IPL Season 4
Day 25 – 28th April – 33 Sleeps to go
Woke up to some good news. I had an email telling me that there was a Canon repair center in Kochi. Great, things might be easy after all. Waited for a while before phoning them to check if they could help. The woman who answered the phone was kind and polite but I have to admit that I became concerned when she asked if an EOS1D Mk4 was a digital SLR camera.
Any way it turned out that the office in Kochi was really just a drop off and pick up centre. All repairs are done in Bangalore. So I started calling the people in Canon I had been given details for. They had all received my email, some even last night but nothing had happened to try and resolve the issue. I asked if there was a loan camera I could use and was told that there was not. In fact Canon only sell a couple of Mk4 in the south of India and so there was no stock available. The only option was to get the camera to Bangalore where they could fix it. So checked flights and there was one in a couple of hours. Just enough time to get it and I would be in Bangalore by half three. Hopefully the camera would be repaired and I could be back this evening. Tried to book the flight online but for emergency travel foreign cards are not accepted. So wasted about half an hour sorting the flight out. Eventually asked Shuaib the travel agent I had been using to sort it and he did. Thanks Shuaib. So I jumped in a cab and headed for the airport in double quick time. The driver was great although the trip was a little scary at times. Made it onto the flight and headed for Bangalore. I took just my laptop and camera. Nothing else as I was hoping to be back that evening. Got to the Canon offices and they confirmed it was the shutter that would need to be replaced. The camera had fired off 120,000 frames in the six months I had it. Obviously I have been a busy boy! Mrs Rukmini and Mathew were excellent and said they would give my camera top priority and it would be fixed as soon as possible. They also offered to do the work under warranty so not cost to me. Great service and a very welcoming team.
I would have to wait overnight as the part was to come from Mumbai or Delhi. So there I am in Bangalore with only a laptop and a cellphone. I found a hotel right in the centre of town and basically had nothing to do and no camera to do it with. The other teams had matches and so I could still work with my laptop but basically I had 24hrs with nothing to do. It was early evening by this time and so I went for an early supper. Tried Indian Nandos and it was really good. I then headed for Pub World which was just round the corner from my hotel to watch the cricket.
Crazy. The pub shuts at eleven and last orders are at 10.30 so everyone missed the end of the match. Why didn’t they extend the opening hours to get the whole match in?
Next to my hotel was another bar so I thought I would try that. It turned out to be more of a nightclub so gave up on the cricket and stayed there a while.
Finally made it to bed at about 1am. Hopefully tomorrow will bring good news.
Cities Visited: Kochi – Bangalore
Tried anything new? Emergency trip to get camera fixed/ Indian night club
Total flights so far: 14
