Samye Ling Day 1

1:30 p.m.
               Little anxieties declining as the bus dropped us off at the gate of the Samye Ling in a bright, bright sunshine. After lunch I had a chat with Teresa. It lasted about two minutes so it's the longest chat I've had with her ever.
               She said she'd just gotten my letter that morning and that the lama wasn't about, so I didn't need to go and see him! I asked about him retiring and that's retiring into more meditations, but he won't be going for a couple of years. A replacement has already been picked, but he hasn't got enough English yet anyway. We agreed the place would be odd without the lama and she said she'd find it hard there without him. Well, she's been his right hand woman for years and years, and the boy is cosmic. I asked if he'd thought of getting an autobiography published, or written, and she said he'd need a ghostwriter. I said nothing to that. I don't know if I could be his ghostwriter. All I know about it is what I saw in the movie "Ghost" about Tony Blair's ghostwriter. She said it wouldn't bother him getting it published when he was still alive. When I mentioned his passing, her face screwed up a bit. This joe means a lot to a lot of people around here.
              I'm off to see Germe, the gatekeeper to Nirvana, for my room key. Hurrah! Hurrah! I'm so glad to be here!!
8:40 p.m.
              Oddly the cafe is open on a Thursday. There's a gang of pretty young women, about nineteen year olds, who must have come for some kind of tour or other. So the cafe is unexpectedly open.
               This is really a day for settling in. Tomorrow should be much the same. I haven't gotten out of the long johns I put on for the journey or the thermalactle vest, so there's been no jumpings or prostrating from me yet. I feel a bit disappointed by that. I don't know if I can do the prostrations in my bedroom. It's got just about enough floor space, but the sweat does start to pour after about fifty of them. We'll see.
               Could hardly have had a better first day. Great lunch! I'm in room 11 of the Potala House, facing the garden, just as I asked Germe.
                I worked out from my diary that I haven't stayed here since just before we went to Skye to gross out with the flatheids in 2009. That's where all my troubles with the credit cards debts started as well. Well, I've just about got the flatest heid around these parts, so no fears there!
                So glad to be here!!!