Sweet & Sour Wimp

New Blog!

2009-10-05T19:26:00.001+01:00

Sweet and Sour Wimp is now old news. CLICK HERE to head over to the new blog. See you on the other side!

National Day is coming

2009-10-03T11:37:00.001+01:00

Polaroid: Beryl, originally uploaded by Akira2506.

Okay. So, two things. 1) National day has already come...and gone. and 2) this Polaroid of Beryl has nothing to do with it...I just wanted to share it. :)

Although, speaking of Beryl...

I found out she can knit! She knitted a scarf for my mum. Her skill set is so polar-opposite to mine.

and cross-stitch! She made me this super cute frog-shaped phone charm. :)

Back on topic. National day! Flags are everywhere.

EVERYWHERE!

Cute girl with a very faded flag. :)

and another!

All over town there are stalls like this selling mooncake.

and finally this shot. "Anything is Possible." and the Chinese flag.
I'm inclined to agree.

:)

September Night Photography

2009-10-02T21:59:00.001+01:00

So many pool tables, originally uploaded by Akira2506.

Took my camera for a wonder around one night. These are the results.

A KTV / Hotpot / Bank / Gym building near my apartment.

Stumbled upon this basketball game being played.

Calling for a timeout!

They looked quite tired.

Loads of people were playing pool.

So many interesting colours at night, really makes for interesting photography.

Always see students cycling home at silly hours. Often as late as 10:30pm. Students in China work so damn hard. Shout out to them.

( As an aside, I'm actually back home now. At least for a few weeks. )

Oktoberfest in Xi'an

2009-09-21T11:01:00.001+01:00

Oktoberfest at Sofitel, Xian, originally uploaded by Akira2506.

"Cheers!" or "Prost!" as they say in Germany.

So, myself, Beryl, Rudy, Joanne and Kai headed to Xi'an for the Oktoberfest held at the Sofitel hotel there. The Sofitel is a totally pimp hotel, and Rudy knows someone who works there, so we got hooked-up price wise, so kudos to him.

Beryl sitting on the bed in the hotel room.

The hotel room had this... interesting... feature. Behind this blind is the bathroom shower, so you can watch your partner shower from the comfort of your bed. Like I said; interesting.

The hotel is split into different buildings, this is the lobby of the 5 star section. We stayed in the slightly-less impressive 4 star section, but it was still great.

The exterior.

The whole thing was in collaboration with Paulaner

The interior of the festival tent. Blue-and-white Bavarian theme throughout.

Kai (who's German) toasts with Rudy (who's...not.)

and of course, one to call my own. :)

A very bad photo; but you get the idea.

Lederhosen!!!!!

There was LOTS of "cheers"ing and lots of clashing glasses while singing. For some reason "Alice, Alice who the **** is Alice?" is a theme of Oktoberfests. It was played about 5 times along with a few German songs which by the end of the night I could sing off by heart... but somehow forgot the next morning. Thank you beer. :)

Zee Germans!

The music was pretty cool. :)

Check out the beaut' on the tuba.

I want his hat.

Then this pretty lil' lady chugged a whole 2 pint glass in under 10 seconds. I was impressed.

Rudy being outnumbered by zee Germans. So many jokes, so little time.

Beryl and Joanne enjoying themselves!

Hat-swapping competitions. Awesome.

At the end of the night, things started going a little dark and blurry.

The last thing I remember seeing. :-P

The next day we woke up and wondered around Xi'an. I didn't really take any good snaps, until we got to a restaurant. The service was so poor, and the food wasn't much special. But we then noticed this in the menu, and things started to make sense.

Quantity assurance.

A typical sight at Xi'an bus station.

Then on the bus, Kai (who's tall, but not giant) displays that leg room on Chinese buses isn't great.

It was a blast, and I'll probably do it again next year! :D

"Weinan Glory Quest"

2009-09-09T09:08:00.001+01:00

Weinan Glory Quest 2009, originally uploaded by Akira2506.

So, back at the start of August I got wind of some sort of fashion show happening in the square. Unfortunately that night I had to teach, but I figured I'd go down after work and see what I could see. Armed with my camera; of course.

Anyway, when I got there, this is all I could see. The backs of heads. Now, Chinese aren't the tallest people ever, but they're not quite short enough to shoot over a thousand of them.

I tried moving to the other side; but still no luck.

So, I decided to pretty much write the night off, and grabbed a few photos of people in the crowd.

Then I met this group of dancers, that I'd met earlier in the day. Anyway, they saw I was armed with my camera and asked if I wanted to go take photos from the front of the stage. Sure enough, they took me up to the security, said some stuff in Chinese, and we were let through into the photographer pit. There were about 10 photographers there with semi-pro gear, and a few with AAA stuff.

The event was primarily to showcase wedding dresses from the Mona Lisa wedding company.

Some nice dresses.

The lighting was a bit too top-heavy making some nasty shadows on the face in most photos, but at least there were some interesting colours.

Interesting colours all round.

It wouldn't be a Chinese event without a bubble machine... ah... they love their bubbles.

Lots of shots ruined by the gash lighting. :(

Some interesting looking models

:)

I liked this hat :D

I love them bubbles!

I don't know what this pose means.

Not just white dresses!

Someone must have told this chick it was attractive to lean back.

Thinking of captions for these is tough...

Did I mention I liked this hat? :)

Not sure I'd wear this for my wedding.
Not that I'd wear any dress.
No, Really.

Interesting make-up

An idea of the crowd that we'd gotten in front of.

and yellow dresses!

Colour temperature was hard to lock down.

Some of the photogs.

More photogs.

Including this chick with £2500 of camera that was bigger than her.

This chick was Adam's family scary.

Between fashion segments there were various musical acts. These kids were hella-good dancers.

Dance, Dance, Dance!

:)

All the parents rushed in with their points-and-shoots.

Then this guy came on stage and started singing...

...and then the photogs decided we were more interesting than him. All of a sudden every photographer was taking photos of me and Tim, and asking us to pretend we were taking photos of the guy on stage, it was very surreal!

Bubbbbbles!

These two dudes were cool. A singing, dancing, ass-kicking performance.

Too manly for bubbles; they got smoke.

Rar!

Lookin' mean.

¬_¬

They were pretty good singers.

Although they did do some strange stuff...

...straaaaaange.

Then they kicked each other's asses.

and got airborne.

et voila.

Then lights up on another act.

Another kid's dance school.

All very good at what they did.

Dancing away

Then a three-piece band took to the stage and plugged in their own stuff. No roadies in China, apparently.

This girl cheered them on rather prematurely.

But they were very good

The lead singer / bassist trying to signal to the sound guy to turn down the bass.

Then a strange tradition of all Chinese rock shows. Someone comes on stage mid-song and tries to give the lead singer some flowers...while he's singing and playing. It's a very weird tradition, the song gets a bit trashed, but its very amusing.

The smoke made for some cool shots

This guy came back for some singing

This dude could jam

Slappin' da basssss

The whole thing taking place under a full moon

a few more wedding dresses.

This model looked like she'd had enough...

and this model looked like she'd had...well, you can finish this caption.

All the performers hit the stage to take a bow

The sound desk

Powered by Mac... boooooo!

Lights off...time to go home.

That concludes my first foray into fashion photography, it was pretty fun! Something I hope to try again. I need a 70-200 2.8 IS L though. ;-)

More soon!

Impromptu photoshoot, Beryl & Her Sister

2009-09-05T15:56:00.001+01:00

Beryl & Angelina - $th Aug '09, originally uploaded by Akira2506.

So, I finally got around to editing and uploading these photos I took back at the start of August!

When Beryl's sister came to stay I broke out some of my photo equipment and started goofing around using them as my models. Here are some of the snaps.

I like this one, I thought it was a little catalogue-ish.

Toilet-roll telephone; a classic.

Good pose!

Not so good pose! -P

On the dog and bone.

I liked this one too!

My beautiful B!

Sister power!

Very chic!

I like the expression.

B helping with makeup.

Black T-shirts, folded arms, and a grey scale photo; too cool for school!

A personal favourite!

Another one I like.

She pulls of my shades better than I do.

And the secret of their good looks...?

ah, of course. Cucumber. ;-)

Hopefully more posts soon!

-Joe

Rob & Cheers Wedding - Part 2

2009-09-01T09:18:00.001+01:00

Rob & Cheers Traditional Chinese Wedding, Weinan, originally uploaded by Akira2506.

If you haven't already, be sure to read part 1.

As usual, all photos can be viewed bigger, or saved. Just click the photo go to flickr, then click the "all sizes" button above the photo. :)

So, inside Cheer's parents' apartment, Rob had some traditions to take care of. First of all he paid respect to Cheer's ancestors; pictured here are her great-grandparents.

Then Cheer's mother arrived, looking spectacular.

She'd made some intentionally-bad-tasting eggs that Rob had to eat up. Yum yum.

Some videographers looked on.

For the next "test", Rob has to try get into Cheer's bedroom where she's hiding with her friends. This involves bribing the friends with money, and singing a song to the bride to convince the girls that he's a suitable husband, and he should be allowed in.

Rob during his rendition of "You are my sunshine."

Pinky bribing them and trying to convince them he's a good man and a suitable husband.

Finally the door opened, and suddenly everyone piled into the relatively small room. This manic shot was captured as I streamed through the door. You can just about make out Beryl. :)

I was very happy to see B. :)

The next test... the bride's shoes have been hidden! The groom and his friends have to find the shoes. Nope... not in that cupboard.

One of cheer's friends is given an envelope of money as a bribe, and then suddenly produces one shoe from her bag. The magic of bribery, a true Chinese tradition. :-p

"Is this your shoe, madame?" ( but in Chinese...obviously. )

Beryl is hiding the other shoe, and gets charged by Rob. Haha; brute force, a true American tradition. ;-)

Rob's first glimpse of Cheer on the wedding day, as she lifts her veil to receive her shoes.

Rob slaps on Cheer's shoes, and jobs a good 'un.

"Ni hao!"

Back into the living room and there's some talking between the two sets of parents.

The room was crazy, a true mob around the wedding families.

Everyone trying to get that all-important shot.

Everyone happy. :)

Just time for another photo of B amongst the craziness.

Then back out onto the street to start making our way to the hotel.

Cheer inside her....whatever-its-called.

The crowd looked on

Rob back on his horse.

The parents following.

This baby seemed to be applauding the proceedings.

Lots of vibrant colours making for good photos.

Another lion dance before we set out, and then the lions said....... something.

More traffic chaos as we crossed the road outside the apartment complex.

But most people were happy to have an opportunity to witness the proceedings...

...this guy; not so much.

The four parents looked stunning in the bright sunshine:

Rob's Mother

Cheer's Mother

Rob's Stepfather

Cheer's Father.

This old woman was dancing all the way :)

Cheer sat down all the way :-P

I like this shot. :)

This guy was honking at us as we crossed the intersection... honking at us, while driving around us, while smoking a cigarette, while trying to take a photo. Nice.

Making our way down what is the main road of Weinan.

Everyone still stopping to try capture the moment

This guy seemed truly shocked as he watched the procession go by

Beryl accompanying the mothers.

Another strange tradition...half way down the street the band stop playing and the whole procession grinds to a halt. They won't start again until they're paid. Pinky hands out some red envelopes with a few RMB in.

and the band played on!

:-o

Crossing another intersection.

People on the passing buses looked on.

The buses driving past were quite intimidating

and finally crossing the busiest intersection in the city.

and then arriving at the hotel.

The flood of people through the doors and up the stairs

Cheer looked very pretty!

So much so; Tim was in awe. :-P

The hotel now not so empty as the day before

We had our VIP table at the front of the room.

This guy did quite a crazy performance. Playing instruments with his nose and his mouth. Or sometimes playing instruments with his nose while smoking a few cigarettes in his mouth.

and blowing up a balloon!

Tim and Tom looking suspicious.

Myself and Beryl.

and myself with Pinky.

Chris captured some of the action with his 5D and 70-200 F/2.8L IS.

and then the parents came down the aisle.

and sat on the stage.

Then the bride and groom made their way down the aisle. Some of the Chinese photogs were down-right rude. Standing in the way of the little boy and girl leading Rob and Cheer.

But Rob and Cheer made it through

Rob firing an arrow to the heavens.

and then receipting his poem.

Then lifting Cheer's veil.

Rob and Cheer bow to their parents

Random closeup of Cheer

Another panorama that has to be seen full-size. This is what was behind me as I was taking photos of the on-stage shenanigans.

Roger drinking tea served by Cheer.

They bought the mothers matching necklaces to celebrate and recognise the fact that they're now sisters.

French champagne for a toast between the couple.

Cheer's mom feeling emotional.

and Cheer's father.

Rob's mother singing the wedding prayer.

The now-ring'd fingers.

and the ceremony was done, and off the newly-weds went.

but the partying was far from over. Here Bin toasts Chris and Vlady.

and Rudy (Bin's drinking partner-in-crime) toasts Dumi and Kai,

meanwhile Rob is going around toasting with every table in attendance.

Nothing cooler than taking a photo of someone taking your photo.

Myself toasting

Smiles all-round.

Well... almost all-round. Too much baijo?

and that was a wrap.

It was an awesome day, and I wish the happy couple a great future.

If you can read Chinese...and; who can't? There's an article in the local newspaper, which is available on the website, here.

Rob & Cheers Wedding - Part 1

2009-08-29T08:04:00.002+01:00

Rob & Cheers Traditional Chinese Wedding, Weinan, originally uploaded by Akira2506.

So, following on from the previous rehearsal post, the wedding day was a day of craziness! But very, very cool.

I took 1500 photos that day, shooting with 2 cameras. My 400D with the 24-105mm F4 L, and Tim's 450D which I alternated with the EF 50mm F1.8 and my Sigma 70-300mm.

I narrowed the 1500 photos down the 539 of the best, the full gallery for that is here.

I then narrowed those 539 down to 62 of the very, very best. That gallery can be found, here!

As usual, all photos can be viewed bigger, or saved. Just click the photo go to flickr, then click the "all sizes" button above the photo. :)

So, after getting to bed at 1am following the late-running rehearsal, we woke up at 6:20am, donned our clothes, loaded up our camera bags and headed up to Rob's new apartment. Beryl had spent the night with Cheer; she'd be on the "girl's team" and we'd be with the boys.

Upon arrival the first thing I noticed was last nights McDonald's order list, it was worth a snap.

This double-happiness character was to be the sign of the day. This one attached to Rob's mirror as he shaves; documented by Tim with the handicam.

The make-up artists arrived to start work on Rob's Mother and Stepfather. They were both to be dressed up in traditional Chinese opera clothing and makeup.

Roger getting the treatment.

Working away.

Meanwhile, Pinky was helping Rob get ready

Rob attempts to shave again. That day he claims he learnt that all disposable razors are not created equally.

Rob's Mom begins to get decorated with jewellery.

Et voila, the finished product.

All sorted.

Everyone was keen to pose for photos with them.

Rob's apartment was a scene of chaos, digital cameras everywhere.

Downstairs, the procession began to gather, it was to be led by these musicians, who'd I'd photographed in Weinan before.

and then came a man with a cigarette.... and a horse!

Very fetching makeup and hat combo.

Same can be said for Rob's mom.

The horse waited patiently

Far too many bright colours for 7:30am!

A fun face to photograph :)

The two front-halves and two rear-halves of the lions talked and planned. I'm not sure what's to discuss when you're job is to be a lion's backside...but; hey-ho.

This baby seemed as bemused as me

Another guy looking confused

Some shots almost look like some sort of space-opera costume

But Rob's mom looked stunning, and definitely stood out of the crowd.

Here, Rob's parents are tying a knot around him. I forget why. But I'm sure it was important.

Here's the same thing from another angle...oh...no, wait...

As part of the tradition, four of Rob's friends have to carry four gifts to Cheer's father. Here we see Dumi with some wine, Rudy with some cigarettes, Chris with some meat, and Vladi with some lotus roots. That's one Englishman, one Frenchman, one American and a German; very multi-cultural!

Rob saddles up!

and we're off!

Quite a sight to see crossing the road!

Followed by a horde of photographers / videographers.

The procession was led by these guys with happiness signs and a gong. Then there were the lions. Followed by the musicians. Followed by Rob on his horse. Then the parents. Then the hand-carried-carriage that would eventually carry Cheer. Followed by a gazillion friends and family.

It was a loud procession, musically and visually. Everyone was stopping and staring as we walked down the middle of the road. Sorry Wednesday morning Weinan traffic.

Even this golf cart of young police ladies stopped to watch the procession. It's a crazy, grand-scale wedding to see anyway... but with a foreigner, well... that's probably just about the craziest thing anyone in Weinan has seen all year...

We continued down over the railway tracks.

People were coming out of shops and restaurants to watch the procession go by

Red light or green light; we crossed the roads.

and here we are walking straight across an intersection.

and we were heading down the street now towards Cheer's parents' apartment.

Tim capturing the scene

Paris this is not.

Finally, we arrived outside their apartment complex.

Here, the gate opens and a photographer runs ahead of the procession to try get a good shot.

and the procession entered the apartment complex.

Rob paying respect to and thanking the onlookers.

Throughout the whole procession fireworks and firecrackers had been going off. Here some are arranged into a heart shape. Awww! :)

Photog's were going everywhere for a good shot!

Everywhere!

Rob's mother looks on proudly.

Really proudly! :)

You have to click this image and view the full size! (click the photo to go to flickr, then click the "all-sizes" button, then click "original"!) Such an enormous crowd!

Then we headed inside Cheer's parents' apartment where the fun would begin!

Part two coming soon!

Part two now done! READ IT HERE!!!

Rob & Cheer's Wedding - The Rehearsal

2009-08-29T04:48:00.001+01:00

Rob & Cheer's Wedding Day, originally uploaded by Akira2506.

First of all, HELLO! Yes, I am infact alive. I have lots of things to catch up, the most important of which was Rob & Cheer's wedding!

Many happy returns to the newly-weds!

Okay. so the night before the wedding the couple's nearest and dearest get together for a meal and a rehearsal of the wedding. These are the photos. :)

The Wedding was held at the Guo Ming Hotel in Weinan, quite a classy place for four stars.

Quite a nice lobby. :)

Like I said, Classy. ;-)

The room the wedding was to be held in.

We headed upstairs to grab some grub. Rob's mother, stepfather and grandma had flown in for the event, as well as his two good friends Chris and Vladi from America and Germany respectively.

Some of the food to be had.

Cheer thanking us all for coming.

Cheers and bottom's up!

Using some sprite to focus a shot. :-p

Dumi eating a fish-eye... it was soon spat back out

There were some boring waiting around bits. :-P

But there were some happy posing moments too. :)

Downstairs they were busy preparing the room

I was on the scene reporting with my camera

The dining hall had some interesting things to snap photos of

Outside, a storm raged

There were some cute kids in attendance

and some cute grown-ups! :p

Some co-ordinating. "You go here." "You do this." "You do that." ... that kinda thing.

of course; red carpet! :)

The wedding planner!

The stage was set

It was decided that Rob needed a haircut. At 11pm on the night before his wedding, this was a problem. :-P

The kids that were to lead Rob and Cheer down the aisle.

Nobody really ate much of the posh grub...we're all far too working class, so we sent Beryl on a mission to McDonalds! :D

Dumi approved.

Me and B reflected in a....thing.

The parents walking down the aisle.

Yuan Yuan with a lantern. :)

Quite pretty :)

There was a professional MC right with Sheldon (my manager at work) left translating into English.

Bride and Groom being led by the little uns

Quite crazy lighting

Rob reciting a poem in Chinese

Not-so-traditional-Chinese :-p

The non-existent audience would be quite a contrast to the actual day.

Rob feeling very tired and drained by the whole thing...

...but quickly picked up by McDonald's and Nicotine. :)

and that was a wrap for the rehearsal. Wedding day post coming soon!

Rob & Cheer's Wedding - Preview

2009-08-21T15:48:00.001+01:00

Rob & Cheer's Wedding - The Mothers, originally uploaded by Akira2506.

*sigh*

So, I keep taking more and more photos and not having time to process the old ones. Gah!

Well, I took 1,500 shots in total at Rob and Cheer's wedding. It was an awesome day which I'll describe later with the aid of photos. :-)

This shot is of Cheer's and Rob's mothers, dressed in their traditional Peiking Opera gear.

Post coming soon....... maybe.

Peace out..! At least for a few days.

2009-08-10T04:08:00.001+01:00

End of Summer Term '09, originally uploaded by Akira2506.

Okay, I may be dropping off the grid for a few days as I move apartment... yet again! Hopefully this will be the last time for a year. :D

The above image is my PC3 class throwing the peace signs. I'm not sure whats going down with my hair.

I'm still working on editing the shots I took at the fashion show:

I'm looking forward to being able to post those. Also working on some shots I took at Rob's apartment, some end-of-term photos and some goofing around photos with Beryl and her lil' sister who came to stay. Argh! I'm so behind it's crazy!

Catch you on the flip flop.

Rob & Cheer's Pre-Wedding Photoshoot

2009-08-05T11:43:00.001+01:00

Rob & Cheer's Pre-Wedding Photoshoot, originally uploaded by Akira2506.

Finally got around to editing the photos from Rob and Cheer's pre-wedding photoshoot shenanigans. Its now so long ago that I can't actually remember it that well (it was only 2 weeks, but so much happens in 2 weeks here...) Anyway, I'll try provide my usually high-brow commentry via the picture captions.

As usual, clicky-clicky on a photo to see the photo on flickr where you can zoom zoom zoom to a huuuuuge version. :)

Now this is a fairly unique wedding photo. A Shaolin Kung Fu school surrounding the bride and groom. I'll post some photos of the students practicing kung fu some other time, but they were pretty damn good!

Cheer looking very pretty :)

Im not sure what was being mined here... :)

A view across the river in the park to a small piece of decking...

...here's a funky version of the same. I like this one, but Chinese people don't like the black-and-white being used for wedding photos. Meh!

I like the reflection. :)

A nice shot of the husband-and-wife-to-be. :D

I liked this tree

This reminded me of a Beatle's album cover or something...

Cheer rocking out with Beryl's sunglasses on ^_^

Very happy together :)

Some of the detail on the traditional clothing provides great photo opps

Awww! :) They're wearing their rings because by law, they're actually already married, but the ceremony isn't for two weeks, so shhhh!

Trying to stay away from the heat was one of the big challenges of the day.

A classic "pretend to gaze!" shot

The two looking out over the river

Beryl was on hand as my official assistant, and to bring up the peace-sign count.

Trying not to get pooped on!

I'm not even sure if these were white pigeons or doves...but anyway, was trying to get a nice "doves flying away into heaven" shot...

...unfortunately they were the world's worst flying birds, and just wanted to land as soon as they were thrown.

Still, some pretty cool photos to be had.

I like the lighting on this one :)

Fake "taking a stroll in the park" pictures are awesome. Even if you do get some strange looks when you're standing fozen mid-step.

Cheer counting Rob's chins. One.

This was a janky old carousel, I like the way the mirror has distorted their faces. :)

Maybe too bright, but I like it. Love the ferris wheel.

More of the same.

This ride went around at about 5mph, so trying to make it look dynamic was fun. Closed down the aperture and got some longer exposure times, but trying to stay steady in the thing (and not throw up from disorientation) was interesting.

This would have been my favourite shot of the day I think, but... Rob and Cheer came out a little to blurry. :(

Cheer being wifely to Rob.

Rob being husbandly to Cheer.

Me with the happy couple. Check my neckware. Haha, no, I haven't turned into a limp-wristed photography-is-art type... it just stops the neckstrap digging in. :)

Clouds were posted in afterwards. I quite like this shot. :)

Cheer madly in love with Rob, Rob madly in love with ch...beer.

I'm not sure what this thing was actually meant to be used for, but, it made a good photo frame.

We liked the texture of this wall, so stopped for some snaps

A top of a cool bridge

:)

This pagoda was covered in graffiti. However, contrary to England, all the graffiti here was messages of love and dedication. (at least, all of it that was translated for me. :P )

Rob only laughs like this when I make a very rude joke. Sorry, I can't remember what it was.

The trees in this shot and the previous were actually green... but I'm actually not too keen on the green/red/blue primary colour contrast that most these shots produced...so, I yellowed them up a bit. Will definitely have to take more shots in the autumn.

King and queen of the castle

A different castle

Again, more fake autumn

I really love the red-thing...but again, most Chinese people don't digg it

Make no mistake, Rob and Cheer are an awesome couple, not adverse to letting their hair down and looking like jackasses. :)

Love, love, love some of the detail on this chi pao. (Chinese dress)

Certainly loads of interesting things to take photos with in the park

A "behind the scenes" shot. Beryl and pinky on hand to provide drinks / tissues to deal with the dehydration and perspiring.

This is where my uncultured nature shines through and I don't know the name of this instrument. Anyhoo, you'll often see men playing it with their wives singing a song. Rob got a quick lesson on how to hold it and look like a pro, and then the snapping started:

Very serene in the middle of this part of the park

The reds of the clothing were really pop'ing

Then we went to one of Max's tea-houses for some photos. Max is the guy who owns our school. Again, lack of culture prevents me from telling you the name of this instrument, I could google it..but, this blog post is already taking far too long!

:)

It was hard to choose favourites from this particular batch

More fake instrument playing

Broke my 50mm portrait lens out for this shot. I'll definitely have to take more with it soon.

Great shot! :) (excluding the mosquito killer)

Chinese wedding tradition involves a tea-ceremony-thing. Again, lack of culture prevents me telling you more.

:)

Ring shot! It was too dark inside to get both the rings and Rob and Cheer in focus. :(

Here, Pinky is standing to my right holding a huge white sheet while I bounce my flash off of him. Thanks Pinky!

A nice portrait

and this one! :)

Cheer being wifely again

Thumbs up!

outside the teahouse; that direct sunlight was so harsh

Stair bannister shot

Awww. Cheer's holding up here 5th, 2nd, and 1st finger (thumb.) In chinese "five two one" sounds like "I love you." Cute, huh?

Here, Cheer is smothering Rob. Cute, huh?

So Rob, what do you think of being married...?

I see!

Again, huge grats to the happy couple, a pleasure / honour to shoot. They're both really good friends to myself and Beryl, and hope to spend plenty of time with them in the next year!

( if you still haven't had you're fill, there are even more photos from the day, here! )

50 Photos down...

2009-07-26T16:03:00.001+01:00

Rob & Cheer's Pre-Wedding Photoshoot, originally uploaded by Akira2506.

...about 200 left to process. X_X

This is one of my favs of the 50 so far. :-)

Rob & Cheer Pre-Wedding Photoshoot

2009-07-24T10:06:00.001+01:00

Rob & Cheer Pre-Wedding Photoshoot, originally uploaded by Akira2506.

One of over 600 photos I took today of Rob and Cheer in their wedding garb. They each had 2 outfits, and we visited quite a few sights, with more lined up before the wedding. I have a metric tonne of editing to do, but I thought I'd post this one up as a sneak peak.

Congrats to the beautiful couple. :)

" Sup? "

2009-07-14T05:22:00.001+01:00

IMG_1706, originally uploaded by Akira2506.

B got some new shades, so I thought I'd teach her to throw up some gang signs and get her pout on. Myspace generation; respekk.

So, Dan McCarthy is out here at the moment, and doing his best to blend in... haha. Well, No, truth be told, we got invited for a meal for free if we agreed to have our photo taken with the owner.. the power of being foreign! So, Dan donned his white suit, and I grabbed my Hawaiian shirt.

Foreigners eat for free :D

This pork was tasty! :D

As was this! :D

Me and Dan on a mission to convince all Chinamen that this is how we dress in the west. ;)

We have one of those convex mirrors to see around corners in our apartment complex, so here's B and D getting their pose on.

Keeping it real.

Some kids playing on a building site

We went off to Xi'an again for a few days. Here's the belltower at night. :)

Detail shot

I like this shot of B, just a shame about the lens flare creeping in.

The streets stayed busy late into the night

It really is beautiful at night :)

Tim cheated and bought his tripod along. :-P Luckily the IS on the new lens is awesome. :)

Found a good way to take mine and B's photo with the bell tower :p

Little B with the big B as the background :)

This is the shopping mall / subway under the belltower.

One of the buildings around the bell tower

Coming up to the drum tower

Some neon signage. :)

Drum tower detail

The drum tower in all its glory

Some nice gold lights

There was an IS chilling next to the drum tower. One of the first IS's I've seen out here. :)

A look down Muslim street

Then we went to the Stele Forest. It's basically a museum of lots of ancient writings carved into stone. Here's B reading about....something.

A shot of the top of one of the stones

They then make rubbings of some of the carvings for people to buy. They throw some paper up over the carving..

Then use a brush to fill the indents.

Then hammer it down to crisp up the edges.

Then blott the ink on. :)

And the come out looking something like this.

The red ones were purrrrdy. <3

A nice detail shot :)

haha, I like this shot of B.

The kind of slab that filled the hall. :)

More writings

This one is worth seeing full size. I love the texture of the stone.

They also had a collection of things you tie your horse to.

Then some 'stuff' inside.

Dan taking a photo of his favourite old-dead-wise-Chinese-dude; Laozi.

And then rain stopped play. :(

More photos soon I hope! :)

Trip to Xi'an

2009-07-12T16:17:00.001+01:00

IMG_1249-2, originally uploaded by Akira2506.

Made another trip to Xi'an. (bought my lens half way through this trip) Here are some random photos from said trip.

Went up on Xi'an's City wall, which is AWESOME. hired some bikes to go around it. My friend Kathy was acting as tour guide, I'd never been on a tandem bike and fancied a go, so we hired one. It's harder than it looks at first, but you soon catch on. :)

I love these tall buildings with the traditional roofs plonked on top.

Up on the wall was deserted.

Some great buildings up on the wall

Near some of the gates there are some random things that are supposed to look like old things. <-- Wow, that's a great description.

The east gate

Wheels

Battering rams!

One fun "feature" was the random hidden (and unsigned) dips in the 'road.' You'd be cycling along then at the last second notice a drop. ( pictured here from the other side) for an added bonus, some were half ramp, half steps. Not fun when you're on a tandem!

Looking down on the busy city below

while the top of the wall remained peaceful and deserted.

Dan chilling with some of the locals

New lens = time to start taking photos of random things again!

A better coloured version of the photo at the top of this post. :) I love my new lens.

A big Buddah

Then we headed to see the water show at the Big Goose Pagoda. Depending who you're talking to, its the biggest water show in Asia...and it is pretty damn big. About 7 or 8 big square "pools" each housing maybe 150 fountain jets... its a lot of water. It all dances to the music and it's pretty funky stuff. Everyone plays in the water, and the high-pressure water jets spray water everywhere when its bouncing off kids. I'd only had my lens for an hour or so, and didn't fancy ruining it, so I wasn't as adventurous as usual with my camera.

Dance water, dance!

A smirk started to spread across Dan's face... he was planning something...

Fountains as far as the eye can see

Friends try to push each other in

..Dan's plan becomes clear as he marches out to the centre of the fountain-pool. Always loves a crowd. :)

Doing it for the UK, baby!

Yup, standing in the middle of a fountain will make you wet, Dan.

A triumphant Dan returns from his wonder. The fountains all "dance" to music, and as the song finished, right on cue, Dan took a bow. (The 300-or-so Chinamen around our fountain had been staring at him in disbelief throughout his wondering) there was an audible laugh and applause. :)

So many fountains!

A wall of water

I like this shot of two girls trying to shelter as they cross the fountain.

The big goose pagoda itself

Myself and Kathy next to a stone that reads "Friendship Forever" or something similar...

... it was a good trip! :)

My Current Gear

2009-07-12T15:50:00.001+01:00

My Current Gear, originally uploaded by Akira2506.

Ah, I was supposed to throw this photo in with the last post, but forgot....because I do these through flickr now, its a lot easier for me just to throw up another blog post.

Click the picture above for a nice version with whats-what annotations. :)

My birthday present to myself

2009-07-12T15:48:00.001+01:00

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM, originally uploaded by Akira2506.

Well, I had to buy myself something for my birthday. :) I splashed out on a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM... in lamens terms, a new lens for my camera that will hopefully make for some pretty pictures. :)

I also got the guy to give me an awesome Canon polo shirt, so here I am rocking out with it.

^_^

Say cheeeeeese!

Photos taken with the beast coming soon! :)

Birthday Presents!

2009-07-12T15:39:00.001+01:00

IMG_1154, originally uploaded by Akira2506.

Okay, this blog post is so long overdue, but I've been avoiding it because there's some presents I didnt take pictures of that I need to go back and snap...but, I just didn't have the time, so... I'm just cutting my loses and posting what I have so I can move on with new posts.

A HUGE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO GAVE ME PRESENTS, CAKES OR CARDS. I had an awesome birthday, even all this way from home. Thanks to Dan for coming out and being with me for it too.

So, this was my first present of Beryl. 109 Origami swans, one for every day we'd been together. Each one had a little note on it with some relevance to us. Super, super cute, and a whole lot of time gone into it!

Present number two from B. An awesome, awesome Origami heart. Each one of the smaller outside hearts is made from a one mao note (pictured next to the heart.) Beryl was showing me and Dan McC how to make these, and they honestly took about 3-4 minutes each. Crazy dedication! :)

Detail shot

Everyone knows I love photos, so photo frames were a popular present. This one was from Geri and her boyfriend. Thank youuuu!

This one from Maggie. :) Thanks!

Some of my cards! More arrived after my birthday, thanks to everyone who sent one out! :)

I had loads more pressies from friends in China. The cake at the top from Dumi, the cake from the previous post from School, an awesome turtle-themed fruit-skewer set from Kate, a really nice Chinese fan from Ivy, some great smelly stuff from Jenny, an awesome tour book of the province from Fangfang, and a few other things that are probably slipping my mind! It was a great birthday, thanks everyone!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Day 139 - June 25th - My Birthday!

2009-06-30T18:18:00.001+01:00

Climbing Hua Shan, originally uploaded by Akira2506.

Okay, so, the day before my birthday (my Dad's birthday! :D ) I rallied the troops and embarked on a mission to climb a mountain. Mount Hua Shan to be precise. This photo was as fresh as they'd look for the next few days.

Everyone getting a trucker's tan on the way to Hua Shan

Bye bye mr sunshine. Next time we'd see him would be a lot different.

Arriving at the base of the mountain at 9pm, this is what greeted us. X_X

Beryl...

...Dan...

...and Aya, all contemplating the climb ahead.

We started climbing at around 9.30pm. At first it was just a moderately steep pathway, then began getting steeper and steeper. A few hours in and the stairs started. It was an awesome experience. Walking along in the pitch black, beautiful stars above, everyone with their flashlights, walking along fairly well maintained pathways. It was hot as hell though, the day had been 39'c, and very humid, and the humidity had definately stuck around for the night. Every 20 minutes or so you'd come to a little shop selling overpriced water (still a moderate 50p a bottle, but thats pricey for China.) We'd stop for a rest and then carry on. A few hours in, it started to get hard work, and Dan (our pack mule) had met his match. Fortunately we came across a small hotel for him to shack up in. So, he bought an entire room (with 3 beds, so he could have it to himself and lock the door) for a tidy sum of £5 (not bad for the side of a mountain) and we went on without him.

One of the many mountains of empty red bull vitamin drinks we found on the way up

Beryl starting to feel the pain

Tim and Aya feeling the burn... it was a very strange sensation. Absolute exhaustion, the heat, the body-clock telling you its 2am, you should be in bed, the altitude, etc.

Another red bull mountain

I didnt take many photos on the way up, because there was no light, and because I was too exhausted / concentrating on not falling. But this picture gives you an idea of some of the climbing. This is probably about 65-70 degrees, and lit only by an LED rope light. You better hope the person above you doesn't fall...or fart!

Looking down at where we'd started... getting high!

Finally, after a total of 6 hours of climbing, we made it to the peak. I can't describe how gruelling the climb was without sounding totally melodramatic, but... it was HARD. I don't know what was keeping me going towards the end but I was literally on all fours stumbling up the stone staircases... my ~8kg of camera equipment, flashes, food and drink didn't seem like the best idea.

4:30am at the top of the mountain. It was pretty cold up there, especially considering the heat at the base, and WINDY too. Beryl had a little sleep in my arms, I gazed up at the stars for the usual its-my-birthday-im-another-year-older thinking.

The crowd awaiting the appearance of Mr Sunshine.

Beryl and one of our climbing friends waiting for the sun :)

Getting lighter...(note the lonely, bright star still shining through the twilight)

It was like a concert with all the cameras and cell phones being held up

This guy was videoing the whole thing...seemingly from the comfort of his bed!

A cold Beryl waits for the sun

and there it is! There was a cheer as the sun poked it's face up. Everyone was tired, everyone was cold, everyone was exhausted... but something so mundane and clockwork as the sun rising in the sky had lifted everyone's spirits.

As it raised higher, everyone stayed focused on the sun, in an almost hypnotic state. It was pretty beautiful, a great way to start a birthday.

Very peaceful places, mountains.

A very tired me is happy to see the sun rise. :)

Keeping warm! :)

The padlocks are placed on the chain to make a wish. The mountains around looked almost fake in the sunrise light.

A cold, windswept beryl seemingly on the edge of the world.

A view of the peak, 30-40 mins after sunrise.

some beautiful sights to behold

Just in case you were tempted...

The "No tossing" sign had me confused, until I saw the cat!

Tim and Aya :)

Myself and Beryl :D

More padlock goodness

Tim in photo-taking mode

We then started our descent down, grabbing some snaps on the way...

Looking back up to the peak

One of my favourite photos of the day. :)

A very, very exhausted Beryl poses on the downhill. Going down was pretty tough, our legs were shot and could barely do what they were told. Trying not to fall in a moment of absent mindedness was difficult, but having £400 of camera around your neck is a good way to keep yourself alert!

Some interesting rock formations

Great scenery

Breath-taking

Another favourite photo of the day

Fortunately we found out we could take a cable-car down for about half the distance. Unfortunately I HATE cable-cars, and this one just about took the biscuit. The view as you left the cable-car station, seemingly just a straight-down plummet.

My irrational fear of cable cars had me sweating worse than I had been during the humid night climb

Stomach-churning

One of the pathways from above

Phew, I survived the cable-car ride. :)

Then, in the foyer of one of the tourist buildings, a reminder that, ITS MY BIRTHDAY. 25th of June reading out on the electronic calendar. (and 8:43am! :P )

Following that we rendezvoused with Dan who'd had an interesting night with some creepy crawlies. We then got the slowest bus ever back to Weinan. Got home, had a 3-4 hour nap, then woke up in search of food. Met some people for a birthday meal, then headed to KTV for some Karaoke. (photos courtesy of Rob!)

Singing...something. I can't remember now, and I don't think I knew then. I'd just came from the top of a mountain, and my head was all over the shop.

Shout out to everyone who came. In no particular order: Myself, Beryl, Rob, Cheer, Tim, Aya, Dumi, Christie, Geri, Geri's BF, Fangfang, Sun Mao, Harry and Pinky.

Myself and Beryl choosing some songs

Then... cake! Wooooop! Big thank you to Aston for buying me this tasty tasty birthday cake. This was actually one of my TWO cakes! Shout out to Dumi for cake number two, pictures of which will come soon!

I believe this was a rendition of "Wake me up, before you go go"... i can't remember. I'm sporting cake on my cheek because Beryl is actually five years old. :-P

Some of us then headed to Grammy. Which I've featured before, but is this crazy nightclub / cabaret / dont-know-what.

A man sang...

...I cheered.

Women danced provokatively...

...I covered my eyes!

The place also does these strange money-making games where you basically go on stage, pay some money, and do something where odds are stacked against you in an attempt to win something. I of course, got talked into it. (Thanks, Rob! :P )

I think I had to roll either 3* 3. or 3* 6 to win. Needless to say, I didn't. I think i got 3,3,4. But... at the time, I believe I crunched the numbers to be 1/106 of winning.

Then there was a weird hat-jugging act

Then some contorsionism

Then some acrobatic stuff

Then some more provocative dancing... this time; with chairs!

and that was a suitably crazy ending to a crazy birthday. It was an awesome day, and thanks to everyone who made it so. I'll have a blog post about my presents and such soon, but this blog post was hard enough!

Peace!

Last day of Beitang

2009-06-27T15:11:00.001+01:00

Beitang Students, originally uploaded by Akira2506.

Last Thursday was the last day of teaching my seven classes of kids at Beitang, so I took my camera in to take some snaps to remember them by. I ended up taking way too many (over 750!) these are just some of my favourites! Enjoy the cuteness! :D

As always, these are clickable to enlarge! These are just some of them, the rest are here.

Me chilling with one of my classes

My Romulan-looking student :D

This is the look you normally get when you ask a kid a question and he has no idea of the answer...

"Don't look at me, DON'T LOOOOK AT MEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!"

I love this little and large friend combination :)

Another group shot with another class

Meet "Orange"; a super-cute but super-naughty student!

one of her partners in crime

Another photo of Orange :D One of my favourite photos of the day

As seen in a previous blog post; Amy! :)

I love these close-up portraits :)

ANOTHER photo of Orange

:)

A bit of a different looking student; Renée.

Super cute button-face!

I like the colours here. :)

I like the out of focus colours in this one

I love her expression - pure joy. :)

This kid is called Joe. I'm called Joe. Cue a photo opportunity! :)

More cuteness

More of "Joe"

Love this one too :D

Deep in thought

Gang bangin'

"oops!"

"I know kung fu."

This guy looked like a dude in black and white

My Chinese-teacher Geri, and Lisa

More button-face-cuteness

...and more...

Pose!

I wouldn't mess with him

Future catalogue model?

Three of a kind

Cute smile :)

Boys will be boys

Gang photo

I dubbed this kid "Groucho."

...and introducing my favourite student; Leo! I'd so kidnap him!

Toooooooooo cute ^_^

I'll never be anywhere near as cool / cute :(

¬_¬

The boys of the class

There are loads, loads more, here

Freestyle Slalom in the Dark

2009-06-16T11:20:00.001+01:00

Freestyle Slalom in the Dark, originally uploaded by Akira2506.

So, I had some new lighting equipment arrive, actually presents for my birthday (which actually isn't until next week), courtesy of my awesome parents. Thanks guys! Anyway, I took it out the very first night, set it up as you see above, and got these shots:

and so on, and so on. There are more here

The June Catch-Up Post

2009-06-16T10:00:00.001+01:00

Beitang Panorama, originally uploaded by Akira2506.

Okay, lets get this party started! :)

As usual, all photos are clickable for bigger, better versions.

Here's a photo of Beryl I took around the apartment, there's a few more to be found here:
Clicky clicky

Then it was Children's day at the start of the month. Here's some photos from that:

This guy looked like a bit of a dude with those shades. :D

A kid on his way to childrens' day at school

Flag raising with the national anthem playing

All hail!

Its a primary school, but there's thousands of kids, so at any given time there's about 10-15 security guards there.

These girls seem to be like prefects. They normally carry the flag out to the pole in the morning, and here they're leading the opening ceremonies.

Lots of pretty colours on display. :)

This kid was cool, and kind enough to pose for me :)

One of the prefects, not so happy to have her photo taken

Pretty smart

638 - the store number of my old GAME store. Haha, That's a shout out to ya'll who're still there reading this.

Super, super cute kids everywhere!

I wish I looked half this cool

This reminded me of a shot of 3 pilots walking from a plane on the carrier deck or something. Haha. Cool dudes.

Go team orange!

You lookin' at me?

Red in a sea of pink. :(

Smile :)

This chick was conducting the opening ceremonies

This cute girl also took part. No Beijing trickery of swapping kids here!

Feeding the egg and spoon races. These eggs were stacked 6-7 high

Let the sports commence

The sea of kids waiting to take part

One of the kids I actually teach, and one of my favourites! :)

Another of my favs, he's a dude

Posing :)

Another favourite student, Amy! Much cuter than the Amy who is probably reading this, and speaks better English too, hahahaha!

*Another* favourite, they're all just so cute!

...and again...

...annnnd another.

Speaking of favourite students. These girls aren't even my students, nor was it taken on Children's day, but... they're super cute, haha! They're actually Tim's students, they asked me what my name was one day, and I said "Bob"... so, now they call me Bob. :)

Teaching is awesome. :)

Some random snaps of just a few of my favourite Aston students:

Here's a cute baby/toddler I took a photo of the other day

and another! :)

This blog post has been made via Flickr Click that link to view all my photos on Flickr. I'll be uploading all my photos there from now on, so if you wanna keep your finger on my pulse (and, who doesn't?) check that out.

So, normal service should now resume on the blog...

I said "should"

;-)

Flickr

2009-06-01T11:13:00.001+01:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Day 115 - June 1st - May went QUICK

2009-06-01T08:37:00.000+01:00

Woah, it’s JUNE?

Yikes!

May went really quick. The Chinese gov3rnment continue to block blogger, so I’m delivering this blog via a resistance member I only know by the name of Scarlet Croissant, I leave the message on the inside of a wine bottle label on the table next to the northern side of the church tower in Sainte-Mere-Église … maybe.

If you just like photos, they’re here: Gallery

So… let me think whats been happening…

My good high school friend Tim came to visit. Not to be confused with university friend Tim who already lives out here with me. Tim wins the prize for being the first person to come visit me. Umm, I’m not sure what the prize was… but I’m sure I must have bought him a bottle of water or two. J

So, while he was out here we visited the Terracotta warriors which was pretty neat… photos in the gallery (the link is above!) and generally had a fun time trekking around Weinan and Xi’an. He also brought with him a big shiny flash for my camera, so that’s been fun to play with… but… most of all, he brought mars bars!!!!!!!!!! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm… I’m trying to ration them and go through them slowly. But I just had one while writing this to remind myself just how awesome they are. So, so, so good! Thanks Tim! :D

The last few weeks have been a bit light of work too. A cross between various public holidays (Dragon boat festival, Children’s day, etc) and exams at school has meant there’s been little teaching to be done. I’ve used the time (unconstructively) to catch back up on LOST. I have to say, season 5 did get a bit better after episode 5 or 6, but… meh, that show is just going through the motions now. I enjoy it while im watching an episode, but if I look back on it, it just seems like a waste of time to watch.

Hmm, what else has been happening… I can’t remember… time is flying!

Oh, yeah.. the weather is HOT. Well, the past few weeks have been the “rainy season”… we had one week with 5 days in a row of rain! But… the past few days have all been above 30’c, with blue skies. The women are wearing their short shorts, and the men have their t-shirts rolled up with their beer-bellies out.

Ummm… also went to a baby-shower type thing! Basically a meal to celebrate one of the Chinese teachers’ baby’s one-month birthday. In China no men are allowed to visit the baby for the first month, but then there’s a meal where the mom shows off her newborn. It was pretty cool! If blogger was working properly, this is where I’d include a picture of the super, super cute baby for you all to “awwwwh!” at, but… no can do, so I guess I’ll just throw it up in the next gallery I put together.

Took my skates apart today! That was kinda fun, just because it was (not really) just like working on a car. Rounded-nuts and everything. I miss the smell of my oil-soaked garage, dad’s huge drawers of tools, and of course… the scream of an engine… but, I’m getting greedy… I have my Mars bars… I guess the next visitor will have to bring over an engine. J

And in super fresh 10-minute-old-news… I also had to break into my own apartment today! I went out on my balcony to let my skates dry out, and the door closed behind me. D’OH! I had the choice of going out the window (I love my ground floor apartment) and running to school in my slippers for a spare key… or… just break back in. Some scavenging of various things that had been dumped out there, and I was able to disassemble part of the door, and make my way back in. I’ve since re-build my damage, and reinforced security to make it safer than ever.

Hmmm… well, the back of this wine label is starting to get really crowded with text… and an A3 label on a wine bottle may make the SS suspicious.

If you still read this, drop me a line or leave a comment to let me know I’m not shouting into a void.

Ciao!

( Fun fact: Hugo Boss used to make some uniforms for the SS. J )

Day 102 - Tuesday 19th May - Trip to Xi'an

2009-05-21T17:34:00.000+01:00

Wow, 102 days in China! Thats gone pretty quick for me. But... of course, its been an eternity for you guys back home... missing me every day.... right....right.......right?

Hehe, well... The Chinese g'vernment has blocked blogger (the site this blog is on) so I now have to blog a very long-winded way, and it means I can't upload images directly. *sigh*

So, you can check out the gallery here: http://supertidy.net/lightroom/xianmay19th/

This time I've included captions with the images (but you have to view the big-versions to get the captions.) I recommend clicking the first image, then just hitting "Next, next, next" and scrolling through them that way.

Nothing else major to report... everything is business as usual. I'm hoping blogger gets unblocked soon, so I can resume a more normal blogging pattern.

Oh, and on another note, its currently 00:20am here on Friday the 22nd of May... which means it's my mother's birthday today!

Happy Birthday Mom!

I won't embarass people by telling them how old young you are. ;-)

Day 96 - Wednesday 13th May - Time flies...

2009-05-13T11:33:00.004+01:00

... when you're having fun. :-)

The past few weeks have been a blast, but I've just been far too busy to blog. Then when I look back, I can't actually remember what I've been upto. So, I grabbed the photos off my phone, and that gives me something to blog about, so without futher delay:

^ Random snap of a couple of students. This tiny girl and huge dude are in the same class. I thought it was a cute contrast.

^ This old guy was using his brush and just water to draw calligraphy on the floor. You see many people doing it, but rarely do they do "bubble" letters / characters, so I was super impressed. I actually ended up talking to him, and was suprised at how much we could talk, apparently my Chinese is improving! That and the fact he was good at drawing, and he'd draw lil' drawings to help get his meaning accross. He was 76 years old!

^ Speaking of old men, here's me rocking a pair of "old man" sunglasses.

^ and Tim... looking like something from a BritPop group.

^ Random snap of Beryl preparing for a lesson. :-D

^ Took this photo in Rob, my manager's, house. This is about a weeks worth of trash. We think he has a problem... :-P

^ ...but, it was his birthday! To celebrate we headed on out to KTV. Always a fun night. Left to right: Dumi, Kristy, Rob, Beryl and Cheer.

^ Rob and Cheer knocked out an awesome duet of "unforgettable"

^ Towards the end of the night... Rob was in good spirits :D

Plenty of other shenanigans have been going down, but half I've forgotten, and half I'm too lazy to type up. My favourite story from the past week was probably last night. I went skating for the first time in a few weeks, and it was the first day it had been dry for 3-4 days, so there was a huge turnout of kids. Dwayne and his friends teach the kids before we start skating ourselves. So there were maybe 15 students, and a crowd of about 50 parents / onlookers. (Crowds flare up really quickly and easily in China.) Anyway, one of the guys was doing some drills with the students, and... long story short, I ended up doing the drills, the kids and crowd were amazed that a foreigner could count to ten in Chinese. Chinese people think their language is impossibly hard for foreigners to learn... I guess they're mostly right. :)

Well, this is the 2nd evening of my "weekend" and I have that Sunday night feeling, so I'm gonna go find something to do... take it easy people!

Day 88 - Tuesday 5th May - What I've been upto...

2009-05-05T10:12:00.005+01:00

Okay, so yes, I'm alive! ^_^

Its crazy how time flies out here, I can't believe its been 11 days since I updated this. Hmm... Well, I can't really remember everything that happened, or in what order, so expect this blog to be a bit of a random brain fart!

So... one day... can't remember when, I was practicing some portrait photography with Beryl:

^ Smile :)

^ My love affair with black and white continues, dispite the fact I hate black and white photos. Go figure.

^ Some random flowers outside my apartment

^ :-D

So that was that. Oh, our school has an advert on a bus, and has had for some time, but I haven't seen it with my camera to snap it yet... until the other day! Unfortunately it doesn't feature my pretty face... in fact, it features a bunch of random American kids... but, I guess thats cool over here...

^ Our world is English!

( Due to the huge amount of photos I took on the holiday, I've thrown them all into a seperate gallery. CLICK HERE to view the gallery, all the images are in chronological order, so you can flick through the photos as you read this blog to get an idea what I'm talking about. )

So, May 1st here is labour day, and everyone gets a holiday. Woop! So, myself and Beryl trotted off to LuoYang. According to Wikipedia, it's one of the old capitals of China, and a place bustling with history and culture. We went by train, a 4-5hr journey through rural China and running parallel to a beautiful mountain range. Went through some nice cities, and eventualy arrived in LuoYang at about 9pm. We'd looked at some hotels online before going and eye'd up a mental short-list. I made out one of the hotels on the skyline, so we walked in that direction, and sure enough, it was the hotel we chose. The hotel was pretty funky! Nice and modern, and the bathroom even had a sauna! :D

As usual I'd packed my laptop, and the hotel had free (and decent!) internet. So I spent a short while scoping out Google Earth, and planning a walk around the city for the next day. Check the gallery for the photos I took while walking around. It was a super windy day, especially by the river. While walking alongside the river, we saw some peddle boats, and for £1/hour, couldn't say no. However, it turned out to be far from a pleasure paddle. The current was STRONG and the river was ROUGH. To cross the river in a straight line we had to tack at about a 45 degree angle. It was nuts. Then we almost got stuck behind some net-type things, and had to peddle like hell to escape. I say we had to peddle like hell... but it felt like I was doing 90% of the work! Then after escaping the nets, we rested for all of 2 minutes and ended up 100meters down river. So, returning to "base" was another huge effort. It was good fun though, if a little crazy!

In the afternoon we went to the longman grottoes.

According to the Longmen Caves Research Institute, there are 2345 caves and niches, 2800 inscriptions, 43 pagodas and over 100,000 Buddhist images at the site. 30% of the caves date from the Northern Wei Dynasty, 60% from the Tang Dynasty, and caves from other periods less than 10%. It is the most impressive collection of Chinese art from these dynasties, and, dating from 316 to 907 CE, represents the zenith of stone carving in China.

It was hot as hell, but a pretty place. It was full of Chinamen, and tourist traps. We didn't buy tickets to go into the actual grottoes, as you basically bought a ticket, and then que'd for hours to catch a glimpse of some stones. Check the photos to see the huge line of Chinamen.

The next day we went to the Shaolin temple. Again, hot, hot, hot! Full of tourist traps, and a gazillion Chinamen. It's the home of Shaolin Kung Fu, those crazy guys who break stones with their heads, etc. Its also the birthplace of Zen Buddhism, so a pretty interesting place. Well, I imagine the temple was an interesting place...before they tore the whole thing down, and rebuilt it in gash green and red lego colours. The actual temple was just a new building, with a bunch of rooms where you could stare through a window at some random statue or rock. See the gallery for a bunch of people just staring through windows. There was also a "Hall of 500 buddahs" which was a pretty cool museum of 500 different buddah carvings / statues. Again, see the gallery. We also climed a hill / peak of Mount Song. One of China's five sacred mountains. It was a good climb, and a good view at the top. It was way too hot to be climbing a mountain, but we got to the top in good time, and enjoyed the breeze at the top, and hung out with the huge Buddah statue. Here's a panorama taken at the top:

^ Click for huge piccie! :)

Next, there's a Pagoda forrest there. All the Pagodas were built over the centuries through different dynasties. It's a pretty crazy place. Made for some nice photos. :) After that, we watched a Shaolin Kung Fu display which was pretty awesome. Seating position wasn't amazing for photos, but I took quite a few regardless... again, see the gallery!

^ Shaolin-style baby! Watching Shaolin Kung Fu in the middle of a mountain range in the heart of China was a pretty cool moment

^ More juicy pics like this in the gallery!

I've missed out some stuff here and there, but for the sake of my sanity, I'll say that this blog is now up to date.

Day ?? - Monday...no, Tuesday 5th May - Too tired

2009-05-04T17:38:00.001+01:00

Blog post coming soon. Its 0038hrs and in China I just can't pull the 5am bed-times I could pull in England. Perhaps I don't consume enough Pepsi Max here. Anyway, blog post coming tomorrow, but for now, have a picture of me at the top of a mountain!

I'll explain that photo, and many others tomorrow!

Ciao!

Day 77 - Friday 24th April - Sports day!

2009-04-27T10:35:00.017+01:00

Last Friday I headed up to the university to meet Beryl and to watch her universities sports day together. It was a pretty neat experience! It was baking hot, and a good day for chilling out in the grandstands.

^ A shot from where I was sitting in the stadium, so you get the idea...

Here are some random shots:

^ 5, 6, 7, 8!

^ Honda... representin'!

^ Olympic flag, PRC flac and the university flag, with one of the university buildings in the background.

^ Beryl hiding from the sun with my baseball cap

^ Still / non-carbonated Red Bull! Tasty stuff. The translation in Chinese is litrally "Red" "Bull".

^ "23!"

^ Coca-Cola gets everywhere

^ I was playing around with using the flash for fill lighting, getting rid of the shadows from the baseball cap. I quite like the result :)

^ Managed to get trackside for some photos :)

^ Number 2... so close, yet so far from number 1.

^ Pepsi representing against the Coca-Cola. There's a sea of umbrellas... not for rain; but to hide from the sun. Chinese people (girls) hate the sun / sun-tans.

^ One of my favourite shots of the day. One of the female 4x100m relay runners

^ Flags! Woo hoo!

^ The finish line

^ Beryl! :)

^ More pretty colours

Some random crowd shots:

^ Seas of Han, most rocking the university's PE uniform...

^ Cowboy hat AND a megaphone. Undeniable coolness.

^ You can see a guy beating on a huge drum and those girls next to the banner were chanting some stuff. It was a good atmosphere!

^ As well as people getting jiggy with the cymbals

^ More umbrellas and caps

^ A couple of judges baking in the sun, working through a lot of water

^ Chinese translation is awesome. I saw this hat in a shop the other day, but didn't have my camera. Thankfuly someone was stupid enough to buy it. "I AM TRUCK CAP."

^ Umbrella - ella - ella

^ I AM TRUCK CAP, YOU ARE BINOCULAR

^ A flag with a star. I thought it was rad.

^ Did I mention they like umbrellas?

^ Beryl still with my cap

^ The pictures don't show it, but it was HOT

^ Beryl on the football pitch thats in the middle of the running track

I had a thing of taking photos of people who were taking photos:

^ Its me! Check me out with the purple / pink / blue.

^ about £1200 of kit. If you consider how little most Chinese people get paid, thats a lot of moolah.

^ This guy almost looked as cool as me

Then finally, some action shots. :)

^ The day started with a skipping race between the faculty. Funny stuff.

^ Ready......set....

^ The expressions on their faces are priceless

^ "VTEC Just kicked in, yo!"

^ I like the photo-finish-esq nature of this shot

^ A change-over in the womens 4x100 relay

^ Run, run, run!

^ "...Go!"

^ One of the foreign teachers at the university, Chirstina, taking part in a relay

^ 3000km race

^ A few laps later

^ winners of the women's relay

^ dude changing the "laps left" board

^ Little dude ringing the bell for final lap

^ Team uniforms and everything. These guys were serious.

^ The shorts were a bit short for my liking

^ It was quite a good place to take pictures from

^ Lots of people were watching the racing through their tiny camera LCD screens

^ Relay hand-over

^ Mid-corner

^4x400meter relay. These guys SPRINTED the whole 400meters. Some seriously quick Chinamen. This guy number 48 was awesome. He sat off at full chant, mouth-closed, and a totally expressionless face.

^ Mid-corner, still no expression

^ One lap later, he was a bit less composed...

^ ...and ready to collapse

^ Number 2 being watched eagerly by number 1

^ Some minor drama when two of the relay guys were in the wrong lanes

^ People running with their tongue hanging out their mouth

^ Beryl, complete with funky laces

^ and finally, the all-star race. As you can see, the grandstands were packed. :-)

It was a good day! :-)

Day 75 - Wednesday 22nd April - Operation lace-up

2009-04-25T14:25:00.004+01:00

Okay, so my DCs which I loved so much back in England when they were new and shiny have taken a bit of a beating in China. As a reminder, they used to be new and shiny:

But a few months in China has reduced them to:

^ (Pictured after a quick clean)

So, I decided to freshen them up a bit:

^ I love it! ^_^

Originally I wanted to buy the blue and pink laces, but Beryl wouldn't let me :( She said they'd look stupid (some will argue she was/is right) so I had to go back to the shop without her the next day and buy a pair of blue and a pair of pink. :D

^ Bad ass.

^ The view from up here. :) I wish they were a bit thicker, but... they still work!

Of course...buying a pair of blue and a pair of pink meant that I had a spare of each, and of course, when Beryl actually saw the laces, she thought they looked great. So, I hooked her up:

^ Tiny feet :-P

^ Ta-dar! Couples in China wear matching t-shirts and stuff, so we get some strange looks! We try to synchronise our steps so we both step blue-pink-blue-pink. :)

^ Swish!

^ Pink pink blue blue :D

^ BLUE! :)

Well, yet another blog post coming tomorrow about the sports day, but I'll leave you with one pic:

Full post hopefully coming tomorrow!

G'nite!

Day 74 - Tuesday 21st April - The non-wedding photos (PART 1/2)

2009-04-24T16:06:00.006+01:00

Okay, so these are the photos that were taken Tuesday that aren't the 'weddingish' photos. There's lots of them, two posts worth...so buckle in:

^ How to start the day. Okay, how about a large fries, a large coke, FIVE double-cheeseburgers, and a pork-sandwich thing? Haha... admitedly that was between two of us. Rob did most of the damage, as my food poisoning was only 24hrs behind me.

^ :)

^ :D

^ Everyone aparently needs their photo taken with the bride...

^ Including FangFang's phone. Check the sparkly hair. Hao-kan!

^ My reflection

^ Buddhist Mausoleum thingy

^ The valley

^ Hill-line

^ A waterfall of trash :(

^ CHOO CHOO!

^ the hero / fiancé arrives!

^ Smile!

^ Some pretty cool birds were out looking for dinner

^ I want weetabix so bad

^ Fangfang juggling with her dress

^ Our trusty steeds parked at the top of the hill

^ Blue skies

^ Fangfangs classy footware

^ Goes with the red dress too!

^ Hahahahahhaahhaa. No comment needed.

^ Number ONE!

^ More awkward-posing-with-people-in-dresses

^ Nature :)

^ More nature

^ More nature. I liked the texture.

^ Not nature.

^ Nature.

^ Nature (aren't you glad im letting you know what is and isn't natural? If I didn't, you might get confused....)

If these posts go right, part two should be below!

Day 74 - Tuesday 21st April - The non-wedding photos (PART 2/2)

2009-04-24T15:47:00.013+01:00

More photos :)

^ Fangfang and friend out of their dresses and back into their normal clothes

^ High five

^ :)

^ Awwwh

^ Hahaha, that was a steep hill

^ RAR!

^ Like a GAP commercial

^ We managed to get to this awesome lighthouse-ish generator/pump building

^ I love that star in the brickwork, above the door

^ blah

^ more blah

^ ran out of comments...

^ Its me!!!!

^ ...

^ I liked how janky this place looked

^ Haha, I asked Fangfang to do the Titanic pose, she was all up for it, then she got there and was too scared. This semi-skimmed attempt was all I got out of her

^ Its not a bad reservoir. :)

^ ...

^ :]

^ Rar

^ A pretty cool building

^ ...

^ Water!

^ ...

^ Bai bai! They left us and myself and rob walked the few miles back into town. Made for a chance to take EVEN MORE photos:

^ Goats!

^ Skinny goat

^ Muwhahaha. Rob hot-wired this tractor and we totally stole some bricks.

^ Some tiny village out by the reservoir. I doubt any foreigner has ever stepped foot in it... so we marched through

^ people working the crops outside the village

^ More of the above

^ moar

^ Cows, carts and dogs, oh my

^ :-)

^ Skinny cows

^ Skinny dragon flies

^ Bridge!

^ more bridge

^ I love this. They dug up the ground to lay a pipe a few months ago. They just made a huge gorge accross the valley. You can tell some guy just drew a line on a map, and then a thousand Chinamen had to work away at it.

^ Farmer. Plough. Cow. Farmer's wife. Rural China.

^ More skinny goats

^ choo choo

^ Rob: "oh wow, look at that big cock!" ( There's a running joke about Rooster/Cock British English/American English at work - I'll let you all guess the rest... )

^ We finally got back into town, and found the one place in town (the bar) that serves beers chilled. We had some bud that tasted nothing like bud, but... it was cold and wet. We were happy.

^ Check out all that Chan! I'd been looking for some Jackie CHan music for a while and failing. However, Tim found that album for me! :) 2CD no less! and the socks... well, they're just thin, plain white socks... but they totally have Jackie Chan's blessing. They were like 80p. I figure I paid 10p for the socks, and 70p for the Jackie Chan picture... The Jackie Chan picture is totally worth 70p, the jury is still out on the socks.

P.S: I printed out one of the photos and bought Fangfang a little photoframe as a small wedding present, I also handed her the gazillion photos I took on a USB drive. Check the pinkness:

Day 74 - Tuesday 21st April - Photoshoot

2009-04-23T15:34:00.007+01:00

Okay, My good friend / colleague Fangfang is getting married in a few weeks, so her and her husband-to-be wanted to take some photos in their wedding garb, I heard about this and offered / asked if I could trundle along with my camera.

They turned out to be some of the greatest pictures / some of my most-favourite pictures I've ever taken.

Check it:

^ Fangfang in her lovely western-style dress

^ The lense-hood creeping into the corners of the frame, I think it adds to the shot

^ Very pretty!

^ She knows how to pose

^ Myself with the lovely bride to be

^ The fiancé showed up

Then we finally went out to the reservoir. Lots of locations to choose from, but we had to pretty much stick to one, and trapsing around the off-road terrain in wedding garb would be tough. I decided on a wheat field near some trees. The wheat proved to be a nice setting, the colour, the texture, and the way it shows the depth of field. Anyway, as so:

^ I loved how this tree lent over. :)

^ :)

^ I like this pose

^ Hahaha. Fangfang handing out a good beating!

^ Wheat, Tree, people. I like the balance of this one

^ Playing hide-and-seek

^ :)

^ My favourite shot of the day

^ Surrounded by wheat

^ Wardrobe change! Into the more-asian dress

^ I like the contrast of the red and green :)

^ Looking dreamy

^ Fangfang's friend, Melinda, also decided to jump into her dress for a few photos

^ Covering your friends dress in wheat before her wedding. Priceless. Enjoy your itchy wedding day :-P

^ :-)

^ Hahaha, Fangfang knows who's boss. I need to crop this shot. ;-)

^ The mauseleum in the background

^ Happy couple :)

^ Like sisters

and I've thrown all the black and white ones together:

^I love the texture of that tree, with the texture of the wheat

^ Awwww!

^ :)

^ I like this group shot

^ Very happy! I wish them both many many happy years together.

Coming soon: A post of some more candid shots from the day. Hopefully post that up tomorrow!

Day 71 - Saturday 19th April - FRAK

2009-04-19T05:26:00.003+01:00

OUCH!

I just got hit by a fraking motorbike! I was crossing the road outside school (four lanes, with the 2 directions seperated by no-overtaking lines) The first two lanes are backed up with traffic, so I walk between the cars to the middle of the road, I look to the right to check for oncoming traffic, there's none, so I start to cross then WHACK. I'm on the floor. It turns out I'd been hit by some numpty who didn't want to wait for traffic, so was just sailing down the wrong side of the road. Adrenaline shoots through me, I bounce up to find some dumb ass Chinaman on a bike looking scared to death, I start walking towards him and he starts shouting at me in Chinese. I start shouting expletives at him and asking him what the hell he was doing on my side of the road, I gesture for him to get off his bike, and he just takes off.

Messed up.

I have a tire imprint on my left leg, various cuts on my arms and legs, and a swollen wrist that I figure I must have landed on. I went skidding a good 4-5 meters down the road...good times.

However, on the flip side... the reason I was walking back to my apartment on my break was to take a plate back (which got smashed to pieces on the road.) Beryl had cooked me some pancakes and bought them over for me to eat on my break. :D I was very pleasently suprised! They tasted good too! Especially considering she'd only cooked them ONCE before!

So... some good things, some bad things...karma?

Day 68 - Wednesday 15th April - Morning of skating / photos

2009-04-15T05:41:00.005+01:00

Another skate / photo session:

^ a dude taking his bird for a walk. :)

^ Ka-chow

^ I don't really like black and white photography, but... meh

^ I dislike it so much I did it twice. :-P

^ HIGH SUGER!

^ McDonaldsssssssss

^ Tim getting his skate on

^ Floating board! :-O

^ Hahahaha, best police car ever. It was struggling with four of them...

^ Messing around with some photos of Tim pulling an ollie

^ Three black and white photos... make it stop!

^ Colour! :D

^ Good times

^ Some kerb-ollie-ing

^ Argh, more black and white >_<

^ Be careful where you point that thing!

^ Rolling ollie

^ I'm all out of comments

^ Haha, 10/10 for hand positioning

^ Tim's board is looking nicely used now :)

^ Converse, represent.

Day 67 - Tuesday April 14th - Oh yeah, foot rub too!

2009-04-15T05:32:00.002+01:00

I forgot to mention in my last post...(and I'm far too lazy to find the edit button)...yesterday me and Rob went for a foot-massage place. 10RMB / £1 and you get a back / neck massage while your feet soak, then your feet get the go-over with a couple of razer blades, then they get rubbed down. All in all about 45minutes of pampering, for a pound.

Me and Rob drew short straws and got two burley looking guys, my dude had forearms bigger than my biceps. They basically set out to see who could make which one of us squeal like a pig first. It HURT. The back / neck stuff was just bone-crushingly painful, then they slapped the crap out of our backs. My back was red-raw, and the two guys doing it were laughing their ass off. Rob speaks pretty good Chinese, and he was translating what they were saying while playing dumb that we didn't understand. Everyone in that joint was having a good giggle at us.

So, 15 years of bare-foot karate gave me pretty tough feet. The balls of my feet and heels are thick, numb leather... or... they were. The guy cut off my hard skin with his razor. It was as if he was peeling an orange. It's strange, I can actually feel the texture of my sox now, but... I dunno, Ikinda miss my rock-solid skin, so I'm hoping it grows back.

Then the real pain started when the foot rub started. They have a load of posters on the wall of pressure points of the feet, but these guys didn't need the posters. I was sweating buckets just from the pain. They'd ask (in Chinese) if it hurt, I'd say it didn't hurt. They knew I was lying, I knew they were loving it, but I refused to tell them it hurt. The look of frustration on my guy's face kept me going. Going there once a week would seriously raise your pain threshold.

I'll spare you posting photos of my feet. :/

Day 67 - Tuesday April 14th - Another random purchase!

2009-04-15T05:28:00.002+01:00

Okay, it's getting hot as hell here lately. 31'c yesterday. At night its hot as hell, and my winter duvet was getting too much. My old bed-ware was also pretty ghetto/skanky, a single duvet on a double bed, etc, etc. So, of course... random purchase time! :-D

^ Fancy bags

^ Ta-dar! Yes, it's cheesy, but I love it ;-)

Cosy too. :-P

Day 65 - April 12th - Random phone pics

2009-04-12T09:05:00.004+01:00

Again, not much time for commentry, but here are some random photos from my camera.

^ One of my kids at Beitang. :)

^ The duck is my doing, as is the handwriting. Haha.

^I also have a Romulan in my class. I imagine she'll look like this when she's older:

^ That duck is awesome.

^ In English corner on Friday, I had my class write a story, each reading out one sentance to construct the above. Originally it read "Her boyfriend, Joe, called her" but I changed it when they got to the end. :-P

^ Probably one of my cutest students, Betty! :)

^ Then, random snap of some of the awesome English you find around. This bed sheet was out drying. "Hope it was happy." Yes... I hope it was.

I'm off out again now, ta-tar! :)

Day 64 - Saturday 11th April - Operation Pancake: Mission Completed

2009-04-11T10:51:00.003+01:00

DAMN! They were some tasty pancakes. I was cringing when I put the first one in my mouth, which is possibly why it tasted so damn good. Having not eaten anything particularly savory in two months, it was a crazy taste sensation!

Beryl was around my place, so she acted as an excellent assistant / critic / pancake-model, haha. Anyway, I have to head out to eat soon, so here's some random photos that I took when I wasn't stuffing my face. :)

^ My preperation area, in its entirety. Oh, and I had no measuring apperatus... so it was all done by eye ;) Oh... and yes I did use individual saschets of butter. This is what happens when you can't read packaging in the super market!

^ Melting the butter in my swanky new pan. :)

^ Beryl also proved to be an excellent automatic whisk! :P

^ Check the awesomeness of my batter.

^ Ta-dar!

^ Beryl after eating her first ever pancake. I don't know if she's throwing the peace sign, or awarding me 2 out of 10. :(

^ Nom nom nom nom. Sugar and lemon, a winning combination.

^I was bitching that the light on my stove wasn't making my pancakes look their best, cue the pancake-model!

^ Then I made a better pancake... so decided that one needed the pancake model treatment. Unfortunately the model got downgraded.

^ Check out my pancake-serving action!

Delicious. Can't wait to cook some again!

Day 61 - Wednesday 8th April - Photo spree!

2009-04-08T16:24:00.009+01:00

So, went on another photo spree today. Mainly with my telephoto lens. I've been playing further with post-processing. I think there's some goodies in here. So much so, that I'll highlight the **goodie!** photos!

Photos marked **goodie!** are probably worth clicking for full-screen love.

^ So, A bunch of 'monks' came up to us while we were skating. I say 'monks' because they were smoking, and had wallets full of American dollars. They're pretty much shady con-artists, but we enjoy them trying to sell us whatever it is they're trying to pedal.

^ One of them sure did like Tim's skateboard though, haha.

^ Tim doing his thing

^ Woosh

^ **goodie!** I like this shot.

^ **goodie!** One of my favourite shots of the day

^ More of the same. Fun fact: his T-shirt roughly says "I am not a communist." He's a commedian.

^ Haha, random old people are awesome

^ Woop! The side of the building is one-way glass. The people inside were probably a little freaked out, but at least I got to take a photo of a handsome guy. :D

^ **goodie!** Tim looks deep in thought

^ **goodie!** More of Tim looking deep in thought

^ I want one of these in my back garden

^ Good enough to drink

^ Hello sexeh!

^ **goodie!** Hehe. We're just that cool.

^ I was in McDonalds when I saw this bird outside. So I took a photo.

^ Random taxi. It's green because it's from Xi'an. So now you know.

^ Ah... I love how people carry stuff around. UK traffic cops would have a field-day

^ More fresh Hondas on the streets of China.

^ **goodie!** Love this shot of a modified Suzuki Swift often seen around Weinan. I like how both driver and passenger are staring at me.

^ More Honda metal.

^ This guy looked quite trendy waiting for a taxi. I ocassionaly snap random people. I figured I better upload one of a guy incase I ever upload one of a chick, stop people accussing me of devilish deeds!

^ **goodie!** One of my favourite shots of the day!

^ I was taking these shots from the other side of a dual carriageway. Apparently being white and holding a huge-ass camera makes me stand out still.

^ Looking down the 27'c road

^ Typical Weinan street in the day

^ Typical biker gang

^ Tim thinking he's 16 all over again

^ This guy was trimming a tree with a knife tied to a stick that was tied to a stick. I love Chinese 'engineering.'

^ **goodie!** The same Suzuki Swift as the last post. Shot with the 300mm this time.

^ More after-market love for the Suzukis. This one is actually owned and driven by a chick.

^ **goodie!** I still can't resist taking photos of white Hondas.

^ **goodie!** People here use normal rain umbrellas as sun-umbrellas. This amuses me. ( and makes good photos)

^ Random intersection crossing

^ **goodie!** Walking up one street, I saw dwayne on the otherside of the road trying to stay in the shade. His sepia-tones made for quite a good snap

^ MELONS!

^ Random bikes

^ **goodie!** Hiding down an alleyway

That concluded my photowalk, but not my day! Today I made another stupid purchase to add to the list. An office chair! Hahahahha. So... I'm spending hardly any time at my laptop, but still I felt the need to upgrade. I watch the F1 Grand Prix's on my laptop, so I have to be comfy, and boy, is this chair comfy! Don't think it will fit in my suitcase, I guess it will be in the same garage sale as my roller blades.

^ Check it out. White-wall tyres and everything! Mine for the tidy sum of about £18 !

^ Woop! Check me out!

Well, 2 blog posts in 2 days. That should buy me some brownie points for a while.