Still alive

Hello!! This is just to check whether my blog still works :)

The Quest of King Zhao of Yan for a Capable Man

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.


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

Day 2 in Tasmania

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

 

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

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

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!