Dried Fish!

Spices

Katmandu Calf

10am Katmandu

We've got a run on the cauliflowers

Katmandu1

Katmandu

After two good flights with no delays, on Manchester City's favourite airline, Eithiad, I arrived at Katmandu airport in good time. The airport building resembled Longton bus station circa 1977, but I was not interested in the design of the airport just a shower and a decent nights sleep. I was one of the last off the plane and found myself stuck behind the whole plane as they queued for 140minutes, yes we queued for 2hours and 20minutes, whilst three overworked immigration officials issued 5day, 10 day, 15 day, 30 day and 120 day visas. They only accepted cash, which didn't help and to add insult to injury just as I got to the front three more officials opened another lane and passengers from the plane that arrived 90 minutes after us sailed straight past. A gentlemen from Belgium commented that it certainly wasn't British the way the other passengers queue jumped. I thought to myself that he didn't know how the Brits behaved at Aldi in the pre Christmas rush for chipalatos wrapped in bacon.

After unsuccessfully trying to barter a reduction in the commission from the currency exchange desk I booked a taxi-a Suzuki van that I struggled to get into. I then had the most fabulous taxi drive through chaos. There seemed to be not one side of the road the drivers stuck to; cyclists on pre war Raleighs were carrying 50kg sacks of rice whilst riding one handed, mopeds were buzzzing everywhere, sometimes with families all crammed on
one bike and only the dad wearing a helmet. The odd cow wandered across the road and pedestrians tried to navigate their way through the thick smog, as thick as the best Cheshire fog but significantly warmer and dustier.

Katmandu is going to be brilliant! I have retired to my room with a bag of crisps, Wasabi Peas, Pepsi and a Bounty.

Retweeting

I'm using my blog and twitter account to log my progress towards Everest Base Camp. I'm also raising the profile of the fund raising by asking high profile tweeters to retweet me. I have had retweets from Alistair Smith, Dan Thomas and Richard Gerver from Education, Alex Dowsett (Team Sky) and Geoff Thomas (ex England footballer) and local retweets from friends and parents from Hartford Manor.
We raised £500 + Gift Aid yesterday please keep the momentum going by sending
links to the blog and twitter to friends and family.
My next target is to see if I can get a retweet from one of the Stoke Players before today game at Wigan.

Abu Dhabi Aiport

Manchester Airport

I'm at Manchester Airport after a fantastic send off from Jill and the children and staff at Hartford Manor Primary School. Today has been a whirlwind with a staff inset day at school, a trip to Winsford to buy some Crocs, they only had white in my size which I will post on the blog later if they get through customs; a trip to Sandbach for some last minute passport photos and finally I had a request played on The Simon Mayo Drive time show on Radio 2. Check it out the BBC iplayer if you missed it. I was on air 25minutes from the start of the show. Thanks for all your wishes of support. I'm off to Boots now for a meal deal.