After much flip flopping and deep thought I've decided to buy a wing here! The lucky winner is an almost brand new Skywalk Mescal which I've been flying the last few days and it is a joy! Plus a Sup-Air harness and a skate board helmet.
Not much more to say really. Getting home is going to be fun with my two other packs as well and 18kg of stuff + the extra 10kg of wing stuff. Today is overcast, so no flying, and a little bit depressing as I am preparing to head home. Back to work in 6 days! After 6 months.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Book worm
Books! I know I've been reading a fair bit while traveling (sometimes I feel like I need to be overseas to devote the time to reading!) but today I decided to write down a list of what I have devoured so far and this is what I came up with (not read in this order):
Imperium (about Cicero in ancient rome)
The Beach
The Bagavad Gita (Famous Hindu Poem/Text)
The Satanic verses (Banned in lots of Islamic countries including next door in India)
Them Mummy: Ramses the Damned *
Blood and Gold *
The witching hour *
Rachel's Holiday
Memnock the Devil *
Take of the Body Thief *
The * are all by Anne Rice who wrote 'Interview with the Vampire' and as you can see I am kinda hooked at the moment. The only proplem has been reading them out of order but that hasn't mattered so much really as they mostly stand alone.
And just recently procured:
The Vampire Lestat * (finally found it!)
Queen of the Damned *
The Globe: The science of Discworld II
Sometimes I only read a chapter or two a day, but on days like today, which are overcast and poor flying weather, I've been almost reading a book a day!
Imperium (about Cicero in ancient rome)
The Beach
The Bagavad Gita (Famous Hindu Poem/Text)
The Satanic verses (Banned in lots of Islamic countries including next door in India)
Them Mummy: Ramses the Damned *
Blood and Gold *
The witching hour *
Rachel's Holiday
Memnock the Devil *
Take of the Body Thief *
The * are all by Anne Rice who wrote 'Interview with the Vampire' and as you can see I am kinda hooked at the moment. The only proplem has been reading them out of order but that hasn't mattered so much really as they mostly stand alone.
And just recently procured:
The Vampire Lestat * (finally found it!)
Queen of the Damned *
The Globe: The science of Discworld II
Sometimes I only read a chapter or two a day, but on days like today, which are overcast and poor flying weather, I've been almost reading a book a day!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
So so happy and so so angry!
Grrrwwww!!!! Sometimes Nepali attitudes can be so brutal!
Today was by far the best day of flying I've had. In fact in my log book I wrote that this was my first day of flying. The rest were just controlled glides. But today after a flat day or two, (yesterdays flights were free because of the weather) today was bright, clear, sunny and by 1pm it was pumping thermals for my second flight. I did my second reverse takeoff, nice and smooth into great wind, then joined the house thermal and stayed up for 45 minutes ridge soaring, thermalling and exploring, getting great height and having the time of my life. It is really the first flight where I've been free to do what I want, and at the same time have the right weather and the skill to utilize it, so I was stoked! Eventually I decided to come down and leave on a good note. It is pretty busy up there and I think the longer I stayed up the more confident I got and I don't want to over do it.
So I landed, and even caught a nice little thermal over a dark shallow swamp just next to the landing which was a nice bit of icing on top. At this point I wished I wasn't traveling alone, so I could jump up and down, squeal stupidly and hug everyone. But I made do by packing up my wing and walking back to town with yet another stupid grin. But it wasn't to last.
As I approach the paragliding shop I saw a small crowd gathered on the road. As I neared I saw that there was a dog on its side on the road and it was the nice cream coloured bitch that had shared our couch every morning for coffee while we did our theory. A real gentle dog and almost part of the furniture, always there like the shoe shining guy, the mandarin sellers and the sacred cow that likes to eat our paper. At first I though it was hit by a car but it looked ok. It wasn't foaming at the foam so I didn't think it was rabies, it was just twitching on it's side. Everyone was just watching and not doing anything! About the same time, another pilot, Leigh approached and I ran off to find something to put under the dog to lift it off the road. When I returned with a bed roll this Nepali guy was trying to stop up from helping it!? Leigh and David, the owner of the paragliding shop and the dogs adopted dad, carried it into the back office where it died about two minutes later. Nothing is certain in the chaos that is Nepal but it seems that somebody poisoned the dog on purpose. It make me so so angry.
I just feel angry. I remember back a few days ago to the 100th time I said no to some beggar, and I was trying to figure out for myself whether it was morally better to de-humanise a beggar or to anthropomorphise an animal. This was just after I'd come back from Chitwan and been quite saddened at how the Elephants in the breeding centre there lived their lives. It is so sad to see such intelligent and happy animals living in chains and beaten and worked so much. To watch a baby elephant walking forwards until it draws it chains tawt then rocks back and repeating as it hasn't got used to the idea of being in chains is heart breaking.
Another example is a cow, supposedly sacred as all cows are, that was stuck in a drain on the side of the road on the way up to the takeoff. I saw it yesterday and pointed it out but nobody seemed to care. Today it was dead and bloated on the road but outside the drain. As it turns out it was Leigh and friends who actually stopped to help and hauled it out but it must have had internal injuries from its fall. But the local attitude is that it is hurt and it will die and thats it. No attempt to help or even to drag it off the road afterwards - after all it is sacred! And then when you start to look the dogs seems mangy, the buffulo underfed and horses almost skeletons. But that seems to just be the way it is. I am sure tommorow everything will seem nicer again. At least I am not in India!
Today was by far the best day of flying I've had. In fact in my log book I wrote that this was my first day of flying. The rest were just controlled glides. But today after a flat day or two, (yesterdays flights were free because of the weather) today was bright, clear, sunny and by 1pm it was pumping thermals for my second flight. I did my second reverse takeoff, nice and smooth into great wind, then joined the house thermal and stayed up for 45 minutes ridge soaring, thermalling and exploring, getting great height and having the time of my life. It is really the first flight where I've been free to do what I want, and at the same time have the right weather and the skill to utilize it, so I was stoked! Eventually I decided to come down and leave on a good note. It is pretty busy up there and I think the longer I stayed up the more confident I got and I don't want to over do it.
So I landed, and even caught a nice little thermal over a dark shallow swamp just next to the landing which was a nice bit of icing on top. At this point I wished I wasn't traveling alone, so I could jump up and down, squeal stupidly and hug everyone. But I made do by packing up my wing and walking back to town with yet another stupid grin. But it wasn't to last.
As I approach the paragliding shop I saw a small crowd gathered on the road. As I neared I saw that there was a dog on its side on the road and it was the nice cream coloured bitch that had shared our couch every morning for coffee while we did our theory. A real gentle dog and almost part of the furniture, always there like the shoe shining guy, the mandarin sellers and the sacred cow that likes to eat our paper. At first I though it was hit by a car but it looked ok. It wasn't foaming at the foam so I didn't think it was rabies, it was just twitching on it's side. Everyone was just watching and not doing anything! About the same time, another pilot, Leigh approached and I ran off to find something to put under the dog to lift it off the road. When I returned with a bed roll this Nepali guy was trying to stop up from helping it!? Leigh and David, the owner of the paragliding shop and the dogs adopted dad, carried it into the back office where it died about two minutes later. Nothing is certain in the chaos that is Nepal but it seems that somebody poisoned the dog on purpose. It make me so so angry.
I just feel angry. I remember back a few days ago to the 100th time I said no to some beggar, and I was trying to figure out for myself whether it was morally better to de-humanise a beggar or to anthropomorphise an animal. This was just after I'd come back from Chitwan and been quite saddened at how the Elephants in the breeding centre there lived their lives. It is so sad to see such intelligent and happy animals living in chains and beaten and worked so much. To watch a baby elephant walking forwards until it draws it chains tawt then rocks back and repeating as it hasn't got used to the idea of being in chains is heart breaking.
Another example is a cow, supposedly sacred as all cows are, that was stuck in a drain on the side of the road on the way up to the takeoff. I saw it yesterday and pointed it out but nobody seemed to care. Today it was dead and bloated on the road but outside the drain. As it turns out it was Leigh and friends who actually stopped to help and hauled it out but it must have had internal injuries from its fall. But the local attitude is that it is hurt and it will die and thats it. No attempt to help or even to drag it off the road afterwards - after all it is sacred! And then when you start to look the dogs seems mangy, the buffulo underfed and horses almost skeletons. But that seems to just be the way it is. I am sure tommorow everything will seem nicer again. At least I am not in India!
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