The iPod

Histrionics (for this week) are History

SDL — Tue, 28 Sep 2004 06:43:00 GMT

Histrionics and HissyFits over, I'm now rebuilding the mac .. The next 2 days are bandhs (again) , so it sort of works ..
After applying the latest update on Saturday, the machine just started crawling and locking up. It was playing up on reboot and would only come up every other time until it just didnt come up at all. The b-tree ( sort of the index to all the directories and files) got totally screwed and the only solution is to erase the hard drive and start again.

Luckily I didn't fit in those extra clothes and brought all my CD's and manuals with me, painful as they are to cart around I would be lost without them AND Thank God for the iPod. I did manage to remember to do a backup about a week or so ago to the iPod, so once I get all my apps downloaded (did I know something when I got an unlimited d/l account?) and back on, the loss is going to be fairly minimal. Unfortunately I didnt bother backing up the Virtual PC as it was so big, soooooo rebuilding the Windows machine is going to be the biggest pain. The mac was back up and running within an hour and you can guarantee the latest updates are NOT going on. Another bonus is IMAP, I havent lost any of my mail as it is all on the westnet server and with the synching between my phone and the iPod, again I havent lost any of my addresses or calendar. Bit of a bugger I can't swing the trip to India yet, but thats life ...

No doubt I will have plenty of time to ramble over the next 2 days, consider yourself warned :-) To all those who have sent emails, comments or chatted to me over the last couple of days, your support is a never ending source of comfort and it truly lifts my spirits and touches my heart. I'm sure that my bad days make some people uncomfortable, but if this is to be an account of my 'adventures' it has to be warts and all. We all have our bad days and when you are so far out of your element and your network of friends and family is so far away, you just have to go with it and then pick yourself up, brush off the dust and get on with it.

Kathmandu - What I've Learnt So Far and My Shot at Fame

SDL — Fri, 24 Sep 2004 04:33:00 GMT

Can you believe its nearly two months since I left work and I've been here for 6 weeks already ?? Wow, time is flying and I thought things were going to slow down...

I'm settling in well, but to be expected, with all the moving I did as a kid it generally doesn't take me long to adapt to a new environment. There are always going to be things I miss from home, especially my sons, my girlfriends, my family, a night on the town with said girlfriends ( eyah .. wait till I get home girls, we are gonna have some night out ), a nice meal of fresh ocean fish and salad with a Margaret River white and add bonus points for one with excellent company, but there are so many benefits, even in this relatively short period.

Lets see, what do I think I've learnt so far ( in no particular order );

I have nearly mastered the art of going anywhere on my own, including restaurants and bars. The self confidence is growing day by day as I am put into situations where I am totally out of my depth and its sink or swim.

By meeting and interacting with so many people, from many different places and with different backgrounds, my world view has considerably expanded and I am very aware that this is only the beginning.

I'm definitely adapting to taking things as they come, but I am also learning how to say 'no' and to set my boundaries. This is not something I have been very good at in the past and again I have a long way to go, but even though in general the people here are wonderfully supportive and friendly, being a newcomer, there are many that would take advantage of this. If I don't set those boundaries I will definitely get walked all over. (A very persistent guy on Friday learnt some new choice English words, I even quite suprised myself !!)

I have the freedom to try on different 'me's .. Being an unknown quantity and with no expectations of how I should be, I can experiment with different looks and personalities (You know I'm a Gemini, theres plenty of them to test out :-) ) ... I also have the advantage of choosing whether I feel like dressing Nepali or Western style, I love both and its great to choose depending on my mood.

In a country this poor, you have to be very sensitive to the extreme poverty that a lot of people live in. A lot of tourists forget this and its really like rubbing salt into the wound. There are no government benefits or state housing and its not hard to understand that tourists can be seen as targets for easy money. I try to be very subtle with my 'toys' ... just one of them is worth more than a lot of families annual income. Thank goodness hardly anyone here knows what an iPod is, I always leave it in my bag and thread the ear plugs through, they just think its some sort of wierd phone. If I'm going out, I never take anything of value with me.

Without a weekly trip to the hairdressers, my hair is totally unmanageable ...

I am amazed at the different foods I am eating, even when I have no idea what it is (not bad for a fussy eater), and I actually even ordered chilli chicken last night. I'm not sure I will ever be able to go back to bland food again.

I always knew in my heart that 'people where people' no matter where you go, but it amazes me that I see Nepali versions of people that I know. This is both in looks and personalities, the only difference is the skin/hair colour. It cracks me up no end that they are obsessed with whitening creams and getting lighter whilst our society is obsessed with tanning and getting darker and yes, heaven forbid, with my glow in the dark complexion I am always getting told I am beautiful. (Won't it be thump back to earth when I get back to a western society !!! )

Which also brings to mind that someone should come over here and give some of these guys 'dating' lessons .. Lawd, they are so desperate to get out of this country to the 'rich western world' that within 5 minutes there are already heavy hints about marriage and/or commitment. That means that within 4 minutes, I am nearly ready to RUN up Everest ... they've seriously been watching way too many 'D' grade American movies to learn their dating English as well, its very hard to be polite while you are trying hard not to kill yourself laughing ... I take it all with the proverbial grain of salt and put the dampners on any such notions pretty much straight away.

We have an amazing lifestyle in Australia with so much diversity and freedom, this should be cherished and never forgotten.

I'm really glad someone taught me how to eat with chopsticks BEFORE I left Australia.

I could ramble on forever, so I will leave it there .. (for now).

The rest of the week has been pretty routine, but today I finally made it to my first AWON meeting. It also happened to be the Annual Membership afternoon tea, so it was a flash affair at the Hotel Yak & Yeti Ballroom. The hotel is absolutely spectacular as it used to be a royal residence. I decided to go very western today and felt like dressing up, so it was my one and only good outfit that I brought with me, which is the purple silky long skirt and chinese style top. ( I am also getting very good at handling being stared at, and when I dress up its way worse than usual. ) I met all sorts of interesting people and had a fantastic afternoon. I also met the Australian ambassador's wife and I got the strangest invite. Would you believe they are looking for some aussies to come and vote at the Consulate as an aussie newspaper (we got interupted so I didn't find out which one) is doing a story on Australians voting overseas and they want to take some pictures ... I'm still thinking about that one, I'm not sure that I even want to vote but here's my shot at fame ...

No great plans this weekend so far, will just slack around, do some more walking .. no doubt I'll end up at Kilroy's and Sams Bar at some point. I will also more than likely spend some time with the guy from the shop next door. We often have a chat when I'm in there and he wants to improve his English and I want to learn some Nepali, so we decided to do a bit of 'cultural exchange'. He's also going to show me around some of the good hidden spots in Jawalakhel (where I live). I have found a lot of them in Thamel but its a fair distance from here, so will be nice to know the local 'places to go'.

Kathmandu - Sunday 19th September

SDL — Sun, 19 Sep 2004 18:18:00 GMT

Rest day today .. In my usual all or nothing style its been a full on for the last couple of days.

Thursday morning, Moni came around to help me wrap me into my sari. I just love them, they are so beautiful and feel gorgeous on. To help complete the 'localisation' she very kindly gave me a heap of bangles, some necklaces and some diamante tika's ( the red dots). There are lots of different takes on the meaning of the tika's but they have now become a bit of a fashion statement and range from the daub of red dye to many and varied, shapes, styles and designs of stick on tika's. LOL, I generally get stared at, at the best of times, but in the full garb I was getting rather self concious.

All the girls got together in the morning for a bit of festivity, and of course no one told me also present giving for tij. I ended up with a few more necklaces and both arms full of bangles and a few more packets of tika's. I was so humbled by their lovely inclusion of me and also felt very embarrassed that I didn't have anything to return. After the present giving we sat around yakking, shared some food and there was some singing. Luckily the songs where all in Nepali so they were spared my singing.

I got home and didn't feel like wasting all that finery, so I decided to check out one of the local casino's. Kathmandu actually has 4 casino's and the locals are not allowed to enter them. Strictly tourists only ... Well, when I said a casino is a casino is a casino, I didn't account for what actually passes as a casino here. The service is excellent, all patrons are given free drink, food and anything else they want, but the one I went to was small and boring would be about the best word. After blowing a bit on the slot machines (how mind numbing are they ?) and a dreadful white wine I decided to call it a night.

Friday morning and with the help of Audio Hijack and Audacity, I now have a copy of The Sound of White. I got sick of streaming it, everytime I shut down I had to recache it. I will have to put Audacity on the list of recommendations, a nice piece of opensource that I haven't used for a while. If you like playing with audio, this is a very good tool.

The visit to the festivities is off today, one of the girls husbands is not feeling too well after some food last night .. as unpleasant as it is for him, I had to feel better, it was as the same place that I have avoided since I got 'the bug' and if the locals can get hit as well, its not just my weak western stomach.

I decided to head off to Thamel, and walked again .... after some shopping for postcards and various other 'tourist activities', I went hunting for Kilroy's. I had heard they actaully do some nice wines there. What a lovely place ! There are so many nice places here, but they are generally hidden in the back of somewhere. Unless you know where to go, they are so easy to miss. Kilroy's is generally considered a bit upmarket for the local's, but it has a beautiful outdoor area, lots of shade, trees, flowers and very relaxing. A nice french sem sav, fish, chips and *heaven* a salad add to this mix a good book and my iPod and I was a happy person for a few hours. It started absolutely belting down while I was there and it just added to the ambience and atmosphere.
The owner and the staff are lovely and very chatty and I am now a 'card carrying' Kilroy's member :-).

Finally moved myself at 5 as I had an invitation for dinner, so back home to change and then back to Sam's bar to meet up. Spent a hour or two there with a lovely group of people (including another aussie girl from QLD), got the lowdown on some more have to do's ... The bungy jumping I think I will give a miss, but the hang gliding starts in Pokhara in October and sounds brilliant. I'm getting a real thing for flying, it really does something for me, especially take off and landing ... I love it !!! (Any volunteers out there with a private plane ??) .. I imagine jumping of a mountain is going to be 'slightly' different than taking off at a few hundred k's an hour, but the actual flight will be magnificent. Sooooo, off to dinner at a Newari Restaurant, the Newari's are one of the Nepali ethic groups and are Tibetan in descent, the food is very spicy and even with my new found taste for chilli and spices, it was still a bit rich for me. I had a bean soup which was very nice and of course a bottle of local vodka to wash it all down. It's just got to have germ killing properties, so I consider it a safety measure .... After dinner it was off to a nightclub ... woohooo finally I got to find out where the hidden nightspots are. It was actually very western, the full trendy funky club thing and I thouroughly enjoyed myself.

Dragged myself home early Saturday morning, a shower, a rest and had to clean up my feet. After the strappy high heels from Thursday and the new sandals yesterday, I've got a lovely collection of blisters, oh the joys of having 'delicate' skin. 5 in all and as your feet get so dirty here, I have to be careful and keep them clean so they don't get infected. LOL, with all the Elastoplast I am starting a new fashion trend. Patchwork feet ...

Moni and her husband picked me up in the afternoon and took me to Nagarkot, which is a fairly close mountain and very popular with the locals. Supplies in hand for the trip (vodka, Pringles and choccies), off we went. It was a beautiful drive, even though the road up is typical, very narrow and poorly maintained. Lots of lovely hair pin bends, very often with a bus heading the other way and you know who wins .... but the scenery and view, as always, was magnificent. There are lots of little 'restaurants' perched on the edge along the way, how they built them I'll never know. We stopped at a resort at the top which is run by some friends of theirs. It is built in the local Nepali style which is in a local handmade red brick and with lots of carved wooden embelishement. There where lots of terraced gardens all designed to take advantage of the great view of the Himalaya's. Apparently on a good day (which it wasn't) you can just see Everest.

We ordered some food added the supplies and had a great talk. Moni's husband is an IT major and is thinking of completing his Masters in Australia, so as you can imagine we had lots to talk about. There is something about the mountain air, its so fresh and cool and uplifting. It has magical qualities and you always come away feeling good after spending time up there.

Hehehehehe and now for the photo excuse, we have made plans to spend a weekend up there soon, so I will have time to get some good shots. I just don't know how to translate the whole thing into a photo. A picture is just a picture and to capture the whole panorama, the sounds, the atmosphere .. its way beyond me. Now the patchwork feet, thats something I should get .. and it appeals to my appreciation of wierd things :-)

Kathmandu - Wednesday 25th August

SDL — Thu, 26 Aug 2004 04:26:00 GMT

Tuesday 24th August

At last !!! Seems like I've finally got this thing under control. Pretty whacked, but at least I can start to move around a bit.

I decided to test my new found mobility by registering at the embassy this afternoon. It just happens to be waaaaaaay on the other side of town, but its done and bugger, bugger, bugger ... looks like the regular weekly Aussie does are on hold because of the 'security concerns'.
PS Vicki, you will be very happy to know that my ciggie case set of the security alarm :P

I got a taxi there, went for a short walk and got a taxi back, then another short walk, getting up those three flights of stairs to my room after that was some effort. Its amazing how quickly you can go from dancing all night to barely getting up the stairs.

Now for the real trivia, I have finally found a conditioner here to suit my hair. Hard water, crappy shampoos, dirt and humidity just do not mix with high maintenance hair. I just dont know why, but suprisingly the shampoos and conditioners they sell here are not designed for frizzy hair. ( mmmmm wonder if its because everyone here has unfrizzy hair ? ) My 'crowning glory' was returning to its natural state, so I'm more than happy that it at least looks semi decent now. The colour is going to need a touch up soon, so watch this space for the results .....

All this browsing on the net is no good. I keep finding things I want. If you have an iPod, check out this new Altec Lansing gizmo. Can I put this on my Christmas List or better still is someone going to volunteer to put this on their Christmas list to buy for me !!!

Wednesday 25th August

Wow, do you realise I've been here 2 weeks today.
Got myself out of this room and went to work today. Luckily I took my supply of dry old biscuits because lunch was a nice spicy buttered rice. That would have gone down real well.

I gave them some options for the database today and the decision was to go with MSDE and .NET. I don't really mind as this will give me a chance to learn said .NET. The only problem is all the machines are Win 98 and the best has 128mb memory. This means that my machine requires an upgrade to at least W2K and I'm pushing for 512mb. The computer guys came around to do the upgrade and tried to argue that the machine I'm using had 128mb already. It only had 64mb and we had to do some show and tell to sort that little one. It turns out they only have 128mb chips here (probably cause everyone seems to run 98) and with only 3 slots ( again they tried to tell me 2 ), well even with my poor maths I knew 512 wasnt in the running. After lots of mucking around, it turned out that there was not going to be any upgrade today because neither of the chips they had with them would work in the machine. Rather than keep messing around with upgrades, I have asked them to get Virtual PC for Mac and I'll run 2000 on here. This will make it easier for me to keep the code 'portable' while I'm developing and if I need any d/l's, etc, again I can use my connection. The dialup here is just soooooo bad. I couldn't even d/l a 1.5mb file today. It well and truly justifies the cost of my broadband. ( There I go again Justification 101 )

After dinner of Friday, Maggie took me for a drive and showed me a few nice food places, etc off in the alleys not far from me. Went for a toddle after work and found some tinned soup. Got the hotel to heat it up for me, I ordered some toast with it too, but obviously that got lost in the translation as I ended up with untoasted toast, but what the heck, it was a really nice change from the diet of the last few days. Will have to check out the other places this weekend, I should be back into eating mode by then.

Kathmandu - Monday 23rd August

SDL — Tue, 24 Aug 2004 05:39:00 GMT

What a great way to start. I've only been with Tewa for a week and I'm already having sickies. Slowly getting better, and still very frustrated and bored with staying in my room. I'm trying to be sensible about this and not pushing myself. I usually always try and do things too early, but with all the added stresses to the system of late, I know I better take it easy. Looks like another couple of days just sitting around :-( LOL, but I'm a patient person now, so shouldn't be a problem ...

Had a lovely boost today, my new workmates where worried about me and one of the girls dropped around this afternoon to see how I was and delivered a beautiful bunch of flowers from everyone. How wonderful is that !?!

Thank goodness for the net, at least its given me a chance to catch up with a few people and have a good chat. I confess, I have been doing work stuff too, but mostly d/l. With not much else to do I have also, *shock* *horror*, been watching tv. 40 odd channels and its still crap. At least only having 5 it limited the time it took before you gave up in disgust.

The iPod has been getting a good working out as well. I really need to get a decent set of headphones for it though. The buds that come with it just dont fit my ears properly and keep falling out. Interestingly enough I came across a good link about headphones for the iPod at engadget today. (PS. Thanks for the link, they have some cool stuff on there ) If you too are forever searching for the ultimate set of headphones/buds you might want to check it out.
I just couldn't go past this article either, AWOL - Alcohol without Liquid Vaporiser. What next :-)