Thursday 1st October 2009 Happy 60th birthday Today is a special day - no it's not my birthday but The People's Republic Of China's birthday. It is mid-autumn festival holiday and National holiday combined. Today started unusually as a result of this special day - it was quiet. I awoke at 7.30 having had a good night's sleep for a change - nothing woke me up. I lay in bed at 7.30 listening to the wonderful sound of nothing - well nothing except some birds chirping away in the distance; it was heaven. For a full twenty-five minutes I listened to [View Full Entry]

---

---

15th February 2009 I've been back in China a week now since a three week holiday in the UK. I wasn't going to write anymore of this blog but seeing that it was such an eventful trip, I thought I would write a little more. Anyway, it is 1 a.m. and I can't sleep. Ever since I've been back I've been unable to sleep properly; I go to sleep but then all too soon I am awake and can't get back. The other night I awoke after about ten minutes sleep and didn't get back to sleep until early morning. It's [View Full Entry]

---

---

Thursday 21st August. My journal continues - A tale of two lighters. They get you in the end, they always do. I’m approaching British security at Heathrow and find a lighter in my pouch. I quickly unzip my case and put it inside the case, believing that I should not carry it in the plane but not wanting to throw it away because I might want to light a cigar at the other end of my arduous travels. However once through x-ray my case is put to one side for further securitization and I have to wait. I’m done for, they [View Full Entry]

---

---

Thursday 15th Nov First day, new home, strange place. First job of the day - get some provisions in, so we take a trip to the local supermarket Cbest. The small supermarket is not far from our apartment, in fact it seems that everything we need is not far. There are vegetable shops just outside in the street and many other small shops. Also in the narrow street are street traders, selling vegetables and other merchandise. At the end of the small street on the way to the main shopping area, is a large square/plaze, in the middle of which is [View Full Entry]

---

---

Our room is on the eighteenth floor of a twenty-two floor hotel and the place we are to get married is on the fourth floor - very convenient. Also housed in the same building is a Massage Hospital! Would newly weds need this I wonder? Our room is spacious with a great view of night-time Guiyang and in the distance is an illuminated temple. The room has two large single beds, just what we need for our wedding night! The reason why we have come to Guiyang to get married is simple, it is the only city in the province that [View Full Entry]

---

---

Thursday 25th October 07 Twenty miles of nose to tail, grindingly slow traffic is not what you want when heading to the airport to catch a flight. But this is what the M25 dished up me as I left England. I felt that either this country did not want me to leave or that my last hours here were to be sheer agony. This feeling hadn't been helped by Kevin my son getting a flat tyre before picking me up, so delaying our departure. As the hours ticked by and light faded, visions of missing the flight loomed larger but as [View Full Entry]

---

---