On Vacation

Today was my last day at work, and as is tradition for the the last day for the Canadian trainers, the gang gave me an Indian outfit as a going away gift.  My responsibility was to buy them all ice cream and pizza this afternoon.  I must admit I am a little sad to say good bye and will miss working with them on a daily basis.

But the good news is that now I have 12 days of vacation to spend looking around India before coming home.  I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what to do and where to go for my India vacation. India is so big and 12 days is not really a lot of time. It is like coming to Canada and trying to see as much of the country as you can in 12 days. Hard to do without flying a lot and not really seeing anything in depth. So in the end I decided to concentrate on one area. The state is called Kerala and it is south of Bangalore. Kerala has become quite a tourist destination because of its natural beauty. Lots of beaches, rivers, hill stations and farmland. I wanted to stay away from big cities and was not that interested in seeing temples or even the Taj Mahal.  I am getting a little flak about not going to see the Taj Mahal, but really, I think I can live my life without seeing it. It is good to hear that there is a lot of the Indian population that has never been.  Oddly enough it is not as hot in this area as it would be if I went North towards Delhi, but it is still going to be plenty warm enough.

 

I am looking forward to my holiday, but am also really looking forward to coming home.

It almost rained today!

I have been here for 61 days now and every day has been pretty much the same.  When I first arrived the highs were about 28 degrees with the low temperatures at night getting to around 18.  The temperatures increased after the first couple of weeks and it has been pretty much highs of around 32-35 with lows around 25 the entire time.  There have been a few overcast or hazy days and some days more breezy than others, but other than that every day has felt exactly the same.  There was one exception on Saturday night, when we were having our dinner out by the pool we felt more than a few rain drops that lasted about 5 minutes.  We all got excited because it was such an anomaly. 

Today I was working at my desk and there was rumour that it was raining outside.  I jumped up and went out to the balcony that is off the coffee area to see if it was true.  But if it was,  it was just a sprinkle and had finished by the time I got there.  I was a little disappointed because I really miss having changes in the weather!  The monsoon season apparently does not start until about mid May, so the chances of me seeing any significant rain is quite low.  I know for those of you in Vancouver wading through the puddles - you are feeling a lot of sympathy for me right now!

Electricity

Electricity is something we tend to take for granted in most places in the world.  Not so much in India!
The electricity goes out inexplicably at least a dozen times per day here, sometimes for hours on end.  I am fairly lucky because where I spend all of my time, the hotel and the office, there are back up generators.  These kick in within 10 to 60 seconds if the power goes out so that I am not left in the dark for too long.  Not so for a lot of the people living and working here without back up power.  In the papers, I daily read about the lack of power in Bangalore (and most other parts of the country). It is a common complaint with everyone here.  Upcoming scheduled outages are often published in the papers, but there are many more unscheduled outages that occur on a daily basis.

It has taken some getting use to, but now the outages do not faze me too too much. At least at work, the lights go out for a minute or so, but the computers are rigged to be never without power so that work is not interrupted.  This is not the case at the hotel.  I have lost count how many times I have lost power at the hotel while on the computer.  The computer automatically shuts down - this is due to the fact that the battery is completely shot and the computer needs to be plugged in at all times to work!  It takes me at least 5 -10 minutes to get back up and running again.

Then there is the TV at the hotel.  Now that the Olympics are over, I have not had the TV on as much, but it takes about 1 to 2 minutes for the TV to reset itself and for me to get back to the channel I was previously on.  Very annoying as well.

But worst of all are the elevators!  So far I have been caught three times in the elevator when the power went out.  Twice at the hotel and once at work.  Being stuck in a pitch black elevator, even for a minute is not a pleasant experience.  I swear I dropped about a meter in the elevator the other day.  I was alone in the elevator going up and everything went black and I felt it fall.  Fortunately it stopped itself and then took about minute to recalibrate itself and then had to go down and start over at the lobby level.  A little freaky to say the least.  I would take the stairs everywhere if I could, but because of security concerns the hotel staff does not like you to take the stairs at all and at work you can only take them down - which I do.

My work week

Just finished my first week at the office! This week went by very quickly and very slowly at the same time. There was a lot of material that was covered, but the team did a very good job and seemed to catch on very well. 8-9 hours each day at the office plus many hours before and after getting ready - I am pretty tired now.

Some interesting notes made this week:

Security is very high in Bangalore. At least at the hotel and the office. The hotel is gated and there is security that checks under the car and also inside the car every time we drive in. We have to pass through a scanner whenever coming into the hotel. The office has a security check to get into the complex and security men at every floor in the building.

Food is really cheap - lunch at the food court is about 40-60INR or less than $2CND.
Dinner at the hotel restaurant is about $10CND (without alcohol). Breakfast is free as it is included in the room rate. You might be interested to know that my chocolate consumption has decreased quite a bit. With the change in eating schedule, I just don't feel like eating as much - shocking, I know.

At the office they have staff where their only duty is to make tea or coffee on demand. You are not allowed to make it yourself.

There is no tipping anywhere here that I have seen.

Here is a picture of me, my driver Narayan, and Marc-A (MAM). MAM is here for two weeks from the Montreal office to work with me on training the team. Also MAM and some of the offshore team trying to stay awake!

quick update

I tried a short swim and treadmill run today. Swam about a kilometer and got nice and cold and then jumped directly onto a treadmill and didn't start sweating until the last couple of minutes into my 5k! This will be a good strategy for the future. My last couple of treadmill runs have been difficult because I overheat within minutes. The sun shines directly down on the gym at that time of the morning. This is the best time for me to run so I will just have to get used to it.

It has only been a few days of work, but so far my days are long and pretty unexciting. I get up, work out for about an hour, have breakfast and then start prep for the day. Go to the office before noon and work with the group until just after 2:00. We then go for lunch down at the food court and then back to work until about 8:00. Come back to the hotel, have dinner, respond to a few emails and then to bed because I am so exhausted!