23 April : My flight to New Delhi with Virgin Atlantic. Lift off was at 23:30, it was a nice and easy flight, and even managed to get some sleep. I was sitting at a window seat with nobody next to me, well he moved somewhere else because there were not many people onboard, so more space for us all. Had some dinner, which is never fantastic, watched a movie on their onboard entertainment system, Chronicles of Narnia. At 02:00 I decided to catch some sleep, until 06:00 when they woke us up for breakfast. The yoghurt was nice, but the rest wasn’t really.
24 April: Arrived in New Delhi, after the passport control there was already a taxi driver waiting for me with my name on a piece of paper. Couldn’t miss it really. So after a 45 minutes drive in an air-conditioned cab we finally arrived at the Office. Very colourful, lots of taxi’s, riksho’s all blowing their trumpets J most cars had dents in them. It was about 42 degrees Celsius when I arrived, so the air-conditioning was a relief. New development area’s next to area’s where people sell fresh fruit next to the road. The residential area where we are staying looks mixed. Getting back to the apartment, which was down the road from the office (walking distance) having a shower, and get drop off my bags. Impressed with the nice marble floor, but the poor decoration, as the apartment was a bit empty. 3 bedrooms which each a double bed, high ceilings, air-conditioned, build in wardrobes A nice little kitchen with a fridge, microwave, gas cooker with a separate gas bottle, as it’s properly not connected to a gas network over here. A pool table, which has been bought by Andrew and Steve somewhere nearby. A couch and two chairs in front of the TV set (lots of channels btw) Cable TV J some balconies, and all bedrooms have their own en suite bathrooms. Although my shower is far from perfect, so maybe I’m buying my own showerhead to get all that fixed. The third bedroom is not yet equipped with air co. But will be soon I hope. We got an invite from it yesterday to go to the party by the Canadian Embassy here in Delhi, but didn’t feel like going. Coming back from work we chilled out and got my short on. We went out to get some cash out of the cash machine. 4000 rupee’s, which is roughly £50,-. Then we went to a nice little bar where we had coffee and 2 nice milkshakes. Which was 225 rupees. How cheap. I just left the change as it was so cheap. Got some shopping in the seven eleven drinks and some other bits. Gassing away last night, which was a relief. Had a good sleep, and woke up at 08:15 local time. Andrew got up later, so I watched some TV. Got at the office at about 10:00 straight into work. No breakfast this morning, which gave me a slight headache, but ordered a pizza from the Indian Pizza hut and some garlic bread instead. Just arrived back to the apartment…. aaah air-conditioning J Ricky told me before we left he had power failures where he lived 6 hours a day every day! Imagine that! Anyway, we had one too today, hooray for laptops with their own backup. I just made a list from things I would like in the apartment. Most things seem to be there, but there are some essential things, which makes the stay a bit more comfortable after such a long travel here and back. A airco in the 3rd bedroom, a new toilet seat, a new showerhead & shower curtain, A table light for next to the bed and a dustbin for the bathroom. No Big LCD screens J
So tonight we’re going out for some food and drinks. Don’t know where yet, but having a drive in one of those riksho’s as they call them here. Poor driver. Slightly overslept on the 27th, because we watched the match Villa Real vs. Arsenal that night until 02:30, I had 10 minutes to get myself ready, as we had an appointment somewhere. Mukund picked us up from the apartment in his car. Thank god he had air-conditioning in his car. It only took us half an hour to get there. Going back at the office I had those delicious “pancake” type with vegetable filling. I left the spicy sauce where it was, because of the amount of chilli’s drifting at the top. We went back to the apartment and had some nice chicken, rice and green stuff (which looked like mushy seaweed) It was a kind of cheese dish. With some tiny Nan cakes. Can’t recall the name. Have to look that one up on the menu we get given by the guys who are maintaining the apartment. After finishing two plates we went to meet up with the three programmers who are heading to the States after their Visa papers have been cleared. I have find out what the names were, and met up around the corner to catch our auto riksho. We went to a place about 15 minutes drive away called “Café Morrison’s”, which was a very nice bar, but not very busy. The music was loud at some points, but that was a good atmosphere. Some locals were there as well. So we started to drink Kingfisher beers and had quite a few of them by the end of the evening. The others took one round of tequila shots, which I skipped this time to stick with the beer only. We had such a laugh over there, and it was a shame to see the guys leaving, as they’re a great bunch. We kept converting everything into rupees and laugh afterwards. 10 pence? Too much! 5 pence (converted), which is multiplied by 75 in rupees. We went back at about 01:30 I believe, the guys joined us for another beer back at the apartment, and I decided to go to bed at 02:30. Which is why I am late today. Andrew still is in his bedroom; I might have to knock on his door in a minute to wake him up. As there is plenty of work to be done. I haven’t taken that many photo’s yet, which I should, but have plenty of time hopefully this weekend to go to some places and take pictures, which I’m planning to do anyway. It’s beautiful over here, like the culture. What I don’t like however is the “Nala”, which is the open sewerage system they have over here. I should make a picture from that as well. Another day ahead, time to do some work again. Looking forward though to cold England, even if it would be 30 degrees Celsius J
It’s an early night for us tonight. Got some nice dinner (again) and after refreshing ourselves we went out to get some money out of the cash machine (8.000 rupees) per person. Went back to a place we went before to get some cappuccino, and 3 strawberry frappe’s and a tin of cookies. Coming home again it was time to recover again and time to get some sleep. Saturday we are planning to do some work from home, and will go out later on the day. We got 2 table lights today, for next to our beds. Need to buy some more clothing, cause I only have a handful of t-shirts on some shirts and me. This weekend probably. In the evening we went out the some of the guys to Qba, which was a bar for where the upper class normally hangs out. We had some starters and a couple of drinks before the rest of the guys from work joined us on the terrace, which was overlooking the New Delhi Underground station. Andrew’s friend arrived as well that day, which was on a trip through India. She is staying until tomorrow-morning 05:30 to head off again on the train to another destination. Their friendship goes back 20 years. So we took care of the bill for the guys and went back to the apartment. I went to bed not too late, chatting with Linda until my power fell out. We had a power failure previously, and my air co didn’t work anymore. So it was a rather hot night. And my stomach was a bit upset again, not too bad. But had problems falling asleep. When I woke up this morning, I had a nice cold (ish) shower, which felt great. Pippe made Andrew and myself some breakfast (mango) before we were going to do our shopping into town. The electrician arrived as well just before we left the apartment, and fixed the electricity problem. It was one of the fuse boxes downstairs, which he showed us. So if we have this the next time, we should be able to fix this ourselves. Andrew was reading out of his Hindi phrase book, which had some hilarious translations in there. Whoever wrote that book must have been funny in the head. We ordered a cab today, because we wanted to visit multiple places. We went to South Extension 1 first to have a look at some jewellery shops, and managed to find some things for my wife, which I hope she’ll be pleased with. After that we went into a Levi’s Store and managed to find myself 3 pairs of nice jeans. Size went up to 40 for me, as 38 didn’t fit me anymore. Those only were 1.800 rupees each, so in total I bought 3 pair of jeans, which I normally would spend on buying one pair of the same jeans back in the UK. We went to a coffee bar later ‘Parista’ with its uneven stairs, very dangerous. Andrew and my food was okay, but pippe ordered something which wasn’t right, so we got the bill and left. Back to the taxi again off to Defence Colony with one stop. Got some money out and took some pictures of some great statues. Having reserved a place for lunch, which was delicious, but way too much. It was filled up the place. Then we did some shopping across the road where we got some shopping for the kids. Hopefully they like the gifts from their dad from India. Going back again to the apartment and getting freshen up as my feet stank because of the shoes I was wearing today. Now they’re preparing us some food for tonight and are watching the football match Chelsea-Manchester United. So chilling out tonight and tomorrow we’ll be off to Sati’s house. Probably do some preparation work before we go there for work. A couple of days to go before we fly back home. Having had a really good night sleep and no mosquito’s biting me, we wet through the competition entrees, which took us 2 hours or so. After that we walked towards Defence Colony, which was about a 20-minute walk in the hot sun. When we arrived we found an Italian place called “Moets”, which was nice and relaxing. Bought a little Hindi phrase book in a bookshop in the same area, and went back on a tuktuk. He asked us 40 rupees for the drive back to C41, as we knew it was normally 30 rupees. Didn’t want to haggle, because carrying 32 stones (2 people) was a big task for him, On top of that we had a good laugh and the driver was very friendly. So when we arrived after a drive on the motorway we e him 100 rupees instead. The guy was sweating his head off. Relaxing back in apartment again we got ourselves ready to be picked up by one of Sati’s drivers, driving us to his villa. Very impressed with this all, as at the gate where 4 people waiting with guard dogs. Security…. Entering the house a nice large hallway everything in marble (even the driveway) we met up with Sati’s wife as well. She left a good impression behind. We had some snacks and 2 bottles of very good red wine in his lounge room, which was in the basement. After that we went to a recommended Italian restaurant “DIVA”, we had to wait, because we were half an hour later than booked. I had a nice filled chicken breast, Pepsi and a nice bottle of white wine. Sati dropped us off home again at 12:00 and went to bed, a quick chat with Linda before sleeping. And another good night sleep…Monday now, my mum’s birthday. I’ll wait until it is 12:00 before ringing her, as the Netherlands is 4 hours behind. Today will be a busy day again. Looking forward to wrap everything up this week and to sleep in my on bed again soon. Missing the family, but am getting used to it all. We had 2 new artists starting yesterday. Yesterday was a busy day having talked to most of the artists on an individual basis. So today I’ll finish the list. Last night when we went home we were supposed to meet up Tarun and Samrat at home, but due to a power failure once again we moved to the coffee bar down the road. The air conditioning was not on there either, and it was pretty warm. 2 Ladies were sitting there and were looking at us all the time smiling. One of them, which had a profile, you could put a beer on her mouth while she was running down the street, and the other one’s nose was so curled up, it almost ended up in her mouth, with all those rings. Anyway, Samrat joined us there, and he told us the electricity was back up as there where lights burning at home, so we shot of back home. Later on Tarun joined us, and we played some pool, had a few drinks and dinner. I went to bed at 01:00 and had a reasonable good sleep. The shower this morning was great. So another day ahead And…..Skype is great. 10 minutes to the UK for only 18p from India. A good connection too J
Had a good day today at work, and had a nice Hawaiian pizza today for lunch. After watching a couple of episodes of Lost at home we went out to the Golden Dragon again on foot. Had really good food. Chicken Kee with X.O Sauce (god knows what that was). Anyway, on the way back we took a different transport method. The auto-riksho. Off to bed soon again for yet another day of India.
