Confection Affection

In December I snap lighted shop windows!

I walked to work. We worked pretty much all day. Attended a webinar for an hour in the afternoon. Took the bus home. Walked through the cemetery in the dark because I couldn't find my phone! Am a bit more used to the path now, but what's really lethal today is the wet slippery leaves lining the lanes. Got home in one piece, relieved not to be rushing off to yoga. I'm going to do it on Zoom tomorrow, because I had film club tonight. 

The film was called Lunana: a yak in the classroom. A young teacher from Thimpu, the capital of Bhutan, is sent to Lunana, a remote school in the Highlands, as a punishment for his lack of motivation. To get to Lunana, it's an eight day trek on foot from the nearest town, Gasa. Uygen the teacher finds himself treated like royalty when he arrives in the village, which is populated mostly by yak herders. At first he thinks he can't stand five minutes there, in the primitive conditions and the cold mountain air, but the villagers have something he treasures: music. The yak herding songs, which are not dissimilar to some Scots Gaelic songs in the scale they use, and in that they are sung without accompaniment, are a source of wonder to him, and he sets about learning one, in the mountains, with an attractive girl as his teacher. The schoolchildren, too, win him over with their eagerness to learn and their gratitude towards him. Then, all too soon, winter comes and the school must close. Even Norbu the yak must descend to the lower pastures. But will Uygen return in the Spring ?

This is just about the most beautiful film I've ever seen. If you're interested in Bhutan, or scenery, or education, do seek it out. 

And now it's late and I must pack my bags for tomorrow. Perhaps I need a new life in the wild. But maybe not in Bhutan. Perhaps somewhere a wee bit warmer.