THE birthday party

I think we all remember how exciting it was waiting for the birthday when we were kids.
Actually I still do. One of my grandmoms died young, two months before I was born and my mother use to say that we should be grateful for every year we live and the birthday is an excellent day for celebrations.
Leya was super excited about her 8:th birthday and this year we had the party at a kid's center so they could play and have fun.
The favorite kids' food here in Nepal is momo, so that was a must.

This is momo, if you haven't heard about it before.

Nepalese style birthday parties start with the cake, but we did it Swedish style with the cake after the food.

This party light was a hit.

We had also made some gifts for Leya's friends.

It was a great day and Leya was very happy, but tired at the end of the day.
We finished her birthday cuddled up in bed talking about the day she was born. Sweet memories!

Pre-birthday party

Eight years ago, this evening, we went to hospital to give birth to our lovely Leya and today we had a pre-party at Hyatt with Eva, her best friend and sister.

Lee and Zaya

Yesterday we met the sweet couple Lee, from Singapore and Zaya, from Mongolia.
We got in contact via a mutual Indian friend and a few days ago they arrived in Kathmandu.
They are on a Buddhist pilgrime journey and today they left for Lumbini, where Buddha was born.
We took them to Boudhanath, one of the world heritage Buddhist sites.

Shopping in Thamel is a must when you come to Nepal.

Farmer's market

Yesterday was Leya's free day, so we decided to go to a farmer's market we've heard about, but first we stopped by this bunch of puppies.
One of the female dogs in our neighborhood had 8 puppies. 8 puppies!
I wonder what will happen to them. Right now they are staying inside a local restaurant.

This farmer's market is specialized on expats living in Nepal and we've wanted to go here for some time.
Since it's located close to Thamel, where we do most of our work, we don't feel like going there on Saturdays, but I'm glad we finally did.

Brunch: a sandwich, Belgian waffles and lemonade.

We ran in to this happy Swedish couple, who are teaching here for a few months.
They were selling Swedish candy and chocolate balls to support sport and music projects, so of course we wanted to help.

Strange, but fun, to see Swedish signs.

We bought a mug and some fridge magnets to support a dog shelter, run by a couple of sweet British ladies and multigrain bread, fresh and creamy goat cheese and a Brie cheese made by an actual French guy. Yummy!

A working day in Kathmandu

I guess it's difficult to understand how we work, so I've made a photo diary of a typical working day.
You can see the album here.
This day started with a walking breakfast ...

Hammarby football

Nicholas is truly passionate about one thing in life and that is his Swedish football team Hammarby and thanks to internet he can watch the games here in Nepal.
Yesterday they played the most important game this season and they won with 5-0 and moved up to the top series Allsvenskan.
You can see some amazing photos here from the celebrations in Stockholm last night.
I know Nicholas wanted to be there with his brother and friends, but I guess he will be alright flying around on his pink cloud of happiness here in Nepal.

Sweden

I've finally come around to make the photo album of our trip to Sweden.
You are welcome to see it here.
I've put a lot of effort in placing the photos in order, but Facebook seems to have scrambled them. I hope they will solve the problem, otherwise it's difficult for you to get an idea of what we did and when.

Vacation

A vacation in the mountains is a great treat for both body and mind.
This time we stayed at the Hotel at the end of the Universe.

We had this cute little cottage all to ourselves.

The first evening we were hit by a hail rain and the girls had never seen anything like it.

The next morning the sun was shining from a clear blue sky and we had a pleasant time in the little garden. You can see that they dry the hotel laundry on the hedge.

Wednesday it was the dogs' day, so they had a special ceremony.

Even Lizzie, who of course came with us on this trip, got a tikka and a flower necklace, but we had to remove the necklace since the bees were chasing her.

A nice walk to the tiny village center and we were accompanied by this breathtaking view.

At the top of the universe they have built a Shiva temple.

Super cute girls!

Today we came back to Kathmandu for some hands on celebrations with our Nepalese family, Mom Sweetie and the rest of the gang.

Himalayan aphrodisiac

A friend sent me this article about the yarsagumba, that is more expensive than gold. Crazy!
Read the article here.
I wonder how they came up with the idea to start eating it in the first place, about 5000 years ago.
This is the most expensive, Grade A, yarsagumba. Strange little caterpillar-fungus thing.
I have contacts if someone is interested.

Nagarkot

Tomorrow we are taking the girls for a few days vacation up in the mountains.
We use to go to Pokhara for Diwali, but since Leya has had the flu we had to postpone the trip for a few days and Nagarkot is just two hours away from our home.
Nagarkot is located high up in the mountains and we long for the silence of the nature and the fresh air.
I don't know why, but I love snowy mountains. In a distance, I must add.

Cute dogs at Boudha

Yesterday Leya and I went to Boudhanath to shop some malas and Tibetan and Bhutanese incenses.
When we had a fika, it's a Swedish word for taking a break and have a drink and eat something light, like a pastery, our dog friends came and wanted some of our delicious brownies.
As you can see Leya is really popular.
First one dog, who we have named Tiger.

Then two dogs. Busifer (means naughty guy) joined him.

Then three dogs. The light nougat one who we have named Naan (as in naan bread).

Finally Busifer demanded full attention.

Kopila

This is Kopila, one of our suppliers of Tibetan style handmade jewelry.
She started her career with two empty hands and now she is a successful business woman.
I'm always very impressed by people like her!

Here are some examples of the beautiful things she sells:

Best friends

Leya and Eva are truly best friends!
They've been together now for the last two weeks and they love each others company, if not every minute, every other minute.
Watching the old classic The fox and the hound (Micke och Molle)...

... and walking to KL Tower, a shopping mall, to play at the children's playground.

Today Eva will go home for a few days since Leya has to go to school for the coming week, but after that we will hopefully go to Pokhara for a few days vacation over the festival Diwali and the girls will be together again.

Weather change

The monsun season is over for this year, so for the next couple of months I have to listen to soothing rain sound on the phone.
Autumn is here with sunny days and chilly nights. Very pleasant!
With the weather change comes the flu and both Nicholas and I have had fever the last couple of days.
Leya and Eva, who has been to Eva's dad's home village for the last couple of days, came home yesterday and they are both healthy and full of energy.

Dashain celebrations

Yesterday and today are the main days of the longest, most important festival in Nepal.
Yesterday was the big animal killing day, which I'm definately against. Apparently our landlord killed a goat downstairs, but thankfully we stayed in all day so we didn't know anything about it.
Today Nicholas and I went to Hyatt for the lunch buffet. Yummy!

In the evening we got the traditional tikka and the very important grass behind the ear, at our landlord's huge party.
All women were dressed in their nicest red saris and the men were playing cards.

Baby gecko

Yesterday when I was lying in bed, watching TV on the computer, I felt something crawl on my arm.
To my big surprise it was a baby gecko and I screamed so loud that I probably woke up the whole house.
I think geckos are cute, but I don't like them on my body.
Nicholas only replied that a gecko is nothing. A few weeks ago he had a huge cockroach running up his leg. I agree. That is much worse!

The face of a fighter

When we came home from town the other day we found Angel like this.
She has probably been fighting with the neighbor's dog again. They truly hate each other!
We need a dog whisperer to solve this problem.

Dashain shopping

Today I had a few errands to run in the local market and it was nerve vrecking, to say the least.
It's like Swedish Christmas shopping times 100 with much more people in much more narrow streets.
In a few days the streets will be empty though. Locals say that about 80 % of the population in Kathmandu will leave the valley to go to their home villages.

Mom Sweetie, Tara and the baby

The other day I ran in to Mom Sweetie, Tara and Tara's baby, who is soon 2 years old.
She is so shy that she even refuses to look at me.
Nani, means baby girl, is so cute and I guess I look really scary to her.

Last day in school

Today Leya celebrated Dashain in school with song and dance.
No program for the parents, I'm sad to say, but we've seen her practise the dance for the last week, so we are fine.
Leya had her Swedish colored lengha choli and here we are waiting for her school van, that was late this morning.

Now she will have holiday for 2,5 weeks and on Saturday she is going with Eva's family to Eva's dad's home village, somewhere in Gorkha.
They were there last year too and it rained and rained, so we hope for better weather this year.

Rain, rain, rain

A couple of days ago Nicholas said the monsun was over. Haha! Boy, was he wrong!
The night after it rained so heavy, and someone forgot to close the terrass door two stairs up from our flat, that it was a flood in our hallway.
No worries, the marble floors are great that way.
We just sweeped it donwstairs to our neighbors and then out the door.
Since then it has been raining a lot, but I'm sure they've learnt to close the door upstairs.
Apparently the monsun season is delayed two weeks, so it's possible it will be yet another rainy Dashain festival.

I'm back!

After a long time I'm back!
We had a great month in Sweden and I will, soon I hope, publish the many photos we took.
The, so called, holiday was really busy with a lot of meetings with family, friends and customers all across the country.
So when we finally returned back to Nepal I was pretty exhausted and then we had a lot of work waiting for us.
Well, now I'm back in, both physical and emotional, blog mode.
Today I'd like to share a miracle that arrived the same night we returned back to Nepal.
Suresh, my Nepalese little brother went with us to Sweden, as you all know, and his wife was very pregnant and the delivery date was set to the 10:th of September.
It was a bit risky for him to go, but this was the best chance for him to travel to Europe since it's very difficult for a Nepalese citizen to get the visa.
The same day we returned to Nepal they had a doctors appointment and everything looked fine, but a few hours later the water broke and they had to do an emergency c section and out came this beautiful little boy. Thank God, Suresh came home in time!
Welcome to the world, my little nephew!