Our last month in Nepal seems to have been a series of parties and meals out - not that different from the rest of our time here you may suspect, but that's because usually we only tell you about the fun things and this month it really has been like that!

We started off with inviting Meena and Shyam, the landlady and landlord, to our flat with Alan who'll be taking it over when we go and Suzannah, who has moved in downstairs. We warned them in advance that we couldn't cook Nepali food so it would be European snacks and they could then go home and have dahl baht! Then on our last Saturday we went to their's for lunch consisting of the full Nepali spread and even accompanied by a Hindi movie on TV - G thought it was like being at his Mum and Dad's, just slightly different music and foods!

We also had our share of Scottish events this month with G getting lots of requests to perform the address to the haggis at various Burns suppers. The first being the British Army camp again where he was also asked to do the Immortal Memory. Unfortunately the organisers didn't have much experience with Burns nights and the Master of Ceremonies more or less did the Immortal Memory as part of his welcome speech. I would have given up but G managed to salvage the situation very well - probably something to do with the 2 bottles of Johnny Walker per table of 8 people! Then we had the "hoolie" (whatever that is) at the British Embassy where he did the address again though to a haggis made of brown paper and wearing a tam o' shanter! But he was a star anyway. And the final one was at his last Himalayan hash where he also got serenaded with a Burns recital by the GM - glad I missed it to be honest!

We had quite a few Nepali felicitations where everyone told us how wonderful we are - ramro manche - and how much we will be missed. Just as well there weren't any more or we might have started believing it! Nepali people do seem to be very sincere with their feelings of friendship and have an innocent openness towards us which is very endearing, but they will never be our close friends as we don't have enough in common and by the last farewell we were both feeling rather ashamed and uncomfortable with our cynical realism. But I will be glad to get back to good old British reserve and stand-offishness!

And so to our last day in Kathmandu - rushing to Sean and Rowena's with our boxes for posting home,final getting rid of rubbish (or rather just stuff we can't be bothered sending back or taking with us), showing Alan where all the dodgy electrical sockets are and how to use gratefruit seed extract to kill all the bacteria on fruit and veg, final tikka from Meena and Shyam - then checking into the Summit Hotel, embarassingly in front of an audience of people we know, for constant electricity, a heated room and a shower you can stand up to wash in. Luxury! Then an evening of goodbyes to all our closest friends who've helped us stay sane over the last two years as well as to the Summit barmen who've also had a hand in keeping us going. They are probably the saddest to see us going as we've definitely helped to keep their jobs secure!

So leaving Nepal - what shall we miss? Well G likes his morning runs with a blue sky almost everyday; I'll miss the colours - flowers, the ladies clothes and the exotic-ness, just the wierd things you see walking down the street every day; and our friends of course but they'll be leaving soon too and we'll see them all again anyway. And what won't we miss? Perhaps better not to start on that list - we'd be here all night!

But now off to the next set of adventures.....................

PS we really are important people as we got s special send off at the airport from our landlord who works for Nepal Airlines and waited to shake our hands virtually at the steps to the plane!