Friday, April 16, 2010

Logistics Success at Last!

Yes it took some time but all is arranged - thanks to Harry and the internet. And thanks to Steve for reading my mind about which hotel to stay in - done and dusted!
Changing flights in this nutty country is really interesting. The closer to the date you want, the heaps more expensive it is - like about twice the price. Damn. But now it is complete and I got the hotel I wanted in Kolkata for a price which is actually cheaper than an email offer I got today for something in Hobart. Go figure.
Kolkata wasn't my first choice for a romantic relaxing romantic week - I actually wanted to go to Gopalpur-On-Sea - don't ask why, I just like the name. But it was 2 plane rides and a 5hr car trip. Best not.
So yesterday was spent surfing the net and trying to get my a/c fixed - again. Then had dinner and a few drinks with Carmen and disappeared upstairs to watch the IPL cricket. Go the Delhi Daredevils! Tonight's match is in Dharamsala - a beautiful looking ground with monastery and mountains in the background. What a treat for the locals.Robin has arrived in Bomdilla which is quite a large town in Arunachal and is staying in the first star rated hotel in AP - it even has a bar that serves Fosters. So he intends to have one. He described the bar as "red and black checked furniture with green downlights" How tasteful. I'm relaxing with some Godfather Rum from Jammu and Kashmir (my old faves Old Monk, or Raffles, are strangely unavailable). Hope I don't wake up next to a horse's head!
Last night after the cricket finished I changed to an Indian news channel, and it struck me that I should tell you about some of these channels.
In particular, shouty news TV – and Headlines today and Lemon TV are the most notable exponents of this genre. By this I mean TV ‘news’ that has so many doodads flashing and whizzing by and ‘info bars’ that you don’t actually know what is happening, and you may have an epileptic fit if so inclined! “Welcome to Head Spin TV”
Headlines Today – bottom left screen – channel banner and in the  top three quarters whatever is filmed. Followed by a large banner headline underneath the moving picture, which usually bears no resemblance to what is happening onscreen. Under that will be an explanation of the banner heading above, which seems to change in order to further inform the viewer, every 10 seconds. Under that again is a scrolling newsbar. GAWD
Lemon TV in contrast is in restful shades of lime green and canary yellow and has:
The Lemon logo on top right corner, moving pictures in the top half of the screen, a show title banner and ‘explanation’ thereunder.
Then a title NEWSFLASH with scrolling banner of whatever the newsflash is (usually incomprehensible). Underneath that are 2 scrolling-at-different-speeds bars with stock exchange info in English and Hindi, and on the right they display the time! Ooh my head!





Cheers!

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