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With this probably being my last Christmas in China, I pulled out all the stops in my small classes and once-to-one lessons. My students - young and old - watched a Nativity Story powerpoint, reconstructed cut-up Christmas cards, made paper angels, opened presents and crackers, completed wordsearches/crosswords, acted out charades and played Christmas Bingo. Back to grammar next week...
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I first met LaiLai when I was a VSO volunteer 25 years ago - she worked in the Beijing Office for a year. We last met 15 years ago when she invited me to help on a Red Cross trip to assess the needs of a remote village near Kunming (LaiLai was working for the Red Cross by then). We've kept in touch now and again through the years but it was still a bit of a surprise to get a message from her saying that her family were on holiday travels from their home in South Korea, and would be passing through Kunming on Boxing Day if we were free to meet....  So we shared a nice meal together a couple of days ago, chatting about old times! Her husband is from Devon and was also a VSO volunteer during my time with the charity (though we couldn't recall each other!). JD quickly broke down their kids' shyness and took them downstairs in the restaurant to barbecue "smelly tofu" together!
Despite a last-minute panic when we couldn't find a shop that sold chickens(!), JiaJia managed to rustle up another fantastic Christmas dinner. She even made a lemon cake for dessert. Yum yum!
25th December here is a normal school day for JD, so Santa kindly agreed to come a night early - complicated by the fact that JD woke up with a blinding headache at 2am! He was asleep again by 2.30am and alarms were duly reset!!  The title refers to "1-2-3" in Chinese. JD hung up THREE stockings!
A bit of a low key Christmas this year. JD got his main present a month ago (a bicycle) and has been off school ill for the last week. Jiajia is busy studying to pass her English language exams to qualify for a Spousal visa, and I am packing, preparing lessons and trying to finish my huge Birthday Lego model! So limited festive excitement here.
But the decorations are all up and we have a nice pile of presents.
And Jiajia has promised to rustle up a Christmassy meal on Sunday!  Whatever it is, JD has it, according to blood tests at the hospital yesterday. It's been sweeping through the classrooms of China recently, so it was probably only a matter of time. JD has a fever, headache and cough. He's off school, sleeping a lot and vomiting up anything he eats. He's on antibiotics now which should help (though internet messages are mixed on that one). Fingers crossed for a swift recovery. His Primary School yesterday suggested JD have his last lessons with them at the end of this month. So he needs to get better quickly to say goodbye to his teacher and classmates. Then it's home-schooling until starting a UK school.
My brother Dave's thriving consultancy business, Mind-gap, recently funded a food programme for 1000+ kids from the slums in Bangalore, India. We (including JD) added a small donation too. Some wonderful photos arrived yesterday showing the work in progress.
The only exercise JD got during his school's Sports Meeting last week was walking to the stadium and back with his classmates! Athletic prowess isn't really part of JD's skillset. But it meant less homework for a few days, which is always welcome.
Jiajia and I went to the cemetery this morning to move Druncle's ashes from the temple to his grave plot. After the ceremony, Jiajia and I were looking out at the scenery when two doves flew down right in front of us. This was quite strange as we didn't see any other bird elsewhere, or before or after. Jiajia's Gran is also buried in this cemetery and it was she who adopted Druncle as a child and brought him up. So the two doves seemed to have some significance...  The doves fly off together  JD's class were chosen to be the guinea-pigs in a maths teaching competition this week. JD is centre in the second row.
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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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