Back in India, just missed the dewali festival

30th of October 2006, Monday, Previous to the flight

After clearing everything from our trip to the Netherlands, I had to get ready for my next trip. Destination Delhi.
Got all papers ready, and sorted out my extended 2 year visa with thanks to Danny to let me stay in his beautiful mansion in Wimbledon Village.
Linda and the kids dropped me off at Peterborough Station again, and I had the train at 16:00 to Heathrow. Usually I leave earlier, but then I'm stucked for a few hours at the airport wondering around and spending money on games I don't have the time for playing anyway. So after my check in I managed to get a nice exit seat again (whole for myself). I had Ponti's before takeoff, so once on the plane I took my contacts out, and went to sleep. Not very comfortable, but somehow I always manage to fall asleep anyway. I woke up 1 hour before landing in Delhi. Had some cookies for breakfast and some OJ. The Service at Jet is really good, much better then Virgin Atlantic I would say.

flight screen from Jet Airways

31st of October 2006, Tuesday, Arriving, unpacking and a headache+sore throat.

I finally arrived at Indira Ghandi International at around 11:00 IST, and a got a taxi to pick me up and brought me to the office in Lajpat Nagar. After dropping off mr.Sing's present (Microsoft FlightSimulator X Deluxe Edition) I went downstairs to see my team. It was a good feeling to see everyone managing their own thing and being busy.
For lunch I got myself some butter chicken with nanbread which was mjummie, and I started again to drink heaps of water. Today felt really nice, as when I arrived it was around 27 degrees, and during the day it was 31 degrees. Now it cooled down already to 20 degrees, which is really nice. Also the dust particles give a nice effect when taking pictures. Before take off I already had a sore throat, but the flight only made it worse. So 2 paracetamols in a minute and some dinner which Shauhan prepared.
We've prepared some of the work we had to do today, and I left as I feel really tired, and I have catched a headache now too. Hopefully after a good night sleep that will be gone.

"Where did they say it was ?" fltr : Tarun, Ricky, Akhil and Samrat

1st of November 2006, Wednesday

I had a really long sleep and finally woke up at about 10:00. Quickly washed and off to work, as it was a busy day again. Training preparations, Reviewing work. The day was nice filled up with all kinds of tasks. I went out with Tarun today to get some money out of the cash machine, and parked our car later at "flavors", but to my disappointment it was closed. There was a 3 day strike from most of the shops in Delhi. As the government decided to close down all the shops that where illegally started in residential area's. So that's a major thing between the Indian government and the shopkeepers. Anyway, we decided quickly to get ourselves a take-away from Domino's, which was really nice. Played Ridge Racer on the XBox 360 today as well, which didn;t look as good as I expected to be, but maybe it would look better on a HDTV. Not a reason yet to buy one I would think. I'd wait until the Wii comes out, as this consoles attracts me more then the other two right now. Some good games coming out on the PSP soon again, which I';ll def get for the collection (all retro). I went home at about 20:00, and paid a visit at the local coffee shop. Then off home to try and contact Andrew, who wasn't there. Quickly chatted with Linda. Now, I have been listening to modules from our own musicians (TBL) and other musicians from Mono211. I just been thinking that it is about time to update our old website with some new material we released during the last few years, as nobody seems to update it. Well, up to me again I would say to do this task. Although the website looks outdated, it's still functional and has still no flash :) I have to go to sleep in a minute, otherwise I'll feel like a zombie tomorrow. And I'll have to assist two of our artists tomorrow with a nice new job we're doing right now. And they seem to love the work too. Tomorrow we'll have a look at all the idea's for our new VBeing website, to get some inspiration for a new and fresh layout. Hopefully soon after that we'll make this all happen and update the one we are running right now.

inside Chilli's at Kahn Market, Delhi

2nd of November 2006, Thursday

What happened today, not much. Lotsa work been done, meetings, eat, sleep.

just on the edge of Khan Market

3rd of November 2006, Friday

Had a good sleep again, and had a nice long shower this morning. After arriving at work we had some meetings at the office and went out for lunch with Ricky and Tarun. Khan Market is a nice marketplace full of Europeans for a change. It's a popular place amongst them apparently. We had some lovely food. Had a strawberry smoothie, pepsi, tomato basil soup and red pesto chicken. Tarun and Ricky paid for me (I have to pay them when they come in the UK, and that's slightly more expensive:)) Anyway, we went to a toy store there where I bought 2 Auto Rickshaw models (not very good ones, but the best I could find there. And Ricky asked one of the Rickshaw drivers if I could make some pictures (I believe he told the driver I was a tourist), and he was more then happy pictures where taken from him vehicle, he even showed the engine, axels, the lot. So I shot quite a few pictures for a new Art Brief for the guys to do :) Lovely model when it's finished and up and running. While eating btw we got some bad news one of our employees got beaten and pushed. So when we arrived back at the office we got fully informed. The ex-employer of one of our friends came around with someone else to have a word with one of our artists outside the office. Nobody was there to help him as he was outside. Two new recruits are starting with us on Monday as they wanted to leave their previous company for reasons and wanted to join forces with us. So we welcomed them. Now we did not poach them as they came out of free will. The ex-employer took this as an offence against him and did something he hopefully will regret. As an official complaint was filed against him through the police. Poor guy, I wish I was there to help him. I have never seen such a thing happing in my career, and totally out of order and unprofessional. Well, it's weekend now, and hopefully I will enjoy this one as all the other ones, as I always do while I'm out here. I haven't ordered a cab yet, but will do that tomorrow after my sleep and go and see the Ricksmeister :)
Dinner is waiting in the microwave (don't worry, it's a healthy meal).

an Auto Rickshaw with it's proud owner, according to mr. Singh not very expensive to buy. Would be funny me driving around in Peterborough in one of these things. Anyway, we managed to get plenty of reference images for the guys :)

4th of November, Saturday, Weekend

09:04, Just woke up and am getting ready to go out. Will make some plans for today, and then will contact Sareen to arrange a taxi with driver for me. It looks like a another nice day, not too hot anymore like a couple of months ago. Will have to give Ricks a buzz later to see what his plans are for today. Need a paracetamol as I have a mild headache, but hopefully that will be gone soon. Just turned the AC off, and opened my room door.
My taxi arrived at 11:00, and we went towards QBA at Conaught Place to get some lunch. I was the first customer, and they recognized me. Had some Yum Tom Kai Soup, Garlic Bread and a Butter Chicken with nan bread. After that we went to Gurguan, which took a while, as the traffic was heavy. We parked the car in the carpark underneath the shopping centre and I bought some presents for the kids. After visiting the shoping mall opposite that one we went to a Handy Craft shop, where Mukund pointed me to during my last visit and bought two beautiful handmade vases for the house. I gave Tarun a call and went back to S-Block, next to M-Block Market. The street names over here still surprise me, or not. They do not really make sense, but it seems to work. Picked up Tarun, and we went towards New Friends Colony. To my dissapointment the Ego -Thai place was shut, so where the other Ego places. So we decided to go to Pebblestreet, which looked like TGI Friday's inside, and the music was 100% 80s. The service was poor, as it started with the wrong starter. Then we got our main meal before the soup, and they forgot the garlic bread. The mocktail was average, and they didn't have bottled drinks. This restaurant gets 1 star for me, and I will not be visiting that again. Nevertheless the food tasted okay and we had a good laugh. Then we dropped off Tarun, and I'm back home now. I'll go out in a minute to Central Market to walk around and maybe do some small shoppings.

QBA at Connaught Place at 12:00. I was the first customer of that day.

5th of November, Sunday, Weekend

Woke up at about 09:30 this morning, and the driver was early today. He explained me yesterday he had to attend a wedding at around 17:00, so I couldn't use the service after, which was fine by me. We drove to Khan Market, as I wanted to get some breakfast of Big Chills, but forgot India is not awake so early. Most shops where still closed, so instead of eating there I ended up at MacDonalds where I had 2 chicken burgers, some fries and a coke. Shame they only provide chilli sauce of tamato ketchup. After that we drove all the way towards Noida to pick up Kishan, as we missed out on the Museum for Modern Arts. KD showed me proud his latest art piece he produced at his new company. His machine was just too slow to show a 2k image. So he wanted to update it anyway. Good move I would say to update the equipment he was working on. After visited the museum we went out to Tanino's for the buffet which was good as usual. It was good to hear how business was over there from his point of view. After that we drove back via Noida, where I have not been before. Very clean area, nothing like Delhi itself as it was mostly new and well maintained. We dropped off KD and went back to Lajpat Nagar. Coming back Chauhan was cooking dinner and I went out for a walk behind Central Market through Central Market to a linen shop close to see whether they had some nice duvet covers. It was a bit pricey for my taste, and the ink was on the sheets. So I walked out and got myself a nice strawberry McShake from McDonalds. Now I'm back again and chilling out behind the television. Busy week ahead again tomorrow, which I'm looking forward to.

One of the shopping Malls in Gurgaon.

6th of November, Monday

Nice and early at the office. That early that even Davi was not there yet. He came running saying, sorry I am late :) Anyway, had a good and fruitfull day again at the office. We finished another batch of art assets for a client. We stayed in yesterday, and had Domino's for lunch. Chatted with the trainees, and welcomed 3 new artists who joined us yesterday. Went to bed at about 23:00....

7th of November, Tuesday

Got up at 09:00 and had a good long shower. Busy day ahead again as I'm preparing some work for the guys over here. The Intuos 3 Wacom tablets arrived ! Result. We got in the guys and did an introduction on these and rolled it out. The guys loved it ! Also we had reviewed the latest JIMMC Competition, and we passed 9 candidates. So Vbeing is expanding yet again. Basically it was a very good day.

A monkey sitting on the back of a bicycle on the way back to Delhi.

8th of November, Wednesday

Sonnu, one of our artists came along in the evening, looking for a shop that was open, as the Twenty Four Seven shop was closed again. It's all to do with sealing shops in Delhi which are located in residential area's. It's a strange thing. The Locals government took bribe money to allow people to start a shop in residential area's, although it was forbidden by the government. Now the Local government want's to close all these shops in Delhi. So you imagine quite a few people are the "victim" of this now, and out of any income as far as I know. Only doctors, food places like MacDonalds and Hospitals are not affected in these area's. So riots are going on, and huge traffic jams are caused by this in the morning. The police is blocking off several roads, and they're smiling. As they are not affected by this anyway. I guess they enjoy the chaos, keeps them busy. Haldiram's close to the office which always supplied us with food had to be closed as well. So now we have to find another place to order our food. Plenty of places still left, but that was convenient for us all. (to be continued)

MacDonalds Breakfast at Khan Market at 11:30. Two MacChicken burgers, large fries and a coke.

9th of November, Thursday

Went out to Pizza Express at Ansal Plaza with Ricky, Tarun, Samrat and Akhil. Both me and Tarun where tempted to weigh ourselves, and I ended up being 20Kg's too heavy according to the machine. I was 6.3" and 108.8 Kg. Still 10 Kg's less than a while ago. In the evening Tarun came over to my place to play some pool untill 23:00.

The Powersocket for my Macbook Pro. India>UK>Powersupply :)

10th of November, Friday, Flying back to the UK
When I arrive back home I have to actively start looking for new recruits from the UK. I have a couple of candidates in mind, but have to sort things out before we will make an official offer to join forces with VBeing. The ball is rolling however, and on my next flight (the 27th of this month) we will have another person onboard. I arrived at India Gahndi Airport a couple of hours ago, and my bag got checked as I had a Submachine gun in it :) Well, a plastic toy one for Ivar :) No exit seat for me this time, as they where already taken. As I'm a regular flyer I'm going to find out whether I can reserve an exit seat at all flights, as they are most convenient for my legs (and the rest). I had a roast chicken sub at the newly opened Subway Restaurant this morning at the airport and had to go for secutiry checks again at gate 7. Once arrived there, they changed it again to Gate 10. So back again and another security check. Now it's time to wait untill we finally board. Fingers crossed they have put on some new movies, as I've seen most of them right now. Looking forward for my next trip as I'm planning to go to visit Agra and the Taj Mahal. Never been there before, as in the summer it was just too hot. Now the temperature has come down, and it's around 30 degrees now, which is nice. Evening temperature's are dropping to a 17 / 20 degrees at nights. I'm going to enjoy my weekend of not doing anything, and am getting the new guy visiting me on Monday.