Wednesday...back in the saddle!

This is an unashamedly Samunnat flavoured post.There was no rest for the wicked after arriving in Kathmandu. After a surprisingly short wait in the visa queue and throwing my bags into my room, Kopila and I met for some serious shopping.  We had three goals:1. purchase a lot of silver findings from Abdul and Shokira at Fozia to cope with our steadily growing orders for completed jewellery;2. search every inch of the Bead Bajar in Indra Chowk for the elusive turquoise coloured pote bead (you can see from the photo that turquoise is not the top colour!  Gimme GREEN and RED baby!); and3. look at big ovens (Kopila had no idea such a thing existed. Totally blown away!)Neither of us are huge fans of KTM so the plan was to shop fast and go. And we did. Fortified by lovingly made dal bhat courtesy of our dear bhai Bishnu and Bil, we spent more money in two and half days than in a long time.  But we got the silver, found the beads (despite nearly every bloke in the market telling us Paundaina- not available - with a remorseful shake of his head) cleaned the cupboard sized shop of the aforementioned turquoise beads and...no....we didn't look at ovens.  Well, we didn't just look at ovens. WE BOUGHT ONE!!!!Personally, I will really, really miss the ear splitting, conversation stopping, relentless, head ache inducing noise of the generator we have to use with our current electric toaster ovens.  But I think I will get over it.  Our gas oven will be quieter, cleaner, cheaper to run, more efficient and the biggest single purchase (apart from the building) that we have ever made.So now I sit here in my other home, a rising red sun hovering above misty fields of grain, my beloved Sigur Ros triumphantly soaring* in my ears thanks to my new hearing aid suitable headphones (an indulgence in Singapore).  Life is complex. Not all good, not all bad. But it is life and I am so grateful for every minute.PS Also managed to squeeze in shopping for chappals so our feet don't get cold inside.  For more about Samunnat activities, keep reading that blog too!PPS The weather was so much warmer than the clothing worn in the last photo would suggest. Very pleasant. Ana bahini, I was not wearing my cardie or beanie. Go figure.*Possibly painfully loudly but gee....sounds good to me!