Tag Archives: fashion

Honouring Fridays: October 30th, 2009

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Happy Halloween! Nepal is not quite into the spooky, creepy crawly, bewitchiness that is Halloween.  However, that won’t stop us.  Tonight we are off to a Halloween party complete with pumpkin carving thanks to our dear Canadian friend Michelle. Costumes are hard to find so instead we opted for masks. Brilliantly feathered carnivale type masks were only 40 NPR at the local store (that is like 50 cents for anyone counting.) – we will look like owlets or birds I think.  And this weekend there will be pumpkin…oh yes.  I have my sights set of these delicious pumpkin donuts and perhaps a vat of pumpkin soup (of course kicked up a notch and flavoured with the cancer busting power of curry!).

  • Hearing the birds sing. I normally associate singing birds with the onset of Spring in Vancouver – that sprightly and excited bird chattering that pops up when the sun finally breaks through the clouds and rain for the first time.  But I have noticed lately in Kathmandu that the mornings and evenings are full of birds singing.  I think the rainy monsoon weather may have kept their songs hidden but the crystal clear and noiseless November days are perfect for a twitter of bird songs.  Nothing better than waking up to a beautiful blue sky day with birds singing – holds the promise of good things.
  • These. I covet these.  I only wish they had my size!  I am holding my breath and hoping that they will shortly stock my size but even if they don’t I still think they are a spectacular fashion find.  The ability to mix and match soles and tops, the recycled sari colours, and the multiple tying possibilities make them extra covet worthy.   I am clearly experiencing the “Oh my god I am leaving Nepal soon and will need to dress like normal not-so-sloppy adult…quick someone get me some cute sandals!”
  • The perfect job. Okay, so I haven’t yet found THE perfect job, but I sure have had some great jobs that came pretty darn close.  And this week, especially, I have realized how grateful I am for work that makes me feel good.  Loving my work is important to my overall life satisfaction – I am not someone who can work to live  – I live to work (and do something meaningful in the process).  So, as I consider the fact that I will be unemploymed in about 2 months (vagabonding around the world) I don’t think it is too early to send a quick reminder to those who are gainfully employed…I AM LOOKING FOR THE PERFECT JOB…STARTING AUGUST 2010…IN VANCOUVER…HIRE ME 🙂  If you know of a great job or someone who might want to hire me, just leave me a comment below.  It doesn’t have to be perfect…just close to perfect 🙂
  • Ayush. This week, my colleague Sujata brought her 2-year old, Ayush, to the office.  The plan was for him to play outside in a grassy patch out front of our office, while his nanny watched and we orked.  It sounded good, in theory but of course, Ayush had different plans!  He is a curious, precocious and active little guy who charmed me easily from my desk out to the grass to play.  I let Sujata work for a bit and we played catch with a ball for an hour or rather he kicked the ball and I chased it around the yard, much to his 2-year old delight.  So, needless to say, little work was accomplished that day – if we weren’t in the yard playing, he was jumping around our office pulling at various cables and cords, knocking things over, and investigating my laptop with his sticky fingers. There is a reason why 2-year olds and work don’t usually mix!  Fun for him, unproductive for us!  But for one day, just one, I was reminded just how fun it is to be 2, even when you are 30.

Honouring Fridays: September 11th, 2009

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Well folks, this is the beginning of the end.  The beginning of my vacation (well, almost) and the end of working like a maniac…for a whole 4 weeks! We look forward to greeting my parents at the airport on Tuesday night and embarking on a trip to Pokhara, a short mountain trek, a bunch of small day trips around Kathmandu, and then a 9 day trip around Rajasthan in India.  And with this adventure comes the great need to disconnect from my life in Kathmandu…just enough to clear the mind and rejuvenate the spirit.

So, this will be my final Friday gratitude post for the next 4 weeks.  I may post some photos of our trip or the odd note during this time but will return in earnest with my weekly musings on things I am grateful for on Friday, October 16th.  Until then enjoy the beginning of Fall – bake an apple crisp, buy a new sweater, and  crush some dry leaves underfoot.

  • XMind.  On two instances over the past month I have needed to pull together a partnership map to show the connections between various stakeholders, community groups, partners, government, donors and volunteers.  In non-development speak this is really just a  complex organizational diagram that shows how any involved is connected to anyone else involved.  After fiddling for some time with the PowerPoint org chart functions I quickly realized they were much too hierarchical for our holistic approach.  So, off to the web to find something better (and free, and open source…of course!).  Enter XMind, a great tool for mind-mapping of the complex and chaotic variety.  Here is an example of what I was able to do.
  • Dhaka topi.  I have been taking more notice lately of the tradition Nepali caps that men here wear.  Topi ithe general word for hat and dhaka is the cloth used to make traditional Nepali mens wear.  When used together they refer to the hat worn when wearing the dhaka clothes.  They are jaunty, colourful, and rather charming.  Somehow, they remind me of time passed – I imagine what Kathmandu might have looked like years ago, with bikes being the main mode of transport, when colourful dhaka topis topped the head of every man riding a bike…it must have looked something like this.
  • Sel roti.  Sel roti looks like a large skinny donut.  It is a sweetened rice flour bread that is deep fried and eaten with Nepali tea or with a snack of curried chick peas.  I ate my first sel roti last week as they are a common snack around festival time.  I have not yet had the guts  to try and make them but if you want to give it a go, here is a good recipe.  The slight crunch of the ground  rice bits gives the texture of cornmeal and the sweet dough with the slight hint of banana flavour all drenched in a crispy greasy crust…delicious!
  • The right amount of time.  Enough time to appreciate, notice, and enjoy what is around you.  Not so much time  that you feel stuck and stagnant.  Enough time to soak it all in.  Not so much time to feel you might never make it to the end.  Enough time to feel powerfully connected.  Not so much time that powerful connections turn into resentful relationships.  Just the exact right amount of time when everything makes sense.