Settling in

Started work last week - just four and a half hours a week which was blissful, but wouldn't pay the bills, by the start of this week it had increased to 9 and a half hours and it's looking good for going up to fourteen hours next week, which will easily pay the bills and leave money over for plenty of treats. Hooray.

Just as well really, I want to make the house feel like home and buy some 'stuff'! Hooray.

And I am treating myself to luxuries like Weetabix and Campbells soup (oh and maybe Baileys, Gin and tonic and Cointreau too!) which you don't get for Laos prices. It's so good to have the equipment to cook 'falang' (Westerner) food sometimes.

The novices walked around the house, initially fascinated by the things they'd never seen before - a cooker, hot shower, western style loo, a washing machine, and then came through bemused with an egg whisk wondering what on earth it could be used for.

After living on the side of a mountain for several years, it's so lovely to live within walking distance of so many people who just drop in on me. I'm in my element. People work on a different timescale here though - especially the monks. They turn up at 7.30 in the morning, so does the cleaner (obviously I need a cleaner when I work such tremendously long hours!), so I get up early. Everyone here does. I went out for a meal with a friend last week and lost track of time. It was nearly 10pm by the time I left so the roads were almost empty and I couldn't get a rickshaw home. Serves me right for being such a dirty stopout! So the next purchase has to be a bicycle. Can't get one of the local ones - I think I'd flatten it! So I've been told where I can get imported ones from Thailand that are well made. Vientiane is flat and it's small, so that should do me for most things. Just may turn up looking a touch on the warm side sometimes.

Popped over to Thailand again last week. I had to get the right type of visa in my passport to be able to work, so now I'm legal and all is above board - except that my passport had to be sent off - for anywhere between a week to a month, so I can't go anywhere exciting now till I have it back. (You need it to pass between provinces, to stay in hotels, and generally to move around so I'm restricted to Vientiane for now). Still tough life - have to have dinner watching the sun set over Thailand at the Mekong river, visit the Wats, and go to some of the parties that are getting planned for Christmas - I'll cope.

All's fab. More next week, and thanks for the comments.