A week or so ago, the calm of Sula Wines was taken over by the frantic bustle of Bollywood, as megastar-cum-cricket-moghul Shilpa Shetty and her film crew descended on the vineyard for the making of the forthcoming film “The Desire”.

Sadly, we arrived after her first session and had a dinner appointment that meant we missed her evening appearance – so for the duration of our stay, she was locked safely inside her star-spangled trailer. (But she looks like this – you’ll get the idea)

All our usual haunts (the wine bar, the amphitheater, the restaurant) were fully transformed with lights, cables, makeup tables, a cast of thousands dressed up to the nines, and – strangest of all – what appeared to be a gang of American backpackers drafted in as fully-disguised extras.

Which also got me thinking. I was intrigued to read that the film is a joint Indian-Chinese production. It’s well known that Bollywood is a larger industry than Hollywood, and of course brilliant Chinese film-making and showmanship has already become a powerful export.

So forget the dynamics of their respective economies and three-way nuclear chess. Film-making, and its accompanying phenomenon, cultural imperialism, are two particular barometers of the rise – and decline – of modern empires.

(But perhaps there are ancient prototypes too. Did I mention the restaurant was Italian?)

Anyway. Back to Shilpa.

We hope this one will be different: for a start we’re on a big life adventure and there’s too much exciting stuff going on not to write about.

Stay tuned as we head off towards the sunset (or in the first instance, towards the sunrise) and we’ll file our reports as often as we can manage.