Day 19 - Thursday  I don't want to sound melodramatic, but I'm dying! If I survive the night, I'll fill you in tomorrow

Day 18 – Wednesday Awake at 6 (nice little lie in) spent some time sorting out the comments issue on the Blog site and adding "Subscribe" option etc. (In case you didn’t notice.) Chow Mein for breakfast and off to school. A little more structured today with everyone required to achieve basic “select”, “copy” “Paste” before they were allowed to “freestyle” within the boundaries of the current mouse software & Paint -  though some of them discovered a new game pre-loaded that looked pretty good for them too. A few of them seemed to focus on a new game called “Try on Chris’ hat” which they thought was hilarious. Finished at 12:30 and went for lunch: Dahl Bhat After Lunch I decided to tackle the toilet door. This was the door before, No lock and a tendency to swing open of its own accord: Now I know exactly how Tom Hanks felt in Castaway when he had to make do with the most basic tools and materials. With just my penknife I managed to re-...

Comments Failing to Publish: I've had a number of people saying they have been trying to to publish comments to the Blog without success (and I thought no one cared). Note: This was not just the technical incompetents (you know who you are😉) but even clever people like my kids. Oh, and Larry! I've made some changes which might mean this works now. (Tested from Google Chrome, iPad and iPhone). Comments will now need to be mediated by me before appearing in order to avoid you having to prove you are not a robot which I understand to be quite problematical on Blogger and i suspect some of you may actually be robots! Chris Continue reading for Day 17 here:  The Nepalese Adventure: Day 17

Day 17 - Wednesday As you get older, you realise you can never stop learning. Life has so many new lessons to teach you. Today I learned that I must zip my suitcase. Mouse made a nice little nest in there of shredded toilet paper. Discovered it when I went to pack all my freshly washed and ironed (ok, so NOT ironed) clothes away.  Nesting Time Terrific storm last night. Went on for 2 hours or more. The lightning was incredible across the valley. Tried to capture on my phone camera but either "it" or "I" just wasn't up to it. Roads were closed today to trucks and buses as a result. Somehow it didn’t stop the political parties that descended on the village at stupid O'clock this morning. Had a shower before breakfast (after spring cleaning my room). Forgot my towel so walked back wet. It was raining anyway. Breakfast: Chick Peas and Naan/Pitta cross. Interesting Flip Flop! 10:00 – About 20 pupils turned up for computer class again to...

Day 16 – Monday 5:45 am -  Awakened when a party truck (in both senses) arrived with music blaring. No chance of going back to sleep so watched 2 episodes of “Blindspot” back to back. This was extravagant of me as I need to make the episodes last the rest of my trip so have been watching them only sparingly. This morning I just thought “Oh…” In fact, never mind what I thought. 9:00 – went up for breakfast. No Theresa and the restaurant roller front was pulled down. Hindou was there and said Theresa had gone off somewhere. Considered making my own breakfast but decided I’d be better off not knowing what was in the cupboards. So, on a morning of extravagance, I made myself a coffee. I know that doesn’t sound too extravagant but in my rucksack I found 1 single coffee in a sachet that must have come from a hotel. I’ve been saving it for that day when I really needed it. That was today! 9:30 – Kids from the school started congregating near the door to my room to ask “W...

Day 15 - Sunday Already awake at 7 but suddenly became more alert when I heard a carrier bag in the corner of my room rustling. Yes the mouse was back.  Switzerland also on my wall. Chased them both out. Then this in my room this evening. About 3 inches long. If these are the things I spot in my room, what is crawling over me while I sleep? Guess I just have to get used to this. For a while anyway. Jurassic Park Whole village very busy at the moment due to impending elections due to take place next Sunday. Constant stream of trucks carrying supporters, canvassers and party members, all in their local party's T-shirts. Have to say the whole thing lends itself to a bit of a party atmosphere (“having fun” party, not “political” party!) Lots of loud music in the trucks, shouting and waving. Lots of 20 something’s basically having a good time. I did spot a few of the local lads swapping their T-shirts from one political allegiance to another as the next string of trucks ...

Day 13 - Friday   Early start this morning to catch the 8 am bus to Battar. Note to self: If you're taking a selfie on the bus, someone will notice! He's Handsome. Oi! I saw him first... Once we’d arrived, the teacher (Parshuram) met us and we went to the factory to get pricing for Steelworks factory the steel joists to reinforce the school building that didn’t collapse during the earthquake. Now when I say factory, don’t be thinking this was some massive warehouse with smelting works etc. It was a yard under a corrugated roof. All in all about the size of a 2 car garage. The back garden was a scrap yard for old iron which could be cut down or perhaps taken to the larger location where the steel is shaped. (I am just speculating on this.) We went into the office which had 1 small desk and two large beds in it. Seems this is where the workers sleep. Perhaps it’s a 24 hour operation… In fact, yep one big fella came in, climbed onto the bed and went to slee...

Day 12 - Thursday Relatively uneventful day today. Breakfast (9:30) was a hard-boiled egg and curried/spicy chick peas (“Chana” in Nepali). All cold. We have water. No lessons till the afternoon so spent the morning painting. I’m so dissatisfied with finish of the painting and the walls clearly need several coats. Mentioned this to the teacher who disagreed and said it was at a very high standard. For Nepal. Was he just placating me? Not sure, but I’ll assume he was being honest and not just polite. Now I feel better J Lunch: Daal Bhat! Class 6. 2nd lesson and no computer hands on yet. :( 30 minutes before computer lesson: No power! I’ve started to prepare backup lessons now. Just in case, so I wasn’t totally at a loss. Thunder storms are rolling around the hills, intermittent heavy rain and thunder/lightning. That seems to be the time at which most power failures occur. I heard that the last power outage that lasted two days was resolved by four of th...

Day 11 Had a bit of a dental nightmare last night! Seemed to have a piece of chicken bone fragment lodged in my back molar (“Right Maxillary 2 nd Molar” I believe J ). No amount of worrying with my tongue would free it. Could just about get hold of with my fingers but ended up slicing my finger open! After some juggling with 2 iPhones (handy!) 1 as a torch and the other with front facing camera I could just about see it, only to discover it seemed to be a piece of metal – maybe part of a filling or some dental structuring. Decided to leave well enough alone but to avoid it rubbing, I used the “fish scaling hook” implement from my new penknife to push the metal back into place as much as possible. All was ok until I came to clean my teeth: One of the bristles of my toothbrush snagged in it and would not come free (but broke away from toothbrush).  Tweezers from penknife would not grip it. Luckily penknife also has pliers. So there I was, late last night, 2 beers down ...

Day 10 Namaste!  (Thanks for spelling correction Jason!) Today I packed my suitcase! Rudely awoken by my "friend". This morning he sounded like he was right beside my bed (=sleeping bag on concrete!). I decided to try and reason with him so opened my window (no glass, just plywood which makes for great black out blinds and at a fraction of the price). Literally, right outside, there he was strutting up and down. We faced off to each other for a while but when I mentioned a boiling pot he just turned his back on me and walked off. I turned around and caught out of the corner of my eye… THE MOUSE!... just as he darted towards the corner of the room behind my suitcase and to where I keep my precious supply of toilet rolls! (3 left).  Perhaps he mistakenly thought that their presence indicated a lavatory facility? Switzerland So I decided to clear everything away from the sides of the room. Packed everything back in my case. My several pairs of shoes (...