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Half annAVAsary

30/1/2010

Six months ago Jiajia (Ava) and I had our first proper "date", so today marks our half-year anniversary of being an "item". Mind you, we have spent the majority of that time on separate continents, so it doesn't feel quite that long! Jiajia is actually 1000km away in Shenzhen this week, hunting down the latest fashions to ship back to her store.

As a little challenge, I decided to try and get to Jiajia's flat by bus this morning (she's always driven us there before). I found it eventually, and then walked back home (40 minutes). It's left me a bit shaky (I'm still getting the shakes on some days, presumably from the glandular fever) but it was good to get out into the sun and discover some new routes around town.

Grin Lake

29/1/2010

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I was wandering around Green Lake yesterday after a gossip-catch-up lunch with Mark, one of the other foreign teachers at my school. It's a lovely place for a stroll in the sunshine, and some of the Chinglish is truly world class [see photo].

Best not to look too closely at the murky lake itself during the day, but at night it makes for a pretty setting [see photo]. Unfortunately, on this trip I found my favourite Thai restaurant all boarded up. And then I took the usual bus home to find they have changed the route and it now no longer goes to the stop outside my flat. Have I really been away that long?

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Cat astrophe

28/1/2010

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Kang Wan Nian, a villager from an area south of Kunming, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for shooting and eating possibly the last wild Indochinese tiger in China. A previous sighting back in 2007 is believed to have been the same creature.

Kang claimed he was simply digging for freshwater mussels when he was forced to shoot the tiger in self-defence. He then took it home and ate it with his friends! But the court questioned why he had taken a shotgun to collect mussels(!) and how threatened he could have felt when the tiger was shot 35m (115ft) away. The case seems cat and dried to me.

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Stream and steam

26/1/2010

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Jiajia and I fancied a hotpot yesterday evening and headed for a unique and locally famous restaurant near Green Lake. It was a "one-price, all-you-can-eat" affair, but with the novelty factor of dishes of raw food sailing past your table, floating on a "stream" that runs throughout the restaurant [see photo]. These are fished out and chucked into the hotpot to cook.

We chose the least spicy option for the steaming hotpot [see photo], but it still managed to blow our heads off when we tried it! Thankfully, unlimited soda drinks were part of the all-in deal, and the waiters happily diluted our potful, with a barely disguised smirk. We ate our way through a multitude of dishes, scooped from the river, with eyes watering and frequent trips to the free (and non-spicy) fruit stall! Not unsurprisingly, we both reported significant WC activity this morning!

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Respect the facts

25/1/2010

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Apart from the disappearance of my corner shop (still in mourning for that), the most frustrating thing about returning to China is coping with a restricted internet again. I quickly got used to having access to anything I wanted to, when back in the UK. How amusing then to read the latest statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Reacting to US criticism about the Google spat, they say, "The U.S. has ... insinuated that China restricts Internet freedom. This runs contrary to the facts and is harmful to China-U.S. relations. We urge the United States to respect the facts and cease using so-called Internet freedom to make groundless accusations against China". So the facts are that China doesn't restrict internet freedom. Sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, MySpace, Picasa, etc must be accessible after all. Silly me!

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Dairy diary

23/1/2010

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Jiajia took a rare day off work today to spend a bit of time with me after my 3½ months away. Although she owns her fashion store, she is largely at the beck and call of various "high end" customers, who expect her personal service whether it's 7am or 11pm! She even turned off her phone for a while - unheard of! We explored a new shopping complex downtown which hosts shops from all the top western brands, various restaurants, underground parking and an IMAX cinema (currently showing "Avatar", or "Ava? Ta!" as I call it now). We also sampled an ice-cream from the new, first and only "Dairy Queen" in Kunming. ("Dairy Queen" are a massive franchise in the US, now appearing in Yunnan). The photo shows Ava pointing to the queue!

Afternoon shopping in the new supermarket was fun as one of Jiajia's customers had given her a promotional card worth 1000RMB (£100) if used by the end of the week. So we did our version of "Supermarket Sweep", grabbing anything that took our fancy, knowing it was all paid for!

In the evening we drove down to DianChi Lake for a walk along the promenade in the sunset. It would have been quite romantic were it not for the defecating dogs and dive-bombing seagulls [see photo]! Then off to a barbecue restaurant to end a nice, relaxing day.

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A Pauling

22/1/2010

I popped in to the school today, hoping to be greeted with, "Hi PJ, welcome back". Instead, there were 5 unfamilar secretarial faces on the front desk, one of whom said, "Hello sir, can I help you?". I felt like pointing to the photo of me on the wall there and whimpering, "I used to be famous here!". But it's because there has been the usual high turnover of secretarial staff. There's lots of new fresh-faced Chinese teachers too, plus we've lost two foreign teachers and gained two new ones.

I've been called "PJ" since joining the school two years ago (as when I started, there was already another foreign teacher called "Paul") but I've decided it's a good time to revert to being "Paul" once again. Other changes include a new barbecue restaurant which has opened up below our school [see photo]. Apparently the smoke and fumes it generates have rendered two of our classrooms unuseable! There's also a big new sign as you enter the school with the predictably Chinglish title, "Robert's School of Languages - establishing for 8 years". Groan.

Healthwise, I've been very shakey since returning and not sleeping particularly well. Hopefully it's just temporary fallout from the stresses of travelling, lifting luggage, unpacking and jet lag. We'll see in time. It's been good to see old friends again though. I had a nice chat about next term with Rob (my boss and friend) this afternoon and I'm looking forward to a quiet evening with Jiajia ("Ava") later today. She's been having fun shopping for me over recent months and arrived yesterday with a big bag full of "fashionable clothes", including two pairs of jeans, a sweatshirt, a dressing gown, a new rucksack and some enormous hiking boots [see photo]! All in all, it's great to be back.

Shop shock

20/1/2010

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The biggest disappointment on arriving back in Kunming is seeing the little corner shop next to my flat turned into a small orchard [see photo]! I used to visit that shop every day for milk, water, crisps, yoghurt, etc. In fact, it was probably the cashflow problems caused by me being away for few months that pushed them into bankrupcy! So now I have a two minute walk (each way!) to get to the next nearest shop. How will I cope?

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Check in, chuck out, chocs away

18/1/2010

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I'm flying back to China today. A little last-minute drama at the airport where my carefully weighed luggage (I thought) turned out to be 37kg instead of 30kg! So my parents and I had a frantic few minutes sorting the "necessary" from the "never mind" before finally making the weight. Now just a ten hour flight to Beijing, a 4 hour layover and a 4 hour onward flight to Kunming await.

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Cheery ohs

17/1/2010

My last day in the UK for a few years and the inevitable goodbyes from family and friends. I went to my parent's very friendly church this morning and was surprised how many people there wanted to give me a hug goodbye and pass on their best wishes. To them I was heading for a strange, distant land - to me it's going home! Then there have been a number of phonecalls and e-mails from others [including this doctored "goodbye photo" from my brother Andy as his crazy family!]. I don't find "goodbyes" very easy, but I accept they are important and, of course, it will be hard to be away from loved ones for another 2-3 year period.

Looking back on my 3½ months in the UK, I'm quite pleased at all I've managed to get done. I've had lots of meals out, travelled on 20+ trains, seen a Premiership match, an American basketball match, a large family reunion, holidays at Micklepage and Longleat Centre Parcs, two West End shows, a nativity play, a birthday and a Christmas. I've driven a car again, been to the cinema, cleared out my flat in Wootton Bassett, visited the Thames Barrier and flown to the Isle of Man. I've also met up with pretty much every friend and family member I'd intended to. And this is despite three visits to Accident and Emergency, 18 visits to the local clinic, 6 injections and two ear syringings! I certainly can't say it's been a dull trip!

I'll miss you, Chris/Sue

16/1/2010

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This evening was my last "meet up" with old friends before I fly back to China on Monday. Susie and Chris share my bug for travelling and we had a lovely time exchanging anecdotes about the various places we'd visited lately. I used to work with Susie at the Futurekids Training Centre I ran a decade ago. We last met up some 6 years ago. Susie and Chris are also regular readers of this blog so we had fun trying to think of a pun-laden title for this entry, without much success. I slept on it and came up with this one - hope you think it's worthy, guys!

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Last visit?

15/1/2010

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I visited my Granddad for the last time this morning ...the last time until I come back to the UK (in 2012?) but, with Granddad being 98 years old, it could well be the last time ever, I guess. Mind you, I thought I was saying a last goodbye when I left for China in 2005, so who knows? Although he gets tired after an hour or so of being visited, he is still very sharp mentally and, despite the odd aches and pains, is in pretty good shape. All in all he's an amazing character and, although he'd be delighted for "God to take him as soon as possible", I'd personally love to see him make it to the big 100!

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More thaw, saw War Horse

14/1/2010

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The snow is finally thawing here, after Britain's worst winter weather for 30 years. It's been a mixture of fun, beauty and frustration. But snow is something that Kunming rarely gets, so it's been a lucky chance for me to experience it again (my last snow was up a mountain in Tibet a year ago!).

Today I headed for London to see the excellent "War Horse" production, courtesy of a free ticket from my very good and generous friend Miki [left, below], who works in the West End. She always pulls out all the stops to get me freebies for whatever shows are currently playing, and then showers me with gifts, chocolate, meals etc just when I'm trying to pay for something to say thank you! It's a great show with life-size puppets of the horses, operated with such skill that you soon forget they aren't actually real.

The other reason to be up in London was to meet up and catch up with Linda [right in photo] who is a friend from my College days who has kept in touch over the years. Miki managed to scrounge a free War Horse seat for her too (despite it being sold out) and then took us for a quick tour of the Royal Opera House afterwards, which was a glimpse into "how the other half live (or play!)".

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Packing it in

13/1/2010

It's still a week or so until I leave for China, but with the few extra days that the Guernsey cancellation freed up, I thought I'd make a start with my packing. I only bought one bag out, but I'll be taking two back (thanks largely to the wardrobe's-worth of clothes my brother Dave kindly donated to me!). Weight-wise I seem to be within the limits, but there isn't a lot of room left for those last-second items (hairbrush, shaver, socks, passport, etc). I can see the pockets of the clothes that I wear back being full to overflowing!

I learn ze Guernsey's icy

9/1/2010

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I arrived at Andy's yesterday and enjoyed a nice half day with his wife Ali and their two cute kids, Louie and Daisy. This morning was when Andy and I were due to fly to Guernsey for a long weekend but, despite arriving at the airport early morning, we were met with news of flight delays, cancellations and blocked roads around Guernsey airport. After an hour or two, we gave up and headed back. It's a real disappointment, as Guernsey and a side-trip to Jersey were due to be countries 95 and 96 of my push to reach 100. In fact, of the 9 countries I had planned to visit over the last 4 months, I've only managed to get to one. These last 10 are proving more awkward than I imagined!

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The right stuff and the white stuff

7/1/2010

I'm spending a fantastic few days with Dave (my brother) and his family and friends at Centre Parcs, Longleat. Yesterday morning, Esme [pink in photo] and Joshua [green] tackled the terrifying "High Ropes" activity. Esme was her usual fearless self [here about to leap off the top of the pole onto a trapeze!] while Josh did the best he could with rapidly freezing fingers and toes! I was in awe - you wouldn't have seen me star-jumping 50ft up in the treetops, safety line or not!

Then, this morning. we woke to a major dump of snow. Were were based in a fantastic apartment with three en suite double bedrooms, each with cable TV, kitchen with dishwasher, etc. Ours was in the middle of the enormous forest complex, so we were able to walk straight out into beautiful scenery. The kids took on the snowball fighting duties (with other families, thankfully) as we mooched our way from coffee bar to restaurant to heated swimming pool...

... and what a swimming pool. Thankfully, the tropical pool was one of the few free activities in the park, because we used it a lot. With large seperate pools for adults and children, tube runs, death-slides, a wave machine, paddling pools, jacuzzis and an outdoor "rapids" section, it had eveything. Our favourite was the rapids - alternatively floating or sliding headlong down an outdoor "river", in heated water, in the falling snow [see photo, faked for illustrative purposes!]. It was amazing and the kids (inc Dave) couldn't get enough! Shame we're leaving tomorrow.

Typing up dates

2/1/2010

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I started keeping a daily diary in 1977 and still keep one to this day. In my spare time lately I've been typing up the earliest entries onto my computer, as the diary pencil marks are getting more and more faded. It takes time, as I have to decipher the codes and initials that I used for entries then. These have changed over time. But I've just about finished recording the first 5 years worth. When I read of the things that got me excited, worried and angry 30 or more years ago, it does help get things in perspective! And it's a great memory-jogger, too!

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Half annAVAsary

Grin Lake

Cat astrophe

Stream and steam

Respect the facts

Dairy diary

A Pauling

Shop shock

Check in, chuck out, chocs away

Cheery ohs

I'll miss you, Chris/Sue

Last visit?

More thaw, saw War Horse

Packing it in

I learn ze Guernsey's icy

The right stuff and the white stuff

Typing up dates

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