day 10: relative traveling fatigue

I am very titred today, a busy day at work followed by an exhausting slow journey home, not my home, I am house sitting this week, so a bit out of my routine. What a whimp I hear you say, I agree. Today is nothing compared to another journey I took in Nepal.

This is footage from 2007-2008. I was on my way from the capital Kathmandu to Lumbini on the border with India. A very different kind of travel with an maximum average speed of 40km/hours on rattling busses with noisy video players, loud horns, barely leg space and hard seats. Somehow that journey seemed less tyring than the half hour I spent today in the traffic jam on my way home. Part of the journey I traveled on the roofrack of the bus, just like I did 20 years earlier. Still as much fun, plenty of fresh air, no noisy music videos, great views, but a little more dangerous as these days electric wires can hang dangerously low accross the road. Riding busses in Nepal is not very safe, but apart from flying or walking there is no alternative. Danger is lurking around every corner, but traveling with the Nepalese is never boring, they make great company making you forget about the torturous long journeys that are only interupted by short chai stops. The scenery, well you can't get much better...

Day 9: enrichment process

The first bit of mulch the new mulcher produced.

I am making space for the new eco cottage I am planning to build. I need to clear bushes and the odd tree, none to precious fortunately. It is my intention to recycle everything that needs to make way on the site. All trunks and branched have been chopped to firewood size, the twigs and leaves are mulched so they will enrich the soil they sprouted from. Once the building is done I will restore the garden with native planst and trees, some from cuttings I have taken before I started chopping.

I also intend to have a small vege garden and have some chickens. It is a small site and steep, but with enough space to practice permaculture on the smallest of scales. The house will be super insulated. have solar panels and underfloor heating with a heat exchange pump. It is all part to an attempt to reduce my carbon footprint while increasing comfort levels (older NZ houses aren't the best, often draughty, barely insulated and poorly heated). I can't wait for the house to be ready because I am ready. I know the house will enrich my life greatly. It will be worth the wait.

For other posts from this series please visit: http://mb-asif.blogspot.com

day 7: to busk or not to busk...

I used to play music when I was in my 20's, accordeon, tin whistles, spoons. I wasn't that good, but I loved it and even earned money playing in a medieval inn in the city of Delft. I saw musicians playing on the Sunday market, entertaining the crowds. I love buskers. They can brighten the dullest of places, like the tunnels of the London Tube stations. I want to play again, sing again...