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Hi guys,

Well I've been thoroughly encouraged by the number of folk actually bothering to read the blog - good on you all - give yerselves a pat on the back and a big round of applause...

I've come to the conclusion that some things in Kathmandu are just plain back to front... the top ten things which we've noticed are different from home are listed on the side, but there are some plain nonsense stuff like this:

I saw this the other day on my way back from work and was wondering what on earth she was trying to tell us? Are we to clear off and not bother her about what she is feeding her kids? Is she telling us that it takes 2 minutes? Or is it that there are 2 special ingredients in the noodles? I'm all out of suggestions but I thought it was definitely an advert that wouldn't go down well at home!

Anyway this week has been spent trying to figure out what the Nepali alphabet is all about:

There are 36 consonants, 10 vowels and 10 symbols for shortening the vowels and if that wasn't bad enough there are rules for writing joint letters, making nasal sounds that are just wrong for English speakers! It's taken 2 weeks but both George and I have now learnt the alphabet and are now able to start on lessons proper!!! only 19 more weeks left!!! Long slog?

George and the kids got bikes on Tuesday so since then the boys have been cycling to school - which is not for the faint hearted!

The routine for this weeks is that we drop the kids off for school at 8.15, then get down to the office just after 8.30am and then we're in language until 12.00 and then it's either lunch in the UMN garden or back up to pick up kids and organise some sort of play activity for the afternoon. Pretty normal really - except that it's Kathmandu and things just aren't really UK style normal.

This is the queue for petrol: Believe it or not this is one of the smaller queues I counted 196 bikes the other day waiting for petrol and there are newspaper articles about taxi drivers waiting 24 hours to get 10 litres of fuel... what a nightmare.

It definitely puts you off buying a car or bike... anyway did I tell you I bought a great mountain bike last week? Oh man.. can't believe it, it's the best bike I've owned: What a beauty! I took it out last Sundat morning and it is fantastic. Nepal and the Kathmandu valley boasts some of the world's best mountain biking so hopefully I'll be able to get to sample some of it!!! The uphills are a killer though! The highlight of the Sunday cycle was cycling over a small suspension bridge something akin to Carrick-a-Rede except twice as long! Good job I didn't look down.

Anyway - that's all for now - I hope you are all in good form, post a comment or fire me a mail if you want to get in touch.

Take it easy...