Thank Yous and a General Update (October)

I tried posting a special Thank You blog last week (when I received certain goods in a yellow box) but this website didnt seem to like the idea of me uploading photos ... sorry, Mariamelia, I got your parcel, the coffee and card were both very warmly accepted! Now all we need are some filter papers for our cups, we don't have a machine or anything fancy for this non-instant (ie: proper!) stuff ... I'll email you photos when I dig your address out - I've hidden it somewhere, oh no! The Rio card is on my wall though - my collection is growing (thanks Mum, Lucy, Sheila) and it really takes attention off the filthy walls (which I am NOT cleaning because they are covered in some kind of plaster and it will just come off). I've rambled. The point is, THANK YOU :)

In other news, I can't remember where I got to last time with this blog, so apologies for repetition.

* The heating came on - yay! - the evening of October 14th the pipes finally started to warm up and by the 15th they were well and truly hot. Now we've kind of got used to the ambience, the temperature varies depending on the time of day, the pipes will be hot at one point and drop down to just warm at others, though we're not really sure how it is determined ... sometimes it's tropical (especially in my room, which is very small) and other times it's just NICE. I like nice. Sorry mum I know it's a silly word, I shouldn't use it, but I just have, twice. Anyway, we're not freezing yet!

* The weather on the other hand is definitely pushing that way. Frost in the mornings on some of the plants and the ground, puddles that ice over a bit, a distinct chill in the air, and a certain need to wear layers of clothing and keep moving in an attempt to stay warm. I've even bought gloves! Yeah, it took me that long. But there was no need to worry about prices, as usual Xinjiang came through with some mega-cheap stuff, in fact of the two pairs I bought the cheaper one is probably the warmer (though made of woolly stuff, so not great when it gets wet) - these are basic winter gloves, not going to stop the supercold temperatures we will face later in the year, but great for now. RMB 7.50 (that's something like 70p, my how the pound has fallen, but still it's cheap) - in fact there are some I have considered getting for other people ...

* I've started my Tai Qi classes at the university - I enjoy them way more than learning Chinese, but I suppose I know why I am here (grumble mutter groan complain) ... still, it's nice to have this break for an hour or ninety minutes on a Thursday afternoon. The warm up is the worst bit, I don't mind the gentle jog or the basic stretches we do, but some of the more advanced stretches are beyond me at this early stage. Having jogged a bit, and stretched your legs and back sufficiently, stand upright with your arms at ninety degrees to your body, hands all the way outstretched, parallel to the ground. Now walk along but as you "walk" be sure to kick your outstretched hand with the foot of the same side. A real kick, a nice smack sound. I can barely touch my hand and that's with leaning forward a bit. My teacher (and his student of three years) can both kick their hands really quite hard and walk ten paces like this while making it look easy and graceful. And if you thought that was going to be a long way to come, try kicking the opposite hand while doing this "walk" ... it's HARD. Once that's over with though, we can learn Tai Qi, forms, movements, etc. I think breathing will follow soon, but I'm guessing you need to know how to stand and move a little before you can add breathing in (please, people with experience correct me if I'm wrong). I'm adding advancing in Tai Qi and general fitness / flexibility to my list of things to achieve before coming home.

* I bought slippers for the house. Despite the heating being on, our floor is COLD. Also it's dirty and this saves my socks getting covered in dust ... can I have a pipe now?

* Every time I go to the shops and read the Chinglish on the front covers (and insides) of various notebooks and paper, I crack up. I need to take a camera, some of this is priceless. My favourite today was either the one that read something like "I am XXXX, this is my friend, XXXXX, together we are the Piano Rabbits" (I'm as baffled as you are!), or the book which had lots of soppy stuff about love written on the front, along with a picture of a couple of love-heart sweets containing the words "YOU SLUT". Saw one for you two Lucy, but I thought you might be a bit upset they'd misspelt something terribly famous.

* I came top of my class for a recent test. What makes this worse though, is (a) "top" was only 81% (and there are some people there who must be better than I am) and (b) I didn't even know we were going to have a test, whereas some of these people DID. Oh, and (c) the teacher was going round helping people (wtf? it's a test!) - to my credit I wasn't among those asking for help, but she did come over and just force it on me. Oh well. I think if I score higher on the next test (which I KNOW about) they might consider moving me up a class, at least for grammar. I can hope.

* I've not written anyone letters for a while. This must be amended. Hopefully by Monday I will have something to put in the post for a number of people ... no promises though!

That's it for now I think. Anything else happens, it'll just have to wait.