Friday, 3 September 2010

Food Shopping

I was pretty daunted by food shopping here at first. We started out in a hotel for the first ten days, where we ate almost all of our meals, so when we were finally let loose into our own house, I didn't know where to start - the shops and food all seemed so different at first.
I'm still not cooking much - our Didi is a fabulous cook and Harv and I both love Nepali food so I'm only cooking for the children and at weekends (I need to do a whole other post on how FANTASTIC it is to have help in the home).

Anyhow, I'm learning......

So - we walk Eve to school, then stop at little shops on the way home. You can get longlife milk here, but the fresh stuff comes in plastic bags, as in the photo and is much cheaper - less than 20p a pint. It's homogenised but advises you on the packet to boil before use. So I carefully boil it, then let it cool before storing it in a plastic jug in the fridge.
And the veggies are all very seasonal - I got tomatoes and I think, some wild sorrel, the other day. We soak all the veg and fruit (and even eggs when we buy them) in weakish iodine solution to kill any bugs, then rinse in filtered water, before putting them into the fridge (where we keep everything fresh during the warm monsoon months). This might seem a bit OTT but the veggies etc are often watered with 'grey' water - and the mains water is certainly not guaranteed 'clean', so this is just what you do.....

Very mundane daily details, but I thought I'd share - so different from the UK supermarket experience....




Thursday, 2 September 2010

Monday, 9 August 2010

We're there...

......in Kathmandu, that is...... which is actually 'here' to us now... It's a jolly, bonkers, paradoxical kind of place - I have loads to tell you - traffic, houses, friends we've made, home-searching and creating tasks, what the littles have been up to........ but we're still in a hotel at the moment and being charged a fair bit for online-time - and I'm also enjoying offline time.....
So - I will get my butt in gear and do a post on 'word' first then upload it, and show you some pics in a few days, but I just wanted to give everyone a wave to say hi from Nepal and its 5 3/4 hours ahead bonkersness..... xx

Saturday, 24 July 2010

Weekend paint and pyjama chillin





Probably going to be offline for a bit now..... We leave our house on Tuesday for Southsea, then fly on Saturday. Eeep! Wish us luck!

Saturday, 10 July 2010

Packing (and not packing)


So, we are flying out to Nepal on the 31st, and leaving our house on the 27th or 28th to spend a couple of days on holiday at Grandma Rosemary's, by the seaside. This is in lieu of the Summer Holidays. Harv is starting work on the 1st of August. Although the first week is an induction week, including house-hunting, good places to shop, and lunches out, and the littles and I will join in wherever possible, I still think it's going to be a 'steep learning curve' to use the customary metaphor.

I'm just about to get started in earnest with the packing.....you can probably imagine how hard it is for me to find time to do it.
Example: Brought a box into the dining room to start emptying bookshelves. Eve was at school and the boys were asleep. Opened flaps of box. Thom woke up. Brought Thom downstairs. Thom put all of his balloons into box. Then himself. Then tipped it over. Then climbed onto it, squashed it and turned it into a slide. Then Noah came down. Then Eve came home. Box no longer a box, but shreds of cardboard.
Fortunately it was a 2nd hand one intended to store stuff into the loft, rather than airfreight precious belongings, but you get the idea......
So - I shall push off and get on with it now they're all in bed. Wish me luck - I am truly crap at packing!

Sunday, 20 June 2010

Treasure

These are the things I am really treasuring at the moment.

Our recently updated season table, which now has a big fat sunflower to make it properly summery. Eve bounced out of school waving it proudly, even more proudly bursting with the news that she has her first wobbly tooth. Oh gosh, that hit me! Surely it only came through five minutes ago, as I cradled her, carried her and soothed her in my arms? It is the very same tooth she first cut. And now she's talking about the tooth fairy....

We sat down to make some Fathers' Day cards for Harv and the Grandads. After a while I wandered off into the kitchen to get on with some chores while they were busy, and was followed a few minutes later by Noah, smiling shyly and offering me this. 'Who's this one for, Noah?' I asked. 'It's for you, mummy,' he said. He melts my heart, that boy.

More camping. We packed up and scooted off for a single night away with some friends on a fab eco-campsite on a hill not too far away. I love how the children see the open spaces and RUN straight into them.


Thom watching the Tigers, trying to sneak up on him.

And the view from my back door this evening.

Wow!




Corr! I never thought I'd get one of these - THANK YOU!! to Claire over at The Green Queen.

So, now I get to pass this on..... These blogs are the ones that I love, that touch me and inspire me, and that really hit me with how HUGE life is.
(And that often having me sighing 'Wow, I wish I could make such beautiful things.....')
I really, REALLY don't get very much time to read blogs, but I am a faithful follower of these:

Enjoying The Small Things

Lazy Seamstress

When I Get The Time


A Smile a Day

Border Stories

Different Choices

My Handmade Haven

Free Range Family


Making Stuff