᚛ 4,600 ft feet above sea level ᚜

Mysore to Bangalore = 3 hours taxi ride and it aint the M25

Bangalore airport = 2 hour wait time

Bangalore-Delhi = 2.45 hr flight

Delhi airport = 4 hr wait

Delhi - Kathmandu = 1.40 hr flight

My journey began at 2am and ended in Nepal at 5pm the next day...

Exhausted , headachy and dehydrated.

This is my first view from the roof where I am staying.

As we circled Delhi waiting for permission to land I could see a mustard streak that sits above the city, a gruesome layer that floats atop the smokey smog like an ashtray cloud. A yellow Delhi ghost. Delhi looked huge and packed full of buildings. I'm not sure it looked very appetising although I am sure it is full of interesting India. The big cities scare me a bit in Asia. I'm a fan of the suburbs, the rural areas, the pastoral idylls, even if they do mask suffering. Suffering is everywhere but in a big city it's tangible, it's unimaginably awful and it's there in front of you. Reminding you that you have never ever got any reason to complain. Forget our badly paid jobs, our boring lunch, our knackered cars, our busy workload, our lack of motivation, our relationships....Suffering is everywhere and we all have had some but here it's mind boggling. I am going to pray for the grace to remember this stuff...this grey slimy misery, this yellow frothy topped city and try not to moan or wish for anything other than this blessed bit of life I have.
I really wish these life lessons would stay with me, but as we all know I'm the complainer of the century, the moaner of moaning, the itchy footed freak and I can but try.

After all of the waiting and zooming around in planes and sitting around at airports I was wishing I could unobtrusively take photos of kissing couples, sleeping tourists and strange hippy travellers. I'm waiting for Apple to develop the brain app, a tiny camera implant which means  all that I see I can download for viewing later. Especially as we started the breathtaking descent into Kathmandu airport. Oh wow, a big  lot of wow. I had begun to notice the sky clearing as we headed East from Delhi and the Himalayas were coming into view. I had booked a window seat and I was so glad. Mountain ranges look great from above. I'm not sure I want to climb Everest or anything but I do like looking at them. Once upon a time I declared myself a beach person but maybe I'm more inclined to mountains these days? It's definitely a mountain I climb every morning on my yoga mat...
As the plane sunk and my ears started popping and glugging I had the view of a lifetime, mountains, foot hills and green, green rice paddy terraces looking for all the world like torn edges of paper, layered and stacked in formation. No way of taking a photo but I will hold that image in my heart for ever. Beautiful, stunning and I wished I could slow down time so I could gaze some more at little houses on big hills surrounded with contours of grassy emerald and jade.


Landing was fine, after Bangalore and Delhi it looked like we were skidding into the Wild West. A few dilapidated buildings, nothing glittery or shiny here (thank goodness) I even saw a horse making a late afternoon shadow on an empty road and I thought there and then, "this might be my type of town."


I was met by a volunteer from the charity I have come to work with, as we raced through the narrow brick walled streets of Kathmandu I felt a frizz of life jump start my heart. I had arrived during the festival of Maha Shivaratri, the streets around the airport were bubbling with people and I saw impromptu drumming and dancing sessions by chillum smoking Sadhus. Hilarious and almost frightening, the driver zoomed away and we left the shouting and stamping feet behind us...

I'm going to be exploring more this weekend, I am working every day in a printing workshop which almost made me cry when I saw how simple and pretty it was. I am working with late teens/early 20s who are deaf and I am going to be learning Nepalese sign language twice a week, it is different from any other sign language apparently and I've also got Nepalese language lessons twice a week. Amazing. Pinching my arm as I write. This is my life? Thank you thank you. And it was casually mentioned that I would be visiting the paper makers next week and I'm sure my heart boomed loud enough for everyone to hear.

I'll show and tell some more next week...this is a sneak preview of the printed journals that they make in the print studio and below are some hand carved wooden stamps I found in the local mobile phone top up shop! Needless to say I bought a couple...the horse to remind me of the one horse town I thought I was flying into and the lotus seated pranayama yogi to remind me how I got here and a hand (not pictured) offering the blessing of good fortune. All made by hand, you can see the nicks of the knife. 

In my very brief ventures into the surrounding streets I've noticed that Kathmandu is a land of craft and makers. There are handicrafts and arts everywhere... It's going to be thrilling. It's very different from India, I'm still trying to work out why. The light for starters and not as friendly as my beloved Mysore but it is early days...I've only just begun.

✰ Christmas Past & Christmas Present & a peek into the future ✰

We all have our Christmas 'traditions' don't we? Our very own family quirks and routines that make this time of year so loved and dreaded in equal measures. I loved Christmas when my girls were little, so many ways to excite and surprise them with imagined sounds of sleigh bells and decorating fresh trees that were always too big for the house. Velvet stockings with gold trim stuffed with gifts and satsumas and apples! We have the same fairy that we had then and a whole box of decorations that exude memory and occasion. (all a little tired but that's the point)

I went through a phase of loving Christmas, then hating it and refusing to play ball at all and back to loving it again. I'm loving it again. It's peculiar and it's ours. My beautiful girls and their various splendid friends, my gorgeous mum and my lovely other dad, various loved family members, friends and friends of friends. Whoever wants to come really. I cook and cook and cook, after I've cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and shopped and shopped and I love it when we all sit and eat and we are there, right then, around the table on a variety of chairs, all of us alive and laughing and bickering or smiling or lost in thought. Because there are those that we miss every day in every way but there is always a candle lit in memory, a flickering constant prayer. Sadness is a side dish of Christmas.

I wish all of you a very special time this season.

Thanks for being there reading this and giving me a massive ego boost now and then.

It's most welcome. It's so good to get to know you all...I have found so many new friends through this blog and although I haven't met all of you in person I do feel such a nice connection so thanks for taking the time to share my world & letting me in to yours.

It's been a welcome distraction.

So, to the breaking news. I am going on another of my trips. In the new year. This time I am off to India (again) to get back on my yoga practice that I fell off of and am missing incredibly. I will really look forward to a strict regime again. I crave getting up early and laying down my mat and flowing through some breath and stretch and making the space in my heart bigger. I have let it dangle and I can't do that, I have so much faith in the power of yoga. 


And then, ta daaaaaa I am going to Nepal. Kathmandu. This is so utterly thrilling for me as I am going to work with a charity and teach printmaking and bookbinding skills to children/young adults and hopefully help them design, package and market goods to sell; which will benefit them all long term. And benefit me by having a whole lot of new people and places to visit. Isn't it amazing? I am so lucky and I know that deeply I am blessed and I thank the amazing fortunate events that have brought me to this point. This is something I have wanted to do for a long time. It is a bit scary, a big adventure, but sometimes I just have to take a leap and jump.  I have never been to Nepal, so will have brand new fresh eyes and that's the best for sharing. This does, of course mean that I will be sharing my adventures with you too. When I see it for the first time, so will you through my words & images. Through this blog. Which is nice for me as it helps me keep a little toe here in England. My home and hearth and heart are here. They always will be. The wanderlust is rousing me, I have to go and see, again. So, Mysore, Delhi and Kathmandu....wow. I couldn't have imagined that years ago when I first bought the fairy. 

I do get homesick and I do get lonely and I miss my family too much but I also Want To Do Something. So this is my attempt at Something and hopefully it will be Meaningful. With the internet and Skype and Twitter and Facebook there are many ways to keep in touch with my family in between the power cuts and the dodgy phone lines. It's faraway but not really...So, all that is left is to wish you all a really lovely holiday season, however you celebrate it, whatever your faith and traditions are I hope you have a beautiful time. 

Paris...Je t'aime

A weekend in Paris with blisters and cocktails, friendly natives and Croque Madames. 

Divine times. Delicious dinners. Darling friends.

Hello everyone from a hot crowded internet office with the slowest connection and the drowsiest fan in India.

I keep trying to imagine the cold and I've forgotten already the madness that is the Christmas build up.

The only concession to Christmas here is the sudden appearance of paper stars in all the shops. Bright epilepsy inducing crowds of colour hanging from every tree, cafe and straw hut. Thinking we could escape the seasonal madness I was worried when I found out that Kerala is mainly Catholic imagining that we would be in for a festive overload. If the stars are all they do then I can live with that. They are delightful and Meghan is already planning her import industry based on them. She has been to the factory and instigated international relations already. That's my girl.

For the first five days we were staying in sleepy Fort Cochin. It's faded Colonial architecture and dusty streets and culinary richness were just what we needed and we set about eating our way through the incredible menus and drinking beer covertly from teapots as it's impossible to get an alcohol licence in this state. There are government alcohol shops for people to buy to drink in their own homes though. Funny to see my girls, squiffily being 'mother' pouring beer for the table and looking in the photos like genteel ladies from back in the day. And just to throw salt onto already fresh wounds, dinner for 5 people (actually a small medieval banquet)and enough beer to allow Siobhan to let me take her photo, cost 10 of our finest English pounds.

We hired two auto-rickshaws for the day to take us to the elusive Cherai beach. An uninhabited stretch of sand on the Arabian sea that was about 28km away via a short ferry ride. A fiver a day for rickshaw and driver. Seemingly a bargain...

 

28km in an auto-rickshaw is a feat. They all drive like lunatics hellbent on their destination. Seemingly mild mannered laid back dude types all turn into wild white knuckled avengers on the road. Siobhan was terrified mostly but now has accepted that this is the way it is. I was terrified too but had to keep my cool. We arrived at the beach with our bodies but had left our minds frozen between a thundering bus on one side and a huge truck on the other. Near misses are common but the vehicles don't look too battered so they must all fly through on a wing and a prayer. Each auto-rickshaw is decorated according to the driver's religion. It's one of the first questions that an Indian will ask you as well as your 'good' name. I've decided I want a naughty name. And just to rub salt in to your frozen wounds the beach was just hot, the sea was warm with waves and a selection of staff ran around after us with drinks and food galore. One of my favourite things I

 ate was here. Ginger fish curry. 40p. I will dream about it when I'm hungry.

A few days in Fort Cochin and the girls were ready for moving to the beach. We caught the train to Varkala. A hippy town on top of a red cliff with a steep drop to the sea with a very tantalising beach below. We rented beach/cliff huts and stayed there for a week. It was very hippy with a huge spiritual supermarket of yoga, reiki, astrology...Nothing wrong with it but it was everywhere and it just seemed overspent. I even saw a sign for 'philosophical discussions'. How can a price be put on what we all have managed to do drunkenly at 3am for years? 

The food, swimming and lazing about was great though and we did do some day trips out to towns and made sure we saw the real (ish) Kerala. The touristy thing drives me mad but without it, we would struggle to find beds and language would always be a problem. There are only so many ways to wobble my head in Indian style (yes, no, maybe?)when I haven't got a clue what they are talking about. Oh, and we have discovered that 'no' is a word they don't use. They must hate the negativity or not want to disappoint or something but if you point and say 'station?' or 'telephone' 

(with appropriate mimes and best Oscar performance of a train) 

they say 'yes'. Every time. Even when it's quite clearly 'no'. It's so frustrating but in the end it's just funny. 

Until you miss the train or get on the wrong one as we all did this morning and ended up jumping off a moving train like cowboys. I am supervising the fruit of my loins, and other people's children, as best I can under duress. I got them off first though. I had to chuck my luggage and it reminded me of a great film 'The Darjeeling Limited'. There I was hurling all my baggage. About time too.

It's easy to get used to things here. I don't want to be immune to poverty and destitution but it's here and all around slightly hidden behind a 'holiday' facade. It just takes a slight detour off the beaten tourist trap to see what is really here. A lot of the staff in the restaurants sleep on the tables. I only know this because the screeching murderous crows wake me up at 5am every morning and so I go to see the sunrise over the cliff reflected on the sea like a foamy mango lassi. And all these bodies are all over the tables. In the open air, under rags. I suppose the staff come here for seasonal work but I can't imagine what there is for them to do for the rest of the year. The security guy at the beach huts earns 45 quid a month, lives with his mother at 36 (he looked 76) and says he will never have a wife because he can't afford it and has no prospects.(Up in the nearest town I saw shacks and tarpaulin villages. The drains are always full of greasy

 grey water and rubbish is collected and burned in the drains constantly, when they're not throwing it off a nearby cliff. The overriding smell of India is 'warm green, burning rubbish and petrol'. The saving grace for these people in Kerala is that they are near the bountiful sea. Full of fish. The lights of the fishing boats at night stretch all the way out on the horizon and if I squint I could be looking at {sniff***} the lights of Southend Pier.

And I could go on for pages and pages about the wildlife, the people that we have met, the amazing journeys by train (this morning, the Mumbai Express, we all had a huge bunk each to sprawl out on and watch India go by, got served breakfast and lunch, and I spent half the journey hanging out of a door taking action shots, giving myself dreadlocks in the process)the scenery, the dolphins leaping and playing in the sea right beneath the cliff on which we were having a group breakfast,the food glorious food, the mango daiquiris, Siobhan's failed elephant ride,(it was too cruel so she abandoned) Meg's business ventures, my aches and pains and mysterious boils (i know you're on the edge of your seats for that one),O and the shopping (fraught with misuderstandings)

The last two weeks have been full of stories and adventures and my girls have been just fantastic. Full of spirit and adventure and so grateful to have had this experience. I am sure their memory banks will retain this trip and I just wanted to have a nice time with my two beautiful grown up daughters and it's been just woooooooooonderful. I'm a happy mama cat this evening.

Tomorrow the girls and Stephen and Sophie (meg's boyf and Shiv's bessie mate) fly back to the UK. It's the end of one story and the start of another. My friend Lynn aka fluffydreadful is flying in at dawn tomorrow as the girls fly out. On Monday morning we travel by train into the mountains in Tamil Nadu to begin our two week yoga/Ayurvedic retreat. I thought you couldn't put on weight eating fish but apparently I do. Must be the Whole Barracudas I am demolishing. So, two weeks lentils and early morning yoga will hopefully sort that out. All of our stomachs have been fine. We only drink bottled water and brush teeth with it too. The food is always good and hot so that's probably the trick...O no I don't want those to be famous last words.

And despite everything I have to tell you

{there aint no place like home}

**I really miss you all**

/'\

Love and Lotus positions

Loulou

xxx