Last night Wes and I went bowling with some people from church. Rob(from Australia) organised it. It was good fun. I enjoy just getting a bit violent throwing the ball. I never score very well, but I really never care that much.
I have been back in Delhi now for a week now. It’s odd I think I make 80% of the transition to life in Delhi the minute I step of the plane, the next 10% in the following day but the rest of it takes a long time. I don’t know whether in my time in India I’ll ever truly adjust to life in India.
My time in Australia seems to have made my accent stronger and now I have more trouble then ever getting auto-rickshaw drivers to understand where I want to go. There is a new guy in the EHA office who I’ve been doing a little training of which has been nice. He is so keen to learn and asks questions. It is strange when you realise that you have all this information stored in your head which can be useful to others. Shame when you get to doing some of your own work that you realise it is insufficient. Guess at least it keeps one humble.
Well I’ve been back in Delhi for a few days now. I think yesterday I may of clocked up almost as much computer time as I did in my entire time in Sydney. My Delhi jetlag is rather civilised I guess, waking up at 6 or 7am and feeling very tired by 10 or 11pm. I’m getting back into my work, so much to do. Also been re-reading some of The Road Less Travelled, which has been good. Delhi is still in the mid-30’s.
So this is my first secret blog post which will be published after I get home. Today is Sunday and it’s 49 hours until I come home. I am planning to arrive on Tuesday Night at commie dinner unannounced supprising everyone. I am really looking forward too it.
Though I don’t like the way too keep the secret I’ve ended up decieving people. The Friday I was planning on coming home seems to be rather inconvient for people, so I am glad I’m not coming home that day. It’s funny listening to people talk about the problems they will have with it being that day and knowing it’s not an issue but being able to say anything.
Today I started packing up all my stuff and hidding my other stuff away in cupboards so that people can come and stay in my room. I have got some fun presents for weddings and birthdays and stuff, I hope customs doesn’t stop me from taking them into Australia. It’s amazing how much fits into my suitcase. Packing makes my holiday home feel really real now, and I’m excited but still a little nervous. A holiday home is a strange concept. I think my trip is too short though :-(.
I’ve been spending the last few days rolling out a new network at the EHA Offices in Delhi. I added a file/print server to the network on Thursday, did some more configuration on Friday, and linked the new 7th floor office with the 8th floor.
Whilst an electrician did the cable run for me I still had to put the connectors on the cables. Crimping the RJ45 connector onto the CAT6 cable was very painful and slow. I really suck at doing it, took me 20 minutes to do my first connector. I got a bit quicker by the time I was finished. Still it is my least favorite networking task. Brought me flashbacks of the 2004 workshop I ran at Duncan Hospital last time I was in India. Anyway got the networking all done, and everything seems to work.
Oh and I had an Onion Masala Dosa yesterday, that was interesting and in the evening I went out and had Mexican with Wes. Which was surprisingly good. It’s great being in Delhi food wise, though not as good as Sydney.
I have a meeting tonight which I would normally not do on a Sunday but seeing as how I am heading off so soon, I decided it was OK. It’s something about tele-medicine.
Went to Cafe Mocha yesterday. It is still as good as ever. Had to wait 5-10 minutes for a table which adds to anticipation. I had a lidnt hot chocolate which was made with half a block of chocolate and milk. It was very good, howerver I think the lidnt milkshake I had once was actually better. I also had a “That Chocolate Thing” and a mushroom crepe. I did cause myself some agony with my mouth but it was worth it.
I went and saw a friend of mines band, Sahara House(I think that’s what it was called) play tonight at the Morision Cafe in South Ex. It was nice to go to a gig walking distance from my home. They ended up with a two and half hour set. It was very fun, lots of people dancing including me. They were a rather ecletic cover band covering Nirvana too Van Morision and most things in between. It was the perfect pick me up after a not so wonderful week. It was a bit weird going to a gig by myself but I meet some fun people there, so it was all good.
Well tomorrow morning at 5.15am I am off to Nagaland. My first flight is to Kolkota and then from there onto Dimapur. I am looking forward to seeing the progress on the project, meeting more of the people who are involved in it, and seeing the people who will hopefully benefit from it. In addition I should get a better idea as to when I’ll be moving there, timelines and some of the requirements.
My stomach is behaving a lot better since the I started taking drugs, hopefully it will cope with Naga food. Hopefully I won’t end up eating any dog. We shall see.
I have to warn you all that my blog fequency may drop until Thursday night when I should get back to Delhi. I really don’t know when I’ll be able to blog in Nagaland. On the plus side I should have some new exciting pictures to put up when I return.
Today I saw a man beating a boy(who looked very poor) with a stick and yelling at him. I wondered if it was my place to do anything. I couldn’t think of any sane course of action so I kept walking.
Seeing it really disturbed and shocked me I guess that’s a good thing. God protect me from become hard hearted about the suffering of others. I don’t want to be desensitised but after just a few months in Delhi I can feel it happening.
So they joy of loose motions and other joys of Gastroenteritis have not yet past and it has been over a week since my birthday when it started. Whilst I have still been able to more or less continue living life it is a pain, and I am meant to be travelling this weekend(more on that another day). So today I summonded the courage to face the Indian medical system. I asked someone I new where I could go for a GP and was told to try the Max Mediclinic which is about 10-15 minutes autorickshaw ride from my house. I called up to book my appointment before I went, they asked me to spell out my name. When I got there I noticed that the place was pretty posh, much posher then my GP back home. Then again it was a full mini hospital. I went to reception and they didn’t have an appointment listed under my name, but they did have an appointment with my mobile number under the name TRIVIT or something weird like that. I have no idea how they got that, but DAVID is a very hard name for people to understand.
I then went to registration across the hall and filled in my details and payed my 400Rs consultation fee(about $12). I was then told where to go to see my doctor. I waited about 20 minutes, thankfully I had my iPod until the doctor was free to see me. Then when I got in there we started talking for a few minutes then he was on the phone. We said a few words then another phone call. It was quite bad because I could hear the other side of the conversatations because his volume was so high. There really is no such thing as privacy in India. Anyway things continued like that for a while and I got to ask a few questions he prescribed some medications. He did manage to get the very basics of my patient history and told me basically what he was prescribing and when to take them (though no reference to with or without food). Then whilst on yet another call he waved me out of his office.
Went to the pharmacy downstairs and got my drugs 416Rs worth. I have to take 3 different capsules, I did a good little google on the drugs to find out when to take them with regards to food. Of interest to me was a new drug instead of imodium which is called Racecadotril under the brand name Redotil. It’s meant to be better for you but also it’s more expensive. Also of interest was “good bacteria” tablets I was prescribed as well. Anyway hopefully these drugs will help me be better nice and quickly.
It feels like for the past while that I have been running my life pretty close to empty. The thing though that is amazing me thinking back tonight is how I always find refreshment right at the moment I most need it. God really is good.
Tonight I went out for dinner with some friends to celebrate my birthday, it ended up being 5 Australian’s and 1 Canadian. Which was nice. We went to a themed resturant called piccadelhi which was made to look a bit like London and Piccadilli. It had Italian, contential and Indian food. Anyway to celebrate the occasion, I decided to be patriotic and buy an Australian white wine. My first problem was the though they had a comprehensive drinks list from their bar called the Drunken Duck, including a range of spirits, cocktails, shooters and even mocktails, it was missing even a single mention of wine.
I asked the waiter for the wine list. Now Indian wine lists are quite unique in that they don’t mention what winery or year of the wines. So we then asked the waiter to bring out the bottle of wine for us to examine. It was a bottle from the Adelaide Hills that I’d never heard of, but it looked alright. So I said we’d have it even though the price was ghastly, and asked for 5 glasses(only 5 people were there at that time). So that took a while. Then they decided that we needed an ice bucket and towel. Then the waiter tried opening the bottle with a knife and was having quite some difficulty opening the screw top bottle that way. I tried to get his attention and get him to let me open the bottle. Eventually he listened to me and let me have a try, with one quick twist I opened the bottle to the shock of the waiter. We explained to the waiter that many Australian wines used screw tops. The waiter actually managed to do the give me the sample correctly, however he failed misserably at pouring even roughly equal glasses of the wine for people. Then they quickly removed the bottle of wine and the ice bucket.
The wine was fairly good and the food I ordered later was pretty good too. After dinner we went out for coffee which was also fun. So a good evening, much much nicer then my actual birthday.
Our cleaning lady came today. When she found out it was my birthday first she wanted 500Rs and then she decided she wanted a mobile phone with a camera.. It was very funny. I am pretty she was just having fun with us.. We all laughed a lot anyway. Wes and I kept saying did she want phone number, or cake, or 5Rs. I wish I had my video camera setup to capture some of these classic moments..
Before when communicating birthday she did a little dance and sung a song it was very funny. No one has sang me happy birthday this year yet. Oh well, can’t say that makes me very unhappy.
Well yesterday was my birthday and I’ll have to admit it was pretty forgetable.
I awoke in the wee hours of the morning to deal with my birthday present from the little Indian parasites inside my stomach. At this stage I decided to check my emails to see if anyone had sent me a birthday email, and two people had. I listened to some more music and eventually faded back into sleep. The present required my attention throughout the morning leaving me feel somewhat drained.
I ended up spending most of the day reading a book and watching TV and generally not doing much. I didn’t even leave my house.
Thanks to everyone who sent me birthday emails, blog posts and SMS’s. I have to say that I am amused at the difficulty people have when it comes to time zones. For the record India at the moment is a simple 4.5 hours behind Sydney. The only time I am not on the same day as Sydney is from midnight to 4.30am Sydney time.
You are invited to:
David’s Delightful Delhi Dinner featuring:
Dining
Drinking
Discourse
Deep Discussion
Debonair
Deception
Disorder
Dinning
Dissent
Drama
Dysfunction
and
Dessert
Why: To celebrate that I am getting older and I have my birthday this week to prove it.
Time: 7.12pm on Saturday 1st July 2006
Location: Piccadelhi PVR Plaza CP New Delhi, India
What to bring: A word starting with “D” that you find delightful or despicable and a description as to why.
RSVP: 30th June 2006 by leaving a comment on this post.
Please feel free to invite anyone else you know. I enjoy having strangers at my parties.
Disclaimer
The organisers accept no liability in the event that the dinner is not delightful.