The whole class rep thing went ok, in the end - a houseful of small manic people and slightly awkward parents (or maybe that was just me). There was plenty of cake eating, punctuated by the wierd "...and who are you with?" question (the answer seemed to be mostly DfID). I have promised to organise something without children next time, which will be even scarier, as I won't have the excuse of random nappy changing in order to escape. Hubby managed to miss the whole shebang (that doesn't look right - not sure how to spell it) by working late, until all the little darlings had gone home. So Friday ended ok. We had elected not to go to the pirate fancy dress party in the mess, which somehow didn't appeal (probably because we are antisocial killjoys).

Saturday we did nothing at all, except going for a swim on camp and forcing the children to have an afternoon sleep so that we could have one, and so that we could eat out in the evening. Hubby drove (Dinesh's day off) for the first time. He said it was 'fine' - I'm not sure all the random Nepali pedestrians, dogs and bike riders who were forced to fling themselves into the gutter to escape our battered Landrover would agree. Anyway, we made it to the cafe ok. Unfortunately we had the least patient waiter I have ever encountered, who decided that the 'babies' should have mashed potato and that Saheb should have a beer, before our bottoms had barely brushed the seats. Twins decided that as they are now big (three year old) girls, that they were far too old for mashed potato. And I'm happy to say that Hubby declined the beer option in favour of a coke (good news for other road users on the hairy mc scary journey home too - he needs to remember his driving glasses next time; it's not enough not to be inebriated, you have to actually be able to see). Afterwards we listened to some live music outside and looked at the fairy lights, which Son pronounced beautiful. So a pretty good Saturday, really. 

On Sunday, we felt we really had to 'do' something, as Dinesh was in work again (thankfully). So we decided to try Kathmandu Durbar Square, which is where all the old temples and palaces etc, are in the middle of town. It sounded pretty good in the guide book, but what we hadn't realised was that it was not pedestrianised, so we were trying to gaze in awe at the beautiful carvings and architecture, whilst simultaneously whisking three small children out of the way of speeding motorbikes and manic rickshaws. A bit like trying to appreciate Exeter cathedral in the middle of the M25. So not ideal. To escape from the madness, we went back to the Garden of Dreams for lunch. The Garden is this lush, exotic oasis, full of water features and with a great cafe. Son decided to do a bit of exploring before lunch. I'm not entirely sure whether he was being a space hero or an alien attacker, but he ended up at the bottom of an ornamental pond. We all tried very hard not to laugh. Actually, the waiters didn't try too hard - suppose it's not every day that a small blonde boy hurls himself off the marble colonades and into the drink. He took it quite well, really, although there was much muttering about cold knees for the rest of the afternoon.

Anyway, should go, Hubby needs to do something important with this computer and a memory stick. xxx