Can it really be? Oh my gosh! Yes! It’s Aaron’s doppelganger!

Actually, it is a fellow New Zealander, cricketer BJ Watling. While I admit his profile picture doesn’t look much like Aaron, the photo above is a dead ringer for him.

(Aaron is the one on the left)

And it’s also nice to see the Kiwi’s are continuing their good form in the cricket currently thrashing lowly Zimbabwe with Watling picking up him maiden test century.

This can only mean good things for my buddy Aaron!

Yesterday, Em and I decided to go for a walk to Beijing Chaoyang Park (Chinese: 北京朝阳公园; pinyin: Běijīng Cháoyáng Gōngyuán) 20 minutes up the road from her Grandparents place. Most Spring Festivals we usually head up and enjoy the festivities with, what seems like, the rest of Beijing. It wasn’t too cold so I decided that I would risk a little frostbite and take a few photos from the afternoon.

As I mentioned, it was a little crowded, but it’s just no China if it isn’t. It was also nice to see a handful of foreigners here and there also enjoying the festive moment.

We didn’t buy much there, a toy car for Em’s brother, some snacks for dinner, some honey comb to keep us going in the cold, and we also had some fried noodles and a kebab. It was a most enjoyable day.

Click here to see the photos. Click the photos for a bigger picture.

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Happy New Year! Again! Even if it’s the Chinese edition, it doesn’t get old and it’s a wonderful excuse to have another holiday, especially when it’s 6 lazy days.

Actually, it’s not Chinese New Year yet, but by the time this gets posted it will be. At the moment I’m at Em’s grandparents home enjoying a nice day hanging out with her family and awaiting the big firework display tonight. In the mean time, we’ve enjoyed playing cards (one of the good past times where language isn’t a handicap for me) and eaten some terrific food courtesy of Em’s grandparents and mother.

I’m not sure how many Chinese New Years I’ve now spent in Beijing, it seems at least 4 or 5, but they never get old. As much as I miss spending special days with my family, it’s comforting to know that I can spend it with some other special people which I now consider part of my family. I have no doubt that my family back home are also comforted knowing I can spend these days with good people who care for me, too.

With most of the family playing majong in the other room, Em, her brother and cousin in the other room watching some TV, and Em’s mum busy in the kitchen, it’s a rare moment for me to have a little of time to myself. I’m glad I brought my little notebook with me to write all this down.

I didn’t bring my camera with me this year. I usually do, but never really enjoy taking photos, as it often feels it takes away a little from the fun. I know Em did, so she’ll grab some fun snaps of tonight which I may post later on it they’re any good (truth be told, Em’s photos always seem a lot better than mine).

Tomorrow (which will be Chinese New Years) we’ll also spend with at her grandparents home. We’re staying at a hotel only 15 minutes walk away, seeing as it’s always a challenge getting a taxi so late at night, and then have to go all the way back the next day first thing in the morning. It’ll mean we can enjoy a good night sleep, and then leisurely come back tomorrow without having to think and deal with buses and the people on them (although Beijing is fairly quiet with most people back to their hometowns).

Anyway, I’m back to the festivities (that’s not true, with everyone busy I’ll just watch an episode of the Colbert Report I downloaded last night).

Hope you all have a fantastic Chinese New Year!

Went out for a bit of shopping today, and while I didn’t find anything I want to buy, I did treat Em and I to a nice Costa Coffee Mocha each.

Note the cool Dragon on the coffee. Please also note Em’s more cooler iPhone 4S.

It’s nice to have a day off. Looking forward to next Sunday where I’ll be able to enjoy a nice week off for the Spring Festival. Lots of fireworks and good food!

More to come soon.

I often talk about how much I dislike the now. Aside from the cold, I constantly have to deal with the ice on side walk, which is by far the most deadly thing I face on a snowy day (closely followed by buses that brake too late, and whose driver will get angry at me for nearly hitting me while he skids over the pedestrian crossing). Snow is bad. It’s really as simple as that.

Today however, I wish to share one of the more pleasant aspects of snow.

When it first snows, a light powdering, it’s actually a delight to walk through. The footpath isn’t slippery, it doesn’t have that ‘I’m walking through a giant freezer’ feel, and for the most part people and vehicles act as if it’s just another day. The gentle feel of small snowflakes rolling off your nose and the crunching sound of snow underfoot is actually very relaxing and makes my walk to work quite enjoyable lifting my mood for when I eventually reach work.

Of course by the evening it’s all slush and black snow, but I’m not thinking about that in the morning.

One would be tempted to even swallow the falling snowflakes, although in Beijing that’ll probably lead to a bad case of diarrhoea, and that’s a best case scenario!

Perhaps I’m getting a little softer with age, but dare I say, I think I found a side of snow that I actually quite agree with.

Look at that, we’re already a few days into the New Year and I’ve completely been missing off the radar.

I want to say I’ve been very busy over the last few days, but that would be a lie, as I really haven’t done that much. I’ve been off work for the past 6 days on some annual leave I needed to take before the year was up. In hindsight it was both a blessing and a curse, but I’ll get into that a little later.

I mentioned in my last post that Em and I had a wonderful Christmas, and we really did. We didn’t have any massive plan for the day, but we spent it opening presents (I got a Kindle Fire, Em rules!) eating delicious food, and spending some much needed quality time together. It certainly was a great day.

Between Christmas and New Year was a little hectic with work, getting everything planned for 6 days without me in the office,. Not that the office couldn’t survive six days without me, but there’s really no point in letting the place fall into chaos when it need not. So I planned and scheduled, even spent one of my normal days off at the office, making sure everything was fine.

Thankfully that seems to have been the case. No urgent telephone calls or emails about classes being mixed or teaching fighting with each other (they don’t fight with each other, but it would be terrible if they did!).

So with the last six days of holiday I’ve pretty much spent it doing not much at all. We could have gone somewhere nice, or visited some lovely places in Beijing, but instead we spent some time with Em’s family (and they always make it a good and enjoyable day) and with each other just de-stressing from our own busy schedules.

Tomorrow I’m back to work, so the fun begins again.

I have been thinking a lot about the blog and the low level of activity on it as of late. It’s only natural to spend less time on here when I have to spend it doing other things, and there’s isn’t really anything terribly interesting to blog about, unless of course you want to hear me talk about work and how busy I think I am (I probably over do it a fair bit). With that in mind I should be using this blog as an excuse to do some interesting things, to take the focus of my work, and to spend some more quality time with Em doing cool stuff.

It’s something to think about.

Anyway, time for some Z’s. Hope you all had an awesome New Year.

Belated Merry Christmas to everyone!

No, I haven’t disappeared off the face of the earth, but I have rather busy as I’ve mentioned in some previous posts.

That’s not to say Em and I didn’t enjoy a wonderful Christmas together, because we had an awesome one. We shared some wonderful gift’s, ate some delicious food together, and watched a couple of funny movies.

I’ll try do a few more posts in the next few days. Promise. Really.

I held my first major event for the school yesterday as ours, and three other of our schools, had our Christmas Party last night after work.

Despite the teachers being tired, they worked tremendously hard and and ensured the students all had a wonderful time at the Great Wall Sheraton Hotel. The planning had been draining for me and my local colleague, but on the night we were able to quickly change some of our initial plans to maximise the fun the students had.

Dinner was ok, nothing to rave about, and it was nice that we were given something that wasn’t Chinese food. No complaints there.

With the Christmas Party out the way, it’s one less thing for me worry about and now I focus more attention on the million and one other things I have left remaining on it.

Pictures to come soon.

Anyway, off to work.

It’s been an amazingly busy month that I haven’t had a chance to do much else except for work. I’ve literally been doing 12 hours shifts at work to try and get my head around the million things I need to know before I’m officially handed over the school tomorrow.

Even on my day off, I’ve spent it either lesson planning or making materials for several on-going projects that I have inherited from me predecessor. It’s made me tired, a little cranky, and wanting Christmas to come where I have promised myself a work free day.

I did manage to escape from work for a little bit last week when Em and I went to a Chinese Spa. They’re a little like the sauna’s in Korea, where you have your different temperature spa pools, both inside and out, where you can sit down and relax for however long you want.

While the warmest spa is heated nicely to 42 degrees to break out in a good sweat, both Em and I found ourselves somewhat bored after about 10 minutes. It’s great to feel warm, but what’s the point if you have nothing to do?

I ended up in the herbal spa, another heated spa filled with herbs, bark, and whatever else the Chinese like to throw into their medicine. It did a great job of opening up my sinuses and I felt totally relaxed in it.

After about 30 minutes when Em came to collect me, I got out of the spa and immediately felt light-headed and had trouble standing. I had to sit down for about 10 minutes to get my bearings back, and to let a wave of nausea pass.

I’m not sure what caused it, but it was a little scary at the time, as I thought I was going to pass out.
After a nice, long, hot shower, we rested in the electronic sofa chairs and watched some TV’s on individual sets. Within a few minutes I was snoring away, complete and utterly relaxed with my day at the spa.

Would I go back? Probably when it gets really cold and I need somewhere to heat myself up as a long wait in the spa lasts a good few hours afterwards, too.

Anyway, time to get to work.