August 27 - At home in Mumbai!

I made it to Mumbai in one piece. The flight was smooth aside from the fact that I was in the last row so was 1) squished due to lack of recline and 2) occasionally treated to the scent of airplane bathroom which was terribly unplesant. Despite all this I managed to sleep a fair bit and read a bit of my new book (the White Masi about a woman who marries a tribesman...it's up for borrowsies when I get back). The movie was 'the Guru' but since I couldn't really see the screen for the subtitles it was a write off.

Anyway, we arrived at the shiney Mombai/Bombay airport (everything here has two names a pre independence (British) and post independence (Indian) name) at 5 am and skuttled through immigration, baggage claim and customs. I don't want to stereotype so early but man are Indian people ever PUSHY! I may have to flick someone in the nose before I am done in this country. We found our driver and at the car were swamped by porters who, after helping us lift our bags into the trunk asked us for $$. Ah India.

We made our way to Malad, where we'll be living and working, in the dark of the morning. Even though it was black out we still caught a glimpse of the poverty that is set over many of Mumbai's 13 million people. My first impression was that these were not people content with their lives as the majority of folks in SLE and Kenya seemed to be but desolute, warn down and unhappy people. That will take some getting used to. More thoughts on that later. As per what everyone has warned me about the traffic was scary, even at 6:30 in the morning.

We made it to 'Whispering Heights' which will be our home and were ushered into a flat where it was obvious a man lived. He showed us to our rooms and we were off for some sleep. I was very confused about this place as it was clearly someone's home. I slept for a few hours interrupted by the occasional phone call and doorbell and thought 'my we are popular people'. I got up this morning and took a cold shower (I forgot that I had to turn the hot water on again. Instant hot water is something I definitely take for granted at home.) and headed out to the living room. I was greeted by our friend and told we had to change apartments. It all made sense to me now!

So I left Conor sleeping and headed to 1108 in tower B. This place is a nicely/corporately decorated two bedroom/two bathroom flat that I assume will be my home for the next nearly 6 weeks. It's nice and the view is of what looks like a river or jutty. The sad part is that it appears that there is a lot of rubbish floating near the shore. I'll have to check it out. A quick photo is posted.

I am glad things are starting to settle. You all know me well enough to know that I am not a fan of chaos and I can't wait to have a schedule set and head into the office. There are also still two indian men in my livingroom which I find rather strange but will leave for now until Conor gets here. I think we'll 'work from home' today since the UK office is on holiday (and I think Norway too) plus neither of us got much sleep last night. (Note: since Conor arrived we have become a one little man household...the man is currently sleeping on the kitchen floor though...strange)

This area looks a lot like harbourfront in Toronto down near the kayak rental place (for those of you who ever visited me when I lived down there) and I think I saw a 'Pizza Hut' sign from the other window. I'll bet Conor is ready for some US Chain food as he was in Africa for nearly 3 months. We'll have to explore today. Perhaps McDonalds is on tap...right after we find the gym in this place.

It's later in the day now and since I haven't got connected to the net yet and we've had a little adventure I thought I would add it. Conor and I went for a 'little' walk (which was nearly 2 hours) and sweated our way around the neighbourhood. The people were certainly busy and the traffic amazing. We managed to cross a few intersections alive. We played a rousing game of three-S...Staresies (when someone stares at you you stare back until someone gives up), Sweatsies (I am not going to describe the state of my clothes when we got home but it was like walking around in a sauna) and Swearsies (I'll let you figure that one out but it involves angry bus and tuk-tuk drivers). Glad to be back at 'home' and getting into work for the evening. We got ourselves a pop for a meer $0.50 which will save us plenty of money for our dinner!

Conor and I are here for a week then more of the team (Marte, Nicki, Khalila, Paulina and Hans) arrive on Sunday and will be staying in the same building (we think) and then Susan and Nana arrive the week after.Most people leave on September 22nd then I stay until October 2nd to finish some testing up. I think experiencing this country with the whole team will be fabulous and we even have a trip to the Taj planed (smile!).