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January 27, 2016 • Leave a Comment

Hi All,
Well I came back to the UK in November to have the Colonoscopy and they found two growths one of which was ok but the larger one was not ok, but they have removed them and I have to go back for another Colonoscopy in February just to be sure there is nothing missed or new growth after which it should just be annual check ups. They did say to me when I went back for the results that it was a wise move coming back early as another years growth and it would have been another story altogether. I am so pleased that Jun persuaded me to go back and have it done early.
Jun came over on the 22nd of December and we had a lovely Xmas together just staying at home and going for walks, a bike ride and a lovely trip out to Knaresborough. We also went up to Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey for part of the New Year retreat which was great to get back to as we missed the last two New Year retreats due to colds. We got back home late on New Years night and the next day packed for our trip to Malta and Gozo the following day setting off to drive to Leeds Bradford airport for a early morning flight in torrential rain and winds.

We arrived in Malta 3 hours later in a warm,sunny but windy day and caught the local bus for Valletta as the first place we were staying at was a self contained apartment in Floriana about 4 minutes walk to the centre of Valletta. The owner met us there and gave us the keys and chatted about the area and what to see, we had booked this and the converted farmhouse on Gozo through airbnb a great way to find interesting places to stay. We spent the rest of the day walking around getting orientated taking lots of photographs ( a great place for photographers) had a nice vegetarian meal in the soul café and on the evening had a pasta dish in a restaurant run by Floriana football club ( that's the closest I have come to football since I was 12 ha-ha).

We were up early the next day and after breakfast walked in to Valletta to visit The Church of St John which was very impressive with a large part of the floor covered in 400 marble tombs of members of the Knights Order from the times of the crusades, there were also two Caravaggio paintings which were amazing. Later in the day we took the ferry across the grand harbour to visit the three old cities and also looked around the Palace of the Inquisition. In the evening we walked along the old waterfront at Floriana and through some very old streets.

The next day we took the bus to Rabat the former capital of Malta, Rabat was fantastic such a beautiful place and visited the world war 2 air raid shelters and catacombs under St Pauls it was quite claustrophobic and seemed to go on forever and becoming narrower, so we both decided to leave and go to Mdina the ancient walled town, it was like stepping back in history expecting to see crusaders walking around the corner at any time. Later in the day we visited Mosta and the church with supposedly the third largest dome in the world where one night during the second world war a bomb came through the dome while the church had 400 people in and failed to explode. We then continued on to the seaside resort of St Pauls that was terrible it was dirty, scruffy so we quickly left and caught the bus to Sliema where we took the ferry back to Valletta.

The next day we left for Gozo and took the bus up to the ferry port ( 1 hour) catching the early ferry to Mgarr and picked up a hire car as the bus service isn't as good as Malta they wanted E20 a day but when I said no agreed to E15 a day. We were surprised that we didn't have to pay to get on the ferry till I asked later and was told you only pay when you go back, I guess they figure you can't go anywhere else. We stayed in Sanat at the converted farmhouse home of Peter a retired Marine engineer a very beautiful place he was a great host couldn't do enough for us and very knowledgeable about Gozo ( cooked amazing African/Middle Eastern breakfasts). Our first day we visited the famous Ggantija temples which are dated 3,600-3,000 BC where a whole race of people and culture disappeared, this was followed by a visit to a 17th century windmill where you could see how the family lived and worked within the windmill. We then followed the coast visiting some villages as well as the ancient saltpans that are still used to collect sea salt, by this time the weather had changed and it was very rainy and windy so we then drove up to one of the highest points where the Gorda Lighthouse is situated, very steep climb on roads which would be called dirt tracks in other countries, it looked very dramatic though as we looked across the sea at the approaching storm. We then visited the famous Azure window rock formation which is usually photographed with blue skies and sea hence its name but this day was grey with heavy seas.

Next day we went in to Vittoria Gozos capital walked the streets and visited the Citadel with amazing views across the Island then went back to Sanat for some breathtaking walks around the 150 metre cliffs.

The following day was beautiful weather so we re-visited some of the places and some more charming little villages talking and buying from a man with his own mobile shop with every possible space utilised, the people of Malta and Gozo certainly live up to their reputation for being friendly. We ended up at the seaside place called Xlendi with a very large swell bringing waves crashing on to the restaurant on the sea front, and we went back on the evening for a lovely last night meal.

The next day we caught the early ferry back to Malta ( and paid ) then took the bus which took 2 hours due to having to change buses and wait for a bus that no one was sure when it would arrive, when I asked someone about the timetable I was told they were all wrong ha-ha. We went to the other side of Malta for our last day and night at the fishing village of Marsaxlokk a very beautiful colourful place with small boats all coloured in red,white,yellow and blues, we spent the day walking around the harbour and a walk around the cliffs to see the new docks called Malta Freeport. We had a nice last meal then a early night as we had to be up at 4am to get to the airport arriving back in Leeds/Bradford to freezing rain but as we were so close to Haworth the home of the Bronte sisters and Jun had always wanted to visit the town and Parsonage we drove there before going home but it was very cold and closed. So we set off back home after what was a very busy packed week.

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October 26, 2015 • Leave a Comment

Hi All,

This is a period of very heavy smog, and it had been so beautiful previously and it is turning quite cold now as well. I had a lovely bike ride the other day down the side of moon river for a few miles and all the trees were shedding their leaves it was lovely, I also recently went by bus to a very old Muslim area which was great to walk around in spite of all the stares, but i did get a few nice replies to my hellos as i was taking photos.

We had a strange "coincidence" the other day we had just got in to the lift to go back up to our apartment when this woman asked if it was ok to get in with her dog and we said of course she then gave us some Sharon fruit and said she was visiting a friend in our block, and i was thinking your face looks familiar. Anyway 2 days later we are walking around the complex gardens and we met her again and thanked her for the fruit and we got talking, she had been a English teacher and was also a musician and she said her husband was a professional photographer bur specialised in doing collodian photography ( that's working with large glass wet plates). Then the penny dropped and i said were you and your husband in Beihai in 2011 doing photography on the beach, Beihai is a beach resort about 200km from Beijing that Jun and I and some of her friends visited for a weekend, then the penny dropped for her. I had spotted her stood at the waters edge in a old Chinese wedding dress and took some photographs of her then introduced myself and she took us to meet her husband who had a 4x4 parked at the side of the beach with a portable darkroom on the back and doing these amazing photographs of her and the beach area, He was the first person in mainland China to work with collodian plates and is currently studying for his Masters. So we ended up going back to their apartment in the same complex as ours and looking at some more of his work and he is showing an exhibition in Beijing next week that we are invited to, amazing eh.

We took a train journey me Jun and our niece Nui-nui the other weekend (which we nearly missed after getting lost in the car trying to find the station) the journey was nearly 3 hours up in to the mountains north of Beijing. We got off at this old town called Xing Long had a good look around but not to much to see and very busy with constant honking of horns. So we had something to eat and then got a taxi out of the town and got him to drop us off by the hills and we walked up to visit a village, we had some good chats with some of the villagers who to say the least were quite suprised to see a foreigner in their village and showing an interest in their life.Nui-nui spent time playing with local children knocking fruit off the trees, It was a really good day and i got some good images. But the train was really packed on the way back with people coming back to Beijing to work after the weekend lots of pushing and pulling and we had to turn people out of our seats.

Last Saturday we went to a large local market in a run down area and got stuck in a big traffic jam,everything was for sale live fish, chickens, goats,dogs though thankfully they were for sale as pets ( I think), an amazing amount of fruit and vegetables all really cheap, and just about anything else you can think of. On Sunday we went down in to the centre of Beijing and visited The National Art Gallery there were some amazing paintings on display especially one exhibition called The People of China. After we had a long walk through various Hutongs stopping off at a small eating place that Jun knows that serves food from the South West of China and specialises in spicy meals....very nice. Most of the houses in the Hutongs are still very basic with shared toilets, washing hanging outside etc I really like walking around them, and occasionally you come across one or maybe two together converted in to luxury houses that are worth millions.

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October 10, 2015 • Leave a Comment

Well it's been a long time since i wrote in my blog (Feb) i have been back in the UK for the last 9 months, and as i said in my last blog i stayed on expecting to go in to hospital in February for a shoulder operation,that was postponed till end of April. Jun went back in January and had to complete the task of packing in our previous apartment in the BDA area (south Beijing) and moving to our new one that we bought in Tong Zhou district ( east Beijing) and setting it all up, all of which she managed to do marvelously, as well as having to start work in a new department of China Customs at the same time.

Jun and our friend Ping came back over at the end of March and as it was her first time visiting the UK we enjoyed taking her out and about and spent some time in the Lake District and various other places. We even managed to book a showing of Jesus Christ Superstar performed in Durham Cathedral which was amazing. Ping kept a online diary of her time in the UK and made regular postings along with photographs and as she has a good sense of humour and sees things with a fresh eye she posted some really good observations.

After Ping returned to China i went in to hospital and had the operation and it was fortunate that Jun was with me for the first 2 weeks as i was in a lot of pain and found it difficult to do things. One example of this is the day after the operation i woke up at 3am after the anesthetic/pain killers had worn off and was in a lot of pain and so took some really strong pain killers (a few times), then feeling ok i suggested to Jun we go for a walk on a very hot morning and after completing half the walk became ill and really struggled to get back home, Jun couldn't believe i had chosen such a walk only a day after the op, and i learnt a lesson about acceptance and not being so young anymore ha-ha. It did take a long time to recover from it and i also went back to hospital for my follow up Endoscopy which was ok and showed that my Barretts Oesphagus had not worsened.

Jun managed to get some extra leave from work and came back over and we had a lovely Summer working in the garden planting crab apple,black berry, building a new rockery and starting on converting the two sheds in to one large one, and of course having some wonderful days out .We also had Rev Adelin come to stay with us for a couple of days and it was lovely to show her around Teesdale and finally manage to take her to South Gare Pier near Redcar and see the small fishing community there as well as climbing Eston Nab for spectacular views all across Teesside.

We spent some time visiting our Buddhist Monastery and later in the year i managed weekend retreats both at Throssel Hole and at Ministeracres. I have also enjoyed spending time back with our local weekly Meditation Group and we celebrated recently our 14th year since we started it. It has also been a good opportunity to spend some longer time with friends and family especially my dad who is now in his 95th year.

I also started the job i mentioned i was interested in as a voluntary surveyor working with Teesdale Landscape Partnership which entailed going out to Farms,Buildings,Barns etc that had historical significance and writing reports and descriptions of them, as well as photographing them. It was really rewarding work and i enjoyed it immensely.

I have continued to have some of my photographs published in various publications and was quite proud of having one chosen to go in a piece of work by a organisation in Singapore to celebrate The United Nations World Habitat day.

I arrived back in Beijing ok after leaving home at 7.15 am Tuesday the 22nd of Sep, it wasn't a bad flight going from Newcastle to Amsterdam only an hour or so then straight on to the China flight which was about 8.5 hours arriving in Beijing at 6.20 am Wednesday. I had forgot in Beijing how everyone is constantly on their mobile apps,talking, reading,playing games or taking endless selfies ha-ha.

Had a very busy 14 days showing Michael around, our friend and neighbour from the house at the back of ours in Gainford, he just seemed totally bewildered by it all and can't get over how big, crowded and noisy it is,I have showed him the sights ( tourist and otherwise) of this, to him, incomprehensible huge city it just takes for ever to get around and he wont let me out of his sight when we are out ha-ha. The weather was still quite hot and humid when we arrived and we did have a couple of days of rain recently but it has now turned cold and very windy.

Jun was off work for a few days for the National Holidays and we just had the Autumn Festival after we arrived where people spent time with their families and eating lots of moon cakes. We went to the traffic dept to get a weeks permit to drive the car in the centre rather than getting the buses and metros. We can then travel a bit more by car instead of using buses and the Metro which is what we did for the first week and i had to reorient myself with now living in the Tong Zhou district which is very different from BDA it's about 1.45 hours drive from there. We can now spend upwards of 2 hours just traveling to another area of Beijing by bus and metro and even Jun was stuck in traffic for 2.5 hours in our car the other morning. I have just been to the swimming pool in a hotel close by...10 minute bike ride, it is a very nice place Jun's sister has a membership card there and it has 2 months to expiry so she lets me use it. It is the first swimming i have done in over 9 months and i really enjoyed it and yesterday i went for a long bike ride exploring along the Moon River close to where we now live.

I am settling back in to daily life here and Michael has now gone back and Jun is at work, we took him to see the Great wall 2 days before he left and as it was during the National holidays it took me 3 hours driving to get there and over 3 hours to get back but now he has seen the wall,stood on it and has the T shirt ha-ha. I don't think he ever lost his initial confusion and bewilderment the whole time he was here, i sometimes looked at him through the rear view mirror as i was driving and he had the look of a rabbit frozen in headlights at the traffic and behavior of drivers ha-ha. Still he did say he had an amazing time and it was a life time experience he wouldn't have missed for anything. It was certainly a very busy 2 weeks trying to cram as much as possible in for him, so now i can relax a little and get some jobs done around our new apartment. I recently got some test results back for bowel cancer screening that showed abnormal and they wanted me to go straight in and have an Colonoscopy but i told them i couldn't as my flights were already booked but would come back early so i had to cancel my Dec 22nd flight and re -book one for Nov 3rd, they wouldn't give me the money back or change it but after a lot of e mails and telephone calls they did give me a cheap flight back, so i will be back in the UK early now, and Jun will join me in December

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February 19, 2015 • Leave a Comment

Well its been nearly 2 months now since Jun and I left Beijing arriving in the UK on the 18th of December back to our home in Teesdale.It was as usual a long flight made worse by a 4 hour stop over in Dubai and me going for a walk about and getting lost as I had left Jun in an area where there was some good seats but then had not took any notice of the number and letter of that area, consequently I could not remember where she was and just had to keep walking till I recognised somewhere, thankfully I did and I found her as they were calling for the boarding of our flight and we made our way to our boarding area just in time.
We had a very quiet Christmas just the two of us and went for some nice walks, then we were supposed to go to Throssel Buddhist Abbey for the New Year retreat but we both came down with a nasty virus so had to cancel that.
Jun went back to Beijing on the 18th of January and had only just over two weeks to pack and move from the apartment in the BDA area back to our own apartment in Tong Zhua District at the far west side of Beijing before she started her job in a new department of China Customs a 40 minute drive from Tong Zhua. It was very difficult having to pack, move and unpack and set up a new home by herself and start work somewhere new but she managed to do it all wonderfully.
I also applied for two voluntary jobs one transporting people to hospital/doctor appointments, and the second working for the Teesdale Partnership doing survey work on farms and various farm buildings in order to provide a record of changing farming methods and uses of buildings over the centuries. This will also require photographing the buildings and surrounding areas so I am very keen to start on this, I have my first one to do on Saturday 21st of February.
I had my pre op assessment the other week and was under the impression I would have my shoulder operation sometime in February but have now been informed it will be the third week of April. I was hoping to have had it done and recovered before Jun comes back on the 31st of March but at least she will be here when I have my operation and she can be a nurse for a time ha-ha.
I did manage to get up to Throssel Buddhist Abbey for the Festival of Avolikishtevara on the first Sunday of February but got stuck in the snow drifts three times before deciding it would be better to drive another way which made me late but at least I got there. It was very nice to meet up again with fellow lay sangha friends and see the monks again.
I have been going out regularly on walks with my friend Michael who has lived in the village all his life it's almost like having your own personal tour guide as we walk all these amazing places and Michael fills me in on all the history, and I of course get to photograph it all. Just recently I have had a barn owl fly out of a building just two foot above my head, I have watched a otter swimming in the River Tees, seen Kingfishers, Buzzards and a Red Kite as well as numerous other birds. Came across abandoned billets on a farm that were used for the Land Army girls during the war, old lime kilns, derelict cottages, monastery ruins and listened to great stories of people and places around Teesdale.

I have been travelling over to Hartlepool each week to see my Father who is in a Nursing home there, it's a really lovely place and the staff are very nice and although at 94 years of age and with a few health problems he can still crack a good joke, he is certainly a great man. I coincide seeing my dad with going to my friend Johns for tea after which we go to our local Buddhist Meditation group, I think it is now about 14 years since we started a local group as before that we travelled up to Newcastle.

They have just celebrated New Year in China today this year is the year of the Goat, Jun has been watching all the fireworks from the apartment window and as we are on the 19th floor she has had a great view of them,the downside is all the fireworks will precipitate more smog over the city. I was watching some of it on the news over here and they were talking again about Chinese New Year time being the planets largest movement of people as they all go home or elsewhere for the holidays, it really is a sight to see especially around the train and bus stations and yet everyone seems to get to where they want to be.

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November 08, 2014 • Leave a Comment

I have started teaching quite a bit more this time back, and am now fully back in to Beijing life although i have to confess that plane journey gets harder each time as does the recovery period.I have been out and about locally so started taking more photos and have posted them on to my web site here.It was the start of the National holidays the other week so Jun has 5 days off although typically in China she had to work last Sunday and will also have to work a week on Saturday so in reality she gets 3 days off.It's a big celebration this year as its 65 years since the Communists took over,so everywhere is being tidied up and lots and lots of flowers being displayed it really does look very nice, and of course no mention of HK.

We went down to the city centre on the Friday to Tian'aman square it was very busy as you can imagine with lots of heightened security,we just walked around with me taking photos then we went to the north east gate of the Forbidden City after the sun had set for some amazing views across the canal to the large walls and towers,never seen so many photographers in one place ( is there a collective noun for a large group of photographers ha-ha).

I recently read a story of a man from one of the Southern provinces arrested for driving with no licence, apparently he has been driving for years without one,you will be now thinking " whats so special about that" and the answer is he has no arms he was using his feet to drive an ordinary unmodified car I think the courts were quite impressed with his ability as they only fined him 50 pounds.

Autumn is now set well in and showing some beautiful colours, it is lovely around the parks, and as i recently sold my scooter i am now spending more time on my bike and enjoying the exercise.

We have been having some nice clear sunny days recently after almost 1 week of smog but it is a lot colder now.Jun had to work last Sunday and will have to work a week on Sunday as they are giving Govt employees a few of days off during the week while the big APEC conference is taking place in Beijing,they have already told millions of car owners both here in Beijing and other surrounding cities covering an area the size of England they can't use their cars on certain days this week they alternate between odd and even numbers each day from the registration plate,this is so the city doesn't look to congested.They also have,to ensure the air is clear and stays clear shut down countless factories etc for a week while all the other countries leaders are here. Beijingers have even coined a new phrase for a particular sky colour it's called APEC BLUE ha-ha. Last week they said in response to comments about the pollution here " We are not the worst,India was worse than us the other day" a Chinese friend of mine said to me it's like coming home from school with a bad report card and saying to your parents "but i'm not the worst in class". Then Jun said yes the Government did say that, but now they have been caught out as they had manipulated the figures anyway,so they are in fact worse than India.

There was a Govt minister from Beijing arrested on corruption charges recently and they found money in one of his houses,well they have just released the news on how much he had in cash in the house it was the equivalent of 20,000,000 pounds in English money, they say that there was that many arrested from his department that it could no longer function as a Government department. You hear a lot of this type of news these days since the Government started to crack down on corruption.

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September 26, 2014 • Leave a Comment

Well after 3 months in England I am now back in China, I left the UK at 8am Monday the 15th of September and arrived in Beijing at 3.30pm Tuesday the 16th ( with the 7 hour time difference) I was very tired and to make it worse Jun and I missed each other as I came through the arrivals gate, my phone had stopped working as soon as i left the UK so I couldn't call her and just assumed she hadn't been able to get away from work early to meet me, so I stood at the far end of the arrival gate for 1.5 hours. Meanwhile Jun is at the other end of the arrival area ( it is a huge area) trying to contact me and wondering why I hadn't replied to her texts that she sent me when i was on a stopover at Dubai and naturally thinking something had happened and I had either missed the flight from Newcastle or something had happened on route. I didn't dare move from my position in case I missed her and Jun was thinking the same,eventually she made her way to the information desk to check if i had been on the flight when she spotted me stood at the far end looking like in her words " dead on my feet and completely lost" ha-ha. Anyway it was all ok in the end and we got home at 7pm.

I spent the first couple of days just pottering around the apartment and having a few catnaps to adjust to the time difference, I went to the local shop on the first afternoon and they were all waving and saying welcome back which was really nice, and when Jun came home from work we went for a massage which helped to relax some of the previous days tension.

It was a hard but enjoyable time working on our house back in the UK, Jun was with me for the first 4 weeks so we managed to buy all the furniture,carpets,paint etc,which entailed initially a lot of travelling about,we even managed to do all the hard work in the garden building stone walls in the courtyard to house all the flowers and plants we had bought, as well as fitting and installing a pond and fountain.All the stones for the garden were carried by Jun and I from the riverside and allotments as well as carrying 1 ton of delivered top soil from the road at the front of the house around to the back,all very hard work but Jun was amazing turning her hand to anything that needed doing eg mixing cement and even laying some of the stone walls.

We also at the end of the first month before Jun went back to China traveled to Liverpool for 3 days for my Nieces wedding which was lovely, we also had time to visit some of the tourist areas in particular The Cavern Club and the regenerated dock area,which brought back memories of when i was a young man in the Navy arriving and sailing from Liverpool.

It was especially nice that there was more time for visiting family and friends as well as having time to go to Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey.two day visits and one weekend stay. We also had time for some nice walks in Teesdale it really is a beautiful place,and of course quite a few car boot sales and charity shops (always looking for that bargain ha-ha) I did though manage to get some great Frank Sutcliffe framed prints. I also entered one of my photographs in to the Gainford Annual show and got second prize for my nature macro shot of the Ant and Butterfly,so i was pleased with that.

So now i am settled back in to life in China and have started teaching again and restablished contact with friends over here,we have also been invited to fly to ChongQuing to visit friends of ours a French family who moved there from Beijing, which we are hoping to do before we go back to the UK in December.

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May 07, 2014 • Leave a Comment

Hi everyone,
We had a lovely day out last Friday as it was the May Day holidays so Jun was off Thursday and Friday,but she had to go back to work on Sunday to make up for one of the days ( you don't get to many days from the government) We went to Tianjin which is a large city close to the coast by bullet train which reached a speed of 290 km an hour ( the world zipped by),they are beautiful modern trains very comfortable and smooth. Tianjin is a lovely city and very different to Beijing with a less frenzied feel and a large river running right through it down to the coast and a very large seaport,with ferries running to Japan and Korea. In fact looking up and down the river and at the buildings including their own golden eye,bridges and a Catholic Church you would think you were in London. There is one lovely bridge called Liberation bridge built by the French in 1903,and you can take boat rides from there up and down the river even going as far as the seaport although that one is an 8 hour round trip.
I find it strange though that if you travel by train you have to show your ID if you are Chinese, or in my case as a foreigner my passport in order to purchase a ticket yet i could drive our car there or take a coach without showing anything to anyone.I was talking to a Asian American couple in the queue who had asked me if they could get a ticket with other ID i.e a driving licence as they had not brought their passports with them,which of course they couldn,t so they had to cancel their trip. We asked if we could get tickets on the next train to leave which was at 11.05 but the booking clerk said no it was sold out so the next one was at 1.05. We were sat in the station waiting and watching the busy world go by and happened to check our tickets at about 12 o clock and discovered she had booked us on the 11.05 which of course had long since left so we had to go back cancel those tickets and get the last two seats on the 1.05 (only in China ha-ha).
We had a long walk through a very large Antique Market before going over to the area known as the Five Avenues which is where all the foreign delegations lived and is full of old preserved colonial buildings.Some are now private houses,restaurants,offices or empty awaiting refurbishment,plus two that have been converted in to visitor attractions with all the walls inside and out covered in porcelain and many other decorative furnishings.
We walked about till about 6 then went for something to eat and then made our way back to the river area near the station with lots of people walking about,taking photographs, selling goods on the pavements,and releasing loads of lanterns.We then caught the last train back at 10 o clock and just made the last bus from Beijing station back home arriving at 11.30 feeling very tired ha-ha.
There is a lot of history attached to Tianjin It was Tianjin port that the Western countries using as an excuse the alleged boarding of a British ship by the Chinese surrounded the area with gunboats and made them sign the treaty of Tianjin of 1856 which gave them access to nine concessionary bases on the mainland from which they could conduct trade and sell opium.This created lots of ill feeling and in 1870 a Chinese mob attacked a French Orphanage killing the Priests and Nuns believing that the orphans were being kidnapped and eaten by the foreigners.As a result 20 Chinese were beheaded and peace restored until the Boxer rebellion of 1900.

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April 15, 2014 • Leave a Comment

Hi All,

I have just recently left a message for all my friends and contacts on Flickr to say i was taking a break from Flickr as it is becoming increasingly harder to upload my photos and at present only being able to see about 60/70% of other peoples photos along with a new problem of losing contacts whole details and photo streams,and other people have also informed me that they can't see my photos.It is a pity as i really liked going on Flickr and learnt so much and made good friends and i hope i can get back to it sometime soon.
I was reading an autobiography by William Seagal recently " A voice at the borders of silence" who as well as being a very successful business man,artist etc was a follower of Gurdjieff (whose teachings I followed for over 6 years before becoming a Buddhist) having met him through Ouspensky in America he continued to be involved with the Teachings right up to his death in 2000,he was a close friend of M De Salzmann (Paris),who took over from Gurdjieff after his death along with my teacher Rina Hands ( London). But what interested me about him the most was at the same time he was a close friend of D T Suzuki and with introductions from him spent long periods at Zen Buddhist Temples in Japan in the 50's 60's and later,even taking the Salzmanns over to visit.He seemed to be able to discern the qualities of both teachings without diluting either,a very remarkable man.

The air quality has been a bit better recently and we have had some lovely Spring days it was lovely to get out and view the Cherry Blossoms,Magnolias and various other scented plants . I have my scooter up and running again which is great for short trips and have had a few hours here and there taking photographs,sometimes in the parks other times in derelict villages or abandoned factories I have also been doing a bit more in turning some photos in to looking like paintings which i quite enjoy doing,you can see them here on my website under creative images.

We have just finished packing 6 large boxes to ship back to the UK it was a bit difficult trying to decide what stays here and what goes to our house (the house became ours last Friday 11th of April ) and you wouldn't believe the amount of paperwork involved itemising everything, proving none of it is eligible for tax or illegal etc....anyway it will be collected next Wednesday and transported south to go on a container ship, so from door to door it should be about 10 weeks.We still haven't booked our flights yet still holding out for any last minute reductions as at the moment the cheapest are about 800 each,what makes it so maddening is that if you booked it the other way ie from UK to China its a lot cheaper.

It certainly has been a very strange case with the missing plane but it seems now they think they have located the black box,I hope so and that they will be able to finally say what happened.Most people here think that the Malaysian Govt has covered things up and withheld information which is why some have been demanding answers and demonstrating etc. But it was a good point made the other week by a Malaysian Minister when he was questioned about what the Chinese relatives were saying as well as the Chinese Govt who up till then were also saying that Malaysia should be more open and transparent. He replied that it was strange to have China saying these things when they clearly are one of the least open and transparent countries in the world and that if the relatives were demonstrating against China and accusing them they would in all probability go to jail.

I was talking recently to one of the mothers of the students i teach about the missing plane and she just said straight away exactly what the Chinese Govt had been saying.It's like when i asked her what her thoughts were on the demonstrations abroad regarding Tibet and recently in Taiwan and she said she couldn't understand what was wrong with them as everyone knows they are a part of China.

There was a short holiday recently here in China for remembering your ancestors and tomb cleaning day and one part of it is that the night before the tomb cleaning day people go with copies of paper money and make their way to crossroads and draw circles on the ground and place the money inside, recite prayers and set fire to it.I went this year with Jun as she did some herself, it was strange to be stood at a busy traffic lighted junction and see people all around with these little fires going,yet at the same time it was quite nice to see,it reminded me a little of the last ceremony of Segaki (Hungry Ghosts Retreat) which is a week long retreat we hold in October at our Monastery.

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March 15, 2014 • Leave a Comment

Hi Everyone,
I hope the weather has started to improve back in the UK,we as you know had a terrible time recently with the smog it lasted 10 days and apparently the WHO states that the safety limit is 2.5 microns per cubic metre and during those days it was averaging 505 and one day reached 700,you might as well suck on a exhaust pipe ha-ha.But recently we have had some lovely warm,blue sky days and it is so nice to go for a walk in the parks and see Spring arriving.
I went and had a look at that old house the other week which is reputed to be haunted,it was built in 1900 in the colonial style originally to be a church,but became a house instead and was owned by a high ranking official in the Manchurian Government and when the Communists took over in 1949 he fled to Taiwan leaving behind his family and the story goes that one of his concubines was so distraught she hung herself in the house and the legend has it that on stormy nights or full moon nights you can hear her crying. Anyway as i said i had a good look around and took some photos,it is in a bad condition now and they say that at least twice before they tried to demolish it as it is in a prime location,and again legend says the last time it was halted when some workers mysteriously disappeared.So now no one will work on it and the Gov't have gave it a kind of unofficial listed building status.
I had a day out last week with Andy a friend of mine I met over here, he is a photographer and also married to a Chinese woman. We spent the day at the Heaven Temple and Parks,it's a grand place with loads of history where emperors of the past offered Taoist offerings for good harvests for the coming year, it was built in 1420, I think we walked for nearly 5 hours but it was a lovely day, quite warm and it was nice to be taking photos with someone else.I still like visiting old derelict places though,I found a great one the other week it was an abandoned small factory and i got in and wandered around taking some interesting shots,then later thinking if i had a accident in there no one would know,so that was a bit sobering ha-ha.
I have been watching all the news reports on that missing plane from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing I find it incredible that it could just disappear like that,it seems it was deliberately turned around and the transponders were disabled by someone on board ,and what makes it even more personal is that Jun and I were on that same flight last Summer returning from our trip to Indonesia and Malaysia.
I have wrote on other occasions about how many Chinese children seem to be over protected and allowed to have their own way to much creating a kind of me-me culture that gives rise to very self centered competitive people,the Chinese policy of one child probably goes a long way towards explaining it,and I was very much reminded of it again today when one of my young students aged 6 who has two lessons a week with me,was here this morning.At the end of the lesson I usually like to do something different with them just to break up the lesson play a game or something.Today i showed him a small game where a page is covered in dots and the aim is to draw one line each and the one who completes a square takes it with the one with the most squares being the winner.Well I took the first three squares and he burst out crying saying to Jun "billy is winning it's not fair,i feel shame" and after was inconsolable.I said to Jun later that kind of behaviour has to be changed for his own future good.
We will be traveling back to the UK sometime middle of June staying till July then Jun goes back to China and I will stay on for another 2 months or so finishing off decorating and furnishing the house,but we haven't booked the flights yet so its still a bit uncertain on the exact days.

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February 10, 2014 • Leave a Comment

Hi
Well it's the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations now most people are back at work tomorrow 10th of Feb as are the school children. Jun had to go back last Friday and work Saturday, as well as working some of the other weekend before the holidays.
We did go out a couple of times to visit areas as well as a few walks in the local parks.. and we got some snow the other day which ended nearly 4 months of dryness, but it is still very cold. The first day we visited the Hutongs and Markets at Liulichang in Beijing, it was very quiet walking through the old alleyways, the houses don't have toilets and the local residents have to use communal toilet blocks scattered around the area. But it was unbelievable when we came out of the almost deserted alleyways in to the market areas and confronted a solid mass of people. Later we went in to a restaurant for lunch and the staff were literally run off their feet, we observed a couple of the young girls becoming very upset as they had not had a break for hours, one was on the verge of tears. Eventually we got a table and we ordered our food and a short time later they brought us some sweet pancakes we told them we hadn't ordered them and it turned out it was the previous people at the table, either they forgot or just didn't want to wait any longer ha-ha.
Later we got off the main market roads back in to some of the alleyways and we came across this old guy with his bike and some small birds tethered to his bike, he released one of them after asking me to hold up a 1yuan note ( 10p),the bird flew onto my hand picked the note out of my fingers and flew to the old guy and gave it to him, he then opened a small box on his bike and put it in the box and the bird promptly flew down opened the box retrieved the note and gave it back to him again.
Another day we went to a large park called Lung Tan Hu as we had found out that there was an abandoned amusement park close to it and I wanted to explore it, we spent an hour or so in Lung Tan which again was very busy but it was a nice holiday atmosphere, we then went to a local kiosk for pancakes then had some local food in a small café for local people which was packed solid. We then went in search of a way in to the amusement park and were lucky to find that an area at the main entrance was being used as a overspill car park so we just walked in and started to walk around the dried up lakeside as the actual park is on an island which had 4 bridges leading in to it.However the bridges were sealed off with steel plates but as the lake was dried up we climbed down and crossed over and just climbed back up the other side. To say that it was eerie would be an understatement, there was a strong wind blowing and the 180 feet big wheel was making loud groaning noises as it slowly turned around, torn sheets were flapping and blowing out of buildings and windows. I found a large building with a roller door partly open so went inside, the first thing I noticed was the shadow of the pods on the big wheel moving down the wall followed by a door banging very loudly. I took some quick shots and left, later we came across a pile of abandoned pleasure boats all with duck heads on the bows with some of them broken off lying on the floor almost like a graveyard a very melancholic feel to it, but a great place to explore and we thoroughly enjoyed it, even bumping in to a young Chinese student as we were leaving who had the same idea as us. You can see some of the images in my website here in the set titled "abandoned things", our next one is a supposedly haunted 19th century house, should be interesting.

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