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 =)