Cacophony

I went to walk the dog early (5:15) this morning (we are looking after the dog of a friend). When I got outside the noise was ridiculous (luckily you could not hear it inside, as it would probably have woken the kids). The music band of the army barracks we live behind, was playing their instruments. Well, playing is not really the right word, they sounded like they were all tuning their instruments. There were drums, trumpets, saxophones, flutes and many more instruments and everyone was playing their own tune. I have got no idea what was going on, or why they were doing this at quarter to five in the morning, or why it had to last for an hour, but I do know it was a cacophony that you could hear almost a kilometre away.

Sometimes I come across this kind of strange thing and I think: "Oh well, this is China".

Mei You Qian

It seemed today as though China has hit the economic crisis. All the cash points I tried to get money out off had 'mei you qian' (no money). 1 Hour and 15 minutes later (and a very long walk) I finally found one that could give me some money. Thank goodness, we could shop again.

Eat Yer Greens

As summer vastly approaches, my children's need for ice-cream increases, and in fact Chinese shops begin to stock them again. So as a good mum shopping today I lingered at the ice-cream freezer looking forward to delighting my children at tea-time.
After studying every container I had to laugh: "Only in China." Instead of the usual flavours I was used to buying back home in the UK (like chocolate, strawberry or vanilla), there was pea, aubergine (egg plant), sweetcorn or carrot flavour. So China knows how to get those children eating their green, but I have to say it is pretty disgusting.