Hi Everyone,
Well we are all settled back into our routine here in Beijing our trip back to the UK seems a distant memory now. We  had a very quiet Christmas and New Year in fact there was nothing to show it was Christmas or New Year here apart from a few attempts to put up lights or decorations in some buildings, although I did see a nice display they put on at the Great Wall for New Year on the TV. Off course Chinese New Year starts on the 31st of January,quite early this year, and it will be the year of the horse.In fact fireworks are starting already this week which will increase with greater frequency as the day approaches and for a good time afterwards.
  Things are about the same here weather wise, very cold but at least some of the days are nice and clear, but we have had some bad days of smog when it's bad it really is bad and then two days later you have beautiful blue skies, we have now had no rain for over 3 months so you can imagine how dry everything is,probably because Europe seems to have got it all ha-ha.
I just heard some news the other day that a village in the south of China was a giant Meth lab with most of the villagers involved as well as local officials and the police, who even used the police cars to transport the drugs, like something out of an Asian "Breaking Bad" ha-ha.The whole place was raided apparently by army and police from another area with over a 100 arrests. Unfortunately no doubt there will be a few executions taking place out of that many.I read an article recently about executions in China along with photographs showing the last days of a woman drug smuggler it's no coincidence that they all appear to be very poor and from deprived areas especially if you contrast it against high ranking politicians and business people who commit murder and/ or huge bribery and corruption crimes and have their death sentences deferred indefinitely,not that I am for executions for anyone.
I was in the hospital last week having some x rays of my knees which incidentally the doctor said although there is some damage it is to early for any surgery and for my age they are in pretty good condition, I said I will try and remind myself of that when I get out of bed in the mornings ha-ha. Anyway while waiting to see the doctor a woman had gone in to see one of the other doctors and of course the doors are always open and people wander in and out. So we could see and hear this doctor shouting at this woman so I said to Jun what's all that about and apparently there was something quite wrong with her that required  immediate treatment but she had told him she couldn't as she had to travel to a business meeting down south, and he was shouting "why bother to come and see me then, you are just wasting my time, how many business trips do you think you can go on when you are dead". She left pretty quickly after that.
I started teaching little Ben again last week I have him for 2 hours on a Wednesday 6pm to 8pm and for the first time I collected him from home and took him to our apartment and he kept saying to me in the car " where am I going, where are you taking me?"  I said you are coming to my home to stay with me till your mammy comes for you. Anyway he was fine and seemed to enjoy himself so the next day Michelle his mother phoned me and I asked her was he ok and what did he say. She said he had said to her "Mummy have I just been to England with Billy?"  Ha-Ha.
We have just been looking at some photographs on the internet of a wedding from one of the Southern Provinces, they were two very rich families  as you know some people  Chinese included love to have the opportunity to show off their position, wealth and status. The photos showed the procession consisting of 24 Rolls Royces,40 Bentley's, numerous sports cars and 4x4's and the wedding gift to the bride and groom of a Lamborghini each ( just a little private family gathering ha-ha).
I have just put some new photo sets onto my website if  any of you get the time to look they are Footprints, Shadows and Power of Pedals.