Hubby finally made it back from the dancing dwarfs, but not in time to come with us to watch rugs being made. Happily these were not made by enslaved children in an attic somewhere, but by very smiley old Tibetan women, who became even more smiley (but not more Tibetan) when I showed up with three blonde kids. I was prepared to feel a little uncomfortable, staring at people working as if they were zoo animals, but in fact it was the reverse - think we were the attraction of the day. Twin 1 became quite overcome when we went into the spinning room (a room full of tiny, smiley Tibetan women spinning). I was wondering why she kept trying to climb up my legs and cower underneath my skirt, when i remembered that one of her favourite bedtime stories at the moment is Sleeping Beauty, so of course a room full of old hags (albeit smiley ones) brandishing spindles was a bit too much to bear. In fact, if you did the maths - which she didn't - she could cheerfully have been put to sleep for a couple of thousand years, not just a piddling one hundred (Medised extreme?). Anyway, I reassured her, but she didn't seem wholly convinced so we left. After all that, I felt obliged to buy a rug. Saw a really nice big one, but was told it cost eight hundred dollars (yikes!) so asked to be directed to where the small cheap ones were, much to the disappointment of the dozen or so sales assistants who were following us round. We were the only ones in the rug shop, so they were keen as mustard to close a deal, although did look a bit dis-chuffed when I finally chose one that was around forty quid. Ah well, I'm sure we'll add a bit more to the Nepalese economy over the next couple of years - if only in dog food for big Gary.