It was very fun, despiet (or perhaps becuase of?) the lack of DJ Heartbeat! We managed to have some kind of cable that you can hook an MP3 player to the TV with, so we could play music through that, and the TV speakers are pretty good. So we were able to have a mix if Indian music and cheesy pop. Great.

Our group did a dance/sketch based on the Bollywood movie that we went to see, called Fanaa, which was pretty stupid, but very funny, and came off quite well seeing as we only rehearsed it twice! Then after our dance, Claire and I put on our sarees, only she put hers on better than me beucase I only lasted about 3 hours with it until it was falling out so often that I had to take it off, and she managed till we went back to Neugal! Which was a good 5 hours. There was lots and lots of dancing and one of the girls had a video camera so we've just watched the party back, it's so funny!

This morning I've packed up 90% of my stuff! It's quite a scary thought! I can fit the majority of things into my back (not bringing home like shampoo and things, that'd be daft!), AND Ive managed to get in everything I've bought. Which turns out to not really be that much. Well. I thought I had more stuff at any rate. I'll probably pick up a few more things this weekend but they're going to have to be verrrry, verrrry small! I haven't picked up my refilled suitcase yet but I suspect it's going to be HEAVY. Although, it mainly had just clothes in so it shouldn't be too bad. However my hiking boots don't fit in there so they have to be tied on to my small bag. Which is a little annoying. I emptied my suitcase out, and I had all my stuff all around me, and I just thought 'Hmmmm. My suitcase is very, very small'. But I managed it in the end! I'll bet I'll go back tonight and think of 60 other thigns I need to pack! Also I have to find a few things tonight as well. I think the spider in our room may have eaten them though (seriously, this spider is absoultely huge. About the size of my fist!).

We leave Palampur tomorrow at about 3:30, I think, and get an overnight train to Delhi. Then we have breakfast at the station in Delhi, then get on another train to Agra. And we get to Agra at maybe 3pm on Sunday. That's 24 hours of travelling! It's going to be, um. Fun. Then we ahve a few hours in Agra, I think we have an excursion to a market planned (oh dear, MORE stuff!), and then the next morning (Monday) we get up at sometime very early (at sunrise apparently but that's about 4am!) to go see the Taj at sunrise which is exciting. Then, we catch yet another train back to Delhi and get there at around 6pm Monday evening. Then I have to get up at 4 to go to the airport. There are 3 other people on my flight with me, Claire, Lizzie and Sam, so that's nice - we can all get lost in the airport together! And get back into the UK at 5:30 Indian time, 1pm UK time. I'm going to be soooo tired! But, as a smart person once told me, you can sleep when you're dead.

The new group is currently having their Indian dance lesson which is very funny! Ours never really happened so maybe I'll go and join in!

Next time I update, I'll be in England!

Sophie xxx

It's wierd thinking that this is my last full weekend in Palumpur, and we're not even here for it! We leave tomorrow at 6:30am (I don't wanna get up so earlyyyyy!) and get to Amritsar at maybe 1pm, maybe a little later. Then we visit the Golden Temple and see the border between India and Pakistan (there's a sort of changing of the guards ceremony, but the guards don't actually change, I don't think) which should be really good. I'm a little worried about my photo situation though - I have less than 200 pictures to take on my camera! I may haev to go through and delete a few (considering I ahve a 1GB memory card, which holds somthing like 850 photos..... I've taken quite a few!)

Some of the new group arranged to go independantly last week and they said it was 50 degrees the whole time. So I think it's going to be hothothot. I hop it rains then it'll be cooler! FOr the past few nights here, I've had to sleep under my doona (it's like a really heavy duvet) becasue it rains in the late afternoon, so doesn't get a chance to heat up again.

We had our saree workshop yesterday, so we all got the chace to try on a saree (even the boys tried them - they looked beautiful!), and then the boys were dressed up in a turban and a pair of trousers that you take a big sheet and wrap it round you, then take a bit from the front and loop it under your legs to the back, so it looks kind of like a huge nappy. It was pretty funny!

I'm covered in henna right now, beucase I'd alrady done the front and back of my right hand and my left foot at our henna workshops, then at daycare yesterday, two men came around with containers of henna and stencils and they stencilled henna onto everyone - I now have the front and abck of the other hand as well. They did all the girls in our daycare as well, and considering they're between 2 and 4 that was quite a challenge, but surpisingly out of the 9 little girls we had yesterday, all but 2 managed to keep teir henna patterns intact until it was dry! One of the litle grls, Shakshi, is our youngest, only 2, and she was so fascinated by it she kept squishing her hand up and making the henna squish around. She ended up with just an orange hand. And another of our girls, Shabu, is one big bundle of energy and she decided that it wasn't enough just to ahve her hand hennaed, so she was scooping the henna off her hand and putting it on her ther hand, on her arm, on her legs and feet, and she would've put it on her her face if it weren't for several shouts of 'NAY, Shabu!' ('nay' and 'nahin' mean no).

We visited a tea plantation ad tea factory yesterday - got to try our hands at picking the tea (the baskets that they wear suspended from their heads are HEAVY) and then we went to the factory to see how they make it. We found out that the tea pickers pick about 20kg of tea per day, and they work for 8 hours a day, and they earn 50Rs a day. That's about 60p.

It's 9am here now so in a few minutes will be the acll for 'All DCC!' (DCC = day care centre), which means I have to head off for another morning of work. Il'l update again in a few days (in Amritsar if I find a cafe!)

Sophie xxx

As you can probably guess from the title, we had our Henna workshops yesterday and today. Yesterday Veena hennaed all my right hand, all over the palm, and on the back of my hand and the back of my forefinger too. I had to leave the henna paste to dry and then leave for several hours which is really difficult when it's yuor hand! But I managed to leave it for about 2 and a half hours, so my henna is a really dark orange. And today, I hennaed my left foot and up my ankle - I went a bit besrk and there is now a LOT of henna on my foot. It's dry now and 'm going to leave it on as long as possible (I'm aiming for overnight althoguh this may mean I get lots of henna bits in my bed, so maybe I'll take it off right before). I'm hopnig it'll last for a long time but the maximum it lasts is about 15 days, so I may go over it before I leave so that its nice and bright again when I get home.

At daycare today we did colours, so we had the children blow at paint through straws on paper so they could all get nice and messy and make pretty pictures. Becuase school is out now we're finding that we're getting the older brothers and sisters of our daycare children dropping the children off and picking them up, and sometimes they just stay for the whole session, which is fine if they're helpful but when you end up with 3 extra 6 year olds it's not so helpful! After daycare Barbara and I caught the bus into town where we met up with a few other girls for lunch at the Taj restaurant (yummy food and very cheap - i had a whole meal for 50p!), and then Claire and I tried to find an internet cafe but at around 1:30pm this afternoon, no internet in the entirety of Palampur was working. So we went to buy a sari instead. I've got a blue one edged with purple and Claire has a purple one and a blue one (one is for her sister), and we can pick them up from the tailors on Tuesday next week.

I'd just like to interrupt this broadcast with the news that yoga class is going on in the rec room (which is seperated from the area I'm in by just a curtain), and the yoga teacher is making them growl like lions and laugh like hyenas, it's very amusing to listen to!

In other news, I think I'm now fully recovered - took a while longer than anticipated, but I'm glad it got here eventually!

On Sunday, I had planned to go trekking up to the waterfall with some of the other girls, but as we woke up to torrential rain, I decided to go down to Bindraban so that I could wait for the rain to stop in a bit more comfort - my room didnt have any electricity between last Wednesday and Monday, and at Bindraban there's a TV and computers and such, so I felt it would probably be a better option! So 4 of us went down to a yummy berakfast (when there's only a few volunteers here, they always spoil us outrageously!), and then at half 9, the electricity cut out. The rain was still torrential, so it was really dark, but we lit a few candles and I read a phenomenal amount (2 thirds of Wild Swans - I've read my way through about three quarters of th books here at Bindraban - the Enlgish ones anyway - so I had to buy in some literature!) and taught Claire how to play Chess - she's pretty good, she beat me on her third game with only a few hints!

So it was all fine, until the electricity didn't cmoe back on after a few hours or so as usual, so boredom began to settle.... The rain idn't let up all day, the garden was flooded and 3 of the staff went crazy in te afternoon and played football in the monsoon! They got soaked through in about 3 seconds! Eventually the electricity came back on at 4:30 so we had major rejoicing and watched Gladiator.

The rain was so torrential it caused damage somewhere or other in the water system so Bindraban had no water until this morning, so coupled with the fact that up at Neugal my room had no electricity, it made for an interesting 2 days! It's all fine now though.

I think thats brought you all pretty much up to date - tomorrow we visit a tea plantation! Should be fun!

Johns's and Harris's - I hoep you're all having a most excellent time on holiday and I am considerably envious, especially with the amount of rain we'er getting! See you all soon!

Sophie xxx

I'm in McLeodganj again. What a surprise!! We left at 8 this morning to get here early so that we could have breakfast at the legendary JJI's restaurant - quite possibly thebest breakfasts in India. Today I think I've eaten a whole days worth of meals just at brekfast - I had a lemon honey and ginger tea (you would not believe how good they are!), a lemon pancake, a big bowl of Special Muesli and then some Tibetan toast with cheese. Mmmmm. I am very full now though!

This week has flown by so fast, and next week looks set to do the same! We've had cookery workshops this week, so I can now cook a variety of Indian and Tibetan dishes so everyone has to come round for dinner when I get home. I'll make you mango shakes and Bombay toast (which is sort of like a doughnut, they're delicious. Really bad for you though - it's essentially deep fried bread!), with pumpkin and roti. Mmmm.

We had the birthday party for Nitu on Thursday as she turned 4, and it was so much fun! (Just apologies - the space bar on this keyboardis very temperemental so if there is a lack ofspaces sorry!) Weplayed party games and had balloons and biscuits and fruit and thekids enjoyed themselves so much - the balloons we had we didnt atually ealise until we tried to blow them up were actually water balloons, so this of course meant we had an impromtu water balloon fight which the kid loved. I have a great picture that I tookjust after I'd thrown a water balloon, just as the balloon explodes and the looks on the childrensfaces are fantastic!It's quite possibly my favroutie photo.

Not really much else toupdate about, so I guess I'll update in a few more days. Family, will callyou later when I get back to camp!

Sophie xxx

I'll try and update where I left off! Am feeling a lot better after my impromptu doctors visit - I got a full nights sleep last night, no waking up coughing! So hopefully by tomorrow or Friday will be cough-free and ready for another illness :).

Apologies for not explaining day care properly. This is basically playgroup for children aged 2 to 5, which runs in the morning from 9 to 1 (although we attend from 9:30 to 12:30). The day care I attend is called Temple Day Care (so called beucase it is situated right next to a temple, actually in the commune where the priests from the temple live). We attend the temple every day, and some of the children come when they want to! Sometimes they are just too busy playing! We go first to the main shrine, where we are given some holy water in your hands that you drink a bit of and pour the rest on your forehead (I cheat - I don't actually drink the water!), and then we get a bindi on our foreheads (using a red paste). Then we get a little square of newspaper which they fill with sweet rice and nuts, and put a flower petal on, and then make it into a little bundle - this is a sort of food offering. We then walk all the way around the main shrine, and then Veena (the guide for our day care) will usually go to one or more of the different smaller shrines around the temple and do different things. Then we all head back up to the day care and the children clamour for the sweets and nuts we've jsut got from the priest so we share them out amongst them.

We then play for another half an hor or so with the children, then we have a little lesson (very simple things, just numbers or colours or shapes) for a little while (although, today it was a bit horrenduos because they were all so restless! We tried to do 1 to 10 and they just kept beating each other up and having fights, so we had tears and temper tantrums and all sorts! The children then have lunch at around 11:30 and then we play with them until we leave at 12:30. We have 15 children enrolled in our daycare, but usually only around 10 attend (or so I'm told). They are all very sweet, apart from one little boy who is just a menace but very cute when he's in a good mood. Today one of our little boys, called Himanchu, turned up wearing eyeliner! And he's 3 years old!! It was quite amusing.

In the afternoons, we're having cooking lessons so when I get home I can cook the kind of meal that we eat here at Bindraban. So far I nkow how to cook a pumpkin dish (I don't know what it's called, they just call it pumpkin, but there's more in it that that!), plain naan, spring rolls (not traditionally Indian but very good all the same!) and vegetable cutlets, which are sort of veggie burgers but you don't eat them in a bun, just by themselves. They're so good! I have cooking lessons until the end of the week so I should be able to cook a whole range of things by the time I'm finished! Over the next two weeks in the afternoons, we're visitnig a tea garden/factory, having Indian dance lessons, a sari workshop (I'm not quite sure what this entails though!) and a henna workshop! I'll bring home some henna for people to try if they want! It's so much better than the stuff you can buy at home, if you do it right it'll last for over 2 weeks (so I should be all hennaed when I get off the plane!).

It's strange thinking I have only 3 weeks until I get off the plane!It suddenyl seems very near the end of this trip and that's strange beucase at the beginning it seemed like I'd be ehre forever and now I'm thinking things like 'Well, I'd better go here then becuase it'll be my last chance to go', and 'there's no point getting one of those ebcuase I won't get a chance to use it', and so on and so forth. Also thinking about what I can and cant't fit in my suitcase for the return trip! So far I can fit everything but I ahve more shopping to do :). I'm going to try and pack as many clothes in my suitcase as possible beucase I know when I get home, everything will seems RIDICULOUSLY expensive and I won't want to buy anything. Here, you can get everything so cheaply, I got a pair of trousers in a good material, tailored for me so they fit perfectly, for 420Rs, which is about 5 pounds.

I think that thats everything updated now! I'm off to do a bit of shoppnig (surprise surprise!) beucase one of the girls in my day care is turningg 4 on Thursday so we're going to ahve a party for her, therefore I need things like biscuits, balloons, toys, etc. Will update again in the not-too distant future!

Sophie xxx

I ahve just 10 minutes befopre I go to day care for the first time so a quick update from where I left off!

Got back from Manali at about 6 yesterday, I've done too much shopping and have bought too many nice things! Met the new group of volunteers - it seems wierd us being the old group, we felt like we didnt know eough but it's strange, the thigns they ask us we know all about so we seem really knowledgable!!

Had a bit of an adventure last night - was taken to the doctors by motorbike at about 10:30, which was interesting! I've had a realy bad cogh the last week or so and it's defintiely getting worse not better, and I was trying to sleep last night and I couldn't actually lie down, so Virun and Krishan, two of the guides, took me to an on-call doctor. I had an injection of something and I have two kinds of tablets to take 2 or 3 timse a day for 2 days and I ahve to go back if it isn't better by then. It was the most bizarre thing ever - there was no power becuase a storm was on its way (we just started being rained upon on the way back) so I was injected by the light from a candle and a chargeable lantern! The doctor was asleep wen we got there so we had to wait for him to wake up, and 5 minutes later he comes out in his pajamas, takse my blood pressure and listens to me via a stethoscope, says something in Hindi and goes back to bed! This other guy then gives me tablets and an injection and I am SO glad Virun and Krishan were there becase they explanied everythign to me, and they were so nice - the injection had to go in a vein in my hand raelly slowly (it toko at least 5 minutes) and I was sat there going 'WHY is it taking so long?' and they wer saying things like 'it's ok, don't worry, you're ok, you're being really brave' so I felt better :).I'm feelign better now though, and I ahve a whole host of things to take for it so I'm praynig that it'll be better within a few days. I want to be able to sleep at night!

I'm giong to have to finish this update later becuase it's time for daycare! I'm really looking forward to it, my daycare is right by a temple and we visit everyday (it's a Hindi temple, this one, Seb, and the other temple I was talking about was Buddhist I think!).

update later!

Sophie xxx

Hey everyone!

Am currently updating from Manali, which is a little town right up in the foothills of the Himalayas. And when I say right up, I mean that this town is basically one long twisty street up the side of the mountain with little side streets at the top and bottom, and there are little mountians all around, it's beautiful.

We left Palampur at 2:30 on Thursday for the long, long drive to a little town called Kullu where we stayed the night. We didn't get there until 9pm so it was a 6 and a half hour drive (including 2 stops), which is a long, long time in an Indian taxi - they're not exactly overly comfy! Our taxi driver was called P.C. and he's a really funny guy - he had a lot of cassette tapes in his car and one Western one, which just happened to be The Venga Boys. Cue almost none stops renditions of such classics as 'Woah! We're going to Ibiza! Woah! Back to the island!' and 'The Venga bus is coming, and everybodys jumping, New York to San Francisco, an inter-city disco...' (I am now word-perfect for these songs. And I cannot get them out of my head).

On Friday morning we went white water rafting , which was amazing! It's right at the end of the season (in fact we went on the lat day of the season which wa lucky because we didn't know that it was the last day!), so the water was quite a bit rougher than normal, due to the monsoon, so we had a really good ride. The ride normally lasts between 1.5 to 2 hours, and we did it in 1 hour so you can tell how muc faster the river was going! It was bizarre, sometimes we were going up waves that seemed almost vertical to us in the boat and the guide was shouting 'Forwards! Forwards all!' meaning for us to paddle, and telling us to paddle faster, and all you want to do is hold on tight! But it was really good fun, and white water rafting is about the safest sport you can do like this in India - we met some other travellers at the rafting and they said someone they'd met, who'd come to India as part of a year off, and tried paragliding, and broke her ankle landing, and now she has to just lie in the Manali hospital for 2 months, beofre flying home to have another operation, so it'll cut her year off short by a huge amount, she was going to do Africa and South America and I think she had 8 months to go still. I feel so sorry for her, it must be awful, especially lying in the hospital for 2 months!

We got to Manali at around 4pm yesterday, and we're staying in two guest houese at the top of the hill. I'm sharing a room with another English girl called Claire and we're paying 250Rs a night to stay there, and that's around 3 pounds a night! (again, no pound sign on this keyboard.....) It's crazily cheap. You can buy anything you want in Manali, its incredible, and if you can't find it you can find someone to make it for you - clothes, jewellery, gifts, you name it. The food here is also fantastic - there are loads of westerners here so all the food is safe as the restuarants and cafes rely on word of mouth, so if people get sick from eating somewhere they dont get any business, so this means that you can eat EVERYTHING - ice-cream, salad (oh my god, fresh salad!), and fruit and chicken and fish and all the other things that it wouldn't be vrey safe to eat elsewhere! And you can get every kind of food as well - I had Mexican for lunch, nachos and fajitas (we eat only Indian food at the camp apart from at parties when we have pizzas so when we eat out, it tends to be more Western food! Especially since no one actually TELLS you what's in all the food so you never know what you're ordering!), and we're going to the same place we went to last night for dinner tongiht, it's a place called Johnsons, and we're going becuase a) we can watch the football on the TV (England v Porutgal - and there was me thinking we could escape the world cup! I've wathced more football out here than I ever would at home! All the volunteers watch the majority of the matche beucase we're from such a diverse range of countries someones country is nearly always playing!) and b) they have excellent food and they serve cocktails and decent drinks! You mainly only get nasty wine and really strong beer out here. They serve fresh trut which is divine - when we all go out for diner everyone ends up trying everyone elses food, so I got to sample trout, chicken lasange, chicken in pepper sauce and ice cream in addition to my own pasta-and-sauce and (wait for it) chocolate cake! Tongiht I might try a desert salled 'Hello to the queen'. Yes it really exists and no I've no idea what's in it but if I try it I'll let you know!

I've been doing supreme shopping today, there's just so much to buy - clothes in particular! I'm getting made a fleece top with a long pointy pixie-hood, in pale pink with brown trimming, and I pick it up in an hour, I can't wait!

There's so much more I should be updating about! A lot has happened thi past week, but right now I have to go and shower etc ready for meeting up with everyone else for dinner.

I'll update again soon!

Sophie xxx

Ok, so I know I said I was going to go to Kangra today but the Dalai Lama was home and he is giving 4 days of lectures at the temple at McLeodganj so a group of 9 of us went today to see him, and it turned out to be surprisingly hilarious!

It was awful, awful weather when we left (at 6am this morning!), pouring with rain, and this showed no signs of letting up on the way up to McLeod. As we got higher up it became foggier and foggier and so our taxi driver was perring through the windscreen to see the road, which isn't exactly the best situation to be in when to get there is basically a series of s-bends at a very shrp angle and a very high incline! But we made it most of the way in one piece until we encountered a spot in the road where the rain had caused a landslide. We weren't far from McLeod at this point, so we thought, ok, we'll walk. So out we get, raincoats on, and proceed to walk over the landslide. As you can imagine, this was very, very muddy - thick red mud that just clings to you, and (of course), it had to be me who coudln't make it without getting extra-specially muddy! I slipped about half way across (I was the second to last person to cross), and found myself sat on my bum in the mud, both hands submerged up to my wrists (my watch is really nice and brown now) and both legs submerged till half way up my shins, and sat on my nice pink bag (I'd only bought it 2 weeks before!). Sitting like that on top of a landlisde is quite an interesting experience. You can get your hands out of the mud ok, it's your feet that have problems as your shoes don't want to follow. I did in fact lose my right shoe, but luckily I managed to fish it out again, but both my shoes (my trainers, not my sandals) were covered, inside and out, in thick sticky mud. Yummy. I eventually managed to scramble down and just sort of stood there, in the middle of the road, being laughed at by my friends and a bunch of Indian guys who were trying to tow a car out of the landslide.

Luckily Helle (from Denmark) had brought waterproof trousers to wear over her baggies and lent me those so I could change out of my previously grey and now red-brown trousers once we'd got to McLeod. I love Helle for this, as none of the shops were open at 8am (they open somewhere between 9 and 10) so I coudlnt' have bought replacement trousers if I'd have wanted to! It was so funny, I was jsut sat there in the mud thinking 'Oh. My. God. I'm stuck. HELP ME!', but the problem was no-one could get to me without sinking in the part I was sunk in. So they just laughed as I struggled. Well, waht else can you do?

My bag was covered in mud and all through the day a selection of concerned citizens of McLeod, including 2 shopkeepers, one monk, and a sleazy guy, pointed out to me that my bag was, in fact, more mud than bag. Just in case I hadn't noticed, you see!

We had breakfast and waited until 10 for the registration office to open so we could get passes to go to the teachings, only to be told that the top level was full, which is the level you need passes for, and that we could just trn up at the bottom level but we woudlnt' be able to actually see the Dalai until he came down the steps. Well, I for one wasn't going to have endured a mud bath and NOT go, so off we toodled to the temple and got subjected to a very thorough security search at the entrance - I'd say it was actually more stringent than if we'd've been in England, we had to go through a metal detector, and then have our bags throroughly searhced (they went through everything in there! And the lady I handed my bag to was NOT impressed by the state of it!), and then we went and sat near the steps t the upper level. Oh my god, was it cold! Barbara (from Austria - she has the best laugh ever) had a radio s we listened to the translation in English as much as we could but it was very difficult to understand as the reception wasn't always clear, and we were able to watch on a tv, so it was pretty cool. And at the end, we saw the Dalai Lama go apst in his car to lunch, about a metre and a half from us, it was really cool (I'd moved by this time from the steps to a different place).

After, we had a fantastic lunch at a restaurant called McLlo's, where Pierce Brosnan has eaten - there are pictures of him enjoying his meal at the entrance and at the staircase to upstairs, and he wrote a sign while he was there saying 'McLlo's Restaurant! Best in India!' or soemthing. The manager is really proud of this fact and if he catches you looking at the picture he tells you all about it, where Mr Brosnan sat and what Mr Brosnan ate and what a nice guy he is and stuff. I had veg sweet and sour (I've only had meat once while I've been here, once! That was here at IDEX, I haven't trusted meat anywehre else!) and it was absolutely gorgeous.

I've taken photos when we got back to camp (no cameras allowed at te Dalai Lama teaching so I didnt take it with me otherwise you woudln've had some better ones!) of me in my Mud Outfit - it is quite amusing! I tried to uplaod them but the computer just gives me electric shocks and doesnt connect proeprly.

On the way back from McLeod (the lanslide had been cleared by then so we could catch the taxi from the bus stnad, not walk 3km down the road!), we were just driving back as normal and 2 girls on a moped drove past, overtaking, and were waving at us saying 'Hiiii' and not concentrating, and they swerved towards the taxi, hit it, and fell off their bikes! They were unhurt althgouh one hit her head with a huge bump, and there was a huge argument when they tried to blame the taxi driver but it wasn't his fault so he ignored them. After about 10 minutes they drove off but we overtook them a little later and they had another argument with our driver. It was a aelly horrible thing, they could so badly have been hurt! The road we were on had a big drop on one side so if they'd've spun to the other side of the road they would have fallen off and been really badly hurt.

But, we all got back in one piece, and it aws a really fun day - I've been buying a few things, I got a (fake, I think) Adidas hoodie for 250RS which is around 3 pounds (there is no pound sign on this keyboard!), ad it looks just like the real thing, haha.

We organised going white-water rafting next weekend, and we've planned out our other free weekend as well, we're going to go to a place called Shimla which is 8 hours away and supposed to be really really beautiful! The weekend after we go to Amritsar ad the weekend after is Agra so it doesnt seem long at all! It means I think I only have 4 days weeks (max!) from now on beucase we always leave on a Friday or a Thursday. Should be fun!

I'm off to watch the England game now, see how we're doing! I hope the half-of-Axbridge coming round was fun at home, hi to everyone at work (by the way - I've bought myself some Marmite! It's divine!), and I'll update soon!

Sophie xxx

PS - If any 4-weekers read this, I miss you! xxx