Raffi's big day

Today was Raffi's BIG DAY! She had a date with the Dapper Dog Beauty Salon. Every 10 weeks she has to go and get a hair cut, spa bath, manicure, groom - it's sounding pretty good so far isn't it? - and get her anal glands squeezed - OUCH!
Raffi enthusiastically leapt into the car not knowing what fate await her. The husband who helps at the salon is lovely but his wife has both Raffi and I shaking in our boots. Raffi knew she was in for it the moment I led her through the door. She turned around and was headed out straight away. Too late! The wife grabbed her lead and hauled her through in to the enclosure. Raffi sat down in protest and was dragged across the floor, her bum creating a skid mark through the sawdust. She looked back at me frantically as if to say, "Mum! Don't leave me here....pleeeeaaaaase!!" Feeling an absolute cad I said goodbye and walked out the door.
At 3pm when it was time for me to pick Raffi up it was my turn to be worried. I had to face the wife! My daughter refuses point blank to take Raffi anymore after the interrogation she got from the wife. Talk about Nazi intimidation techniques! Last time I went she started on at me. "Is this your dog?" she said accusingly.
"No!" I lied instantly. "It's my daughter's."
"How often do you bath her?"
"What my daughter?"
She gave me a withering look that said - don't be cute with me or I'll rip your heart out!
"Raffi gets bathed every week," I stammered.
"I can't get the knots out of her ears!"
"Maybe that's because we take her to the beach."
"Bishon and beach don't mix!"
"But she loves the beach....." I tapered off as she gave me her 'are you arguing with me look?'
This time I was ready for her. I was not going to be intimidated and made to feel like a naughty school girl. Raffi was ecstatic when I walked in and practically leapt out of the enclosure.
"That's $66," said the wife with a smile.
"Has it gone up?" I asked innocently.
"It was hard combing out her ears and head," she replied willing me to protest because that would give her the opportunity to lay into me again. I gulped and paid up but I wasn't going to get off so easily.
I was headed to the door when she said, "She's very thin."
Shall I tell her that Raffi is a free feeder who eats as much as she wants or shall I just go home, I thought. I left forgetting to make the next appointment - shall I go back or just let Raffi become a hairy monster?

It's my birthday!

Today is my birthday and I am having a lovely day! I couldn't wait to start my special day so woke up extra early for breakfast so I could have a coffee before my walk with Nicky. It looked a bit overcast so we wore our raincoats as we set off around the oval and it did in fact rain a little. Fortunately it soon cleared up.
My morning was all planned. Nicky and I headed up to Innaloo for some retail therapy at my favourite shop. They had a whole new range of clothes in stock so it was a case of what can I afford rather than what would I like. I spent far too much, of course, but am very pleased with my purchases for the new winter season.
Nicky treated me to coffee at Miss Maud's and we shared a scone with jam and cream. Then it was off to king's Park for lunch at the lovely Zamia Cafe. Nicky had one of my favourites, the blue cheese tart, and I had salmon. We shared a lemon-lime tart for dessert. It was a lovely meal in a great venue with excellent company.
As a token bit of exercise we walked around the lake and looked at all the kiddie play equipment. Nicky remembered when it was a hazardous climb across logs to get to the island in the middle of the lake. Only the really adventurous children could get there, as the timid ones were frightened of falling in the water. Today there is a safe bridge that even toddlers can cross. I suppose the park doesn't want to be sued by parents whose kids fall into the lake. A sign of the times! It was more exciting for kids back in Nicky's era.
Tonight I'm going to the Thai restaurant on Scarborough Beach for dinner with the rest of the family. I'm not going to want to eat tomorrow. Actually the diet starts tomorrow - doesn't it always?

The Sins of Literary Agents and Publishers

Trying to get a Literary Agent is a near impossible task for a first time author. The vast majority of them are so snobbish and have their heads so far up in the clouds that they wouldn’t recognise a best seller if it hit them! Their standard response to the first time unknown author is ‘Go away you miserable flea!’- that is if they bother to reply to you at all. A few will hedge their bets and say ‘Come back to us when you are offered a publishing contract.’ In other words, they have no intention of actually doing any work on your behalf but if you manage to score a contract they will happily cream 15% of your earnings from you. It is only if you beat them around the head with your manuscript until they see stars in their eyes that transform into $ signs that they will even consider you. There are exceptions, of course, if you happen to be a sleazy porn star or derelict footballer with nothing to say then they will snap you up.

Publishers are only marginally better. Surprisingly I have had some friendly responses from publishers who do reject you politely and say some positive things about your manuscripts. The vast majority do one of three things: they don’t bother to reply at all, they send you a stock rejection or they tell you they only accept submissions from Literary Agents (how do they ever find books to publish?)

If by some miracle of persistence you finally manage to interest a publisher in your work you get offered one of three contracts: a good one, reserved for best selling authors who have proved they can make money for the publisher; a fair one, for those up-and-coming authors who have had some success; or a poor one for the first-time author who has no credentials. At least, I thought this was the way it went until I discovered the fourth type of contract: Take-All. This type of contract is offered to first-time authors in struggling economic times. It says that the publisher doesn’t have much confidence that your book will actually sell but if it does he wants to make sure that he makes all the money and you make very little.

Alas, it is the Take-All contract that my daughter and I have been offered and we now have to try and negotiate up to a Poor contract to make it worthwhile publishing at all. Why don’t publishers give struggling authors a fair go?

WA Opera's Tosca

I have decided that this blog I will keep for my personal activities and thoughts and have started another blog for my travel blogs. I fyou want to continue to read about Bhutan (and lots of my other adventures) then you need to log in to http://auntieflotravels.blogspot.com
If you want to read about my life then you need to follow this blog.
Last night I went with a group of friends to His Majesty's Theatre in Perth for the WA Opera's performance of 'Tosca'. As usual we had a meal in the theatre's restaurant before the show. I was rather disappointed in the menu, as it had 3 out of the 6 options as vegetarian meals. I considered just having soup and a dessert but as the fish of the day was reasonably priced opted for that instead. One of my friends didn't like hers very much as she found it too bland - even after dousing it liberally with salt and peper - so I ate hers too!
I usually quite enjoy the WA Opera. They don't do a bad job, although can't compare with the great opera houses of the world. As I don't have Covent Garden and Vienna close by, I have to content myself with the local company. One of the big strengths of the WA Opera is is set design. I have been to a number of shows where the sets just take your breath away and are as good as any anywhere in the world. Alas 'Tosca's' set was a drab, tatty room that stayed the same throughout all 3 Acts.
Unfortunately the set set the tone of the performance. The Director said that he wanted to make the performance stark and dramatic and litter the stage with bodies. He certainly did that.The actors were in drab modern dress so there was nothing uplifting to look at. The tenor who played Cavaradossi was half way decent but when you are used to hearing arias sung by Pavarotti and Domingo (do I sound a music snob?) nothing else comes close.
Scarpia did a very good job of being a nasty piece of work intent on having his wicked way with Tosca, which he almost did in full view of the audience. I didn't like that it was all too sordid. The relationship between Scarpia and Tosca was all animal lust and there was nothing of the sexual tension that I have seen in other performances.
After the killing of Scarpia (done in full view of his 2 lieutenants who were pretending not to be there?) the direction lost all credibility. Cavaradossi was lying on the floor and yet we had to believe he was at his execution. Tosca, still in her underwear, was giving him his instructions. We had to believe she loved him even though the two of them had stood side by side woodenly declaring their passion a moment before. The whole scenario just did not work.
Tosca is such a beautiful opera and yet this performance made it into something dirty and squalid. Such a shame and I was so disappointed I didn't want to clap. There must have been others who felt the same way as the applause didn't last long at all.

The World's Best Plane Trip!

It was up early this morning at 5am for breakfast at 6 and leave for the airport at 6.30 for my Druk Air flight to Bhutan. Predictably the hotel was not organised and I had to badger the staff to get ready so that I could have something to eat before I left. My driver was all ready and waiting and whingeing about being there since 5am and having to pay 500 rupees for gasoline ie he wanted me to give him some money and rip me off. I ignored him and he was quite happy with a much lesser tip at the airport.

Kathmandu airport was run down and disorganised. Nothing was computerised so everything was being written down in triplicate on little pieces of paper. Having put our bags through an antiquated x-ray machine and been patted down for whatever we might be carrying on arrival at the terminal we went through the same process again after passport control. This was also accompanied by a hand search of our bags. Third world countries make a huge show of security but in reality it is totally farcical as nothing is done thoroughly. We waited for ages in the holding area as the plane was an hour late coming in. Once allowed to board we went through security again together with the pat down. It made you feel that Nepalese got their jollies at the airport by feeling-up the passengers.

I had been worried about flying Druk Air. After all who has heard of it? I imagined a small down-at-heel plane held together with sticky tape that would struggle to get airborne. How wrong I was! A smart, new-looking plane was waiting for us 10 yards away on the tarmac. Waiting at the door of the terminal, we passengers gripped our bags ready for the short walk to the plane’s waiting steps. At this point Nepalese bureaucracy took over and we were held back to await the arrival of the airport bus, which just managed to squeeze in between the terminal and the plane. Stifling giggles at our ridiculous situation we boarded the bus, which did a quick circuit of the plane to make the trip look worthwhile!

The flight from Kathmandu to Paro must rate as one of the most amazing plane rides in the world. Shortly after leaving Kathmandu we were flying alongside the Himalayas. We were at 21,000 feet and almost the same height as the tops of the mountains peeping out from above a bed of fluffy clouds. We saw all the big peaks including Everest and Kanchenjunga. I had a window seat on the left of the plane so I had a ringside view. Shame my camera was sitting in the overhead locker!

The pilot warned us that the landing at Paro may be a bit rocky but I knew this as the airport is in a valley and subject to difficult winds. There are only a few pilots in the world qualified to land and take-off from there. What I wasn’t prepared for was his next statement. “You will see mountains closer than you have ever seen them before. Do not be alarmed. It is our usual approach path.” With that we plunged through the clouds in a steep descent and began our approach to the airport. Soon we were weaving our way through steep mountains on either side of the plane making sweeping turns to left and right with what seemed like 100 metres clearance on either side. Then came the grand finale; a sharp right hand turn followed by a steep descent brought us rapidly down on to the tarmac.

I loved Bhutan as soon as I set eyes on it. The airport buildings were amazing in both architecture and decoration and there were colourful prayer flags everywhere. After the chaos of Nepal it was quiet, clean and well organised. The locals were all there in their dressing gowns to meet us. Any official has to wear the national dress; a gown belted at the waist and bunched up together with long socks and shoes. This is called a Gho and the ladies wear a similar garment called a Kira. Our guide was there to meet us and we drove very carefully to our resort just outside the town of Paro. The speed limit in Bhutan is 40 kph!

The resort was in typical Bhutanese architecture; quite square with sweeping roofs and painted white with brown decorations. We were housed in little units dotted around the grounds. I am sharing with a young Canadian girl, Tiffany, and we met the other 2 members of our party, an older couple from Sydney called Pam and Bob. It was straight into lunch, which was predictably spicy as the Bhutanese love chillies and often serve them as a vegetable.   

We went sightseeing in the afternoon and visited the Kichu Temple, a 7^th century Buddhist temple. It had an amazing array of buildings and highly decorated temples containing buddhas in all sizes. After that we went into town and joined the masses that were in town for the festival. Locals come in from all around to see the dances, visit the special markets and generally have a good day out. There were plenty of children and family groups and most kids had a new toy. For the boys it was guns in all shapes and sizes some with pellets that they fired at the girls.

We walked down the main street and looked at the unusual shops. They were all housed in Bhutanese style buildings with small windows and doors. The name of the shop and what it sold was written over the doorway. In spite of the crowds they didn’t seem to be doing a roaring trade. We went in to a couple of tourist shops with lots of handicrafts in the form of woven textiles, paintings, metal Buddhist type bells etc and jewellery. I was thinking of buying some jewellery but it was expensive. They have necklaces etc made from semi-precious stones and silver brushed with gold. They look quite nice but were US$75-100 or more for each piece and I didn’t like that much.

We came back to the resort and had a cup of tea before going back to our room to charge our electrical appliances. Predictably as soon as we walked into the room the power went off! So far I have been typing this in the dark with the aid of a torch! I wonder how we’ll go for dinner?

Kathmandu gets worse each time I visit!

I slept intermittently. You can never go deeply asleep when you know you have to be up early to get a flight. The alarm went off at 6am, I had a good breakfast and was delivered safely to the airport to brave the chaos again. Having officially entered Thailand I had to pay the 700 baht departure tax, which was a bit of a nuisance seeing as I’d only been in the country for 9 hours. I wandered all through the airport on the way to my gate and after another well fed flight with Thai found myself in Kathmandu.

Everything went down a notch again and the chaos was worse, the terminal tattier and everything less efficient. I managed to get my visa okay and they were quite surprised that I was only staying for less than a day. Who'd want to stay here for longer, I thought of saying. I ignored the Customs Declaration, which said I could only bring 1 camera into the country and I had 2. These things never really mean much in third world countries and I would give myself a heap of trouble if I declared both cameras. Predictably I sailed through and they didn’t even look at my duly filled in form.

Outside the seething hordes were held back by a flimsy railing but as soon as you crossed the road you ran the gauntlet of the taxi and hotel touts. In the chaos there was no one obvious to meet me. Finally, having deterred half the taxi drivers in Kathmandu I spotted a man waving a small inconspicuous sign saying ‘World’ but no reference to ‘Expeditions’. Talk about hunt for your reception committee! I was told to wait in the sun whilst the hotel vehicle was summoned. I wished I had my hat as it was HOT! I had anticipated that Nepal would be chilly at this time of the year and had come cold weather equipped. After my recent experiences in the UK and Melbourne I was not going to be caught short of a jumper here. Instead it looks like I’ll be living in my sole pair of lightweight pants and 3 t-shirts with my thermal underwear, hat and gloves packed away in my suitcase! I didn’t bring my walking sandals so it’s going to be my boots and sweaty socks for 2 weeks!

I am staying at the Radisson, a 5* hotel supposedly but the rating has been done by the Nepalis. I suppose it is good quality to them but seriously on the world stage it is more like 3*. I tried to have a sleep but the bed and pillow are rock hard – oh dear! I’ve only been here 2 hours and already there have been 2 power blackouts – welcome to a third world country! I could walk into Thamel for dinner but I’m not that hungry so will get a snack at the hotel and an early night. It takes 18 mins to walk into Thamel but an hour to drive because of the traffic. All the roads are really narrow and the traffic chaotic. “There are no road rules here,” our driver announced on the way in from the airport. I’ll brave the city when I return from Bhutan.

Bhutan Here I Come

Caught a Thai airways flight up to Bangkok and enjoyed their service. It was back to how airlines used to be years ago. I got a hot towel, packet of peanuts and a drink within half an hour of being on the plane. Shortly after that they served dinner. It came on a full sized tray and I had an entree, a very satisfying and tasty main course, dessert and a roll with biscuits and cheese all served with wine, drinks and coffee. It put Qantas to shame. Their meals have deteriorated so much in recent years both in quality and quantity. Their last offering on my last flight was a take-it-or-leave-it spag bol which took precisely 4 mouthfuls to consume. No entree, no dessert only a chocolate. Later Qantas serves an ice cream but Thai did that as well. Qantas really needs to improve the quality of its flying experience.

I landed at the new airport in Bangkok, which I haven’t visited before. It was chaotic with long queues for immigration. I suppose I’m spoilt in Perth where, at most, there may be 20 people ahead of you in the queue with 3 or 4 booths open. In Bangkok there were 20+ booths each with 50+ people lined up. Getting out of the terminal was a case of running the gauntlet of the hotel and taxi touts and trying to look for your name or hotel amongst the many signs being held up. Predictably I couldn’t find my name at the designated meeting spot so walked back against the flow of human traffic asking various touts where my hotel meet-and-greet person was. Fortunately found her near a different door and had to wait while she summoned the transport from the hotel.

I only had a few hours lay over in Bangkok but didn’t want to sleep at the airport or any of the airport hotels at $250 a night or more. I found another hotel only 10 mins from the airport that gave me free transfers, breakfast and a room with private facilities all for $35. As I lay down to sleep for a few hours I realised why it was so cheap, as the first aircraft rumbled overhead. The hotel was directly on the flight path without any sound proofing! After the first couple of planes I was oblivious to the noise so it wasn’t as bad as I feared at first.