A challenge that Mrs O and I have had for many years is synchronisation of holidays. My American employer is absolutely driven by a quarter end rush - end January, end April, end July and end October. Mrs O's holidays are driven by the local education authority. Result is that she wanted to go on holiday at the end of last week and I could get one day off to help set up the tent.

Checking the weather forecast around the middle of last week suggested that the weekend would be showery. We hit the road on the early hours of Friday and reached our Cornish destination in good time. We set up the tent then went for a 10 km walk along the beach to a supermarket then back along a direct return route.

Yestereday we did a wonderful walk from Rinsey to Porthlevel by striking inland and then returning along the coast path. It was a thrilling 4 hour trip. This was followed by a BBQ at the campsite.

This morning we went to a church service in St Ives where we heard a sermon on Daniel chapter 9. The sermon focused on how Daniel not only confessed his own sins, but confessed the sins of his nation Israel. It went on to deal with asking for God's forgiveness. There was plenty that could be applied to me our to our UK nation at present.

After a short lunch, it was back on the train home. The downside is that I probably face an awful pressure in the coming week. The upside is that the trainride is beautiful - sorry no photos! This is one of the only connections in the week directly from W Cornwall to Hampshire and while slow from Penzance to Exeter is reasonalby fast after Exeter.

I was fairly upset to part from my wife knowing that we will not be able to enjoy things together. Nevertheless I should not omit the blessings of the train ride. The views over coastline were absolutely spectacular whether it was Par to Gribbin Head, the river Teign around Teignmouth or the red sandstone cliffs around Dawlish or across the Exe towards Sidmouth. The white cliffs of the Jurassic Coast were also visible. Similarly to my trip from Inverness to London there were great city views. Rail journeys not only offer good countryside views but usually pass through cities in a way that motorways do not. There were great views of the centres of Truro, Exeter and Salisbury.

So now, I'm back at home awaiting a difficult week at work...must not feel self pity!!! Ughh!!!

Have you ever had the feeling that you are being ripped off by insurers or other financial service companies? I have that feeling from time to time and I got another nasty dose of it yesterday.

One example was when I bought a second hand car for Mrs O at a "car supermarket" in West London. We had just moved back from Germany and a friend had recommended the place. There was certainly a good choice of vehicles. I signed up for an "extended warranty" agreement which seemed like a good idea given that I had no friendly mechanic to inspect the vehicle. A year later there was a serious mechanical failure and my wife arranged for the vehicle to be towed in for repair. I realised that we should call the extended warranty company and called them after the event. I was told in no uncertain terms that I had invalidated the warranty by not phoning the company before arranging for the car to be towed and repaired. When I protested that this was a ripoff the call centre referred me to the clause in the agreement. Indeed deep in the small print there was a clause to that effect.

One of my sons is on an InterRailing holiday in Europe. He asked if he was covered by my travel insurance policy that I have through my work. I duly read the main sections of the policy but not the detailed small print. I concluded that he was well covered for things like theft of baggage and loss of tickets or passport. On Sunday he called from Krakow Poland to say that his rucksack had been stolen from his youth hostel with practically everything in it. I thought I would call the insurance company to get a claim form and was horrified to be told that he was not covered. His youth hostel had no lockers left so he had put a padlock to close his rucksack to protect it. I was duly referred to a clause in the policy which says that if a bag is unaccompanied claims are only valid if they are locked away with receipt to prove that it was locked away. I think you need a lawyer to help you make a claim. Despite that I am glad that my son was unharmed.

Aaaarghhh!

I am very aware that people may not want to contantly blog ... but I do not want to have a lot of "stale" connections in my "friends tab". I have therefore pruned all friends with no contact in the last 100 days. If you want to remain in contact with me then please: a) forgive me and b) issue a new invitation.

I hope you understand why I do this.

Yours

O.

Well, I managed to do a short shot of sitting in my taxi on the way to the airport. The exciting moments are when two streams of traffic cross with no traffic lights (or roundabout) but since I do not know my way about those are hard to predict. The following 60 seconds are tamer.

Note that the early part has traffic lanes market - advisory only.

I am writing from Hyderabad. I was here a year ago and took the same route as I did then. However this time all the airport buildings I have used were brand new.

I started out from Heathrow Terminal 5 which thankfully seems to be working properly now. The buildings are far taller than other Heathrow ones and you spend a lot more time in either lifts or escalators. However the design makes much better use of the building footprint than the older, flatter terminals. There is also far more natural light and with atrium spaces between the levels it is much more airy than say Terminal 4.

I knew that there was a new airport under construction in Bangalore but had not appreciated that Bengaluru International was already open. The old airport was very dingey and old fashioned. The immigration queues also seemed very long. Arriving this time was a very pleasant experience with a short queue for immigration, a well-designed baggage hall, then a long wait for our 747 to be unloaded (a local contact said this was due to customs insistence on screening every bag).

 

 

I flew to Hyderabad with IndiGo airlines which required a short bus ride to the plane. Judging by the excavation work another similar sized terminal will be on the way.

 

Hyderabad airport was also new. the old Begumpet airport was handy for the city centre but clearly not up to date. The new Rajiv Gandhi International is about 50 km outside the city and is another airy design with plenty of natural light. A modern highway takes you to the edge of Hyderabad although it has a strange feature - speed bumps - at intervals.

After two days in our Hyderabad office...it is off to Bangalore again this evening but this time with Kingfisher airways.

 

So this is the departure lounge...