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.