Delhi, Thursday

0132 Incidentally, touch wood etc, the bloated feeling seems to have gone. Odd twinge or two this afternoon/evening but very little and nothing recently. Might still be a kick or two left as it completely goes but hope not. Who knows if calcium carbonate helped? Not sure I can blame food here for this; it has come on me intermittently back in the UK too.

1233 Been snoozing on alarm since 11. Bit tired but that's hardly unusual. V noisy in room now with traffic but tis OK. Flight seating looks OK still, will check again tonight. Flight to BA was originally 670 according to my notes, expedia has lost my saved flight but the sidebar says it was 680 when I searched 2 days ago and it is now 688.

Train up to Skegness for Christmas hasn't gone up since yesterday, will book that now before it's too late. Wifi here isn't great, it works in short bursts, sigh.

I think I'm going to book the BA flight too; it is irrationally tempting to leave it until I get back to the UK, but I don't want the price to soar and I've left it too late really anyway, it is kind of lucky I can still get a decent price. Also - and this is another reason I should have booked earlier - if a jury duty summons shows up I want the flight booked in advance so I can offer it as a reason when asking to be excused. Not likely, I admit, but possible.

It's going to be fun doing credit card transactions on this dodgy wifi. No, it was OK, I put the laptop on the table instead of in bed and that somehow helped.

Need to faff a little to check what money I have on hand and to put AA batteries on charge for headphones for flight but need to be heading out soonish. Will I handle Delhi better now? To be fair, I plan to practice the avoidance measures I put in place towards end of my initial visit so it should be OKish anyway.

1349 Finally heading out. I think Jantar Mantar (the Jantar Mantar?) here is not such a big deal as the one in Jaipur, guide book doesn't say much about it, but if I only spend ten minutes there no big deal.

1613 At Kwality. Did got to JM, quietly enjoyable if not spectacular. Spent some time just reading guide book on phone in the grounds. Probably not making the best of my time here in Delhi but I don't care, now is not the time for making excursions on city buses or whatever. Murgh bharta with peas pulao rice and a garlic naan and a bottle of black label.

1706 Ad on (silent) TV for "Havell's - wires that don't catch fire". An admirable quality, surely, but can the typical wire here be so poor that is a feature worth advertising? 'Smith's peas - the peas with no arsenic'.

Food not bad, had coffee, will get bill and go back to hotel via Reliance Fresh for water/snacks and probably pop out for a couple of beers at My Bar later. (Tomorrow night will almost certainly be a quiet night in; need to read up on it, but want to be up pretty early so I can get airport express metro line but allow for problems, also flight is approx 1230 so even if no risk of problems would need to be up 9ish anyway.)

1713 Bill 908, will make it 1100. Will use bog then go.

1949 At My Bar. Cos I'm here on my own they insist I share a table for two with some random bloke who is eating. Yay. Super-comfortable as you might imagine. If I knew any other tolerable (and the bar is not very high) bars I would obviously fuck off but there you go.

Noticed as I came out the packet of Latin American loperamide I have been carrying loose in one of the pockets of my combats have finally escaped. (They used to live in my wallet but I stopped carrying that on bulk grounds when I was in Delhi last time.) Fortunately I have some other UK-branded variant and obviously I am due to go home soon. I will buy some more either in the UK over Xmas or when I get to BA.

1953 Beer is 103. Which is not bad, though menu gives price (75) and VAT separately so when I paid with a 100 that wasn't enough. Fortunately I had three rupees in change. May tip on last beer (this just might be the last, but let's see, probably second will be last).

I wonder if I'd be allowed to move in the unlikely event another table for two became free.

Oh, on metro back to hotel at the intervening stop (Rajiv Chowk I think, aka Connaught Circus to me) there was a huge outsurge of people from the carriage (I had squashed into the third, letting first two go past, on the third no one got off but I was swept forward in a huge crowd surge and hence got on the train) and I was caught up in it. Got 'blown' right onto platform, struggled off to one side and managed to reboard at end of 'queue' to do so as so many had got off. It was a bit scary but also sort of exhilarating, a bit like I imagine white-water rafting might be.

2124 Back at hotel. No touts en route either way (as, indeed, was case when I went to My Bar my first time in Delhi). A few electric tuktuks on street here; other places I've been don't seem to have them.

Chap (young-ish Indian) eating at table left after not long. Just before I left an old-ish Indian chap got put at my table; he was more gracious than I was when foisted on someone else, sort of asking if it was OK. I didn't make any attempt to speak with either of them; sometimes I want to and wish I could, but tonight I didn't. Maybe it's because I'm in 'going home' mode, maybe it's that Delhi seems to invite me to thicken my protective shell more than usual. I would normally also hesitate to force my company on someone who had no choice by virtue of me/them being forced to share a table, though I've had people speak to me under such circumstances enough (Indians on trains, Tony on bus Chiang Mai-Bangkok, etc) and it go well that I would try to resist that hesitation. However, as I say, tonight despite feeling a bit of a sad fucker at seeing some other groups of tourists, I really really didn't want to scrape acquaintance with anyone.

When I came back to hotel earlier (after dinner) the doorman tried to make out I was at the wrong hotel or something. Tonight I got in OK but some chap started to sort of question me (despite my looking at staff on desk and perhaps uttering a word or two) as I approached the stairs in the lobby then changed his mind. I am hardly pissed now (2x650ml 5%) and even less so after dinner (1xditto, with food), so don't think that accounts for it. Meh.

Been wearing my moderately thick long-sleeved shirt and nothing else all day. At times during the day I felt it was sensible, but generally have been a smidge too hot and feel a bit so now.

2137 Oh, I didn't leave because that guy got put at my table. I wasn't really enjoying myself and didn't want to drink too much and had already decided to leave when I finished the second beer anyway.

I handed over 120 for the second beer and didn't get given any change. I kind of didn't want any, but it still feels just a tiny bit cheeky to keep it. Maybe that's the custom, if I had paid with 2x100 it might have been different (I'd certainly have been hacked off about that, whereas this was 'meh'.)

2145 FFS. I'd got mostly undressed and just got a knock on the door and a call from reception. Turned out they just wanted to know if I wanted dinner. FFS (again).

0157 FFS. I need to go to bed. Just been surfing etc.