Friday 22nd March 2013
My day began with a herbal
tea on the terrace with Shakti from Kriti Craft, one of the felt suppliers I
use. I saw the samples we designed last
week and started work on my Christmas order.
Next stop was Dibya’s shop, a fabulous colourful place you may remember
from my last trip to Nepal, where all of the products are made from colourful
recycled paper. I ordered some special
things for the wedding and made a huge order of rose and chilli pens, which
have proved so popular with our customers over the years. I headed back to the
Women’s Skills centre to check on progress and choose designs for bridesmaids
dresses. After popping in to Govinda’s jewellery shop to design a beautiful
garnet set, a commission from a customer, I made a late trip to Sushil’s shop,
the place where our very popular tiny notebooks are made. We played around with
some new design ideas I am hoping to market online, and discussed some new
biodegradable carrier bags I have ordered.
My work finished for the
day (at 9pm!) I headed back to the hotel to scrub up for “Good Friday” (no not
related to Easter, but what the Nepalese call every Friday, as they don’t have
to work the next day :D By the time I
had met friends at the nearby Everest Villa Korean restaurant for my dinner, it
was already 10pm. My Tibetan friends (or “brothers” as I call them) treated me
to sushi and red wine and before I knew it we were belting out karaoke songs in
one of the bamboo huts they have built on the premises. A couple of us headed
into Thamel to meet friends for a boogie, but as the midnight curfew persists,
there is not much to do and as we arrived very late we had just a few minutes
to strut on the dancefloor at De la Soul with German and Nepali friends before
everyone was kicked out. Another early night, not a bad thing for work, but a
very sad thing to see people being treated like criminals simply for going out
and having fun.