Last week at SSS

This was our last Monday at the SSS offices. We'll be here all this week until Friday morning at the latest and then we embark on our whirlwind tour of Jaipur, Agra, and Delhi before flying home through Zurich. Only 4 more nights in Pune and then 3 more on the road. Time has really flown by.

We are both in much better spirits after our decadent weekend in the tropics. This morning, we had breakfast for the first time in the new renovated restaurant. Everything has been redone (furniture, lighting, dishes, cutlery). We no longer get to eat by the pool, which is a shame, but the new space is clean and comfortable. I don't know if it is because we ate so much so late last night, but this morning we were both starving. I had a mix of Indian and Western stuff (paneer paratha, veggie cutlet, plain uttapam, pineapple, pomegranate, pancakes, fried egg, and toast). These days I eat more at breakfast that I used to all day. I need to work out. I'm even a little sore from swimming/floating yesterday.

I'm desperately trying to clean up these test cases. If anyone in QA in Toronto has a spare moment, any help would be appreciated. They want to have them all cleaned up before making estimates (which is fair).

At lunch, we walked to Kobe again and had sandwiches. Marcelo tried something called a 'Russian salad' sandwich. He said that in South America, Russian salad is creamy potato salad. At Kobe, it is a bright green mayonnaisey spread. He liked it though. For dessert we had malai kulfi because we didn't have any ice cream at all yesterday. I'm as big as a house.

After lunch we walked down the street to Citibank so Marcelo could get some cash. At all the ATMs we've seen, they have security guards in the vestibule. This is nice because since there aren't that many international ATMs around, we usually take out a huge stack of bills. My advice to anyone coming here is to buy travelers cheques in USD. You can exchange them at a good rate at any hotel; it's much more convenient.

In the afternoon, Shirish showed us his very thorough documentation on the automation framework. He has put so much work into it and every angle seems to be covered. Marcelo was very pleased with it. Shirish sweetly invited us to his house for dinner tomorrow night and we're very excited to meet his family and try some real home cooking. We kind of freaked out because my friend Sukhi told me that if I was invited to dinner, I should bring a 'hostess gift'. She didn't say what though. So, we were madly trying to find info on the Internet and there wasn't much. Sonia from SSS thinks a crystal vase would be nice, so that's what we've decided on. Unless anyone else has any ideas? Please?

For dinner we went to Mainland China, which is a pretty happening place at night. The food there is pretty good, so we got too excited and went overboard with the ordering. We ordered two appetizers (duck in chili sauce, deep-fried shiitake mushrooms) and four mains (stewed noodles with crab, wok-fried dumplings, deep-fried soft shell crab, steamed chicken with straw mushrooms) plus steamed rice. We ordered enough food for 6, I think. We totally hit the wall and there was so much food left over. Lesson learned. From now on, only one appetizer and two mains. And dessert.

The general manager at our hotel said that my name was on the list for checking out tomorrow, but that he knew it was a mistake. I don't know how that happened. It would have been tragic to be turfed out, but I think that instead someone will not be able to check in tomorrow. Computers -- can't trust 'em.

Goodnight all.