Waitin' for buses

Waiting for buses is never a good thing - N.E.V.E.R.! Waiting for buses, that are the start of a journey at the end of a holiday or a visit to somewhere that has been significant, even less so! Still while it is the start of the transportation we have been out of our room since 1200 today and are not getting picked up until 2030. Considering that we are 4.5 hours ahead of Scotland, by the time that I should get in the house tomorrow, that will be about 30 hours from closing the door of our room till opening the door of my house! Anyway enough of that...

This will be my last post from Mumbai and I have seen way too much stuff to convey in this blog, at this time. I will try to get some of the photographs that I have taken developed, as soon as possible and post them at the corresponding articles when I get home. This will hopefully give me some more stuff that I can write and maybe add another dimension to the posts, so that people can maybe understand where I have been a wee bit clearer.

As time goes on I will also attempt to add some information about some of the issues and more factual content.

While taking advantage of the air conditioning in the Internet Cafe I have used, I have looked at

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbai

and, even though I looked at it before I came out I now relate to it differently. I suppose that is ultimately what the journey was all about. It is certainly worth a 'wee look at' and gives links to all sorts of information about this stunning city; although there is no clear mention of the poverty that I have bore witness to!

We should fly to Vienna at ten to one in the morning and I have charged my IPod for this leg of the journey. Although, since I eventually worked out how to operate the remote control on the plane on the way out, I might try and watch a film or two. Oh; and they have a couple of video games on it as well, so I will check out what these are all about. Need to think travel strategy!

I will keep the BLOG going for a wee while, because there might be some developments to come from our short time out here... I have enjoyed writing it - it gave me some focus to channel my experiences and feel that I was sharing them with people who might know me.

Before I finish up this post, I will write a wee story about when I was doing some media training some years ago. I had a smashing tutor and the one thing that he used to bang about was - always write in the voice of the paper / magazine that you are working / freelancing for.

BLOGS give people a mechanism to write about whatever they want in their own 'voice' under their own terms, this is an extremely powerful thing to have the ability to do! People's responses from Scotland to my posts out here demonstrate the interactive potential of global communications - this was one of my favourite parts of the experience.

Anyway, my media tutor had been a food critic as a journalist - his favourite food was the sausages in Heinz 'Sausage and Beans'! Although that was only his opinion, I suppose I have always thought of this as a metaphor for finding beauty where you least expect it.

"Yeah, so what are you going on about Raymie?" Well the views of the islands across the Arabian Sea from Mumbai are absolutely spectacular and the skyline is a sight to behold, but the smiles of the rag pickers and their children in the slums on Saturday afternoon will be with me forever... true beauty. Uh oh, I think that there might be a song in there somewhere...

Raymie meets Gandhi!

Boy oh boy! This technology lark is quite the thing of beauty - the sideways photo of me was sent to this blog from a mobile phone that I am taking out on my visit to Mumbai. This can be understood as me messing about with a bit of technology before fully understanding the requirements for it to do (exactly) what you want. [For more thoughts on this go to blog post numero uno.]

Anyway if things work out as I hope you can look forward to photos of me at Starlight Express [For more discussion on this go to blog post number two.] and eating my Vienna loaf. [For more discussion on this go to blog post number two.] By the time I take the next photograph I will hopefully have understood that I should make the photo the correct way up / right way round at source - then send it to the blog.

On a technical evolutionary scale, this can be understood as being able to do two things at once successfully - take for instance breathing and walking or dipping biscuits in your coffee; and eating them whilst talking on the telephone to your pal without them noticing.

Whether I can do anything about the tenuous quantam time travel / chronological challenges of reading the most recent events before the dim and distant past is a mystery which shall remain unexplored. So for those of you who have just joined me, stuff that has been discussed so far includes Starlight Express, Ronnie Corbett, Ultravox, Match of the Day and meeting my new chums - who incidently I haven't met yet!

Right must dash - have to see if I can book an appointment at the hairdressers.