Hey ho

Right - thanks for all the love! Appreciated - especially the suggestion that i've joined the insurgency.

So i have a problem in that I can't get any pictures on here yet (might be able to at the weekend but don't hold your breath).

So the journey here wasn't too bad - Heathrow is extremely swish but seriously lacks any kind of arcade-machine style diversions so expensive food, beer and a book was all I had to pass the time. Wasn't as agood as it might sound. Flight was long winded and my drink beer to fall asleep trick failed me horribly leaving me in a tiny seat, watching rubbish films (deja vu anyone?), having an old lady touching my leg in her sleep for several hours and a splitting headache/hangover. Pooey. Didn't manage to get any sleep (due to minature seats and extremely nonminature dude in the chair in front of me, and the touchy lady) so arrived in Mumbai airport feeling a little tired but doing o.k. eventually got through immigration and then to the domestic flight checkin.

Seemed to be going o.k. til i found myself stood outside on the runway with no idea what/where I was supposed to be doing/going (delete as applicable). So I got on a bus - this turned out to be the right decision - except that there was nowhere to smoke and I still had another 3 hours to wait for my next flight.

Mumbai airport is made almost exclusively of marble by the way - makes heathrow look like a bit of a hole.

Flight to Chennai was fine and I was met off the plane by an extremely smartly dressed dude holding a 'Whiteside' placard. I felt very privilaged to have the most expensive looking drive at the whole airport.

Hotel is plush (lots of marble here too), serves good food but all the staff are a little too subserviant for my tastes, god forbid you give someone a tip. I felt bad about it afterwards...

Food is tasty - had a barbecue lobster the other night, extremely tasty - only realised my mistake after I signed the bill off - turns out it wasn't 400Rs (about £3.50) it was 400Rs per gram. Wondered why they made a big show of weighing it and asking if that was o.k. This thing weighed just over a kilo so that was £50 (or 5000Rs) on the company. I susperct that Mr Big Boss will want to have a word when he gets that expenses bill. Erk.

Office is also extremely plush, lots of marble here too. And it has the best smoking room EVER. Top floor up some stairs to the roof and you come out on a marble, open air courtyard with drinks machines an a couple of chef's cooking snacks. Beats the pit I smoke in at the office in the UK. Hours are silly-long Start at 13:00 and finish at 22:30 everyday. This also means that I get back to the hotel AFTER the bar has shut. humpf...

People are nice - I've not started "shitting my arse off" yet as J so nicely put it. But then I haven't managed to be very adventurous yet (although as the beef/pork vs religion thing here is pretty full on the chicken sausage I had the other day was weird).

Other than that I'm well - had a mossie attack the other day so niow my hands are covered in bites. The broken bit of me is getting better although its growing still (the extra bit of bone where its fixing itself) - strange.

Pictures will follow (just gotta find a way of bypassing the security on the USB drives - but they're beyond me at the moment).

Yes there are chocolates on the pillow along with strange smelly things, funny biccies in a jar and real milk in the fridge (at last!).

The driving here is hilarious - everyone else is scared. Lots of scooters, motorbikes, brightly decorated vans and millions of these. Also everyone is very fond of their horns. Gives you a headache when walking...