Working for the weekend

Okay, you guys, guess what?! Marcelo and I have the rest of our weekends in India planned already. Next weekend will be an overnight trip to the Ajanta and Ellora Caves, which are about a 5-hour drive away. The weekend after that we are going to Goa for a beach holiday (eeeeeeeeee!). Vijay, I know you think this is a waste of time for us since tropical beaches are the same everywhere, but we're suckers for the sun and sand. The hotel that we really want to stay at is the Fort Aguada Beach Resort, which is built on the ruins of an old Portuguese fort. It's very swank, but we may be able to get a corporate discount (fingers crossed). Now that I spent so much on pashminas, everything else in the world seems affordable. The next and last weekend, we are flying to Delhi and going to visit the Taj Mahal in Agra. The Taj Mahal is the most popular tourist attraction in India and we couldn't miss it even though it is far from us. It worked out well because we were supposed to fly through Delhi anyways. So now, we'll have a weekend between our flight to Delhi and our flight to Toronto instead of doing them in a row. Should be much better. Sonia from SSS has been such a huge help in planning our leisure time. I hope there is someone helping the SSS guys at Casero?

Today began with our usual breakfast. The same little kitten from last night was there again along with an older, scruffier cat. They both tried their best to catch some crumbs off tables, but the waiters are tenacious and efficient in chasing them away. If I could get away with it, I'd sneak them up to my room, but I doubt I'll be able to pull it off. There were lots of new people at breakfast this morning. One thing we've noticed is that the travellers at our hotel are not very friendly. No one is introducing themselves or saying stuff like, "Where you from?" The woman behind Marcelo at the buffet kept on giving him dirty looks like he was holding her up. I'm thinking, "Hey lady, we were here first. You just checked in last night." Our code word for white travellers in India is 'howaito-san', which means 'Mr./Ms. White' in Japanese. Howaito-san was cranky this morning.

Breakfast was delish as usual. I had the familiar items (pineapple, potato corn croquettes, egg bhurji, creamed corn, aloo paratha, medu wada, upma) as well as two new variations on staples (masala uttapam and masala idli). Masala uttapam is a white, sour pancake with tomato, coriander leaves, onion, and spices in it. Masala idli is plain idli cut up into chunks, tossed in masala (spice) and deep-fried. What will I do when I go home and I can't have three different deep-fried foods for breakfast? Poor me.

There is a lot of construction going on in the hotel. They are completing redoing the lobby and central atrium. Up until now, the work has been hidden by large cotton dropcloths. Today, they exposed some of it, and they have this amazing wooden scaffolding lashed with ropes that starts on the bottom floor and goes all the way to the top (5th floor). We think the scaffolding was built piece-by-piece by physically climbing up the structure as it was being built. It is incredible (I had trouble uploading this picture, so please see today's photo album). Renovations and construction are done at lightning speed here in India. We drove by the new SSS office site last week and it was a shell. The plan is to move some people there within 2 weeks. At first, I didn't believe it, but now I do. Marcelo said that if his downtown Toronto condo was being built in India, it would be done already instead of being 1 year overdue.

Today at work was another bundle day. They're really getting it and asking all the right questions. They are now familiar with season ticket, family pack, flexible concept, fixed concept, Desktop bundle sales, and Online bundle sales. They are already thinking about usability improvements, which is great since we need fresh eyes to notice these kinds of problems.

At lunch, we returned to the same place as yesterday, Sarjaa. The menu is huge and everything so far has been spectacular, so we're probably going to be locals there. Marcelo made excellent choices for us again: murg reshmi kabab (chicken and vegetable kabab served with creamy slaw), jhinga koliwada (deep-fried prawns tossed in masala and served with spicy slaw), palak paneer (smooth spinach and cottage cheese blend), gosht bhuna (spicy mutton curry), plain rice, and garlic naan (butter-drenched naan, absolutely covered in fresh garlic). Um, I have to say that we haven't had ANY bad Indian food in India yet. Everywhere has been so fresh and delicious. And we're hard-to-please high-maintenance princesses now. So, lunch was no exception. The chicken was the best chicken I've had in my life bar none. Marcelo said that it must have been marinated in yogurt for a long time. The meat was velvet soft and the sauce was creamy and perfect. The prawns were a spicy contrast to the chicken and the spinach dish. The mutton's texture was like slow-cooked stew meat -- it fell apart when you touched it. The garlic naan was good, but I was so self-conscious afterwards. We both subtly had some of my Listerine Pocket Paks strips before going back to the office. I think we'll stick to the plain, buttered naan from now on. For dessert (yes, now we're having dessert at lunch too), we had something called cassata, which I think it actually an Italian word. It was a frozen ice cream dessert with a sponge cake base, three layers of different flavoured ice cream, and a top coat of nuts. This is my new favourite dessert. I like it even better than the kulfi.

The afternoon was uneventful except that someone I didn't know sat in my office while I was in the training room and used my phone. I barged in by mistake because I assumed only I was using that room. I just grabbed my bottle of water and left and didn't mention it to anyone. By the time I cam back an hour later, a little sign was put up on my door that said the room was reserved for me. I'm so coddled. Marcelo got a similar sign too.

In the evening, Marcelo had to interview a possible new resource from Bangalore, so we had dinner late. Just before we went down, it started pouring again. That makes 3 times in a little over a week when usually they don't get any rain at all in winter. We seriously brought it with us.

So, because of the rain, we had dinner in the hotel again. We thought we'd go to the poolside restaurant because it's not a buffet, so in theory we'd eat less. Here is what we ended up having: mulligatawny soup (Marcelo), sweet corn soup with chicken (me), chicken kerala kabab (chicken leg stuffed with minced lamb), jeera aloo (potato with cumin seeds), peas pulao (rice with peas, crispy onions, and peanuts), and buttered naan. Our line of thinking was that we wanted chicken and potato. Then, we thought we should have a vegetable. So, we picked the peas pulao because then we could have rice too. But, what happened was that the chicken was an appetizer. So, our main courses were rice, potatoes, and bread. Then we thought, "Hey, we should have dessert." Something called Honey Noodles with Ice Cream sounded interesting. I was honestly thinking it was vermicelli, honey, and ice cream. It turned out to be deep-fried rice noodles soaked in honey, dusted with powdered sugar, and topped with sesame seeds. With vanilla ice cream on the side. So, basically funnel cake. Nevermind trying to fit into the economy airline seat, I hope can make it through the metal detector archway.

Goodnight everyone.