Two weeks at a time

view on a clearer day!

As I sit here on a wet Thursday night listening to the rain, I try to recall what's happened since I last wrote. Thunder and lightening outside so I will sign off in case we lose power again, safety first... see you in the morning!

Friday, dark overcast morning:

Its still raining but not as ferociously, the pool at the gardens now has some water in it, as does the pond across the road.

Well, it seems like ages since I last sat down to chronicle the exciting events of daily life in Shenzhen.

On my days off last week, i went for longish bike ride in 27 degrees warm sunshine and ended up in Shekou for lunch at a great bakery I'd discovered last year, great roast beef and mustard sandwiches! No that's not my bike in the photo, it belongs to the recycling man who was collecting cardboard from the bakery, its amazing that most things can be reused out of necessity by these very enterprising locals.
I bought some nursery rhyme books and craft books at a small going out of business bookshop.

DAFEN ARTIST VILLAGE http://www.dafen.com/

Dafen artist village is truly an amazing place amidst the tall building and traffic chaos of SZ city. It's a lengthy but incredibly inexpensive local bus ride to the other side of SZ for us Nanshaners. We actually had to bus and subway to the Luohu Commercial Centre and then find the bus (103) from there. Armed with our blue books "Shopping in Shenzhen" we felt confident we could find our way to somewhere! (Oh, we are Hannah and Von as our days off overlap on Wed).

We went past a lake/reservoir , saw the Wutong Mountain turnoff and the big hill itself. And then we saw signs of artistic businesses so we jumped off at the next stop and spent some time wandering around the amazing streets of the artists enclave. Original works, copies, framers galore giving the eyes a feast of colour. We found the place to deck out the ancestral home with hunting scenes and Victorian portraits. I was very taken by the ability to paint from a photo and I might find one of my favourite photos to take to get a painting for my apartment wall.

After this, and a visit to the art gallery ( airconditioned respite for those who dislike the heat) we headed back to more familiar territory of Dongmen Shopping Area where Hannah paid a visit to UniQlo (Japanese based but western style and sizes of casual clothes). A final stop near Window of the World to pop into H&M (UK outfitters) and Ole a top end supermarket with just about everything...no Maggie Beer Pate or Branston Pickle though. I spent next to nothing all day...wow what an achievement.

The day ended with dinner at a small Muslim restaurant where you point at the pictures on an out of reach notice board to order...it was tasty and really cheap. Then drinks with Ray and Loretta ( Aussie Teacher at adult school and his wife), as we practiced weightlifting with 500ml glasses of Tiger beer. We called it stumps at 2am! Luckily, Thursdays are an afternoon start at school for me.

During the weekend, we had a power cut to the whole area and then the apartments were off until 3.30am. My belated lesson preparation of colouring in and cutting out props for small stars was done by headlamp! Paddington came to class to model hat. scarf, coat , wellies/boots as we were doing a lesson about the weather and cold/snowy clothes.

Having survived the weekend, the next days off were reasonably uneventful.

recycling /load carrying waiting for work

local exploration - wind powered street lights

In Nanshan Book City - The Logic (?) of English Grammar!

tall buildings but with large public spaces

I stayed local except for a trip to get some summer weight duvets (guests) and a coffee plunger (200rmb less than local shops). Its a 20minute bus ride and a 20RMB taxi (Thanks to the Blue book again as the address is also in Chinese who knows where the free shuttle picks up from!). You could be anywhere in the world once inside...great place to just wander. Apparently the food hall is consistent with Adelaide, good cheap food of European style..oh well next time. How ironic, most items in a Swedish store made in China, but not all. I caught the shuttle back so now I know where it picks up from near Window of the World.

Later that evening back on the buses with Lei, Luke and a fellow teacher from Guangzhou, to trek to Coco park, a shopping and bar precinct in Futian to catch up with other teachers from SZ kids schools. More weight lifting exercises with 500ml of Carlsberg this time.

Von and Nicole (SZ1 school).

Achievements this week:

• secured tickets to Splendid Acrobatics at Nanshan Poly Theatre (April )with Hannah
• purchased a ticket to the Duke Ellington Orchestra performance 20th May @ SZ Concert Hall- thanks to local school staff who wrote the instruction in Chinese in case I needed them but the girl at the ticket office speaks enough English to help me!
• arranged a 15L bottle of water delivery (Thanks to Ada at school for the phone call to arrange). I bought the water cooler thingy, just needed the water. A soggy delivery man arrived with the water this morning, now I need an extension cord to plug it in.
• purchased some more books to read, several classics
• made my way to Ikea
• hoping to have made progress towards cable TV links to BBC World and CNN and whatever else comes with it, tired of the adverts on the two HK channels...can nearly quote them verbatim!
• presumably I have survived my probation period at school...
• ordered my dumpling lunch yesterday in Chinese! ee jyao-zir (1 dumplings steamed)
• raced home in time yesterday to prevent serious flooding as the rain was coming in the back bedroom window (thanks Luke for mentioning both rain and windows! - he flew home too)

Things I still have to understand:

• why locals frantically press the door close button on the lift, who do they think is going to jump in at the last minute?
• why the frenetic dash to get a seat in the Subway ( not a fast walk but a sprint with elbows out!)?
• Why does everyone Else's business at the bank take so long when I am waiting!
• Where are all the post boxes to send mail?
• What happened to the warm weather? it's only 16 today! It was 27 last week.

Ok, enough for now