Me in relaxed mood in Kathmandu (the glass held coke by the way, I am teetotal!)

I moved at the end of August from a small village in the Highlands of Scotland to the Scottish Borders, just south of Edinburgh. I founded Retreat Trading and Retreat Travel in 2007 to import and sell lovely things from the Himalayas and to provide all-inclusive meditation retreat holidays to Nepal. I first visited Nepal several years ago as a participant on a charity trek and fell in love with the country and its people. After completing outdoor medic training with Expedition Medicine, I have enjoyed working as a guide/medic with charity trekking company 'Across the Divide' and have returned to Nepal on a number of occasions. After bringing back a couple of buddhist thangka paintings for myself I realised that other people were also interested in buying them but couldn't get to Kathmandu for themselves. So after initially bringing things back from trekking trips, I now have the business set up to import from a number of trusted and reliable sources in Nepal to sell in the UK.

I have also been a buddhist and meditated (off an on!) for the last 35 years and realised that people might like to do it in the country where it all started. So Retreat Travel was set up to help people who are perhaps not adventurous enough to make it to Nepal by themselves, to get there in a safe and accompanied way. The holidays are all inclusive, return flights from Heathrow, accommodation in one of the best hotels in Kathmandu, in-country transport, a 6 day course of meditation, yoga and discussion at meditation centre in the shadow of Annapurna, all in the price.

Please visit the website at www.retreat-travel.co.uk for more information

My favourite mountain Machhapuchhre (Fish Tail)

I was lucky enough to be taught by Santa on my trip in September 2007 and now have the certificate to be able to practice singing bowl therapy in the UK. I will be adding a page to the site about the bowl factory in due course.