Ten years married to this lovely woman! Who'd have thought?
 With the frequent summer rainstorms and sunshine, our neighbourhood is looking particularly green and full of shade.
JD entered another competition yesterday. This one was a little more low-key than the Lego extravaganza earlier this week, but still fun. The task was to make a collage featuring the cat logo of the sponsors plus something on the theme of the "UN International Biodiversity Conference" being held in Kunming later this year. This contest was a nationwide one, so we won't know the result for a week or two, but it was a fun event regardless.
Well my cataract operation is all done. No pain exactly, but more uncomfortable than I'd been led to believe. I stayed overnight in the hospital afterwards but I was up and about this morning. The staff were really good - professional and caring - and they asked for a group photo before I left as I was the first foreigner they had treated. My wife was a star too, braving heavy rains to translate for me and bring me food! Two weeks of "20 eye drops a day" now, plus I'll need new glasses!   I spent 9 hours doing various tests today in preparation for a cataract operation tomorrow. 8 eye tests, blood test, blood pressure test, ECG, chest X-ray, you name it! Jiajia was really helpful and patient as usual but it was a tiring process. The operation is tomorrow morning.
JD took part on a huge Lego Competition this morning along with 43 other kids of a similar age. He got first place in the initial round ("Make your name out of Lego"), then made the tallest tower (though not the most stable, so 4th place there) and then came first again in the final solo round ("Make an amazing building"). Overall, a sensational first place! His prize was a Harry Potter Lego set worth 700RMB (£70), a certificate and a handshake with the head of the bank who sponsored the event. JD was gob-smacked, and we were pretty chuffed too!   Fire advice in China is often a
bewildering mish-mash of Chinglish! We had a fun day our with out new friends - a family we originally met at our Secret Forest den 6 months ago - visiting a mountain area they enjoy going to and sharing lunch and dinner with them. Our combined four e-bike convoy made the 50km round trip without recharging and the rain held off, despite dark skies. JD loved digging a slate mine, we diverted a small stream, made walled "gardens", played frisbee and caught a frog. What more could you ask for on a day out?
JD's school teachers send multiple daily messages to all their students' parents, even in holiday time. My phone does its best to translate the Chinese into English, but there are frequent messages which leave me totally bewildered, for example....  Mind you, Jiajia says the originals are often total nonsense too!
 JD had his end of term ceremony yesterday. Afterwards, as a treat for all his hard work, Jiajia and I offered him a McDonalds Happy Meal. But JD said he preferred baozi and jiaozi. These are a somewhat more traditional snack of steamed meat dumplings. Jiaozi [left, below] have a thin skin and are moon-shaped Baozi [right, below] are fluffier and circular. Dip one or the other in a sauce of your making (Me? Soy/vinegar with a pinch of chilli. JD? Soy and sugar!) and eat whole. 8RMB (80p) for a tray of 10. Yum! 
 It's always a good laugh to see what contorted position JD is sleeping in when I go to wake him up in the morning!
I've always woken him in the same way: Lights on, 10 min snooze. Get dressed and another 10 min snooze. Lights on, get out of bed to wash, brush teeth and have breakfast. But from next term, I've told him he needs to do it all by himself...   I've had four dental visits over the last three weeks - two fillings, an x-ray, a clean and two "inlays" - a procedure in which a scanner builds a 3D model of your teeth [see below] in order to 3D print a small but precise resin shape that fits exactly into a gap between the teeth - a gap which apparently has been attracting decay! Not cheap or quick, but state-of-the-art. JD had a check-up too, but no problems for him! 
Posters have been put up all around town over the last month or so, reminding people that the great Communist Party of China is celebrating 100 years (yesterday). Happy Anniversary, CPC! My phone translates the poster content as a heady mix of self-congratulatory and confusing messages. Most Chinese people I know just shrug. Politics and its associated propaganda are not a conversational priority here.
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 AuthorPaul Hider lives and works in Kunming (SW China) and regularly updates this blog about his life there. Past blog entries
March 2023
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