My lovely Nan

My 103 year old nan yesterday on her birthday with her great grand-daughters :-)

Dragon Boat Day

First Dragon Boat Festival................lots and lots of people, 55 boats were taking a long time and when you ahve seen a few races and been pushed and shoved by quite rude at times people we had seen enough.  So reated ourselves to a little peace and space and went to Whittards for Tea and scones and then another bit of a walk then for lunch in Ganesh an indian restaurant.  All very chinese lol.

 

Sunday Roast in Suzhou

5 weeks today I will be nearly arriving in manchester.  Life here is good dont get me wrong and I have good friends, a brilliant social life and I am seeing things I only ever dreamed about but it will be sooooooooo nice to be in my house/home again for a while with my girlies and see my family............although there are a lot of people here who include me in everything and I really thank them for that I can be surrounded by friends but still be lonely at times.  So with only today free I decided to do a sunday roast for my friends , and dan brougth his home made sausages and dessert was chocolate frudge cake and apple crumble which all seemd to go down well.

Moth Eggs

Hows this ladies - Hatch from coccoon on Sunday, mate all day sunday and monday and lay eggs on tuesday......unfortunately you only live a week.............

 

 

The Family is getting bigger

New flat mate



I would like to introduce you all to my new apartment roomie "Silk worm Cocoon" soon to be "Silk Moth" ........grown from a pupae, then a caterpillar and now slumvering inside its protective silk cocoon ready to emerge at some point in time as a silk moth.......new hobby and maybe I will even unwind real silk when I have more of them................. 

Beijing pics

Apologies for not adding these pics sooner or getting to my blog sooner.  Since Beijing we have been busy at school with exams, and invigilation and preparations for the Arts Festival.  Plus I now leave my lap top at school in an evening which has all my pics on and I just use the i pad.....my shoulders were starting to suffer carrying the laptop plus other things backwards and forwards to work every day.

 

Anyway better alte than never so they say and below are the photos of my visit to Beijing with friends.  It was an incredible visit starting 1st may and returning 5th may and I visited places I never thought I would have the opportunity to visit such places and as a friend once told me you should "take the opportuity of a life time in the lifetime of the opportunity" and I did and am.

Here we go come with me on a whirl wind tour of Beijing :-)

5 hour train journey from Suzhou to Beijing on the fast train with Jake, Rebecca, Dan and Sophie - business class luxery

 

Night markets in Beijing, the food is for the tourists but people do eat them, live scorpions, starfish, seahorses, millipedes and pigeons.

 

 

Tianamen square never thought I would be standing here

 

 

 

Forbidden City..............so massive, so much to see seemed to go on and on forever, our guide told us that the emperor lived there with his one empress, 3000 concubines and 7000 eunuchs.  Never did I think that I would be in Beijing seeing all these things.

Temple of Heaven a beautiful place

 

We went to see a kung fu show that is the top in Beijing at the Red Theatre

 

THE WALL - oh what an amazing experience only in my dreams did I think I would be standing on the Great Wall of China

 
Rubbish littering the sides doewn below the wall .....nowhere is sacred.

 

The Summer palace where the Empress stayed and partied without the Emperor

 

Peking duck Banquet

 

Tibetan Lama Temple what a beautiful place

 

This has a guiness world record plaque outside it for the biggest statue made from a single piece of cedar wood and it is 3 storeys high.