04 to 10 August: Financing (ugh), house inspection… and… termites!?!

Well, the pace picked up this week.  It became clear that I must have the entire “closing funds” here, in Phoenix, on the closing date, because of course they want a cashier’s cheque (oops check sorry, forgot that I’m in the USA now) or cash.  Well, I am using RBC Bank based in Atlanta, because they give me ready cross-border transfers, allows me to bring money in and push money out, as required.  RBC Bank doesn’t have any branches outside of Georgia, as far as I can tell – RBC Canada bought a bank in Georgia and renamed it RBC bank.  Atlanta is too far to go to get that cashier’s cheque (oops again). 

Someone said “go to BMO, they are all over the valley”.  Well, so they are!  There is a BMO four blocks from the office, so I went there on Tuesday at lunch.  Oh, they would happily give me an account, but there is no facility for cross border transfers.  Curses.

I redeemed some of my Canadian RRSPs, took a hit on the tax withhold, and brought the cash into RBC USA.  One step closer.  I got more than enough, although the company advised that they would pay the closing costs (non equity input) directly – but I wanted to make sure.

I went to four other institutions for consideration of mortgage loans.  They were all very eager at first!  Canadians are very popular in these parts, but then I found out why.  Three of them (eventually)  came back saying that they don’t do the FHA high ratio loans.  Most Canadians don’t qualify for FHA, so they either come in with close to 100% cash, or at least 40% down.  Minimum for them is 20% down.  Ha ha, not going to happen for me, that would clean me right out, and RRSP money is very expensive money.

The fourth institution was “in”, but could not respond fast enough.  They dropped out a week later, so sad.

When you buy a home here, you get 10 days to have a house inspection done, and demand that the seller fix problem issues.  Or rather, you can negotiate over fixing.

For me, Wednesday was “house inspection day”.  I paid some guys to give the prospective home a once-over.  One did the basic house inspection, and he found lots of stuff that I didn’t even see – outlets broken and hanging out (bah, I can fix that), cracked grouting (ugh, pay someone to fix that), broken tap sets in the bathroom (I can fix that), wiring problems to the pool pump (hmm, I guess I can fix that), a cracked window (ick, in the master bedroom too), and a bunch of other little things.  Oh, and some significant roof issues.  I had no idea!

The other guy was the termite inspector.   Here, you also have to disclose all the issues that your home has had, and sure enough, a few years ago it had termites, and they were dealt with.  But, OMG, they were back!  EEK!  Now what?

Well, as many people have told me, it turns out that either a house has termites, or will have termites.  No big deal, unless they are left unchecked for a long time.  It’s big business down here, detecting and removing termites.  They actually live in the ground around the house, so most of the treatment is in the soil.  Then they get up into the attic where they were actually seen (well not the termites but the tubes they leave behind) and knock out the evidence, treat the affected area, and repair the structure, as required.

My general observation is that they use a lot of chemicals for pest control down here.  I suspect that it’s because they have to – nasty little things like scorpions, poisonous spiders, and poisonous snakes, ugh.  Gotta keep your house and yard clean and free of debris!

On Friday, Elizabeth was picked up in Fargo ND.  Eric drove down to supervise the loading.  It went smoothly.   The car should be here early next week.  But, when it arrives, I have to have US900 cash in hand!  Ouch, how to do that?  I spoke to the RBC Bank folks, and they advised that I can go to any Bank of America or Wells Fargo, and take a cash advance against my RBC Bank account, using the Visa option.  It turns out that my RBC Bank card is not just a debit card, it’s also a Visa cash card, connected to my account.  Well, actually, the banking system is very different down here – debit appears to be processed through the credit card network (in this case, Visa) and can be delayed in showing up in your account, sometimes up to a day or two – so you have to be careful.  A side benefit is that you can get up to1000 cash advance, a day, at any bank that does Visa.  Hmm, this could come in handy later…

On the Saturday, I went to the Phoenix Art Museum.  They have a display of
Video Games as Art, but I really went for the screening of The Last Starfighter, a sci-fi movie from the mid eighties that I never saw.  Well, I missed it by a day, the screening was on Sunday!  So I checked out the art museum anyway, and bought a ticket for the movie the next day, vowing to be back.

28 July to 03 August: A busy week! Buying a house, first days at Alstom Grid, dinner with Don Bartrip, 10 pin bowling

On Sunday, 28 July, I went back to Mission Bell United Methodist Church for the first time since I arrived.  I went up and sat right beside the pastor in the front row this time – although unlike in March, there was lots of room.  Paul recognized me right away, and of course we chatted.  Actually, many of the people recognized me, that was nice.

I zeroed in on the idea of buying the house on E Utopia Rd.  We put in an offer, just under asking.  Just before we submitted it, the asking was reduced to exactly our offer!  The seller agreed, but wanted an extra week – closing on 06 September instead of 30 August – I agreed, and then the real odyssey began!

It turns out that there are different options for mortgages, as there are in Canada.  you can do the “standard” mortgage with 20% down, or you can do two types of high ratio mortgages, with downpayments in the 3-1/2% to 5% range.  The one I chose was FHA type, with FHA having the same role here as CMHC has in Canada.  There was some confusion about whether I would qualify, since I’m not an American citizen – but apparently, I qualified because my work visa is 3 years in duration.  Wow.

Then they wanted 30 days evidence of pay from current employer.   Oops, won’t have that until 30 August.  OK, OK.

Then they wanted credit check in the USA – surprise, surprise, nothing.  So then to Canada – oops a lot of debt – but credit score that was very strong.  So, good then.

Then IRS tax returns going back 3 years – evidence of earnings.  Damn.  And it goes on and on, with more requirements every day, or so it seemed.

They needed a 1% earnest deposit with the offer.  Ouch!  I had to shuffle money around to ensure that there was enough in the RBC USA account, but I managed to do it.  This was before I had the cash from my RRSP – that wouldn’t arrive until next week.

Thursday was my first day at Alstom Grid!  On the way to work, a truck on the 101 loop kicked up a rock and put a big crack in my windshield, argh.  No time to worry about it, though.

They have my desk here, and a phone, but no computer.  The day was one of filling out forms, meeting people, generally being confused.  I had brought my own laptop, for access to important documents, so was able to at least do something.  I didn’t want to plug into the network, didn’t know if I’d cause a problem.  At least I have my phone to communicate with, while at work.

My boss, Jim Blake, won’t be back until Tuesday, he had to extend his holiday to deal with an important family matter out in California.  Nothing much is going to happen until then, oh well.  So much of the system is online, that some of the forms generate the circular quest – to answer that question, get onto the network and sign in, well to get onto the network you must have an access card, to get the access card you have to go to the help system and ask for it, ha ha.

In the meantime, there’s lots of documentation to review, and a lot to learn.  Best get to it!

On Thursday, Don Bartrip of Winmer, from Albuquerque, NM, was in town for business meetings.  He and I had a great dinner and a couple of beers at The Yard House.  He regaled me with tales of his travels – he is trying to get out and see the world – Alaska Cruise, Cruise through the Panama Canal, trip to the UK and ferry to Normandy at D-Day (had quite a chat with a Canadian veteran on the boat, wow), seeing the battlefields, chatting with the (still grateful) locals.  In turn, I shared my long meandering story from Winnipeg to Markham to Winnipeg to Phoenix, and we lifted glasses to toast our (hopefully) future positive experiences.

On Saturday, I was invited out for bowling – for the first time in my life, 10 pin bowling.  It took me a while to catch on, and by the time I did, my arm was getting very tired.  In spite of that, I got three strikes in a row in the last game.  Lest you think I became an ace, you should know that I blanked the next two frames.  Yup, hot and cold.  Something like the Blue Bombers.  Well, no – they are just cold, ha ha.

Of course, the next day I was very, very sore.  My neck, my back, and my arm.  My tennis elbow was demanding to know what the @#$%@# I thought I was doing, playing tennis or something????  And my wrist, argh!

22 to 27 July: Adjusting to being on my own, becoming more American, looking at houses – to buy!

What is it they say about idle hands?  Oh yeah, not something I want to associate with myself 🙂

So, although Eric left on Sunday, 21 July, I didn’t start work until Thursday, 01 August.  What to do?  Plenty!

I applied for my Social Security Number.  All you have to do is have a valid work permit in the US (a TN Visa qualifies of course) and be in the country 10 days.  You take down your proof of identity, citizenship, and the valid work permit, and apply.  It arrives a few days later in the mail.  Wow.

I was busy with the guys from Easun Reyrolle in India.  Srini and Mani had lots of questions, and I am helping them a bit more on their relay designs.  I was talking to them pretty well every day, often in the evenings (they are 12-1/2 hours ahead of Phoenix), but sometimes early in the morning too – hey, hey, not that early 🙂   I am developing a bit of a bad attitude toward mornings.

I connected with an Emotions Anonymous group in Glendale, meeting Tuesday evenings.  It has been quite helpful.  As you can imagine, it has been quite stressful to go so far, experience so much climate change, so much culture change, be alone, and then not working for a couple of weeks.  EA helps.

I went looking at houses – being uninspired by my rental choices, I wanted to look at a home purchase instead.  There were about 40 potentials, which I whittled down to about a dozen right away, then cut down again to six.  So Fla and I zipped around to six houses.  Oops, well, one I rejected right away – although it looked great because it was 2 acres with a shop c/w overhead crane, storage for over a dozen more cars, lot backing out on a wash so I could race off on the bike… when I drove by there the night before, it was in a dumpy area, rather scary actually… too bad.  Plus the listing had *no* pictures of the interior of the house – and as I recall, said something about “as is” – so you know that it must be scary.  So sad.

The houses were… interesting.  A low cost one was a foreclosure, I could see myself doing a lot of work on that one, saving a lot of money… but man, was it grubby.  The bank had tried to do some work, but it just wasn’t clean.  Yikes.

There was a house with a large iron gate between the living room and the kitchen.  Hmm, looked like something that would be more appropriate in the yard, to restrict access to the pool.  Not sure what that was all about.

Then there was a 3,000 square foot house with a 26×36 garage/shop!!!!   And another 10×20 shop attached behind that.  And an RV storage area on the other side.  And a huge pool.  Wow.  I would love that, but sadly, couldn’t see being able to fill even half the place with furniture – and the cost to cool the place in the summer would be astronomical.  Sigh.

So we entered the next week pondering…  and thinking of the one place that seemed to be a balance of most of what I was looking for – 3017 E Utopia Lane, Phoenix, AZ 85050.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers were playing again on Friday, 26 July, with the Calgary Stampeders in town.  I tried to hook the computer up to the big screen TV again, but it did not work nearly as well – very frustrating.  The image started to go out for 5 to 10 seconds every minute or so, argh!  Eventually just cut off the TV and watched it on the little screen.  Ooh, the game wasn’t all that good, we lost pretty convincingly.  Just as well that I couldn’t see it on the big TV.

20 and 21 July: Bein’ Lazy, and then Bein’ Alone

It has been too long since I updated this blog.  We were lazy on Saturday, then Eric flew home on Sunday.  It sure was good to have him along with me, but it was sad to see him head off.

Eric and I outside the Mesa Gateway Williams Airport

And then…  I’m alone.   The place is sooooooooooo quiet.  Oh well.  That’s kind of what I wanted – or at least, what I expected.  I washed the linens, cleaned up a bit (as much as needed – which wasn’t much 🙂 ), and then got on with it.

19 July: Looking at rentals, and watching the Blue Bombers over the Internet

My real estate agent picked Eric and I up at 9 AM on Friday, and off we went to look at rental properties for me to live in.  This condo is only temporary for a month, provided as part of the relocation package that the company gave me – so I have to find someplace real to live.

The first place was great – it was a house with a nice garage, a pool, and tons of space.  It was also filthy, and needed some repairs.  Perhaps I’d pony up to buy at a good price, because I can do some cleaning and repairs, but to rent – no thank you.

The rest of the places were various condos in beautiful gated communities, with nice pools, nice views, some with big garages.  All with lots of levels, many stairs, too much carpet.  Nice, and quite liveable, but gee, it would be nice to have more.

Oh my Lord, is it freakin’ hot here!  I can’t believe it!  I went for a swim after dark, and the water was still hot tub warm, just from the sun!  It’s going to be a challenge for a Canadian boy from the prairie plains to get used to.  It might be fun to try though!

That evening, there was a Winnipeg Blue Bombers game on.  Well, this being the USA, CFL football isn’t high on the priorities list for them.  But, it turns out, that some CFL games are broadcast on ESPN2 sports network, which the cable system in the condo gets.  However, not this one, so sad.  But, it was being broadcast on ESPN3, an Internet-only sports network, which I could get on my laptop.  I dug through my tote bins, found my DisplayPort to HDMI cable, and pumped it out through the big screen TV in the living room.  Ha ha, beer, pizza, and high definition football!!  What else could a couple of guys want???

18 July: Tour of the Cardinals football stadium

We got up, rarin’ to go.  We zoomed over to the Phoenix Cardinals NFL football stadium and went on the tour.  Way cool!  It’s kind of weird looking from the outside (okay, really weird), but apparently it’s supposed to be modelled after a type of cactus.  Hmm, OK.

Cardinals Football Stadium, Phoenix
Inside the “skin” there is a huge logo, and pictures of all season ticket holders when the stadium opened

Inside, of course it’s impressive, you know with so many big screen displays, so many concessions, the ability to convert to this use and that use, blah blah  blah.

The coolest thing is that the field is real grass – and it’s on a huge portable pad that’s something like 120 yards long x 60 yards wide, which rolls into the stadium when needed, on hundreds of rail wheels!  When it’s out, the floor is a nice flat concrete surface with the odd steel ribbon level in the floor, for the wheels to roll on (no raised rails or anything).  Way cool!

The football field, growing happily in the Arizona sun – rolls towards us into stadium when needed

We also tried to get a tour of the Phoenix Coyotes NHL hockey stadium (Coyotes being the former pre-1995 Winnipeg Jets), but the fellow who would give the tour wasn’t in, and didn’t return my call in time.  Oh, well.

We did some grocery shopping, chilled, and watched a movie.  It was a good day.

Epilog for Trip to India: Of Foreign Lands, Good People, Different Cultures

What an amazing time I had in India.  The people were wonderful.  Oh, it’s not all wisdom and light, but it certainly was enlightening, overall.

There are so many people, and wages are relatively low, so there are people to do everything.   You do not clear your trays in the fast food restaurant, there are people who rely on a job doing just that.  There are elevator attendants in some places.  There are often four people working a sales counter when one could likely do the job.

Yes, there are people in desperate straits, and they would no doubt like to better themselves, but as long as they aren’t in physical pain, they are relatively happy.  They are accepting of their situation, and they make the best of it.  Here in North America, people in a similar situation would generally be bitter and grumpy.  Not so here – they work hard, and accept their situation as it comes.  Wow, we could learn from that.

They drive like crazy here – cutting in and out, beep-beeping to let each other know where they are, and to warn that they are changing lanes, etc.  But, nobody gets upset!  You have an opening, you pull in, they slow down, no problem.  They are so patient!

Even at intersections – the cross traffic often starts nosing into the intersection six to ten seconds before the light turns green (often there is a countdown beside the traffic light).  When they nose in far enough that the traffic has to stop, it stops – even though they have the green!  Then the red light traffic noses further… and further… and soon they are going right through.  Folks beep-beep-beep away, but nobody gets hot under the collar.  Amazing!

Some things are inexpensive here – food from the supermarket, for example.  Some are quite expensive – electronics like televisions and computers – by my estimation, about 10% to 20% more than in Canada – but that’s just a quick estimate.  Restaurant food seems to be less, too – fast food is about two thirds the cost as in Canada, while higher end restaurants seem to be about half.

Telecommunications is very inexpensive in Bangalore.  Pay-as-you-go mobile telephone costs only a few dollars per month.  That’s right – a few dollars a month.  And satellite television is also only a few dollars per month.  You have to wonder how they do it. 

There is far more litter in India than in Canada.  Far more.  Did I say far more?  Ugh.  We would not put up with the amount of litter that I saw in India.  Unfortunately, the problem is so huge that it seems intractable – so culturally they are not driven to stop littering.  We saw a fellow on the highway toss out a pop bottle, quite intentionally, waiting and aiming for the water while driving over a river bridge.  Now, if that was someone in my family, they would be walking back to pick it up.  But nobody here seems to notice.  Too bad.

It’s hot in Bangalore.  It was 33 to 37 degrees Celsius every day that I was there.  It was dry for the first few days, but then it rained and the humidity went way up.  It’s the humidity that gets to you. 

Manikandan tells me that Chennai, where he and Srinivasan are from, is far hotter than Bangalore – about 4 degrees Celsius, on average.  Ugh. 

In spite of the heat, they do not have air conditioning in their houses.  When they built their houses in Hosur, some five to ten years ago, it was not as hot then, and they decided against putting air conditioning in. 

Did you catch that?  Their estimate is that in the past ten years, it has risen about four degrees Celsius in the past decade or so.  Chennai as well, apparently.  Ever hear of this thing they call Global Warming?  Well, let me assure you, they believe in it in Hosur.

In India: 09 and 10 May: The Longest Day, TGI Friday’s again, Cattle Cattle Everywhere, Yay Kabob, Fly Dean Fly, Sleep Dean Sleep!

I was up early (6 AM), finished my packing, checked out of the hotel and headed in to the office.  For something like 19 days, plus dinners and taxi rides, the cost was amazingly low.  They didn’t appear to have a locked concierge room at the hotel, so I took all my luggage to the office, so I could keep control of it.

Little did I know that this would be the longest day, ugh.  Long way before I sleep.

I met with ERL management in the morning, and gave my opinion of the products, the projects, and what they should be doing.

It was my last day with them, so Srini & Mani let me take them back to TGI Friday’s for lunch, at the Royal Minakshi Mall.  They were good sports!  The food was foreign to them, so they let me help them with the menus.  The mushroom soup was spicy but great, they enjoyed it too.

On the way back, just outside the mall, on the boulevard, there was a family of cows & calves just hangin’ out.  Wow.  Further down, on the back road trail, there was the bull!  It was obvious that he was the bull.  The picture doesn’t capture it, but, um, he has hangin’, yikes.  The boys walked well clear of the bull, and hastened to make me do the same.  “The bull, he is angry, he will hurt you.”  Well, I don’t know about angry, but he sure didn’t look happy.  Then again, he looked rather gaunt, and in similar conditions, I might feel the same (refer to pictures above, I’m not gaunt 🙂 ).

Oh, a cute little cattle family…  on a boulevard outside the big city mall!

…and here’s the daddy-O – the bull – leave him alone!

After lunch, I wrapped things up and got ready to head out.  Srini and Mani had insisted that I come with them down the block to Kabob Masti for a 6 PM “snack”.  Wow, was more like a meal!  What a fantastic meal, too.  Kabob pita wraps, popcorn chicken, wow.

Well, the skies were threatening to open up on us, but we made it back to the office without getting wet.  Ramu, the manager, wanted to take me to dinner, so we called a taxi, and headed out an hour or so later.  We went to a beautiful upscale vegetarian restaurant in the heart of town.  The food was wonderful, the ambiance was great.

The taxi dropped Ramu off at home at around 10 PM.  By this time, it was pouring rain.  As we made our way to the airport, the rain got heavier and heavier.  There was up to a foot of water in the street!  In some spots, the driver had to keep the car in low gear, and keep the engine revving to ensure that it didn’t stall.  And all the while, we were passing and were being passed by motorbikes – those poor folks were soaked to the bone!

After what seemed like a long, long time – about 1-1/2 hours – we made it to the airport.  A 3 hour wait with 300 of my close friends 🙂 and we were off to Frankfurt, a 9 hour flight.  The plane was nice, the service was good, but the plane was packed.  I was sooooo bored.  I watched TV, read a book, but could not, could not, sleep.  Maybe 1/2 hour, that’s all, ugh.

Then a 4-1/2 hour layover in Frankfurt.  No sleep.

Then an 8 hour flight to Montreal.  Fortunately, I had 3 seats to myself, yay!  The flight was relatively empty.  Again, very little sleep.  I don’t know why I can’t sleep on planes.  Oh well.

We were late getting in to Montreal, which put us behind on getting to our next gate.  I was supposed have a two hour layover in Montreal, but most of that was eaten up by waiting for our luggage!  My bag was tagged through to Winnipeg/YWG but I was getting stressed standing in line waiting to check it through.  When we realized that we could just dump our already tagged bags onto the belt, we did so, and ran to the gate – getting there only ten minutes before boarding.  At least we were on Canadian soil, yay!  That’s when I felt like kissing the ground 🙂

Again, no sleep, so sad.

By the time I arrived in Winnipeg, I felt completely wired.  My mother and son were waiting there for me at the airport, and I just wanted to get home.  Eric, the rat, diverted us over to a certain Tim Horton’s, and…  my brother was there, from Red Deer, to greet us!  Of course, had to sit and chat with him for a bit.  It turns out that he was in town to purchase a new Jetta TDI to replace the one that was totalled in a collision last month (not his fault).  It was really good to see him.

I finally got to bed around 11 PM.  My math might be faulty, but I think it was about 53 hours between getting up on Thursday morning in Bangalore, and finally hitting the sheets back home.  One word: ugh.

In India: 08 May: Dean Visits a Temple and One More Trip to the Lab

On Tuesday, Ramu, the Product Development Manager for ERL Relays & RTUs, asked if I had been to a temple yet.  No, I had not.  He was astounded, said that I had to go!  Why had I not gone to the one right across the street from the hotel?  I had walked past it several times.  Truthfully, I was concerned that I might, in my North American ignorance, be disrespectful of the spiritual nature of the temple.  After all, someone from a Hindu culture might not realize the rituals and customs associated with our Christian churches, and how would we like that?  Well, Ramu told Srini & Mani to take me to the temple on Wednesday morning.

So here we are, going to the Minaksha Temple, basically across the street from the Royal Minaksha Mall.  Another humbling experience.

There was a large courtyard where you had to remove your shoes and socks.  There was a “shoe check hut” staffed by a clerk, where they put your shoes into an organizer cube and gave you a chit.  Then you crossed the threshold and entered the temple, underneath the temple spire.

This particular temple spire was being renovated.  Wooden scaffolding and workers doing masonry high above your head.  You could see splats of material on the concrete & brick courtyard floor.  I worried that one of the workers could fall and go “splat” as well.  None did, as far as I know.

This temple was dedicated to a husband-and-wife pair of gods, so there were two central shrines, each tended by a holy man (not sure what to call them, monks maybe?).  Each came out from the shrine with a tray of burning incense candles, a pot of paint, and a basket of flower petals and packets of the same colour paint – you waved the smoke from the incense into your face, and the monk put a dot of paint on your forehead, then gave you select petals and a packet of the same colour paint to renew the dot later.  You optionally put a small donation in the basket.

The first monk put white paint on my forehead, but I was sweating profusely, not sure you can see it in the photos.  The second monk put red paint on my forehead, and that you can see in these photos taken after we emerged from the temple.

We were not allowed to take photos in the temple – in fact, cameras were entirely banned, so I can’t show what it looked like inside.

Srini & Mani led me around the walls of the temple, where likenesses of the other gods were placed.  We stopped at each one, and they explained the significance.  There was then a larger fenced-in area with eight gods, each looking in different directions – they were not to be able to see each other – and represented the sun, moon, and stars.  Srini & Mani walked eight times around this area, and I joined them.

We did some meditation and prayer back in the centre of the temple, at the main shrines.

Then, back to our shoes and back to work.

On the way out of the temple, there were several very elderly and very crippled women sitting, begging.  I had not brought enough money with me, had nothing to give.  But, Srini & Mani, both of whom of course knew about these things, had a little bit left, and gave some to the women.  Charity is part of the culture.

We ate in the lunchroom one more time.  Although the food is very different, I’m getting used to it.  Yes, the customs are different, but the lunchroom staff try hard to treat me very well.

In the afternoon, we went back to the lab, this time from the ERL office (other times had been VIA picking me up at the hotel), so we went on a private toll road.  Wow what a difference!  Very smooth, wide open, and empty.  Not many can afford it, I guess.  Back home in Canada, they would call this a “P3 partnership” because I think the local government participated in the toll road as well.

Contrasted with the smooth open fast toll road, back onto the city streets for the last few kilometres, ugh.  I was watching around, and looked up at the under-construction metro.  Yes, they are in the process of building a metro elevated train system all around Bangalore.  When it is completed in a few years, they will be amazing, and relieve the congestion, I’m sure.   Anyway, we drove right under one huge concrete section, probably 15 metres long by 5 metres wide and 2 or 3 metres thick, just suspended above us on some kind of a gantry crane machine machine.  Now, it was a large sturdy machine, but it still made me nervous… back to my old tricks, worrying too much?  You would never know what hit you, I guess 🙂

Anyway, our purpose in the lab this day was different, as mentioned before.  We were no longer trying to fix things, just getting a baseline.  We took the much-modified unit with us, but also a new unit, modified to (supposedly) the same level.  We did our tests, very efficiently, then bid our friends at the lab adieu, and were off again.

This being our last trip to the lab, Mani wanted to stop for a snack, so we stopped at a McDonald’s.  McDonald’s and KFC are huge over here, quite a delicacy to the Indian palate.  I think I mentioned it before, but let me reiterate – no beef.  Nada, zip, none.
The boys dropped me off at the hotel.  I did some paperwork, and zipped out to the flea market the Nobert and I had visited while he was here.  I picked up a few trinkets – the shopkeeper had already closed but opened “just” for me, nice.

Traffic in front of the hotel was, well, ridiculous.  Crazy.  At 9 o’clock at night!  I cannot describe it any other way.  I tried to capture some of it on video using my tablet.  This is me, trying to cross the street.  Sorry for the bit of bounce – I was trying to keep out of the way of the traffic!  What you do is, watch the locals – when they go, you go.  When they look nervous, you start looking around for a place of refuge!

In India: 07 May: Thank God it’s…. Tuesday?

Tuesday was an average day.  I worked on both projects, we made plans for tomorrow’s visit to the test lab.  We’ll be at the office Wednesday morning, then over to the lab for the afternoon.  We are planning to put together two systems that represent the setup of our best results so far, then test them as a baseline.  Then we’ll get the changes underway for the next generation of boards.  We’ll just assume that we can’t get there with these ones, and use our best information, knowledge and experience, to get close.

Today again I walked over to the Royal Minaksha Mall on my own, for lunch.  I wandered a bit, ended up at TGI Friday’s, was quite…  American.  Just what I needed.  My body’s on a bit of a revolt.  Not that Indian food is a problem, just that I need some – um – more “traditional fare”, at least traditional for me, some of the time.

On the way to the mall, I noticed a lot of styrofoam around on the back road I was taking.  I’d been down here several times, this time looked… ugly with all that styrofoam.

On the way back from the mall, I saw a woman carrying  a basket of goods on her head.  She was so graceful, it seemed effortless.  I’m pretty sure I couldn’t do that!