Here’s a taster image of me in an E-Type Jaguar…

See the rest of the pictures here.

Please have a look, and let me know what you think, as I’ve found the experience frustrating (even if it was a worthwhile exercise in css/php!).

Also, look at the icon in your address bar at the top of your browser. It’s me!

I’ve migrated just about everything to this site anyway, so you shouldn’t notice much of a difference!

Dec12 should return shortly once Damon manages to prise the domain registration for Supanames mitts. It should then reappear on the same (infinitely superior) hosting as this site, and be resurrected.

Talking of Damon, if you’re reading thanks for all the recent help!

India Photos

So obviously, no more animal spotting. It is indeed a sad day.

It’s bloody cold here, I’d almost forgotten how cold. It’s good to be back though.

Here’s a picture of me at the Taj Mahal.

Connaught Place (shopping centre in middle of Delhi).
National Museum of India (DULL).
The Red Fort (Red).
Qutab Minar (Bigass tower).
Lotus Temple (looks like Sydney Opera House).
Some guys tomb.
India Gate.
Parliament House.

Quite a lot of stuff really, most of it quite boring cultural. Was nice to get out of the office though! We’ve also been well brave and started walking the streets. We’ve now mastered the art of ‘dissing’ people, i.e. completely ignoring them, which is an essential skill when you’re constantly hassled to buy bongs, carpets, elephants, cushions, magazine, books and infants.

We’ve also checked out of the Imperial Hotel and checked into the Shangri-La. This hotel is actually better than the last one, much more modern and it has a spa!

Right, to the important stuff, namely animals:

Animals seen so far:
All the stuff on the previous updates, plus…
More parrots.
Monkeys (on the road).
COBRA(being charmed by a man!).

Animals we need to see:
Elephants
Tigers
Sharks
Sharkiphants (this is silly).

So the animal spotting is slowing down, but we still feel we’ve had some important ‘wins’.

Here’s a picture of us in the computer booth of the Shangri-La, 19 floors up and feeling high.

On Thursday morning we visited the Taj Mahal which was nothing short of stunning. We then visited Sikandra and Fatepur Sikri, both of which were most interesting. We also learned how to make rugs, and how the marble decorations at the Taj Mahal were made.

Most importantly however, I can now update the list of animals seen!

Animals seen so far
Wierd cows with massive horns, humps and dangly necks.
Chipmunks in the trees at the hotel.
Big eagles.
Horses (boring).
Weird birds.
Mongoose (Mongooses/Mongeese? At Taj Mahal).
Antelope (not bad).
Donkeys.
Camels (in a massive camel ‘train’ on the motorway!).
Parrots (at Taj Mahal).
Cat (at the hotel in Agra)
Dogs (these are everywhere and don’t count).
Bulls (Nick insists these are different from cows).
MONKEYS! These actually sat on our shoulders!

Animals we need to see:
Elephants
Tigers
Sharks
Sharkiphants

Workwise things are still going excellently. Every morning we prepare a list of questions on the topics we discussed the previous today, and every morning every single one is answered correctly.

We’re travelling to Agra tonight, and tomorrow will be spent touring the Taj Mahal, which I expect to be rather spectacular. We’re not at work as tomorrow is Republic Day, which is a bank holiday celebrated seemingly by stuffing Delhi with tanks and men with machine guns. I think we’ll be glad we are not there, as they are expecting several million people to turn up for the parade!

Animals seen so far:
Wierd cows with massive horns, humps and dangly necks.
Chipmunks in the trees at the hotel.
Big eagles.
Horses (boring).
Weird birds.

Animals we need to see:
Monkeys.
Elephants.
Tigers.
Sharks.

The flight was actually pretty good. I changed our seats on Friday evening so that we were sitting adjacent to one of the emergency exits. This meant we had no seats in front of us, and thus almost infinite leg room. It was most comfortable. The flight from Amsterdam to Delhi was also surprisingly short, only about 7 hours, I was expecting it to be about 9 hours. We did have a two hour stop in Amsterdam though, which was pretty dull. Not bad if you like clogs or tulips, but neither particularly appeal to me.

Last night we went to one of the top 5 restaurants in the world. It was an epic, but excellent meal. I think I managed to eat something dodgy beforehand though, as my stomach is really not in a good way today. I am starting to get a bit worried actually!

So far I haven’t really had time to miss home yet, it has all been a bit frantic! We’ve met up with Duncan and Liz from billing and have been eating with them, which is keeping us well entertained. I suspect homesickness will kick in next week, when we’ve got a bit more time to ourselves.

Oh well, best get on with some work I suppose…and try to find some kind of stomach medicine!

It is a very odd place. The traffic is unbelievable! Yesterday we ended up on on the back of one of those 3 wheeled motorised rickshaws being driven by a man who was encouraged to drive even faster by our nervous laughter. It was quite an experience, and one I think we were lucky to survive!

We haven’t seen any elephants on the road yet, but we have seen some big cows with horns and droopy necks. The trees at the hotel are full of chipmunks, which is most bizzare. There are also loads of massive eagles, I suspect they eat the chipmunks as they were not big enough to eat the cows. I think I might have seen a monkey, but I am not sure.

Yesterday we had a buffet lunch that was 25 quid each. That was the most expensive lunch ever. Evening meals seem pretty reasonable though.

Now we are going to have a Pizza Hut for lunch!