Destroy All Onions!

I went out walking on Tuesday morning, along the river.

In that part of Tokyo, the skyline is dominated by the new Tokyo Skytree.

As you can see, it’s an impressive structure – I think it looks like a giant space weapon, and needless to say I love anything that looks like a giant space weapon on the horizon. What you can’t tell from the picture is that it is miles away. As I walked along the river, it gradually got closer, and bigger, and eventually I left the river and headed straight for it.

At the building site we are told that it is 609 metres tall, which is impressive anywhere, but especially so in a place where every building has to be both earthquake and Godzilla proof. Perhaps that’s the reason for the annoying shape of the lower part of the tower – the base is triangular, but it becomes circular as it goes up, which means that if you are not looking straight at a triangular side, it’s asymmetric, which is not graceful to look at. But I guess the earthquake and Godzilla experts know what they’re doing.

The tower is already a major tourist attraction, with tour guides leading groups of people through the surrounding streets with the best views. But what’s more interesting is that they already have their official Disney-licensed souvenirs, complete with the cranes, a year before the tower is due to be finished.

And this is the view from the base. The stupid thing is too big to get into a picture once you’re up close. But it is impressive.

Skytree up close

You’ll also note the blue sky, as always a clear indication that this picture was not taken in Belfast!

Giving further indications that my life is completely dull when I am not travelling, I’m at Heathrow about to head for Tokyo, and my thoughts turn to blogging. So fans of this increasingly sporadic blog (if such a bizarre creature exists – surely not) can look forward to some updates over the next while as I holiday in Tokyo.
So far, little to report other than trying out the multiple-faith prayer room at Heathrow Terminal 3, which in contrast to the rest of the airport is quiet and peaceful. And no, I’m not writing this from there!

So, after a week of uncertainty, late on Friday night two weeks ago I was asked if I could travel to Singapore, to join the project team that I am working with. I had a surprisingly easy conversation with American Express travel, and I was booked to fly to the other side of the world on Sunday.

And now here I am on the otehr side of the world, 7 hours ahead of the UK.

So what’s it like?

Well, the office is pretty much like any other office. There and desks and chairs and computers and phones. I’m far from the window, so there’s no sense of the time of day, or weather. One useful feature of Singapore is that the plugs are the same as home, so there’s no mucking about with adaptors and all that nonsense. And I’m pretty much doing the same work that I’ve been doing, just sitting with the people who care about it.

The weather has been unexpectedly poor. Apparently it is meant to be warm, sunny and humid but instead there’s been a lot of rain, with flooding in places, due to tropical storms.

The hotel is very comfortable, but with a disappointing lack of free wi-fi. Singapore has an excellent public wi-fi network, but it’s only accessible to locals with a Singapore mobile number, which is a bit of an irritation. However, I am coping 😉

Right, that’s all for now. At least I finally posted it. This post was started over a week ago. I’ve been busy y’know.

As my trip to India went on, it became harder to get wi-fi acces, and I spent more of my time in the evenings working. So the blogging kind of stopped suddenly. But there were a few more things I had planned to write about. So I guess I’ll try and cover a few more of them, before I forget.

One of the things that impressed me while I was away was BBC World, the international news channel from the BBC. During the election, they showed the main BBC coverage, so I was able to watch the middle-of-the-night election results without being up in the middle of the night. I was in a hotel room in Calcutta when I saw the joyous news that Peter Robinson had lost his seat.

But good election coverage would be expected, and was just sharing content from BBC1. What impressed me more was a debate on whether Barack Obama what it took to bring about peace in the Middle East. It was a very balanced, and mainly very reasonable and reasoned discussion about a really complicated subject. I also managed to catch a Hard Talk interview about the capitalist system, how it’s working and its future.

Both of them were thought-provoking contributions on subjects that are not really mass-market, and the opposite of the kind of dumbed-down media we see so much of.

Well done the BBC.

It wasn’t easy to get up, but I did manage it. Breakfast in the Marriott is very nice, and I felt no need for lunch later in the day. The receptionist was also able to put together a bit of an itinerary of places for us to visit, and to arrange one of the hotel taxis to drive us about. It’s definitely warmer here in Pune than in Bangalore, but we remembered to put our sun cream on, and the heat wasn’t a problem.

We saw a splendid old fort, a very pleasant garden, an interesting museum, some more pretty things in craft shops, and got a bit of a feel for the city itself as we drove around.

I also managed to nearly kill Helen when I misunderstood that we were meant to be following our driver, and crossed the road instead. I was quite embarrassed that there was a bridge just a little further down, that we were meant to use. As Helen pointed out “Even the locals don’t cross the road here”. Oh well.

We headed back to the hotel, a bit tired out by the heat and walking, but I was determined to go to the gym, so I spent an hour there before dinner. It was a very nice gym, with very good equipment, and our meal was very good too. So the only downside so far is that the wifi in the rooms is very expensive, so there’ll be significant restrictions on the internet use over the next few days. Boo!!

On a completely different note, I had wondered if the new Doctor Who’s bow tie would start a new fashion craze. You can image how pleased I was to see Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York, wearing his bow tie to be interviewed about the Times Square incident today. Who’d have thought he would be a fan!

It was Saturday – a day off.

I was determined to get up early and go to the gym before breakfast, but instead I realised that what I actually needed to do was pack my case so that I was ready to check out of the hotel.

Then I went and did a little exploring of Bangalore. One highlight was the state parliament building, a beautiful ornate looking example of Indian architecture (pictures to follow). Ironically, opposite it was the high court, an example of classical architecture, and even painted red it looked kind of out-of-place opposite the parliament. Also interesting was the motto above the door of the parliament “Government work is God’s work”.  In the week that sees the election in the UK, I thought that was a little though provoking in some ways given how we tend to think about government and politicians.

Had a really good lunch in a well-known Bangalore eating place called the Empire, where the butter chicken and ghee rice were excellent, and proper examples of Indian food. My colleague was a little worried that I might not enjoy it, as he didn’t know Banaglore and didn’t know what it would be like, but it was very good.

Then on to the temple at Iskcon, a modern temple building that blends the classical styles of carvings, marble and gold with glass. Not knowing a great deal about Hinduism, I can’t say that I understood a great deal of it, but it was an interesting visit.

And then off to the airport to catch my flight up to Pune. My plane turned out to be propeller-driven, and a little bumpy in places, but we made good time and arrived early. And I read the first half of Thunderball, one of the James Bond books I brought with me.

My taxi driver met me at the airport, and a taxi ride later I was able to check in at the hotel, and get into my very welcoming bed.

I noticed a few things today.

• In the office, the guys have their blood group on their security pass. What made it more interesting was this article on the BBC News web site, implying that it might be for romantic or personnel reasons. But it turns out that it’s just for boring safety purposes.
• And talking of safety purposes, I also read on the BBC news pages that they are closing the road between the courts in Belfast. This came on the same day that we were prompted to update our emergency contact details in work. Looks like the threat assessment is increasing. Not good. Not that things are any better in India, with securitys issued today by the government warning of potential terrorism in Hyderabad and Kolkatta.
• But on a brigther note, there is a certain joy to the open plan office. It’s very large, with the desks in banks. Every time I get up to go to the exit, I feel like pac man, going through a maze! Haven’t found any ghosts or power-pills so far though. Except of course for the Mountain Dew, which I guess is as close to a power pill as I need.

My last day in the office in Bangalore – tomorrow is the weekend, and a day off. Hooray!

Today we managed to resolve the problem with the design I came out to work on, which gave a satisfying end to the week.

I also went out for tea with my development team. They wouldn’t let me pay, but at least I got a chance to thank them properly, instead of in snatched conversations in the office. We went to the Silver Metro, which wasn’t very far away but it took us a long time to get there as it was absolutely pouring with rain! The puddles were huge, the traffic was terrible, and I felt sorry for the folks struggling home on motorbikes and bikes in it.

We ate in the Silver Metro, a buffet restaurant which was themed on a railway station, with all the staff in dark blue uniforms with caps, and two fake trains on either side of the restaurant. But the food was very good. It had been pointed out to me that maybe the food I had eaten so far was mild because it had been tamed to western tastes in the hotel and the office. But tonight I ate out in a properly Indian place, and I still enojyed the meal. Admittedly I avoided eating anything red, in case it was too spicy, but that’s just typical playing it safe, and the point is I enjoyed the meal and the company.

Now I’ve finished writing my objectives (which I couldn’t do during working hours, as it is a mandatory part of the process that the objectives system must crash on the due that they have to be completed), so I am going to bed.

G’night All.

A slightly shorter day, as we went into the office later, and left earlier. But still didn’t get back to the hotel until about 9:00.

Another bright and sunny day, but not unbearably so – about 25 degrees. We went up to the canteen, which opens out onto the roof, and I was able to look around at the view for a while without melting into a puddle, even wearing my jacket (because I had all my stuff in the pockets).

The food highlight of the day was the fact that the nice people at Tech Mahindra arranged lunch for us in the office. But tea, once again in the hotel, was very nice.

The quote of the day was “Belfast taxi drivers are very adventurous”. Under normal circumstances, that’s not an unreasonable statement. However, it was said in the back of a jeep driving through Bangalore! Driving in India is less “getting from A to B”, and more “a crazy, adventure filled, white knuckle ride filled with thrills, spills and zany antics”, so for Manu to say this about Belfast taxi drivers while our driver sped between the hordes of motorbikes, three-wheelers and pedestrians tooting his horn all the way, was just amazing. But he was only serious.

The other notes for the day are:

• that DEET, the mosquito repellant, really irritates my nose.
• that I can get Moutain Dew in the office, which I got a real taste for in Dallas last year (though I am of course still drinking water too).
• that my laptop power supply isn’t fried (I had some difficulty with it last night).

I should have mentioned that the weather is hot, but not unbearably so – around 25 degrees (C). But completely unexpectedly it rained last night, for quite a while, despite reassurances from colleagues in Belfast that this wouldn’t happen. And me without a coat! Fortunately, I do have my trusty travelling hat, in case I get caught out.

I also forgot to mention the excellent desert made out of carrot cooked in sweetened milk, which was superb with the hotel’s home-made ice cream. That was the food highlight of day one.

And I haven’t yet mentioned the ongoing mystery of our taxi driver, who keeps bringing us to and from the office. My colleague thought I had arranged it, and I thought he had arranged it. This only came to light when I asked how much he had paid him, and we discovered he hadn’t asked for money.
So someone out there has organised it for us, but we have no idea who to thank.
Or maybe he just enjoys our company. Who knows…