Yesterday as I was walking passed the Suzhou University near Donghuan Lu, I saw a young girl cradling this young man in her lap. They were in the bike lane at the side of the road. His body was lifeless and she was gently patting him as she sat there. She seemed very calm. There was a flaky looking young lady beside her that didn’t seem to be doing anything apart from holding some shopping and then to my amazement took a picture of them both lying on the ground. As I walked passed them I didn’t see any obvious signs of trauma, there was no blood on him but there was also no signs of life.

Everyone that passed them, whether it be on the motorbikes or walking stopped to have a look, but no one helped. I did not help either but then what could I do. I can’t even speak the language well enough never mind diagnose the problem and then maybe phone for an ambulance, what is the Chinese for 999? I must admit I was fascinated by the whole incident as morbid as it may sound. I was wondering why the girl holding the boy wasn’t on the phone calling an ambulance, maybe she had. Eventually another young girl stopped and took the boys arm to see if he had a pulse, well that’s what it look like. But there was little reaction from her also. She did however turn to flaky girl and tell her to go across the road for something and so she did with shopping in hand and then nearly got hit by a bus. After a few minutes she came running back with shopping in hand and was promptly told to go back again. I guess 10 mins a had passed and I hadn’t see a phone call being made or anyone else lending a hand.

I decided that my morbid curiosity would not be satisfied as I was not prepared to watch any longer.

A few weeks previously I was walking to the bus stop on the same part of town. As I reached the but stop I noticed, well heard this white AMG Mercedes first of all and then I saw it rip passed the bus stop at warp speed. A common sight in Suzhou and as night falls, many of these kid boy racers come out to play. Now bear in mind that most of the drivers in China are shit and it is a very small minority that can actually drive with any due care and attention.

My bus arrives a short while later and on I go, I grab a window seat and connect to the free WiFi so that I can see what has been happening with The Donald. After about 5 mins we are stopped at a set of lights but it’s obvious that something else is going on. I’m on the drivers side of the bus and we are about to pass the white AMG Mercedes which is parked diagonally across the road blocking off one lane. There are about 15 people gathered and they are all discussing something. A short distance away on the ground lies a young guy in his 20’s staring into space, motorbike lying behind him but again no sign of life. The bus is stopped for at least 3 or 4 minutes and again I’m fascinated that no one is with the boy on the ground, but then again if he is dead why worry. The boy is lying on his side and his head is resting on his arm and at first I’m thinking he must be really hurt and they don’t want to move him, but no one is with him. The longer the bus sits there, the more my eyes are drawn to the young man on the floor and then I realise that his eyes are wide open and they have not blinked once, he hasn’t moved, I think he’s dead.

So I’m not sure if the AMG was involved in all of this or he was just a good Samaritan taking control of the situation but either way it is still very different from the way this situation would have been dealt with in the UK or Australia for instance.

Death is of course is the final leveler for us all and will come to us in different ways, we can’t avoid it. But I’m hoping that it will be a while before he comes knocking at my door. To be honest I’m very surprised that I haven’t seen more death in China while I’ve been here because as I’ve mentioned many times the driving here is dreadful, but not only that it’s the way people move across streets without looking. They don’t seem to have any idea of the risk to their life’s, they just don’t think through the decision before they make it. I guess the only way you can really know what I’m talking about is to come here and see for yourself.

Didn’t understand a bloody word they said but it was certainly an experience going to watch the Kunshan Opera.

I might grow my beard this length and then get a job as an actor in the Opera. 

It’s a strange mix of talking and high pitched singing which often seems out of key and it’s sung in the local Suzhou language so I wasn’t the only one in the performance today that did not fully understand what was going on. 

There is an orchestra with a heavy percussion sound and there was a strange looking pipe instrument that I had never seen before with an interesting sound.

There were two performances and the first one was about a henpecked husband and to be honest the expressions of the actors told quite a bit of the story.  Even although I didn’t understand any of the dialogue I got the gist of it at times. 

If you want to learn a bit more about Chinese culture then I would say come and take a look,  but I have a sneaky suspicion that this will be my one and only time for me. 

I’ve been in China for just over 6 months now and it’s given me a chance to look at life in a more detailed way. It takes a while to adjust to any new space and of course it a can always be a little overwhelming at first and so you tend to miss what’s going on in the background so to speak.

Apart from all the noise and the chaos, the traffic etc I began to notice the legions of old people, some of them looking after the grand kids and others are aimlessly walking around lost in a lost world. There are very few Grand Parents that I have seen that are really living in the moment, in the present. Most look to out of place and out of time. I have been living in a very quiet complex for the last 3 months and there are a variety of folk to choose from. Early in the morning when the weather has been fine there are around 6 older women, grand mothers I would say, doing their Tai Chi for at least an hour. I always wanted to go down and join them as it is something I have been interested in, but it was winter and it was too difficult to get out of bed for 7am to start Tai Chi, I’m not a morning person. These women were all quite fit obviously because they do exercise but they also looked young because of the way they dressed. These weren’t farmers that had been dragged from the country and dropped into the 21st century and trying to get a handle on things.

The old men wear suits, usually black. Mind you this is also common in older generations in other countries, it’s not unique to China but I think there are many more here. It’s like a uniform for the older man and I haven’t seen many Chairman Mao suits, which is a shame really.

But apart from the clothes it’s everything else about them that I find intriguing. A lot of them have mobile phones but there not smart phones, they would be the equivalent to a Nokia 5510 but with one difference, when they punch the keypad it shouts the number out loud and proud for all to hear. When the call connects it’s quite funny, although a little annoying, because they shout down the phone and you can hear them for miles. Mind you I have no fuckin idea what they are saying because my Chinese is not that good. It reminds me of when I was a kid and I made my first telephone with a piece of string and two empty bean cans and sometimes you did have to shout depending on how long the piece of string was. But it seems to be the women, more than the men that shout down the phone loudly and it sounds so so aggressive but that’s just the Chinese way.

In this digital age that we live in many people haven’t quite mastered the technology, I myself know a few like this and some are just not interested but the difference is they seem to be engaged in the modern world, these old Chinese Grand Parents seem to be the complete opposite and I think that is why I get some smiles and interesting looks when I use my technology to pay for shopping, or to navigate the public transport system using my trusty Samsung S5. ( I’m old and grey you see) The Chinese have several apps of course, but one you may have heard of is Wechat. I can send messages with it, voice or text. I can pay my mobile phone bill, I can buy things using this app. I don’t carry money anymore, I use my phone. I can transfer and receive money using it. Order a Taxi, a meal, train tickets………….the list goes on and on, oh and you can make phone calls for free. This army of old folk have no idea what potential the modern world holds. This might be because they never received an education and so can not read or right well. Mind you I’m illiterate here too.

Many of them have been drafted in of course to bring up the kids while the parents are out at work. It is the Chinese culture that dictates this continuity, even in the digital age. So I wonder what will become of these old lost souls, are they going to be able to adjust or are they to be doomed to live in a world so alien to them that they walk like zombies.

These old folk are not stupid, they may be illiterate but if you were to put them back into their natural, familiar surroundings you would see them bloom once more.

I went to IKEA today, but I didn’t have the Meatballs although they did look tempting. Instead I had some diced pepper steak with rice and black coffee. The layout of IKEA feels very similar to the one I have been to in Springwood near Brisbane.

When you walk in you have the option to go to the restaurant or straight into the store itself and of course like all IKEA stores you are forced to walk around the whole building to get back out again. One difference of course is the amount of people walking through the store, not as many as you would find in the Brisbane store. Plenty of parking, mind you that’s of no concern to me because I got the free shuttle bus.

I was however surprised at some of the pricing, it is very cheap in comparison to a couple of items that I purchased a couple of years ago.

This day bed will cost you around $250 here but in Australia I think you will be closer to $600.

This kitchen table is $200 cheaper in China. Mind you it would have been a helluva lot more expensive to stick in my luggage to fly it back.

I got through to the checkouts and I got some IKEA chocolate and you can also buy some cakes and things just like you can in any other store, but I must admit I haven’t seen this sign on the IKEA in Brisbane.

I stood here for a while hoping that something might happen but alas I was disappointed, ah the story of my life.

Out with the old and in with the new. It’s amazing the amount of clutter that seems to appear when you are on the move.  I even got rid of clothes that I hadn’t worn for a while and yet my suitcase was bulging. Mind you the thermals that I bought for winter take up a bit of room. This morning I packed them away because it looks like the warmer weather has arrived. On Tuesday it was 12c and today it’s 30c, so I’m taking a punt that I won’t need them for a while.
My new host is Judy and she lives with her mother and her son. The apartment is on the 11th floor and it’s the top floor of this building and the highest in the complex.  It’s 2 storey which is unusual and I am lucky to have the bedroom with en-suite. The room is large and there is even access through the laundry to the outside balcony.
The living room is full height and it makes the place very open and pleasant,  good Feng Shui here.
I slept like a log last night,  the bed is nice and hard and the neighbourhood was also quiet, although this morning I did hear the rush hour. But there was another noise that I heard and that was of the song birds that the next door neighbour keeps which was quite a pleasant way of breaking in a new day.

The last apartment was small but I was on my own and now I am in a bigger apartment but I have company which I’m still getting used to of course, I just hope I don’t piss them off too much. The deal here is much the same as the last time which is I help the son with his English and I can keep the roof over my head. so I’m hoping I will be here for a while.

I’ll be heading back to Australia in a few weeks and so I hope they don’t kick me oot at that point and ask me to find another place to go.

Pictures to follow

I thought I would have some western food today and so I settled for Tuna Salad,.Pizza and a glass of red. Delicious 😆

I thought I’d start packing up my things for the move on Friday so I’ve started with my whisky  it’s one less thing to carry if I finish it before I go 😆😆

I have been living in a very comfortable apartment near public transport and shops for three months now and it has been great. I’ve lived here rent free and in return I have given English lessons to the families children, which I may add has been a little challenging at times. However the flat that I live in belongs to the grandmother of the family and she has been staying with the family over winter but now she wants to move back and I have to go. So this is a tad inconvenient to say the least, I mean I have gotten used to this lifestyle and now I have to move on which is a bit daunting when you live in a city like Suzhou, because it is a very expensive city for property. I think this place would be even more expensive than Sydney for a half decent property. Yes you can pick up cheap accommodation here in the older parts of town but to be honest you would not want to live there if you are a big softy foreigner like me.

I need a real toilet, not one of those holes in the floor to aim at first thing in the morning, besides I’m not sure how long my knees would last before they gave out on me which could be rather messy.

I like a nice shower, not a wet room like so many place are. I want to live in a place and to a standard that I am accustomed to. And before you criticise, why don’t you come here and live for a while. I know I wanted to come here to live like a local but I have my limits you know.

So wouldn’t you know it……….last night I met with Judy who said she would be able to offer me a room and I said that was great and we headed off to the south of Suzhou city. This area is near Shihu Lake, this is the place I went to the other day for a wee stroll, so it’s far away. However, later this month line 4 in the metro system opens and this place is about 5 mins walking distance away so it’s all good. We went to the top floor, I’m in the Penthouse for cryin’ out loud………can you believe it?, can I believe it?

This is a two story 3 bedroom large apartment and it is lovely and the room on offer is upstairs. I have my room and an en-suite to boot and I can walk out and have breakfast on the balcony, although you can’t see much at the moment because of the low cloud and inclement weather, but I’m on the top floor over looking the city and of course looking down on the peasants below. Pictures to follow when I actually move in 🙂

The sun was shining and so I decided to go to Shihu Lake. This is a very a large lake to the west of Suzhou. I have been here before and I never had the time to walk around the lake, however today the sun was shining and I had the time.

Today is a holiday, it is the Qingming festival and so the park is very busy indeed, but it’s such a large park that you can still walk freely. When I got to the coffee shop I was surprised to see it rather empty so I popped in for coffee. It’s a pity the coffee didn’t taste as good as the view.

I think it took me about 3 hours to walk around the lake, I’m not too sure but I was listening to Pink Floyd while I was strolling. I listened to the Division Bell and then the Wall so I guess that would be close to 3 hours.

This bridge is unusual because it has 3 platforms meeting in the middle.

The colours of spring are also in abundance, but today was good because the sun was shining and I finally managed to shed the jacket and beanie although I still had the scarf on for a while.