Re.Structural

Saturday, 23 December – At leisure in and around Thekkady

2007-01-08T20:46:00.000+05:30

First thing in the morning, and Bethan relaxes in bed with a good book. She is getting very used to treating hotel rooms as home and is starting to get clear views about what she likes and dislikes about various ones. She is getting a very different set of childhood experiences from the ones I had - she is living on continent three already!

The cottages of the Taj Garden Retreat are set amongst lush gardens where spice, coffee and rubber grow.

Each building houses two "cottages", one upstairs and one down, each with a balcony onto the garden.

This turkey had managed to avoid the Christmas cull and was hanging around in the garden and drinking from the bowls of flowers.

No guide today, so between our reading of guidebooks and suggestions from our driver we kept ourselves entertained. Sreelish had evidently been asking around in town and came up with a couple of good suggestions.

In the morning we drove about 15km back on the route we came in and visited the Connemara Tea Factory. Surrounded by the tea plantations most of the processes and machines in this factory were straight out of 1900, or perhaps earlier. Many of the machines were driven by belts stretched along the factory.

We saw the whole progress of a tea leaf on its 20 hour journey through the process, from wilting to chopping, fermenting, drying and then its separation into many grades according to the fineness of the leaves.

I think this is the first factory Bethan has visited and the nice thing was that the process was completely understandable. The noise from the machines was impressive.

Again no photographs, but we took lots of the surrounding tea bushes instead. They must be worried that we will take these 100 year old processes and start tea production back in the UK. Roll on climate change!

In addition to the earlier christmas turkey I found this poinsettia in a hedge. How much would one this size cost at Sainsburys?

On our return to Kumily Sreelish had heard about a new born elephant (well, six or seven days old) so we gave Bethan a few “ahh” moments by visiting it. The owners were doing a brisk trade in collecting viewing fees.

After lunch Anne and I took it in turns to go for an ayurdervic massage at “Mayura” a recommended by Lonely Planet as well as people we met. For 750Rs each we got “the works” for 90 minutes and came away very relaxed and oily, despite the steam bath. This was my first experience of being shut into a steam cabinet, and you do start groping around for the emergency escape mechanism, especially when your masseur (a him for me, a her for Anne) left the room for a while.

The massages at the ayurdevic centre at the Taj were about twice the money and half the time, so go to the many independent specialists in the town – there are loads of them advertised.

In the early evening we went to a display of Kalarippayat, the Keralan version of Kung Fu. It took place in a pit, 45 feet long by 25 wide, with an audience of around fifty. About six “warriors” too turns to show various techniques off.

Whenever I have seen photographs of it you always seem to see two guys with swords leaping in the air on a beach, legs spread wide, apparently inviting a more conventional type of attack on the groin. When this form of combat was shown quite early on we thought the show was not going to be up to much, but there was much more as people fought with swords, spears and knives as well as bits of cloth and bare hands.

The show ended in one of them leaping through blazing hoops. Bethan was dead impressed.

Pizza at Chrissie’s café in By-pass Road. Pretty good. It is odd that, unlike most holidays when I want to eat the local fare, because we eat Indian at home, and I get Indian in the office, I now see trips like this as a chance to catch up on my pizza and pasta!

Friday, 22 December – Around Thekkady

2007-01-07T20:27:00.000+05:30

I can recommend the breakfast buffet at the Taj Garden Retreat – loads of stuff and excellent as well. The notes in the herb garden are also amusing.

In the morning Rajesh and Sreelish took us on a tour of nearby spice farm. Rajesh, who had grown up locally knew his way around all the plants. Above Bethan gets to grips with cardomom - a major local crop.

Whilst we have been to other spice farms in Goa this one was impressively lush, with all the plants growing in a wonderfully mixed multi-culture. The above Robusta coffee beans diappointingly have no smell until roasted.

Pepper vines grow up anything vertical available.

Rubber trees provide the high canopy......

....and we followed the production of rubber through to the sheets that are then bought and sold and go to the factories.

We were warned off picking any of the vanilla pods due to the high value to the farm.

Jungle fowl were scrabbling around amongst the leaf litter.

From memory the other spices and plants seen included allspice, nutmeg, Aribica coffee, pineapples, ginger and turmeric - but I am sure you can only stand so many pictures of spice plants!

We then went on an excellent ride on elephant through the spice farm.

We had free time until a boat trip in the early evening. We popped into a café cum shop for a light lunch in Kumily. We then persuaded Bethan to have a “holiday sleep” for a couple of hours, which recharged all our batteries.

At four Rajesh got us onto one of the smaller boats doing the evening tour of Periyar Lake. Given that the reserve is excitingly titled a “tiger sanctuary” we had been warned that there is often a lack of wildlife around the lake. Highlight of the first half hour were some turtles on the shore, which I suspect the guides may have nailed there in order to avoid complete disappointment.

However, later we did see wild ox, deer, guar and wild boar as well as cormorants and snake birds– so we did have something to photograph.

Just none of the big stuff like wild elephants and tigers! We’ll have to go to Kabini on a long weekend from Bangalore as they are more often seen there.

However, we caught up on wildlife that evening when we closely viewed the world’s grumpiest family feeding at the Taj’s buffet. Not a please or thank you in site, terrible treatment of the staff and, to cap it all, the mother managed to intercept my pasta on its 5 yard journey from chef to table and get it loaded onto her already heaving plate through intimidation of the waiter. Words were spoken and I was so pleased when Anne managed to make sure her order was done “in order” and India’s Addams family were kept waiting for a few minutes – to their evident disgust.

Thursday, 21 December – Backwaters to Thekkady

2007-01-07T11:25:00.000+05:30

The sun rose over more mud diggers plying their trade in the middle of the lake.

A slightly earlier start to the day was made with breakfast served whilst we were underway at 8.00am, heading back to Alappuzha.

We circled through the boat yards there and saw the many boats in various stages of construction.

The wickerwork superstructure frames only last a few monsoon seasons before they need replacement. This leads to a lot of work for the boat yards.

Luckily they are made out of locally grown organic materials so it must be one of the few 'green' shipbuilding industries. There are efforts to increase the sustainability and ecofriendliness of the boats and many of them now have solar panels for electricity during the day.

We then said our goodbyes to Debu, George and Joseph and return to Sreelish and the car on the dockside.

One last look back at our home for three days.

We had been wanting to go on a rice boat in the Keralan backwaters for years – I can remember seeing holiday programmes in the UK over ten years ago and feeling disappointed that we didn’t do it when we visited Goa.

It is a unique experience and it was great to have three nights on the boat – so many people we speak to only managed one. It is one of the best ways we have found to do absolutely nothing for a while.

In the car we popped into Alappuzha - Asia’s Frithville – and topped up on supplies. In particular, since we were headed for a Taj hotel we loaded up on beer to avoid the excessive charges we saw at the Malibar in Cochin. We saw the above reminder of home on the back of a local bus.

We then headed off inland for the four hour drive to Thekkady, up in the Western Ghat mountains. On this trip there is a fantastic contrast in the landscapes you pass through and the way the population uses them

First we passed across the coastal plain with its backwaters, rice boats and duck farms. After about half an hour of complete flatness the land slowly began to undulate and around the point they could count as small hills we entered an hour or so of rubber plantations.

Everywhere you could see the diagonal cuts on the trees and the cups they drain into. Interspersed with these were occasional groves of banana and coconut.

As the hills became higher we then crossed a line where rubber stopped and for several miles pineapples took over. Beyond that for a while coffee plants were sheltered by bananas and coconuts. On the steepest slopes of the Ghats nature did seem to just about take over with the local version of jungle, but mankind seemed to be making use of most corners of land.

As we got up to the top of first range tea plantations took over. These look wonderful, like carefully trimmed topiary. You can see the routes the pickers make pushing between the bushes, and they all have level tops at precisely the same height – the convenient height for pinching out the green shoots. It looks as if the hillsides are covered in rows and rows of yew hedges.

We took no photos on this trip – the mountains were hazy, so we planned for better weather on the way back.

Average speed up these twisting turning roads was around 35 or 40 kilometres per hour. One reason for the slow progress was the many coaches, cars and vans carrying pilgrims clogging up the roads and peeing all over the place. We were there during the 41 days each year when people (actually it is men only) can visit the Sabarimala Temple, up at the top of the mountains. Orange dhotis and pooja marks on foreheads were everywhere, and broken down cars from a number of southern states littered the roads.

We went over the top of the passes and then down a bit to Kumily, the main town near Thekkady and the Periyar nature reserve. There we checked into Taj Garden Retreat. I must admit to have confused this with the one in Kumarakrom and the picture of the cottages around a lake that I have previously blogged.

However, this one is very nice as well, with cottage on concrete stilts scattered amongst the trees, coffee and spice plants. As is traditional, first thing we had to do was get a bed made up for Bethan – will no one ever follow through this request we make every time we book!.

In the evening we briefly met up with Rajesh our guide for the following day. Bethan and I then played chess in the bar; we watched an Indian classical dancing display and then dined on an excellent buffet for only 450 Rs. What with that and 100 Rs for a beer the pricing structure in Thekkady is evidently completely different from that at the Taj Malabar!

Wednesday, 20 December – More Cruising the Backwaters!

2007-01-07T10:51:00.000+05:30

Woke to the gentle sound of muddiggers preparing for a long day of diving for piles of gloop from the bed of the waterways. This needs to be done do remove the silt washed in from the monsoon and it gets used for reclaiming land. I have to say it is one job I do not aspire to, but it makes for some good pictures.

We seemed to be on the route to the local school. The end of breakfast was regularly interrupted by children asking “your good name” and then asking for “one pen” – we ran out of all forms of stationary and had to buy some more later.

Some childern go to school along the riverbanks - others are ferried across the water.

Iddli appam for breakfast. This seems to be rice flour put through a sieve so it looks like worms. Rather yummy actually.

Once we set sail we were soon at Thottappally Spillway. This is one of the barriers that hold the backwaters in and the Arabian Sea out. We parked up and then walked down to the beach where we watched the fisherman casting their weighted nets.

Returning to the boat we then headed up National Waterway No. 3 which runs back up through Alappuzha to Cochin and beyond. In a way this large waterway was not photogenic as the narrower routes of the day before, but there was more life occurring on the banks.

We started getting the hang of snapping the passing boats.

Sometimes you wonder whether you are being intrusive as you watch (and photograph) the way people’s lives revolve around the waterways – but then you can’t resist and get on with snapping away, albeit as discretely as possible. At least the many people waving at us made feel we were not being too intrusive.

As we approached Alappuzha we came upon several duck farms, including this amazing ‘duckherder’ with maybe over a thousand ducks being driven in front of him.

We motored past Alappuzha and returned to Vembanad Lake, where we had had our first lunch. Lots of other boats returning to the pickup point after taking people on one day trips - it was great to spend three days!

After a looping short detour out of the lake and back again we anchored up maybe 300m from the shore.

There we watched the sun go down over the 6km width of the lake, the last bit slightly compromised by cloud. Then Debu served up yet another excellent meal whilst the lizards around the lights ate well again. I can thoroughly recommend the catering on the “Lakes and Lagoons” company’s boats!

Tuesday, 19 December – Cruising the Backwaters

2006-12-23T21:54:00.000+05:30

We awoke to this view. Evidently thinking we may have starved overnight Debu served up a huge breakfast – omelette and then appam and a sweet sambar, accompanied by huge amounts of toast

Bethan got into the swing of doing nothing. Anne and I were happy to mainly sit back and watch the world slip by, cameras poised. I can imagine that this hobby loses interest after a while if you are seven.

However, Bethan does appreciate time when she is left alone and not bothered much so, apart form getting into waving at the locals (she would make good royalty) Bethan happily disappeared into colouring, writing, reading “Black Beauty”, the occasional DVD (with headphones) and playing Narnia on her Gameboy. Occasional bouts of chess or Top Trumps made sure she got some human interaction over during the trip.

So, basically we spent the day continuing to cruise.

We stopped off to see one of the local village’s snake boats (a racing craft built for 100). Above is our boat moored up during a stop.

We then visited a the Cathedral and town centre in Chambakulam, including a wood carving shop that was doing an international trade in religious statues. However, the tourist bits are mercifully short allowing us to get back to the busy business of doing very little.

This area of Kerala has a strong Christian community. Above Madonna halps unload a lorryload of rocks.

Many houses have Christmas stars, although this was one of the largest we saw.

One of the advantages of having one of the smaller one-bedroomed boats is that you can go down some of the smaller backwaters, and this was the day when we went through some beautiful small waterways, some with rice paddies, some through villages. The big multi-bedroomed boats had to stick to the larger waterways.

We had to practice the art of photographing fast moving other rivercraft - rapidly changing focus and moving from window to window.

All life is centred around the water. As Anne punned, below is a river bank.

Often we saw vehicles being ferried across the river on lashed canoes.

We anchored up in a less cute location than the night before, partly because it was within broadcasting distance of the local temple’s speakers – but luckily they were quiet during the sleeping hours.

Another sunset! Yawn.

Very few bugs to bother us. More excellent Keralan fare from Debu, the highlight being Pineapple Pollichathu – excellent poured over rice. Bethan seems to have negotiated papads and chapattis with every evening meal.

Paradise if you are seven.

Monday, 18 December – Cochin to the Backwaters

2006-12-23T13:45:00.000+05:30

We didn’t need to start until 11.00am, so a slow get up, breakfast, swim and then sorted out roaming on our Indian phones. Sreelish picked us up and we headed south to Alappuzha (or Alleppy as it used to be called) for a drive of about an hour.

We stopped off for supplies in the main town where one of noisiest temple festivals we have heard to date was going on.

We then drove to the east of the town and the back waters. We double took when we saw the first boat, thinking we had been conned, but it turned out it was just to take us out to our houseboat, which was well up to our imaginations.

Home for three days is about 40 metres long and around 5 metres. At the front sits the driver, an open air lounge for us behind (picture above), an air conditioned bedroom and bathroom at the centre, then a kitchen and then a crew area.

The crew looking after the three of us for the trip comprised Joseph the captain, George the engineer and Debu who is in charge of catering.

As is traditional we had the debate about where Bethan should sleep, but managed to arrange for a mattress to be moved into the floor of our cabin at night.

The entries for the next few days will be short as nothing much happens – but we do it in style! We sit in our armchairs watching the backwaters slip by. Above, people wait at a water-bus-stop.

Debu’s cooking is excellent – Kerelan fare with loads of coconuts in most dishes it seems. Portions are huge; there are regular extra snacks and few opportunities for exercise!

Today’s exercise was a ten minute stroll through a waterside village called Pulinkunnu and then over its nearby bridge.

We then watched the sun go down – perhaps at the end of this holiday we’ll be bored of the sunsets.

...but you just keep on taking more photos!

Our anchorage place seemed very buggy – no mosquitoes due to burning coils and incense, but lots of other winged wildlife. They mainly gathered around the light in the ceiling. This we discovered was surrounded by lizards that lived in the wickerwork structure who exist for the moment the light goes on (several ringed below). They stuffed themselves.

We were early to bed to escape the insects. There was one slight interruption in the night when the window was rattled on its catches by someone in a dugout evidently thinking of a bit of opportunist thieving. I banged the window and peered through the glass at them and they paddled off into the darkness.

What with cameras, GameBoys and computers some of these tourist boats have more on them than an average local family could earn a year, so I can understand the motivation.

Sunday, 17 December – Cochin

2006-12-23T13:09:00.000+05:30

A 9.30 start and breakfast with excellent Masalla Dosas and a view over to Fort Cochin.

At reception we were met by our guide for the morning, Shagzil Kahn, who I can definitely say is the best guide we have met in India to date – he had all the answers to our questions and has guided previously for the American Ambassador and the Singaporean President. He was just back from the Saga HQ in Folkestone where he was being briefed about a planned series of “Grand Tours” through India for the UK’s crinklies.

We headed off to Fort Cochin with Shagzil and Sreelish, and learned the confusing and bloody history of the Portuguese, then the Dutch and then the British in Cochin. We saw the church where Vasco de Gama was briefly buried before being returned to Portugal. Near the church we also ran into this snake charmer.

Apart from the three cobras he also had a small python that Bethan managed to hold with no qualms at all.

The biggest photo opportunity in Cochin is the Chinese fishing nets. These apparently ramshackle structures are carefully counterweighted and can be raised and lowered by a team of around five. We saw them elsewhere around Cochin, but the top spots must be in Fort Cochin as you also get help (and money) from passing tourists.

We were enlisted as part of the labour force.....

These fishermen also volunteer to take your picture as part of your 20 Rupee fee.

From Fort Cochin we then made our way down to Matancherry (pictured below). Also known as “Jew Town” there has been a history of Judaism here since 587BC when many Jews fled here. There are several synagogues, the one we saw with beautiful Chinese tiles on the floor (no pictures allowed), but these traditions now seem destined to end. When Israel was created the majority of the Jewish population upped stick to the Promised Land and there are now only 13 old and infirm Jews left in town. It seems a great shame after such a long and continuous history in India.

The final tourist halt was the Dutch Palace – a palace built for the local raja by the Dutch for his help in the bloody overthrow of the Portuguese. The paintings on the wall were spectacular (no pictures allowed again!) even though they were not all finished. Since we had Bethan with us Shagzil did not think it proper that we saw the ladies’ bedchamber where apparently a reclining Krishna is keeping eight cowgirls very happy – as a Hindi god it must come in useful having six arms!

We asked Shagzil to recommend a place for lunch. He took us to Sri Krishna in Fort Cochin. For 151 Rupees we had a thali meal for five and there was loads of it. Compare that with 225 Rupees for a beer in the Taj! In disgust on the way back to our hotel we bought we bought two bottles of Sandpiper beer for 45 Rupees and smuggled them back to our room – we are rebels!

Bethan caught up on some much needed sleep for an hour and then it was time for a sunset cruise in the harbour. Cochin had originally developed around a port directly off the beach, but the Arabian Sea during the monsoon meant that was sometimes difficult. A storm in 1341 created a shallow inland harbour and some shelter.

However the harbour as seen today was the idea of a British engineer, Robert Bristow, in the 1920’s who raised funding for dredgers to deepen the access. Cochin is now very spread out with the different parts being reached by bridge or ferry. Willingdon Island, the long island formed from the dredgings (and now home to the Taj Malabar - above right) was named after the Lord who stumped up the cash.

The sunset was spectacular (aided by the red filter setting on my camera I must admit) and again the Chinese fishing nets were the centre of attention. Our boat was amongst several vying for best angle as the sun went down.

After the large (and cheap) lunch in Fort Cochin we went for dinner in the coffee shop. Our main criticism of the Taj Malabar would be the range of restaurants and the way they cater for vegetarian – probably the worst range we have run across in India. The place does seem to mainly cater for Brits and Americans, so their focus may be different from other places, but it is still surprising to find in India.

The Rice Boat, the best known of the restaurants, seems to be exclusively fish. The outside BBQ, which looked very nice, is apparently nearly all meat. The Thai restaurant looked lovely, but had no people and no atmosphere, so we didn’t go.

So, coffee shop it was.

Saturday, 16 December – Bangalore to Cochin

2006-12-23T12:58:00.000+05:30

This will be a first – a holiday blogged whilst we are actually on it! My tabletPC has come with us, mainly as a way to back up the photos we plan to take, but since several of the hotels have internet connections we should also be able to update both our blogs as we go – saves all that tiresome ‘backblogging’ in the New Year!

So, sixteen days in Southern Kerala to finish the year off. We have done well for holidays this year – a week in Lyme Regis, two in Skiathos and now this one in Kerala. Christmas is one of the best times to travel in India – we will have to work out what we do in summer 2007.

The journey to Cochin on Air India continued our series of good experiences on internal Indian flights – Air India got in only about 30 minutes late on the 40 minute flight, and they had phoned to warn us about the delay. Bethan seems in love with Indian food on planes and polished the whole lot off again – where does she put it (the answer at the moment is ‘legs’ I think)?

At Cochin airport we were met by a very keen, but very new tour rep as well as our driver for the holiday “Sreelish” (at least that is what it sounds like to me). We rapidly realised that he knew a lot more English that the rep, but since he hadn’t gone to college to learn it he kept his mouth shut until he had disappeared.

The only function of the temporary rep it seemed was to check us into the Taj Malabar. As is now traditional, despite having repeatedly mentioned that we needed an extra bed made up in the room for Bethan, yet again we discovered it was not there. India seems insistent that Bethan should sleep with us, but once again, after several reminders, we prevailed.

In the couple of hours before we went out in the evening we had a quick swim in the “infinity pool” – the first of two on this holiday. Amusingly Bethan was at first rather disappointed that infinity was actually an illusion and that pool and sea were not actually joined.

That evening we were booked in for a Kathakali performance in nearby Ernakulum, the modern centre of Cochin. This is the famous Keralan art form combining dance and the stories of the epic Hindu legends. In line with the length of these epics the traditional form is held in temples, starts at 8pm and then goes on until dawn. Luckily we were booked in for just a taster.

Firstly we watched whilst one of the performers (playing Sri Krishna I believe) applied his makeup and then put on the lavish costume. Then another performer showed us the basic ‘moves’ – this mainly seems to involve wriggling your eyes around until it is uncomfortable for the audience (OK, I am over simplifying the art form slightly).

The performance itself involved music of the ‘bim-bam-ting’ variety and was about a demoness who fell in live with Sri Krishnam (SK), who was in the form of a prince (SK has the green face like all noble characters). The demoness transforms into a beautiful woman, but SK fails to fall in love with her. Then she ties to embrace him and SK, being of noble character, gets upset and angry about this. Finally she employs her demonly powers (mainly it seems by putting on a fake beard) and tries to force herself on SK who, as you do, cuts off her ears, nose and breast. So, all in all, more straightforward than Eastenders really.

Back to the hotel. Bethan was really tired after several late nights at the end of school, so pizza and beer in the room (good pizza for India actually!). We railed at the cost of the beer. You can get them for around 90 Rupees in the Grand Ashok in Bangalore and here Taj charge you 225!

And so to bed.

Going to School

2006-12-11T22:18:00.000+05:30

One of the nice surprises we have had in coming to India is that we have actually been able to allow Bethan more independence. In particular, rather than the way we needed in Otford to escort her across the High Street she is now able to head off in the morning with her friends from the street to get the bus to school.

Above is the typical morning scene with Bethan, Chala and Stephen very slowly making their way to the pick-up point.

Just to prove how (relatively) bad the weather has been this week, Bethan claims the had to stay inside because it rained! Boy, winter is tough. She has also worn her fleece to school twice!

Saturday at the Bangalore Turf Club

2006-12-11T22:13:00.000+05:30

On Saturday we went racing - the first time I have ever done this. Via the OWC we had tickets for the members balcony at the Bangalore Turf Club, a visible legacy of the Raj, although it seems also now popular with local punters (or railbirds as they are called).

Interestingly the BTC was front page news in the Times of India that day. The previous evening a leading horse had been pulled up and, suspecting race fixing, 2000 railbirds ripped up seats and stoned the weigh-in room. Police in helmets with big sticks were in evidence when we arrived, but there was no repeat performance on Saturday.

For our 750 Rupees all food and drink were free, so it proved quite good value. Cameron and Susan were there - Bethan was round at their place playing with Pheobe. I proved myself a lousy punter and my 100Rupee bets on 7 races were pretty much money written off - if there is a next time perhaps I'll drop to the 10 Rupee lower limit.

The afternoon nicely continued the earlier horsey theme of the week. On Tuesday Anne went riding and, according to Tara from Taunton, the instructor, somersaulted off her horse when it started to buck after being spooked by a monkey. Luckily nothing broken, only bruises. Nasty animals I say, horses and monkeys both.

…...And continuing the turf theme, in the evening we went to a party at Debbie and Simon's, just south of MG Road. The party was up on their fourth floor roof terrace, complete with a lawn in the sky. All the usual suspect present and a good pre-Christmas time was had by all. I had fun photographing the disco ball whilst we all tried to get the lads running the music to TURN IT DOWN! Indians do like twiddling their knobs - which leads on to another story worth blogging, but not now.

Sunday at home sorting stuff - and probably the worst day's weather we've yet seen in Bangalore - grey and blustery. Even tried to rain once - actually had jeans on as the cut-off trousers might have been a little chilly. Does your heart bleed?

The Grand Ashok’s Christmas tree

2006-12-10T21:00:00.000+05:30

Dropping Barry back at the Grand Ashok the other day I saw they were decorating the conifer on their front lawn. This was being done by three guys draping bags of cotton wool over the branches.

They were working on the lower section when we were there, but I want to know how they got up to the top, and how many died in the process?

Foggy Bangalore

2006-12-10T20:47:00.000+05:30

In LA everyone used to say “Ah, foggy London” whenever you said where you were from. I think they had got this impression from watching too many BBC Dickens adaptations on Masterpiece Theatre. They seemed quite upset when we denied it was.

Well, now it is “winter” in Bangalore we are actually getting up to some fog as you can see from these shots out of our back window. Don’t fret for us though. It is still quite warm and after 30 minutes or so normal service is resumed – see below.

Magic carpet buying

2006-12-10T20:43:00.000+05:30

On a mad spontaneous whim, whilst actually looking for a chess set, last weekend we talked ourselves into buying two more Kashmiri carpets. Although we don’t think the quality is quite as good as the one we got in Goa, the price was much better and, as always, the process of buying them was good fun.

At one point the whole of the shop floor was covered bay about 30 carpets with three guys happily pulling out more. Tea was had, and Bethan wants to go back to work there as she claims to like rolling carpets up.

We ended up with two six by four carpets which are the first bits of colour we have got for our bedroom, which has been looking a bit stark until now. As always, Bethan had to do a photo shoot for the staff.

The chess set is also very nice

Bizarre bazaar

2006-12-10T20:21:00.000+05:30

On Saturday 25 November we went along to the OWC’s Christmas Bazaar in the grounds of Bangalore’s Catholic cathedral. Up to that point the thought of Christmas had not really crossed my mind. When we were in LA the weather was all wrong, but at least everyone was going on about it. Here you lack both cultural and climatic clues.

Well, Christmas is evidently very much up and running, but I have just not noticed it creeping up. The sun beat down (unseasonably bright actually), Santa gave out presents, children dressed up as angels and wise men sang, people bought all kinds of stuff they will probably regret later (or the people they give it to will anyway) and lots of money was raised for the OWC charities.

Bethan had a great time. For 20 Rupees a time she made cards, stuck cloves in oranges, made wreaths and generally did Christmas stuff as well as ‘hanging out’ with Hope, Pheobe etc.

Not a minced pie to be found, but the samosas were pretty good.

The Kerela Itinerary

2006-12-04T21:43:00.000+05:30

No, not a bad book by Robert Ludlum, but a blow by blow account of the trip we plan over Christmas and New Year. Thanks to our travel agent Ravi Shankar (not the Ravi Shankar) for putting all this together:

December 16: Bangalore to Cochin: Arrive at Cochin airport where you will be met by our Tour executive and transfer to The Taj Malabar Hotel. In the evening experience the traditional art form of Kerala – Kath Kali.

December 17 : Cochin: After breakfast move to old part of Cochin where you will be visiting the Dutch Palace, Jewish synagogue, St. Francis Church, Santa Cruz Basilica and Chinese fishing nets. Also the antique and curio shops and spice souks on Market Road (Jew Town). In the evening enjoy the sunset cruise.

December 18: Cochin to Alleppey: After breakfast proceed to Alleppey and check in to the exclusive house boat by 12.30. Have lunch on the house boat, and then cruise through the narrow canals and lakes. Boat will be docked on the water by 18.00 with overnight stays on the house boat with dinner.

December 19 and 20: House Boat: In the morning after breakfast, cruise through the lakes & narrow canals. Leisure & relax in comfort at your exclusive house boat. Overnight stays on the house boat.

December 21: Alleppey to Thekkady: After breakfast check out from the houseboat by 09.30, and proceed to Thekkady. Check into the Taj Garden Retreat. Tea and cardamom plantations welcome you. Here you will find sprawling tea, coffee, and rubber and eucalypts plantations side by side with natural grasslands and pine forests. And also you can find wide world of the wildlife in Thekkady.

December 22: Thekkady: After breakfast proceed to see and enjoy the natural and wildlife heritage of Thekkady and a boat ride on the splendid Periyar Lake is the best way to experience the sanctuary.

December 23: Thekkady: Leisure & relax in comfort at your resort.

December 24: Thekkady to Alleppey: In the morning after breakfast check out from the resort and proceed to Alleppey to see and enjoy the wonderful beach resort, The Beach at Pollethai.

December 25, 26, 27, 28, 29: Pollathai: Leisure & relaxation in comfort at your resort.

December 30: Pollathai To Kovalam: After breakfast check out from the hotel and proceed to Trivandrum. Check in to the Taj Green Cove. An afternoon of leisure and relaxation in comfort at your hotel.December 31: Kovalam: After breakfast proceed to city sight seeing where you can see the Sree Padmabha Swami Temple form the 11th Century, Napier Museum, Sree Chitra Art Gallery, with its collections of the paintings of Raja Ravivarma, Zoological park, Kuthira Malika Museum and Priyadarshini Planetarium.

January 1: Kovalam: After breakfast proceed to Kanyakumari which is the southern most tip of India and the meeting point of the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. The sightseeing includes Vivekananda Rock Memorial, 133 feet Thiruvalluvar Statue, Kanyakumari Temple, Gandhi Memorial and Kamaraj Memorial. It is the only place in India where sunset and sunrise can be seen from one point. On the way the other famous sightseeing not to be missed is Padmanabhapuram palace, a well-preserved wooden palace with extraordinary murals, exquisite floral carvings and the black glossy floorings.

January 2: Trivandrum to Bangalore: Departure transfer to Trivandrum airport.

Images sourced from all over the web. Soon we'll have our own pictures!

Read'em and weep

2006-11-29T20:33:00.000+05:30

After the wet weather of a few weeks ago, things have finally settled down. Can't quite work out what the "20% precipitation means though".

We do get a bit of fog at night, but I am trying to cope.

Goa part 8 - Goodbye to all that

2006-11-22T21:59:00.000+05:30

And as the sun sets over the Arabian sea........

I have to say that after nearly 10 years away from it I still absolutely adore Goa.

The good news is that we plan to be back there in February. Anne and Bethan will there for a week visiting Margaret and Doug. I'll be there for a long weekend.

Goa part 7 - Dead spicey

2006-11-22T21:23:00.000+05:30

We went off in Anthony's taxi for the day for a bit of sight-seeing. In the morning we returned to Old Goa and toured the three big churches ther with Bethan. She found the whole thing a bit spooky (given the dried out body in the glass case I don't blame here) and later claimed "Old Goa freaked me out!" - oh the pleasures of going to school with Americans! How will she be speaking in two years?

Briefly we visited the stone arch down by the old docks, the Portuguese entrance to Goa, commemorating Vasco de Gama.

Around lunchtime we popped in on Sahakari spice farm - one that is well known for the away it deals with tourists. Bethan was keen to know where all these new tastes she has been trying come from. Make sure you have your speakers on when you click on the link - its rather relaxing and quite accurately reflects the atmosphere.

The mixed jungle is beautiful, with the high canopy made up of Betel Nut Trees and Bananas. Growing in the shade of these were pepper vines, ginger, vanilla, nutmeg, tumeric, cloves, cinnemon and cardamom to name but a few.

By the way, you get an excellent free lunch there after the tour where you get to try some of the produce.

Goa part 6 - Colva square

2006-11-22T21:20:00.000+05:30

Some things don't change.

Goa part 5 - Bye bye Bombay

2006-11-22T21:10:00.000+05:30

One of our favourite memories of Colva was the row of Bhel Puri stalls that assembled just to the north of the square every night. We had told Bethan all about the delights in store. Imagine our horror when they were not there.

Apparently the other 'fixed' traders kicked up a fuss about their presence there. Two days later we found them. They had been pushed back into the space behind the public loos where some other traders are now also camped. This is the field opposite Sea Pearl (it can be seen in the picture) and next to squeak-piggy-squeak farm.

They are reduced in numbers by about half, and have rebranded as Mumbai Bhel Puri's, but are still completely wonderful. 20 Rupees for two!

Goa part 4 - Shopping on the beach

2006-11-22T20:54:00.000+05:30

Having raved about my new camera, I'd better show some more of the pictures I'm having fun taking.

Whilst Bethan and I were swimming Anne got into haggling for jewelry on the beach. With my small camera I was able to return and take these pictures without anyone noticing. Made me very happy!

Goa part 3 - Cameras

2006-11-21T08:16:00.000+05:30

This trip to Goa was the first time I seriously got to use my new camera. When I came through Heathrow, back from the Atkins Group Conference I treated myself to a Casio Exilim S770, 7.2 megapixels of very slim digital convenience. With a 2Gb card in it I can take up to 500 pictures, probably more than I will ever need, but I can also use it to take small movies.

The camera is small enough that it can either live on my belt, or be in my work bag, so it now goes everywhere with me - useful for blogging. To date I am very impressed and I have even got used to it not having a viewfinder - you look at everything using the large screen on the back.

The most intriguing feature is the one that lets you take a movie starting from four seconds before you press the button - that takes some thinking about.

I was amused to see it described in many reviews as an excellent 'lady's camera'. Meanwhile the lady in my life is blissfully happy with her 'man's camera', the Canon D30 digital SLR. Finally digital SLRs for the general public seem to have replicated all the features that film SLRs had. All Anne's lenses have turned up from the UK now so, apart from my own tiny camera, I am back in the role of camerabagwallah that I know so well from the past.

Bethan likes to get her hands on my camera - it is small enough for her to hold and the screen and auto focus makes it very easy for her to use. She is probably of the generation that will never struggle to look through a viewfinder. As a result we are starting to have some of Bethan's own work for this blog.

"Self portrait No. 1"

"Big fat bloke who pushed past me as I clicked"

Goa part 2 - Old friends

2006-11-19T11:11:00.000+05:30

One of the nice things about going back to Colva was meeting up with people we knew from ten years ago.

Mr Amunkar recognised us straight away. Even after a decade "family credit" still applies to us in the shop. We picked up books and towels for free, and paid back by dropping in a couple of books to his shop as we were leaving.

We took Manuel, Peter and Lucia out for dinner at Sea Pearl and caught up on news. We then went back to their shop for a few late Diwali fireworks.

Bethan and Lucia hit it off.

After asking after him for a few days, Salu finally found us. He'd been off on long trips in his Toyota Qualis - the same car Basavaraj drives for us in Bangalore.

We had been told by the girls on the beach that Aneesha worked up towards Majorda, and after moving into the hotel there she was the first person we met when we walked down by the sea.

Goa part 1- Hotel hassles

2006-11-19T10:51:00.000+05:30

We added a couple of days on to the long Diwali and went to Goa between the 19th and 24th October. We chose to go back to Colva, the town we visited three times before in '95, '96 and '97. We'd always wanted to show Bethan the place, and given that we were looking for a relaxing time it was a good plan to go back to somewhere we already knew.

The flights too and from Goa were excellent. Jet on the way out and Air India on the way back. They went on time, the food was good and only 55 minutes in the air. Better than EasyJet from my experience.

And, a good time was had by all in Colva as I will describe later, but first I better relate the saga of our hotel.

We did all the bookings via a travel agent recommended to us. We were planning to stay at the hotel Doug goes to most winters, but Mr Ravishankar (not the Ravishankar) thought this was too down market to be worthy of his booking. He recommended the Silver Sands in the centre of Colva. Ten years ago this had been rather down at heel, but we were told it had just been renovated.

As we discovered when we got there this actually meant, they had nearly finished renovating it in time for the new season. We were concerned by the amount of scaffolding at the front when we arrived, but in the reception area (nearly complete and very nice) the staff, who seem to be excellent, assured us the pool and rooms were finished.

Well, yes the room was OK, but not a suite as promised, and this guy was working in the corridor outside.

The pool itself was operational, but more than 5 yards from the edge and you were back in a building site. In a nice polite manner we threw our toys out of the pram and they agreed to move us into Sea Queen (now the Bollywood Sea Queen), a hotel we knew about from 10 years ago in one of our favourite locations on the beach.

Silver Sands will be very nice when it is finished, and we liked the staff despite the circumstances. However, they had assured us it would be quiet after 6 o'clock, but I took this picture at ten, with work still actively going on! Good move to get out!

It did not end there! After three nights in BSQ, the very noise air conditioning no longer worked. We still didn't have a suite. Best of all, we were awoken by one of their decorators sanding our door at four in the morning (again they were getting ready for the new season).

I do have to say the view from the front of the BSQ as the sun goes down is stunning!

We had planned a walk up the beach, so called in at the Majorda Beach Resort - one of the "biggies" in the area. There we managed to swing a very good rate for two nights in one of their suites. So again we uprooted, Anne did a great job at extracting a refund from the Silver Sands, and we moved into five star luxury for the last two days.

Majorda beach is very nice and you may well find us there again for one of their Monsoon Packages.

Dubare - the final chapter

2006-11-18T21:34:00.000+05:30

Since I am sitting around this weekend with my first Indian cold I'll grab the chance to catch up on some of the trips we've been on.

The last bit of the Dubare trip I didn't get around to mentioning was that, at Basavaraj's suggestion popped into "the Golden Temple" in Kushalnagar. As you can see from the photo, this lives up to its name!

Kushalnagar is dominated by Tibetan refugees and the town as a whole has a very different feel from surrounding Karnataka. The Temple complex itself is quite remarkable. First you walk through the monk's dormitory compound, which then leads to some well laid out temples - it is difficult to know of one in particular is the "Golden" one as they are all pretty glittery. There were hundreds of Indian tourists wandering around - we only saw two other Europeans there.

The largest temple is dominated by three thirty foot high golden statues or Buddha and two other important people (names escape me). Whilst we were reading the various explanatory notes up at the front we were surprised to find that around 200 monks had snuck in just behind us and were preparing for prayers.

These consisted of all the chanting, horns and drums you expect from Tibetan Buddhists - just like on the telly. It was strange to see all this devotion going on surrounded by milling tourists, all in holiday mood, chatting and taking photographs - completely different from the way we treat a religious service in the UK - but no one seemed to mind.

Nation of Tree Huggers

2006-11-07T08:47:00.000+05:30

Often as you travel around the city you see trees passing through fences, walls and balconies. Rather than lop the tree building work is adapted to accommodate it.

I thought at first this was some kind of perverse laziness, but Murthi tells me many people see it as bad luck to chop down a tree and will re-plan building works to avoid it if possible. Priests are called in for blessings if tree work is unavoidable.

In particular cutting down coconut trees is a particular no-no. My favourite example of a tree in a building is on my way to work. Evidently they nearly avoided the nearby palm, but at the last minute they had to let it enter just above the top windows, only to appear again just above roof level. Must be very handy for picking the coconuts!

Restaurant Review 4: Ebony and the 13th Floor Bar

2006-11-07T08:40:00.000+05:30

Ray Phillips was in town last week, with film crew Graham and Andy, and wife Alison in tow. We are making a film to promote the GDC at the upcoming DES conference. This gave us an excuse to visit several nice 'locations'. Of particular note was the Indian Institute of management campus - a stunning building whose architect I shall need to find out more about.

With the excuse of using it as a platform to do time lapse of MG Road we visited the 13th Floor Bar in the Barton Centre. It is nice location for a drink, with great views northwards towards the cricket stadium and beyond. The bar food was pretty good (it turned out it came from the restaurant on the other side of the building)

The bar's balcony was on the sheltered side of the building so it was warm despite the exposed position. However, this was not true for Ebony, on the opposite side. External diners were wrapped in what looked like tablecloths but turned out to be blankets that they have to hand for these conditions.

I have seen reviewers raving about the menu, but I found it rather unfocused, split between Andraha, Parsi and European, and rather confusingly laid out. The food in the bar is taken straight from the restaurant's menu.

Don't get me wrong - its OK, but all in all I reckon it is a bit overrated. The views are good, but not as good as those from the bar.

My suggestion - go for a drink at the 13th Floor Bar and then nip around into Church Street and have your 100 Rupee thali meal in Coconut Grove! We were back there again on Saturday.

Monsoon

2006-11-06T11:59:00.000+05:30

At times we are still getting some pretty serious rain, mostly at night, but sometimes during the day. The good news is that it never drizzles. I call it digital rain. Its either on or off, one or zero. Ray Phillips called it structural rain, capable of holding things up.

However, since it tends to happen in the darkness, so far it is proving difficult to photograph. Best attempt so far was this weekend from a balcony after Phoebe's party.

Weekend of 28-29 October

2006-11-01T12:00:00.000+05:30

Whilst I'm dealing with the trip backblog, lets at least keep up with the routine stuff. This last weekend has been based in Bangalore, a mixture of 'down time' and socialising.

I was late back on Friday night. At Murthy's suggestion I am giving a series of talks to the office. The first couple were my 'all about me' diatribe about my background and past projects, done firstly to the office generally, and then to the structural team in particular. It has proved a good way to break the ice with the teams here. This week I dusted off the Miller Park buckling presentation - still good stuff despite basically being the first PowerPoint I ever put together, back in 1998.

Evidently the complicated stuff we did on Miller Park has caught the imagination of a few people and I'm getting a steady stream of questions on "but how did you address XYZ?". I also used this as an excuse to pull together into one place all the various images and presentations that Surinder, John and I have done over the years - sometime I must put together a talk that wraps up some of the other stories from the job as there are tons of good material - in fact this has already been requested.

Saturday morning, a nice slow get up. What with the trips to the UK and Goa I seem not to have much time to hang around in the house, so a couple of slow starts this weekend were a treat - (and I hope to get a full day at home next weekend!).

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday I was good and went to the gym before breakfast. I had managed an 18 day break after several weeks of being keen. I did my now traditional 3km in 18 minutes followed by weights. This is the first time I am starting to get back into some kind of exercise routine for the since being in Los Angeles.

When I was with Arup in London there was a fair amount of walking, including escalator climbing on the tube, that kept me at least a bit fit. The switch to driving to Atkins, together with the canteen in Epsom put about half a stone on me. Low fat Indian cuisine and exercise have got this off again.

For lunch we went to The Olive Beach - see the latest restaurant review. After lunch we took Bethan to an OWC (Overseas Women's Club) children's Halloween party. Most of the 50 or so children there were considerably younger than Boo, but there were enough key friends from CIS (Canadian International School) to mean she enjoyed the afternoon. We mingled with the assembled parents - Anne knew many people - I met up again with Andrew Dinsley from the British Trade Office, the closest the UK government has to "Our Man in Bangalore".

Sunday's event was a Halloween barbeque at the riding stables north of Yelahanka. Also there were Nicky, Paul and family from just across our street in Sobha Malachite. They moved here at almost the same time as us - a useful coincidence as it has given us all a bit of a UK support network. Their driver sorts out our broadband connection - I buy them stuffing in the UK - that sort of thing. We can also sit on the veranda with them and drink beer (note to self - must buy shotgun).

Costumes even stretched to the ponies, but Bethan picked up second prize by a short neck - well, shorter that a pony's. This is the second time this costume has come second - well done Granny! It previously nearly triumphed in Otford fete. We prize was a free riding lesson. Bethan already has had nearly 10 lessons and seems to be going on quite well, and enjoying it greatly. I just hope she isn't picking up habits that will prove expensive on our return to the UK.

We let ourselves get dragged into the games organised by Tara from the riding stables and spent a happy afternoon rolling pumpkins and passing balloons between our knees. Our "Green Team" won the Headless Horseman race, where you had to guide a blind folded team member through a mini assault course, without touching them. Bethan did this very well under my guidance and completed in under five minutes - she actually did what she was told for a change!

Anne, on "Red Team" had the pleasure of guiding the above boy who, bless him, was "directionally challenged" and did not have a clue. The classic was "walk towards my voice" at which he turned around and walked away. There is a bit of work to do on left and right for this guy.

Restaurant Review 3 - The Olive Beach

2006-10-31T09:24:00.000+05:30

For lunch on Saturday 28 December we went to The Olive Beach, somewhere down south of MG Road. Anne had been there before and liked it a lot - nicely presented Italian/Mediterranean food - lots of leaves. Good salads are sometimes hard to find in India (but there are other compensations).

Having been to The Olive Beach I wonder why people rave about Sunny's so much. TOB has a "White Adobe" atmosphere and white gravel surfacing in a rather nice garden that give a memorable atmosphere, and frankly makes Sunny's feel like MacDonald's. Perhaps that's the very reason so many Expats like Sunny's!. TOB's garden must be lovely when lit at night.

Basavaraj could not initially understand where we wanted to go. However last time Anne went there she had been with someone who "had the prawns" with disastrous results on the way home (the perils of eating fish in the Monsoon season?) - so the word "Nicky" accompanied by fake throwing up successfully recalled the place for Basavaraj.

Don't take the above story as a reason not to go - we will definitely be going back.

Strangely the star turn of the menu turned out to be the sorbet. Anne was raving about the Mango and Jalapeño, whilst I became very attached to my two scoops of Lemon and Rosemary. The bowl of small breads delivered at the star were also excellent (and we got a refill without asking). Anne ordered the same salad as before and loved it again. Bethan continues here recent habit of wanting cream of tomato soup for lunch. I had a very food spaghetti with olives, artichokes and all the normal Italian stuff. Very good.

Service was included on the bill and we got out of there for just over 2000 INR for a light lunch with afters, beer and a "mocktail" (Bethan is getting rather addicted to these). In the established tradition of my reviews I'd better mention the toilets - pretty good actually - better than your average Mediterranean restaurant.

Another review can be found at this link.

Two "time changes".

2006-10-31T09:21:00.001+05:30

Firstly, the clocks have gone back in the UK, whilst they remain unchanged year round here in India. As a result we are now five and a half hours ahead, one hour more than before.

The other one to note are the office hours. Since Atkins Bangalore is an offshoot of our Middle East operations, and they have traditionally had a Thursday/Friday weekend, Bangalore has worked Saturday morning to give an overlap. However, last month the United Arab Emirates moved to a Friday/Saturday weekend to give more overlap with the west generally.

In response to this our office has now moved to five day working, but with extended hours of 8.30am to 6.00pm (1.00pm to 1.30pm lunch). To date I had managed to avoid doing any Saturdays, and tend to be in at 8.15am because of the school run, so this is not a great impact for me. I thoroughly approving of scrapping Saturdays mornings as it completely mucks up the weekend.

Part 2 - Dubare Elephant Camp

2006-10-28T21:57:00.000+05:30

I have a fair bit of catching up to do. Soon after Dubare I was back in the UK, and then after that it was off to Goa. Its a bit of a relief now to be back 'home' in Bangalore for a few weeks. The next planned big trip for me is when I head back to the UK at the end of November, although we will have to think of some local adventures before then.

We had left off just as we arrived at Dubare. Two small ferry boats were carrying day visitors over the River Cauvery fifteen or twenty at a time. We were met by staff in Ranger style uniforms and taken to our accommodation.

Although the camp has been there for a while, people have only been able to stay for about four months or so. There were about 10 'cottages' amongst the trees. These were vary nicely done out and very clean and quite bug free (we did see one large spider up in the double height roof that Bethan decided she could cope with).

Apart from the ancillary accommodation (kitchens, laundry, staff quarters) there was a restaurant veranda overlooking the "crocodile infested" river (didn't see any), constructed with several trees growing up through it. Meals were excellent, served buffet style. Bethan is continuing to embrace Indian food and happily munched through idlis and dosas for breakfast and chapattis and chutneys for lunch.

Activities during our two days there were nicely spaced, with a few chances for 'down time' back at the cottage. We went on two guided hikes amongst the teak trees which were excellent despite our managing to avoid seeing anything spectacular. Amongst the things we didn't see were tigers, leopards and wild elephants. However, I do now know my teak from my rosewood, I understand the problem caused by lantana camara, an invasive plant from Mexico that nothing in India wants to eat and hence is now choking the undergrowth and Bethan is an expert at molesting sensitive plants.

On the first of the hikes we were caught in a semi-tropical down pour - not much of a problem as the rain was nice and warm. Bethan was very proud of the umbrella one of the guides made for her out of teak leaves.

At 7am on both mornings we had the opportunity for a coracle ride on the river. Is this evidence that the similarities between my Welsh and Indian impersonations has an origin in fact? A nice way to start the day, if a little early, but it did set you up for your idli!

The elephants themselves were excellent. There were about twenty of them based from the camp, aged from 2 to over 50. About 8 of them were around the camp when we were there. Some were off at the festivities in Mysore, others were logging in the forests. Their mahouts brought them down to the river just after breakfast where they lay in the water, trunk tips kept above the surface, and the mahouts washed them along with many willing helpers. Elephants are surprisingly bristly close up, especially over their heads, and it was amazing to get this close to them.

On a command from their mahout the elephants got up and wandered back up the banks to where they were fed. Weirdly they had their own kitchen, where a rather strange looking red goo was cooked for them the previous day. This was rolled into large balls and then eaten with great relish. Much amusement as the two year old stole lumps of the stuff out of the mouths of others with its trunk. When it wasn't doing this it was frisking your pockets for bananas. You had to watch out for the baby as it was the one most likely to knock you over - all the others were sedate and gentle

And the highlight of course was an elephant ride!

The biggest ordeal we faced came at night after dinner on the second day. The staff lit a fire and everyone sat in a ring around it, watching the flames. We were the only non-Indians there. After a while a few Hindi songs were sung and, of course, it was only a matter of time before it was our turn, and Anne made a sterling effort of "Green Grow the Rushes-O". After that it was film charades. Encouraged by my success at conveying "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" to an Indian audience, Bethan did a fantastic job at getting everyone as far as "The Lion, The Witch And The….." only for us to discover that it was not released here and there was no way they were going to guess "Wardrobe".

Throught our time at the camp the staff were brilliant. The guides were well informed and helpful. I particularly liked the notice in the room saying that we were only seeing some of the staff working there as there were many involved in 'backroom' work, so don't tip individuals, put it in the big box in the restaurant. It’s the only time I've seen this system in use in India. Often if is very hard to know when and who to tip.

More information about Dubare Elephant Camp at this link.

Fame - but no new visitors

2006-10-25T20:15:00.000+05:30

It turned out that NCE didn't publish this URL - the last email of my "interview" arrived after they went to press, so this page remains private for a little longer.

Click on the above image to read about me in glorious detail, but as the Bonzo Dog Band (who I saw are doing a UK anniversary tour this winter - no Indian dates currently planned) once said "alot of its rubbish you know".

An influx of visitors?

2006-10-11T12:49:00.000+05:30

This Friday I get featured in on "Names and Faces" page at the back of New Civil Engineer. This all got put together via our PR agency Carmargue whilst I was on the way over. The "interview" has all been carried out via email exchange - no talking at all.

As part of the backgound material the journalist has been looking at this blog (at least he had the link). I'll be interested to see if he includes the URL in his piece.

So, if you are visiting after reading NCE, "hello" (or perhaps that should be "namaste"!). Please post a comment at the end of this piece - treat it like a visitors book.

And just for the record, here were my responses to NCE's "fun fact" questions.......

Career highlight : I do this job for the split second rush from elegant ideas - four times a year if you're lucky. They have to be really, really elegant.

Career lowlight : A crane accident killed three on a project I was designing. Being an engineer is all about sleeping at night, and that had me lying awake for several weeks.

If you weren't an engineer, what would you do? : I'd be somewhere in cyberspace. Good web design combines information, art and the geek. I'm afraid that's me.

The thing most people wouldn't know about you? : I'm very open, so people know all the things I'm prepared to tell.

If your house was burning down, what would you save? : Maybe nothing - wouldn't it be interesting to be liberated from all that stuff?

Who is your greatest inspiration? : Bill Wilson, a teacher at Poole Grammar School taught physics via engineering examples. He saved me from becoming a scientist.

Restaurant Review 2: The Coconut Grove

2006-10-10T15:31:00.000+05:30

Just found that I'd left this review on a spare page in Microsoft OneNote, and not actually blogged it. Must get LiveWriter up and running.

Whilst eating a lot of Indian food both at work and home we have not been going local when eating out. Chinese and Italian have been the main types, and very good to, However, I've been wanting to start getting my teeth into some more local fare and we started on Saturday during our various shopping duties in central Bangalore.

I wanted Bethan to have the Southern Indian "eating off a banana leaf" experience and Coconut Grove on Church Street (the road parallel to the south of MG Road) fitted this nicely. I found out about it from a couple of Bangalore guides. One restaurant we went to in May was lovely but the guide price was around 1400 Rupees for two. Coconut Grove is not flashy, but at a guide price of 600 Rupees is very good value and I was keen to compare an contrast.

The restaurant is up a couple of flights of steps off Church Street and number 86, towards its western end on the north side. On Saturday lunch time most people were eating outside under the shelter of a large tiled roof - very pleasant. The place has few pretensions and has the relaxed atmosphere of people popping in for a break from shopping

Toilets: Really not great and not that many of them either (which reminds me of the Woody Allan gag: "The food there is awful". "Yes, and such small portions!")

Dubare Elephant Camp – Part 1

2006-10-10T12:26:00.000+05:30

We had our first long weekend in India from Friday 31 September through to Monday 2 October. This was in honour of two festivals that seem to coincide this year. On the Monday was Ghandi Jayanti, a national celebration of Mahatma Ghandi’s birthday.

More interestingly it was also a Hindu festival called Dussehra. This seems to be a chance for all workers to bless their tools and evidently the pundits (priests) seem to a roaring trade anointing various bits of machinery and electronics with puja dots. If you work with hand tools you take them along to the temple yourself. Vehicles can be done whilst parked outside. If you have a factory or office you pay the pundit to come and do your kit insitu.

On the way back from the weekend away we could see tractors working in the field bedecked with tinsel and banana leaves (I’ve noticed that major defoliation of banana trees seems a key feature of most celebrations). The big Tata trucks, gaudily painted anyway, had most of their windscreens obscured by a wall of tinsel and glitter – how do they see out?

Basaveraj, our driver, hadn’t seemed to do anything to acknowledge the day, but when he turned up on Tuesday morning the car had evidently been ‘serviced’ as all doors and the bonnet were anointed with the required strips and dots. When I got to work I discovered every door, lift and computer had been blessed – I wonder if GroupIS would consider adopting this in the UK in the hope it reduced calls to the help desk? Interestingly, my tabletPC, being out of the office, didn’t get a blessing and promptly spent Tuesday crashing.

We took advantage of the long weekend to go for our first weekend trip outside Bangalore, to Dubare Elephant camp. This is about 250km to the southwest of Bangalore, and run by Jungle Lodges, who are part of the Karnatakan Tourist Office. Their other camps are highly recommended (other trips will be planned), and this one had just added cottage accommodation four months ago. We were also booking at relatively short notice, and there had been a cancellation at Dubare, so really it selected itself!

We had been told the drive there the could take around 6 hours, so we set off at 4.30am . The time that the sun rises in Bangalore varies very little around the year – we are close to the equator so it is always around 6am. We drove through the city in darkness, taking advantage of the lighter pre-dawn traffic.

Once out of the city the first half of the journey was on the road to Mysore . Evidently this road has recently been renewed – it is the best bit of road we have seen in India, and we made swift progress. At around 10.00 we gave in to our stomachs and let Basavaraj find somewhere for breakfast. It was the kind of place most westerners would hesitate to eat at, but having been to Goa many years ago, and also being vegetarian we ‘went for it’. Breakfast was excellent- masalla dosas, rice pancakes with a mild potato based curry inside. I can see myself getting to like the local version of breakfast, and only 95p for all of us.

After that we continued on until around 40 km from Mysore when we turned onto smaller roads.
The quality of surface changed dramatically as did the speed we could do. Much of the road is under reconstruction and we drove across various unfinished areas and weaved amongst construction traffic.

Once we got away for Bangalore the landscape changed, with broad rivers, lush paddy fields and coconut groves. Our Toyota Qualis was the smartest thing on the road, many of the other vehicles being bullock carts.

Once beyond Kushalnagar we were close to Dubare and a bit ahead of schedule. We are stating to realise that Basavaraj has been kicking around the tourist scene here for a while, and sometimes it’s an idea to just go with his suggestions, even if we don’t fully understand what they are. The took us off to a forestry information area where we sent a happy 40 minutes crossing the wire rope bridge and feeding the deer there.

The local deer eat bananas.

The other memorable thing about the place was the world’s worst smelling toilets, so bad that I managed to cut my head on the low door frame in my keenness to escape! Over the weekend I could see many hirsute Indian males see this cut as evidence I have the world stupidest haircut at 2mm all over.

The final drive down to Dubare was through banana plantations underplayed with coffee – which I now read in New Scientist is the sustainable way to grow your coffee. We also saw 10ft poinsettias growing in the hedges, far removed from the Christmas pot plants in the UK.

When we arrived at Dubare we had to be ferried across the River Cauvery to the camp. Whilst we waited for the next boat we watched 4 elephants being loaded onto lorries to be taken to Mysore for Dussehra where they would be wearing the gold headdresses and ornaments you see in so many southern Indina guide books. We must get ourselves organised and go to Mysore next year for the event as it seems to be one of the big things to do in Karnataka.

We are still finding it hard to wrap our minds around the expectations and values of the people who wore for us in various ways. We had had a conversation wits Basaveraj explaining he would not be needed again until Monday. In the UK you would expect someone to take themselves home in this circumstance, but that ‘does not compute’ for an Indian driver. Basavaraj thinks the right thing is to hang around waiting for us for 48 hours. We gave him his bonus for the long weekend at this point, so he’d have the money to pay to stay somewhere, but again, I don’t think drivers do that, and he kept the money and slept in the car.

We think Basavaraj has either persuaded his boss that we need a TV in the car. Either that or he’s saved up for it himself. Whatever, I don’t think it is really for our benefit. Now, every time we now comeback to thee car three drivers pile out, who have been happily spending time watching Hindi movies. I think Basavaraj likes the prestige of having the best equipped car most places we go, and I’m glad we are keeping India’s drivers entertained.

That’s enough for now – I’ll have to do the rest of the trip in a second shift

Back to the UK for the first time

2006-10-10T12:25:00.000+05:30

I’m flying back to the UK at the moment, so I have a bit of ‘quality time’ with my laptop and can catch up on the blog backlog (I suppose an overdue entry might be called a ‘backblog’).

This trip to the UK is mainly to attend the Atkins group conference on Thursday and Friday – where all the leaders from across the 15000 strong Group get together and hear what CEO Keith Clarke sees as our priorities in the future. One of the most important aspects of it is the chance to catch up with people you haven’t seen for a while, and to do it away from the immediate demands of a project. Last year I was the ‘new boy’ so was meeting a lot of people for the first time – this time there is a new importance to networking as I am away from the circles in the UK and orbiting in the new big growth area, India.

Again we have an all star line up, with Michael Buerk (of news reading fame) chairing the morning session on Thursday, and Sebastian Coe talking to us on Friday morning about winning the 2012 Olympic bid for London.

On Friday we should wrap up about 3.30pm, giving me enough time to nip down to Dorset overnight to stay with Mum and Dad before being back on the Saturday lunchtime flight back to Bangalore.

Anne has got that odd experience once again of having been dragged off to some remote part of the world, only to get abandoned as I go off on a jolly back to the UK. Luckily things have come together in Yelahanka over the past couple of weeks, in particular by finally getting broadband at home. It seems likely (dare I say that about India?) that our stuff may have made it through customs by the time I get home – Anne has the pleasure of negotiating/arguing with Indian custom officials about how much they will charge us off for ‘importing’ our personal items.

I’ll be back to the UK for the DES conference at the end of November. Given the amount of time I shall be spending on planes I have just let Atkins buy me a power supply that I can use on board – they’ll get value out of it as I tend to want to bury myself in my laptop during long haul trips.

Oh joy, Oh bliss!

2006-10-06T12:11:00.000+05:30

Finally got on line at home last night. Once you are used to "always on" access it is so frustrating not to have it any more. Now we will just have the frustrations of the times the BSNL fails for some reason - which it does occasionally we are told.

Back in the UK next week, but hope to post something about last weekend's adventures with elephants.

I'm soooooo happy!

Getting connected (or not)

2006-09-19T09:20:00.000+05:30

Just in case you were wondering "why the pause in blog entries?", there are two reasons.

Firstly has been the move into the new house and all the sorting out that comes with that. Its all gone pretty well, and great at last to have things in cupboards after so much time living out of suitcases. I'll talk about life in Sobha Malachite another time.

The second cause is one of great frustration - how do you get the local telephone company to provide broadband to our house. Two weeks after moving in we still do not have a connection.

At first sight it would appear straightforward. I found out that BSNL were the local company (a bit to close to BNFL, but let's not go there) and they had a online application form, which claimed I should be connected in 5 to 10 days. I filled it in and two weeks later I still have not had so much as an automatic email to confirm my application.

I discovered that the problem might be that the phone line was not in our name. I assumed it was in the landlord's name so I called him in Dubai to get a permission letter. He deflected me to his brother-in-law who in turn put me onto Mr Ramdas the maintenance manager.

It turns out the phone is not in Ravi Patil's name, but still in that of the German bloke who lived here for a while. The fact he is no longer paying the bills might explain why the phone got cut off this week - no great problem as we are using our mobiles as our contact numbers, but a backward step when it comes to getting online.

However, a new great white hope has appeared in the shape of a neighbour's driver, Raju. We are quite jealous of him as he has excellent English and extremely proactively useful for his family. Basavaraj, our driver, is keen but his English and our Kannada leav quite large gaps in understanding.

Raju managed to sort out Paul and Nicky's broadband connection. He found the right person to talk to at the Post Office in Yelahanka and, after 1500 Rupees changed hands, someone turned up the following day and, bingo, they were connected. Raju, off his own bat, has managed to get someone to come around to arrange things today. Anne has free permission to bribe as I think it is the only way this is going to happen. Oh, the joy of India.

Don't hold your breath.

By way of contrast, we now have an Indian bank account, and getting it was straightforward! We had to turn up in person at the HSBC in MG Road, with copies of our passports, visas and residents permits. After a few minutes on a comfortable sofa in an air conditioned modern atrium we were dealt with politely and efficiently and 15 minutes later had a bank account. I can now get paid!

It is interesting to contrast this with the early banking experiences in the US which were absolutely appalling. India wins hands down on this one.

Bethan's First Impressions

2006-09-02T22:41:00.000+05:30

Since it is Bethan's seventh Birthday this weekend it seem a good time to summarise how she is coping with the subcontinent.

So far she seems to be taking it in her stride and having a fine old time. In what in retrospect was the best decision made so far, Anne decided to give Bethan some downtime in the afternoon of day 2 in the pool of the Grand Ashok hotel. Bethan swam alone for a while all the IT executives worked at the poolside tables, probably the only child staying in the hotel that day.

However, later Anne say another girl of about the same age wander over to talk to her. Soon Bethan came over to Anne and introduced Pheobe, an Australian who will be in Bethan's year at the Canadian International School. Her parents were having lunch at the hotel. Pheobe wanted to swim, so was leant a costume by Anne and the two romped happily in the pool for the early afternoon and are now best buddies.

This has been a godsend, as we have not had to drag Bethan around in the car for the majority of house hunting and shopping. Three times she has played all day around at Pheobe's - a distraction for Pheobe that her mum, Susan, seems to appreciate.

Despite all this fun we have had a few sessions where Bethan decides she is so hard done by, being 'dragged' shopping a couple of times (sometimes for things for her) and occasionally being asked to take off her earphones (playing the beloved Harry Potter) so we could speak to her. She even managed to throw a strop in whilst waiting briefly in the office with me - I could have gladly dropped her out of the window at that point ("do you actually realise how stressed your parents are at the moment child?!?").

However, that phase seems to have passed and normal service has resumed for the time being. On Friday she had a lovely day. Pheobe and some of the other girls in Bethan's year (there were four girls in a class of 19 last year) were booked to 'Own a pony for a day' at the Embassy Riding Stables north of Bangalore. We bought Bethan her first serious looking pair of jeans and she looked very grown up as she set off.

The day ran from 8.30 to 5.30 and they looked after ponies, rode them, took them places and even found time for swimming. All this out was in the country surrounded by monkey filled trees. Not surprisingly Bethan loved it and wants to ride again, which hopefully is feasible at Indian prices. My main concern will be that we are setting her up with an expensive hobby she may want to follow when we get back to the UK!

Interestingly, after this Bethan changed from her 'we will be going back to England after two year's, won't we' mantra to 'we will be able to come back to India on holiday after we return to England as I might miss it'. I think Bethan is starting to realise that there may be quite a lot of fun to be had here.

Anne and I are still convinced that the main problem will be persuading Bethan that it is a good idea to return to the UK when the time comes.

"Holy Cow" - Sarah MacDonald

2006-09-02T22:36:00.000+05:30

"India is beyond statement, for anything you say the opposite is true. It's rich and poor, spiritual and material, cruel and kind, angry but peaceful, ugly and beautiful, and smart but stupid. It's all the extremes, India defies understanding……"

This is from my current read, "Holy Cow", an excellent travel romp by an Aussie across India. Highly amusing, funny and rude. I think in a growing global city like Bangalore we are somewhat shielded from the extreme negative sides of the above quite, but it is all out there waiting for us.

Life's a Gas

2006-09-02T22:34:00.000+05:30

We have just heard from our managing agent that we have a gas leak in the house. There has always been a slight whiff of gas in the meter cupboard, but British Gas investigated it and declared that it was not a problem. The gas certificate arranged by the managing agents in June was passed with flying colours.

Well now, the tenants on check in noted the whiff in the cupboard and this time Transco think it is a leak. They think it is on our side of the meter (i.e. our problem). The plumber who has looked at it thinks it is on their side of the meter (i.e. their problem). Either way, it is probably down to 30 year old pipes cast into slabs giving up the ghost.

The tenants are taking the fact the gas is off well apparently, despite the lady of the house having once been blown up in a gas explosion in Malaya! The agents have given them a hot plate to cook on and the immersion heater is on.

We wait to see how this all plays out. Weirdly, in the last couple of days before we left Otford we heard that the gas pipes in our previous house had sprung a leak under it resulting in all the ground floor slab needing to be broken out.

Bad karma?

Restaurant Review 1: The Rice Bowl: 40/2 Lavelle Road

2006-09-01T08:36:00.000+05:30

As the closest restaurant to the Homestead serviced apartments this one must have already been visited by a fair number of Atkins staff in search of Chinese food. It reminded me of some of the places I ate in Hong Kong - not plush, but pretty good food and pretty good value.

The Overseas Women's Club guide describes it as informal, cheap and relaxed and that is pretty much right. We went there on a Sunday lunchtime. After the brightness of outside the decent down the entrance steps into the basement of a block leaves you thinking its dark and dingy for a few minutes, but your eyes soon become accustomed. I don't know if the air conditioning was out of action for some reason but several large fans meant there was a pretty strong breeze down there - but not unpleasant.

I still get surprised by finding there are separate veg and non-veg menus, here of pretty equal length. Since the vegetarian list was at the back of the menu this time I though at first we would struggle to order - but being India I soon found we had our own section at the back.

Warning! The portions are large! For the three of us we ordered two starters and then two mains plus rice and noodles and we got no where near finishing the food. Next time we will go for one shared starter and maybe a two mains with rice or noodles. We spent around INR 600 on food (plus INR 200 on drinks) and we could easily have got away with INR 400 for the food. We know for next time.

Start turns were the deep fried tofu with peanut sauce starter and the Singapore fried noodles. The pineapple fried rice was also pretty good. Not spectacular, but good food.

It was interesting to note that, of around 40 people in there for lunch (we were the only foreigners) no one was drinking alcohol. You wouldn't see that in the UK on a Sunday lunch time. There were quite a number of families, with the kids pretty well behaved, and a few groups of young things. We rediscovered the pleasures of sweet lime sodas at INR 35 - memories of Goa and a new hit with Bethan.

Toilets on the low side of acceptable. A bit niffy.

Click here for a further review

Home Sweet Home

2006-08-29T13:22:00.000+05:30

After Anne viewed more than 10 properties last Thursday, and then a joint 're-viewing' of some of these we seem close to moving into a new home on 5 September. We debated whether it was better to be nearer to Banglore or closer to Yelahanka where Bethan's school is. In the end we have decided that home life in the city would be too frenetic and hemmed in, so Bethan gets the short commute and I get the long one.

We have also opted to be in one of the new gated communities in the area. This is not so much from a sense of security, but more from the quality of the building, access to community facilities such as a pool, and the fact the roads are quiet and bethan will be able to safely play outside. Whilst the majority there are Indian families this is also where more expats live, so there will be more friends for Bethan - so many that the school bus goes from the gates!

On the downside what we will lose will be much of the flavour of India. These developments remind us of what we saw in the Mohave desert communities in California.

On the upside we will lose much of the chaos that is India. After being in Bangalore or travelling it will be good to escape home to more controlled surroundings.

We are at number 19B - next to the electricity transformers, but it is the end of the terrace - what they call Row Houses here. The B is merely because it was type B as opposed to type A or C. There is no 19A!

And this is what it looks like from the front, all the gardens at the front are maintained by the developers, so they all look very similar.

At the back we have a small garden with a shaded sitting area.

The ground floor plan.............and first floor plan.

And this is the view over the back fence. Anne saw monkeys when driving through the distant Nilgiri trees.

Roll on September 5!

Sunday in Cubbon Park

2006-08-29T09:00:00.000+05:30

After a hectic last ten days we finally managed to get some time off. For a week and a half we are in a serviced apartment in Lavelle Road, close to the centre of Bangalore. Our chores were complete on Saturday, and our clothes finally hanging up rather than packed in a case as they have been for the past six weeks.

We walked about ten minutes over to Cubbon Park, the large green space at the heart of Bangalore, surrounding the government buildings and law courts. It was lovely, a mix of formal and informal, with a lot of families enjoying the day off and celebrating the Ganesh festival in the park with a picnic.

Evidently within Bangalore wandering foreigners are not that unusual a sight as no one bothered us much. We even tried our first street food - puffed rice and peanuts for INR 15 - excellent.

Standing out on the edge of the park is this new building - a little slice of New York at the heart of Karnataka!

Afterwards lunch at the Rice Bowl on Lavelle Road - restaurant review number one to follow.

ReStructural ReLaunched

2006-08-29T08:37:00.000+05:30

So what happened?

I started this blog in the New Year mainly because I was keen to find out what the "blogosphere" was all about. It went well for a few months…….

….but as the days lengthened there were more distractions outside in the evenings, an allotment to tend and a fete to run. Also work seemed to go mad at about the same time, heralded by the mad trip to Cape Town in pursuit of a World Cup Stadium (via Qatar and Jo'burg - 22 hours down there, 26 hours there, 22 hours back. Didn't get the job - had a nice dinner next to the beach though.)

Then it all changed.

It might have been three or four years ago, whilst I was still at Arup, Anne said one evening "One of the countries I wouldn't mind living in one day is India". Around 10 years ago we had three holidays in Goa and took a shine to the place.

My response was "There's no business sense in anyone sending me to an economy like that".

Years pass. I move to Atkins. Globalization and offshoring move into the vocabulary. The world flattens.

One of the things that has been taking more and more of my time over the past few months (and keeping me away from blogging) has been recruitment in the UK. Over the past couple of decades the universities produced fewer engineers and more of them headed off to the financial sector. As a result there are precious few of those useful late 20s to mid 30s engineers around, and those that remain are (lucky them) caught in a pay arms race between the UK consultancies. I had the feeling that if I tried harder to recruit, so would the opposition. As fast as I gained a good 'un, I would lose a good 'un.

In common with other practices we were recruiting internationally. A couple of months ago I recruited an Iranian engineer on the strength of only a telephone interview!

However, even with these efforts, we've been winning some great projects recently. Rather than an incremental change in the numbers in our team we really need a step change in the next couple of years.

Atkins have had an office in Bangalore for about 15 years. After some early experiments in offshoring from the UK about four years ago, this has been starting to pick up pace over the past 18 months.

Our team has not been very involved in this. We have managed resources by concentrating on concept and scheme work, suited best to our UK skill base. However, we were aware we were giving up on the detailed stages of projects.

In common with other practices the company has been generally offshoring the easy stuff to outsource - reinforcement detailing is the classic example. This does not 'light the candle' of our team. Whilst you can make slightly improved margins on this kind of work at the moment - what is the long term point of this?

But the fact that the UK produces 17,000 English speaking engineers a year, and India produces 330,000 can't be argued with. Indian engineers are going to have a major impact on the industry in the next decade.

At one board meeting I was given the 'hobby' of deciding how we were going to respond to the "Global Design Centre" concept being pushed by our betters. Being an INTJ I went quiet for a couple of months, internalised the problem and worried about it.

After an number of conversations I came up with the stunning conclusion that "If you are going to do something its worth doing well". We wouldn't want an team out in India doing only low grade work. What would keep their interest? What would keep our interest?

We would want a team that would start to produce quality work alongside our UK team. We know that quality people are produced in India, not just reinforcement detailers. What we want is a team that will punch its weight on the stage in a few years.

But why would we trust sending some of our best work to an Indian team?

So Steve says to me "We'd trust them if we had one of our best designers in Bangalore"

So I says to Steve (life went in to slow motion at this point) "Anne said she wouldn't mind living in India a few years back".

So Steve says to me "Did she have a glass of wine in her hand in the time?"

So I says to Steve "Yes".

So Steve Says to me "So why don't you call her up when she's sober?"

I wandered out of the room, wondering what I was letting myself in for. I called Anne on the mobile.

Anne was in Primark in Peckham (this may have influenced the next bit).

So I says to Anne "How would you like to spend the next couple of years in Bangalore?"

And Anne says to me (after about a three second pause) "OK".

30 minutes later I suggested it to my boss, and 12 hours later he suggested in to his boss, and the decision was effectively out of our hands.

I'd put the speed of Anne's answer to what was a rather major question partly down to a conversation we had had about three weeks before. We had discussed how we had a five year window of opportunity to do "something stupid" with Bethan before she needs to get serious and settled with her education at secondary school. At the time we were toying with trying to fulfil my ambition to spend a year in the US travelling around all the National Parks in a RV.

However, two years in Bangalore would also seem to fit the description of "something stupid".

That conversation was at the start of May. Mid-May Anne and I went to Bangalore for 5 days to understand what we were letting ourselves in for. It was what we expected - all the chaos of India that we had seen in Goa, but with many of the conveniences of a modern city layered inside it. We found where the office was and got Bethan a place at a suitable (and suitably located) school.

And here we are. August 22, 2006 the three of us landed in Banglore. Two nights in the Grand Ashok hotel, and now we're in temporary accommodation just off Lavelle Road in the centre of town.

Boy, have I got something to blog about!

Ahead of the crowds.

2006-03-22T23:23:00.000+05:30

I went to Wembley Stadium for the second time today. I last went in August, and, even though it is now famously late and over budget, there has been loads of progress.

I went to report for an insurer after Monday's
'incident'. Everything is basically OK despite the local drama, and the problem should soon be fixed. Must have scared the hell out of everyone nearby though!

And Wembley is going to look fantastic when its finished. It should silence all those with nostalia for the old version.

I must start going to stadia after they are finished and not just during construction. But I did get to go up on the roof this way!

The place to eat in Rome...... for vegetarians

2006-03-16T18:52:00.000+05:30

For both of the evenings we had in Rome we ate at Il Margutta. This vegetarian restaurant was thoroughly recommended by many postings on the web, and lived up to its reputation. Great surroundings, great food and all totally vege!

The fishermen of the Trevi Fountain

2006-03-16T18:34:00.000+05:30

Continuing on from Surinder's theme of dodgy italian fountains I feel I should post these pictures from Rome's Trevi Fountain.

The Trevi is of course a famously understated bit of Roman street furniture, filling almost half the small square that it dominates. Nymphs, horses, blokes with their togs off and all the other stuff you would expect.

There is a famous tradition, reinforced by Hollywood, of chucking your cash into the fountain in order to ensure a return to Rome (we save ours so we can afford to go to Istanbul next trip).

We spotted these two characters quietly spotting where the 'right' type of coins had dropped close to the shore and fishing them out with something (a magnet?) on the end of a piece of wire. They seemed to be achieving a decent haul! I do not know if this is their champagne cork or not.

Pottermania

2006-03-13T01:12:00.000+05:30

This has been the very quiet scene at home for the past three weekends. We had read the first three Harry Potter books to Bethan but then told her we would leave the next for a while since they were getting more scarey - people actually start dying!

Well, not to be deterred, Bethan went and found the book on our shelves and started reading. We thought she'd give up after the first session, but she has ploughed on, sometimes for over two hours at a stretch. Questioning her about it, she seems to have understood most of what was going on.

And now, 636 pages later, she has finished. Not bad for six and a half - and Huggles the bear has enjoyed it as well.

Beyond the leading edge of our future tomorrows

2006-03-11T21:21:00.000+05:30

Its only a matter of time before I work out how to use the above phrase in a presentation. Let's face it, I am the man who managed to say "I know where you're coming from, but don't go there" and get away with, but they were Californians, so I guess they were a soft target (sorry Sophia).

Bones beats Skin

2006-03-11T19:44:00.000+05:30

After three weeks of thinking, debate and work by the team we seem to have decided on the new direction for the hotel structure in Islamabad. More importantly we now have buy-in from Tom, and I’ve already sold it to Hakim. Even more importantly I believe we’re going to have a ‘muscley’ structure playing a key role in the atrium and helping define the architecture of the building as a whole.

The old scheme used a tube of moment frames, in effect creating a structural skin of members that stretched across both ends of the atrium. When you added in the glazing supports and the lift guides and landings were starting to face up to a mass of ugly coordination issues in the worst possible place.

Both Tom and I have been independently circling the problem trying to find a simpler, more elegant solution.

After the last team meeting, which was just throwing up problems, I went into a huddle with the structural team. The first positive result was that we all bought in to the fact the ‘skin’ scheme was workable, event with the inclined columns. However, we all recognised the architectural difficultie.

It was out of that session that the ‘curveball’ Megaframe solution appeared, turning the whole building into a stacked series of 8 storey high moment frames. Since then we’ve been playing with a series of parametric studies that have proved the basic idea works.

I worked up to 11pm on Thursday night to put together a Rhino model of the atrium and generated the series of views shown here. We’ve yet to refine the members across the atrium. There is still a debate as to whether they are expressed as trusses or simply as clad objects. I kept all the options open by just showing a solid two storey deep by 4m wide box – just booking the volume.

The agreed conclusions are:

1 – Boy! The atrium is a big tall volume, and…..

2 – The cross-members actually help define the volume and look pretty good, even at two storeys deep. See the first view up into the atrium in the image below.

It’s a simpler diagram and thus it will easier to make it look good. The next stage is to do an options study to decide what these cross members actually are.

But the main thing is I think we have a scheme that actually has a great structural story behind it. Yee ha!

Rome - the structural engineer's highlights

2006-03-03T02:26:00.000+05:30

One of my main aims in going to Rome was to complete visiting the trio of "ancient and still standing" structures that have always impressed me most. From the UK I have always admired Durham Cathedral, construction of which commenced in 1093. Clocking in from 532 is Istanbul's Hagia Sofia.

That left me still needing to see the Pantheon, constructed in 120. It is amazing to think this is a building pretty much exactly like the Romans left it, barring the odd bit of marble at low level. And the dome is actually concrete! I once knew this but had since forgotten it. At 44m diameter - and it actually looks much bigger inside - the Pantheon was the largest concrete dome until the French finally exceeded it in the 1950s.

I was very pleased with my shots of the inside of the dome. On the first of our visits we also got to see rain falling through the occulus which the guide books seem to imply you are lucky to see. However, overall I feel we could have done without the drizzle.

Just to get a little downmarket for a moment, visiting the Pantheon (and indeed Rome generally) was also enhanced by reading Dan Browns' "Angels and Demons", where it features as a false lead. This book is completely enjoyable trash, and a great holiday read, but do people really believe this stuff?

I thought "The Da Vinci Conde" was quite fast paced, but I'm sure I took longer to read "Angels and Demons" than the action in the book claims to take - especially the last hour or so.

Also he seems to imply that no one is very interested in the election of a new Pope and that St Peter's square would be empty apart from the pidgeons during a conclave. What planet is Dan Brown from! I am afraid to say more of his stuff will probably be seen in may hands next holiday.

Smart man to come up with his methodology for writing novels. 1: Find city where most people in the rich world want to visit. 2: String a dodgy story around an tour of the historic highlights. 3: Sit back and watch them buy your books. A simple idea but it has served him well!

The Colosseum was also very impressive. Fun Fact: it was actually named after the bronze statue that once stood next to it, rather than as a reference to its own size.

In order to stabilise the outer walls after much of the stone was removed brick buttresses were constructed in the 1840s, the biggest of which can be seen over Anne's left shoulder. I was impressed with the brick infills to the adjacent arches - how did they manage to capture this 'collapse in progress' state. Brick laying must have been done at a speed only matched since by Tom and Jerry.

.....and waiting for us on the mat when we got back was the DVD of Gladiator!

Those smart Italians

2006-02-28T03:37:00.000+05:30

Anne and I escaped to Rome at the end of last week - three days of seeing the sights. We estimate we walked about 22 miles, which perhaps balances some of the food and wine consumed.

There will have to be a series of posts to cover this trip, and I've sorted the images already, but just for starters .........

We worked out why the Italians have an interest in nanotech. Its all because of the tiny cars they drive. I suppose it all started with thise teenyweeny Fiats years ago, but now its wall to wall Smart Cars and their ilk. Anne collected about 50 shots of them for a photo collage.

So Surinder, can you tell me my Smart Cars have larger number plates than some cars of similar size? Emissions related?

One of those good weeks

2006-02-20T02:18:00.000+05:30

A strange week at work. The reason I got so much 'good' stuff done was that I wasn't supposed to be there.

On Monday I had a day of holiday planned, but for various reasons (basically no one wanted to play at home) that was canned. So I had a day without meetings in the office. I did loads!

It got better. On Wednesday and Thursday I was down for two days of 'key account management' course (yuck). My 'team' were to be looking at the Department of Education - but the rest of them didn't turn up. I 'bravely' agreed not to participate in the rest of the two days - so another 48 hours without meetings. The plan will now be to persuade everyone that I'm not the right sort of person for this course. The Atkins training regime is excellent, but for me this is one too far.

Having a B&B booked in Epsom on Wednesday night I took my chance to finally do some images in support of the airport feasibility study for Ghana. This was the first time I have made the TabletPC processors really work - a 48Mb model taking about 25 minutes to render at 2000 pixels wide. The night hours were made more interesting by Badly Drawn Boy on pandora.com.

I have to admit to not being convinced the client will be best served by a 96m span roof but apparantly they think they want one - and I suppose we can show them something a little more modest (and cheaper) later. If they really want to do the 96m version its just more fun for us structural engineers.

I shall have to see how much Rhino I end up doing in the office as the screen on this marvellous machine is a little small once you have a few menus up.

The debates about the hotel's structure for Islamabad have continued after Monday's sessions. After a week of hard thinking with the structural team I think we should be pressing ahead with the inclined version. However, during Thursday we came up with the 'curved ball' which is to give the whole building an internal 'MegaStructure' - in effect two huge A-frames with 4 cross-bars, each 8 stories apart.

The cross-bars would fly across the atrium - probably as two storey deep Vierendeel girgers, linking shear walls between the bedrooms.

There are legion difficulties in making this work, let alone in a seismic region. However, Hakim and I got pretty excited about the way the whole frame could be internally expressed - and its the first time the structure has started to define a rhythm for the architecture.

Currently I'm working on the "it feels good so it must be right' principle. The next couple of weeks shall see how this all falls out.

I must plan to not be at work more often - and then turn up!

Progress being so good for the rest of the week Anne and I took Friday off. It was the last day of Bethan's half-term and replaced the missing Monday. It became a bit of a chores day, but has freed up he rest of the weekend. Allotment and swimming.

Rome beckons next week.

Allotment progress report

2006-02-18T21:01:00.000+05:30

We continue to get organised - and we are even starting to plant stuff!

All three of us spent a couple of hours in the allotment this morning (before the rain set in during the afternoon). Progress includes:

- two of the big beds cleared, manured and raked ready to go in March
- 'Fort Fox' taken down - after two years on one bed I'm moving sweetcorn to a different location this year
- 'Golden Gourmet' Shallots planted - Gordon thinks it's too early for the onion sets and who am I to argue
- Garlic accidently left insitu from last year moved into some new rows.

This afternoon I feel I have tried to kick start spring by planting seeds for cucumbers and tomatoes. The cucumber is 'Prolific' - a F1 which should be OK without a greenhouse. Tomatoes are 'Outdoor Girl', 'Red Alert', the ubiquitous 'Gardener's Delight' and our favourite from past years 'Marmande'. Unlike past years I will be good and not grow too many, pot them on when I should, plant them out when I should and look after them properly.

It can't be worse than last year when all I got was one rather nasty cucumber (as it were).

Next weekend we'll just be back from Rome, so we will have to see how keen we are on the Sunday.

One of those good days

2006-02-14T02:31:00.000+05:30

My job is a constant battle at the moment to stop the 'business' taking over and keeping me away from the projects. I hadn't planned to be at work today so when I was it meant I had no meetings booked and could do what I liked.

Had a good session this afternoon with Tom Wright and the Islamabad team, trying to resolve lifts, structure and how to stop them stuffing the architecture of the atrium. My vote is for the simpler straight up and down scheme just evolved. Just so long as it isn't justified as being because the engineers couldn't do the other one -we can, but this new version is better?

I also broke new ground with the tablet-PC. Not only my first hand drawn PowerPoint(see picture), but also scribbling on the slides live on screen. O.K. its sad, but it keeps me amused.

Beyond the Norms

2006-02-14T02:11:00.000+05:30

I ran into this story about Norm's diner in last Saturday's Guardian. I remember eating there only once - very late at night with Surinder, after yet another 'Miller Time' late shift. It was about the worst possible place for a vegetarian that I ran into in L.A.. I think I could have only the pancakes, and had to 'hold' the gravy.

What with Surinder trying to avoid beef I think we didn't match Norm's norm for customers. Having said that, it did have an authentic diner 'vibe" and has stuck in my memory - just not for the food!

That's entertainment

2006-02-13T04:41:00.000+05:30

The current soundtrack to my commute.

Enjoyable miserable

2006-02-13T04:33:00.000+05:30

Finally, after a long dry period since Christmas, we actually had a typically UK winter miserable day today. It actually felt quite good for a change.

Instead of feeling I needed to be outside I knuckled down and edited the last decade of fete paperwork, 90% of which is now in a recycling bin outside. This weight now off both the floorboards and my mind I actually got around to making some progress towards this year's jamboree.

A grey day predicted for tomorrow, and what with Anne needing to be at work, I've decided to go in as well. Bethan has a whole stream of 'playdates' lined up for half term.

Mind the Gap!

2006-02-12T23:30:00.000+05:30

Bethan lost both her front top teeth during the last week. The bank in tooth fairy land has been very busy!

Sophia recommends.......

2006-02-07T03:30:00.000+05:30

As a reminder to me to catch up with this book some time (as I have heard about before) here is a link to "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference" by Malcolm Gladwell.

My future reading list starts here (after all the stuff on personal branding!).

Rabbit eats mouse

2006-02-06T17:55:00.000+05:30

It was only a matter of time, but Boris finally got into Lucy's room and chewed through the mouse cable. He was smart enough not to go for the power cord.

An Otford Gothic Birthday

2006-02-06T15:06:00.000+05:30

I did exactly what I wanted to do on my Birthday - which may not seem much to many people. However, we spent some 'quality time' on the allotment, with Anne and I putting in three hours each, meaning 8 hours work in total this weekend. Perhaps it will be ready for spring this year!

The new raised beds are in and full, and the paths around them are just about level. Next weekend should allow us to get the shallots and onions in.

After a bit of coaching Bethan managed to take this picture of us.

I realise now this bears an uncanny resemblance to.....

...."American Gothic" by Grant Wood.

Spooky or what!

The meaning of life?

2006-02-03T03:21:00.000+05:30

I'm closing in rapidly on the age of 42! 50 hours and counting. I really hope for some Douglas Adamsish revelations, but perhaps I won't hold my breath.

Every time I try to get on top of work I get sent on another training course at the moment. That having been said the one at Ashridge was amongst the best I have been on. There were plenty of ideas that will probably end up on this blog soon.

Bet you can't wait for my Brand!

A quiet weekend is planned. Out with the fete committee on Saturday night. Maybe Greenwich market on Sunday. The problem with February birthdays in the UK is that the are normally under grey skies and the BBC promise exactly that. The two I had in Goa were memorable exceptions.

Tigger does it again

2006-01-31T13:27:00.000+05:30

Currently I’m taking part in a ‘Leadership Masterclass’ at Ashridge near Hemel Hemsted. Lots of good stuff to add to the big mix of ideas.

Steve ‘Tigger’ Tasker has now come up with his the title of his second book, again scoring zero hits on Google. In discussions yesterday he generated ‘the half-life of a strategy’ which is of course reducing with the increasing pace of modern life. Unfortunately ‘bouncebackability’ already generates 50,800 hits. Check re.Structural regularly for news of future Tasker publications.

One key thing to do whilst here is to get a grip on what 'branding' is all about. I've been meaning to do that for a while, and this seems the perfect opportunity.

INTJ and proud

2006-01-27T18:46:00.000+05:30

I ran into the Myers-Briggs type indicator many years ago at some team building session. Atkins also have run it (and others) on me as part of firstly the recruitment process and then the "Management Development Centre".

I've have come out as INTJ throughout, although I seem to be getting 'spikier' - most probably as now I know my type I tend to answer the questions to suit! My scores last time were:

Introversion - 43
Intuition - 43
Thinking - 45
Judging - 21

If you want to find out how scary I am try this link. Fellow INTJs include Arnold Arnold Schwarzenegger and Donald Rumsfeld, which is pretty worrying. However, having C.S.Lewis and Gandalf on my list is a bit more interesting.

If you want to find out your profile try this link which seems to do an accurate job.

Worryingly Anne came out as an INTJ as well. What hope is there for Bethan?

An old fave

2006-01-27T18:43:00.000+05:30

Yet another link I want to get out of my favourites list. Every time we felt the smallest shudder in LA we turned to USGS who whould tell you where and how big the earthquake was.

Given my current focus on seismic engineering this page is becoming more even more interesting!

Our project in Islamabad

2006-01-25T20:15:00.000+05:30

An image from our press release for our project in Islamabad. Given the earthquake that happened one week after we started our work, and the fact it will be the tallest building in town, not surprisingly we are attracting some attention. Watch this space for my upcoming Architect's Journal interview!

Key fun facts are:
- A 3 million sq ft (278,700 sq m) mixed-use development
- the country’s tallest building
- Our client is Pak Gulf Ltd with a project value of approximately US$300 million
- 30-storey, 350-bedroom world-class hotel topped by a panoramic restaurant
- 300,000 sq ft (27,870 sq m) shopping mall
- 250,000 sq ft (23,225 sq m) of offices
- More than 300 apartments
- The basement has 1,300 car parking spaces.

Plenty of engineering to keep the grey matter working!

What have I been responsible for here?

2006-01-23T04:21:00.000+05:30

Just to capture another moment of internet fame - here is an article from the Independent in April 2005 where I try and enthuse current students to become future structural graduates. There are some of the worst quotes I've ever come up with, but they are all quite happy and bouncey I suppose. Might future disgruntled engineers sue whe their careers go belly up?

Sustainable motoring

2006-01-23T04:10:00.000+05:30

Another of my links needing a home. VCAcarfueldata.org.uk allows you to find out the g/km of CO2 for any car you care to mention. If Anne changes job and the company car goes the Citroen C2 is top of my list.

This page came to my attention via the Carbon Coach, who is also an interesting person (though he manages to dilute his personal carbon footprint by having a very large family - surely not a sustainable may forward!).

The virtuous ache

2006-01-23T03:52:00.000+05:30

Just for the record, I've been good and have spent time on the allotment for the past two weekends. The new row of five raised beds is almost in place, and we can start moving the pile of poo next. Fingers crossed, and weather permitting, we'll be ready for planting come February - both the early stuff outside and the things to be 'brought on' in the house.

Even better, the third allotment, which we (in theory) were planning to expand into, has been taken on by new owners (with kids!), so that problem has gone away. With us both working like we do we were never going to get to grips with it.

Yugop

2006-01-21T20:10:00.000+05:30

I found this after reading about it in the graphics design magazine Creative Review. Yugop.com has been through a number of reinventions but I love it, in particular the Industrious Clock.

Following in a great tradition...

2006-01-21T19:59:00.000+05:30

It seems, from a mini-random survey of blogs, that one of the main purposes of blogging is to find a way to be rude about George W Bush.

Don't let me be the one to break this chain. Please enjoy Bush in Freefall. Very therapeutic during a stressful day. Thank you Sophia for this one.

A purpose for this blog?

2006-01-21T19:57:00.000+05:30

One of the points of starting this blog was to find out what this technology might be useful for.

My first conclusion is that its the perfect way to capture all the miscellaneous links, news items and other rubbish that I'm never sure quite what to do with and, as a result, sits around cluttering my favourites list until it gets deleted. This blog should give me a way to comment and search all that "toot" that is currently just useless "stuff".

Expect a stream of postings as my current list gets emptied out into the blogosphere.

Oh, Bliss!!

2006-01-21T04:07:00.000+05:30

This entry is written whilst sitting in bed, on a tablet PC, wirelessly connected to the home network, whilst it recognises my appalling handwriting.

I remember looking through the window of a shop in Bournemouth in 1975, when the calculators there cost over £100. They had buttons that did +, -, / and x.

Whilst we seen not to have a clue how to run the planet on a 'global' scale (no pun intended) who can fail to be impressed by the things we can do on the hyper-local scale.

(The only downside is that this is the second time I have written this as I have just discovered that my hand wants to sit on the off button, causing spontaneous reboot. Power lock is now on!!!!).

I'm in love all over again

2006-01-17T12:40:00.000+05:30

OK, we're only a few hours into this relationship, but I just love my new Tablet PC. It seems to open up all sorts of possibilities. The best review of it I found on the web is linked here.

Late New Year Resolutions 2006

2006-01-15T19:57:00.000+05:30

It has taken a while for me to get them sorted out, but I think I know my aims for the year now. So, in no particular order:

Work Resolutions:
1: Take others with me (a key issue flagged up my my MDC).
2: Spend more time actually designing or reviewing.

Home Resolutions:
3: Spend more time on the allotment - and at the right time.
4: Keep on top of the fete and avoid it being a crisis in May.
5: Get more exercise than before. Learn to play tennis.
6: Make sure there is plenty of 'quality time' left with Anne and Bethan.

Doing all that will be a tall order, but I believe they are achievable. The problem is that, now that I've blogged it I have a record of all those good intentions, which may prove awkward later in the year.

The Last Carbon Industry

2006-01-14T22:36:00.000+05:30

Since it still comes up with zero hits on Google it must be worth recording for posterity that Steve Tasker came up with this phrase in late October 2005 to describe the future of air travel and the fact that it will be the last industry to ween itself of oil addiction.

We were amazed that others hadn't used this soundbite before, so I thought we'd better corner it for ourselves as soon as possible. The question is now, how long before Google spots this as the first mention of "The Last Carbon Industry"?

Exposing myself?

2006-01-14T21:01:00.000+05:30

On Monday I'm giving the evening lecture for the local IStructE branch. The title I originally came up with was "Exposing ourselves - how we communicate engineering to the world". The amusing thing is I'm talking about why engineers are boring and what they can do about it. Evidently my title was a bit too raunchy and got edited to
"How we communicate engineering to the world".

What they don't know is that I may go down in history as the first person to show a willy (albeit abstractly diagramatic) in an evening meeting. That should stir up the pensioners amongst them.

Otford Village Fete 2006 Logo

2006-01-14T20:29:00.000+05:30

Yet again Anne has done a great job with the logo for the village fete. Next thing is to get it all organised! However, having survived last year it is bound to be easier this year (famous last words?). Please can we have great weather and 8000 people again, as opposed to my baptism by water in 2005.

Ego surfing again!

2006-01-14T04:38:00.000+05:30

Apart from having an image of Miller Park splashed across the top, and my name (and others) on the link at the side, this link also has the thoughts of John Lyle who I've talked to on a number of occasions about retractable roofs.

Pearls before swine

2006-01-13T20:43:00.000+05:30

A blog to aspire to perhaps?

Why?

2006-01-13T18:17:00.000+05:30

Well why not? I've been wondering what this blogging thing was for some time now, and what with my underlying techie tendencies and work getting me a tablet PC, hey, why not join the 21st Century?

The final straw was that Surinder has one, and I can't be left behind.

What will it be about? Me, I guess. Some family news may be, but geekiness will probably rise to the surface and, if current obsessions are anything to go by, it will go on about (in no particular order):

structural engineering
architecture
sustainability
vegetables and gardening
...and any other interesting thing that takes my fancy

Perhaps it will all make sense in the end.