Where is everyone tonight…

Yes it has and indeed many things have happened during the past few months… Work has been atrocious – I’ve travelled non stop for months now but the job of training is at least getting done right finally. Errors and mistakes are slowly on the decline and I consider myself priviledged to have had the opportunity to make the change happen. So it is just a couple of days before Christmas and somewhere I am ‘praying’ for all my friends to be happy and may 2011 be full of excitement and joy!

Phillip Freeman – I hope you find what you’re looking for …

Ross & Neil – Lovely … I hope as much as you do that this will
be a good beginning …

Julian & Jonathan – A year my friends … I drink to many more years ahead!

Kieran & Deden – Trust me all that sacrifice will come good…

Andrew & Scott – When all else fails, you have each other and the boys….

Kathy – may you find what you’re looking for in 2011… if not I’m hunting someone down for you…

Kevin – I miss you buddy…another New York Trip maybe.

Peter J – I know you now in which I did not then… thank you.

Darren Fall – Not too sure when I will be in Canada but I should plan … real soon!

Chris Jenkins -Ah …thank you for your friendship…

Duane and Allan – we will meet one day no matter how far apart we are…

Olivier & Vince – I will call when I am in Singapore…and we can go eat, drink and be merry.

And to Nicholas… 2011 …time for a seachange dear! Let’s make things happen!

XXX Hadi

PS: word press is annoying on the iPad…really really annoying!

It is already Feb…

This year there is something different in the air. I feel it coming – a change but I can’t quite figure it out yet. It will be lifechanging I am sure but it is very grey at this point in time.

There are alot people impacting my life this year. I am rediscovering skills I have shelved for a couple of years now – I need to be primed one more time to realise what the journey means rather than the destination….

How long has it been?

It has been awhile…Let me gather my thoughts for a post…it is Jan 2010 afterall.

Tick Tick Tick

2 days and counting – HOLA HOMBRES!!

Sometimes I need to let people be…

Mark could hear the reverberations of the tramlines hitting the circular block wheels making its way into the city.  He had a beautiful face, not young but almost attractive if he was 25 years younger. The deep blue of his bomber jacket did not suit him if he was attempting to look enthused this morning. It made him withdrawn and forlorn – there was a sadness and isolation that I could not put my finger on. The soul seemed tired – a light had extinguished within him and there was nothing he could do.

Just like him, I am tired – I think I need to let people be.

Sleep Deprived & Still 2 hours to go

The bad thing about being in Adelaide is that there is only one flight in and out of Singapore. If you miss the connection, then it is a 12 hour wait. I am on my 10th hour and counting. I have had a shave and a shower at the lounge but that hasn’t helped – the more I still down the tired I get. I am just afraid to close my eyes in fear of missing my flight.

Today is a good day though – I took the plunge and bought myself a Nikon D300. It is a superb camera and I have tried it on the 50mm. The colours are sharper and best of all it brings the level of the lenses to a higher standard with crisp images through and through. I doubt I will be able to do anything with it till Saturday.

The 10 days have been very full on. I have been up at 4am Delhi time so that I can be with the team at 5. Adelaide is 4 hours ahead so everything that we do has to be on an OZ time schedule. I have to say though that the trip has brought about improvements in leaps and bounds – they are a different group of people (more focused) than ever to achieve what they need to i.e. Phase II.

I am tired my friends – you cannot imagine!! I think I have lost a year in my lifespan over the 2 weeks but I hope it is all worth the sacrifice. I miss home and the boys!!

4am on a Sunday morning

Being a morning person and having the curse of an internal body clock, I have just returned from my walk. It is officially 0524 hrs. I have been through the inside of the building and its various wings. It is awful the smell of fresh paint and I am getting a little giddy. The artist in me is getting very annoyed indeed but I am booked for 12 nights and I shouldn’t be complaining… or should I?

The team from the UK would also be here I guess and I have the decided to do the early morning run instead so that I can get work done in the office rather than wait around to find out what I would do between 4-6 am. The fitness centre is closed …my card wouldn’t work + the swimming pool is closed…the door is locked due to security reasons. I think this is a hotel for lazy people who just eat and sleep. Taste is not at the top of menu apparently. The sad thing about it is that the food is not even close to gourmet and I am astounded that the architecture  is the only thing that is keeping this place from being voted at best a 4 star hotel in terms of service. The prices on the other hand begs to differ!!  It boast its own Chanel store and I wonder whether I need to get some Foundation at this hour? Huh?!

Actually, I am planning on catching a taxi today to the Red Fort on my own. I am pretty nervous and my suspicious nature is always thinking of how everyone in India is on the take. I am such a racist at times but you can never be too careful – there are so many awful people out there. Multiply that by the millions – most of whom are working as Touts or some other schemes. Wish Nicholas was here – he would protect me from all these people with his mere presence. I do miss the boys – oh well i am here now. Just another 1/2 hour before I can get breakfast.

Wish me luck!

Delhi oh Delhi

The 15 hour flight and loosing 4 hours did not help. I staggered out of the airport with throngs of people being supposedly screened for the H1N1 virus via a piece of green paper with odd caricatures that you had to fill in while on the plane. Apparently, a questionaire can dictate that you have the dreaded flu by pure honesty on the part of the infected. My immigration officer was also displeased that my passport showed signs of being ‘less’ of a virgin than he cared for +my name did not help either but I was ready for the visual slur though I would have preferred not to be at the receiving end especially at 2am Adelaide time.

The airport pick up was good though and I arrived at the hotel through a metal detector and a 3 meter x 5 meter wide iron gate. The DECO Imperial is going through a facelift – you can smell the mortar and polish throughout the builiding while heated essential oil aroma tried desperately to mask the apparent. One thing I cannot live with is the dreaded smell of dust, sand and lime.

I did manage to stroll around the building and had a look at all the wierd places that no guest would be seen wondering. At 6am in the morning, no one except the serving staff were busy sitting around their meeting tables being appraised of the daily specials at the restaurants.

Are you Chinese? That was the oddest question I had at the airport in Singapore and I would have thought that the fact that I looked the way the way I did would have been  a dead giveaway for any Singaporean to decipher which cultural denominations I am from? You’d think? Somehow it was important and I felt that I was caught off guard – why is that since it had never been an issue - I have always accepted the mongrel nature of my upbringing and racial mix. So tonight while I wait for my dinner party to show up, I am contemplating whether I should rush out again to take more pictures but this time in the opposite direction of Janpath. I feel a little vulnerable as Delhi is a little alien to me but I need to get over it if I am to be here on and off.

Oh well – hopefully Dinner will be good…apparently the Spice restaurant is world famed. I am sceptical but until then  I am keeping an open mind !!!

New York ….can I fly over now….

The only thing that is keeping me going today is that it’s Friday and I received an email from Kevin. All will be well if I can focus on what is important i.e. loved ones, good friends and being kind to myself.

Last night was like a marathon though … went shopping for the in-laws birthday, a quick dash to Cocolat to order the Raspberry Mousse and cart-wheeling to the restaurant to book a table for 4. Amazingly, it will be the 4th of July – sometimes people forget how many strangers have sacrificed their lives to free all of us from dictators and tyrants.

A prayer to all of them for allowing me the ability to exact my Freedom and the right to choose how I live my life.

Melodramatic to say the least…

Surprisingly the day has turned into something much better than the past couple of days…Drama Drama Drama no more until tomorrow….