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Letter One: From Delhi

Transcript follows:

Paharganj

Dehli

24th January 2010

I’m settling down now for my 4th night in Dehli & thought I should make a start on a letter home.  Hopefully my handwriting will be legible enough.  I will try to be neat.

I left England on the 20th, and should have landed the same day, but I arrived in Amsterdam to learn my connection was delayed by 11 hours.  At first I was alarmed, but then I realised it gave me an afternoon in Amsterdam, which was unexpected but fun.

I finally landed in Delhi midmorning.  I reached the hotel without problem & then tried to find water and money.  That was a little stressful, as I kept being followed by touts, suggesting I visit the “official” tourist office.  I ignored one, who finally told me I was rude & should go back to my own country.  Once I’d found water and rupees, I felt a lot happier.  I visited a bookshop in Connaught Place, where I had a calming browse.  I also picked up some books to replace those I’d read on the flight.  One of the things I’ve been enjoying is having time to read.

Once money & water were sorted out, everything seemed less daunting.  I found a cafe that did coffee & cake near the Metro, which is great to visit on the way back from an outing.  I’m feeling a little settled now - I’m so glad that I finally got myself organised & booked this trip.

One of the most remarkable things about Delhi is the traffic.  It sounds cacophonous, but it’s actually quite well organised.  The roads don’t seem to have lanes, so drivers use their horns to announce their presence to other road users.  People don’t try predicting other driver’s actions, like at home, but keep a careful watch on what is happening.  For the first few minutes I was alarmed at driving in Delhi, but realised there were very few dented cars - so I just relax and trust the driver.  The narrow streets are busy, with cars, auto-rickshaws, motorbikes, and even elephants, but the drivers are less aggressive than many of the cyclists on Brighton seafront.

I’ve spent the first four days walking around the city.  I’ve walked through many different areas, enjoying the contrast between different districts.  Walking around New Delhi is fairly peaceful compared to the markets & tourist attractions.  I have been taking auto-rickshaws, although I’m usually ripped off - it’s quite a strange imitation, when someone cheats you for 10p on a 60p journey.  You know you’ve been overcharged, and it’s easy to forget how small the sums involved are.  My favourite transport method is the Metro - it’s cheap and mostly peaceful.  At rush-hour it is properly packed though - I missed a stop once because I couldn’t move from where I was stood.

I’ve not done many tourist sites yet - I’ll be back in Delhi later in the trip.  My favourite site so far was the Jantar-Muntar, a series of astronomical instruments the size of buildings.  They’re well worth googling.  It was amazing to wander through these monuments, figuring out how they worked.  There are five such sites in India, & I’ll be near two of the others later in my trip.

I’ve also been running a few times, but the pollution is bard on my tender lungs.  My target time in the marathon is going to be upped, I fear, as I’ve not been able to manage any significant distance.

The runs themselves have been magical though.  The last two days I’ve taken auto-rickshaws to Lodi Gardens before dawn.  The city looks different again in the early hours.  Then 4 miles or so around the park, whose tombs look stunning as they emerge from the mist.

I’m staying in Delhi a few more days before an overnight train ride to Udaipur.  So far I’m loving the trip.  Delhi may be frantic, but I’ve not spoken to anyone British for days, which is quite relaxing.  Being without a mobile is good, although I sometimes think it’s vibrating in my pocket - a technological phantom limb.

I will write more after I reach Udaipur.

James

[I will try to scan better quality images, but for the sake of speed added these for the present. Ed.]

   

Off on my travels

I meant to write a couple of posts for the turn of the year but I didn't have time. It's interesting to think about 2009/10 now, almost three weeks into 2010.

2009 was a little disappointing. Programming took more of my energy than I'd have liked, meaning writing projects, including the novel, didn't get the attention they should have done. The year was pretty good - I ran 600 miles, did over a dozen readings, made great progress on my novel - but I would like to have done more.

So far 2010 has been a blast. Despite the snow, I've managed to do some running and am, just about, on track for the Brighton Marathon in April. My talk at the Catalyst Club, on How to Escape on a WW2 POW Camp, seemed to be very well received.

The most exciting news is that I've become a freelancer. I'm planning to do both writing and programming work in 2010, but so far I've been exclusively working on some writing projects. One of these was an essay which included some fictional sections - I'll announce that when it comes out.

Even more exciting, I'm off to India tomorrow. It's amazing to think that in about 30 hours I'll be landing in Delhi. I'm going to be away for a couple of months and will be taking the opportunity to get away from my computer as much as possible. I will be contactable by email, but I'll only be checking every few days. There will also be some blog posts, as a friend has agreed to scan in some letters.

2010 has been pretty good so far. I'm looking forward to seeing what more it brings.

Things to do before I leave town

My library is now in storage, which means I'm one step closer to my holiday. Storage centers are weird, pushing the trolley past dozens of identical doors, knowing there are hundreds of rooms in the warehouse and wondering: what is in all these rooms?

Only a few more days to go, and I still have lots left to do. A week from today, I'll be settling down for my last sleep in this country for some time.

I love Ross Sutherland's poem Things to do before you leave town, now more than ever:
Do not go back for your coat
Do not hard-talk the homeless.
Do not stare longingly up at the clock tower.
Stop taking yourself so seriously. .

My favourite films of 2009

I'm running a little late with this so I'll post it briefly now before it's too out of date. My favourite films of 2009 were:

1. Synecdoche, New York - currently my favourite film ever.
2. Antichrist - although I had my eyes closed for a couple of bits
3. Morris: A Life with Bells On - I had a great time seeing this at the Duke of York's, surrounded by real-life morris dancers
4. Up - although mostly for the first five minutes.
   
5. The Wrestler - I was underwhelmed when I watched this, because the ending seemed a disappointment, but I found myself thinking about it a lot afterwards.
   

I didn't see as many movies last year as in 2008, and I missed a few that looked amazing. I was underwhelmed by both Moon and District 9, which seemed illogical and obvious. I'm not sure why they received the acclaim they did.

I'm speaking at the Catalyst Club on Thursday 14th January

I am speaking at the Catalyst Club this Thursday, on 'How to escape from a WW2 POW Camp'. The Catalyst Club takes place at the Latest Music Bar on Manchester Street (BN2 1TF) and costs £5.  Doors open at 8 with the first speaker on at 8:30pm.

This is my first post of 2010 - the start of the year has been great fun, but hasn't allowed as much time for blogging as I would have liked. I will catch up with things before I go away.

My last day

Today has an end-of-term feel as it's my last day at my current job. It's been a fun role, maintaining and developing a mature product. I've learned a lot (maintenance coding is a challenging and often neglected skill) and done some fascinating optimisation work, but it's time to move on.

I'm taking some time out at the start of 2010, after which I will be working as a freelancer, providing database and java consultancy - but I'll talk about that next year. At the moment I'm winding down, looking forward to Christmas and some time relaxing in the Midlands.

The snow, and lunch with a couple of old friends have provided a magical feeling to the day. I've also received some good news about some writing work for January, which I'll take as an auspcious sign for the coming year.

My inbox is empty, my last commits are in subversion, which means I have one task left in the new job: tonight's office party!

The great paper coffee-cup tower

Every morning, on his way to work, my boss buys an espresso from the Red Roaster. They serve it in two paper cups, presumably so he doesn't burn his fingers. In the afternoon, about three, he wanders off to buy another coffee.

When each drink is finished, he adds the cup to the stack on his desk. When the stack becomes large enough, he transfers the cups to a larger stack behind his desk. Four cups a day, twenty cups a week. That's about a thousand a year. He's been in the office over three years - you can imagine how many cups we have in the office.

The cups sit in a corner and I sometimes wonder what we should do with them. Should we return them to the red roaster? Put them on freecycle? Hold a Burning of the Cups Ceremony on the beach? Someone suggested making a sculpture and donating it to Fabrica.

The boss was late in on Friday. We decided to build a tower of cups, to see if we could reach the roof. We could. The column contains about 800 cups. For a day or so I felt satisfied that we'd finally done something with some of the cups. This morning, it doesn't seem enough.

What do you do with over 3000 paper cups?

The remains of an earlier tower. Look on my works, ye mighty, and all that.

Hastings and Short Fuse

Yesterday evening I read at Short Fuse Hastings. I figured reading in Hastings would give me a chance to explore the town a little, something I never did when living there in the late 90's. I had a great afternoon exploring, aided by some suggestions from AK Benedict.

My favourite place was Robert's Rummage. Hastings has the sort of proper junk shops that were long since priced out of Brighton. Yes, we have some fun shops, but how many have a drawer labeled 'Locks and keys' containing a miscellaneous collection of both?

I also loved the bookshop that turned into a Thai restaurant during the evening. It was like some long forgotten Transformer toy. During the day it looked like a bookshop, with subtle clues to its other purpose, like a fridge of cakes at the counter, or tables and chairs hidden among the shelves. Far better than a robot that transforms into a VW Beetle, or a walkman. 

Hastings does seem a little battered. The pier is closed, and passing through St. Leonard's at 3pm it was a ghost town. You could walk past a dozen ghosts in Hastings without realising - the town feels haunted.

The reading went well. I'd spent a lot of time revising my horror story, The Other Child, and it had stopped seeming weird to me. Standing in front of an audience, I was suddenly aware of how strange and dark it actually was. The main character is grimly unpleasant too, in a manner I definitely am not. At points I found myself being surprised by what was about to read.

I read first, which meant I could relax and enjoy the other stories. I particularly liked VG Lee's story, which had a gleeful malevolence, and Michael Gould's tale about a ploughman, which felt like a traditional story. Hastings Short Fuse is a lovely friendly audience and I hope to read there again soon.

The night ended perfectly. I left the train at Brighton to find the number 7 bus waiting at the stop to take me home.

Below are the gates to Hastings pier. Anyone know what the yellow ribbons are for?

Below is the Admiral Benbow pub. I had some good nights in there, including watching the 1998 world cup.

 

The Brighton Santa Dash 2009

Today's training run was a little different, as I was entered in the Santa Dash. This is one of my favourite runs of the year. How can you not love charging along the seafront with hundreds of people, all dressed in Santa outfits?

The Dash has a great atmosphere. Someone had a tape-recorder at the start line playing Christmas songs, and I loved seeing the man pushing a pram decorated as a sleigh. The spectators are also very friendly - I particularly enjoy passing people who hadn't realised the race was on until they see the runners.

The 2007 and 2008 races have featured appalling weather so I was delighted to have a dry, calm day. This meant I could run a little faster. Last year, despite being fitter, I finished in just under 26 minutes. This year I finished in under 24 minutes, which I'm very happy with.

I will now wear my Santa outfit for the rest of the day.

Interesting odds and ends

• My new Argus marathon blog post is 633 miles to go, in which I discuss being a human Jesus Lizard.
• I like Alan Coren's advice to Caitlin Moran: "The first idea that occurs to you, will have occurred to everyone. The second idea that occurs to you, will have already also occurred to the clever people. But your third idea – only you will have had that one.”
• After Swindon Orbital, Richard Willis is now working on Blake's Road, which promises "a more ambitious project, tackling a number of subjects simultaneously: Blake, England & the English, Morality, my own psychology, and a couple of other topics I’m afraid I must keep to myself for now". I'm looking forward to seeing what comes of this.
• A interesting post from Ian Hocking about Workshops, following on from my recent one
• My friend Bill Jones has made a book