Minkie Is Here

So, I’ve been living in Oxford for the past three and a bit...

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 15:24:59 +0100

On the bus to Blenheim Palace

This isn't funny!

Bum!

Jump!

So, I’ve been living in Oxford for the past three and a bit months and haven’t really seen the area. This week we went to Blenheim Palace - the birthplace of Winston Churchill. It’s about a half an hour bus ride on the S3 from the bus station at Gloucester Green. It was a very hot ride, but it was a glorious day.

Set in 2100 acres of parkland, it was landscaped by ‘Capability’ Brown. The palace itself is very opulent, and very, very grand. I just wished we got there earlier so we could get lost in the maze.

Another bike ride in the Oxfordshire countryside #l2b (Taken...

Sun, 20 May 2012 13:24:22 +0100

Another bike ride in the Oxfordshire countryside #l2b (Taken with instagram)

It’s been a busy few months. Finally moved to Oxford. Been...

Fri, 18 May 2012 22:55:57 +0100

It’s been a busy few months. Finally moved to Oxford. Been hectic. Here I am having a massive cuppa. (Taken with instagram)

Song Thrush on Flickr.It’s been a while since I’ve...

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 19:40:52 +0100

Song Thrush on Flickr.

It’s been a while since I’ve been back in the UK. At the moment, London has a big egg hunt across the city, so I thought I’d see what the fuss is about. There’s around 200 eggs scattered across London, we managed to find 53 of them!

You can see all the eggs at Covent Garden over the Easter weekend.

www.thebigegghunt.co.uk

We hired a bike and cycled Lumbini. It’s the best way to...

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 10:00:05 +0000

We hired a bike and cycled Lumbini. It’s the best way to see the birthplace of Buddha, because it’s so spread out. Here I am in front of the German monastery. Beautiful isn’t it? I didn’t realise that Germany had a big Buddhist population…

From Pokhara,we took the bus down to Lumbini, the birthplace...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:00:05 +0000

From Pokhara,we took the bus down to Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha. What should have been a six hour trip ended up being 13 hours, thanks to a bandh (or a strike to you and me). It was a student protest about oil prices being pushed up. Here I am in a place called Bramdi. We here here for fours hours.

Bandhs are a regular occurrence in Nepal, especially in the Terai (south of Nepal). There’s not much you can do about it.

Sunrise over the Himalayan range.

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:00:06 +0000

Sunrise over the Himalayan range.

Walking through the snow from Annapurna Base Camp.

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 10:00:05 +0000

Walking through the snow from Annapurna Base Camp.

Sunrise over the Annapurna range.

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 10:00:05 +0000

Sunrise over the Annapurna range.

After four days of intense trekking, we finally made it to...

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:00:05 +0000

After four days of intense trekking, we finally made it to Annapurna Base Camp. Here I am at sunset.

Here I am messing around with Joe, who came on our trek to the...

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 10:00:05 +0000

Here I am messing around with Joe, who came on our trek to the Annapurnas with us. We’re at a teahouse at Ghandruk, the first stop to the Annapurna Sanctuary.

Finally leaving Kathmandu. Hurrah! Here I am on the bus to...

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:00:06 +0000

Finally leaving Kathmandu. Hurrah! Here I am on the bus to Pokhara, some six hours west of the capital. Off to trek to Annapurna Base Camp.

Today is my last day in Nepal, and decided to have our last...

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 06:32:30 +0000

Today is my last day in Nepal, and decided to have our last breakfast at Pumpernickles. We’ve been there so often, they know our order - banana pancakes with honey with either a pot of Darjeeling tea (which they’ve seem to have run out of) or hot lemon, ginger and honey. Yum.

It’s been an interesting two months here. After Sarah taught English in Kathmandu, we went to Pokhara to trek the Annapurna range, yoga and paragliding. I didn’t want to go, so I stayed an watched. We then when to the birthplace of Buddha - Lumbini. Photos up soon.

Am I looking forward to going home? Yes and no. It’s going to be a come down after all the adventures that we’ve been through. But I can’t wait to sleep in my own bed!

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 06:22:10 +0000

EmotionalCynic: reviewing history

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 06:18:24 +0000

EmotionalCynic: reviewing history:

emotionalcynic:

My Hotmail account was hacked earlier in the week, resulting in predictable viagra spam being sent out to all and sundry in my address book. Because of this Hotmail kindly locked my account and then set about de-bugging it, allowing me back in a few hours later - after many password changes and so…

Here I am with a monk at the Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse -...

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:11:05 +0000

Here I am with a monk at the Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse - the second largest city in Tibet. It was founded in 1447, by the first Dali Lama, Gendun Drup. In Tibetan, it means “all fortune and happiness gathered here” or “heap of glory”.

Road in Tibet.

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 11:20:05 +0000

Road in Tibet.

Here I am on the edge of the Trisuli River, Nepal. Had just...

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 10:00:06 +0000

Here I am on the edge of the Trisuli River, Nepal. Had just finished a day of white water rafting, which was so much fun! We took the tourist bus and managed to missed our stop, and had to take a ride back to the start of the rafting stop.

The bus ride back to Kathmandu was more dangerous than white water rafting. Lots of potholes, a small mini van and excited drier that likes to swing around mountain corners and over take lorries on bends, makes for a very thrilling ride!

Sarah and I back in Kathmandu - exhausted. As we were delayed...

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 10:00:05 +0000

Sarah and I back in Kathmandu - exhausted. As we were delayed for six (yes six!) days, we lost a few of our acclimatisation days, meaning we didn’t have any rest days where we would walk higher, then sleep lower. It also meant 10 hour treks, and miraculously, none of the group got really sick!

It only took us five days to reach EBC, and three to come back down.

Last view of Everest (well from the Nepali side).

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:08:06 +0000

Last view of Everest (well from the Nepali side).