Lhasa, 29th June

Or rather, the day when Hannah gets totally freaked out by a Tibetan doctor...

Feeling a lot better today as we gave in and started the diamox last night, sats have gone up to 91% overnight and I managed the hundreds of steps up to the Potala palace without collapsing this afternoon. It was really beautiful, and I should have some good photos to bore everyone with when I get back!

Anyway, guess you're more interested in why I was freaked out by the Tibetan doctor. This morning we were taken to the Tibetan medical college for a tour, they have 300 students each year and it takes 5 years to train so similar to the UK apart from the fact that theirs is based on yak penises and strange mushrooms rather than conventional stuff. We got shown some of the plants and things they use, then came the fun practical part where they had professors in to analyse us all by feeling our pulses and looking at our tongues. We were given a sheet with about 27 different remedies on it relating to various complaints such as prostate, liver, kidneys etc, and were told that they would be able to tell us which ones would benefit us. Now cynical Hannah felt that they would probably do this based on what we looked like, so all the men aged 50+ would be told they had prostate and liver problems, and so I predicted that I'd be recommended the women's remedy by virtue of being female, and also the slimming remedy seeing as I'm not a size zero. So this Tibetan guy spent a few minutes feeling my pulse on both wrists, then looked at my tongue, then got the translator to tell me his diagnosis. As I thought, he said that the best treatment for me would be the women's one, but it was what came after that which was rather freaky. He pointed to the slimming remedy and said that he could recommend that, but it wouldn't work as the problem I have is with the female endocrine system which is what causes the extra bit of weight - and since I have polycystic ovarian syndrome which does exactly that, I was pretty impressed that he seemed to have worked this out! Weird. Anyway, I didn't buy anything as all the pills they showed looked like yak poo, and I think I prefer to use conventional medicine!

Right, going to go now as there's a queue waiting for the computer - going camping for 2 nights now so no updates for a couple of days!

Yakkity yak

We made it to Tibet, and have been here for a couple of days now trying to get acclimatised to the altitude - it's 3600m here in the capital Lhasa which means there is 40% less oxygen than normal and so those of a medical bent will understand how rubbish my sats of 85% are (brought along the pulse ox from work which has provided loads of amusement so far). Not there yet in terms of maxi altitude, Everest base camp where we're headed in a couple of weeks is around 5200m so I think we're going to wuss out and take some diamox as I've already spent the past 2 days with a headache, think some of that is due to the ridiculously hard mattresses though.

Anyway, today we had a look round another temple/monastery which are all sort of blurring into one now, but we've found a great cafe next to the hotel that has internet access and fantastic carrot cake so are pretty much sorted. Off to see the Potala tomorrow, then going a bit more rural to the big lake Nam Tso where we do the first bit of camping which should be a laugh.

Not done any shopping yet as most of it is tat, will see what I've got left at the end and get a few bits in Nepal. Rather annoyingly my old mobile phone contract has finished but the update for the new sim card hasn't arrived since I'm not in the UK, so I am phone-less for the moment so don't anybody bother trying to call or text me! I'm keeping my old number though so hopefully it will work once I get back home next month.

Going to go now as think we're heading off for dinner - hope all is well with everyone!

Kathmandu 25th June

Well, we got here intact but I don't think you should hold your breath for regular updates - the internet here is slooooow! Don't even know how long it took with all the time differences, the time here is a random 5 hours minus 15 minutes ahead which is totally confusing. There are 11 of us in the group, mix of ages and nationalities but I think we'll get on fine, we're certainly well-covered medically as there's another doctor and a dentist on the trip (we might have already talked work a bit, but it was kind of inevitable).

Last night we had beer and curry and it rained. This morning we had a rather lengthy orientation meeting which took two hours and could easily have taken about 20 minutes, but they were, let's say, very thorough. We then went to a couple of temples, one Hindu where they were cremating bodies alongside the river, and one Buddhist where we found some delightful midget monks who insisted on having their pictures taken with us. We gave them some money of course, but then the other doctor and I were accosted by some Indian tourists who wanted to have their picture taken with us - so we had a queue of Indian men lining up to pose with us! Hmmm, maybe we should have charged them. Had another curry for lunch and this afternoon have come into the tourist area for a bit of shopping (tat) and internet, but I don't think broadband has yet reached Nepal as each page takes about 5 minutes to load.

Anyway, tomorrow we fly to Tibet s not sure when the next update will be - so you'll have to watch this space!

Crocs away!

I have a bit of a shoe dilemma at the moment. As you know, I am off on holiday in 2 days, and have started sorting out clothes and things today in order not to leave my packing to the last minute. But I am a bit stuck what to do about shoes. Obviously I am taking my walking boots (proper mountain ones) for the trekking bits, and probably my sport sandals for faffing around in the sightseeing part. But what about the in-between bits? Like camping - I don't want to be encased in boots the whole time but want something a bit more substantial than sandals. So somebody suggested Crocs, which are those really stupid-looking plastic shoes (like what surgeons wear but without the holes) - apparently they are totally confortable, mould themselves to the foot, and are super-light and completely ideal. But I can't get over the fact that they look ridiculous and just plain wrong on adults! But since I'm going to be a scuzzy backpacker for 3 weeks, does it really matter if I have stupid shoes? I'd go for a rather unobtrusive colour like khaki rather than bright pink, but have about 48 hours to decide whether it's worth getting some. I'm definitely thinking practicality rather than aesthetics here...

Been talking about the Muse concert a lot at work this week as one of the other GPs went on the saturday, they had a great time too. Seems we all like the same sort of thing at work, which is pretty cool, although my music trivia is put to shame by Frank (dad of drummer in Razorlight) who was berating the younger ones of us today for not being able to name the members of the Kinks, one of whom was in his local the other night. Anyway, a couple of nice slow tunes for your enjoyment today, first by Muse which I hadn't heard for ages before the concert, it's a bit of a sad one as most people have some relationship angst that they associate with this song from around 2000. Then it's Rufus Wainwright whose latest album is my current favourite, this song isn't on it but it is on the Shrek soundtrack!

The Fog

The other thing that I did while I was in London yesterday was go to the Anthony Gormley installation at the South Bank Centre - you may have seen it advertised as the thing with all the statues standing on London rooftops, and the room full of fog. I'm not normally into stroking my chin while looking appreciatively at art, but I have to admit I really enjoyed it! It was worth the entrance fee alone to get to go in the fog-filled room, 10m x 8m glass-walled box full of, well, fog. As soon as you get in, you lose all sense of direction and can't see more than about 40cm in front of you, the more reticent among visitors circumnavigate it with a hand on the glass, but I shuffled (you can't move too fast as the floor is wet and you can't see anything) right into the middle which I immediately regretted as I then couldn't find my way to an edge when I'd had enough of the claustrophobia. Eventually managed to work my way out, but it was great fun and well worth a visit. Also pretty cool were his wire sculptures of his body cocooned in larger structures, and the 31 figures standing on buildings which I think should be left there permanently as they liven up some pretty boring buildings. It's half price on mondays which was a bonus, but I'd happily have paid the full 8 quid for the fog, although it'll cost me as much in anti hair frizz products as the dampness does leave one rather bedraggled.

Still managed to not watch any of Big Brother, am in the middle of writing my list of things I need to take on holiday so will return to that now. Have had another couple of entries for the diet competition, but I don't think they are serious ones so will probably not count, unless by some freak event one of them wins. My brother Matt has gone for 21 lbs as he thinks that's how much I need to lose anyway - the cheeky bastard! My friend Simon wasn't much better as he too said it was likely to be a stone at least, but I think he was banking on an attack of the dodgy tummy too (have bought some imodium, rather the cheap Tesco own-brand version, just in case).

Going to watch the rest of the F word now, having been put off having any pudding by Janet Street-Porter drinking pig's blood. Eew. Probably nicer than yak butter tea, mind.

A-muse-ment

Well, am now back from Wembley where we had a great time watching Muse last night. They're the first band to headline there (after George Michael last weekend) and they managed to put on a really good show. They do the sort of stuff that really needs a big stadium to show it off, and they had lights and fireworks and everything which added to the effect. So, well worth it. We got there around 3pm and sat through the three support acts who sadly were a bit disappointing, probably didn't help that they didn't have much of a set to play on. The first band were a duo from New York who hadn't got the sound balance right and so we couldn't work out what they were singing about - their first track was ok but the rest were a bit samey, so that's one album we won't be buying. Then came Biffy Clyro and I only knew their current song which is pretty good and worked well in the stadium, but the rest of the set wasn't that great - probably would have been better had I known more about them.


The support act that gave the most entertainment was My Chemical Romance, mainly through their army of emo-teenagers who screamed their way through the set. There's something very funny about 14-year-old boys and girls in military jackets and too much eyeliner being escorted around by their mums, and the poor misunderstood dears all stood up and were gesticulating wildly along to the whole playlist. Well, we thought it was kinda funny, anyway. MCR ruined it somewhat by playing their best song (Welcome to the Black Parade) halfway through the set rather than ending with it, so those of us who only recognised a few of their charty tunes didn't really get into it.



And then onto Muse, well, think I've said all that I'm going to, but they were very good and it was well worth seeing. Here is me outside of the new stadium, we were saying that while it is a nice enough building and the arch thing is pretty good, it lacks the impact of the old twin towers and we think they should have incorporated this into the new design somehow. The interior looks pretty dated in fact, but that is really as the colour scheme is red and black and grey so it looks kind of like my brother's bedroom circa 1985. The main cock-up of the night was London Transport's signal failure at Wembley Park station meaning that the Metropolitan line was closed southbound back into London, meaning that the 75,000 or so people that were there had to pile onto the Jubilee line - most excellent planning, not. There were policemen on horses trying to control the surge, and we bailed out and got a bus to Golders Green then the Northern Line to Camden before getting another 2 buses to finally get back to the flat, taking about 90 minutes in total which was pretty good timing. But so much for New Wembley having excellent transport links, they can't say that when they are at the mercy of the tube!

Incidentally, I now have a nice round 2950 hits. I like making a note of this every now and then, just so I can see how many people have far too much time on their hands to read this drivel!

Agadoo doo doo!

I do love the music channels on cable. At weekends they tend to do themed music video marathons, things like "100 best songs of the 80s", or "100 best boy band songs" (the latter being my idea of a great soundtrack to an afternoon's housework, I'm ashamed to admit). But today's offering of "100 worst pop songs ever" was pure class. Most of them were so bad they are good, apart from the ones like Agaoo which will always be shite. There was a mixture of one-hit-wonders, novelty records which I could have done without, and also a load of cheesy boy band numbers. So for your "enjoyment", I present rubbish boy band A1, which brought back some great memories as I used to love this song. In fact, I had a search through my shelves and realised I had bought their album, which was released in 1999, when I was an old-enough-to-know-better 23! God, how sad. I am off to hang my head in shame.

Bite me!

Had a bit of a panic on wednesday, as was reading through an old guidebook that I had for China that included a chapter on Tibet, and it went on and on about the possible risk of rabies due to all the mad foaming at the mouth dogs that apparently run wild in the remote areas. "Make sure you get vaccinated" it said, so despite the travel health database telling me that I'd probably not need it, I went to the local travel clinic who agreed that if we were going to be more than 24 hours away from civilisation, that it was worth having (maybe worth it more for them as the course of 3 jabs is £135). Anyway, I've not got time before I go to complete the course, but had the first one this week and having the second next week, which should give enough coverage. Better safe than sorry, and hopefully I'll get my money's worth by going to some more places sometime that require it. Was rather sore though as I had a hep B booster the same day, so only had limited use of my arms as they were both bruised and achey!

I'm glad it's the end of the week as I feel generally tired, seem to have developed a touch of hayfever so have a slightly bunged up nose and have been sneezing lots. Only a week til I go away, and got a busy weekend lined up, but still managing to keep up with some friends - had a nice long chat with one the other night where we seemed to spend most of it comparing the operations that we have both had in recent months! Always good to have a gory old moan though. On that note, I removed the remainder of my stitches last night as they were beginning to dissolve and come loose, so I poked around a bit and managed to get virtually all of them out, it now looks a lot tidier rather than having bits of manky string hanging out from the edges of the wound.

I see that I have had a second entry for the yak butter diet sweepstake, seems the lads (Steve, predicting I will drop 6lbs, and Stu who has gone for 7lbs) are being fairly generous in their estimations. Suppose it might help to know what the starting weight is so that you can use this to work out what a reasonable loss would be, but there is no bloody way I'm going to tell you that. Suffice to say that I am not going to miss a few pounds and even if a whole stone were to disappear, I wouldn't yet be into anorexic territory based on BMI. But neither am I some immense behemoth, I did the math today and worked out that I do not qualify for the surgery's obesity register (silly new contract says that we, as GPs, have to keep a record of all our patients who are clinically obese). So that was a relief.

Gardener's world

Look at my teeny tiny apples! Everything in my garden is coming along very nicely at the moment, as my day off this week was today I spent much of it getting the garden looking a bit better. I hadn't cut my grass for ages and ages and it was getting very long and scruffy at the front, compared to all the other lawns in the close that are perfectly manicured, so I decided it was time I stopped letting the side down. The tomatoes and chillis are also progressing well, but I am rather proud of my teeny tiny apples as I only planted the tree around 8 months ago, and it seems to be flourishing. The pink mallow next to it is threatening to swamp it though, but I don't like cutting it back too much as the flowers are too pretty!

In a bit of a mood this evening as we had a power cut which meant I missed virtually all of "The F Word" which I do do enjoy, but fortunately I should be able to catch up with it on the cable replay feature. Had to sit in the dark for 45 minutes but at least it meant I got a chance to try out the new head lamp that my brother got me for my birthday, it's really cool and will be great for the camping part of the holiday, even if it does make me look a bit silly. And on the subject of TV, I hope you note from the time that today's entry is published, that I am still not watching Big Brother. The only bits I've seen were short clips on the news when someone got thrown out last week, and as I predicted, Heat magazine isn't making much sense in places as I haven't a clue who they are going on about in the BB house.

Working the rest of the week, then off to London on sunday to see Muse, which we're really looking forward to, just hope the weather isn't too pants. Saturday I'm going to spend sorting out stuff for holiday and doing exciting things like leg waxing and haircut, then going out with family for meal as is brother's birthday the day I go away so we can't do anything then. Sorry Matt, it wasn't deliberate!

By the way, there is only one entry so far for the holiday yak butter diet sweepstake, so unless anyone else wants to have a bash, Steve is on course to win with his guess that I will drop 6lbs. In case you need any incentive, I have promised to bring back a souvenir prize for the person who guesses closest!

Close every door...

Tonight has seen the culmination of the gayest show ever - "Any Dream Will Do" - the BBC's search for someone to star as Joseph in the new West End production. Rainbow coats, crying boys looking suspiciously orange, and great TV especially if you love musical theatre. Lee won in the end, with most of the votes for him probably being cast by my mum who has a habit of becoming obsessed with these sorts of shows (I recall the night of the first Pop Idol final when she pressed the wrong button on the phone and got put through to me, rather than redialling the line to vote for Will Young - I answered and was met by a very confused mother who shouted "I didn't mean to phone you, I was trying to vote for Will" before putting the phone down so she could continue with her redialling frenzy). Anyway, back to Joseph, I'm sure I've mentioned it before but it is my belief that most normal people have been in a production of Joseph at school, and probably still know most of the words. In fact, I know I have mentioned it before because I recall some readers commenting that they hadn't in fact been in it at school, which rather messed up that theory.

Moving nicely onto the next topic, this evening I have had to "Close Every Door" (and window) in my house as my neighbour is having a rather noisy BBQ party next door. As long as they don't wake me up at 5am by singing loudly, which has happened before, I won't begrudge them the right to have the BBQ. One thing that certainly won't happen is the flames setting fire to the non-existant fence that doesn't exist between our gardens, he still hasn't put it up about 3 years after taking it down to do his decking, so I will have to go and do some nagging I think as I'm fed up of not having any privacy. So I am sitting indoors very much enjoying listening to the new Rufus Wainwright album. He's someone I'd like to see live, so will have to keep an eye out for his next tour as sadly missed out earlier this year.

Had a fairly dull day today, just doing paperwork and shopping and stuff, and trying out some recipes in time for picnic season. Made a delicious frittata which turned out very well, so that might be something to take along to Wembley next weekend for the Muse gig as apparently the food there consists mainly of nasty expensive burgers. Also made some bread, rather cheese and herb wholemeal rolls, which are satisfyingly dense but very nice dipped in soup. Not sure I'll brave the farmer's market tomorrow as really I'm trying to get rid of a lot of food before I go on holiday, but will probably wander into town en-route to the gym and see what happens.

No-go logo.

It's just so rubbish! £400,000 for this? They should have had a competition to design it, not that I'd have won or anything, but surely someone must be able to come up with something better. The original has been likened to either a broken-up swastika, a monkey on a toilet, or Lisa Simpson on her knees performing a sex act. All things that convey just how great Britain is... Respect though to the person who managed to get their goatse version on the BBC website for a while before they realised and took it down. Anyway, I think it's crap.

Am back at work now and managing not to be too uncomfortable sitting down all day, op wound is healing well I think although the stitches are still digging in a bit. I was debating whether to take a stitch cutter from work and just remove them myself, but have decided against it as it is a rather inaccessible area and they are dissolvable ones anyway. I really am a crap patient.

Nothing exciting to say today, although I'm sure you'll all be proud of me because I have not yet watched any of Big Brother - 1 week in, only about 12 to go! Although Heat magazine is not going to make as much sense as they are mad about it, naturally, so I'll have to skip those bits so I'm not tempted to switch on.

Big Bother

I spent most of yesterday lying on the sofa watching TV, being incapable of doing much else as my stitches were hurting. I watched most of the first series of "Life on Mars", having been introduced to the natty function on my cable that lets you watch old episodes of various shows, and also catch up on stuff you might have missed during the week. But despite all this time for TV watching, I am very proud that I have not (yet) succumbed to watching any of this year's Big Brother. I am determined not to, as I have much better things I could be doing with my time, and if I manage it, this year will be the first that I haven't eventually got sucked in (albeit halfheartedly if recent years are anything to go by). So, for regular BB updates, don't bother watching this space.

The other TV non-event this week was that "scandalous" Dutch reality programme about someone choosing who gets one of her kidneys. There was loads in the press about it and how disgraceful it was, but from the moment I heard about it I was convinced that it couldn't possibly be real and would turn out to be a set-up designed to get people talking and to promote organ donation. And I was right. Clever idea though, and hopefully some good will come of it in terms of increased awareness.

I have been told by Steve to do some entries about the forthcoming holiday - this time in 3 weeks I will be en-route to Kathmandu which is all very exciting. Not really got my head around it yet, cos been busy with other things, but I might have a look at the guidebook this afternoon to try and get in the mood. Decided against buying a puffa jacket in the end as I'm really short on money at the moment and figured my ski jacket would do just as well, but think I ought to go and get some thermal underwear as it's supposed to be pretty chilly, camping at 5000m. Let's see if I can find an example on YouTube. Ah. Hearing that wind, I think I had better get that North Face down jacket after all... surely it's what credit cards are for? The other thing I was going to do is to start a sweepstake about how much weight I will lose while I am away due to all the walking at altitude and the fact that food in Tibet is supposed to be dreadful, consisting mainly of dried yak meat and tea made with rancid yak butter. If anyone wishes to take part please post your guess (in pounds) on the comments, and I will bring back a present for the person who gets the closest.

Ow ow ow...

Not much to say today, I am off to get some more painkillers and go to bed. Survived the surgery yesterday, ended up first on the list and managed to brave the local anaesthetic so avoided having to go under. A lovely friend of mine came down to look after me and he chauffered me to and from the hospital and then mended my toilet which had been wrongly plumbed in 3 years ago. What a man! As repayment I took him to Beaulieu motor museum to look at cars, and he got very excited at seeing something called a Bugatti Veyron which I am told is a very fast car. I think it's a boy thing.

Obviously not going to do a lot this weekend except lie on the sofa and eat ibuprofen, there's only 3 weeks before I go on holiday and we decided to book tickets to go and see Muse at Wembley on the 17th of this month which should be good, had the choice of saturday or sunday but figured the support acts (My Chemical Romance and Biffy Clyro) were better than someone we'd never heard of which was doing saturday. Bring on the stadium rock!

Going to go to bed now. It hurts. Ow.