A drinkable GreatWall Cab Sav? read on

Shenzhen is a seaside port
A huge thick Mango juice
dinner, all gone
domestic-hanging up washing on small balcony

teaching 4-5 y old small stars (Chinese TA to help with language)
1995 vintage
on yer bike, on my ride to the port area (about 3km)
yummy
Fishing fleet surrounded by building sites

Not a lots happened since the last posting.

Teaching, a bit of light (OK lazy) gym work, eating in and sampling wine from Argentine and lo and behold - a drinkable Great Wall Cab Sav (1995) for 75RMB, comparable with imported wine of same price bracket. The cheapest Aussie wine I have seen so far is around 105RMB (divide by 7 to convert to AUD) and decided I'd rather continue the adventure by tasting the unknown...

Teaching graduated from easy good fun with rewarding students through to having to work the room quite hard to get some input from students (the "whatever" and if its not a computer game, don't bother me ! age group).

Reward for that is a day off. A short sleep in, a reasonable bike ride to the see the HouHai Sea and look longingly at Hong Kong where my visa doesn't allow me to go! Oh forgot to add I visited the Decathlon sports store ( I knew it was a bad move, so many lovely things including some bikes that look much less China Domestic and way more comfortable for a westerner to ride. )Bought a pair of mountain bike shorts, making my ride a whole lot more comfortable. I just can not get the seat high enough for good leg extension so without gears I feel like i am pedalling a minibike. Definitely will be selling it off at the end of my contract to a person more suited to a Domestic model bike - No need to worry Friday, a six km ride on China bike is equivalent to 60km on Bike Friday for discomfort!

I got to the sea, saw some of the fishing fleet, the origins of Shenzhen until 25 years ago and then evaded a circling thunder storm, escaping with damp but not soggy clothing.

I have eaten my way around Shenzhen Nanshan and Shekou district today. lunch was at Tropicana, a Italian Coffee and Swiss bakery ( Iced espresso and a rare beef and salad croissant) and the paper SCMP =South China morning post?

A huge mango juice at a swanky shopping centre and then while i was in Wal-Mart I was invited to a customer afternoon tea (Coke and watermelon). Dinner was Japanese Seafood fried rice at Ajisen Ramen after a swim at the gym. Home to test the Great Wall Red ( cheers for the Swiss Army knife with bottle opener- I didn't have a tree handy - Jen & Tina will know the story as you had to be there!

In all my travels, I did not see a China Post outlet, but then again, I haven't seen any postcards either.... Domestic duties of washing and sweeping the floor also took up five minutes of my day.

I was looking at getting a toaster (now I can find unsweetened bread) thinking they are not expensive at home but here they are comparatively expensive - half the cost of my bike and in fact on special, you can by a sit up Chinese style clunky bike for less than a toaster. Now I am beginning to think in RMB or CNY (Chinese Yuan) rather than AUD. At 210 RMB that's about $30AUD, far too expensive an outlay for just 5 more weeks. The iron was only 28RMB about $4 AUD - get my point?

On the weekend I have a program called life club which is an hour of one topic. This week's is Football (round ball code for Aussies) so imagine me teaching 3-4 year olds and 5-6 's about goal, ball, football, boots, crowd, penalty all at the top of our voices. Cheers Dad for the research on a computer based download as we have online real time access in the classrooms so I'll be able to use it with any age.

See not much has happened since I last wrote but if you are still with me you must have rotten TV programs on or its too cold or too wet to go outside!

Enough for now.

Cheers.