OK 10RMB

so i have now added 1 pound work of RMB. that will buy me about 8 hours ish... so where was i... O in case you see some "\\\" of them it is due to that button being where the back space button should be on thie key bord.

I have little money.. but liyangs mum has told us we must live on less and put the rest into a savings account for travel or buying a house or something.. we or more to the point ME going out and buying a dvd player work 400RMb did nothing but for her to tell liyang to tell me that i am diss-obediant and she should hit me........ o dear. i think what made matters worse was that when i got it home, it didnt work with the tv. as the tv is to old, so i said i would have to buy a tv as well. still..... what can you do..

Me and Liyang went to Century park. the main park. where we walked around enjoy the sun and then went out on a boad.. pedalo things.. seats 4 persons, very relaxing if not a good work out as liyang sort of... stopped after a few mins. i dont blame her it was shattering and i was sweating so much after a few mo\ins in the heat and the exertion, even on the boat othere boats would pass, turn around and accitently go passed us a gain with cameras at the ready, i noted 3 photos being tacken of me on proper cameras and a load more on mobil phones. some convostaions started betwean liyang and a few boats, i they assumed i was an american,. as soon as i heard that i put them right... i am english man! not american, then convosation would move to me directly and i would,after a few quick exchanges on my part, pedal faster as i didnt under stand much of what they said, liyang constanly puts it in a the chinese i understand so i can reply my self, good of her...

My current favouret work is GAMMA or WHY... eg GAMMA NI and point to tears on a child face, then i burst of machine gun fire back at me from the child and a yes from me and the child would mostly walk off happy. of a puzzled look appears n there faces i would quickly change it to WAIT A BIT, mosttly they want drink or mum or dad or food. however after one child took a crap on the floor right in front of me after following me for a few minuits i try and understand what they are saying, as but still miss most of it.

To be fair, i dont miss much about england, mostly my famely the people i have known,
Now to make you all envy my a little bit more.

postage. ( i understand they are going to part privvatise it in england) well over here i had a currioue\\iour come to my house and pick up a mobile phone and charger. then he put it in a sealed bag and it arrived in shanghai 3 days later. all this cost me 10RMB or one pound,

and again for the new people (hello) 11 Pints of beer cost 2.70 in the middle of this city but where i live it costs 1.90.. and it is good beer....

taxis start at 50p and at 2p increases it dosnt get to expensive to travel by taxi,

a ice cream costs 25p in century park and a 1 hour stint on a pedalo boat costs 2 quid

i do not get taxed,,, i think...

for 200 RMB or 20 pounds i have bought a whole load of electricity, that should keep us going for a month at least. or 3 months maby.

if you recylce... it is optional here. you get pad for it, and again the people come to your house count your empty beer bottles and jars and cans and plastic bags and pay you acordingly.

Rubbuish is collected every couple of hours

the nearest shop for food is 20-30 seconds from my door, there are 3 shops on campus, the nearest market is 40-50 seconds work from my front door and the nearest super market is 7mins walk from my door. however is there is no trafic it can me done in 6 as it normaly takes a while to cross the road.

me and the security man are the only males in the school. same as the last one. (staff wise) i work with 15 female tachers and teaching assistants.

for 70 pounds you can buy a touch screen,duel simcard, triband, nokia, camera and videa and radio and voice recorder incorporated, writing recognition for english and chinese, usb compatible with 2 batterys and all cables supplyed mobile phone in what ever colour you want. WAP, GPRS, QQ and stock enquiry all built in. no simcard or contract required

45p for a pack of good ciggys

cheap coke and 7up ie 25p for 600ml

chewing gum that comes in any flavour you could want.

i could go on and on but am getting bord of this subject.


WAW this is going to be a long post.....




Marks Wish list;
-English ficton book,
-a couple more books,
-and another book just to keep me entertained,
-a lion bar.



Marks home comfort list;
-apple smelling Lynx, its new.
-a can of fosters, the one with the widget in. (not needed i just miss english beer)
-sitting down with a knife and fork and enjoying a 100% english made meal.(impossible to bring that here)
-some snack foods
-being able to walk down the street without every one looking at you, add to that being able to walk down the street when there is no one on it.
-being able to have a meaning full convosation with some one.. (i must go and see some english teachers soon...(just texted mike asking if there were any plans this weekend)..)

i seem to have missed a few people off when i emailed off my post, so i will edit it (as i cannot upload any pictures and past it below for all the world to see.=


Well I have broken the computer I was given to use while at school, i only used it once.…. Opps.

Now i am sitting in a internet cafe that i found on the way back from work, 4th floor of an appartenly abandoned building,,,, dont ask how i found it, i cannot log on to chinaandmark from here but i can do my emails, i am not sure when i will be able to update chinaandmark. May be a while.

Here is somthing i prepared for the blog should i get online, i will email it to everyone i can remember, if anyone would like to take some time out and post it on chinaandmark i would be very thankful, i will give any one who asks the information from passwords and log-in names they require, just let me know..

ok here we go

... no pic but thought i would leave this in as you can grasp what is happening by this simple sencance..........This is the complete chaos that ensued after one third of my class walked to the toys at the side of the room…………. (yes my class of 3 pupils is a tad smaller than I am used to)


Currently assistants and teachers out number the pupils, and they cry when they see me. Making my lessons very very difficult. They are not used to weston monkeys.



.........deleted..........However, the shower doesn’t work,,, the hot turns its self off. And the toilet gets blocked every day,…



I have been back twice to visit my old kindergarten so far this week. It has almost reduced me to tears seeing my kids again, I have promised to go back next week at some point,

I am the only westerner here so the locals stare at me all time.... all the time. In my other house there has been westerners living for the past 3 years, not here. I am the first westoner this side of town,,, and im not surprised. Its not that great,

I have now read all three of the books I ended up bringing.

Eldest. The second of the series by Christopher Paolini.

Eragon, was the first, very good. The next is Inheritance, I am hoping sometime to have someone send it from the uk. Both books are highly recommended. Have found it hard to put it down, or go to sleep as my mind is thinking of dragons and magic…. AAA+++





The next book was The lost Throne, by Chris kuzneski

All in all a very good book, interesting read and a book that is hard to put down.

Last is the great book Sword Song, by Bernard Cornwell.

I have read a book in this series prior to reading this and enjoyed it immensely,, thank you mum. This book has not broken my great liking of this author, well worth reading. Again thank you mum.





I was thinking of buying a electic scooter but have now decided to just save the money and buy one when I reach my next town/ city at the end of this contract, my current feelings are that I will stay in china another years contact, or stay in Hebei if the right job arises, like that of my old kindergarten,

However this is still a bit premature to be thinking of the next one when I have only completed a month here. Now I have a letter box where parcels can be sent to. The address is

381, hongqi south street, C-zuo, guy un wen hua guang chang, talking time village, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China, 050000

381, hongqi south street, C-zuo, guy un wen hua guang chang, talking time village, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China, 050000



My throat has cleared up but i am still suffering from a bad headache, i have reduced my self to 1 para a day as my supplies are danger low.

So apart from me not enjoying the job as much as i did, the flat being worse than the last, my supplies running out, no english books to read, a tv that dosnt work and no internet connection, i am living quite well,

Liyang is forever making me feel better after my morning and evening classes, some of her food that she cooks has gone a bit more weston, (not much but a bit, similar to food in shanghai, that is inbetwean a chinese take out in england and the proper thing) (paul, it is like the east west cafe)

If there is any thing any one would like to see in pics or be told about, dont hesitate to ask. I will be only to happy to inform you of what you want to know.



well that was a long post.... i am gona play counter stike for a bit then head off home to enjoy a burger on route and a beer apon reaching my destination. bye bye all. write soon.