Pretty Sure It Isn't A Testicle...

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am going to start with a confession.  As we near the 1000 mark, it is becoming apparent that practising for a marathon in Kathmandu may be more difficult than I expected.  Why?  Ignoring the extremely uneven pavements, half of which are being dug up, there is the throngs of people, motorbikes driving on the pavement and live wires hanging down to contend with.  Fear not, I will keep looking for a place that may be suitable for running and if I don’t find one, I will think of something equally good to do.

Secondly, I fell in mud tonight…It was quite hilarious!  Well, I assume it was as it was quite hard to see it where I was sitting.  Third, I just looked up from typing and saw a cat casually leaving my flat.  Not sure whether to be amused or concerned…little bit of both methinks.

So, what has prompted this second blog in a week?  Quite frankly, I have had an awesome week             .  Tuesday night saw me being invited to a colleague/dinner celebratory dinner which in itself was nice.  I met lots of new people and ate some good food.  What can be better than that?  I DANCED…sober!  I am not sure I have done that since my last school dance.  It was even Nepalese dance, though I suspect half of the moves I learned were the female dance parts.  Oh well, it now means I can convey ‘please come to me’ in dance.  This evening also had the unexpected result of me drinking straight vodka for the night as it was a celebration… 

So, having filled my social quota for the week, I suddenly found myself at an expat evening on Wednesday.  This basically translates to a bunch of 40+ (age) people mingling together.  Thankfully, (though everyone was nice) there was a few people closer to my age, including one girl I got talking to who was doing her PhD research out here.   That was basically the highlight of the night, though I did get some warm wine, which was a novelty.  Meeting said girl also then resulted in an email that linked to me various events around Kathmandu…including Salsa?!?

So, we come uneasily to Thursday…my social cup was overflowing, I had barely been home and my wallet was getting thin.  I was on the edge…all I wanted to do was drag my sorry, unshaven self (I will stress I wasn’t hung over, just exhausted) back to my flat and curl up in an anti-sociable ball.  I manned up, I still had one more event to finish, and I saved the best for last.  Again, PhD girl led me to the event and I am extremely glad she did.  I ended up sitting in a small café with a cup of tea and some momos watching a documentary (Life in a day) that was being projected onto the wall.  It was bliss, such a nice and simple way to spend a night.  

However, my tale does not end there…as I experience the half price bakery sale in Kathmandu.  Never have I seen so many people crowded together reaching for cakes.  I myself gave up on the refrigerated good and opted to get two chocolate croissants, a weird ball thing and one other odd look thing…about 60p for the lot.  Totally worth the mud.   

Lazimpat Gallery Cafe  - Ok, a bit different from my usual posts as it only really applies to people in Kathmandu but this was where I saw the documentary so I think it deserves a linking!

From the 3rd CD I ever owned and still a brilliant song, Bon Jovi - Dry County

So enough from me, I have to go check to see if I have any more feline intruders...

Oh God, I Forgot About The Ants

Ok, as I sit in the sun in my garden (a warm winter is quite the novelty), I figure I will use my lazy Sunday somewhat productively and write a blog post.  However, taking a slight change from the norm, I will type everything backwards.  Gniddik m’I ,yrrow t’noD. Though, in all seriousness, I will go from my usual mode of trying to talk about one thing in an overly long post, to talking about many things in an overly long post.  Much like the driving here, there is no particular structure or order.

Driving – See what I did?  Yes, the driving in Nepal.  Never has the phrase ‘order in chaos’ been more applicable.  Watching the traffic go by and also taking numerous taxis everywhere, you would be correct in assuming that there are no rules.  Both cars and motorbikes do what they like, with motorbikes quite often driving the wrong side of the road.  Try driving like that in the UK, you would cause a massive pile up just by leaving your house.  However (and I realise there are high number of crashes throughout the country), it does generally seem to work here.  In my fairly short time here, I have been terrified to start with but slowly I have realised that the drivers here have always lived here and are used to it.  Due to this, I seem to have worked out a slight rule.  All the drivers seem to worry about is what is in front of them, and it is up to the person behind them to worry about their driving… it does help that it is usually too jammed to pick up any speed as well.  Also, I went on my first motorbike as my friend offered to drive me to dinner.  Talk about trial by fire but I’m ok with it now.  Sort of…

Buffalo – Is plentiful and delicious.  Next!

Pad Thai – Please see entry for Buffalo. 

Insects – I have never been the biggest fan of insects (or arachnids), I will be the first to admit.  I find them fascinating but not really in person.  And you know what?  I’m ok with it!  We had a fairly peaceful pact.  They generally left me alone and I didn’t seek them out.  Those who did cross my path, I would usually set them free, as a gesture of good faith.  However, due to the increased volume of them here, particularly within my kitchen, I view this as an act of war.  As such, peace is no longer an option.  Any insects/arachnids that are particularly tech savvy and subscribe to my blog please consider this a warning and inform your kin.  War is upon you!  That being said, I have seen what cockroaches can survive.  They are resilient to the point where I almost decided to forget about my ‘guerrilla’ war against them and worship them as the future leaders of this world, which I have little doubt they will become.  However, I shall fight on and let is said, that I went down fighting!

Street dogs – Are slowly sapping at my resolve… a puppy may be imminent.  This, however, is not a particularly good idea, so I must resist!  Plan to help out at an animal charity, this may strengthen me.  If you want to help me resist, please send £1 to  Puppy dude at Bijuli Bazaar.  *Update* Landlady says I would be allowed a puppy…mother of god, resist.

Farmers Market – Was informed of this my boss so decided to check it out.  Epic does not begin to describe it, especially as it was quite small but that isn’t the point.  Set in a beautiful garden of the 1905 restaurant, both Nepalese and ex-pats converge on the market on Saturday mornings.  Who can blame them?  On that particular morning, I came across Yaks cheese; handmade cloth bags made from old clothes; a salsa stall; jams of every type; artwork; and goat sausages.  You don’t get more multi-cultural without heading to UN headquarters, and who wants to go there?  Do they have goat sausages?  No, so fuck them.

That is all I can think of this morning, so I will return again to the norm and add my various links to the page.  I have been sadly neglectful of this recently but oh well.   

Bag Bringer Generation  - A group of volunteers that turn rags into bags, to help reduce levels of plastic.  A great initiative and they called me cool.  The charmers.

Music video of the day!  A foray into rap this evening.  Method Man and Busta Rhymes.  Stuck in my head it is!

On one final note, I started off in the garden, but finished off sitting on the roof terrace, having some Nepalese dish for lunch, with everyone in the building.  Micro migration!

At Least It Will Keep Away The Flies

Currently, I live with a spider that is afraid of the hoover.  True story.  

Moving on, I haven’t exactly been in a blogging frenzy as of late but I just moved 4000 odd miles away, so I’m sure there is an excuse somewhere in there.  However, as I sit in my flat, pondering my current predicament it occured to me, it has been a while since I have been well and truly alone.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not about to go into a depressing rant but usually I have had family, friends or a faithful pup to keep me company (or in some cases, an imaginary Canadian who fell asleep way too much).  Not now.  Yeh, I have some nice building mates around but at the end of the day, I get up alone; go to bed alone; and most of the time in my flat, I’m alone.  So, before we continue, go find your girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, wife, friend, flatmate or pet a hug.  They make a difference.  That done?  Good.

So, the Kathmandu situation?  Pretty good.  Not used to the roads and pollution yet but I do plan a visit to the Shivapuli (?) national park and might spend a weekend there once I get my first pay check.  I went around the city a bit at the weekend and I have to say, the temples here are amazing.  I mean they are truly a glimpse into the heart and soul of Nepalese religion and tradition.  You feel almost insignificant when wandering around them and from what I can gather, I haven’t even seen the best ones yet.  It is remarkable that , in this day and age, they can still be in such good condition and be so revered.  Humbling and moving, I’m not a good enough writer to put what I mean into words.

As for Thamel, oh my, I do enjoy the bars (it didn’t hurt running into two lovely ladies from Dubai) but the star of the show here has to go to the cover bands.  Brilliant!  I have seen three so far and have been treated by a medley of well sung songs by bands such as Metallica, White Stripes and the Beatles.  And I stress, well sung.  Each song was sung in a good tone and in the appropriate tune/manner.  Mayhaps I got lucky but they will be a constant in my night life I do believe.

I do have more to talk about but to be honest, I am tired and need to get things ready.  Though I will say, about 200 views since my third last post.  Not too shabby.  Just under 200 views until someone wins…  Night all! 

My Life in 30KG or Less

Well now, what a strange and wonderful past couple of days. I will skip mostly over the travel, except for any key points. Having left at 8:45am from my house, I arrived just under 24 hours in Sunny Nepal with 4 different currencies in my pocket and little sleep (plus I finally saw First Class! Way!). However, after a long Visa wait (with massive nerves thanks to the Glasgow Check in staff but it wasn't their fault and were quite lovely), I received a brilliant welcome! Kritika and Gopal, two colleagues, were waiting for me holding a garland of flowers and a bouquet! After getting in the car, they told me that my apartment wasn't ready (Oh god, John was right) but thankfully, they took me to the lovely Everest Hotel.

After a quick shower, teeth brushing and change of clothes. We headed through oh so horrible traffic to the Tamarind restaurant. Oh god, it was Nirvana. Kritika (whose uncle owned it) ordered for us and that is how I ended up sharing wild boar (x2); massive prawns in Garlic; chilli chicken; chow mein; chicken fried rice; a sichuan cauliflower dish; a mystery dish and wine. An epic meal! I then met my boss, who was pretty interesting. Very talkative and friendly but quite the perfectionist. So pretty much ended day one, other than getting things ready for work the next day.

So! Onto today, which had an auspicious start as my phone alarm decided not to work properly. So, after a quick shower and even quicker breakfast, I headed to work. Arriving at work, I met everyone and was shown to my office (Oh my) which I will share with the Vice Principle. I also found out that I am no longer the Admissions Officer but the Admissions Co-ordinator. So, I was sat at my desk wondering what to do, when I was handed my work laptop, which was a pretty awesome surprised. I was then tasked with looking over the website and finding any ways to improve it. Eventually, after several hours and much stationary being shipped to my desk by various people, I went for lunch. At the restaurant in the basement. This was where I had a massive portion a chicken chow mein, in quite a well decorated chinese restaurant. For roughly £1. I am going to get fat...So, the rest of the day went pretty well but was fairly non-exciting. Until the last hour. I got business cards. Business Cards. Hundreds. Then, (not as awesome but still pretty awesome), I found out I move into my new apartment tomorrow, which I will discuss later!

Now, I know you are all wondering what I had for dinner (I have sunk so, so, so low) and I won't disappoint! Chicken momos, Garlic naan (amazing) and Paneen vegetable curry washed down with lemon tea. Cost about £4.50. Fat...

What I will end with, and I will end soon as I only have an hour of net, is that the people in Nepal I have met so far have been amazing and have constantly bent over backwards to help me out and make me feel welcome. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone I have met!

Anyways, off for a shave and beer, preferably in that order. Miss you all!