Because I can

Never have I enjoyed baked beans on toast as much as tonight... Why? Because I can. I will probably have a strange dessert of weet-bix and cream why? Because I can. The side dish of Camembert just as is, no crackers or extra bits.... Amazing! May seem like a strange meal for you when you can get it every day but here in a 2nd tier Chinese city.... This is a new big development in the life of a foreigner. This is just a small sample of whats on offer.... We now have all kinds of meat cuts including lamb chops... Wow! Frozen Cheesecakes, apple pies etc all kinds of spices OMG. Unbelievable. Thank you metro store for coming into my life :-)))))

Colours of China

Whilst the river is looking the reddest I have ever seen it in the 4 + years I have been here, it stands out nearly as much as my white foreign face. On a daily basis I am asked which country I come from, but usually before I answer they throw in a guess. By far the number one nationality I get asked if I am is French... I really have no idea why? Coming in second would be American and then a lot further back in equal third place would be British and Canadian but today I just straight out of the cuff was asked if I am British or German ?????? Go figure???? When I reply no no no, I'm Australian they all go wow, beautiful country, with the exception of kids who have no idea what an Australian is... True!
Where in America is Australia mummy? Ok, I made up the last sentence but the rest is true!

Flying with eagles

A couple of days ago, on a beautiful sunny late afternoon, I grabbed Moli and we headed to the park. It was stunning weather and whilst we had our usual fun walking, playing and just sitting watching the world go by, we became witness to a remarkable sight, one that I will surely always remember. Chinese people take their kite flying very seriously and we sat watching the technique of an old man spinning his eagle kite around in circles to catch the air and take flight, unlike our running along to catch a breeze, I was fascinated to watch. He wasn't having too much success as his eagle😉kept flying in to the branches of a nearby tree. At that point a young whipper snapper in his twenties rocked up and began to assemble his much flashier eagle kite and using the same spinning round the head technique, he was much quicker in gaining success as his bird took flight. Whilst this was going on the old mans persistence paid off and soon the two eagles were soaring. The youngsters eagle hit some kind of turbulence and took a plummet back to earth causing him to do some running repairs but the old mans eagle soared higher and higher. Ive never ever seen a kite flown so wonderfully high and free. It was at this point, whilst I was marveling at the kite flying abilities of this old man when things really got interesting. You could easily be fooled into thinking it was a real eagle up there soaring around, same size and quite real to look at, I certainly have been fooled in the past as there are many eagles in Yichang... But then it happened, into the scene flew the real thing, a real eagle ( maybe also fooled or maybe just having some fun too) decided to join in the fun. I and other lucky passers by watched as the old man came as close as you possibly can to actually flying with an eagle. They played in the sky, circling and diving, soaring and frolicking high in the clear blue sky. The more youthful kite flyer left the sky to the old man and joined us to watch in amazement. I exclaimed Wow! ( well the Chinese equivalent anyway) to which the old man looked at me smiling and just replied "好玩儿", which is just like us saying much fun or very amusing.
After about 15 minutes the real eagle gave up the game and left. Moli and I carried on our walk home along the river and even had the added bonus of the sun lowering itself into the river. Definitely 好玩儿!

New Links

Just a mention about a couple of new things here on the blog. Over in my Favorites list to your right, is a new favorite "Streamzoo". This is the place where I stream all my photos to. It really is cool. If your wanting to checkout my stream you can search for @chopsooy. I will add a slideshow when blogger will make it work ;-)
The other mention is a cool website full of amazingly cool resources for learning Chinese called "Study More Chinese". I've added a badge right over there on your right...It's free and full of all kinds of goodies to sink your teeth into if you're in pursuit of learning this complex language.

Chinese BBQ

Went with my friend out walking our dogs tonight. We went down to the river and sat exchanging what we know of each others language whilst the dogs played. 8.30 ish when we left home for the river and still was very hot. After enjoying the evening on the river bank We then headed back homewards stopping for late night BBQ meal... So nice, really very yummy, mega spicy hot, but delicious. Gonna add a picture I've previously taken of the BBQ man where we ate tonight...真好吃的！

I'm back

Ok, ok ok... I went to tumblr but to be honest it never really agreed with me. I prefer the blogger layouts much more. I haven't even been blogging but.... If for no other reason than that I find it therapeutic, I'm gonna start up here again😊. So what's been happening... Well I'm still in China, same city, same job, but new apartment. Living in the heart of the city gives me a much much richer living experience. I've currently been going through a loving photography phase, something I've always enjoyed but with the arrival of iphonograhy and apps such as Streamzoo, I'm really loving it. I re edited old pics and taken shiny new ones and share them at Streamzoo...you can look me up there @chopsooy . I will no doubt put some on here too😊 I've been back to Australia for my yearly visit back home, enjoyed seeing my mum and dad sooo much. Also enjoyed kinda restarting some old friendships. Please feel free to check in here, you may just find I've bothered to rant or rave about some particular aspect of China life.This is a photo I took in Dehang a few years back but recently edited. It's in Henan province, a lovely place.

Appreciation

I really appreciate peoples kind comments and it's wonderful to have followers on my blog. Because of the lack of Android blogger apps, I mostly blog at www.livingthemiddleway.tumblr.com now, if I could link the two blogs it would be wonderful. Thanks again.