Wanderlust Heaven!

For a couple days after the weekend trip to Hubli, I was bloated and sluggish…South Indian food is not easy stuff to take.  I have to laugh when Westerners go on about loving Indian food – they probably eat the stuff once a month, or quarter, and they eat heavily sanitized/Westernized fare.  When I left India after my stint in ’92 I stayed away from Indian food for months, if not longer, and now I remember why…

Got a voicemail on Skype from Dad, on Patriots’ Day.  He mentioned the Boston Marathon, and I thought about what a great day that is in Boston every year.  A morning Red Sox game, then the Marathon mayhem all over town the rest of the day.  Being in Mumbai and thinking about the Boston Marathon – talk about an out-of-body experience.

Flew up to Delhi for some meetings.  The domestic airport here is in a neighborhood called Santa Cruz, which sounds decidedly non-Indian, and a lot nicer than the reality.  It’s a crappy place full of shanties. Not sure where “Santa Cruz” came from, but it sounds pretty good…

Hard to stay clean here – every day I notice some stain on my shirt, or dust (or worse) on my shoes.  Gotta focus on other things and benefits from being in India – if you’re a neatness freak, don’t come.

Kingfisher Airlines has alluring flight attendants…I try to fly that carrier whenever possible, despite the annoying ‘welcome video’ they show at the start of each flight.  The owner, a booze baron called “Dr.” Vijay Mallya, is the subject of the video and is a windbag who thinks he’s god.  He has as much money as god, but after seeing the video a few times, you want to retch.  Talk about lacking any sense of self-awareness or humility.

In Delhi, my taxi was a huge, classic old Ambassador.  Nice change of pace from the little dumpy cabs in Mumbai…with doors that only open 45-50 degrees, thereby necessitating yoga-like maneuvers just to enter and exit.  Good thing I just got my yoga practice going again after 3 months off…it’s depressing to get a sense of how badly your body can deteriorate when you’re not using 95% of the muscles.  Even running isn’t enough when you get older…you’ve gotta do 3-4 different sorts of exercise just to stay toned.  Needless to say, not many people here are doing that…

Had an odd client meeting in Delhi – the client reversed direction on an important program element and threw us a real curveball.  He seemed pretty nonchalant about the whole matter and I’m not sure he grasped the implications of the change.  We tried to help him with this, but he’s with a large bureaucratic organization and I think he’s now content-free and is focused on process.  Ugh.  A huge different from my current gig and the “old days” is the nature of the clients – corporate folks are far nimbler and aggressive, whereas the NGO/foundation/government types (admittedly, there are a few segments in that lump) are often unfocused paper pushers.  That will take some getting used to…

Had to get up at 4:30 a.m. to make my early flight back to Mumbai.  Four hours of sleep – I wasn’t looking or feeling all that spry.  Got in my taxi and headed to the airport.  We were chased by dogs for the first kilometer or so – not a fun way to start the day.  I’ve had at least two dangerous experiences with wild Indian dogs and am not seeking a third anytime soon…

Read that Mark “Bird” Fidrych passed away.  He was a quirky baseball pitcher who captivated the sports world in the mid-70s, then faded away as quickly as he came on the scene.  Seems he had an accident on his farm, and was crushed under a vehicle.

Have been hearing of other youngish sports figures with poor health – Danny Ainge, the 50-year-old Celtics president, just had a mild heart attack.  And Dennis Johnson, a former Celtics player (like Ainge) died of a heart attack a couple years ago, in his early 50s.  What’s going on?  Was it drugs…are these guys not staying in shape…or what?  You’d think that athletes would not be dropping dead at such young ages.  Perhaps it’s simply that you hear about these deaths, and that the overall incidence is nothing out of the ordinary.  Still, it’s a bit unnverving to hear about men 10 years older than I having heart attacks.

There are two Indian states – West Bengal and Kerala – with “Communist” governments.  In these two states there are few NGOs and other “outside” agents, unlike the rest of India…and I wonder why.  Kerala in particular is quite well-off for India – nearly 100% literacy, decent health statistics, etc.  West Bengal is not as successful, but still better off than some other states.  This is a chicken-and-egg question – do the Communists do a good job with education, health, etc., or do the people, having a good life, feel free to elect Communists because they feel able to move beyond fixation on the basics of life?

The doormen at my building seem to have “adopted” me.  They look out for me when I’m coming and going, getting the elevator for me, etc.  I detect the hidden hand of my landlord, Mr. G., in this, and appreciate his fatherly ways.  A very lucky man I am…

Met colleague/friend Nikhil at Trishna, the city’s best seafood resto.  Have been meaning for weeks to catch up with Nikhil, and to do so at Trishna.  The stars aligned and here we were.  He’s a big boy and so am I , so we left no plate unturned – rock-salt prawns, Hyderabadi pomfret, and the signature dish, butter black pepper garlic crabs.  Awesome stuff – I was oozing butter and garlic as I waddled out.  One of my favorite places to eat on the planet…

Next night, was invited by Mr. G. to his pad for dinner with the family.  Nice gesture, I went over there at 8 p.m. and spent some time chatting with his extended family, while they plied me with whiskey.  I’m still getting to grips with the fact that I have a landlord who likes to sit down and get drunk with me – I think back to past landlords, who were all either eminently forgettable or completely detestable individuals.

Had a great veg meal with Mr. G. and much of his family.  Superb flat – there’s a wing for each of his sons’ families, and some very nice art and artifacts all around the place.  I won’t venture to guess what the flat is worth.

Was looking forward to getting away on the weekend, to Goa, finally.  Had been planning this for weeks but had been too busy.  Friday looked to be a slow day, and the morning was indeed quite manageable – then, by midday, I was nose to the grindstone.  Part of it was external factors – I had to change my Hong Kong mailing address to India, and that involved paperwork, scanning, and mailing, for a few institutions.  Ugh.  Also needed to do an online visa application, as I’ll be in NYC shortly and need to get my work visa while there.  In line with that, had to fill out some contract paperwork.  Everything seems to happen at the same time – and unfortunately, even a good assistant can only handle so much, you need to personally do most of these types of forms.  I loathe administration so was in a black mood as I raced to finish things up and get out of the office to head to “Santa Cruz” airport.

Was running a bit late…and had to move some things to in-cab phone calls.  Would have been nice to chill in the taxi and listen to some music (that practice has fallen off my map lately), but spent the entire cab ride on calls with clients and colleagues.  Was completely spent by the time I got to the airport…rolled out of the cab and up to the check-in counter and was hardly able to speak.

Friday traveling is for suckers, really.  While on sabbatical I had assiduously avoided traveling on Fridays and Sundays, but now I was back in the cattle ring.  The traffic en route to the airport was awful, and the airport was mobbed.  Didn’t have time to do more than wolf down a chicken burger before getting in the security line…was hoping to buy an iPod speaker system but that fell by the wayside.

Slept on the 45-minute flight to Goa.  Was really looking forward to some time there, even though it was just a weekend and I’ve gotten tremendously spoiled by my time off – my unit of measure during my sabbatical was months, not weekends.  Oh well.  Gotta be happy with your lot.

Took a cab from the airport to Vagator, to Lisa and Richard’s place.  You’ll probably recall Lisa and Richard as the proprietors of Bean Me Up, and good friends of mine from all my time there.  They’d closed up the hotel/resto for the season and were now enjoying well-deserved downtime.  Got to their place around 8 p.m. and it felt like home.  Gin and tonics were produced, we caught up and gossiped about Lisa’s staff, and eventually drove down to Calangute to tackle some kingfish tandooris at Souza Lobo, a Goa institution.  Had a few beers along with our prawns and fish – it had been a very nice week as far as seafood ingestion was concerned.

Slept soundly that night.  Woke up on Saturday, had some breakfast, and moved over to Little Vagator Beach for a few hours.  Got a beach chair and umbrella, read the paper, listened to some music, and just retreated from stress.  Swam a couple times, but otherwise did nothing.  Later on I walked on Vagator Beach, to the far north end, where few people go…I watched five cows/bulls walk single-file over some rocks to the main beach.  Cows and Indian beaches – talk about an absolutely classic scene.

Back at the house, watched some CNN with Lisa and Richard and discussed what’s happening in Pakistan.  Quite concerning to them – if the Taliban takes over, and gets their hands on Pak’s nukes, it won’t be pretty.  They’re thinking of moving from Goa if that even becomes remotely possible – and are spending a couple months in the States starting shortly, seeing family but also doing a bit of scouting.  They’ve been in Goa for 25 years and that is a long long time.  India (even Goa) can grate after a while – as you’ve no doubt picked up from my jottings.

That night, went to the Saturday Night Market/Bazaar, another Goa institution.  This was the final one of the year…earlier in the year, during high season, these things are totally mobbed and somewhat annoying, but now it was petering out and it wasn’t crowded.  Perhaps the best market I’d attended in Goa – felt relaxed, and the vendors were cutting prices to move merchandise.  Bought a few posters for my flat, and saw a few old friends.

Lisa found a package I’d given her to hold the year before.  Inside were “America’s Boy,” a great book on the Marcos regime, and some motorcycle goggles.  Also there was the most recent Lonely Planet Goa guide.  All decent stuff to have in hand.

Got back to the house and crashed fairly quickly.  Between the sun, the beers, and the enticing cushions and mattresses that Lisa and Richard have strewn around the house, I was always a step away from snoozing.  All well and good.  On Sunday I got up, had breakfast, and drove around on my rented motorbike for an hour.  Bought some beers and brought them back for lunch…Lisa made salad and pasta and we had a nice little feast and said our goodbyes.  Then my cab came and I headed to the airport, feeling pretty good about the weekend and about having friends in some obscure places.

Into Mumbai.  Listened to A.R. Rahman’s “Mumbai Theme Song” as my taxi rolled into the city.  Spotted an old Lincoln Continental Mark VII up on blocks.  Odd.  Headed to the office to check emails, etc.  Had a call with a senior colleague overseas, who updated me on how things were going globally.  Not terrific news, but helpful to get this context.  We’ll see what the implications are for India, and for my own situation.

Had dinner Monday at Kobe Sizzler, an institution here, the last time I’d visited was in ’92.  They specialize in huge sizzling platters of chicken, veggies, etc.  Great stuff – not lacking in grease, but it’s a fun meal and you don’t leave hungry.  You really need to know Mumbai to find places like these – thinking back, I really have spent a lot of time in this city and know it better than most visitors do.

Walked off my meal on Chowpatty Beach, another place I haven’t set foot in since ’92.  Got some funny looks from local kids malingering thereabouts – made sure I didn’t touch my wallet or phone.  At one point a young woman sitting with her beau asked me to take a photo of them – which was perfectly fine, but she said ‘uncle, will you take our photo?’  Uncle.  I’ve been called that before, and probably blogged about it, but still cannot get used to that honorific.  I “did the needful,” as they say in India, but was in a crap mood and left the beach.

Got a cab and went back to my flat to relax in the aircon.  Did some reading, then the phone rang – it was friend Naomi, from the Hindustan Times, wanting to know more about Israel’s upcoming Independence Day.  I answered her questions, gave her some ideas, and then went back to my reading.  Also watched an episode of “24” on my laptop.  Have been somehow managing to keep up with podcast and TV show downloads, and finding a bit of time to work through them on weekends.

On Tuesday went to a social investing forum called “Sankalp.”  Loads of people in the social investing space were there, including nearly everyone from the weekend in Hubli.  This is starting to feel familiar, finally.  Chatted with Parth from Technoserve…wished Deepti good luck with her business case competition.

That ran till 6 p.m. or so, then had a meeting for a couple hours afterward in Bandra.  Didn’t get back home till 10:30 that night – quite a long day.  Saw online that Senator Specter switched parties and joined the Democrats – excellent news.  Now, if Al Franken get seated, the Dems will have 60 Senate seats and the sparks will fly.  Feels like teen spirit…

Was supposed to have dinner the next night with some friends of Johann’s, but wound up having a late call, then learning that I had another call at 7 the next morning.  Plus my stomach was a bit off, might have been the grease from Kobe Sizzlers.  So cancelled the dinner – I hope I didn’t piss off Johann’s friends too badly.  Sometimes India can beat you down and this was one of those instances.  And I think I’ve generally gotten less social – some nights I just need to kick back and read, or listen to music.  I don’t want dinners every single night…

My 7 a.m. call, for what it’s worth, went nicely.  One of the projects I’m running involves some pricing work, and I introduced a new methodology here that worked wonders and gave us a raft of proprietary data.  Now we need to figure out what to do with it, since we went well beyond the client’s scope and in fact did some of this work expressly for our own IP.  It’s gratifying when an experiment like this one turns out so well.

Had lunch that day with a new friend, Michael, who works at the US Consulate.  Friend Bettina in Manila introduced us, Michael used to work at the Embassy in Manila.  We had lunch at the Breach Candy Club, and we sat there and looked out on the mammoth subcontinent-shaped saltwater pool while we chatted.  Michael and I both love the Philippines so we had lots to discuss.  He’s about to visit the States for 3 weeks of holidays…I’ll be there for 10 days myself.

Given my upcoming 20^th university reunion, I’ve tried to get back to my former exercise regime, going beyond running.  Finally broke out the yoga mat, as I mentioned earlier in this post, and I also did some resistance cord and abs exercises.  Today my stomach is sore as hell, but I guess that indicates progress.  Running is my foundation but it’s just not sufficient.

This weekend was a long one, Friday was May Day/Maharashtra Day.  Spent it lying on my couch, reading.  Had dinner on both Friday and Saturday nights at colleague Naina’s flat – she and her family live in a very nice flat near the Taj President Hotel.  Friday was also Election Day in Mumbai, and no booze is served, so the dinner was partially intended to be a drinks fest.  In India the elections go on for an entire month, each locale is designated a single day to vote.  In mid-May they’ll announce the results.  There are 700 million plus voters, it’s an incredible undertaking.

On Saturday I went to Crosswords Bookstore, near my flat, to have a coffee and something to eat at Moishe’s Café.  Ran into a friend of Rajan’s there – small world.  Sat there and read the Asian Age newspaper for a good hour – felt almost like being in HKG, or NYC.  Not a better way to spend a Sat or Sun morning, IMHO.  Went home and did a bit of yoga and reading, then went to meet friend Harsh at Geoffrey’s Pub at Marine Plaza Hotel.  Harsh is an entrepreneur starting up English language accreditation programs, and is early in the game.  Super-nice guy – I hope his business makes it.  Gotta admire someone who could live in the US and make a very nice living as a banker or in business, but instead, with a huge b-school loan hanging over his head, chooses to come back to his homeland of India and start a socially-focused business.  Snaps to that.

Then went to the Bombay Gymkhana Club to meet Johann’s parents, finally.  Johann and I worked together in Oz and East Asia for many years, and is originally from here.  Met his parents at the Gym and we had a great time getting to know each other.  Dinyal, his father, is a retired pilot, and his mother, Umaima, is involved in the political scene and seems incredibly well-connected.  Had a few drinks and some great food (the garlic pepper prawns at the Gym are sensational), and hung out for a few hours chatting.  Umaima was keen to hear about my travels, so we talked about my Mongolian adventures in particular.  They seemed intrigued by my tales of jeans smuggling on the Trans-Siberian Railway.

This morning, en route to the office, saw a fellow on the back of a motorbike, studying a paper on “Reproduction and Health in Plants” while in traffic.  Wow – I find it hard enough to study/read while sitting in a quiet room, much less on the back of a noisy bike in the hot sun amidst honking cars.  India, arise – the focus on education here will pay massive dividends.  I can only hope that the USA will finally figure this out and ensure that every American gets a good education and has a real chance in life.  We’ll see how that goes.

I have 5-6 books on my shelf.  Had a depressing thought on that – it will probably take me a year to work through them.  When I was on sabbatical, I was plowing through 30-40 books a year.  Now it’s back to reality – gotta stop ordering from Amazon.com and focus on the stuff I really want to read.

Ok, enough for this week, am eager to get out of the office and breathe some fumes.  Over and out.

As you can surmise, work is already interfering with my previously unfettered lifestyle – to the extent that it’s hard to file the slog in a timely manner.  I’m cramming it in on a Sunday, and suspect that may be the usual practice from now on.  Be patient, and stick with me, dear readers…

Checked out of the Suba Palace Hotel, probably for the last time.  I was looking to move into my flat on Wednesday, and had a business trip to the state of Chhattisgarh starting Monday afternoon.  Was going there with three colleagues, and was looking forward to getting out of Mumbai/Delhi and seeing rural-ish India.

Got up at 6 a.m. to pack up – was happy this might be the final time I’d have to pack all my stuff for a while.  Sat down to blast out a few emails, then my mobile rang – it was the driver, come to take me to the airport – 40 minutes early.  Ugh.  These morons are always either late, or very early – they just can’t get it right.  I took my time, finished up the emails, got dressed, and got my bags brought down to the luggage room.  No time for breakfast…and the hotel computer was down, for a few minutes, making my annoying morning all the more hectic.  Classic.  Don’t come here if you can’t deal with surprises (90% of them unhappy surprises).  Or if you lack patience…or a sense of humor…

The trip north was superb.  We  stayed in ‘Hotel Babylon,’ which was far better than expected (a somewhat rare occurrence in India), and the following day, spent in the field with about 100 rural women, was unusual and rewarding – one of the best days of work I’ve ever experienced.  We were doing some product testing and market research with them, and I had introduced a new technique which wound up working really well – we got some incredible data and should be able to build some good IP around it.  I’m always a bit insecure about my situation these days – I’m a “boomerang” employee (left, then returned), which is fine in and of itself, but I’m in a new group, and the economy stinks (India’s less badly-hit, as yet), so I tend to feel on somewhat shaky ground these days.  I need a few more hits and then I’ll feel better.

Got back to Mumbai Wednesday midday.  Unbelievable traffic from airport into the city – Mumbai gets going late, rush hour isn’t till 9 or even later.  Easy to get around at 8 a.m., which is good for me.  But this time I was stuck in rush hour traffic for 90 minutes, and I was in a crappy little cab, sweating away.  Got to the office, just in time to sit down with my real estate agent/shyster and our head executive assistance to go over my housing contract.  Not much fun – we got through it but I was worried we’d hit a snag.  I planned to move in that night, and for a while it didn’t look good, but we managed to deal with all the contractual bullshit and then the agent went and got my keys from landlord Mr. G, my new favorite Mumbaiker.

All this, and it was the start of Passover, I wanted to go to services and the seder that night.  Timing was looking very tight, I needed bedclothes and was planning to race to Bombay Dyeing to get some, then Mr. G said he’d send “his man” over to clean the place and provide bedsheets, pillowcases, and a duvet.  Ch-ching.  Saved me a trip, and the stuff he sent over was quite nice.  Taking care of the foreigner.  Just when India’s about to drive you mad, someone intervenes and saves you.

Got to Knesseth Eliyahu Synagogue with time to spare.  The usual Orthodox situation – lots of ancient Jews wandering around, muttering, picking their noses, inquiring about each other’s financial situations (a high degree of schadenfreude prevailed).  The president of the shul got on the bima (pulpit) and said a few words – seemed there was some tension between the synagogue and Chabad, the Orthodox/Mosaich group whose local rabbi was killed in the December terror attacks here.  Chabad is known for its seders and other dinner services, and often draws people away from the synagogue’s.  Oh well.  I’d already told Rabbi Chezzi, the Californian Chabad Rabbi, that I’d go to their gig and that was that.  He showed up towards the end of the service at the synagogue – the congregants didn’t exactly greet him warmly.  You’d think that after what happened in December everyone would come together, but no – we Jews are as bad as the Northern Irish…

The seder at the new/temp Chabad House (the old one was destroyed in the attacks) was decent.  About 40 people, intriguing mix of expats, a few Indian Jews, and a few randoms who were difficult to classify.  And about 5 Chabad rabbis who provided interminable detail about Jewish history throughout the seder meal – we didn’t really eat till 11 p.m.  I’m religion lite, and prefer my seders to last 2-3 hours max.  Didn’t escape till well after midnight.  I did enjoy the company of Rabbi Chezzi, whose new-age Californian Jewish demeanor and sense of humor was much appreciated – other Chabad folks can be a bit heavy and preachy.

Religious duties accomplished, I caught a taxi back to my flat.  Extraordinary moment for me – my first night in my own flat in over three years.  Felt a bit weird not to have an elevator boy, or a bellhop, or other hangers-on.  Slept pretty well – was exhausted from the field trip and the seder.

Noticed the new chairs that Mr. G. bought, to accompany the new glass kitchen table, are wobbly.  Indian manufacturing – I’ll never bitch about Chinese products again (well, those you ingest are worth avoiding, I suppose – e.g. melamine milk).  I’m still not sure the Indians are able to manufacture a pen that won’t explode or a lighter that lasts for more than a week.

Views from my flat towards the bay…

Didn’t linger long in my new flat – early next morning, off to the airport to fly to Hyderabad.  Another heinous little cab, nice and hot, and I had a long phone call with a colleague.  Now and then I’d move the phone from my ear and wipe it on my handkerchief.  Might need to switch to another model, like a Blackberry, and spring for a headset.  I hate changes like these but it probably makes sense…still, one thing at a time.

Had a good meeting in Hyderabad, in the coffee shop of one of the Taj Hotels.  Was joined by two colleagues, we were pitching a project on education and school choice to a PE fund.  I’m pretty sure she wants to hire us, but needs to find more money.  We encouraged her to do that…didn’t want to negotiate against ourselves at this point, but given the times we might need to come back with a more modest proposal.  All part of the game, you know.

Had a second, late afternoon meeting, but that got cancelled, allowing us to race to the airport and catch a much earlier flight.  Felt nice to return early, and to be able to spend a bit of time in my new flat.  Haven’t had many reasonable evenings lately, reasonable being getting out of the office before 9 p.m.

In Hyderabad we watched a plane take off with the full moon in the background.  Really wish I had my camera around for that, it was breathtaking.  Moments like those are like injecting adrenaline straight into your brain, or heart…

My new flat is a stone’s throw from where I lived in ’92.  The Meherabad Building is just down the street, and it feels good to be back in Breach Candy/Kemp’s Corner after all these years.  And I was happy to be done with the flat-hunting process.  Now I just need to accessorize a bit and can put it all behind me.  Need to get a good iPod dock/speaker system.  Might get a Bose, or JBL – any ideas?

Walked around my ‘hood a bit.  Mumbai does not have that many great places in any given area – there’s one bottle shop, a hotel with bar and resto, another bar some ways off, a dry cleaner down the road, and a chemist/pharmacist…but it’s not kitted out like NYC, London, or Tokyo, it can be a real pain to get simple things.  Most people (with some $) have people who go get things, or have things delivered, but I’m low overhead and DIY, so I suspect it’ll take some time and change of mentality to get there.

Had dinner at the Shalimar Hotel’s Gulmarg resto, upstairs.  The Shalimar is going to be hugely helpful to me, it’s right across the street, quite tasteful, and has this resto, a decent little bar with snacks, and web access (you need to buy a card, but hey).  I don’t yet have Internet in my flat, and suspect that may take a month to set up.  Fun.

Gulmarg has great kebabs, I had my favorite murgh (chicken) reshmi special, then went to the Ghetto Pub for a couple beers.  Felt almost like a holiday – actually, the following day was technically a holiday (Good Friday), not that I’d be taking it off, mind you.

Worked all day, then welcomed friend Dave to town.  He and I met in Varanasi a while back, I was waiting for a train and he was hanging around – we met in a café with wireless, we were both cranking on our respective laptops and enjoyed each others’ company.  Dave’s been getting his journalism degree in Bangalore, and is interviewing with Rolling Stone and some other mags here in Mumbai.  He needed a place to crash, I offered my couch.  Quite a boozy night – started at the pub in the Shalimar (which has a vaguely Las Vegas feel), then over to Leopold’s upstairs bar, where barman Deepak set us up nicely with bar seats and a beer tower.  Wobbled out of there a couple hours later, and settled into the seedy backroom at Golkar, a place where many fear to tread.  Stayed there till closing, discussing life and traveling.  Dave’s really been around – I suspect our paths have technically crossed many times, we just never knew it.

Somehow got a few beers on the way home – our taxi driver took us to some backwater where they sold us warmish Kingfishers.  Dave’s idea, 100% – he’s younger and still had his sea-legs, I was drained and would have been happy crashing.  Got back to my flat and didn’t last too long – woke up many hours later with a headache and doorbell ringing, the maid from across the hall was offering to clean my place, but I was still groggy and Dave was still out on the couch.  Then the phone rang – telemarketer, in Hindi.  Enough to make one swear off drinking forever – almost.  It was 11 a.m. by now, Dave had to go and catch a flight back to Bangalore.  Fun little stretch of time, good catching up with Dave and trading travel war stories.

There’s a nice little bakery, Birdie’s, right near my flat.  I often grab a chicken tikka sandwich from there – I rely heavily on my local ecosystem, hence I prefer to live in the thick of things.  Birdy’s and Shalimar Hotel are likely to provide half my meals till I get enough time to branch one.  So it goes…

You technically need a license even to consume alcohol in your own home.  Needless to say, yet another unenforced law in India.

Spent a few hours in the office, preparing for a pitch.  Took it easy that night, was still a bit off from my heavy night with Dave.  Went for a couple Kingfishers at the Shalimar pub, had some snacks there, and then retreated to my flat to read and listen to podcasts.  Hadn’t listened to a single podcast since getting to India, and I now had about 30 to crank through.  Amazing the things that back up on you when you’re spending most of your waking hours in the office.

Sunday, walked around, did some laundry, looked at some blog photos,  read a bit, then back to the office.  Mostly catching up on loose ends, not too grueling.  Had a phone call with the States, then went to the Bombay Gymkhana Club, one of my favorites, for the birthday party of friend Rajan’s wife Kalli.  Most of Rajan’s gang was there, I knew most of them from the old days and from recent trips.  Jatin ensured that I was well watered and fed – waddled out of there around midnight, as full as I’ve been on a Sunday in some time.  The Gym is pretty busy every night of the week, probably a dangerous place for me to bother joining…

I like walking around Breach Candy…it brings me back to my carefree, clueless days of being 24 years old and wide-eyed.  Now I’m much more calm, and cynical – but I still am drawn to (mis)adventures and days of unpredictability, and here I am, oh Lord.  New joke I just thought up:  how many expats does it take to change a lightbulb?  One – if they have a servant who knows where to find an actual bulb.  Most of us (well, probably just me) would just sit in the dark and complain.

Flew to Delhi on Monday for an important meeting the next day.  Had dinner with a couple colleagues at Indochine, a swish Asian joint where we sat outside, by ourselves – the place was empty.  But the food was very good, and I was happy to get away from heavy Indian food and instead go for some (heavy) noodles and meats.  Then we decamped to the Eva Guesthouse, a private home converted into a medium-grade guesthouse – about US$75 a night, not bad for Delhi, quite comfortable.

Had a full day of meetings Tuesday – they went pretty well.  What we’re trying to do might fundamentally change the way we do business…I can only say that much for the time being.

Back in Mumbai, had lunch on Wednesday with old Hong Kong colleague Gauri, who now works for the Asia Society here.  Met at Brittania, the old place run by the ancient Parsi guy with Coke bottle glasses.  Gauri and I traded lots of gossip, she’s very cool and I’m glad she’s in Mumbai.  My social network is much better than I anticipated a few weeks ago.

Had a call with a senior colleague in the States…he wanted to check in and see how I’m doing.  I’m on a contract for now, and he wanted to see if I was taking to this new stuff or not.  I said I was, and that despite the learning curve being somewhat humbling, it was also energizing and I wanted to stick around.  That was about the gist of it – we’ll see how things go.  The overall industry is not doing great and it’s hard to say how things will go over the next year.  Hold on tight.

A colleague told me about a good park in which to run, not far from me, on the coast.  It was just past the crappy little park I’d been running in, so tried to find it.  It wasn’t too tricky – just walked through a parking lot (where guys were offering pony rides to kids – classic India), and then down a path.  It opened up onto Amarson’s Park, or something like that – a 250 meter square park with both soft and hard tracks.  Lots of people walking (waddling), no one else running – but not crowded and the sea breezes were godsends.  Ran and then walked for about an hour – felt wonderful.  Then walked back towards my flat, with a spring in my step and the feeling that everything was starting to come together.

When I got close to my flat, I felt in my little Velcro pocket for my flat key – nada.  Hmmm.  Felt around some more, still nothing.  One of my worst nightmares come true – I’d always worried this would happen whenever I went for a run, but the key’s never fallen out and it would be difficult to imagine this happening – the pocket’s quite secure.  Then I found a tiny hole in the pocket – not sure if my running did it, or if it was just the usual wear and tear (literally)…anyway, the key was gone.  Busted back to the park, looked around for 30 minutes but no luck – hadn’t expected to find it, but a bit of due diligence was required.  Walked up the hill to my landlord’s chi-chi building, the Grand Paredi – his “man” had the backup key and it was only around 9:30 p.m., not too too late to call up and ask for the key.

That plan bore fruit – Mr. G wasn’t even home, I didn’t wake anyone, and the key appeared shortly.  Whew.  Wasn’t looking forward to having to deal with a locksmith.  Got into my flat and vowed to make replacement keys the next day…I’d planned to do this, but hadn’t gotten around to it yet.  Felt like a bozo – one week in the new flat and I’d already lost my key.  But Mr. G. was cool about it, he was happy the backup had been at his place and not far off.  Usually you don’t want your landlord anywhere near you, but this is a very different situation.

I’ve traveled all around the world, and only lost two things – one white sock (the laundry in Chiang Mai actually lost it), and one of those plastic covers for the iPod synch/charging cord (which is largely decorative).  Now, I’d gone and lost my flat key.  Brilliant.

Got my mail from home.  Read in my b-school magazine that an old prof had died.  Very sad.  Read a Sports Illustrated – one of the letters to the editor came from a fellow in Sunapee, NH (where my family had a vacation home for many years) complaining about athletes on steroids.  Funny to be in Mumbai, India reading a letter from someone in Sunapee.

Got the data back from our field trip to Chhattisgarh.  It came back clean, and enlightening – the technique I proposed worked nicely, and we got some excellent insights out of it.  Now we need to package and sell this stuff – will get on that right away.  These days revenues are king, queen and country…

This weekend I had another trip, to the city of Hubli, in Karnataka state.  I was on a judging panel for an entrepreneurship competition down there.  About 25 entrepreneurs presented their biz plans to us, and we chose the top 10 – the eventual top 5 will get grants of US$10K, a fair sum of money for these parts.  I wasn’t sure what to expect from the weekend, and went in with some dread – Saturday morning work.  But it was a great time – a colleague went down there with me, and the other judges were fun and switched-on – there were people from Bain Capital, Yes Bank, Acumen Fund, CII, etc.  Formed some bonds and also enjoyed the actual judging – there were some decent plans in there, including one where the entrepreneur is taking a sort of coconut leaf, treating it, and using it as a food plate.  The Indian Railways uses 10 MILLION plates and cups every day, most are plastic/Styrofoam, and 90% are tossed out the window.  You may recall my own experience with this some time ago…anyway, these products  are superb and we picked him as the top bet in our judging group.  Of course, getting the Indian Railway contract is no small matter, and his production can’t match their needs, but he can always try to get 2-3 lines and see how it goes.  I don’t mind spending a Saturday reviewing plans like these and wrapping my head around them…

Both Friday and Saturday nights were boozy affairs, our hotel was about the only game in town and that was alright.  My colleague (a male) turned out to be oddly knowledgeable about 80s chick flicks (16 Candles, etc.) and everyone had a good nostalgic laugh about those days.  I won’t be able to return for the final judging round, in early May, as I’ll be in the States, and am a bit sad about that.  It’s nice to form bonds and keep renewing them – I’d love to see the other judges again soon (many are in Mumbai, so that will happen) and the local entrepreneurs are a cool little gang as well.  An NGO called TechnoServe put the whole thing together, in conjunction with the Deshpande Foundation (based in Hubli), and the weekend was memorable.  Things like these make me (usually) glad to be working in a field like this one…

That’s about it for this 2-week period.  This is my 150^th slog posting – hard to believe I’ve been at this for nearly 3 years.  You are a most patient lot.  And since I still have you here, allow me to marvel for a minute at my recent shift in circumstances.  I’m by no means saying I’m on entirely firm ground as yet, but in the space of a couple months things have changed massively for me, in a most intriguing way.  I’m back at my old firm, in a very new space – I’m still in Asia, but in some ways on another planet, and coming back to work hasn’t really been as hard as I’d imagined.  I’ve taken my lumps, and have more to bear, but overall it’s been a damn good transition.  And that’s all I’m saying for now.  Over and out.

I emailed some of my former clients in Tokyo and Sydney and told them I was back at work – got some nice replies.  I was happy I’d kept in touch with people while I was on the road…for me, one of the most gratifying aspects of being a consultant is becoming friendly with several clients.  I wouldn’t have seen that coming years ago, it’s a bit different than the usual workplace friendships – the consulting-client relationship can be intense, and this can lead to strong bonds after some time.

Read a Yahoo News headline that was just classic:  “Big squishy blobs may fill key tracks in evolutionary timeline.”  Hard to argue with that, huh?

Stayed pretty busy at work.  Met with a local PE firm to discuss a few ideas…I’m learning a hell of a lot on the fly here, another characteristic of consulting.  As with my previous stint, I’m getting all the responsibility I can handle, and probably a bit more, so I need to keep pushing till I reach a state of equilibrium.  That may take a few more months, but I’ll get there, or at least I’ll be able to fake it…

Had a good meal at Delhi Darbar, a chain with a resto in Colaba.  Despite my best intentions to shift my diet to mostly vegetarian, I opted for the tandoori mixed platter, which was terrific…lamb reshmi kebab, chicken tandoor, and a few other morsels.  The issue with Indian food is that you can barely walk away from the table…unlike in East Asia, where the food’s relatively light and you don’t feel about to explode.  And the more time I spend here, the more I recognize that Indian bodies are a lot like ours; they’re prone to have big bellies and thighs, and the place is already diabetes central.  That will only get worse over time…

Flew up to Delhi to meet with my project leader there.  Was hoping to get in early enough to have dinner with b-school buddy Hasmeeth, but the flight was a bit late and it wouldn’t work.  Delhi is spread out and the driving distances are vast…plus they’re working on a few key roads and at certain times they’re nearly impassable.  So we took yet another flyer…it’ll work one of these days.

Had dinner instead at a place right across from my hotel, the Svelte Personal Suites.  Can’t get over that name.  The resto was Spice Market, had a full meal centered on a Bengali fish curry that was very nice.  But I keep telling myself to eat like a poor Indian laborer instead – veg thali and roti.  Yeah, yeah…

Met the project leader for breakfast at the Sheraton – hadn’t had a 5-star breakfast buffet in some time.  The issue with these things, in a business setting, is that I’m self-conscious eating a lot while trying to have a discussion.  So the breakfast costs around US$25 or so, and I probably consume the equivalent of US$5-8.  I’d rather meet at a diner and have it out over a bagel or something like that…I think in India it would be in a dhaba (canteen) and a cup of chai.

Met with the project leader all morning, and made good progress.  We’re working on a fairly technical, implementation-focused project – not my usual gig and hers neither, but we’re trying to expand the scope a bit and make it more strategic.  We’ll see how that goes when we meet the client in a week or so.

Raced back to the airport – wanted to catch a conference in Mumbai that night on alternative energy.  My car didn’t show, but I grabbed a taxi and made it with time to spare.  Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Airport is pretty slow during the day – it mostly gets going during the wee hours.

The conference, at the Trident Hotel in Mumbai, was alright.  It was co-sponsored by the Asia Society and Credit Suisse, so there were some blowhard intros given before the speaker, Tulsi Tanthi of Suzlon, got on.  Suzlon is India’s biggest solar/wind power company, maybe the only real one, and Tanthi is a pioneer in the field.  Their stock was absolutely skyrocketing until last year – a familiar enough story.  After the sho w they had drinks and snacks, and I ran into a bunch of people I had met over the past month…and I also ran into an old colleague from our HKG office, Gauri, who used to head HR for us in Asia, and who left around 2001 or so.  Hadn’t seen her since then, but we recognized each other – in fact, Angeline and Purwa, two of her colleagues at Asia Society, had become new friends of mine and they had told her that I was in town.  Small world…Mumbai has 18 million people but it seems there are just a few hundred of us who go to these things.

The next day I took my team out to lunch at Vong Wong, a fairly pricey Thai place.  Hadn’t been there before, didn’t even know about it.  Good food and a fun change of pace from gorging in the office kitchen, our usual lunchtime deal.  I do find myself missing the ease of going out for lunch near our old Tokyo office, or near the HKG office.  Eating in the office is a drag, plain and simple.  We work hard and I think it’s a healthy thing to escape for an hour.  Will work on that once I hammer out a few other things.

Have been inching towards closing the deal on my new flat, and moving in.  The agent sent me a draft contract, which turned out to be pretty one-sided (not in my favor), an annoying turn of events given that I’m the one paying the agent.  I handed this draft over to the HR Director of my firm, as they’re signing the lease, fronting the money, and then withdrawing it from my paychecks – a good way to deal with this.  The HR Director and the agent are doing some edits and I hope by early this week it’s done, registered, and I can move in on Wednesday.  It’s been a month in the Suba Palace Hotel and I want a change of scenery, and lifestyle.  The solution is in view…

Had dinner the other night at Leopold’s upstairs bar, where I’m sometimes to be found.  I’ve become friendly with Deepak the barman, a delightful fellow who grins ear-to-ear 80% of the time – not in the cloying way that the two San Diegans did on the Sinai overnight dive trip a few months back, but in a truly joyous way that I find infectious.  He may have some form of brain damage, but I tend to think he has an uncluttered life and that he’s damn happy to have a job at Leopold’s.

I was in the mood for some fried rice, I asked him to recommend one of the dishes, and went for that.  A huge plate came out 10 minutes later, fried rice with chicken, topped with a heavy red spicy sauce.  The combination of rice and sauce in my stomach didn’t sit well – I was stuffed after eating 10% of the plate, and only saw gastric tragedy if I pressed on.  I got a doggy bag, told Deepak it was delicious (something of a lie, but hey), and walked outside.  Not 6 steps later I came upon a crippled boy who reached out his hand – I hope he likes spicy fried rice with chicken, because I gave him a kilo of the stuff.

Am working on setting up a call involving myself, the project leader in Delhi, and a colleague of ours in Washington, D.C.  The call needs to happen middle to late this coming week – right around the start of Passover.  Not ordinarily an issue, but we’re all Jewish, leading us to wonder how the hell 3 Jews all came together to work on a project in India.  Reminds me of the “Jewish Ghetto” corner of the HKG office…and the time all 3 of the Jewish consultants in our Asia region were in the Tokyo office.  We do look out for each other, at least out here…

As I get deeper into my new job and life here in Mumbai, I’m more and more aware of the contrast with the other offer I had, to work on pharma projects in Shanghai/East Asia.  I thought I had a good sense of the contrast coming in…but the more I think about it, the more I realize that I made a serious choice to do something significantly more challenging in almost every way.  Living in Mumbai vs. in Shanghai…working on social impact assignments vs. the old, familiar pharma stuff…having a new team vs. a group of largely familiar faces…and so on.  If I can pull it off, the psychic rewards will almost certainly be vastly superior – but the climb won’t be easy.  Did I mention there are often goats grazing on rubbish right outside my office building?  I thought I knew what I was getting into…but despite all my experience changing geos and jobs, I probably underestimated the challenge here.  So now I’ve got to step up and deliver.  Fingers crossed.

Friday was a mellow day…caught up on some emails, did some reading, was looking forward to the most relaxing weekend in a month.  Hadn’t heard from a couple prospective clients so pinged them around 1 p.m…then things got interesting.  Both replied within a few minutes, both were positive about working with us – but they wanted to meet again, discuss various matters, talk about cost, etc.  Good news, for sure, but I spend the rest of the time lining up the next set of meetings, getting the content ready, etc.  Won’t have much time this coming week as I have a biz trip to a remote part of the country, then when I’m back I need to move to my new flat (we’ll see about that), and will try to cram in Passover services on Wednesday night.  Everything always happens at once.  So by the time Friday evening rolled around, I was exhausted.  Crawled out of the office at 8 p.m., went to Geoffrey’s Pub in Marine Plaza Hotel for a couple beers, then hit the sack before midnight.  I was supposed to meet a friend of a friend, but he had to postpone, and I was glad about that.  You know you’re getting old/working hard when you’re happy to have a beer or two and not talk to anyone…

Got up early Saturday morning and went straight to the office – all the mayhem on Friday afternoon meant that I now had to take care of a few things that hadn’t gotten done.  Stuck around for about 4 hours, did the key stuff, then escaped and went to seafood place Apoorva for lunch.  I’ve been meaning to check out this place for years, b-school friend Rajan has always recommended it but I’ve never had a chance.  I liked it immediately – the downstairs section is informal, no tablecloths or fancy waiters.  Sat down and got a beer, then some Hyderabadi fish tikka.  A fellow across the way asked me where I was from…very personable guy, we wound up chatting for an hour.  He goes there nearly every day.  Indians aren’t shy people, for the most part, at least not Mumbaikers.  My fish came and it was excellent – I now have a very solid alternative to Mahesh Lunch Home.  The fellow, who turned out to be a Muslim businessman in the financial sector, gave me his card and wants to invite me to his home for dinner.  These sorts of interactions don’t happen everywhere…I’m not always in the mood to be chatty and make friends in 5 minutes, but I usually try to stay open to these sorts of possibilities…they can lead to some bizarre adventures and that’s my raison d’etre.

After lunch I walked around the Fort area for a while, visited a clothing/furnishings store called FabIndia, a real success story here.  Nice stuff – didn’t buy anything, but will be back.  Then hit Rhythm House, a good music shop – they didn’t have the latest Prem Joshua live album, but I later got it on iTunes…an increasingly familiar story.

Wanted to visit a store called Bombay Dye, known for its bedding stuff, but couldn’t find it.  Need to get some bedsheets, etc. before I move in.  Another thing to squeeze in this week…

That night we had a work get-together at our HR Director’s flat.  Our MD was presenting our low-cost housing work to some contacts, about 30 people attended and it went well.  Kind of funny, though – there we were in a posh flat in South Mumbai, talking about low-cost housing units retailing for under US$8,000.

Friends Rajan and Kalli were supposed to attend but couldn’t make it – we took a raincheck for coffee the next day.  After the prez we were all milling around, having some wine, and I was introduced to a woman running for the Lok Sabha (lower Parliament house) in the upcoming elections.  Her name’s Meera Sanyal and I was impressed – well-educated banker, articulate, funny, worldly – by all accounts, the polar opposite of the hack now occupying that seat.

Meant to leave around 10 p.m. or so and go to the Ghetto Bar uptown, but the HR Director and her very cool hubbie convinced me to stay for another glass of wine…then another…etc.  The HR Director’s sort of taken me under her wing…first with the housing contract, and now in a more general social sense.  I’m fine with that – it’s probably good for me to let someone else help me out now and again.  I wound up staying till well past midnight, having dinner there with them, and finishing every drop of wine in the flat.  Then I went to my hotel, watched “Milk,” which was terrific, and finally crashed around 3 a.m.

Had a nice little hangover today.  Met Rajan at Oxford Bookstore for coffee, hung out and explained the history of the Old Testament to him for a while.  Got a call from Rabbi Hezy at Chabad House Mumbai, looks like I’ll attend Passover services Wednesday night at Knesset Eliyahu synagogue, then do a seder with the Chabad gang after that.  Can’t remember the last time I went to a seder.

Got an email from Bryan in NYC – he just ran into a classmate, Mike D., at a party there.  I think Mike D. and I emailed a while back, somehow he’d gotten word of this slog and had become a regular reader.  Mike, this entry’s for you, man.  See you at our 20^th reunion in May, and please spread the word.  And I need to do the same for my gang.

Had lunch at Café Churchill in Colaba – they do a pretty solid lamb club sandwich (better than it sounds).  Walked back to my hotel to escape the heat – a red Ferrari whizzed by.  A Ferrari in India – they used to only have Ambassadors and Marutis, now the place is wide open.  As it should be.  You might lose a bit of oldtime charm, but the world awaits.  Speaking of which, I need to go for a run, my waistline spilleth over.  See you next week…over and out.

Yeesh, what a crazy couple weeks.  It takes a hell of a lot to keep me away from my slog for two weeks, but getting back to work seems to be doing it.  I tried to condition you to expect more random updates…that’s being borne out now.

Have a lot to plow through here, so might be a bit clipped…

Manoj, the office guy, is always there.  And he’s always laughing – not sure if it’s at me, or at life.  Possibility – I learned that he stays up all night playing ‘Doom.’  That might explain it.  Apparently during the terrorist attacks last December he was a real trooper – making sure everyone was safely at home, delivering food, etc.  You need people like that in your company – they’re the glue.

No lack of reading materials these days – I pretty much have to catch up with all the work my team did over the past 18 months.  One excruciating document I barely got through was an overview of the Pakistani dairy industry, replete with boring SWOT diagrams and other nearly-useless trife.  Most of the other materials have been interesting, so I can’t complain.

Real estate agents have been hounding me withour mercy.  I may have erred in contacting many at the outset…but I did manage to see quite a few flats and things are now looking good.  More on that later.

Wrote my first project proposal in 3 years.  Came out pretty well – didn’t feel rusty at all, the consulting syntax was right on the tip of my tongue and I was pretty efficient in writing it up.  Of course, I was at the office doing this from 6 p.m. till midnight – because I’m pretty much in meetings all day and it’s hard finding time to sit down without distractions for 6 hours.  I’m sure you all know what I mean…

Had dinner with the project leader who’s reporting to me on an NGO case.  She’s very talented – has a background in design and innovation.  We met for dinner at All Stir Fry, a terrific place in the Gordon House Hotel.  Mongolian BBQ-style – you fill up your bowl with raw materials and the fellow throw it in a wok.  A bottomless ‘big bowl’ costs about US$8 – hard to beat that value.

Wednesday morning was bizarre.  Got in a cab outside my hotel – driver seemed to understand where my office (Free Press House) is.  Next thing I knew, we were on Marine Drive – but he still seemed to have a plan.  A minute later I realized he was clueless – mea culpa.  And I couldn’t help him understand where he had to go, although I knew – so I paid him, got out, and walked 10 minutes to the office.  I was sweating when I reached there…I wasn’t thrilled.  Cabbies here are horrendous – and the vehicles are 30 years old and are depressing.  Not quite as bad as the wrecks in Rangoon, but close.

Got to my office – voicemail light lit up.  Checked it – two voicemails in Korean.  Clearly erroneous.  Great start to the day.  Things did settle down after that.

Saw a few more flats on Thursday with agent Jyoti, a very pleasant woman who has shown me some crap flats, but this time she found a real winner, a 1-bedroom in the chi-chi Grand Paradi building.  The next day I asked her to put in a bid on it – but learned that the quoted price was incorrect (owner wanted much more), and also the owner was thinking of selling it, not renting it.  Ugh.  When Jyoti’s office manager called me, clueless, the next day, I lit into her and told her I was sick of her agency showing me flats under false pretenses.  Really…these people don’t do their homework.  If I wasn’t so busy I’d live with it – but I suppose I need to vent and share the pain.

Met Roxanne again that night…seemed like ages since our fun night out at Zenzi.  We were met at Woodside Inn by Mike, a friend of a colleague’s who’s stationed here for a year.  Nice guy.

Read in the Times of India – which seems to specialize in obscure stories which only I’d be compelled to read – that a cab drove across the runway of Legaspi (RP) Airport and nearly caused a plane crash.  Classic.  The runway there is pretty modest, I was there for my Donsol excursion just a few weeks ago.  Seems like yesterday, and a lifetime ago, all at the same time.  I do miss the RP…

Flew to Delhi at dawn on Friday with two colleagues.  Had to get up at 4:30 a.m. for that.  Had some good meetings up there, including one with the project leader for my current case.  We talked about the project for a while, then about a feedback session she was about to do with a report of hers on her recent project.  It was looking to be a contentious session, and she wanted my advice.  I was happy to help her out, and found that I had a lot to say – I’ve been through some of these myself, on both sides of the desk, and there’s a lot of data in my mental hard drive on this topic.  I do like to give advice and talk about touchy subjects – maybe I am truly a consulting lifer.

Flew back with one of my colleagues.  Bonded a bit in the Delhi Jet Airlines lounge over a beer…was so weary from the week that I didn’t really keep an eye on the time, next thing we knew they were calling our flight and we had to scramble to get through security and make it.  Then we sat on the runway for 45 minutes.  Classic, and typical.

Landed in Mumbai, got in line for a taxi.  Halfway to the city, the meter stopped working.  Here there’s always something confounding – if you like an orderly existence, this is a bad place for you.

Got back to my hotel.  Checked email – Lotus Notes indicated 44 unread messages.  Shit.  I had checked in Delhi a few hours before, and had cleared most emails there.  Reluctantly opened up email and was relieved to see that only 6 emails were actually new – for some reason Lotus is a bit flaky with the read/unread markings.  That was a gut check of sorts and I made it through…

Went for a beer at Leopold’s, upstairs.  Fairly calm evening there, until a guy fell in his chair back from the bar onto the floor.  At first I thought there was trouble – Leo’s has an odd mix of people and you never know who won’t mix.  He hit the floor with a crack – and his chair undercut another and caused that one to fall too, with another guy on it.  For a moment the air was heavy with anticipation…I grabbed my 650ml Kingfisher bottle and was ready to wield it…then both guys got off the floor and dusted themselves off.  And sat down again without further ado.  Nice.

Spent Saturday in the office.  Not too bad a day, just clearing up a few things.  Got an email from the University of Virginia’s online system requesting that I update my –personal info.  Fine…did that, and quickly scanned my profile.  Saw a line-item about a scholarship I won for my 2^nd year at b-school – the ‘Class of 1970 Creative Management Scholarship.’  But I was surprised to see that it was sponsored by DAR – the Daughters of the American Revolution, a right-wing group.  Hadn’t known they were the sponsors – how random.  I still would have happily accepted their money, it’s just funny that 15 years on I just found this out.

BTW, if you want to email me, please do it via normal email and not on Facebook or LinkedIn.  I detest having to open those programs to respond.  ‘Nuff said.

Got out at 1 p.m., went to Café Mondegar for lunch.  This place is similar to Leopold’s, has been around forever, perhaps a key difference is that it’s somewhat less (in)famous and thus terrorists are less likely to attack.  Had a Kingfisher and a terrific Goan Curry Prawns Rice, a winner by any measure.

Saw more flats later that day with Jyoti.  Mixed bag (the flats, not Jyoti).

Got an email from German friend Ivo, who rode with me partway on the Trans-Siberian Railway and who hung out with me in Moscow and St P.  He had just done Carnival in Munich and had a blast – he sent me some good pics, including this one – I hope for his sake he’s dating the blonde:

Did some party planning…got some cheap Indian wine to bring out to a party that night.  Had a bite at Bade Miya, then took a cab to Churchgate and went to the flat of Mike, who I’d met at Woodside a few nights earlier with Roxanne.  Had a scotch with Mike and his roommate Jeff, they both work for BCG.  Talked to Roxanne, we agreed to meet later that night at a US Consulate St Paddy’s Day party.

Moved on the a pre-party at a flat in Kemps Corner – the resident is Jay, a banker who just lost his job but is hanging around for a while.  Eclectic crowd – talked with Darius, who works for an auto magazine…Avanti, who works for AT Kearney and loves to dive (scuba, that is), and Auloke, who works for an industrial company.  Lots of others there too – ate and drank my fill.  Then we went to a building where some US Consulate staffers live, there’s an upstairs bar called George’s (presumably George Washington, not another George we all unfortunately know of).

Terrific party – I knew a fair number of people there, and met many others.  Perhaps the highlight was an Indian-American going to hug a placard of Obama and accidentally taking it down.  I hope no metaphor arises from this…

On Sunday I saw the noontime showing of Gran Torino.  Not exactly the comedy I’m in sore need of (given my recent addiction to Kate Winslet heart-tuggers), but an excellent movie all round.  I swear Hollywood can still do it when they try – 80% of the stuff is dross, but if there were more movies like this one Hollywood could probably save America by itself.  And if only they still made cars like that Gran Torino…

Another funny Times of India article – the Foxy Lady strip bar in Providence, RI held a job fair recently to recruit ‘new talent’.  Of course, I’ve never been to that fine establishment…

Am remembering how hard it is to align people’s calendars and set meetings.  Over the past 3 years it’s been enough work to stay on top of things like visas, etc. with my own calendar – haven’t really had to make lots of appointments.  Welcome to reality.

Left the office Monday night – as I was walking out, I realized I had fronted the cash for the team’s lunch that day and was essentially broke.  I had to borrow 30 rupees from Manoj, the office guy – that felt weird.  I won’t even venture to guess how much he makes, but I presume it’s very little…still, he was happy to help.  He even joked (I think) about getting interest on the loan.  Actually, he handles a lot of cash, he goes to the dry cleaner for a number of senior people, including me…it’s just that he winds up making very little income.

Read that 1,600 Indians die of diarrhea each day.  Ugh.  Reading things like this help me stay motivated in my work – if we can help sub-scale companies refine their business models and get financing from institutions, this sort of thing will gradually go away.  It’s shocking how poor half of the world still is…

Had dinner with Rajan’s cousin Sumeet, who runs a small water company.  Great guy.  Met at Cricket Club of India, in the upstairs bar called The Wet Wicket.  Absolutely packed, on a Monday night.  Great food and buzz.  I think the waiting list for a new membership is 20 years…

I had to give a US$200 deposit (10K rupees) to enable International Direct Dial on my mobilephone.  They really don’t make it easy for you here…

Went to my second Expat Night at Henry Tham’s.  Met Darius from the auto mag, Jug from the reinsurer, Jay the ex-banker, and a few others.  Good relaxed affair.

Have started skipping the hotel breakfasts.  It’s inevitably eggs, toast, fried vegetables, etc.  Instead, at the office, the guys will cut up a couple apples for you, and that’s far better in every way.  As I’ve written many times, Indian food’s tasty, but not healthy – I need to make sure I eat a lot of fruit and stay away from the finger food here.

Finally settled on a flat I like.  It’s in Kemps Corner, near my old ‘hood of Breach Candy.  If I live there, I can join the terrific Breach Candy Club and exercise/swim/eat/drink there – a fine option and a real oasis in this mad city.  I was a member there in ’92 and it was a life saver.

Prashant, the real estate agent (one of them, anyway), took me to meet the flat’s owner, who works in Nariman Point near my office.  Meeting the owner is the usual course of action – real estate in Mumbai is a serious business.  The owner is a Marwari (Rajasthani) fellow, and is a big shot.  We met in his extensive offices, sat around drinking tea for a while till we got to talking about the flat.  I was reasonably well-prepared, although in hindsight it wouldn’t have been a bad idea to drag a colleague with me.

We aligned on a monthly rental amount fairly quickly, but haggled on a few other points (length of contract, security deposit, furnishings).  Pretty much settled everything, except that I wanted to check on the security deposit figure – Prashant said that the quoted figure was fine, but it sounded high to me.  Anyway, the owner and I agreed to meet a few days later, on Saturday, when we’d go shopping for a bunch of things – a washing machine, kitchen table, sofa, and seat.  I think the owner found me amusing, at the very least, and quite possibly a decent negotiator – or at least well-prepared and organized to the point of being rare over here.  He would quote a figure, I would do a quick calculation and then explain why I was in the right.  Over the course of the session I came to suspect that he wasn’t incredibly fussed over the actual #s, as much as wanting a solid tenant, one who wouldn’t wreck the place or move out suddenly and leave him hanging.  And given his quite evident business success, this wasn’t his primary business – I’d heard stories of owners who lived on their rental income and were nightmares to deal with.  This fellow, Mr. G, clearly didn’t really need the cash and had other criteria in mind.  I was perhaps fortunate here, after my various tribulations over the past few weeks.

Went back to work.  Noticed that I had a ‘friend offer’ on Facebook, from the first girl I made out with at Tufts.  She dyed her hair blonde and now lives in the Midwest.  At least she hadn’t become a lesbian (inside joke).

Doing laundry is annoying here.  The laundry shops will make a marking on the collar of your shirts or tags of your pants, and they’ll thread a piece of cloth through to identify you…and sometimes they still lose items.  They already lost a shirt I quite like – I asked Manoj, who’s been taking my clothes to the shop, to switch shops and to bug the first shop to find my damn shirt.  I traveled all over the world for years and only lost a single white sock, in Laos…here, they write on and put holes in your stuff and then still lose things.  India…not for everyone.

On Friday night I left the office before 8 p.m., my earliest night yet.  Went out for a run…felt like I’d been smoking cigarettes.  I did have one last week, just for old time’s sake…but I suspect it’s lack of exercise and also the air quality here that’s the real issue.  Will make sure to go running both days this weekend, and once I move into my flat, religiously hit the Breach Candy Club and be a fixture on the treadmill every night.  Would be great if I could motivate in the morning to exercise, but that would be a huge lifestyle change and it might be too much to ask given all the other upheavals in my life.

Another addition to my ongoing list of travel memories – how could I have forgotten the night in the ger (yurt) in Mongolia when I showed the guides photos and videos of my scuba diving in the Philippines with giant turtles?  They were so fascinated they were drooling as they sat and went through the photos.

That night I went back to Henry Tham’s – Talvin Singh, the Indian-English DJ/composer, was spinning.  I like his stuff and was looking forward to the show – seemed that the usual expat suspects and many Indian hotshots would show up.  Which turned out to be the case – my BCG friends were there, many of the Expat Night gang too, and I met some very nice locals and a few foreign journalists.  The music was very loud, but I managed to make it till about 2 a.m., then ducked out and hit the sack.  Long week, needed my beauty sleep.

Indians love equating their local businesses with ours.  Hollywood/Bollywood, of course, but there’s also Wall Street/Dalal Street.  Pretty humorous.

Saturday morning – a red-letter day for me, might be the day I settle on a flat.  Had to meet owner Mr. G at his flat in Kemps Corner and continue haggling.  After our first meeting I had called Prashant, my agent, and told him that I wasn’t happy with the proposed security deposit amount – I’d asked around my office and was told it was way too much, given that I’m proposing to pay one year’s rent up-front (I know, it sounds insane, but it’s common here and a good way to reduce monthly rent amount).  Prashant said he’d touch base with Mr. G and see about that – apparently he left a message to that effect with Mr. G’s office.  Mr. G had then told Prashant that he wasn’t flexible, but that we should all meet at the flat on Saturday anyway.  And in fact he’d gotten back to Prashant and hadn’t ignored his message…so I thought there was a glimmer of hope.

And after 5 minutes of meeting we were sorted.  Mr. G came down on the security deposit figure, Prashant left (I was annoyed with him for having told me that the first security amount was “normal”), and Mr. G and I went shopping together.  Which turned out to be one of the more random and enjoyable days I’ve had in a while – and certainly unexpectedly diverting.  We rode in his wife’s Honda (he has a Merc, and he bought his sons an Audi and a BMW) to a furniture store, where we picked out a good kitchen table and chairs…we rode to a white goods/electronics shop, where we got a washing machine and microwave.  In both places we were in and out in 20 minutes.  Mr. G had no issue with pulling out his credit card and closing the deal.  We obviously have similar shopping styles (i.e., we hate shopping), it’s just that he probably has a considerable fortune and I’m still building mine up.

After shopping, he invited me for a drink at a club where he’s a trustee.  I think it’s called the Orient Club, it’s a 100-year-old place overlooking the Arabian Sea and Chowpatty Beach.  Went upstairs and, in succession, polished off a couple Kingfishers, then some scotch, then white wine.  And he’s 70 years old.  We were clearly finding each other interesting company – I think he was pretty happy to find an American to take his flat.  Turns out his son’s getting his undergrab business degree at Babson – so we had lots to talk about.

I had a 3 p.m. internal meeting at my office, and hadn’t anticipated being tight on time…but we then had lunch, and didn’t get out of there till nearly 3.  Then we drove down to my office, where they deposited me, with a strong buzz, on the doorstep of my office building.  You really never know what a day will turn out to be over here…I think that’s one of the reasons I like living overseas.

Was definitely tipsy during my meeting, but it turned out fine – I was up-front about how I’d spent my day and my colleagues thought it was pretty funny.  And I felt quite fortunate – Mr. G gave every indication he’d be a great landlord and he wants me over for dinner with his family next week.  I suppose it’s not a bad thing to have a well-to-do landlord living across the road who can afford to buy new furnishing and presumably deal with any problems as they crop up.  I’ve had cheapo landlords who were a very different story.  And in a place like Mumbai, it’s all about who you know and who can help you get things done…so in that column I’m now doing pretty well.  I have a feeling Mr. G and I will get along very well.  He certainly isn’t a Mormon…

After my internal meeting, read an email about my current project and setting up a conference call for that.  It’ll just be Monitor people on the call – 3 of us, all Jewish.  I love it.

Got out around 8 p.m.  It was Saturday night, and I’d already had my RDA of alcohol.  Went over to Indus Resto, which has superb fish tikka, had one of those and a beer, then waltzed over to SportsBar Express for one more, then went back to my hotel to relax.  Dealing with flats and shopping – not my favorite activities by any measure, although the Mr. G angle had made the day quite enjoyable.

Sunday – considered doing the Hash House Harriers run, but it was some ways out of town and I decided to just stay put, read, and relax.  Really my first day off since I got here – no work, no flat visits.  Phew.  Finished “The Sign and the Seal,” about the search for the lost Ark of the Covenant.  Had been on this book for more than a month, was happy to finish it.  Good yarn – not sure I buy the conclusions, i.e. that the Ark is in a church in Axum, Ethiopia.  But the author (Graham Hancock) covers lots of ground and I did enjoy the book.  One interesting bit is when he visits Elephantine Island, in the Nile near Aswan.  I went there in December, to visit the Temple of Isis – but Hancock learned that there was an ancient Jewish temple there around 6oo B.C., and his sense is that the Ark was taken there after it left Jerusalem (the king at the time started practicing pagan rituals and worshipping idols – you know, the usual).  Nearly no data/evidence to support this, just anecdotes and circumstantial stuff – still, worth a think and a read.

Alright, that’s enough for now, I’m finally caught up.  Given my work schedule, it’s probably best to assume that I’ll be updating the slog on weekends from now on, so expect that.  And thanks for sticking with me here…I’ll try to be entertaining despite being busy.  Comments more than welcome.  Over and out.

Mumbai’s a far more liveable place than it was years ago.  As with some other cities I’ve spent time in, it’s slowly becoming “normal.”  Define that as you may…I have a simple definition along the lines of there being a decent slew of restos, bars, cinemas, shops, hotels such that you can lead a reasonably civilized existence.  We may not be entirely there yet in Mumbai, but it really has come a ways.

Funny how small this world really is – an invaluable help to my move here has been Karen, the cousin of Tufts/New York friend Eric (actually, his wife’s cousin), who lives here and who hooked me up large with the Yahoo and Facebook Bombay Expat Group boards.  Within mere minutes of joining these two sites, and sending a quickie intro/help me find a apartment broker email, I got numerous replies, not only with the names of agents, but also invitations to various social events.  Bingo.  That, plus my existing contacts, my seemingly-fun new work team, and the Hash House Harriers (last Sunday of every month – I made nearly all my friends here last time round through the Hash), and I should have more than I can readily handle.  I’ll manage, somehow.

Am still staying in the Suba Palace Hotel, till I find my own flat.  More on that later.  The hotel is solid, and right in the thick of Colaba, a mosh-pit of mayhem and offerings.  Even if I choose to live elsewhere, I have a feeling I’ll be in Colaba often.

Saturday night went over to the INOX Theater (yet another offering not here back in ’92) to see Revolutionary Road, another step in my ogling of Kate Winslet in her latest string of downer flicks.  This one was devastating, a complete take-down of the American Dream (at least as it existed in the 50s).  Winslet is an absolute goddess, and her hubby Sam Mendes, the director (and a lucky guy, natch) yet again nailed the topic.  He directed American Dream, yet another race to the bottom of everyday American life. ..what a brilliant chronicler of this stuff.  I somewhat identified with Kate’s character, who based her/their future on a move from generica to Paris – she needed to have an edge in life, and so do I.  I thought the span of the movie was a bit short to fully explore the theme, there were some parts that felt clipped or even left out…still, quite well done.  Now I need to see a comedy or two – between The Reader and Revolutionary Road, I feel a bit down.

Edge aside, I should point out the benefits of a stable, predictable life.  You can cook and eat reasonably healthy food (sometimes)…you can practice/play guitar…you can get into a regular exercise routine.  All things I couldn’t really do on the road.  I think the key for me is to have the flexibility to change settings in life…perhaps not on a dime, but over the course of a few years.  Not everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s good for me.

After the movie I took a cab up to Breach Candy, my old ‘hood, to have a few beers at The Ghetto, a good little joint on Warden Road.  It wasn’t there when I lived on Warden Road, but I’ve visited and written a bit about this place in old slog entries.  The cabbie was incredibly friendly/obsequious and insisted on giving me his mobile # so that he could serve as my personal driver around town.  Saved the # but it’s really not an issue finding a cab around here…

The Ghetto was fairly busy…sucked on a couple Kingfishers, watched some Premier League soccer, and eventually fell into conversation with Niels and Jose, two fellow expats who work for a firm that sets up law offices around the world.  Nice guys – they bought me a beer, I returned the favor, then we repeated the process till closing time.  Jose spent time in Japan and is marrying a Japanese woman, so we had lots of notes to compare.

Heard on the news that Morgan Tsvangirai, the Zimbabwe PM, and his wife were in a car accident, a truck lost control and mashed their car.  Tsvangirai was pretty badly hurt, and his wife was killed.  Raise your hand if you believe it was a random accident…

On Sunday I worked most of the day, catching up on various things.  Had dinner with a couple colleagues at Indigo Deli, a delightful little place near my hotel.  Managed to squeeze a run in beforehand – very hot and the Marine Drive promenade was crowded, so I had to weave through people constantly.  I think joining a club is imperative to maintaining my girlish figure…

The work-week was extremely busy – was basically in meetings morning to night.  Met the rest of my team and got acquainted with their work.  Had dinner with some colleagues at a terrific place in the Khala Goda area called Joss – very nice fish.  We’re working on rolling out the findings from a large piece of work the team did over the past year, and are having a big conference in Delhi in mid-May.  If you’re interested, let me know and I can fill you in – it’s public record info.

On Tuesday we had a heavy-duty team strategy session.  This is a newish team and we could go in a variety of directions – all of which, of course, require us to bring in revenues and at least pay our way.  Interesting session – some of us want to get more into implementation, the bane of most strategy consultants, others want to stick to our bread and butter.  Me, I’m closer to the latter position, but am keeping an open mind for now.

Had a beer that night at Leopold’s, the upstairs bar.  Leopold’s is more popular than ever – the terrorist attacks don’t seem to have scared anyone away from this place, at least.  Talked to a U.K. healthcare type who was in town for an anti-tobacco conference – hadn’t heard about this.  His first time in India – I could tell it was blowing his mind.

Wednesday was Holi, the Festival of Colors – a major Hindi holiday involving the throwing of coloured chalk and water balloons at others.  People get pasted with all sorts of colors – not a good day to wear your Savile Row bespoke suit.  It was a day off, but I had a trillion things to do so went to the office late morning, and wound up staying there till night – had a follow-up strategy session with two senior colleagues, made some decisions, and felt decent about the state of things.

En route to the office I asked the driver to drop me right at the office parking gate – I didn’t want to get nailed by colored water balloons, a real risk on Holi.  And they love to get tourists – last year I was in Darjeeling on Holi and got pasted pretty badly.  The driver, a Muslim guy, told me that there was a law on the books in India to the effect that people can’t throw Holi chalk/balloons at others against their will.  Right.  There are lots of laws in India, and about 3% are enforced.

The office guy, Manoj, has been here for ages and seems to spend 23 hours a day, at least, in the office.  He’s incredibly friendly and helpful – I wish he were a consultant, the guy’s energy level is astronomical.  Maybe he’s just thrilled to have a decent job…that counts for a lot here, and in fact for a lot in New York, London and Tokyo these days…

I’ve been too busy to spend money since I got here – a bit like the old days.  It’s a bit of a mixed bag, that – I’m more than happy to salt away the cash, but I do feel somewhat captive when I have meetings till night, then a business dinner, then an early morning meeting.  Still, I think I’m handling it pretty well – I’m enjoying the team and the subject matter, and am reminding myself to try and lighten up when I get swamped with commitments.

Read the Times of India – a few good stories in there.  One:  the papacy has been around for nearly 2,000 years, and in all that time precisely one Pope has visited the Holy Land, on just one visit.  Pope John Paul II was the man, back in 2000.  The current Pope is planning to go there soon.  I’m only 41 years old, but I’ve been there twice.  So there.

Second story of note:  they found a 15-inch whaleshark off Donsol, where I snorkeled with the big guys a few weeks ago.  So now they have evidence that the whalesharks grow up in the vicinity and aren’t just visiting for food.  Sort of funny to be reading about tiny Donsol in the Indian papers…

Spoke with b-school friend Hasmeeth on the phone.  He told me about a Darden India Night that’s held the last Friday of each month in Delhi – will try to make one of those.  There are quite a few fellow alumni here in India, as you’d suspect.  India’s taken over from Japan as a huge source of b-school candidates.

That night, went to an Expat Night at Henry Tham’s, a chi-chi bar/Chinese resto in Colaba.  Attendance was so-so, it being a holiday.  Good cast of characters – an older Brit who is a movie director and who lives in the Yacht Club, right across the street; a Finnish government worker; an Aussie school teacher; an NRI (Non-Resident Indian) who now lives here and works for a major re-insurance company; a Jewish attorney named Ezekial Solomon (I love it), etc.  Got into a lengthy discussion about Gujarat state and the Rann of Kutch, a massive salt marsh in that state.  Gotta see this place sometime.  Made some good social connections and drank my fair share of beers.  Silently thanked Karen for hooking me up with these online groups – I already feel part of the scene.  Of course, I still haven’t actually met Karen, who spends most of her time in Chennai (Madras), she’ll be back in Mumbai one of these days…

One fellow told me that he was in Henry Thams when the terror attacks took place, right down the street.  The bar staff pulled down the metal shutters and that kept everyone safe inside.  If the attackers had really wanted to get in, I’m sure they could have…but at least there was no collateral damage at this place.

On Thursday the office tech guy worked on hooking up my Treo to Lotus Notes, on my work laptop.  Good thing I had the presence of mind (read:  paranoia) to back up my Treo the night before, after the Expat Night, a bit tipsy – I backed it up twice, on an SD card and on my trusty VAIO.  Good thing, because the Lotus Notes database apparently overrode my Treo, erasing nearly the entire calendar and probably some other databases also.  Pulled out my VAIO, changed the settings so I wouldn’t repeat that disaster (i.e., I made the laptop override the Treo), and brought everything back from the dead.  Whew.  Then I downloaded the Treo’s stuff onto the work laptop.  Seemed to go OK…but the Treo is clearly having a hard time with the third-party software required to sync Lotus and the Treo, it’s called mNotes and my Treo isn’t having any of it.  It’s rebooting constantly, and generally quite slow.  May need to either bring in a real Treo expert to try and sort this out, or bite the bullet and get a crackberry – I don’t mind the cost, it’s more the pain of migrating all my data over.  That isn’t likely to be pretty.  Let’s see what happens…

Thursday night I had another social commitment, this time with Michael and Angeline, who I know through friend Bettina in Manila.  Michael works for the US Consulate in Mumbai, and was based for a while in Manila, where he got to know Bettina.  We met at the Woodside Inn, near Regal Theater, Michael was DJing there that night and there was a small expat gathering.  Nice little place – yet another good addition to the Mumbai nightlife scene.  It’s a “normal” little resto-pub where you can get whatever drink you like and also have some good eats.  Leopold’s is no longer the only game in town…

Late night, after a few beers with Michael, Angeline, and the re-insurance guy (I was already recognizing patterns and people), I wound up at Bade Miya with Parsod, a friend of Angeline’s from the Asia Society, and a young analyst from Deutsche Bank.  Had the usual chicken/paneer/lamb rolls standing on the street with dozens of our closest friends – i.e., random driunken, hungry people.   Then I stumbled back to the hotel to get some rest…Friday was looking like a pretty full day.

Read a bit before bedtime – still on “The Sign and the Seal,” about the lost Ark of the Covenant.  The book’s getting very weird – the author is positing that Moses was a master of ancient Egyptian magic and that the Ark may have gotten its dangerous power not from the hand of God, but from some substance, perhaps radioactive, that Moses mined from a Sinai mountain and put inside.  I think he’s reading the Bible a bit too literally – brother, it’s a good yarn and some elements are trueish, but that’s as far as I’d go.  Still, an entertaining read.

It strikes me that I’ve used and abused the Treo Memo application more than anyone in history.  If I shift to a Blackberry, it’d better have something similar – this slog would be toast if I couldn’t take notes on my smartphone.

Friday – full on.  All day meetings, which were productive, then dinner with a couple colleagues and one’s wife.  We went to Indigo, which has been around for years and is still excellent – they’ve kept up their quality, but they’ve also kept raising their prices.  Still, a nice night out.  Found out that my US-based colleague was also born in Beth Israel Hospital in Boston.  Random.

We said our goodbyes and went to our respective homes/hotels for some rest.  It was Friday night, but I couldn’t muster the joie to go out and have random experiences…so you know I was truly spent.  Spoke a bit with my US-based colleague before he got in a taxi – we trying to close the loop on a couple things, but a guy was trying to hit us up for money, and was holding up a/his baby to help his cause.  It was annoying, and my colleague told him to leave us be.  I totally agreed, but also felt sheepish given that we’re in the social change space and are focused on helping people like him.  Or perhaps not, in a strict sense – we’re focusing on helping enterprises refine their business models and scale up, which would help large swathes of the bottom of the pyramid population – we’re not in the business of giving handouts to the poor.  However you look at it, I try to be more sensitive to those begging for money, even if I don’t always hand any over…

The wild week was over – I felt like a sponge all week, absorbing information.  I’ll be happier in a few weeks/months once I’ve incorporated the knowledge and develop a point of view for myself…

On Saturday, couldn’t sleep in much, as I had appointments to see a bunch of flats.  Had two morning appointments, saw 3-4 places with each of two brokers.  Some absolute crap places, a couple good ones.  Am leaning towards a modestly-sized 1-bedroom flat in Kemp’s Corner, a stone’s throw from where I used to live.  It’s also near the terrific Breach Candy Club, where I plan to get into tip-top shape during all of my free time…sigh.

After seeing the slew of flats, had lunch at Moishe’s, a small resto owned by – wait for it – a Jewish guy.  Great sandwiches – we really need to have Moishe’s deliver to our office for lunch.  I think that’s a possibility – their stuff is so much better than the crap I ate for lunch last week.  The issue is that our office isn’t that close to any places you’d want to visit for lunch…and we’re on the top floor of the building, with slow elevators, so it can take 10 minutes to get an elevator and reach the lobby.  If you went out for lunch, it’d be at least an hourlong affair.  I certainly want to escape for lunch some days, but for now I’d better plan on eating in-house and simply trying to increase the quality…

So it’s been a full-on week – as expected.  Learned a huge amount, made some progress in finding a place to live, expanded my social calendar.  Despite it’s numerous frustrations, Mumbai may well be the city of destiny for me, at least for the next few years.  I think I can handle that.

On Thursday, while in a meeting, one of my colleagues invited me to a Saturday night party at a nightclub, Zenzi, up in Phoenix Mills/Worli.  He was DJing the party, and sounded pretty fun.  Made plans to go, and left it at that.  On Saturday, while viewing flats, my mobile rang – it was old girlfriend Roxanne, who now lives in her homeland, Nagaland, in the northeast near the Burmese border.  She was coming to Mumbai that night (she’d alerted me earlier), and wanted to hang out.  Cool.  Wound up meeting her at Henry Tham’s and having some terrific prawns and “drunken chicken balls,” then cabbing it up to Worli.  Hadn’t seen Roxanne since sometime in 1996 or 1997, in New York City – we’d both wound up there, after first meeting and spending time together in Mumbai in 1992.  She and her two fun sisters helped me get into the swing of things in Mumbai that summer, and I always tried to stay in touch with Rozelle.  We’d eventually lost touch, but found each other on LinkedIn.  And we’d tried to meet the past couple years when I was in-country, but couldn’t make it work.  Now, finally, we were in the same town and hanging out again.  Yowza.

Went into Zenzi, and eventually ran into pretty much my entire team, who were there to support our colleague, the DJ.  Good times…had lots to drink, and really covered a lot of ground with Roxanne, we had a lot to catch each other up on.  I think there was a bit of a spark there, too…but probably too many years have gone by, and anyway I tend to dislike second acts.  That said, here I am in Mumbai again.

After a few drinks we moved to the dance floor and said hi to my colleague, who was hard at work DJing, and doing a great job.  He’s quite talented and did a lot of this in the UK – he’s an NRI from there.  Roxanneand I danced for the better part of an hour…last time we’d danced together was at one of the big hotel discos in ’92, that summer we went out 5 nights a week, or partied in my flat in Breach Candy.  Back then I was very into Roxanne and she was a huge part of why that summer was so memorable and fun for me…this time I could hardly avoid being overcome with those old memories and I think she felt the same way.  When our eyes met we smiled a bit, and there was a good vibe and body language.  And perhaps I was imagining things, but I got the sense she was eager to cuddle…whereas I was not quite there yet.  It’s a bit sad that two people are rarely on the same level – in ’92 I was panting after her, and now I don’t think that’s the case – now she seems more eager.  Hmmm…how to manage this one, I wonder.  Stay tuned.

On Sunday I awoke with a headache, and had to get up and do another round of flat-viewing.  This new broker showed me 3 OK places, those are in my consideration set for the time being.  Of course, none of the places are perfect, but I can compromise on some fronts.  It’s not like I’ll be spending tons of time there…and I am used to some modest accoms from my travels.

The good thing about the often-gruesome smells of Mumbai is that you can get away with farting quite easily.  I couldn’t help but cut one when riding around with Jyoti the female real estate broker, and she just said ‘Wow, Pedder Road really stinks today.’  Not sure, on second thought, that she didn’t realize I was to blame…but Pedder Road did stink, and I think I can usually get away with this here.

Met b-school friend Rajan at Oxford Bookshop for coffee and a chat.  Good seeing him again – he gave me a few contacts that might be helpful in my new field.  Then parted ways, walked to my hotel, and came here to the office to do some work.  It’s now Sunday night and I’m supposed to have dinner with Roxanne, so I’m getting out of here.  Just 3 more things:

1 – Friend Al reminded me that my ‘Top 20 list’ was missing our insane night in Vagator, Goa where I fell off the motorbike while trying to show the traffic cop my papers.  We managed to slide out of that one intact, except for our pride…on the topic of motorbikes, riding around Laos (esp. around Vang Vieng) was another great memory, the landscape was stunning and I was really out in the middle of nowhere.

2 – my India mobile # is +91-99-8726-6011.  I’m 9.5 hours ahead of USA East Coast time, give me a jangle or text whenever you’d like.

3 – here are a few shots from the terrace of my office, I’ve had some people want to know how this looks.  The terrace looks out on an ancient Koli fishing community, and is quite visually cool:

That’s it for this week.  Over and out.

So it’s back to work for me.  Probably about time…although I will miss the rigors of the road.  One lesson I think I’ve learned well over the past three years is the need to keep smiling, remain patient, and to try to have fun, even in the most trying of circumstances.  If I can keep that in mind, my transition back to work should be relatively painless.  If I instead get back to pressing and feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders, that’ll be a different story altogether.  It’s not a crime to enjoy yourself, even in a supposedly serious situation.  Lots of people in non-Western cultures seem to get that a lot better than we do, and they seem a lot happier as a result.  Sometimes you have to lose the smile and get down to business, but your default position should be one of happiness (which does not mean that you should walk around with a smile on your face at all times).I realize that I’ve had a unique experience…and even if my return to work has been precipitated/ provoked by an insane drop in the equity markets, I consider myself pretty fortunate.  I’ve seen places and things that boggle the mind…and I’ve had quiet little experiences that I can’t help but laugh and wonder about.  I think my destiny is all about having unusual experiences in odd places – I realized that much over the past 3 years, and suspected it well before I undertook my journey.  A challenge for me will be to continue having those sorts of experiences while in a more defined structure; being in India does set a good foundation, given the colorful and idiosyncratic nature of this country.  And the group I’ve joined seems friendly and smart – I think this is the right way for me to re-enter ‘reality.’

I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to say on this in coming weeks.  In the meantime, back to the past…my top 20 memories from my time wandering much of the planet.  These are in no particular order, I just jotted them down over the course of a few days:

-Getting pulled with old friend Iain in the middle of the Australian outback by a cop who breathalyzed Iain – later, having the Feral Mixed Grill platter at the Prairie Hotel and dancing all night in the desert air

-Hanging out with Iain’s wife Stephanie in the Barossa Valley, laughing at a random woman who was consumed with the gourmet products and airs of Maggie Beers

-Driving like mad as the sun set to get to the Clifton Springs truckers’ overnight camp near Ayers Rock, dodging feral camels and huge black wedge-tailed eagles

-Jogging nightly around Rizal Park in Manila, trying to hold my breath around one particular urine-soaked stretch

-The unfriendly barman in Lviv who clearly didn’t like foreigners hanging out in his bar

-Cleaning up my vodka vomit in my rented room in Cholpon-Ata, near Lake Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan

-Getting close to a young Israeli lass on an overnight bus from Manali to Dharamsala

-Searching for the lost tomb of Alexander the Great in Alexandria

-Taking the world’s highest motorable pass, Khardung-La, in Ladakh, with driver Angdu

-Snorkeling with the giant whalesharks, the butanding, in Dolsol, Philippines

-Having a Cebu taxi driver, who didn’t speak much English, ask me if Tom Jones was still alive (‘It’s Not Unusual’ had just started playing on his radio)

-Arriving on a redeye train into Moscow and watching a cop train a powerful waterhose on an unfortunate beggar picking through a rubbish bin

-Riding in a hot air balloon with the Ricci sisters in Cappadocia, Turkey

-Watching a hen (bachelorette) party in Nukus, Uzbekistan, near the dried-up Aral Sea

-Having secret political discussions with various Burmese, including a mountaintop nighttime session listening to the Voice of America with my trekking guide

-Sitting for hours in Turkish baths around Budapest with fraternity brother Art

-Riding for 5 days around northern Vietnam with two fun Kiwis and our terrific local guide – the last night of which was a homestay with way too much food and drink and merriment

-A day spent in the West Bank – an unsettling and deeply depressing experience

-Lunch at The Stoep (South African resto) on HKG Lantau Island’s Cheung Sha Beach

-Riding my motorbike back to Bean Me Up after watching the Patriots lose the Super Bowl to the Giants, was raised out my funk when I saw a woman touch a cow with her fingers, then kiss her fingers

There, I think that’s 20.  There are countless more, of course – if you remember anything worthy, please send me a comment or email and I can shoehorn those in next week.

Over the past three years, I’ve written nearly 150 posts, amounting to well over 1,000 pages of text.  One of these days I need to sit down and plow through these, and pull out a few threads worthy of more thinking.  Not sure when that will happen, but I’ll eventually get to it.  Again, I’d welcome any input from you.

The past week was not boring.  My step-grandfather was on his deathbed…I spent several days at his place, spending time with his family.  They’re a good bunch and I get along with them well.  Not at all a hardship.  On Saturday Willy seemed to be fading, and he called his grandkids into the room to tell them to study hard (good Jewish grandfather) and to say goodbye.  But he held on for a couple more days – we all marveled at his strength.  I hadn’t ever been around to watch someone dying – it was perhaps one of the more profound experiences in my life.  Willy spent his last days surrounded by family, in the privacy and dignity of his own home, being cared for by a professional.  That’s the right way to go.

I spent lots of time talking with various family members, and downed a few scotches – they had O’Ban, one of my favorite brands.  And I naturally thought about my Mom and losing her, back in 1995.  She was far too young and I often wonder how her life would have gone – she deserved so much more.  I don’t believe in any sort of afterlife, but for her I have trouble accepting that life is truly over and gone, and I hope that I’m wrong…I’d give anything to see her again, anywhere out there.

Had dinner with cousin Rick in Boston on Saturday night.  Ellen’s niece Jill kindly gave me a ride into Boston, and I met rick at Ma Soba, a terrific Japanese place near Government Center.  Good food, and great value – the set combinations were impressively cheap.  Rick and I always have lots to discuss, he’s perhaps my most accomplished and unconventional relative.

Got back to Newton around midnight.  Stepsister Amanda was still up – we talked for a while downstairs.  She was grieving for her grandfather, understandably.  She asked me about my mother, which I appreciated – Amanda’s the only one these days (besides my sister and brother-in-law, of course) with whom I have this conversation.  She has a kind heart and that will get her far in life – it’s a rare gift.

On Sunday morning Dad told me a bad storm was approaching, that it might foul up my travel plans, and that I might need to change my plans.  I was scheduled to fly from Boston to New York/JFK on Monday afternoon, and then on to Mumbai that night.  The storm would start on Sunday, and, with some breaks, continue until Monday afternoon.  Ugh.  Logan Airport in Boston tends to get nailed by these storms, and to shut down or at least experience awful delays.  I really had to get to Mumbai ASAP – and I had told Ellen that, as her father would likely pass away imminently.  She was perfectly OK with my leaving ahead of the funeral – I had spent a lot of time at Willy’s place and had seen him near the end, and that counted for a great deal.  So now I just had to get moving and get to Mumbai in time for some important meetings.

Dad and I are cut from the same cloth.  After dithering for a bit, I got to work, changed my flights (canceled the Boston-New York leg, which required a call to Expedia.com – didn’t want to lose the New York-Mumbai segment), booked an Amtrak train ride for that very night, called friend Bryan in NYC to secure his guest bedroom and midnight beers/snack, and began packing.  Felt a bit rushed, but only because I’d planned to do this the following morning.  In truth, I was fine – I’d ‘pre-packed’ and gotten everything teed up, and I had completed my usual tasks, like backing up my computer on a (new) external hard drive which I left in Dad & Ellen’s safe.  So I finished packing…everything fit just fine into my various pieces of luggage.  I’d given a good deal of thought to what I should bring – we frequent travelers obsess over luggage and contents, as I’ve written about in the past.  No issues here.

Walked over to Willy’s, hung out with Dad, Royce and Marty for a while.  Read the newspapers, there was an article about the Mumbai slums in there – no dearth of Mumbai slum articles in the wake of Slumdog Millionaire.  This obsession will fade with time…

Around 5:30 p.m. Dad drove me and my stuff to the Route 128 Amtrak station.  Yet another farewell – I don’t much enjoy these, I get a bit sad and feel guilty about leaving Dad and home, yet again…but I’ll be back in May so not such a big deal.  Still, it felt like a pivot point in my life – I was about to write a new chapter.   What is the theory of my life – is there one?  As I wrote earlier, I feel my destiny is to be out there in the world, having experiences, connecting cultures, coming up with fresh ideas – I just don’t know if this is a sustainable model.  When I’m older, will I need to put away my Tevas and hiking boots and ‘settle down?’  Is this truly the mandated, natural order of things?

The ride down to NYC was smooth, it was snowing out but didn’t affect the trip.  Got out at Penn Station, feeling weighed down by my stuff – I was certainly able to lug it around, but wouldn’t want to go 5 kilometers on foot with it.  And the taxi queue was brutal, and it was snowing – I wasn’t in the mood to get my stuff soaked and make it even heavier to carry.  So I went back into the bowels of Penn Station and took the subway to Tribeca, then trudged a few blocks through the snow to Bryan’s building.  Got there, he was still out (playing poker – he clears a fair amount of loot from that pastime), so I dropped my stuff, freshened up, and checked emails and the weather/airport situation – was looking OK for getting out the following night.  Bryan got home a bit after midnight, we caught up for a while, then went out into the storm for refreshments.

I wouldn’t miss the weather, that was for sure.  Nearly three weeks in New England and New York in February/early March – good to finally escape.  Bryan and I wound up at a bar, unfortunately the kitchen had just closed so we had a beer, then took a cab to the timeless Washington Square Diner where we gorged – buffalo wings, Monte Christo, and eggs.  New York diners – watch out.

Went to sleep around 3:30 a.m., got up around 9.  Bryan was already up, watching yet another frightening drop in the equity markets.  Depressing.  AIG was at $0.63 a share, down from over $60 a year or so ago.  When will it all end?  It’s like a bad pinball or video game these days…

Hung around with Bryan for the rest of the morning.  He went off around noon to play more poker, I got busy on emails and checking the weather.  I also had a work-related call, with a colleague with whom I’d first worked back in 1997.  We’d both left the firm, and returned within a few years.  Small world.

My Air India flight looked OK.  I went to the trouble of calling my firm’s travel department and had them double-check for me – same answer.  So I left for the airport about 4 hours before departure, and the traffic to JFK was reasonable.  Seemed too good to be true.

Wound up taking off about an hour late – not disastrous, given the other possible scenarios.  I wasn’t thrilled to be arriving in Mumbai near midnight the following day, but in general one tends to arrive and depart from India at terrible hours, and I was well used to it.  Used the 13.5 hours in the air pretty well – read “The Sign and the Seal,” about a quest for the lost Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia, for a few hours.  Pretty interesting book, written by a former East Africa correspondent for The Economist.  The book is lengthy, still in the middle of it, but I was struck by a chapter which covers the internal strife that afflicted Ethiopia centuries ago – between Christians and Falashas (local Jews).  The Christians apparently took the Ark from the ‘Holy of Holies’ in Axum and used it against the Jews.  How ironic is that??

Read a bunch of work documents, that took a few more hours.  Listened to a couple hours’ worth of podcasts, these had backed up while I was busy at home.  Finally, managed to sleep 3-4 hours.  Felt in solid shape when we touched down in Mumbai, around 11:15 p.m. on Tuesday.  I was already resigned to a long night with little sleep – jet lag would help me get up early the next morning.

The airport was a bit chaotic – numerous broadcasts by different people telling us where to collect our bags.  Little or no coordination taking place here.  I had a brief moment of anxiety – was I really doing the right thing, coming back to work in such a chaotic place?  What mayhem would I face in coming days and weeks?  Then I saw my bags coming down the carousel, I settled down, and just let it all be.

As I rode into the city I thought about similar moves I’d made in the past.  When I moved to Johannesburg in 1998, I’d also shown up with a few bags, and gotten right into the work.  I recalled having to scramble to buy a couple more white oxfords, as I’d only brought a couple and things were quite formal in South Africa, at least with Afrikaner-dominated companies (like our client) back then.   I only had four bags with me this time, pretty much all my important stuff.  How did I feel about being 41 years old and being able to carry everything with me like this?  Most of my friends and family have large residences and tons of stuff – stuff that marks their time and lives.  I have no residence, and very few things, mostly books…if I ever do settle down, and I suppose I will one day, I won’t be that happy about having to buy all the stuff you need to fill out a house or flat.  So I guess I’ll keep on truckin’ for the time being…

Also thought back to my summer in Mumbai in ’92.  Seemed like a lifetime ago…and was certainly the strangest summer of my life, and one of the best.  Strange=good when it comes to my life.  When I left at the end of that summer, I never suspected that I’d be back in 17 years to begin a lengthy stint here.  Come to think of it, just a year ago, when I sat with friend Craig in his house in Shanghai, I had no idea I’d be back to work, anywhere, by this time.  Craig was also in India in ’92, we were b-school classmates and he also had a summer internship in India, in the Rajasthan desert town of Kota.  Just goes to show that if you wait long enough, nearly anything can happen…

As I reached the city, my final thought on this topic was that my reemergence here, and with Monitor Group, was perhaps inevitable.  I’m pretty much a consultant lifer by now…and Monitor’s DNA and culture are a great fit for me.  And I’d been showing up in Mumbai nearly every year lately, and making sure to see the Indian Monitor guys – did part of my brain know something that it wasn’t sharing with the rest of me?  Bansi had predicted that I’d be back – I hadn’t disagreed (if you wait long enough, nearly anything can happen, right?), I just hadn’t known how things would shake out.  Turns out, not for the first or last time, that he was right.

Got to the Suba Palace Hotel, where I’d stayed during my interviews in December.  Dropped off my bags and walked down the street to kebab vendor Bade Miya, whose praises I’ve sung several times in this slog.  Had a couple rolls, thought about going for a beer somewhere, but it was already 2 a.m. and I had to get up fairly early.  Went back to the hotel and checked email and Skype, Dad had left a voicemail – Willy had died while I was flying.  Hard news – not a surprise, but still sad.  Left some messages for Ellen and Dad, rotated some of my stuff between bags, and hit the sack.

As expected, jet lag got me up early – only had 3 or so hours of sleep, but it would do for now.  Had to gather my stuff and check out, I’d be flying to Delhi that night.  I stored a couple bags at the hotel and went to the office.  Most of the team was traveling, so I had some time to get set up on my new laptop and on the phone, and did a bunch of other start-up tasks that morning.  Had a nice lunch with Naina, our HR person, at the Bombay Gymkhana – terrific Indian fare.  She told me that the staff was very excited to have me joining them – nice to hear that, but now I really can’t screw up.

Did some reading the rest of the day, then went to the airport to fly up to Delhi, where I’d meet a senior colleague and get going on a new project.  Took Kingfisher Airlines, my favorite here – new planes, attractive attendants, light-hearted image.  Perhaps this was a good metaphor for my new gig…

In Delhi, checked into the wonderfully-named Svelte Personal Suites.  I wasn’t feeling particularly thin…then again, I’d tried on my suit that morning in Mumbai, and the pants were quite loose – I must have been seriously portly when I last wore it three years ago.  The trick now is to not grow back into the damn thing…

Work.  The subject matter is new to me, but then again in consulting it’s often that way – you just get up to speed and gradually become knowledgeable.  Note that gradual here means 2 weeks.  The usual trappings are pretty much the same, although Lotus Notes is now on Version 8, and full of useless features.  Same goes for Office 2007, which I’ve already been dealing with on my personal laptop – tons of new features which are basically blowware to me.  One of my colleagues in Delhi is a design expert and she loves the new applications – they’re ‘more visual.’  They probably are, but they’re also more confusing.  I like simple pulldown menus.  Oh well.  And there’s an instant-messaging app called Sametime which is all the rage now – I’ve been interrupted several times already by an IM.  I can see that it will be a real challenge to actually sit and think…not that I had loads of time for that back in the day either.  But I do think this is a trend, and I anticipate the need to defend my privacy/sanity and dedicate some time to thinking and content – might have to flee my office to do it.

Put in a very long day – left the office around 10 p.m.  But got a lot done and was ahead of the work.  Had a quick bite, then tried to read the paper – didn’t get far.  Spoke with a senior colleague on the phone, he wanted to welcome me to India.  I barely got through the call before passing out.

Classic jet-lagged night.  Fell asleep at 11 p.m., woke up at 1 a.m., then at 4 a.m., and by that point was fully awake.  Read my book, checked emails and voicemail, then hit the gym.  One of the two treadmills was actually working, so got in a very solid run.  I rarely exercise in the morning, would be good if I could do it, but usually I’m a bit weak before coffee/breakfast.

Noticed that my face is a bit sensitive – not used to shaving every day.  When I was traveling it was once, perhaps twice a week.

BTW, the Svelte Personal Suites is a great hotel – right near our Delhi office, terrific rooms, pretty good breakfasts, a winner all round.  This is definitely the place to stay in Delhi – am actually looking forward to getting back there soon.

My first project starts in a few days, already met the client and did the paperwork.  It’s for a large NGO, fairly implementation-oriented, pretty good first project for me.  And the project leader working for me is excellent – I’ll be able to focus on client relations and the big pic.  So far, so good.

Flew back to Mumbai Friday evening.  Smooth flight.  Took a blue cab to the city, the blue cabs have aircon and they’re just outside the exit.  Soon regretted my decision – the total fare was over 1,000 rupees, about US$20.  Not a huge sum, but the regular crappy little cabs are around 400 rupees.  No aircon, but when you’re moving you don’t need it.  Now I know…real rookie mistake.

Checked back into the Suba Palace, same room.  I don’t love it, but it will do till I find a flat.  And the staff is pleasant enough – of course, everyone’s looking for a tip every minute.

Got a quick bite (is there any other type?) at Bade Miya, then went out for a few beers.  Checked out the upstairs bar at Leopold’s – pretty busy and welcoming.  Had a few Kingfishers at the bar, talked to some random locals, Nelson and Ashish – they told me that the doorman downstairs had taken two bullets during the terrorist attacks in December.  Wow.  When I left the bar later that night, I made sure to stuff some money into the guy’s shirt pocket.  Incidentally, the terrorists surely intended to scare people away from Leopold’s (and the Taj, and the Oberoi…), but it seemed to me that Leo’s is more popular than ever.  Good for Leo’s, and good for Mumbai/India.  Indians (and tourists who visit India) are resilient people, god bless ‘em.

Spent most of Saturday in the office.  Did some paperwork, took care of a few other matters.  Joined the Yahoo and Facebook Bombay Expats groups, sent a note about real estate agents, and immediately got some answers.  And some social offers too…these boards are superb.  Met the office head’s new ‘chief of staff,’ met with the office head as well, talked to some real estate agents and lined up some visits, etc.  A 1-bedroom flat here won’t be too bad, methinks.  Market is a bit soft, great time to look.  I imagine I’ll spend about US$1,200 a month for a good place.  I can handle that.

Had a large, late lunch at my favorite place, Mahesh Lunch Home – pomfret balti, cheese naan, and Kingfishers.  Called Christine in Dumaguete, then lay down for a snooze.  Still a bit jet-lagged.  Intended to get up and exercise, but didn’t make it.  Had made an online booking to see ‘Revolutionary Road’ at the Nariman Point INOX Theatre at 20:30, so was a bit squeezed for time.  Will stop here and let you digest this post (and perhaps expel it…), I’ll fill you in next week on my movie feedback and other misadventures here in the land of milk and curry.  Over and out.

Had a farewell dinner with Dad and Ellen before they left for the left coast.  I’ve gotta say that my father’s taste in wine is very good – every bottle he broke out this visit was spot on.  We drank a bottle of New Zealand Marlborough Cab Sauvignon this time and it was eminently drinkable.

Dad and Ellen quizzed me about my work prospects…particularly as a dinner with a senior person at my once and prospective employer cancelled on me.  The dinner wasn’t 100% critical path, but I wasn’t thrilled it was cancelled, even though the reason was logistics.  I was wondering what I could do to accelerate the process.

Checked email right after dinner.  Had sent an email to my contact in Mumbai, telling him I was a little nervous about the likelihood of the Mumbai gig, and was likely to expand my job search.  He replied quickly, told me to hold my horses, and asked if I could be in India March 6^th.  Hmmm – that sounded like real progress.  I went upstairs and told Dad and Ellen – they seemed happy for me.  It wasn’t as if I had moved home, not at all…still, I’m 41 years old and they were probably wondering if I’d be a homeless vagabond forever.  I do think Dad wants me home (more) often…and is a bit sad that I’m off again.  But this seems to be my destiny and I’ll follow it until it makes sense otherwise…

Got a call later that night from my primary contact in Mumbai, following up on the email.  Better and better – we’d be seeing each other in Boston the following week, and would probably be able to formalize things, at least for the next few months – good enough.

When I got this call I was walking to Newton Center to meet Alex, my old buddy from b-school.  It was raining, I had my umbrella out and my mobile in a Ziploc bag…answering the call in the rain was a bit of a pain.  A premonition of running around in the summertime Indian monsoon??

Next morning, before I got up, Dad and Ellen went to Logan for their California trip.  House felt very empty, but I was heading off that weekend as well.  Packed my bags and en route to Logan, met friend Bill at Crossroads in Boston.  Had a good time catching up for a couple hours, then Bill took me to the airport.

Am typing this entry in a hurry so will at some point go back and fill in the details of my weekend trip.  Came back in one piece – that’s good enough for now.

Managed to watch the Oscars Sunday night.  I don’t know if I’ve ever really sat down and watched the show…I enjoy movies but am generally not a ‘starfucker.’  But I quite enjoyed it – I thought Hugh Jackman did a great job (although some critics felt otherwise), and I thought the entire presentation was classy and nostalgic.  A few things I recall from the show:

-Jennifer Aniston and Jack Black – mismatched pair.  Didn’t really work.

-Sarah Jessica Parker and Daniel Craig – ditto.  Valley Girl and cold fish Brit.

-Was happy that Heath Ledger won his category.

-Wow, Slumdog Millionaire kicked some ass.  Good time to be heading to India…

-In all, the Oscars were a very nice distraction from the rec(depr)ession.

Have been plowing through a slew of old New Yorkers.  Saw an AIG add touting their dependability and ability to reduce your financial stress – amazing the difference a few months make.

Had lunch with friend Charles, at Davio’s in Boston.  We always meet there for lunch…this time it was eerily quiet.  Traded our usual insults, gossip and rumors, then parted.  Walked over to Loew’s Theater on Tremont Street to see The Wrestler, starring Mickey Rourke.  Got a call from Art, formerly of Budapest, now hanging out in Portland, Oregon.  He’s thinking about heading down to New Mexico in an Airstream and establishing a sort of commune there, far from civilization and officialdom.  Sounds intriguing – I wished him well and might try to visit him once he stakes his claim…

The Wrestler was pretty entertaining – but I couldn’t believe how badly Mickey Rourke has aged.  I’d heard a bit about his disastrous boxing career, but hadn’t appreciated how badly he’d been beaten – and then, allegedly, mangled by a plastic surgeon.  It took a real effort on my part to detect Mickey Rourke’s youthful visage under that mass of scars.  I suppose his story is one of redemption, but I can’t help but look at him and grimace…he used to be known for his looks.

Before the movie, during the previews, there was a US Army recruiting video that was just hideous.  It featured Kid Rock performing a song entitled (I believe) ‘Warrior’ or ‘American Warrior’ and whatever it was called, it was cringeworthy.  No thinking person with any other career options would consider entering the armed forces after watching this clip.

Watched the news and saw a couple Obama photo opps, including one in which he and McCain banter about Obama’s presidential copter and how much it costs.  Obama was in good humor, and McCain was respectful – interesting dynamics there.  It does seem to me that Obama’s already looking a bit older, from merely one month on the job…

Paid a visit to the HQ of my former employer, to discuss the potential Mumbai posting.  Wanted to look decent, so wore wingtips, a blazer and borrowed Dad’s cashmere winter overcoat – which fit me nicely.  Dad, in case I forget to thank you in person – thanks.  Meetings went very well and I signed a contract, so I’m back in the working world as of early March.  Everything went pretty much according to plan…I had met the Mumbai team in early December, and we’d agreed to try to close the deal by early March.  Lots of work on both sides to make that happen, but we did it, and now I’m employed and back in the fold.  And perfectly pleased, to be candid – the new gig is intriguing and I’m looking forward to getting going on it.  More on this in a minute…

One of the two HQ front desk receptionists recognized me straightaway, including my name.  I appreciated that (and, for what it’s worth, I certainly remembered her).  The other front desk woman sort of remembered me, and didn’t remember my name.  Typical for her.  Not that I was around all that much once I moved overseas…but some people are good about these things and some aren’t.  Far better to be in the former category, methinks…

After the meetings, rented a car and did a few errands.  Tracked down some Teva sandals (not easy to find these in February in New England) at a sporting goods store, stopped to see my sister at her office, had a doctor’s appointment, then returned to Boston to have dinner with a (former and now current) colleague from the Mumbai office.

Noticed my Avis rental car has Texas plates.  Weird.  Also noticed that there’s a currency exchange booth on the 2^nd floor of the Cambridge Galleria Mall.  Who on earth is exchanging currency in this spot?  Looks like a lonely little booth…

After the dinner, noticed that it wasn’t that late, so drove over to the Loew’s Tremont cinema and watched the late screening of The Reader, starring Oscar winner Kate Winslet.  Powerful movie – was about the aftermath of the Holocaust, but also had a fairly deep intergenerational relationship angle.  It dragged on a bit, but I thought it worked pretty well and I thought about it for a while after it was over – I guess that’s one mark of an effective film.  Made me feel melancholy and a bit depressed – even more than usual.

Next morning, while checking my email, got a call from Dad – he had just learned that Ellen’s dad, who’s 92, had taken a turn for the worse.  Awful news.  Dad and Ellen came back from California during the afternoon, and now everyone’s on pins and needles.  So much flux in life, it seems – life and death, work and play, old and young.  I’m getting ready to write a new chapter in the story of my life…but mine’s not the only story, and it gets complicated when lines intersect.  I asked Dad to call if there was any news, then did a few errands and drove west, first to my storage facility to rotate some clothes, then to my sister’s in Hopkinton to spend the night.

Whenever I go to the storage room I’m a bit cranky – I generally hate stuff and dislike moving things around.  But this time it really sunk in how little I actually own in this world.  Most of my possessions are books…and I have a decent slew of clothes…and beyond that, it’s mostly photos, luggage, and knick-knacks.  I found it reassuring to realize I don’t own much and don’t have to devote much time to managing it.

Had fun seeing my nephew and niece.  My nephew is 5 and by all appearances shares my youthful propensity for potty talk and for words that aren’t part of any known language.  My niece is only 9 months but already seems to be developing a distinct personality – I’m looking forward to seeing how she goes.

Had a good talk with my brother-in-law, along with a few beers, before hitting the sack.  Watched a History Channel program on heavenly bodies hitting the Earth and causing Armageddon (see Har Megiddo, Israel).  Fairly entertaining – although Dave didn’t sound pleased when I told him I’d be OK with a large asteroid hitting Fox News…

In the morning my nephew asked me if I was going to my home.  Errr…..

Drove back to Newton.  Still no word on my step-grandfather.  Went to his place, down the street from Dad & Ellen’s condo, to see him.  He was lucid for a few minutes, then drifted off to sleep.  Hard to watch things like this, but at least he’s had a great life and isn’t leaving any unfinished business.  Still, there’s never a good time to go…

Dropped off my Avis car downtown.  While waiting in line I fished into a pocket of my blazer and found an old Cathay Pacific boarding pass, from 2005, for a Tokyo-HKG flight.  Funny.

Took the T (subway) over to East Cambridge, and sat in a cab with the senior guy who heads up India for my once/current employer.  Talked for 25 minutes as we rode to Logan Airport, he got out, and I sat there while the cab took me back to town.  That was the only time slot he had available – quite short, but it was important that we at least meet, and got the ball rolling.

Went and saw my accountant.  Nice clean tax situation this year – I actually had a small net gain on my trades, along with some dividends, but the gains were small enough to be offset by my deducations.  So I owed zip, and also didn’t realize a net loss – which was psychologically important, and didn’t leave me with losses to carry forward – I was OK with that.  Of course, I have plenty of unrealized losses, but don’t plan to touch those until things turn around.  Any estimates on when that might happen??

Met old colleague/friend Bansi for dinner that night.  Went to the Butcher Shop in the South End – we’d been there once before, a couple years ago.  Had tons to talk about, most prominently my coming back on board with the firm.  Bansi had been saying good things about me to various colleagues, and that had eased my re-entry – my brand was still fairly strong and he’d helped with that.  We also talked about the team in Mumbai and the work they’re doing – we need to bring him over one of these days, I think there’s some synergy with what he’s doing, which is heading up the firm’s Innovation Group.  I also want to hear much more about their work…

Moved over to the Mandarin Oriental for a late drink(s)…Bansi had bought a condo there and had moved in recently.  Very chic place – L’Espalier had moved there, and there was a lively bar downstairs.  Nice addition to the Boston scene.  I had a couple Maker’s Marks, Bansi had wine – he knows the staff there and they treat him wonderfully.  Bansi can be a real social operator and man about town – he knows people at the best places.  I just tag along and try to keep up.  Hanging out with him is quite a (nice) change from the downmarket life I’ve been leading on the road.  But I’m skilled at changing speeds and think I can fit in nearly anywhere…in a dark Cochin bar sipping feni, or in L’Espalier in the Mandrin, sipping Maker’s Mark.  In fact, that’s very likely my signature skill – you could parachute me into a sketchy place and I’d probably be thriving in a couple days.

So I was now well and truly on the path back to work and gainful employment.  It had been quite a chapter in my life – a departure from work 3 years ago, when I was exhausted and not feeling all that healthy, nearly 3 years of travel and adventure, and now back to work, in a group and place that seem to be a nice fit and offering a more reasonable lifestyle than I had years ago.  In my entry next week I’ll devote some time to lessons learned during my travels and now, during my transition back to work – I want to let this change sink in a bit more.  I’ll also throw out a top 20-25 list of favorite memories and experiences…and would be more than happy to get your comments about what stood out for you as you’ve stuck with the slog and read about my perambulations.  So stay tuned for those – and as I’ve mentioned, I’m keeping the slog going, but as a matter of course it will feel different going forward.  I’ll do my best to keep it entertaining and informative.

Had some docs to read and a work-related call on Friday.  Officially I’m back on board on March 1, Sunday, but this is the sort of gig that isn’t bound by dates or hours of the day.  Went over to see my step-grandfather, who’s holding up OK, but is getting visibly weaker.

It was 60 degrees Fahrenheit, so went out for my first run in a week.  Nice change from the grey skies and near-freezing weather here.  Then headed over to Central Square in Cambridge for a date with the Korean-American woman I’d met on New Year’s Day at the Golden Gate Hostel, in Jerusalem.  On the subway ride I finished reading a back issue of The New Yorker – one of the articles was about medical marijuana in California, an industry that’s burgeoning.  One of the semi-legal dispensaries is called the Farmacy.  Pretty funny.

Bansi had recommended Craigie on Main, a resto that used to be near Porter Square but had recently moved to Central Square, into a building formerly occupied by an old favorite of mine, La Groceria.  Was sad to see La gone from the scene, but Craigie was terrific – and crowded.  Nearly ran there from the T stop to ensure that we could get bar seats – managed to get the last two seats at 6:45 p.m.  Jeewon showed up a bit after 7 p.m., and it turned out that sitting at the bar worked fine – casual and not too intimate.

We caught each other up on our respective travels – she’d been to Syria and Jordan besides Israel, and I had my slew of settings to tell her about.  She’s an industrial designer, talked about her work and also about my new gig in Mumbai.  Fun date.  I think we’ll see each other again when I’m back here in May for my 20^th university reunion.

That’s it for this week.  Gotta get ready for my move to Mumbai.  Heard that a major snowstorm will hit the Boston area on Sunday/Monday, just in time to screw up my flights.  Ugh.  May need to take evasive action, and perhaps head down to NYC a day or half-day earlier to try and miss the storm.  I’ll have a bunch of bags with me, so am not looking forward to moving around a lot, but will do what’s necessary – in India, they use the funny phrase ‘do the needful.’  Time to do the needful, friends – see you next week, from Mumbai.  Over and out.

Went skiing with Dad and a few friends of his on Friday.  Typical morning with Dad – got up at 4:30 a.m., packed the car, and off we went.  He usually gets up before dawn to exercise, so this was nothing for him – generally I’m a wreck at that hour, but I still had a touch of jet lag so I was up before my alarm went off.  Up, but not thrilled about it…

We went to Okemo, in Vermont.  Very solid day of skiing – the only hitch was that my skiis and boots didn’t fit, so had to get my ski bindings adjusted.  Minor issue.  I skied fairly well, it had been a couple years but I’m at a level where my skills don’t degrade much.  I could say the same about my golf game, but that’s at a far far lower level…

Got back to Boston, washed up and then went out for dinner with Dad, Ellen, and a friend of theirs.  Went to Tremont 647 in the South End – quite good.  Nice change of pace from Filipino fare…

Started tackling my backlog of magazines – usually I get these sent every 6 weeks or so to wherever I’m traveling, but I was in some random places last summer (e.g. Mongolia), and sending packages there isn’t cheap, so I asked Dad and Ellen to hold onto a few months’ worth of New Yorkers, etc.  Now these were staring me in the face and I felt compelled to work through ‘em, dated as they were.

Have been following the political news from D.C.  The stimulus bill seems to have fallen prey to the usual partisan bullshit – but it still passed.  I admit to being a bit confused as to why they keep choosing levers like tax cuts and modest amounts of cash-back to prod spending…wouldn’t a greater focus on employing out-of-work people to fix the infrastructure be a more efficient, and perhaps effective, way to tackle this??

Got to work on my usual tactical projects while in Boston.  Brought my Weil watch to get cleaned and fixed up – it’s been sitting in storage for 3 years and if I return to work I’ll probably want a real watch and not my current cheapo Timex.  Also managed to track down and order a replacement waterproof camera case for my Sony camera – I no longer trust the case I’ve got, I’m 90% sure there’s a leak.  Sony no longer makes my camera and the waterproof case for it, but on 42ndStPhoto.com I found one in stock.  eBay didn’t have one, and the other major sites didn’t either – Sonystyle.com had one in stock, but it was ‘refurbished’ and that didn’t sound appealing.  In a year’s time I’ll probably upgrade my camera and then get a case for the newbie, but for now I’d like to squeeze another year out of this one and getting the replacement waterproof case was the least painful solution…

My 20^th university reunion is this May.  Friends Bryan, Dri and Mitch in NYC and I talked about this over beers last week, and I was designated ‘the rallyer.’  I sent out a couple emails to old friends imploring them to come to the reunion…so far, the feedback has been pretty positive.

Had dinner with Dad, Ellen and her parents the other night – went to an upscale place in Newton Highlands called 51 Lincoln.  Terrific place – Dad had the grilled skate and it was better than it sounds.  Newton’s a wealthy town, but I haven’t been blown away by its restos – this place was sorely needed.

Tried to check out the Robert Crumb (cartoonist) exhibit at the Mass College of Art, but it was a Sunday and thus closed.  Ambled over to the Museum of Fine Art, and spent 90 minutes wandering the exhibits.  Hadn’t been there in at least a couple years – it’s a fantastic museum, with an unmatched (in America) collection of Asian art.  Get off your ass and head down there.

When I left the museum I wandered around the Fenway area for a while.  Walked by Boston House of Shawarma.  Had no desire to eat Middle Eastern food, I’d had my fill of that recently…but I did smile when a car pulled up in front, a guy came out, and he and the driver exchanged ‘salaams.’  Nice one.

My sister and her family came to Newton for dinner that night.  Good times, and nothing got broken.  I’m a big fan of new niece Natalie, and my 5-year-old nephew Jacob – who by all appearances is a little troublemaker just like I was.

Took my Dad to dimsum in Chinatown on Monday morning.  It was President’s Day, so the place (China Pearl) was a bit crowded, but we got there before 11 a.m. and got a table, and got to work.  We probably polished off 10 plates between us.  I don’t think my father does stuff like this very often – heading into downtown Boston can be a hassle and they tend to stay local.  I understand that, but find myself almost unable to control my gastronomical whimsies – I NEED to have dimsum/yum cha if its within 50 miles…

After the chowfest we drove up north, to Burlington, so that Dad could get a shingles vaccine.  I can’t hear the word ‘shingles’ without thinking of roofing, but apparently it’s a nasty disease to get when you’re older, and thus wise to vaccinate yourself against it.  The efficiency of the U.S. healthcare system was on full display – it took 45 minutes for Dad to fill out all the paperwork and shuttle between administrative stations, even though he has excellent insurance.  Yet another thing to fix, America…

My stepsister Amanda got into Stanford’s psychology grad program, so we’ve been discussing where she should live, her financial aid situation, etc.  Reminds me of the old days…kind of exciting, but a bit overwhelming too.  I have lots of contacts out in San Francisco/Palo Alto, and I imagine they can help her out.

Had lunch a couple days ago with brer-in-law Dave.  Good chat over Caribbean food.  Then I again tried to see the Crumb exhibit at the MCA and this time it was open.  Crumb’s one of my favorite cartoonists, I’ve got a bunch of his stuff.  The exhibit was small but quite good.  You’re probably familiar with his work, if not his name:

Saw my accountant that afternoon – taxes this year should be a snap, I earned nothing and only had capital losses.  Let’s not make this a recurring story…

Had dinner at Smith & Wollensky that night with Charles, John, Steve, and Neil from my Tufts days.  Everyone’s doing OK, keeping their heads above water.  Whenever I’m home we all tend to get together and have a blowout dinner.  The T-bone steak I had was one of the best steaks I can remember.  The place was nearly empty, though – a bit depressing.

Yesterday I went into Boston and walked around.  Had some chicken wings at Crossroads Pub.  Walked by 301 Marlborough Street, my old place, they’ve finally redone the façade (and perhaps the interior, too) – no longer looks like a crack house.  Noticed that my old neighbor Jonathan Alpert, a graphic designer, is still listed on the resident’s board – may try to track him down.  Noticed that Despina’s, the pizza/grinder place on Mass Ave, is gone and a coffee house is coming in soon – kind of sad, Despina’s was there forever and I was in there not infrequently.

Read a copy of Tufts Magazine – saw a Class Notes blurb about a classmate, I don’t recall him, who apparently was listed as one of ‘Washington’s Top 800 Attorneys.’  Yeesh.  Even if there are 100,000 attorneys in Washington, and there may well be, that’s a pretty weak claim – IMHO, ‘top lists’ should stop at 10.

Still waiting for some meetings to determine my next steps.  I have a couple things scheduled for next week, and hope I have some clarity afterwards.  This is the first time in memory that I have endless runway in front of me – I don’t mind, but will feel compelled to strap the backpack on and get going again in a couple weeks if nothing concrete comes in.  Is this the end of my round-the-world journey, at least for the time being?  We’ll see, old friends…

In the meantime, I’m fighting to clear out my emails – there always seems to be 4-5 that are hard to get rid of.  Tonight I hope to nail those.

Short post this week.  I imagine you appreciate the almost unparalleled brevity…

As for this slog, well, I expect to keep it going no matter what.  If I return to work, it’ll likely be relatively short and sweet each week – which may represent progress over my usual lengthy missives.  And if that happens, I’ll probably hit you with a list of top memories from my travels.  If I instead continue my travels, well, you know what to expect.  So stay tuned and feel free to drop me a line or make a comment on this website – the journey really never ends.  Over and out.

Iain, Stephanie, and Matilda picked me up at the Adelaide airport.  Hadn’t seen them since I started this long journey, back in June 2006.  Far too long.  I always struggle with time, even when I have a lot of it.

We went straightaway to their house, which is now finished and is a tremendous place.  When I was last here I helped put up some steel beams and do a few other tasks – obviously my absence from Oz had only helped in completing this project.  It’s a modern, expansive house with a great pool out back – an important feature given that South Australia (and much of the country) had been sufferering from 40 degree weather the past two weeks.  Manila felt moderate compared with this.

It was already early evening by the time we got to this house – and given my provocative last night in Manila, I didn’t have much left in the tank.  We just ate out on the balcony – Stephanie is French and therefore is unable to put together a bad meal, and Iain uncorked (well, unscrewed) a fine bottle of local red.  I had nearly forgotten how epicurean Oz has become – the food, the wine, the music, the art – you’d never know that 20-30 years ago the place was known for meat pies and knee-high socks.

Next day, the heat was still on.  Spent much of the day in the pool, but decided to try to go running around sunset.  Bad idea – it was 43 degrees and I could hardly breathe.  After less than 10 minutes I downgraded my activity to a fast walk, and even that wasn’t easy.  Should have stayed indoors and practiced yoga instead.  At least I wasn’t making wine – I heard that lots of winemakers’ grapes were wiped out by this heat spell.

Iain and Stephanie had a small dinner party that night.  Iain’s old friend Shane came over – we’d met years ago in Byron Bay and we’ve seen each other whenever I’ve visited Iain.  Great guy – teaches yoga and does a bit of engineering consulting on the side.  Some other friends were also there – one fellow, Mike, a gringo, had survived a hellish bike crash in which he was (unofficially) pronounced dead on the scene.  Iain rides with him and a few others a couple mornings a week, at an hour when 99% of his countrymen are fast asleep in their beds.

Next day we took a ride down to McLaren Vale, one of the region’s top wine-making areas.  Stopped first at Blessed Cheese, had a coffee with the owner, a friend of Iain’s.  Then visited a few wineries – Fox Creek, Pertiringa, and Darenberg, where we had a very nice lunch, and quite a few of the reds on offer.  Can’t imagine a better way to spend a day – this, and snorkeling with whale sharks, are pretty hard to top.

At each stop Iain bought a case or more of the wines being sold.  He’s building up a very solid wine cellar – that’s something I aspire to one day, once I’ve got a place to settle into…

Took it easy after the McLaren trip.  Took a short nap…swam in the pool…then had dinner in the dining room.  Stephanie had cooked some brilliant beef for the previous night’s dinner party, and there was a bit left over, so we attacked that and had some salad and local shiraz.  For some reason we started talking about the Mason-Dixon Line, and eventually pulled up a couple websites on Stephanie’s Mac to learn more.  I had always though it ran south of Maryland, thus not including that state – but I was wrong, Maryland’s on the south side of the line.  Interesting.  And looking at the map, I was struck, as I’ve been in the past, by how close Washington and Richmond are.  The Confederates attacked Washington at least once, at Fort Stephens, and probably could have done so again if that had been part of their plan.  During that battle Abe Lincoln watched from on high and came under fire.  Imagine if a sniper’s bullet hit him…

Our discussion ventured into the realm of Indians (the native American sort) and Australian aborigines.  Who got the worst of it back in the day?  Who’s better off now?  And why?  The two situations were quite different, and we had a good talk about ‘em without really solving anything…

We watched the first half of Lawrence of Arabia, starring Peter O’Toole.  I wasn’t a huge fan – I thought O’Toole’s acting was odd, perhaps old Larry was a bizarre guy, but I doubted he was that twee.  We were tired so put off Part 2 till the following night.

The next morning I was awakened by screams – not screams coming from my own bed (a fairly normal occurrence), but screams from upstairs.  I ran up and found that Iain & Stephanie’s 2-year-old daughter Charlie had gotten stung by a bee.  Ugh.  I’ve never heard a human being scream quite as loudly – but I felt badly for her.  After some weak attempts at home medicine, we drove her over to a clinic.  Iain sat in the back with Charlie while I drove Iain’s monster Toyota SUV, which was a manual transmission – not usually a challenge, but Aussies drive on the left and it took a few blocks for me to get re-used to shifting and using the clutch with my other hand/foot.  We made it there in one piece, thankfully.  And the Aussie medical system made it simple from there on in – Iain whipped out his Medicare card, we saw a doc in 5 minutes, and he cleared Charlie – no stinger embedded in her thumb, no allergies, etc.  Quite painless (except, of course, for poor Charlie).  We really need nationalized medicine in America…you’ve heard this all from me many times before, so I won’t belabor the point here…

We got back to the house, Iain’s mother showed up to watch Charlie for a few hours, thereby allowing Iain, Stephanie and I to head into town to check out some art exhibits.  First up:  the Hans Heysen exhibit at the South Australia Art Gallery.  Heysen’s heyday was about 80 years ago, and he painted some terrific scenes of the Flinders Range and more ordinary sights around Adelaide.  One painting was entitled ‘The Three Sisters of Aroona,’ which reminded me a bit of anther set of three sisters (not people, not animals –there’s your clue) which Iain and I enjoyed one evening years ago…

Moved on to another gallery which showed paintings by local artist Steven Trebilcock.  Great name – good paintings, mostly still lifes – fruits, gardens, etc.  We ran into Iain’s sister Fiona and her fiancé David there – Adelaide is a small city.  After that, bought a new pair of Maui Jim shades, I was happy to strap these on and put away my mediocre Silhouettes.  Maui Jims are indispensable – they hold tight to your head and feel a part of you after a few minutes.

Hit one more gallery en route home – nothing special.  Got back to Iain’s, went for a swim.  Called Christine on Skype – her family’s house near Dumaguete had flooded from the rains and she wasn’t in a great mood.  The rains have been the worst in many years and people are getting slammed over there.

Iain and I took Charlie to the park out back for a bit of fun – it had cooled off significantly the previous evening and it was down to 22 or 23 degrees, actually slightly chilly when the wind blew in.  I decided to try a run and it went much better this time – I went around the river Torrens and the park for a half hour and came back feeling energized.

We brought in some pizza and red wine, talked for a while, and then watched the second part of Lawrence of Arabia.  Not much better than the first – Iain and Stephanie quit after 45 minutes and I powered on till the end.  Didn’t like the movie for several reasons – but I’d be happy to hear other’s opinions if you’ve got any…

Got up at 5 a.m. next morning, packed, said bye to Stephanie, and then Iain drove me to the airport.  I’d had a great 4 days or so with the Woods, and was sorry to head off.  Makes me feel good that Iain and I have managed to stay in touch and stay close friends over the many years…I’m trying to get him to come to our next b-school reunion a few years from now, and certainly want to hang out again with he and Stephanie soon, in Oz or elsewhere.

Threw my Tevas in the trash before leaving Iain’s.  Another pair bites the dust.  I should get some award for wearing down my Tevas…

Flew to Sydney.  Uneventful flight – but when disembarking I really noticed how relaxed Aussies are getting off a flight.  In most parts of Asia people go crazy getting off – they stand up while the plane’s still taxiing, elbow each other in the aisle, and run off the plane.  I don’t like that, it’s unnerving.  If there’s one place not to compete, it’s on an airplane.

Met a friend/former client, Guy, at his offices in Redfern.  We’d made plans to have lunch and talk a bit of biz, he and a couple friends started up a sleep apnea treatment company a couple years ago, and I might be able to help them out.  I won’t elaborate here, but stay tuned.  We had a few coffees and then went out for lunch – a typical working day for Guy, at least back in the day.  Now that he’s co-running a company, I’m fairly certain his nose is to the grindstone.  Anyway, we traded lots of old stories and had some laughs – I’m glad we’ve stayed in touch.  It’s not always easy to keep up your network, but I’ve found it’s always worth the effort.

Back to Sydney Airport.  Had a few hours before my flight to San Francisco/New York, found the VAT refund desk and got AU$35 back from my Maui Jims purchase.  That helped make the shades especially cheap – they’d probably be twice as much in the States.

Got on the plane – only a third full.  Like a ghost ship.  I had my entire row to myself and took full advantage.  Before nodding off (with the help of an Ambien 10mg, of course), I reviewed all the photos I’ve taken since my last US trip, last April.  Took nearly 4 hours – I do this in part to delete crappy photos, but I didn’t cut a single one this time, I guess I was good about doing so each week when writing my blog.  Such incredible memories floating back – this past 9 or so months was perhaps my most adventurous stretch yet, including Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Egypt, etc.  Gigabytes and gigabytes of photos and memories…

Slept for about 5 hours.  Got into SFO, got off and things were quick at Immigration & Customs.  Looks like they’ve put a bit of money into the process and the look/feel of the place, a bit more welcoming than it used to be.  And because there were so few people on my flight, I cleared Customs and got my bags right away.  Then re-checked in, for my NYC flight, and had a bit of time to charge my laptop and call Amtrak to book my NYC-Boston train for the following day.  Did I mention that after 3 years of traveling, I’m still not that great at relaxing??

The flight to JFK was also pretty empty, and I again got a row to myself.  Not sure that’s ever happened before, on 2 consecutive legs.  The economy must really be biting hard.  Landed in NYC, bags came fairly quickly – went out to get a cab, there was a bit of a line and no cabs in sight, then a bunch came at once, and off I went.

Was staying at university buddy Bryan’s place in Tribeca that night.  His birthday was the next day, so I was helping him celebrate.  He’d lined up a couple other friends, Dri (whom I’d last seen in Turkey) and Mitch, and we were meeting pretty soon at the Hideaway Pub.  Did I mention that I’m not that good at relaxing??

Got to Bryan’s – he opened the door and there he stood, with a particularly shaggy head of hair.  I was a bit jealous – although his gut was also sticking out a bit.  I considered giving him some shit about that but decided to wait till later.  He grabbed a couple Kingfisher beers (geez, the Indians really are spreading out) and we drank those before heading to meet Dri and Mitch.

Bryan and his wife Maggie just redid their Tribeca pad and it’s stunning.  A bit better than I’m accustomed to, let’s just say that.

Had a good time at Hideaway – it was a mini Tufts reunion.  Our 20^th reunion is this May, so I need to try and rally the larger gang so we get a minyan.  Not sure how that will turn out, but I can at least expect Bryan, Mitch and Dri to show up.  I’ve booked a hotel in Cambridge, so we have a place to park ourselves after we run out of cold tea in Chinatown…

Got up early with jet lag the next morning.  Showered and checked email, Bryan eventually rose – I think we both had medium-grade hangovers.  Grabbed some coffee and chatted for a bit, then took the subway to Penn Station to catch my Boston train.  I’d had a bit of anxiety about this – mostly because I had an AMEX coupon for the train, and I couldn’t use it online or over the phone booking system – I had to present it to an agent, meaning that I had to get to Penn Station early and wait in a potentially horrendous line.  But I got there with time to spare, the line was modest, the process not bad, and I got on my train without a hitch.  You’d think that I’d be amongst the world’s most cool travelers by now, but I still get uptight from time to time, maybe because I don’t have anything else to get uptight about…

Got to Boston smoothly.  Rented a car from Avis (this is not an advertisement – the car was a filthy Pontiac Xmobile), got a SIMcard from T-Mobile (this might be an advertisement – they make it very easy to get a prepaid card), and then drove to Newton, to Dad and Ellen’s townhouse.  Ellen was home – we hung out and caught up.  Dad came home pretty soon, I blew off my usual run, and Dad and I went out for a seafood dinner while Ellen had a meeting in Boston.  Dad and I consumed a huge amount of food – sushi, clams, salads, soups, and a main dish – and waddled out of there.  The place, Skipjack’s in Newton, was surprisingly full on a Tuesday night – I guess Newton may not (yet) be the epicenter of the recession.

Next morning, arose early with jet lag and used it to my advantage.  Read a few of my large backlog of magazines, then did a slew of errands.  Got a new International Drivers Permit – key for Goa, the cops there are corrupt but this is like a clove of garlic or a chunk of kryptonite to them.  Bought a new rolling suitcase in case work beckons.  Got some New Balance running sneaks at the factory outlet in Brighton – one of my favorite shops.  Finally, drove over to Microcenter in Cambridge and bought a couple 320 gig external hard drives, to replace the two smallish ones I now have.

While driving in Boston the old Morris Day song ‘Jungle Love’ came on.  Haven’t heard that in 20 years.  The bass was so strong that my rearview mirror was shaking.  Drove by Circle Cinemas in Cleveland Circle and saw that it had closed.  Too bad – it was around for ages and I’d seen many, many movies there, back when I lived in Boston and when I came back for visits.  Oh well…

After lunch I drove out to Holliston to my storage unit to get a few things.  That went fine, then I drove to Hopkinton to see my sis and her family.  Spent the night there, had fun finally meeting my 9-month-old niece Natalie, who’s cute as can be and kept looking at me strangely – but did not cry, at least.  Played with my nephew Jacob, who’s already 5, and he wore me out after a couple hours.  And talked with Bonnie and David for a while about the latest developments here – Dave and I wound up watching a grim documentary on rape in the Congo, and despite the compelling nature of the topic we both nodded off, and finally hit the sack partway through the docco.

Sister Bonnie and niece Natalie – guess who is who:

Slept that night in the guest bedroom, in the very bed that my parents once owned.  I think they bought it well after we were born, so there’s nothing particularly salacious/Oedipal/Electra-ic about it.  Slept for a few hours, then had to get up for yet another run of errands – first, got my teeth cleaned (always do this first thing, your day can only get better).  Recalled the places I’ve been since my last cleaning, and the various foods – shashlik in Kyrgyzstan and Russia, mutton dumplings in Mongolia, hummus in the Middle East.  Hygienist Annie said my teeth looked great and to keep flossing.  Easy enough.

Went to REI and did my usual stockup.  Bought a camp towel, finally replacing the one I bought for my Indian Himalayan trip back in ’92.  The old yellow camp towel was the final item left from that trip, and it was getting ancient and gnarly.  The new microfiber model is clearly superior – but also significantly more pricey.

Had lunch with Dad at a Chinese place we used to go to when we lived in Framingham.  Then drove to Newton, dropped off all my stuff, including my ski stuff (Dad and I are skiing tomorrow at Mt. Okemo in Vermont), and then dropped off the car in Boston.  And I think I’ll now drop off this entry, it’s getting late and we’re heading to Vermont tomorrow at 5 a.m. (not my idea).  Time to get some sleep, see you next week.  Over and out.

Last night in Dumaguete – redux.  Spent most of it hanging out at Mike’s diveshop, along with the usual eclectic mix:  Rudi the German divemaster and weblord…John the IT geek from Montana…his uncle, with his young Filipina girlfriend…his cousin, a banker based in Shanghai…and a couple Filipina university students.  Had a few beers there, teasing Mike about the ‘ambience’ of his bar – a couple nights beforehand, Steve had dissed the ambience of the diveshop, saying it was too loud (it’s right on the boulevard, so it is a bit boisterous) and Mike had taken offense – so this was now a running joke.

Moved on to Garaje, a student-type of hangout, for a few more.  Mike expounded on life in the Philippines, then headed home.  The rest of us wound up at Whynot Disco, where I got to know one of the Filipina uni students, Christine, a bit better.  Delightful lass – am staying in touch with her and we might meet again one of these days.

Got up the next morning, packed, stopped by the diveshop to say bye to Mike, then caught a bus back to Cebu.  Yet another great time in Dumaguete – probably my favorite spot in the country.

Uneventful bus ride – with some very sweet views as we went across the straits, then drove up the east side of Cebu Island.  I was the only gringo on the bus and that was fine by me.

Checked into Kiwi Lodge, where I’ve spent many a night.  Most of the staff was still there, lots of familiar faces.  Had a beer at the long bar there and caught a bit of the news – heard that there were 128 US military suicides last year, the most ever recorded in a year.  Ugh.  Not only has this war exceeded the duration of either World War, but now it’s proved more dispiriting than Vietnam.  Thanks, George…

Hit a couple bars that night, including Club Temptation.  I knew a waitress there, and we hung out for a while.  After she finished work we went over to another bar to visit her sister – lots of sister acts in Cebu.  Saw a news program in there, the heat in South Australia’s been so bad that railways have actually buckled.  Worst heat in a century – my timing for my Oz trip wasn’t looking great.

Meanwhile, the weather in the RP has been terrific, it’s just a bit before the summer heat comes on, and at night it’s perfect.  For the locals, of course, it’s damn cold…

Got up early the next morning and faced a long day.  First, had to fly to Manila…then had a layover there…next, a flight to Legaspi, and finally a ride to Donsol, on the southeast Luzon coast.  I was heading there, finally, to snorkel with the famed butanding (whale sharks) that abound there.  Had been meaning to do this for years, and was finally getting to it.  I left Cebu quite tired, but also excited.

Got to Manila.  Cebu Pacific, my airline, is the only outfit currently using the new Terminal 3, and the place is a bit of a ghost town.  But all the employees are cloyingly nice, and in the bathrooms (‘comfort rooms’) the cleaners drop tools and morph into attendants, giving you a handtowel and expecting a tip.  Not my thing, but wasn’t surprised either.

Flew to Legaspi.  On my flight were a few Westerners, and as we were waiting for our packs I introduced myself and asked if they were going on to Donsol.  I was in a hurry – the Donsol Visitor Center closed at 5 p.m., it was 2:30 or so, and Donsol was at least an hour away.  There are jeepneys headed there, but they’re packed and slow…and I was hoping to share a minivan with a few tourists, and get there quickly and in some comfort.  Found two Slovenes and two Germans, and we got a van and off we went.  Easy enough.  You can arrange package tours to Donsol from Legaspi, but I much prefer to base myself right in the area of attraction and do it myself, even when it’s a pain at the start of the venture.

The Europeans proved to be good fun.  Hiko, one of the Germans, had spent a year in the States as a teenager, and experienced Hurrican Hugo in Charleston, a real event.  He and his girlfriend, Vivi, are doctors, and gentle souls…we got to be quite friendly during our few days together.  The Slovenes were also cool, but a bit more reserved.

Got to my hotel, Woodland.  The Euros decided to stay at Amor Farms, a bit down the road.  I dropped my stuff and headed to the Visitor Center, where I paid my park fee, watched a video about the whale sharks, and put in my name for an excursion the following morning.  Done.  Took a long walk on the beach, and eventually doubled back, finding the Euros watching the video at the center.  Despite my slight anxiety about making this all happen, it was already done.

Lots of little kids on the beach – for them, I was a real novelty.  Donsol is a major tourist spot, but it seems Westerners are still new to them.  Hanging out with the kiddies was a real experience…

I was excited about the whale shark excursion – friends Alan and Janine had done it back in 2007 and had raved about it.  Not sure why I hadn’t gotten to this, but whenever I come to the RP I have some friends to visit and some places I don’t want to forgo…so I only manage to get to one or two new spots each trip.

Took a long nap that afternoon – was happy to be away from big cities and even from friends, I’d felt fairly busy the past couple weeks.  Finished my New Yorker magazines, finally, and could now start reading books again and watching a few of the DVDs I’d been stacking up.

Tried to ring Christine in Dumaguete, but the network was spotty and I couldn’t get through.  Eventually wandered down to the beach, where the signal’s strongest, and had a good chat with her.  We’ll see where this one goes…

Got up at 6 the next morning, had a fatty Filipino breakfast, then walked to the Visitor Center.  I was the first of our group there – the Germans were 3 minutes late (a felony in Germany, I believe), and the Slovenes were downright tardy, they were a good half-hour late.  I was annoyed…I’d heard that you want to get out early to see the butanding, and I only had this day and the next, so I felt a bit squeezed.  The Slovenes did turn up, and we were assigned to Randy, the ‘Butanding Interaction Officer’ (BIO) and a boat/crew.  One of the crew stands atop the mast and spots the butanding, then you pile into the ocean and try to follow it.

We spotted a butanding about 15 minutes after taking off.  This was a short ‘interaction,’ about 30 seconds or so, the fish probably got spooked and dove.  But what a majestic beast, it was probably 7-8 meters and a glorious sight.  Got back in the boat and chugged along.

We saw four more butanding over the next few hours.  The ‘interactions’ got increasingly longer, with a couple lasting for 5 minutes or so.  Hard keeping up with these fellows – their tails are massive and they swim deceptively quickly.  I had to fin damn hard to keep up, but managed to do alright.  And I got some OK photos and some quite solid videos, as did Hiko my German friend.  Here’s a link to a couple of them, I think they do justice to the experience – but you’ve gotta try this yourself someday:

http://www.fliqz.com/public/aspx/playerdefault.aspx?vid=7721A5641517C8A55AFB5347AB80B36A

http://www.fliqz.com/public/aspx/playerdefault.aspx?vid=C6845BB14CDDD87D134A534B64993E4A

That heavy breathing in the videos?  It’s not the whale shark…

We got back to shore around noon, exhilarated and famished.  The ‘interactions’ were exactly what I had hoped for and I felt like I’d accomplished something that had been out in front of me for a while.  I do think I’ve made pretty good choices about what to do in my travels, even if it’s taken me a while to get around to some of them…

Took a trike to an email café in town.  Polished off a few emails, sent an Amazon.com shipment to Boston, as I always do before a trip home, and checked the time of the Super Bowl, the following morning local time.  Went back to the hotel, asked the front desk woman where I could find a TV to watch the game.  She said that I could go to her house and watch it with her husband – I said that sounded terrific, and thought it was almost too good to be true – watching the Super Bowl here in little rural Donsol.  I wondered what might go wrong between now and kickoff, but I crossed my fingers.

In the café I’d read an email from friend Bettina in Manila, about ‘Dating a Banker Anonymous.’  This is a group of ridiculous women who have – wait for it – dated a man in the financial services industry and were now facing the music.  Some of the men had strayed, some had lost their fortunes, some were just cranky – I couldn’t believe they were for real, it was a NY Times article but could have appeared in The Onion.  America is really a ludicrous place at times…if you showed this article to a Filipina they would find it so bizarre they wouldn’t know how to react…

Went on a short riverboat ride that night to see fireflies – apparently Donsol is one of the world’s top places to spot these.  Went with the 4 Euros.  Somewhat disappointing, there weren’t that many fireflies, I guess it was a windy night.  And we got in a minor boat crash that was more exciting than the fireflies.  No injuries, just some splintered wood and bruised egos.

Had beers and dinner with the gang that night, traded travel stories, talked politics, etc.  I really enjoyed the company of Hiko and Vivi, the Germans, and was warming up to the Slovenes as well, despite still being slightly annoyed about their morning tardiness.

Got up at 6 again the next morning, wolfed down breakfast and then caught a trike to the receptionist’s house.  Got there, the family was welcoming and the TV was already switched on.  ESPN was on, and they were showing a spelling bee.  Hmmm, anything qualifies as sports these days.  It was about time for kickoff, but no game in sight.  Cycled through the channels…zilch.  They called the cable company and were told it wasn’t on offer.  They took me over to the cable company office, but no go there either.  Eventually, a bit annoyed, I went to a web café and tried to follow the game on the net.

Not that much fun…on Yahoo!Sports they’re a little slow updating the screen and sometimes it seemed I’d missed 3 minutes of actual playing time.  Oh well.  I followed as much as I could, did feel a bit spellbound by the crazy 4^th quarter, and reveled in the Steelers’ comeback win.  I resolved to find the rebroadcast that night in my hotel in Legaspi City…usually they show it again at night.

Kurt Warner, the Arizona quarterback, is a tough son of a bitch.  The Cardinals were the underdogs, but he almost guided them to victory.  Great, great game.  I just had to catch it on the TV that night…

Got in a van with the Euro gang that afternoon and went to Legaspi City.  We were all staying there that night, then departing the next day for different spots.  The Slovenes were heading south, eventually to Bohol…the Germans were getting up early and connecting in Manila through to Singapore…and I was stopping in Manila for one night, before heading to Oz.  We all stayed in different hotels, but planned to meet for dinner.  It was one of the Slovene’s birthdays and we wanted to help her celebrate.

I checked into Legaspi Tourist Inn, a budget place right in the heart of the city – my favored type of arrangement.  Switched on the TV to see about the Super Bowl, and there it was, just a few minutes into the game – bingo.  Watched the rest of the first half, then went out to see the city and grab a bite, and ran into the Slovenes, who were trying to find the Tourist Office and get a clue about how to proceed overland/oversea to Bohol.

Back to the hotel for the second half.  As exciting as I’d imagined/observed from the webcast…perhaps the best fourth quarter in Super Bowl history.  There really have been some classic matches over the years.  My parents hailed from Pittsbugh and I’ve always been a Steelers fan, so I was thrilled by the outcome.

Met the gang for dinner at Brent’s Grill, near the Pepperland Hotel.  Nice outdoors place, freezing cold San Miguels and good food.  The Germans were there first, then I showed…and after an hour the Slovenes did too.  They had been noncommittal about joining us, they’re pretty reserved in general, but there they were.  We toasted the birthday girl and had a fun few hours talking and sharing travel experiences.  And they went behind my back and paid the entire bill, as they had the previous night.  Very Japanese of them – in Japan it’s rare to have the bill brought to the table, someone always excuses themself and pays it away from the table.  Funny stuff.

I’d become surprisingly close to the Germans over the course of about 3 days – they told me they really enjoyed hanging out with me.  That’s not something most people come out and say to other people – I’d last heard it from the Swedes I’d hung out with in Darjeeling.  It’s nice to hear compliments like that, though – gives you a bit of a boost.  I told them that if I go back to work and wind up in India, they have to come visit me there.  I think they’re in, they’re quite adventurous.

Got back to the hotel, but wasn’t quite ready to turn in.  Walked down the street to a seedy videoke place and had a beer.  I think the place was called Pier One…a woman in the street called to me as I was sitting down, I think she was looking for love but she just wasn’t my type.  But this is what I’d call a real local experience…package tourists don’t see much of that.

Slept like an old dog – had been having way too many early bells the past few days, or very late nights.  Checked email – my friend’s brother, who’s been following my travels, called me the Jewish Hemingway.  Thanks…I think.  Called Dad and Ellen, talked about my trip home and about the Super Bowl.  Dad seemed pretty jazzed about that.

Spent an hour walking around the city, primarily to get views of the superlative Mt. Mayon, an active volcano about 30km from Legaspi that is one of the most symmetrical volcanos/mountains on the planet.  It erupted last in 1993, methinks, and killed a number of people, including some American geologists in the ‘hood.  What a stunning volcano – see for yourself:

Reminded me of Mt. Fuji’s perfection…but this one is much more active and has a veneer of danger.

Then packed and headed to Legaspi’s little airport.  Got around the weight restriction on Cebu Pacific – when the attendant wasn’t paying attention (which is often), you can put your pack on the scale only partway, so that a bit is hanging off the side and not weighed.  Didn’t have to pay a surcharge, I was pleased.  Took some photos of the volcano from the airport doors – seeing Mt. Mayon is reason enough to come to modest Legaspi City.  Of course, most people come to see the butanding and the volcano…

Started reading the book ‘Alive,’ about the Uruguyan rugby team that crashed in the Andes in 1972 and survived (some of them, anyway) for two months.  Classic survival tale.  Good book, and I really should track down the movie at some point, I heard it was very well done…

Got to Manila, checked back into the Citadel Inn.  This place has dodgy elevators, and they were really acting up today.  Took forever to get up to my room.  Then went for a run and did some errands.  Headed out to a little place called Beers Paradise and had a work call with Mumbai…status check on my potential job there.  Looking pretty good, but we’ll see.

Called Christine after that – enjoyed talking with her.  She’s a nursing student, and has exams coming up.  It’s been a while since I had an exam…

Had a good Spanish dinner at nearby La Tienda.  Had considered heading all the way to Malate to go back to Casa Armas, but it’s a real haul and I was tired.  So went local and enjoyed it.  Not quite as good or homey as Casa Armas, but La Tienda did the trick.

Went to a local bar for a couple beers.  It was already getting late and I had some things to do the next day before flying to Oz.  Had only meant to have a couple beers, but the new waitress was alluring and she kept coming by to chat with me.  She eventually asked me where I was staying, I told her, she perked up.  I asked her why she wanted to know – was she planning to surprise me in my room later on, after her shift?  She said she couldn’t do that…she didn’t have my room #.  That was quickly remedied…I went back to the hotel and crashed, not really expecting anything to actually happen.  Then the phone rang, it was about 4 a.m., the front desk asked me if I was expecting a visitor.  I coughed out a ‘yes,’ then fell back asleep.  A while later (perhaps 30 minutes – the elevators were still screwy) the door bell rang and the waitress was there.  I was exhausted, but can always summon up a second fuel tank for moments like these.  Hallelujah!  Or shall I say Dayenu…

Very little sleep that night…approximately 12 minutes.  The waitress had to head home…I had to check out.  Did that, and went off to deal with a few things.  Checked email and the news – noticed that Kyrgyzstan wants the US to close the Manas Airforce Base in Bishkek.  The Russians are pressuring the Kyrgyz and it seems to be working.  That’d be a real blow to the Afghan War prospects…

Hit a couple malls, including the gigantic SM Mall of Asia, where I usually manage to find my favored brand of cologne.  But they only had the extra large bottle, which I can’t readily carry around.  Went over to my old favorite, Robinsons Mall, which has been expanded and spiffied up (in a sense – they built a new area with upscale outlets, but the older area has been packed with crappy little kiosks and older stores, creating a bifurcated mall).  No luck there either.  Will have to track the stuff down in an airport or in the States…

Headed to the airport that night to fly to Sydney.  Felt a sense of symmetry, if that makes sense – I’d started this journey in June 2006 in Australia, with my friends Iain and Stephanie, and now I’d perhaps be concluding it there.  Nothing’s set in stone just yet, but it did feel like I was setting down a second bookend…

Checking in at Ninoy Aquino Airport was a bit annoying.  Long line to check in…then my itinerary was a bit complex, even though I already had my electronic Oz visa.  Then I left my small pack with books and DVDs at the checkin desk, and had to run back to grab in 10 minutes later.  Thankfully they’d found and kept it for me.

Called Christine, then got on my flight.  And that was it for this trip to the Philippine islands…

My itinerary was, as mentioned, complex.  It was a frequent flyer round-the-world deal, I had to fly through Bangkok to Sydney, then catch another flight to Adelaide.  Long night – got a bit of sleep on the Bangkok-Sydney leg.  Finished ‘Alive’ – good book.  Read some newspapers and saw that the US has passed Germany in use of wind power, and will become #1 in solar soon.  Great – but the US has nearly 4 times the population.  Still, a bit of heartening news, I suppose.

Also read about a TEAC turntable that allows you to burn CDs straight from vinyl.  Only US$1,000 or so for the model.  Hope they make a cheaper one soon…

Landed in Sydney.  Immediately, a good vibe, as in the old days.  Hadn’t been in Oz since June 2006, my longest stretch in 10 years.  Was excited about spending a few days with Iain, Stephanie, and their family.  Will stop here and update you on that next week, by which time I’ll already be in freezing Boston.   Over and out.