|
|
We spent a lovely afternoon and evening at our friend Claire's today. Some of the time was spent putting together some mini-jigsaws - a fun challenge that that was new to JD and JiaJia.
All that, plus a lovely tea and a board game to finish. Thanks Claire! 
1 Comment
JD had his birthday treat today, inviting his three best school friends to join him in a go-karting event, followed by a nerf gun war and birthday cake back at home.
We had a lovely time last week when our long-time friends Vix and David visited for the day. As well as playing "The Mind", "The Game" and "Formula One" there was plenty of time for visiting charity shops, reminiscing, sharing meals and catching up after a (much too long) seven year gap. 
JD had his best friend Liam over for a playdate the other day. Liam's parents are French, but Liam's as English as they come!  We played Risk, I took them swimming and then, after a nerf gun battle, they enjoyed a duck pancake meal.
 We met up with Ratch, my good friend from College days, in London today to visit the British Museum. So much to see, and quite busy, but we saw the main sights by the end and left exhausted for a spot of shopping and some pancakes for dinner.
Despite seeing the Rosetta Stone, Elgin Marbles, Easter island statue, Sutton Hoo helmet, Lewis chessman, etc, I think my strongest memory will be handling the flint knife [bottom right] which the "hands on guide" assured us was crafted around 400,000 years ago. I mean, wow!!
I had a very pleasant tip to Oxford the other day to meet up with a couple of my closest friends from Westminster College, where I trained to be a teacher some 40 years ago. It says something about my priorities at that time that the girls were part of the catering staff, not fellow students!  Ratch [centre] emailed me daily throughout my whole time in China. Rosemary [right] was my bridge partner at College and still plays regularly. We had a great reminisce and caught up on our current semi-retired lives either side of a tasty lunch and a game of "Qwirkle Cubes" (...don't ask!).
So lovely to be visited by my old College mate, Claire, yesterday. Having not met up for 8 years or so, we had a lot of catching up to do! 
 We had a lovely trip out yesterday to meet up with Jeremy and Becky - old College friends who only live half an hour's drive from us now. Jeremy and I used to play Dungeons and Dragons together and share(d) a love of sci-fi and music. It was great to meet up with them and reminisce, as we shared a yummy lunch together.   Lovely visit today from the Sams family. Jo and Rob's two boys are so grown up now, considering we last met up with them 6 years ago. Both graduating/graduated really well from University and thinking about careers and girlfriends!! Well, sorta....
We have a nice carvery meal before heading to mutual friends Krista and Stuart's for desserts and watching a decidedly odd Olympic Opening Ceremony from Paris! We had our first (and only, so far!) Chinese visitor the other day. Our good friend Li Wei was amidst a month's tour of the UK and Ireland when she realised how close we are to Bath (10 minutes on the train) where she was staying the night, and popped over to meet up with us for a meal.  She was the last person to wish us farewell when we left China, travelling all the way from Hong Kong to Shenzhen airport just to catch us for a final half hour before we flew off. So it was perfect to see her at this end of the travels too, and for her to see our little house for herself.
Our first, short flight was a 2 hour hop to Shenzhen. Unfortunately, this flight was postponed three times and, whilst it didn't affect our onward flight - we had a 24 hour layover - it did mean we had no time to visit our friends there, who had offered to put us up for the night. Instead we used the airline's free hotel. But one of our friends was kind enough to meet us at the airport and drive us an hour to the hotel and take us out for a lovely meal.  Then later his wife rang to say she was travelling all the way back from Hong Kong to say goodbye to us just before we were due to leave Shenzhen for the flight to the UK. Such a lovely and generous couple. 
We met up with friends today to explore one of Kunming's wetland parks. JD took along the camera he bought recently with his birthday money. He had wanted a film or instant polaroid type but we managed to persuade him to buy a digital camera that just "looked" old-fashioned. And a good job too, as he took over 250 pictures during this one trip alone!
JD and I shared a nice meal at Swedish IKEA yesterday with a friend of over 20 years, "Nita", and her cute 7-year old daughter "Julia". The last time I saw Julia, she was two years old. Now she speaks some English, thanks to her Mum's ongoing efforts to bring her up bi-lingually.  It was lovely to catch up with them. And share some western food!
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!
 Today I met up with an ex-student of mine from 20 years ago. "Cinderella" was was visiting Kunming with her son who, very sadly, has a serious heart disease, despite only being 7 years old. They were having tests done at a cardiac specialist hospital here. It was lovely to see her again and play with her cute son.
JD's best friend is a classmate called GuoDingGe ("DingDing" for short). We've been helping look after her a bit recently as her parents are dealing with the death of her Grandfather a few days ago.
DingDIng and JD share similar interests and sense of humour. She is a little more sensible than JD, but he brings out the "silly" in her - so it's a nice mix and they love spending time together. They've spent 3-4 days playing together during the current holiday period, including sleepovers in a den they've built in JD's bedroom!
  I first met "Daizzy" when she was a trainee on a teacher-training course I ran in her County, some 17 years ago [ringed in above photo]. We've kept in touch since then and finally met up again yesterday when she visited Kunming on school business. Since that week way back in 2006 we have both got married (different spouses!) and had a total of three children! But we are both still teaching, and it was great to meet her over a cup of coffee and share all our news.
 Yesterday, we met up with friends to show them where we do our fossil hunting. After a nice lunch together at a countryside home/restaurant we headed up the hill with our hammers and brushes! We all managed to find some fossils, but the newcomers got the best of the bunch...
 JD, Jiajia and I spent yesterday afternoon at the Secret Forest with one of JD's schoolfriends and his Mum. We had a picnic first and then headed into the woods. I spent a few hours repairing the roof damage in our den, while JD and his friend had a go at building a new den nearby [see below]. It was a very hot and sunny day so, when we left at about 5pm, we were happy to stop at a nearby shop for an ice-cream. Fun day!  We spent an afternoon/evening in the countryside earlier this week, to celebrate May Day with friends' of friends who live there.
The village had a huge funfair area set up with a variety of activities and stalls. JD and his friend Guo Dinger spent over two hours in a big adventure playground. I had a wander round and was intrigued by the ice-cream seller [top right] who used liquid nitrogen to flash-freeze squirty whipped cream! Surprisingly tasty.
We left the park at 6pm and headed for the friends' home where we shared a barbecue on their balcony overlooking the village. Then a 40-minute drive back home, with JD asleep on the back seat!
 The family of one of JD's friends invited us all to their new house in ChengGong - a University satellite town of Kunming - to celebrate May Day. We got a lift there by car (it's 20km away) and then JD had fun playing with his friends with pellet guns inside the apartment and fishing outside. They cooked up a nice meal and, fairly late, we returned home by subway - an hour-long trip costing 5RMB (50p). 
Good friends of ours showed us an area on the outskirts of Kunming today where you can, if you are lucky, discover some 500 million year old fossils! We had great fun hammering, tapping and brushing for 3 hours and found about a dozen small fossils. The trilobite below (found by Jiajia) was the pick of the bunch. 
We went to a mountainside picnic area where the kids could run around and play. Lunch was a DIY barbecue - you bring your own food and then pay for charcoal and the barbecue grill to cook it on. Fun.
|
 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
Tags
All
|
