It's Saturday morning at 6:30am and I'm waiting to check out my hotel room then head to the airport. In the last 5 days I've averaged about 3 hours sleep a night for various reasons! On Thursday night me and Chris took my room-mate to hospital after he had been ill will a really bad throat all week. We had to kip on a red chair then a sofa for the night as he was always needing the doctor to come back and give him more painkillers or change the drip. Good to know he's getting better now but he can't fly out today due to having some surgery done in his throat yesterday. Last night we went to the local sports bar where we met the guys we had been working with in Shell. They beat me and Paddy at pool twice but both games were down to the final 8 ball so it was a decent defeat. I ended up sat on the hotel roof looking over Bangalore with Emma and it's a sad thought to think that our "group 2" gang won't meet again till November! We've been staying up talking till 3am most nights to make up for the next 10 weeks when we won't be together!

On the last blog it seems to have cut out the part where I talk about monkeys so if you click view all on the blogs you can read the full thing on my blog page.

I need to go to Delhi now where we are meeting up with all the other fellows then dressing up in our Indian clothes! Speak to you soon!

It’s been a busy week with little sleep! The problem with leaving blogs this long is that so much happens that there is no way I can fit it all in one blog with ease. I’m working at Shell now for 2 weeks and it’s as good as I expected it to be and more. On Sunday we went into the centre of Bangalore to see the bars and shops. Me, Paddy and Chris found a great suit shop and have ordered a suit each and 2 shirts. The price for a tailor made suit is as cheap as one off the hanger but for better quality and fit! The best thing I have bought so far are a pair of shorts for just over £1. They are funky tartan basically and I can’t stop wearing them.
On Monday night the whole group went to watch another Bollywood movie in the centre of Bangalore which is about 1 hour away from our hotel with light traffic. The movie was the usual Bollywood rubbish I can’t help but like. It finished at 1:30am so we got a rickshaw back to the hotel. It broke down in the middle of some Indian town at 2am and rats decided to check us out in the rain while we waited for our hotel taxi to save us. Sounds awful but stuff like that always seems to be a laugh out here!

On Wednesday I was ill as ill can be. Breakfast I was fine but then as I walked back into my room to get changed for work my stomach decided that it didn’t want to play nice that day and I couldn’t last more than 10 minutes without needing to be sick. I have never been so ill in my life. Even as I tried to drink a tiny bit of water it would make me even worse. The doctor came out and after 2 injections in my bum and a wad of tablets later… I was managing to breath normally again! I had to miss a cocktail and dinner even that we had been invited to which was a shame. On Thursday morning I was fixed after being pilled up and was awake at 5:30am ready to leave at 6am to visit a really rural India village that Shell had helped improve. It took 6 hours to get there by bus but was worth it. The journey was such a laugh with everyone. Indian roads are actually deadly though. 300 people die each day in India on the roads alone and I can believe it now. We saw one overturned lorry, 2 buses that had their front ripped off/crumpled, one wagon with it’s side ripped off and then a guy who was so desperate for money begging that he was sat in the middle of one of the main roads. The village was great to visit and you should be able to see from the pictures that I’ll upload sometime soon what we got up to.
On Friday night Shell to us out to a gorgeous hotel and we had beers and food by the swimming pool. The weather is perfect at night-time in Bangalore, I didn’t take any photo’s of the hotel/pool area but think of 5 star hotel in tropical climate with coconut trees and you should get the idea! The guys from Shell were so interesting to talk to about the dangerous countries they have visited. If I liked chemical engineering I would easily go work on a rig for a few years of my life! At about 10pm the Shell guys had a taxi to pick them up but we stayed and used the pool which was a perfect way to finish a night off!
Today we have just come back from the Art of Life in Bangalore. Google it for the background information but it’s a very spiritual place. We did all the usual meditation and relaxing but it was nothing compared to when they let me wash and feed one of the elephants! It was such a good surprise. The skin on elephants is weird to explain. They have very tough skin I had to scrub but then really thin hair at the same time. I was allowed to ride a moped around the spiritual grounds which was also another first for me! It’s easy enough to ride them but with huge pot-holes everywhere it makes it more of a challenge to stay upright at slow speeds! Another huge surprise which got me and Paddy going absolutely crazy was playing with monkeys! We went onto a meditating area that overlooked the grounds and as we were admiring the view; monkeys came out of the trees and start

I've just come back from Malhar 08 which is at the oldest and coolest college in the whole of Mumbai (even India some people have claimed). At the start it was me and Rich wondering around with Rohan and Vikas but then we found our mates who had come from different parts of Mumbai and we went to a dance competition. We were given V.I.P passes which meant we skipped the 500ft queue to enter the festival but then because we were "cool Westerners" we even got to skip the VIP queue for the dance competition as well! We managed to get about 3 feet away from the dancing so that was quite cool. The music was all Hip-hop and British music which is SO nice to finally hear after listening to purely Bollywood and Punjab music for almost 4 weeks!

I need to remember to pack my suitcase after I finish writing this as I'm flying out to Bangalore tomorrow afternoon. I'm working for Shell for two weeks which I can't wait for. The city itself is meant to be very fast paced, modern and have more curries than Mumbai so overall I'm looking forward to everything!

Yesterday I woke up early to travel into the British Council in South Mumbai to present my business project to teachers, parents and students at other schools. The journey took 3 hours due to traffic instead of 1 hour! It went well but all the way through I was thinking "what time is it in England? Are my results ready yet?'". As soon as I finished I was just searching for the nearest computer so I could check my UCAS status online. I had unfortunately not been accepted into Loughborough university and had the message "you are in UCAS Clearing". I'd be lying if I said I was totally calm at that point. I just starred at the roof and lent back in my chair for about a minute worrying what my results would be. I actually thought I had got something like BEU or BDE and that I was never going to go to university in my life. I eventually found out my results from my dad and it turned out that I hadn't done half as bad as I was worrying. I got BCC which is one grade less than I needed in all the subjects! Business studies I was 6 marks out of 600 (1%) off getting an A, Geography I was 11 marks out of 600 (about 2.1%) off and then Maths I had messed up 2 modules but they were canceled out by 2 A's I got in it as well to give an overall C.

I know my mum and dad will read this and I want to say thank you for helping me calm down and think straight! My dad has been looking at different options with me and messaging me about 3 to 4 times a day to let me get an overall idea of what is still available at other universities. The main one that has interested me is Queens University Belfast for Economics & Finance or Economics & Management. The university looks great and is well respected and the course looks ideal but there is something at the back of my mind that keeps reminding me that I can change my BCC into ABC or even ABB by January by retaking a few modules! At the moment I will ponder this option over the weekend but know that a decision needs to be made soon!

I think I should go pack my suitcase now before I actually forget and have to rush around tomorrow morning at the last minute and have to literally throw clothes into the suitcase in 5 minutes... like I did in Mumbai before coming to Thane! Luckily linen clothes crease anyway so I just pulled it off as being "the style" of the clothes when they were just crumpled in all honesty!