Christmas is coming...

Well the temperature is steadily dropping. Today the maximum is a balmy 14 with a low of 4 degrees. Each morning we awaken to windows fogged with condensation and frosty views. The winter low is still about 10 or so degrees less than we are experiencing at the moment so we will still need some more blankets for the bed and clothes for our backs...


Some morning frost on the roof of the gatehouse across from our flat.

We have put up the Christmas tree and have draped some tinsel around the house. It is not quite the same Christmas feel as we would have back in Brissie but we are starting to get the Christmas cheer happening.


Penny in front of the Christmas tree.


The lamp and curtains in the background...and the masses of Duplo in the fore.

The house is coming along nicely and we have just added a very cool lamp so that we can have some mood lighting at night. We also have put up some curtains in an attempt to trap some warmth from the big reverse cycle heater in the living areas. All and all it is getting to feel more like home and less like some kind of holiday apartment on the Gold Coast.


This is the front of the department store on the campus. This is where we get most of our daily bits and pieces from. The big planter pots have just been put there to stop all of the cars from blocking access to the door.


This is the back door which faces our little compound across the road. At night the space at the base of the stairs is full of food stalls and vendors a little make shift restaurant scene. that is until the bully-boys chase them all away. This seems to happen every now and again...these types of vendors are illegal here and every time that some kind of official or VIP arrives the vendors all get chased off. Its a real pity as the food is really good and really cheap.

Sorry for the delay...

It has been 14 days 3 hours and 24 minutes since my last blog...Sorry.

Michelle and Penny out for a stroll.

Anyway life goes on. We are tearing through the semester and are approaching the end of the year. We have about 5 weeks teaching left before we get a break and are trying to work out where we will go over the Spring Festival holiday period. We should get about a month off (on full pay with a travel bonus mind you) which will be great. Michelle and I are both enrolled in the summer semester at Uni and will have assessment due around then so it wont be all beer and skittles for the A-B's.

From the people who brought you gunpowder, the compass and paper - Plastic sleeve protectors!!! They ensure clean sleeves after each meal...genius!

We have just had (well Michelle is still having) mid semester exams for all of our students so our time has been consumed by preparing, marking and reviewing oral English role-play (no there are no Elves or Orcs although there is the occasional slaughter...usually of a gender specific pronoun or the pronunciation of /th/) exams...sounds like a hoot right? Well think again. 

Darren and the rather more angelic Penny.

Actually life is good and we have it all pretty easy. The only thing that really sucks for me is the night classes and the crazy illegal taxi rides that I have three nights a week. Take last night for example. After a 15 minute wait in the cold (about 6 out of the wind) we set off from the other campus to return home. Basically the taxi waits until it is full, this usually means about 10 people and the driver. The van is small, think a Dihatsu mini van, it has three rows of seats. The driver and passenger in the front in single seats and then two rows of bench seats in the back. To this already cramped aray they add a wooden bench seat between the front and middle seats. Last night we managed 11 passengers. The driver, being a flexible and inventive sort, managed to share his seat with a passenger...I'm not sure how as I was in the middle bench seat and had a row of people between me and the driver. Add to this the fact that two of the passengers were rotten drunk and reeking of booze and you just about have the whole picture. 

The only other addition is that of forward motion. Unfortunately this motion caused several problems...the first being in the stomachs of the drunken girls...the second being in the packing of the car. So as we moved forward the girls starting puking out of the windows and we all started being squashed against each other and various hard (and cold) metal parts of the car. The open window from the chunder also let in volumes of frigid air accompanied by the unmistakable scent of regurgitated booze...choice.

Penny has had a bit of a growth spurt which of course sets her even further apart from the Chinese kids. She is doing well and starting to pick up some Chinese words. She understands that there is another language now and asks to watch some of our DVD's in Chinese. She is particularly fond of Monsters Inc. and prefers the Chinese language version.

Penny giving her best Christmas cheer. Yes they even have Chrissie decorations here.

It has gotten cold...the average for the week has been about 10 with the wind chill maybe about 8. the days are dry and clear which is nice as you can finally see the mountains and hills that surround the area. Sometimes it is actually quite picturesque.

Anna (the babysitter, Penny (the baby) and Michelle (sitting)).

We have received our painting and rug that we ordered on tao bao (Chinese ebay) and the house is looking better than ever...not to mention that it is more comfortable. Nothing like a nice fluffy rug underfoot on a cold day.

Penny on the rug...doing something.

The paining. Not bad eh?

Rain..and more rain

Well its been raining pretty solidly for the last week. Not heavy Brisbane rain, just a soft annoying drizzle. It did actually stop for a day and was replaced by a heavy fog that hung around the campus and surrounding hills for the better part of the day. 

The foggy view that greeted us in the morning...China is out there somewhere.

Penny is going a little crazy with cabin fever as she is confined to indoor play while the rain holds...its just too muddy and cruddy outside. There is also some kind of vomiting diarrhoea bug going around the kids on the campus so it is adding stimulus to keep her quarantined.

The two beautiful girls.

While I write this Penny is running around madly being chased by the babysitter with a Panda bear puppet. Penny seems more at ease with her today which is great. 

Rain and rubbish...Every night the food vendors along the street just throw their rubbish behind them onto the street. So if you buy a spicy chicken wrap type thing they just throw the wooden skewer over their shoulder onto the pile and hand you your food. Every morning the cleaners sweep the rubbish into a big pile (as above) and then shovel it into their yellow rubbish carts and take to the dump..at least I assume it goes to the dump.

The rain is nice actually. After the long dry spells in Australia it is nice to see some decent rain. It is a little frustrating though as there was supposed to be a sports meeting last week which was delayed until this week but it is still raining so it has been cancelled again. When the sports day happens it will be on Thursday and Friday and no classes will be held on those days. Because of this the students had to do make up classes back in the first weeks of the semester. Michelle and most of the teachers had to teach on these days and now are waiting to reap the rewards of a long weekend. So she is eagerly anticipating a break which may or may not happen....in true Chinese fashion.

Traffic chaos at the gate across the road from our house...

One of my students said that there is a saying about Nanchang..."There is no Autumn or Spring in Nanchang"...not particularly poetic, however it does seem to be quite accurate.