Jan 7th: the last Entry.

So here I am sitting in Heathrow airport waiting rather impatiently for my flight back to Glasgow.

I went out for dinner in Bangalore last night with Julian and some other ex-pats. Seems he had a rather different social life than I had!! Obviously if his wife is reading this it was full of hardship and poor eating options. If she isn't then he had the bloody life of riley!!! I thought that we would go to an Indian restaurant for one last meal. Not so. We went to a very trendy Italian place and had a four course marathon. Tempura Shrimp and Veg to start. Then pasta carbonara for the secondi. Followed by a bacon wrapped fillet steak for the main course finished by panacotta for desert. There might have been a few beers and in there. Even a dark rum and coke.

Then guess what. I woke up and reached new hights on the MurrAlfie scale, typical.

My trip is pretty much over. I hope you enjoyed reading this, i enjoyed writing it. I've a few thankyous to finish off with.

• Joint first, IBM and my family for letting me go.
• Secondly Dr. Aravind and everybody at the hospital along with Adopt a business for sorting it out.
• And Lastly British airways for putting me on Club Class back from India, never has an eleven hour flight been so easy, or as filled with champagne.

So I'm afraid thats it..... One last thing to say.

Feb 5th: Last day of work

Packed my bags today, thankfully I was prepared for this and had packed an extra bag to take extra stuff back. Just as well as its all taken up way more room than it did when I came out. No bloody wonder though, I'm taking back all the medicine and stuff that I thought I would have used up by now. The only things I've used has been 1 roll-on bottle of mosquito repellant and two nurofen. So, I have tons of everything for any subsequent adventures that I do next. I don't think I'll need it for Disneyworld which is the next trip.

I did the final presentation today. I must say I'm pretty pleased with how it all seems to have come together. It was very well received I believe. Its not a complete piece of work yet but it is a good starting place to build from. I am the second IBMer to go to Aravind with Adopt A Business and I don't think I will be the last.

I was given two gifts to remind me of my time here, one is a book entitled "Green Well Years" it was written by a man called Manohar Devadoss. He is a patient of the hospital and is practically blind. He is also an incredibly talented artist. He will dilate his pupils to be able to see as much of the landscape or building that he wants to draw and then do the drawing mostly by memory. The book has some of his pictures in it as well as his story of growing up in Madurai.

I had seen some of his prints in the hospitals so I had been thinking of buying the book.

I also got a DVD about Dr. V who started the hospital. I saw this film on my first day and it was really good, so it is a good reminder of my time here.

Left to Right, Vasanth, Dr. Aravind, Yours Truly, Mr Thulasirag, Mr. Suresh and Dr. Ramakrishnan. Photo taken by Mrs Sashipriya

I said my goodbyes to everyone at Aravind, its amazing how many people you get to know quite quickly.

I then said goodbye to everyone at the guesthouse and have made my way back to Bangalore. I saw a car jacking or some sort of mini riot on the way from the airport to the city. A large crowd of people had surrounded a taxi and dragged someone out of it. They then bundled somebody else in. It looked very serious and my driver got very worried that the same was about to happen to him. We sped off pretty quickly to get away.

So I'm in the hotel now. I'm meeting with Sham from adopt a business for lunch tomorrow and I'm going to go shopping to try and get some gifts for the kids. I'll have a last night out in Bangalore tomorrow before heading back to the frozen north.

I'm flying home in less than 36 hours. Cool.

TTFN

Feb 4th: Dinner with the boss.

A relatively quite story day today I'm afraid. We have completed all the work and will do a final
presentation tomorrow to the senior leadership team at the hospital tomorrow. We will also see how the second hospital is getting on with our new templates.

I went out for dinner with Dr. Aravind, Vasanth and Dr. Ramikrishnan. We went to a pool side restaurant which seemed to specialise in kebabs. They were excellent, really, really good. We had some Paneer and Fish then some curries. This part of India does not really do spicy food so it seems I have probably dodged a bullet there.

Some of the residents arrived for their own dinner later. They were all clowning around until they saw Dr. Aravind. Sudden panic as they now knew the boss was watching.

Tomorrow is my last day of working. I can't believe it. Parts of it have gone slowly but I'm nearly
finished. Sheesh.

Forgot my bloody camera again what a fool.

TTFN

Feb 3rd: Its hot, damn hot.

My god its hot in Madurai, the week I spent up north in Lucknow has got me more used to a cooler temperature of around 23 degrees. Today down here in the south its about 34 degrees. By the time I had walked the five minutes to work I was a total ball of sweat. I'm going to get a bit of a shock when I go home in a few days. It Looks like the weather there is not the best. Maybe I should stay longer until spring :-)

Myself and girls that are staying at the guest house went into the market tonight to pick up clothes that one of the girls has had made. It was good fun and I was mad that I left my camera behind.

One part of the market is the tailor district, one side of the lane is taken up completely by singer sewing machines. Each one is occupied by a very industrious little tailor beavering away, making whatever garments he needs to complete that day.

The other side is full of material shops, you name it they seem to have it. If by some chance a particular shop doesn't have what you are looking for you can bet that his pal down the road does.

Now the ladies were doing what ladies do in shops like this, which was essentially look at every cloth available. Only joking ladies. I got chatting to one of the shop keepers while this was going on. He did his level best to get me to buy something. I nearly got caught up in it all but had a rush of blood to the senses and declined. You know what its like when you are on holiday. You buy something that makes perfect sense when you are there. Suddenly, back in Glasgow you realize that you will never in a million years wear what you bought.

The shopkeeper and I had a good discussion about accents. For Indians the Scottish accent is really easy for them to understand, far easier than American and English which is funny. As long as I don't speak to fast I have had absolutely no problems in being understood. Except, it seems, when it was perhaps in the best interests of the rickshaw driver to not understand.

After shopping we went for a beer at the rooftop restaurant which was nice. Comparatively peaceful up on the roof compared to the streets. We spent too long enjoying the beer that we were late back to guesthouse. First time I was late back since I got there. Whoops.

On the work front we have agreed what we are going to complete to bring everything together and roll out the process to antoher hospital. All good stuff.

TTFN

Feb 2nd: Back to balmy Madurai

After a shaky start I got back to Madurai today.

Before I left the hotel this morning I checked my ticket. Definitely departs from Delhi International Airport. At least that what is printed on the ticket.

Get in a taxi and tell the driver where to go. He asks where I'm flying to and I tell him. He thinks that I should be going to the domestic airport. I'm adamant that we should be going to the International as that what the ticket says.

So we drive to Delhi International passing Delhi domestic, you can see where this is going can't you.

Get to international and try to find terminal 1. Asked the check in girl where terminal one is and she says that is the domestic airport.

So the ticket says International Airport Terminal 1. If you are ever in Delhi that means the domestic airport. The one you will have passed 20 minutes ago. Queue mad dash back to the correct airport. Terminal 1. We get there to be confronted with a sign, left for Terminal 1A and right for Terminal 1B. Damn. Luckily we guess correctly. Thankfully make it with a couple of seconds to spare.

I've spoken about the traffic on the roads, well its not much better on the runway either, not the planes. The buses that are taking you to the planes, they are cutting each other up and on the horn all the time as well. I end up on a bus, just me and the driver.. No idea where everyone else is.

when I get back to the guest house I meet Vanescha who is also over with adopt a business working in another area of the hospital. We have a chat while out for a walk, I'm going to buy some fruit to try and restore some equilibrium if you know what I mean.

I've realized that my vegetarian lifestyle has for the most part been vegetarian but has also been pretty veg free as well. Lots of rice, potato and bread so I've been carb loading straight for three weeks now.

Weight loss isn't happening this time. Although I think I can go home and run a marathon with all the carbs I've got.

Back into work tomorrow for the remaining three days.

I see its been snowing in the UK, thought I'd share this little nugget with you then:
TTFN

Feb 1st: Not feeling well!!

I knew I shouldn't have had a donut yesterday lol. I didn't have that beer last night.

I think yesterday's lunch has somewhat disagreed with me as I've had a storm brewing all day. I wonder if it was accidental or suspicious. There could be a MurrAlfie reading of significance heading this way.

Not much else has happened today. I got back to Delhi and I am in my hotel. I've got a tv in the room and am watching the tennis. Don't want to stray too far from safety.

So thats about all really. Its now February and there is a part of me that is thinking of the kids and my wife a lot. I'm looking forward to seeing them soon.

Early start tomorrow back to Madurai and the guesthouse.

I'm going back to the bed :-(

I might be able to watch Liverpool Chelsea game later.

TTFN.