Here it is at long last - the first edition of Will's Words....illustrated for your reading pleasure and, um.... edification? Well, I hope so.
You know, this really has been a long time coming. I've sent out a newsletter to family,friends, and colleagues nine or ten times each year since coming to China in 2003 and numerous times some of those newsletter recipients suggested "Why don't you write a blog". Why not indeed? I didn't just want to write a blog for family news so after a lot of thought and trying to decide which of my many and diverse interests might make interesting reading I settled on these - definitely family news, also life in China, English language learning/teaching, personal development, philosophy, ethics and moral reasoning, spirituality and religion, travel, student English language travel, wellness, complementary therapies, music, political crap in some countries (ahem ahem), oh and did I mention family news?
So I hope those who are reading this exciting first edition will keep coming back for more, will tell your friends (and enemies), will post comments at the bottom, and will find something of value from time to time as you read the posts that will, hopefully, fairly often follow this one. And now for a brief update on the family news.
As you can see in the photo, Alexander is growing quickly. When the photo was taken we were having an interesting day out, beginning with a visit to this lovely bamboo forest with a group of locals to see them digging bamboo shoots. Some of those suckers are huge. And delicious and nutritious. They were nice village people who also fed us some wonderful dumplings with chicken, garlic, and peanuts inside. YUM! From there we walked up 1,100 steps (yes, I did count them) to the top of Horse Head Mountain. There's an old Taoist temple up there, which is nothing special, but the view is spectacular. (Photo of the mountain and the view on the left).Back at the start of the winter vacation in mid-January we had wet, foggy, cold little holiday. Paula's father had never been to Hangzhou and every Chinese wants to go to Hangzhou to see the famous West Lake at least once in his life. Paula and I had been there in the summer in 2005 and we knew seeing it in winter would be different. It was. The trees were mostly bare, there were none of the spectacular flowers, and only a few birds. But it was still beautiful. The fog on the water and small boats appearing and disappearing in the mist were interesting. And the few trees in leaf and the few flowers, pansies mainly, were a beautiful contrast to the bleak, dull sky overhead.
From Hangzhou we went to Wenzhou and then to Wuxi to visit a childhood friend of Paula's who lives there with her husband and two children. Very nice family.
We were away for nine days and had a great time in spite of the weather.
I had five weeks holiday so there was plenty of time to read and write, play with Alexander, and go downtown with my friend Dr Gale for long lunches and talks over hot drinks in one of the very nice coffee shops or restaurants. On the days when the weather wasn't too bad I went out for an hour or two on my bike. Linhai is a good place for cycling. Even though there are hills on the North and South the city is built on the flat river plain and there are plenty of interesting places to ride. The traffic in the city area is awful but it's easy to get out into the countryside and the villages away from the rat-race. And just near the city centre there are two lovely parks, one beside the East Lake and another by a small lake, a billabong really, on the Northern side of the river.
Two weeks ago Alexander got over a severe infection in his mouth. The poor little boy was very miserable for a week. He couldn't eat solid food, his gums were swollen and almost covered his teeth, and he, and therefore we, didn't sleep well for that week. He's fine now and eating like a horse. And so are we all.
And there you have it. Bookmark us and come back to see what's new. We're also on Facebook and www.english-english.org and you can find one of my articles by Google searching "hubpages teach in China"
See you soon.
I had five weeks holiday so there was plenty of time to read and write, play with Alexander, and go downtown with my friend Dr Gale for long lunches and talks over hot drinks in one of the very nice coffee shops or restaurants. On the days when the weather wasn't too bad I went out for an hour or two on my bike. Linhai is a good place for cycling. Even though there are hills on the North and South the city is built on the flat river plain and there are plenty of interesting places to ride. The traffic in the city area is awful but it's easy to get out into the countryside and the villages away from the rat-race. And just near the city centre there are two lovely parks, one beside the East Lake and another by a small lake, a billabong really, on the Northern side of the river.
Two weeks ago Alexander got over a severe infection in his mouth. The poor little boy was very miserable for a week. He couldn't eat solid food, his gums were swollen and almost covered his teeth, and he, and therefore we, didn't sleep well for that week. He's fine now and eating like a horse. And so are we all.
And there you have it. Bookmark us and come back to see what's new. We're also on Facebook and www.english-english.org and you can find one of my articles by Google searching "hubpages teach in China"
See you soon.
