A bit like Stanthorpe in July

Any Aussie who listens to Macca    http://www.abc.net.au/australiaallover/  on a Sunday Morning, will know the song, ‘The monkeys sing soprano at Stanthorpe in July. Well, at the best of times I am a cold fish, and here in Putian I am being tested somewhat.

You can take my word for it, and hang me if I lie,

 But the brass monkeys sing soprano at Stanthorpe in July.

 And August

 And September

 And October

Now people tell you Queensland is a place of heat and dust,

 That ain't at all exactly true, believe me if you must,

 ‘Cos it snows at Wallangarra and up past Girraween,

 And if you go there in the wintertime you'll feel just what I mean.

 The wind comes up from New South Wales, it ain't exactly nice,

 Because it brings upon its blast big mobs of snow and ice.

 You'll shiver all the flamin' night and all the chilly day

 Despite your thermal underwear.

 But the monkeys sing soprano at Stanthorpe in July.

Putian is akin to Stanthorpe. It doesn’t snow here in Putian, but when the weather is bad all around, as it is now, the wind is somewhat keen, to put it mildly. Beijing, a long way north is minus 15. Xin Jiang region is minus 40 odd. That is a long long way from here, but even so, the winds tell us that they have come from that region. Hence, I am cold.

Living on the Gold Coast, or any part of Queensland, it is warm. Even our winters are warm, wearing T shirts in the day, and in the cold, yes, long fleecy pants at night. But here in the day, we hit around 10 degrees, maybe up to 15 or so, and a goodly amount of fresh air makes its way through fully or partly opened windows. Those temperatures are a Queensland night in the winter, when we are snuggled up in bed with our hotties and feather doona’s all wrapped around us.

Therefore, to keep warm I am resorting to my bed. I have sufficient bedding, and my bed is quite warm and cosy once I get in and get warmed up. But so far I have needed an extra blanket, and I wear my thick woolly socks and take three hotties with me until I warm up.

I was sitting at my little laptop last night, sporting many layers of clothes and a thick woolly scarf wrapped round my neck and shoulders when Alex pops his head in. ‘Oh, you are cold!’ he says, a little surprised. ‘How will you get on in Suzhou?’

He knows Suzhou(said Soo joe) is much much colder than here, and next week I am off to Suzhou for a few days, so he has no idea how I will manage in a house where the temperature is an average zero or minus. With a tiny touch of irony, I said, ‘They will have the heaters going. It will be warm in their house.’ I know, in the winter they keep it around the 20 to 24 degree mark. ‘Oh,’ he says, ‘it’s not healthy to use the heating, the air is not fresh.’ You gotta love it!

I know it’s really hot back home at the moment, I Skype Peter most nights, but a bit of heat and humidity would be welcome relief just now.

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My trip to China is getting close.

I am going to China for a holiday. Peter and I lived there for some time, teaching English, and absolutely loved it. We have been house sitting since I got back from China, finding it a bit hard to settle down after having a full-on really interesting life over there. And now, I am going back for six weeks holiday.

Peter will be staying here in Aussie, keeping the home fires burning, and staying on at this house sit. One of the down sides of house sitting long term is that you can't just pack up and take off whenever you feel like it, and especially if you have animals to care for, you can take day trips but need to be there every day for feeding and caring for the animals.

However, in this case, the trip is just for me. I am going especially for a wedding. At our first teaching job in China we met a couple of young men who had graduated and came to English Corner every Wednesday night to keep their English language skills up to date. One, Alex, we got to know very well, and over the past six years, we have become great friends. He is getting married, and offered to help me out with the cost of going over for his wedding. Isn't that lovely? When we were living in Longyan, Alex's mother died, and over the past years, I have become his Aussie mother.

Alex used to visit Peter and I regularly. His English was pretty good. He was working, so would come up in the evenings. He was 23 yeas old here, but he is 30 now. We would play cards. The Chinese are terrific card players, and Alex could remember every card that had been played and what was still to come. He won most of the games. I got a bit fed up with that, so taught him Scrabble.  Haha, I won most of those games. I did have an unfair language advantage, but all's fair in love and war...lol..

Alex now lives in a 'small' city called Putian. Population is about 3 million. If you click on the Putian link you will see a map of where it is, on the Chinese mainland about level with Taiwan.

The Chinese, generally, haven't figured out yet about advanced planning. Everything is left to the last minute, so although I knew the wedding would be on, and have known for over a year, they have only just sorted out the dates etc. Chinese weddings are different from western weddings, the whole system is different, but I will update this blog each day when I am there.

So I have my ticket, and now have my visa. Getting a visa for China is a funny thing. They have very strict rules about these things. I have never applied for a visa for any other country, so I guess they are all the same, but at the Chinese Consulate, (I went to the Brisbane one)  they specify exactly what paperwork is needed, and then when you get it, sometimes it is not needed at all...lol.

The visa office in Brisbane has moved, it is now closer to the train station which is handy. When I was checking online for flights I found several that suited, then went into the Flight Centre to make my booking.  I have found the Flight Centre to be excellent and have used them for almost all my overseas bookings. They have offices everywhere and in my experience, the service has always been very good.

Anyway, I was in the flight centre, making my booking when they told me a visa could only be got for 30 days. I was really worried then, because had booked and paid for a ticket for six weeks. So Peter and I went personally into town to put in the visa application, and I got a 60 day visa without any trouble.

So now, it is time to pack and sort out what to take. It will be winter time there, and I will visit some friends in Suzhou, where it can be 5 to 10 degrees below zero in the winter.

 One of the schools I taught at had some beautiful little Chinese gardens and in the winter the ponds were covered with six inches of ice. I'll tell you about this school tomorrow.

Putian won't be so cold, but even so, everyone wears woollen long johns, so it will be a huge change from the hot summer here in Brisbane.