It's not Everest but.....

......... I still didn't get to the top of the climbing wall I went to a couple of weeks ago. These pictures don't show that the whole wall is an overhang (yes, really), some bits more than others which means that for most of the time you were holding your full weight on your fingers/arms. Now, I've lost a bit of weight whilst I've been here but obviously not enough to get my power/weight ratio back to what it was in the days I used to free climb yacht masts.

My arms quickly turned to jelly at which stage I just had to drop off the wall - I think the next photo shows my best attempt. I don't think I got much higher on this climb, it looks like I'm about to come off.


I will go again but maybe I need to get in shape first if I want to get higher. Apart from the power/weight thing, I'm glad I wasn't any heavier because the short, lean Nepali (a Sherpa?) who was belaying me was lifted off the ground when I came off. Not sure how they manage with big guys.

Cheers

Roshan

Gai Jatra

It was Gai (pronounced "Guy") Jatra, literally Cow Festival, on Thursday. Historically Gai Jatra was initiated by King Pratap Malla to help overcome his wife's grief over their dead son. On this day families around Nepal masquerade in costumes in the hope that they can let go their deep sadness at the loss of loved ones in the last year. They take comfort that a cow will fly the soul up to the gates of the afterlife - and why not, its no less credible than many religious beliefs. Traditionally it has also been the day when people could speak out about authority and oppression, a sort of Free Speech Day. The significance of Gai Jatra for us was two-fold - firstly for some people (I'll give you a clue - which profession has the longest holidays in every country I know) it meant they had yet another day off work. For us at Blue Diamond Society, it was the annual gay pride rally, Nepal's own Mardi Gras. The drag queens were the stars of course, in full make up and dressed in their finest, there were a few more extravagant costumes but I discovered later that these were limited by the fact that some were locked in a cupboard and the person with the key was away - shame. My contribution on the glamourous costume front was to wear my Kylidh (pronounced Kylie) crew shirt in homage to the gay icon (for the benefit of the overly masculine members of the Kylidh crew, I concede that one does not have to be gay to lust after Kylie). Not surprisingly not even my British friends who'd come along got the significance.

I have to admit to being late for the start of the rally, my excuses being that I was at a meeting that took longer than expected and nothing ever starts on time in Nepal - there had to be an exception! As a result we did not catch up with them until they had danced their way through the tourist area of Thamel and stopped at Durbar Square to light candles for those who had died of AIDS in the last year. I thought we could stretch this and I lit an extra one for someone special who I'm sure would have enjoyed the thought of her soul flying off with a cow.

I hope the press clipping is legible, apparently if you double click it it might enlarge. I'm afraid it was difficult to take pictures due to the crowds so the photo of my beautiful friend in red is rather spoilt by the bloke in front giving me the evil eye.

Monsoon blues

Sheila's not here, the rain it is pouring and the mozzies are a-biting, I got dem monsoon blues.

 

This evening I thought it would be a good idea to wait until the rain slowed a bit before leaving work. This did keep me reasonably dry from the knees up but I hadn't planned for the narrow back roads between the office and home being quite so flooded. In one place there was a raging torrent coming down a side road and water was spouting up from drain (or were they sewer?) covers leaving me no option but to roll up my trousers and wade through. It's still pouring and I expect we'll get a power cut soon as the local sub-station gets flooded and trips out. Still the hydro-electric reservoirs need this rain if we are to avoid load-shedding next spring. So far so good with the house, no sign of damp or leaks - having the landlord living above us gives me confidence that are no leaks in the flat roof and the 6 inch deep gully running round the house has coped with even in the worst downpour. Better than my house in Delhi where the roof turned into a swimming pool which then drained down the inside stairs!

 

The really annoying thing is that my washing is on the roof and there is no point trying to bring it in. If I leave it out it should dry tomorrow, the question is whether I get back in time to take it in before the evening "shower". If not I might be recycling today's shirt on Friday.

 

As some of you may know, Sheila is back in the UK for a couple of weeks. She's in Felpham this week and I think back up to London with Josie next week. Hopefully she will come back loaded with goodies (and a couple more shirts).

 

Right, I'm off to cook my left over mashed potatoes and tinned tomatoes before settling down with a warm (I'm not joking, the laptop almost glows) spreadsheet that needs sorting before tomorrow. Happy hols for those about to go and fair winds for those doing Cowes Week.

 

Cheers

Roshan 

An interesting exhibition in KTM

I'd seen a small flyer about this exhibition but arrived at this huge old building with no advertising anywhere or sign of life...



…but after wandering in the doorway and along corridor I knew I was in the right place as I found these great pictures on cloth doors by children decorating the staircase.





Earlier in the year, more than 200 kids - from street children to those from international schools - had worked alongside some of the most eminent artists in Nepal and interested people from a range of organisations.







Children who were visiting particularly loved this one as they could see through the work!



The exhibition was called Khulla dhoka. More info via:

www.britishcouncil.org/nepal-khulla-dhoka.pdf





Was so pleased I went to this exhibition as it meant I saw some work by of Ben's mate Dan Cartright (albeit by bizarre coincidence - it's a small world isn't it!) and also a couple done by people in Roshan’s organisation, BDS.

A glorious exit for England

NOT.  But commiserations to any of you who take these things seriously. We watched the England match last night with a crowd at the Pacific Guest House. A few non-English (2 Irish and a South Korean) volunteers and me cheering for Portugal and the rest including the Nepali (or maybe they're Tibetan) friends and family of the owner rooting for England. Noisy but no crowd trouble unlike last week when apparently a drunk English fan had a fight in one of the smartest hotels in town. Despite the late start (00:45 our time), 4 of our friends came back to our flat to watch Brazil on my laptop (I've got a TV tuner for it) and at least that was entertaining enough to keep us awake.

 

Even the most hardened England fan must be relieved that the wives and girlfriends will not now be recording "We are the Champions".

 

Have a good week and enjoy Wimbledon in the sunshine whilst we alternate between heat and monsoon rain.

 

Cheers

Roshan