Knobcottage in China

So one night I was minding my own business wandering uselessly around in the park, when I got a message from parklady.It was a photo.  I have discovered that she is a member of the Tuijia ethnic minority.  The costume that she and the others are wearing is the Tuijia traditional dress. The message translated as "Hey I am in the stadium singing, wanna come and play?".  I have said it before but I just love how the Chinese use the word 'play'.  It just means 'hang out with' or meet.  Just such a lovely word and one I will take back to England! A woman I now know as Wan Sanhong, me and the guy from the office next door to mine at school! When I got toe the stadium, I said my hellos to parklady who ushered me over to Wan Sanhong. Wan Sanhong spoke English.  We chatted a while.  It turns out she had only been in Jiangkou a month and is actually from Zunyi county, the same county that Star is from.  Coincidences happen even in a place as ...

I reckoned it was about time I did something in return for the kindness that parklady has shown me, so this morning I texted her and asked if she had had breakfast.  I got a photo back, and a message "No need" she said, "I'm by the river doing yoga...Would you like to learn it?". Of course!  So off I popped, and sure enough there she was doing yoga. She smiled and continued. However, the woman in the river nearby (in the background of the photo above), washing her chilli's, not a euphemism, didn't look so comfortable with my presence as she had tied her skirt up and was sitting on a plastic bag on a rock in the river, knickers on full display.  For your information Chinese knickers are, so I am told, usually, 'shorts style' knickers, as in the picture, so it wasn't too embarrassing for her! Anyway I watched for a while, the yoga, not the woman in her knickers, and eventually the yoga ended.  She called her friend over.  Her frie...

So far I was a little bemused about what had happened.  Things were about to get a little more strange.  First there was the show, ,and secondly there was the meeting with the angel. The Show. The stage had been built, the speakers tested: VERY loud.  The lion was ready, the 'celebrity' table was packed with 'celebrities' and the show began.  The lion pranced around and was given red envelopes.  (Red envelopes usually contain money.)  It then jumped off the stage and climbed a pole and took some gifts. The inside of the lion The 'lion' at the top of the pole. Quite impressive! There were various singers and dancers, not of who I gather were well known figures locally. The local celebrities Te local 'celebrities' and the 'lion'. Then camethe weird part.  A Chinese guy of about my age, clothes from his twenties and hair braided like a Jamaican.  First came the rubber glove.  He stretched it over his head, but i...

On Friday Parklady asked me if I fancied a day out.  Of course!  It was a day in Tongren at what I think will be a renewable energy show.  She was going with her friend who had just opened a car dealership...Or at least that is how I understood it. It now appears that she was going with a friend and it was nother friend who had opened the dealership....I think.  It was scheduled for a 10 a.m. start. We eventual left at 12.15. and stopped for noodles before we got on the motorway. park lady at the noodle shop just before the motorway Now to say that Parklady is a good driver in town is an overstatement, but on the motorway.....Well let's say I made sure my seatbelt was fastened! Eventually we arrived in one piece.  I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but after several months in China I thought that nothing much phases me now.  I was wrong.  Firstly this was not what I expected.  I expected a sort of trade show or exhibition, this was t...