Seeing in the New Year in Wuhu

So celebrating the Western new year in Wuhu not quite as I imagined the rest of the population unsurprisingly seemed to be not in the least bit bothered about the New year. The westerners and various other foreigners were determined to at least try and celebrate.
A group of us arrange to meet at a Japanese Restaurant at 8.30 for a meal which includes free drinks we have negotiated a price of 130 rmb per person which includes all the food you can eat and a selection of free drinks including Plum wine and saki.
Have to say the food was great varied and plentiful not a great fan of saki so get stuck into the plum wine which is fine.
Normally lots of restaurants etc in Wuhu all close at 9.30 ish but we have managed to get the Japanese to stay open till 10.30 which we manage to stretch to 11.00 by basically refusing to leave.
at 11.00 we all pile into 3 taxis and head off to the New club (which is not new now its been open for months but is still referred to as the new club)Any way 12.00 arrives we have a countdown and wish each other a happy new years the club then continues as any other evening and New year is a decidedly anti climax and very low key.
Maybe Chinese new year in February may be lively.
Any way Thursday morning dawns do not feel at all hungover which makes a change for new years day.
Get a phone call from Lily a Chinese girl I met a few weeks ago and we arrange to meet near to wall mart she wants to show me around Wuhu so mid afternoon we meet and wander down food street to Zhe Shan Park. I have been here previously but from the other side next to the Buddhist temple so this area of the park is new to me we wander around and in one section there are lots of Chinese exercising outside on the park equipment.
We wander further into Park and I see a sign saying Portrait of MAO which actually turns out to be a statue of Mao not sure the sign translated very well.
We have a pleasant afternoon and wander off to have some food at what I call the Spring roll restaurant which is open 24 hours handy when you leave the club and want some food or in some cases more beer.
Later we make our way to Walking Street where one of the malls has reopened and is doing a promotion of spend 150 and get 200 to spend free.
So i take advantage of this and buy a watercolour painting and 2 iron art pictures
so i am more than happy with my purchases which makes the flat seem more like a home.
So the holiday is drawing to a close have to say next year i hope to travel elsewhere and not see in the new year in Wuhu too quiet for me.

Christmas week in Wuhu

So Christmas week dawns have to say I don't feel like it Christmas at all apart from the odd sighting of Christmas trees and decorations and Santa hats.

As this is a normal working week I revert to normal hours 8.30-18.00 on Christmas day I work until 12.30 (first time I have ever worked on a Christmas day)and take a half day off to get ready for the staff Christmas meal at the evening.

So most of the staff turn up at the Rose Hotel including the part timers and peoples partners. Luca has been cooking an Italian dish from his region as one of the dishes for the meal.
This is called Fricule and proves to be very popular although Luca says it is better when it is hot.
The main meal is Chinese food which is good along side jugs of Sangria made by Kit and this seems to be well liked even by people who don't normally drink.
After the main food we two types of Italian cake provided by Kit and the hotel have allowed him to use the kitchen to make some English custard which is very popular.

Also Kit has made 2 large Trifles which every one seems to enjoy and most people seem to be enjoying the evening.
Thanks to Lydia reminding me about the lyrics to Santa Claus is coming to town which I gave her in the morning it is suggested that I sing the aforementioned song are you serious (anyone unfortunate enough to her me sing will understand why)
Any way Kit sporting agrees to sing along also and we enlist Luca to help not sure how good or bad it sounded but we get through to the end of the song and some polite applause.
At least it feels a bit more like Christmas and it was a successful evening meal and a chance to relax a little.
After the meal we head off to Bar Street which sounds grand but there are only 4 bars that i can find on there we go to a little Bar called DOORS which is fine and later we head off to the Overseas students bar as some colleagues are in there having a drink.
We finish the evening in the club and its a nice end to Christmas day.
So although it felt nothing like Christmas day it was an enjoyable evening and the meal was the highlight of the day
update unknown to me Christa took a video of us singing not a potential pop release by any stretch of the imagination.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Taxi Strike and English Job

Monday have taken Monday Tuesday off work to sort out things needed for my new abode.
so off to Auchan the new french supermarket to buy a DVD player and kettle toaster and iron ironing board.
So eventually over the 2 days manage to get everything I need plus a water dispenser so I don't have to keep buying bottled water far easier.
So Wednesday its back to work European time however i get a phone call from Amy at the school who wants to set my schedule with me for my part time teaching so i have to take Thursday afternoon off to go to the school to meet with Amy and collect the books etc i need.
The only thing making my navigation around Wuhu easy is the cost of taxis 2km for 5.00 rmb which is approx 50 pence and makes life very easy.
Wednesday afternoon I decide at my break to go home with Stanley to fix my DVD player which while I have connected it correctly( i think) IE white lead to white socket no volume from speakers.

However this coincides with the Taxi drivers in Wuhu striking as the local government want to increase the number of taxis on the roads which will impact on their earning potential.
The DVD player is sorted by Stanley who can obviously read Chinese you don't connect the white leads to the white sockets !!!!!!!! any way I now have music but cant play DVD on TV yet.
The impact of the strike is soon apparent as it takes me one and half hours to get back to the office by bus having waited 45 minutes for a bus for a journey that takes 5-10 minutes by taxi depending on traffic.
Thursday still no taxis and i have to go to the School for a briefing this requires 2 buses which cost 1 rmb approx ten pence regardless of distance unbelievable price maybe the UK should try a fixed price travel on transport may help solve the congestion problem.Any way manage to get to the school by bus without getting lost so quite pleased with my self.
Ive often considered just getting on a local bus and see where i end up might be an adventure may just try it in the holiday period.
My schedule for the school is set as Friday 7-8 Sunday 2 lessons 1.35-3.15 3.35-5.10.
Which is OK by me apart from missing the Friday meal with my colleagues I should still be able to attend the activity.
Friday still no taxis in the morning however by mid afternoon taxis seem to be back on the roads one thing really noticeable is how quiet the roads were without the taxis almost deserted.
Some taxis did work during the strike but were charging a minimum of 15rmb for 5 rmb journey so it was possible to get taxi if you waited long enough. H ave to say at 11.00 pm on Thursday night and no buses and faced with a 40 minute walk I quite happily paid the 15 rmb to get home.

So Friday night I commence English lesson it is called English Saloon so no set criteria we play a game then discuss Western food versus Chinese food and finish with a version of Hangman in teams of 6 I really enjoy it think the kids are ok with it. The odd thing is that 4 of the parents stay in the class throughout which helps with translation still need to speak slower.Which sounds easy but can be more difficult than it sounds.

The upside of my new apartment is i can make toast for breakfast which is great also my weight is still going down Ive lost 13 kilos (28 lb or 2 stones in weight)in the 3 months since I got here my trusty jeans for the UK no longer fit me and my waist is 4 inches smaller IM LOVING IT EAT LOADS OF FOOD LOSE WEIGHT I LOVE CHINA. However i would still like to lose some more weight and in February plan on joining the Gym when hope fully I may have the money to pay for the subscription.

New Appartment and the joys of renting property

As previously stated I have been flat hunting in Wuhu at 2 locations both close to site of our new office which kept get changed depending on the negotiation's with the landlords and letting agents.

So after at least 5 attempts to find a flat, I find one location near to our now decided office location which has gated entry,lakes and trees and fountains.And is allegedly only 10 minutes from the new office on foot.
So on Saturday Luca,Lydia and my self go to view an apartment to rent in the complex block 3 13th floor.

Renting in China means dealing with the agent and the owner both have a different standpoint which leads to lots of negotiations and compromises.

The apartment is in very good condition 2 large bedrooms one big bathroom with a wet floor type shower no bath and no shower cubicle one massive living room and dining area and a kitchen.To the front of the apartment is a balcony big enough for 2 chairs and a table for coffee in the mornings when the weather warms up a little.
The quoted cost for the apartment is 2000 rmb per month plus utilities plus management fee.This by UK standards is very reasonable however as I am no longer earning UK wages its not so affordable.However if I can share with someone it is within budget.

Decide to think about it overnight and work out the costs involved.Late Sunday Luca decides the flat is not possible for him as the timing is too quick I decide to go ahead on my own which would mean Luca can move into my old room which will make his life more comfortable.

So on Monday Jaquelyn is asked to help me arrange the letting however we discover another agent has the apartment listed at 1800 per month so we call them its the same flat so we say OK lets meet to finalise the deal.
So next day meet the agent and the wife of the owner who then realises we are the same people who viewed it Saturday at 2000 rmb net result she wants 2000 plus 6 months in advance. Jaquelyn tries to negotiate but this woman is not playing ball at all so we leave.

The next day we go to view another apartment in block one however this although in theory is the same size 100 sq mt rs the apartment is not as nice.
So we try again with the agent who talks to the landlord and the first agent also contacts us to say she will also try at 1800 per month.

So eventually it is agreed at 1800 but 6 months up front and all the missing items ie washing machine fridge dining table and two air conditioning units which also provide heat which given the outside temperature of minus 4-5 is most welcome.
Although most Chinese just wear layers and layers of clothes to keep warm and see the air conditioning as expensive and unhealthy.

So we decide on Friday 2 days away to meet and pay deposit and sign contract.
Friday the contract is signed and it is agreed I can move in on the 15th which is next Monday.
However on Saturday Ginny gets a call to say that on Sunday we can sign for the apartment and pay the balance so in total to move in has cost me

deposit 3000
advance rent 10,800
agent fee 900
cable TV one year 135
total 14,835

So Sunday at 12.00 we meet at the apartment it is as promised 2 new air con units one new table 6 chairs one new washing machine and one used fridge but in excellent condition.
It takes a little while to get everything signed then I have the keys so can move in today which means packing up from my previous apartment. I arrived in China 3 months ago with one large bag and a camera bag.

When it comes time to pack i have one large bag one camera bag one new suitcase one new holdall plus quilt plus heater plus new clothes plus bedding.
When everything is packed I have 9 bags in total cant believe how much i have acquired in such a short time.
Thankfully dong dong arrives back and with his and Lucas help we get all these items down 6 floors to the street and grab a taxi to my new apartment.
Thanks guys for all your help it would have taken me 3 trips at least so by early Sunday I'm in and unpacked.

Have to say that the location of my new apartment is not as convenient as my previous one but the surroundings are more pleasant so its a balance between convenience or comfort ill take the comfort of my new apartment over the location.

So i am now in a very nice apartment with plenty of heating and tons of hot water pure bliss mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Thanks to LYDIA, JAQUELYN,GINNY, DONG DONG, LUCA for all the help in making my move happen.

An Italian in Wuhu with a Green Hat and cooking with Friends

PICTURE OF LUCA WITHOUT THE INFAMOUS HAT !!!
This week saw the arrival of our new Italian colleague Luca who is to share the apartment with dong dong and I.
As I am working European time I'm not about when Luca arrives Tuesday evening but have arranged on Wednesday morning to take Luca for some food and show him the route to the office. Luca is not too comfortable in the upstairs of our apartment have to say I don't blame him as it is very basic with a window at above head height and no decent storage.
Anyway we head off towards the office and for food we go to a place near the apartment called a Little Flavour which is some sort of franchise but is always good very fast and approx 16 rmb or approx one pound sixty pence don't you just love a place that will feed you good food for under two pounds.
Decide to walk to the office down walking street to show Luca a little of Wuhu in daylight.Luca is not due to start work till tomorrow but will spend the afternoon with Kit who has arranged to show him around Wuhu and let him recover a bit from the jet lag.

Luca has however a GREEN HAT which attracts quite a bit of attention (Consider the green hat. The phrase "wearing a green hat" in Chinese sounds like the word for "cuckold," so a green hat on a Chinese man is said to mean that his wife is cheating on him) However Luca takes all this in good spirit and is totally unfazed by the attention paid to his hat. Not that we need to attract attention as we do tend to stand out a little from the crowd as it is.


Saturday we have been invited to Lydia Echo and Christas apartment for some food and we all end up helping a little with the cooking and I get to cook two dishes with lots of help from Echo Lydia and Christa Luca did a superb job of chopping vegetables and meat as directed by the three girls.
The food is superb as usual and a very pleasant way to spend Saturday lunchtime.

Saturday evening is good we meet up with friends for a drink and go to the new club is busy and we enjoy ourselves without consuming too much alcohol.
Sunday we have been invited to visit the weather centre in Wuhu by the retired gentleman we met at English Corner on Sunday a few weeks ago.
So Sunday morning we grab a pancake from the stall on the corner which is 1.5 rmb bargain for breakfast then get picked up by Ginny & Kit to go to the weather centre. After guided tour of centre we walk back towards the amusement centre in Wuhu Fangtewild Adventure park we then head for a restaurant advertising good Chinese food don't suppose they would say anything else would they.The meal is as usual good lots of different dishes have to say the food here is always tasty and varied.
After Lunch to English corner with Luca which is a little busier than normal Luca it turns out also juggles which is an added attraction for people to enjoy not just the conversation.
I wont post anything else regarding Luca as he wants to publish a post on this blog so you will have to wait for Lucas guest blog.

Nanchang recruitment and train journey and shopping.

Off to Nanchang for a recruitment day on the Saturday. Nanchang is located 60 km south of the Yangtze River and is situated on the right bank of the Gan River just below its confluence with the Jin River and some 40 km south of its discharge into Poyang Lake.
Nanchang has a population of 3,934,445 people and a metropolitan area consisting of 4,990,184 people.
So Friday morning at 10.30 meet Jacob and head off towards the train station for the journey to Nanchang the train is delayed by 45 minutes which in my limited experience for trains in China is rare they are normally on time, any way we board the train we have seats in one carriage but it looks busy so we sit in another emptier carriage and hope no one has the seats booked.
The journey should take 6 hours 30 minutes so we should get to Nanchang about 6.30 pm Friday evening.
The train is clean comfortable and the views of the countryside are interesting and varied. My only problem is i have had no breakfast so need to find something to eat on the train.
The food options on the train are fairly limited but manage to buy some snacks to get me through the journey.
I am amazed at the amount of cotton growing in the fields as I have never seen a cotton field before its a strange sight to me.Also the amount of people beavering away in the fields is quite something to see.
After a couple of hours on the train a guy starts a sales presentation for a metal puzzle maybe he thinks the captive audience have left common sense behind on the platform. Later he tries again with socks apparently this is normal on trains and the brand of socks is famous in China now and they have the monopoly for trains.
Hopefully Richard Branson wont take up the idea or God help the travelling public if he does.
Arrive in Nanchang at 7.00 pm on Friday have to say the journey was good one thing i wanted to mention was that every ones id cards were checked and I was asked in perfect English where I was travelling to and from.
Book into the hotel a Jin Jiang Inn nice room clean comfortable.
Jacob and I meet up to go for some food and eventually settle on a hot pot restaurant near to the hotel. Food was fine a little spicy but very nice although we did not go for the hotpot and ordered various dishes.Afterwards we go into a jazz club adjacent to the hotel for a beer a and to chill out a little.
Saturday morning early start we have to be at the Job Fair at 8.30 so quick breakfast in the hotel of coffee and toast and jump into taxi to the job fair.
The job fair is similar to one one I attended in Wuhu but a little bigger.The job fair is fairly busy but as we do not Fresh Graduates the amount of potential recruits is limited.
At 1.30 we call it a day and pack up and head off into centre of Nanchang Jacob is off to see his friends near to his old university.So I decide to wander around the shopping area I have plenty of time as our Train is not till 9.45 Saturday evening.
Grab a quick coffee at K F C the coffee in KFC is reasonable and always available so a good option if you are struggling to find some coffee in China.

I wander into a shopping mall with no real idea of what I'm looking for just mostly to browse around on the 3 rd floor is the luggage section and as I want to replace my bag which I carry my day to day stuff and camera in. Find a bigger bag which will hold everything comfortably priced at 675 rmb before discount.Eventually agree price of 425 rmb, the one thing different in China is you don't pay in mall at the point of sale you have to go central cash desk and pay then return to the section and collect your goods.

In this mall we go from the 4Th floor to the first at one pay point i pay 300 rmb and then at another 120 rmb not sure why and how complicated can you make paying for something!!!.
Anyway I'm delighted with my purchase so much that i empty my previous bag and start using the new one immediately.

Leave the mall and head off towards a central square called Bayi square the second largest public square in China, after Beijing's Tiananmen Square. please see attached pictures In 1937, it became famous when on August 1, Zhou Enlai led an uprising against Chiang Kai-Shek’s nationalist army at Nanchang before retreating to the nearby Jinggang Mountains to form one of the first armed forces of the Chinese Red Army. Today, the anniversary of the uprising is celebrated each year in China as the day the People's Liberation Army was founded.
Wander off down main road to see what else I can find spot a monument on the opposite side of the road but can cross without using the underpass which aren't just for getting from one side of the road to the other in China they are full of little shops and what I would call cafes you could spend hours under the roadway shopping and eating to your hearts content.
Eventually make my way to the monument and take a picture please see link to Nanchang pictures on the blog.Continue along and spot a shop selling ipods which is of interest as i want an ipod to load some Chinese lessons on to after much bartering agree a price of 1,500 rmb includes charger and leather case for an Ipod Nano which i am delighted with.
By this point its late afternoon and i decide just to go down some side streets and see where i end up unfortunately it decides to rain so spot a coffee shop opposite a park area which sells coffee so settle down in a seat at the window to watch the world go by and enjoy my coffee.
After several cups of coffee i decide to do some more shopping and find somewhere to eat before my train journey towards the centre spot a belt shop and as my belts no longer fit me decide to buy a new one try unsuccessfully to barter and end up paying 99rmb which if I'm honest is OK belt seems good quality.
Decide to go for the safe option of Pizza hut however as usual a packed waiting area suggests this may not be so easy but as its just me reckon i can get a table for one quite easily.After 15 minutes and having seen people come in from outside and be seated i give up and head back to the coffee shop of the afternoon and eat there.
Later meet up with Jacob for the return journey to Wuhu which means we arrive in Wuhu at 4.45 am Sunday the sleeping section is fine and i do get some sleep.

Sunday get up late and go to English corner nothing really of note chill out Sunday night then back to work Monday.