5 on the Fifth - Lines

This month's 5 on the fifth theme is Lines.

I spent this week on business in Bangalore, India. The days were long and on the premises, taking pictures is prohibited. Thus, the lines pictures here were taken in-between on travel and commute.

Toy planes are lining up for taking off in Swiss' Senator Lounge at Zürich last Sunday... and yes, this is another of my fingers :/


Even double centre line of roads show little effect on drivers in India. The only way to break their dynamic interpretation is going into the third dimension with bricks and mortar.


Many moons ago at university, I learned to dimension power lines.


Our hotel was built in the 80s of the last century. The Art Déco touch of its lobby is rather fake.


Loads of silver garnished sweets are lined up nicely for me to bring home to my loved ones.

Big Chill

I'm on business in India and it's unusually chilly here. Today, the Bangalore edition of the Times of India featured the headline Big chill leaves Bangalore shivering on the front page. Today's high temperature forecast was 21.3°C. I'm starving for sympathy here.

Hotel Treats

It's getting boring, I'm again in India. Nevertheless, the trip was nice (complimentary upgrade to 1st class), and there are 3 things in the hotel room I really liked:



A teddy bear on the bed.



A possibility to plug my music into the room's entertaining system.



A bum gun.

However, the exuberance was soon checked when I logged on to the interweb and heard disburbing news about Lunty by Nic (more about). I'm quite worried about Llunty.

TGIF in Bangalore

I'm spending this week in Bangalore on a business trip. These week long meetings are extremely tiring (much more than one would think) and boring (exactly as one would think). It's monsoon here too, which completes the picture.



Though tonight, I'll be flying back home and tomorrow after lunch, I'll be back with Toño.

Yield to Pedestrians?

Traffic in India is really soemthing. We usually feel quite comfortable on the back seat of the car - i.e. nobody wants to sit next to the driver. However, being a pedestrian in this traffic is a completely different chapter. This traffic sign clearly shows how it works:



Nevertheless there is also beauty in these streets. Like I quite like how these trees cover the street.



Did you notice the brick-built median strip? It is the only measure that works to enforce some lane discipline. And it also helps crossing the street as a pedestrian.

I've posted this before, but bring it again to show what amazing things can happen in the Indian traffic:

Well... Buzz Words

My mission here in India is accomplished and I could fly back if there were not this disruptions in Europe's airspace.

Since I've booked via my caring employer's travel agent HRG, I'm supposed to reschedule my flight also via them. Of course, I did not manage to get through to them. On their brochure, there are all those nice buzz words, which so not withstand this stress test:

We care about you ... smart travelling with HRG ... our employees are always within easy reach ... let us deal with it for you ... smart travelling ... as a good partner we are with you all the way ... our 24-hours service is at your full disposal throughout the world, 365 days a year ... no worries ... we cover all eventualities.

Nevertheless, I tried to celebrate a bit.

No Sports At Dawn (in speedos and in public)!

I'm currently in Bangolore, India for a three day meeting. Only on Monday evening we came back from México, where on the weekend, we had the pleasure to meet and dance with Dzyan*.

On Wednesday, I flew to India; and this morning at 7am I finally made it to the pool, just to realise again that I'm not a morning sports person, especially when being jet-lagged. In addition, I realised that I'm just not exhibitionist** enough to exercise in view of the the pool side breakfast restaurant and the treadmill robots.



* go there, meet him - this is highly recommended!
** or just have a "tiny bit" too much fat on the hips.

Vital Necessity: Portable Loudspeakers

Sadly, only a few hotels have yet realised that it is really a vital travellers' necessity that you can plug your portable music player into the sound system of your room. Until I can rely on them having this basic equipment, I have no choice but to travel with my TravelSound thingy.



Talking about travels... Earlier today, there was a big contract signed, which will keep me busy for most of the next five years, including loads of trips to India.

But now, or to be more precise in an hour, I'll be checking out here in Bangalore to return to Toño :) Time to get into the shower and then to pack my TravelSound.

Bum Gun FTW

Well, I think the proper and more decent term is health faucet, but I think bum gun sounds nice too. Not everybody might consider anal cleansing a decent topic anyway.



So yes, I'm in India again and I want to tell the world that one of the most enjoyable perks of travelling southern and south-eastern Asia is that (better) hotels are equipped with bum guns. I don't even want to go into the details of what we are supposed to do down there in our western culture. After applying the bum gun, you just feel so much better :)

Mukhwas

This mission in India is over. I think I've accomplished for what I've been here *pats on the back*.

Here in India, after a meal one takes some Mukshwas as digestive aid and also to freshen the breath.



I reckon I'll need some (symbolic) Mukshwas too. I' can ponder what that might be until my flight will take off. There is sufficient time. I'm supposed to embark at 3:30am *yawn*.

Tea Boys

One of the rare perks of working in India is being served tea at the desk by (more or less) cute tea boys on a regular basis.



I did not dare to take a picture of the tea boy actually serving the tea, since I have to sign every morning that I'm not carrying a camera on the premises; and since I have been almost arrested twice here in India for taking photos at 'inappropriate' places. Thus here only a picture of the served tea in this lovely cup with alpine flower motives.

Screwed

It kind of comes with life, we are getting screwed, at least occasionally, and not always in a good way. Nevertheless, I feel sorry for this Ganesh. He has been screwed twice and at least once not in a good way.

Kylie's Chiggy Wiggy

The Bollywood underwater thriller Blue will premier this Friday in India, and Chiggy Wiggy, Kylie's collaboration with Oscar-winning A. R. Rahman is already the first ever appearance of an international artist in the Top 20 Indian Airplay charts.

Glee for India

The 150-year-old section 377 of India's penal code, introduced when the British ruled the subcontinent, described homosexual intercourse as "carnal intercourse against the order of nature" and imposed a 10-year jail term for offenders.

The Delhi High Court yesterday declared the laws a violation of "fundamental rights" and unconstitutional.

Hindustan Times

An Indian project just raised significantly in my priority list and I will dedicate today's labour hours to it. I reckon I will be very productive.

Arko Datta, Reuters

Farewell To India

Once in a while one has to indulge oneself. Like I did today by going for the big Indian buffet at dinner.

Well, there is this German saying without any English equivalent I'm aware of: die Rechnung ohne den Wirt machen. Literally it translates to something like making the bill without the landlord. It means there is something you haven't considered.

In my case, I haven't considered the in-your-face manager of the restaurant, who made me taste every single dish on display. Now I'm overfed like a French duck. There is a huge mess in my stomach. The wafer-thin mint were these Kuja Karti made with figs and cashew nuts and covered with vark:



However, I have to admit that every single dish was simply delicious. I have adapted a bit too much for my taste. It's time Toño regains control over my diet.

I have to pack anyway. In half an hour I will head to the airport. I hope my plane will not be delayed due to the nasty weather in Zürich. How do people only cope with that?

Mission Accomplished

Although there is no banner and presidential speech, I'm quite glad that it's over and the customer has cleared the system for exploitation.



There will be no flight back till Thursday. I'm forced to recover from the deprivations and hardship of the recent weeks in the lush Taj Lands End close to Shahrukh Khan's residence at Bandra in Mumbai. I wish Toño were here. But soon...

Not Yet Into My Arms

However deep you indulge in procrastination, you will never beat our client. My colleague does not longer condone this behaviour and buggers off in due course. I, on the other hand, am about to extend my stay for another week. With a sailing starting tomorrow evening and lasting till the middle of next week.

Last weekend one of the condensation devices broke down, which derives water our of the ambient air's humidity (there is plenty of this). The water still produced was needed for the boilers so the crew had to go without washing for two days. And yesterday, an engine had problems and we had to chuckle back to port with 8 kn. I reached the hotel at 2:30 am.

Talking about hotels. Of course mine has no vacancies to extend the stay. I'll have to switch to one that is 1 hour from the port during night and 3 hours during commuting times. But I will stay on board for most of the time anyway.

Anyway, I'm caring less by the minute. I'm actually humming The Great Song Of Indifference for hours. This is another song that's on my mind right now:



...and when talking about ships.

A Club For A Hero

Me and my colleague are stuck here in Mumbai for another week with another sailing starting on Tuesday and lasting (probably) three days.

But it's not as bad as it seems. We've received a pep talk email from a caring employer's brass, calling us true heroes for so stoically enduring these hardships. On our return, they will probably have named a corridor after us. We are dead certain about this. The only open questions for us are, who will unveil our roll of honour and which champagne will they serve?

How do you celebrate being called a true hero? Well, I stuck to a tradition I anyway have on trips which include staying at lush hotels. I ordered a club sandwich. I have got this tradition since July 1989, when I was deflowered* in a hotel in Damascus.



* with respect to club sandwiches

Kylie Is With Me

I'm not alone here any longer. Kylie joined me.

Mumbai, February 27 (ANI): Australian pop sensation Kylie Minogue on Thursday arrived in Mumbai to record a song with Oscar winning music composer A.R Rahman for forthcoming Bollywood film 'Blue'. Catcalls and cheering crowd greeted Minogue as she landed in Mumbai. The film starring actors Akshay Kumar, Sanjay Dutt, Zayed Khan, Katrina Kaif and Lara Dutta is touted to be India's first 'official' underwater film.

Diddled

I cycle or I get driven. I hardly ever drive a car myself. Nevertheless, I loath using taxis, even more since yesterday.

I arrived late yesterday afternoon at the domestic terminal in Mumbai. At the international terminal you can hire a pre-paid taxi. I like this. You pay a little more than when driven on a meter, however, you know what you pay and what you're likely to get upfront. This is fine with me.

At the domestic terminal there is no such service. I was on my way to the taxicabs, when I was approached by a fellow informing me that the prepaid taxis are at the other end. Although a dozen alarm bells were ringing within the next five minutes, I somehow ended in a mouldy smelling car with two fellows, still not knowing how much this trip was gonna cost.

One of them showed me a tariff card, indicating that it would cost 2100 rupee (about 50$). A pre-paid taxi at the international airport cost between 850 and 1000 rupees. For 2500 rupees you get a leather upholstered sedan with a driver dressed in livery. I knew, I made a big mistake getting in this car, but matters wend from bad to worse pretty quickly.

I handed over 4x500 + 1x100 rupee banknote. The bloke claimed to have received only 1x500 + 4x100. I was immediately reminded to a story a colleague told only a day ago from the same airport about a banknote trick being played on him in a cab. But stupid as I am, I took back the money and handed him again 4x500 + 1x100. This time he claimed to have received 3x500 + 2x100. I grabbed my money and yelled Stop that car! I took me some more shouting to get my luggage out of the trunk. The hideous bloke even claimed that I'm offending his honour. I could not have disagree more, since he had 1600 of my rupees.

It was only a few hundred meters back to the airport, where I grabbed a black and yellow (kaali-peeli) which cost me 515 rupees. This was ridiculously overpriced, but it's what I should have done in the first place...

However, I'm back at the Taj Mahal hotel and it went upwards ever since (although I was given en a room without DVD player). The positive news are:

1. Word came through, that the management buy out by Toño's boss went through (letter of intent state). So Toño economical future looks brighter than it has been for a while. If you haven't yet, you should subscribe to Vinum magazine right now. You will not only be helping Toño but might learn a lot about wine and its culture in the process.
2. A hotel butler just knocked on my door and brought me a complimentary dessert.