Inspired by another blog that I read I decided to attempt a tally of occurances that have taken place in the last 6 day or so.

Number of times I was late for work because 5 camels blocked the road from the house.

1

Number of minutes of quality phone chat with a great pal in Malaysia.

27 mins 52 secs

# of guinea pig castrations witnessed

2

# of bowls of noodles consumed

6

Nights spent in desert

1 - another happy camping experience in Schwaib

Number of silly lurchers who tried to get in sleeping bag with me

2. NB zero were successful

# of times I hugged my lovely horse this morning

innumerable! It is almost daily that I am so thankful I was able to buy her - such a lucky girl!! She has really been a lifeline of normality through some pretty dark says

# of times I've cried

4

Potions of fries consumed (McDs or New York Fries)

4 (pretty easy for me to achieve, this will of no suprise to anyone who knows me)

Books read for more than 15 mins

3 ('Persuasion', 'The Other End of the Leash' & Shantaram)

# of tabby feral cats that yelled at me to feed them

2 (one outside hospital and one outside shop)

BabyBel consumed

6! But all to accompany a crisp green apple - does that make it better?

Episodes of The Archers listened to

4 (via podcast)

Trips to Red Lion pub

Just the one so far!

# of Marble Slab ice-creams

2 - always cheesecake with fresh raspberries

Number of great pals who live in different countries who I've wanted to hug this week

5

Old lady falls on wet floor after someone smashed my full mug

thankfully just the ONE but that was embarrassing enough!

Whilst driving the fabulous LandRover LR3 lent to us by some lovely pals whilst our other car in the shop, what proportion of the time do I grin from ear to ear?

Pretty much 95% of the time!!!!!

# of blogs that I read or check on a daily basis

approx 22

# of dogs (and their owners') lives that I hope to have made a little bit easier
3

# of times woken by explosions

that would be just the once, today! And, I can confirm that this, is, a fairly unpleasant way to wake up

http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/General/10200462.html

Hodge-podge of things that travel through....

.......my brain in a day.

Books - I juggle several at a time. Currently, I am alternately reading Jane Austen's Persuasion and the Eckhart Tolle book ' A New Earth'. This is a fabulous book and I can highly recommend it - it discusses how you can be a spiritual person without having to identify solely with one dogmatic religion.

My interest in Tibetan Buddhism has given me some deeply inspiring perspectives on Life and this book can potentially do the same for me.

I love how he talks about modern man's obsession with things and stuff and yet he doesn't suggest that the solution is for us to renounce it all but instead to investigate and really understand our relationship with these 'things' - jobs, relationships, cash, cars etc.

The crux of it is that many people use 'things' to define who they are and so are desperately fearful of losing them for fear of 'losing themselves'.

Interestingly he discusses that 'there are people who have renounced all possessions but have a bigger ego than some millionaires'. They have used their 'renouncement' to define themselves again and consider themselves better spiritually than those who haven't.

I cannot bear to think about things in TIBET at the moment. The fear has been that another Tiananmen might happen again but I have just read the 'protesters have surrendered' - it doesn't bear thinking about what the future holds for them.

I am deeply proud of my Chinese heritage but on this topic I am also deeply ashamed. Guess the blessing and the curse of being mixed race is that you get to be proud of 2 heritages but also frustrated and angry with them as well. I',m not exactly proud of the British government's stance of certain issues in recent times either.

However, my thoughts are with those in Tibet and the Dalai Lama - honestly the nonsense that is being written about him and his 'agenda' in the propaganda is embarrassing!! Anyone who has ever bothered to read 15 mins worth of the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism would see how laughable the 'allegations' the Chinese make about him!!!

Long time no see - I guess!

It has been a hard few months.

I tried to continue blogging but it seemed strange to follow the news of the loss of Umesh with flippant posts on our latest camping trip or photos of the last BBQ we went to.

We have been back to Nepal to say our goodbyes personally which was very cathartic and to set some further wheels in motion. I'm sure you can understand that Chris and I feel we need to be a bit more circumspect with our emotions this time so , for now, we ask anyone who might be interested to just sit tight and watch this space on that particular subject.

So, since we last 'met' - we've done Halloween, Christmas and New Year. Today is st Patricks Day and a few days ago Wales won the Grand Slam in the Six Nations Rugby. As I say we've been back to Nepal (which just in itself was superb) and this coming weekend we are off camping again.

Not the most scintilatting (sp?) post I've ever done but its been a while so bear with me.

Would love to hear if anyone out there is still reading this - so do drop me a line to let me know.

xx