"Happy Birthday to Jill" and other things

You'll all be happy to hear that Jill's birthday was celebrated in style yesterday - the traditional birthday cake, plus presents, a marigold garland, a tinsel garland, and a santa hat with plaits hanging from it (not all that traditional or seasonal, but still..). This is the way that birthdays are celebrated at Nagarkot Cottage, and a good time was had by all. We had photos of Jill taken, photos of the staff taken (with and without santa hat), and photos of us all taken, so it was a bit of a photo fest all in all.

The other thing we did yesterday was wander down to Bhaktapur after school, where I spent a frustrating hour on a computer which was really slow, and Jill went shopping crazy in a pottery shop. But I won't tell you what she bought in case it spoils a surprise for anyone. I, more modestly, bought a Ganesh incense holder.

Last day at school for a couple of days today. I spent this morning trying to teach the 'sh' sound to the year 9s and the year 12s. I think about tw0-thirds of the classes got the hang of it, but it was amazing to me (at least) that they then started pronouncing words beginning with just 's' with the 'sh' sound, so we did a lot of ship and sip practice and things like that until they could distinguish the difference. So, if you ever hear any Nepalis who say 'sh' instead of 's' it will probably be my fault....

Anyway, it's the weekend now for us both, and we're planning on going to Kathmandu. The week after next it will be Tihar (otherwise known as Divali), so we get three days off school. And I think that's all for now.

Love Vivienne x