Tennis

Last Week was the Bangalore leg of the WTA World Tennis Tour. A Couple of us went to the Semi-Finals on Saturday Night after work (we had to work on Saturday to make up for the Karnatakan strike the previous Monday). Good fun event. Although very different from the UK




First match was Shevdova(RUS) against Obzile(ISR). Good match, which Shevdova won. Lots of talking in the crowd though, and the game was stopped between end changes so that dead moths could be swept off the court. Bats also flew around the stands eating the giant moths that were buzzing around.
After the match a competition winner (10 year old local boy)was given the opportunity to race the winning tennis player in a remote control car race around the tennis court in a Mercedes-Benz advertising ploy. The local boy won, and the commentator rounded things off nicely: "Well Shevdova you won the tennis, and Samuel you won the car race, so its all square" (Not quite the same achievement, but a nice sentiment I guess)
There followed a very rowdy doubles semifinal involving an Indian girl, who unfortunately lost - great atmopshere though.



Meanwhile on Tuesday we went bowling again - I am improving as you can see!

Mid Week Update

A few pictures from the working week


Played some Catan


Simon Cleans up at Poker


Mike, Ben and Me at Herbs and Spices (Local Restaurant)


Doug caught the sun!


Doug, Me, Simon, Mike and Adam at Spiga (Italian restaurant in centre of town)

Quick Update

Hi all,

Monday morning, and the promised strike went ahead. Details of which at the provided link!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6352865.stm

Nice relaxed Sunday - brunch at the Leela Palace and then watched some films, played some poker (its all luck - and I lost some money!) and some Settlers of Catan ( I lost, current score Ben 3, Me 1, Doug 1).

New driver today took over from Babu - the new driver has a lot to live up to if he is to fill Babu's reliable shoes!

Airshow Acrobatics

Today Doug, Simon, Anisha and I all went to the Indian National Airshow. It really is a HUGE event, organised by Farnborough International, and basically a big jolly for the Indian military, and all the plane manufacturers and affiliated constructors around the world. It was extremely hot, and as with everything here, getting into the event wasn't straightforward. But we did spend a couple of hours wandering the vast boring hangers, and watching the spectacular displays of some of the fighter pilots. Seeing F16s, F18s, MIG's and giant cargo planes doing acrobatics in the air is pretty special. Here's a video:






A MIG soars upwards


A Giant American Cargo plane


Some Fighter Jet


Me


Freddie takes some time off from pummelling the Australians to advertise Indian Beer!

Founders Day

Founders Day at Work on Friday. Sort of a family fun day where staff can bring families intowork, and then go off to a big conference centre in Bangalore and enjoy a night of "Retro Fever!". Lots of party games available, a big food and a big concert hosted by an Indian MTV DJ (who started proceedings with the memorable line: "Ladies and Gentlemen, take your seats, put your hand in your pockets, we are going to have some fun!!")


Anisha and me enjoy Candy Floss (Anisha's comment: "It doesn't taste as pink as back home")

The concert was interesting, lots of dancing by both professional groups, employees and the management team as 60s and 70s icons (Lennon, Travolta, Marley and some Indian names too)

All good fun - and very different to the UK.

Some Links

Hiya all, Ben has been a bit behind on his blog, but he has just splurgged lots of pictures on his site. A lot of them are pictrues from my camera that I haven't put on this site. So it's well worth a look. (Don't be scared by the picture of him looking like the the terminator)

http://kisskissbangalore.blogspot.com/

Incidentally this link is a good one talking about Bangalore from the BBC. On the map we are located near the International Business Park - just to give you an idea of where I'm based.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6288325.stm
(With thanks to Ben for spotting the article)

Mid Week Update

Not really related to this post - but I like the picture of me and an elephant trunk!

Hi all, just a bit of an update from me mid working week. At the moment there are real problems in Bangalore between this state (Karnataka) and the state immediatley south of here (Tamil Nadu). Its all about Water In the early 1990s Karnataka was ordered to give a certain amount of resevoir water to the Tamils, which caused great resentment all round. However on Tuesday the result of a committee in Delhi was hotly anticipated (it was hoped by the Karnatakans that this would give them back their water), but the result gave away even more water to the Tamils. So instead of heading into town we stayed at home to avoid rioting in town (18,000 Riot police on standby!). However on the plus side going into town is really quick now, as all cars from Tamil are now banned from Karnataka in a retaliatary measure! (Would you ever get Scotland banning all English cars for a similar non-sensical reason?). Went bowling in town last night, and had a nice pork curry at the 'Coconut Grove' Restaurant, and am planning a long trip for a couple of weekends time to the UNESCO WOrld Hertiage Site at Hampi. Should be good!



Just a quick photo of the average Indian Lunch at the staff canteen. Out of 5 days a week we usually eat here about 3, and go to the ITPB (local International Business Park which has a Subway, Pizza Hut and KFC!) about 2 days a week for a change.


Works outdoor canteen



Ben and his Bear!

Wildlife Weekend

Again we decided to leave the confines of Bangalore and set off to go to a local wildlife reserve at the Bannerghata National Park.

It took about 1 1/2 hours to reach the park, and when we did we were herded onto a rather Jurassic Park looking minibus covered in mesh and driven into the wildlife reserve.



It was a good fun trip, we did get to see a lot of deer, but also some Tigers and Bears. One bear nearly viscerated Ben's leg when it managed to get underneath the wire meshing of the bus (video to follow - when I work out how to post them!)








(l-r Mike, Me, Adam, Doug, Ben and Anisha (simon taking photo))

After the Safari we went on an elephant ride - a great experience, but I think all of us would like to try a real proper elephant trek through the jungle at some point - I am determined to get onto some travel agencies and start organising some proper trips! It is really nice to go on these little excursions however, as it gets us all out of the house, and out of Bangalore. Its also an experience to see some of India outside the security gates of work and home. There are lots of beggars who will come up to you and nag and nag you. I was particularly distressed by a couple of children (3 yrs old?) who kept coming up to pat our shoes and tug our trousers at a cafe we stopped at on the way to the park.

Fast Food is also different. There are vendors everywhere who will lop off the top of a coconut and provide a straw with which to drink the sweet juice. Burnt corn on the cob is also a favourite, and something that I can only describe as crushed bamboo sticks (large bamboo twig put through a mangle repeatedly until tender!). There were lots of these stores outside the wildlife park, and it was interesting to view and taste some of the offerings. There were also lots of cows around the food, and they will quite happily walk into the back of you because cows have the ultimate right of way in India, and will think nothing of pushing you out the way to get to where they want to go!

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After the elephant ride, we went into the small zoo which was fine but not great. It was nowhere near as bad as the zoos that I have seen in Malaysia, but it was of course not up more western standards. A fun day out of the house, but I did get a bit of sunstroke! Played a game of 'Settlers of Catan' (board game) with Ben and Adam this evening (lasted about 2hours!) and then went to bed. I think I may skip brunch today, as I fancy a day without sitting in traffic for a change!

Will try and update a bit more regularly this week!

Tom
xxxx