John Linton .....for which we are very, very grateful.
After Monday's horror show Tuesday turned out, at least for the time being to be the proverbial 'walk in the park'. Everything that was 'impossible to do yesterday' magically became either doable in the next day or so or we actually got it 'done'. So we have now accomplished almost everything we came to do:
1) Got agreement that all details had now been finalised and we have an appointment to sign the lease tomorrow.
2) We actually managed to open a foreign currency bank account despite not conforming to any of the bank's rules.
3) We found a perfect apartment for the person who will be coming from Australia within our budget and within a short walk from the office.
4) We finalised the schedule for the registration of the Sri Lankan company and also for getting BOI approval for operating the company tax effectively.
5) We finalised the revised office layout and furnishing details together with obtaining a lower cost for the fit out.
An amazing turn around from the day before.
Perhaps it was last night's gigantic thunder storm over Colombo that cut the power to the whole city that also blasted apart all of the mental and other road blocks that made the first day so horrendous. (I've never experienced such a fantastic tropical storm with up to 8 separate concurrent lightning strikes (and the consequent thunderclaps blending in to each other making a deafening and continuous row for ten minutes) happening all round the hotel and out to sea and getting this superb view of it from the 17th floor.
It's interesting driving to and from our hotel to meet with the various people we need to see as the President of Iran is on a visit to Colombo and is staying at a hotel a couple of hundred yards from where we are staying (he couldn't stay at the Hilton because of its US ownership so we were told). Apart from the impressively long motorcade he is transported in, the fact that the military just close whole streets on no notice to ensure his ultimate safety is a little disconcerting. We watched in amazement last night as the whole of the centre of Colombo was brought to a halt for over two hours to ensure there was no disruption to his progress. Even today we were brought to a sudden halt as the road we were travelling down was suddenly closed as soldiers stepped in to the traffic flow with arms raised to halt the traffic and then rolled crash barriers across the street and then drove army trucks parallel to the crash barriers. We were only halted for ten to fifteen minutes but our driver said it was happening all over the centre of Colombo many times a day.
Just another joy to add to the pleasures of negotiating the normal terrifying traffic jams and driving craziness that is Colombo.
.....and talking of the joys of Colombo, I'm continually surprised by the incredibly low cost of food and alcohol in every outlet type - including the restaurants and bars of the hotels. Lunch today of two curries and two soft drinks in the hotel's second most expensive restaurant would have given change from a $A20 note. Similarly premium Scotch is $A4.50 a generous 'shot' in the best bar in the hotel. Even our mini bar is stocked with items that are cheaper than at a Sydney super market (300 ml coke for $A1.20 as an example).
So the day has been very actually successful and, assuming events go as planned tomorrow then the trip will have met almost all of its ojectives with a day in reserve for 'emergencies'.
We met with the very competent, helpful and friendly contact from the Australian High Commission for a drink and a catch up and got a good update on the general conditions in the country. We were appalled to listen to his description of what it was like being a Tamil living in Colomo and it couldn't help but jerk you back to understanding the difference between living in different political environments.
Although it's still only relatively early here my body is insisting that its after 2 am on the time scale it's used to so it looks like being another 'early night'. However before my brain gave up the ghost I read Paul Sullivan's beautifully articulated and exhaustively referenced address on the future of the current federal Government's adventurism in to broadband 'tendering':
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,23618214-913,00.html
Nicely put and very cogent. It will be interesting to see Telstra's rebuttal.
Here's to a better broadband future........for every Australian..