travel prep

I haven't been writing much lately as I have just under a week left before I'm off and away for a few months. Looking forward to the trip, and even don't mind the first leg of travels which looks like it will take nearly two full days, but boy I will be tired by the end of it.

Hopefully, if I get the transit visa, I get to spend a day touring Guangzhou, China, and can add another country to my list of places I've visited. (I don't count them unless I actually leave the airport). Today I went in to apply for the visa and I just have to say that it always surprises me how people think getting upset at the officials will help push their application through. I've been in some pretty frustrating situations and have been guilty of that a couple of times, so I understand how it happens, but from what I've seen it always has the opposite effect. Today a man was insisting that he didn't need a paper that they wanted and could go there "any time he liked". Needless to say, this did not go over well.

I just got my camera back from the repair shop and have been taking pictures and small video clips of Kathmandu to show to my mom who has never been here.

Here's a couple of photos:

Ooh, and in other news, all the extra power is awesome. Now our cuts are only about ten hours a day instead of the previous fourteen.

Now excuse me while I go and find something else to get distracted with instead of actually packing and doing other prep. I think something must be wrong with me, because try as I might to do travel prep ahead of time, I find it impossible to pack until the day before I'm actually leaving. It just doesn't really work before then.

So long and goodnight.

Cleaning out the closets

A few random things I found while packing:

• Tea bags – a container of very, very old loose tea bags; I actually think some of these might have been around for more than three or four years.

• An ancient video camera – no, it doesn’t work properly anymore; also video cassettes belonging to the camera which have long since been converted to DVDs

• Micro cassette tapes – God only knows how long those have been around, long enough to get all mouldy and need to be thrown out

• A rat trap – yeah, that was really worth saving, and as an added plus it was packed in a box with other household items that either had to be seriously disinfected or just gotten rid of

• Mouldy costumes – this was probably the most unpleasant discovery of the day, not only did we still have a suitcase full of random costume wear that the kids used to dress up in years and years ago, but they had all moulded and stuck together, yuck

• Art supplies – a very old and very odd collection of paints and craft materials most of which will go to the girls in our children’s home

• Christmas cake – last but not least the delightful discovery that we still have about three quarters of a Christmas cake left, yum

This may not seem like a particularly amusing list, but finding some of these things made me laugh so hard that I cried, and made me so thankful that we getting rid of all this junk (and eating yummy cake).