It’s been three days since my last entry. Not a good start, I know, but I have an excuse. The local DNS server was down and I spent the last 2 days trying to find the problem on my own PC. Anyway, all done now. I’ve recovered, been back outside for a bike ride in the mountains and the red eyes are fading.
The bike ride was tough, not because of the mountains, but because of the wind. Each day, once the air in the tropical south warms up, it comes rushing up the valleys to Thimphu and threatens to rip clothes lines out of the ground. For reasons only a meteorologist could tell you, this week the wind has been particularly aggressive, picking up dust and vowing to blind up all. One Japanese volunteer tells of how the glass of his securely closed window shattered under the pressure and exploded into his dormatory room.
Marie has been away during the last couple of days, or I’d never have wasted so much time on the PC. She’s taken Barbara to the airport and we have a week to enjoy the new flat before her parents arrive to turn it into a sardine can again. At least I managed to get the new wardrobes yesterday so I’m no longer swimming in clothes. The carpenter thought it was more appropriate to make me wait for an hour and a half while his friend came back from a taxi run than to hail a passing taxi to carry them back home. No harm done. It was no worse than wasting my time trying to fix a working computer.
And tomorrow I’ll be in a good enough mood to talk about cherry blossoms and prayer flags.