Actually quite busy

Lateish start today (Wednesday) - doing a 12-8 training shift. This means leaving at 11.15 to get there in time, but because there wasn't another car going at that time I left at 10.45 - arriving slightly early but that's No Bad Thing. I was a little concerned and distressed by the anti-Indian comments being made by my travelling companions - quite negative about their abilities and lifestyle - opinions not matched by their colleagues, which is a relief. Perhaps they were jaded and fed up of being here for weeks/months on end, but I felt it was very sad that they felt that way and were here to help the agents improve. Also they were making the comments in front of the Indian driver, which although his English probably doesn't meet any fluency standards, must have picked up a bit of what they were saying. "He who is without sin..." / "People in glass houses...". The UK isn't perfect either so don't pick on less developed countries. It's mean.

I had a good day training - my delegates were quick and keen to learn and we covered a lot. They had already had an introduction to the subject (designing e-learning packages) but this was a more advanced polishing course. So we had a good facilitation session rather than a boring didactic one. They had a nice big whiteboard and (oh I'm easily pleased) a board wiper which is magnetic and sticks to the board(!) so I had fun with that all day. I had lugged a company laptop for 4000 miles but in the end it wasn't needed. We buddied up and they all had a go at the system.

Most of the staff who have been out here long term are heading back early Friday morning, so they have Thursday off to shop/pack. So tonight was the last night in the office for many of them, at least for a few weeks. Hence the decision to head off to a local Indian restaurant for a team party. It was a dry restaurant (and therefore perhaps not as popular as it could have been), but we sat outside so the smokers amongst us were placated a little. We got there about 9.45pm and didn't start to order until about 10.30pm as other people were arriving still from later shifts. When we did get our food, it was all quite messed up as we were failing to comply with Indian rules of dining and just sharing everything, instead everyone wanted their Own Food. My starter didn't turn up, and then the main course that I got was different to someone else's version of the same dish. Odd. Rather tasty though, and excellent value at about Rs500 each (£5.50 ish?) for 2 courses and non-alcoholic drinks. Eventually we left at about 12.30pm, after singing Happy Birthday to Sheetal, (offshore manager) and then working out which car to get home.

Despite the late hour, the traffic was still horrible - really heavy for some parts of the trip (although practically empty elsewhere) so didn't get back to the hotel until 1am (posting this on Thursday with an edited time/date) and then I had to get up 5 hours later to get to work for 9am. Busy busy.