I went to Tianpingshan this weekend which is the first time for a few weeks and it was good to be out of the city once more. The mountain was looking rather bare in places which allowed me to see it a different way. The paths look different and the lay of the land has new colours. I came across a new path that I had not seen before and only stumbled upon it because I could see through the trees and see a few colourful hikers climbing up a large chunk of smooth rock with a slight resemblance to Bald Rock in Australia. It was certainly challenging in places as it was quite easy to lose traction,which I did a few times and I ended back where I started, but it was good to try a different route.

The mornings are fresh and sometimes there is a light frost but the last few days the temperature has risen and it feels very mild. The sun has been shining and is supposed to until the end of the week and then the rains will arrive or maybe snow if we are lucky, but I won’t be here because the following week I’ll be heading to Singapore for my visa run, where I am hoping to see my first solar eclipse.

In the park in the mornings we have the usual crowd of misfits. There are the dog walker’s that colour coordinate with their dogs coat and some wee dogs even have little boots on. There are many that come and walk slower than a sloth and watch the phone as they perambulate and every so often an arm will twitch or stretch so that they can actually not lie when someone asks them about the morning workout. Many just stand with legs stretched, hooked around a bar at shoulder height and they too will be watching their phone.

One guy leaves his backpack on the park bench and then walks around the park for almost an hour. Leaving a bag unattended in China does not seem to bring with it any concern or worry from the public; they don’t even seem to think it is at all strange. Can you imagine doing this in a western country, the moment you walk off someone would call the police and by the time you had completed one circuit your bag will have been cordoned off and the park would be getting cleared or there would be a robot moving in to dismantle.

Yesterday I went to the bank to buy some currency, which is usually a straight forward process in many countries………but not here. I had gone in a few days earlier to order the money which is ok but then the process seems to take forever. I hand over my passport and my bank card, it’s my local bank and they know me. They fill out the details on the computer and then I enter my password, we do this a second time and a third time and in between all of this my bank card and passport are photographed and scanned multiple times. I was in the bank for nearly 30 minutes just waiting to buy $400 US. This is the maximum amount that I am able to buy in one transaction in China. When I did my visa run to Korea a few months ago I went into the bank there to change some money and it took all of about 5 minutes and they didn’t want to see my passport, so so different. China seems to watch everything that you do in great detail. It seems that things are signed, countersigned and then done in triplicate before being complete. A friend of mine was kind enough to go to the bank and change some cash for me but she said that she too got asked 20 questions as to why she wanted the money.

And so one more week to go of routines and having to put up with Sissi’s mother who is just driving me mad, I’m really looking forward to a break from China and to taste a little bit of freedom and of course having a really tasty Indian curry when I get to Singapore.

I sometimes help this young chap with his English and this was his final presentation for the year. I think that this is one of the best short presentations I have seen in a long time and so poignant to many.

I feel trapped, cut off,

In the dark,

No light,

The VPN, my torch,

My sanity,

My saviour,

My umbilical cord has been severed,

My simple pleasures,

My music,

My TV,

My news,

All Smoke and mirrors,

My freedom of choice,

Behind the wall I have no voice,

Banned by Pooh,

They prefer not to see,

Beaten to submission,

Ghostly faces glued to screens,

Watching Propaganda so it seems,

A few years ago it was Tom and Jerry,

But now it’s what you don’t see that I find scary.

Some days in China are a real struggle as I’ve mentioned numerous times before, but there are other days I don’t give a fuck and embrace the possibility of having a bit of fun. For instance when I get off the metro and the door opens and someone is standing in my way I don’t move anymore, I just stop and stare at them which seems to freak most of them out. A Paddington Bear Stare will usually suffice and they will move out the way, although I’m not sure if the look they give me is one of confusion or fear, either way I get a chuckle from it.

Two days a week I travel on the same route and I use the same doors each time because I want to make a quick exit to the escalator or stairwell that is available and so I’m sure it’s only a matter of time where I will not have to go through this rigmarole each time I travel, but then if I get too bored I’ll just change the door I exit through.

 But what I do enjoy on the metro is watching the look of anticipation and expectation on the faces of the folk waiting to board, hoping there is a seat available, and they rush on and quickly scan the carriage and then as the realisation slowly sinks in that there are no empty seats their wee faces fall flat and they look so sad and then they look again just in case they made a mistake, but alas it’s still the same…..nothing has changed……. 🙂

This is when you will see the older generation morph into a mythical being of sorts, they move at warp speed, When the train stops at the next station they have already managed to scan the carriage and are very aware of the subtle body language which betrays those passengers that are getting ready to alight and even if they are at the other end of the carriage they get there in an instant it’s amazing, it’s akin to some Kung Fu master who is at one with his surroundings and can move in a blink of an eye. If you are the one getting ready to alight then you will be amazed at how quickly the vacant seat is occupied as you and your arse are in mid flight to the upright position and as you soon as you reach your full height I can guarantee that your seat has had no time to get cold due to the new arse that has taken up residence.

I have to change trains on one of my journeys and at the interchange station called Hongzhuang I catch the train to Muli. The train begins from Hongzhuang and so when it arrives at the station the train is empty and yet when people queue for this part of the journey they mostly stand in the correct position, something they rarely do at any other station on the network and so they will stand on either side of the door as they should everywhere else, whereas I do not……………I stand bang in the middle because the carriage will be empty. I’m completely baffled by this behaviour and I can feel a PHD coming on.

If you are a people watcher then you need to come to China and live here for a short time and you will not be disappointed, although I will warn you it will push you to the brink of insanity. You have to remember there are about 1.4 Billion people here and so they will eventually wear you down to a broken individual if you let them, some days I feel like a real basket case…………..

Slurping, burping, farting, spitting, flapping gums and even a pair of undies soaking in a basin with skid marks so large that I expected to run into a Wildebeest. No shame, I struggle to understand and to tolerate.

On 11/11 China had its biggest one day sale where after 68 seconds they already had sales of over one Billion US dollars and I took part in this spending spree. I invested in a pair of very large Bluetooth headphones that help me to block out most of the noises currently created within the household. They are really good and they last up to 6 hours, so they say, but from the experience I have had so far I would have to agree with the claims.

The weather here for the last three weeks has been great although the pollution levels are a bit high. No rain and the day temperatures have been around 25c. On Saturday I went to Dongshan with a group of expats to do a bit of hiking, I have been many times before but it’s always good to go for a walk on such a lovely day and it’s always good to get out of the city.

On Sunday around 2pm winter arrived. The predicted cold snap arrived on time and now it is Monday morning and I can certainly report that winter is on the way. I went to the park this morning as usual but still wore my shorts much to the amusement of the locals. The house feels so cold, these concrete block apartments are not well designed and after a few days the walls temperature begins to match the outside air temp and so it does not take long to feel uncomfortable.

On the upside I can now drag out the winter woollies and thermals and it feels good. I quite enjoy the winters here because they are not too cold and feel a little bit warmer than Scotland because it’s not so wet. All I can wish for now is that Sissi’s mother decides it might be too cold here and return home and then life can get back to some form of normality.

A few pictures of the East Gate building.

Sissi’s Mother arrived last week and her presence was felt from the moment she arrived. She brought enough stuff with her that makes me think that she will be here for quite a while, which I may add I am not relishing. It took two trips to the car with the three of us grabbing what we could. There was the liquidiser that gets used every morning to create some disgusting looking black goo which they both eat for breakfast along with a variety of other things. The noise it makes would wake up the dead. There was also a new house plant; it was nice and very welcome. There was so much food that our large double fridge freezer is bursting at the seams just trying to cope.

As soon as she arrived the noise levels increase dramatically because it’s not long before the two of them are arguing about something and when I ask what the problem is I get told, “Nothing is wrong, all is well”. They talk in a local dialect that I cannot understand; and they talk so quick and loud. Food is the number one priority for any Mother of a Chinese family and she has no sooner arrived when almost every utensil, plate, cup and saucer is being used for something. Vegetables are washed over and over again and the preparation takes forever and then they ruin it all by cooking it in copious amounts of oil. The once proud vegetables are now a shadow of their former selves. They lie there on the plate, wilted and oily with all of the goodness long gone, a distant memory………..just like my quiet life.

Dinner, lunch, breakfast in fact at any time of the day when they eat it is quite disgusting. The both eat with so much noise. They eat with their mouths open and the amount of other noises made makes me want to vomit. They seem to eat for the sake of eating rather than enjoying the experience. It’s instinct, something that you do, get up…..go to the loo……….have breakfast……..sleep……it’s all a process with absolutely no enjoyment and the food is consumed as if it was the last meal that they will ever see.

If I can I will put on my headphones or go to my room because I cannot be in the same room when they eat and so I will try and change my routine so that I am not in the house or I get up early in the morning to have breakfast with the hope that the Mother is still in bed, so that I can make my breakfast in peace or at least get it made so that I can sit outside, even although some of the mornings are becoming quite fresh……………I would rather sit outside and freeze my arse off than have to listen to the flapping of gums. But you know, no matter what plan of attack I’m thwarted at every turn. Even if I stay out a while, hoping that lunch has been consumed, I am once more disappointed, because I’ve no sooner returned when they will have something else to eat. They eat constantly and if they are not eating they are preparing the next meal. If the Mother is not eating then she is cleaning something. On the odd occasion she does something else and that will be playing with the phone or watching some stupid TV show where you can hear all manner of stupid noises and canned laughter. Most of the time there is no consideration, the phone is played loud. If there are others around me I wear my headphones if I am listening or watching anything on my phone, even when I work on the computer. I am considerate of others, but like most Chinese they do not give a rats arse. But I’m thinking of getting my own back and buying a really big speaker stack so that I can use it to drown out all the other noises I have to contend with.

To be continued……………………..

For the past few weeks I have been planning my next visa run and then trying to think of the one after that which will be around March next year. The upcoming visa run will take me to Singapore, where I am hoping to catch a glimpse of the Solar Eclipse which is taking place on the 26^th of December. When I was looking at the “Time and Date” website I happened to notice the small pop up which spoke of the next eclipse. I’m lucky that it just happens to coincide with my visa run. I’ll visit Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand before returning to China.

Next year holds so many unknowns for me, I don’t know if I really want to return to China, I don’t know if I will get another visa because I  will be 60 years old and the visas for a longer stay other than a tourist visa have age restrictions so I’m told. I’m not really sure if I want to return to my current accommodation, which is an Airbnb house and for the most part it is OK but other times it interferes with my life and I hate it. Most of the people that have been though here have been OK, but at times it becomes oh so tedious having to cover the same ground with each new person that comes through the door and of course some of them are just a bloody nuisance… If it was a share house with the same folk then that would be ok, and so there is part of me that will come back here because the location is perfect but sometimes the compromises are too great and this may win in the end. So if I don’t live here, where will I live?

I would like to live in the UK for a while but if I do this I will of course have to find employment as I do not have the finances to live there for months on end. I doubt if I can sign on the dole because I haven’t lived there for over 30 years and then this brings its own headaches, too many questions. The last time I did this was back in 1991 when I returned from Australia, I went to the brew to see if I could sign on and it was like the Spanish inquisition trying to get my 30 pieces of silver from them. They had me sitting in a small room sitting opposite the “Brew person” who was sitting behind what looked like bullet proof glass. I brought in my return airline ticket; those were the days when they actually gave you a proper ticket. “Why was I coming back to the UK? Why am I not staying in Australia? And so it went on and eventually after I signed my life away I got me Giro. If I had been a refugee or a newcomer to the UK instead of being a British citizen then maybe the process might have been easier and so I will not hold my breath if I follow this path on my return, although then again maybe the pain of a meeting like this might be worth it, after all the last time I did go back to work for a few weeks and I would have paid my dole money back to the government. Mind you they got very pissed off when I tried to ask for a tax refund on my exit from the country and to this day I feel that there are flags and big notes beside my tax file to inform whoever I talk to that I may be a bit dodgy, which of course is not true of course, mind you I did get done for tax evasion back in the 80’s, but that is another story. I hear that the current dole is around £72 a week and this would be a nice little top up to help me survive a few months in the UK, once again I’ll wait and see what happens and I’ll go the brew and ask a few questions.

I want to go and explore old places and new places, I want to walk the West Highland Way and Hadrian’s Wall and maybe cycle some of the national cycle way, but at the end of the day this all costs money of which I really do not have enough of. If I could stay for maybe 3 month and do what I wish to do and stay in the UK over summer and then depending on what happens with the China thing, the visa etc, then maybe I’ll return here or it’s back to Australia for a bit.

Anyway I think I need to leave China by the end of March 2020 and then I’m thinking of going to Petra, Egypt, Greece and I would love to go to Barcelona before finally arriving in the UK to start my adventures there. On the way back east I’ll fly to Sydney and then go back to Brisbane before my next move. By this time I will have my answer to the visa question and then I will either stay in Australia for a bit and get back into the rat race for a short time to replenish the bank balance, but this will also bring new challenges and so 2020 has many questions but very few answers at this stage, but I will of course deal with each one in due course.

At least I have choices, which is a good thing and I am happy to embrace change and a little uncertainty in the knowing that no matter what I will do all will be well. I have great faith in myself to find a solution to the problems that I encounter along the way and of course “Luck” has played a big part in my life and long may it continue.

I went for lunch today to my local Lanzhou La Mian restaurant, where I go most days, and if I can I try to go around 1 pm because by then the rush hour is over and the restaurant is a lot quieter and I mean that for both the noise levels and the amount of people.

I sat one table back from the front door and I picked this table because it had a new pack of tissues on it, not all tables have this luxury. Shorty after my meal arrived, a young girl sat in front of me at the table right at the door. Five minutes would have gone by and she reached round to grab a tissue, but instead of taking a few she took the whole packet……………I waited for a minute or two to see if she would return them and she did not and so I got up and leaned over her to retrieve them………..some people never cease to amaze me.