All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. To be honest, I haven't been doing anything picture-worthy. I have a bunch of from the weekend I spent in Delhi in early April that still have to get up here, but since then, I have been 100% focused on work. I'm heavily invested in a major sales opportunity, and the proverbial ship will come in over the next few weeks, or it won't. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Also worth mentioning - this is a tough time to travel in Asia. It is scorching hot from May through maybe July, so I'm less eager to trek around at the moment. I have Paris planned in late June, and I'll add at least another country in July. But this is a relatively boring time in my life to blog about. I've got some random cell phone pictures that I've been taking - maybe some of those 'daily life' moments would make good posts, until I'm doing fun stuff again.

Fashion show

More fun work events... this time we had a "grand opening" for our office. We originally opened our doors for business back in December, but with almost no fanfare. There was a quarterly party, but it wasn't necessarily tied to anything. This time around we did it big. There was traditional dancing - sometimes just one person, at other times eight people, all beautifully choreographed. And then there was a fashion show, showing off the traditional dress of each region in India. I was part of the grand finale - I walked in with the organizer, holding an Indian flag. The crowd went wild. I was a little apprehensive at first, but I didn't anticipate how well put together the whole event would be. It was a first-class event.

Bangalore airport 2

And more bad news from Bangalore's airport. Flying in India is always a little exciting.

Bangalore, April 6: As many as 160 passengers of a Coimbatore-bound JetLite aircraft had a miraculous escape, when it suffered a bird-hit a few seconds before it was to take-off at the Bangalore airport here on Sunday.

"The Boeing S2-234, which had arrived from New Delhi and was bound for Coimbatore, had taxied from the tarmac to the take-off point at the western end of the runway at about 10.55 am. It got clearance from the Air Traffic Control for take-off. As it commenced its take-off roll and was about to attain a certain speed, the pilot noticed a bird-hit and aborted the take-off at the nick of the moment. The aircraft was not airborne by then and the pilot immediately applied brakes to bring the aircraft to a halt. The impact made the tyres burst," airport sources told this newspaper.

Bangalore airport 1

The Bangalore airport has been a mess lately. Here is one story (it shut down the whole airport for eight hours).


Kingfisher Plane Hits Dog on Bangalore Runway During Takeoff

By Anand Krishnamoorthy

March 28 (Bloomberg) -- A Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. aircraft hit a dog during takeoff at Bangalore's airport in southern India, causing the propeller plane's nose landing-gear to collapse.

Two of the 25 passengers also suffered sprains while evacuating the plane after the incident yesterday, the airline said in an e-mailed statement late last night. The Avions de Transport Regional ATR 72-500 was flying to Hyderabad.

``It's most unfortunate that the dog menace at airports in India still persists,'' Vijay Mallya, the airline's chairman, said in the statement.

India's airports have struggled to maintain safety and cleanliness levels as the country's air travel market grows at a rate of about 25 percent a year. The government is aiming to improve standards by selling stakes to private and overseas companies and building new facilities.

Cell phone bill

I just paid my mobile (cell phone) bill for the past three months. Total bill? $28.68. That's $9.56 per month. So what costs so much in the US? I assume that the technologies are all the same.