arrival!

Melbourne to Bangalore ... it's a looooong way ... and yes, I do know this probably isn't news to anyone ... but the nearly 24 hours in transit was pretty exhausting. The manicure and pedicure in Singapore did help a little, but I nearly fell asleep in the middle of it.

There was, what I think is not an unusual mix-up getting into my apartment. Thankfully a couple of awesome TWers (Praveen or Pravin, I think, and another guy*), who were working late, helped me out! I got into my cavernous, dismal (but thankfully temporary) apartment at about midnight. But all I wanted at that point was to sleep, and it managed to serve that purpose.

The next day I went to the office, where I met another lovely TWer* in the elevator. He convinced me (it wasn't hard) that I needed to experience a traditional Indian breakfast, so we postponed our office plans and went to a place called southindies. It was a buffet style vegetarian breakfast and it was delicious.

My new friend then invited me to come along to the movies - the plan was to see Ice Age 3 with friends, but it was, unfortunately, sold out. But maybe not so unfortunate ... his girlfriend* (also a TWer) and another TWer* came to meet us anyway and we went to a great bar called Pecos. This is a bar I already know that Mark will love. And honestly, it wouldn't be that out of place in a Melbourne laneway! Weird.

Finally we went for lunch nearby - the name escapes me, but it specialised in seafood and was delicious! Fish curry and prawn curry, with neer dosai, appam and rice. Yummo!

After lunch we said our goodbyes and I went back to the office where I sorted out my new apartment - which I moved into today. Hurrah! I was worried that I was being oversensitive and that my displeasure with the state of the temporary apartment was just me being ... well, western. But I'm here now, in comfort and happiness. And light :)

I start work tomorrow, and I'm really quite excited about it. And it's proper excitement, not just ... redressed apprehensiveness. I'm not sure when I last felt that way about going work. There are often days I look forward to, days I really enjoy but days that I'm excited about? Not so much. So yay!

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* I am awful with names. At clients, I find out names ahead of time as much as possible, then I write down names as soon as possible - often with physical descriptions. When I started at TWs I had a spreadsheet with all the TWOZ names on it, so I could keep track of who I met ...