Hello Lovestruckers! 
Bluffer’s here again, ready to guide you through the London dating scene.
Spring is creeping out from under those ominous grey clouds and with it comes the vernal equinox and Holi, aka, the festival of colours or, to some people, the festival of love.
This year it falls on Monday 17th March and if you can’t melt your date’s heart whilst celebrating the thawing of the winter then you’re beyond our help.
SO WHERE SHOULD I TAKE THEM?
Unless you’re flush enough to fly your date to Nepal for a weekend of being pelted with paint-box-coloured powdered paints you’ll have to settle for celebrating a little closer to home… We suggest the House of Holi in EC2. 9 Devonshire Square – Cinnamon Kitchen to be precise.
WAIT, WHAT?
The Hindu festival of Holi celebrates the coming of spring by encouraging people to take part in a big open-air coloured-paint and water fight. Don’t worry, it’s very well-meaning. After all, this is the festival of love not the festival of little hooligans pelting strangers with anything they can get their hands on. And Indian restaurant Cinnamon Kitchen is bringing the street-celebrations to London. The House of Holi invites the capital’s suited and booted to don a different sort of suit and fight other strangers in protective gear with brightly coloured powdered paints for 30 minutes. Nothing says ‘I’m free spirited and easy going’ like suggesting a Hindu paint-fight for a date.
WHERE IS IT?
You’ll find this most un-English of events hiding in amongst the grey buildings of east London: 9 Devonshire Square, EC2 M4YL. Liverpool Street is the closest tube station which is a fitting place to celebrate the multi-coloured festival because it’s on the pink, yellow, red and purple lines.
HOW MUCH?
A 30-minute session of splashing and smashing, sorry, sprinkling paint in the eyes and hair of your date and a few other strangers will cost you just £8. Which, if you think about it, is a bit of a bargain because if you started throwing things at people on the street it’d cost you a much heftier fine and a potential court date.
WHAT ELSE IS NEARBY?
Well, the restaurant itself. Cinnamon Kitchen are laying on a special Holi festival menu which, for £45 a head (make sure you don’t end up footing the whole bill…), will get you a 3 course meal of rose petals, lotus stem korma and coconut and pistachio cake.
MAXIMUM BLUFFING VALUE
The festival of Holi derives its name from Holika, the wicked sister of the just as wicked asura Hiranyakasipu. In an attempt to kill her brother’s Vishnu loving son, Prahlada, she donned a flame-proof cloak and invited Prahlada to sit on a burning pyre with her. But by some probably divine intervention the cloak was blown off Holika’s shoulders and onto her nephew’s, saving him instead. These things always have a way of working out. And this is why Hindus light a bonfire the night before Holi.
DO ASK ‘You’re not allergic to dye are you?’
DON’T ASK ‘Is this going to mess up my hair
