Week 205.
All being well, I’m back from Nepal and had a brilliant trek to Kangchenjunga & over Lumba Sumba with Val Pitkethly Mingmi.
December, eh….
05 Dec 2023: Update: Yep, I’m home, after a week that took me from the sunny hills above Kathmandu to the damp, grey skies of Herefordshire. But I’m home!!!
Tuesday and Wednesday I was still in Kathmandu. A relaxing morning at the Chharari Retreat on Tuesday then back to the Marshyangdi and Thamel. Treated Mingmi and Tenzee to a falafel wrap lunch, then shopped. Met Annick for dinner at the New Orleans, Mandala Street. Tiredness catching up with us all.
Wednesday was our last full day in Nepal and was earmarked for three things: indulging in the Hotel Marshyangdi buffet breakfast (the fresh fruit in particular), shopping and dinner with M&T’s family. We managed two out of three. The last didn’t happen, and put a big damper on the whole trip.
Thursday was the long flight back to the UK. An early start thanks to Qatar bringing our KTM-DOH flight forward by 2 hours, and a corresponding longer layover in Doha’s Hamad International Airport – home of the $9 coffee and $25 curling cornered sandwich…..
Perishing cold in London. Thankfully the Gresham Hotel was only a short, cold, walk from Paddington train station and was warm and snug. M&S “bits” for “supper” (not a term I usually use), eyelids held open with metaphorical matchsticks. Then sleep.
We’d got up at 4.30am Nepal time and were in bed 10.30pm UK time = a 23 hour 45 minute day = Knackered and a headache.
I slept better than expected and only really woke up around 7am on Friday morning. Breakfast in the basement – very efficient and ruthlessly clean, these ladies could teach Tumlingtar’s squalid Hotel Makalu a thing or two! – took me back to the one and only visit to London I had as a child – I can still picture the poppy wallpaper and recall my amazement at a Dining Room being deep in the depths, and with no windows.
Trundled back to PAD for our respective GWR trains home, mine on the overcrowded 09.52 through the frosty fields to Herefordshire.
Phil met me at Hereford station and we headed home for a late lunch of homemade fresh bread, a cheese board, hummus and carrots. All my meal dreams come true.
And in the evening, pizza!
Saturday and Sunday featured lots of unpacking and washing and computer admin. Caught up with T & L for a couple of hours on a wet Sunday afternoon. Saturday started cold and frost and stayed cold and frosty all day.
Monday was mostly admin, including doing my tax return – woo hoo – and Christmas present wrangling.
Lots of sparrows back on the bird feeders. Lots of squirrels in the garden. Lots of finally fallen leaves. And a leaf mulch bin, courtesy of my lovely husband!
TV: Beckham (guilty pleasure, but it is a pleasure!), The Bear (season 1 – not sure it’s my thing), Grand Designs (Series 23, Episode 9: South Herefordshire), Andor.
Podcasts: Anglo-Saxon England
Audiobook: Mrs England – Stacey Halls
Photos: Herefordshire week 205 on Flickr.
Phil: w/e 2023-12-03.