Ocean of Morality
  • Blog
  • Family
  • Relatives
  • Countries
  • Gallery
  • Guestbook

A one to three

29/9/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
It all seems to be kicking off in HK at the moment. Not that you'd know much about it here - any news of the "events" is strictly controlled (even the BBC website is blocked now). All I'll say about the issue is, "A1, A2 or A3" is no choice if you want "B". And the signs being held up by the police say, "Warning: Please disperse" in English, but "Leave now or you will be shot" in Chinese. It seems to show that international opinion is still important at some level. Let's hope it all gets resolved peacefully and soon.
0 Comments

One point five

28/9/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
JD turned 1½ years old today. By coincidence, the daughter of one of our foreign friends in Kunming turned 3 on exactly the same day. So we joined her and 3-4 other toddlers for a little party in Green Lake Park. JD enjoyed the train [see photos], but not as much as squirting water at the plastic ducks. He needed four goes on that before losing any interest!

Picture
It's been 18 months of fast development for JD and a steep learning curve for us ageing parents! JD is just getting over his first cold, so he keeps pretty healthy. He is a very inquisitive chap and has a good memory for words, places and even tastes that he likes/dislikes. He tends to mix with kids who are a year or more older than him, but seems to take this in his stride and is often the one doing things that the others try to copy (climbing, poking bugs, jumping off walls, splashing in puddles etc). Without wishing to sound soppy, we're very proud of out little rascal. Happy Half Birthday, JD! 

Picture
JD trying to shave, holding his Louis Vuitton bag and playing the mouth organ!
0 Comments

Ugly, smelly, but man, 'tis beautiful

27/9/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
I take JD to the Zoological Museum most weeks. He loves working the lift, shouting out the names of all the animals he knows and pressing all the display buttons. There are also a couple of interactive computer games beamed onto the floor and JD gets very excited, stamping to "frighten fish" and "scare away moles", etc. We're usually the only people there, and we have an annual pass which lets us in for free.  The animals are generally very life-like, with the notable exception of this forlorn-looking creature which always makes me chuckle.

Picture
JD's favourite section is the entomology display (insects to you and me) where the floor is glass and you can spot various creepy-crawlies under your feet as well as in the cabinet displays. Until recently, his vocabulary only extended to "mayi" (ant) and "bee", but I've been trying to teach him that the bigger insects are beetles. Helpfully , on the way home this week, I spotted a live one - a "stink bug". We popped it in a jar overnight and, pretty soon, JD was saying "beetle" beautifully as he tapped the glass.

Then yesterday at the play park, I spotted this gorgeous praying mantis in a bush. Once again, I found a plastic box and we had a little guest for the night. The Chinese word seemed much easier to pronounce, so JD has now added "tanglang" to his insect vocabulary!
Picture
0 Comments

Why? Just be cars...

25/9/2014

1 Comment

 
Picture
Various cities in China held a "No Cars" day this week.
Parts of Kunming were cordoned off and eerily quiet.
Not quite so successful in Beijing....
Picture
1 Comment

Housepoints

23/9/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
You can see these signs on many old buildings in China. I took this picture on my recent visit to Heijing. 30-40 years ago, all the households in a town would be graded by the local leaders in ten categories. Those reaching the required standards received a star, proudly displayed on signs like this, outside the house. The very best citizens got all ten stars. It reminds me of the "housepoints" we used to receive as children in Primary School! This house failed on being "hygienic" and "modern".
0 Comments

Sheep sleep

21/9/2014

1 Comment

 
Picture
I presume the sheep's been having its naps on the heath?
1 Comment

Dyouthinkhesaurus?

19/9/2014

 
Picture
Saw this strange display in the street recently .
No explanatory signage. No idea why it's there!

Unitted we stand

17/9/2014

 
Picture
Here’s some rather odd Chinglish just in
time for the Scotish independence votte!

Self-service

15/9/2014

1 Comment

 
Picture
If there's one area where JD is often less than well-behaved, it's feeding time. He makes a huge fuss when offered milk or solids, and shows little interest in snacks, juice or fruit. We think part of the problem is a quickly-bored mind and a burgeoning desire to do everything for himself. Having cartoons (or Chinese "X-factor") on the TV has kept him distracted enough to be fed up to now, but he increasingly prefers to be given a spoon, a fork or a pair of chopsticks and have a go at feeding himself. It inevitably ends up in a huge mess, but he seems to enjoy the process!
1 Comment

Dog/basket

13/9/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Saw this sight on a recent trip into the countryside.
Aren't dogs meant to sleep IN their basket?
0 Comments

Let sleeping dogs lie

11/9/2014

 
Picture
Two days ago was Jiajia's half-birthday. As is my tradition, she awoke to half a birthday card, half a slice of cake and a truncated rendition of "Happy Birthday to you". As is also something of a tradition, she had no idea what I was on about it, after a childhood where even her birthday was seldom mentioned. She got her own back though with a funny hand-drawn card for Chinese Teachers' Day, which I had no idea was yesterday. The drawing [see above] shows a portly me teaching a class of various disinterested animals the word "pig". And this is the woman with a degree in Fine Art!

Blue clue, green seen

9/9/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Back on 11th May, 2007 I made this blog entry about a caged bird I had spotted in the countryside:

"Keeping singing birds is a very popular hobby in China. If you walk along the street and hear a chirping bird overhead, you can be fairly sure it’s in a cage hanging from a branch! The most commonly kept breed of bird looks pretty dull, but sings beautifully. But this bird [see photo, right] looked as pretty as it sounded. The owner said it had no name (birds are rarely named) so I called it “Bluey”. I have no idea what kind of bird it is but I’d love to know. I’m trawling the internet, but if you know, or you know where I could find out, please drop me a line!"

Picture
I never did find out what the bird was until, that is, last week when JD and I visited Kunming's Zoological Museum. There, in one glass cabinet, was "my" bird, looking a bit the worse for wear, but definitely the same species. It turns out it is a "Green Magpie", though quite when green becomes blue is still a mystery.

0 Comments

Dinner winner

7/9/2014

2 Comments

 
Picture
Tomorrow is mid-Autumn Festival where Chinese families get together to exchange over-priced, but lavishly packaged, pastry cakes and gaze at the full moon (clouds permitting). The mooncakes can be filled with meat, meat/sugar(!?), fruits, bean paste or egg. Not being able to read the box means it's always a bit of a lottery and, being dry and mass-produced, I've never eaten one I've really enjoyed. However, that didn't stop me entering an online competition to win 300RMB (£30) of hand-made mooncakes from a top Kunming Hotel and, lo and behold, I won! They made a good gift for a generous friend of ours and she, in return, gave us a box of eggs, which are much tastier.

2 Comments

On average

5/9/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
With the Lattitude course finishing last weekend and the beginning of term, I was working from 9am to 9pm for 10 days on the trot. Jiajia has been away in Shenzhen for a week, too. I've been leaving home before JD wakes and arriving back half an hour or so before he heads off to bed. I've felt bad about him hardly seeing his parents for over a week. I was therefore a bit nervous to read about a recent study which shows that modern working fathers spend five times longer each day with their children than they did 40 years ago. However, that apparently amounts to 25 minutes a day now, compared with 5 minutes a day in the mid 1970s! So I seem to be managing the average, even on a busy week. Phew!    

Picture
JD blags yet another freebie from our nearby chemists!
0 Comments

Salt with a deadly weapon

3/9/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Our trip to Heijing last month included a trip to the Salt Museum there. Amongst the more dull exhibits was this photo montage of people in stocks and chains, with some apparently being beheaded. I had to ask Jiajia for a translation to find out what it was about. Apparently the mining, purification and selling of salt (a valuable commodity in those days) was a strictly  controlled process and the poor individuals in the pictures had merely been caught trading the stuff without permission. Ouch!

0 Comments

Goosey goosey gone-da

1/9/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
They've doubled in size in the last two weeks, they've grown claws on the end of their webbed feet and they poo copious amounts! We've finally decided enough is enough, and the geese left today to live with a friend of a friend who has a countryside farm. JD said his goodbyes to HeiHei and JingJing and we hope they enjoy a happy life before being dispatched and served up in a restaurant!
0 Comments
    paul hider

    Author

    Paul Hider lives and works in Kunming (SW China) and regularly updates this blog about his life there.

    Past blog entries

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009

    Tags

    All
    April Fool
    Basketball
    Birthday
    Blog
    CAL
    Car
    Cataract
    Cemetery
    China
    Chinglish
    Chippenham
    ChongQing
    Christmas
    Competition
    Construction
    Cooking
    Cop15
    Countryside
    COVID
    Dali
    Dancing Lady
    Dave & Esme
    Den
    Dentist
    Disaster
    DnD
    Dorta
    Druncle
    Earthquake
    Ebike
    Education
    Everton
    Exams
    Exercise
    Family
    Film
    Fishing
    Flashback
    Food
    Forest
    Fossils
    Friends
    Furniture
    Games
    Gardening
    Geese
    Gym
    Halloween
    Hamsters
    Health
    Heijing
    Holiday
    Home
    Homework
    IELTS
    IKEA
    Illusion
    JD
    Jiajia
    Kindergarten
    Kunming
    Language
    Laos
    Lattitude
    Leaf
    Lego
    Lexulous
    London
    Ma
    Mandarin
    Merton
    Minority
    Molly
    Mountain
    Movie
    Museum
    Nancy & Family
    Nanny
    Neighbourhood
    New Flat
    Olympics
    Painting
    Parents
    Park
    Party
    Paul & Crystal
    Pets
    Podcast
    Police
    Pregnancy
    Primary School
    Private Tuition
    Random Travel
    Relatives
    Renovation
    R.I.P.
    R.S.L.
    Running
    Schools
    Shenzhen
    Shopping
    Ski
    Sport
    Spring Festival
    Sri Lanka
    Swimming
    Temple
    TESOL
    Thailand
    Theme Park
    Traffic
    Training
    Transport
    Travel
    TV
    UFO
    UK
    University
    Vietnam
    Violence
    Visit
    VSO
    Water
    Weather
    Wedding
    Wildlife
    World Cup
    Xishuangbanna
    YUFE
    Yunnan
    Zoo
    Zoom

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.