Have been back from Sri Lanka for 3 weeks now and already I want another holiday!!! The night I got back was Lantern Festival so I did not escape the sound of fireworks this spring Festival - but I decided that a night of sounding like I was living in a war zone was a small price to pay for the sheer enjoyment I got from my holiday and so I though of it as my welcome back display!!. Being the Year of the Snake the lantern makers were busy designing new lanterns f...

Its that time of year when we seem to see life in extremes. In my home country - Australia - they have been ravaged by fires and floods. both extremes along a continuum. In my current residential country - China - we have been ravaged by snow and smog. Well at least they like to call it "smog" but in fact it is plain old air pollution which unfortunately we are having had the highest levels for many years. Beijing seems to have been hit the hardest with levels ov...

Since Christmas I have celebrated, or should that be endured, another birthday. Had a fairly quiet day but went out for a lovely dinner with Shirley to celebrate anyway. Went to my favourite Italian restaurant as a break form Chinese food is needed every now and then....besides they also have some rather nice Italian wine with which to celebrate!!! Present wise I was given a wonderful fruit basket, some chocolates and an engraved pen with my name on it so that wa...

Well it is absolutely freezing here at the moment and is actually snowing.....not settling on the ground as yet but snowflakes are wafting through the air!!! The past few weeks have seen me attend a few Christmas celebrations despite it not being a recognised holiday here in China. It is a normal working day for the Chinese people (even had the nerve to ring me about work!!) but that hasn't stopped them grasping the commercialism and hype surrounding Christmas a...

Today was a special day in Nanjing for local people....the 13 December marks the 75th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre - an atrocious event when the Japanese invaded the city killing over 300,000 innocent people in a 6 week period. This morning air raid sirens rang hauntingly across the city to mourn the loss. The sirens continued for about 2 hours - just when you thought they had stopped they started up again - you could see the local people continuing their ...