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Malcolm's spaceAugust 04 中国，我真的爱你！A sample of my new song Updated Mp3 here http://www.tiange.com.au/music/ZhongGuoWoZhenDeAiNi.mp3 with 5 verses...also not good quality ... but gives an idea anyway ... http://www.tiange.com.au/snitzforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=88 March 04 happy lantern festival...Last night was the last night of the Spring Festival ... the Lantern festival. When I was in China it was basically a time of non-stop fireworks everywhere, in everyplace at every street. I spent the time in Changchun at 10th floor apartment from where we could see across much of Changchun. Really amazing - I had never seen fireworks like this. Whereas when we have fireworks in Australia maybe millions of dollars are spent and the fireworks are very impressive and large but they are limited to one place for a short time, such as half an hour. During the Lantern Festival the fireworks were used even during the day, and through all hours of the night, never stopping.
This time now I'm in the countryside of Australia. There is no lantern festival here, no fireworks. I spent the weekend inside my house practicing computer programming and studying for a Microsoft exam, with the occasional piano practice and playing ball with my dog outside... February 18 过年好, 新年快乐！happy new year!I had a pretty exciting weekend how about you?
Well exciting ... not too exciting. I've been playing Microsoft's newest operating system Windows Vista Business Edition, and Microsoft Office 2007 and the latest version of UBUNTU LINUX (Desktop + Server versions).
I'll post more about my thoughts on that software later ... If you have any questions about it just leave me a message, I'm testing it pretty thoroughly... I spent the weekend quite busy using QQ, MSN and SKYPE wishing all my Chinese friends a happy new year (that's the Lunar new year)...spoke with over 100 people in China so it kept me quite busy.
 Although I spent most of the weekend in front of my computer, in fact my wrists are a little sore from so much typing, I also went out to a BBQ at a nearby friend's house.
Here are some photos I took today. February 16 spring time? i don't think so...Happy Spring Festival and let's welcome the YEAR of the PIG. (The year of my fiancee)
Well I really wish I was in China now as Chinese new year must be experienced in China...I think back to Feb. 2005 when I was in Tonghua City, Jilin Province, at my student's house...
I had been travelling around China and was on a train from Zhangjiajie to Beijing. The spring festival was beginning in two days. Of course in Beijing it was impossible to get train/plain/bus ticket for several days. I really didn't want to miss the beginning of the festival. I had purchsed a bus ticket to Tonghua, but it was two days later. I couldn't find a place to stay easily for less than 200 RMB per night, and I had been paying 20-35 yuan per night for hotel (not really hotel - more like a bed) so it seeemd outrageous to me.
One of my students knew the bus driver for the Beijing-Tonghua bus so she called him. At the Beijing West Bus Station (If I remember correctly...) the bus to Tonghua was parked in a secure enclosure, but the Tonghua bus sat next to a high, barbed wire fence. My student advised me to hand 200 yuan RMB to the driver, who was sitting in the bus. My student advised me that this means I could ride the bus, but with no "bed" only a "seat". I thought OK - no problem.In fact a seat sounded like a luxury after becoming familiar with "standing-only" tickets on trains for 12 hour + trips. He handed me a written note that just mentioned a location in Chinese. I couldn't really understand it, but through some sign language i managed to get an idea that I should meet at a certain location around 6.30 pm. I was really lucky two meet two Chinese girls who spoke excellent English, one from Tonghua the other from Bai Shan City. They helped explain the process to me...
I resold the ticket I had purchased to someone for the same price I had paid for it, maybe about 150 RMB if I remember correctly, even though my student advised me it was now worth up to 600 RMB...
I still remember this night quite clearly - we walked several hundred meters up the main road from the bus station and we were handed folding wooden stools. When the bus came past us it stopped and we went in. The bus had top and bottom bunks for sleeping, and three rows of beds, with two small corridors in between. We cramped in ... it was going to be a long night ... 12 hrs or more in fact ...
Actually I was advised the bus driver would take a longer route so as to avoid main checkpoints if possible ...
The movie "Kung Fu" (功夫) started playing (Gosh I want to see that again - anyone have a copy...? hehe) Luckily it even had English subtitles! I also spoke with my friends who spoke English...
After about 3 or 4 hrs my back was becoming very sore from sitting this way ... and we were far from half way through the journey. I got off my stool and lay on the floor not worrying about how dirty or clean it was. I curled up as others did, lying on the bus floor. My head was in front of a forceful heating vent and my feet were near the door through which an ice cold wind was blowing. I wasn't sleeping well...
At that time we hit a police checkpoint. The police saw everybody sitting in the bus and ordered everyone out. The bus driver asked me to hide, he didn't want me to be counted by the police.
The people who had been sitting down were taken out for about 30 minutes in weather that I imagine was below -10c. I stayed hidden in a storage section on the bus. Eventually the driver payed the police some money (supposedly 200 RMB per person) and the police said normally they would not permit this, but because Spring Festival this time they would let us continue... Quite nice of them considering being dumped in the middle of nowhere in freezing weather at 2 am would have been a happy way to spend the festival...
Eventually we arrived in Tonghua. I felt so dirty and uncomfortable I immediately went to a public bath to wash and had a back massage. In Tonghua great massage was only 20 RMB for 1 hr. I then fell asleep for several hours...
By evening I was in contact with my student - Donkey his name was. Donkey told me it was tradition before the festival to go to public bath - he took me to the most expensive one in Tonghua. Wow! It was so amazing...but there was also some pain involved. First we showered in the large public room - the showers were of the highest quality - huge showerheads, high water pressure, and temperature accurately controllable. In addition there was "ice cold" bath and "boiling hot" bath. (What about one in between please!!!)
After the initial wash of soap and water we then went to the massage table for the thorough washing by a specialist. This is commonly done once a week by people in Tonghua, and leaves you feeling very clean. It feels like your skin is being scraped off in the process though, and I had done this several times so it was no problem. However the next part was more of a problem - the salts. My student told me the salt was very important - and expensive too. Salts were rubbed all over the body, without missing an inch. They were rubbed in hard. It really stung. He also advised we cannot wash it off yet - we need to leave it on for ten minutes while we sat in a sauna. The sauna was so humid I could barely breath and extremely hot. My skin was stinging all over from the salt. We then went back to the shower and washed off the salt (finally!) After this I can't remember which we did first - boiling hot water bath, or ice cold - but i know we tried both, the boiling hot water for "comfort" and the "ice cold" for "healthy".
After this we did not dry ourselves with towels, but rather were given fresh underwear and a bath robe and we went to the 2nd level, which had an indoor garden, waterfall, and pool with fish. It was very luxurious - I really found it hard to believe a place like this existed in Tonghua. Some people played mahjong, and a beautiful lady in traditional Chinese clothes played the "zheng" brilliantly. (A traditional Chinese instrument, stringed, similar to a harp but played horizontally) We drank a variety of tea as we dried off.
Being all clean for the spring festival we went home and started on fireworks. In fact the family had a garage full of fireworks. The whole city was exploding all night, non stop, even into the day. Just fireworks everywhere. non-stop. Unbelievable. Amazing...and so great! (except when trying to sleep)
I was then taught how to make dumplings (餃子). In fact we made and ate so many I felt sick afterwards.
Before midnight I was told I had to wear new underwear, which had been purchased for me. We watched CCTV's New Year special. At midnight we had new socks prepared which we had to put on and jump exactly at midnight. The grandparents gave money to the younger people. I was quite sucessful in this and was given 300 RMB despite not being a relation. The tradition was to use a red envelope, but this time just bills were handed out...The grandparents must have saved a long time, so much money handed around. Although I did not expect any money, and felt embarassed to accept it, this 300 RMB was so useful to me at the time because the ATM in Tonghua had run out of money during the Festival and the banks were closed so I couldn't get money ...
The next ten days I spent eating and eating and eating and eating and eating and eating and eating and eating. Then eating some more. OK also some mahjong and cards...
I also went skiing and cooked some chocolate cake using the microwave for their family.
Most importantly several days after Spring Festival celebration finished I met my girlfriend Janette in Changchun...
You can find some photos of this time in my photo albums (such as Malc in China)
What a great time! Hope I can experience it again!
If you managed to read this far please let me know how you will celebrate it! February 15 water restrictions...Warragul normally gets a lot of rain but this winter we barely got any...so now we are at "Stage 3" water restrictions.
This means:
-Manual dripper water systems can used only from 6-8 am and 8-10 pm two days per week
-Automatic dripper water systems can be used only from midnight to 4 am two days per week
-Hand held hoses can be used only from 6-8 am and 8-10 pm two days per week
-No watering lawns
-No filling new pools & spas (above 2,000 litres) without written approval from government
-Existing pools can only be filled with bucket filled directly from tap
-Vehicles can be only hand-washed using a bucket for windows, mirrors, lights & spot removing corrosive substances. Commercial car wash is permitted.
More info at http://www.gippswater.com.au
The long drought has been caused by the El Nino effect...apparently El Nino is finished but we'll have to wait for winter to get our rain I think...
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