Can you spare a square?

Finished off my first roll of toilet paper today. It's particularly noteworthy to me, because it establishes a critical benchmark of consumption that I can measure my health with later. I think these things are very important and should be taken with the utmost seriousness. Plus, I can plan my shopping easier now that I know my consumption rate. I think that the next couple of weeks are going to be exciting around here as I consume the first of everything! I get goose-bumps just thinking about it!  I'll try to share these exciting moments with you as they unfold before my very eyes.

I'm considering taking a chapter from my Indian friends and colleagues and documenting every little thing that happens around me.  Plus, I will be getting a signature to authenticate the notations.  Maybe even a stamp to notarize things with. It's a crack-up around here, cause everyone runs around with little notebooks and writes stuff down, and then makes you sign it. There are thousands of these notebooks floating around. Most of the time they just document people coming and going, in and out of various buildings and places. For example: I am supposed to sign in and out of the “logbook” that's stationed conveniently in the exercise room. If I don't sign in then I get hounded while I'm on the treadmill until I do. However, my stubborn nature is rebelling and I have refused the last couple of times. It causes all sorts of responses.  From insistence to the deer-in-the-headlights look. You really never know what reaction you will get! I really shouldn't cause trouble, cause they are so nice around here, but it gets to be a bit much after awhile. Plus, they know me know, so I just tell them to fill my name in and sign it! They're learning.

Took the Air Law Test in Delhi today. Flew up from Hyderabad at O-dark-forty-five. That's 06:45am flight time, so I had to be at the airport at 05:45am to catch it. Actually, I should say that I was supposed to be there at that time. A more convenient time for me, that I calculated the night before, was to show up at 06:15, so that's what I did instead. Worked out great for everyone involved. Especially me. I've noticed that I've been in an extra ornery mood lately. Not a bad ornery mood; rather a I'm-not-in-the-mood-for-this-crap ornery mood. I think it's OK to be in those moods. Anyway, back to the Air Law Test, cause I know you're dying to hear more about it. So I flew up to Hyderabad only to sit at the Ops building until 01:15pm, when we were herded outside into a bunch of cars, like cattle, and driven, quickly and with no regard to road safety or laws, to the testing grounds. I have enclosed a picture of our testing grounds for your viewing pleasure. It certainly was my viewing pleasure for sure! At one point I had to use the restroom and let me tell you, I cannot describe it to you. There are not enough words to describe it to you. I was going to take a picture, but didn't. I seriously regret not taking one now. It looked like the inside of a barn. No joke. Seriously now, it did. OK, you guys keep sidetracking me. Enough of that. The test was OK, I missed some of the questions, cause I went and looked up the answers afterwards. I calculated that I could miss 15 and still pass the test. I think I can live with that. If I don't pass, I just reschedule and come back in two weeks and try again. It's not a critical and important test. Just another box that needs to be checked off the list. 

The test givers were little Nazi's and stomped up and down the rows watching us, like a hawk watches and little mouse, lest we try to cheat.  Any little whispering was immediately squelched and snuffed out before any potential answers could be leaked to the testing group.  I felt like I was back in grade school.  It was fun and enjoyed it.  I actually didn't cause any problems.  I was thinking of some, but I restrained myself.  One of the funny and utterly stupid rules they have here is that you're not allowed to correct any mistakes made on the test.  And I mean that if you see one that you made before you turned in the answer sheet, you are not allowed to change the answer.  It's the craziest thing.  It is very common here.  Not just in a few places, it's actually the norm.  The Fraulein in charge of the testing made it very clear to the group that no corrections would be allowed once the ink meet the paper.  No exceptions.  You couldn't even request a new answer sheet to rewrite the answers down.  Of course there were a few guys that messed up and tried to get relief of the no-correction rule, but they were denied with great gusto.  I guess you just get the answer wrong. 

Earlier, while I was hanging out in the Ops building, bored as all get-out, I was approached by one the crew planners. Her job, specifically, among other things, is to plan trips to Stockholm, Sweden, for crew members to have a little rest and relaxation. OK, not that last part. It's actually for simulator training/currency and stuff like that. Boring and stressful; all at the same time. Not sure how the time can be both, but it is. The plan was for some other poor soul to spend time up there in a couple of days, but that deal fell through when the company lost his Visa. Not sure how that can happen, but it did. Apparently and unbeknownst to me, which is usually the case, I was the alternate pilot for this little gig. They originally had me scheduled for an April sim slot, and that would have been great. Nice spring weather up there, so I could cruise around and visit places in beauty. But now cause it's the middle of February; it's cold and snowy up there. Not my first choice of times, but the change will be good. The company wanted to keep me in Delhi and send me out the next day, tomorrow, but since I didn't know I was the alternate sim pilot, I didn't pack for the cold weather in Sweden. In fact, I didn't pack anything at all. Something that I will have to change from now on. Always carry some extra clothes, cause you never know what this crazy company is going to pull.

So, I'm excited. I could care less about the sim. I've done lots of those, so that should go pretty easy. I'm excited to travel out of India and into a clean, fresh smelling county! I might just look for a job while I'm up there. I wonder if they need any sim instructors..........

My next post might be from Sweden. I'll try. Although, you really don't know it's from Sweden. Kind of like you don't really know that I'm in Hyderabad, India. I could just be in Indiana and writing from my hotel room. I'll send pictures.

Keep living life, people. And if you ever have a couple seconds, jot something down and send it to me. I love mail too.

Later taters, Darin