Politics is a pretty depressing business in Nepal at the moment, with an interim coalition government of 8 political parties (the former 7 parties plus the Moaists who recently joined) seemingly unable to come to a agreement on anything. Elections to decide the future structure of the country have recently been postponed, with each party blaming the other. Outside of Kathmandu, politics seems to be irrelevant to most people, who just want the freedom to get on with their lives. The police are often visible, but don't like to venture far from the safety of their vehicles.

Corruption is rampant – when questioned about bribary recently, the transport minister was quoted in a newspaper as saying 'I have instructed my staff to reduce their kickbacks from 60% to 30%'.

Politics is very left of centre here – apart from the Maoists, the coalition features a 'United Marxist Leninist' party and other communist parties. A bizzare example of the way the state meddles in everyday life is in the supply of petrol. The government fixes the price of petrol at an artificially low level – about 7rupees per litre less than in India (total price ~50p/litre). Now, all petrol in Nepal is supplied by the state oil company (NOC) and comes from India, but because of the low selling price, NOC loses money on every litre it sells. The government can't (or won't) make up the difference, NOC is racking up huge debts, and the Indian suppliers are understandably cutting back their shipments. There are currently severe shortages in some parts of the country, with long queues at the few filling stations that have supplies and no-one in the government will talk about abolishing the fixed selling price for fear of losing popularity. To cap it all, some of the fuel that does make it to Nepal, is then smuggled back to India where it can be sold for a profit!

Despite the Moaists now being in government, their youth wing, the Young Communist League have been making a name for themselves. When in a good mood, they help with directing traffic and clearing up litter, but get them on a bad day, and they are not quite so friendly. There have been reports of them seizing land, and they was a recent spate of statue smashing, as they tried to remove all references to the monarchy. They have long memories – these are before and after pictures of the statue of Prithvi Narayan Shah who ruled Nepal sometime in the 1700's and used to stand on a roundabout on the entrance to Pokhara.

The other day we were invited to the wedding of Cowshiela's (the lady who looks after Evie) daughter. It was a Christian wedding, but was still an arranged marriage – as there are not many Christins here, it can be difficult to find a Christian partner, and so church and family both get involved in match making and negotiating details of the wedding. I don't know if this one was typical, but all the discussions seemed to be public property and for a few weeks we were given regular updates on how it was going. Apparently it was nearly called off at one point because the church leaders couldn't agree where it would be held.

The ceremony was loosly based on a western church wedding, with a service, vows and rings. It was lead by a very elderly pastor who, although clearly loved by the couple and the congreagation, didn't have much of a clue what was going on. Whenever he wasn't sure, he would whisper questions loudly into the microphone – which hand does the ring go on? and which finger?

One thing that was striking was that the bride looked absolutely miserable througout – keeping her head down and never smiling. This is a Hindu tradition – for a woman, her wedding signifies that she is leaving her parents to join another family, and to be happy at your wedding would be very disrespectful to them.

After the service we ajourned to a big tent outside for daalbhat – all except the happy couple who were sat under a separate little canopy, and generally ignored for an hour while the guests ate. They didn't seem to mind though, as both looked pretty happy and relaxed when we spoke to them later.

May 16th was the first anniversary of a fairly significant event in our lives – the birth of Evie. A good chance to think back over the last year and give thanks for such a beautiful, easy going and patient daughter. It is just amazing to think what she has been through this year, and how she has developed into a little person who walks (in a slightly drunken fashion), talks (in her own language), and who has very clear ideas about the right time to go to bed, and what constitutes a proper breakfast!

This is her showing off a new dress from her Grandparents - thanks to all who sent her cards and presents.

She had a pretty action packed day, including two cakes that Elle made for her – one for the school where she is looked after and then another for a party we held at our house that evening. Around 25 people came and Elle had organised a 'pub quiz' that went down well – about as well as a quiz can without the 'pub' bit.

We have been keen to get Evie on two wheels, but at this stage have had to settle for three. She is very proud of her new wagon, and enjoys pushing it around as much as sitting in it.

The weather here is now quite hot and humid - I am guessing about 35 during the day, falling to about 25 at night – and any sort of physical activity leaves you dripping! The days tend to start at about 5.30, just as it is getting light, partly because that is when Evie wakes up, but also because that is often the most pleasant time of day. It has been raining every other day or so, which has apparently kept the temperatures down a bit lower than normal and for which we are very grateful!

Great excitement here over the last week as Evie took her first steps. Well, really it was just prolonged falling, but there is definitely a lot of potential and we are very proud!!

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Last Tuesday was a national holiday here – the first anniversary of the peoples uprising that forced the king to reinstate parliament and led to the former maoist rebels joining the government. There is a sense of relief that the last year has been relatively peaceful, but it is mixed with real and growing frustration that the government has not been able to create a stable platform for real development.

We made use of the long weekend and went for a two day trek to Panchase, slightly west of Pokhara. At 2,500m it would be a mountain in any other part of the world, but here it is still just a hill. We hired a guide allowing us to get off the beaten track a bit and see a really beautiful area. He taught us two new Nepali words that sum up much of the trek: juka (meaning leech), and badal (cloud). The first day we walked for around 4 hours with a long break for rice in a little village at lunch time.The clouds were building all afternoon, but fortunately the rain held off until five minutes after we arrived at our night stop – a small hotel in a beautiful remote little village. It was a very peaceful spot and we were very well looked after.

The next morning was bright and clear, so we got up early and climbed to the top of the hill before breakfast. Setting off back towards Pokhara, we followed small paths through forest with occasional views back up to the mountains. A beautiful walk, but unfortunately perfect conditions for leaches.... In places you could see dozens of the little beggers desperately reaching up to try and grab your shoes. Every time you stopped walking it gave them the opportunity to try and bury into your socks – plenty enough motivation to keep going! Fortunately they are pretty stupid and as likely to chew your shoes as your feet, so we only got bitten once each. That second day we walked for around 6 hours before getting down to the road and catching a bus back to Pokhara – again five minutes before the heavens opened.