its yesterday once more.....shoobie-doo-lang-way.....!
Well im back in the country :-S India was amazing and as soon as I was sitting in a black and yellow taxi (no rikshaws in Mumbai) I felt relaxed and at home (sounds cheesy I know!) not too sure how I could feel relaxed whizzing through the Indian streets but hey! I did!
When we got to heathrow before we went for the security check jane and I were pulled over to have a full body scan thingy. Before they could do it tho they had to check I was over 16!! Ok I can understand 18 for drinking, but 16! Come on!! Surely I don’t look that young?! We chillaxed in the ba lounge waiting for our flight and the student in me made the most of the free food and drinks and stashed them away for the flight, at the hotel, etc!! the flight was pretty empty and so jane and I had a few seats each, I watched a few films and slept so not really much to report on the flight. It was very bumpy, though I guess it was because of the monsoon in India.
We landed in mubai in the middle of the night so we went straight to the hotel. We drove through the shanty towns and the ‘houses’ all looked like oversized cereal boxes stacked on top of one another. Each family had one ‘cereal box’ each, so one room for the whole family and even though they were living in such poor conditions they still had space for a tv! Ill never understand that! In complete contrast we were supposed to be satying at the Hilton (d’harling!) but it was full and so we ended up being upgraded the oberoi! It was ace! The rooms were huge and there was even a butler button to call him anytime of the night!
Wed – we met for breakfast and went to work. The office was lovely inside and felt like a really nice place to work. I met the uk teams and learnt quite a lot from them about how the company works and what they do. Another great thing was that I got to have Indian chai again and either chapatti or masala dosas for lunch! Ive missed them so much! After work jane and I went shoe shopping! Now as many of you know I don’t need much encouragement when it comes to shoes but jane kept pointing out really funky ones and helping me out! Im proud to say I didn’t get any even though we did go to that shop at least 3 times by the end of the week!
Thurs – we met with one of our uk customers. Not really got much more to say about that but I got a lot out of it cos I took part in the meetings and could see what is discussed and what happens.
*************INTERVAL!! *************
Fri – when I’d met the big boss guy on the first day he’d suggested I should visit Bangalore to get an idea of the production side of the company. Of course I didn’t need telling twice! When I got the tickets noone could wipe that smile off my face! I flew on kingfisher airlines (no free beer tho. Boo!) and it took one and a half hours. Bangalore airport had changed a bit but the person hadn’t who met me……seamus! We had a good old chinwag catching up with all the gossip and what had been happening on the way the factory. The factories were huge, I had no idea how big the first one was. Id never seen a production plant like that before so it was really interesting. We finished work at 5pm and then went to ……LEELA! It was crazy. It felt so surreal to be back, it was like a dream, it didn’t hit me for a while then I thought ‘wow im back!’ I loved being in the library bar in our usual seats (B4, 5, 6!) chatting away with a kingfisher in hand! All of a sudden a voice behind me starts singing ‘yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away’ I turned round and there was dj collin grinning behind me. I was so shocked I couldn’t speak and I nearly, note the nearly, cried! Unfortunately my flight was at 8:30 so I couldn’t chat for long. I was bundled into seamus’ car and ordered to go to the airport and not to cry while they carried on with their drinks! Ive never been tipsy on a flight before and I wouldn’t recommend it! *bleugh*
When I landed at the airport I had to get a taxi to the hotel and id been told that it should cost Rs250 so I got in the cab and asked how much. He said Rs1.700! I couldn’t believe it after all the ‘I live in India, don’t rip me off, blah, blah, blah’ I managed to get it down to Rs300! Not bad eh?! Everyone was proud of me in the office when I told them the next day!
Sat – I found out that if we’d thought of it earlier I could have stayed to fill a vacancy till sept 1st but cos Saturday was our last day it was too late to change the flights. I was gutted! Would have been ace to stay! We finished at 4:30pm and said bye to everyone. It was pouring with rain by this point but the rain was warm so we didn’t mind wandering around in it too much! I bought 2 gorgeous bracelets and we went back to the shoe shop for one final time! We walked quickly to the gate of India in the rain and then jane showed me the taj hotel – wow! We had dinner at indigo which was lovely, then we were picked up at 11pm for our flight home.
When we got to the airport cos jane had a silver card we were pushed past everyone in the ques for bag screening and check in! the whole thing took about half and hour at the most when it would have taken at least an hour and a half without that little bit of plastic! It was worth its weight in gold (tho that wouldn’t be much cos its just credit card size!!). the flight was 2 hours late cos security was high and then there was a technical glitch. We landed in boring Britain at 8am and I wished I was back in India!!
Sorry this post was so long. I did try to cut down quite a lot but don’t think I did it very well!
xx
When we got to heathrow before we went for the security check jane and I were pulled over to have a full body scan thingy. Before they could do it tho they had to check I was over 16!! Ok I can understand 18 for drinking, but 16! Come on!! Surely I don’t look that young?! We chillaxed in the ba lounge waiting for our flight and the student in me made the most of the free food and drinks and stashed them away for the flight, at the hotel, etc!! the flight was pretty empty and so jane and I had a few seats each, I watched a few films and slept so not really much to report on the flight. It was very bumpy, though I guess it was because of the monsoon in India.
We landed in mubai in the middle of the night so we went straight to the hotel. We drove through the shanty towns and the ‘houses’ all looked like oversized cereal boxes stacked on top of one another. Each family had one ‘cereal box’ each, so one room for the whole family and even though they were living in such poor conditions they still had space for a tv! Ill never understand that! In complete contrast we were supposed to be satying at the Hilton (d’harling!) but it was full and so we ended up being upgraded the oberoi! It was ace! The rooms were huge and there was even a butler button to call him anytime of the night!
Wed – we met for breakfast and went to work. The office was lovely inside and felt like a really nice place to work. I met the uk teams and learnt quite a lot from them about how the company works and what they do. Another great thing was that I got to have Indian chai again and either chapatti or masala dosas for lunch! Ive missed them so much! After work jane and I went shoe shopping! Now as many of you know I don’t need much encouragement when it comes to shoes but jane kept pointing out really funky ones and helping me out! Im proud to say I didn’t get any even though we did go to that shop at least 3 times by the end of the week!
Thurs – we met with one of our uk customers. Not really got much more to say about that but I got a lot out of it cos I took part in the meetings and could see what is discussed and what happens.
*************INTERVAL!! *************
Fri – when I’d met the big boss guy on the first day he’d suggested I should visit Bangalore to get an idea of the production side of the company. Of course I didn’t need telling twice! When I got the tickets noone could wipe that smile off my face! I flew on kingfisher airlines (no free beer tho. Boo!) and it took one and a half hours. Bangalore airport had changed a bit but the person hadn’t who met me……seamus! We had a good old chinwag catching up with all the gossip and what had been happening on the way the factory. The factories were huge, I had no idea how big the first one was. Id never seen a production plant like that before so it was really interesting. We finished work at 5pm and then went to ……LEELA! It was crazy. It felt so surreal to be back, it was like a dream, it didn’t hit me for a while then I thought ‘wow im back!’ I loved being in the library bar in our usual seats (B4, 5, 6!) chatting away with a kingfisher in hand! All of a sudden a voice behind me starts singing ‘yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away’ I turned round and there was dj collin grinning behind me. I was so shocked I couldn’t speak and I nearly, note the nearly, cried! Unfortunately my flight was at 8:30 so I couldn’t chat for long. I was bundled into seamus’ car and ordered to go to the airport and not to cry while they carried on with their drinks! Ive never been tipsy on a flight before and I wouldn’t recommend it! *bleugh*
When I landed at the airport I had to get a taxi to the hotel and id been told that it should cost Rs250 so I got in the cab and asked how much. He said Rs1.700! I couldn’t believe it after all the ‘I live in India, don’t rip me off, blah, blah, blah’ I managed to get it down to Rs300! Not bad eh?! Everyone was proud of me in the office when I told them the next day!
Sat – I found out that if we’d thought of it earlier I could have stayed to fill a vacancy till sept 1st but cos Saturday was our last day it was too late to change the flights. I was gutted! Would have been ace to stay! We finished at 4:30pm and said bye to everyone. It was pouring with rain by this point but the rain was warm so we didn’t mind wandering around in it too much! I bought 2 gorgeous bracelets and we went back to the shoe shop for one final time! We walked quickly to the gate of India in the rain and then jane showed me the taj hotel – wow! We had dinner at indigo which was lovely, then we were picked up at 11pm for our flight home.
When we got to the airport cos jane had a silver card we were pushed past everyone in the ques for bag screening and check in! the whole thing took about half and hour at the most when it would have taken at least an hour and a half without that little bit of plastic! It was worth its weight in gold (tho that wouldn’t be much cos its just credit card size!!). the flight was 2 hours late cos security was high and then there was a technical glitch. We landed in boring Britain at 8am and I wished I was back in India!!
Sorry this post was so long. I did try to cut down quite a lot but don’t think I did it very well!
xx
AH THE GOOD OLD DAYS!
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