did you miss me?

I tried doing this on my iPad a few minutes ago but could only manage a title and no body text. Useful. SO here I go again on the Macbook.
Now what was happening. Monday I went at peak hour to CP on the metro which was surprisingly civilised, and got my changed again plane ticket. And had to fight off and shout at touts who were trying to get me to go to the market or their friends blasted shops. Had breakfast on the way home because the person who contributes nothing in terms of money or food to the house ate all my bread and peanut butter. I'm too old to be living in shared accommodation like this!
Anyway then went off to Khan market for the nth time to check the final dress which still wasn't right so I told him to give up and make a shirt instead, to be collected on Wednesday. Then Raj finally appeared from his mysterious 2 day trip to some mango orchards and we had dinner and some drinks. Tuesday was a busy one as BSR called me in a flap to say that the 3 weeks rations they had were finished after 2 weeks because the cook and 2 of the porters were crooks and I would have to get them sacked and get a replacement team. Great. So I rang the agency and shouted at them, and said that if they did not fix it ASAP I would personally ensure that the whole world knows how CRAP Indians are at arranging trekking. Oh and the crew were scared of snow. FFS.
I wasn't feeling quite right by this time, so was enlived totally by this challenge (not). Raj and I had also decided to get some decorations to do up the house for Diwali so off we went, with little Kana the Japanese student driving the whopping great Landcruiser round Delhi to AG Roy Marg where all the traditional Diwali stuff is sold. By about 9.30 I was so cold and sleepy I felt like dying. I crawled into bed with blankets etc on and was unable to breathe, and got no sleep all night. I had a pounding headache, awesome fever and a horrible rash, and my guts didn't feel too good either. Took several handfuls of anything I could grab, and thank goodness someone got me a hot water bottle. I managed to get downstairs for about an hour and lie on something other than my bed but it really wasn't worth it, so I went back upstairs and crawled into bed. Manish came to visit briefly (didn't bring flowers or grapes though!) which brightened my day. I had various diagnoses from people, such as virus, malaria and dengue. Thank goodness Manish convinced me to wait another night, and Wednesday night was much better. And at 3am Thursday I woke up knowing exactly what it was - blue food colouring. Which I am allergic to. And which was in my shot on Saturday night. How stupid. Won't make that mistake again. But I did get to watch lots of James Bond movies on telly.
So Thursday I finally left the house for 10 minutes to go to the ATM and I really enjoyed getting out. Had to miss the karaoke at Harry's but there is always next week. My last one...
Last night I had a sleeping tablet to make sure I got an uninterrupted sleep (well until the school marching band out the back starts at 7.30) and woke up to Vinita bringing me bed tea, which I drank and promptly fell asleep again. Got down at 11 am just in time to polish off some breakfast before the rugby, which of course Australia won. And I WON A BET. Sorry Ade, but you know it was a forward pass..... I will be collecting it on the 9th and if you won't be in town leave the money with Verena!
BSR and the girls are now in Panikher near Kargil and are finalising their plan to trek to Srinagar, which will take 6, 9, 12 or some other number of days. I've lost track frankly. Depends if there is more than 1 micron of snow. I can't get over what a bunch of pansies these Indian 'mountain men' are. Have a glass and a half of toughen up princess is what I say. No wonder hardly anyone bothers trekking in India - you'd be better off hiring nanna as a porter. And she would probably make nice cakes too!
So the weekend looms anew and my dance card is practically free - I am calling in a favour to avoid something I don't want to do and let's see what turns out.
Tomorrow I will definitely go to Khan market to collect the things I meant to get on Wednesday. I hope.
Go the All Blacks.

PHEW! May already!

Busy busy busy. Of course there was the Royal Wedding on Friday - yes I sat down and enjoyed it enormously, especially the ghastly get ups Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice turned up in. I love the way the 'hat' has a Facebook page now - ha ha ha. The bridal party looked lovely and the good old Queen was elegant as usual.
But while all that was on I was busy on the interweb emailing India backwards and forwards. You see, the SPOT that I posted actually arrived. Amazing. However, the person I sent it to believes I didn't set it up right as they keep pressing the send button and I don't get a message. I have explained about 4 times now that as it is a one way device, it will confirm that the message you sent got to the satellite, but what happens to it after that it cannot say. He keeps asking me for the logon details so he can 'check' that I did it correctly. Oh no my good man is the constant reply. And he reckons you can't get lithium batteries in Delhi. Rubbish I say. Plus I am still angry about the logistics bloke buying a new camera body for Rs35,000 that doesn't work. So I have told Maninder that whether he can get the SPOT to work or not he is to forward it to Robin soonest (an Indian saying). The SPOT site does indicate that it won't actually work in India, but as Robin is up in the mountains and at a completely different lat, long and altitude there is always the chance it will work as there are plenty more satellites available there. It's come this far it might just as well keep going! God give me strength.
It finally stopped raining in Sydney - everything feels so soggy and damp and it really makes my knees ache. Still, the zumba must go on.
On the GHT India front, Robin and Bob are now on their way to Joshimath via the southern fringes of Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve. When I spoke to him briefly on Friday they were faced with a day of 800m down, 600m up and 1300m down to get to wherever they were going - which may have been Namik - the connection wasn't 100% clear. Next time I hear from him I'll let you know.
I've been organising the books in the front room as sir has bought so many books we had nowhere to put them. Up and down the ladder I go carrying books, sneezing from the dust (must speak to the maid about that), and deciding which ones to keep and which to throw. Then comes organising them into my un-Dewey decimal system - I'm still working on that.
And our Nepali niece and her hubby (the wedding in Nepal last June that I wrote about) got their visas for Australia so no doubt they will be busy trying to get organised in time for that- they'll be studying at a Swiss Hotel school in Adelaide from July. Big step. I'm sure poor Puru (her dad) is very sad...
Here's a traffic jam (just a small one) in Kathmandu to cheer you up for another week of communting. And the umbrella is because I was crammed into a rickshaw that I was too tall for..
as usual.
I was very amused to see during the week that although all the political parties in Nepal promised they wouldn't have any strikes (bandhs) this year as it is Nepal Tourism Year and yet there was an all-in strike the other day and people had to walk 11 km from the airport with their wheely bags on the crappy pot-holed roads to get to where they were going. Great advertisement for the place.
And last but not least, I just checked my footy tipping for the weekend and saw to my total surprise that I scored a perfect round! I think that means I get a cash prize. Should get a bloody medal since I don't know a thing about it. Robin will get a laugh out of that. I do miss him a lot...

Update on the tired trekkers

I finally got to have a long, sensible and not expensive chat to Robin today while he and Bob enjoy 2 days off in a hotel in Munsiyari. He isn't overly impressed with Munsiyari as it is at a low elevation and therefore has a lot of flies - and anyone who knows Robin would be aware that he he can't stand flies. He and Bob were both happy to get their boots off and air their blisters for a bit. So for now it's a chance to relax, ditch the climbing gear and plan the next stage. Much will depend on whether they can get permission for the Kalindi Khal or if they need to take a longer detour to reach Joshimath. So no doubt there will be some more sorting out of paperwork and running around. One problem they face is that all the local trek operators deal with vising Indians from the plains, who are notoriously unwilling to walk for more than a couple of hours - so all the trek timings they get are almost useless for them.
Bad news on the camera front - the body that was purchased for Robin doesn't work with the lens (although they are all Canon) so Robin STILL doesn't have a camera. It's extra annoying because he was toying with either getting a new one before he left, or borrowing mine. And of course he did neither. And he has a Rs35,000 camera body he still can't take pictures with. And there isn't a Canon dealer around....
It was lovely just to sit and chat about this and that for almost an hour today without worrying about the phone bill - thank you skype!
They were unable to cross the Ralam Pass as there was way too much snow -  even then  they ended up bush bashing to get to Munsiyari and the flies.
For the next 2 weeks they will be very close to Nanda Devi, but at relatively low altitudes so the weather reports won't be as critical, but of course I will still be doing them. It looks as thought the cloudy weather should clear by Thursday, which would suit their plans perfectly. So it probably won't happen.
You all know that my cat, Princess Lakshmi, is a very naughty girl. But I found out my sister's cat is more naughty - apparently Babooshka jumps into the cupboard where the papadams are stored in a ziplock bag, grips the bag firmly in her mouth and runs down the hall, then hides under a bed and chews through the plastic to eat the uncooked papads. Weird.
Time to cook dinner.
See you soon

GHT India is GO!!!!

The boys headed off just after 6 this morning with 7 bags, one car, one driver and 2 'old farts' as Robin's SMS told me. When I called at lunchtime they were at a railway crossing waiting for the train to cross on their way to stay with some friend of Bob's at a place which may, or may not, have been called Jeolikot or somesuch. Anyhow, it's on the way to the border with western Nepal.
The weather in the mountains on the India / Nepal border is not too flash right now with quite a bit of snow falling. I'll be sending them weather reports every day from my fabulous array of websites. At present they are heading for an area around Kumaon and Garhwal, with the mountains Panchchuli and Nanda Devi. There that's given you all something to read....
Right now I can't give you a link to a map but I'll spend some time looking for one in the next few days.
Anyhow, time for this Zumba Zombie to turn the food in the oven.