DAY 46 (Sunday 04 September 2011)

Sunday, oh how nice it is to be able to have a lie.....oops no nearly forgot it was cycling day and both Charlie and I were due to meet up with the rest of the cyclists at 0630 hrs, so last night I set my alarm on my I-phone for 0600 hrs, well we live on camp just around the corner from where we were to meet so there was no point in getting up too early now, is there?  Well like I had done I set my alarm, however, what I had forgotten to do was to change the actual day for the alarm, it was still set as Saturday because that is normally the day we go out cycling.  I had woken up and looked at my phone to see what time it was as I thought it was still early, only to find that I had to do a double take at the time because is showed as being 0615 hrs, I couldn’t believe, Charlie was still hard fast asleep but not for long as I shoved him and told him we were late.  As it happened that is the fastest either of us have ever gotten out of bed, especially on a Sunday morning.

We met up with the others, this week Marion Nicky and Kath (my DCOS’s wife) also made it, in total there was about 8 of us out on the ride, the ride this week was actually the same as last week, so I didn’t really get to take any pictures, my aim for this week was to actually try and make it up as many of the hills that I walked last week, and guess what, I managed to do a couple of the hills, so I am getting better, saying that though, having the bike in the right gears to start with before you start up a hill is a pretty good move too.  We were actually out quicker than what we were the previous week, so it must be true, I must be getting used to not just the cycling but to the altitude too.

As Sunday is our day for eating out (our weekly treat) we decided to go and try a restaurant called ‘Black Pepper’, we had to take our brollies with us this time as the heavens opened earlier than normal for a Sunday of late.  Black Pepper is supposed to be a nice place to go and eat, but I can’t confirm that as we never actually found the place, we actually ended up back at the Roadhouse, even though we were given directions to get to Black Pepper it was down a little side street and we were told if we make it to the British School then we had gone too far, yep you guessed it, we made it to the British School, hence we gave up and went back to the Roadhouse.

After returning from our evening meal, not as damp as we thought we were going to be, we just settled into a relaxing evening of watching a bit of TV before bed.

Nothing much else went on tonight so time to sign off and see you tomorrow.

DAY 45 (Saturday 03 September 2011)

Today there isn’t really anything to report, yep even with it being a Saturday we decided today was going to be a leisurely day doing absolutely nothing.

I think we are waiting to see what tomorrow will bring as it is a another 0630hrs meet to go for a bike ride, not sure who is coming, but Marion promised she’d be there this time as she skived off last week, I think Nicky is coming too, definitely BK as he organises getting us together at the weekends for the ride and most definitely me and Charlie, the only thing that I am not looking forward to tomorrow is the fact that I still don’t have padded cycling shorts, they are in the post.

DAY 44 (Friday 02 September 2011)

Today, as yes Friday and it’s the start of the weekend.  Not much happened in work itself today, but tonight a load of us went out to a restaurant called

It was a lovely restaurant; well actually it is a hotel which is right next door to the Spanish Consulate. I did try to take photos of the actually building but as it was really dark the pictures didn’t come out too well, I shall have to try next time as we will no doubt be going back again.  The food of the evening was a BBQ and for the set price of about 1500 NRs (Nepali Rupees) it worked out to be just under £15 per head, the food was really nice, it was good as you got to sample a load of different varieties of their food, on one of my plates, (yes I had 2 helpings) I had Mo’Mos these are little dumpling like things with meat in, you can get them with vegetables in too, I also had skewered chicken, gherkins, little onions, vegetable skewers, (not sure what some of the vegetables were, but it may have been best not to ask, at least with the meat you knew what you were eating, I even had wild boar on my plate, the first lot was really nice but Boar can be quite fatty so I passed that to Charlie to eat.  They also a dessert section, mainly mousse’s, and different cakes.

The hotel itself has a history of how it became about and the architecture who basically restored  it all from a dilapidated wreck, to look at the pictures on the wall as to what it was like before it has certainly taken on a transformation.

The reason we all went out for the night was because Alison and Mark Dennis are leaving us to go back to the UK so what better way to end a posting here is to go out for a really good meal, mind you when you are due to leave Nepal, the amount of leaving functions that people have are unbelievable, especially if you were head of a Department out here, so when I leave in a couple of years, I should hopefully get a quiet send off as fortunately I am not a head of any Departments.

Unfortunately in the picture below you cannot see Alison, however, if you go back to DAY 42 Alison can be seen at the back of the picture near the number 2 in 2011.  Mark however, is in the picture below he is sat between Jill and Kathleen.

Alan, Kathleen, Waiter, Mark & Jill (Alison’s Hands)

Rest of the mob, Kim, Beth, Imran, Frances, Steve, Steve & Nicky

The night ended with everyone having full bellies on food and booze, so I think everyone had a good time.  So until tomorrow, goodnight.

DAY 43 (Thursday 01 September 2011)

No news to report today.

DAY 42 (Wednesday 31 August 2011)

Today is the day of our Teej, Teej is the fasting festival for women, however, I can safely say though that none of us Westerners fasted, but I am not sure about the Nepali women in the photo.  The Teej is for women only but as Charlie is a member of the Partner’s Club an exception was made for him and trust me, there was no way he was giving up food for the day either.

Members of the Partners Club and invited guests

 It is where all the women get dressed in red Saris and men (this means Charlie) had to wear a red tie, fortunately though it wasn’t just the red tie he had to wear, he was allowed to wear a suit.  As Charlie is the only male member of the Partners Club he was the only male at the function, normally males do not attend the function as in a normal world it is the husband who is working out here and not the wife.

As guests we were all given a welcoming present which consisted of a beaded necklace, bangles and tika’s (tika is the ornament that is placed on the forehead of the female when she is in traditional dress.  As Charlie is a bloke he was presented with his present which was DHAKA TOPI which is the traditional headdress for the Nepali men, and apparently you are not officially allowed to wear one of these unless you have been presented with it.

 

Charlie sporting the Dhaka Topi

At the function tonight to end the fasting for the women, we were fed appetisers known as Tipan Tapan, this is normally the case before the main mean, which in this case and every case so far to all the functions that I have been to that curry is the main meal.  I wouldn’t mind but the just chop up and cook the meat with the bones still on, even the chicken, so needless to say, I think from now own I shall be having something to eat prior to going to a function as I don’t like the idea of have the meat still on the bone, especially the chicken as they just cut anywhere.

The night was still good though as a few of the Nepali women got up to do there traditional dance, I will just add one thing here, I did stay to watch, but before they had a chance to get me on the floor to dance I did actually do a bunk, but not before Nicky and Jill.

 Traditional Dancing

 I have added this final bit on the day after as I found out that Kathleen and Alison were the last western females to leave the function that night, I have absolutely no idea what time the Nepali women left, but what I do know is that a good night was had by all.

DAY 41 (Tuesday 30 August 2011)

No news to report today.

DAY 40 (Monday 29 August 2011 – Bank Holiday)

Today, Marion, Nicky and I went into THAMEL, for Nicky it was to price up gear that she needs to for her Everest Marathon, for Marion and me it was to finish getting our stuff to go with our Sari on Wednesday, let’s just say Marion had more luck than me, at this rate I shall be going bare footed under my Sari as I don’t see the point of paying a ridiculous price for a pair of shoes that I may not wear again, oh sorry, I have the Teej next year to look forward too so I may have gotten another evenings usage out of them.  I shall have one last ditched attempt to getting a pair of shoes to go with my Sari after work tomorrow, to do this I shall be heading to Bhat Bhateni’s to attempt this final act.

So as you may have gathered today for me was rather fruitless, however, I did manage to get a couple of pictures taken out of today, one is a street in T’HAMEL, as you can see it’s the sort of madness that is about everyday with not just people trying to get down a road, but also vehicles.  The vehicles don’t even care if they have to squeeze their way through, all you need to do is to remember to get out of the way.

The other picture was of pigeons, yes pigeons, I couldn’t believe how many of them they were and it wasn’t even Trafalgar Square in London, but you wouldn’t have been blamed if you though that is where it was, but not it was the pigeons of DURBAR SQUARE, KATHMANDU.

So with not much else to tell you of today’s efforts or lack of, I shall say goodnight as once again it is PT day tomorrow and back to a 4 day week this week, yay.