The Hitting The Road Again Blues

China: Hiaitus

2012-01-22T01:31:00.001Z

Updates to this blog may be sparse between now and 14th February as I am going to be taking a vacation that is completely out of proportion to the work that I have done to earn it.Time and internet cafes permitting there may be some updating. Or not.See you later.

China: Snow!

2012-01-20T03:18:00.001Z

We have snow!Apparently some years it snows in Baiyin and some years it doesn't.It's only a light dusting but it is snow. The fact that it is so cold and the ground has been frozen for weeks probably means that even with such a small amount it will be around for a while. Don't forget to check out all the latest pictures over at my other blog www.aworldlens.blogspot.com

China: Spring (Festival) Is In The Air

2012-01-18T04:10:00.001Z

I took a walk to the bookshop the other day, a stroll along the busy streets of Baiyin, dodging the traffic, weaving through the crowds and avoiding the uncovered manholes. There is precious little in the bookshop that I can read but it's an odd thing. Even when I can't understand anything they have for sale I still like being in bookshops, being surrounded by books. And they do have an art

A River of Stones: 17th Jan

2012-01-17T03:56:00.001Z

The puppy goes left. The man at the other end of the leash goes right. They face off until the man relents and the puppy wags a triumphant tail.

A River of Stones: Catch Up

2012-01-16T11:44:00.001Z

I've been writing my small stones but haven't had a chance to post them.Here are the ones that have been missing.11th JanThe Chinese BookshopI cannot comprehend their alien symmetries but the pages paint pictures on my eyes and I continue to browse. A new meaning to "just looking" 13th Jan (12th was already posted}He is selling frozen eels from a box in the market square, smashing them into

A River of Stones: 12 Jan

2012-01-11T16:18:00.001Z

I have lost six games of bar dice.The bar singer is beautiful.I gaze at her with longing -and lose game seven.

A River of Stones: 10 January

2012-01-10T11:31:00.001Z

1.At the artificial-flower market stall giant, red, heart-shaped leaves have been painted with gold characters. Xièxie.2.In the park an old woman dressed all in purple - coat, trousers, hat - walks backwards along the path, slapping her hands at her body as he goes. And I have been in China for long enough for this not to seem strange.

Book Promotion

2012-01-10T11:25:00.001Z

Damn I wish this had arrived a week ago!I just received an email from my publisher with details of an offer that you can, should you be inclined to do so, use to get 25% off the cost of any of my books.If by any chance you didn't know that I had written any books this is your chance to find out about them. They can be found by going to the publishing web site's author spotlight which is athttp://

A River of Stones: 9th January

2012-01-09T15:37:00.001Z

I stamp my foot in the stairwell to make the lights come on. In the grim post-apocalyptic-movie-set stairwell. And I fantasise about fifty gallons of whitewash and a pressure hose.

A River of Stones: 8th January

2012-01-09T07:33:00.001Z

Above the bar three lanterns break the light into jagged shards of colour. Two, stationary, pin them like butterflies to the wall but the third, slowly turning, sets them free to dance through the night.

A River of Stones: 7th January

2012-01-07T07:47:00.001Z

Empty plastic bottles. Plants. Mirror. Hanging baskets of pink flowers. Hanging shirts. Hanging night dress. Cardboard boxes. Closed curtains. Every window in the apartment block is the same. And every window is different.

China: New Year Part 6

2012-01-07T05:08:00.001Z

And on Tuesday I ate nothing and slept through almost the whole day.

China: New Year Part 5

2012-01-07T05:07:00.001Z

Back in Baiyin I lay down for a nap. Jane, the Foreign Administrator not Jane Li the Primary school teacher, had said that she wanted to take me, Mike and Erika out for a meal. I could happily not have eaten anything else but she insisted and I guessed that it would be a noodle bar or a dumpling restaurant where I could just pick at it politely. She had said she would call for us at six. So I

China: New Year Part 4

2012-01-07T04:48:00.001Z

So at 7:20 dressed up for a wedding in suits and ties (and overcoats because it was very cold) we waited outside our apartment. Jill arrived on time in a taxi and we took a short ride to the bride's apartment. By 7:40 we were being served bowls of steaming hot pork noodles. The tradition is that the groom comes to the bride's apartment with his friends and bearing gifts but that the bride's

A River of Stones: 6th January

2012-01-07T02:53:00.001Z

Sixteen red lanterns float above the steps, tethered to the ground, trailing red banners. They bow with each gently passing breeze.

China: About those oranges

2012-01-05T09:26:00.001Z

You may have wondered in the previous post why I was handing out oranges.It's very simple.On my last day of teaching I was given a crate of oranges - 96 in total - as a Christmas gift from the school. I have no idea why they do this or why they think it's a good idea but every teacher in the school had a crate - including Mike who doesn't like oranges so I have ended up with 192. I decided that

China: New Year Part 3

2012-01-05T09:22:00.001Z

I had agreed to teach a primary school class on Sunday morning at nine forty. The building that it was in is, Jane Li told me, probably the oldest still standing in Baiyin. It looks it. Inside the corridors were dirty and the plaster peeling. The classroom was cleaner but very basic. About twenty kids were sitting waiting for the lesson. For these I had to teach only twenty minutes before

China: New Year Part 2

2012-01-05T09:21:00.001Z

I'm not sure what I had been expecting of the New Year's Eve party but it certainly wasn't what I got. I had realised that it would be more elaborate than previously expected when I was called during the wedding to ask if I wanted to perform in the show. I agreed to read some of my poetry to an audience who would almost certainly not understand a single word. The teacher with the cab arrived

China: New Year Part 1

2012-01-05T09:20:00.001Z

Well, as I said in the last post, last week was a very busy Christmas weekend. It was a late lie-in and a gentle stroll compared to this weeks round of hectic socialising. One thing that is clear about living in China is that Chinese hospitality is very hard to refuse. People invite you to things, expect the answer to always be "yes" and insist on paying for virtually everything. Let's

A River of Stones: 5th January

2012-01-05T08:50:00.001Z

There is an absence today: the old woman who sits selling bitter bean powder is not there. No one has filled her place on the bridge and the absence is like a missing tooth.

A River of Stones: 4th January

2012-01-05T08:48:00.001Z

The children sit in silent rows, the scratching of their pens the only noise. Teachers sit at the back and front of the classroom and remember their exams.

A River of Stones: 3rd Jan

2012-01-03T16:00:00.001Z

And tonight the porcine delicacy is trotters floating in a bowl full of clear soup - bizarre islands in a briny sea. I let the lazy susan to rotate them past me and use my chopsticks to pluck a piece of green pepper from the mountain on a different plate.

A River of Stones: 2nd January

2012-01-03T03:44:00.001Z

In a room full of wedding guests I warm myself at the rusty iron stove. Under the rust I notice the embossed design. Running horse stepping on flying swallow.

A River of Stones: January 1st

2012-01-01T13:41:00.001Z

Jane pushes at the roast pork with a chopstick and like a magic-eye picture I suddenly notice the snout on the pig's head.

A River of Stones: 31st December

2011-12-31T07:40:00.001Z

Where the ice meets the stones it is rounded and smoothed, tamed by the contours that it fills but where the ice meets the water it is fractured and jagged and full of frozen energy.

A River of Stones: 29 Dec (posted a day late)

2011-12-30T15:45:00.001Z

Ten skewers of mutton at the barbecue.Four tiny pieces on every skewer.I wonder why the third piece on each is always fat.

A River of Stones: 30 December

2011-12-30T15:40:00.001Z

The old woman sells bright green bitter-bean powder at the corner of the bridge: weighing it with a hand scale, scooping it from a plastic bowl into paper bags. The pungency slices into my sinuses as I pass.

China: Building Standards

2011-12-28T14:21:00.001Z

In my "River of Stones" post I mentioned that the observation for the day was about Chinese building standards. The River of Stones project is all about close observation and I have been closely observing the building project in question for some months. I walk past it four times a day, every day and have marvelled every time (not necessarily in a good way) at the construction work. Let me take

River of Stones

2011-12-28T14:02:00.001Z

Some of you may remember that I took part last year in the River of Stones project where people write a small observation of the world around them every day for a month. Well it's happening again. This time my circumstances in the good old People's Republic of China mean that I cannot post the badge for the project on my blog as I cannot even SEE my blog. (Though thanks to the miracle of email I

China: Ridiculous

2011-12-27T05:14:00.001Z

This is getting silly now.I knew that I had all of January and half of February off but in conversation with the Chinese teachers today I discovered that THEY have all of January and half of February.I, on the other hand have all of January and ALL of February. If this job got any easier I'd have to pay them.

China: Christmas

2011-12-25T06:16:00.001Z

When I was invited to a Christmas morning service at Baiyin's only church I had doubts about accepting. To begin with I'm not a believer so it sometimes seems a little strange to go to church – but on the other hand I go for weddings and funerals so why not a Christmas service? Of course there was also the matter of needing to get up at seven thirty on Christmas day to be ready to go by eight

A Christmas Greeting

2011-12-19T01:37:00.001Z

For anyone that I may have inadvertently omitted from my general "Christmas card mailing". It's Christmas time in Baiyin but there's no snow on the ground. The streets are not all ringing to the jolly Christmas sound. The main square doesn't have a gigantic Christmas tree, And I've checked the schedules, there's no Christmas on TV. Nonetheless it's here, if you look around you'll find it.

To Put Away Childish Things:Text Based Adventure Games

2011-12-18T03:25:00.001Z

When I moved house, in June, part of the process, as anyone who has ever done it will know, was to clear out the loft. There was all sorts of stuff up there – books, VHS videos, a red box full of scratched 78 rpm records, a sink unit, a partially completed plaster cast set of twelve inch tall chess pieces, a large sack full of my mother's old handbags, a shopping bag full of old pairs of

China: monkey hear, monkey speak

2011-12-15T00:48:00.001Z

On the rare occasions that I sit for any length of time in the office (which is what the staff room is called in China) I witness an apparently endless stream of kids come to see their Chinese English teachers* with oral homework and time after time it's the same drill. The boy or girl will stand in front of their teacher clutching a textbook which has been folded back to the correct page but NOT

China: Shipwrecked!

2011-12-14T05:01:00.001Z

This week's lessons have been going rather well, though producing somenovel - and unexpected - results.The details of the lesson vary from class to class but the mainactivity is, for the seniors at least, constant.I divide the class into groups explain that they have been shipwreckedon an uninhabited island and that before the boat sank (taking with itall the teachers) they had time to fill a

It's like painting... oh, wait - it's not

2011-12-12T02:17:00.001Z

It seems that they have finished painting the Forth Bridge.http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3623Let me propose a new simile."It's like painting the Forth Bridge" to describe a task that seemed never-ending which you have now completed.

Chine: Timetables

2011-12-07T10:33:00.001Z

I've been off sick with a mild chest infection for a couple of days which is now, thankfully, almost cleared up. This morning I received a text from a colleague saying that he was coming to visit me this afternoon. Nice, I thought, to have colleagues that show such concern. I hadn't realised how much concern. At two thirty my doorbell rang and I pressed the button to let him in and unlatched the

China: Another day in Lanzhou

2011-12-05T02:34:00.001Z

We, that is to say my flatmate and I, had another day out in Lanzhou yesterday, though it wasn't actually out idea. The third of the little group of teachers in the city, Erika, didn't come. Recently she seems to be less inclined to socialise with us and so, when the FAO invited us to have dinner with her and her son at her apartment on Friday night Erika cried off. Richard, the FAO's son was

China: Animal instinct

2011-12-04T09:26:00.002Z

There will be much more about my day out in Lanzhou later but I can't resist posting this now. At the waterwheel park there is a display of the Chinese zodiacal animals - you know, year of the rabbit, that kind of thing. Mike and I asked our Chinese friend, Richard, what animals our birthdays fell on. Mike it seems was born in the year of the tiger. I, on the other hand, am a cock.

China: Hello, Mister Policeman

2011-11-28T13:44:00.001Z

One of the message boards I post on has mentioned the new OED "word of the year" which is actually the phrase "squeezed middle".I just thought I'd mention here my own personal word of the year.It isn't new. It isn't uncommon. It isn't a recent coinage.It's "Hello" and it's my word of the year because I have approximately 1200 students who all say it to me every single time they see me. And I

Spell-Checker craziness

2011-11-26T04:25:00.001Z

In a post on a message board, when I used the word when I typed de-incentivised it was underlined by the spell-checker in spite of being a perfectly good word and the suggested alternatives wereDE-incentivisedDe-incentivisedd-incentiviseded-incentivisedand e-incentivised, none of which look like real words. But it got stranger. When I posted a humourous aside mentioning this fact, all of these

China: Everything works, but nothing works well

2011-11-25T03:02:00.001Z

Since coming to China I have been reading a few of the other blogsthat are around about the country. One such is "Seeing Red In China"(http://seeingredinchina.com) which is usually interesting andsometimes resonates with my own experience. One recent post(http://seeingredinchina.com/2011/11/22/winter-is-coming-and-its-bringing-global-warming/) seemed particularly appropriate. The author of the

China: Another day, another demonstration

2011-11-22T05:33:00.001Z

So, last week, Jane had us teaching demonstrations at more schools. Wedon't actually get paid but I suppose the experience and the freelunch are reward enough.Friday was just here in the city teaching at another of the MiddleSchools. The class were hand-picked Junior One students and werebright and active and the lesson went smoothly and was verywell-received.Saturday was rather different.To

China: Pool and Face

2011-11-22T02:15:00.001Z

I'm sure you are all familiar with the Chinese concept of "face" whichis all about earning respect. After all we use the expression "loss offace" sometimes in English. Face crops up in all sorts ofcircumstances but who would have thought that it would crop up in agame of pool? Well, it does, and it has twice now.The circumstances are similar enough to just generalise.You meet a new Chinese

Wow!

2011-11-21T02:20:00.001Z

Gary Longden has included my blog in his five nominations for the"Liebster" award, a kind of chain mail project promoting blogs withfewer than 200 followers. I'll put a bit more detail about that when Iadd my own five suggestions tomorrow. (Or the next day, definitelybefore the end of the week. Hey, I read a lot of blogs, choosing fivewill be hard.)Anyway, what I wanted to put here was what Gary

China: Some more random observations

2011-11-18T01:21:00.001Z

A few more random observations that may sound judgmental but aren'treally meant to be. It's just that when giving factual descriptions ofsome things it's hard to avoid sounding that way. Judge for yourself.SmokingSmoking is allowed everywhere in China.No that's too weak. Smoking is encouraged everywhere in China and as alifelong non-smoker I sometimes find it difficult to cope. Virtuallythe first

China: Vocabulary List

2011-11-16T04:55:00.001Z

Today, as I was laying out my things, I saw, on the desk of one of mystudents a list of phrases that they had been given to learn. It ranto about 150 phrases and, from idle curiosity I picked it up and tooka glance. Remember that students are not required to understand theappropriate use of the phrases or even the meanings of the phrases,simply to memorize them for a test.It was a curious

China: Mahjong

2011-11-15T02:24:00.002Z

The first time I came to China I bought a lot of souvenirs. One of them was a Mahjong set. It was a very nice Mahjong set – good heavy tiles, high quality leather case, the works. And it's been sitting on display in a glass case in my bedroom ever since – over twenty years. And I've never got round to learning to play the game. Last night I did, I was invited to go for a meal and then to the

China: Drinking Culture

2011-11-13T03:16:00.001Z

There is no denying that as a foreigner living and working in China Ifind the Chinese a very hospitable people. Colleagues, neighbours,friends of friends are always wanting to take us to dinner and it isnear impossible to actually pay for anything when we go. The foodarrives in quantities that we couldn't eat in a week and in an arrayof varieties that is bewildering. Conversation, inevitably

China: Demonstration Lessons

2011-11-05T04:03:00.001Z

"What," I said, with an element of desperation in my tone, "Is this music?"The music in question was playing over all the speakers in the school,a trickling, tinkling piano piece."It's the music for the end of the lesson." offered one of the bolder girls."No," I explained, "There's a bar I sometimes go to where they alwaysplay this. I'm sure I've heard it before and it's driving me crazythat I

China: A Mystery Solved

2011-11-04T15:28:00.001Z

I know that I am much older than my fellow teacher at Baiyin MiddleSchool number 10 but I have been puzzled by the number of times I havebeen introduced to people who have assumed me to be his father.This week the mystery was solved when yet another person did it. Inthe course of the dinner conversation she referred to me as his fatherand we examined the reason closely. It seems that when some

China: General Update

2011-10-29T07:26:00.001+01:00

I'm a little puzzled.I'd have thought by now that my posts would indicate that I'm veryhappy - very happy indeed - with my current situation but it seemsfrom various pieces of private correspondence that some of my friendsseem to have taken only the message from my very early Chinese postsand not noticed the change.Let's set the record straight. I am very happy with how things haveturned out. I'm

China: Adventures in Hairdressing

2011-10-22T15:48:00.001+01:00

When I look around my class about a third of them - boys and girls -have the pudding basin haircut that parents here seem to often inflicton their kids. The others sport styles ranging from relatively normalto rather outlandish. Whatever their chosen style there is no shortageof places where they can get it done. Within a couple of minutes walkof my front door there are at least a dozen barbers.

China: An unplanned day

2011-10-16T06:01:00.001+01:00

Sometimes days don't take the route you'd planned for them.Take yesterday for example.My plan had been to spend a couple of hours on the computer, go outand try to buy a printer, come back and connect it up, spend an houror so on lesson preparation for the next couple of weeks, watch someTV, log in to the chat room and talk to some friends, and finally goto bed.Well the origin and the final

To Put Away Childish Things #30

2011-10-14T05:18:00.001+01:00

I received an email recently from a friend who asked in passing if Iremember Coterill's. Now if you were brought up in the same,relatively small town, that I was brought up in and if you are of asimilar age to me, then you certainly do remember this small toy shopthat was on the left as you head up the high street.Nostalgia always colours our memories and when it's nostalgia for sucha long time

China: School Life redux

2011-10-11T06:06:00.001+01:00

And this you probably won't believe.The school is, as I've said before, brand new. Some of the classroomsare still being equipped. Today one was being equipped as a dancestudio.Remember there are 3000 students in the school which means 3000students in the halls at break. The large mirrors for the dance studiowalls were being carried through the very, very crowded halls by twostudents aged about

China: School Life

2011-10-10T06:56:00.001+01:00

This weekend I worked on Sunday and it was because of an oddity ofChinese scheduling. Last week was a holiday. Only four weeks into theterm and it was a holiday. Specifically October 1st was the NationalDay Holiday but people had the whole week off.At least some people did. Some people had part of the week off, two orthree days.This is where it gets a bit complicated for schools.The Middle

China: Day Trip to Lanzhou Part 3

2011-10-07T14:41:00.001+01:00

Crossing the bridge was an interesting experience. To begin with,although it is actually a road bridge with traffic crossing in bothdirections, it was solidly packed with people crossing on foot. Hereand there there were also people crossing on bicycles and at intervalspart of the carriageway was blocked by salesmen with hand cartsoffering various hot foods - chestnuts, corn on the cob,

China: Day Trip To Lanzhou Part 2

2011-10-06T05:32:00.001+01:00

As we walked it rapidly became apparent that China has embraced its own communist version of capitalism not just with open arms but with a warm friendly hug. The hotels are as big and impressive as any in the world and the streets are lined with shops selling every kind of consumer goods that anyone could possibly want. The thing that surprises the most is the number of banks. Just walking along

China: Ornamental

2011-10-06T04:39:00.001+01:00

I was told before I came to China that it would be impossible to buy official CDs and DVDs here and it proves to be the case. Even large department stores and nationwide chains, sell what are, when examined, pirate copies of DVDs and, because they are all that is available, people buy them. It is quite interesting though to look at the language used on the sleeves. I know some people like to

China: Day Trip To Lanzhou Part 1

2011-10-04T10:36:00.001+01:00

The bus ride from Baiyin to Lanzhou is through some rather bleak landscape. Predominantly grey and brown there is much evidence that the people are trying to do something with it, in the form of ruler straight rows of young trees planted across the otherwise barren hillsides. Sandy roads weave between the peaks and ridges and tiered stone walls protect the main road from land slippage. Everywhere

China:Packaging

2011-10-03T02:07:00.001+01:00

Just a brief post today. I have the week off and I'm heading down into the provincial capital for a few days. In fact I have to leave to catch the bus in about thirty minutes. All of which explains my brevity but has nothing to do with the post. The post is about packaging. I have come to the conclusion that if there is ever an "International Secure Packaging" competition China will win it hands

Photographs

2011-09-29T06:40:00.001+01:00

Just a quick reminder that I have no started posting again onto my other blog over at "The World Through A Lens". There has been a brief hiatus but I'll be putting daily photographs of China there, or as near to daily as I can manage anyway. You can follow the link on the right.

China

2011-09-28T05:55:00.001+01:00

They do keep on treating us extraordinarily well.On Sunday Jane, who you may recall is our Foreign Affairs Officer, had offered to take the three of us - me, Mike and Erika, out to the Yellow River for a day in the country. Her official duties are just to make sure that we have no bureaucratic problems and she has no obligation to do this sort of thing, it's just the kind of person she is. I'd

China: Teachers' Day Photos

2011-09-24T13:04:00.001+01:00

As well as deciding to post some photos of the Teachers' Day Celebrations at our school, I've been experimenting with the on-line photo editor, i-piccy, as I may want to use it for class materials (if and when I get a printer!). So the pictures in this post have, rather obviously, been submitted to various efects and alterations. I hope you enjoy them.They are, in order1) Some of the students in

Bilston Voices

2011-09-24T12:37:00.001+01:00

Well I can't be there for the fairly obvious reason that I'm thousands of miles away in China. That shouldn't stop anyone else going though and it certainly shouldn't prevent anyone reading a review. Gary Longden has kindly provided one for you at http://garylongden.wordpress.com/2011/09/24/bilston-voices-metro-cafe-church-st-bilston/I rcommend both that you read it and that you attend the next

Some pictures of Baiyin

2011-09-24T10:59:00.001+01:00

This is an experiment to see if pictures will post properly. If it works the pictures will be of1) My luxury apartment block.2) A sleeping market trader (life is probably slow when you are a dealer in edible seeds) 3) A kid playing on one of the statues near the park.4) A rather alarming sign.5) Some statues6) Some flowers7) The Saturday afternoon geriatric rock festival in the park.Can someone

Sucker Punch

2011-09-16T05:09:00.001+01:00

I have a list of my favourite weird movies. Last night I watched Sucker Punch, which has just made the top five.I have absolutely no idea what it was all about. All the same I did enjoy it. Though probably not as much as the director must have enjoyed the very serious drugs he'd have needed to be on to create something so downright odd.

China: Trust

2011-09-16T04:52:00.001+01:00

Here's the situation.Before I left the UK I tried to buy medical insurance. The first quote I got for a full year was for over seven grand. The lowest I got was for five and a half. I decided that it would be insane to spend more than my full year's pay on insurance when I could, should the need arise, pay less than a thousand pounds and fly home. So I don't have medical insurance. In China I

Guarantee

2011-09-13T02:12:00.000+01:00

In my last post on China I mentioned that we were given gifts of mooncake and quilts. I thought you might like to share, and marvel at, the guarantee that accompanied the quilt."Department of the cards have no time to ensure that the product quality of the full responsibility. And since the date of purchase within ten days, if a product is found to be material or production process by virtue of

Fwd: China

2011-09-12T05:38:00.001+01:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------From: Bob Hale Date: 11 September 2011 14:24Subject: ChinaTo: SFTR I've been teaching in China for less than a week and we already have a holiday. Monday is the Mid-Autumn Festival but Friday was also Teachers' Day which they celebrate. In the case of our school, Baiyin Middle School 10, there was

China 4

2011-09-02T14:16:00.001+01:00

Well, I'm in Baiyin which is as unlovely a city as I've ever encountered. If the sight of the mountains in Guilin lifted my spirits the bleak drive through the greyish brown mountains from Langshou airport to Baiyin depressed them. The apartment isn't too bad, though lacking quite a few necessities (cups and knives would be nice for example) and Mike, who I'm sharing with seems OK (he's letting

China 3

2011-09-01T13:24:00.001+01:00

Well. I have my placement and I can't say I'm completely happy about it. I'll add more afterwards but for now here is a verse I dashed off a few minutes ago while eating what will be my last western meal for some time. (Pizza, chips and a bottle of Guinness.) Baiyin Part 1 Well, they told me where I have to go and I admit I'm not impressed. They tried to woo with flattery, said, "This school

China 2

2011-08-28T14:03:00.001+01:00

Well, I have a little more time this evening and a keyboard that doesn't have half the keys sticking so I'll update you now. To start with my luggage turned up and everything is going really well. There's so much to be optimistic about it's hard to know where to begin. It seems that I'll be teaching twenty lessons a week and if you suddenly went "Wow, that's a lot!", you shouldn't have because

A New Poem From China

2011-08-27T12:38:00.001+01:00

I'll post a new fiary entry later. meanwhile here's a new poem to be going on with - inspired by a less than successful Chinese lesson, yesterday. Rebuilding Babel The words tumble over each other like surf breaking on a fractured headland and have as much meaning as the roar of the ocean in a conch shell pressed to the ear. "Yes, that's right!" she says as twenty people offer twenty

China Diaries #1a

2011-08-24T04:53:00.001+01:00

Finished chatting now... The best news of all, of course, is that everything I want to do on the internet seems to work! There appears to be no downside. The manual provided by the school about teaching in China contains some odd advice about coping with homesickness that would certainly get you fired and probably locked up in the UK. It suggests that you make friends with some of your

China Diaries #1

2011-08-24T04:39:00.001+01:00

Well I'm finally awake, alert and in a clean shirt having woken from a very sound night's sleep, albeit on the hardest bed in the known Universe, to find my luggage had caught up with me. A quick shower, a stroll down to the college for some breakfast and I was feeling very happy with the world. I decided after breakfast to take a stroll up to West Street where all the touristy things are and

I think this baby might fly

2011-08-23T12:22:00.001+01:00

Well, friends, it seems that this might ork after all. I just posted a test message using my remote blogging option and got the confirmation straight back. Can one of my multitude of loyal readers please email me nd confirm that this rather longer message displays properly on the blog, please? Anyway. This is the story so far. After a couple of days with my brother I caught a flight to China -

Just a quick test message

2011-08-23T12:10:00.001+01:00

Test

The Last Post?

2011-08-17T19:03:00.000+01:00

Well. It's come around much quicker than I ever thought it would. It feels that way, anyway. The six weeks of summer school have come and gone in the blink of an eye and in only five days I head for China to start my new life.At the moment I really have no idea whether this blog will continue because I have no idea if my email posts will work from there or not. I will certainly be blogging in

Politicians of the Future

2011-08-11T20:10:00.001+01:00

I have a standard activity that I use with intermediate students. I put them in groups and give each person a local Government job - education, health and so on. I tell them what they need to spend money on next year and then I give the group a budget too small to cover the costs so that they can discuss what to do about it. Today group one made all round cuts as fairly as they could. Group two

Light

2011-08-11T17:53:00.000+01:00

I've been experimenting with my new camera. I considered putting these pictures as a series on my photo blog (see links) but decided that as that wouldn't be for some time I'd put them as a special post here.

Random Remarks From Strangers' Conversations

2011-08-10T15:17:00.001+01:00

As I was sitting waiting for one of last night's poets to make his way to the stand, I heard someone a few seats behind me say, "I haven't got a copyright on owls".

Poetry Unplugged:

2011-08-10T13:46:00.001+01:00

So, the television is filled with images of rioting youth across the country. Gangs are raiding and looting shops. The Metropolitan Police have put three times as many officers on the street. Across London trouble is expected almost everywhere.And me?Well, it's Tuesday night and my last chance to visit Poetry Unplugged so I head off to Covent Garden to sign up for the best open mic in London. The

2011-08-07T19:41:00.001+01:00

As promised, a few more shots of work from the current Saatchi Gallery exhibition, The Shape of Things To Come:New Sculpture Kris Martin: Summit David Altmejd: The New North Berlinde De Bruyckere David Batchelor

It vexes me.

2011-08-05T23:16:00.001+01:00

A strange little red blobby thing has recently appeared on my RSS feeds. It marks a couple of folders which are, as far as I can tell, in no way different to any of my other folders. It vexes me. It does not appear in any way whatsoever to affect the functionality of the feeds or, indeed, to do anything at all, nonetheless it vexes me because, in my perhaps naive way, I believe it must be there

Summer School Haiku (3)

2011-08-04T09:26:00.000+01:00

After Summer, Winter: Wishing the snow would not fall Is wasted regret

Summer School Haiku (2)

2011-08-04T09:19:00.001+01:00

Nervousness shaking Like leaves on autumnal trees: Seasons always end

Summer School Haiku (1)

2011-08-04T09:17:00.001+01:00

Andrew: Summer school - Craves puppy-dog attention. This year, this is it (Remember Haiku is more than just syllable counting.)

Arty Bits

2011-08-03T10:22:00.001+01:00

I went again last night to Poetry Unplugged in Covent Garden, my third visit in four weeks, and once again was astounded both at the slickness of the organisation and the uniformly high standard of the performances and the poetry. In three weeks I've now seen about ninety performances from about fifty different performers and have yet to see a bad one. Next week will be my fourth and final visit.

Captain America:Perverse Criticism

2011-07-31T14:37:00.000+01:00

It’s fair to say that the reviews I’ve read of Captain America have been mixed. They have ranged from abusive vilification to implausible eulogy. Something has niggled at me as I have read them though. While some of the criticisms may be fair others seem distinctly unfair. It’s a metaphor I have used before in other contexts but some of them seem to be kicking the dog because it barks. For

Captain America

2011-07-31T07:41:00.001+01:00

*** WARNING - MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS *** Walking back from the Cinema it occurred to me that the four most recent films I've seen have all been superhero adaptations - X-Men: First Class, Thor, Green Lantern and now Captain America. All those other films were to some degree or other flawed. X-Men had some serious plot holes and some unnecessary historical exposition, Thor was spectacular in the

The Evil Empire

2011-07-23T13:15:00.001+01:00

They used to refer to Microsoft as "The Evil Empire" but nowadays I'm pretty sure Google has taken the crown. The King is Dead, Long Live the King. I've been on a bit of an anti-Google trip for the last couple of weeks, ever since I discovered that while I am here in Harrow using my gmail account is about as secure as posting all my private correspondence as full page adverts in a national

Redundant naming

2011-07-22T07:23:00.000+01:00

That time of year again

2011-07-21T21:22:00.000+01:00

It's that time of year again, the point where I have had my annual visit to one of the London Galleries followed by a nice meal and then followed by an evening at the theatre. This year the theatre was Simon Callow doing for Shakespeare what he has previously done for Dickens, the meal was Lebanese and the gallery was, as last year, the Saatchi where the current exhibition is "The Shape of Things

Features I Shall Never Use

2011-07-21T17:09:00.000+01:00

I decided to buy a smaller, more compact, camera to take with me to China. My Minolta has been, and continues to be, a fine camera but it is a bit bulky for my current needs so it can stay here in the UK while I take my new Fuji off to China with me. However glancing through the manual I have spotted a number of feautres which rather baffle me. For example, while I understand that many people are

No News is Good News?

2011-07-13T12:40:00.000+01:00

Watching a silent news program with a ticker-tape message strip running across the bottom yesterday I saw the staggering news that "Reuters: US authorities are not investigating News International" What next? War Not Declared? No Cars Involved In Pile-up? Celebrity Couple Stay Married? Since when did the news consist of telling what hasn't happened?

Poetry Unplugged at The Poetry Cafe: An Impressionistic Review

2011-07-13T11:17:00.001+01:00

Poetry Cafe, Covent Garden, 12 July 2011 First of all let me tell you what this isn't. It isn't, in any real sense of the word, a review. It can't be. Thirty seven performers (plus the MC, Niall O'Sullivan) in three hours (minus the fifteen minute break) conspired with a room so crowded with poets and poetry-lovers that there wasn't space enough to make notes, to make a proper review impossible.

And the winner is...

2011-07-10T22:25:00.000+01:00

The award for the most redundantly descriptive name for an establishment must surely go to the one in Harrow on the Hill rejoicing in the name BAR CAFE CAFE CAFE CAFE RESTAURANT And to prove it really does seem to be called that I shall take a picture when I'm next passing and post it here.

And Gone Again

2011-07-10T22:22:00.001+01:00

I see everyone's followers have disappeared again. It's about time that Blogger sorted this bug out once and for all.