George's blog

The Quest of King Zhao of Yan for a Capable Man

2012-01-18T22:34:00.001+11:00

I should be writing about Tasmania, or Sha's parents in Australia, or work, or something. Instead, I've been inspired by the book that I'm reading "Tales from 5000 Years of Chinese History - Volume 1" to write a story. Here goes:

After King Huai of Chu was defeated at the hands of King Chu of Huai, King Zhaoziang of Qin decided to search for a capable man. However King Zhaoziang of Qin's son, Gongzi Zilan, disapproved of this idea. He therefore killed his father, King Zhaoziang of Qin and went to a meeting in Wuguan (southeast of Danfeng County in Shaanxi Province). At the meeting, Gongzi Zilan met King Zhao of Yan who tied daggers to the horns of his 1000 bulls and set fire to their tails. This led to King Zhaoziang of Qin abdicating in favour of his son, Yue Yi, who was subsequently renamed King Gou Jian of Yue. He knew that alone he couldn't conquer Qi and therefore formed an alliance with King Fu Chai of Wu and his advisor Ping. King Min of Qi was scared by this alliance and therefore invited his prime minister, Meng Changjun and favourite concubine, to plan their defence. Unfortunately, the defence failed and they all had their noses cut off. King Fu Chai of Wu was deeply touched by all he saw.

----

I may not have the history completely correct, but that seems to be the gist of early Chinese politics.

Day 2 in Tasmania

2012-01-01T17:31:00.001+11:00

Guarding Eaglehawk neck

I should continue writing about Tasmania before I forget everything that we did. I'm getting far too behind in this blog. Today, we had a walk in the Kuring-Gai national park, yesterday we saw the fireworks, the day before we hiked in the Lane Cove National Park (which reminded Sha's mum of where she and her friends secretly used to watch the firing squads executing the condemned prisoners). Another rather embarrassing cultural difference was at midnight last night. At exactly midnight I held out my glass to say cheers, but everyone else was requesting a wish from a God. Sha's mum thought that I was very funny.

On the second day, we checked out of the hotel and then went to look at the chain of dogs that used to stand guard across Eaglehawk bay. At Eaglehawk bay the land is so narrow that the guard dogs were placed in a line stopping any convicts trying to escape. The small museum was excellent and Sha's dad sat on a statue of a fierce dog. We then went on to the Wildlife park to show Sha's parents a Tasmanian devil. We started with an excellent bird show (but, as always in Australia, the native birds that were just flying around were as interesting

This parrot was not meant to be part of the bird show

as the birds in the show -- we had to wait a while as a huge wedge-tailed eagle flew overhead). We saw some baby Tasmanian devils.

We then went to the exhibition of "tree cutting and chocolate making" and bought some chocolate. We checked-in at our hotel (in the style of an old English pub), went for a short walk around and then went to visit Port Arthur. Port Arthur is massive and impressive! We started on a boat tour to see what the convicts would have seen as they arrived. Actually, it looked very nice and pretty. I'm sure that it didn't in the past!

In the evening we went for a walk to the bay near our hotel and watched some huge sting-rays (or something similar) swim around. Then we went for a very odd walk in what seemed to be a lost garden. There were obvious signs of paths, bridges etc., but everything was falling down and we had to push our way through the bushes.

We saw a lot of wallabies.


Our hotel in Port Arthur

The bay next to our hotel


The first view of Port Arthur

The island of the dead (and a cruise ship)

The rays in the bay

An interlude: to the Jenolan Caves

2011-12-28T11:07:00.001+11:00

Christmas Day kite flying!

Ready for lunch?

Getting ready to make the pavlova

It's ready!

Eel in the botanical gardens

It's hard to keep up with this blog. On Christmas Day we had a massive, traditional Christmas lunch. This included turkey and even brussel spouts (but Sha's dad only let me boil them for about 20 minutes). Sha also made lots of cupcakes, a pavlova and we had a Christmas pudding. It was a massive feast. I spent a lot of the day trying to get X-Plane10 installed, but then was disappointed to find that Sydney airport is in the wrong place :( Sha's dad had also found me a bonsai tree. My New Year resolution will have to be that I don't kill the tree!

The waves were a little big for swimming

My Chinese is getting worse. On Boxing Day, I kept asking Sha's dad whether he wanted to go back home on a "princess" (instead of a "bus"). That led to some confusion. And, I've just told him that I don't want any more breakfast because I'm drunk (I meant to say "enough").

Arrival at the Jenolan Caves

Look at the colour of the water

On Boxing Day we tried to see the start of the Sydney-Hobart boat race, but we didn't go far enough around the harbour to see the start. Instead we watched the eels in the botanic gardens and then Sha''s dad and I went on the ferry to Manly. We walked around for half-an-hour and then took the boat back again. There were some large waves!!

Yesterday we went to the Jenolan Caves. It's a long way. It took about 3 hours each way and the last 20km or so is on a rather dramatic, windy road. Everything is fine until a crazy 4wd comes from the opposite direction. At the end the carpark was full and we had to drive up another windy, dirt road to find another carpark. We went on the "diamond" tour that took us through some spectacular caves and then down to an underground river.

A troll that we found in the caves

Day 1 in Tasmania: around the Peninsula

2011-12-26T09:14:00.001+11:00


The beach somewhere near Doo Town

After a lunch of Fish 'n' chips and being unable to convince Sha to go on a boat ride, we decided to drive around the Peninsula and find a place to have a hike. We first had a quick look at a beach where we thought the penguins might sleep before deciding to do a walk to the Devil's Kitchen and then on to Waterfall Bay. Sha thought that she might be able to get something more to eat at the Devil's Kitchen, but unfortunately was disappointed.

The walk was great. Lots of cliff edges on one side and forests on the other. On the way back, Sha's dad found a "furry triangle" that turned out to be a small wallaby. After the walk, we continued our drive and spotted three echidnas in a garden. We then got lost, but found a very white beach (called "white beach").


Walking to the Waterfall Bay

We drove back through Port Arthur looking for somewhere to eat. I'd expected Port Arthur to be a little town, with ice cream shops, a supermarket and some small restaurants. Unfortunately, it wasn't. It is a convict prison and has lots of hotels. So we kept driving and had a very fun, but slow, dinner at our hotel. The ladies sitting next to us had cycled from Hobart, but were going to take the bus back!


Waterfall bay

In the evening, we drove back out to look for the penguins. Whilst waiting for it to get dark (it didn't get dark until about 9pm), we won breakfast by winning the three-legged race and then we went searching for the penguins. Instead we found a water rat and were feeling a bit upset, but then we found a penguin sitting on the path next to our car!


White Beach

A very long and enjoyable day! :)

Day 1 in Tasmania: morning

2011-12-25T17:12:00.004+11:00


On board the JetStar flight

We have just had the largest Christmas lunch ever! It was huge.

Our first day in Tasmania seems a long time ago now and was very long! We woke up before 5am to get to the airport for the 7am flight. It was just as well that we got up so early as the queue to deposit the bags was already half way around the airport. The plan for the holiday was to explore the Tasman peninsula. This is the bit that sticks down on the East Coast. I'd heard that it was always raining and cloudy.

Our first view of the Ocean

We arrived in Hobart on time (it's a great landing between the hills and the coast) and picked up our incredibly small rental car (I liked the car by the end of the trip - our little Suzuki Swift didn't need refuelling for the entire trip) and somehow fitted our luggage into the boot. Then off we went to Eaglehawk neck. The weather was perfect.

It didn't take long to arrive at Eaglehawk neck and so we went straight off for a walk down to the Tessellated Pavement - "a rare erosional feature formed in flat sedimentary rock formations lying on some ocean shores". We also kept a good look out for animals and birds and ended up spotting a huge number of different birds (but no dolphins).

After walking around on the beach, we checked-in at our hotel (which had a view over the ocean) and then continued onto the Tasman Peninsula. We went past Doo Town which, with all the Du's in the car, was very apt (all the houses have "Doo" in their name) and went to see the blow hole (which wasn't blowing) and the spectacular cliffs.

Sha was starting to demand lunch by this point and didn't approve of the out-door Fish 'n' chips and so we drove off to find a nice fish restaurant!

Lots of flowers everywhere! Not so good for hayfever

Walking to the Tessellated Pavement

The Tessellated Pavement

A Fairy Wren

Lunch!

A blog update!!

2011-12-24T16:14:00.002+11:00

With a huge Bunya pine cone

I've finally got around to updating my blog!! We're getting ready for a traditional English Christmas here. Sha and her parents are expecting a large turkey, cranberry sauce, setting the pudding on fire and all the trimmings.


The bunya and hoop pines

Since the last blog update, we came back from Canada. went to Parkes, won the NSW Tall Poppy prize(!), Sha's parents arrived in Australia, played again in the Beecroft orchestra, went to Melbourne to be Mike's Best Man at his wedding, went to Tasmania for a spectacular holiday and then back to Parkes again. Today we went to see the large Bunya pine cones at the Cumberland State Forest. Sha is getting all excited at the moment and cooking some cup cakes.

The Bunya pine cones really were very impressive. They weigh about 15kg and drop from a height of 30-40m. Actually, the path was closed due to the danger of one falling on your head, but we ignored that. Then we found a pine cone and wished we hadn't ignored the advice.

Sha with a strange fruit

Ottawa!

2011-10-09T08:34:00.005+11:00

We're in Ottawa. Sha is worried about the chipmunk population of Ottawa and has spent the last few days trying to make the local chipmunks as fat as possible. She's now moving on to fattening up the black squirrels. She also spotted a family of racoons. But she hasn't spotted a ground hog (di jou) yet. I found one, but Sha was on a boat with lots of ladies at the time.

They have lots of pumpkins in Canada.

Today we went flying. Sha took control. We didn't crash.

Sha photographed a sign that explained what to do in the presence of "a bear, coyote, wolf or cougar". The final instruction is "In case of an attack, you must be aggressive and counterattack."

I bought a new camera. I wanted a new Sony, but Sha told me that I wouldn't look professional. So I'm now the proud owner of a nikon.

Oh, Dad also showed us the new flight simulator at Rockcliffe. I flew a twin-engined plane through the clouds to Ottawa international. We didn't crash!

What else? Sha has spotted three beavers (or one beaver three times). We went to a concert where a 13 year old boy played incredibly difficult 'cello pieces with his sister accompanying him on the piano (Bryan and Silvie Cheng). Mum also drove us up into the forest to see the lakes and the colourful trees. Oh, and we went to the Museum of Civilisation to see the exhibitions and to watch the Imax show about elephants and orang-utangs.

Sha's Chinese gravitational wave detector

2011-09-18T21:58:00.002+10:00

Very cool!

A big sphere

2011-09-18T07:38:00.004+10:00

I saw a big sphere today. It was very big and very shiny. I was met after lunch by the incredibly friendly Odylio and we drove (very fast) to Sao Paulo. The trip was fun. All the fields are full of massive termite mounds. There are big birds that are probably vultures ("they eat dead animals. they don't kill them") flying around. The trees are incredible. They're all different and very colourful. We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, went through the outskirts of the city and ended up at the Universitaria. Then we went to the physics building and I got to see their big sphere!! It's amazing. They're hoping to detect gravitational waves with it and have a sensitivity (in a very small band) similar to LIGO. I even got to climb on top of it!!

After seeing the big sphere we drove back again (1.5 hours each way!). This time we drove through the city and got into a police convoy that drove at extremely high speed to the airport.

Then I found some "traditional Australian black bread" (?)

Brazil is like China

2011-09-17T09:18:00.004+10:00

I've decided that I like Brazil. The people are so friendly. I've just been driving around in the car with one of the staff here so that he can show me the various pizza restaurants. The Brazilians like pizza. Actually they like all food. We had the most amazing barbeque that came with all sorts of side dishes that we had to try. Some of the students then went off to return with cachaça. :)

The driving seems to be on par with China. Apparently only a few hundred motorcyclists are injured each day.

We were told today that kidnapping was quite common. One female student told us how she was recently kidnapped. It turned out that a gang took all her money and then kept her in the car whilst part of the gang went off to withdraw all her money from the cash machines. Then they let her go. Apparently this happens "all the time". (Okay, that's not like China!)

The site where we gave our lectures is guarded by men with large guns. Apparently this is because a gang broke in and shot everyone.

Actually, to me, the place seems very safe (except for the cars).

I've realised that I know almost nothing about Brazil. I'm just looking up some information on the Japanese in Brazil (there is a huge community). Apparently the first Japanese immigrants arrived in 1908. Apparently, "Japanese immigrants began arriving in 1908, as a result of the decrease in the Italian immigration to Brazil and a new labour shortage on the coffee plantations." This was the same time when "America had banned non-white immigration to the United States, on the basis that they would not integrate into society; these laws were specifically targeting the Japanese. At the same time in Australia the White Australian Policy at the same time prevented the immigration of non-whites to Australia."

There are a few more similarities between Brazil and China. 1) there are no llamas. 2) there's clearly a huge amount of money here with the main exports being to China. Their export goods are listed as "airplanes", "footwear" and "coffee". I never realised that Embraer was a Brazilian company which has its headquarters in the place that I'm staying (Headquartered in São José dos Campos) - Embraer stands for "Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica"

Our lectures have finished now! Writing (and presenting) five talks in five days was exhausting.

The photos that I attach include pictures of their various telescopes (one of which is on a high-altitude balloon launching site!), the view from my hotel room (of the road and mall), the second largest Catholic church in the World, some food called TNT and various photos from the barbeque.

hmmm

2011-09-14T02:50:00.001+10:00

The word for "pull" in Portuguese is pronounced "push"!! :)

A reminder

2011-09-13T04:01:00.003+10:00

This is just a note to remind me to write a blog entry about
1) drinking coffee in Brazil
2) parrots
3) lots of guns
4) lack of llamas
5) the telescopes and balloon launching
6) the church
7) beer
8) blowing up rockets
9) a big vacuum pump

First impression of Sao Jose dos Campos

2011-09-12T01:17:00.004+10:00

I need to learn Portuguese. Nobody speaks English. I finally got my internet working (they'd spelt my name Hobbys). I just ordered some food at the mega-mall and got a funny look. When the food arrived, it came with a colouring-in book. No llamas.

I'd pictured San Paulo as a massive city (perhaps like Barcelona) and Sao Jose dos Compos to be a small town (perhaps like Sant Cugat) where people lounged around in restaurants, eating Tapas and watching Tango dancing (with their llama tied up outside). I can't say much about San Paulo except that, from the air, it looked massive and the airport has a very friendly information centre lady who does speak a little English. Sao Jose dos Campos at first glance seems a bit like Brownsville, Texas. From my window (on the 7th floor of the Ibis), I can see a petrol station, lots of 3 lane roads, the Colinas Shopping centre and a few palm trees. The shopping centre didn't seem to have an entrance (just a large car park), but I found a way in through a supermarket in which I bought some Suco Tropical De Maracuja that is Oganico. There's a picture on it of happy looking people picking an unidentifiable fruit (oh, I've just found out that it is a type of passion fruit).

When I arrived last night, I discovered that nobody was waiting for me at the airport. This led to an interesting 30 minutes of trying to buy telephone cards and contacting someone. By the time that I had done this the driver had arrived. He didn't speak any English, but enjoyed listening to lots of Tango music.

I attach lots of photos from the flight (the picture on the ground is at Auckland airport). Dad, notice the small runway near the mountains!! I also attach a photo of Sha with a sheep.

In Brazil

2011-09-11T10:33:00.000+10:00

A severe lack of llamas in the street.

In Santiago

2011-09-11T02:05:00.005+10:00

Man randomly playing the violin in the middle of the airport. Air Canada flight going to Buenos Aires. A book about a plane crash in Shangri-la is not good reading material for a flight. Watching Hanna is also not a good idea - tagline: " Innocence can be deadly.".

My blog tells me:

"Parece que has accedido a tu cuenta desde una nueva ubicación. Para poder verificar tu identidad y asegurarnos de que nadie está intentando acceder a tu cuenta sin autorización, realiza este rápido procedimiento de verificación. Para obtener más información sobre esta medida de seguridad adicional"

Currently listening to another incomprehensible announcement and the violinist.

The mountains outside the window are spectacular.

I attach a picture of Sha in a massive factory (not in Chile), a picture of Sha on a chair (not in Chile), a girl who is not Sha, but does have a large wombat (not in Chile) and a picture of Sha cuddling a man that is not me (not in Chile nor in Australia)

I have not spotted any llamas yet.

In a few hours I should be in Brazil, but don't know whether llamas live in Brazil or not.

Dial 8888 for a bumbershoot

2011-08-06T23:09:00.004+10:00

"Dear guest: In the leaflet, you will kiredod, the chief dquioment department receiver center in kunming. Natuarlly, we remain at your service day and night to provide any other information. Dial 8888 for a bumbershoot"

We are in Kunming. What a journey!! Vikram and I headed off before dawn down the alleys of Lijiang (pulling our bags and carrying my poster tube). We found a taxi and headed off to the train station. We arrived rather too early and therefore split up to find some breakfast. I was in charge of drinks and found a suitable coconut/banana coffee. Vikram was in charge of the food and obtained some ridiculously spicy "edible mushrooms" and a biscuit.

Finally we got into the massive scrum to be the first onto the train. The train was a double decker and had rows of beds. Sitting for 8 hours on a bed is uncomfortable, but we were were entertained by our companions. We travelled with three young girls (ages 11, 9 and 7) and their parents (all squashed onto two small beds). They were from Sichuan. We played cards with the girls, they taught us Chinese, sang us a welcome song and looked at all the photos on my laptop. They liked the koalas. I proudly read them a story in Chinese and they found my name extremely funny.

The scenery was also impressive. The train went through a million tunnels as it went through the mountains of Yunnan. We have no idea where we went, but think that we may have passed Dali.

We then arrived in Kunming to find that nobody speaks English here. We didn't have a hotel room, but ambled up to the first hotel (without knowing how to ask for a room), but discovered that no room was available. We then tried the next one and a friendly chap from Hong Kong helped us get a room!

It's hot! We've just been walking around (stopping for some beers and an icecream) and then ended up with a meal suitable for about 10 people!

Off to Beijing tomorrow!

Chongqing a muggle copy to hand to most

2011-08-05T15:42:00.005+10:00

We've just eaten a spicy soup in "Chongqing a muggle copy to hand to most" which was next to the "Adult Thing". I had an entire conversation in Chinese today. Vikram and I ended up in a Chinese tea house where we enjoyed Pu'Er tea being poured over the frogs.

We then went to the market. I bought a lotus bud to chew on. Vikram bought some peaches. Sandor got something that looked like a doughnut. Actually, we were not very adventurous. We could have had a dog. Vikram was particularly taken with the manner in which they gutted the fish whilst they were still alive. He also liked the bucket of bull frogs.

We had frog for breakfast a few days ago. It was very bony.

The conference is over now. Vikram and I are taking the train to Kunming tomorrow.

Last night our Chinese failed us. We asked for beer and got porridge.

My beautiful yak in Shangri-la

2011-08-04T00:33:00.009+10:00

Yunnan is wonderful!!! I'm in love with a yak in Shangri-la. It was white and very fluffy. I sat on it and had my photograph taken!

We had a dramatic bus ride through the mountains (the road went up to 3.5km high but I didn't get altitude sickness!). We only saw a few crashes. One truck went off the side of the road. We saw the first bend in the Yangtze river. Then I sat on my yak. What a yak!

Then we ate a yak kebab and then headed on towards Tiger Leaping Gorge on the Shangri-la side. This was incredible. The whole of the Yangtze river gets squeezed in a narrow gorge. The power was incredible. The waves were massive.

Then we continued the drive higher into the mountains (there were lots of goats, buffalo, yaks and donkeys all over the road + a few chickens and a sad looking monkey in a tiny cage). We went to the Yunnan observatory which is situated in spectacular scenery. Vikram and I bought a potato from a lady on the street.

We finally got back to LiJiang and had the conference dinner. I was allowed to eat the Chicken's head.

Oh dear

2011-07-30T17:02:00.002+10:00

I'm waiting for my bus to the airport and so decided to check on who was reading my blog. Apparently, someone recently found my blog by typing in "blog chengdu hookers". I've just tried this myself and my blog comes up in google as the third suggestion.

I'm guessing that whoever did this search found my blog a bit disappointing.

A few photos

2011-07-30T01:19:00.005+10:00

Thanks to Rob, I can upload a few photos of myself.

Don't let Sha read this blog

2011-07-29T01:26:00.003+10:00

Sha told me not to talk with strange people, nor do anything dangerous. This occurred to me as I was clinging on to the back of a "taxi" hurtling down the highway with people like Rob Hollow wearing a very silly shirt. My shirt has bells on it.

Anyway, I didn't fall off and so that's okay. We had a rather dramatic conference dinner. It involved dancing and setting off hot-air balloons (actually huge lanterns). In contrast to a few, our lantern did not catch on fire. I've just been looking at my photos and they all seem to be of Rob posing with some Thai ladies.

I had to chair a session today. I didn't understand any of the talks.

Another great day in Chiang Mai

2011-07-28T00:33:00.005+10:00

I gave my talk today to a rather empty audience. Oh well! Afterwards, Rob and I went out for dinner. Chiang Mai really is excellent. We had another dramatic tuk-tuk ride into the city, walked around the Wat (where you can have a chat with a monk: "suggested topics: The life of Monks"), admired the trees (I thought that the massive trees were Bodhi (or Bo) trees, but I've just looked them up and now I don't think so --- Faith, what's the tree in the first picture -- it's massive?

We had a fun dinner in a restaurant that was "perfectly located" and "nicely decorated with Lanna Puppet". The rice came in a "chic banana leaf cone". "You will definitely enjoy the chef's laughter". Well that was true ... I accidentally ate the strongest chilli that I've ever encountered and, I'm sure, without drinking copious amounts of beer would have ended up in hospital.

We walked through the night market, stopping to buy some gifts and to decide whether Rob needed a large pair of boxer shorts or not and having an icecream. We ended up walking back to the hotel. Tomorrow is the last day of the conference. Then a day riding elephants. Then off to LiJiang. I'm really annoyed. Vikram and I discovered that we could get to LiJiang by a bus ride to Laos and then a 12 hour boat ride up the Mekong. Instead, I'm flying and have to spend from midnight to 6am in Kunming airport.

Attracting dogs in Chiang Mai

2011-07-27T00:56:00.007+10:00

I've happily survived two tuk-tuk rides. One, alone and in the dark. Chiang Mai is wonderful! The conference is going extremely well. The opening ceremony was very spectacular. It seemed a very odd mix of Thai traditional music (in a contemporary style), drumming, the Eurovision Song Contest, dancing and a fashion show (oh ... and some random images of stars and an asteroid belt). When we first arrived we were all invited to go and have our photo taken with a lady who wasn't wearing much. I declined the invitation, but had a garland of flowers placed around my neck instead.

The food has been excellent! Actually, that reminds me to state that everyone should fly on Thai! It's a great airline whose air hostesses think that one should have two beers and one cognac with your breakfast.

A few hours ago, Vikram and I decided to skip a few talks and go out and work on a paper instead. We found a few bars in the centre of Chiang Mai that helped with the paper writing.

We also went past some amazing Wats. The largest one was incredible. There was a sleeping buddha. Life-sized stone elephants. Lots of monks walking around. Also incredible realistic wax statues of long-dead monks in glass cabinets.

Later, after walking around a bit on my own (and seemingly attracting all the dogs of Chiang Mai to follow me), I met back up with Vikram, Emma and Justin for dinner at an excellent restaurant. We had "thorn soup" with "banana flower" and a few other delicious dishes.

Just so you know, the "recitation of Monks' disciplinary rules is held on the full-moon day, or the 14th or 15th day of waning moon. The community of monks who are eligible to perform this ceremony must belong to the same sect or nikaya, and have not committed the big offense."

Wombat ... we're coming again

2011-07-16T22:16:00.004+10:00

We went back to see Sha's wombat today. She says that she could identify it amongst another 100 wombats!!

Sha's wombat

Another picture of Sha's wombat

wombat, we are coming!!

2011-06-25T19:34:00.005+10:00

I was told in my visit to parliament last week to come up with short, snappy titles. So I've called this blog entry "quoll sex". We did see some quolls having sex today. Oh, Sha is getting angry with me for not calling this post: "The most wonderful and beautiful, big, fat, wombat" and has taken control of the keyboard and changed the title.

Sha didn't let me spend much time watching the quolls have sex. She said that she thought they needed some privacy, but actually Sha wanted to get back to her new friend. Her new friend is a huge, fat wombat that seemed to be rather fond of her. Sha managed to get the wombat jumping into the air to bang his head on her hand. She also discovered that if she kept tapping its back then it would run faster and faster.

This morning we discovered that our guinea pigs were mutants. Tuan Tuan seems to be growing another fingernail. We took her to the vet who told us not to worry too much. Sha would like to report that both guinea pigs behaved very well and a big dog sat on her foot.

After playing with the wombat (at the Featherdale wildlife park) we decided to drive to Windsor (for no particular reason). We had some coffee, walked a bit by the river and then drove back home.

There are five bush turkeys walking around outside.

In ... ummm ... Canberra

2011-06-19T20:22:00.003+10:00

Yesterday I was in the beautiful rainforest. Today I'm on the outskirts of Canberra. I'm in the Hotel Formule X which must rate as Canberra's worst hotel (I won't write what the 'X' stands for in case I get sued, but it is an integer less than 2). The flight was excellent. I arrived early and got moved to an earlier flight. It only took 30 minutes. Then, luckily, I hired a car. Then I got lost. The instructions say: "take Northbourne Avenue. Turn right into Antill Street and turn left approx. 200 m into mote." Assuming that "mote" means "motel" then this seems rather obvious. Actually, you have to drive about 2km up Antill Street to find it.

When you do find the hotel, you discover that there's a reason why it's cheap (all the posh hotels in Canberra are completely full). However, I do have a bunk bed and there is a nice view of the highway outside (and a useful petrol station that stocks shampoo).

Tomorrow, I've been told to get a taxi because there is no parking in Canberra. Here, I have been told that there's no possible way of getting a taxi.

Gosh, I am having fun :P

Fighting lyre birds

2011-06-18T19:25:00.004+10:00

Today we took our car for a long drive. We filled it up with petrol and Chinese girls and then drove to Kiama. We didn't take the obvious route. Instead we went inland, got lost (our GPS is completely useless), saw the giant potato, drove down very windy roads (which necessitated winding the windows down for one of our guests to be sick) and ended up at the Minnamurra rainforest. We went for a walk and spotted about 10 lyre birds. The first was just scrabbling around in the bushes. Then we went around the corner and saw a whole flock of them fighting each other, raising their spectacular tails and flying incredibly fast. I didn't even know that they could fly. They looked like small pterodactyls swooping around. It was amazing!!

A few hours later, we got back into the car and drove into Kiama. It was a beautiful day!! Lots of pelicans. The blow hole was blowing. The chips were tasty. Then we drove home and got stuck in a few traffic jams.

Sydney and Chengdu

2011-05-28T19:44:00.007+10:00

We've bought a car. According to Sha, I had to get a 4-door, automatic, safe, silver car that had lots of room (and was cheap). Luckily someone at work was selling just such a car and so we bought a Nissan Pulsar. Last night we had our first drive to Eastwood and Sha bought enough food to last us the rest of the year. Today we drove to Collaroy beach for fish 'n' chips. The car is great!

I've also managed to find my cable for my camera that I used on the mountains near Chengdu. I attach a bunch of photos (you can probably guess which photos are of the beach in Sydney and which are the mountains in Sichuan)!

Oh, and there's one or two photos from Beijing.

Some pictures

2011-05-21T16:52:00.003+10:00

Waiting with Sha at Beijing airport!! Time to post a few pictures of our time here ... ahhh ... the upload speed is terrible. I've only got two photos loaded. I'll try again from Shanghai!!

Xi'An Airport

2011-04-29T13:16:00.002+10:00

I've finally got my VPN working and so can update my blog. It's strange that only airports and coffee shops seem to have a good internet system! The hotel internet didn't work at all and the office system seems to block VPN.

Work in Xi'An went very well. I also had fun eating all sorts of strange foods with Xiaopeng (including donkey and "pig's leg"). We also went to a very dramatic show that seemed to be "Tang Dynasty meets Star Wars". It was very impressive. Although it was all in Chinese, it was rather obvious what happened. Emperor meets lady. They fall in love. She gets killed by the bad guys. He mourns for her. They meet again in heaven. Apparently it's based on a true story that actually occurred in XiAn. The Chinese astronomer sitting next to me said that it was the best show that he'd ever seen. He comes from the Kazaghistan border of China and apparently they don't have many shows!

Back to Beijing now!!

Being ill

2011-04-24T13:48:00.004+10:00

Instead of writing a blog entry about my new nephew (congrats Emma and Peter!!), I'm going to write about altitude sickness. Perhaps it will make him wish to become a mountaineer! I didn't expect to get ill. In fact, I thought that we'd have a fun drive into the mountains, take a few photos and look cool and trendy. I started to doubt my ability to look cool when all the joints in my body started to ache as our car went higher and higher into the mountains. This wasn't just a little pain - it hurt!! However, I put this down to the fact that the road was a dirt track and extremely bumpy - and three of us were squeezed into the back of the car for about seven hours. We kept going higher. My head started to feel as if it would explode. I put this down to the fact that I'd been standing outside in a blizzard for a while having some photos taken or that I hadn't had a coffee for more than ... 3 days ... or that breakfast had been a soup of liquidised chillies and peppers!

During our lunch stop, I bought myself a coke (I didn't know the Tibetan for "I'd like a coke" and so I just pointed). But that didn't help much. We finally arrived at the house where we stayed the next two nights. This cheered me up ... it definitely was an "I'm going to make uncle Mel jealous" moment (it's not clear why I think of Mel everytime I stay somewhere that looks as if it may fall down during the night) . Our room didn't have any heating. It was about -2C. The "bathroom" had a very smelly squat toilet with a shower over it. The water for the shower or toilet worked sometimes. However, the view was amazing and my head cleared up. So I was fine when we went to dinner. What a place. The kitchen looked like something from about 1750. The stove needed stoking with coal. There were big pots hanging up. A bit of a fish was stuck on the wall. Lots of people kept walking in and out. We ate a superb dinner and I decided that the best medicinal cure for whatever I had was to drink lots of beer. It worked fine. Neither Sha nor I could sleep much that night. She was in a bad way in the morning, whereas I felt fine. However, Sha - rather sensibly - took some strong altitude medication and started to improve. I didn't take any medicine and started to get worse. Lying on the bed seemed to induce an uncontrollable shaking that only stopped by munching on a heap of paracetemol.

The views were stunning as we took the photographs that day. Unfortunately, I banged my head on a beam in a house where we were getting changed, which didn't help my health! Apart from having low beams, that house really was incredible. I was let into the bedroom to change into my suit. Obviously the entire family slept together (I couldn't see any sign of heating and it must have been freezing in the middle of the winter) on lots of wooden beds spread around the room. The room was incredibly decorated with rugs and everything was red. This was the house where the hosts enthusiastically took delivery of their yak's head.

That evening the shivering was worse, but I took more tablets. On the journey back we stopped to take more photos. This was great for me because I didn't seem to feel the cold at all. Everyone else was complaining about how cold it was, but I was having a great time. I was also happy to have succeeded in using a squat toilet for the first time without falling over. The car ride back was actually fine. I was sometimes hot and sometimes cold, but not too bad. We had another incredible lunch where the vegetables were something the cook had found on the mountains (they looked like tiny ferns).

We arrived back at Chengdu and met back up with Sha's parents. They're amazing. Without even checking-in to their hotel room, they had given me some tablets, a dramatic back massage and got me into bed. I was clearly not better the next day and so they took me to the hospital where we immediately found that my temperature was 39.5C. I had a blood test (all fine) and then diagnosed as having altitude sickness (the only official requirements at the hotel was that I had to give my name 'Jiaozi' and my age - which Sha got wrong). I was put into a bed and a stream of pretty nurses came to set up a saline drip. Sha took my glasses away.

At this point it was rather clear that I wasn't going to be giving lectures on pulsars in Chongqing and so we got me a ticket on Sha's flight to Beijing and went off to the airport. Rather stupidly, I demanded a coffee (after having not eaten for a day) and then almost fainted and was sick. Then I felt better. Since then, I've been lying at Sha's home in Beijing with my temperature going up and down, shivering and sweating heaps. Amazingly, I ate some salt and now feel 100x better. Sha's dad has just walked in a a huge plate of strawberries for me to eat. They've been absolutely amazing!

A few more photos

2011-04-18T17:52:00.001+10:00

Baby yak on road

2011-04-18T14:49:00.008+10:00

Sha wanted a trip that we'd never forget!! It has been incredible and so dramatic that I've just got out of hospital. We started off from Chengdu, met our driver, the photographer and make-up artist, all of us squeezed into their 4-wheel drive and then drove for about 8 hours into the mountains (past the tea plantations and the bamboo forests). Our first stop was in Kangding. This was the most exotic looking place that I've been to. Lamas were walking through the street, there were prayer wheels to turn ... The signs were in a Tibetan script. At this point Sha had her make-up put on in a small traditional restaurant. I had fun walking around and wondering whether Sha was completely mad or not. In fact, I'm sure that she is because we then drove even further into the mountains (typically mountain heights in this area are 6700m - although we didn't go that high) and then Sha was photographed in a blizzard whilst wearing a wedding dress.

The road kept going up. We passed hundreds (no exaggeration) of army trucks all heading for Tibet. We kept stopping to have photographs. Apparently, I'm very "cool" - actually I was frozen. I only had to learn three poses. In one, I had to gaze into the distance, with my hands in my pocket. For the second, I had to shut my eyes and kiss Sha's cheek. Finally, I had to lean on a fence post and look cool while my feet were in some yak dung. I have to report that I have nice skin and natural hair.

There were lots of yaks. They just ambled across the road. I had an interesting experience whilst waiting for Sha to put her make-up on. We were in someone's house when they had their gory yak's head delivered. They were very excited and took turns to hand it around. They gave our photographer the horns.

We stayed in an amazing "hotel". It was really a family house. I think that the people were from the Qiang ethnic group. It was freezing and both Sha and I had huge headaches from the cold and the altitude. The house was approx 3-3.5km above sea level. There were horses everywhere.

The photos that I've put onto this blog makes it look as if we had nice sunny weather. Actually, we had a lot of snow and hail.

We fly back to Beijing this afternoon. I was meant to be going to Chongqing, but after spending all morning in hospital, I thought that I'd better rest a bit more. I'll fly back again in a few days. Sha and her parents have been wonderful looking after me!

In Chengdu

2011-04-14T22:39:00.003+10:00

I'm back in China!!! The journey was completely uneventful (apart from spilling my beer on the Swedish model sitting next to me and leaving my camera on the plane), but the views were spectacular. There wasn't a cloud above Australia! I had only an hour to change planes in Hong Kong, but that wasn't a problem. On the flight to Chengdu I sat next to a 4-year old Chinese girl and told her, in my best Chinese, that I was "an Englishman". She didn't understand me.

I met Sha and her parents at the airport. I like Chengdu airport. There wasn't any queuing at all to go through international customs. In fact, the official didn't speak any English and so he just looked at me, stamped my passport and let me through. We then took a taxi into the city. Chinese driving has not improved.

In brief, Chengdu is a large, noisy, smelly city. The smog is thick - you can taste the smog with everything you eat.

Argh, I've just been plunged into darkness. Sha has taken the room key because I've just been phoned by a "hooker" and Sha doesn't trust me not to open the door to anyone.

Chengdu has a large smelly river (the Fu Nan river) which we walked along for a while. However, of course, the greatest thing here is the food!! Sichuan food is wonderful -- it's certainly spicy. I've just eaten a Sichuan pepper. We should be up in the mountains tomorrow. We went to the photo shop today and I had great fun trying on all the clothes that I'll be photographed in. The first shirt that I put on had Sha and her mum laughing out loud. Apparently I looked just like Shakespeare.

We also went to an amazing temple. On the bus I made some friends with the locals. I even gave them my email address. I've no idea whether I'll hear from them again, but they were very friendly. Sha and her mum kept laughing at me.

I read the wrong book. There are apparently four great classical books in Chinese literature. I've read the "Journey to the West", but this city (and the temple that we went to) is where the "Three Kingdoms" story was set. There were lots of statues of fierce looking warriors. Apparently one roared so loudly that the enemy turned and fled. All the signs stated something like "Dong Yun (216 AD) son of Dong He, one of the four outstanding administrators then. Upright and principled, he dissuaded King Liu Shan from having more concubines. His statue was made in 1672."

There were also lots of exotic looking birds flying again!

After seeing the temple we headed off down an old street that had lots of traditional Sichuan snacks. My mouth is still burning!

I do have heaps of photos, but I forgot to bring the cable attaching my camera to the computer. So in the evening I used my other camera, but the photos are not so exciting!

Sha and I head off on our photography trip tomorrow!

My blog is alive

2011-04-13T09:42:00.002+10:00

My blog is finally about to be resurrected (assuming that I can access it from China). I'm now sitting at Sydney airport listening to the names of people who haven't boarded their flights. It seems that every flight has about 4 people who don't show up. They've all got names that the announcers cannot pronounce.

My taxi driver told me about how he escaped Afghanistan by hiking through the mountains and into Pakistan. It was quite a story!!

Some thoughts about China

2011-01-18T20:27:00.006+11:00

When we had our trip to ShiJiaZhuang I was in a bit of a bad mood. The train journey was meant to be impressive, but we had a rather awful view of a road and lots of small towns that all merged together. Strangely enough, we sat facing the other direction on the way back and the view was spectacular!! Anyway, on arrival in ShiJiaZhuang we visited Sha's relatives who cooked some amazing food and Sha got bitten by the dog. Then we met Sha's wonderful friend, Lei, and her husband. They took us to our hotel which had advanced safety systems in case of fire:

"Declaration"

"Please don't worry if a fire is occurring our hotel have owned advaned scattering facilities to ensure you transmiited safely

Please follow the direction route to the information corridor and there safeguards will take you out to the security belts.

The point profess your excellency seat"

So that was okay! I felt very safe. In order to be even more relaxed I could have tried the Deer Penis liqour (the "Magical Deer Pizzle Liquor") or many of the items to help my "marital sex life" (not allowed for any other purpose). Anyway, instead we went out because Sha wanted to go shopping. I didn't want to go shopping and so I walked around the park instead. It was amazing!! Men were flying kites and playing with large spinning tops (that they kept hitting with a large whip). I also watched some tai chi which was wonderful. Then I went for a walk on the ice in the lake.

We went to karaoke. That was embarrassing. Sha and her friend sang very well. I didn't. We also went to visit Sha's university and she showed me where she used to live and study.

Where Sha was born

2011-01-16T17:34:00.003+11:00

We're now back in Sydney. This is a photo of where Sha lived as a baby. It's an old temple. After the cultural revolution it became her father and mother's dormitory. After they moved in 1983 the government rebuilt it in the original style.

Beijing airport

2011-01-15T16:07:00.003+11:00

We're in Beijing airport on our way to Shanghai and then on to Sydney. Here are some random photos! These are pictures of Beijing and Shi Jia Zhuang.

The people are one of Sha's best friend, Lei and her husband. Also, the group photo is of Sha's aunt and her family.

Finally can update my blog

2011-01-05T23:09:00.010+11:00

Sha and I are sitting in a coffee shop that seems to allow VPN access. It doesn't work from her house, nor from the Chinese Institute of Astronomy. So much for doing PULSE@Parkes in China - although perhaps running a session from a coffee shop would not be such a bad idea.

We've been having an amazing time. Sha has been showing me around Beijing. Yesterday, I gave my talk at Tsinghua university and today worked at the NAOC. I think that the main reason that I like China so much is that I'm always half drunk ("he gaole"). At lunch a huge quantity of alcohol seems to be consumed, the student at Tsinghua then announced that he had a bottle of whisky in his office, then we had another dinner in the evening and consumed even more alcohol.

All the astronomers like Sha.

Sha, her parents and I also had a fun trip to Tianjin. It's wonderfully cold. All the rivers are ice! We watched people ice fishing in Tianjin and ate lots of food (including the Gobbly Boazi).

I got to drive a little bit! In fact Sha drove us all out into the countryside to sweep her Grandma's grave (her mother's mother). As Sha is incapable of doing a 3-point turn, I had the job of driving off up the mountainside to find a way of turning around! I enjoyed that!

I have also been introduced to her Grandma (on her father's side) and the rest of that side of the family. They're fun! We went to the restaurant where the wedding reception will be with the entire family. Err, Sha is a bit nervous of the food that the restaurant serves and is going to insist on a different menu for the wedding - the choice was from braised sea cucumber, donkey, intestine, crocodile and various other endangered creatures (later I discovered that I rather enjoy a bit of cow lung). Don't worry Dad, Sha has just told me that she's checked the menu for the wedding and "there is nothing strange". Also, the restaurant brews its own beer - the best that I've had in China.

We then went back to her grandma's house where we inspected her memorabilia of Chairman Mao and I had some vacuum flasks attached to my back ("for medicinal purposes") - my back still hasn't recovered.

Sha took me to visit the Beijing International Language Bookshop which is huge and I got a few books on Chinese history (which, I now discover, don't make any sense at all). Whilst I have been working for the last couple of days, Sha and her mother have been shopping. I think that we'll need to buy another suitcase!

(Sha is worried that all my writing is "too negative about China" and that I might give my dad a bad impression. hmmm ... China is great!)

The ordering of the photos on this page is completely random, but is a mix of Beijing and Tianjin.

I work again tomorrow and on Friday and then we're off to Shi Jia Zhuang for the weekend.

Some more random photos of WuZhen

2010-12-29T11:04:00.008+11:00

It seems to take a while for Sha to get up the morning. We're off to see the in-laws today! I doubt that I'll be able to update my blog whilst in Beijing and so ... here are a few more photos of Wuzhen.

I've been collecting some photos of "useful" things in China for people coming to our wedding ceremony - for instance, very exciting photos of plug sockets and useful signs. Any ideas for what would be useful?

(hmmm ... I've just noticed that a photo of Sha climbing the 山 in Hangzhou has found its way into this blog entry - the other photos are from Wuzhen)

Xian

2010-12-29T02:40:00.005+11:00

Another amazing day. Sha and I went to the National Time Service Centre in the morning. We were not allowed to see the clocks as they are apparently secret and have something to do with the Chinese GPS and their lunar landing mission.

I gave my talk on pulsar timing and using pulsars to create a time standard. As far as I know, Sha didn't fall asleep during the talk. We then all went out to have a traditional Xi'An lunch. It was great. We had to break some bread into a big bowl and then they filled it up with lamb soup. There were heaps of other side dishes. We also had to keep toasting each other and drinking down lots of extremely good, but very strong alcohol.

After staggering out of the restaurant we had a personalised tour of the Xi'An terracotta warriors. Wow. Seeing hundreds and hundreds of these life-size warriors standing ready to fight is a phenomenal experience. Each person has a different face and the details are incredible. Even the soles of the shoes are carefully reproduced. They must have represented real people of the qin dynasty. Apparently the emperor started the work when he was 13 and it finished when he died 40 or so years later. The museum was wonderful. Particularly as it was so clear that most of the warriors have not been unearthed. They haven't even considered opening the actual tomb of the emperor because they expect rivers of mercury and cross-bows ready to fire at anyone coming close!!

Xi'An is also beautiful. It is surrounded by some wonderful high mountains with spectacular temples on the top.

We then went back to work before having a few games of ping-pong and then going back to the hot-springs! Sha preferred the pool with small fish to the one with large fish :)

We're off to Beijing tomorrow, but I really hope to come back to Xi'An again sometime soon.

Six naked astronomers

2010-12-28T01:47:00.006+11:00

This is going to be hard to explain!! This morning Sha and I woke before sunrise to walk around Wuzhen in the peace and quiet. Now I'm writing up my blog in a very posh hotel whilst working my way through the fruit platter. Between the two, we've taken a taxi for hundreds of kilometres, been on the World's fastest train, unsuccessfully hunted for more suitable shoes for me, flown to Xi'An and then, ... err ... hmmm ... ending up with a pair of very tight trunks and a white dressing gown, walking along lantern lit corridors and relaxing in hot pools full of fish. Xiaopeng met me and said "We haven't met for one year, I didn't expect to meet you naked." Well!

The flight was great (although late). We saw a firework display from above! We arrived rather early at Shanghai airport, found somewhere to eat and then decided to find an excuse to take the maglev train. The excuse was to buy me some shoes that are actually suitable for sub-zero temperatures. The maglev is amazing! It reaches 430km/hr and takes just over five minutes to go 30km. Unfortunately it doesn't go anywhere useful. In fact, the place that it takes you to doesn't even have a shoe shop. So we got back on the next train and went back to the airport.

Damn ... the upload speed is basically zero here and so I don't seem to be able to attach any photos. I'll try and get one or two in.

Wuzhen part 2

2010-12-26T22:26:00.004+11:00

Well, I did seem to be able to post a blog entry and so I'll try again before I forget the great journey that we just had. We woke this morning to a beautiful, clear sunny day and went for a short walk around the West Lake in Hangzhou. Then we had a bit of a problem. We had to get somehow to Wuzhen, but the route was ridiculously complicated (involving apparently taxi, long-distance bus, bus and then motorbike). That sounded rather fun, but not so fun with two large suitcases. And so, we just hired a taxi. For the price of a trip from Sydney airport to Epping, the driver took us all the way to Wuzhen. It was a great drive through the countryside.

(I can't believe this. Sha has been eating non-stop since arriving in China and now she's working through the hickory nuts and dried beef ... "you can't get this in Sydney")

We had to pull our suitcases for a short walk at the end as cars are not allowed in Wuzhen. In fact, it would be hard to get a car in as you have to go by boat. We then found the house that we're staying in tonight and had the wonderful lunch (whilst watching the boats float pass - one of which was full of cormorants which are trained to catch fish for their owner). Every house has some meet drying outside the windows (Sha got excited by seeing some very dead ducks hanging outside one house).

We saw a buffalo!! :) I also walked across a rickety bamboo bridge! We ate a strange bread-like thing that was cooked on the inside of a huge pot. This really is a wonderful place!

Sha and I have just woken up at 5:30am to go for a quiet walk along the streets. It was very dark! After breakfast we're going to try and work out how to get from here to Xi'An.

Wuzhen

2010-12-26T22:00:00.005+11:00

Sha and I are in a wonderful room in an old house. We can hear the sound of the river flowing outside. It's beautiful. We're in Wuzhen in northern Zhejiang Province. The only way to get to the house was by boat! This place is so photogenic. Every corner that we walk around leads to another amazing view. And the food is so good! I think that lunch (of catfish from the river and fried prawns) cooked by the owner of the house was the best meal that I've had in China!

However, the internet is rather terrible. I'll try and post this now and, if it works, write some more details in the next post.

(Our house is in the second photo ... the one in the middle - our room is the one on the top floor!)

An amazing Christmas hike

2010-12-25T23:32:00.010+11:00

Merry Christmas everyone. Sha and I have just had a wonderful Christmas in Hangzhou. We even managed to throw some snow at each other! After "breakfast" at Sha's favourite restaurant, we headed off to "Hu Pao" (tiger running). It's amazing!! Hu Pao is a wonderful park on the mountainside where Longjin tea is grown. The tea, which we tried in a small tea-shop on the mountain, is made in water from the local well. Apparently the water "is very dense". They proved this by making a coin float on the water.

We then went to see some huge bamboo and a stone engraving of a monk dreaming of tigers.

Oh gosh, Sha is listening to Beijing opera on the TV.

I discovered today that the 500 buddhas we saw yesterday were actually Arhats (we saw another 500 today!). ----just not professional translate though, if in chinese, I definitely can explain very well!!!!!!---Sha.

We saw a wonderful sign: "Visit aprj incvilzation flrbld climbing". It makes sense, but how did they manage to get that translation?

We then went on our wonderful hike up to the top of the mountain. This involved thousands and thousands of steps, some snow and spectacular views of the tea plants! It was beautiful. It was wonderful! We met a very friendly man at the top who gave us some of his tea (from Yunnan), told us a bit about the area and gave us two oranges.

Then we continued on our way. The whole walk took about four hours. Did I mention that it was wonderful? We saw and heard lots of different types of birds. The most amazing thing about the hike is that we walked for ages without seeing anyone else ... that's rare in China!

In the evening we queued for an hour or so to eat at "Grandma's". We ate heaps of traditional food from the area including Xi Hu Cu Yu - a fish from the West Lake cooked in something nice. We also ate half a bamboo forest.

An amazing Christmas!

(BTW ... the photos are in no order as Sha is trying to grab my computer to skype her mum)

Shanghai to Hangzhou

2010-12-24T22:45:00.011+11:00

Why do the Chinese paint the bottom of their trees white? Also why do the Chinese have so many stone lions everywhere when no lions have ever lived in China? Why do all the Buddhist statues look similar to Hindu statues? I think that have decided that I don't understand China at all. However, I successfully asked for "another bottle of beer, please" and so I'm very happy this evening.

Sha is currently watching Chinese TV and eating her way through most of the fruit department at the local supermarket. Apparently the pears that she is now eating are from the Sichuan province. The apples that we just had were from Xanxi province. I'm a bit nervous about what she'll pull out of the shopping bag next. There were large, alive bull frogs sitting in a big bucket.

This morning we checked out of our fancy hotel in Shanghai. I wasn't going to write too much about crazy Chinese signs today, but a sign in the lift in the hotel clearly stated "The right way is to hold one of the hall buttons which is the same direction, up or down, with the running car, or hold Open button in car operation panel. Never allow those who are unable to take the civil responsibility for their behaviours to ride elevators." We took the shuttle bus to the railway station. The train to Hangzhou was spectacular. It only took 50 minutes (and that included one stop). We travelled most of the way at around 350km/hr! The views were great, but odd. The new houses were all trying to follow a European style, but, for some reason, they looked very strange in amongst the Chinese farms.

Immediately after checking-in to our hotel, Sha went bounding out to her favourite restaurant. She had been talking about the duck soup for ages (and how they don't put too many necks in it) and, yes, it was good! We also had amazing xiaolongbao, chicken feet and porridge.

We then went to the Lingyin temple. A Buddhist temple that Sha always goes to when back in China. This temple was built in 326 AD and is one of the ten largest Zen Buddhist temples in China. I have no idea how to describe this visit except to say that it was an incredible experience. Sha burnt lots of incense, said her prayers and gave me a wonderful tour of all the different parts of the temple. I wasn't allowed to take photos within the temple, but the statues were simply phenomenal (and huge). One enormous building contained 500 buddhas, all with different expressions. I didn't really know what to expect in a Buddhist temple, but I certainly didn't expect a basket-ball court!

The scenery just outside of the temple was spectacular. I rather stupidly ran to the top of a mountain whilst Sha waited below. We then inspected the huge rock carvings that were everywhere (including within some dark caves).

We took a bus back into the city and then walked around the lake as it started to get dark. It's a beautiful city!!

Oh, and according to wikipedia "Asiatic lions" were once common in present day Northern India and are believed to be the ones depicted by the stone lions seen everywhere in China!

The instructions in our current hotel tells me that I must not "circulate salacious books".

Back in China

2010-12-24T00:20:00.002+11:00

"In case of loss or misplace your personal article, our housekeeping associates will provide assistance in tracing". I'm back in China. With a wife. We've just had a wonderful day-time flight across outback Australia and across Indonesia. We then had a very long taxi ride half way around Shanghai to get to our enormous 5-star hotel (which Ding booked for us)!!! The taxi kept swapping between the lane stating "Light Heavy Vehicles Only" and the one stating "Heavy Light Vehicles Only".

Shanghai is impressive. It's full of skyscrapers. I've no idea where we went, but it seemed that there were a huge number of new buildings since the last time I was here. We just went for a short walk around to find something to eat and ended up in a tiny house where the child was watching TV and the dad cooked for us. I have no idea what we ate, but it involved lots of eggs from a basket that I was sitting next to.

It's cold. Snow is predicted for tomorrow. We're heading out on the super-fast train tomorrow for Huangzhou.

Married

2010-12-14T20:25:00.006+11:00

A few days ago the adverts on my facebook page were all about "wedding photographers" and "honey-moon holidays". Now they've all switched to statements like "Become qualified in Occupational Health and Safety" and "Free premium haircut".

I'm married. Having married a princess I'm now in line to become the Chinese emperor!

We had a lovely, small wedding. It only took 15 minutes (although, admittedly, I arrived about 3 hours early). We had nine guests.

The organisation involved buying lots of small red bags and filling them with Chinese sweets. Then we arranged all the packets into a big heart shape. Then we bought a bed from IKEA. Three weeks later and with the help of three people the bed was finally built. I think that it would, if necessary, support a couple of elephants without much problem. Then we turned up at the registry office. Met a very scary-looking guy with long hair who was the registrar, agreed that we were above the age of 18 (for some reason Dick, who was our witness, did not need to prove that he was older - he was annoyed about that) and that we were not in a prohibited relationship, worked out how to pronounce "solemnly" (we all acted as somberly as possible), signed the certificate and ... that was all! We then all had a photo, Sha changed back into her shorts and then we went down the pub. Then we had a huge and spectacular szechuan dinner!!

I like dodgy Chinese delivery men

2010-11-21T18:52:00.007+11:00

I really should re-phrase that title, but it's basically true. This time yesterday I was sitting in the front of a large truck trying to speak in Chinlish with a delivery man who had wanted to hide Sha under a tarpaulin in the back of the truck. Sha and I had gone to IKEA - The World's Most Unromantic Store - to buy a bed. What a surprise, the bed that we had chosen was not in stock. So we went and watched Harry Potter instead. After the film, Sha with her rather impressive sixth sense (or with some magic that she'd picked up from the film) decided that the bed did exist and went storming back into IKEA. It then turned out that they had plenty in stock!

So we bought the bed. When I returned from checking that we had all the bits, I discovered that Sha had found the dodgy Chinese delivery guy and they had struck a deal. He'd drive me home and carry all the bits into the house. Very efficient!

Today, my sixth sense didn't work so well. We had taken the train to a station close to the Olympic Park and I confidently convinced Sha that I knew the direction. I didn't. Amazingly we ended up at IKEA again (after about a 30 minute walk in the heat). We finally found the park and rented a tandem. That was fun!! We went hurtling around the mangroves, dodged the pelicans and got very hot.

I'm now cooking Sha her first Yorkshire Puddings.

Oh, we've signed up to get married in Sydney. 23 days to go! The ceremony will be next year in China. I hope that everyone is coming!

Apparently I have to add that we cut Tuan Tuan and Baozi's nails this morning. I have a huge guinea-pig induced scar on my arm.

Day 4: in Wellington and back to Sydney

2010-11-03T21:29:00.003+11:00

I've just bought a book "Make the most of your time on Earth". It is full of exciting and adventurous things to do around the World. It dedicates an entire page to Wellington's Te Papa, the museum of New Zealand. Luckily Sha and I visited Te Papa on our final day and we're so glad that we did. It's an amazing museum. It even has a sheep simulator where you get to be a sheep for as long as you like. I ate some grass. The museum is wonderfully set out. You don't know what you'll find around the next corner. Maybe a life-size whale heart, maybe the only giant squid on display anywhere in the World, a huge canoe or maybe a building that shakes as if you're experiencing an Earthquake ... In fact they had a huge earthquake exhibition on and were handing out bags and checklists so that you'd know what to do in an Earthquake. Unfortunately a lot of the visitors seemed to be from Christchurch. I heard one complaining that he'd come all the way to Wellington to get away from Earthquakes and they put a "damn exhibition on".

After a Malaysian lunch we took a taxi back to the airport (which apart from the ridiculous $25 departure charge per person) was fine. Then we flew back to Sydney on Air New Zealand. What an airline!! Phenomenal food and service and the funniest safety video that I've ever seen. We didn't get the nude air hostess safety video, but instead got the All Blacks version (do watch this link)!

Finally we got home and recovered the guinea pigs. Sarah had given them a hair cut. We also discovered the huge mangoes that are now everywhere in Sydney!

Day 3: Rotorua to Wellington

2010-10-30T19:57:00.005+11:00

Sha looked so hungry the next morning that the hotel staff provided us with a free cooked breakfast each. Sha is currently creating her first halloween pumpkin. It seems to be a very serious undertaking.

After ambling around the Rotorua market for a while we drove off towards the airport. Rotorua airport is not very large. We got rid of our car, checked in and sat around until our small plane arrived.

The views were spectacular. We flew over Lake Taupo and then past the huge volcanoes. It was perfectly clear. The landing in Wellington was also amazing. Unfortunately there was another rugby match on. We hadn't known about this and the taxi driver was a little aghast that we hadn't booked a hotel. Anyway, he dropped us in a seedy area of the town thinking that we may be able to find a room. We didn't, but one the people in one hotel knew of another hotel on the other side of the town that did have a room. We then pulled our case across the town (which luckily is not very large) and got checked in.

After lunch we headed to the cable car and up the hill. We visited a reserve where there were kiwis (but we didn't see any) and then we walked across to the Carter observatory and watched a planetarium show. In the evening, Sha went with me to a pub to watch the New Zealand/England game, but England was losing so badly that it wasn't so much fun!

This isn't the World's greatest blog entry, but I'm being stared at by a huge, grinning pumpkin. It's a bit distracting.

Second part of day 2: lots of animals

2010-10-29T19:52:00.006+11:00

We drove into Rotorua, found another Japanese restaurant for lunch and then discovered the Paradise Valley Springs Wildlife Park (which sounded rather promising after seeing the devil's bath etc.). It was great! We got to stroke the baby lion (but not her brother who was apparently now a little large to pat). We saw the huge trout and eels. Went on the "tree-tops walkway" and found a very huge pig. It was great. err ... hmmm ... Sha discovered that the lion had sharp teeth and claws!! We also got to watch the large lions being fed bits of horse. We had to stand back so that we didn't get splattered with blood.

Finally we went back into the city, found a hotel, had dinner in the "Pig and Whistle" and then went for a walk around part of the lake while the moon came up. It was beautiful!!

First part of Day 2: Wai-O -Tapu

2010-10-27T21:14:00.006+11:00

Arghh. I'm sleepy. I've been trying to find out where the Earth is for the last two days and have almost succeeded. Sha has got her Australian PR!! Well done Sha. I've been trying to work out whether she now needs a visa to go to New Zealand. According to the official website you don't need a visa if you are a permanent resident of Australia or .... personnel at the "Black Birch Astrometric Observatory" or .... a member of "Operation Deep Freeze". This was rather intriguing. The only websites that I can find about the observatory says that it closed ages ago. However, there is a pdf that I found that says that the observatory is operated by the US Naval Observatory for US stategic and nuclear weapon systems. However, the head of the US apparently says that it is an innocent scientific endeavour!! However even that pdf says that it closed in 1991.

"Operation deep freeze" is easier to find. It even has a wikipedia page. Apparently it's the code name for a series of US operations in Antarctica.

Anyway, Sha can come into New Zealand without getting another visa!! At the start of day 2 in New Zealand, we woke early and drove North toward Rotorua. We stopped at Wai-O-Tapu which is a place that I've been wanted to visit for ages. It's so beautiful. We arrived just before the geyser erupted. It erupts every day at 10:30am and I had spent most of the car ride trying to work out how it knew about the clocks changing to summer time. The answer is that a chap turns up and throws a bar of soap into the funnel. Then it erupts. Actually he was very insistent that it wasn't soap, but something much more eco-friendly. It was very impressive and we got covered in hot, steamy, soapy water. The water went up 20m or so and lasted an hour.

Then we went to find the bubbling mud pools. Wow!! That was my favourite bit, but Sha made rude comments about the view and the smell and didn't take many photos. It was dramatic! Finally we went around the park on a stunning walk (that lasted an hour or so). The views were incredible. There were different colours in the rocks, water, steam everywhere you looked. Amazingly there was some wading birds that lived in the steaming water. I stuck my finger into a pool and I can confirm that the water is very close to 100C.

I'd better stop. I have to give a 45 minute talk at Sydney Uni tomorrow and I haven't started it yet.

Day 1 in New Zealand: to Taupo on the old road

2010-10-25T19:21:00.006+11:00

Life's motto according to the restaurant that we found in Taupo: "Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely ..., but rather to skid in sideways, no money left, cigar in one hand, favourite beer in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out ...." This was in a Japanese restaurant serving sushi and diet coke.

We had two choices for getting to Taupo. We could follow the main motorway which would have taken an hour or two, or we could follow our GPS. Our GPS was set to "annoying Australian female" with country accent set to max and so we followed her advice. Unfortunately, the roads on the ground and the roads on the map didn't totally agree, but we had fun trying to work out where we were. Sha fell in love with the pink trees. We saw lots of cows and sheep. Our little car needed some help getting up a few of the hills. We drove through Whakamaru. I know this because I asked Sha to take a photo of the road sign so we could try and work out where we were from a normal map. The road sign has a big fish on it. It rained and then was sunny and then rained heavily and then was windy and then was sunny. The mountains got bigger. Sha started to sing Chinese folk songs. There was no restaurant for lunch. Finally we pulled into Taupo and found our Japanese restaurant.

Taupo is on Lake Taupo which is the largest lake in New Zealand. It's huge! It lies in a caldera which formed from the eruption of the volcano that's at the other end of the lake and covered in snow. Apparently the volcano erupts every 1000 years or so.

After lunch and the discovery of New Zealand raspberries we headed off toward the Craters of the Moon. This is an impressive geothermal area full of steam coming through the rocks, bubbling mud and strange vegetation including "Prostrate Kanuka". Apparently the fumes were poisonous and ground temperatures can reach "dangerous levels".

We headed back past the Huka falls and found a little motel on the edge of the Taupo lake.

To hell on Pacific Blue

2010-10-24T19:50:00.005+11:00

We've seen the devil's ink pots, his cave, his bath. We've seen bubbling mud pits, fuming fumaroles, steam rising from the ground. We've smelt the sulphur. We've peered down into volcanic craters and crossed raging torrents. Sha got attacked by wild beasts. We've seen the ghouls get on the train, seen a life-size heart that you could crawl into and stared at monsters of the deep.

What better way to go to hell than on Pacific Blue. Sha and I met at the airport two and a half hours before our departure with the aim to check-in, have some dinner and then amble around the airport for a while. The check-in queue already had about 20 people in it, but that didn't seem too long. We discounted the Pacific Blue check-in efficiency. Two hours later we got served. There was no time for food, we ran across the airport, got stuck in another stupidly long line at customs, found that the gate was at the other end of the airport and kept running. Announcements were being made warning that all of us late customers would be offloaded from the flight. We rushed onto the plane where they made us wait for about 30 minutes whilst blasting us with the most annoying pop music. Then we had to buy our food (a beer + nuts for 20 dollars!). Then they played more annoying music whilst we circled around Auckland (which would have been a spectacular view if they'd turned the awful music off) with Sha commenting on the personal hygiene of the person sitting next to her (not me, I hasten to add). Then we landed and it got worse. Oh, my credit card had been cancelled for 24 hours as I'd forgotten my PIN and as we rushed across the Australian airport we had had no time to change any money.

I'll try and be nice about Auckland airport. Perhaps, everyone was off sick apart from the two people who were manning the desks. Also, it's possible that every flight for the last week had been delayed and they all arrived at the same time as us. It took from midnight to 2am to get out the airport!

Then we rented a car and luckily didn't use our GPS to find the hotel. We discovered the next day that our GPS didn't really know the roads in New Zealand. It thought it did. We paid extra for the New Zealand maps, but it only seemed to know roads built in around 1940 or earlier (roads with names like "Old Taupo Road").

Anyway, we found our hotel and fell fast asleep. The next day saw the start of a really amazing and wonderful holiday! ....

Turkey on the front door step

2010-10-18T21:01:00.002+11:00

We have a turkey at the front door. It was very interested in Sha's shoes.

We went to the beach yesterday!!!!

Enjoying Paris, but not enjoying the raw beef

2010-09-20T04:41:00.006+10:00

I've had some fun taking photos of Paris today, but seem to have left the cable to copy them to my computer at home (the photos here were taken off the web).

I'm staying in a great hotel. The room is completely yellow. The information brochure tells me that "the chambermainds will enjoy when you leave the message outside of your door". I have no idea what message I should leave ... the only one provided says "Do not disturb". It's a bit dark. There's only one power socket and so it was either the light or my computer.

This is a bit different to last night when I stayed in a "posh hotel". The hotel had an indoor zen garden. What idiot decided to put an indoor zen garden ("for peaceful meditation") in an airport hotel and put the rooms on the other side of it? Dragging a huge case across the stones, making a huge noise, is not overly conducive to relaxation! You could tell that the hotel was posh because the box of tissues was inlaid in a silver box in the wall. It wasn't very practical.

I had an enjoyable flight to Paris. The person sitting next to me (a big African chap) was being deported from England. He wasn't very happy. His documents basically told him to get out of the country. The French police took him away when we arrived. The rest of us got stuck in a huge queue.

Of course, the trains weren't running and so I took a bus to the Gare de Lyon. I then had a lovely walk along the Seine and then to the South to get to my hotel next to the Jardin de Luxembourg. I dumped my bags and then decided to complete walking across Paris from East to West and so walked across to Montparnasse where I ate some raw beef with a dog (the dog seemed to enjoy it more than me) and some wine. I continued down the Boulevard Garibaldi and ended up at the Statue of Liberty! The statue is on a great little island. I then walked up to the Eiffel tower and then back to the hotel.

The registration for the conference took place at the Paris Observatory. So I walked there as well and then decided to explore without a map. I got completely lost. I went past the impressive Pantheon, saw where Pasteur carried out his experiments, past the Sorbonne and then (I have no idea how) seemed to end up at "les gobelins". All the pizza restaurants were closed. All the Japanese restaurants were open. However, after another long walk, I did find a small cafe serving huge pizzas (the "Big Snails from the dordogne" were off) and lots of beer.

I'd like to live in Paris!! :)

I really should write something ...

2010-09-18T04:46:00.004+10:00

I really should write something here. I'm engaged!! :) I'm also in Wales. I've just had Fish 'n' chips with Old Speckled Hen. I should be learning Chinese. Or working. Instead I keep flying the flight sim that Sha bought me!! :)

I haven't written in this blog for ages. Sha and I bought a ring. It's very shiny. We watched an old man build it. He took over an hour and had a bottle of whiskey under his table. We had two engagement parties.

I'm worried that the pope seems to be following me around the World although admittedly he's refused to visit such heathen people as the Welsh.

I'm missing Sha, baozi and tuan tuan. Grandma and I went for a walk today and found lots of blackberry bushes. Faith and Mel have made the most amazing honey (although I'm worried that Faith seems fond of introduced weeds now!) I'm off to London tomorrow ....

Anniversary, voting, Chinese medicine and dumplings

2010-08-21T19:19:00.009+10:00

I've just been to see a Chinese doctor. He was about 200 years old and checked my pulse and my tongue. Apparently I'm okay. However, he is an expert on excema and so took a good look at my hands and prescribed a remedy. Walking around the dispensary afterward and noting the "deer penis" and the "Tibetan Rhubarb Tea for Hemmorrhoids", I was a tad nervous about what was in the prescription, but Sha has just translated the ingredients as: nosed pit viper grass, cyathula, plantain, manyflower glorybower, salvia, escallonia 'red dream', virgin: radix rehmanniae, phellodendron amurense, Kam tree, Health Gardenia, Dictamni and Rhizoma Imeratae. So that's all right then!

I've just discovered from a 17th Century astrologer a whole heap of interesting facts about plantain: ""The clarified juice drank for a few days helps excoriations or pains in the bowels, and distillations, of rheum from the head. It stays all manner of fluxes, even women's courses, when too abundant, and staunches the too free bleeding of wounds.
The seed is profitable against dropsey, falling-sickness, yellow jaundice and stoppings of the liver and reins."

Unfortunately searching for "nosed pit viper grass" just gives me photos of snakes.

Anyway, I haven't drunk this stuff yet. We had to walk around the City for a few hours while they prepared it. Apparently I have a weeks worth of medicine and have to drink it twice a day starting after dinner tonight.

I also voted today. Very exciting. Australian voting is, unlike places like Britain and Canada, actually fair. First, voting is compulsory so I had to wait in a long queue before I could cast my vote and second, it is based on a preferential system where you rank all the candidates. I discovered that ranking the Australian Sex Party, Communist Alliance, The Climate Sceptics and the Christian democratic party was actually really hard. Worryingly, the Australian Sex Party ended up reasonably high up on the list. A magnificent summary of the election from the Taiwanese News Service is on youtube here!!

Sha and I had an anniversary last weekend!! We've been together for one year. It seems as if a lot has happened since I met Sha in Beijing!! :) Sha was incredibly generous and bought me a posh pulsar watch. Apparently it is traditional to "give the time" to someone on their anniversary. We then went and had dinner in the revolving restaurant at the top of the huge Sydney tower. The views were spectacular. After dinner we "accidentally" got lost and found ourselves in the movie theatre where we had an immersive experience in which our chairs bounced around as we virtually flew across the Australian landscapes. Very impressive, but probably would have been better before all the food!

I also went to Perth for a few days. PULSE@Parkes went really well and Rob and I managed to get some work done between discovering the various pubs and restaurants.

Time to eat some dumplings!

Day 4 in New Zealand

2010-08-15T17:58:00.005+10:00

我有一个未婚妻!! 很好! 我的未婚妻叫莎莎

On the fourth day of our holiday we drove out to find the Christchurch gondola. After stopping in a small French cafe for breakfast and after getting a little lost we managed to find the gondola. I promised not to make it swing from side to side and up we went! The gondola rises 500m above sea level and provides spectacular views of the ocean, Christchurch and the Southern Alps. It took us to a ridge of a crater produced by a huge volcanic eruption. The volcano is now extinct.

We then went for a short walk in the ice around the rim of the crater.

After a "time travel experience" and a coffee we headed back down and then unfortunately had to drive back to the airport. We got lost.

The flight back was as spectacular as ever. We had a perfectly clear view as we flew over the mountains and then it got extremely bumpy. I'm glad to report that Sha wasn't sick, but it was very close!

What a holiday!! :)

Day 3 in New Zealand: Sha's birthday

2010-08-14T20:55:00.009+10:00

Hey ... I'm engaged. I've now been with Sha for exactly 1 year!! We celebrated today by having a house inspection for termites and then having dinner in the revolving restaurant on the top of the Sydney tower.

Day 3 in New Zealand was Sha's birthday! She's now approximately 22 years old (as she has been for a few birthdays now). We set out early in the morning to try and find some breakfast in Westport. We did. The bacon was about the size of a gammon steak. Feeling rather full we headed off to try and find the ocean. This shouldn't have been too hard as Westport is a port on the sea, but Sha was navigating and so we got lost. We ended up on a quiet dirt road which allowed Sha to have a go driving until we stopped next to a field to have a photograph with a large dog called Yeti ("because he has 7 toes").

Finally we found the ocean and drove down to the end of the pier. After a rather nerve wracking 100-point turn to face the other direction we headed back toward the mountains. We hoped that the Lewis Pass through the mountains would be open!

The drive started through the Buller Gorge: "Scene of earthquakes, floods and home to hundreds of transient workers during goldmining times, the gorge has been a challenge to horsemen, coach drivers, roadmakers and bridge builders". It's certainly fun to drive along!

Then we started getting back into the high snow-capped mountains. But the road was clear! Although it did start snowing for a little while.

After a very long drive through the mountains and with the weather starting to look rather dramatic we pulled up in Hamner Springs for lunch. Another hour or so of driving got us to the other side of the country and we ran onto a beach on the Pacific coast!! Then we got completely lost in the one-way streets in Christchurch. We ended up by accident at a hotel and found that we couldn't do a U-turn and so simply stayed there for the night. It was a great hotel!! We were on the 23rd floor and had a huge window sill which we sat on eating Sha's birthday cake and watching the great views!

Day 2 in New Zealand: up the coast

2010-08-13T18:38:00.008+10:00

Did I mention that I was engaged? Engaged to 莎莎. I got very upset last night. I was trying to say the word "coin" in Chinese. Apparently it is yingbi which seems to be completely impossible to say.

After getting off the train in Greymouth, eating our huge lunch and discovering that the road back to Christchurch was blocked with snow we started driving north. Wow, that was a spectacular coast line! I had just asked Sha to find me a seal when she spotted a baby one bounding across the sand into the sea. We didn't travel very fast as we seemed to stop after each corner to jump out of the car to get a better view of the scenery. It wasn't possible to get a good view whilst driving as I was concentrating on the rather windy road (which happens to be the only road on the West Coast of the South Island).

We stopped at Punakaiki to see the pancake rocks! According to wikipedia the "Pancake Rocks are a heavily eroded limestone area where the sea bursts though a number of vertical blowholes during high tides. Together with the 'pancake'-layering of the limestone (created by immense pressure on alternating hard and soft layers of marine creatures and plant sediments)". We also saw lots of Nikau Palms which are "the most southern naturally growing palm in the world".

We continued North, past signs warning us of penguins, wekas and deer. We saw lots of deers, a few wekas and no penguins. However, we did come across a huge seal colony. It smelt of fish. There were young seals frolicking in a small rock pool and the adult seals sitting around looking very relaxed.

In the evening we arrived in Westport. There's not much in Westport. We found a great motel (the Spa Motel) which provided a huge spa in the room and then went out to explore the town. We found some strange fruit in the supermarket and bought Sha a candle for her birthday. Finally we ended up in the Denniston Dog which was obviously proud of the local mining community. All the photos on the wall were of huge diggers (Alexander would have loved it).

Day 2 in New Zealand: The Train to Greymouth

2010-08-12T20:50:00.006+10:00

Did I mention that I'm engaged? Engaged to Sha Sha!! :) We woke very early on the second day of our holiday (ridiculously early given the time difference between Sydney and Christchurch). It was raining hard. We checked out of the hotel, gave Gary a final stroke and jumped into a taxi to the train station. We got on the TranzAlpine which goes from Christchurch on the Pacific ocean to Greymouth on the Tasman. Between the two towns the train crosses the spectacular Southern Alps and then through the rain forest. It's wonderful. The rain stopped somewhere high in the mountains and we went through some patches of snow. However, the sky suddenly cleared and we had incredible views of the snow covered mountains. (We discovered later that a huge snow storm was following us which completely blocked the roads.)

The guard on the train provided a running commentary. He had been working on the New Zealand trains for the last 40 years or so and was sad to see the end of the steam locomotives. Apparently they had a job getting up the mountains, but the diesel trains are even worse because they overheat in the tunnels.

On arrival in Greymouth we picked up the keys for our hire car, discovered that all the roads were under thick snow and so went to have a huge lunch in the local pub. In the afternoon we drove North along the coast trying to find a way back through the mountains!

Proposing to Sha

2010-08-11T20:19:00.011+10:00

I'm engaged!! Engaged to be married!! Engaged to 莎莎. It all happened in New Zealand. I got to the airport about 6 hours early and sat around waiting for Sha, wondering what to do and trying to decide whether she'd say yes or no.

Oh dear. I've just said wo ai Sha Sha to her mum and she didn't understand me at all. I think that I'd better go to another Chinese lesson.

Anyway, Sha finally turned up at the airport and we checked in, had a huge Chinese meal at the airport and then headed off to Christchurch. We landed at 1am and found our way to the hotel on the edge of the botanical gardens. The hotel had a cat called Gary.

In the morning we went for a walk through the gardens. I spent the entire time trying to find a suitable place to propose. I steered Sha to the bonsai garden, but it wasn't very good. I then tried to steer Sha towards a huge beautiful tree, but Sha demanded to see a kiwi. In the end we were walking down the river when I finally found the courage to propose. A huge duck ambled up to watch and quack at us. Sha said "yes"!! :) I had planned a long, detailed speech, but I forgot it all.

Previously I'd asked a Chinese colleague at work for details on how to propose to a Chinese girl, but he wasn't very helpful. He said that he'd ask his mum ... but he didn't.

We then went to see the kiwis which happen to be in the aquarium with some huge rays. The rest of the day seems to be a bit of a blur. I recall drinking a lot of tea and not understanding the Kiwi accent at all (want a lud with your tea and fush un chups?) They seem to swap all the vowels around. We spent the rest of the day walking around the city and had a great dinner at a Beijing restaurant!

Oh yes, the big rugby game between Australia and New Zealand was on in Christchurch. Sha demanded that we watch it on the TV, but she only really wanted to see the haka at the start. New Zealand won.

More on the rest of the holiday tomorrow, but it involved wonderful scenic views of snowy mountains, driving down windy roads, huge eagles flying around us, having spectacular views of the Pacific, seeing baby seals, some extremely great food and making friends with a weka!! :)

A challenge

2010-07-19T20:35:00.004+10:00

I decided this morning that I'd cook Sha a traditional Chinese dish. Rather stupidly I chose Luóhàn zhāi. This is a dish that calls for a huge number of ingredients although 18 is traditional to represent the 18 Buddhas. I managed only six ingredients :(

So ... a challenge. Can anyone do better? A complete list of the required ingredients is available here. Instead of starting the cooking (by wetting the wood ear) I spent a happy 30 minutes trying work out what Red jujubes are and whether I had any or not. At the end I discovered that I'd have to go looking for a prickly tree in Pakistan and so decided it was unlikely that the local supermarket would stock it.

The instructions that I found also lead to interesting problems. "Cut the tofu into cubes" ... okay, that's straightforward. "Lightly brown the tofu pieces on both sides". err.

Whilst we were eating we chatted with Sha's mum in Beijing and Sha has given my attempt at cooking 9.5/10 so I'm very happy!! :)

Yesterday afternoon we went to watch the new version of the Karate Kid at the cinema. It was fun. Much of the filming was from Sha's local area in Beijing and I kept having to stop her becoming too enthusiastic as the camera panned around. It was fun to see various roads etc. that we'd walked down together!!

This blog entry is all about food. I have to record the wonderful pork in preserved vegetables that Sha cooked last night!!!

A fun day

2010-07-10T18:47:00.004+10:00

Sha and I bought tickets to New Zealand today. We just have to hope that we can get a VISA for her in time! We're going to see some snowy mountains!

We had fun around China town and the botanical gardens today. Sha got attacked by a da bei niao. I was crazy enough to buy the Journey to the West which comes in three huge volumes. This book was apparently first published in the 1590s (during the Ming dynasty).

Last night was interesting. I sat on a small Dash-8 in front of two huge, tough military guys. They spent the entire flight discussing the best way to shoot people. I listened in to their conversation on the best way to shoot people going up a hill, down a hill, standing still, running fast etc. etc. Apparently the US military is full of rednecks who don't know what they're doing, but the British are very good. They discussed the best ways to practice being a sniper, which seemed to entail shooting zombies on some computer game. I then had to help them find the gate for their next flight :)

Being with 莎莎

2010-07-04T16:30:00.005+10:00

莎莎 was very sweet this morning. She woke up and chatted to me for ages in Chinese before realising that I didn't have a clue what she was talking about. We then sat outside on the side of the road with two guinea pigs on our lap getting funny looks from the people passing by. We're about to eat preserved bean curd, something that involves setting up the steamers in an incredible tower and some unidentifiable bit of preserved pork. Tonight it is likely that I'll continue to boil my feet in Sichuan pepper and rub some ginger on my head. I feel as if my life has changed a bit -- in a wonderful direction!

I've just bought a book on Chinese wildlife. All Chinese wildlife books seem to imply that the best place to see the animals of China is in the supermarket, Chinese medicine shop or in a restaurant! However, 莎 is going to take me to see the snub-nosed monkeys in Sichuan and the bamboo forests of Anhui.

I'm so jealous. 莎's cousin, 璐, drove to Sichuan and met two baby snow leopards crossing the road!

We've just been watching a Chinese "edition" of the Japanese animation Howl's moving castle. It was a tad confusing. Here are the English "subtitles" given near the start of the movie when a young girl is being accosted by some soldiers:

Okay, you get the kits. We'll make some noise You're a son of a bitch. You know that? Let's go (child crying) (speaks Serbo-Croatian) Come on. come on. I won't hurt you Come on. hurry. Let's move Let's go. Get them out of here. Come on, let's go (girl whining) Hey! Hey! Drop her! Drop her! Get in the truck! Let me go!

This didn't make much sense given the action (I love the "speaks Serbo-Croatian bit") and, as I was feeling a bit lost in the movie, we went out and bought a non-Chinese version of the DVD.

In our new "legal" version, the exact same part of the movie has been translated as:

gasps Hey. Looks like a little mouse lost its way Oh, no, I'm not lost. This little mouse looks thirsty. We should take her for a cup of tea No thanks, my sister's expecting me She's pretty cute for a mouse How old are you? You live around here? Leave me alone. You see? Your moustache scares all the girls. So? She's even cuter when she's scared

I need to stop now to stop the guinea pigs attacking the crocodile!

我爱莎莎

------
Sha Sha must stand out to prove something, the reason why we use the pepper water to sink jiaozi,s feet is that he got excema, and apparelly this traditional method helps him a lot then we decided to gp ahead! another thing, I have to mention here is that the ginger thing, according traditional method ginger can help bald people grow hair, and all the medicine you can buy from market to cure the problem must contain ginger. Due to economic problem and the organic preference, we decided to put it on jiaozi's head straightway, it got GREAT result, he is more confident in front of the mirror!

A hike in the local area

2010-06-27T20:31:00.006+10:00

We (Sha, Yu Meng, Jonathan, Mike and I) went hiking in the Lane Cove park today. The weather was perfect. It was a wonderful, clear, crisp day. We simply walked to Epping (and unfortunately, Mel and Faith, didn't spot any echidnas), but we did see the whale rock and a huge number of cockatoos. I got wet carrying Sha across a stream. We then enjoyed teasing Jonathan at lunch as we have a bet (for $20) - he has to eat only vegetarian food for two weeks.

The evening Yu Meng came around to our house and Sha and I cooked a Chinese dish each. Yu Meng then beat me at Chinese chess :(

Seeing the Du Gongs and an impossible challenge

2010-06-25T08:27:00.004+10:00

I had a day off yesterday. I have another day off today. Yesterday, I woke up late and then headed into the city. I played around with the cockatoos in the botanical gardens and then spent much of the rest of the day staring at the dugongs in the aquarium. In the evening Sha and I met up for the largest Korean hotpot that I've ever seen. It seemed to be never-ending, but it was very good. We also ate rice balls.

I've also been given an impossible challenge by Sha ... to teach her to like and understand Classical Western music. Okay ... there's a good challenge. Any ideas? We started off with Cage's 4'33'' which I've only just realised was inspired by Buddhism. I've been listening a bit to some traditional Chinese music and can't understand it at all.

My final paper from my PhD work was published today in Science!!

Becoming an Aussie

2010-06-23T19:27:00.005+10:00

I am now officially an Aussie. I have a certificate to prove it. The minister has given notice that the abovenamed is an Australia citizen! I also have a daisy. Well, actually some seeds that I have to grow myself. The box containing the seeds provides me with some words that I may wish to say every-now-and-then: "As an Australian citizen, I affirm my loyalty to Australia and its people, whose democratic beliefs I share, whose rights and liberties I respect, and whose laws I uphold and obey." It also tells me to add water to pellet to allow it to expand and to keep moist until my daisy is starting to sprout.

The ceremony was in Blacktown, which is a long way away, and Sha and I had to leave very early whilst lugging the entire Sydney street atlas with us in case we got lost. I wore a tie. Sha and I were not allowed to sit together. I had to sit on the front row on the left hand side of the hall. Sha had to sit at the back. We then sat for about an hour whilst the hall filled up, but nothing much else happened. "Luckily" we got to hear some inspiring country music: "twang, twang, oh, there's nothing better than a billy of tea ....". We then had a complete rendition of the Man from Snowy River about the man dodging the wombat holes as he comes down the mountain on his horse.

Finally, the ceremony started. It took about 10 minutes. First all the people with a red dot on their pledge card had to stand up. Out of the ~500 people in the room about 450 people got up. These were the people wishing to use the word "God" in their pledge. The few of us sitting at the front, left corner of the room had yellow dots on our pledge cards and were frowned upon. Finally, our corner of the room got to stand up, plus one poor man who was obviously sitting in the wrong spot and was surrounded by people that probably spent the rest of the ceremony trying to save his soul. We then all sang the national anthem and then it was all over!!

Sha and I celebrated by checking out the pet shop and then going into the city for some Japanese noodles. We also checked up on her permanent visa application. Finally, we went to Burwood for some amazing Sichuan hotpot. Oh, we bought a tiny laptop which Sha is trying to install at the moment.

Sha has told me that I have to say how happy I am to be an Australian because it will make mum pleased! So, I'm very happy to be an Australian!! Although I don't think that I'll support our(!) football team.

Oh, when we were checking issues with Sha's visa I got to say that I was an Australian citizen! I was very proud. I didn't mention that I wasn't a few hours before!

Ah ... I apparently have to mention my dad in this blog otherwise "he'll be upset". Hi dad!

Eating Zongzi

2010-06-16T19:56:00.004+10:00

Happy Chinese Dragon Boat festival day. Apparently a famous officer that wasn't satisfied with the emperor .... okay you're not allowed to say that Sha doesn't know the story. As stated here "The boat races during the Dragon Boat Festival are traditional customs to attempts to rescue the patriotic poet Chu Yuan. Chu Yuan drowned on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 277 B.C. Chinese citizens now throw bamboo leaves filled with cooked rice into the water. Therefore the fish could eat the rice rather than the hero poet. This later on turned into the custom of eating tzungtzu and rice dumplings." We have been trying to make dragon boats without much success, but we have been successful in eating Zonzi or tzungtzu. I've also just been introduced to "Ancient Early Taste Mochi" for dessert. A study of the ingredients tells me that it contains red bean, brown sugar, glutinous rice and sorbic acid. It's odd. The Zongzi we ate apparently was a red bean rice dumpling.

I came home yesterday from giving a public talk where the average age of the audience was about 110. At home I discovered Sha playing with a big, fluffy white cat with another cat getting very jealous and the two guinea pigs looking rather worried. Anyway, Halo, the new cat is definitely very pretty!

Not very good at relaxing

2010-06-13T19:37:00.007+10:00

We were meant to be relaxing this weekend, but we don't seem very good at that. Instead we got up early and drove to Port Stephens and back. We went dolphin watching, saw heaps of dolphins and Sha was sick. errr ... I admit that the waves were rather large. Apart from the bottlenose dolphins, we spotted herons, a sea eagle and a few camels.

The reason that we wanted to relax was because I'd been in a conference in Kiama all last week. It was wonderful!! Kiama was great and the meeting was really inspirational. I've discovered that, on average, cows line up facing magnetic North or South and that people sleep better if their bed is oriented along this line. I also discovered what a superchron is.

Sha and I have been doing well at arriving by accident in various music festivals. I had convinced my boss that we needed a trip to Kiama the week before the conference for me to check out the hotel etc. It also just happened to be the Kiama jazz festival. Today, we hit Port Stephens during the Country Music festival. I can definitely say that I prefer the jazz. I also enjoyed Sha singing strange Chinese versions of Twinkle Twinkle little star and Beethoven's 9th symphony to me in the car today.
Yesterday Sha and I drove to the Featherdale wildlife park in Sydney. Neither of us had been there. It was great. We got to pat a tawny frogmouth on its head! Tomorrow is a holiday (apparently the Queen is having a birthday), but we plan to relax!

Too many women

2010-05-15T19:53:00.003+10:00

Today I undertook a 50km round trip involving buses, trains and a taxi (almost a ferry) in order to pick up Tuan Tuan. Apparently Baozi was pining. She was yearning for a house mate of a similar age (now 8 weeks). Apparently the only shop containing another female guinea pig in the whole of New South Wales was in Blacktown. Blacktown is very cool. We ate a superb arabian lunch before ambling around a bit and then going in search of the pet shop. Tuan Tuan is rather pretty. I'm quite attached to her (I did have to carry her for 25km!). It's also rather clear now how huge baozi is. She dominates the cage. Baozi has decided that it's fun to run back and forth between the two little huts that we've set up. The fact that Tuan Tuan is sometimes in the way doesn't seem to be considered. Tuan Tuan has provided us with a new set of Guinea Pig vocabulary (see this for a webpage that you probably never thought existed!)

Barking baozi has arrived!

2010-05-02T12:56:00.002+10:00

Barking baozi ...

2010-05-01T22:13:00.000+10:00

... did not arrive :( She got lost.

A few more photos

2010-04-29T21:30:00.002+10:00