot pronounce and therefore remember) BUT we owned those scenes; take a look at the photos, you'll see close-ups galore and a man whose job it was to maintain my "wet look". That is to say after insisting I change into shorter shorts; someone was enlisted to pour water over me between takes.

So. There you have it. We can leave India safe in the knowledge that Bollywood wants us in the foreground, the background and even just our voices.

See you at Oscars darling, yes sweetie, fabulous, fabulous, mwah!

three stardom five



*lyrics AKA background noise...why get tied down in accuracies?

Day 23: Frankie goes to Hollywood

And we hope that Frankie had a lovely time, but we were in India - and we were going to Bollywood, baby.

In the first bit of paid work that Team 365 had done in a month: we'd secured ourselves the illustrious position of EXTRA on a Bollywood movie set.

That's right. And Golmaal, which will no double go straight to DVD in that cornershop down the road that you didn't realise even did DVD's may well contain the fleeting image of your favourite travelling twosome.

In reality the day was spent lazing on a private beach with some friends we'd made and had introduced us to the right Russian lady that was in a position to give such employment. We were served breakfast and lunch and then, just as the sun was setting and our hopes of stardom fading our extra skills were called upon! And so we walked up and down a faux road infront of a faux house while the stars sped past on scooters for about half a hour while camers rolled and a stuntman explained to us that he'd been in Slumdog Millionairre too.

And there it was: a hard days work and two crisp 500 Rupee notes each later, delirious with excitement, we toasted to our success and planned our onward journey.