I was about to set off from Dingboche in high spirits along with team Aus/US until another nosebleed stopped me in my tracks. I hadn't taken aspirin this time so it surprised me. We started 15mims later and promptly stopped again when Gez's Camelbak started leaking into his bag. What a great start. Kicking on, we passed team NZ and caught up with Aus/US for tea in Duglha. And then it happened again... This time, my 3rd nose bleed in 36 hours started on its own - no drugs, no nose-blowing. Just incessant nose bleeding that earned me a small amount of fame in the outside area of Duglha's tea shop. It took about 20 mins to stop this time. Team Aus/US moved on, I cleaned up with some water and then BLOODY HELL (almost literally) it started AGAIN.
A lovely Canadian woman who wanted to steal our chairs asked us how long we would be (how thoughtful). It turned out that we spent an hour "having tea". Wonderful. The rest of the trek that day was relatively successful. Until we got to Lobuche.
In a nutshell, there was no room. Anywhere. Everything was fully booked. Until in our place, miraculously (and suspiciously) it wasn't. We were given room 8. A girl came in later saying she'd booked room 8 and was turned away. Apparently this is how things happened in the trekking world in Nepal.
I felt pretty awful due to a mix of the accommodation ordeal, the altitude and the worry that my nosebleeds would wreck my chances of making higher points of the trek. I needed cheering up - my headache continued and team Aus/US were elsewhere...