Knuckle Sandwiches - Part 1

Well it has been a VERY exciting few weeks for the Guihot’s since our last post, with a first time knuckle biting trip to the Post Office and a knuckle punching trip down south to Henan province to check out the cultural gems around Luoyang and the Shaolin Temple (home of the Kungfu Monks). It’s also been a busy time, so much so that when we actually sat down to do our latest blog on the Sino-Guihot happenings it soon became apparent that we had a bit to yabba on about. For this reason, and to make it easier to chew on we’ve broken this one down into two parts. So without further ado here is Part 1 of the nitty gritty from Team Guihot.

White Knuckle

It was enough to cause my knuckles to go white and make me sweat. I was shaking just thinking about it, biting my nails down to the skin. No, it was not a trip to a Chinese Dentist but rather the anticipation of my first experience with the Chinese Postal system. Straight away I had flashbacks of my first visit to the Chinese supermarket, and we all know how long that took (see earlier post :-). In addition to this there were documented stories of one recently departed Australian tai tai going head to head with the Chinese Postal System, all over the colour of the envelope she were trying to send ("I'm sorry - You can only send THAT coloured envelope to THESE places").

The trigger for this trip was the recent marriage of a friend of mine back in Canberra to his long-time partner, so I thought a wedding present with a bit of the local oriental flare was in order (albeit belated). So with the present under the arm sans packaging and my handheld Chinese translator I headed off to the China Post outlet just around the corner, located in the back of a small shop. My expectation was that I would be welcomed by something resembling an Australian Post, even if it was an Australian Post store from a few years back without all the extra non-postage guff. At the minimum I was hoping for a selection of envelopes and packaging options that I could pick from to fill in and take up to pay and post.

What I GOT was an empty and bare white concrete-walled room, with a single window on one side through which I could see two post workers having what I believed was a disagreement on the best way to fill in a form. It looked like the task might require a bit more Chinese than I am currently capable of so I pulled out the translator and managed to string together enough words to let them know I wanted to “send THIS package to A-U-S-T-R-A-L-I-A” (noting the very slowly, which is new territory for me). The problems started when she asked me a question back, to which I responded with a well-practiced blank stare followed by my standard response in this situation - “Bu Zhongwen” (i.e. “No Chinese”). Herein lies the bigger problem though – both Amy and I have found that when we say this to a local in response to a question in Mandarin they just ignore it, and launch into a long conversation in the Chinese dialect irrespective of us shaking our heads, waving our arms and calling “Yingwen, Yingwen” (English, English!) and “Wo bu dong” (I don’t understand).

After a minute or two it clicked to the workers that while they had started the journey to postmaster nirvana I was still back at the ticket office, so the female behind the counter pulled out her basic English to simply say “EMS?” while pointing at an EMS packing envelope to the side. Thinking this was the Chingrish version of saying overseas postage I nodded, hoping that now I would be able to get out of there ASAP. When she told me the price I was a bit surprised, but completed the necessary form and put all the bits into the packing envelope they provided.

As I was about to hand her over the package it occurred to me that I may have assumed EMS as the only international option, and after a bit of too-ing and fro-ing and hair pulling I discovered that China Post also offers a standard (and hence cheaper) international post service on parcels, except that this had to be done at the International Post Office a good 30min walk away. At least the next time I have a choice – I pay a reasonable price for postage back to Oz using the standard China Post service (quality of service unknown) and have to do a bit of a hike for it, or take the closer option but have to pay more than twice the price for the luxury. As for how good the EMS option is, well the jury is still out until I hear word that it got to its destination all safe and sound. Until then I might do some investigation on how the former might just travel and what REAL services I would be sacrificing for price and that extra bit of exercise (travel by air vs travel by sea? Cargo ship vs fishing boat? Pack mule vs Chinese Nuclear Sub?).

Potential Knuckle

The weekend before was our eagerly anticipated trip away down south to the Henan province with the local China Culture Club, to check out a number of key cultural spots around the city of Luoyang. The itinerary had us taking an overnight sleeper train on Friday evening and arriving in Luoyang on Saturday morning, at which time we would bus it to the hotel and have breakfast before visiting the UNESCO-listed Longmen Grottos on Saturday morning and the White Horse Temple/Cave Museum in the afternoon. Sunday was scheduled for some serious kungfu time, with the trip to the Shaolin Temple and then onto a Kungfu school before flying back to Beijing in the evening.

We had been told that it could be a bit of a trip to the West Beijing Train Station where we would be departing from, so we gave ourselves 1hr to get out there thinking it would be a half hour taxi and then 1/2hr for coffee. We grossly underestimated the traffic on the western side of town though, particularly the traffic around the train station itself. By the time we got there and through the luggage scanners (which were at the main entrance, forcing passengers to form long queues along the footpath) we met the tour group with 5 minutes to spare and only really had enough time to grab a few travelling snacks and go to the toilet before boarding the train and finding our soft sleeper cabin. These are 4-bunk cabins, so we were sharing with a American called Gail who lives and works in Beijing. She had come with 3 friends and her husband but they had booked very late and all four were in difference rooms and the two men were actually relegated to the hard sleeper section (6 bunks per cabin, no doors, and with allocation of beds being somewhat loose in documented process, making it a real potential for arguments and some real knuckle should the negotiations not go well). They managed to get the bottom bunks, and when the other Chinese passengers complained they just pretended not to understand – one for the foreigners. It was a great experience for all as we had never done the overnight train travel before and although the ‘mattress’ was more on the futon side of hardness we would certainly do it again (but take along our own roll-up mattresses next time). I tended to wake up every time the train slowed down to stop at a station, which was very regularly. I also had the lovely experience of the wake-up call at 3 in the morning by Madeline who actually thought it was time for EVERYONE to rise, and who gave me a good shake before realising that the sun actually wasn’t up. NOT HAPPY JAN! Oh well, time to roll over to the side of the body that WASN'T numb.

Amy making our Soft Sleeper feel a bit homey - they were cramped and the beds hard but they are a good way to travel for the price (and ALWAYS sell out quickly).

Luckily for the tour group all of our rooms were available when we reached the hotel for breakfast, allowing us the opportunity to head up to the rooms for an hour and freshen up with a shower and a rest before we started the whirlwind visit to three tourist places that day. Most importantly though, the hotel café sold coffee so there was no need for any of the more serious caffeine addicts to invoke the spirit of Wong Fei Hung there and then.

View of the neighbouring parkland from our Luoyang Hotel, with locals practicing their Tai Chi and Kungfu. Boxing practice is also a popular activity in the park.

Stone Knuckle
With our stomachs all full up with eggs and bacon we boarded the tourist bus with the other 22 Luoyang virgins to head out to the Longmen Grottos just out of town. There are plenty of grottoes in China (it’s a real grotto-fest here), but these ones are particularly famous not so much for the caves themselves but the thousands of Buddha statues that reside in them, many still in very good condition given the issues around the cultural revolution. They hold such historical significance that they were actually China’s first UNESCO site and the site is well preserved and set up to manage the large numbers of tourists that flood through the area. This included a system of little golf-buggy like cars to take visitors from the main car park to the grotto ticket entrance and plenty of signage in English (always a bonus, especially in the areas away from the major cities). Lucky for us Luoyang, with its population of 5 million, is considered a “medium city” by China standards so tends to be better versed in catering to the foreigners.

We were very surprised at how well many of the buddhas had stood up to the elements, although many of them tended to be suffering loss of definition of finer features due to a combination of erosion and from visitors touching them. Where the statues still had their hands (which were missing on quite a few), the finer features like the knuckles were long since gone thanks to the wind. While there was some serious amount of stairs to climb up and down as we traversed the side of the mountain, a few special features really made it worth the effort. The biggest one for me had to have been the grotto that had engraved into its walls 15,000 carvings of 2cm high buddha’s, none of them the same. And while our tourist guide was unable to confirm if someone had actually counted them all individually, she was able to tell us that the painting covering the ceiling of this cave actually stated the number of individual carvings in this grotto. How close it is to the mark is anyone’s guess (or someone’s homework), but it was really great to see the work put into this marvel of human patience.

A zoom-in of one panel of the 15,000 2cm-high buddhas in the Longmen Grotto Wanfo Cave.

One of the main sections of the Longmen Grottos.

After heading around in the tour-group posse for a while we got the opportunity to do a bit of exploring ourselves before lunch, so we moseyed up to the far end and checked out the biggest statue on this side of the river. While we looked with excitement at the action on the other side of the river we realised we did not have the time to head over there and check it out, but have already decided that there is enough parts that we DIDN’T see to make it worthwhile heading back there again (likely by ourselves next time).

No-handed Luke - One of my favourite statues from the Longmen Grottos.

The biggest statue on the western side of the river, and a hard one to photograph sans tourist heads popping up in front of you.

With all the West-side Grottos checked out we were dropped back to the main entrance where we wandered down to the bus and headed for lunch. In and out in an hour and we were on our way to check out the White Horse Buddhist Temple which was the first Buddhist temple in China. While it was nice and very peaceful it did in the end look similar to the Lama Temple here in Beijing that we visited shortly after we arrived. We were though amazed to come across one particular statue bearing a remarkable resemblance to one of my old Uni acquaintances back in Canberra (photo below).

Does the moustache give it away?

The room that Harry Potter built (inside the White Horse Temple).

Amy and I at the White Horse Temple. Photo by Maddy (who is getting better).

After a quick wander through the many cheap souvenir stores crowding the temple entrance we boarded the bus again and headed into the centre of town to check out a local museum housing some very old excavations of horses and chariots long since petrified. By this stage though we were nearing the end of our stamina for touristy things so we decided to avail ourselves of the remaining sunshine that was filtering its way through the Luoyang smog outside. Once the rest of the group had done their loop and Amy had knocked back one local's request for a photo it was a short trip back to the hotel for dinner and proper sleep on a real bed, not knowing that the next day I would more than surpass my desire to have a simple photo taken with a kungfu monk (call it a dream come true). For those knuckle stories though you'll need to wait for Part 2. In the meantime, we hope you have enjoyed reading this first bit of our first trip into the more 'urban' parts of China.

High Tea in the Wild West

Following a subtle prodding from one reader we thought it was about time to do another post (thanks Mal). It’s been a while between updates I know, but for someone who doesn’t have a job I’m an awfully busy man (what with all the riding, eating, riding, exploring , and eating to be done).

Since the last post I’ve managed to fit in another two Mandarin lessons, both of which were cultural in nature as opposed to just checking out shops for stuff to spend Amy’s money on. The first of these involved a trip to a traditional tea house on the western side of Beijing, where we were given the ins and outs of tea here in China. This included a demonstration of a traditional tea ceremony which took us through the proper protocols of enjoying a cup of brew Beijing-style. In all honesty I thought that aside from the different types of tea flavours, tea was tea. But alas NO. Aside from the flavour being a key distinguisher of cost and reknownness (is that actually a word? Rhetorical question – no prizes for the right answer this time) the age of the leaf is also a big deal. This was evident in the tea house menu, with prices for a pot of tea ranging from 80 yuan to 600 yuan. Pu-er tea, which is the traditional Chinese black tea, is the Penfolds Grange of the tea world, with leaves getting more expensive the older they are (600 yuan will get you the 10 year vintage pu-er leaf, while we tried a cup of a 2 year vintage for 30 yuan). The tea house is actually one of the oldest tea houses in Beijing, and has now caught on to the benefits of franchising and opened up a few more dotted around the place.

The trip to the west of the city again highlights the vast disparity in English translations between this area and the more diplomatically populated areas east of the city’s meridian line. Over our way (we are in the NE of the city) most of the signs are often inclusive of English translations, but on the western side the foreigners are often left to fend for themselves. Except for the foreign university students who probably reside near the campuses in the NW of the city, it really comes across to me as way more local and Chinese than our side. On my few trips over I have noticed that the traffic is heavier, the western influence less pronounced, and the likelihood of being stared at as if I had two heads is higher. Given all that, a tea ceremony at high noon was just the right occasion to have our trusty language coach Lily to guide the way. In addition to getting a translation of the tea ceremony, which was given only in Mandarin, she also highlighted the fact that the flat area just around the corner from the tea house was actually a “Public Square”, which here in Beijing refers to places where the convicted and condemned were (still are??) brought for their capital punishment . I wonder if the tea house does deals on last meal requests?

Michelle perfecting the art of pouring tea from on high.

The second lesson this week was to Wangfujing street, where we went and checked out a shop that specialises in chopsticks. Here I was thinking that chopsticks were chopsticks were chopsticks, but again no. The variety available was amazing with prices dependant on the wood used and the trimming (everything from gold to sea shell). Want the crème de la crème of chopsticks? You want the set of 12 pairs for 23,8886 Yuan (approximately AU$5000). Eating with those should even turn my cooking into something edible. With a few sets in tow, we then went next door to one of Beijing’s oldest and most famous restaurants and had hotpot for lunch. This was my second foray into it since I’ve been in China, and this one certainly was a better deal food wise than the first one we reported on in the previous blog. While it cost us 340 Yuan for the three of us, there was so much meat that we ended up having to send a whole plate and a bit of lamb back to the kitchen. Being the carnivore that I am, it really did bring a tear to my eye but I honestly couldn’t fit another thing in. By this time we were running very short on time so we made a very quick dash across the street to the markets to check out the sea horses and the scorpions on a skewer, some of which were still showing signs of resistance to death. Unfortunately I didn’t even have enough space for water let alone a snack with its own in-built toothpick. Next time.

Scorpians and seahorses, with many of the stingers still squirming on the sticks. Dessert anyone?

The most anticipated event for the Guihot’s over the previous two weeks was the cultural tour to Tianjin, which in the end was a bit of a disappointment. While the itinerary and promises of on-board commentary sounded great, we soon found out that the majority of the commentary on the bus heading to and from Tianjin was provided in Mandarin or German. OK, so we are in China BUT the tour was targetted towards foriegn officials and was supposed to cater for people from a non-Chinese speaking background. That’s not to say they didn’t translate some of it into English but often they gave a single English word as the translation for an entire Chinese paragraph – leaving us confused about the context of the conversation.

The site-seeing included in the tour was average. Anticipation of seeing a good demonstration of Chinese opera was dashed when we realised it was just a local community group that was going to perform for us. In addition to this we found out along the way that we were to be involved in the performance, requiring us to select between acting out the role of a horse, singing or dancing. While I initially selected the Chinese opera singing I decided to join Amy and Maddy in doing the horse thing. In the end this part of the trip was a bit of fun, as we were instructed by a local Chinese guy who was quite into his role and had a good sense of humor (and he needed it to put up with a bunch of westerners galumphing around).

Amy and Madeline testing out their imaginary horse-riding prowess on their imaginary horses.

Me in mid horse-mounting action.

The rest of the day was made up of touring the former Tianjin residence of the last emperor of China (Pu Yi), and residence of a local rich land owner. These were much better parts of the trip and we enjoyed seeing the beautifully restored buildings.

The choice of restaurant selected for lunch was also very average. While the food was plentiful it was not really suited for couples with children, as a lot of it was quite spicy. And while it might be a very Chinese tradition, most visitors still prefer to have tea leaves with their hot water to wash down their lunch (and it isn’t that expensive per person).

There was though two saving graces for the restaurant. One had nothing to do with the food but rather the utilisation of a very 60s American concept of waiting staff on wheels. And I’m not talking rollerblades but the old-skool rollerskates. The other was the sight of the largest tea pot I've ever seen, used for making Conje for people ducking in for a quick business lunch.

The tea pot from the land of giants. It wasn't picked up and poured - it was tipped.

Sweet and Sour Xanadu.

Two weeks ago I did manage to knock off one of the items on my “things to do before I die” list, and ride the World’s longest escalator. This magnificent beast of technology is found in the Joy City Plaza on the western side of Tiananmen Square. It goes from the ground to the 6th floor, giving people faster access to floors 7 through 13 of the plaza (yep, she’s a biggie). As well as riding the escalator to nowhere really, I did also manage to come across this little beauty of a sign outside the Cinema complex. All take note of point 6.

Just part of the longest escalator in the world. Hold on to your excitment.

On the empowerment front Amy attended an International Women’s Day function a few weeks ago at the Great Hall of the People. The building is, as it name would suggest, quite large and the inside is very beautiful. Amy had an afternoon tea with lots of other women, many of whom were Chinese government officials and PLA officers. The event included some very impressive performers – the PLA dance troupe performed several traditional dances, there was an acrobatic/ballet performance of ‘the Oriental Swan’ which was incredible. At one point the female ballet dancer was on one pointe balancing on the male dancer’s outstretched upper arm – incredible. There were also a few singers performing opera – one of whom is one of the most popular singers in China. Given the reaction of the (mainly female) crowd, this guy must be China’s answer to Tom Jones – many of the PLA women were close to fainting - some even closer to throwing underpants.

On a positive exercise note from me I’ve actually gotten on the bike a fair bit in the last week, so much so that I could hardly walk up the stairs last night. The week-long tour-de-north-east Beijing included a trip out to the Olympic area on Wednesday, my first ride with the local Beijing MOB group on Saturday followed up by a ride yesterday out to some of the less affluent areas of Beijing. While yesterday was meant to be the warm-down for the week it was a bit longer than expected, but a real eye opener. It certainly showed me that you do not need to travel too far from the well developed and ‘affluent’ areas of Beijing to see how the other half (or more) of Beijing live (and struggle).

Three little kids (+ one's dolly) walk along the canal where we rode on Sunday, on their way to a play-date.

I won’t bore the non-cyclists with the details here, but the bike-o-philes can now check out the nitty gritty of my riding adventures and more photos in my new bike blog here.

Guihot Body Count

Two numb fingers, a corked thigh and two near-smashed faces. No, it’s not the results of a foray into kickboxing, or even a run-in between bike and car on one of our rides. It was the toll from the Saturday’s dodge ball match, which was the icing on the cake for both Amy and I in what was a pretty exhausting weekend.

On a final note, congrats to Julie for being the first one in with the correct answer. The movie the chingrish translation was referring to was Meet Dave, with Eddy Murphy. (In the spirit of Danny Devito in Twins – “Obviously”). And in the spirit of the competition her prize pack included this beauty of a sticker.

This weekend we are off to Shaolin, which we were lucky to get in for as they had originally sold out, but thanks to cancellations we got a guernsey. We are also doing a day trip walking a section of the great wall. It will probably go quiet on the travel front for us for a while after this as Amy’s work is about to get quite hectic thanks to some planned visits from Australian dignitaries.

Quiz Question
We ran across this guy in our travels in the last two weeks. What was he doing?

a) Playing the role of a tea dragon in a traditional tea ceremony
b) Doing his job as a maitre de in the Wangfujing Hotpot restaurant
c) Playing the role of a horsemen in a Chinese Opera performance
d) Busking in the street to raise money for a Guinness World Records beard attempt
e) Auditioning for a part in the sequel to “Big Trouble in Little China”.

A Chinese man and an Australian man walk into a bar....

I’ve held off for two months but can resist no longer, so here are a couple of the more humorous signs and translations we have seen around the place. Funnier than my ‘Dad jokes’ will ever be.

Adult Shops –this one is your Retravision for the bedroom.

FINALLY a clothes shop to service my enhanced cushioning frame.

Spot the rule that failed his Political Correctness class.

Blurb from the back cover of a DVD we picked up from our local shop, transcribed word for word (complete with punctuation). Probably the result of using a website like Babelfish to translate an English blurb to Mandarin and then converting it back again at another time, or using another translation service.

“The fresher who just came to New York this big city as one, the dave has no alternative but to be different races, he seems always some not too enemies. Do not say that first he has to this city does not adapt, but is his body and his cerebrum as if does not coordinate, Such is incompatible with looks resembles unthinkability, actually has a reasonable explanation: Originally the dave is not a humanity, he is by a miniature alien the spaceship which constructs according to own image. Adye. “Dave Number Airship” acts two role – human form airship and miniature outside start captain in this family comedy big piece. Lets us know the first dave, about his probably 40 years old, the appearance also calculates asks for happily, but the clothing is strange, he always wears a body pure white the formal clothes, in the pocket inserts is folding together is neat the black handkerchief, lets the human not able to bear recalls about the last century 70 years that disco dancing big line of its...”

Clear as mud, really, and the prime candidate for use in our first mystery prize giveaway. The rules are simple - the first person who correctly identifies the film being described will get a little surprise from us. Submit your answers in the comments section at the bottom of the blog and put your Hollywood cinema knowledge to the test.

As to what we have been up to since the last post, we have managed to get out on our bikes twice for some riding around the city (as a family anyway – I tend to ride during the week also). Last weekend we headed down to what is becoming a favourite breakfast joint called ‘Grandma’s Kitchen’, a 1/2hr ride away down in the CBD (does a great Peppered Steak and Eggs). In addition to seeing some of the side streets we hadn’t checked out yet, we also got a chance to check out the recently burnt out (and not even finished) Mandarin Oriental hotel which is part of the new CCTV complex – the result of a waylaid industrial firework that was let off right next to it in contravention of local authorities. Looks like someone is going to get some big smacks over this one. Today we decided to head out to Hou Hai lake, where 7 weeks ago we had gone ice skating on the frozen lake. Although we are not feeling it on the skin at the moment the temperature appears to have really started to head North, because only the middle of the lake was still frozen and the local boat hire businesses along the lake’s edge testing out their rigs.

Hou Hai in the warmer weather – The fun ice bikes are packed away until next winter.

It was a great ride, including a pootle through the maze of Hutongs that border the lake. The best part of the day though had to be our first go at the local Hotpot cuisine for lunch. Although we had done it a few times in Canberra with ace Hotpot Wok ‘Head’ Master Grace, we were not exactly sure of the order of steps here but we had a very nice (and understanding) waitress who helped us to work our way through 2 plates of meat, a plate of mushroom, noodles, shrimp balls (not that type..) and some Chinese leafy green stuff that Amy asked for. With stretched stomachs it was certainly a slow start to the ride back home, broken up with a stop to the big Giant Bike shop. The shop was packed, and more importantly it was packed with some high-end bike gear giving some credence to recent reports that recreational biking is really starting to take off in China (where up until now they have seen it purely as a staple transport). We did manage to scope out a new bike for Maddy, as her recent growth spurt has seen her outgrow her old one and we are now looking to take the big step up to a 20inch wheel model (and gears). Mental notes were taken for an up and coming birthday, while I attempted to communicate with the shop staff on needing to get a quote for replacing my broken derailleur for my insurance claim. While not certain yet, I think I may have had some success on this front but will not know for sure until I drop my bike in during the week for them to look at (fingers crossed).

Amy and Madeline negotiating their way through the very narrow traffic lanes at the very Western end of our street.

Maddy and I getting into the Hou Hai Hotpot for lunch.

Riding through the Hutongs – we came across a few dead-ends and had to backtrack. It would be easy to get lost in there.

Amy thinks all this bike riding is like when we first started dating and were exploring the streets and bikepaths of Canberra, only this time, we are accompanied by a little monkey that keeps a constant commentary, including chatter, singing and endless questions. (Reece inserts a soppy ‘ahhhhh’ here).

One of the best times on the bike so far happened last Saturday when I headed out to the Olympic MTB course out at Laoshan for a lap with a few other guys. In the end it was a tough trip with many parts of the course still covered in snow and many sections being worked on by trail gangs (although I think they are planning to pave it – a REAL shame). All in all though it was a great combination of riding and pushing for me (showing my lack of fitness), and I’m keen to head back before it all goes by the wayside as there appears to be very little maintenance being done on it.

Me in one of my few attempts to ride up the snowing trails of the Laoshan Olympic Mountain Bike course (not surprising I didn’t make it).

Outside of the cycling I have joined a group that does Tai Chi every Friday morning and I am having an absolute ball. Unlike the Tai Chi I did in Canberra many years ago which was more focussed on the relaxation, our Tai Chi teacher here is an experienced Tai Chi, Tai Chi sword and Kung Fu/Wushu Coach (and an accredited Wushu Judge). We are talking about a small, petite lady who can hold her leg out parallel to the floor while balancing on her other one for 1/2hr, and certainly not one to mistake for a bag-snatching target if you were that way inclined. While we have only had two lessons we have been moving through the first form very quickly, and I’m already starting to feel the effects of the exercise on my legs (which felt like lead balloons after last Friday’s lesson). While I have been giving some thought to getting back to Kung Fu, this class provides me with the opportunity to get back into the forms side of the martial arts while also getting to see the self defence application of the moves (having had the teacher throw my arm to the side like it was a wet noodle, without her even tensing a muscle – goodbye male pride).

This week we finally got around to testing out the squash facilities, and were pleasantly surprised at how well Maddy progressed in the one session we had. Not the most coordinated of sports people, she managed to apply her “cricket cover drive for everything” hitting approach and was soon returning some nice balls back from the service. It is certainly something we will be working on.

Outside of the physical exercise arena we were stoked to find out that we could download the latest season of Underbelly from iTunes only a few hours after it is shown in Australia. And in an even better stroke of fortune I have managed to stretch my often limited skill in home electronics knowledge and connect the laptop up to the new TV allowing us to enjoy it on the big screen. We are now making more use of iTunes to grab some movies that we can’t get locally (or ones we want to see without the heads bobbing across the bottom of the screen). To the AppleMac marketing department: I take direct deposit – please contact me for account details.

Maddy continues to be busy with school and with school friends, and went to her 2nd friend’s birthday party last weekend at a local Kids Funzone just down the road. Aside of the great play area, this place also had the biggest ball-pit I’ve ever seen – I was surprised not to see some flower reefs around the outside in memory of lost children but luckily the supervision was also good (so much so that we left her there and went for coffee at a local bookstore).

On the visitor front we are very excited about a few proposed visits by friends and relatives in the next 12 months. In August I am expecting a few cousins over for a flying visit just before I head back to Australia in early September for 2 weeks to see friends and family and catch the MTB World Champs, at which time I will bring my folks back with me (all things going to plan). In December Amy’s brother and sister in law will be visiting for a few days along with their new baby, allowing Amy to send some quality time with her new niece.

Our plans for the next few weeks include a day trip to Tianjin (Beijing’s port city located around 2hrs drive to the SE), and a trip to Shaolin with the local China Culture Club. We are looking forward to both, and while I think the latter will be heavily commercialised I am still excited to check out the birthplace of Kung Fu.

Finally, I’m after a pie maker so if anyone wants to send one over, I’ll happily exchange it for an Ipod. I have a ‘genuine’ one here that Madeline only used once, in great working order :-). The pies here just aren't up to scratch (Please Note: This is a a joke. Please don’t send one over as it will cost you an absolute fortune in postage. BUT if you were planning on visiting and have the luggage space...;-).