19th-27th January 2009

The updates are getting less regular (as you have probably noticed), and there are reasons for that I promise. Mainly it is because I am busy. The more I get into the job, the more I have to do and the less spare time I have. Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining, if I had nothing to do I would probably just end up sitting by the pool with a cold beer every day……..wait, maybe I am complaining! Bugger!
So I have left it until I have some things to say and here they are. I take notes during the week, a scribbled sentence here or a word or two on the notes function of my Blackberrry, and then I expand on them when time allows.
I haven’t been up to all that much really. I know my blog may give the appearance that I am living the good life out here, but really I am not. The weather is perfect that is true…the beer cheap and the facilities good….but I have to work hard for it, honest!
This is where I am going to blow that last statement, and your trust in me, out of the water. This last weekend has been perfect because I have pretty much done the square root of bugger all. Saturday I just hung around the villa and caught up on some sleep. I had to work most of the afternoon but that is to be expected, its just one of the perils of the job I guess.
Sunday, well what else? Novotel again! Got to love that all you can eat buffet and fully inclusive bar really haven’t you? Top that off with an afternoon by the pool and it just doesn’t get any better than that! For a change of pace, as Monday was a national holiday in India (Republic Day), we elected to relax around the entirely different pool at the villa. I am now sitting here, typing this, looking like a swan vesta! We rounded Monday off with a visit to a place called “F Café”. I had heard many good reports about this place, and knew that they did beef burgers (a real rarity in a country that worships the cow believe me), so I was keen to check it out. My verdict……..adequate at best, it certainly did not live up to the top billing for me but it was OK. The beefburger was great though but maybe that was imply because I have been denied one for what seems like an eternity. What certainly did not help matters was that I had to enjoy it stone cold sober! Yesterday, being a national holiday, was declared a dry day….A DRY DAY for crying out loud. Every off licence was closed, every bar and restaurant stopped serving alcohol for the day. How weird is that? Can you imagine the Aussies doing that on Australia Day? Or the Americans doing that for July 4th?....I think we all know the answer to that is WOULD THEY B****CKS!!!
It is surprising when you spend a long way from home like I have been, what you start to miss. Yesterday I got a craving for Worcester Sauce for some reason? I have a bottle at home all the time. It can go weeks without being used, and then sometimes I’ll have it with scrambled eggs or cheese-on-toast, something like that. I could have killed for a bottle when the thought flashed across my mind, weird isn’t it?
Now the really daft bit. This morning (Tuesday 27th) I noticed the birdsong for the fast time. In the UK it can occasionally become nothing more than a background effect, or white noise, particularly for those who are rushing around…..somewhere to be, fast….and never noticing what can sometimes be the most magnificent of ornithological compositions? Well, today I noticed the Indian equivalent….even stopping to listen for a while. I have resolved myself to learn more about the birds that orbit around me, and in so doing, expand my Indian experience.
Talking of which, I have noticed some more curious sides to the Indian way of doing things. One of which is, of course, my old favourite that is the roads. On Sunday I observed yet more madness in what I could only describe as a motorcycle stunt team. Well, it was actually a family of three, the driver of which was the only one with a helmet, and on the back was a lady riding side-saddle….with a baby in her arms! The baby was clearly not phased by the experience however as it was happily snoozing away in what I assume to be its mother’s arms!
To adapt to life in India you have to be prepared to accept many strange and unusual things. Power cuts being one of them. I guess it’s another thing that, in the UK, I would take for granted….you know, regular power? Well here the power goes out daily, and often more than once during the day. Hyderabad has serious generating problems. I read in a newspaper shortly after my arrival that they only have something like 75% of the generating capacity it actually needs. Couple that with the ad-hoc wiring that the locals do, whereby they just wire something into the nearest junction box or lamppost, and you see why there is not enough to go around. All of the tarpaulin huts that litter the streets have power via these means, the engineering involved is way beyond my expertise, not too mention the sheer bravery involved in wiring something in without having the ability to neutralise the electrical flow first!
Then there are the people who seem to hang around on street corners. Great swathes of people whose sole purpose is it seems to re-affirm the existence of gravity. Why else would they congregate on every street corner?..... and outside every shop?
Lastly there is this most frustrating nodding head thing. So many people seem to do this! Whenever you ask a question you don’t get the standard western thing of the head goes up and down for yes, or side to side for no, here the head just wobbles. You ask a waiter what they can recommend, the head wobbles…..you ask someone directions, the head wobbles….you want to negotiate a price with a tuk-tuk driver….well, you get the idea. It is incredibly frustrating when all you get is a non-descriptive head movement. It’s like having a conversation with a nodding dog sometimes I can tell you!
Well, time to sign off. Hope everyone is well
Neil