Annapurna update

Annapurna Home, Pokhara 18/9/08

Well, monsoon is almost over and seems to be ending as it began, with fine mornings and hot sunny days giving way to thunderstorms and rain in the evening or during the night. Another week or two and the rain and clouds should be gone for good. Already I am being treated to fine views of the Annapurna ranges in the mornings.

Clear skies in the morning reveal the nearby Annapurna peaks.

I get to run towards this view in the morning. Which beats getting rained on in the evening.

It’s an impressive sight to see the afternoon thunder clouds rolling in from the mountains to invade a perfectly blue sky. The electrical storms are massive and sometimes last all night.

                              Far along,
From peak to peak, the rattling crags among,
Leaps the live thunder.

(Who quotes Byron in a blog? What a wanker.)

As pleasant as it is to fall asleep to the distant rumbling, a couple of times I have found myself suddenly awake – scared s—less and groping for a teddy bear – as thunder bursts like a bomb overhead.

While we’re on the topic of thunder storms – yesterday’s Himalayan Times contained a brief paragraph which stated that a man died the previous night from being struck by lightening. Nothing too unusual about that, you might think. But what piqued my interest was that the piece went on to say that he was in his house at the time. What the hell?! Surely this requires a modicum of explanation, but the paper only added that no-one else in the family had been injured, which just adds to the mystery. I want to know what he was doing when he died, if for no other reason than wanting to avoid making the same mistake. Was he asleep with his leg out the window? Was he standing on a chair in the lounge with rabbit’s ears trying to get some reception? Was he doing something strange with a lot of tin-foil?? If we can be randomly snuffed by bolts of lightening from inside our own homes I think we should be told.

Sristi lounges during an important call to her broker. Unfortunately she’s talking into an alarm clock.

That’s better. She’s now listening to Johnny Cash on my phone. (I can get her to sleep by singing ‘Folsom Prison’. I’d like to think it’s my dulcet tones that do the trick, but it’s probably just the warm milk).

Mixed news, too, on the rodent room-mates. The good news is that I can confirm that it is only mice who are living in the storeroom with me. The bad news is that I confirmed it by finding one in my bed. Last night, as I was tucked up in my sleeping bag liner, listening to the gentle drip of the rain making a puddle on my floor – a puddle that I employ most mornings by blithely stepping into and starting the day with a swear-word – I experienced that strange certainty you get when you realise something is eating your mattress. (You know the feeling, I’m sure. It’s a bit like realising that somebody is hogging the duvet, only more disconcerting). I quietly took hold of my little reading light and waited until the nibbling started again. Then I snapped on the light and did the whole “Aha!” thing. Sure enough, about a foot away from my face, a mouse with a mouthful of mattress gave me a startled look and took off under the bed.

Ah, well. There is plenty of mattress to go around and I guess I’m just glad it wasn’t a huge rat. And I don’t have a duvet to fight over, anyway. (I was going to add something like, “I’ve shared beds with worse things…”, but I fear it would be misconstrued. “Of all the animals I’ve slept with…”, nope. That’s no better. I think I’ll just leave it there).