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.

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.

A Reccie!

Now there's a word I haven't used for awhile or done but yesterday we went on a reccie. I am organizing a bus trip to a couple of historical buildings in Brisbane in a couple of months and as I don't know the area, I wanted to go and check out the very important things such as toilets and lunch venues.

Four of us went and as we were heading into Brisbane, where else would we have lunch but at the Top Nosh Cafe as I have written about before. The others had pretty big meals but I wanted to sample one of their ice coffees (three scoops of ice cream and hot coffee to pour over) I opted just for a sandwich, over all, didnt want to indulge too much.

Appetite satisfied, we drove into a very old part of Brisbane, Bowen Hills. The house is called Mieguyah House and apparently was built in 1826.

The house is only open on weekends and Wednesdays, they supply devonshire teas and a tour of the house, both for a cost, $6 each.

It is not far from the Brisbane River and possibly could see it (the river) from the verandah. Next was off to Newstead house, it is only a short drive and that is right on the river. On the bus trip, this is the chosen venue to have lunch and there is a cafe and a Chinese Take away only a few minutes walk along the river. Hopefully the weather will be nice, there is a rotunda with seats high above the water where we have lunch before heading back home.

Things that make me laugh!

There is nothing like a good laugh and as adults we probably don't do enough laughing. Driving in Brisbane yesterday waiting at lights a bus passed in front of me and I saw the word "Loves your butt". I did a double take, my eyes were surely playing tricks on me. (sometimes I find that one goes into a bit of zombie mind set while waiting for lights to change) I chased the bus with my eyes to see what it really said. Yep it really did announce "Loves your butt" above the words were 3 ply and a well known toilet paper brand. Well, that did make me laugh out loud, which would have been fine except my fourteen year old grandson was also in the car and of course asked what was I doing, I told him why I laughed and he had a bit of a snicker too before saying "That's the child in you Nana!"

I had taken him to the dentist to have his braces tightened and while there I saw a book on smiles and it stated that children smile or laugh at least 400 times a day yet adults smile on average only 15 time a day, how sad is that?

Warren had told me earlier that morning a little joke that he had read somewhere, it went something like this. A kindergarten class were asked to make a drawing and they got down to work while the teacher went and spoke to different ones and asked what they were drawing, there were replies of my garden, my family, my dog etc, she gave them each some encouragement before going on to the next one. One little girl said that she was drawing God, the teacher said to her, "But sweetie, no-one knows what God looks like." The little girl replied "Well, they will when I finish." This appealed to my sense of humour.