Many apologies for the delay in posting this blog but, naming no names, someone never got round to doing it after insisting it was his turn. But never mind, Christmas does drag on for a while here as we only got our last Christmas card last week - thanks Alison! -and we're still waiting for one promised parcel! Now you see why we didn't bother with cards!

Anyway, a festive time was had by all. We went for a hash run on Christmas day from the GMs house. There were only about 15 of us, very small pack compared to the usual 50ish, but it was really nice and one lady had brought mince pies so it was all quite Christmassy. We also got to try Tumba which is a Tibetan beer made from millet. They ferment the grain with yeast and then dry it. Then you add hot water to this and let it steep for maybe 20 minutes and then drink it through a metal straw. It was OK, a bit sour tasting, but is apparently very potent. I managed to extricate Gordon before he proved whether this was the case!

Then a quick dash home to shower and off for the main event to an Irish restaurant where we were having turkey with all the trmmings. We were a group of about 20 volunteers and the restaurant did very well keeping us all happy and fed at the same time. It wasn't like being at home but was good fun anyway. After the meal some of us went on to a bar and Thamel, the touristy part of KTM where all the restaurants are was just mobbed with drunk Nepalis. This is the first ever Christmas Day that was a National Holiday for everyone even though the majority aren't Christian, but they all seemed happy to be celebrating it! The only problem with this is it was like being in Edinburgh Princes St at Hogmonay i.e. uncomfortably crowded and difficult to get to where you want to go! One poor girl got her purse nicked so all not very nice, but Gordon met somebody else in a kilt so that was OK!

Boxing day was wierd - it rained! Unheard of - the only rain we've had since October, and it hasn't done it again. I suppose it made us feel a bit more at home!

New Year was a bit strange. We'd booked to go to this restaurant that we like who were having a "Manhattan" style New Year celebration. So a group of us went along and the only Manhattan connection we could see was a picture of some skyscrapers behind the DJ who seemed very keen on playing bad rap interspersed with Nepali music. In fact the whole event seemed very Nepali which is strange as they have a completely different calender to us and this isn't their New Year! I guess they just like to party! It was very Nepali in another way in that there was no countdown to midnight and no one seemed to know the exact time - of course everyone's watches said something completely different, and they forgot about the promised champagne and had to rush around in a panic so it was all quite similar to every Nepali event we have been to since we got here! But we were a big group and it was a nice evening, however probably once was enough. Next year we'll have a house party and organise things ourselves!

Since then we've been back at work (ya boo) and planning our holiday in Thailand at the end of the month (hurrah)! We had an informal Burns supper at ours on Friday to give Gordon a practice before he has to do the address to the Haggis at the British Army camp at their more formal do next Friday. It was good fun, we'd managed to get one small haggis broght back by a volunteer who'd been in the UK for Xmas so after Gordon had done the honours - very professionally I might add - we were all able to have a teaspoon each and then tuck in to somewhat less traditional pizze and sandwiches! Plenty of whisky though so thats OK!

All by candlelight of course as we are now on 16 hours of power cuts a day! They are apparently going to market Nepal as a romantic holiday destination as there are so many candle lit restaurants! And on the plus side moonlight is beautiful You can never really see it in the UK for all the street lights but here with a full moon and load shedding it is still really light outside with this lovely silvery light- magical! Crap without a full moon when you can't see anything at all and probably fall down a big hole, but you can't have everything.

Well, I'll leave it at that for now. Next blog will actually be from a different country which will be good for a travel blog! And you never know maybe G will actually get around to writing it!