Bombay Bliss

I cook from scratch most nights but sometimes just don't feel like it so Wednesday night I said to Warren "We are going out for dinner tomorrow night. You pick the venue!" thinking that he would say the local club.

Didnt really bother me where we were going as long as I had a night off cooking. Not that fond of take away, prefer a sit down meal away from home.

He pondered for awhile and said that he felt like a goat curry. That meant Indian and we have two choices within 5-6ms. He chose the Bombay Bliss.

True to form, he did not waver from his goat curry but I looked at most things on the menu, there is a lot to look at and decided on a vegetarian curry because it had egg plant in it. Unfortunately my egg plant bush died, probably through lack of water as it was around the side of the house and therefore out of sight, I must plant another in plain sight of the back door.

We ordered and sat back to chat about our day when the waitress came over and said that they could not make my egg plant curry as they had no egg plant left and neither did the supermarket. The restaurant is two doors down from the supermarket. She had brought over the menu for me to choose something else and then asked if I liked cauliflower as they could make the same curry using cauliflower instead. I said to her "That sounds good" and it tasted good too when it came. I remarked to Warren that it showed that they do make it fresh.

Very nice meal, we tried some of each others dishes and couldn't finish it all. Paid the bill and left. Driving away I said to Warren its nice to go out and eat and then even nicer to just get up and leave, no dishes, no kitchen to tidy.

A Surprise.

After getting home from work tonight Warren says to me "Follow me" and he went towards the back door. I wondered what he was up to as I knew he had been out most of the day. As we headed out the back door and onto the patio I was frantically looking around to see what I should be looking at, nope couldn't see anything different.

He walked me round the table and then pointed to our sad looking pot plants and said "Do you see it?"

"It" was a little green tree snake, although it must be over a metre long. He wasnt moving and hasn't moved. He may have died with the cold over night. Warren will check in the morning.

I had not seen one before so up close and personal but I was told earlier in the week that tree snakes love passion fruit vines although he is several metres away from our vine. I was glad that Warren had shown me and that I hadn't suddenly come across him. I know that they are not harmful but just the thought doesn't do much for me.   

Banks in China

So many big banks in China in some places it seems like one on every corner. Any bank that I used had a security officer and one or two staff members out the front. Mostly the member at the front did speak English and they were there to direct people to which teller or form that they needed.

Warren and I had both kept our bank accounts open when we left as we always intended going back and thought that being able to put money into an account there rather than carrying a large amount of money would be a good idea. Well, yes we returned but we didnt use them so one day we went into the bank to close the accounts and of course withdraw the money that we had in there.

Armed with our bank cards and passport we head to the bank. We were given a slip with a number and then it was sit and wait. There were four rows of seats, several people were already sitting. Five tellers are working and above the tellers is a number  that that they are dealing with at the time.We only have nine numbers in front of us, five tellers, nine numbers, no time at all. Twenty minuets went by and only two people had left, hummm not going to be as quick as we thought.

After an hour we are at the front, we decided to go separately.I could hear Warren talking to his teller but mine didnt speak English or if she did, not to me.  Our accounts had been frozen because they hadn't been used for over twelve months so they had to be reactivated, so that meant two or three pieces of paper. Then our passports that had had to be photocopied did not match the passports that we had opened the accounts with which meant more paperwork. An hour at the front of the tellers and finally we were done with 360 RMB each in our hot little hands.

Those poor tellers, I felt guilty, I think that they filled out a dozen or more forms, I know that I had to enter my number around eight to ten times. I am sure they were glad to see the back of us.

At each tellers cubicle there is a press button with three buttons labelled in both English and Chinese, labelled Satisfactory, average or unsatisfactory  I would have liked to hit excellent but had to be happy with Satisfactory. All that paperwork!

Woman in Gold

We haven't been to the movies for awhile and there is a couple of good ones on at the moment. I particularly wanted to see Spy as it has two of my fav actors Jason Stratton and Melissa McCarthy I think her name is, she was in Bridesmaids. Hadn't checked the times that they were on until we were having our morning coffee.

Oops, movie started at 10.45 am and it was already 10.32 am, not going to make that, next time was 1.20pm. Yep, that's a better time as we had things to do, washing in the machine to hang out etc. Then Warren informs me that Woman in Gold is showing at 11 am. We tossed a coin, heads for 11 am or tails for Spy at 1.20 pm, you can guess what flipped up.

Helen Mirren is also one of the actresses that I admire so it was no great drama to see that one and we can go and see Spy next week. Tuesday is the cheap day and my day off so works out well.

What a top movie and I didn't realise until after that it was based on a true story. There were flash backs to the second world war in amongst the movie and some of the buildings in Austria were just magnificent, made me want to go and visit just to see the imposing apartment blocks although as told in the story they are office space now.

Of course in between the drama there was the age old joke between Australia and Austria and it went like this: the lawyer was lodging a complaint in America against the Austria Government and the middle aged clerk remarked Oh Austria, my daughter would like to go there, she has always wanted to see kangaroos! bomp bong!

I did wonder if that statement was only in the Aussie version as it could easily be taken out.

Biggest Morning Tea.

This is a fund raiser for cancer research and has been going for several years during the month of May. Our group of women the Red Hatters had had an invite for the group that helps us start our group. As it was also their tenth birthday the Queen (Maureen) and I felt that we should go.

We had to pay about two months ago $25, bit OTT I thought for morning tea but it was for charity.

Start time was 10.30am so we frocked up, we knew that there were be quite a lot of ladies there from many RH groups and we of course wanted to present at our best.

Time to get out the long purple skirt, the high heels (also in purple) and my purple Chinese silk jacket plus my fancy dancy hat. I don't wear my fancy hat very often as it is a bit too flash for me.I usually throw on a cap or just a head band that meets the criteria for having "red on the head"

One hundred and sixty women were there in all manner of red and purple, amazingly no two outfits were the same, I always find that incredible. There were some amazing hats as well, one group had similar hats, they had made them using a bra as the base. I asked one lady if I could take a photo but silly me, I didn't open the flap on my phone so my photo is a great pic of pink. (the colour of my phone cover)duh!

Cupcakes were on the tables when we found a seat and we helped ourselves to coffee, there were some speeches and then some music, a bit of dancing. Not sure who wants to dance with only women at 11 am in the morning but some did. Caught up with a few that I had meet before, then more food came out sandwiches, hot quiches and sausages rolls followed by pancakes, jam and cream. Too much food really as there was a lot left. I was ready to leave then as it was 12 noon but no, there was more.

Entertainment was a dance troupe from the host group, one lady recited a poem and talked about joining the navy 60 years ago and another talking about Op shop shopping.

Meeting on a bus

Warren and I were on a bus heading back to our flat, we had been to the capital for the day. Buses in China allow quite a lot of room for standing patrons and as such in the middle of the bus is standing room and only one row of single seats. I was sitting on one of these opposite the second door towards the back.

At one stop, I noticed a young woman get on the bus and swipe her bus card, I resumed people watching out of my window and then I heard a voice asking "Vicki? is that you?" I turned to face this person and she smiled and said "It is you!" I agreed that I was indeed Vicki and she went on to tell me that I had taught her in high school and she graduated in 2007. It must have been 2006 that I was her teacher as the students did not have foreign teachers in their final year as they were too busy studying to get a place in college.Back the school was not a University.

Nine years ago, what a memory! Chatting with her I discovered that she herself was practicing to become an  English  teacher, she was doing her final prac before getting her qualification.

As "our" school was a vocational school, students could go on to become qualified but it took a little longer so she had graduated from high school done four years at college then onto Uni.

She laughed and said that she always remembered that she had to say please when asking for something, I apparently had held back on giving her and others a worksheet until they asked properly. They would just say "I want/need a paper" I would insist that they say "I want a paper please" then and only then would I give them what they asked. She said it was a good lesson in using English correctly as it is not usual in Chinese to add that little magic word of "please". She also said that she makes sure that her students use Please and Thank you when they are using English.

All too soon her stop came up and she had to get off, she thanked me for teaching her and waved Goodbye.
We taught so many kids while were in China and we have only kept up with a handful of them, it was nice to meet one just out of the blue. I cant believe that she recognized me after nine years!After all, I am nine years older, now wear glasses, greyer and 20 kgs lighter.

Shanghai

Going back to China, one of the must dos was to go to Shanghai. I don't really like big cities that much but I must admit that Shanghai is my favourite city and I am not sure why. Maybe because when we were living in China it was the place to go and just be one of the crowd. I know where things are that I want and how to get there.What ever the reason, a trip to Shanghai was a must.

We travelled up by train, great way to get around in China, trains are comfortable, run on time and relatively cheap. Less than two hours and we arrived then it was a short trip on the subway, the cards that we bought over two years ago still operated so just a touch of the card opened the gates. Subway trains come every few minutes and our hotel was straight across from the subway station.

Most hotel rooms offer double rooms with two double beds.

We walked from the centre of Shanghai to The Bund checking out the book store on the way. Over the years I had spent a lot of money there, the books used to be reasonably cheap and many times I took a trip to Shanghai with an empty back pack and went back with it full of books. Now though prices had caught up and I didn't see any books under 100RMB ($20) just as well as my luggage probably couldnt have held it. Just for old times sakes we did buy a couple of Beijing Reviews.

 Ahh The Bund and the Shanghai skyline.

My May Challenge

I have set myself a task to save a certain amount of money by the end of the year. It is quite a large amount so to achieve it, I have broken it down into months, savings and challenges. For this month, I wanted to keep our food shopping down to $50 or less each week. There is or was quite a bit of food in the pantry and the freezer is pretty full.

First week on the first of May I set out with my shopping list and promptly spend $53.67 so over, not by much but still over. Second week I did better only spending $49.15, 85 cents clawed back.

Last Friday night, I discovered that we were out of butter and I had planned to have raisin toast for dessert, cant have raisin toast without!. Warren offered to go shopping IF I gave him a list. As I was tired and didn't want to go out just after I had arrived home from work, I accepted his offer a little fearful of my monetary challenge for the month, after all I was still behind a little.

My list has six things on it and he came home with two bags, not a good sign. I unpacked it and there were a couple of things in the bag that had not been on my list! I must admit though that they were things that we would use, the shopping receipt was in the bottom and he had only spent $32.06 and No butter!

Raisin toast was served with a smattering of jam on it. The next morning checking out the fridge for something else, I saw a pack of butter that I did remember buying when I did a big shop after our holidays. I had recently read how to make spreadable butter so I took the butter out to soften to turn it into a spreadable spread, the recipe also claimed to makes three times as much. Recipe called for 500gms of butter, not marg but real butter, a cup of powered milk and half a cup of olive oil, beat til smooth. It probably doubled but it will spread straight from the fridge and meant that I didnt have to go back to the shops.

Milk and yoghurt is getting low and they were on the list to buy.  Warren had to get our scripts done and it was a twenty minute wait so he went into the shops and bought some more yoghurt as he knew that he had used the last one and made it up that morning. I should still come under $50 for the week as there is not much else on the list.

Just transferred some money saved from the food shopping to our saving account so on track to make this months saving goal.

East Lake or Dong Hu

We first went to East lake in 2003 and visited a few times since. It has changed over time like everything does but the fundamentals are still there. Dong Hu is the Chinese name, Dong meaning East and Hu meaning lake. I had asked a taxi driver to take us to Dong Hu, it was about 8 kms away. We were chatting and I realised we were going the wrong way. When we were stopped at lights I said again Dong Hu and then used the points of a compass on my hand N,E,S,W. He then repeated Dong Hu and changed lanes and turned in the right direction. Although I know the words my pronunciation is not good, luckily We knew where we should have been going, it was only a couple of kms out of our way, so cost us 12yuan rather than 10.($3 rater than $2.50)

These black covered boats ferry people up and along the lake and traditionally belong to Shaoxing. Interesting thing with these boats they are paddled by foot. The "rowers" are bare foot and use just one foot steer and paddle. Most are operated now by older men but surprisingly there are some young girls who do operate them as well.

It is not a very big lake but considering it in almost the middle of the city it is very peaceful especially on a week day. many local families visit on the weekends and it has become one of the places to visit for holidaying Chinese as well.

The lake can be crossed by foot, several bridges, one that I crossed still hasn't been changed ( I guess it never will as it must be very old). I dont have a photo as I was too busy concentrating on my feet it is reasonably high to allow the boats to go under it and it is steps to the top and then solid rock with no sides, about a metre wide. I was glad to get to the other side and continue walking.

At times the city does hold open air opera there is a stage in the water where the players perform and the audience are in boats on the water. We didnt get the opportunity to see that but I  imagine it was have been amazing with the boats all trying to get the best view.

A birthday gift

Warren and I are avid followers for footy (AFL) but sadly our kids and grandkids are not, where did we go wrong? However our grandson Ryan who lives in Melbourne THE Football Capital changed schools a couple of year ago and through school friends got to know footy and plays at school and is quite knowledgeable about the game and players etc.

Last time we were there, he was following Essendon, whose colours and red and black, it is also his school footy colours but now it seems that he has given them the flick and is following the Great Black and Whites Collingwood, the magpies (My Team.)

Ryan has a birthday next month and I always struggle with what to buy him as we don't see him very often. Then I had a light bulb moment and wondered about getting something about footy.

The on-line store had a sale on, I ordered this jacket and cap it was sent postage free and I received it in four days of putting in the order. Very happy with that. Ryan's birthday isnt for another month but I will get it away to him this week I am sure with the weather in Melbourne he will get the use out of it. The cap has the current captain and his number on it.

Farmer Brown's Paddock

Yesterday was a motor ride held down at Beaudesert, starting around 8am. This ride is only a one dayer and there is no briefing beforehand except when coming in the gate and handing over the money for the privilege of riding there.

Full weekend rides that we have done have a briefing at a set time and no-one can ride before then, which is usually a start time of nine or ten o'clock.

We left at 7.30am with a view to arrive at nine. Jason and Paulie both live much closer and they were there and set up waiting for us to get there.

I am always amazed at who and what turns up at these things. There are utes and trailers, 4WDs, covered purpose built things, all manner of vehicles all with one thought in mind, get out on the track and blow some cobwebs away.

The short track was short and the boys did it twice before morning tea. I had packed coffee and rolls, pasties and lamingtons. As Warren's bike fits on the camper van we had taken that, handy to tow and then we have the shade of the van when we are there. I took along the computer and finished off some editing work that I have been trying to do for the last few weeks.

The boys decided to go on the long track it was 23 ms and Warren sad they would be about an hour. One hour went then two, many are packing up and leaving, I start packing up our stuff and finally they get back all looking very weary. Not only was it a longer ride it was much much harder. Two hours and forty minutes it took to do 23 kms, there were a few falls along the way.

Not one of our bikes but this was a bike that I saw when we stopped at Maccas on the way home. The guys were back at 2.10pm but the lunch tent had packed up by then so there was no hot food available. We stopped in the nearest township for toilets and food as many others, Warren thought that this bike had probably fallen in one of the creek crossings. 

 

Town Hall (City Hall)

Our group of Red Hatters travelled by train to Brisbane city to visit and have a tour through the city Hall. Several of us met at the train station and we picked up others on the way, we have a loose arrangement that we will be on the third carriage.

It was a lovely day and we alighted at Central station and had a short walk down to the hall. I had been outside it before but didn't realise what the building was, definitely need to work on my adopted states history.

Morning tea was the first thing on the agenda and we had booked tables for nineteen of us at The Shingle Inn which is in the bottom of the building and it has been operating for years. Very nice with old fashioned wooden booths, food and drinks were very up to date though. I chose a passionfruit mousse cake to go with my coffee. Yum, I did not need lunch.

At eleven thirty a guide met us in the lobby and as well as giving us a tour of the hall also gave us a history lesson, much of which I had not known. He also requested from the Mayors office the opportunity to go through the hallowed doors and so we found ourelves in the reception romms whee they hold press conferences. There was a massive mirror over a fireplace where the Mayor gives his speeches.

The tour ended with a visit to the Hollywood costumes display which have been there for a few weeks and due to close soon.

BYO Chair

We went a nearby city to meet friends and have lunch at a Yemen diner, had been there before and returned because the food is sooooo good.

Our standard order for six adults was four breads, three humus a green salad and four "kebabs" but these are like four small lamb chops on a skewer and dessert was banana bread. The banana bread is Warren favourite and it is just rice and smashed banana molded into a bowl and served with honey. It looks boring and a bit gray but it is very tasty.

This is the flat bread and salad.

After a great meal, Warren got on the bike with J while S and I caught the bus, it was about a 45 minute ride back. Seats on the bus are plastic but reasonably comfortable. A lady got on a one stop and she had a couple of bags with her, she was from one of the out lying areas and as the bus got going, she whipped out her own chair.

It was a bamboo stool and she sat on that until it was her stop to get off.

Silk Market

I needed an excuse to go here in Hangzhou (not really as I was going anyway.) This was my sanity break when I would take myself off to away from everything else. Good for gifts and just a nice pleasant walk in a shaded area for two blocks.

Hangzhou is an hour trip on the bus and then a short walk to a subway train station to be delivered into the main part of the city. The subway was only completed about four years ago, very uncomplicated.

We got out of the subway and then walked it is about a 30 minute walk to silk street, on the way we saw a hotdog place, called Top Banana (they only sold hot dogs, no bananas on the menu)this was new so we decided to try it out for lunch.

High tables and chairs, it was nice to sit eat and chat.

The colour on my camera was a bit weird at the time. I wasn't 

keen on the "potato" balls that came with the hot dog  but that was good.

 

Ahhh! one of my favourite places, the silk market. Over the years I have bought slippers, fabric, scarves nightwear and a back pack that is leather and has a woven silk picture on the back.

This is some of what I bought.

I bought 20 of assorted scarves and gave the girls at work a choice, I have about five left, I will either keep them for gifts or use them myself, I do have about ten that I do use already some I bought and some have been given to me. I also bought two square scarves the same and I am hoping to make a top from them. The above are long and narrow.

Cooking beetroot.

Never again am I doing that! Yes, it does taste better than tinned but the hassle!

I have only cooked it a couple of times before and was putting it off until I had to cook it or bin it in a few more days and that would be wasteful.

I have got a bit lazy and have just left my box of fruit and vege to come with what ever they select. The last few times that I wanted to change something, I have had to get a new password and fluff around so I have just gone with the flow so to speak and accepted the box as it is, that is how I had beetroot to cook.

I know it takes for ever and so to speed things a little, I used a jug of boiling water, that a Jamie Oliver trick/suggestion. All good, two good sized beetroot boiling away on the stovetop, I left the lid of the saucepan up a bit so that it wouldn't boil over and had it on the lowest setting.

Thirty minutes went by and I checked the pot, yep no problems except there was some splatter on the tiles, red juice on white tiles is not a good look so I wiped them clean.

Warren came through the kitchen on his way outside and suggested that something was cooking/burning, I told him what I was cooking. Then realised I could smell burning. Oh no, the pot had boiled dry. I guess because the lid was up. Grabbed the pot off and run water into it, masses of steam and pot was slightly black on the bottom. Beetroot seems alright but not soft yet.

Cleaned pot, wiped stove top and tiles again, refreshed water and started again on a low setting with lid on. Wiping tiles clean in one day is not my idea of fun.

Football on TV started so checked the beetroot and sat and knitted, a few ads in, checked beetroot again, yep yep no probs there, plenty of water, just bubbling away, low profile. It seems five minutes later I could smell burning! Yep boiled dry again, this time the pot was blacker than before but at least the beets were soft.

Cut the burnt edge away and put them into the fridge, scrubbed the pot clean and bummer, more splatters on the stove top and tiles, third time to clean it.

Dinner was egg and bacon pie with a cooked beetroot warmed in microwave. Tasted good but never again! I will buy the tinned variety

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Mothers day

Mothers day today and I was delivered breakfast in bed. A lightly fried egg on toast and a weak black coffee just as I like it.

warren had done the housework and the washing on Friday and as we have no plan to go anywhere or anyone visiting I am having a PJ day, cathing up on emails, blogs etc. Then I might do some sewing, it is going to be My day.

I cooked extra last night so meal for today are done.

I hope all mums today are having a similar day or at least some time to themselves

Haircuts

I have changed hair dressers. A friend who is in my women's group has a salon at home and last time I went to her. It was a nice cut and so I wanted to continue to go there. Coming up to our holidays I did want to get a cut but just run out of time. She has Tuesdays off so I need to ring her on a Monday went I am at home.

I thought that I would get my hair in China, always happy with cuts there. No appointments needed just walk in and they would do it when it was my turn usually only waiting a few minutes. My hair doesn't need any thing fancy so a hand signal to indicate how much I wanted off worked well. I can ask for a wash in China but again a quick hand signal and I was off to the basins out the back. Again just no time to get it cut.

I was out with the group on Tuesday and stated that I needed a cut and would have to ring to make an appointment and C (hairdresser) said that she was free on Thursday at 6 if I could make it then. Done deal!

Drove to her home and she washed and cut it taking about four inches off the back and a lot of bulk out as well. My hair grows quick and thick. $20 later I was back in the car going home, looking very light (my hair anyway) and tidy. Its just a shame that I cant seem to do it the same way as I am sure that after I brush it the back does not weave into itself the way she had it done but then again I cant see it. It does feel much better though.

White Horse Orchestra

While in China Shaoxing we had the opportunty to visit the other Uni in the city to hear the above orchestra. The White Horse Orchestra is from Melbourne Australia. http://www.whitehorseorchestra.org.au/China%20Gallery.htm (There are photos here)
 The menfolk declined the offer so just S and I went along with two young students for "our"  uni. Our friend and contact from school had got the tickets from her friend who works at Wen Li. We think that tickets in Oz would have been around a hundred dollars.

Shaoxing Uni or Wen Li as it is known is more an Arts uni where as ours Yue xiu is a Language uni.

We were a bit early but on our urging to the girls we went in and took our seats, following the girls up stairs and then back again. Finally S said to them show us the tickets which they did and S and I found our seats, it wasn't difficult but it does seem that Chinese people have difficulty in finding seat numbers. This has been evident at many times and in many places, trains, buses, planes and now concert halls.

There were two aisles and on the floor at either end of the seats was a large letter, we needed F, I know it was at each end as we have been up both. each seat had a cover over the top with a decent sized number printed on the back. I had 19 and all the way down in front of me I could see the number 19, very easy to find! Every Chinese person who came in walked down their row and then stopped and peered over the back of the seat to see if they had the right number, many of them found they were in the wrong row as well. It was entertaining I was waiting to see if anyone could get to their seats without the peering over. I did see one couple who did and then I realized that they were a foreign couple that I had meet last time we were there.

At 7pm, the due time, the curtain went up (they have difficulty in finding seats but always on time)  and there on stage was the orchestra probably about 60 strong and mostly retired looking, I assumed that because of the grey hair. Boy could they play.

Through out the program four teachers from the uni sang opera with the orchestra, (in Italian)it was stunning and very impressive. The uni orchestra also played for a set which meant the whole stage had to be cleared of instruments and others brought on. The Uni used quite traditional instruments, some I had seen before, others were new to me.

Twice the Grand piano was moved to the centre stage, it was massive and took eight students to move it into position. I had not seen one before S said that it was a Grand, usually see baby Grand but not the big daddy one.

It was a real highlight and an honour to be given tickets to such a performance. Our students took a taxi and escorted us home, not sure that they enjoyed it as much s we did, they both looked very tired and had to get up for school the next morning.

Trains

We caught the bullet train when we were in China from Shaoxing to Shanghai. Shaoxing railway station used to be on the end of the No 2 bus and it was very easy to get there and back to the uni. A few years ago the No 2 bus route changed and although it was possible to still catch that bus, it stopped a bit of a walk away, then they changed the station!

The station is now several kms out of town and thee are dedicated bus to get there, it does take about an hour from the centre of town. We took a hire car to go out to the station and allowed an hour as it was the Uni finish time on a Friday and we knew it would be busy so a friend ordered a car and it cost 100rmb or around $20 and took 40 minutes.

The station is very big and open, not open to the elements but big open spaces inside. Tickets r numbered and if one has a passport then that number is required,if a Chinese national buys a ticket then their number needs to be used. Chinese people have an id card similar to USA's social security number. Seats are numbered and allocated and when boarding the train, one needs to queue at that number and the train stops right there ready for people to get on. Board from the rear and alight from the front of the car. It is very orderly.

Security is quite high with all bags an tickets checked like going on a flight, the security scanner is also used at the end of trip.

Train used to take around three hours but the bullet train trimmed it down to one hour and twenty minutes with speeds of up to 300kms an hour.

Yesterday and today I used our trains, it takes an hour to go to Brisbane a distance of about 45kms with lots of stations. Just walk into the station off the street, swipe my go card and grab a seat once the train stops.

Lesson at Chinese High School

We had been asked if we would do something at the High School as they only get one lesson a week with a foreigner. We said yes. As they are first year they would be fairly low in understanding our speech and accent. It was also in their "down time" so we wanted to have it as interactive as possible without it being a "lecture"

We did a quick Q & A, some students asked things about us then a word search followed by sports in a grid. We always turn this into a game using two students at a time to come to the board to find the word that we call out, They were getting quite vocal by this stage and then we changed the tempo by showing some photos of our house and surrounds plus some scenic stuff with some Chinese students who had visited recently. The last pic went up as the bell for end of class rang out.

There were about seventy students, the top ten in English from each class. Today the deputy head visited our flat and brought a gift, a box of bamboo towels. We received two other gifts from others today, just hope our bags can take it. With some careful packing every thing got home, thank goodness I hadn't bought up big any where.

Bamboo picking/digging

Three car loads set off further into the country side, four foreigners, four adult Chinese and four kids   headed for Nancy's home town to dig for bamboo. 

It was a very small village, her Uncle still lives there but her parents had moved to the bigger city about ten years ago. Nancy and her brother Fred, who also came used to have to walk to school taking two hours if they missed the one bus, very hilly area, a tunnel was put in about five years making it more accessible.

We walked for about half a km then up a single lane into the bamboo forest.

They told us that the bamboo would take one season to get very tall, then it came be used for fencing, ladders just about anything really.

The best shoots are the ones just before they break the ground although the ones that are up to a hand span are alright to eat.

These are too big.

Apparently its best (and easier) to dig away from the way it is growing. We (Nancy) filled two sugar bags full then we had afternoon tea of fruit before returning to school. 

The bamboo is sliced, boiled and then dried which can then be eaten as a snack or added to meals.

This bamboo was drying at the restaurant. We were given some of "our" hard labour a week later to eat, it was very tasty but we had to leave it as we were travelling back to Australia the next day and of course couldn't take it with us.

Rain, rain and more bl...rain

Thursday it started raining and continued on Friday my shoes got wet every time I left the office as he drains couldn't cope with all the water. I had parked on a slope and on grass and was a bit worried about getting away but it was okay although we at and waited for several minutes for many cars to go.

When it is raining its not only the water coming down that one needs to worry about, its the greyness (is that even a word?) everything looks grey and it is hard to see the roads. Five people in our area were swept off a road and died.

I ended up only driving to Sheridan's and stayed there the night as it was too dangerous to drive home. Driving home the next morning when I needed the sun shield as the sun was so bright we counted 21 cars and one caravan that had been abandoned along the highway, this was only a 30 kms stretch.

Our local shopping centre which is spread over two blocks and two stories high had the lowe ground carpark flooded and pictures on media showed cars with water up to their windows.