I enjoy seeing the little notes JD writes now and again. This one was sending his "thanks" to the fairies for giving him a coin in return for his latest wobbly tooth left under the pillow! He's lost four teeth now!
After two dry months, the heavens opened today and Kunming immediately flooded. The city has never been able to handle heavy downpours. Thankfully they are infrequent. I managed to pick JD up from Kindergarten on my e-bike through the "river" below. Scooters seem better able to cope with deep water than cars can - unless you drop the bike of course!   JD and I made the trip across the city to the Horticultural Exposition Park yesterday armed with a large picnic and a kite. On arrival we were delighted to stumble across some festive Dragon Boat Racing - I'd been told on good authority that there was no such boat racing anywhere in Kunming this year! Then we got the kite out with mixed success - blustery winds but not consistent enough to keep it aloft for very long. Exhausted, we found some shade for our picnic before searching for a couple of ice-creams.  JD is growing in confidence all the time - riding the "Danube Rapids" water ride without me, approaching a fearsome looking Clown on stilts to blag a free balloon animal, chatting with the ids of strangers, etc. Great to see. We had a lovely day but we got very sunburned!
 JD kept his sweet wrapper the other day and disappeared with a pen. When he returned he claimed he'd won a "Golden Ticket" to visit Willy Wonka's chocolate factory!
Weekends still provide a chance for JD and I to do various activities together - play centres, basketball, fishing, Lego, Monopoly, museums, parks and forests. You name it, we give it a go!
 One of the final stages of our house move fell into place last week with the delivery of our new three-piece suite. So today, our old sofa goes to the old flat and a final cupboard is moved from there to our new flat. And then we need to pick up a new cupboard bought from a friend of ours. All change!
 JD [corralled by his teachers, top left] finishes Kindergarten next month. His "graduation" photo came through a few days ago. I was trying to explain to JD that he will go from being one of the oldest students in the school to being one of the youngest, but I don't think it really sank in. He'll start "ShiDa Primary School" - considered the best in Kunming - in September. Then, sometime before those six years are over, we plan to return to the UK for his Secondary education. Time is flying!
I got back in touch with an old friend the other day - a Chinese teacher who was teaching in the same Middle School where I was based some 13 years ago. She said she often thought of me as I still appear in the school's textbooks, and she sent me these photos as proof!
 China still feels very threatened by people with a faith!
 Yesterday was a small landmark in JD's life - his first milk tooth wobbled out (with a little help from some misdirection and a quick yank!). JD was very excited and proud. Many of his classmates have been losing teeth for a few months now (most are older by 6 months or more), Mind you, he did actually lose his first tooth at three years of age when eating an under-cooked corn on the cob!
 Having finally qualified a couple of weeks ago, yesterday I started my new role, examining IELTS Speaking Tests for the British Council. Whilst I've practiced running dummy exams and graded recorded interviews, I've never before done both things simultaneously. It's tricky as you're aware that the things that you say, the timings of the activities and the consequent analysis of the candidate's ability are all monitored and posthumously assessed in great detail. So I need to concentrate hard and get everything right.
 ...we want a clean environment, stability,
safety and... errrr... wickedness?!?  Last Friday was my first day alone in the house in many months - and probably my last for a while! So I did the manly things of sawing the legs shorter on my office desk, the less manly thing of vacuuming up the mess I had made and the positively unmanly thing of making a loaf of bread. Just call me Mr Gender-fluid!
 We booked out flights to England yesterday. We'll spend the whole of July in Britain - can't wait. We're doing less travelling around this time and hoping it will be a little less manic as a result!
 Some new water drinking fountains have been installed around Green Lake, which is a great idea in the current hot weather.
But woe betide anyone who tries to drink from them! They have been commandeered by the local pensioners who queue up all day long to fill bottles, buckets and pots with the free drinking water! To say elderly Chinese people are "thrifty" would be something of an understatement. |
 About the blogger
Paul Hider lives and works in Kunming (SW China) and updates this blog about his life there every other day. Past blog entries
April 2019
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