soldier-ing on

I promise to sit down and write a REAL entry asap, yet once again, this is not the day. Since leaving Beijing on Friday, we have caught the overnight train to Xi'an (sharing our compartment with a truly lovely army officer... and not I'm not being sarcastic, he really was), tripping around Xi'an town, and visiting the Terracotta Warriors.

Of course they were mind boggling, but you all expected I'd say that right?

I took a gazillion photos, which I'll try to get up sometime this weekend (fingers crossed).

Today started off "well" at 8am with me threatening our hotel manager to report her to the police for giving out my private room number to a taxi driver, but only after she falsely accused me of stealing a $5 pillow slip. She shut up pretty quickly, but it wasn't the best start to the day. After that we got on the bus to the airport (1 hour) to fly to Chengdu (1 hour 15min), then a taxi to the Chengdu bus station (20 min), followed by another bus to Emei (2 hours 15 min), and finally one last taxi (20 min) to our hostel in Buoguo Village at the base of Emei Shan (Mountain). All up, waiting time included, we have been on the road for 8 and a half hours, which in China feels more like... I don't know.... about 3 weeks. I am completely whacked and apologise for the stagnating state of this blog lately, and like a tease, promise more interesting tales in the near future.

But in the meantime, and in absence of my own photos (for now), I'll leave you with this, and this, oh and this too.

Jealous yet??

Busted Bathrooms in Beijing

Posting today very quickly from an overpriced net cafe in Beijing. The 'rents and I arrived here on Monday and settled into a charming little old ancient courtyard hotel... which we promptly had to move out of the next morning due to busted pipes in our bathroom. There were no other rooms available so we ended up in a noisy, dodgy and dirty kitch chinese hotel down the street. The standards are more than just lax- they don't even change the sheets between guests unless you demand it!

Since then we have climbed the Great Wall; visited Tiananmen Square; gotten trapped in the Forbidden City when Jacques Chirac dropped in for a visit and closed off all the exits; climbed up and down more stairs in monuments that my legs can forgive me for (I'm in a world of pain), and this morning we are heading off to see Mouldy old Mao's corpse preserved for all to see in his memorial hall... mmmmm... "I see dead people..."

Then we're onto an overnight train to Xi'an, home of the Terracotta Warriors, where I hope to have more time to post.

Manny is having a blast, though I cant post photos til we get back.

Gotta dash now....

Bad blogger! BAD blogger!

I know I know- this blog has been literally stalled all week. I'm a bad blogger.

Truth is I have been completely exhausted all week, showing mum and dad around and still teaching my normal classes in the meantime.

But we are off to Beijing in the morning, for the first leg of a 12 day trip: Beijing, the Great Wall, Xi'an, Emei Shan and Leshan. I know that is all Chinese to most of you (hehehe, lame joke in total exhaustion), but I'll update soon with lots of photos of Me, Mum, Dad, and of course... Manny! (poor Phil has to stay behind and work, though after a week of the de-facto-in-laws I'm not sure if that's such a bad thing!

Living with the 'rents again.

The parental unit has landed in Shanghai- finally I can watch all those PG dvds in my collection.

Yep, mum and dad touched down in Shanghai yesterday at 2pm, and have been caught up in a whirl of shopping, registering with the police, and getting foot massages ever since then.

I'm EXHAUSTED!

But they've officially met Phil, and Phil has officially met them, and the good news is that none of the three of them have officially disowned me yet.

More news to come, and stay tuned for some wicked Manny adventures as we take on China next week.

Living on the other side of "normal"

Have you ever gone into an Asian grocery store, and stood in line behind someone at the check-out, staring at their unfamiliar package of god-knows-what, and thought: "What the #&*@% is that?"

C'mon admit it, we all have.

Well, the other day I became that weird person with the strange inedible food while I was standing at the check-out of a supermarket near my home that sells some imported "foreigner" food. I had placed a couple of bags of penne pasta on the counter and the Chinese couple in line behind me leaned forward to look at it. The girl, looking positively horrified, turned to her husband and said (in Chinese): "What's that?"

The husband leaned in to get a closer look and had a lightbulb moment: "Ah! It's Italian Noodles!"

Manny's Missing

No he's not really missing, it's just that a plague of ebola has settled on our household this week (scientifically known as the Common Cold), and Manny is lying, drugged up on Nyquil, under a mammoth pile of used kleenex tissues.

Stay tuned for Manny next week, collecting my folks from the airport for the innaugural Hubbard Family Tour of China.

Games

Sorry for my absence, I was struck down this week with a vicious migraine and a never-ending head cold. Instead of talking about the copious amounts of snot still vacating the sinking ship that is my body, I thought we could play a little game. Boys and girls, feel free to play along at home.

This is a variation of of another game doing the blog rounds, which I changed to suit the visual aspect of my nature.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Rules:

• Reach for the nearest book to you, and open to page and open to page 12
• Find the 3rd sentence
• And then find the 4th word in the sentence.
• Do a google images search on that word only, and choose the 5th image, and publish it to your blog, along with the word you googled, and these rules for others to play along.

Mine: "mount" (from the China Lonely Planet guidebook on my desk):

Anyone know any other time wasting games we can play?

Just Another Manny's Monday (week 3)

Ladies and Gentlemen, it's that time again....

Manny does Brunch.

Manny checks out the menu at the Vienna Cafe
on Xiaoxin Rd, near Shanxi Rd, Shanghai:

Phil and Manny read a mag while waiting to order:

Manny eyes off the dubious Shanghai water...

...and then decides on a latte instead:

Manny gazes longingly at the rainy garden courtyard:
("Hello my god... it's Manny here... there's nothing much I want to say, just hellooooo my god..." --this will be totally lost on any non-Aussies, but ten points to anyone in Oz who recognises Manny's song)

Manny has to be talked down from a ledge when the waiter forgets his sandwhich:

Finally the sandwhich arrives:

And then of course dessert:

All tuckered out, Manny needs a Napkin Nap:

Manny gets busted doing a line in the bathroom
(The poor guy doesnt realise that without nostrils or a central nervous system he can neither snort nor get high... and I have it on good authority that sugar is not an illegal substance...):

Manny decides whether to use Visa or an ATM card to pay the bill:

...and goes for cash in the end:

Finally it's time to head home on the scooter

"Born to Riiiiiide!":

Until next week!
xxx Manny

As usual check out all of Manny's adventures at Just Another Manny's Monday

Portraits...

I have decided to go ahead with the portrait drawing idea. Anyone who is interested can email loudcreations@gmail.com for more information.

Thanks for your support!