So another two months have passed and someone - mentioning no names but you know who I mean - has again neglected to write up the blog! He makes out he's busy but I don't believe a word of it. Anyway, it means you have to put up with my scribbles for a combined July and August update.

So what have we been up to: family weddings and dinner with our landlord and family. This time was a bit different as when we were last there Shyam jee - better known as Mister Meena - was still in Delhi so we all ate together. This time we ate with only him while Meena and Shristi, their daughter, were stuck in the kitchen. We of course didn't say anything at the time and I thought of it as a fairly harmless tradition but in fact it occurred to me later that it might be OK in a well off household like their's, but in the poorer ones it means the women end up not getting enough to eat and certainly missing out on the nutritional stuff as they have to wait till the men have had their fill. So perhaps I should have said something. Maybe next time.

Of course there was all the sport going on during July - Wimbledon (disappointing), Tour de France (boring), golf (also boring and disappointing at the same time when the older guy didn't win!) and the Ashes (too boring to think about!). G loved all of it of course but now the football season has started we'll no doubt be trailing out to various bars to find ones showing the Man U games at odd times of day!

We had the eclipse which we'd realized we would have a ringside seat for when we were doing our training in February 08 at Harborne Hall in Birmingham. But in the event it was an anticlimax - we wouldn't have noticed anything if we hadn't known. But I can't complain, I didn't notice anything with the last one in the UK during the 90's so I can't really blame this one on Nepal!

We've been to the movies a couple of times - Star Trek at the army mess and Harry Potter at the local cinema. The latter was a real Nepali experience. They had problems with the film playing - either the colour wasn't right or the picture stopped while the sound kept going or vice versa. Eventually they seemed to get it OK and then they stopped for the usual 10 minute interval when everyone goes out for a smoke. Only because they were behind they restarted it much sooner then usual so then we had loads of people trying to find their seats again in the dark! And then it was capped off by someone sweeping up with a very stiff brush right outside the open cinema door rather distracting from the overall cinema experience, but it was very funny!

In August we were visited by Tony Baldry MP again. He came for a couple of weeks last year through VSO's PolVol (political volunteer) scheme and spent two weeks here. Gordon traveled with him to the Terai to see some disabled beneficiaries and he got very involved with the Dalit NGOs and the whole caste-based discrimination thing. Anyway he came back for another week this year and my organization hosted him which meant we took him out for a day to one of the nearby rural districts to see a shoe-making cooperative and hear some rather dull speeches in Nepali while they kept calling him Tony Blair! I hadn't expected to like him - he is a Tory after all - but he's very good and you can see why he's been an MP for 25 years! He also surprised me as I'd assumed he was getting a cheap holiday at VSO's expense but it was the other way round: he was coming back to Nepal on holiday to meet a friend and go trekking and he decided to add on a week to do some work with VSO! He refused to take any expenses whatsoever and even bought me and Juliana from VSO lunch! So I'll let him off with the MP's expenses thing, though I probably still wouldn't vote conservative!

Of course the big event recently is weather related - we had a flood, despite being on the second floor! The monsoon finally started properly early in July though it has still been very different from last year. Then it started from end May and rained every day but at night so we hardly ever got caught out and soaked. This year we had very little till mid July and since then we can have days in a row with constant rain or at least grey skies. I have spent most of the last 6 weeks with constant wet feet - though it does keep them nice and soft! Anyway, about our flood: Two weeks ago I woke up, swung my legs out of bed and put my feet down into over an inch of water! It had rained very hard overnight and the drain from our terrace must have been partially blocked so the water couldn't get away quickly enough, backed up and came in under the door. Every room was flooded except for the bathroom which was completely dry because of the step up into it! I thought it would take ages to clear but G found the Didi and told her "Samasya Chha" (we have a problem) and she came, shrieked and ran down to get Meena and Shristi and lots of towels. It only took us all about 2 hours to get rid of the worst of it. Thank God we had nothing important on the floor and also that it didn't go above the level of the plugs but you'd never know now it had ever happened!

Work has been OK, albeit slow as usual. We have had some training in fund raising; my lot had a workshop for 29 districts where I got them to use a bell to limit the time they could speak for - Nepalis will talk for hours if you let them so we rang the bell after 3 minutes and they had to stop - a huge cultural achievement I thought! G and I ran a session at our quarterly Governance meeting on volunteer learning and support which was great fun; G has finally finished the mid term review though I've yet to see the report so maybe it never really existed? Now he and a carefully selected group of people with completely opposing ideas are trying to develop the strategy for VSO Nepal in the future. Never mind that we leave in 5 months and won't care then! And last week I went to Banke and Kailali in the Terai to visit the districts and offices where some new volunteers are going to be placed next year. It was interesting and nice to get out of the office for a couple of weeks but very glad to get back as down there it is very hot and wet! I hope the new vols like it 'cos it wouldn't be me!

Aside from work G has also been mentoring another volunteer, Nick, on how to cook, supervising his first ever culinary effort when he cooked spag bol for 10 of us after losing at a quiz! Nick has been married for 30 years but is hardly domesticated! It was pretty good even though he'd had to make it with no opera playing which I always though was an essential part of G's cooking! The test remains as to whether he will ever do it again!

So we topped off August with another trip to the Hyatt to help me recuperate from my time in the districts. This was lovely despite the pouring rain on Saturday - we were sat in the hot tub with the rain pouring over us like having a power shower on while you're in the bath. But the break should keep us going till our visitors start coming at the end of September and after that it should all be easy - apart from the winter of course!