well its been over a year since i last posted, and this is for anyone who finds it in the future.
The girl i was with is now my wife, we have a 5 month old baby (yea almost as soon as she arrived she fell pregnant)
I plan to open my own school OR build my own 5 bedroom house within the next year and life is good, its better than good, its fantastic (minus some new problems i have encouted with some other westerners.. or 1 other westerner)
sorry to have left you hanging for a year, hahaha.
ignor the last post, i handed my site over to someone so they could try and build something from it, but they didnt put in the time or effort.
any how.
i will update this in a few years time if its still around. haha
take it easy all.
love
mark
Friday, 10 June 2011
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
update
Well. i have managed to get on again somehow...
Im writing this on Wednesday (i now forget which one. it was sometime towards the end of February), And I will continue to update it until i publish,
Today I went for a walk about. I walked to the end of the road and then went back to get my camera, so i started off again, with no real plan on where to go, I ended up walking near the small area that is put aside for allotments, and i kept walking, i found my self half way up a mountain with nothing but jungle like terrain around me. The only signs of life being old tombs (yeah ironic that) the mountain side is littered with these old tombs (some not so old,,, they where still white stone as apposed to grey stone)
Well after about 3 hours of walking i came to a dead end, the forest was to thick to go any further and the sound of a water fall close by and with the ground dropping away to my left, it was the only sensible thing to do. Strangely enough the smell and the freedom reminded me of the lake district and the cold just added to that.
On the way back I finally fingered out what the wired things i had been looking at before where when i noticed some new candles on one and incense sticks, after getting a bit lost (as i had left the tracks near the bottom of the mountain) i found my self surrounded my these things and with dusk in full swing and night fast approaching I attempted to pick my way down the mountain side trying not to slip or stand on any ones tomb. I finally reached the road that goes to another city and found my self very happy to be on the road near civilisation again, while it was nice to get away form everyone and every thing. Upon reaching my front door my phone went off with snow (my PA / minder) was making sure i was alive and OK, well that was the only thing i did today,,,,, well that and cook some veggies (the market has not had any meat in it for a few days now, the sellers are on new years holiday) So tomorrow i have been invited out hunting, ;-)
I think it going to consist of shooting birds in a forest (many of them around here so it logic that tells me it will be in a forest) but for now i am trying to calm my self down as i have just watch a old spider film arachnophobia, and every thing looks like a spider, i think tomorrow night is going to scare the hell out of me (the start of the film in the jungle in south America looks allot like this place, and with jumping and clever and devious spiders....... yuck)
Any how i may as well start writing it now,,,,, today i went hunting and.......................
Yesterday was the day of the hunt.
I was expecting more, J the hunt consisted of sitting in a modified car with the windows down and a scope on a rifle while we where driven around only to stop when we there was something to shoot, it was a day of practising aiming, so it was small birds and ducks day, I Shot 5 times and got 1 kill, a black bird but not a Black Bird, we got a total of 4 birds and 1 pigeon, 3 birds are given to the guy who supplies the rifle and i got to keep my kill plus the pigeon. Snow’s brother showed me how to defeather any bird and Snow came round to my house and together we cooked together.
Well we ended up leaving it and going out to get noodles and a burger, it taisted bad as there was only meat, carrot and potato in the soup. L
Next time we go hunting we will be on foot in the mountains at night looking for deer, but i think every one wants it to get a bit warmer before we go out again.
Tomorrow i am off to the police station to try and get a new visa. Other wise i will be on my way to Hong Kong to get a 6 month Business visa. But that will cost a fair amount of money so i am hoping it dose not come to that.
That all i have to report on for today.
I have a new visa. Yay no need to go to Hong Kong, but my visa is only a 6 month one.. o well....
No much to report so i will just publish this and start on the next section. A load of photos are attached, see link.
I have just finished my second day at work, well. At the moment everything is still very strange, i have 17 classes for the kindergarten and 8 class in the kindergarten but for older kids.
I teach the older kids as of next week,
This week is meant to be them getting to know me, however with a lack of English speakers in the classrooms its not very helpful. At the moment i think there are 2 English speakers and snow who comes into some classrooms but this is not her job, so she will stop next week.
Liyang has arrived and i have asked her to come into the class room with me on some of them to be my translator, her english isn't good but its better than what i am left with other wise, also i had snow talk to the other two English speakers as they though it was there job to not translate but walk around the class room doing nothing of use.
Now they seem to be sort of translating,, how they expect me to teach if they don't translate i dont know,,,, even to play a game you have to tell the kids how to play it.
I know liyang cant do this for ever and i will at some point have to hire a translator, which will cost more than liyang working for me, but i will cross that bridge when i get to it.
On my first class on the my first day, most the kids were afraid of me, but there was one and i though he must have learnt his attitude towards a westerner from his father, he was rude and not pleasant to be around, today in the morning while greeting people as they came in,, he and his father walked past me, completely ignoring my greeting, i think his father has a strong disrespect / disliking/ hatred for westerners.
Yesterday i told snow about this 1 kid and she said it was probably nothing then today while she was talking with a parent so noticed his lack of manners to me and now sort of agrees but still thinks its just they are not used to a white face... how ever all the other parents and grand parents have been very pleasant and some kids are very talkative (not in English) ((sort of makes me feel bad when a 4 year old speaks better Chinese than a 24 year old)) L
I have a box sitting on my sofa with all sorts of books and flash cards to use as of next week, this week is just for the kids to get to know me,,,,, however for my first class there is only 1 or 2 who are there at 8am. And for my second class kids arrive during the lesson disrupting the whole thing.
Helpfully this will settle down, but we will have to wait and see. In my timetable there are also a lot of me sitting around at work for a hour waiting for work to start again.
I have a ‘friend’ called peter, he is always calling me asking me to come out, this is nice but also very annoying as i do want time on my own after work to unwind, and as he works 1 in 3 days he calls during lessons and all sorts. Snow went off him straight away as the second time we met i brought her as a translator, and he shook my hand and she extended hers and he laughed and put his arm over her shoulders.
She is now refusing to translate for me when i go with him to eat. Poor girl...
Well, yesterday i made the big mistake of buying a washing machine, while on the surface its a good idea, and at 1,300 rmb its quite a good idea, but now i have to plumb it in as the person who came to do it refused to touch the chrome piped that are all over the house, so the only way to do it is for me to do it. (I hope i remember what Alan taught me about chrome) i need to divide the could water in the kitchen and have a one going to the tap that's already connected and another going off under the work shelves to the far end of the kitchen and then put a out let there and connect the washing machine from there, then there is the waist to deal with, that shouldn't be to hard, i will just run it through the work surface’s to the already existing sink waist system...... hummm, scroll down and see how i did J
Well the result of the whole day is as follows
i spent half an hour drawing pictures of what i needed and speaking slowly, after a long time and both of us (me and shop keeper) getting frustrated, finely he gave me a phone number... its a mobile plumber, so no i have a plumber on the way. Pity i was looking forward to the challenge of actually doing something with my hands again. O well. Maybe next time i can buy what i need and do it myself.
he arrived, after a lot of negotiation, with him saying he will go through the wall and me saying no good, no good, no good, i dont want the thing in the living room, i want it in the kitchen and i want you to use the water tap already provided, he finally said he will do it for 130 labour and 100 for materials as what i am asking will need metal work and more chrome, i agreed and he has now left to go and purchase the required bits and bobs.... well this machine is costing me a lot of my savings, added to that the laptop i just bought and the new wardrobe, i think me and liyang will be living on not very much for the next month or so until payday. then i need to buy a ebike and a remote controlled car and more posters for my work. after this we will be down to about 1500 and liyang still needs a sim card and i need to top up my phone,
with more costing me about 100 per month travel, i think for food and entertainment we will have about 1000rmb, to last 37 days. or about 100 pounds. things will be tight i think.. :-( aghhhhh
Thanks all, have a good week.
mark
in case i cant post again please send my your email address so you can be sure to get next months blog
The vpn (virtual private network) that i use to bypass the china firewall may not work for much longer.
www.facebook.com/album.php?page=1&aid=54397&id=1216048235
Im writing this on Wednesday (i now forget which one. it was sometime towards the end of February), And I will continue to update it until i publish,
Today I went for a walk about. I walked to the end of the road and then went back to get my camera, so i started off again, with no real plan on where to go, I ended up walking near the small area that is put aside for allotments, and i kept walking, i found my self half way up a mountain with nothing but jungle like terrain around me. The only signs of life being old tombs (yeah ironic that) the mountain side is littered with these old tombs (some not so old,,, they where still white stone as apposed to grey stone)
Well after about 3 hours of walking i came to a dead end, the forest was to thick to go any further and the sound of a water fall close by and with the ground dropping away to my left, it was the only sensible thing to do. Strangely enough the smell and the freedom reminded me of the lake district and the cold just added to that.
On the way back I finally fingered out what the wired things i had been looking at before where when i noticed some new candles on one and incense sticks, after getting a bit lost (as i had left the tracks near the bottom of the mountain) i found my self surrounded my these things and with dusk in full swing and night fast approaching I attempted to pick my way down the mountain side trying not to slip or stand on any ones tomb. I finally reached the road that goes to another city and found my self very happy to be on the road near civilisation again, while it was nice to get away form everyone and every thing. Upon reaching my front door my phone went off with snow (my PA / minder) was making sure i was alive and OK, well that was the only thing i did today,,,,, well that and cook some veggies (the market has not had any meat in it for a few days now, the sellers are on new years holiday) So tomorrow i have been invited out hunting, ;-)
I think it going to consist of shooting birds in a forest (many of them around here so it logic that tells me it will be in a forest) but for now i am trying to calm my self down as i have just watch a old spider film arachnophobia, and every thing looks like a spider, i think tomorrow night is going to scare the hell out of me (the start of the film in the jungle in south America looks allot like this place, and with jumping and clever and devious spiders....... yuck)
Any how i may as well start writing it now,,,,, today i went hunting and.......................
Yesterday was the day of the hunt.
I was expecting more, J the hunt consisted of sitting in a modified car with the windows down and a scope on a rifle while we where driven around only to stop when we there was something to shoot, it was a day of practising aiming, so it was small birds and ducks day, I Shot 5 times and got 1 kill, a black bird but not a Black Bird, we got a total of 4 birds and 1 pigeon, 3 birds are given to the guy who supplies the rifle and i got to keep my kill plus the pigeon. Snow’s brother showed me how to defeather any bird and Snow came round to my house and together we cooked together.
Well we ended up leaving it and going out to get noodles and a burger, it taisted bad as there was only meat, carrot and potato in the soup. L
Next time we go hunting we will be on foot in the mountains at night looking for deer, but i think every one wants it to get a bit warmer before we go out again.
Tomorrow i am off to the police station to try and get a new visa. Other wise i will be on my way to Hong Kong to get a 6 month Business visa. But that will cost a fair amount of money so i am hoping it dose not come to that.
That all i have to report on for today.
I have a new visa. Yay no need to go to Hong Kong, but my visa is only a 6 month one.. o well....
No much to report so i will just publish this and start on the next section. A load of photos are attached, see link.
I have just finished my second day at work, well. At the moment everything is still very strange, i have 17 classes for the kindergarten and 8 class in the kindergarten but for older kids.
I teach the older kids as of next week,
This week is meant to be them getting to know me, however with a lack of English speakers in the classrooms its not very helpful. At the moment i think there are 2 English speakers and snow who comes into some classrooms but this is not her job, so she will stop next week.
Liyang has arrived and i have asked her to come into the class room with me on some of them to be my translator, her english isn't good but its better than what i am left with other wise, also i had snow talk to the other two English speakers as they though it was there job to not translate but walk around the class room doing nothing of use.
Now they seem to be sort of translating,, how they expect me to teach if they don't translate i dont know,,,, even to play a game you have to tell the kids how to play it.
I know liyang cant do this for ever and i will at some point have to hire a translator, which will cost more than liyang working for me, but i will cross that bridge when i get to it.
On my first class on the my first day, most the kids were afraid of me, but there was one and i though he must have learnt his attitude towards a westerner from his father, he was rude and not pleasant to be around, today in the morning while greeting people as they came in,, he and his father walked past me, completely ignoring my greeting, i think his father has a strong disrespect / disliking/ hatred for westerners.
Yesterday i told snow about this 1 kid and she said it was probably nothing then today while she was talking with a parent so noticed his lack of manners to me and now sort of agrees but still thinks its just they are not used to a white face... how ever all the other parents and grand parents have been very pleasant and some kids are very talkative (not in English) ((sort of makes me feel bad when a 4 year old speaks better Chinese than a 24 year old)) L
I have a box sitting on my sofa with all sorts of books and flash cards to use as of next week, this week is just for the kids to get to know me,,,,, however for my first class there is only 1 or 2 who are there at 8am. And for my second class kids arrive during the lesson disrupting the whole thing.
Helpfully this will settle down, but we will have to wait and see. In my timetable there are also a lot of me sitting around at work for a hour waiting for work to start again.
I have a ‘friend’ called peter, he is always calling me asking me to come out, this is nice but also very annoying as i do want time on my own after work to unwind, and as he works 1 in 3 days he calls during lessons and all sorts. Snow went off him straight away as the second time we met i brought her as a translator, and he shook my hand and she extended hers and he laughed and put his arm over her shoulders.
She is now refusing to translate for me when i go with him to eat. Poor girl...
Well, yesterday i made the big mistake of buying a washing machine, while on the surface its a good idea, and at 1,300 rmb its quite a good idea, but now i have to plumb it in as the person who came to do it refused to touch the chrome piped that are all over the house, so the only way to do it is for me to do it. (I hope i remember what Alan taught me about chrome) i need to divide the could water in the kitchen and have a one going to the tap that's already connected and another going off under the work shelves to the far end of the kitchen and then put a out let there and connect the washing machine from there, then there is the waist to deal with, that shouldn't be to hard, i will just run it through the work surface’s to the already existing sink waist system...... hummm, scroll down and see how i did J
Well the result of the whole day is as follows
i spent half an hour drawing pictures of what i needed and speaking slowly, after a long time and both of us (me and shop keeper) getting frustrated, finely he gave me a phone number... its a mobile plumber, so no i have a plumber on the way. Pity i was looking forward to the challenge of actually doing something with my hands again. O well. Maybe next time i can buy what i need and do it myself.
he arrived, after a lot of negotiation, with him saying he will go through the wall and me saying no good, no good, no good, i dont want the thing in the living room, i want it in the kitchen and i want you to use the water tap already provided, he finally said he will do it for 130 labour and 100 for materials as what i am asking will need metal work and more chrome, i agreed and he has now left to go and purchase the required bits and bobs.... well this machine is costing me a lot of my savings, added to that the laptop i just bought and the new wardrobe, i think me and liyang will be living on not very much for the next month or so until payday. then i need to buy a ebike and a remote controlled car and more posters for my work. after this we will be down to about 1500 and liyang still needs a sim card and i need to top up my phone,
with more costing me about 100 per month travel, i think for food and entertainment we will have about 1000rmb, to last 37 days. or about 100 pounds. things will be tight i think.. :-( aghhhhh
Thanks all, have a good week.
mark
in case i cant post again please send my your email address so you can be sure to get next months blog
The vpn (virtual private network) that i use to bypass the china firewall may not work for much longer.
www.facebook.com/album.php?page=1&aid=54397&id=1216048235
aghh
please email mjbowman07@yahoo.co.uk with the subject field as "FAN OF BLOG"
my VPN is being cut very soon (20 mins) and i cant put it up on time, so i will email everyone my new blog site that is ok to access in china, sorry all for the change in address and thanks for your cooperation
best Wishes
Mark
my VPN is being cut very soon (20 mins) and i cant put it up on time, so i will email everyone my new blog site that is ok to access in china, sorry all for the change in address and thanks for your cooperation
best Wishes
Mark
Friday, 12 February 2010
new post
To everyone... I was going to edit this and add more things but i haven't....... o well here it is.
This is my new blog. I didn't plan on writing a new blog but then this place is very different from what i am used to. This blog wont be updated to regularly, maybe once a month maybe once a day, it all depends on what happens.
I will put some pictures up A.S.A.P.
Well lets start with my last night in Shi Jia Zhuang,
It was a quite one as the Harbin (the nick name for the local restaurant that me, Blake, Mike and Matt often ate at, was demolished) but myself and Matt went out for a final beer or two, while he was drinking bottle after bottle of wine i only had 3 small beers as i was talking to the bar staff, they were very nice and chatted to me as much as they could in English and a bit with writing English and a lot of my dodgy Chinese.
Next day i left for the airport very early as i did not want ot miss my plain, so i spend 3 hours waiting for check in, it didn't arrive, i arrived at the airport at 3-4pm and finally left on the plain at 4+5am. It was a long day, then i got to shanghai and dad took me for breakfast, after this i went back to his house to sleep, i woke up 10 mins before we had to leave to catch my next flight,. I arrived just on time with a lot of running around to different terminals and then around the terminals, i finally got to the gate (smelling very bad due to sweat) and waited again as the next plain was delayed as well.
Finally got in to Fuzhou around 2am, then spent 2 hours in a car to get to ningde, the guy was speeding all the way and in every tunnel we entered it tells you to slow down in side the tunnel ( i mean its verbally said over speakers in the tunnel) (i thought this was cool) got to my new house and while being tired was totally disappointed. But over the last day i have gotten quite used to it,
So far the staff members have been great, dropping me off hot food and coming in and out asking if there is anything they can do.
This morning i noticed a nicely modified car out side, orange with big bor exhaust, dark ed out windows, nice 19” rims and low profile tyres, at about 2 pm i noticed it coming back in, a beautiful woman behind the wheel, unfortunately a car had taken her space so she stopped up the road, and walked back, i went out to compliment her on the car, but before i had the words in order in my head she spoke in English using my name, not sure of her job yet but she seems to be in charge of renovations, or something. I asked her about air conditioning and i will have it shorty.. which is use full as its hot and humid here, however what with my living room opening onto the street (one glass wall that is not sealed and is a slide door), im not sure how useful it will be.
I had a little walk down the street to see whats what, people were very polite and little whispers as i walk past,,,, not many white people here. I live in a urban area that looks like something out of a old Chinese film. BIG Hills/ mountains are to 3 sides of here and the sea is to the east. I haven't seen the sea yet but its early days... While i haven't been to see work yet I have a good feeling about this place, the general atmosphere is allot better than SJZ, now all i need to find is some Western guys quite quickly as im sure liyang wont like me hanging around with young beautiful women that speak better English than she dose.
END OF BLOG
This is my new blog. I didn't plan on writing a new blog but then this place is very different from what i am used to. This blog wont be updated to regularly, maybe once a month maybe once a day, it all depends on what happens.
I will put some pictures up A.S.A.P.
Well lets start with my last night in Shi Jia Zhuang,
It was a quite one as the Harbin (the nick name for the local restaurant that me, Blake, Mike and Matt often ate at, was demolished) but myself and Matt went out for a final beer or two, while he was drinking bottle after bottle of wine i only had 3 small beers as i was talking to the bar staff, they were very nice and chatted to me as much as they could in English and a bit with writing English and a lot of my dodgy Chinese.
Next day i left for the airport very early as i did not want ot miss my plain, so i spend 3 hours waiting for check in, it didn't arrive, i arrived at the airport at 3-4pm and finally left on the plain at 4+5am. It was a long day, then i got to shanghai and dad took me for breakfast, after this i went back to his house to sleep, i woke up 10 mins before we had to leave to catch my next flight,. I arrived just on time with a lot of running around to different terminals and then around the terminals, i finally got to the gate (smelling very bad due to sweat) and waited again as the next plain was delayed as well.
Finally got in to Fuzhou around 2am, then spent 2 hours in a car to get to ningde, the guy was speeding all the way and in every tunnel we entered it tells you to slow down in side the tunnel ( i mean its verbally said over speakers in the tunnel) (i thought this was cool) got to my new house and while being tired was totally disappointed. But over the last day i have gotten quite used to it,
So far the staff members have been great, dropping me off hot food and coming in and out asking if there is anything they can do.
This morning i noticed a nicely modified car out side, orange with big bor exhaust, dark ed out windows, nice 19” rims and low profile tyres, at about 2 pm i noticed it coming back in, a beautiful woman behind the wheel, unfortunately a car had taken her space so she stopped up the road, and walked back, i went out to compliment her on the car, but before i had the words in order in my head she spoke in English using my name, not sure of her job yet but she seems to be in charge of renovations, or something. I asked her about air conditioning and i will have it shorty.. which is use full as its hot and humid here, however what with my living room opening onto the street (one glass wall that is not sealed and is a slide door), im not sure how useful it will be.
I had a little walk down the street to see whats what, people were very polite and little whispers as i walk past,,,, not many white people here. I live in a urban area that looks like something out of a old Chinese film. BIG Hills/ mountains are to 3 sides of here and the sea is to the east. I haven't seen the sea yet but its early days... While i haven't been to see work yet I have a good feeling about this place, the general atmosphere is allot better than SJZ, now all i need to find is some Western guys quite quickly as im sure liyang wont like me hanging around with young beautiful women that speak better English than she dose.
END OF BLOG
Thursday, 11 February 2010
The puppy
today, i smelt something very very bad, in the heat everything goes off quickly so i thought it was something i had bought, after looking around i found dog crap on my front flower bed, i decided to cover it up with some of the dirt in there... while moving the dirt to cover the crap i uncovered a puppy, it had died 3 or 4 weeks ago and the owner of the house had decided to have a funeral there, in the flowerbed that is next to my window that dose not shut and with a hot humid atmosphere, where is the logic is killing off the westerner with disease ???? o well. another post will be added in a few days when iv finished editing it. this was just something that i had to get off my mind. the smell of it as i put it in 2 bags was terrible, along with all the things that have now entered my house.. i am thinking of closing ff the flower bed and just putting a lump of concrete in the hole.
speak soon all
speak soon all
Sorry to say i cannot upload many pictures to this blog as it take to long to upload. so instead i will give you a link to another website for you to have a look at. it is facebook but you should be able to see the pictures without having to open an account, the link is below
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=54397&id=1216048235&l=21a9a7d55b
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=54397&id=1216048235&l=21a9a7d55b
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Monday, 28 September 2009
the scooter
Well i bought a e scooter. its faster than every other scooter on the roads (even 50cc petrol ones i overtake with ease) and it looks good and was sold to me with a range of 60km, i have covered 110km before i had to recharge the thing,, the battery is 4 car batterys in a sealed container, i have to haul them up to the 5th floor to recharge the things. and when they are out the alarm and the rear wheel lock dose not work. so the chains i have are the only thing securing it to the 3 inch metal poll out side.
look at the pic with the almost empty class (h1n1 was found in a school near us, so most kids stopped going to school for a little while) easy teaching....
also pics of a night out and scaffolding on the side of a building (it really is bamboo)
i will try and get more pics online soon.. i have to take nuer pics with liyangs phone as mine is out of action for a while (bought another one for temp usage but dose not have a camera on it, i also cant get my digi cam to link with my comp)
speak soon people
look at the pic with the almost empty class (h1n1 was found in a school near us, so most kids stopped going to school for a little while) easy teaching....
also pics of a night out and scaffolding on the side of a building (it really is bamboo)
i will try and get more pics online soon.. i have to take nuer pics with liyangs phone as mine is out of action for a while (bought another one for temp usage but dose not have a camera on it, i also cant get my digi cam to link with my comp)
speak soon people
Thursday, 24 September 2009
HAY HAY
hay all.. i have found a way to bypass the china firewall.. i have youtube, blogspot and even facebook. :-D
i am going to try and start up the blog again,, will write in once a week or so and update..
quick update now.
i have left kindergarten and moved to the private secondary schools... much more fun as people can speak english already, good fun.
i have moved house and been bitten 18 times in 2 days by mozzys. also brother came over and spent some time here,,,, all good fun.. any how
speak soon
love you all
mark
i am going to try and start up the blog again,, will write in once a week or so and update..
quick update now.
i have left kindergarten and moved to the private secondary schools... much more fun as people can speak english already, good fun.
i have moved house and been bitten 18 times in 2 days by mozzys. also brother came over and spent some time here,,,, all good fun.. any how
speak soon
love you all
mark
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