Hello everyone
Firstly, HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!!! OK, so it's nearly new year, but I figure it's better late than never. Also be safe in the knowledge that I was thinking of all of you on Christmas Day. Mainly being jealous that you were all probably home sipping champagne for breakfast and indulging in wonderful Christmas meals!
So this was the first year that I had indian on Christmas Day. Many of you Chet's people will find this hilarious and for the rest of you I shall explain. There was a person in my year at school who used to drag his family to the Indian on Christmas Day because that was the only food he would eat....I think the catch phrase was 'want to get an Indian'? I'm not saying that it was a necessarily a bad thing, as it really wasnt! Our christmas dinner consisted of a wonderful egg curry, salad, Kheer, chocolate cake...the list goes on, it was wonderful. I'd also received a delivery of christmas treats from my mum when she visited earlier in the month and as you can imagine the homemade christmas cake and christmas pudding was much appreciated.......I've only just stopped eating........
I promise not to write this entire blog on the subject of food, it's just my state of mind at the moment. Maybe it's because it is so cold. This is my most overused phrase right now and the thing I blame everything on because I am permanently cold.....the blessing of the cold weather is that the mountains are looking more and more beautiful every day. I still wake up in awe of them.
SO much has happened since I last blogged and I don't feel like I can do it all justice right now, however just to update you.....From early to mid December my mum was visiting and we took a trip down to Andhra Pradesh (it's warm there). I had a wonderful time and it can probably be described through three words - bangles, bikes and Biryani. I spent a lot of time buying bangles in the wonderful bazaars around the Charminar in Hyderbad - Mr Bangle man (Wahid Ali) is awesome and even 'gifted us' two extra arms of bangles each - basically he probably felt bad at ripping us off and decided to do a 2 for 1 deal. We spent a lot of time trying to cross roads in Hyderabad - a mildly entertaining activity and for the girl who has been living in the mountains were the most traffic on the roads are cows, a bit of a shock to the system, however we mastered it and were flying across by the end of the trip. It was a wonderful trip and after my apprehension of leaving the safe and comfortable environment of the hills, the trip really re-ignited my travel bug.
After my return I spent a week completing research in the area where our health project operates - a truely wonderful and yet another eye-opening and mind expanding experience and one I think I should devote a blog post about. That will come soon. That research is now complete and I'm frantically writing it up while I work to complete my fundraising work. I only have 2 weeks left here before I head off to Delhi and Bangalore for the annual fundraising events - I can't believe how time is flying!
Oh, guess what! I got to run!!! A few days ago was the Aarohi Youth Wing running and cycling event, an activity started last year to engage with the young adults in the area. I was so impressed by the number of people who participated and the great atmosphere that was created on both days. I was even more impressed by the people who completed a 5k race in flip flops - I kid you not! I was also out run by at least one of these..... All I can say is that from now on I need to train at high altitudes. Most of you know that I try to be a regular runner, and I would say that by now I know my body pretty well so am tuned in to how it feels when I run. This run was something I had never experienced before - my muscles tired so much quicker and my stamina was greatly reduced. Obviously I knew it was going to be a lot harder to run at higher altitude with reduced oxygen but I had no idea just how much it would affect me - a real lesson learnt!
Hopefully, the internet problems are now behind us and I will be able to update you more frequently for the next few weeks. Have a wonderful New Year's Eve - behave yourselves. I will be - maybe my most sober New Year's eve in a long time, mainly because Sara and I are considering going paragliding on the 1st and I don't really fancy dropping out of the air....
All the best for the New Year and enjoy the rest of your festive holidays.
Love B
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Firstly, HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!!! OK, so it's nearly new year, but I figure it's better late than never. Also be safe in the knowledge that I was thinking of all of you on Christmas Day. Mainly being jealous that you were all probably home sipping champagne for breakfast and indulging in wonderful Christmas meals!
So this was the first year that I had indian on Christmas Day. Many of you Chet's people will find this hilarious and for the rest of you I shall explain. There was a person in my year at school who used to drag his family to the Indian on Christmas Day because that was the only food he would eat....I think the catch phrase was 'want to get an Indian'? I'm not saying that it was a necessarily a bad thing, as it really wasnt! Our christmas dinner consisted of a wonderful egg curry, salad, Kheer, chocolate cake...the list goes on, it was wonderful. I'd also received a delivery of christmas treats from my mum when she visited earlier in the month and as you can imagine the homemade christmas cake and christmas pudding was much appreciated.......I've only just stopped eating........
I promise not to write this entire blog on the subject of food, it's just my state of mind at the moment. Maybe it's because it is so cold. This is my most overused phrase right now and the thing I blame everything on because I am permanently cold.....the blessing of the cold weather is that the mountains are looking more and more beautiful every day. I still wake up in awe of them.
SO much has happened since I last blogged and I don't feel like I can do it all justice right now, however just to update you.....From early to mid December my mum was visiting and we took a trip down to Andhra Pradesh (it's warm there). I had a wonderful time and it can probably be described through three words - bangles, bikes and Biryani. I spent a lot of time buying bangles in the wonderful bazaars around the Charminar in Hyderbad - Mr Bangle man (Wahid Ali) is awesome and even 'gifted us' two extra arms of bangles each - basically he probably felt bad at ripping us off and decided to do a 2 for 1 deal. We spent a lot of time trying to cross roads in Hyderabad - a mildly entertaining activity and for the girl who has been living in the mountains were the most traffic on the roads are cows, a bit of a shock to the system, however we mastered it and were flying across by the end of the trip. It was a wonderful trip and after my apprehension of leaving the safe and comfortable environment of the hills, the trip really re-ignited my travel bug.
After my return I spent a week completing research in the area where our health project operates - a truely wonderful and yet another eye-opening and mind expanding experience and one I think I should devote a blog post about. That will come soon. That research is now complete and I'm frantically writing it up while I work to complete my fundraising work. I only have 2 weeks left here before I head off to Delhi and Bangalore for the annual fundraising events - I can't believe how time is flying!
Oh, guess what! I got to run!!! A few days ago was the Aarohi Youth Wing running and cycling event, an activity started last year to engage with the young adults in the area. I was so impressed by the number of people who participated and the great atmosphere that was created on both days. I was even more impressed by the people who completed a 5k race in flip flops - I kid you not! I was also out run by at least one of these..... All I can say is that from now on I need to train at high altitudes. Most of you know that I try to be a regular runner, and I would say that by now I know my body pretty well so am tuned in to how it feels when I run. This run was something I had never experienced before - my muscles tired so much quicker and my stamina was greatly reduced. Obviously I knew it was going to be a lot harder to run at higher altitude with reduced oxygen but I had no idea just how much it would affect me - a real lesson learnt!
Hopefully, the internet problems are now behind us and I will be able to update you more frequently for the next few weeks. Have a wonderful New Year's Eve - behave yourselves. I will be - maybe my most sober New Year's eve in a long time, mainly because Sara and I are considering going paragliding on the 1st and I don't really fancy dropping out of the air....
All the best for the New Year and enjoy the rest of your festive holidays.
Love B
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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