Day 92-94

Rich American Vijay finally got back in touch about the over-priced therepeutic job he is prepared to offer Rufus to work with his eldest son. His wife is the Norwegian Ambassador and sounds extremely glamorous and cosmopolitan although we haven't met her yet; she is never at home and likely spends her evenings throwing unnecessary Viking-style events, eating pickled fish and drinking schnapps. Vijay chooses not to work and gallavants around Kathmandu on a hugely expensive motorbike probably looking for swinging parties. Can't think why his son needs help. So now we have 2 friends, Rich American Vijay and Water Expert Keith. It's almost a gang.

Black Dog has started to edge his way into our house which is a problem. He stinks and looks half blind and am worried he will take the face off one of us at any given moment. Nobody wants to touch him except Rufus so we have to coax him back outside by rustling paper and whistling. Rufus is leading him on by giving him food and water and patting him so it is our own fault really. Most evenings this week we have been having a glass of wine on our roof terrace, watching the sun go down. We have a beautiful view of the city and it is my favourite part of the day. The girls bring up their toys and play for a while and we get to sit and marvel at the city and the surrounding hills. Clover is having nightmares and wakes up almost every night for a 2 hour ritual of crying and shouting. I am not good at night time parenting and it is all I can do to not slap her. I coax her back to bed for a while and then give up on my range of ultimatums and wearily make a bed for her on my floor. We discuss it the next day and she always says she doesn't know what is wrong and promises it won't happen again. We are all exhausted from it. I know she is probably homesick and I have expected such a lot from them both to just adapt to our new life here. Night time in Kathmandu is noisy, with the sounds of traffic, people and barking dogs floating through our windows - it is not easy to get to sleep anyway. We are trying to be sympathetic but am tempted to get a bottle of Nepali Night Nurse soon if it doesn't stop - half for me, half for her. Whoever said you shouldn't sedate children obviously didn't live with Clover. The girls both completely humiliated me this week anyway by returning home from school with their first report card - and they both got a B in English. I stared at the result for some time until the ridculousness of the grade hit me. How on earth could they only have got a B? They are the only native English speakers in the whole bloody school. On the same note, Rufus has managed to find the only paid English teaching job in the history of English teachers looking for work in Kathmandu so our money worries are temporarily abated. I celebrated his interview by buying a bottle of 'White Mischief', the local vodka and making a series of fabulous Bloody Mary's - sans the Tabasco or Lea & Perrins. I wonder if anyone loves me enough to send me a bottle of each, please. Had a fab 45 minute Skype conversation with my lovely friend Jo - the quality was so good it felt like she was right next to me on the couch, which is exactly where I like her to be.

I'm helping to run an after school club for teenage girls who have particularly difficult home lives which I particularly enjoy. I can take Fern and Clover with me and they join in and help the girls with their English. It is good experience for me, I have discovered to my surprise that I really like teenage girls and I have all kinds of ideas of things I want to do with them. I might try and fundraise £100 from you lot in order to take them all to the cinema for a treat, as none of them have ever been.

We managed the lovely day out with Little P, taking her swimming and buying her pizza, milkshakes and ice cream before returning her to her life of misery and squalor. She stared blankly at the swimsuit I produced for her and it dawned on me pretty quickly she had no idea what it was or how to put it on. She had never been swimming and giggled and marvelled at the size of the pool and the sensation of being in it. She then became mesmirised by the hand dryer in the ladies toilet which she had never seen anything like. She was a total sweetheart and we had a lovely day. I am trying hard to believe it is better to provide treats, love and play opportunities for her than not provide them at all. And although I do understand a glimpse at a normal life might be painful for her too, she went home happy and not quite the saddest little girl in the world anymore. I have given up trying to adopt her and am instead focussing all my attention onto two Nepalese waiters in our favourite restauarant. They are so friendly and hard working and chatty and we love them. Imagine our surprise to discover they only earn £45 a month as a full-time wage, and our shame, guilt and embarrassment at asking for the bill which was, yep, you guessed it... £45. I am now determined to bring them to Scotland where they can earn 20 times that and send it home to their families, in turn making their lives better also. So that'll be a nice little project for me. Fern and Clover are a little confused that I am now trying to adopt a 27 year old man, but if I have to, I will marry one of them and am sure my friend Wendy can be persuaded to marry the other. Always solution focussed, that's me.