Monday afternoon

We got back late from the Opening Ceremony, so there was no time to ramble on last night. This morning has been rather hectic, so I'm penning a few lines now, and hope to do more this evening.

We did get there! A minibus was laid on to take us into New Delhi. It turned up late, of course, but there was plenty of time thanks to the dedicated traffic lanes. With us was Mr. TS Dhillon, the Director of the Fullbore Shooting Event, and a former Commandant of CRPF, where the range is. He is a very charming person, and wields a lot of influence. We got off the bus, relatively close to the stadium, but found that we were at the wrong gate and had to go against a crown of thousands to get to the right place. In the end, we climbed under a fence, down to a very rough track alongside a rather smelly river, and then back up a slope a few hundred yards further on. When we got close to the correct gate, Mr. Dhillon got us to the front of the line, saving probably an hour or more of standing in the queue. Security was tight getting into the stadium - X-rays, no bottles or coins, searches, and so on. Then up a long ramp to the second level and half-way round the stadium to our block of seats. We were above and to the left of the Royal Box, for those who saw something of it on TV. The show was a spectacular demonstration of Indian culture. I will not try to describe it - those who watched will understand, and my words could not be adequate for those who missed it! The stadium is large, so the dancers etc. looked pretty small, but there were lots of them and it was all a beautiful tapestry of colour with very loud music! The whole stadium shook with the deep bass sounds. We were seated soon after 5 pm, there was a warm-up show until about 6:30 and the main thing started at 7 pm. It ended with a large fireworks display soon after 10 pm. Then we, and goodness knows how many tens of thousands, got slowly to the exit and eventually found our bus. We were back at the hotel just before 1 am. It was all quite an experience! I'll try to paste in a couple of photos to give you an idea.

Today has seen the start of the formal practice period, along with a few further target troubles. At least one of the fellows from Switzerland is now here and hard at work.

More later .........

[post-script: I've just discovered that 'blogspot' is a blocked site from here at the range, so this will have to wait until this evening before being posted. Since we are (yet again) going to try to get our uniforms this evening, the posting will be later than I'd have hoped]

Now approaching midnight, and there's a busy day tomorrow. We did go into New Delhi after shooting and, to cut a long story short, got most of our uniforms. various items missing or out of stock - they may or may not show up eventually. Usual chaotic drive back to the hotel, over 2 hours. At night, with all the dust and truck lights, bonfires beside the road, swarms of tuk-tuks and people, there are scenes similar to the Inferno - just the lights replacing the fires of Hell! Our two Games cars are gradually being shaken to bits by the appalling roads and relentlessly aggressive driving. For the second time, a wheel fell off one of them tonight - not the one I was in! But the gearbox on ours may not last another day!! Had a nice prawn curry, Thai-style, and now it's time for sleep.

My apologies to all for the delay with this. I'm glad to say that one person has complained already.