The fireworks have been going all night and I haven’t really slept since about 3am and today is going to be a big day. After breakfast we head about 30 mins north to Lobster Town,yes that’s right Lobster Town. They breed lobster here in large quantities. This is where one of the many relatives live and the one that will host today’s events.  They live on the top floor of an apartment block. From the outside it looks like an old dreary building but inside it is tastefully decorated and it’s lovely and warm which is great.

Many family members arrive and then after about 20 mins or so everyone starts to pile out the door,  we’re leaving.  We get to the restaurant and it’s very fancy. Up to the second floor and into the large room. We take up 3 tables so I guess there must be about 40 guests or more.

There’s food already on the table which is a small selection of what’s to come.  I’m at the head table as a guest of honour and I sit beside the 2 brothers that head the family.  The first thing that’s done when we sit is that the wine is brought out, this is Chinese wine which is white spirit.

I’ve never been a lover of white spirits but this is very nice.  I’m told that it’s very strong and if I don’t want to do the bottoms up no one will be offended. But to my credit I think I kept up and I felt ok. The other thing they dished up was cigarettes.  Packets of them are dumped on the table and almost everyone lights up. This is the second thing that I don’t like here especially at meal times. The noises and ciggies. Even when I did smoke I’ve never understood why you light up between courses,  but here it’s more than that it’s like a ritual.

I ate most of the food that came out apart from the chicken feet and the fish. The meal was great and there was plenty of drinking done and then we all headed for the KTV or karaoke to you and me.

The Chinese like their karaoke and they like it loud. It was only a matter of time before I got called up but I’m afraid the choice of English songs is very small and so they pick a Lana Delray song that I’ve heard but it’s not easy to sing. The good thing is only about 3 people understand English and so I look and sound like a superstar or maybe I’ve still got to much of that white booze in my system.

It’s late afternoon and the sun is going down,  it’s been a long day.  There are a few casualties from the booze but I’m still waiting for it to kick in and do some damage but I’m feeling ok. When we get back home we have some tea and it’s back to the reality of the cold house.  But most people are tired and so it’s an early night. I listen to BBC radio 2, the wonders of the Internet and a VPN in rural china.  On another note it’s a sad day this week because after 30 years Alex Lester will not be on in the middle of the night on the BBC. I’ve listened to him for years in Australia and any other part of the world I’ve been in. Not sure what the BBC are thinking.

Anyway the fireworks have started once more as my head hits the pillow so Happy New Year.

No pictures I’m afraid but this was an experience. I’m sure there are a few in the crowd that like this kind of thing but I ain’t one of them, but in China it’s common practice. There is no shower in the home just now cause it’s solar and it’s winter and there you go.  So after our journey the day before we go for our weekly bath. I feel that I’m 10 years old again and it’s bath night, although this bath is public of course and no cubicles. Just get your kit off and find a free shower. I must admit the water was great and I was very happy to stay under it for some time, but I prefer my accommodation to have a good bathroom and don’t get me started about the outside loo when it’s freezing outside. 

Now if you feel really dirty and you think you can’t reach all the nooks and crannies you can lie on one of the tables and be washed by a friendly helper who seemed to be taking great delight in inflicting pain on the poor individual that was under his wet towel and this was only  $1 extra, a bargain if ever I saw one.  But I way prefer going to the bath house in Bangkok where you are looked after by a lovely young lady, however that’s not possible right now.  Mind you it does cost a bit more than $1. So as you might have guessed I did not take up this offer but instead had my shower and left.  Not sure when my next shower will be but I hope it’s not going to be too many days from now. I’ll keep you posted. 

2 days ago I left Suzhou with Dave and Rita to go to their home town where we would spend New Year with their family. It was only a short journey, about 4 hours or so, which was ok.  The driving outside the city on the highway is scary to say the least but we made it here to Maba in one piece. 

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got here but the town is not completely rural although there are many rice fields on the way. 

The sun was shining but it was cold. The house has a small courtyard. The house is on the right and the kitchen is in front. I quickly realised that this was not going to be a comfortable home from home. What reinforced this was when I was asked if I would go to the public baths next morning for a shower.  I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it and I did. 

The house is nice but there is no heating at all. I’m very grateful to be invited though and the extended family have been very welcoming indeed. They were concerned about me coming to be honest because they were wondering how I would cope. It’s ok until you have to go to the loo or get your kit off. I have plenty of clothes with me to keep warm. 

Mind you they can’t quite understand why I eat banana and bread in the morning instead of what you eat at lunch or dinner and I think they felt a little offended at first but I think they realise that us foreigners are just weird or maybe it’s just me. 

I did go for a stroll down to the centre of town to get my bananas and that caused quite a stir because there ain’t many tourists in this part of China and there was plenty of curiosity and did I blow their minds when I spoke in Chinese😆

A man has died whilst training to be a skydiver in Ireland…. 

………………….

A spokesman for The Ballykelly Skydiving School in County Cork, said that a full and thorough investigation would be held immediately…… 

To find out why his snorkel and flippers failed to open…..

I went to the art gallery in Suzhou today and this was presented by Chinese, Japanese and Korean students and I want to know what drugs they are on, seriously what the fuck.  Neo-Eden is the name. I mean check this out and tell me your thoughts?  Was does Pauline say “Please explain ”

                                         This is maybe from a big coo.

This one I thought was ok ’cause it had pretty colours and there was UV light making everything vivid and my sun tan look great 😆

Not much on the television though

My favourite winter’s dish. Potato,peppers beef with chilli and a bowl of soup

Well I haven’t had one of these for a while and it’s related completely to consuming way too much red wine last night. I went on a trip to a place called Dongshan which is at Taihu Lake about an hour or so from Suzhou. It’s a large freshwater lake and is famous for the fish and the creatures that come from the lake. There are many restaurants that you can go to but today we went to Dongshan township where they also grow tea. The green tea that is grown here is very famous and also one of the best in China.

The mountain is quite high, the tour guide said it was around 3000m but I don’t think is correct as we climbed to the top quite quickly, but the path on the way up is very steep. We walked over the top and down the other side and into the old village where we went through an old house which had been standing for the past 500 years. It did look very old, although you could see where there had been some modern fixes.

We entered through the main door and into a Cart park apparently. This would be where the guests would arrive and park the horse and carriage before entering into the main reception hall. All very civilised.

After this tour of the old house and Township we headed back for the banquet. I again forgot to take pictures here but I can assure you that there was food aplenty. We had eel, crab, mutton, jellyfish, fish, veggies and lots more and copious amounts of red wine. There was a celebration going on this evening where two tour companies where beginning a partnership and there was lots of Ganbei, which is bottoms up and you have to skull your drink. And you can tell the folk that have played this game before because if they have a lot of wine in there glass they will say cheers, so you only have to take a small sip. But if they only have a little then they will say Ganbei , so you have to sink in in one and I did this many times. Too many as I discovered this morning. But it was a great day out in a very crisp winters day in Suzhou.

And now I’m going to have some Tea and food and maybe a siesta, 🙂

What a strange day it has been. I went to meet some friends about a project called Album of Suzhou. We are going to make a series of short films around the city and guess what I’m the leading movie star for the first one at least. I had to learn a script, I even had to walk and talk at the same time,  but after 3 takes it seemed we were done for today at least.It was a wrap as we say in the business. 

We moved on to a different location, to Pingjiang Lu and took a few more shots there.  It’s been a very surreal day indeed. I tried some local food and drew a crowd. I’m an old white guy in China and all of a sudden I’m in the spotlight. 2017 has got off to a fine start indeed.  I shall keep you posted on my acting career and maybe I’ll get that Oscar or a BAFTA.

Harbin was definitely one of the most extreme places I have been to on the planet in regards to the temperature. I’ve been in temperatures up to 50C and now I can say I have been in -25C and to be honest neither is pleasant. Although in Harbin you just had to add another layer to keep out the cold and you slowly turned into the Michelin Man, but if you fell over you would have a hard job getting back up because of all the clothes. It’s a good place to get fat as you can eat and eat and you are drawn to the high carb type foods. I went for 4 full days but it was an effort to get there and back, but I it was worth it. This is how I did it Bus, Train,Metro, Plane, Bus, Taxi and after about 12 hours from door to door.

Most people go here of course for the Ice Festival, which is impressive as I mentioned before, but Harbin is also famous for the Russian influences here. The architecture is very different here and there are many Russian Orthodox  Churches, the most famous being the Saint Sophia Cathedral. On my way to the airport I actually saw another amazing looking church but I will have to go next time. To be honest it was difficult to spend too much time walking around in these temperatures, this is my first real winter for nearly 15 years and the last time I felt temperatures like this would have been 1983 which was a few years ago. Scotland got hit with winds from the Arctic back then and even the sea froze on the west coast which is unheard of. But I will return one day when it’s a wee bit warmer and explore a bit more.

One thing I enjoyed was just walking along the frozen river. There wasn’t too much to see at times apart from lots of people and cars and trucks and even a mini tank, but it just felt weird to be walking down a frozen river. 

The ice sculptures that you see are really intricate and amazing, but as you walk around the city you will come across other models made from snow and ice. Even on a roundabout on the way from the airport you will find a coloured ice facade. You don’t really have to go far but it’s after dark when the colours are vibrant and come into their own. The once glass looking train is now an array of vivid colours and against the clear black sky it looks amazing.

As you walk along the street you have to be careful because there are patches of ice everywhere. Outside restaurants where water has been thrown out onto the pavement, no OH&S here you know, make for tricky navigation at times. A dam of ice built up around a storm water drain, some body has taken a leak up against a wall and the yellow ice river has formed, mind you the thought of getting your tadger out in these kind of temperatures is eye watering to say the least but some think it’s necessary. In fact as I walked along the promenade of the Songhua river on my way back to my digs on my last night I was really surprised to see one of the 5 young women walking towards me on a lower level suddenly squat down and drop her kegs to her ankles, bum hanging out and getting on with it. It’s so fuckin cold, but I guess when you have to go you have to go.

The air quality in Harbin is really bad. The pollution levels are very high and you can not only feel it in your chest as you breath but you can taste the coal dust, well that’s what I think it was. I put my scarf around my face a few times a but it soon began to get wet as my breath began to condensate on it. I got myself a proper mask to wear because I was becoming like a local and coughing up lung after lung and using most of the ground as spittoon. The mask was an improvement for a short time because soon my glasses would fog up and then the ice would begin to form on my specs, how fucked is that. I had forgotten what it was like to wear specs in the cold. As soon as you walk into a building the specs steam up and you need your guide dog to order your noodles. Even your electronics will play up here. Your phone will tell you it’s too cold and will shut down if you have it out for too long and then it too will also get covered in condensation. One place I went to escape the cold was the Maan Coffee chain where they will serve you nice waffles and a big cup of good coffee, well half decent coffee. Oh and I nearly forgot to tell you that my beard felt like it was becoming crispy at times because my breath was icing up on it but sometimes I wasn’t sure if it was my breath or snot on my top lip, either way it didn’t taste as bad as the Harbin air.

The houses here all have double glazing and my accommodation was a home-stay and very cozy indeed, in fact it was too warm. But I could easily take off all my layers and slip on a tee shirt and light pants and all was well. The other thing you will notice here is just how heavy the doors are to buildings. I entered into a bank and I really had to pull the door to get it to open, same in the coffee shop. They are built for winter or a nuclear bomb blast.

When I returned to Suzhou it was about 6c and I was walking around like it was summer. I went to the shops and everyone was wrapped up so much and here’s me strolling down the avenue with  jacket open letting the lovely warm air circulate around me, it’s amazing how quickly you can acclimatize to new surroundings. But I was glad to be back in Suzhou because the air quality is better although not the greatest, it was a lot warmer than Harbin and I was also moving house. I’ve finally got away from the dreadful apartment I have been in for nearly 4 months and I have moved into a nice modern place. I feel human again. The first thing I did was to wash Harbin from my clothes. Everything I had taken with me had to be washed and including clothes that had only come in brief contact when I packed my case to move to the new place. But it also felt that I was washing away the smells and memories from the last miserable apartment. I am very lucky that I have been given the opportunity to look after a families second home in return for teaching English and of course to some of the sarcastic Australians that I know, yes you know who you are, Scottish English is way better and you know it 🙂

So it’s a new year and there are new opportunities and if they kick off I will let you know but for now I shall say ” ta ta fur noo as am starvin”

Just to prove I can walk on water I took this GPS screen shot. Yes and I found it quite easy although I would say there was an extra nip in the air this morning. My host at my digs told me too wrap up well this morning and I did. More or less the same as last night but only one pair of thermals on my legs. 

The Songhua River is used for the ice harvesting for the ice festival. When you walk along it you can see at times the thickness of it. In fact I saw something flowing underneath at one point. 

This looked like bubbles trapped in the ice. You can see the structure of the ice and it’s fascinating. 

There were 3 guys fishing. They had cut two holes in the ice some distance apart and had managed to thread a rope through the two holes. At one end two guys slowly fed the nets through the hole. At the other hole one guy was hauling on the rope. They would have been about 30 metres apart so I’m not sure what the trick is in getting the rope threaded through the two holes. I didn’t wait to see how successful they were because when you stand still for two long you feel the cold. 

The first bridge you see here over the river is for the high speed train and I’m sure I heard the ice making a noise when one train went over head. 

There are folk walking in all different directions and believe it or not you have to watch out for cars and some of them are absolutely flying along and they won’t be able to stop in a hurry. 

I enjoyed my stroll along the river although there is a wee niggling thought that persist, the thought that the ice will crack and swallow you up. But I’m comforted by the fact that there are cars and even a truck cruising around without a care in the world.