SSS Rocks

I just got back from the SSS offices and I have to say that I don't think there is any way this automation project can fail. The team is so sharp and experienced. We took some time today for them to explain to me how they'll approach the automation project, what they need from us, and what their next steps will be. They've done this a million times before, so aside from the info they need from us, they know exactly what to do and how long it will take. When Marcelo first told me we'd be using Indian resources for automation, I wasn't sure how it would go, but now I can safely say it's in the best hands. We will learn a lot about QTP and automated test planning/execution from them.

This morning I had my first little spot of tummy trouble. Nothing serious, but I had to let Marcelo go down to breakfast alone and I joined him later. It was no big deal. It was probably that green chili pepper masquerading as a green bean. Since I was so rushed, I forgot to take my customary picture of breakfast, but it was pretty much the same as usual: paneer paratha with mango pickle, medu wada, plain uttapam, rawa upma (rawa is a particular grain; upma = raw), sezwan idli (sezwan = schezwan; in this case, with tomato and ginger), and potato croquettes. Yeah, my stomach wasn't really that upset. One of the maitre d's came over while I was writing stuff down and explained everything to me. I've noticed, here at least, that if you show an interest in food, the chefs, cooks, waiters, etc. are happy to explain things to you. It's so nice.

In the paper this morning, there were a few articles on the marathon. Apparently, we were mistaken before about the number of participants. There were actually 50, 000 runners; not 30,000! So, that would be almost twice as big as the New York City marathon. The men's winner was a Swedish man of Moroccan descent, Said Regragui, 32, who finished in 2:18:23. The rest of the top ten were from Tanzania, Eithiopia, Kenya, and Russia. I guess one of the really elite Tanzanian runners got sick in the middle of the race from low glucose levels, but he dragged himself to the finish anyways and came in 21st. Normal blood sugar is 70 to 150 mg/dl and his had dropped to 32. On the women's side, the top three finishers were Kenyan. Hellen Nzembi Musyoka, 19, came in first and this was her very first international appearance. I've seen her around the hotel. The runners are still in town and they were having breakfast with us again this morning. I took another clandestine picture of them. I am officially the papparazzi.

We've already started discussing our plans for upcoming weekends. We are either flying to Goa for a beach weekend, or travelling 300 or so miles to the Ellora Cave Temples. For our last weekend, we'll probably fly to Delhi on the Friday, stay for the weekend, see the Taj Mahal, and then fly from Delhi to Toronto on the following Monday (21.5 hour flight!). Needless to say, I am so excited.

For lunch today, we went to a restaurant around the corner called Sarjaa. When we exited the building, Pradeep automatically brought the car around for us thinking we'd be going far. I think that he waits outside all day and is on the lookout in case we need him. When you have a car service in Canada, is it like this? Again, I feel so spoiled. We're giving Pradeep an enormous tip at the end of the month.

At the restaurant, they had both Indian and Chinese food, but we opted for the Indian of course. We had paneer malai kabab (cottage cheese and vegetable grilled on sticks), gosht seekh kabab (spicy ground mutton sausage on sticks) , mutter paneer (peas and cottage cheese), murg adraki (chicken with ginger), and naan dripping with butter. The gosht seekh kabab was so good -- spicy and served with shredded cabbage and onions tossed in the same spices. The paneer kabab was bland, which was nice after the spicy mutton and it was served with the same slaw but in a mild creamy dressing. The mutter paneer and murg adraki were both excellent scooped up with the butter-soaked naan bread. We asked for medium spicy, but it was pretty mild. We're still getting the 'white people' spiciness, I think. SSS's holiday party is on December 9, so maybe we'll get to try the real thing there.

The afternoon was spent practicing bundle configuration. We did season tickets and tomorrow we're going to do family pack. Then on to venue configuration. All the formal training should be wrapped up by the end of the week, and then they can start planning the framework and writing actual scripts. I'm really excited to see what they can do. They said the scripts will reuse as many functions as possible, so they should be much shorter and faster than the ones we tried to make.

Next to the SSS building, two new buildings are being constructed. I took pictures last week because I was so impressed that there wasn't one piece of heavy machinery on the site. People (men and women) are using shovels to digs and sacks to carry dirt. Even so, they put up an entire floor in less than 5 days (see photos). Everything here is done so efficiently with little or no equipment.

At dinner tonight, we went to the poolside restaurant. I expressed an interest in lobster a few days ago, so the maitre d' has been wanting me to come by and have some. Chef Gomes from Dhaba was there tonight too and he said he would make it for me. It turned out to be Lobster Thermidor -- a very heavy, creamy, cheesy preparation. It has some lemon juice in it too, which I'm sure cancelled out all the fat. It was actually really good and I ate almost the whole thing. Even though I was having a French dish, I still got some naan bread, which was a good thing because if only Marcelo got it I would have been jealous. Marcelo had tandoori chicken.

While we were eating, the dirty little kitten that I mentioned last week was crawling under our table and meowing really loudly. She reminds me of those poor little kids who sell flowers in traffic when the cars are stopped. She had the same look on her face and she was really persistent. I really wanted to feed her, but I'm sure the waiters wouldn't want that, so I didn't. I was hoping my window faces that direction so I could throw down some stuff from my mini bar, but it doesn't.

For dessert (yes, I had a whole lobster and I'm having dessert -- don't judge me), I had something called Royal Falooda, which was a pink, rose-flavoured ice creamy drink with vermicelli and little tapioca-like globules in it. It was yummy and cold.

For some reason, the pictures of the kitten and my lobster are being inserted sideways. For more pictures from today, see here. I'm actually back in my room early tonight, so I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep. Until tomorrow...