DAY 16 (Friday 05 August 2011)

Today nothing exciting happened in work, it was mainly spent chasing people up to find out exactly what they required for transportation when they got back to the UK as part of my job is filling in the T&S Budget Approval forms and sending back to 4 Div for approval (this is allegedly my bread and butter most days in work). 

Woohoo, I have survived my first week in work.  I finished work earlier than normal, but not too early as we had another function to attend tonight, I shall tell you all about it when I get back in, that’s if I am not too tired as we are not due to finish until 2300hrs.

Charlie had an interesting day again today, he went to the Partners Club for a meeting and yet again he was given another KATA as a welcome with it being his first time in the Partners Club.

Right, that is me back from the function, it was another leaving do for my COS, by the time he leaves the country he will have had about 7 leaving functions, he has another one tomorrow, let’s hope it’s indoors as it’s due to rain again tomorrow as it has done tonight and it’s big fat rain. 

The function wasn’t bad, admittedly I didn’t stay long, I had what was supposed to be a double Jack Daniels and coke for my drink but looking at how much went into the glass, I can safely say I think it was a quadruple, (it didn’t go to waste).  There were little spicy snacks set out on the tables, before the main meal of the evening, and in good Gurkha fashion, it was a Curry.  I did put the meat on my plate but I really wasn’t sure as to what the meat was (and I wasn’t going to ask), I tried it, but the texture just didn’t seem right so I left it and ate just the rice and salad.

After the meal everyone was to go over to the basketball court where there was a marquee set up for the cultural show, but that is when I made my escape as I really couldn’t be bothered, only because it was going to be going on for an hour or so and I really had to get some shut eye as I was shattered, so with that, me and Charlie snuck off.

Right well I am off to bed as I have stupidly agreed to get up at 0500hrs on again (yes I am getting up at stupid o’clock on a Saturday) to go riding, this Charlie says he is going to come along too as he has got the use of Frances’s bike as she is now on leave and not needing to use her bike.  So, with that I shall bid you a good night.

Day 15 (Thursday 04 August 2011)

Today started with a wake up call from my alarm at 0500hrs as I had to be round at Nicky’s to get her bike before she, the RAO, Capt Frances Fox and my boss DCOS went out for a run, I was going along not only as part of my PT session but to be the water carrier.

We set off at 0600hrs, once everyone had met up and headed down to the main road so that we could start to head out of town and get a bit into the country side which is where the volume of traffic was considerably less, however, getting out of the town was fun, I have found with the people over here, that it does not matter whether they have the right of way, they are coming regardless.  I managed to make it out of town unscathed.

It took the group about 2 hours to run 18 km but not all of the runners did the full 18 km as some kept doubling back for the slow coaches, (DCOS), but give him his due he isn’t the slightest of people and has been out of it for a while, I am not sure if he is doing the Everest Marathon with the others in November or if he is just going out on the runs to get fitter.  I know from here on in though that I shall be going out on the bike more (especially when mine arrives) as there is definitely loads of other off road routes to explore.

It was Hem’s birthday today; Hem works in the Finance office downstairs from me dealing with the cashing cheques for personnel.  Here for birthdays (as is probably the case with most office dwellers) the birthday person buys in the cakes, (normally in my case I make them), anyway Hem bought in some lovely cakes from the local baker and for whatever reason we all ended up going to a little restaurant for lunch, everything was ordered beforehand so when we showed up it didn’t take long for our meals to arrive (Charlie came with us as well as he seems to have been adopted by my lot), we both had Steamed Chicken Mo Mos, Charlie didn’t have much choice as to what he wanted as I ordered for him, but from the way he polished his plate off he seemed to enjoy it.

Once lunch was done it was back to work for a relatively normal afternoon, nothing untoward happened.

DAY 14 (Wednesday 03 August 2011)

Woke up just as the electric went off, which was just about the time that my alarm was due to go off anyway, fortunately though my alarm isn’t electric, could you imagine, that would be a good excuse if I were to be late for work, but out here I don’t think they would buy it as an excuse.

Anyway, today was nothing exciting, just work again, there was a sports afternoon, but I didn’t have one as I wanted to play catch up on a programme that needed a little amending, and I have plenty to do tomorrow without adding that to my To Do List.

I did get asked if I wanted to go with the clan that are training for the Everest Marathon tomorrow for my PT session, as I can’t run I didn’t think it would be a good idea, but the RAO (Maj Kevin Thorpe) said that I could follow on a bike, that way I shall still be able to do it with them and not have to go into the gym, me being me said ‘Can’t see why not’, so I have now inadvertently agreed to get up at stupid o’clock (0500hrs) to meet them for 0545hrs so that we can be out for the 2 hours that it will take to get around the route they are doing.  I shall let you all know tomorrow how I get on, have a serious feeling that I shall not only be knackered, but also most probably going to end up walking like John Wayne.

Well until we meet again.  TTFN.

DAY 13 (Tuesday 02 August 2011)

Today started out with our PT session being in the outside pool, it was quite a strenuous session, whoever said you can’t sweat when doing swimming hasn’t had one of these sessions with Maj Kelsall (OC/QM) taking it.  We spent a very knackering 45 minutes doing life saving techniques (being told that we are not qualified life savers, we are only there to assist if need be) then we did laps of the pool doing various stupid things, you also have to realise that the pool is only a 16 meter pool so it doesn’t do well to have loads of us at one time.  However, I did get told to stop cheating at one point, that was when we had to swim across the pool, haul ourselves out go round the float and lower ourselves back into the water and swim across and do the same again, well instead of hauling myself out and standing up to go around the floats, I just stayed sat down, swung my legs over the float then lowered myself in the pool, to me that is not cheating, it is using my initiative.

Anyway after that we just went to work where again, it’s just the mundane stuff with a few extra things thrown in.

However, tonight is the night for the COS Dine Out, this will be my first Mess function here even though we are in our Mess Dress we are in Summer Mess dress.

 Me in my Summer Mess Dress

 

Back now from the function, it’s not stupid o’clock but it is certainly past my bedtime.  Well it was a good night was had by all, we all had cocktails to start, then other drinks were drank whilst we waited to be seated for the food.  The meal was nice, starters were Battered Mushrooms with Garlic Sauce and a bit of Salad, main course was Chicken with a white sauce and the usually customary vegetables, even though there was a sauce, gravy was also provided, dessert was Lychees with ice cream, however the Lychees weren’t fresh, they were out of a tin, but it still tasted nice all the same.  Of course you can’t go forgetting the cheese board with crackers, if you say biscuits over here that is what you will get, biscuits (Oreos have been known to accompany the cheese board before now).

After dinner there was the obligatory toasts with the Port, the Vice for the night did the toasts, however, when it came to toasting the Queen, all he said was ‘Sir’s, Ma’am’s, Ladies & Gents’, that was it, he just did the hand gesture for us to stand instead of saying ‘Please be upstanding’, still everyone got the gist with the hand movement.

The evening ended not too late but late enough, at least I didn’t have to get up for PT.

DAY 12 (Monday 01 August 2011)

Today was the day that I flew solo, (no I wasn’t flying a plane) I was actually in my office on my own.  Nothing too exciting if truth be told, but I did manage to get a programme done and sent out.

Oh yeah, nearly forgot, we had COS (Chief of Staff) Prayers at 1030hrs in the Kathmandu Room, before I went down I had to print off a couple of documents to take with me, but when I printed off the first document I just couldn’t think for the life of me what was the second one I had to print.  It wasn’t until the end of the meeting when COS asked me what new visitors had been added to the list that I realised what it should have been.  Oh well we live and learn, so I have added that to my notebook of things that need to be done and when.

DAY 11 (Sunday 31 July 2011)

Well we set of for THAMEL at a reasonable hour as we weren’t sure how long it would take us and today was busier than yesterday so crossing the road would be more of a challenge as over here there are no such things as pedestrian crossings or even traffic lights (well saying that though there are traffic lights on the freeway outside of the centre of KATHMANDU. 

Charlie wanted to try and get to the KASIER MAHAL which is inside the GARDEN OF DREAMS, so that we could stop there for a little bit and have a drink and relax.  We were supposed to go to the Garden of Dreams first before heading to THAMEL but it took us a little longer as we took a wrong turn (thinking we were going the right way) and ended up at the Durbar Square in Central Kathmandu.  We had a look around there, took some photos and headed on our way.

From our home we headed down the ring road (took a picture of the SACRED COWS)

2 Baby Cows on the sidewalk outside a car showroom

 this took us over the BAGMATI RIVER

 

Traffic going over the bridge out of our part of KATHMANDU

and up past one hell of a big park called RATNA PARK, we walked and walked and came to a road that we thought for some reason would take us towards THAMEL, how wrong were we, this is where we turned down NEW ROAD and GANGA PATH that took us into DURBAR SQUARE,, KATHMANDU.

From there we went down loads of back streets (had a look at our compass and it said we were going North) so off we went thinking we had a bit to go before we got to the Garden of Dreams, oh but we most definitely did have more than a bit to go as we actually ended up past the other side of THAMEL on a road called NAYA BAZAR, however, it wasn’t until we got to the VISHNUMATI RIVER and could see the hills that we thought we had been going in the wrong direction but weren’t sure, so with that we had a look at our map to make sure we were going the right way and realised we had to turn around and head back the way we came until we got to the top of the hill and took a different road, this actually took us into THAMEL and I managed (after all these years) to recognise where I was as I had been here about 14 years ago.

We walked through all the tourist area of THAMEL (I shall be going back to get some bits and pieces and also to buy some souvenirs for myself at a later date).  When we got to the other side, we actually knew where we were as we saw an Irish Pub that we had passed last Sunday on our way to the Sterling Club with the Hetherington’s.  Just up the road and around the corner was the Garden of Dreams, so happy that we had finally made it as I was really ready for a sit down and a long cold drink, once we were inside the Garden of Dreams we went to the KAISER MAHAL for our drink and also ended up staying to have a spot of lunch.

View from inside the KAISER MAHAL at the GARDEN of DREAMS

 As time was sort of getting on and we knew we had at least another hour or more to walk back home we set off (in the right direction this time).  As we were walking back I took a photo of the Traffic Control Cop as he was having a pretty busy day. 

Traffic Control Cop (traffic coming just out of picture shot)

We also came back down along RATNA PARK where we passed the part of the park that is called RANI POKHARI which is also known as THE QUEEN’s POND. I shall have to take a picture at a later date as I was on the other side of the road and really couldn’t be bothered to cross it to get the picture.

We headed back across the BAGMATI RIVER and took another photo of how some of the poorer people live.

 

How the poorer half live.

 

It took us nearly 2 hours to get home.

DAY 10 (Saturday 30 July 2011)

Well today after a relatively good sleep we got up had a bit of breakfast and decided to head out, set with our back pack for any shopping that we may pick up along the way.  We went to BHAT BHATENI’s (supermarket) to get the ingredients for tonight’s tea.  Charlie’s idea was to get the meat and it would be able to defrost whilst we were walking around, however, we managed to get a bit more than we needed, so headed home to drop off the shopping before setting out again.

When we set out again we headed to have a look around DURBAR SQUARE in PATAN, yes I know you are probably thinking ‘but you only went there last week’, well this time we took our camera to take some pictures of the temples that you can see, yes couldn’t resist, me and Charlie albeit separate had to have our photo took too.

Anyway, after leaving Durbar Square, we headed off and had a look around the side streets to see what there was, as is the norm when you are in a touristy location the shops are full of tourist stuff, some of it was really nice, some of it was the usual sort of tat that you would find, but this time with a Nepalese theme to it.

Well when we finally recognised where we came out at we decided to head down the Ring Road (picture below is the Ring Road on a quiet day) to the river to see how long it would take us so that for tomorrow we could judge

what time to leave to have a full day of exploring without being side tracked for shopping for our evening meal.

When we got to the bridge to cross the river (just a normal road bridge) we crossed it and we stopped as I saw something moving in the tree to my left, when I look I noticed there was a monkey so I had to show Charlie as he had not seen a monkey since we got here, as you can see from below I was not making up the fact that there are monkeys over here.

We noticed the time was getting on and that there were some dark clouds starting to head our way and also as the weather out here is quite humid at the moment with the monsoon season, any cool breeze that you feel, you automatically know that there is going to be rain following it and not that far behind, so with that we decided to head back home, but to do so we went the way we came, (less going back around PATAN) and going up hill over here when you are still not used to the altitude can be quite tiring.  On our way back we went via the Hot Bread shop and not only did we pick up a loaf (if you can call it that) we picked up some yummy looking chocolate cake (I have decided that I shall try their local food over here and if I fall ill I know not to touch it again, so far so good I we have both been alright), we managed to get home before the rain really set in.

 So that is all that has really happened today, tomorrow we are going to go for a walk again, probably will try and get over to THAMEL and see how long that takes us, THAMEL is the real touristy area.