Last day in Delhi

Well, I spoke too soon about the lack of car crashes. We went to a shopping mall after work on the way back to the hotel. Spent half an hour buying exciting things (bangles, Adidas stuff, little shiny bags etc) and then waited for Laxman (our driver) to pick us up again. Whilst we were waiting a bus crashed into the back of a car in front of us. They moved to the side of the road, and the bus driver seemed more perturbed than the car driver, which was weird as it was his fault! We finally found Laxman and then carried on home. He's the least mad driver here, and we had stopped in a traffic jam when we were suddenly shunted forward when the car behind us crashed into us. As I was in the front I had the benefit of the head rest, but Danny and Donna were in the back but seemed OK. It was like when you get hit by a bumper car so not too bad. Laxman got out to inspect the damage but luckily there wasn't any!

Back at the hotel we all went to Brix for dinner. It was very nice in there and the waiters greeted me like a regular, and seemed surprised that I'd got 'friends'. They clearly thought I was a serial-lone-diner. After dinner I paid a late-night visit to the gym and then went to bed. Didn't get much sleep though, and when I woke at 4am I'd got a few texts. The best one was from my sister who reported a 0-0 draw away at Liverpool! I'm a bit gutted that I dropped David James from my fantasy team, but we've gone 3rd, leapfrogging Bolton and Villa. I eventually got back to sleep at about 6.30, so feel totally shattered today, in a Danny-ish-zombie-like-state.

We've had some new arrivals today, with the two Petes arriving (Horsler and Parker). It's nice to see some more familiar faces.

As I didn't want to leave without doing some sightseeing, I arranged for Laxman to take me to some temples at lunchtime. We went to Chattarpur Mandir (suggested by Anup) which is about 25 minutes from the office. There are loads of temples clustered either side of the road there. I left my shoes in the car and took a walk around the large site. I didn't venture into any temples where people were praying - it seemed inappropriate. But it was very peaceful and chilled. I was taking a photo of one temple, and a couple of old guys asked me to take their photo. One was a kind of security guard and insisted on putting his official cap on first. I was only there for half an hour but so glad I went.

When I got back to the office, everyone was heading for the first floor, so I followed. It turned out that each team had a chance to get their own back on their managers, for all the tight deadlines, late nights and scope creeps that are forced upon them. The Lamda team was chosen as one of the three finalists, and their challenge for Manu, Vikram & co was for them to perform a fashion show. We arranged the seats on either side of the 'catwalk' and eventually the 'models' appeared, in various outfits, culminating in Manu and Saurabh who wore some pretty saris! I think this should be repeated in Cheltenham, with Andrew, Nick and Danny dressing up for us!!

Anyway, that is it for now. I think we're going to try the Japanese restaurant tonight, before we then head for the airport. Danny, Pete and Pete will be here for another week but the girls are going back home to their families.