Merry Christmas!
In China it is now Christmas… but you can’t really tell. I’ve yet to go out, but if yesterday was anything to go by, there will be the odd shopworker in a santa hat and the one Christmas tree in Taizhou city. But in many ways, it’s a lot better than being subjected to Christmas music, Christmas offers and other Christmas stuff as you wander around the shops.
Xiaoxiao has gone to the hospital this morning for a check-up blood test, so I’m just waiting for her to get back. Once she’s opened her presents we’re going to travel to the next district to have a look around the shops.
Christmas Eve was a pretty bizare day… up fairly early to wander around the shopping area. Nipped to the small camera shop to check if they had a good price for the 17-55 (they had a reasonable price, but no lens)... in the end I bought a new Nikon strap, which I’ve now got attached to the OM-2. If I could find a couple more small “keyring”-hoops I’d grab another strap for the OM-4. I don’t make a lot of use of a camera strap, but it’s really handy to be able to throw the camera over your shoulder: especially when you’re frequently switching between the two.
I’m already running low on film and I don’t really trust the two rolls of Neopan 1600 that I bought. The airport x-ray machine was probably so-so, but the Chinese bus station x-ray scanner likely went a little too far. With any luck I’ll find a shop that sells some sort of decent B&W film in the next district.
After a meal out with Xiaoxiao’s father and business friends, we visited a “Christmas Eve party” that Xiao was invited to by some random girl she met in the hospital lift… it was one of those crappy “we’ll have loads of raffles and make sure everybody gets called onto the stage” interspersed with karaoke events. Interestingly it was hosted by Amway… which has to be one of the biggest pyramid schemes the world has ever seen. I can’t help but feel sorry for these guys because Amway transforms their brains such that they can only see the world in terms of “if I sign up these people here, I can earn an extra x a month! Then if they sign up…” yada-yada.
Anyway, we were very well looked after here and received lots of “presents”... we both got a cheap santa on a string toy. Neither Xiaoxiao nor I had the heart to tell them that you don’t “give” Santa at Christmas. After multiple requests (and refusals) that Xiaoxiao and I go on stage and sing an English Christmas song we decided it was time for us to go… a decision made a lot easier by the fact that one of the Amway people had already taken our “details” (haha, fake ones!) and now wanted to go to some other room for a “chat”.
In the end my flight from Heathrow was delayed by about an hour and a half, after this time we were allowed onto the plane, but we then had to sit still in our seats for another three hours before we finally took off. In total this made the time inside the plane a whopping 14 hours: a little too long for comfort. I managed to get a little sleep, but on the whole I found the whole journey incredibly uncomfortable. To my surprise the food wasn’t so bad (or, more likely, I was so hungry) that I managed to eat almost all of the main meal; a funny beef thing with rice. But the breakfast (normally a winner with me) was inedible… whoever heard of a croissant with cheese and tomato inside?
When I finally landed in Shanghai PuDong the flight was pretty late and there was a massive queue at immigration thanks to the hoards of Japanese cool kids that were also here to visit. Well over an hour later I managed to collect my bags and meet Xiaoxiao’s aunty, who drove me to McDonald’s for some food, and then on to the bus station.
Five and a half hours later and I had to get off in Taizhou city, where I was met by Xiaoxiao and her Mum. This bus trip was pretty good… I was well looked after by the driver and it turns out that Xiaoxiao had been calling him every half an hour to find out if I was okay, and where they were so she could arrive at the bus station in time. We had a short dinner break half-way through and the driver made sure I knew what the registration number of the bus was, and what time I needed to be back at the bus by. I picked up some crisps and a bottle of Coke for nine yuan… after 60p.
Xiaoxiao is back now and she’s pestering me to open her presents. Time for Christmas!
Hope everybody else is having a great time :)
Tags: Travel