Tihar-tastic

This weekend is Tihar (like Diwali). In fact today is Dog Tihar (the day the dogs receive blessings). This morning Gary appeared with a garland of marigolds round his neck and a red tikka on his forehead. He looked so fetching that I just had to give him a Dog Tihar present of a bowl of chicken noodle soup with some chicken liver pate in it. I think he felt suitably blessed. There are some other Tihar days coming up: Cow Tihar and Crow Tihar (although not sure how they catch the crows to put marigolds and tikkas on them) and a few others.

This evening is a bit like a cross between bonfire night and new years eve: there are butter lamps, tea-lights and fairy lights everywhere, and mandalas outside houses and shops (to welcome in Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth), and fire crackers going off. I took the kids into town for pizza and by the time we'd finished it was dark - gets dark around six at the moment - so we crossed the road into the Garden of Dreams, which is a beautiful oasis of a garden, which was festooned with butter lamps, tea lights and mandalas. It was gorgeous, but the kids were full of pizza and coke and it was pretty much bedtime, so they were all a bit manic, and ran around pretending to be escaping royalty or something (I'm not sure, I know that I was supposed to be the grandmother and that I was supposed to run, hide and then gather food...). I felt a little sorry for the other people in the Garden of Dreams, many of whom it seemed had come to have a little romantic interlude near the water feature or chill out after sampling a bit of Himalayan herb. I don't think they had rampaging kids on a sugar rush in mind as ideal companions.

We bumped into some of the kids' little school friends, which would have been great in daylight hours, but I couldn't really relax and chat to the parents when Twin 2 kept wobbling about over stone steps covered in candles, and with kids waving sparklers around. Bless her. Her balance is not to be trusted at the best of times, but after dark in a park full of steps and flames, it just wasn't worth the risk of letting go of her hand and heading off for a swift G&T. I suppose if she had wobbled into a ring of butter lamps and become a human inferno, I could have just tossed her in one of the many fish ponds or water features, but it didn't seem a good idea at the time.

I'm a bit worried that the parents now think I'm rude because I didn't chat very much. I will have to apolgise for being so distracted the next time I see them. Anyway, I do think I need to work on my manners because I just got a message from facebook about where I rank among my friends and apparently I score pretty poorly for 'niceness' or being 'well mannered'. Although wierdly, I top the list for 'athletic', which anyone who did PE with me at school will know is just a load of old cobblers as I am possibly the least athletic person around. Which just shows what a heap of rubbish those ranking things are, I suppose.

The kids are on holiday again (for Tihar) and the swimming pool on camp is closed, again. I was so annoyed this morning when we schlepped all the way in, only to see a note on the door saying that the pool would open again on Tuesday. I know that Tihar is an important festival etc. but the pool closes at the end of October anyway, and the Lifeguard will then get four months leave until the pool opens again in March. Does he really need to take this weekend off? Does he?

Oooh, I was hopping mad.

I have to stop getting angry though, because I'm getting angry-old-woman lines on my face (mouth like a cat's bum from being pursed in a crosspatch way), and I certainly can't afford Botox or fillers to sort them out, not unless I kick the ebay and cashmere habit, anyway.

Right, should probably go. Kids were up at five thirty this morning, so I shouldn't risk a late night.

Might just fit in a swift G&T before I head up, though...

Nightie night x