We're now comfortably ensconced in our new apartment and feeling quite at home. Our landlady, Meena-ji, has been really kind and helpful providing us with lots of pieces of furniture, even a black and white TV so G was able to watch repeats of the Man Utd games - Oh great! - as well as numerous cups of tea and Indian cakes!

The day before we were due to move in we came over to organise drinking water and gas for cooking, as well as to look at getting carpets sorted out - the refurbished flat just had concrete floors. We went with her to the local carpet shop and looked at some tiny swatches and picked the best colour, expecting as in the UK that it would take a week or so before they came to lay them. Not a bit of it! Within half an hour the guy was round and had the whole house carpeted before we moved in the next day.Similarly with the gas, we knew we wanted the cylinder outside the kitchen window with the hose coming through the window to the 2-ring hotplate, but didn't know how long the hose needed to be. So the chap comes out on his bicycle with the 2 cylinders and one 20l bottle of drinking water and a bit of string to measure how long the hose needs to be. Then he goes off again to return 10 minutes later with second bottle of water, hose, regulator and his mate with a drill to make the hole through the window. So again, within half an hour we were all fixed up, cooking with gas as they say! I shan't criticise Nepali efficiency again!

The cane furniture we'd ordered all turned up as planned and we even have a comfortable mattress at last, after sleeping on what felt like concrete at the village and not far off that at the guest house. So we are just waiting for the 2 volunteers living in the really nice apartment to leave next week so we can get the rest of their furniture, and in particular a fridge. Then we can get some milk and have a proper cup of tea so all will be right with the world! Probably! Anyway, it is nice being in our own place again, though a bit of a culture shock being on our own after so long - what shall we do, there's no-one to go out with? Most of the others are off to their placements now so of the original 16 of us only 4 are still living in the guest house, so I'm very glad we weren't the last!

The one thing with being in the flat is having to get used to load-shedding. This is where every day for a few hours there is no electricity. I keep calling it daylight saving by mistake but that is just me! Anyway, the guest house had an inverter so you didn't notice it that much but now we are having to have candles at the ready and make sure we know where the torch is. It's quite fun though, reminds me of being a kid in the 70's! And last night G managed to cook spaghetti bolognese by candlelight - very romantic! In fact since the election the number of hours a day as been halved to only 21 a week now. Looks like brownie points for the Maoists but is actually just because there's been quite a lot of rain so the hydro plants are working efficiently!

Language training is now finished which is good as it had got a bit of a drag towards the end, especially after the village stay. But now it feels like we're out on our own and its sink or swim! I can string a sentence together alright but I struggle as soon as they speak back to me, but it can only get better! Though my pronunciation can be a bit of a struggle as so many words are so similar. For example, I always get caught out with the words for 4 and 6, chaar and chha respectively. We went to order a dining table and 6 chairs to be made at a local carpenter's - sounds very extravagant I know, but is costing all of about £50. Anyway I was sure I'd ordered it right but fortunately Gordon checked what was written down when we paid the deposit and he had only put 4 chairs!

For our last day of language training they did a Nepali cooking day teaching us how to make Dahlbaat - Oh great! -but also roti and various other curries. The mushroom one was particularly nice and I do like the potato curry they have here routinely with a variety of vegetables so I will definitely have a go at them. They didn't give us any specific recipes though so I will just have to play, but if it works out I'll let you know how to make it!

So the next big adventure is starting work. G has it tough as he starts on Friday which for government workers is a half day. Then Monday and Tuesday are government holidays, Wednesday and Thursday we are all on a VSO transparency workshop and then its Friday half day again. He thinks he is going to like working in the government! I will not make it easy for him though as I don't get the half days or as many holidays and I start earlier in the morning than he does so he can do all the cooking and shopping that I did back home! But then as we will have a Didi -older sister in Nepali and how they refer to a home help here - to do our washing and cleaning, life won't be too hard. It feels a bit funny having a cleaner when I never did at home, (I feel like tidying up before she comes!) we're so much better off than they are so it is a positive thing to support the local community! - I wonder if I can teach her ironing as well?

Anyway, enough for now. But as we are now internet connected at home communication should be a little easier so hopefully you'll now get more prompt responses to your e mails!