Mountain biking

This Sunday morning I got up at 6.30am to go for a ride in the monsoon-rain on my bike. It was soooo nice to be outside in the rain-fresh-air climbing up a bally big hill. I went with my boss and a friend of his who i was told wasn't particularly fit. However this bloke appeared all dressed up as if he was going to do the Tour de France in all sorts of professional lycra and colour coordinated hat and goggles... this gave me a minor panic as I am not Tour de France standard... in fact i am not particularly fast at all... especially going up hills... and definitely when going up hills off road. I think i need to develop stronger legs so i can get over all the bumps on the steep bits...
Fortunately we stuck to the road most of the time because the rain made the tracks like mud bath slides! We did one very long long climb which was OK, and although i was a fair way behind the men i didn't collapse or have to get a taxi home or anything drastic... i did get covered in oil and mud... but that goes without saying...

The way back was downhill and this is when the man dressed for Tour de France did his clothes justice and canned down the hill as if there was 100% visibility, no hair pin bends, 0 possibility of oncoming buses crashing into you, and a smooth dry road... I was someway behind!

Bellow are some photos of Chobar Gorge. In ancient ancient history the KTM valley was a lake. Legend has it that a Buddhist deity took a (presumably huge) sword and cut the valley edge at Chobar to release the waters... and the result was a fertile valley that today is Kathmandu!

The bridge at Chobar gorge. Made in Aberdeen (Scotland) in 1903!

Jai Binayak Temple - important temple to Ganesh

The return and death of Machendranath

In April I wrote about Machendranath the god of rain who is pulled around town in a huge, precarious wooden structure for a couple of months... by the end of June Machendranath was back at my end of town and parked up for a bit to allow worship or the people hauling it a break... I'm not sure. I went and took some photos...

Machendranath multiplies... now there is also mini machendranath

Worship coincides with many other things... shopping... trying to drive along the street... having henna painted on ones hands... buying fish... meanwhile Machendranath sits in the middle of it all

Lighting candles to the god

Now it is the end of July and Machendranath's chariot is slowly rotting at the roundabout near my house... bit by bit people are pinching things... mostly its just the wheels remaining and they are HUGE... they would make a good fire... but perhaps that's almost as bad as killing a holy cow... I'm not sure.

Photos from home...

So here is a quick photographic journey through the 1st 2 weeks of July... I also put some other photos on Flickr (see link on right hand side).

It started off with a trip to wet wet wet Brighton, on the way we found Ditchling Crescent where Groo, Gramps, Mum and AA once lived for 6 months...

Then there were yummy cocktails with the Nadj in a random Lebanese restaurant in Soho...
Then there was the most marvelous Welsh Wedding of the Year. Really 'Hello' and 'OK' should have been there... perhaps they were? A really lovely day, everything was more than perfect... congratulations to Rachel and Steve ;o)

Making seating labels to go round roses on the tables

Getting our nails done... don't ask about the hairband... a remnant from the hen weekend I believe

The reception venue... and look its sunny!

The wedding party (I think that's what you call us?!)

Ant, and me in my bridesmaid get up

After le wedding, we toodled off to the Peak District, where we had a nice time, camping, walking (lots), getting blisters, eating enough fresh dairy products to compensate for the next 3 months... and hiring a tandem (very exciting, and now features in the plan to cycle the length of New Zealand)... actually the tandem is strange. Being the smallest I had to ride on the back. You get to see more than I thought, (ie not everything is obscured by the person in fronts back) but it is weird not having control over anything... you don't need to think about steering or gears - that is all up to the person in front. So you can just sing songs, day dream, look around and be responsible for indicating at the appropriate moments... as long as you don't stop peddling all is fine...

Camping near Edale... actually we nearly started camping in a field full of charging sheep (well ok many non-charging sheep and 1 charging sheep... seriously a baby sheep charged at me - there was a certain degree of mocking at me finding this quite distressing). We thought the sheep field was our campsite, until we started talking to the only other happy campers in the big field of sheep and they said there were no facilities apart from a sink... which didn't sound like what we booked... so we continued down the lane and found out sheep-less field avec shower which was far superior and only £1 a night extra!

Ant with the tandem!

Perry/cider stop - Cave looking down on Biggin/ Woolfscote Dale

We hiked up above Ladybower reservoir, to an amazing ridge of stacks of stone in order to find "The Salt seller", see below, which features in the most wonderous BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice when Lizzy is on holiday with her aunt and uncle and hikes up to take in the Derbyshire views... prooving she is not a constrained Victorian. Alas no Mr Darcy sitings were had, but it was beautiful!Orange boy... with an orange - at the salt sellar

Its been a while crocodile

I'm just back from another mini break in the UK... it is funny spending all ones holidays in England, but I like it very much. This time the trip involved a wet Brighton, yummy pastries in Hastings, time in the BIG Winch, a bargain night at the Hoxton in Londres (£1 mega deal), the Welsh wedding of the year, and a lovely time in the Peak District - walking (in the rain) which resulted in more blisters and a decision to finally ditch the boots - think Ant's putting them on ebay if anyone wants a pair of Salomon walking boots which really don't fit me other than when I'm sitting down ;o) ... this led to another decision to buy new, and seemingly not so nasty walking boots... and more walking... and a tandem rental = very fun-o on a bicycle made for two... did i mention the rain? hmm rather damp! ... food also featured - you will see there is a dairy theme - a delicious cream tea, ice cream, cheese, rhubarb and custard and buckets of fresh milk (in fact I was greeted at Gatwick by a bottle of M&S luxury jersey full cream milk). I also tried Perry for the first time, which is like Cider but made from pears. I don't know I could tell a huge difference... but it was good - drunk in a small cave overlooking Biggin dale...

it was a good time.

I always find international departures a time for thinking and reflection. I am used to chopping and changing where I live reasonably often and I'm getting to know what to expect... they have become predictable emotional roller coasters which I like in a weird way. The trip to the airport in Kathmandu was a taster for when I leave properly in less than 3 months now (I think)... there's a line in a song from the most marvelous musical 'Billy Eliot'. I think it is referring to how he feels when he is dancing, but it kind of sums up how I am fairly sure I will feel leaving here: "...it's like when you've been crying and you're empty and you're full..." The empty bit is leaving behind another life, and the people that make it fun, and the randomness of foreign lands that make it exciting and interesting and different... and the full bit is going home to where you belong, and a sort of happiness for having the opportunity to not only travel but also live in the places I have...

soooo I guess I should make the most of things now...

Will upload some photos of the English mini break sometime in the not too distant future

xxx