Today we spent hours wandering around Kathmandu city. We visited many area's, saw the touristy sites and a bit of the local life just by wandering down alleys and through tiny courtyards.

Wayne found a knife shop and the boys were in 7th heaven checking out all the styles and uses of the various ones available.

The girls enjoyed browsing the little roadside hole in the wall shops with all manner of kniknaks and bartering for pashima shawls. Gloves and scarves made from pure pashmina were a bit hit too.

We finished off after about 5 hours of walking with a rickshaw ride way back up town…to the knife shop and closer to where our hotel was. Cost…about $2 for the ride.

Tomorrow we are up at 5 am…for a joy flight to see Mt Everest.

Ok..so it's not real clear…but it's our first glimpse of the mountains. And they are still a long way off.

But hey, it's still amazing. To know the tops of these mountains are similar to the cruising height of our aircraft! Now that is incredible. Taken on the flight into Nepal today!

And it's not the one in the red shirt!

Max for short!

We finally got a puppy after waiting for over 3 years. We had always planned to get one  when we left but as that doesnt seem imminent we decided to bite the bullet and get one now.

He is a toy poodle..looks very fluffy cause he just had a bath and big blow dry.  Cute as can be and very friendly.

We will be away from the 18th to the 15th of Feb.

Visiting Kathmandu in Nepal. Hopefully get to see Everest!

Sorry Nat!!!!

To Everyone from all of us here.

We love and miss you all very much and pray you have a blessed day feeling loved by all those who are special to you.

I don't know if anyone was catching up with us on here recently but I crashed the whole site!!!

Trying to tweak and apply some structure updates and it all went horribly wrong.  It was missing for a couple of days while I figured out a way to get it back.

I had another lesson in "not stressing" while I tried to find a solution. It wasn't so much the website…that's easy enough to put up again.

But the thought of all those lost months of writing and pictures.

Anyway it is back and I will be practicing the changes on another "test site" before I try that with this one again.

We have had an unusual amount of dust storms, or schmalls as they are called here, already this year.

They seem to be a mixture of talcum fine sand/dust/ dirt and whatever else the wind can pick up flying across the desert. Needless to say we wait to make sure they have finished before we dust the house. Sometimes we get a break for a day then they come up again. We certainly avoid going out side when it is blowing.

This type of dust gets into everything, even closed cupboards and closets. The folds of books and even the inside of boxes doesn't escape it either. As someone who hates dust I have become very tolerant with it – guess that's a good thing. Though all of you at home would think I have got slack in my house cleaning!

The job to clean it up does take forever. Especially given the 7 large bookcases overflowing with books. We have thought about getting glass door book shelves but to be honest it wouldn't keep all the dust out and we would still have to dust them.

This photo is taken at our front door after about 24 hours of blowing schmall (sch – marl). We have a weather strip on the inside and the outside of the door. However it still gets in.

I opened and closed the door so you could see it more easily. Imagine what it is like after 3 days.

Not much going on.

Busy studying and avoiding the cold outside.

The most exciting news around here has been that Wayne's car has a new number plate. Ha!

They are changing over to a new system and the plates are a different size. Not only that, but when Wayne discovered when he removed the old one it had three different size screws…over the 4 holes. Funny. Took a bit of fudging to get the new one to fit.

Here is the old plate.

Have a great day Y'all.

It's still cold and wet here – but we are thinking of you all as you enjoy our nations national day!

Can you believe it?

Yes, we have had thunderstorms and duststorms and all the time it has been freezing, and cold,  and not at all like it is most of the year. It even got to -1 celcius the other morning. Plus some days its not been much more than 9 or 10. Brrr!

What a nice break though! We are staying in and dejunking. STILL

Yes – we have started before…but an operation and other life things got in the way and then the busy season hit us. Plus there is something about the new year to get you started again.

Being here so long things have certainly added up. 6 years is the longest by far we have ever been in one place. I am finding things I forgot we had. We are also conscious of the fact that each day can change the way things are here so we want to be prepared for whatever may come.

Wayne has no intention of leaving at this point in time, but we can make ourselves ready if that day ever arrives.

So with that in mind, it has become easier to rid ourselves of stuff.  It has taken a little but the kids are finally getting into "ruthless mode" and chucking out or giving away some of their "much loved but too young for them now" belongings.

I am purging the house in a way I haven't done since before we moved here. It makes me want to get into our storage back home and get rid of a lot of that too. Each time we moved here we went from something small to something a lot bigger, and didn't fill the drawers and cupboards, so there was never the need to get rid of stuff. Now it is way beyond empty..lol.