What's That Yellow Thing in That Blue Thing Where That Grey Thing Used To Be?

Seems like the big man upstairs has flicked the switch to turn on the heating in Chengdu! We have had a glorious day of sunshine here today! Blue (well, about as blue as you can get) sky and sunshine all day! I think the spring has finally arrived! About time too!

I have decided to stay on in this university (SWUFE) for the coming semester. They have enough students (7 at the moment) to make up a class at my level. We have some new (and by the looks of it, better) textbooks and we have a new teacher for Speaking/Listening. I know she’s a goodun cos we had her as a sub once last semester. Well, I better ht the books and get the most out of this semester. I want to take the Chinese proficiency exam too – gives some official reflection of my Chinese ability. Have to do the Chinese thing – learn the best way to get a good mark as apposed to knowing the actual subject!

LFC - WTF?

Liverpool Football Club baffles me - How can a team which came from losing to a minnow like Barnsley in the FA Cup on Saturday come to beat a giant like Inter Milan in the Champions League last night. The mind boggles!

Panda Porn

I saw this article on the BBC News website yesterday. Apologies to the Chinese readers who can't access this article on the BBC – talk to the gov about it.

Anyway, near where I live, we have the Chengdu Research Base for Giant Panda Breeding. Seemingly, pandas don’t have much of a sexual drive – the article says that pandas are only in the mood for love for 3 days per year. In order to try and get pandas to mate, the scientists here are showing them videos of other pandas doing the deed! Interesting idea, but so far it doesn’t seem to work! What’s next - panda porno mags, sex toys? Maybe they should get Homer Simpson in there, he seemed popular with the pandas in one particular episode.

RTE China Documentaries

I came across a series of documentaries on China on the website of Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTE.

Granted, I have only watched one of them, but I found them quite informative, touching on various aspects of modern China and modern Chinese culture. A lot of people may have ideas of China as a giant monolithic grey communist state – with folks drearily going about their affairs clad in Mao-esque attire clutching little red books. Well, maybe nowadays, people’s image of China isn’t that far-fetched, as everyone now knows about China’s economic boom, but I think most people will be surprised with what they see in the documentaries. In the cities, China is just a capitalist Mecca. Money talks. Anyway, have a goosey-gander at the docu for yourselves.

The Circle Is Complete: Back in Chengdu

Well, seems like the holiday never happened. Here I am, back in Chengdu again, except this time it’s a bit colder.

Philippines was great. There, I was moaning about it being too hot! Now, it’s too cold! Last time I blogged, I was in the “province” (the bog, the sticks, the boomdocks). Saw volcanoes, beaches, paddy fields and other tropical stuff. Went swimming in the sea. It was nice and relaxing.


Mark decided that we would ride the 550 odd km from Sorsogon (where we stayed in the province) back to Manila on Mark’s 180cc motorbike. A daunting task, but one that we managed to pull off! We did it over 2 days, managing to soak ourselves the first day (we did 400km that day). For that we rewarded ourselves wit a few beers and a stay in Lucena’s poshest hotel. Wow, warm showers! The second day was shorter in distance but traffic slowed us down. Only half-soaked ourselves that day. The bike was enjoyable – can see a lot more than you would from a car since you are immersed in it. You also get the speed buzz, waaaa!


Returning to Manila’s gridlock, we chilled out for a few days before heading to Lake Taal and Tagaytay. Irish people usually like to go to hot countries like Spain for their holidays, cos of our miserable pissy-rainy weather in Ireland. On the contrary, Filipinos like to escape the intense heat and humidity so the lucky, monied ones head to places like Tagaytay, perched on a ridge 500m above Lake Taal. Lake Taal was pretty cool.


There is a lake (obviously) with a volcanic island in it. There is a lake in the crater of the volcano. I think there could be a little volcano inside the lake but I could have made that it up. We biked it down to Tall Lake from Manila. Only 70km but took ages cos of congested traffic and bad roads. The lake was really nice. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to take a boat out to the volcano. Instead, we headed up to Tagaytay, the bike fairly straining on the steep climb!

Tagaytay is a very small town with a long strip of hotels, bars etc on the ridge with views of the Lake Taal. The climate is nice here – cooer than at sea level. The perfect getaway! We did manage to find some entertainment there, with the best Filipino band have seen so far. No disrespect to Filipino bands, but they all pretty much do the same thing – pop-R&B-esque music. They play well and sing well but they pretty much all sound the same. These guys, playing on the second floor of a Chinese restaurant did more of a guitar-based thing – more my style. Indeed I had a wee jam with them, which was great fun!



The next day was a bleary-eyed trip back to Manila and then on to Guangzhou, China back to the veritable deep-freeze!