One more ! some people need a mention.

I just got home, it's 06:25 on Wednesday morning. I realised, on the flight home, that I hadn't mentioned the housemates in the last post, so just a few words,

When I first got to the house Maggie and Phil were there, I didn't know Phil too well then, but we got on really well, I'm glad I got to know him.

My old workmate Andy came next, needless top say no problems there, we've known each other a long time.

Next came Terry, again didn't know him very well, but we found that having grown up in the same area we had quite a lot in common.

Ayat was the next one, of course we have shared this house before, and I got to know him in the summer, we had a great time again I'm really glad he came this time.

Heidi arrived next, what can I say ? again, we just said hello and good morning before this trip, she took the place by storm, great fun, I'm pleased to have been there at the same time.

Last came Nigel, I've known this guy for some years now, so I knew it'd be OK and it was (is).

So I've made some new friends on this trip, had a great experience, and got some work done !

Back some time in new year, not sure when, could be March ! bye bye and thanks to all who made this thing a pleasure to write.

Neil.

Last Post

This is gonna be the last one for a while.

Went to HK on Sunday with Ayat, he's going home tonight. Had great day yesterday, did a bit of sight seeing. Went for dinner with Cai and his wife, then had dinner with Lobo and his girlfriend !!??, watched the Liverpool Man U game in a pub. Had a couple of beers then back to hotel.

Met Nigel for lunch in HK today, came back to China this afternoon.

Last day tomorrow, flying home from HK at midnight, home Wednesday morning,

Thanks to all who have read this and posted comments, all who provided the material, hope I didn't upset anyone !!!

I have really enjoyed this experience, I know it's been frustrating sometimes but on the whole it's been very good, thanks to all who have helped me get the work done and to those who helped when I was ill (they know who they are).

So the last song for a while, great instrumental,

Going home, Mark Knopfler. See you all soon.

The journey continues

So we set off, but Dennis insisted on one more picture before we left.

Looks good as Rudolph eh. Next we walked through the park where lots of people were line dancing in the square, you should have seen the looks we got, anyway Maggie and Heidi decided to join in with all these other dancers, attracted quite a crowd.

From here we walked to the supermarket, all the way people were looking and calling out to us, once inside Ayat persuaded on of the girls on the perfume counter to exchange hats (most of the shops in the hall had assistants wearing Christmas hats). See below.

Went round the shop, all the young kids were waving and calling out to us, it was hilarious, anyway, payed for shopping and left the shop and had to take one more picture of Father Christmas outside the shop, with his assistant (mad Viking woman).

From here back to the house, the whole evening was great fun, I think we amused and bemused a lot of people along the way. What also surprised me was the number of people who wished us happy Christmas. Got home around 10 pm, sat around discussing the events of the day. I'm glad I got to write something unusual, hope you all enjoyed it, we did !!

So I've got two songs today :

Walk in the Night, Junior Walker and the all stars, and Crazy, Patsy Kline.

Going to HK tomorrow back Monday.

Christmas comes early in Dongguan.

It's now Saturday, didn't get to write yesterday, got some problems with the internet connection here. This will be Fridays post.
Anyway, Terry should be landing in UK soon, it's 12.10 here. Heidi arrived yesterday, more about that later on, but first a bit about the small team Andy and I are working with.

Managed to get a picture of the two, see below.

To the left of me is Errol, to the right Hua, also known as Jean. We've been wondering why he chose the name Errol, I guess most people will know what Errol Flynn was famous for !!

They have both done some really good work this week, so very encouraged by this.

Got back to the house in the afternoon to see Terry off, Heidi produced a few funny Christmas hats, see below.

From left to right Dennis, Ayat, Maggie and Heidi, I had one as well, couldn't get a good shot on the self timer.

Had a barbie and then set off for a walk, with hats. We got to the centre of our estate, currently selling nice porcelain, went in to look and lots of small children with their parents were there. It was funny, they all thought we were mad ! anyway eventually we got them to put the hats on, they were so excited. See pic !

Some of these kids speak a little English, they all said thank you and wished us a happy Christmas, really nice and great fun.

We left this place and set off for the town, more about that in next post.

For those who don't work in FFEI, Heidi comes from Denmark (she's absolutely bonkers by the way), Ayat from Iran, so last night I was the only Englishman.

Back in while with news about the walk into town.

Song for the day : The Kids are Alright, The Who. (second Who song, I'm getting young again !)

PS see what I mean about the layout, with pictures it all goes wrong, anyone have any idea's ?

All change !

Went out for dinner last night, got to restaurant and it was one we'd been to before but didn't like very much, so I was a little apprehensive. Turned out to be very good, lots of hot spicy food. A good time had by all, we were the guests of the visitors from Korea.

Terry is the latest evictee (I'm sure that's not a word but who cares), he leaves later today and Heidi will be taking his place. Ayat is leaving here on Sunday, and Nigel arrives Monday, so it's all change again !!!

One week left for me, really want to get home now, Christmas is coming, running out of time to do shopping.

Not much to say again, sorry, back later.

Thursdays song for the day : Changes, David Bowie.

Took a bit of a beating !! (lol)

Woke up this morning (this could be a great blues song), went to bathroom, looked in the mirror, shock, horror, looked like I'd just done a couple of rounds with Henry Cooper !!! Damn those mosquitos. Needed Piriton & Nurofen to get rid of the swelling, still hasn't gone down now ! No pictures this time don't want to scare anyone.

I can't believe what happened today, Ayat meets Andys assistant and almost instantly gets her photograph, we've been trying for weeks, can't post it cos the file's too big, how did he manage it ? (and she can't understand a word of English).

Been really warm and humid today, makes a change, been a bit chilly of late (had to mention the weather cos I'm English, and also it is expected of me, eh, Anonymous).

I sent Golden Oldie yesterdays song and she really liked it, so I'm pleased someone agrees with me, no accounting for taste.

I'm struggling a bit for material this week, so maybe I'll be back tomorrow.

Song for the day : Desperado, The Eagles

Just another day in China

Breakfast usually consists of toast and sometimes fruit if we have any, the problem for me is the bread is really sweet, so I have to have something on it, Jam, Marmalade etc.. Today all we'd got was bread, couldn't face it so no breakfast, what a start !!

The Zanite work today went quite well, only trouble was with other area's which I don't know too much about, however did my best to help.

You can tell, can't you, that I don't have much to write about today ? Dennis did fix the car after the petrol cap incident but nothing else of note, even that's not much of an event.

Does anyone remember the post about the stars ? looked up tonight, and saw one !!! world record, pollution must be light today. Don't have any pictures to show today, sorry. I really hope that something interesting happens tomorrow. Oh, by the way we do have an eviction this week, Terry leaves on Friday, and I think we have a new housemate on Friday night, Heidi.

Terry & Ayat are watching TV, football I think, I can't sit still tonight, so came to write this.

So I'll go now, if anything happens, I'll do another. See Y'all.

Song for the day : Dimming of the Day, Bonnie Raitt.
A bit about this song as I've nothing else to say of interest, this is Bonnie Raitts cover of a Richard Thompson song (he of Fairport Convention). This one really gives me goose bumps, it's a beautiful song, so Golden Oldie, do you know it ?

I just had to use my favourite Who song !!

Got bored this evening so I thought I'd tell you about a work thing that happened at the weekend, it also gives me the chance to use my all time favourite song, so there's another song for the day, or shall we say evening ?

On Friday night Cai & Lobo told me that the setting equipment that I have been waiting for, for some weeks now had arrived at the factory. Full of enthusiasm for getting the job done (those with influence please take note, lol !!) we duly rushed into work on Saturday, yeah OK we went at a leisurely pace (that's Dennis and I).

Got to work only to find that they had misunderstood my description of the goods (this happens a lot !!) and something quite different had arrived. So I did stay and got the guys there to remove some castings from the moulds, so all not lost.

This leads me very nicely to the song for this evening, now I could say "is anybody gonna guess what it is ?" but I think it's far too easy, isn't it ?

This evenings song : Won't get fooled again, The Who.
Probably the best rock song in the world.
I really can't believe it's been 46 posts and this is the first Who song, I must be getting old !!
Bye bye, back tomorrow.

Old Bamboo

Monday again, hooray !!! Forgot to tell in last post, Ayat and I got locked out last night, some unsuspecting housemate, who shall remain nameless, locked the door without the key, thus rendering our key completely useless. Had to ring Maggie to let us in, Of course, she was asleep !!!

Alison : it's just like being at home !!! (lol). As you may guess we were popular !?

On to today, after lunch Dennis gave us bamboo sticks for pudding !, actually not bad, chew, suck out juice and spit out what's left. Dennis say's it contains sugar and is very good.

We also have another camera shy person in our midst, our maid, look at this, had to catch her when possible because she won't let us take a proper photo.

Walking in the park is now becoming a bit of a weekend pastime, it's nice to walk through when the sun is shining, in the middle is this piece of modern art ? don't know what to call it.

If you click on this you will see what I mean when I say it immediately reminded me of David Beckham, only he's got two , allegedly.

Not much of interest happened at work today,excepting the normal frustrations so I'll leave it here. Hope you all found it exciting !?

Song for the day : Park Life , Blur.

Please excuse the bad layout, I can't figure out what's going wrong. Think it's something to do with the placement of the pictures, will try to fix soon.

Didn't we have a lovely time the day we went to Guangzhou

Left good old Dongguan at 10:30 Sunday morning and took the train to Guangzhou (pronounced "gwangjo") also known as Canton, I guess most people will know this name. 30 minutes later arrived at Guangzhou east station.

I have to say that the city is a much nicer place than Dongguan, is much older and has more history, we decided to get lunch at 1:30 and ended up sitting in the restaurant until 4:30, technical problem with the order !!!! Walked around for a while and then took a boat trip along the Pearl river, this was the highlight of the day, see pics.

Quite impresive along the Pearl river at night.

After boat trip (1.5 hours), had coffee and caught train home. Good part was we got off at the wrong station, "funny don't recognise this place", we said, anyway managed to get another train 15 minutes later, Dennis was not amused when we got to Dongguan, also stopped for petrol and the filler cap door would not open !!! poor old Dennis not his day.

Back later,

Song for the day : Down to the river to pray, Alison Krauss and Union Station.

I love this song, if you don't know it find a copy, beautiful song.

Yet another exciting weekend in Dongguan

Thursdays night out was OK, live music a bit laughable really, and I'd forgotten what a strange place it is (went there in the summer).

Didn't get to do a post yesterday, sorry. So here's a bit about the day. First, Dennis got his Mercedes, see below, he's over the moon.



This car is ten years old (I think), very big and very comfortable, I fell asleep within five minutes of getting in !!!



Yesterday Ayat wanted to change some cheques, so we had to go to Dongcheng (another area of Dongguan), an hours drive away. Got there and had a "technical" problem so went to another bank, they had never dealt in GBP before and we had to wait an hour for them to set up a new account (yawn !!!).

We got back just in time to see Andy off, he's gone home now, if you're reading this you lucky man, hope you got home safely.

When Andy had left we had guests round for a "barbie", an Ayat & Dennis special, Cai, Lobo and his girlfriend Marie came to eat with us. Nice evening & good conversation, Marie speaks excellent English.


So here we have Ayat and Dennis preparing the food, it was quite delicious, these guys know how to cook, puts me to shame ! couldn't even begin to compete with them.


You should have seen all the washing up, stacks and stacks of dishes, when the honored guests departed we tried to get Maggie to do it but she went to bed.

Went to work this morning, this afternoon we walked around town, uneventful. Might go somewhere tomorrow, possibly Guangzhou (next city north of here).

Not much else, so back soon. I didn't get any quiz suggestions !!! anyone interested ?

Song for the day : Strange Town, The Jam.

Another farewell !!

I'm back in good old Dongguan again, arrived at the house 6pm last night, couldn't do a post because my laptop was at the factory (in the safe).

So here we go again, it's been a China day today !! frustration all round, so nothing new there.

As predicted two new housemates Ayat and Terry (see pic).

From left to right : Dennis (driver and bodyguard), Ayat (it's coke not beer), Terry (playing with his phone) and Maggie (you've seen her before).

We're off out tonight, it's Andys last night, going to the Princes Hotel, got a bar there with live music. So following this latest eviction we will be down to three again. Only two weeks to go to the next trip home, can't wait !!!

Just for Anonymous, I've got to mention the weather, it's cold, much colder that when I left last week, but dry.

Back tomorrow with more, news about the night out, and breath taking events of the day !!??

Song for the day : Farewell is a lonely sound, Jimmy Ruffin.

New trips eve

Hello again, couldn't resist another post. Been into the office today, said goodbye til Christmas to all who were there, so Golden Oldie as you were absent, see you at Christmas.

Off again on tomorrows flight to HK, should be at the house by about 6pm on Wednesday, I really can't wait !!!

Andy Lowe flies home on Friday night, bet you'll all be glad to see him next week.

I know I have two new companions when I arrive, Terry & Ayat, so hopefully they will provide some more stuff to write about. Ayat is famous for his "barbies" (that's barbecue not dolls) had one last summer when in China.

Hope you all continue to comment, it really helps me to stay enthusiastic about this blog and it's just nice to hear from all at home, keep it up !!

So I'll be back on Wednesday (hopefully) with more exciting news !!!!

Song for the day : China in your hand, T'pau
Bet you've been wondering when I'd use this one !?