This morning Suzhou had an index of 195 and now as I go to bed in so glad that it’s so much better………

Looking forward to having fresh air soon…

My favourite cafe closes next week, which is very sad because not only will I not have a place to go and enjoy my coffee and have my lessons but I will no longer to be able to chat to Pei Jun, the owner of the cafe. She is from Taiwan but she spent her high school years in the UK studying and so she has a grasp of the UK culture, language and so I can be very vague at times when I’m talking about the UK because she has quite an understanding of the subtlety of the place. We have many common denominators which is not what I expected to find in China and even more surprising is the fact that she is a Chinese and not western. Well she is actually from Taiwan which makes her views a bit more liberal and of course she knows what life is like outside this vast country.

I had been going to the cafe for about two months or so every week to have a lesson with Amy. One day a women asked me if I spoke Chinese and I said that I could speak a little. She then started on a very fast monologue of which I caught very little and of course my face must have said as much and it was at this point Pei Jun came up and said to me that the woman was wanting an English teacher for her 10 year old child and then I quickly said no. I was taken aback when she spoke English to me and I was also very surprised because her English is way better than many of the so called English teachers that I have met here and some of them are native speakers. I was also very surprised because I had often come in and struggled a little asking for coffee or something else and not once did she let on that she could speak English so well. I guess she was sussing me out before she opened her mouth. Since that day we have had some great times having a laugh about life and the cultural differences and of course reminiscing about the UK.  

A new chapter begins for us both, she will be heading back to Taiwan for a while to figure out what to do and me I have to find a new place to go to have a good coffee. There are more and more cafe’s appearing around the place but the quality and the prices are not good. At the Bliss Cafe the coffee is only 18 RMB and it’s good, there is of course a Starbucks on every corner but I wouldn’t be going there for any of that muck. There is a bakery called 85c which I often go to to buy bread and they have coffee which can be a bit hit and miss but it’s only 10 RMB. So I will have to go around and see what I can find. I still make my own coffee at home but I do enjoy going out and sitting in a cafe reading or just generally chilling for a while.

And so when I find my new haunt I will let you know and share my thoughts of course.

I can’t see it!!!!

Today Sissi and I went to the Ming Gallery near Jinji Lake. It’s in a very affluent part of Suzhou and I very rarely go here but today we went because of the exhibition of watercolours from local and international artists. See for yourself the detail in some of the pictures below and of course the photos don’t really do them justice.

So I have decided to return to Australia to see my own doctor and believe it or not I can’t get into see him until next year and so I have booked my flight and I will go back for two weeks. I’ll fly on the 6th and will get there on the 7th and then see him the following morning.

I’ll try and squeeze in as many things as I can and try and see as many people as I can while I’m there. I need to do some work at the house so that will save me money by having to get someone else in. Mind you I could get an army of Chinese workers in for the same amount as one Australian would cost me.

46kg baggage allowance and so I can do some serious shopping if I want. The flight over stops at Cairns for 5 hours which is a bummer but at least it’s a direct flight on the way back. I’m even thinking of bringing my bike back with me.

My car lies unregistered in the shed so I’ll have no wheels when I’m back but I’m used to that now I guess. I could still register it before the end of this month and it would cost me close on $500 plus any work and fuel to get it going so it will be cheaper to hire a car for a few days which I might do in the second week and then I can return it to the airport when I fly back out.

And so once again I’m on a countdown to a long trip which will double as another visa run, I just hadn’t intended going this far or spending this kind of money but when it comes to your health you have to remember one thing and that it is……. Your health is priceless.

As I sit here and watch life revolve around me I’m amazed that the door is open to the consultation room and so every Tom, Dick and Bruce can look in on you, such is life in China, privacy is a premium. I just saw one patient run out the door followed by two nurses putting on rubber gloves!!!!!! What next?

About one month ago I bumped a mole on my side and I cut it slightly and so it was catching on my clothes. I sent a picture to my doctor in Australia to ask him what he thought of what I’d done and he told me that the mole was benign but I should keep an eye on it and if possible get it checked and so this morning I have come to the hospital to have it checked. They don’t seem to have skin doctors running private clinics here and so I’ve come to the dermatology department of the local hospital. My ticket is number 54 and as I write this we are at 26. I thought it might be worse because the hospital is mobbed. Sissi has brought me here and helped me to navigate through the registration process, which was relatively painless and cost just 22 rmb. This allows me to see a professional doctor and not just a general guy apparently. Even although there are only twenty or so folk in front, this might not be the true figure because government workers and pensioners get priority and so I’m not sure how long I’ll be here. Hopefully I’ll be out for lunch.

If I don’t feel I am comfortable with the outcome then I will fly back to Australia to see my own doctor and have it removed because I think it may be a problem in the future. I don’t really have the confidence in anyone in China to do this. Mind you I haven’t spoken to the doctor yet and so I’ll wait and see what they have to say. I’m lucky that I have Sissi to come with me and help to translate because at this time I don’t know if the doctor speaks English.

Our Airbnb house gets many people and some of them are just downright weird, just like the one that we have had here for the last few days. This older Chinese lady from the north of China came here to look for her son that was apparently in Suzhou. And after meeting her I’m not surprised that her son does not want to be found. She doesn’t speak English, which was really great because it meant I did not have to engage with her in too much conversation, although from time to time she did persevere via the translator. She told me she was a brain doctor, her words. I personally think she had lost hers. She liked to tell myself and Sissi what to do, what was good and what was bad. Don’t put the bananas in the fridge, drink hot water first thing in the morn, don’t use a bike it’s bad for your knees, don’t eat to much bread and so on and so on. I ignored her of course as much as I could. Oh she said that she was a teacher and then later a normal doctor, she just couldn’t make up her mind what she was. I felt sorry for Sissi because she had to listen to her talking all the time, she could talk under water and the look on Sissi’s face said it all. I tried to take her away from the conversation and move to another room but she followed us and continued to talk, talk, talk. At one point I was talking to Sissi in the bathroom as she cleaned her teeth and the next thing the old dear joins us  and just stands there.

From the moment she showed her face in the morn the jaws began to work and they did not stop until it was lights out. I sat with my ear phones in one day as I sat on the computer and she still tried to chat, I smiled and said sorry I don’t understand. After breakfast she would go out to the balcony and do all these exercises and at the same time hit different parts of her body and then she would come back into the house and pace up and down the length of the living room in a similar way a caged animal does, shoes banging on the floor as she went.

She stayed an extra day and then Sissi told her that she had to leave because there was another guest coming, she said “no I don’t want to leave, tell the other guest there is no room” I said to Sissi that I would throw her things out of the house if she didn’t go. Eventually after a lot of talking and going around in circles she decided to leave the following morning without any fuss.

I’m not sure what is going on inside her head but there is definitely turmoil and chaos which sits just under the surface, as I said she was here to find her son but I think the son does not want to be found, I know that she is not an easy person to be around for any length of time and maybe that’s why the son does not want to be found.

Oh I almost forgot, she had a shower once, yes three days one shower, she must have some English blood. She used our shower instead of the guest shower and she left the place in a hell of a mess. For one that is supposed to be so clever she is one stupid bitch for making the bathroom like a swimming pool and then trailing the water through the house back to her room.

The next day it was raining and she came home and shook the umbrella over the floor and then proceeded to open it up and leaving it on the timber floor rather than take it out to the balcony or even better, stick it in the shower, so fucking stupid and inconsiderate. Not once did she clean up any of the mess she created, brain doctor, teacher my fucking arse.

Monday arrived way too quickly and I had so many things to do in the morning, I’m back to reality. The weather was miserable and so I decided not to go to the park after breakfast, but then again I really didn’t have the energy. There is still a lot of snot coming from my nose and I’m not sure where it’s all coming from. I have missed my early morning exercise in the park and so has my body.

Winter is coming and this week will be wet and everything feels damp and it’s so difficult to get up in the morning. This morning however I was up early because I had been asked to give an English lesson to the VP of a manufacturing company and there was a car coming to pick me up at the back of nine. I wanted to get up and have a lazy breakfast to prepare.

Just after nine the phone rings and the guy on the other end of the phone is telling me that he will be late and he’ll see me in twenty minutes, the funny thing it’s not English but I get his drift. The journey to the company takes about forty minutes or so and it’s made all the more difficult because of the heavy rain but thankfully the driver is quite sensible, which is not what I can say for the one that took me back.

The lesson went well and it turns out that the heed bummer is Scottish, the VP’s boss speaks my language and so I’ll have to teach the VP a few choice words that he can share with his boss.

Well this must be the worst trip I’ve had to Hong Kong so far, it did not go to plan at all. I had every intention of walking a few trails over the islands but instead the dreaded bird flu took hold and laid me up in bed. One box of cold and flu tablets and several boxes of tissues and one new nose later I seem to be on the mend.

I wandered about Hong Kong island for a few hours yesterday exploring the many narrow back streets and worked up quite a sweat at times. More so I think because of the drugs left in my system.

So now I’m at the new train station in Kowloon and waiting for my train to Shanghai. It will take around eight and a half hours to get there which is really amazing. It’s about 1500km or so and then I’ll have to get another train home. It’s going to be a long day but it might be better using the train than flying between the two cities.

I usually fly and it means that I have to take a bus to the airport and then walk to the train station and then the second train, this might sound easier but with the check in times and waiting for the baggage at the other end might make the train a little quicker.