Without giving it all away, Tibetan people are not big kissers. Well, not the saying hello or goodbye kind anyway.
Doesn’t it seem strange that any of us used to do this not so long ago? For Yeshi it’s a custom that he’s really glad to see the back of as he never got the hang of it. He still remembers with horror the time, soon after he arrived in the UK and met my family for the first time, that he planted a big kiss on my sister’s mouth by mistake. He just can’t get the angles right.
There are lots of things about life here that Yeshi found very strange at first. Back in Tibet the family live in a house large enough to accommodate their livestock during the colder months. Yeshi is a big guy and he still finds it hard to negotiate the small spaces of our terraced home.
But life in lockdown is strangely familiar. As a child Yeshi would spend up to five months in every year herding livestock away from the family home. Usually it was just him and his father. Sometimes a brother would join them, or his uncle. The land was vast (see the video sent by relatives above) but the living accommodation was confined: a tent during the rainy season or a wooden hut when it was dry. And over the five months that they were away from home Yeshi says that it was normal not to come across more than a handful of other humans. Plenty of wild animals, but no people.
This week Yeshi is leaving the big smoke behind and venturing back to more rural surrounds. We are giving over our Thursday delivery day to the wonderful people of Wallingford, whose car park we got so familiar with during Lockdown 1 – do come out to see us! As usual it’s pre-orders only through the website, and then a quick handover of curry like contraband. This is a no contact service in the great outdoors – head to our website for more info.
Oxford – we are not delivering this week, but we will be doing so again next Thursday (taking orders from Monday 24th), and you can still come to see us for hot takeaway from our place on Magdalen Road this Friday or Saturday evening, 5-9pm. Pre-order by phone between 4pm and 8pm on the day (01865 499318), or just turn up. And there’s no need to even come in – just let us know at the door if you’d like your transaction to take place outside.
Finally, huge thanks to everyone contributing to our ongoing initiative providing free food to Oxford’s most vulnerable. Another sixty meals went out this morning through Oxford Mutual Aid. You can add vouchers to your cart when you shop online or donate in store in person. Thank you so much for helping us make this happen.
