Hmmm.... it appears that the great firewall of China has blocked blogger blogs again. Nevermind, I think this is still going to work.

Hopefully will have some more photos and posts this weekend.

Ok, sorry I didn't realise that the videos weren't working until today.

That has been fixed so you can now view them - scroll down to the 8th October post or click here to see the first video and here to see the second video.

Thank you for pointing that out Al (check out his website).

Ok, I'm sick and I've been stuck at home all day finishing some reports and other things which is probably why this is bothering more than usual (I haven't been out of the house much since last wednesday - have some horrible cold/cough thing which is still making me cough constantly and reach for the tissues every few minutes even though I am actually feeling much better).

Ok so this is about milk cartons of all things. Now, I have actually got used to the milk here in China which is OHT milk, long life milk - whatever you like to call it. I even like having it on my cereal now or occasionally drinking it which I would never have said a year ago.

BUT - why can't they make the milk cartons so they pour easily???? There is one brand with one type of opening on some of their cartons that pours ok. The rest? - you try to pour a little milk into your coffee and you end up with just as much running down the side of the carton onto the bench! AiYa! [translation: how annoying!!!]

I've changed the comments function - I didn't realise it was on a setting that made it difficult for some to post comments.

So now thats taken care of - click on the "comments" link under any post to let me know what you think!

Well, last Friday (6th October) was China's Mid-Autumn festival.

For weeks now the shops have been selling "Moon cakes" in the lead to this festival. These are small, round, I guess 'moon shaped' pastries filled with a variety of different fillings. I think traditionally the filling was salted egg but these days you get everything from red-bean paste to strawberry and pineapple flavoured.

On the night of the moon festival people have dinner with their families, eat moon cakes and stay up and look at the moon.

I have to say this year I didn't even eat one moon cake and it was so hazy on Friday night we couldn't spot the moon.....


Mooncake (this one is decorated with flowers). Photo by Kurt Groetsch thanks to flickr.

Yep, last week was China's National Holiday week. I took the opportunity of a few days off to head 2 hours south to Heng Yang where I stayed a few nights with some friends.

We decided to try and see what 'touristy' things we could find to do or go and see and ended up visiting a school/building where (we think) Mao Ze Dong used to teach students about strategy to mobilise for the Peasant Movement prior to the cultural revolution.

What we could understand (everything was written in Chinese) was interesting and the building was fitted out in old-style chinese furniture.

This is a photo of part of the inscription on the outside of the building.

Ok, my first go at putting some video on the site. It seems google video is not viewable from China so have gone with You Tube but the quality seems to have decreased a bit through the upload and publish process. Oh well.

Going to work on Saturday

This was taken while on the bus last Saturday, heading to work for the "Monday" schedule. It was about 8am and you can see people out at the markets (opening scene - meat and vege markets down under where the red sign is), driving, riding, walking to work, crossing the road, riding their motorbikes in the wrong direction up the road. It was slightly cooler that day - it seems like the hot muggy summer weather is finally behind us and cooler autumn days are here at last!

crossing the highway

This was taken while on the bus last Saturday, crossing the highway on my way to work. Love how we cut off the big white petrol tanker....