3rd June

I wonder what the people of the middle east and the orient would have done if the car hadn’t been invented? Actually, more the car horn really. I’ve been musing over this and I have come to a realization. The car horn has saved the monkeys from extinction. Well, just imagine. Along comes the businessman in his horse and cart. He notices another person on his cycle who is travelling too slow for him. He reaches behind him for his trusty monkey and yanks on his tail. In fact, depending on how angry he is, he may pull the monkey’s tail so hard that the creature’s eyes bulge out as he screams his protest. People on their cycles would have to have the smaller monkey perched on the handlebars. Those who were accustomed to having their family on the bicycle would have to have the child holding the monkey and directed when to pull the tail.

So, you see, whoever invented the horn as a part of the automobile, should be considered for the highest honour given for one who saves another species from certain extinction.

We had another storm last night. This one was different though. I was just settling into bed and heard a banging of a door. (In the corridor outside my flat there are two doors leading to two different levels o the roof.) I got up again and ducked out to lock the door that had been left open. Ahhhh. Now I can go to sleep. I was no sooner in my bedroom again, when I heard a rattling outside. Oooops. I think I may have locked someone out on the roof. Being so dark and rainy, I hadn’t imagined that someone would be out there. I dashed back out and unlocked the door. It was a young lady. She had been hanging out some clothes. (I couldn’t help but wonder at the point of it really.) I was a bit embarrassed, but we both saw the funny side of the incident.

I discovered another market the other day. It is closer to where I live than the one I have been going to. It has a much larger collection of shops and things to buy. The owner of the first shop I went into has a daughter in Auckland. He was very proud of the fact. His store was better than the one I was accustomed to going to but then I found another one a bit further down that seemed better again. (Not quite your NZ supermarket. More like your NZ corner dairy.)

I now have two companions at my flat and an uninvited, rather unwelcome guest. I have Raj in the bedroom. He’s rather cute and small. Now there’s Doris in the kitchen. (Or is it the other way around?) She’s a slightly bigger lizard. Not by much. Just to make life interesting, I have a rather large cockroach living in the kitchen cupboard. This fella makes the lizards look rather small. I hope he doesn’t land up eating them. He seems to like soap. He’s had a good chew on an unwrapped bar that was being stored in there. Fortunately he hasn’t found the food cupboard yet. That’s hanging fairly high off the wall. (Not that that’s a barrier for a hungry cockroach.)

27th May

So, I’ve been here for a month now. The course is going well, and we are preparing for another to start in July. (All going well, another full class)

I have a new companion. He popped in the other day. He’s an Indian lizard. He’s very tiny. I suspect he’s quite young. I’m hoping lizard are quite partial to ants. If he is then they’ll be plenty for him to feed on. He may even grow to be a nice big strong fella. That’s assuming it’s a he. It might be a she. Then I’d be in trouble, inviting a girl into my room. But, on the grounds that I’m not sure how I would tell, I think I’ll call him Raj. The ants are vicious little buggers. One had a chew on my foot the other night as I was cleaning my teeth. It’s a bygone ant now. (That’ll learn him. Ha!!)

I went to the movies last night. First time since I’ve been here. It started really late. 10.50pm. (I’m normally asleep and snoring by then!!!!) But at least I got Ashutosh away from the office for a while. He’s been working crazy hours for weeks. We saw ‘Pirates of the Caribbean 4’ in 3D. The movie was OK. Not one of Jonny Depp’s better movies. It might have been better for me if I didn’t have the 3D glasses on. By the end of the night, I was starting to get a headache. Of course, it could also have been the time of night. I finally tucked myself in at around 1.30am. “uggggg”. The alarm mercilessly woke me at 6am as per usual. I would have been happy to yell at it and go back to sleep, but I knew the cleaner would be coming soon, so I obeyed the call and started my day. I blame it all on Ashutosh. Fancy going to the movies at that time of night. I didn’t even get to say goodnight to Raj.

20th May

We had a really wild storm last night. It started around 10pm and went through to 6.30 this morning. It was quite amazing. The sky was alive with thousands of lightening flashes and the thunder was intense. It makes our Christchurch storms seem ‘insignificant’. I woke to the alarm and no power, again. I turned on the hot water for the shower and, nothing. DOH!! Oh well. Its not as though I couldn’t have a cold shower. Especially as the cold water tap isn’t a lot different to the hot tap. (When it’s going).

The students were asked to give feedback on the course so far yesterday. On the whole they seem to be positive. There are some differences they have asked for which we wouldn’t do in NZ. They are asking for a revision day on Saturday to go over what we learned during the week.

This whole Saturday thing seems a little confusing here in India. Its as though there a split in perceptions. On one hand there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that Saturday and Sunday are the weekend but, then there’s plenty of people who work Saturdays. Some of the students treat Saturday as a day to go home to the parents, then come back on Monday. It makes it kinda hard to get everyone through the course. Still, we can but do our best.

I went for a walk to the city centre with Avinash. It wasn’t quite as far as I thought it might be. There’s some fairly major reconstruction going on around the various parts of sector 17. Mostly in the courtyard areas. Given another year and it will look quite nice. There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of big machinery here. Just lots of people doing the work manually. I did notice that, when they resurfaced the street I live on last week, they were using the ashfelt truck similar to what we use in NZ. But that was it. Even the vehicles that transported the ashfelt to the machine were not much better than horse and cart.

There are small businesses all around here. When I say small, they are one men operations. An electrician who’s transport is his push bike. All his tools fit in a bag on the bike rack. Or a cycle tyre repair man, who works on the corner of a street, on the footpath. His house is a tent held up by a garden wall. A richshaw driver who’s bed is the back of the rickshaw. He washes himself and his clothes at a public tap on the side of the road. The other day two men came around to install a sky dish. One chap had the dish in a bag on his back. The other had the tools in another pack. They both arrived on motor scooters.

One chap, just down the road from me, does everyone’s ironing. His house is a tent on the curbside. He lives there with his wife and daughter. You see plenty of chairs outside under trees. They are the local barber. Some even have a mirror attached to the tree or a freestanding frame.

18th May

I saw a great site today. A bus company called the ‘Chandigarh Transport Undertaking’. Well, after all, who ever said the word ‘undertaking’ only had one use.

Today was the last day of the first module of teaching. A mile stone!! Yay. In 2009, I didn’t get past this point on the grounds that I had to keep starting again with different students. It makes all the difference having a marketing team.

We have a new ‘faculty’ starting tomorrow. (That’s what they call staff here. ‘faculty’.) He’s good with animation and rigging and is keen to do some teaching. Which is really good because Rakesh is heading down to the bottom of India in early June for ten days. (Apparently it takes three days by train. Not sure that I would want to be in an Indian train for three days.) I think he’s off to a wedding or something.

17th May

Yesterday was a bit rough. I got into the office at the usual time, noly to discover that the air conditioning system wasn’t working. The classroom temperature was 33 degrees. The fans were going but they made a bit of a noise and were blowing papers around whilst the students were trying to work. During the morning, the power went of three times. When you are in a classroom with no windows, it makes it quite dark without the lights.

We had a new student start today. A slightly older lady. I think she’s got some connection with Ashutosh. I think she is currently training at another campus, and Ashutosh thinks if she starts training here, she’ll enjoy it and invite all her friend to abandon that campus for ours. I guess we’ll see. But, it wasn’t a good start to her experience.

To top all that off, Rakesh called in sick. Not sure what the problem is.

We finally got the AC going around 2pm. Fortunately the computer lab has a number of fans and extractor fans. So it was actually cooler in there than the rest of the college.

I got home after the classes and crashed on my bed for a couple of hours. I’m convinced that I will be somewhat thinner by time I get home. (I wonder if I can ask Singapore Airlines for a half fair on the grounds that I won’t take up much room?)

16th May

I’m typing a few lines to let you know that I’m still alive and all systems functioning normally. This past week has been all about the class really. We now have 17 students. They all seem a swell bunch of kids and are getting on with things. There are a few talented artists in the class. There is one lad who is scared of drawing but his work is not bad. My guess is that he hasn’t really been encouraged to follow his creative side.

The lessons are going well. I have Rakesh with me and he is really keen. He loves the teaching in the Lab. I don’t have to do much there. More of a supervisory role really. He’s warming up to the Creative Practice classes. The first one I gave him was the Perspective class. He really wanted to give that one a go. He had finished his lesson in a little under three minutes. (Just as well I was there.) I took over, making it out to be a tag team effort and we got stuck into actually giving it a go. I give him credit for trying. The next CP I gave him to do was Face drawing. That was much better. He got them to try using his techniques to draw some faces. For this one I was able to sit back and watch. Well, I did draw a few funny faces on the whiteboard, which they immediately copied, but I was trying to get them to have fun. So, we’ve nearly done the first module. About three more days and we will have completed the Logo design exercise.

The staff here are really nice. They are working hard to try to bring in more students. They always have a smile for me and are extremely polite. Its kinda fun trying to think of ways to help them understand what I’m needing. It’s not that they don’t understand English. Its just that they have different words for things. For example, they call a 30 cm ruler a Scale. When you think of it, it makes perfect sense why they should call it a scale but who would have guessed. The funniest one of all is when I say “Can I please have some milk?” They scratch their heads and ask me to ask again. “Can I please have some milk?” No, they don’t get it. So I ask again. “Ah, milk. Yes certainly.” The funny bit is when they say milk, it sounds just like when I say milk.

India is having a major problem at the mo, especially here in the Punjab. (The Punjab is the main rice and wheat growing area of India.)I heard on a report from the BBC that the water table has dropped significantly over the last 30 years. Whereas the water table used to be at around 30 feet, its now more like 100 – 200 feet and the water is not as good down there. There’s more salt in it. Therefore the crops are not getting the correct nutrients. This in turn is causing a food shortage and the farmers are going into increased debt. I don’t think the farmers are as well looked after as they are in NZ.

The Mango crops are down to 20% of last year’s season as well. Apparently the monsoons came at the wrong time and it wasn’t enough. That’s of course if you believe everything you hear on the news.

9th and 10th May

We started our first brief today. ‘Take a walk’. I seem to recall last time, it took around three or four weeks to get to this point. But, this time is much better. We’ve had a few more students arrive. Some will start today. More tomorrow.

I was rather amused that they students gave some feedback that they didn’t want to go for the walk. They said it was too hot. I guess I wasn’t really expecting that. I imagined it was just a normal day for them. Mind you, it was around 29 degrees at 6am this morning. Rakish is really enjoying the teaching. He’s very keen, especially in the computer lab.

At the flat, I now have an electric stove and pan. They arrived during the day along with a dish rack, and a few other bits and pieces. I can now cook up my own meals. Yay!!

10^th May

I was heading home from buying some groceries tonight when I came across a car that was being used to teach drivers. I think the instructor was waiting for his client. I couldn’t help but be amused. “They actually have driving school??” Then I got to imagining what it would be like to be instructed how to drive in India. In the cabin there are two horns. One for the learner and one for the trainer. The learner’s horn is very big and easy to reach. The wing mirrors are blacked out. (Don’t need those) The rear view mirror is for hanging things off. There are two gears. One forward for going really fast, and one for reverse which means go really fast, backwards. Then there’s the road code. “Right, so when you see a red light, what should you do?” “Ignore it sir?” “Yes. That’s right. Well done. What about going around a roundabout?” “Press the horn all the way round and make sure I hit at least one car, sir?” “Yes, yes. Well done. You’ll be my top student. Oh, by the way, you can take your blindfold off now.”

8th May

Sunday is my day off. I wasn’t sure whether it was the cleaning lady’s day off so I got up the usual time. (Wouldn’t want to embarrass the poor woman.) I spent most of the day reading and not thinking too much. I tried to watch the cricket on the internet but the connection wasn’t that great. Later in the evening when I was thinking I should get some sleep, I had a call from Ashutosh. Some men were coming around to replace the air conditioning unit. Right, OK. They arrived about three quarters of an hour later and started asking me all sorts of questions in Hindi that I had no idea what they were saying. That was alright though cause they couldn’t understand me either. I managed to figure out that they were most perplexed that the ac wasn’t there. I thought it was. There it is hanging in the wall. They tried to indicate the new ac. I had no idea where the new ac was. Then one of them had a moment of brilliance. Let’s have a look outside. Just outside my door there is another door that leads to the roof. Sure enough, there it was. Some other party must have put it there during the day sometime.

After about an hour of bashing and smashing and a general amount of noise, the ‘new’ ac unit was in. They sealed around the outside of the unit with a plastercine substance of some kind. (Wasn’t the tidiest of jobs) This one was a lot quieter and seemed to work much better. I had much more control over what temperature I wanted.

7th May

Sorry. I haven’t been on my blog for a while. I’ve been quite sick. Luck of the draw really. You try everything you can to stay safe, but … I’m slowly coming right. I’m back at work at least.

Now for an update.

I needed to spend an extra couple of days in the Hotel. Partially because Ashutosh was having a lot of trouble securing an apartment for me and partially because of the illness. About three days ago, I moved into my room. It’s situated in a rather posh part of town. The landlord/owner lives downstairs and has three levels above him that he rents out. Mine is on the top level. If I step out onto the roof and look north, I can see the Himalayas. The place has a single room with a kitchen and bathroom coming off that. There is a single bed in the main room, a desk and a wardrobe. The mattress belongs to the owner. I believe he probably had it second hand when he was a boy. (He’s older than me) As I lie on it I can hear the straw rustle. My first night was not the most comfortable night I’ve ever had.

The air conditioning consists of an ac unit that Ashutosh had removed from one of his offices and installed in the flat, plus a ceiling fan. The ac unit sound like a 747 jumbo taking off and the fan has its own rhythms and squeaks.

So the first night in my room, I stayed up reading for most of the night trying to get tired enough that my body would ignore the mattress and my mind would ignore the army of ants that came for a visit. I think I finally crashed around 5am.

Next day I braved the elements and found my way to the market. The first thing I was looking for was some fly spray. I figured, if the ants want to stay, then they can jolly well pay rent. Otherwise, they get blasted. I purchased a few other munchies and headed back home. (I ask the ants nicely. They couldn’t come up with their portion of the rent, so I evicted them. Chuckle, chuckle.)

The next evening, I had hoped that Ashutosh could replace the mattress. He had so many things he was trying to do that it way quite late before ha got underway with my situation. I had another night on the straw rustling mattress. What made life more interesting was that somewhere in the night, the power went off. This meant that the ceiling fan was off. (I had already turned the ac off. Couldn’t sleep with that thing going.) I woke up sweating. I needed to open all the doors to the outside to let some coolness in. Believe it or not, it was colder outside. The power hadn’t come back on until after I had gone to work.

In the evening, the mattress was finally replaced with something much better. Phew. I felt like going straight to bed. I was just considering the possibility when the power went off again. DOH!! I checked out side and saw some lights on here and there, so I was a bit confussed. So I popped down to talk to the judge. He invited me to sit in the ‘cool’ of the evening to have a chat. Very pleasant fellow. He assured me that this sort of thing rarely happens in their part of town. Then we went on to talk about his many trips to New Zealand and some of his favorite areas. He informed me that the kiwis are very friendly and the aussies are very rude. (Sorry Carol. His words, not mine.) He blames the aussies behaviour on immigration problems.

The classes are going well. I have ten students with at least one more starting on Monday. Maybe more during the week. Which is somewhat better than last time. They are mostly keen. I might need to move them along a bit with their homework though. (I have a plan) They have bonded well and give me heaps of cheek. Rakish is the Indian tutor. He seems to be enjoying himself. He’s in all of the classes, listening carefully. I get him to do some of the Lab sessions.

Fun Times

Sounds great :D, how many students are there going to be in the end? seems like india might be picking up in the multimedia area.

1 May

Ashutosh came to the office for the first time today. It was lovely to see him again. We were able to discuss more about what still needed doing. Maya was there too. We walked around the classrooms and discussed their ideas of the shape of things.

Later in the evening, we headed out for dinner. I got a chance to say hello to Aramon. He’s 6 going on 12. He’s just started primary school so he’s really tired. It’s a pity. If I had known, I would have suggested me meet up on Sunday instead. Still, he woke up enough to say hello and have a small meal with us. Unfortunately for me, I think the meal was way to late in the evening. I got home and couldn’t sleep. By early morning I was quite ill. Ashutosh took me to a doctors around midday. He poked around and concluded that a little bit of medicine and lots of water should bring the situation under control. By the time we were talking to the doctor, I was already feeling better. Ashutosh needed to go to an appointment himself, so he got one of his friends to take me back to the hotel. The driver wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary for Indian drivers, but I was really glad when I got to my room and sat on the bed. No movement. So much for me feeling better.

I decided to try to sleep. I guess with the restless night and dehydration, my attempts to drop off were spasmodic at best.

I’m feeling a lot better today. Which is just as well. Today we start our first class.

As far as I know we have 10 students starting with more coming during the week. I have Rakish with me. Should be good.

29th April

Today didn’t start so well. I got a phone call from the office to say that a taxi would be arriving to pick me up. I was given the taxi number and name of the driver. I went down to the lobby to wait for him. After a while of sitting in the lounge, I got another phone call to say he was outside waiting for me. I hadn’t seen him arrive. I went outside to the only taxi that was waiting. I couldn’t find a taxi number, nor was it the name I was given. Hmm. So I do what most people would do. “Are you waiting for Mr. Colin?” “No.” He says, and proceeds to rattle of some other name. Ah. I wonder if he just misunderstood or there was another taxi somewhere here. I had a look around the car park. There were no other cars with people waiting. Hmm. Ring Ashutosh. (It turns out he was in Delhi) He rang the taxi company, and the jolly large taxi man climbed out and offered me a seat in the cab. So, we had been standing there looking at each other like a Mexican standoff for ten minutes, not knowing that this was my cab and I was his passenger. Oh well. Kinda funny when you look back on it. At least it wasn’t brain meltingly hot, yet.

During the day, we worked on getting the campus ready. I spent some time with Rakish. He’s the tutor they have at the moment. He seems a pleasant chap.

The main coordinator for Touchstone came over today. She’s someone I met in 2009. She carries a lot of influence with the staff, but she seems well liked. Very efficient. We went through all the things the students will need and all that I saw was left to do. I will be really surprised if the computer room is ready for Monday. Still looks like a war zone. Maybe they’ll be a flurry of activity today.

A boy came to the campus later in the day to show the coordinator some stationery that she had asked for. She bought them into me to choose which pens and pads I would like. I was a bit surprised that the collection was mainly Parker pens. I couldn’t determine whether this guy was trying to rip Touchstone off or whether Parker pens were cheaper over here. No, they were just as expensive. I asked the coordinator to get him to bring over something less extravagant. I know that the staff here want to make me feel well looked after, and I want to be careful that I’m not offending them, but a Parker pen wasn’t necessary for my office.

Oooh. I got oxygen into my fish tank!! Yay. A couple of fellas came in and ripped off some ceiling panels. Airflow. I guess they’ll come back and tidy up the hole sometime.

28th April

Ashutosh has a different driver to the last time I was here. This person has a rather impressive turban and beard to match. I’m not sure that he speaks. I haven’t heard him talk to anyone yet. He’s rather fun to watch though. As we would go through the gears to come up to speed, and then concentrate on what we’re doing, this chap will include an extra habit at the end. Hand on the horn. Now has he is zipping down the road at a pacey 50 kph, he in a position to press that honker at anything and everything. It’s a bit like a game of netball really. You hear the whistle blow every five seconds or so but you have no idea what its for. (I’m sure someone does. The ref maybe.)

Today was about settling into the new office space. Ashutosh has set up a floor of a building in Sector 17A for Animasia. There’s still a bit of work to do to finish off the computer room but I was assured that it would be complete by Monday. At the moment the English language classes are using most of the rooms, but there is an area downstairs that will be converted into classroom spaces for them. That’s meant to happen by Monday as well. I’m fairly certain that’s not going to happen. I had a look at the downstairs area and it reminds me of the abandoned rooms and tunnels of the port hills.

The computer room is about the size of Neil’s office. It’s going to have twenty computers in it. Should be nice and cozy. (Hope the air con works.) We are going to have a video editing room. It’s full of stuff at the moment. It’s going to have a couple of Macs in it.

I was introduced to my office. It’s a glass box with a pillar in it. I get the feeling that it was someone else’s office, but when I asked, I was assured it was mine. So, the only thing I need now is some waterweeds, a castle and a treasure chest, a good supply of oxygen and I’ll be set. If I come home with gills in the side of my head and gasping, just throw me in a sink of slightly warm water.

I was introduced to the team. In the main office, there are about five ladies all looking after enrollments and marketing for Animasia. The main person in charge of Marketing is a person by the name of Avinash. (I wonder if the glass room was his? I must check to see if he has gills.) He is really nice. He is trying very hard to get students for the Natcoll courses. He and his team are visiting a number of places around Chandigarh and giving presentations. I’m off on one of these expeditions on Saturday. Should be interesting.

So, once I was settled in my bowl, and had munched on my Subway foot-long, I set about working out what we didn’t have and what we needed. Alex H will love this. We need cameras. He he.

Did I mention that half the class in presently studying English listening classes? No? Well, yep. They sure are. I had the chance to talk to three of the students yesterday. Two of them could understand me quite well. The other one was struggling. The tutor who is going to be with me came to talk to me later in the afternoon. He wanted some tips on teaching. (I’m not sure if I should run away and hide or poke fate in the eye.) Ah, the challenge of being a Natcoll tutor. ‘It’s a bit like a box of chocolates, you never know what you might get.’ (Forest Grump)

27th April

A new day. It’s a barmy 39 degrees with a slight wind. I had time to relax a bit and enjoy the Hotel gardens. Although my flight to Chandigarh was due to leave at 4.15 pm, I had been informed by Sue that the airport insists that you arrive for booking in 2 hours before the flight. So, I left the hotel in plenty of time. Just as well. After going through a check at the door, then waiting in line at the check in counter, I had about an hour left.

I can see now why this airport is so big. There are 63 gates just on the domestic side. During the day, a great many of them are busy. As with Singapore, my gate was way off in the distance. (I think someone wants me to get fit.) I kept checking very ten minutes or so to make sure the gate number hadn’t changed.

The flight was delayed, but not by much. We still got away by around 4.30 pm.

I thought, getting to my seat that it couldn’t possibly be three in a row. I was sitting next to the window by the exit door over the wing, with two spare seats next to me. But, no. One thing the Indians like to do is to move around the plane. Before we had left the ground, a young chap came over and asked if he could sit in my row. Then he invited his friend. For the next forty minutes, I had the first young man tell me all about this holy man who had just died and his spiritual beliefs whilst the other guy interpreted. It was kinda funny and cute. Funny because the chap was so happy. The interpreter told me his nickname was Laughing Singh.

We arrived at Chandigarh and landed at around 600 miles per hour. I think we were still doing around 40 when the pilot braked to park just outside the terminal. I get the feeling he was making up for lost time. Ashutosh had informed me that he was not well, so he arranged for some of his staff to pick me up. It was really nice to see some familiar faces again. They drove me to the hotel and made sure I was settled into my room. By this stage I was really tired and ready for bed. The room is nice. A large bed nice bathroom. The TV looked like it was on loan from Noah’s children. (Noah wouldn’t have had one. He already knew the forecast. Didn’t see the point really.) There’s a lot of noise in and around my room. Somewhere outside my door, there’s a Boeing 747 taking off. Outside my windows, the guards are directing traffic with their whistles. Inside my room the air conditioning unit is an A360 Airbus winding up for take off and the ceiling fan is just happy to flap.

I decided to watch the cricket to try to keep myself awake a bit longer. Can’t miss it. It’s on just about all the channels. I think I faded out just after somebody’s innings. No idea who.

I woke up somewhere in the small hours of the morning to the sound of silence. Quite weird. I think the guards had run out of whistle power, the AC was off and the fan was still flapping. (Didn’t stop me going back to sleep.)

26th April

I arrived at Christchurch Airport a little bit early. 7.30 am. The counters didn’t open until 8 am. Still, it was nice chatting to an elderly English couple who were heading home via Singapore. They had arrived soon after the February earthquake and have since toured the lower South Island.

The flight to Singapore was typically efficient on the part of Singapore Airlines. This was the first trip to India I have had where I had the whole row of seats to myself. Ohhhh, it was rough. I had all that space to stretch out.

Being a day flight, I wasn’t inclined to sleep, so I thought I might catch up on some movies. It’s amazing how many movies you can see on one flight. I think it was five.

The day was starting to get to me around three quarters of the way through the flight. For some reason the air conditioning in the cabin seemed insufficient. I was having a lot of trouble breathing. An hour out from Singapore, I started getting a really awesome headache.

We landed ahead of schedule. (I didn’t know this until Sue emailed me to try to arrange a get together at the airport.) Once in the terminal, I pointed myself in the general direction of where I thought I should be and headed out. I say this because I felt somewhat numb and zombie like leaving the plane. Fortunately, you can’t get to lost at this airport. There’s this cute little train that takes you from one terminal and deposits you into another. Quite cool really. (For a zombie that is.)

I had enough sense to ask at an info desk which direction I should be going, once I arrived at Terminal three. They said I should head to Gate E27 but that I shouldn’t head that way too soon in case the gate was changed. Ah, time for a toilet stop, me thinks. Just as well. It was a long walk to E27. Having done the necessaries, I headed off in the general right direction. I thought I was pacing along really well until a passenger using a Zimmer frame shot past me. Hmm. Zombie. Just as well I wasn’t looking at myself. I can just picture it now. Staring vaguely off to the horizon, arms out stretched, groaning non-sensically .

I eventually arrived at gate E27 with what I thought was a few minutes to spare. Sure enough the gate was the right one. Phew. (They hadn’t changed it in the time it took to get there.)

It seemed to take a while before anything started to happen, but it did. I thought the flight may not be heavily booked as there didn’t seem to be many people waiting. I was wrong. This flight always seems to be full. I did get a surprise though. Yet again, I had the whole row to myself. I kept thinking to myself, that someone is gonna come and fill the seats. Right up until the pilot asked the cabin crew to secure the doors. (Wow. A whole row to myself. This was even better than the first leg of the trip. Why, you may ask. Well…) By now, my body was telling me it was getting late. I wasn’t sure how late. So I found a way to adjust the seats so I could stretch out, wrapped a blanket around me, and …

Have you ever tried to sleep like an up-turned banana with arm rests sticking into strange places! It kinda doesn’t work to well.

Oh the blissful sound of ‘This is your Captain speaking. Shortly we will be landing…”

The New Delhi airport is something to behold. When I was last here, they were still building the terminal in anticipation of the Commonwealth Games. Now its finished. The first thing that struck me as we were walking out from the plane, was the emptiness of the place. Like Singapore, we walked forever to get to arrivals. In this case, it was like walking through a ghost-airport. It felt like the airport was way to big for the amount of traffic that comes into it.

We waited for a while to get our bags. There was one or two pieces coming onto the carrousel every couple of minutes. Then we were supposed to choose the green line if we had nothing to declare, or the red line for declarations. I chose the green line. Only problem was. It led me into a barrier. Nope, can’t go that way. I know. I’ll be a sheep and follow the crowd. We walked right past the guards who were busy chatting and out into the wonder that is Delhi.

The driver was there to meet me. He herded me up, poked me into a car and took off for the hotel. By this stage it was 6 am NZ Time. I know, ‘cause the alarm on my cellphone went off whilst we were heading for the hotel.

So, midnight, local time, I climbed into bed. Ah, this is so nice… Blink. My body says time to get up. Doh!!!! 3.30 am local time.

To Singapore

Hope you enjoyed the flight and had something nice to eat =)