someday you will be loved

After only six hours of sleep, I spent ten v. hectic hours at the office. I still had pressing work to do, but I cut out around seven to go out for dinner with Lauren and Josh. We went to Cinnabar Redd; the dude there asked me why I haven't been there for over a month, which surprised me. Then, we met Arod at 10 Downing Street for karaoke night. We were also supposed to meet Matt and Shadie, but the bar didn't let them in because they were with some Nigerians (blatant racism is accepted here), and so they went to the bar upstairs instead. We met them there, but the scene was a little questionable, so we left immediately and came home. That's all I have to report from Hyderabad for tonight, sadly.

This weekend should be fun; it's my first weekend in Hyderabad for a month, which is a little crazy. We have some bottles of arrak (coconut liquor) stashed from our recent trips to Sri Lanka, and we need to break into it because five bottles is a lot of liquor to drink in our remaining time here. There's also a wine and cheese (or Old Monk and paneer) party for Saamra's birthday tomorrow night. I'm also contemplating what to do for my birthday; I kinda want to see the Taj Mahal, but that would require travel, and I don't really want to plan a trip right now. So, we may try to set off fireworks and race autorickshaws; I'm leaving that to the stay-at-home men in the group to organize, since I don't have the time or patience to track down autorickshaw drivers willing to let us either drive the rickshaws ourselves or race for us. In any event, it sounds like it has the possibility of being the most untainted birthday I've had since 2001, which is pretty exciting.

Okay, I'm really tired, and I have to go to the office early tomorrow to do all the stuff that I should have done tonight. Goodnight!