Catchy T-shirt slogan!
 Jiajia and I have been married for six years now. The traditional gifts for six years are apparently candy and iron. If I were to list all my wife's good points, sweetness and strength of character would make the top three (generosity would be number one, since you ask!). ....admittedly I'd struggle to name more than five (kidding!)
One failing, however, would have to be forgetfulness - suffice to say when I handed her a bunch of flowers and a handful of cards yesterday, she had no idea why! JD and I have been building a den in our "Secret Forest" over the past few weeks. We took Ava to see it the other day. About a month ago I got a tip that there was an outdoor public swimming pool about 15 minutes e-bike drive from our house. JD and I have been waiting for a dry and sunny day ever since. Yesterday, the constant rainstorms finally subsided (for now, at least) and so we headed for the hidden pool.
It wasn't as busy as I'd expected and the water was cold, but bearable. JD loved the children's pool where he could easily stand up (he's got used to coping with adult pools up until now). And when he found a stack of plastic fish, he was in his element, throwing them around the pool and then diving underwater to fetch them all. I just lay quietly in a corner of the pool to keep an eye on him but, after 15 minutes, the local kids had clocked me and worked up the courage to come and try their English on me!
 JD and I put some temporary tattoos on the other day - two each. JD hadn't come across the idea of a tattoo before and has been trying to keep his as visible as possible for as long as possible. Three days after application, they are still clear. Baths as proving tricky though.
 With yet another day of rain looming, JD and I tried to avoid going stir crazy by getting out all the remaining junk we have collected and blowing it all on a huge home-made Marble Run. JD has to climb a step ladder to get the ball into the funnel at the top and then the marble wends its way down a variety of tracks and tubes to the bottom. We eventually got it to work successfully as you can see below: I can often date my Kunming friendships to what I'm called. When I first joined Robert's School a decade ago there was another teacher there called Paul, so I adopted the moniker of "PJ". When the school moved to a new location a couple of years later the earlier Paul was long gone, so I started to be called Paul again. These days I'm called a variety of names; "RouRou" by JD and Ava, "BaoLou" by Ma-in-law, "Mr Paul" by my permanently muddled University students, and so on.  So when I received a text out of the blue referring to me as "PJ" I knew it was a colleague from some years ago getting back in touch. So JD and I shared a nice lunch with "Sophie" [centre] and a few of her students yesterday. She's since married a Danish guy and together they've set up a training school in a town some ten hours drive from Kunming. It's nice to be remembered, even after so many years.
 That's the last time we leave JD with a
stack of money and a pair of scissors!  Kunming has had about 2 dry days in the last 30-40. Heavy rainfall every day and night almost non-stop. Although it's the rainy season, this much rain is unheard of and recollections of the drought we endured for a decade not so long ago are quickly evaporating (unlike the puddles in our neighbourhood!). With that in mind, we took JD and one of his school friends to the (indoors) Animal Museum today. They were particularly fascinated by the tiny "Nemo" clownfish and the wailing dinosaurs! This friend is quite shy, but very smart, and with parents who speak some English, which helps. We hope to meet up again next week for a play date.
 There was next to no mangled English in Thailand. A bit disappointing, to be honest. But despite recent Government pronouncements to be cracking down on it, China continues to be a goldmine of Chinglish which always brightens my day. This strange sign appeared in our local supermarket the other day.
...it's always intrigued me why ships carry "cargo" and yet cars carry "shipments"??  Our time in Phuket drew to an end yesterday. Before we left, JD was keen to say goodbye to "Vicky" [below] who runs "Pegy Club", the hotel's kids activity club which JD attended a few times. He enjoyed getting face-painted as a tiger and, later, as Spider-Man.  Our plane from Phuket left at 7.20am, which meant waking up at 3am to get a taxi for the hour's drive to the airport. Two flights and another taxi and we finally arrived back home in Kunming by 3pm. Unfortunately, my recent and excessive western food intake has led to a return of the gout which used to plague me for a decade, but from which I haven't suffered for many years. My ankle is badly swollen and I'm hobbling to get around. Hopefully the medicine, some rest and a return to a more healthy diet will see it improve within a few days.
 We did an island-hopping trip today. JD loved the powerful speedboat which took us around to three local islands. The promised snorkelling was a bit of a disappointment, but JD was able to see (and try to catch!) a few shoals of brave green fish who swim near the shore to be fed. The weather was good and, apart form some overcrowding on the islands, we enjoyed the half-day adventure.   Our holiday continues to be great fun. The free buffet breakfasts are great and set us up for the day, with the promise of an evening meal out at a restaurant later in the day. We've taken a local bus for 45 minutes into Phuket Old Town for some shopping, found a Tesco superstore for western goodies to bring back to China and seen a passing festival on its way to a temple.
We had seen weather forecasts threatening rain every day, but we have had dry, sometimes pleasantly overcast, days so far. We've been making good use of the swimming pools here and JD's confidence in the water has grown rapidly. He particularly loves swimming underwater and has been on the waterslide dozens of times (occasionally with me!). The warm sea and sandy beach are also within five minutes walk and we've been there a few times too.   Jiajia, JD and I took two plane hops down to Phuket in Thailand today. I'd been warned that the island was a touristy, nightlife nightmare but our hotel claimed to be quiet and family-friendly, and the flights were cheap, so we decided to take a chance. And it's fantastic. Our huge room has a kitchen and walk-in wardrobe and could sleep five. The balcony opens directly onto one of the four swimming pools. Downside? It's occupied by 95% Russians - "the zombies" as we call them - never smile, never interact with others, never look where they are walking. Such a dour lot. But we are looking forward to our week here.
 I was woken this morning by the mother-in-law to say that the (live) chicken Ava had been given yesterday had escaped its box overnight and flown off the balcony. JD and I got dressed quickly and found it in a small patch of garden behind the flat. But then it squeezed through a fence and "flew" 200m down the hill into someone's tennis court. We got out the e-bike and found the way down to the court, caught the chicken and returned home. It will be dispatched later.
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 AuthorPaul Hider started this blog to share his rather odd life living in China for over 20 years. Since returning to the UK in 2024, the blog now records his more "normal" lifestyle! Past blog entries
December 2024
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