indefinite bandh...

So, the Indefinite Bandh is doing pretty much what it says on the tin.

The city has been closed since Friday pm, and the kids are off school yet again tomorrow. I'm not overly bothered though, as at least it gets me out of the tedium of creating packed lunches for the morning. Luckily my panic-buying means we have enough food to last a while longer, although word on the street is that it's already impossible to get hold of milk and fresh fruit, etc. Markets and food shops are allowed to open between 6-8pm so we ventured out this evening to 'Home Grocer', (which is a small and poky supermarket, but at least is within walking distance. The bigger supermarkets are all still closed) to stock up on 'essentials' like strawberry cornflakes and Pringles.

As far as I can tell from the local website, the Maoists still want the Prime Minister (whose name is Mr Nepal, yes really!) to resign, and he is still saying he doesn't want to. Eventually we will all run out of food and drinking water and someone will have to capitulate - by which stage we will have had to resort to eating pilchards and Nutella (the chickpeas have already gone) and will be very thirsty.

Incidentally, remember how I heard about the bandh, and went out and did lots of shopping, to stock up, in case I couldn't buy anything for a while? You would have thought that British Gurkhas Nepal, with all the super-dooper army logistics at their disposal would have done likewise, wouldn't you? Well, it appears they forgot, or something, and now we are running out of drinking water, because the drinking water is supplied in those big water bottles (like you get at water coolers in offices) that are produced in a local factory, which is of course closed because of the bandh. Der!

Kids are happy because there is no school. The school did send them home with 'bandh' work for this very eventuality, but only enough for one day. So we did do a bit yesterday, but today we just went swimming and watched DVDs and I expect we'll do more of the same tomorrow. Oh, and Son has just discovered the delights of Harry Potter (when I asked if he wanted me to invite one of his friends over this afternoon he said no, because he just wanted to finish his book. I thought I might suggest that he invite someone tomorrow, but I noticed at bed time that he's started the next HP book already, so I suspect he'll want to be equally antisocial tomorrow as well), so he has been hoovering up words a lot as well.

Hubby is already in bed and I'm going to go too, even though it's not even nine yet. This is not because we're planning a night of unbridled passion, but because the next door neighbours have got a very yappy dog, which woke us up at four this morning. Dogs don't usually wake me up, but this one was especially loud and yappy and infuriating. If it continues I shall have to consider lobbing a buff steak laced with arsenic over the fence.

Must go before I fall asleep at the screen.

Cheerio xx