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

Chaos on ice

No, not a new type of cocktail, more a bruise tail!

EF's SZ 3 Kids School celebrated its 1st birthday on ice tonight at the Coastal City Ice Rink.
Many accomplished skaters including one young student is a current Asian age champion... unlike myself wobbling around with the grace and finesse of a baby giraffe!

Still, the sign did warn Seniors (over 50 yo) to be careful as a fall can be serious...and two Friends from TAFE broke bones in the year of their 50th...so I survived with bruises and pressure points but dignity and sense of humour intact. Perhaps I could challenge Stephen Bradbury (Aust Olympic Gold 2002, speed skating )as the dark horse if I practice!

Many teachers and staff were new and brave enough to try and impressive results as students became the teachers and rescuers.

Our mini Everest expedition to 3 turtle mountain

Today you get to meet Liz/Beth from UK another foreign teacher at school and desperate for an outing to do something - so we did. We mounted an expedition to NanShan Mountain via The custom mountaineering portal of Nan Shan Park.

Vonny and Liz discover the way into Nan Shan Park to climb the not so high mountain (<400m)with plenty of steps and lots of stopping points!
Suddenly, not so sure of our directions and with the aid of a map, we asked a policeman who dutifully pointed us in the right direction. Exactly as we had been told at School by locals but at the time we were geographically disadvantaged having no idea of the site or layout of the streets.


The portal was clearly not a Harry Potter type portal where you touch an object and turn up somewhere else ( we had to walk ourselves!)
Then we saw the steps, in fact we saw the steps for the next hour I suspect as we both mumbled or stumbled through the puffing how unfit we were. (Given we have both trekked in the Andes, at altitude this was a great test). Not that too many of the locals fared better, except for the really athletic ones running it! No difference to Mt Lofty (Adelaide) in that respect. It is a steep ascent but the view is significant, even through the morning haze.




At the NanShan GPS reference station ( so I dutifully referenced my GPS which finally recognised the HouHai Bay coastline as different to the Adelaide Beaches)

Feeling adventurous, we took the alternative track down (we hoped it was going down all the way ) this was more scenic and less busy than the custom portal.
We know it was only 350+ mtrs but it was our Everest for the day, certainly not a personal best for either of us but a start on the list of things we must do while we are here! It will be a good guide to any small progress on fitness and as its only a 2RMB bus ride from school, there are not too many excuses for a return visit.

Shekou from Nan Shan /3 Turtle mountain

there was a sign to turtle mountain but as we are none the wiser we took our own name from a statue of 3 turtles (which we failed to photograph-next time)

Lunch in Shekou, Liz found a friendly cat (but she resisted the urge to take it home).


By the way, the strangest things happen. I was recently sitting on the balcony, looking out at the rare clearish sea view when a white plastic whale floated past the balcony and headed for the clouds. A peek over the balcony revealed a slightly distraught toddler presumably previous owner of said plastic whale balloon. I had the camera in my hand but wasn't quick enough to catch it to show you!

Tomorrow we have a full day of training and then a birthday party for the school. EF SZ3 Kids turns 1 year old and we are having a party on ice at the Coastal City Ice Rink. And yes, I can hear you giggling, we are going to attempt to skate. I figure if I can ice climb* surely after 25 years I can still skate!? Hopefully there will be photos to post here soon, dignified or otherwise...

Till next time

* http://5travellingamigos.blogspot.com/

2 days of nothing much

We finally got two days off after working the Winter Course and I bet none of us did much, other than chill out and enjoy a sleep in ( or lie in at least).

Tuesday night we celebrated with a party at Luke and Lei's (L&L) where much beer and a few GnT's or Vodkas were consumed. It was the United Nations with Aust,NZ,Phillapines, Poland, UK, Canada, Sth Africa and China represented and by the end some were speaking a new slanguage (not me, I wasn't exactly sober but I wasn't drunk either). Earlier that night I discovered the Thai Element with really yummy food

Sleep deprivation, or is it just laziness?? resulted in a slow late morning followed by a quick lunch at Maccas (chicken nuggets and coffee being my usual) noted by the staff who placed my order for me before I could blink (well I was a bit slow...). * Went with L&L to their tailor at LoHuo Commercial Centre to see about more beige alternative work outfits. That was enough for the day! Ordered the skirts and Luke's shirts and headed home to a delicious hot pot dinner at L&L's. The DVD even with Morgan Freeman and Antonio Bandarras (sp?) was not enough to keep us from sleep so a five minute stroll home.

Woken by someone crashing a sledge hammer against a wall somewhere this morning did not deter a doze for longer than intended!

Then I went for a bike ride to explore and solve a few mysteries like what is that structure I can see from my balcony ( the F1 Power Boat 2008 venue). Frustration and annoyance with the Dahon domestic model bike resulted in my purchasing a recreational mountain bike this afternoon and loving it just on the ride home, even bought a helmet for a real bike. (I'm having second thoughts about bringing FreedomFriday in case he gets pinched- 799Y vs $1500USD = 10,000Y). The man at Decathlon said no locks work in SZ if they want to steal a bike...ummmm I hope the mountain bike is really comfortable for long rides and maybe BF can stay safe at home?? But then again BF does travel well...what a dilema...a couple of months to decide before Friday can come escorted from Adelaide.

Hannah came for dinner and we watched "Australia", hummm, roll credits fade to black - it took so long to get to the very predictable end but it was a borrowed DVD so no cost for an evening in -she says putting it politely, crikey it was overdone and underdone at the same time but Hugh Jackman and David Wenham are both worth a gander, and the little kid is so cute.

There you go that's two days off in summary - no pretty photos-no excitement but a new bike in the spare room (I figured it would get more use than a gym membership at twice the price).

* Maccas know my solo lunch order, or the alternative from the dumpling shop is becoming regular, the guy at 3D bar knows its Green Coopers, the coffee people know its a tall latte with a loyalty card and I have a membership card at Decathlon (sports store) & I am remembering to look left first before crossing the road then right then left then right and expect the unexpected as indicators are seriously just decorative here just like the zebra crossings and the little green man on the traffic pole is as confused as your average pedestrian!

Winter Camp - Peru Rainforests and Greek Drama

Rainforest scrapbooks (upside down)

How can you feel tired and grumpy with these delightful students (3-4yo)?

Graduates end week 2

Lea and May with their rainforests

Class with Drama masks (representing Greek drama)

Still here, two days left of Winter Camp....Teach, prepare, sleep, teach, prepare - but who's counting! Poland and Japan to go then we have travelled the world in 15 days. Two days off then back to normal timetables.

Before we know it, we'll be at Summer Camp which is longer and hotter (duhh) but that's July/August.

Not much to report as time has been hectic but I'll continue my post in a more energentic way soon. Took one night off and met up with Hannah for the Great Trade - my Passport, Visa, Working Papers for a Jar of Marmite ( courtesy of Liz who when home for Spring Festival). To celebrate the great trade we had beers and when we arrived at the 3D bar, the floor staff said to me "Coopers?", yes please green and a Sol for Hannah.

It's tragic to hear about the bushfires and losses in Vic/NSw but little mention of SA. Congrats to you all for surviving the record heatwave of 40++ while I was complaining about being cold here at only just sub 10 degrees at one day high! And floods in Qld!! What a country of diversities but then again it is the biggest one 'girt by sea'.

The photos I got on email of the swimming kangaroo, the showered Koala and the koala drinking from a cyclist's water bottle just about said it all.

Brain drain...time to start colouring in some Polish emblems for the flag as the eagle is just a bit tricky for the littlies.

Cheers.

Half a century! - The week that was (past tense)

Hi all, this could be construed as sad that I am able to construct a blog entry on my 50th birthday even after celebrations but the truth is I am! Something to do with needing to work on a Saturday!
This is the week that was

Lunar New Year - from my balcony [all night it seems]

The week we had off was a lazy dull grey week, not that inspiring when you don't have a passport so can't go too far and don't want to spend all the pay in one go.
SZ Commercial centre Luo Hu ( end of Metro line)
Hannah and I managed to fill the time in with visits toDongMan Shopping, Shenzhen Commercial Centre just to lookie see, Visit to the International Book shop and ceremonial fleecing by local vendors, purchasing DVDs, the obligatory daily trip to Carrefours or Jusco. a venture or Adventure to Window of the World which we aborted due to grey skies and discovered more! shopping centres and Shekou Bombay
. Ceremonial fleecing of westerners by local Futian business men - a honey, nut fruit crunch log thing resembling the great SZ wall. Souvenir take home and eat for the rest of our lives (or at least until you visit).!
Another Shopping Centre Shekou

The big adventure was to Guangzhou by train for the day to meet up with Renee (EF teacher) and explore Shamien Island, Starbucks and Hooleys bar
.from GZ train at 180kph
GZ canal creating Shamien island ( seriously cropped for the photo cutting out the road and overpass) Von in GZ
Hannah & Renee outside Starbucks Shamien Island GZ

Then it was my birthday and SZ threw on the great weather, about 18 degrees, sunny for the most part, a view across Hou Hai Bay from my balcony no work and new friends to share my birthday with - Lei wished me a happy 18th!!
The day of my 50th is /was sunny, quite clear and warmer than most of the week but not horrid like Aussie with 40+++ degrees-

Quick Coopers Pale Ale at 3D Bar, dinner at local BBQ (25 RMB each) and a post dinner drink at my apartment and they day was done, ceremony over less fuss but lots of emails and SMS to answer. Cheers to all of you.


Hannah, Luke. Lei and Von at end of the meal to commemorate my 50th , in SZ China about 2 minutes from school and home !

Happy birthday to me....Hannah, Luke and Pad and I on my balcony post dinner

Paddington shared my 21st and now my 50th ! Cheers

and the biggest toast could be to absent friends but in this case that's all of you....so Cheers and here's to many more! Goodnight from us.

When a Saturday is really a Saturday

Enjoying a late morning Mountain Breeze coffee reading That's PRD magazine about the Pearl River Delta (SZ & GZ)

Lei and Luke ordering the adventurous delights of the hot pot


After 9 days of teaching, this morning was lazy and a good start to the week long Spring Festival for the Lunar New Year. Coffee at a local coffee shop where i was given a loyalty card just like home, now I feel like a local. A rare Saturday on a Saturday as days off are normally Tues/Wed. With no particular plans other than to stay out of the lazy cold wind from the cold snap (the weather knows when it is new year so it can create havoc with holiday plans), I accepted an invite from Lei and Luke from school to venture into Luo Hu and DiWan to look for DVDs and a hot pot meal.

I had my initiation to the Luo Hu Commercial Centre ( 5 floors of tiny shops and calls of "just looking,come in" , offers to buy sunglasses, bags and baby clothes galore). A gentle induction as it was very busy but not crowded. We went to find a tailor to make some work clothes (beige of course) but all the tailors were closed.

Back on the subway to the shopping area for DVD browsing and to stock up for the chilly holiday days and nights ahead.

A hot pot meal was what I was promised and in return I agreed to be adventurous with the ingredients ( I don't have to teach till next Saturday). The Chinese equivalent of black pudding slices, an eggy tofu dish , and sucking marrow through a straw just about ticked all the adventurous boxes for the day. It was bleak and gray outside so a warming hotpot broth late in the afternoon was just right.

The city centre near Diwan was not at all crowded in contrast to a two weeks ago so the tales of travelling home must be true. [A good time to visit the traditionally crowded places over the next week, with the camera and Hannah when she is not working as they do not have such a long break as us.] A quick bus trip home due to lack of traffic and passengers by comparison to normal.

I got the seal of approval on the apartment from Lei as she hadn't seen it. Tonight you can see the lights of the New Territories (HK) and the road bridge so the air is clearer than normal - maybe I will get a sea view one day soon.

Time to watch one of my DVDs, as I can't get the DVD player working through the TV (the ex-AV technician knows what to do but I can not read Chinese for in/out etc and on the remote controls) I'm taking the laptop to bed with a hot cuppa and watch one of the dozen new titles.

Goodnight from me