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6th. November Packing up Loads of Memories
So we are nearing the end of our time in Kunming. We have had three weeks of fine weather which has made travelling and doing the washing so much easier.
We have been lucky enough to receive many invitations for meals. One of the memories we will be packing was a visit to a farm owned by our friend's cousin. We had time for a pleasant walk around the farm before supper was served in the open air. Here you can see Peter looking into one of the plastic tents which are used as greenhouses. The picture below shows some of the tent's inhabitants whom we ate for supper. We were kindly given the grasshoppers we hadn't managed to eat as a takeaway. For future reference, they need about 2 minutes in the microwave to reheat them.
Will Walt and Mirjam recognise their apartment block when they get home on Tuesday?
This is the road as it was when they left.......
....... and here it is now!
When we arrived, the road was fenced off while sewers were laid, but now there is a new pavement, a cycle/moped track and flower beds. The ladies in their aprons have finished mixing cement and were replaced by ladies from a different ethnic group who planted the flowers. There are new trees and new lamp posts, road markings and bus stops.
For a while it was hit and miss whether the buses stopped at our new bus stop, but now they mostly seem to have decided to pick us up, which is a bonus. Some buses aren't mentioned at all, so you feel very clever if you remember where to catch the K5 or the 181 and even cleverer if you can remember where they go to! We have learnt not to take buses for granted - it depends what mood they are in.
The new trees have been fitted up with drips and we are expecting to see a doctor come around with his chart to do 'obs'.
Some things don't change.
The staff at 'Sinbad's', the restaurant just across the railway tracks from our block, still has 'divisions' (inspection parade) at 0930 and 1630 every day.
We will miss the warm sunshine and all our lovely students at the school, but Judy is looking forward to cooking in a larger oven and Peter is looking forward to traffic which (mostly) obeys the Highway Code. And we are both looking forward to seeing our family and friends. Fortunately we can pack as many memories as we like, they will all come well within our baggage allowance.
This week's quiz question
We saw this sign in a local supermarket.
What is pramtling? Have you ever pramtled?
Suggestions to [email protected]
27th. October Another Blog . . .
Our British friend, Paul Hider, (affectionately known as PJ) has kindly given us a couple of mentions recently in his highly readable blog. He has also put in a link to ours, so here's the link to his: http://oceanofmorality.weebly.com/ It's well worth a visit.
On a more serious note, Peter's brother, Roger, sadly died this week after a couple of months being lovingly cared for by other members of the Sibley family, his church (Holy Trinity Tewkesbury) and other friends (not forgetting the NHS). We shall be home in time for the funeral on Nov 12
On a more serious note, Peter's brother, Roger, sadly died this week after a couple of months being lovingly cared for by other members of the Sibley family, his church (Holy Trinity Tewkesbury) and other friends (not forgetting the NHS). We shall be home in time for the funeral on Nov 12
26th. October What's in a Name?
We continue to be fascinated by the use of English we see here in Kunming, mind you, if we were looking for a word in a Chinese dictionary to express what we wanted to say, or if we were copying a sentence in Chinese characters there's a good chance that we would choose the wrong word or get a stroke wrong. Judy's favourite dress shop is still 'Unsightly and Peculiar' it's easy to see how the owner arrived at these two words to describe the rarely seen and special garments they sell.
Recently Judy came across these two places at opposite ends of a shopping precinct......
Oribel is a spa which offers a range of treatments
Maavalus is a dress shop.
We love the name of the Noodle Parlour near our apartment. We've never been inside but assume people wander around gasping in admiration at the noodles hanging in artistic strands from the trees. Maybe one day we'll see Alice or the Mad Hatter through the window......
The quiz question this week is:-
14th. October Welcome to Hogwalts?
(Well, the Director of Studies' name is Walt!)
We arrived at school one morning to find one of our students dressed as a wizard, complete with wand and pointed hat! Had we signed up for Hogwarts without knowing it? She said it was her birthday and the Harry Potter outfit was a present from her sister. Yeah, right!
And then we saw the "NO QUIDDITCH" sign in the centre of town. Well, that's what it looked like to us. What do you think? Seems like the Hogwarts students had been causing a public nuisance with their quidditch tournaments.
What next? A mystery bus stop appeared outside our flat. It has no name (all official Kunming bus stops have names) and it appears on no timetables. But the bus for the school stops there, just like the Hogwarts Express at Platform 9¾ in King's Cross Station.
We'll be asking for help if Lord Voldemort starts climbing the 98 steps up to the school
4th. October Going with the Flow
The Thursday before last Peter finally took a day off. However, at 8am the electricity and water went off - so much for the leisurely hot shower! Our first thought was that we had forgotten to pay the bills, but we thought it was odd that both had failed at the same time. So we decided to 'phone a friend' who lives in our apartment block. He had already phoned the management who told him that the electricity (which powered the water pump) would be back on at 6pm. We had missed the notice (in Chinese) posted at the gate of our block. Fortunately the lift was being powered by an emergency generator.
We decided to go out for the day. Peter had borrowed a Dell tablet from our son Mike, but somehow in transit the screen had got torn, so this seemed like a good opportunity to get it mended. However, first of all Judy prevailed upon Peter to visit one of the three new Starbuck's Kunming (they are all clustered together) for a caffeine fix. One of its attractions (apart from coffee and muffins) is the western toilet (they still have squats in KFC)! Above the toilet is a notice which says,
"For your safety, please refrain from squatting on the toilet seat." Judy wondered how many had already fallen down the pan, never to be seen again.....
Fortified by Starbuck's fare, we set off for 121 Big Road. This is where the electronic appliance shops are. We searched for some time for the shop we had been advised to use, but our map and reality didn't match up. Eventually we gave up and went into a random computer centre. We found the Dell section and were able to show the young assistant our problem. Our technical Mandarin is extremely limited, but we managed to grasp the fact that a new screen would arrive in 20 minutes, meanwhile our young assistant brought cups of hot water to drink. After 20 minutes a young lady appeared with the new screen and we were ushered upstairs.
There, another young man took over, he deftly took the whole computer apart. Offering Peter one of his cigarettes, he set to with his screwdriver and soon had the tablet in bits on the table. Once the new screen was installed, the young lady left, her duties fulfilled.
We decided to go out for the day. Peter had borrowed a Dell tablet from our son Mike, but somehow in transit the screen had got torn, so this seemed like a good opportunity to get it mended. However, first of all Judy prevailed upon Peter to visit one of the three new Starbuck's Kunming (they are all clustered together) for a caffeine fix. One of its attractions (apart from coffee and muffins) is the western toilet (they still have squats in KFC)! Above the toilet is a notice which says,
"For your safety, please refrain from squatting on the toilet seat." Judy wondered how many had already fallen down the pan, never to be seen again.....
Fortified by Starbuck's fare, we set off for 121 Big Road. This is where the electronic appliance shops are. We searched for some time for the shop we had been advised to use, but our map and reality didn't match up. Eventually we gave up and went into a random computer centre. We found the Dell section and were able to show the young assistant our problem. Our technical Mandarin is extremely limited, but we managed to grasp the fact that a new screen would arrive in 20 minutes, meanwhile our young assistant brought cups of hot water to drink. After 20 minutes a young lady appeared with the new screen and we were ushered upstairs.
There, another young man took over, he deftly took the whole computer apart. Offering Peter one of his cigarettes, he set to with his screwdriver and soon had the tablet in bits on the table. Once the new screen was installed, the young lady left, her duties fulfilled.
Fag ash flying, we watched in awe as our technician put the whole machine back together again with every tiny screw accounted for. The whole exercise had taken just over 2 hours. With much clapping (by us) and shaking of hands, we left with the Dell as good as new. By this time it was 4pm, so we went to a nearby cafe for "lunch'.
We arrived back at the apartment just before 6pm and waited for the electricity to come back on - it didn't! With not much to do, we lay down on the bed and fell asleep. When we woke up at 8pm it wasdark and we suddenly realised that we only had Judy's tiny torch. We blundered around the flat searching for candles and torches and eventually found a good supply of candles and a head torch. Fortunately we still had gas and drinking water, plus a bucket of water which we could use for washing. Judy cooked us omelettes by the light of the head torch and we went to bed very early.
We arrived back at the apartment just before 6pm and waited for the electricity to come back on - it didn't! With not much to do, we lay down on the bed and fell asleep. When we woke up at 8pm it wasdark and we suddenly realised that we only had Judy's tiny torch. We blundered around the flat searching for candles and torches and eventually found a good supply of candles and a head torch. Fortunately we still had gas and drinking water, plus a bucket of water which we could use for washing. Judy cooked us omelettes by the light of the head torch and we went to bed very early.
Judy was awoken during the night by a mosquito biting her. Knowing that a mozzy usually stops nearby to digest its meal, Peter leapt out of bed with the tiny torch and managed to pinpoint the culprit, bringing the electric tennis racquet to bear on the errant insect.
At the flat we eventually got the electricity and water back 25 hours after it had gone off. By that time,
Peter had left for work early, taking the contents of the freezer with him. The school has a freezer where our meat resided for the next few days - until there was a power cut (8am-10pm) at the school and we had to bring it all back home again!
At the flat we eventually got the electricity and water back 25 hours after it had gone off. By that time,
Peter had left for work early, taking the contents of the freezer with him. The school has a freezer where our meat resided for the next few days - until there was a power cut (8am-10pm) at the school and we had to bring it all back home again!
22nd. September Back to Bees (sic)
When I (Peter) was in China two years ago, a friend asked me to design a beehive to go on the flat roof of his farm house. In this part of China (Yunnan Province), the main species of honey bee is not Apis mellifera (which is what we have in UK) but the smaller Asian honey bee, Apis cerana. Well, I had never kept Cerana bees and had only seen inside their hives a couple of times, so I had some reading up to do. I decided on a simple design called a "top bar" hive (beekeepers will nod knowingly). I discovered how far apart the combs have to be (less than in UK) and how much space the bees would need to set up house (a lot less than UK bees).
Top bar hives for UK bees usually have sloping sides (wider at the top) but the book said Cerana bees would be OK in a hive with vertical sides. Was the book right? Only one way to find out!
I produced drawings, built a cardboard model and had the hive made by a local workshop which employs deaf carpenters. The result looked good - except that the entrance hole was 2 mm wide instead of 2 cm. This was easily solved, even with my very inadequate woodworking skills. The roof needed to be covered with waterproof material.
Top bar hives for UK bees usually have sloping sides (wider at the top) but the book said Cerana bees would be OK in a hive with vertical sides. Was the book right? Only one way to find out!
I produced drawings, built a cardboard model and had the hive made by a local workshop which employs deaf carpenters. The result looked good - except that the entrance hole was 2 mm wide instead of 2 cm. This was easily solved, even with my very inadequate woodworking skills. The roof needed to be covered with waterproof material.
I looked up the Chinese for beeswax (feng la), bought some from the local honey shop and used it to make little starter strips to show the bees where to build their combs. It would also give the hive the right smell to attract a passing swarm.
I gave the experimental hive to my friend and went home to UK. He then had 10 more hives made to the same pattern - this was before we knew whether the first one would work OK. Oh well!
Now, 2 years later, I heard that although my friend is back in USA, one of the hives has bees! Must have a look. My friend, Asing, a honey hunter from Nagaland (where they also keep Cerana bees), arranged transport and we set off at 7 am to avoid the rush hour which gets worse very year as the number of cars on the roads increases exponentially. Any drive on Chinese motorways is terrifying and this was no exception. Why use the outside lane to overtake when the hard shoulder is available?
After an hour or so, plus a stop at a noodle cafe for breakfast, we arrived and hastened eagerly to the roof. I couldn't tell whether the hive with the bees was my original or one of the clones. A bad sign was that, in spite of the rain, a few bees were coming and going through a gap at the rear of the hive where the wood had warped in the Yunnan rain. Worse was to come.
Donning my lightweight veil and marigold gloves, I gently lifted the hive roof - or tried to. But it was firmly jammed - that rain again! With the aid of a machete I levered the roof off to reveal the top bars and gently tried to lift out the bar at the end. But the top bars were jammed in place as well! This time, a kitchen knife was a useful hive tool. The bees had started to build down from the top bar but where was the wax starter strip? Not there. So presumably this was not my original hive. I began to lift the next top bar, but it was obvious that the honeycomb had been built in a random way inside the hive. It was impossible to lift the top bars without breaking the comb. There was even some comb fixed to the side wall.
So that was as far as I got. I couldn't look for the queen or check for eggs, brood etc. The colony looked happy and well established but there was no way of harvesting any honey without causing a lot of damage. I checked some of the empty hives which all had their starter strips. Why did the bees choose the one that didn't? Asing promised to go back and adjust the dimensions of the other hives so that they will come apart more easily, in case more passing swarms move in.
So, is the hive the right design? We still don't know. Maybe another year or two will reveal the answer.
Any suggestions or advice welcome via Twitter #sibschina
I gave the experimental hive to my friend and went home to UK. He then had 10 more hives made to the same pattern - this was before we knew whether the first one would work OK. Oh well!
Now, 2 years later, I heard that although my friend is back in USA, one of the hives has bees! Must have a look. My friend, Asing, a honey hunter from Nagaland (where they also keep Cerana bees), arranged transport and we set off at 7 am to avoid the rush hour which gets worse very year as the number of cars on the roads increases exponentially. Any drive on Chinese motorways is terrifying and this was no exception. Why use the outside lane to overtake when the hard shoulder is available?
After an hour or so, plus a stop at a noodle cafe for breakfast, we arrived and hastened eagerly to the roof. I couldn't tell whether the hive with the bees was my original or one of the clones. A bad sign was that, in spite of the rain, a few bees were coming and going through a gap at the rear of the hive where the wood had warped in the Yunnan rain. Worse was to come.
Donning my lightweight veil and marigold gloves, I gently lifted the hive roof - or tried to. But it was firmly jammed - that rain again! With the aid of a machete I levered the roof off to reveal the top bars and gently tried to lift out the bar at the end. But the top bars were jammed in place as well! This time, a kitchen knife was a useful hive tool. The bees had started to build down from the top bar but where was the wax starter strip? Not there. So presumably this was not my original hive. I began to lift the next top bar, but it was obvious that the honeycomb had been built in a random way inside the hive. It was impossible to lift the top bars without breaking the comb. There was even some comb fixed to the side wall.
So that was as far as I got. I couldn't look for the queen or check for eggs, brood etc. The colony looked happy and well established but there was no way of harvesting any honey without causing a lot of damage. I checked some of the empty hives which all had their starter strips. Why did the bees choose the one that didn't? Asing promised to go back and adjust the dimensions of the other hives so that they will come apart more easily, in case more passing swarms move in.
So, is the hive the right design? We still don't know. Maybe another year or two will reveal the answer.
Any suggestions or advice welcome via Twitter #sibschina
16 September Well! Well! Well! Three holes in the ground!
Actually there have been many more than 3. The whole section of main road which passes our apartment block was in chaos when we arrived. A new sewer was being laid and the road, cycle/moped lanes and pavements have all been resurfaced. Walking to the bus stop was quite challenging - manhole covers came and went which, with no street lighting, were an exciting hazard.
Holes appeared in the pavement, which children enjoyed deliberately falling into. Fully grown trees with a rather pathetic bundle of roots, were laid beside the holes one day, but had disappeared again the next. Lamp posts were laid out along the side of the road and somehow managed to escape being flattened by the buses. There were no bus stops, so we looked for groups of people standing by the side of the road and joined them hopefully. The road makers (both men and women) worked day and night.
Last Friday brand new bus stops were erected along the road. The question was, should we stand in the old place or walk another 100 yards to the new one? We stuck with the old spot and, sure enough, the bus stopped for us. Further along the road about 20 people were waiting at a new bus stop - our driver put his foot down and sailed straight past them without a backward glance. I'm afraid those of us who had guessed right were looking rather smug.
Coming back in the evening, the bus picked us up at the usual place, but when we got to our usual drop off point, the driver ignored all the people standing patiently waiting and carried on to the new bus stop (where there was nobody waiting) and dropped us off.
Last Friday brand new bus stops were erected along the road. The question was, should we stand in the old place or walk another 100 yards to the new one? We stuck with the old spot and, sure enough, the bus stopped for us. Further along the road about 20 people were waiting at a new bus stop - our driver put his foot down and sailed straight past them without a backward glance. I'm afraid those of us who had guessed right were looking rather smug.
Coming back in the evening, the bus picked us up at the usual place, but when we got to our usual drop off point, the driver ignored all the people standing patiently waiting and carried on to the new bus stop (where there was nobody waiting) and dropped us off.
Note the people standing at a non-bus stop
By Sunday all the buses were using the new bus stops. Trees and lamp posts had been firmly planted in their holes and white lines had appeared on the road. No pedestrian crossings have been painted in yet, but that's a blessing because they give you a false sense of security, most cars ignore them and traffic comes at you from all directions. We are very good at "sandwiching" i.e., making sure that there is a Chinese person on either side of us when we cross busy junctions.
There are so many diggers and steamrollers working outside our apartment block that sometimes the buses can't get through at all. The two in the picture below executed three point turns on the railway line. We don't know what happened to the passengers who wanted to go west and ended up going east.
There are so many diggers and steamrollers working outside our apartment block that sometimes the buses can't get through at all. The two in the picture below executed three point turns on the railway line. We don't know what happened to the passengers who wanted to go west and ended up going east.
Notice that for ladies it is de rigeur to wear an apron when mixing and laying cement
We love the way bus drivers can make executive decisions about when and where their bus stops. They can turn around and go home if the road looks dodgy. One dropped Judy (and a bus load of other passengers) at a completely random stop that wasn't even on its route. Fortunately she knew the city well enough to walk a mile to a different bus stop, but she managed to get on the wrong number bus and spent the next ¾ of an hour standing squashed in a very full bus and stuck in a traffic jam trying to reach another bus stop about ¼ of a mile away. Under no circumstances will the driver open his doors except at his chosen bus stop, so you can be jammed in the bus for ages just feet from your stop. Judy eventually escaped from that bus and got on one that was going in the right direction this time. However, that one threw her and all the other passengers off a good way short of the bus station which she wanted to go to. By this time she was losing the will to live, but managed to find a bus that dropped her near the railway line that passes our apartment, so she walked down the track keeping a sharp eye out for goods trains! All in all her journey had taken 3½ hours!
2 September Back in Kunming
If you've ever read C.S.Lewis' book, "The Magician's Nephew", you may remember that Digory and Polly put on magic rings and found themselves in "The Wood between the Worlds" (otherwise known as Heathrow Airport). Jumping into a pool transported them to a different world; taking the flight from Terminal 3 had the same effect, if somewhat more slowly. We changed planes in Hong Kong and landed in Kunming after 23 hours of waiting and travelling.
This was our first experience of the new International Airport which has been built outside Kunming City. It is huge, surrounded by a barren and dusty red landscape. The plan is for it to become an international airport into which the world's major airlines will fly. At the moment, however, there are just a few smaller aircraft flying in. There's certainly room for expansion but we're not sure that many people will be persuaded by the delights of Kunming as opposed to Bangkok, Beijing or Hong Kong. Judy decided it was definitely not international when she discovered that the toilets were still mainly squats - very different from Hong Kong!
The baggage reclaim hall is enormous - we couldn't see where it ended. Only one of the extra large carousels seemed to be in use. (When our friend Andrew arrived a week earlier this was the case - luggage from 4 flights was on the one carousel).
We were definitely beginning to feel we had landed in another world, and were wondering whether we had enough jet-lagged brain power to find a reliable taxi driver who could find the address we were going to. We had never been there before and didn't know if our hosts would be at home.
Imagine our relief when we staggered out of the green channel at customs to find Andrew waiting for us with a reliable taxi driver. We were so pleased to see him, although Mr. Wang was slightly taken aback by the weight of our luggage as he skidded down the ramp to the car park, pulled by an unstoppable force (Judy's suitcase).
Finding his taxi and then extricating it from the acres of parking turned out to be quite challenging, but we set off along the new dual carriageways at high speed - nearly wiping out the man with the bicycle who had decided to wander across all 3 lanes of traffic. Presumably he couldn't hear the car horns and screeching of brakes because he was listening to his MP3 player!
There is a new high speed train between the airport and the city , but so far it only goes as far as the Eastern Bus Station (close to the airport) and then the viaduct on which the railway is built comes to an abrupt halt - the perfect setting for a disaster movie!
Towards the centre of the city, large sections of the main roads were being dug up while a new underground Metro system is being put in. This meant that several roads that our taxi driver would have taken were closed and we ended up having to drive the wrong way up a dual carriageway - fortunately everybody got out of our way.
They are laying new sewers outside the apartment block where our hosts Walt and Mirjam live. This meant that it was difficult to find the small gap which had been left for cars to enter. We are on the 13th floor and were very glad to find that there was a working lift and the electricity to power it. The flat is lovely and airy, with a balcony which gives a good view of this side of the city. We have noticed that air pollution is far worse than it was 2 years ago, there seems to be a grey haze over the city and sometimes the sun doesn't break through at all.
The freight railway line runs beside our apartment block and the train horns (sounding like the American trains) woke us up to begin with, but our sleep patterns were all over the place, so it didn't make much difference. On our third night we slept right through and didn't hear the trains at all.
We have been into school and met both groups of young people, they are all lovely and we are looking forward to getting to know them better. In the near future we will be responsible for getting the building to unlock at 0715, which Judy will find particularly challenging. We are still getting puffed climbing up to the 7th floor, we're hoping we'll find it easier as we adjust to the altitude.
Mirjam has left for Thailand and Walt will join her this coming weekend. The baby is officially due in about 3 weeks but who knows? Walt is busy trying to finish sanding down and reconstruct the beautiful wooden cot they have bought. They will need to stay in Thailand for a while to sort out the complications of Thai, Dutch and American birth certificates, passports and visas.
We are settling back into life in Kunming, although there are still lots of surprises. Walmart and KFC are 5 minutes down the road, provided you don't fall down one of the open manholes in the pavement, or fall into the other large holes they have dug for inscrutable reasons. Judy has managed to buy a pair of local Crocs (2.80UK) and some snake oil hand cream, so she's a happy bunny.
Peter has got his communications centre set up in the flat, but hasn't got a bike organised yet. We are within an easy bike ride of the Communist Party swimming pool, which is well worth a visit. He is also looking forward to finding out how his beehives are doing.
This was our first experience of the new International Airport which has been built outside Kunming City. It is huge, surrounded by a barren and dusty red landscape. The plan is for it to become an international airport into which the world's major airlines will fly. At the moment, however, there are just a few smaller aircraft flying in. There's certainly room for expansion but we're not sure that many people will be persuaded by the delights of Kunming as opposed to Bangkok, Beijing or Hong Kong. Judy decided it was definitely not international when she discovered that the toilets were still mainly squats - very different from Hong Kong!
The baggage reclaim hall is enormous - we couldn't see where it ended. Only one of the extra large carousels seemed to be in use. (When our friend Andrew arrived a week earlier this was the case - luggage from 4 flights was on the one carousel).
We were definitely beginning to feel we had landed in another world, and were wondering whether we had enough jet-lagged brain power to find a reliable taxi driver who could find the address we were going to. We had never been there before and didn't know if our hosts would be at home.
Imagine our relief when we staggered out of the green channel at customs to find Andrew waiting for us with a reliable taxi driver. We were so pleased to see him, although Mr. Wang was slightly taken aback by the weight of our luggage as he skidded down the ramp to the car park, pulled by an unstoppable force (Judy's suitcase).
Finding his taxi and then extricating it from the acres of parking turned out to be quite challenging, but we set off along the new dual carriageways at high speed - nearly wiping out the man with the bicycle who had decided to wander across all 3 lanes of traffic. Presumably he couldn't hear the car horns and screeching of brakes because he was listening to his MP3 player!
There is a new high speed train between the airport and the city , but so far it only goes as far as the Eastern Bus Station (close to the airport) and then the viaduct on which the railway is built comes to an abrupt halt - the perfect setting for a disaster movie!
Towards the centre of the city, large sections of the main roads were being dug up while a new underground Metro system is being put in. This meant that several roads that our taxi driver would have taken were closed and we ended up having to drive the wrong way up a dual carriageway - fortunately everybody got out of our way.
They are laying new sewers outside the apartment block where our hosts Walt and Mirjam live. This meant that it was difficult to find the small gap which had been left for cars to enter. We are on the 13th floor and were very glad to find that there was a working lift and the electricity to power it. The flat is lovely and airy, with a balcony which gives a good view of this side of the city. We have noticed that air pollution is far worse than it was 2 years ago, there seems to be a grey haze over the city and sometimes the sun doesn't break through at all.
The freight railway line runs beside our apartment block and the train horns (sounding like the American trains) woke us up to begin with, but our sleep patterns were all over the place, so it didn't make much difference. On our third night we slept right through and didn't hear the trains at all.
We have been into school and met both groups of young people, they are all lovely and we are looking forward to getting to know them better. In the near future we will be responsible for getting the building to unlock at 0715, which Judy will find particularly challenging. We are still getting puffed climbing up to the 7th floor, we're hoping we'll find it easier as we adjust to the altitude.
Mirjam has left for Thailand and Walt will join her this coming weekend. The baby is officially due in about 3 weeks but who knows? Walt is busy trying to finish sanding down and reconstruct the beautiful wooden cot they have bought. They will need to stay in Thailand for a while to sort out the complications of Thai, Dutch and American birth certificates, passports and visas.
We are settling back into life in Kunming, although there are still lots of surprises. Walmart and KFC are 5 minutes down the road, provided you don't fall down one of the open manholes in the pavement, or fall into the other large holes they have dug for inscrutable reasons. Judy has managed to buy a pair of local Crocs (2.80UK) and some snake oil hand cream, so she's a happy bunny.
Peter has got his communications centre set up in the flat, but hasn't got a bike organised yet. We are within an easy bike ride of the Communist Party swimming pool, which is well worth a visit. He is also looking forward to finding out how his beehives are doing.
Back to Kunming
Hello again!
It's been nearly two years but now we are getting ready to go back to China. Our passports came back today, complete with 90 day visas. PTL!!
On August 29, we are due to land at the new Kunming airport which is much bigger and further out than the old one. All part of the Chinese strategy to enlarge their main cities.
We shall be staying with our friends, Walt and Mirjam. Walt runs a school for English speaking youngsters whose families are scattered over south-west China, many in places where there is no local English speaking school. The students come into Kunming for lessons one week in every four. Mirjam is Dutch but studied in Gloucester, so knows people we know here. She is about to start maternity leave, so we are hoping we can give a hand with the school while she has the baby. Fortunately, the subjects covered are maths (although, being American, Walt calls it "math"!), English and science which we feel we can cope with if needed.
We are very much looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones, as well as getting in some Mandarin practice. And Peter is wondering how the bees are.
Hopefully there'll be lots of interesting things to blog about.
It's been nearly two years but now we are getting ready to go back to China. Our passports came back today, complete with 90 day visas. PTL!!
On August 29, we are due to land at the new Kunming airport which is much bigger and further out than the old one. All part of the Chinese strategy to enlarge their main cities.
We shall be staying with our friends, Walt and Mirjam. Walt runs a school for English speaking youngsters whose families are scattered over south-west China, many in places where there is no local English speaking school. The students come into Kunming for lessons one week in every four. Mirjam is Dutch but studied in Gloucester, so knows people we know here. She is about to start maternity leave, so we are hoping we can give a hand with the school while she has the baby. Fortunately, the subjects covered are maths (although, being American, Walt calls it "math"!), English and science which we feel we can cope with if needed.
We are very much looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones, as well as getting in some Mandarin practice. And Peter is wondering how the bees are.
Hopefully there'll be lots of interesting things to blog about.