So ...

It's only just over two weeks til half-term! A whole week off! Unfortunately Sue doesn't have the same half term as me, which is a shame but I've just booked a short trip away for myself for part of the week which I'm really excited about.

Also, forgot to mention the other day that I've finished and sent off my application for teaching training next year, I'm just waiting to hear off my first choice whether they want to get me in for an interview. Keep your fingers crossed for me ;)

School has been great the past few days but have a feeling the next couple of days are going to be really tough, will report back later.

Back home after my travels

I've been home nearly three weeks now, it's certainly been all change! Gone is my life as lady of leisure drinking coffee in town and meeting Kate and Sophie!

1) I think I might have one of the most challenging jobs around. Just as I thought I was getting used to it and some days actually really enjoying it - I back tracked on Friday. I had a horrific day. Onwards and upwards though - I'm sure I'll learn from it! Plus I called off on my way home for a coffee at Kate's house which cheered me up no end.

2) I bought a car!! A ka car infact. Now, please don't go telling me it looks just like my opti - I've paid over 6 times more for this car. It's silver like the one in the picture. I'm delighted with it; it's all sparkly, clean and beautiful (well it was until I drove down to visit my Grandad yesterday). The car I bought is about 4 or 5 years old, I actually had two to choose from on the day and I went for this one as even though it was older it had less miles on the clock, only 23000. Anyway it might be a small car but I can't even describe how powerful it is compared to the k-cars I had in Japan. I'm happy!

3) Last night I helped out at the restaurant. I had such a nice evening - who would ever thought I'd do an extra job just because I love it and not anything to do with the money?! It was honestly the highlight of my week (seen as though I have no social life now)! At the end of the shift the guy from Nigeria (some of you may be aware of his stalking tendencies) made us all traditional Nigerian food and we sat around eating and drinking. It was perfect.

Think that's about it for now, I'm so excited for next weekend as I have loads of fun things planned so should have a nice blog entry with pics the week after that.

Delhi

We started off and finished in Delhi. I liked it much better the first time around - I didn't particularly notice how minging and horrible it was until after we'd been to so many other amazing places. Plus it was the last day; I was tired, sick, stressed about getting ALL my shopping done and beginning to dread leaving the others :(

The Taj Mahal

Jaipur

Yeah! My Jaipur pics eventually uploaded.

So ... we were in Jaipur over Christmas. Our hotel was lovely, even if the service was incredibly slow. It was kind of cool sitting in colonial style gardens, being waited on and drinking gin and tonics.

Not sure if I liked Jaipur itself too much, we went shopping but it was all a bit stressful for me. We also went for ayuvedic massages - which involved lots of nakedness (let me remind you this is me we're talking about, I was slightly freaked out to say the least)! But I think my memory is jarred a little because it was in Jaipur that the group started to get ill.

Udaipur

Udaipur

Right I just tried to upload pictures and it didn't work - twice. But thought I'd write a quick note so you'd know I tried ;)

I loved Udaipur. It was beautiful. It was cool. It was interesting. It was unfortunately noisy in the mornings. Our hotel was great.

AND above anything else the James Bond film Octopussy was filmed there!!! I went out and bought the DVD last week - I'm not a James Bond fan so wasn't properly watching it but it was exciting to see all the places we'd been.

I want to go back.

Will try and post pics again tomorrow...

Mount Abu

You'll have to excuse me - I've spent the last two weeks talking about India and working with the pics so I'm sorry I haven't been overly enthusiastic about blogging. But I'll just have to set to and finish because there's plenty of stuff I want to write about from home too and can't do that until I finish off India.

So ... we went to Mount Abu for New Year. Things you need to know;

• a bus broke down on the way up the mountain so we were stuck in a queue for a short while but it was ok because there were monkeys
• there was a festival on
• we went to cultural show - with singing, dancing etc. I usually hate these things but have to admit it wasn't too bad
• we had to get a doctor out for poor Lolly
• we went to some cool temples
• Tom and me danced on New Year's Eve- I was happy ;)
• we met a compulsive liar - I hated her

Think that's it for Mount Abu. Udaipur tomorrow ...

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Jodphur

In Jodphur there were lots of dogs and the food at our hotel was horrendous.

There were also lots of women, on the last afternoon us girls went wandering around and it was the first and only place we went to where there were just women everywhere, we were wondering if it was the time of the day or just that we were in the main market area.

Whilst in Jodphur we went off on a jeep to see some traditional Bishnoi villages, this expedition was supposed to be a village safari and although enjoyable we were taken to 'traditional' rug, pottery etc places. It was Ryan's turn to be ill so he missed out on our exciting trek and the delicious twigs we were served up for lunch ;)

In the evening Tom and me went off for dinner at a nearby guesthouse and then returned to Nigel hours later still frantically scribbling down his romantic story.
The next day the girls plus Ryan went off to the fort which was cool but I got freaked out when surrounded by a group of Japanese tourists. It's been a long time since I've be subjected to so much nihon-go, it was a little strange for me.

Milena, Lolly and took it upon ourselves to go to a fancy hotel for the afternoon. We drank gin and tonics by the pool, ate delicious snacks and drank coffee/tea whilst reading in the lounge. Our bliss was only interrupted when the boys arrived to meet us for dinner ...

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Jodphur - the blue city - the blue keeps off flies amongst other things apparently
The woman who made us our twig lunch
Our last dinner in Jodphur, it was delicious but I'm afraid it was my downfall
Women!

Jaisalmer

I missed out on the sights of Jaisalmer. I was sick. I deserved it. I’d been so smug about being the only one not to have been horribly ill and then it got me and boy did it get me. I was sick all night on the train from Jodphur to Jaisalmer. It was horrible. So although the next day I’d stopped puking everywhere I understandably still felt pretty crap and wanted to make as best a recovery as I could before we headed off into the desert - so - I stayed in bed all day.

The following morning before we met up with our camels we did a spot of sight seeing outside the city though so that was pretty cool and the following pics are from that excursion.

There were really good views of the fort from our hotel so there’s a night shot taken from the rooftop restaurant too …

The Great Thar Desert

It had got to the point where I'd pretty much decided I had no time to be updating my blog about India but then I changed my mind. So please bear with me I'll only be writing about one or two places each time but I'll eventually get there and finish it all - I promise.

I'll start off with the last place on our tour and then eventually it will all be order ...

We left Jaisalmer in a jeep to go off into the countryside to meet our camels. I wasn't relishing the thought of spending the afternoon on top of a camel. They come under my high risk category group. Just think; I could be thrown off, trampled on and on top of that after the previous couple of days I was terrified I was going to projectile vomit onto the camel's cute, fuzzy ears etc etc. My camel wasn't the best behaved either, I seemed to end up with some decrepit, ancient camel who couldn't take my weight and appeared to keep stumbling over itself.

Anyway I survived the ordeal and after dreading the return journey the following morning I ended up quite enjoying it, as much as I think anyone could, maybe it was just the ecstatic anticipation of finishing that was keeping me going ;)

Enough about camels, we arrived at the sand dunes and our camp for the night. We ate, we drank, we sang. OK we didn't actually sing BUT we did read our romantic/porn stories (it had been decided earlier on the trip that we would all write our own romantic novels and that they would be finished by the time we went on our camel trek) around the campfire with the camel men as our perhaps unwelcome audience.

The stars came out which was spectacular and for a while I really thought it was truly an amazing experience, that was until the middle of the night arrived. In the desert at night with nothing more than a blanket for cover it is cold and not just a bit nippy - I'm talking absolutely baltic. Milena, Lolly and me didn't fall back asleep we fell unconscious from the cold after discussing what we would prefer to get us - vultures or dogs? In the end however we evidently lived to tell the tale and in the morning I guess I decided it was all worth it after all although I was starting to get really upset about leaving the others the following day.

I went to India

So I yeah I went to India ...

Now you know I'm one of those people with a proper job I'm not sure when I'll get chance to properly write about India although I'm sure I'll post some more pictures at the weekend.

Needless to say - I had the best time! It was great to see everyone - I really have the best friends.

News from home; I start my new job tomorrow so have been busy buying work clothes etc.

I'm known for getting myself into the weirdest situations and today is no different - I will report the results later.