Hey Hey and a Big G'Day to you

Mate I had a great week last week. Had only two real days of playtime (work) as Tuesday and Wednesday the school was closed so we could all attend the Zhuang (say Djong) Peoples Festival. If you've looked at the photos you'll see that the day was just awesome. Tuesday was spent at the festival and Wednesday Lisa and I lazed around Tianyang walking and talking. My new Sturdy Steeds purchased in Jinghong have begun to fall apart. Many of the clips have snapped and the inner sole continues to come unstuck. Argh, woddya do. Costs 20 cents to fix them each time so I just continue to get them fixed and soon I'll have 'kind of'new sandals I guess.

Friday is my favourite teaching day of the week. I have only my Grade 3's who of course are the most fun to teach. None are embarrassed before their peers and they all jump at any given chance to speak and play chickens. Sadly the school chooses Fridays for many of their meetings, exams and video days so Friday my Grade 3's watched yet another safety video and all I got was my last class in the afternoon.

Thursday I awoke with a killer of an ear ache and by Friday morning my throat and head were killing me. By the end of my one and only class Friday I had begun to lose my voice. This amused not only the kids more than me laying eggs but also amused Lisa all Friday night. After dinner and a walk we spent the evening playing pool in a filthy smoke filled 'pool room' thingamabob. Wouldn't call it a pool hall. Maybe it used to be a mechanics shop. After I walked Lisa home I headed to the market place for some beer with my friends.

Saturday I headed to Nanning where I met Judy (Tiandong Aussie). I missed to 10:20 bus and all the road side buses were full so I had to wait an hour for the next bus. BUGGER! We spent the day walking around the city from shop to shop. My main goal was to get somebody to actually look at my mobile phone in a 'fix it' type manner and not just turn it around and upside down in their hands and talk to the person next to them. I have tried on many occasions in Baise and Tianyang but they all do the same thing, just turn it around and around and open the little USB covers as if somehow this will give them the answers I require. I try to tell them there is nothing wrong with the outside of the phone. It's the inside as it won't turn on anymore. They then take the battery out and begin to turn it around and upside down and talk to the person next to them. When I plug it in and try to turn it on and the screen goes white and then turns off, they then grab the power cord and begin to turn it around and upside down.

Anyhow, to make a long story longer (which is what I'm good at), I was sure it was buggered. BUT I wanted it 'LOOKED' at before I threw it against the wall. We found a Sony shop in the Wanda Mall. One guy began to turn it around and upside down and another guy looked at him and shook his head and took it from him and actually tried to turn it on and then tried plugging it in and turning it on without me asked him to. Go baby go, I've got a live one here! Within minutes they had rung one of their friends whom could speak English and within another 5 minutes I was on the back of a motorbike and off we went to the Sony Ericsson 'fix it' shop. There was an English speaking guy whom when I gave it to him didn't even turn it around once. He just plugged it into the computer, deleted the running software and then reinstalled it. WALLAH! I was mobile again. Unbelievable! All FREE of charge. I was then taken back to the Mall on the motor bike where I shared a cigarette with the motorbike/Sony guy and then headed off to find Judy.

I found the hotel Judy had booked and finally dropped my bag off. The weather was pretty bloody hot and I was glad to be rid of my small pack! We headed back into the cities heart to find food. We headed to BBQ Street which was so full it was actually seat less. As we walked we watched as a man wokked up tiny birds for someone's dinner. Can't say I've eaten tiny birds yet but I know my BBQ in Tianyang has them on a stick. Maybe sometime in the future I'll let you know how they compare to pigs eyes and cat!

Around the corner were several little streets with outdoor eateries. We found a quiet spot and sat for dinner and cold beer on the sidewalk. One of the cooks could speak a little English and came over to take our order. The waitresses continued to push each other our way and throw the little book at each other all too scared to ask us our order. One of our dishes was egg and tomato. The cook soon sent a little drawing to us via a waitress informing us they had no chicken eggs but did have duck eggs. It's moments like these that make my smile grow into warm laughter.

On the way home we found a chemist and went in to find some medicine for my throat. As we were playing charades to show them what was wrong a doctor and two medical students whom could speak English came over and helped me. Help always drops in when you really need it. Soon I left with some 'proper' medicine instead of cold and flu tablets! The doctor even understood what hay fever was. It took some time to make her understand that my hay fever and my throat infection were two completely different things, but I also left with a nasal spray. It's no anti-histamine but it kinda works.

We headed back towards the hotel. The night was too beautiful to head home so we found a 'Wok Em Up' sidewalk guy and sat there till around 2am drinking beer and eating noodles across the road from the 'High Class Hotel'. That's the real name even in lights, 'The High Class Hotel'. Ya gotta love China! So whilst I tried my best to speak in a fashion Judy could actually hear and understand me (kind of a cross between a smurf and a 13 year old boy) we watched High Class people walking to and fro from the High Class Hotel.

Sunday morning we walked around the cities little back streets full of nooks and crannies and market places and then headed to the huge lake area for a walk in the afternoon. I love this part of Nanning. It's so green and beautiful. And you can even walk and...wait for it...SIT ON THE GRASS! I'm sure it's not only the greenest grass in China but the only grass you can sit on with out little old men and women coming over to shoo you away. In Jinghong there was a sign in Chinese-English that said in all...'the little grass has lives, ask to show mercy under the foot!'

Around 3:00 we headed back to the Wanda Mall to Wall Mart so Judy could stock up on the foods she misses from home like Pasta and Pasta Sauce etc. Here my eyes nearly fell out of my head when they found Guinness cans. All lovely, black and shiny. I purchased two cans and remembered Fridays evenings of yester year when we would head to the Irish Bar at South Gate in Melbourne for Happy Hour Guinness.

Judy caught the 5:00 bus back to Tiandong and I caught the 5:20 bus back to Tianyang. Here in China we have loads of express buses. My town is only 40 minutes past Judy's but they both have an express bus each. Baise has its own as does Pingguo and so on. You have to love China; I guess that is one good thing about having 1.4 billion people in one country! In Australia we'd throw everyone on the one bus so the company could save money to pay its CEO's.

I got home nearly two hours late due to traffic and road works and headed across to the market place for noodles and beer with my buddies. By now my voice was trying to make a come back. Like the Bay City Rollers come back tour it made good for a laugh with everyone. They decided it was a great opportunity to teach me some more of the local dialect. Every time I tried to pronounce the word they would all end up in fits of laughter as I could only smurflike speak let alone say the word.

This is Good Bye from Puppa Smurf!