The Rosebush

Yesterday was an amazing day and lots of things happened.First off, Natalya and I wandered the hot streets of downtown Yangon to find a washing machine.  We succeeded, AND ate some lovely yoghurt, and travelled with the washing machine in a truck to our future house, where we met up with the landlady and agent.  We paid the rest of our rent and…. the landlady gave us the KEYS!  She even said we could move in now if we want, even though the contract doesn’t start til the 10th May.  Fantastic!  Not sure if we will move in early or not, but it’s great to have the keys!

Then I spoke to Colm for a bit, and to my parents, then went home, carefully keeping an eye on the mysterious-looking sky. An ominous cloud threatened to bring forth the first rain since October.   When I got home I stood on the balcony to take some pictures and then there was an ALMIGHTY crack so I looked up and saw smoke coming off the roof.  The power in the building died, and the lights went right down, the phone went dead, the sky darkened and suddenly I couldn’t even see Shwe Dagon Pagoda anymore. Then, with a few more flashes of lightning and cracks of thunder and totally suddenly…. the rain came.  And it rained like it was never going to stop.  I’ve never before had a chance to actually watch the season change, but it did, and it did it in about half an hour.  I’ve since found out that it’s normal to have an almighty thunderstorm in April but then it wont rain again for a few weeks, then it will come back and will rain every day for 5 months. 

Later the same day, a bunch of us went out to the Diggers’ Ball (not a ball at all) and enjoyed a lovely buffet dinner and lots of wine.  I ATE KANGAROO!  Can u believe that little-miss ex-vegetarian could stoop so low?  Thought it was worth a try!  Tastes a bit like tuna fish… Probably wouldn’t eat it again.So then something really weird happened – a Burmese band sang ‘Money For Nothing’.  Very strange but cool.

After that, some of us squashed into the boot of Nick’s car and went to Nick and Mandy’s for some sesame grissini and rum sours.   Natalya managed to leave her enormous Bridget Jones knickers *somewhere* in N&M’s house (we still don’t know where they are) and that is about all the excitement we needed for one night.

Today I bought a beautiful painting for $120.

Just in case you’re interested - Matt drew my attention to Burmanet.org today which is a collation of articles about Burma, as and when they are published.  Particularly interesting today as there are going to be some pro-government demonstrations out side the British Embassy today (Same building I work in) and we’re not allowed to go outside in case we get knives thrown at us or something

Okay so it’s been ages since I uploaded any pictures to my gallery!  (<—-click here) But I’ve chucked on a couple more albums so feel free to have a look. 

The pics include some of my house-to-be!

So I managed to use my Orange email account for about 3 days before the Burmese government censored it.  Please can somebody explain to me how they even KNOW that it’s being used?  Is there somebody out there whose job it is to check a list of all websites which have been accessed from all public computers?

And another thing - I have been able to use my laptop with the wireless internet here, and was told that it was acceptable to do so.  So why am I being chaperoned?  There is a member of staff in the room with me right now, as I sit on the GMYH computer, flicking through the yellow pages as if it was a magazine.  He has made me so nervous that I don’t even want to use my own laptop!! If it’s okay to use it, why do I feel like I’m being watched?  I’m paying $800 to stay here and I do NOT expect to be spied on like I’m some kind of filthy criminal.

UPDATE:

Hm, seems they have only banned it on the GMYH computers - I can still get to it via my laptop… I don’t want to tempt fate or anything… I wonder how long that will last!!!  Stoopid country.

I haven’t killed myself or anything, but it was a bit hairy there for a while!  Had a terrible couple of days settling back in here - really emotional and irrational.  I was tempted to make some fairly big decisions this week but managed to restrain myself and am now feeling a bit better. 

Things are kicking off a bit now - last night was the ‘Queen’s Birthday Party’ at the Strand Hotel (invitation from the Ambassador only! Fnar fnar!)  How posh does that sound?  It was okay, if a bit dull.  The highlight was an ice sculpture in the centre of the hall in the shape of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, but for some reason parts of it were done in bright blue!  Looked a bit like a child had made it!! Oh well.

Arrived back in Burma last night after an uneventful flight but a very stressful couple of hours after that. 

Aside from being generally upset at returning with no prospect of Josh to offer hugs and stupid comments, the airline also managed to lose my large suitcase somewhere between the check in desk at Heathrow and the plane in Yangon. 

Added to that, already feeling incredibly emotional and frankly, pissed off, the only taxi driver left outside the airport tried to charge me double to get to my apartment so I told him to bugger off and was then left standing on the pavement, in the dark, trying to flag down a cab, whilst trying very hard to stop crying.

Fortunately a very nice man offered to share his taxi with me (Even though the b*stard taxi driver still charged me the full fare).  The last straw was when I sat down in the taxi to find that the entire back seat was completely soaked through, because Thingyan (Burmese water festival) has only just finished.  In fact, it hadn’t quite finished, because we got sprayed on the way into town.  This is AFTER we had to turn around and search for another route because the main road into town was closed, due to the festival.

So got back to my apartment to suddenly find myself feeling less than happy and extremely alone.  Thank god for my parents and reduced international call rates.

On a brighter note, I am now able to use my laptop to connect to the net in the PC lounge downstairs.  No idea if I’ll get charged for that or not.

Well I’m still here.  Was supposed to get on a plane and take off an hour and a half ago, but when we arrived at Heathrow we were told that the plane had broken when it landed on the way in (first we heard a tyre burst, then a rumour went round that the undercarriage wouldn’t move up into the plane - how the hell do they know that if they plane was on the ground??)  

Anyway, so… the flight was cancelled.  So we queued for 2.5  hours to find out what was going to happen, and nobody told us anything, but they DID give us food vouchers.  I got bored of waiting so decided to see if the Thai information desk would give me some actual information.  They actually booked me on another flight.  (While hundreds of people were standing in the long queue, waiting to be told nothing.)  So I don’t know what happened to everyone else, but I’m now flying out at 9.30 tonight instead.

So right at this moment, I’m back home in my living room with a cup of tea  :)  Another little gift from destiny - thank you very much!  (Er, unless the 9.30 flight crashes, in which case, screw you, destiny!)

I like Facebook.

If I’ve sent you an invitation and you haven’t accepted it yet, please do so and have a look at it. I think it’s quite clever.  I wonder how long it’ll be until the novelty wears off…  I don’t *think* it put any spyware on my computer either. Bonus.

A true sign of global warming - not a drop of rain over Easter weekend!!! 

So…. drove back from Brighton yesterday and went for a walk by the river in Hurley with my parents, Nick and Kate.  Always time for a Cornetto, so that was nice, then back home for food and tv.

Today was pretty much as expected - a huge debate about how unnecessary it is to waste money on chocolate for everyone else in the family (but this time also some horror at the realisation of how much packaging is used and potentially not recycled), followed by the longest walk in the history of the world…  2.5 hours of wooded ridgeway walk around Tony Blair’s country home.  Came so close we could almost spit on it.  But I missed. ;)  It was a nice walk, good to get some of that temperamental English country air, but my legs were not working properly at all by the time we got back to the car… Just makes me realise how much I need to start going to the gym when I’m back in Burma.

Burma.  Not looking forward to going back right now, but hopefully will feel more positive once I’m actually there. May even regret saying that, but there it is.  The news, as it happens!

Can’t believe I’ve been home for a week already and only have a week left… I’ve done a bit of shopping, wandered round Cambridge with Colm, visited my brother’s new house in Southampton, also had a long-awaited-for catch-up with the girls in Brighton (hello!!) and of course have been fidding around with Facebook, which I am actually really impressed with so far.

It’s Easter weekend which means that a walk was required today and that tomorrow will involve eating a lot and possibly being a bit lazy, or maybe going off somewhere in my Dad’s new car (named ‘The Hearse’ by my mother).  Who knows!  More family stuff on Monday and then next week has various things scheduled - seeing Lena at last (hello!!), meeting up with Claire for the first time in about 7 years, visiting my great Auntie in Bognor and somehow fitting in a cervical screening ;)   Lovely!  What a week

Still waiting to hear from my cousin about whether I’m seeing them next Saturday too… 

It’s awfully quiet out there… what are you all doing??