Category: Bhutan

But the highlight of the night was meeting Deki Yangzom, who was introduced to me with the words ‘MAG, this is Deki. You’ve probably seen her back.’ It took a moment to realise that Deki played a character of the same name in Travellers and Magicians. The poor girl told me that her back seems… Continue reading Deki’s back

Another Chimi I met last night worked for almost 20 years in the government, ending up leading (I think) the Policy and Planning division of the Ministry of Agriculture before deciding that she’d repaid the government for her education and left to work in the Tarayana Foundation. I know little of the foundation and my… Continue reading Retirement

Last night I was invited to drinks by Cathy Harris, the honorary consul of Bhutan to Australia. Although I didn’t really get to meet Cathy, I met a number of interesting people. One was Chimi who works for Respecting, Educating, Nurturing and Enabling Women, RENEW. We talked about the good work they do in helping… Continue reading Night Hunting

A chilip friend, Nathan, and I tried archery today in his backyard. I needed to ‘tie’ the ends of my string first, which was done by copying his. Someone else had tied his by untwisting the strands of the bite of the string and threading the tail through it – and repeating a few times.… Continue reading Definitely not Robin Hood

On the other hand, it’s been a good day for me. I’ve finally checked an item off the list that’s been bothering me for months. I have advertised an Australian phone number on my business cards, stationery and website. It makes sense to have an Australian contact when it’s an Australian based company and I… Continue reading Reception Service

Marie’s morale is very low at the moment. While we knew that her contract was unlikely to be extended and the embassy is certainly under no obligation to do her any favours, their treatment of the issue has been less than professional. All embassy staff, including the volunteers, got together in Delhi a few weeks… Continue reading Diplomacy?

The Japanese have a saying ‘too late for the festival’ meaning that a person doesn’t realise what they have until it’s gone. The phrase seems apt for the Bhutanese who missed the Japan-Bhutan festival held yesterday in Thimphu. It was run by members of the various Japanese volunteer organisations here in conjunction with the Japan… Continue reading Too shy for the festival

This post is actually from a few days ago, but I’d forgotten what I wanted to write by the time I got home and it only just came to me. It had been a beautiful day, one of the first sunny days in weeks, when out of nowhere, it started raining. Sun shower we call… Continue reading Someone died

My home laptop has been shutting itself down a lot lately, seemingly from overheating. A quick google showed that most others with this model have similar problems that lead to PC death. The cure is to clean out the fans with compressed air. Lacking even the tiny screwdriver necessary to open the fans, I took… Continue reading Gotta change my expectations

Marie’s back and we’ve cycled up to BBS Tower a couple of times this week. Normally my energy gives out half way up (unless I’ve been munching just before) but this week I’ve been able to stay in front of her all the way up. It’s not all because of fitness though. She’s been breathing… Continue reading Pure Oxygen