The Princess and the Pea

Those of you who have children, or were children once (ha!), may remember the story of the princess and the pea which had something to do with the fact that if you put a pea under the mattress of a princess she would feel the pea no matter how many mattresses were on top of it. Which only indirectly has something to do with what I'm going to say next, but still.

I have to state at the outset that I am not, nor have I ever been, a Princess, but I'm sure that at the moment I would definitely be able to feel a pea were it placed under my mattress. This may have something to do with the fact that the mattress I'm sleeping on is about 2 inches thick and is straight on top of a wooden base. So no springs either. However, with the jet lag, it is still not impossible to sleep on, were it not for the dogs' chorus each night which starts somewhere around 2am and goes on to about 4am, at which time the roosters start up and the traffic too. So not much sleep last night.

Apart from that, everything is fine. Kathmandu is pretty much as I remember it, though there are more power cuts than when we were here last time. And the smells and sights and sounds are pretty much the same too. One of the cafes we practically lived in last time we were here has sadly gone downhill, but there are enough new coffee places to make up for it.

It is holiday time here at the moment - Dasain - so much slaughtering of goats going on here there and everywhere and the usual Nepali unpredictability. Jill had booked a Nepali lesson this afternoon, but the place was closed for the holiday, so we went for a walk up past the British Embassy and the British Council and round the back, and visited the British Cemetery. It's only a small place, but beautifully kept, and very peaceful too so we sat there for quite a while, picking up a few mozzie bites on the way.

Other than that, and a very nice massage this afternoon, we haven't done all that much really. One of our friends will be back from a tour this weekend, so we should get a bit more organised then, and we have other friends to get in touch with so hopefully we'll get to see them over the holiday period.

So everything is fine so far. The trip over was OK, though Manchester Airport gets worse every time I fly from there. If you aren't flying there's nothing to see and nowhere to have a coffee (at least there isn't in terminal one), and when you do get through the departure lounge there's absolutely no incentive to spend your money because everything is so expensive and, in my case at least, I knew I could get what I wanted far cheaper in Abu Dhabi. So I did, thus depriving the UK government of some taxes at least I would imagine. Kathmandu Airport was its usual chaotic self - four flights arriving at the same time and one luggage conveyor belt working intermittently. Oh joy.

Well, that's all for today. I promise I'll post some pictures at some point, but it generally requires a fair amount of time to do this, and I don't have all that much time this evening. So you'll have to suffer more inane ramblings as well as getting to see some piccies.

Take care of yourselves,
Love,
Vivienne xxx