Moons and Golden Weeks
We are on the ascent to Golden week holiday. It is the holiday associated with the Mid Autumn or moon/mooncake festival (Zhong Qui Jie)...
Expat Life
Yulong River Scenic Area, Guilin; Make the Most of Your Stay
The region around Guilin in Guanxi Province, China was the first area to open to tourism after the revolution. Once one has hiked along...
Suzhou Summer Sizzler
The sweat has dried off just enough to enable typing without drowning the keys. It's time for another sizzling Suzhou summer with daily...
Best Coffee Shops in Suzhou
If you are looking for a cuppa, some of the well-known franchises such as Starbucks, Costa and Pacific Coffee have made their indelible...
Book Review: House Rules by Jodi Picoult
House Rules by Jodi Picoult, published in 2010 in America The story is told from multiple characters' point of view. It is divided into...
7 Tantalizing Reasons to Visit Shanghai
Thinking about visiting Shanghai but not sure where to start or what it really has to offer? Shanghai is fascinating melting pot of...
Top 5 Flea Markets in Suzhou
As a foreigner in Suzhou it can be hard to find the locally- acclaimed and established amenities and shopping spots. The following...
Top 3 Chinese Restaurants in Suzhou Industrial Park, (on a budget).
Within a two km radius of where we are based in Suzhou Industrial Park, there are many small restaurants, mainly noodle houses or hot...
Easy Easter?
Easter was blessed by the arrival of a good friend's new baby boy who I had the privilege of being the first non-family visitor in...
Global Citizenship and International Women's Day
Yesterday, Dulwich International High School celebrated International Women’s Day and Global Citizenship and I assisted Mike to arrange...
Mulled Wine and Cinderella
The rude awaking of an unforgiving school bus schedule and new term wrenched us from our tinsel- strewn, mulled wine fragranced...
This is Eden
Last weekend took Gideon and Mike to Nanjing for a family 5 km race. Gideon narrowly missed first position because he stopped for a...
A missed memo
Street lamps feebly attempted to brighten the dim skyline punctuated with cranes and towering heaps of rubble. The perfect setting for a...
Golden week antics
The Moon festival holiday approached with unprecedented speed this year, perhaps as due to Covid-19 lockdowns, the children have only...
Happy birthday Parkrun
So after six weeks as substitute teacher, the actual teacher returned from lands afar and so my contract ended, mainly to my relief. The...
Old rugs, a new decade and another paws for thought
Acquiring a rescued puppy the weekend before I started back in full time employment for the first time since early 2013 may not have been...
Blisters
Year 3 has got off to a good start for Gideon, he's a proficient tie-knotter already. He finds maths quite difficult but he's in the...
Retreating rain, sudden summer.
There's been a bit of a hiatus in the blog, sorry to all six of you who read it. It's been a busy month or so as we moved apartments,...
Greek food and Chinese Mythology
Just like that, Gideon finished infant school! He starts year 3 in August. He and Emily broke up on Friday, having only been back for...
Plum Rains
For about 2 weeks now, we have had the most humid, sticky weather. We are told the 'plum rain belt' has arrived. It has felt as though we...
'I'll thqueam and thqueam until I'm thick... I can."
Balcony blogging this evening while Mike is down the track sweating off his skinny behind. Feeling a little less drained than this time...
Flying prawns
Hooray; my eldest child has toddled off back to school...at...long...last! The atmosphere in our home is as though we have all breathed...
Social distancing in Suzhou
It's taken over 2 years but as of last weekend, I've summoned enough courage to ride an 'ebike'. Mike's had one for 2 years and can fit...
Social Distancing in Suzhou
Gideon was supposed to be going back to school tomorrow and Emily on Friday, but nope. It's a similar story for other Chinese schools...
Social distancing in Suzhou
So we still await a final opening date for Gideon and Emily to go back to school. We were told last week that it would be the 14th April...
Stranded in Penang- Part 17
Our release into freedom commenced today. After snaffling down some cornflakes, we virtually thanked the staff who had been taking such...
Stranded in Penang- Part 16
There's probably little that's less inspiring than a quarantine. Although, thinking about it more, I suppose Oscar Wilde wrote his Ballad...
Stranded in Penang- Part 15
The day following our entry into quarantine, one of Mike's school staff got wind of the fact that we had been sealed in despite it not...
Stranded in Penang- Part 14
Eventually Emily's vomiting ceased, although my prayer petitions, requests to friends and family to pray and anxious wakefulness didn't....
Stranded in Penang-Part 13
Because Mike's school senior management were requesting that staff start to return to China, (although there was no confirmed opening...
Stranded in Penang- Part 11- Langkawi
When our third air b&b ran out, we decided to go across the water to the other major island off the Malaysian coast: Langkawi, for a long...
Stranded in Penang- Part 9
Six days after Gideon's birthday is Emily's birthday, (it's the same every year). I spent an hour and half in Toys Are Us finding her a...
Stranded in Penang- Part 8
Mike and I did have sketchy thoughts of going climbing or to the cinema for Gideon's birthday, before the unprecedented move to the...
Stranded in Penang- Part 7
If it weren’t for the fact that our belongings are strewn around the world and our families are far, far away, that Mike’s work situation...
Stranded in Penang- Part 6
Our second weekend in Penang included an initiation into Penang National Park, on the North East stretch of the Isle. We slurped down...
Stranded in Penang- Part 5
Between 10 and 11 per cent of the Penang population is of Tamil descent, originating from the south of India and the Tamil regions of Sri...
Stranded in Penang- part 4
Chinese New year celebrations feature on different dates in different localities across Asia. Penang is an ex-British colony, (1946-1957)...
Stranded in Penang- part 3
At approximately 10 pm local time on 31 January, we landed in Kuala Lumpur. A warm, comforting tropical breeze swept past us as we...
Stranded in Penang- Part 2
Copenhagen airport had an appealing climbing frame in the shape of an aeroplane flying through clouds, so Emily was chuffed to arrive...
Stranded in Penang - Part 1
Emily, (my almost five year old daughter) and I said a tearful goodbye to the other half of our family on 10th January 2020 as we set off...