The Ubi Blog

I hit the pool this morning. Three of the guys were already up there. Did breakfast and planned our day.

We headed out again but didn’t do or see as much. We went to the Government Museum complex. There were some really nice ancient stone and bronze sculptures and a few nice paintings.

We went to another contemporary art museum. It wasn’t that interesting but it was funny. The sign said no photography and an entry fee of Rs20. Bruce and I walked in. The guard was asleep in his chair and all the lights were off. We looked around and left. I should’ve taken a pic of the guard sleeping!

As we headed toward the car I saw this on the road:

We went to get lunch. It was a nice outdoor restaurant.

After that we just went back to the hotel and relaxed.

I spoke to Parthi about getting the van in and going to work tomorrow. He said the crates won’t be in now until Monday afternoon. More time off!

We went to breakfast and planned to head out today. Dave arranged a car for us.

We went off to see the Kapaleeswarar Temple in Mylapore. It was wild! Lots of amazing sculptural detail all over it. We paid a guide to show us around. It was a special day at the temple and there were lots of devotees there.

It’s a large complex with lots of buildings. This is just the main one.

After this we went to the second longest beach in the world, Marina Beach. It was huge. Took at least five minutes to cross it and get to the water. Bruce made the mistake of giving a little kid some money. After that the beggars just followed him until we left.

From there we went into town. Bruce, Kan and I got out and walked around. I bought a drum from a guy and then some sandals from a shop.

From there we headed back to the hotel.

I had to make some calls to the production and sort some scheduling stuff out before I went down to the bar and met the guys for drinks. I found out that the crates will not be in until Sunday night now, so we have another free day.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad way to spend my birthday.

June 17-19

We all met at LAX and hung out in the business lounge until flight time. Dave and Carla weren’t with us though as they were flying economy. I saw them when when I checked in  and that was the last time I saw them until Chennai, India.

The flight to Narita Airport in Japan was really long….12 hours! Because it was so long we only had a half hour stop there. The next flight to Singapore was about 7 hours. We were all ready to be off the plane by the time we landed at 1:30am, local time.

We crashed in the business lounge in Terminal 3 until about 8am.

We then headed out into town. We took the subway which was quick and cheap. It’s a really nice system they have there.

At least he doesn’t stick out!

We walked around Singapore, did some shopping, some eating and just chillin’.

Cool root in a store window.

Satays and beer.

We went back to the Terminal 2 and waited for the flight to Chennai.

Most of us slept all the way there. Parthi met us at the airport and got us to our hotel. On the way there he told me that the crates would not arrive until tomorrow night. So that means we get to relax tomorrow and see some sights.

The hotel is really nice. I didn’t unpack at all. I called my family and then chillled. I finally got to sleep around 2am.

It’s Monday morning, India time.

I’ve been just sitting in my room waiting. I’ve been trying to watch TV but it sucks. The cable signal keeps going out so all I can see is just a few minutes, if that, of whatever I’m watching. And, there’s only 3 or 4 English language channels to choose from anyways. Oh, and the channels actually change too. I mean, for a while it’s HBO and then it fades out. When it comes back on it something toatlly different and not in English.

I’m pretty much ready to leave so I’m going to head over to the mall for lunch now.

Got back from the mall. They actually charge to enter the mall! I went to the food court and got some chicken at a Marrybrown restaurant in the food court at the Maya Mall. Afterwards I had a scoop of chocolate chip ice cream from Baskin Robbins.

When I got back to the hotel Parthi was there waiting for me with my flight info. I let him know, again, that I was not happy with my delayed flight.

Anyways, I’ve been sitting in my room trying to watch TV but the channels keep dropping out.

At one point the air conditioning unit above the window made all sorts of horrible noise and then ice started shooting out of it. I guess it froze up and it was now breaking loose.

Oh, and there goes the power again! This is about the 6th time today.

I spent a few hours adjusting the colour of the 60 plastic masks. They needed a purple tone added so I mixed the blue and red Badger acrylics. Did they make purple? No. They made green, of course! I have no idea why. Ended up just doing an overspray of white.

The building we’re working in is called The Champ Sport Village. According to the website: “The sports village is purely membership driven and is the most exclusive place in the city.”

Here’s one of the locals relaxing at The Champ!

It also says it has a “full fledged gym”. Well…yes, in that it has the equipment. I wish I had taken pics because the treadmill was all busted up. The part you walk on was all split and I doubt it could run. All the seats for the other equipment were split and taped up…many times over. And the weights were actually rusty!

The whole building was in major disrepair.

But, the cricket ground was really nice. All day Friday and Saturday some women were out weeding the field by hand.

A game was played today that I watched a little of while I worked. I was in the room on the left of the building in this shot.

I met with Sabu later and showed him how the body gags worked. He showed me the new sunglasses they made with the material I had suggested. I’m glad it worked out well.

Srini then arrived with his wife and son. I showed them a bunch of the stuff. His son is 4 1/2 and is really cute.

I was all packed and ready to leave and then was told that they couldn’t arrange the flight for me. I was really frustrated as I had been telling everyone that I had to leave Sunday night. Everyone on the crew seemed to knew that except the one producer who’s in charge of arranging it. Being that it’s now late Sunday there’s nothing that can be done.

I left to go back to my room. I detoured over to the mall to check it out. I’ll probably go back there tomorrow for some lunch.

Got up and had the guys finish the last six wigs. I worked on getting the body gags ready to show Sabu later.

I was planning on going into town to meet up with Banu so she could take me around to the different suppliers so I could see what is available here. I got a call from the 1st AD saying I could meet with the director between 11 and 1, here on the set. I did meet with him at 11 but only for a minute. I was told that we would have our real meeting at 6pm at his office in town. Kinda messed up my day.

I now planned to go into town. It took almost two hours before I could go. I then sat around for an hour at the office there before I got a vehicle to take me and Banu around. We had just under 3 hours as I had to be back by 6. It was frustrating.

After my meeting I went out to dinner with Banu and her sister. It was a really nice restaurant. I had a prawn dish and ordered it spicy. It wasn’t really that spicy to me.

After dinner I got a ride back to the hotel and went straight to sleep.

Well, I crashed! I got almost a solid 8 hours of sleep. I woke up when my alarm went off at 8am. I was kind of “out of it” but was okay within 10 minutes. Maybe 15 minutes.

I got a call from one of the producers after 9. The 1st AD called me a few times then to arrange my schedule today. Apparently, the shipment we sent out two weeks ago just arrived last night!

The place I’m staying is interesting. It seems like an old, run-down resort. I think we’re near the coastline. I don’t know how some of the other guys are going to like it.

I spoke to a couple members of the production and was told that we won’t be here in June but at the hotel I stayed at before while in Chennai.

Some of the makeup and hair guys came in and we got almost all the wigs cut. We’ll finish the rest tomorrow morning. Couldn’t today as there are no working lights in the room we were in so once the sun went down…that was it.

The set they’re building here is amazing. It’s huge! They’ll be shooting just exteriors here. They also have “workshops” set up here…just makeshift coverings over an sopen space where they’re making helicopters, tanks, a bus, molds of our stuff…it’s crazy! I took pics to show the guys back in the shop.

I just hung out in my room after that. Watched TV, ate and went to sleep.

Oh yeah, the fun part of sleep is that there’s something in bed with me that finds me tasty. I got chewed up over the last two nights.

I got off the plane a little after 1am, local time. I tried to sleep but couldn’t. I couldn’t eat until 5am when the business lounge finally brought food out. I then walked around Terminal 3 checking it all out. There’s a butterfly garden that was interesting.

There are quite a few people here at Changi Airport wearing paper masks but, I’d say, 90% of them are Japanese. I’m getting ready to head out to the zoo and check that out. I then plan to go to a place, recommended to me by members of the first flight crew, where I can get some really good local cuisine. Including some of the “freaky” stuff. 16:30, back at Changi Airport I got a cab and went to the zoo, which was really amazing. It’s all open. No cages (well, except for the snakes which were in enclosures). In fact, some of the animals were on islands with only about 12′ of water separating us. There was some fine wire fencing in the water to keep them from swimming across but you really had to look to see it. Before leaving the zoo I went into the KFC and got popcorn chicken and a Pepsi. Both tasted exactly the same. Just had to try it and see. From the zoo I caught another taxi and headed into Chinatown. Walked around a lot and only bought one thing. Went to a Buddhist temple where there was a Buddha relic……a tooth fragment. And you couldn’t actually see it. I mean, it was shown on two large screen plasma TV’s! Kinda funny, actually. From there I started walking towards Little India. I was going to get a cab but I always seemed to be on one-way streets and the traffic was going the opposite direction to where I wanted to go. I ended up walking all the way to Little India. I don’t know how many kilometers I walked. I was looking for some place to eat but I wasn’t really hungry. I finally got a cab and headed back to the airport. My right foot was killing me and I was pretty wet (sweat). It’s been very hot and humid here today. I took a nice, long shower and now I’m beat. The lack of sleep is really hitting me now. I have three hours before boarding so I may go get a massage. Or just sleep for awhile.

I had an earlier flight this time. I left LAX at about 3pm. This time it wasn’t a direct flight either. Had a one-hour stop at Narita Airport outside of Tokyo. It was really interesting, too, as we couldn’t get off the plane till a crew of paper-suited, gloved, goggled and masked Japanese guys came through. They looked us over, had us fill out a questionnaire (regarding symptoms of influenza - swine flu) and then finally let us off. Tons of people in the airport had the paper masks on too.

I didn’t sleep on that flight as it was normal waking hours for me. I did sleep most of the flight to Singapore though.

I made it!

I got home just in time. I arrived half an hour before the family started showing up. It felt great to be home.