moulin rouge

Hubby in Pokhara. I just got a text from him saying he's going to have a drink. Not sure why he's telling me, I just assume that when he's in Pokhara he will end up drinking dodgy beer in a dodgy bar. I tried to text him back, but my phone isn't letting me send any texts at the moment. I suspect this might be because some vital bit of telecommunications equipment has been struck by lightening. An electric storm has been kicking around the valley for the last six hours. It's mad. It's suddenly monsoon, but about two months early. I'm sure the rice farmers will be happy. I don't think the maoist rabble rousers will be quite so happy though. They have planned an indefinite 'bandh' (which literally translated means 'stop' and that's what happens: the entire country comes to a halt) starting saturday. But it won't be so easy rousing rabbles and burning tyres if its pouring with rain. However, just in case the rain eventually stops, I have been out panic buying cheese and baked beans (to go with the chick peas and lapsi jam). I went to my usual shop, the nice blue one, and I asked the proprietor how long he thought the bandh would go on. He said that basically the maoists are trying to do the same kind of thing that the red shirts have been doing in Thailand, so the bandh is pretty serious. He's a maoist, so I believe him. If it's a really bad bandh, then the kids won't be able to get to school, which will be a bummer. We'll all be stuck at home, in the rain, eating our chick peas and lapsi jam and watching Moulin Rouge again (doesn't matter how many times I see it, though, it still makes me cry).

We watched Moulin Rouge this evening, in fact (Thursday is Twin 1's choice of DVD). None of the kids really get it, they just like the singing. They also like to ask questions just when it gets to the emotional bits (and I am secretly crying). For example: Why didn't Christian just give her the kiss of life (Son's comment at the bit where Satine has just died of TB)? or Why is Toulouse a wolf (from Twin 2 - who knows what goes on in her five-year-old brain)? Twin 1 did not ask any irritating questions, but she did moan about having a 'hurting toe' all the way through, and she made me pause the film because she needed a poo, just when it got to the bit where Zidler and the Duke duet 'Like a virgin' in the gothic tower, which was pretty annoying anyway.

I have the last bit of a Sebastian Faulks book to read now, so I'm going to go. xxx