Went to a local temple, the Seven Pagoda Temple, on Saturday afternoon. It was a very nice, small and peaceful place not too far from the centre of town. Lit some incense and then later ruined all my good karma by drinking wine and playing poker. Sunday was mostly a wasted day of hanging around waiting for things to happen but I did go out for a nice Korean bbq in the evening when Noah finally resurfaced from his weekend and met up with Thomas and Jade.
Watched "The Promise" (Wuji) last night. It's a new(ish) film by Chen Kaige who made Farewell My Concubine (which I haven't seen) and several others that I have. Generally I have found his films to be good but not great and this is about the same. A lot of it looks gorgeous, in an over the top kind of way. The CGI can be a bit ropey in places but is used consistently so that it doesn't jar and adds to a very dream-like film. Some of the fantasy stuff is a lot of fun and there is potentially a good story there except that it occasionally gets muddled. It's certainly a fun action adventure in the line of HK comic books and worth seeing - I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected.

Great News: After fifteen years of searching I've finally found a way to make baijiu (Chinese spirits/paint stripper) palatable. Yesterday, as it was St patrick's we had a lot of green snacks and a sparkling apple drink. When I tasted the drink I realised that this was the exact taste to work with baijiu. I told Nick and he agreed and ran off to get a bottle. So we gave it a go and it worked.

Other than that it's been pretty much the same old. I cooked last Sunday for a few people, did spaghetti meatballs which worked out pretty well. We managed to get some fresh basil and parmesan for it as well. Had a fairly quiet week other than that. Started doing some tutoring of a couple of my Korean kids yesterday afternoon. It's easy enough and a bit of extra cash. John wanted me to do three days worth, Friday, Saturday and Sunday but I said no. I think if I want to do that much extra work I'd rather find some with one of the adult schools in town.

Yesterday evening went out to the Irish pub in town for a pint of Guiness with Zak and Noah. It was pretty crowded in there, lots of businessmen so we left after one and went to LBBs instead, which is a bit more low rent as a place but the music was better and the beer is a lot cheaper. Met up with a few of the people I've seen around before, which was good, as haven't seen them for a couple of weeks. Also met the bloke who runs www.ningboguide.com so check it out if you want to see a bit more about Ningbo.

Haven't done much this week. Weather has been generally warm but it's predicted to turn cold again tomorrow. My grade one classes are still challenging but I think I'm getting there. Picking up some tips from the Chinese teachers and have found some useful web resources.

Yesterday evening went out with Nick, his girlfriend Rowena, Noah and Zak to 348, a Chinese disco/nightclub. Inside, after walking through the metal detector and the corridor of flashing lights the place was full of people sat around a stage with women dancing and singing. We got some beers and were taken to a table. After an hour or so of the floorshow the music started and the dancefloor filled up instantly. The music was pretty exclusively happy house, mostly Chinese stuff but a few things I recognised. Went up to dance and it was chaos. The dancefloor was bouncy so you didn't really have to dance, just stand there and let the thing move you. Is was also so full of people that you couldn't really move anyway. I think we left about one, ears ringing, and came back.

Today just went into town and walked around Moon Lake, which is a park in the middle of town and a nice place to visit. Also bought some memory to try and speed up my computer. Seems to work.

ok, back to teaching. the weather has been nice, sunny and starting to warm up. the teaching has been mostly fun as well. the second graders are a lot of fun but i'm struggling a little with the first grade. it's kind of hard to find stuff that is simple enough and yet not so repetitious that they get bored. i've found some useful stuff on some websites so i'll probably give it a try.
got hammered in town on friday night and played some pool. then had a much lighter night over at noah's place on sat. on sunday found out my working hours have changed. my lunchtime has been reduced to just under two hours but i don't have to start until 8 and now finish at just after 3.guess i'll find a way to cope. probably by watching copious amounts of series 4 of 24.
ok, file o fax (fof) vs hipster, the great debate. i like my new fof on the whole but today the little clasp that closes it kind of separated a bit making me worry a little bit about longevity. it's great for jotting down notes and dates and general info keeping but the hipster still wins out on portability and general all round usefulness, whether it's keeping lists of people i need to email (you know who you are) or recording items i need to research for my book (yes, have finally gotten around to doing some writing). the fof is also difficult for writing long bits in because of the ring binder style. so, for day to day i might switch back to the hipster for now as i don't really have that many appointments to track. so long as it has my timetable that should be good.

Am thinking about volunteering my services to the UN. They can send me to drought areas and, hey presto, rain will probably follow. Arrived in Hong Kong to warm weather and sunshine. The next day was overcast and rainy. Guangzhou was a deluge.
Anyway, arrived in Hong Kong, got the flash train into the centre and a taxi to Chungking Mansions, all the while marvelling at how easy Hong Kong is. Got myself a room/broom cupboard for a couple of nights and went out for a walk. HK hasn't really changed all that much; still very busy, full of shops and neon and people selling you stuff. In the evening went for an Chicken Massala in Chungking and ate rather too much.
The next morning headed over to Wanchai on HK island where the Chinese Visa office is. Sat in the queue for an an hour and applied for my Z visa - turns out I did have the correct papers, which was nice, but also meant that the one sat on John Zhu's desk for Manchester should havce been sent to me and this whole trip could have been avoided. Hung around Wanchai for a couple of hours, collected my passport and got the ferry back over to Kowloon. Got some samosas for lunch and took the MTR (underground) to north Kowloon to check out a Taoist temple up there. Interesting but mostly just killing time. Back in Tsim sha tsui I wandered a bit more and ended up in a Spanish bar called La Tasca. Kind of reminded me of places in Granada when I went with Tan. Was going to have Tapas but they didn't have patatas bravas so i settled for some olives and a "chiken fajita." It came with thick potato wedges instead of tortilla wraps but was very nice.
Next morning I got a taxi to Hung Hom station and took the train straight to Guangzhou. Getting the taxi from the train station there to the good old Youth Hostel on Shamian was nice - I was amazed at how much I remembered and how little it's changed. Guangzhou is still very green, slightly shabby and, on the surface, I still like it.
Got caught in a monster downpour after checking in and then headed to the Guangxiao temple. There I ended up talking to two old women who help look after the place and they ended up giving me a tour around, some books, and a bag full of fruit, biscuits, sweets and nuts. O Mi Tuo Fo. Said I'd say hello if I go back to Guangzhou in the summer.
In the evening I stayed on Shamian and went to eat a hamburger. Shamian is still full of couples who have bought (sorry, adopted) Chinese babies which I still find leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I'm sure there are many benefits for all concerned but that doesn't mean I have to like it.
And now am back at the school and, I guess, back to teaching tomorrow. I shouldhave stayed away an extra day - tomorrow is my busiest schedule...

This morning I went to Tiantong Temple with one of the Chinese teachers and her husband. It was pouring down with rain so the photos aren't so good and the visibility was pretty low but it looks like a really nice place to visit when it's sunny.
Tomorrow I have to fly to Hong Kong in order to get my visa sorted out. I'm looking forward to it- I'm treating it like a holiday, really, and it should be a lot warmer than here. Also looking forward to a curry in Chungking Mansions and just generally seeing how the place has changed. Hopefully will have my visa sorted out in a couple of days and then I'll head back.

After I last wrote I got a phonecall inviting me into town to go for a meal with some other teachers who work in Ningbo. Had some nice food and some beers at the Shamrock before heading back for a few rounds of poker with the teachers here. I think I lost about 10p but I'm a bit hazy on that.
Sunday I decided to head back into Ningbo centre and have a walk around to orientate myself. It was raining but it was nice to stretch my legs. The only problem was when I went to get a taxi there were none around. I found one eventually though. Had a quiet night in.
Teaching this week has been interesting. One of the Primary school teachers has asked for some help teaching music but as I have no talent for music and almost none for singing I could only give limited advice. On tuesday went for a medical checkup which I had to pay for! And it looks like I'm definitely going to have to go to Hong Kong to sort out my visa even though we've shown the bloke who is supposed to look after the foreign teacher several government websites that say you can do it inside China. O well, it's a holiday, I suppose, and at least it will be warm...
Other than that not a lot to say really. Watched some DVDs, they have Korean food in the canteen now which is pretty good (there are South Korean students here, apparently because they've been kicked out of schools in Korea and are from rich families), and explored another nearby market which has a stall with Tianjin-style pancakes. Mmmm.

OK, it's been a pretty full week. Have been busy every evening so I haven't had a lot of time to write, and quite a few 7:40 starts so I've been pretty tired.
The teaching is fun but it gets pretty repetitve. I'm teaching first and second grade which is 7-9 year old kids. Most of my classes are of about 40 students but some are only twenty. I always have a teaching assistant in the class with me to help keep order and translate anything the children don't understand. Much of it, in classes that big, is about getting them to repeat stuff after me but it is fun trying to find ways to get them to actually think about the language and what they are trying to say. And I can use a little bit of Chinese which they think is amazing. Over the next couple of week's I'll probably try and bring more into the classroom as teaching aids but for now it's more about getting them used to me. I also need to find some good songs to teach them.
Have been out in town a couple of times but it's pretty expensive - like 30 RMB for a drink (about 2 pounds) which is crazy when it only costs 2 RMB to buy a bottle of beer in the shop. Met one of the teachers who is leaving and he sold me some speakers and a DVD player (both for less than twenty pounds!) so I'm feeling quite set up now. Last night I invited all the foreign teachers over to my apartment so we drank some beer and wine and chatted for a while. They seem pretty nice, generally quite thoughtful and they are enjoying it here.
Today I went with Nick, who is from South Africa, and his girlfriend into Ningbo for some food and so he could take me to a good DVD shop. So I now have a small pile of DVDs to watch along with the ones I brought out. At least I won't be stuck for something to do...
Also interesting - I read an interview with a Chinese science fiction writer and it had his email address so I've been in touch with him. He has given me some titles of books to look out for so I'll probably head down to the Xinhua bookstore soon and see if they have them.
It's been really cold this last couple of days. We even had a little bit of snow yesterday so I am probably just going to wrap up warm now and watch some tv.