So on Sunday it was part 2 for the Album of Suzhou although this time there was a little more pressure, this time we had a couple of real BBC folk. There was Phil the cameraman and Jim the director although it was Phil that did most of the work.

Phil is a tall black English guy who is one of the most animated, direct, funny and full of life individuals that I have met for a long time and he’s even likable.

Jim is a bit more reserved and looks a bit like Mr Bean but has a very direct manner also with a quieter demeanour.

We also had Patrick who has organised all of this and his helper and friend Polaris and then there was Professor Nui.

Suzhou has been so hot since I got back here a week ago. It’s been around 38c most days which you can appreciate is

quite miserable, so we arrived

at the Master of Nets Garden at 7 am to start filming. I am of course the star of the show and it’s all about me but I can tell that Phil has a way with dealing with Prima Donnas, not that I was any trouble but he had a way about him that made what I thought would be a very difficult day a lot easier.

It was quickly warming up and we still hadn’t started filming. I was practising what to say and getting confused but after a couple of takes I started to relax and we started filming.

We were in the moon pavilion which protrudes over the central pond a little and this was a good place to get things underway before the public started coming in enmasse. With every passing minute it was getting hotter.

I really was enjoying the day despite the heat and despite the fact that I had worn grey which is not the best colour to wear when it’s hot and humid. Mind you after a while the sweat had dried and I just couldn’t get enough water down my throat.

More and more folk were coming into the garden and it was getting harder to film to try and keep the tourist at bay. After all they had paid for a ticket and were only in suzhou for the day, but we managed to work around all these distractions and no one was getting upset, in fact they were just curious. No doubt trying to figure out who the famous looking distinguished gent was.

After a hard days filming we went to the restaurant and ate a lot of food and had some beer, it was a great day and very successful I think not only for me but for Phil and Jim who are trying to build a portfolio of work here in China and so they can also use today’s footage for that. Mind you I was a little surprised when Phil told me that his camera was worth around £30,000 and that today’s shoot would have cost £8,000. Phil is off to Canada and then India next, I think I picked the wrong profession. Mind you I’ve thought that many times over the years.