A Very Long Day…

Tuesday started with us going back out to the stadium first thing in the morning. The intention was to do a bit more Sportskeep training with them, and also for them to get the mobile phones out to the stadium as early as possible so I could configure them. That was the intention…

The guys hadn’t done much practice since the training Brett did yesterday. At about 11.00 I spoke to the guys at the office and the phones were apparently on their way to the office, at which point they would come to the stadium (45 minutes away). We were doubtful they would arrive before we would have to leave. After a game of mini golf, we had had enough. Brett did a final walkthrough and answered a couple of questions, and then we left.

We got back to the hotel just before 2.00. The guys were already there waiting for us, to take us out to “the 3rd largest data centre in the world”. This was the meeting that had gotten arranged for us on Monday. There were 2 guys and a driver that took us out to the place. It was over an hour to get there. What we didn’t know is that we were just going to a construction site! It was nowhere near complete! They walked us through where the suites were going to be, so we had an idea of the size, but didn’t get to see anything set up. We were taken to a board room where we had a meeting with the President of Marketing, and 4 other people. It was a complete wank – we don’t know what the guys at XLR8 had been telling them, but it became more and more obvious that they had no idea about the business, and that this meeting was just wasting everybody’s time. I got the vibe from one guy that he also saw that, but the others didn’t and kept talking crap for a while. Eventually we left… pity – I really wanted to see inside a data centre (which was the only reason I accepted to go).

Back at the hotel, Brett and I had a couple of drinks and something to eat – we didn’t know when we’d next be eating. We then went up to Andrew’s room to have a shower before leaving. The hotel car took us to the airport at about 6.30 pm. It was a good drive – the driver was a lot more sedate than our other drivers, and we got to see quite a bit along the way.

After a bit of shopping, we checked in – it wasn’t too difficult. We then sat down and had a few drinks and debriefed the trip. Eventually it was boarding time (11:00pm ish). I slept for a little bit on the flight to Singapore, and watched a movie. We arrived at Singapore 6.00am (local time), and had a 1 hour stop over. We walked around the airport, which was so nice and quiet after the mad lifestyle in India. Finally we boarded and did the flight back to Sydney.

I watched a couple of movies on that flight, and slept for a bit. We had a couple of meals which helped pass the time. Finally we landed in Sydney at about 4.00 pm (local time). We got our bags and went through immigration, and then had to transfer to the domestic terminal. After a bit of dinner and a couple of drinks at the airport, it was finally time for me to board my Rex flight to Ballina, and Brett’s flight to Melbourne wasn’t far behind.

I landed at Ballina right on time – 8.30pm. Rese was there to pick me up from the airport, and we went back to my place where I could share my adventures with her (as well as some duty free alcohol!). We then went back to their place – I figured I may as well go with her now to pick up the bike as I’d need it again. Sparky had gone to bed but came out to be socialable and we had another couple of drinks there. I eventually rode home and went to bed. This was now 22 hours after we left the hotel in India, so it had been a very long days travel! Back at home I fell asleep pretty much straight away.