Working with the India Team

In case it didn't come through loud and clear from last year's blog entries, I really did enjoy my trip to India last year and truly enjoyed meeting and working with the team. Face to face is the way to go. I know it is more expensive, time consuming, tiring, etc., but it works wonders; allowing you to build relationships you can't build via the phone or instant messaging. When I arrived in the office on Monday, I was greeted by smiling faces and "welcome backs" from the Australian shift team. This team begins work at 3am local time to support our Far East and Oceania clients and teams. They are a tough group! The rest of the day involved catching up with all the shifts as they arrived (and with e-mails and rapidly falling behind work tasks from traveling for 2 days). The enthusiasm of the whole team is contagious. They are really excited that I am here to teach them new skills and to learn more about the products I support. This is going to be another good trip!

Current temperature - 73 degrees

One of the bad things about traveling, is that there are things back home that you miss. That is obvious. One of the good things about traveling, is that there are things that you MISS. For example, it is about 10:30 pm. I just got back from a nice team dinner, on the terrace of Ebony, which is on the 13th floor of a building in central Bangalore. It is currently 73 degrees. That is pretty sweet. Not to rub it in, but I think that beats the forecast temperature in Hudson of 32 tonight. True, it's not snowing and -10, but still. Definitely makes me look forward to spending time with Sean and Rose in the backyard, grillin' and chill' this summer!

Unfortunately, I will also miss Cugs and his family, who are in town for his niece's wedding. So the Nags Head Gang (less Kean and I) will be hanging at the Lizard tonight (I miss you guys!) By the way Tim, you were back in Ohio two years ago when I was in Paris. You need to schedule better!

Things have been going really well so far, no dead bodies, good weather, good food, great host, etc. It's kinda weird. Things have not changed since the last time I was here. I'm right next to the room I stayed at last time here at the Taj Gateway. It is a mirror of my old room. The staff is the same and they still know my name (it's embarrassing, you'd think I should know theirs). So I won't bore you with the same old stories, but I will share some pics instead (I know that is what you come for anyway!)

On Saturday when I arrived, I was invited to attend one of Cheryl's friends Jacquie's (below with Ali) surprise birthday parties. Once again, I was welcomed as if the other guests had known me forever. Well I had met most of them my last visit :-)

It was a really nice time, traditional Indian food...

...and of course, Texas Hold 'em!

Sunday was very relaxing, not much sleep the night before as my sleep patterns have just returned to normal (I hope). But did get to hang out at the pool, get some sun and then return to Jamavar at Leela Palace for a great meal. This place is pretty cool.

The hat says it all...

Thursday was a crazy day, up at 4:30am, conference call at 7. I still had packing and preparation to do (yes, Thursday was departure day, but you don't want to be too ready). Already too many things to get ready before the 2pm car service pickup? Or was it? I did need one last thing...our camera had been acting up, black spots on pictures, internal memory lasting 5 minutes, you know annoying things. And since I do like to take pictures, it was time to get a new camera. Now don't think I woke up Thursday and decided that, I HAD done some preparation. So off Rose and I go to Target shopping. A bit later we end up at a local camera dealer and purchased a Canon PowerShot A720IS. For us it was the perfect camera, not too big, not too small - - all-purpose. We'll see how it works out. After wings at the Lizard, we headed back to home to finish packing. I was doing good until 1:50 when I remembered I had to prepare the fish tank for two weeks...oh well, the driver wasn't too upset.

So the hat, which was an Easter gift from Rose, is perfect for the trip. And really, the hat says it all...

(Taken with new camera in Newark Airport)

Here we go again...

So time to resurrect the old blog....

I suppose I should really post stories for the other stuff that happens on my life...I guess that most stuff is either too personal, too boring, or too likely to get me in trouble at work (just kidding guys!)

In less than a week I head out again for Bangalore...I leave on 27 March and today is the 22nd. I am not prepared to do this. The last time I took this trip, the weather here in NEO was more similar to the weather in Bangalore. Not so now; in Bangalore, it is currently 70 degrees (12:10 am tomorrow) and here it is a balmy 35. We had 6 inches of snow overnight. We decorated decorated Easter Eggs this morning. Here is a useful way to dispose of the egg coloring when you have 4 foot tall piles of snow!

But I digress...So since it is still snowing here, and it is not snowing in Bangalore, I need to dig out the summer clothes...I just can't imagine short sleeves and shorts right now. So, I have nothing prepared to go, my luggage has a broken wheel and forget about being prepared work wise. The last two weeks have been interesting, to say the least, with the projects I am working on...this week will be a cram course in getting prepared for the following two weeks with the India Team, but I'm sure everything will work out.

I'm not sure what this trip will bring (hopefully no bodies on the tracks my first day in the office), but I'm sure there will be some stories to share...

More Pictures

I can't believe it's been so long since my last post. I have no idea where the time has gone. I can't believe how long it's been since I was in India. It seem like forever ago. Oh well. I still have pictures to share, so here we go...

I guess everywhere had Harry Potter fever
I'm sure I mentioned the food. This is the desert bar for brunch at the Taj Residency

This was the buffet for breakfast every morning at the Taj Gateway
Only the driver needs a helmet, I guess, not the other three on the bike....

Can you guess the name of this place????


As you know I like to go to aquariums wherever I visit...

I would be remiss if I did not include a picture of a cow...

Finally, pictures of monkeys...

Not sure if they were weeding or cutting the grass...

Check out the guy in red, I guess sales were not what he was hoping for...

Mysore - The Sights

The main reason to go to Mysore, was to see the palace there. While not the Taj Majal (what is?), it was relatively close and supposed to be nice. It was OK. The grounds and palace are huge, but I was disappointed by the upkeep. They need to spend some money on this place before it falls down. There was peeling paint everywhere. You can't take pictures inside, so you have to check your camera at the gates.

The other interesting thing was you needed to remove your shoes to enter. I guess this is done so that all the shoes do not wear down the floors, some of which were beautifully tiled. But what cracked me up is that the cleaning people were using these grass brooms to beat, and I mean beat, the dust off the furniture and statues there. I can't believe that does not do more damage than people walking around in shoes.

The Palace

I got to ride an elephant

Luggage Found

On Saturday, 7 days after I returned home, I had a glimmer of hope that my luggage might be returned. The Continental website indicated my luggage was rebooked on the Virgin flight I originally took, just a week later. I was pretty excited. I had already begun the process of listing the contents of my suitcase. Do you know how difficult it is to recreate, 6 days worth of clothes? They wanted make, model, color, size, where and when purchased...this was not a fun process...I know I buy most of my stuff at Kohls, but recreating this was gonna be a pain. My clothes were nothing compared to figuring out how much my camera power cord, UBS cable, plus cell phone and iPod cables...what a night mare. Luckily, I only wasted about an hour of my life doing that before I got the good news. Of course, with all good news, must come some bad news. Of course my bag didn't make that flight. It did make the flight on Sunday and my bag was schedule for delivery sometime Monday. Originally when I filed my claim I indicated the bag could be delivered at any time, if I were not home they could leave it on the front porch. The morning passed, noon passed, it was almost 3pm and I was getting mad. You'd think since my bag was 8 days late, they would try and deliver it 1st thing in the morning. I contacted my friends at Continental:

"They started to deliver at 8:30 and should be done in 6 hours", the nice lady told me.

"It's been 6 1/2 hours", I observed.

"Good point," she replied. "Let me check"

"They tell me they have delivered all of the bags. Are you sure it's not on your porch?

Now, our front porch is nice, but not by any means big. I would k now if my suitcase were sitting on it.

"Have you been home all day, have you checked around your house", she asked?

"No", I replied. "They are supposed to deliver to the porch."

So I walk around the house and there it is, by the backdoor, off the garage. What an idiot! (not me, the delivery person. How would I know it is there!

The good news is that all my belongings appear to be there. Rose and Sean both really like their gifts, even though 8 days late

But what to do now? I should be compensated in some way. Anyone out there ever been though this? Please let me know what I should do.