Warmers

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One thing the Chinese do really well (apart from taking care of the elderly, but I've covered that before) is make thermal underclothing. The temperature is probably warmer here than it is at home, but because there's no central heating here it seems a lot colder, and you never properly warm through. It's changed my routine. When I lived in the UK the first thing I always did when I got home from work was always to get into my jammies or joggies and put my slippers on. Here, I run in, switch my AC on then, still with jacket and shoes on, go to the loo, eat my dinner and do anything else I need to in the main part of the flat. Once I'm in my room, I do NOT like to leave it again!

Anyway, back to the thermals. I recently bought a rather snazzy hot pink thermal set of longjohns with a long sleeved top. As with most Chinese clothing where we live, my new set is embellished. It seems that people here design something straighforward and then think to themselves, "You know what this needs? A bow. And a bell. And a whistle, or maybe two." Everything has diamantes and flowers and animal print, and nothing, nothing is plain. So my new set has a diamante collar, but given that it's for underneath I don't really care. It's toasty warm and I've bought a pair for the lovely Shum when she visits. Rach and I also bought some Wee Willy Winkie stripey longjohns, but these are much thicker. On Monday I wore my hot pink ones, the stripey ones and then my jeans on top...bit of a nighmare going to the loo but totally worth it!

The other thing that's caught my eye recently is school competitions. There are companies that travel around the country hosting competitions in the different towns and counties. They go into partnership with a local training centre and all children can enter. Obviously the ones that I've heard of are English speaking competitions. Benny and Cherry have been spending a lot of time with our kids, helping them prepare and practise their speeches and it just breaks my heart. Some of them are so good, and try so hard, but they won't win and are unlikely to even place because it's ALWAYS the kids from the host schools that get placed. At first, we couldn't justify the money you have to pay the company to be a host school, but it's under consideration now, although it goes against all our principles. It's kind of accepted as an open secret here, but I feel so sorry for the kiddies. It's good practise for them to learn the speech though, and we make a fuss of them in our school, but it's not the same as a free and open competition.

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