This was written a couple of weeks after our return to England and just adds a final description of the things that hit us on our return. Then we can get one of those nice offexploring books printed.

Firstly, what struck us on our first day back in England, and still does now, is the clarity and crispness of the English air, its cleanness and the bright colours. The clarity and crispness of the air means that detail shows up. Look across our valley and you can see individual branches on the trees, not blurred by haze. There is a sharpness and contrast between colours. Those houses painted white stay white and they stand out against the background, not blurred by rubbish and dying plants. Road side curbs are crisp straight lines for hundreds of yards, not just broken, rough, uneven road edges and there is no rubbish in them. The English grass has always been bright green and the trees are a hundred different greens but we've never noticed till now. Roofs are red, cars are bright colours and the roads, even the M25 from Heathrow, are so smooth and quiet to drive along. It's difficult to describe this but it really hit us at the beginning and we would stop and looked at something which had always been there but we had never seen before. Most of Nepal has this cleanness and clarity but after nine weeks of Kathmandu greys, admittedly in the dry, dusty season when there was no new green plant growth, the beauty of England really hits you.

When we had forced open the front door and scooped up the piles of post that had blocked it we sorted it and threw 90% away. Much of what we threw away was just advertising products we didn't need. In particular the copy of 'Berkhamsted Life' magazine stood out as selling conspicuous extravagance; luxury kitchens, jewellery, high fashion clothes, holidays and second homes in the Caribbean. It has articles that show how people can spend a lot of money having their teeth whitened or their nails painted. All this unnecessary expenditure when the kitchen at DNC only had two knives, the children's jewellery cost 10p and they didn't have their own bedroom, let alone an en suite bathroom or second home. Looking at the size of our house may make these thoughts a bit self-righteous but, in our defence, I would say that we have never been extravagant. We are certainly rich by the DNC children's standards and, being retired, we are also idle by their standards but we are not the 'idle rich' by our standards. We like to think we are active and aim to achieve something useful. What I am trying to highlight here is the difference in standards. It leads us to think of what could be done. There is charity fatigue in England based on the idea of massive charitable donations by governments and large charities going to waste and corruption. Contrast this with getting out there and doing something face to face with the lovely recipients and we know it's very worthwhile. We should really go back.