Jam away

New blogging...

2006-06-05T13:32:00.000+01:00

After becoming addicted to myspace (www.myspace.com/jamaway) I have now decided to dip my toe back into blogger. Namely with the world cup blog found at http://worldcupfromthepub.blogspot.com/.

Will update all you other loyal readers shortly, I promise.

Evidence

2006-02-28T18:17:00.000Z

He has been watching us for a very long time. One for the casebook please kingy - worrying.

Bloody big lack of update

2006-02-02T13:28:00.000Z

First update of the ol' blog for a while. First update since I have returned back to normality, and a note to say that this blog will soon again be active and updated regularly, probably on a weekly basis.

So whats been going on since the big return? Lots.

New role at work started (now officially a nine till fiver), old friendships rekindled (for various reasons), homcoming gatherings enjoyed (for obvious reasons), farewell nights out attended (oh how we miss thee kingy) and some photos now available for sale (click).

Talking of photos available for sale, I'm looking for suggestions of what my photography pseudonym could be because I am quite simply lacking inspiration and creativity trying to think of one. Suggestions are welcome via the adding of comments but please offer better efforts than mr nick king - (no I am not going to list my name as MR B BAG under my photos)

Right work beckons - see you soon.

Final few days till home...

2005-12-13T18:48:00.000Z

So as it rolls into wednesday the 14th december it signals 'two days left.

Unfortunately the weather during the last week or so has been pretty bad so we haven’t really had the chance to make the most of any sun. In typical 'sods law' fashion, during the weekend just gone, our final weekend here, we found a nice little pub. A pub that actually feels like a pub. It is within a hotel, but it still feels like a pub none the less. They have the football on. People sit in there all afternoon drinking. Etc Etc. Why we didn’t stumble upon this taste of home three months ago is beyond me. Why oh why do we find this place where we can hang out on the last weekend? The food in the place is lovely as well. If you sit there long enough, they first bring you crisps. Free crisps that they make there. Then, if you sit there a bit longer, they'll bring over some nice salad bits and some cocktail sauce. Free salad bits and cocktail sauce. Then, if you sit there a bit longer, they bring over some really nice vegetable pakoras. Free vegetable pakoras. Note - pubs should back home should adopt a similar policy. On top of all these free nibbles you can order more nice treats. Spring rolls. Chicken '65'. Lovely little fish fingers made with really nice fish, with lime and chilli sauce. And we find this place on the last weekend. I'll tell you what that is - Annoying.

Another 'sods law' situation - Agi, our cook made a lovely prawn masala yesterday. A little delight he has never cooked before, and one we didn’t know he could even make. Nice one, start making the nice food when we leave.

And another thing! - Get this. Suraj, one of the new lads (local) tells me about this great hotel near the beach, where you can go down and sit at the bar by the huge pool they have overlooking the sea. Apparently you can go down there with a load of CDs, drink in the lovely surroundings and listen to your own music. That sounds like a cracking place. I'm going home friday though so I wont be able to visit. Great.

Have you noticed that all my annoyances in this post so far revolve around eating and drinking? This points to the simple fact: I am looking forward to eating and drinking when I come home. There is a fact.

However, now that I can reflect on the india trip - aside from the basic things that have got on my tits the last month or so - I can honestly say its been great. There are so many things I am going to miss. There are so many things I won’t miss. I feel a list coming on:

* THINGS I WILL MISS

Enjoying the sunshine
The beach
Body boarding
The people
The innocence of the people
The cheap price tags
The optimism
The nice food
The continuous learning experience
My friends i've made at work
Wearing shorts in december
Baffling most locals I speak to

* THINGS I WILL NOT MISS

The rain
The confusion
Big spiders
Mosquito's
Cockroaches
The distinct lack of anything to do post 9.30pm
The lack of logic I have seen day in day out across the board
The malaria tablets
Having to check my room before sleeping for things that want to eat me
The roads

But even though i've been here for three months now, I still can’t explain what its like. Its one of those places that to know what its like; you'll going to have to come here. I'm trying to think of one thing that typifies the feeling I get from the place. Feelings of endearment, laughter, annoyance, enjoyment. Could it be within some of the signs I have seen? "accidents are not accidental", "no room service please", "van helsig starring huge(!) jackman", "any inconvenience caused is regretted" - no none of them quite do it.

Could it be yesterday, when my driver managed to freeze up the windscreen with the air conditioning? Freeze up the screen on the outside but repeatedly rub the inside to no avail. Continuing to do so until he couldn’t see and had to wind down his window and stick his head out the side of the car to see where he was going, ace ventura style. At that point I snapped - "Mate, why don’t you just use the wipers....? THE WIPERS!" - "oh, yes sir" - Wipers on, screen wiped, visibility returned, problem solved. Nope that doesn’t quite sum it up either.

Could it be the two blokes playing badminton at the petrol station? The car that smashed into the taxi in front, and the taxi drivers reaction? The reaction of poking his head out the window, pulling a stupid face and then simply waving the reckless driver past, not an ill word spoken? No.

I view this area as a great place, full of positive energy and kind people. But I’m also seeing india as a country that doesn’t quite get it right. Almost but not quite. It can be summed up in the old cars that are falling to bits but have top of the range audio systems. The lovely, huge, well built houses next-door to a hut made out of tin and wood with a whole family living in it. The lifeguards that look the part, keep and eye on you and blow the whistle but hate going into the water and send other people in to save you when you get swept out to sea. But the fact that it almost gets it right isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I mean, who am I to judge what is right anyway? It’s a developing place. Fast developing. They might construct new buildings using scaffolding made out of flimsy wood and string but the new buildings look good. And there are plenty of things they get right. The attitude, the friendliness, the mentality and the optimism.

Ultimately I think that’s what I hope to take home with me.

Can’t wait to see you all soon.

Xmas beach party

2005-12-05T10:53:00.000Z

This weekend saw the alamy india xmas beach party - and it was brilliant. The setting was amazing, a private section of the beach at a private hotel, right next to the sea and lovely warm weather. There was a cartoonist, magicians, a band, lovely food, plenty of drink and lots of happy people!

To be honest, there are no real stories to tell, just that everyone had such a good time. The guys over here really love get-togethers, everyone gets on and there is no bad blood! Upon the request, EVERYONE storms onto the dancelfoor and dances like no-one else is looking. The only people who didnt charge for the floor were, you guessed it, the english lot...

I thought it would just be best to post a load of pics from the night, and there will be more to follow once neil comes back from his holiday...

Xmas beach party pics

2005-12-05T10:37:00.000Z

Roshan

Donatus

Suraj, Harini, Ranjith and Divya

The lads

Anupama and Manu

The 7 year old magician and me

Dennis

Renjith

Ponmudi

2005-11-27T04:23:00.000Z

Yesterday we went off to ponmudi. Its only about 65km from us here but as the roads leading up there are shocking, it takes two hours to get there by car. The drive up there was interesting though. We were out of the city and going through village to village felt different - lots of colourful people, cows, goats, chickens and an elephant!

So rather than explain myself what and where ponmudi is, I'm just going to blatently copy and paste the next paragraph from neils blog - thanks mate in advance:

"Ponmudi is a hill station at an altitude of 1000m above sea level on the Western Ghats mountain range. Surrounded by tea plantations its name (apparently) means Golden Crown in Malayalam - i'm not sure why i expected it to have a yellow peak.....because it didn't."

The views were stunning. No matter how many pics you take its one of those places that you just have to see it with your eyes to get the full effect. After checking in to our really expensive hut (3 quid each), flashing our passports (bureaucracy), and dropping our gear off we headed up the hill/mountain. We met many happy smiling people on the way up who either wanted us to take their pictures or just wanted to say hi. The most random of encounters at the summit - a bunch of nuns showed up, and a good laugh they were too. They loved having their picture taken and they asked me what I was going to do with the pictures that I had taken. I told them I was going to print them out and put them on my wall due to the fact that they were all so gorgeous. This was met with raptuous laughter from the randy old sisters! Even funnier was later when we were on our way back down. We heard a bus approaching behind us with music blaring out and as it zoomed past us it was only the nuns bus! They were all hanging out the windows and waving/screaming/laughing - I really dont think that is a sight I will ever have the pleasure of viewing ever again.

Although beautiful, ponmudi had been 'done' in 3 hours. As we had only paid a few quid to stay the night we thought we may as well just head home and get an early start for tommorrow. We went to find our driver to no avail, although his/our car was there. Interesting. Through confusion, sign language, head bobbing and broken english, we established from a few of the lads hanging around that our driver had gone to hospital, on the bus, because he had hurt his leg. He would be back at 10..(am or pm?) - I asked why the hell hadnt he taken his car. My question was given the answer - "Yes. Bus." I asked if he had hurt his leg, how was he going to drive us home. My question was given the answer - "Yes." We gave up, looked like we were staying in our hut after all. And what fun that turned out to be. It can be summed up thusly:

"Cockraoches/bacardi/coke/mozzies/ipod/poker/bacardi/powerout/worrying scuttling sound in every corner of room/hide under covers fully clothed to prevent being eaten alive"

Dont ask me how, but I managed to stay in that room despite the fact that it was home to approximately 95% of india's entire population of insect life. There was a sign on the wall which read:

"NO ROOM SERVICE PLEASE"

Were they asking us or telling?

Anyway, we awoke early, saw the sun rise, took plenty of pics and began our trek in the car down the 22 hairpins (each one signposted) that lead to the main "road" home. A lovely place but if you ever go, just do the day trip and dont stay the night.

I learnt alot more about my camera again on this trip so am just going to post the pick of the bunch. High 5 to neil for taking the ones of me (performing the trademark allsworth 'point' of course). As ever, clicked for enlarged.

Shit!

2005-11-27T03:35:00.000Z

Well it had to happen sooner or later didn't it? I'd gone just over 2 months without seeing anything too worrying (monster flying cockroach aside) and then it finally happened. I came home friday morning to find this little beauty hanging about around my shoes.

The best of it is, I'd been in my room 10 minutes before I noticed the bastard. Just getting into bed and it caught the corner of my eye. A mixture of terror and relief rushed through me. Terror, cause I bloody hate 'normal' spiders let alone big hairy legged motherf*##%$ like this, and relief that I'd seen it before getting into bed and going to sleep.

Right - what do I do now....Smash it against the wall and kill it! No - I cant bare the 'crunch'. Get the guard to catch it like neil did last time then! No cant do that as we only have one key to the house, and the guard now has it as he locked me in. He needs it to let neil in from work in a few hours...we really should get some more keys cut....well its too bloody late now you have an eff off spider in your room what are you going to do about it? Trap it in a glass. Good thinking sherlock but it wont fit in a glass and you'll probably spaz it anyway and end up smashing the glass all over the floor. Ok good point - I'll get a big plastic cup, and a pad of paper and trap it so it cant run off, after capture I can think about what to do with it then. Good idea - go get a cup then....

So I get the cup. And the pad of paper. Return to my room....No spider. Panic. Knowing that I will never sleep in this room ever again unless I find it, I jump up on my bed and scan my room like some sort of security robot.

Finally - There you are! You are hiding in one of my shoes...I can see one of your hairy legs! Now what? You dont want to stomp on your shoes to kill it do you? If you did that and it didnt die then you would have to shake out your shoes and that would cause all kinds of panic wouldnt it you big wimp? Yes. Ok then we'll just wait.

So I waited. I stood on my bed (shoes still on) and waited for it to come out so I could kill it. I didnt have to wait long and jumping down from my bed I took a deep breath as it edged its way out of my shoe. I know its looking at me. It walks a bit to the left, a bit to the right, then it sort of flatterns out like its stretching it legs, warming up. It doesnt know whether to try and hide, leg it or.....

Dear god its bloody charging at me!!!! I knew it sodding would they always do! Right well here it is then, showdown, stamp on it! Ok...Missed! - Now its making a B line to hide under your bed - no way...! Stamp! Missed again! But wait whats it doing now? It has flipped over and its...its...ITS CLIMBING UP MY FUCKING LEG!

I kicked myself about 3 times (looking like a little girl) and the injured beast lay half dead on the floor, twitching. I quickly put it out of its misery and felt exhausted and foolish for being such a pansy. After taking another half an hour to calm down, flush him down the loo and check my shoes for 'eggs' I shakily get into bed. I'd forgotton to brush my teeth so went over to the sink, grabbed my toothbrush and...hmm there are loads of ants in my toothpaste. Lovely. Just about sums it up.

A hilariously funny side effect of this encounter is that I'm now incredibly jumpy. Bit of fluff brush past my leg? I almost hit the ceiling.

It was big though. That picture really doesnt do it justice.

City streets

2005-11-20T08:24:00.000Z

The day I learnt my lesson about the sea...

2005-11-20T07:38:00.000Z

So we got to the beach. By the time we had got there, although still drunk, the hangover was already begining to materialise. The only guy renting beds down there that early had an arsenal shirt on so we instantly became friends and he set us up with some nice beds and a brolly. Managed to get an hours or so shut eye and then went for a walk and swim in the sea. With the time being now about 10am I felt rough - and when sheeba (sheebu, sheevba, sheevbu??) asked me and neil if we fancied "some juice" we gladly accepted. It turns out that by "juice" he meant pint of lager.

After taking a few sips and then discretely tipping the rest away we went up for a bite to eat followed by another snooze. Kim from the UK office was over and her and suzie joined us at the beach and politely woke me up by shouting in my ear. Needing to blow a few cobwebs out my head I thought i'd go boarding for an hour or so, the weather was warm, the sun was beginning to go down and the waves looked amazing. It was here that the real fun began.

If you look around on the net about kovalum, you'll find stories about how nice the beach is and how good the waves are. There are surfing websites that recognise kovalum as a good place to go surf. You'll also find horror stories about "the vicious rip tide at kovalum" that not only is very dangerous but also has claimed a few lives over the years. I had of course felt the rip tide before, and it is strong (once getting dragged out a little too deep without a board, worrying,) , but never had been proper caught out by it until today.

It all started out normal enough - the waves were good and the water was really warm as usual. I went out a bit further and caught a massive wave which was so fast, after I had wiped out I wanted to get out further again and catch another one. Swimming out a bit deeper, missing a few waves....waiting for a big one.....that never came. Before I knew it, I was about 50 meteres BEHIND where the big waves were crashing and I was going the wrong way, and by the wrong way I mean I was on my way to africa.

Realising that I was now potentially in a 'spot of bother' I tried waving to neil back on the shore that I was infact still out here and I would possibly need some help getting back in. I wasnt too worried at this point because at least I had a board to keep me afloat, I didnt have to tread water and I wasnt going to sink. But that wasnt making me feel any better with regards to getting back to the shore, I could feel myself being dragged further back. I began paddling forward the best I could and was making a little bit of progress, I wasnt really going back any further now but I wasnt getting any closer to the shore either and i was a fair way out. 10 minutes later I was making better progress but by this time two blokes who sit with the lifeguards had been sent out from the shore to come and help me! There were worried faces on the beach, particuarly kim and suzie who, as neil told me when I got back, "thought they had lost me forever" - slightly worrying too much but hey. Neil had been pretty cool and not worried about me, but I think that was down to the fact that he didnt have his glasses on and couldnt actually see me...

Anyway, I ended up catching a monster of a wave in and returned to safety, tired and a bit relieved. I was talking to arsenal shirt guy after I'd got out of the sea and he was the one that had called the lads in to go and help me. He said that he'd been caught by that rip tide himself twice before and it had scared him a bit, he doesnt go out swimming there much now. It definately taught me a good lesson and I wont be going out that far again but looking back it was a positive experience and a good story to tell.

Up on the roof...

2005-11-20T07:22:00.000Z

This last week has seen the return of the sun, the return of the toilet flush and even the return of the jedi.

At last the problems we have been having with the house were sorted, and they seem to have (touch wood) stayed sorted. Although having the TV back was a welcome addition, it inevitabely means the guitar practice has suffered as we have been playing the PS2 and watching DVDs (hence the jedi) far too much.

It was another tiring week at work, but as me and neil are in together most nights we can have a bit of a laugh and it doesnt drag on quite so much. We managed to get down the beach a couple of times and with the sun shining I feel alot better. We have been trying to sort out some plans for the remainder of our time here - so as we only have three weekends left, we have got something sorted for two of them. The'll be more 'blogger fodder' to come from the southern tip of india and ponmudi.

Friday night we went out for dinner on the residency rooftop restaurant then returned home to our own roof and began the nights drinking. Drink was drank, very bad jokes were told and stupid songs were sang. The nights drinking became the morning and we watched the sunrise. It was all very hazy, I'm not sure if that was the beer/bacardi/vodka or the weather. In any case it was nice, and as it was already morning we didnt see the point in going to bed. Instead we got a cab straight down to the beach which seemed like an excellent idea at the time...

This weeks 'update'

2005-11-14T13:43:00.000Z

Ok I have a problem here - There is literally, nothing to write about. The last week has been far and away, the most boring and univentful week here yet. Me and neil have literally been getting up, doing naff all and waiting to go to the office. Work has been a bit of a nightmare (basic organisation and communication - out of the window), the whether has been awful (raining every day), the house stopped working (power cuts, no toilet flushing, TV breaking, T'internet down time) and our cook, Aji (bless him), decided to cook the same thing everyday for 6 days. This all boils down to one simple thing, there is not alot to update the good ol' blog with right now.

Guitar playing has seen an improvement which is nice, and the libertines' "music when the lights go out" has been the track of the week in terms of learning progress. We were planning on going out with shab and biju to take some shots round trivandrum yesterday but the whether put paid to that so hopefully we will be able to do that next week. We went with sham to the guitar shop to get a guitar, but he didnt have any - well not the type we were after anyway. He did have a bunch of other interesting looking instruments though so we might be going back there soon...

Having such a quiet week and being indoors the whole time has got me thinking about coming home, and I'm finding that I'm looking forward to doing so more and more. Every time I hear a date, I work out how far away that will be to me coming home. Whats odd is that, I'm not unhappy or miserable here but I also really cant wait to get back now.

I will write some more when something actually happens, but bye bye for now.

It....

2005-11-11T23:35:00.000Z

Here is a picture (click for enlarged) of me dressed as 'pennywise' the clown, ages 8 years old. Mum sent me this earlier and lets face it., its funny, look at the size of my bloody ears. Anyway this has nothing to do with my time away (update coming soon) but just thought it would bring a smile to your face as it did mine. For the record - I have no recollection of this photo being taken.

Sore fingers

2005-11-07T11:46:00.000Z

For the last few weeks I've been trying to learn the guitar. I'm quite enjoying it am starting to find a little progress. By the time I come home I think I should be able to almost play green day - time of your life, the libertines - time for heroes and bob sinclair - love generation. Practice practice practice.

Side note...

2005-11-06T20:22:00.000Z

On a side note, I've been faffing around with the html for the pictures for the last half an hour so the ones that were not linking to enlargements should now be working.

The week preceeding singapore...almost forgot!

2005-11-05T17:06:00.000Z

Almost forgot to mention, we had a really good week before we went as well. The whether was really good so we had pretty much every day down at the beach and up on the roof sunbathing. We made the most of the roof terrace in the evenings as well, something we dont use as much as we should. The ball got booted off the roof far too many times but I employed my expert climbing skills and looked like the prince of persia climbing down into nextdoors garden with a torch in hand to find the ball. The stars look amazing as well when all the lights are off, can lay and look at them for ages. You can see lots of shooting stars as well which is cool, I think I'd only ever seen one before coming out here.

Within the week we managed to polish off a bottle of Jim Beam, a bottle of vodka and a crate of sandpiper beer - not bad going. Me and nick were actually drunk for 12 solid nights in a row including the trip away so it might be time for a detox. Maybe. Although the roof is calling, along with the iPod and beer....

Three cheesy holiday snaps (as requested)

2005-11-05T17:00:00.000Z

I can breath again!

2005-11-05T07:09:00.000Z

So I'm back "home" now from singapore and I have to say I loved it there. I know this might sound a little shallow but after living in trivandrum this last month it was great to go to a modern city. It was like nowhere else I had been before in terms of the climate, the people, the cleanliness and the sheer safety of the place.

First off the climate - pretty much unbearable humidity. I've been told that this time of the year are the cooler months so I dread to think what it would have been like in the hot times. I was expecting it to be similar to here....Nope. Here I can breath. In singapore there isnt much air to actually breath during the day especially. This resulted in me feeling pretty sick throughout the days. I just dont think I'm designed for it, if I go to the sauna at the gym I get the same feeling and generally cant stand them so I guess the same applies here. I was ok in a air conditioned environment though and at night when it cooled a little and we had drank a lot, I felt fine!

The shopping malls there are rediculous. Massive, massive shopping "cities" all placed in a line next to eachother. You really could spend days after days looking round the shops, a ladies paradise. (Talking of ladies fellas, most of them were bloody gorgeous). As I mentioned before prices were not as cheap as I expected, and I didnt see an awful lot of stuff that you couldnt get back home but the sheer quanitity of it all was great and the customer service was a refreshing change. All the staff I spoke to (particularly the camera people) were very friendly, knowledgable and helpful - it was great.

We didnt experience any bad feeling in singapore. Most people walk round with their families or girlfriends/boyfriends. We saw no gangs of little bastards causing trouble and not one "unsavoury" character the whole time we were there. People were allowed to go out, enjoy themselves and have a good time, regardless of where they go, what they wear and what they do. That was the main difference I noticed from england. Back home I find I cant go anywhere without before long seeing some trouble being caused or someone getting picked on, overhearing people arguing or just general bad feeling. I really didnt get anything at all like that in singapore and you dont even get that here in trivandrum. Maybe i've become too cynical of people back home, who knows. But I would say that the singapore people have toppled the dutch for me for "the nicest people on the planet" award, with the indians coming in at a close third.

So as a quick summary - The hotel we stayed in was great, superb location and had all that we wanted. I could eat meat and drink tap water again (luxury) and ate the best burger in the world and drank the gold winning beer from the 2004 beer awards at the brewerkz bar. English is virtually the first language so communication was not a problem at any time with anyone. Our days were spent walking round the shops and attempting to breath, and our nights were spent around clarke quay eating, listening to music and generally getting
"sozzled". The last night was probably best when we met a few locals and others who lived or worked in singapore - we all ended up at a german kndergarten teachers house which was very random but had a great time none the less! Just about made it back in time the next morning to check out of the hotel. Plenty of aussies about, met a nice guy one night who built oil rigs off the coast who filled us in on where to go and things like that. It turns out that I think we would have been slightly better off going over a weekend, as thats when it all really kicks in but had a perfectly good time none the less.

We went to harrys bar one night for a spot of jazz and was very pleased to see people dancing proper jazz styleee...Most places had live bands playing, mostly covers and stuff but it was good none the less. John Chee (brilliant) was probably the best guy we saw during our stay. Closely followed in terms of hilariousness by Vincent Ting, the man who loved serving us coffee and talking to us about betting on the football. I bought loads of stuff - Lovely new lens for my camera (Canon EF-S 17 - 85 mm) , a new mobile phone , some trainers, a camera bag, a new iTrip and some surfing shorts. There was a dissapointing lack of robots though I'm afraid so I guess I'll have to go to tokyo next time for those. Which reminds me - this recent jaunt to the east has made me want to see more of it and has got me in the mood for a three month trip starting in Japan and working my way down at some point in the future, maybe after next year. If singapore is anything to go by then I'm sure I'll love it. I'll need plenty of cash though.

There is lots more to talk about but I've only got so much time and I guess reading this you lot only have so much patience! I've got plenty of other photos as well, and will perhpas submit them for sale upon my return through work, who knows.

Quick hello from singapore...

2005-11-02T05:47:00.000Z

So I'm currently in a cyber cafe in singapore, officially crowned by me and king as the worlds hottest country. We are in the funan IT mall, and there are bloody loads of electronics based shops here so as all those that know me will will understand that I am in my element. Prices are not quite as cheap as I would have thought, but saying that they are far cheaper than at home. Laptops are around 300-400 quid cheaper, and the high definition screens are amazing. Me and king have been staring at them in each shop we go in. Thinking about it, everything is about a third cheaper than at home which is not to be sniffed at.

I've been feeling pretty much permanently sick since I've been here though, I dont know if its because of the heat or what. Its definately the hottest place I've ever been, with it seeming like there is no actual air in the air. The only time I havent felt sick was last night when I was drunk. Note to self - get drunk later to stop feeling sick.

Funniest story so far -

We went to a really unique bar yesterday. It has its own brewery on site and you can see it behind the bar. There are massive vats and loads of pipes running all over the place full with different types of beer. In fact they sell 17 different beers, with 8 of them being brewed on the premises. They even do a strawberry beer. Me and king took our seats, ordered a massive plate of chicken wings and settled in watching the sports channels on the huge tv screens. King considered the beer menu and went on to order a specialist wheat beer that was brewed about 10 feet away from where we were sitting. The guy turns to me and asks for my order:

Man - "What beer would you like sir?"

Me - "Ummmm.....I'll have a coke please."

Man (with distraught look on face) - "Coke?!"

Me - "Yes. I'm very hot"

Kingy - "Jam..."

Me - "Yeah?"

Kingy - "You're an idiot"

So yeah - I go to this great bar that serves great beer that is brewed on site and ordered a coke. Stuff em. I like to buck the trend now and again.

So right now we are weighing up the options - What to buy....there is a bank card in my wallet and it is burning a rather big whole in my pocket. Right now I'm thinking new camera lens, new phone, new iTrip. Possibly a DS. Or a PSP.

More to follow.

Funny road sign

2005-10-24T17:33:00.000+01:00

I wish I'd have had my camera on me. I saw a road sign yesterday that stated very clearly:

"ACCIDENTS ARE NOT ACCIDENTAL"

Well what the fuck are they then?!

Round the house

2005-10-24T14:49:00.000+01:00

"The worlds fastest magician" - Bollocks!

2005-10-24T13:21:00.000+01:00

Here is a newsflash - Jadugar anand is not a very good magician. He is however, absolutely hilairous. Just look at him on that billboard. That face....he keeps staring at the audience and pulling that face and it constantly made me laugh throughout the 2 hour show.

The indian audience was a strange one, they are not big clappers for example. I was expecting anand's entrance to be greated with a big cheer and raptuous applause - what he got was the odd clap and a cough from someone sitting at the back. Shamelessly though, anand simply stares at the audience in silience, pulling a stupid face until a few more of us clap. A little bit.

He had a fairly big audience in the bloody old theatre, a fair few hundred I would say, and a few of the tricks were pretty good I suppose. Birds appearing out of nowhere and people dissappearing pretty quickly were all quite good, and even though I know how the elephant vanish trick works, it was still pretty good. However, there were too many people coming out of boxes and far too many times when we worked out how he'd done it. Although anand has been touring his show for over 40 years, I dont think any of his tricks would take any real skill or practice. For example, I think I could perform his whole show within a week of practice. All I would need to know is how to work his "Magic" props - Job done.

I did thoroghly enjoy myself though and for comedy moments, the value was through the roof. At the start of each new trick he would give a little speech, and on the last word of each introduction he would pull that face and the sound guy would make the last word echo. So he would say something like, *slow mysterious voice* "Haaaave youuuu evverrrrr, seeeen a mummy appeeaaaar then vaaanniisssh? - Weeeelll my friends, leeet usss goooo tooo......EGYPT, EGYPT, egypt....egypt..." Then he'd pull the face, walk off, curtain would raise and there we were. In egypt. Or, there we were. In an old theatre. With someone wrapped up in bandages on stage.

Bizarrely, the chief of police and some government official came on stage half way through the show to thank anand for the delightful wonderment that we had been shown. Anand magicked them some flowers out of a box in return.

Anand claims to be the holder of three world records - doubtful. The records themselves are a bit hazy though. First off he claims to hold the record for making an elephant vanish the quickest. Hmmm. Then he claims to have driven 300kms blindfolded on a motorbike - a stunt he perfromed to promote road safety. And last but certainly not least he claims to hold the record for longest transmission of a telepathic message, stating that he has sent someone a message using telepathy over 200 kms away, ok anand - we'll take your word for it. But this is what I love about the bloke, these rediculous claims and funny faces! Pure entertainment for sure.

I dont want to be seen as taking the piss out of the guy too much though. I think he really does love his profession and he's keen to keep the magic industry alive. He also makes the best of the limited resources he has and it was quite humbling to watch him and his team perform with equipment and props which must have been 20 years old or more. Also, I'm convinced anand is in on the joke, sometimes I saw him nearly burst out laughing whilst pulling one of his trademark silly faces and at one point I almost thought he was being ironic in his delivery. According to the event programme, his shows are "very rare" yet in the same programme, it states he holds the record for the most amount of shows, 26,000 in all apparently!

Anyway, despite my cynicism and mick taking, it was great and obiviously I bought a T shirt with his face on it. To give you an idea of how seriously the guy takes his magic, click here for a link to a recent news article about the great one.

If he ever does come to a town near you - check him out! Seeing is believing...

Motorbike adventure...

2005-10-22T09:06:00.000+01:00

Here is a funny opening sentence:

I have spent this morning bombing round trivandrum city centre on the back of a motorbike, trying to buy tickets to see jadugar anand, the worlds fastest magician.

For the past two weeks we have been surrounded by posters and billboards advertising the magic show that is in town, I dont want to elaborate too much on this as I'm bound to do a post on it after I've seen it, but lets just say the line off the poster that excites me is "Blink, and the elephant vanishes".

So we decided yesterday to go and get tickets - Dennis came round on his motorbike about 10am this morning and it was pretty cool to be heading round the city on a bike for a change, although the brown trouser factor was raised a few notches feeling so exposed to the madmen that drive these roads.

We found the ticket office, and bought 5 tickets for 750rs. Bargain. I just hope he's as good as he claims - more to follow.

It was also nice to get to know dennis a little better. We stopped off at his house, met his mother and his little 7 month daughter, fiona. Fiona wasnt too pleased to see me but ah well it seems I have that effect on babies. That said a strange man with funny clothes and an interesting skin colour bursting in your house unnanounced is bound to put the frigteners up any young tot.

After we bought the tickets we went out to the coastline and walked round the "tourist gardens". Dennis was filling me in on the ins and outs of arranged marriages and I was fighting the typical westerners corner of "Yeah but how can you marry someone you dont know". Dennis gave me an interesting viewpoint to think about though, he said that as marriages were arranged here, people have less expectation to be happy together in marriage so as time goes on, you tend not to get bitter and dissapointed with how things turn out. This means that you either get lucky and fall in love and live happily ever after, or you think "I cant really stand my wife but who cares anyway because I never thought it would work" - Either way your not left feeling any resentment towards your partner. Interesting. He also said his uncle got "love married" (not arranged) and after 10 years got divorced, where his parents were an arranged marriage and are still together after all this time! Pro's and cons for both sides of the coin I guess but food for thought.

Right - its blazing sunshine outside, I'm going to the beach.

The monsoon experience

2005-10-17T15:16:00.000+01:00

This week saw the tail end of the monsoon season hitting us here in trivandrum and I've never seen (or heard) rain quite like it.

When it rains, it pours, quite literally, and the battlefield that is the road system round here becomes a real challenge, with zero visability and mentalists on motorbikes. My driver this week decided he would "spice up" the experience a little bit though, and on most days didnt bother putting his wipers on for the whole way to work. I must say I saw this as an interesting deicsion to make, bearing in mind its dark when I go to work. Dark and wet. Dark and wet with pretty much no way of seeing where your going. But give him credit, I managed to get into work in one piece day by day.

I also saw someone else making an "interesting decision" in the rain this week. I saw a motorcylcist pootling along in the driving rain with no form of waterproof and/or coat on driving up hill into the rain. The roads were flooding and the rain was pouring, but this fellows journey on his bike was essential. Now, have a guess at the interesting technique he used to keep the rain out of his face? Wear a visor? Wear a hat? Wear some goggles? God forbid, wear a crash helmet? No. No. No. Its a much better idea to simply ride one handed. That way you can use your other hand to cover your face and eyes, adopting the "peak-a-boo" stance if you will. Literally covering his face with his hand, with little gaps through his fingers so he could "see" the road ahead was order of the day for this guy. Made me laugh anyway, almost as much as....

......possibly the greatest stunt I have ever seen performed on a motorbike. I've seen this stunt a couple of times whilst out here but saw the best example last saturday on the way to the beach. At least the weather was sunny again and it wasnt raining. I like to call this stunt - "The entire family on one little motorbike stunt" and as you have probably guessed from the title, its where the whole family go out for a little drive on one motorbike. Now if this family I saw moved to the UK, they could make a fair bit of money at bike shows and the like, wowing crowds with there lack of fear and daring skills. It works like this. Dad driving (obviously), two eldest sons on the front tank with one holding the handle bars and mum on back sitting side saddle with young baby in her arms. Mental enough I imagine in a straight line on an empty road, let alone mauevering round the roundabouts and junctions of the busy, bumpy streets. I felt like winding my window down and shouting "GET A BLOODY CAR YOU MANIACS" but they all seemed happy so I guess I should just butt out. I'm still yet to see this stunt in the rain but in such cases I imagine one of the sons on the front acts as "visor", probably putting his hands over daddies eyes to protect him from the rain.

One week left....

2005-10-17T14:52:00.000+01:00

....and then I'm on holiday for two whole weeks. Cant wait. I havent had any time off for ages and its gonna be good to have Neil back and to see my usual partner in crime, Nick. As mentioned in my last post, the singapore trip is booked for the week after next and the excitment is growing, so expect some updates about that in the next couple of weeks!

There is not an awful lot to report on from last week to be honest. My second week running of solid nights and sleepy days, plus we caught the tail end of the monsoon season which meant lots of rain...rubbish!

The weekend just gone though was really good. The weather picked up and we have been out every night and eaten lots of nice food and drank lots of beer. Friday was the residency hotel rooftop for dinner, saturday was the beach and footy at night and on sunday we hit the beach again then went out for dinner with my work team over here. Had a great time, we went to the south park hotel for dinner and it was probably the nicest food I've had out here so far. We had about 5 waiters dressed in full suits and bow ties serving us all night and the band were happy to take on requests, even pulling out some dire straights out of the bag just before we left.

We were chatting about TV and movies and stuff, and Vikas revealed that his all time favourite comedy was "some mothers do 'av 'em" staring michael crawford. Now, I was very, very impressed by this as it is one of my favourites as well. If you would have said to me at the start of this trip, "I'll give you 10 million pounds if you find me an indian guy, in india, who's heard of some mothers do 'av 'em" I would have said "sorry, thats impossible." But no, not only has he heard of the vintage bbc comedy but it is also his favourite. Brilliant. I wasnt quite drunk enough to burst into my frank spencer impressions but I did a little sort of nervous "spencer style" bite of my fist which was greeted with a huge laugh from vikas - My next challenge is to get him doing some impressions himself which I feel would be very ammusing to watch.

So, not an awful lot to report on then but there is bound to be lots to write about during the next couple of weeks after I've got this last drag down of nights and start spending time with other people again!

Off to singapore...

2005-10-13T16:52:00.000+01:00

Just a quick note this one...I'm gonna update for the rest of the week tommorrow. I've just booked a trip to singapore and am very excitied about it. As anyone who knows me well will tell you, I do love my gadgets. I'll be going on the 1st-4th november, and will be looking to sample at least one of the many jazz clubs they have over there and take a few pictures.

I cannot wait - Roll on skyscrapers, gadgets, robots, police strictness and moody jazz.

This weekend...

2005-10-09T19:49:00.000+01:00

Alan (all round top bloke and my boss to be next year - above) stayed with us this week as he had some work to do in the indian office. He was only here from tuesday to saturday but it was a good laugh having him around. Alan, suz and myself went to the residency hotel again on friday night for dinner (lovely fish curry) and then went back to ours for a few cheeky drinks. Such a laugh - we all got pretty drunk and played that game where you have someones name on a piece of paper stuck on your head and you have to guess who you are, only asking yes/no questions. Punishment for incorrect guess was shot of vodka. I was chirs moyles (yes! I guessed it and won), Alan was bob marley (didnt get it, took his punishment well) and suz was Steven Hawkins. Hilarity ensued when suz first asked "Have I had a christmas number one?" quickly follwed by "ok have I ever played glastonbury?" - What followed for the next ten minutes were mine and alans impressions of Steven Hawkins singing his christmas number one at glastonbury.

A glance of the watch told us it was half four and with alans taxi picking him up at half six, we pretty much decided it wasnt worth going to bed. So we cranked up the iPod and started air guitaring the shit out of the place.

The next day understandably was a complete wipe out. Hung over and tired.

Today was cool, down to the beach, waves (very strong), sunset, beer, dinner, stop off at supermarket on way home looking like a right tourist and in.

Gotta try and stay up late as there is another night shift looming tommorrow.

In the flow...

2005-10-09T19:34:00.000+01:00

This week has completly flown by.

As I've been covering for neil in his absence I've been working 10:45pm till 6am and to say that it has "messed with my body clock a little bit" is an understatement. It hasnt been too bad though - plus the weather has been a little cloudy this week anyway so there would have been a deffo lack of beach action this week even if I wasnt fast asleep (or trying to sleep you pesky gardener).

Its strange, it appears that the two week barrier that I have just broken makes things that I would have been astonished or amazed at only a week or so ago look normal.

Example -

Driving home the other morning from work, about 6.20am. The streets are bustling, the markets are full and all the shabby shops appear to have been open for hours already. The traffic is already building up and driving mentalists, power walkers and stray dogs crowd the streets. For the first week or so I just gawped out of the window and was amazed at all the colours (shops, clothes, food) that were on view. Now it just rolls past. Just as we are about to pull in to our street I glance over to the left and spot two guys playing badminton. Nothing abnormal about that I hear you say... Well, bare in mind this was 6.20am. Also bare in mind that these two men (mid/late 40s) were playing badminton on a petrol station forecort. Yep, just thought they would crack out the raquets and have a few games. At 6.20am. Fully clothed (no sportswear). In and amoungst the people driving their cars in and out and filling up with petrol. Imagine if you or I decided to do that at the local Esso.

A couple of weeks ago I would have laughed, pointed or even told everyone about it the next day but no. I just accepted it as a normal thing to see. I mean, why wouldnt you want to play badminton on a petrol station forecort? Good as place as any lets face it.

I think this demonstrates something though. I think the longer you stay here, the longer you accept the way these people live. Its not seen as weird, its not seen as foreign, its just the way things go down in this part of the world.

Currently....

2005-10-06T16:36:00.000+01:00

This week I've been working nights so its mostly been, work, sleep, get up half asleep, work, sleep etc etc So not too much to report.

Alan (my new boss for next year) has been staying with us this week, and despite drinking us dry of all alcohol it has been cool having someone else around. Neil has gone on holiday for few weeks to Bali.

So, as an update, I'm currently:

Listening to:

Hanne Hukkelberg - Little things

Dwele - Subject

Jill Scott - Who is Jill Scott?

Quantic - Mishaps Happening

Reading

Dave Gormans Googlewhack adventure

Attempting to master

Bodyboarding tips and tricks

Birthday

2005-10-03T15:56:00.000+01:00

Today was the first birthday I've had outside the uk. Not alot to report to be honest, its been nice recieving texts of good wishes from friends and family but its been pretty much of a quiet one as I'm working an opposite shift to the rest of the guys today. I've got to go to work in a couple of hours till 6am as well so not the best evening in store! Also been feeling a bit rough today so just been very lazy and tried to relax.

We went out yesterday/last night though to make up for it. Hit the beach, went for a nice meal, watched the footy, then came back for a few drinks to see in my birthday at midnight. Me and neil continued to drink till about 3am but didnt quite make it till half 4 to see in my birthday uk time. It was agreed last night that bringing the PS2 over was a good idea.

Had a nice surprise half an hour ago when a delivery guy (closely flanked by the most happy security guard in the world) knocked on the door and handed a cake to me from the indian team (above). He did his best to sing happy birthday to me but failed miserably I'm afraid, succeeded in making me laugh though, as did this (right) which was scanned and sent over to me from the UK work lot, cheers!

Cheers!

2005-10-02T23:01:00.000+01:00

Boating on the backwaters of kerala....

2005-10-02T18:58:00.000+01:00

Today was a bit of an adventure. We booked a trip on a house boat through the back waters of kerala. It meant a 6am start but it was worth it, plus it gave me and neil a proper chance to play with our new cameras.

First off - we thought it would be an hour and a half drive or so to get there. We were wrong. It turned out to be a three hour drive. After two hours sleep, this is not what you want to be perfectly honest. In actual fact though, it wouldnt be that bad if your driver wasnt a psychopath, hellbent on causing a mass accident, but beggers cant be choosers....

The driver we had to take us to our backwaters destination was mental. No - not mental, mad. No, not mad, I should stop beating around the bush...

He was a fucking nutcase.

By far and away, the worst driver we have had so far.

Now driving isnt the most pleasant of pastimes out here at the best of times, but when you have "Mohammed McRae" driving you its beyond mental. I would have been more relaxed with stevie wonder driving us. In fact, I would have been more relaxed with stevie wonder driving us in reverse the whole way there whilst simultainously blasting out an extra long rendition of "Isn't she lovely" for the duration of the entire journey on some sort of portable casio keyboard. Blind corners, overtaking lorries that were overtaking motorbikes and a general disregard for anyone else on the road was the order of the day, and I cant believe we actually made it to alappuzha to get into our house boat for the day.

A houseboat is exactly what it says on the tin, a house on a boat. There are bedrooms, a dining room and an upstairs and downstairs. The three of us on this boat had a great time, cruising the backwaters and lakes whilst enjoying great food for breakfast lunch and dinner. We stopped half way through and went for a swim, this is me accepting a dare from neil to jump in from the top deck (i'm not that fat, its just where i'm leaning over...)

The first half of the trip was nice, relaxing but pretty plain. There wasnt an awful lot to see beacuse we were on a massive lake and then quite open waters. Houses and odd little buildings dotted the side of the rivers and it was amazing to think people lived out here, and probably have been for years and years. The second half of the trip was alot more interesting where the waters got tighter, so we were able to take in more of the scenery and glimpse into the lives of the people who live out here. They all seem happy and content. The waters here are these peoples lives and whether they are washing their clothes in it or bathing, they seem to have a sense of wellbeing and honesty about them. The kids especially. They come running out and wave or ask for pens (!?) and love having their pictures taken.

Apart from the houses on the sides of the waters, we saw people diving for fresh water shellfish, fisherman and other locals using the backwaters as their main port of travel to get to work.

After spending the whole day cruising round, chilling out and taking in the feel of the place, we moored up in a lovely spot overlooking the trees and sunset. It was here where me and neil really got to grips with our new cameras, taking in the beauty of the colours that were in front of us. After eating dinner facing the sun, it was time to pull away and head back to the port. We met up again with the nutcase driver and took a deep breath as we set off for home. In the dark the danger was probably quadroupled. My nerves really kicked in when after yet another gasp of "Shit!" came from me at the back, the driver turned round smiling a mouth full of teeth and beamed "Confusion!". Yes. Confusion indeed - it was only my tiredness and the thought of the sunset that we had seen earlier (below) which helped my switch off and not pay (too much) attention to the road ahead....

One week down

2005-10-02T18:35:00.000+01:00

Last week saw my first proper week in the inida office and it has gone very well. I know I keep banging on about it and I feel like I am repeating myself, but the people are so nice. Really friendly. The indian people seem to have a completely different mentality, attitude and outlook to us back home. There is certainly less animosity and bad blood around the place thats for sure - and alot more smiles, good will and hilarity!

I've already made some nice friends in Shabri, Shyam, Manu (who supports Man U funnily enough), Vikas (DJ Dingu), Sabitha, Harini and last but certainly not least, Dennis. Its a shame I mostly work USA and UK hours, because it means I dont get to see an awful lot of them but I'm sure as I'm here for a while it will be fine.

On firday night we finish at 10pm, and last friday we went onto eat at a really nice hotel. The restaurant is on the 7th floor and is basically like a massive balcony overlooking the rest of the city.

What I like about this place especially is the fact that almost none of the buildings are built higher than the natural surroundings. This gives the place a feel like it is plonked in the middle of a jungle and its all very green. The pic below is the view from the back of our house.

High tea with the lads from Punjab

2005-09-28T11:13:00.000+01:00

After lunch today me and neil went down to the beach for a bit of body boarding. Looked for our guy sheeba or sheevba or sheevbrah or she-ra or was it even (alan) shearer? Anyway it didnt matter cause he saw us coming up the beach and ran up to us shouting "Neil!, James!, my brothers!"

He's the guy we rent our boards from anyway, and he also keeps an eye on our stuff whilst we are in the sea. And he gives us pillows to rest our heads on. And he gives us an umbrella if we want shade. And he has invited us back to his mums house to sample her prawn curry.

Anyway after our first hour or so in the sea we decided to rest a bit in the sun and whilst there neil trotted off to by a t shirt and get us a couple of drinks. Meanwhile my rest on the beach was disturbed by the statement:

"Hey - you american?"

I turned to find my self laying right next to a group of about 7 blokes all chatting and laughing amoungst themselves. Most of them in shirts and trousers, but one or two also going for the simple white 'y' front combo with nothing else. Anyway I got chatting to this guy who'd asked me if I was american and after informing him I was english we got on pretty well! He was a funny guy and he told me they were all from the punjab which is up north india. He got the train for 52 hours to get to kovalum for a bit of a holiday.

He kept asking me:

"You like indian girl?"

I was like:

"Umm well,"

Then, pointing at an indian girl RIGHT IN FRONT OF US

"You like her? She good or bad?"

Me:

"What do you think"

And this conversation went back and forth until a guy came round selling tea. Now, here is a challenge, you try saying "No, I dont want a cup of tea" to a bunch of blokes from the punjab. I've discovered it is impossible, they simply failed to acknowledge the fact that I didnt want a cup of horrible looking tea from a stange bloke on the beach.

One cup of tea later, I said my thank yous and shook my hands goodbye and went back in the sea, hoping I wouldnt be made ill by the tea.

The waves were amazing today, massive. As the sun came down me and neil went to a bar that overlooks the beach and has views of a really nice sunset. We ate the best king prawn curry ever created and had a drink watching the sun go down - after which it was time to head off to work. If most days are going to be like this I really dont think we are going to mind working nights too much.

Picture credit of the above goes to neil this time, as usual click for an enlarged.

First day

2005-09-26T19:21:00.000+01:00

First day in the indian office today and it went well. At home the new cook showed up this morning and after the seemingly compulsory custom of shaking my hand and bobbing his head side to side and up and down 72 thousand times - he whipped us up some sort of veggie curry and rice, very nice. After lunch me and suz headed off for work and I finally got to meet everyone after seeing their pictures countless times. The indian office is really nice, but the ambiance is totally different. Not in a bad way, just different. A lot quieter but at the same time alot more social. Everyone is so friendly, offering to help you out with stuff all the time. Not work related stuff, more like "if you are ever stuck here give me a call" or "if you want me to arrange this for you its no problem" - All very welcoming and my immediate team are all great, which is a relief quite frankly.

You'll be pleased to hear that I had my priorities straight. Panic over, I have sorted out some speakers for our corner of the office so we can listen to the radio and anything else we want to whilst working. Well I say anything else WE want to, more like anything else me or neil want to. Neil swapped with me today and did the graveyard shift on my behalf, but we will both be in through the nights for the majority of the week from now on.

The plan for tommorrow daytime? The beach, belly boarding and (more than likely) burning.

Kovalum

2005-09-25T20:02:00.000+01:00

So we headed out to Kovalum today with a plan to stay the night in hotel "Ocean Sparkle", check out the sunset and have a few "welcome to India" beers.

The mini advenutre of getting to the place, cue:

A) Mental roads
B) Mental drivers
C) A complete lack of any rules
D) Zero concept of the term "right of way"
E) Me sitting in the back of the car so I dont have to look out the front.

Got to the hotel and it only has two rooms but its really nice. Me and neil decide to just kip in the same room and let suzie have her own room. Again, one of the nicest blokes on planet earth is running the place. Everything is 'no problem sir' and he seems completly genuine in his kindness. We go for a stroll down the beach and take a few photos, kindly refusing the copious amounts of fruit and "tat" that is offered us along the way. Quick fact - I saw an indian guy selling paintings and wearing an arsenal shirt.

We ended up on a bar that overlooks the beach called fusion. Very clever. They have an eastern menu, a western menu and, you've guessed it, a fusion menu which combines the two. Anyway, a bit curried out from the plane food, I plump for a simple cheese and tomato grilled sarnie, and suzie goes for the same. Neil goes for deep fried cheese balls with chilli sauce and, and I quote "the best fish fingers in the world". Oh, and of course we order three massive bottles of kingfisher. Food comes, is lovely - they really are the best fish fingers in the world. Fresh, spicy, and actually taste of fish! Anyway, I digress.

We continue to drink in here throughout the night, even end up watching the footy on tv. Kicking out time round these parts seems to be about half nine, but when half nine comes it feels much later. Also by half nine, we had also eaten a couple of really nice pizzas there too. Just realised I sound like a right townie. Go half way round the world to an amazing place and still end up watching football, drinking beer and eating pizza. Disgraceful. But it was a great laugh, and after settling the bill which was a whopping four quid each, we moved back to the hotel where we had a bottle of vodka and bacardi waiting.

Cue:

- Sitting out in the garden facing the sea - Drinking - Card games - Drinking - Card tricks - Drinking - Spotting fireflies - Drinking - Drinking - Drinking.

The little man who ran the hotel kept on coming out and checking if things were ok, we could tell he wanted to go to bed but he insisted we were no problem and he was happy to "do his duties and look after us". Anyway everytime he came out we gave him a drink then suzie payed him off with a Marloboro Light so he wasnt doing to bad.

We were now drunk and it was midnight. So - We each scaled the hotel wall into the neighbouring hotel and went swimming in the pool for two hours. Absolutely hilarious, I have never swam drunk before but it soon sobers you up. Our hotel guy came out after a while and we were convinced this would now put him in a bad mood. Of course it didnt, he laughed, went back in the hotel then came straight back out with towels to offer us. What a nice bloke....

After getting out the pool and miracliously not getting spotted by the security guards at the other hotel, we headed back to our rooms at about 2 am. Hotel guy was now so tired yet all he could talk about was getting us breakfast in the morning. We then all piled up to suzies room because she had a TV and we all felt a bit guilty about keeping hotel guy up all night even though he said he didnt mind. Anyway he was in bed now so we felt a bit better about the late night. Well he was in bed until I decided to turn a light on in the room. The funny thing was, the switch wouldnt stick properly and kept popping back into position after pressing it. Well folks, mystery solved, it turns out it was a bell directly linked up to hotel guys room so he came running up the stairs quick as a flash asking us how he could help. The guilt.

Soon after that we all crashed, fell asleep on the bed, waking up at 11 the next morning.

The next day (today) we spent on this beach, sunbathing and belly boarding. It was great, the sea is warm and clear yet has amazing waves so its perfect for boarding. Me and neil decided that we were gonna go belly boarding 3 or 4 times a week because aside from the fact that its great fun and great exercise, we wont be starting work till the night time so will have all our days free. Result!

I guess thats enough info for now, better go to bed, first day at work in the indian office tommorrow and there are bound to be countless names to forget, hands to shake and confusion to be dished out - night night.

Arrival

2005-09-25T19:34:00.000+01:00

Arrival at the house, wow, the journey in the car was an eye opener (post to come about that) but the house we are living in is very nice.

Had to call Neil to get him up to open the door - By the way, I'm living with work collegues Neil and Suzie. Neil has his own blog of events here. Anyway, had to call Neil as I didnt have a key, but had my first experience of Indian friendliness when the driver wouldnt leave my side until he saw me safely in the house. Now he didnt need to do this, we have two security guards inside the gates that guard our house (known as Happy man and Spider catcher), and the people round here are very nice so I was in no danger at all. But I could tell that he could tell that this was my first day in this strange place and he wanted to make sure I was ok. He must have shook my hand and nodded his head at me about 3 million times before he left as well. What a nice bloke (by the way, I've been saying "what a nice bloke" an awful lot so far).

Anyway - so - got in the house, had the tour then began to unpack.

Disaster strikes.

Funny - I dont know why I packed this hoodie in my hand luggage....I guess I'll just pull it straight out and throw it onto the hard, tiled floor - not like my new camera is wrapped up in it for protection or anything...

Whats that large cracking sound I hear you ask, oh yeah, thats my camera obviously.

Ok so its not broken, but it is damaged. I'm gonna try and get it repaired on warranty. If you are interested, I think I have damaged the lens in someway, it doesnt autofocus as well and the view through the viewfinder is slightly more to the right than what you get in the final result but its still ok to use, just annoying it isnt in tip top condidtion from my own clumsy fault.

So after unpacking, saying my hellos and having a nap, I didnt have the luxury of staying the night in this house just yet, we were going to Kovalum and thats where the fun of this weekend really began....

Journey

2005-09-25T18:57:00.000+01:00

The journey began at 6am when the cab turned up to take me to Heathrow. It ended about 24 hours later when I walked into the house here in Trivandrum.

First stretch was a 6 and a half hour flight to Abu Dhabi Airport in the UAE which is one of the nicest airports I've ever been to. I managed to get some sleep on the plane over which was good, and it wasnt as bad as I first thought it would be. See pic top right, not taken by me but it shows you what the place looks like after you have got out of the plane and walked down a tunnel - Very nice.

After nearly buying a robot from the electronics store there it was time to move on and catch our next flight onto Muscat. The views flying out of Abu Dhabi, and flying in for that matter, were brilliant. As it was dark, you could just see this huge grid system of lights. It looked like a cross between the computer game sim city and some sort of giant Las Vegas.

From Muscat, we then flew into our final destination, Trivandrum. The flight was half empty, but full of wierd bollywood movies and yet another "airplane curry". Once we had landed, I was dreading the passport check and baggage retreival but we breezed through, with the only snag us waiting for a while for my bag to turn up. After waiting for over ten minutes, I glanced to the right and noticed that someone had taken my bag off the carousell and just left it about 5 meters to the right of it. Umm thanks, I think. One thing I did notice, no one was stressed, no one was in a bad mood and everyone seemed friendly - this is something that appears to be common in South India.

Walking out of the airport - cue the weird adverts, crazy people and the lack of phrase "Health and Safety".

Lovely place though, pics to come.

New soil and pimp sessions video

2005-09-08T12:50:00.000+01:00

The soil and pimp sessions who me and nat went to see a few weeks back (see a few posts down) have just released a new video. Click here if you fancy a look, we cant get enough of them right now :)

They also have a shorter video clip online of an older track which is good to see as well, click here.

The iPod nano

2005-09-08T01:29:00.000+01:00

I love gadgets - fact.

I want one of these.

The new iTunes version 5.0 is also now available. From what I've used of it so far, it is pretty much the same but with a nicer looking interface and some advanced search options.

My new camera

2005-09-07T11:12:00.000+01:00

Here are the first few pics from my new camera. I'm looking forward to learning how to use it better, should come in handy for the inda trip.

2005-09-07T11:10:00.000+01:00

Where did this come from?

2005-09-07T01:30:00.000+01:00

Went outside the other night, and this thing was in my cat's mouth. No idea on earth where she found it but it seemed happy enough to go to sleep in a plant pot after its ordeal. I nearly got the hammer to put it out of its misery but it turned out that it was just stunned at first, lucky thing. Its probably still in the vets waiting to be claimed.

The India house

2005-09-06T12:17:00.000+01:00

I've just been forwarded some pictures of the house we will be staying in in india. It looks lovely - cant wait to get out there.

There should be some serious sunbathing going on on that roof....(click for enlarged)

Creamfields

2005-09-06T01:53:00.000+01:00

Creamfields.

This actually happened on the 27th of august but I wanted to mention it as it marked the end of the summer and was such a great night.

Highlights of the evening included erick morillo, gilles peterson, meeting up with claire, dawn and kate, plenty of group hugs and loads of smiley happy people.

Interesting fact - Creamfields took place in liverpool and that is the furthest north I have ever been.

Motivation

2005-09-06T00:18:00.000+01:00

A real lack of motivation today - you know the feeling, umming and arghing for hours deciding whether or not to go to the gym. I went in the end though and feel better. Thats the end of that particular story - although once I walked in I suddnely remembered that we had ran into a few of the gym staff in thirst on Saturday night. Thats slightly worrying I had no recollection of that until today - What else happened that night (See 2 posts down) that has been forgotton?

I was thinking earlier, we were out that night for about 8 hours. I must recall around 2 minutes of it at the most. I know we had a great time but its a shame most of it has been wiped from my memory.

I think the real hangover hit today, obviously influenced my lack of motivation.

Soil and Pimp Sessions

2005-09-05T01:06:00.000+01:00

Me and Nat went to see the soil and pimp sessions play a couple of weeks ago at cargo in london. All I can say is you need to check these guys out, mental japanese jazz - cant beat that to be honest! For a more apt description of the band click here. Also - If you fancy having a look at a video clip of how they look and sound on stage, click here.

This night turned out to be one of the best ever with wave after wave of good luck.

Whilst working out what was the best ticket to buy on the underground, someone walked up to us and offered us not one, but two all zone travel passes for the underground. He didnt want anything for them so me and nat did the only thing we could and accepted them - cheers. Then whilst looking for somewhere to have a 'pre gig drink' we stumbled accross a very busy pub on a street corner in east london, I wish I could remember the name. In this pub, I noticed that they were getting through bottle after bottle of this new brazilian beer, Brahma. Anyway - I asked at the bar if there was a promotion on for it and was told that they were giving them away free as long as we had some sort of special voucher from another place round the corner. Not having any of these vouchers, I politely asked if the barman could 'pretend' that I had some, to which he replied "I dont care, how many do you want?" . So as much free beer as we wanted, were we dreaming? Then onto one of the best nights of music ever, with the legendary Gilles Peterson warming the crowd up with some lovely music, he was also kind enough to take some time out for a little chat with us...which was nice. Then on came soil and pimp and live music will never be the same again, any other gig I go to from now on will have alot to live up to.

Did I mention that we had free drinks vouchers in the club as well? Thanks glenfiddich. We even got a lift home with paul and the hodge. Ta!

I didnt take these pictures myself as we were a bit further back, but the bbc worldwide crew did a good job so I thought I'd share them.

India trip and the leaving 'do'

2005-09-04T18:35:00.000+01:00

I'm now due to leave for india on the 23rd of september. It was meant to be the 9th, hence the leaving do being last night, but down to a broken phoneline in the india office I will now be heading out two weeks later. Still due to return on the 16th December.

Last night saw the send off for my india trip - A celebration, a gathering, a last chance to see my friends for a few months....Who am I kidding, it was just a bloody big booze up. Best described as 'many in attendance and high fives aplenty' - a great time was had by all. It was good to see everyone made it out, apart from nat who fell asleep....lightweight.