Turkey dinner

For thankgiving, not that we celebrate it in Australia, we were invited to a turkey dinner with other foreigners. We were quite happy to oblige.

The restaurant was not far from here (where we are living) but we did not feel confident about getting there by taxi so we allowed an hour as we had to catch two buses.

It was a good night, eleven of us, very multi cultural Aussies, Canadians, Americans, Chinese and Jamacians. Turkey was prepared by a Chinese couple who had never cooked turkey before. It was served with corn, mashed potatoes, green beans and sweet potatoes followed by apple pie, definately yum.

At the end of the night, taxis were hard to come by so we walked, took about 40 minutes, nice night for a walk and we needed the exercise. Oh he also made two gravies, one was a cranberry gravy, oh dear I could have just eaten that, it was divine.
Cost was 80 rmb each or less than $10

Shower taps

We are living in a new apartment and the shower is different to home, not that tok different to be a hassle. warren usually had first shower and I stay in bed a little longer as the hot water while adequate is small and is probably suitable for one and a half showers so I wait until it is already to go again (thats my story anyway why i stay in bed longer).

Anyway he came into the bedroom the other morning and proceeded to tell me that I should just push the lever straight back to the wall. I said I do. He says no you must twist it when turning it off as it is cold when i use it. Ahh, says I, I have to adjust it for me as you must have it too hot.

For years I would always turn yhe water hotter than him at home now it seems the shoe is on the other foot.

Nanowrimo finished for the year

Another 50000 words written for the National Novel Writing Month,  actually 50053. The last ten thousand were a bit of a slogq but its done and dusted. A tough mknth really with getting the house organised, packing up, getting here, the travel, once here the socialising oh and a little bit of work thrown in. I did get behind and had to do 2k a day for the last seven days and i had run out of my original idea but things seem to come once I sit down to write.

Definately put to bed now, I may look at it again in January and start the correcting and editting phase only because we will still be here and I will have the time. I dont think I finished editting last years, oh well. This was my eighth jn a row and up until two weeks before I didnt think I was going to do jt as I had no clue on what to write, then an idea hit me like a sledge hammer and its done. Dont like my title though.

The old and the new

We went walking on Sunday it was a nice sunny day. We left the campus by the west gate and walked around to the north gate, passing the south gate on the way. A nice easy walk of about 5 kms. On our way round there wete new building along side of ols ones. This is the photo I took.

The old and the new

Sunday was a nice day cool but sunny and we set off for a walk. Now that I have a tracker on my phone its easier to see how far we have walked. It was a walk that I used to do a few years ago when we were here before.

Around the back streets, I noticed (very hard not to notice an eight story building) being built along the other older buildings. I daresay in a few more years the old buildings will be pushed over and built again.

Burger king and a school visit

Warren took me downtown today to burger king, this did not exist before and neither did the massive shopping centre where it is housed. The burger were big, I would say that my hand would have spanned across it so pretty big, small fries and a coke cost 50rmb or a bit over $10. It was a busy place although we were the only Westerners. While we were eating we counted eight delivery drivers came in to pick bags to deliver, we knew that they were delivery people as they were still wearing their bike helmet.

Leaving the burger king, we decided to see what was upstairs and we saw our friend coming across the floor. She just happened to be there during her lunch as she had been wanting to buy a new winters coat, had been to several stores since it had turned cold and today was her purchasing day. She took us up so we could give the final verdict. It was a very nice long grey coat which looked very good on her. After she bought it, she took us along to show us  her school. She had bought this school with a school friend and his school friend so three of them own it.

Its very nice with cute little rooms, they teach 4 to 14 year olds, English, Chinese, mayhs and science plus drawing and painting. It is an after hours and weekend school,  many parents use these type of schools for their children to improve their grades.

Haining

We borrowed a car yesterday and drove up there to Haining. We had been there before, taken on a bus trip by the school to visit a leather factory outlet. I bought my leather gloves there for a small fraction of what would normally be paid for leather.

There were two green dots caches that we could only get by going by car. Four of us went in a little kitty mobile, it is a small vw all prettied up with hello kitty stuff. Three westerners and one China friend who was interestted in learning about our hobby.

The first one took us to an anicent village, what a surprise, we had no idea that it was there.

There were a couple of school groups visiting and they were keen to chat with us and have their photo taken with them. Unfortunately we didnt find what we were looking for but it was a good day out none the less.