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Published: January 9th 2011
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Miss Piggy
Getting married in Guiyang in a couple of weeks Photos:
-click on the photos in this blog to enlarge them.
.....…..if you've read my reports of the lax observance of road rules, if indeed there are any, the carrying multiple passengers, including infants, on scooters with no head protection & seen the photos of what by Chinese standards are quite normal loads on bikes, trikes & trucks you too would find it strange to see the man at the traffic lights by the Old Canal near Yangzhou Number One Hospital, apparently being questioned about a loose number plate on what appears to be a new & well maintained car.....
…..the final English Oral Exam is approaching fast. We have to finish by next Friday & submit the results so there will be no time for messing around, by teachers or students. I wish I had cut the review down to one lesson & started earlier but now I can't very well give some classes two review lessons & others one. The Grade 4 students I taught last year appear to be making reasonable progress. I'm pretty sure this year's Grade Three will produce a lot of crazy answers & low scores. I hope I'm wrong.....
Dog in a basket
Outside La Mian noodle house, Saturday lunchtime …..in cyberspace I accidentally bumped into an old mate from Sydney, Greg, whom I haven't seen for a long time, is planning to visit Yangzhou in a week or so, at the beginning of the Spring Break. I knew him nearly thirty years ago (!!) when we worked in a band together, doing a mixture of Australiana, comedy & whatever else came to hand. He has worked as a musician most of his life & done a lot of work in schools, playing a multitude of instruments. He now has some educational material for primary school kids which he is having translated & is hoping to market overseas, starting in China. It's a pity he'll arrive just too late to see the school in action & meet some of my students. Still, it should be an interesting week for him.....
…..Henry is the “other bright kid“ in class 3/10, along with Max, (alias Gizmo). He has taken to quizzing me in the office during break times, on such subjects as the names of different dinosaurs. While the bulk of Grade three struggles with the distinction between “hot” & “cold”, “warm” & “cool”, Henry writes a long number, in the
What's for dinner?
Some of the fresh meat available on Caiyi Lu hundreds of millions, followed by a “C”, on a scrap of paper on my desk. “This is very hot, teacher”. “Yes”, I agree, “probably in the middle of the sun”. Henry nods & writes another large number, negative this time. “Aha”, I tell him, “it can't go that low. Zui xiade wen du shi 273C xia ling” (“the lowest temperature is 273C below zero”, ie; absolute zero). Not to be outdone Henry returns the next day & writes “-273.15 C. I check it & find that he is correct.....
…..my walking shoes, bought for me in Australia as a father's day present several years ago have done great service, are very comfortable & still have a lot of wear in them. However three broken lace loops & a broken metal lace hook at the top are preventing me from using them. I leave them with the old man who fixed Mike's jacket zip a few weeks ago. I collect them a couple of days later, not quite as new but you need to look carefully to see the repairs, which anyway are normally hidden beneath the trousers. He asks for ¥15, or under $Au3. I happily give him ¥20
Fish Restaurant, Siwanting Lu
Fantastic food, including the centrepiece dish, 2 whole fish, Sichuan style..... & tell him to keep the change.....
…..people have been queued up on the highways into Guiyang, in southern China, due to an excess of snow. I thought Miss Piggy's new home town was a tropical paradise. I guess I'll need to take my winter coat & beanie when I head south. I hope the trains can get through. I hope I can get a ticket. If I travel from Nanjing on the 20th it means that Monday (the 10th) is the earliest day I can buy a ticket, such is the system in China.....
…..the mobile phone network(s) in a country the size of China, (around 9.5 square million kilometres compared with Australia's 7.5 square million), are of course affected by distance & some friends from other areas, even nearby cities, have a mobile based in their home city as well as the one in which they currently live, the cost of calls between cities & provinces being much more than local calls & messaging. Miss Piggy's Jiangsu mobile numbers are now defunct & I only have her boyfriend's number. That is conveniently offline now that I need to ask her a few questions about the forthcoming
Trike for hire
Taking a rest while waiting for the next load trip.....
…..Sunday morning & another attempt to call Guiyang fails. Then Miss Piggy calls from another number. I have resolved a few of my questions & now have three numbers on which to contact her, her boyfriend's, her (future) mother in law's & the boyfriend's brother. I ask for some photos, mainly to find out whether they have a camera. They haven't. Good, that's an easy present that they can both use. The wedding is on the eighth of February, a bit later than expected but there are some places I can visit in Guizhou to give them a break from the honoured, foreign guest....
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Peter
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From Zero to Nero
Blogs keep getting better all the time. Love the title on this one.