Bah humbug

I'm guessing from the increase in e-mails we are getting that Christmas is in full swing beyond the Himalayas. Not much sign of it here which is no great disappointment for me. My excuses for the lack of postings for ages are (a) Sheila has been promising to do a more interesting one complete with pictures of her training sessions and (b) I've been a tad busy. We (Blue Diamond Society) finally got funding through about 9 weeks after the 52 week project was meant to start which brings on a whole load of number crunching work plus it was the VSO Nepal Annual Conference last week. "Facilitating a workshop" was not in my vocabulary 12 months ago but I was press-ganged into doing one at the Conference. If nothing else, my use of musical chairs to pick sub-groups seemed to go down well. I also gave my overloaded VSO Programme Manager a hand by helping to arrange for 3 staff from local organisations to visit Uganda and look at the HIV & AIDS care and support they have there. My planning was rather thrown into chaos when first we found out that Uganda is runner-up to Zimbabwe in the dodgy places to visit if you are gay (my transgender colleague from BDS decided she would not risk Ugandan immigration with a passport that said she was male) and then, once in Uganda, when they tried to reconfirm their flights home the airline told them they'd been cancelled! A few days of worry before I heard today that they managed to get flights confirmed and should be back tomorrow (3 days later than planned) . Fingers crossed. We did have a bit of light relief at the Conference with a party (yes, I got drunk and danced) and the British Embassy Carol Service. Urgent phone calls to Uganda were my excuse for missing the service however I got back just in time for hot rum punch, sausage rolls and mince pies (surprisingly the Ambassador did not have any Ferrero Rochas chocolates). Thanks Your Excellency and all you British taxpayers.

 

It has got pretty cold here, outside temperature not as low as the UK but with no heating in the house (on the grounds of fire hazard and smell we decided not to experiment with the paraffin heater we inherited) or office it does get a little chilly indoors. I'm very happy I brought my 25 year old down jacket which I wrap round my legs when in the office. Still, probably only a month or so before it starts to warm up again. Don't feel too sorry for us as over New Year we are off to meet Josie for a sunny beach holiday in Thailand (any Kathmandu burglars reading this, please note that our landlord and his extremely fierce dog will still be here). Can't wait although now I realise that there are only 7 working days left before we go I am slightly worried. Christmas Day is a public holiday here, not sure what we'll do apart from eat the mini Xmas puds the kids brought us. Although we could probably get a full Christmas dinner there, one place to avoid is Thamel where all the tourists will be gorging themselves, getting pissed and wandering around in stupid hats.

 

Right ho, enough rambling, I'm off to bed with a warm laptop and a DVD of Cold Feet series one.

 

In case I don't post before we depart for our sunny beach, hope you all have a lovely Christmas and best wishes for 2007.

 

Cheers

Roshan

 

P.S. The official pub quiz answer to the melting Arctic pack ice question posed last time is that water levels will not rise at all. Pack ice floats and therefore displaces its own weight in water so when it melts it just fills the gap it left. Having recently seen some headlines about melting Arctic ice, I'm sure there is a flaw in this theory in which case I guess Culver Road and most of Felpham will be under water - a cheery note to end on!