Hi Everyone,
I hope this e mail finds you all well and in good health,as we are here in (very hot)Beijing the average temp for last 2 weeks has been about 27.
We placed a couple of adverts on the internet and in the magazine "The Beijinger" 2 weeks ago offering my services as a English teacher and/or proof reader, editor of translated into English documents,within 1 day I was contacted by 2 schools and 1 publishing company and then the same evening when out for a walk we passed a private teaching company named "The glory teaching centre" and they had an advertisement in the office asking for teachers. So we went in and arranged to have an interview the following morning Saturday,after which they offered me 2 classes teaching conversational English one to adults one to children and asked if I wanted more as they were looking for people to go to local companies and teach their staff.I said no to that and reminded them I was retired and only wanting a few hours,they offered me £10 a hour which I accepted and agreed 2 hours for each group.
The first class with the 5 adults on the Monday night was not to good,  they had given me a copy of the topic on the Saturday that they said the class had been given the previous week titled "Natural Disasters",which they are supposed to read and study in order that they can then converse with me on the subject after struggling for over an hour (their English was not as good as the company had led me to believe) they said it was to hard that they did not understand and had just been given the topic the previous day. I asked them to pick a topic,they said food,I said ok start talking to me about food,one of them said "what,s your favourite food "? The students cancelled the next week.Then the one with the children was cancelled as there were not enough, but I was given 2 hours a week on a one to one with a 12 year old boy which is going well.
I have also signed a contract with the publishing company and they gave me my first book to proof read and edit it's a 200 page instructional book on how to draw Japanese Manga translated from Japanese into Chinese then English haha (quite a bit of work in that one).I have to have it completed by 1st June that pays £10 for every 1,000 words whether edited or not.
What else I have I done?Oh yes we drove upto the Western Hills on Sunday and visited the eight Buddhist Temples there,two of which were for nuns only and one of them was well known for it,s tea so we sat on a balcony enjoying the tea at £8 a pot.The whole area was extremely busy with visitors and very commercial even driving up the road towards them we were  stuck in traffic and other drivers were overtaking us then they were stuck facing the traffic coming down so no one was going anywhere,lots of horns honking, people shouting ( me included haha).What was not nice to see were the people outside the entrances with all kinds of animals for sale in overcrowded cages and sweltering heat.It's quite common to see some animals for sale as it's traditional to buy them and release them,but that was not the case here.
Also been to the Imax screen to see the film about the  space shuttle and hubble telescope in 3d that was incredible especially when you felt like you were going through the galaxies.
A last little story, I was at the hospital yesterday to see the doctor as I have been feeling tired,losing a bit of weight plus some aches and pains ect.We were, of course there all morning, I noticed some elderley people carrying little stools,benches with them,then I realized why whenever we were in a line they would promptly sit down,they know all about waiting .The best one was when I finally got into the room to see the doctor I was sat there and she was asking me lots of question while taking my blood pressure,looking at my throat,writing it all down in my medical book, and I looked around and there were 4 complete strangers obviously waiting there turn to see a doctor who had just walked into the room and were stood watching it all and leaning over my shoulder to read my notes and no one said or did anything,very strange.I then had to go and have a blood test done we walked into a large room and there were some girls behind what looked like a post office counter you joined one of the lines and then gave them the doctors notes rolled up your sleeve stuck your arm through the glass opening and they took the blood gave you a lump of cotton to hold over the puncture and as you walked away the next person stuck their arm through haha.