I Heart China

I have a few blogs on WordPress already, all of them attached to this same user profile, Honorarynewfie. Some of them you may be aware of, some of them maybe not.

But now I’ve started another one !

For reasons that would only be clear to me it’s not part of the same group; I now have another profile, B2212.

The blog’s called I Heart China, and it’s a retrospective travelogue/diary of “our story”, Amanda and I, beginning with my first trip out to China to meet my beautiful little Chinese wife.

A lot of the pictures, especially the early ones, are not of a particularly high standard. There will be ones taken using mobile phones, video cameras, basically whatever was at hand at the time; but it’s not about quality it’s about the experiences, memories, and helping me to organise the thousands of photos we have taken over the past two years.

The blog will be a small selection of those pictures with a brief description of the events of each day.

The “About” page explains a little more.

The layout is still work in progress so it may chop and change about a bit until I get it settled.

I’ll still be “doing my thing” on here; I’m not going anywhere; there will just be more of me !

Enjoy !

Truth or Fiction (2)

As part of the deal for accepting the “Kreativ Blogger” award from Kelly in the previous post I have to tell you seven things about myself.

What better way than to have another game of Truth or Fiction ?

One of the following statements about me is untrue. All you have to do is spot which one, and tell me why you think that’s bullsh1t !

1 ) For his 89th birthday I gave my Dad… a flying lesson !

2 ) When unemployed once I kept myself afloat by making and selling candles.

3 ) On the wall behind my computer desk is a large collage of pictures celebrating when Reading Football Club won promotion to the Premiership.

4 ) When at home I drink my tea from a pint sized mug.

5 ) I drive a 13 year old Peugeot diesel estate.

6) My feet are size 11. (UK sizing)

7 ) I used to be a football referee. (soccer)

8 ) My favourite joke is:

• There are 10 types of people: those who understand Binary, and those who don’t.

Good luck ! Answers will probably be posted early next week.

Kreativ Blogger

This week Kelly bestowed a “Kreativ Blogger” award on me.

Thank you Kelly, much appreciated.

Apparently the rules for this are:
1). Thank the person giving the award.
2). Copy the award to your blog.
3). Place a link to their blog.
4). Name seven things people don’t know about you.
5). Nominate seven other bloggers who you admire.
6). Place a link to these bloggers.
7). Leave a comment on their blog notifying them of the award.

1) and 2) are done, and 3) was done ages ago when I included Kelly in my Blogroll.

The remainder are a little more difficult for a number of reasons, and I can already hear the cries of “Bah-Humbug” even before I say any more.

How far do hamsters run in a day (or night) ?

Amanda used to have two little white hamsters. One of them died suddenly about 18 months ago, but the other one had been happily carrying on, despite its age.

While I was over with Amanda for Christmas and New Year little old hamster was finally starting to suffer. The poor little thing had developed a huge tumour on one of its front legs and, although it was bravely carrying on doing little hammie things, it was obviously starting to get in distress. So we had to let the vet do the kindest thing. Sorry hammie.

So Amanda, being Amanda, went out and got two more and a brand new cage for them.

Mrs. Hammy 1	Mrs. Hammy 2
Mrs. Hammy 3	Mrs. Hammy 4

As is normal for them only Mrs. Hammy was out and about when we got the camera to hand; Mr. was having a little nap (again !).

The ball at the top of the cage has a really neat feature. (Every hamster owner should get one !) There is a digital counter built in to the cage, and each time a certain point on the surface of the ball goes past it, up goes the count.

Brilliant… Now you know how many times your hammies have been round on their wheel !

From that it is then primary grade mathematics to work out how far they have travelled since the last time you reset the counter.

Ok, so with two hammies sharing one ball one can’t say how far each of them has travelled, Mrs. definitely does a lot more running than Mr. that’s for sure, and they quite often run in tandem… oh yes, both side by side trundling away, haha ….. but what do you think ? What would you reckon is the longest distance these little critters have racked up over a 24 hour period ?

I’ve heard that they do travel quite a distance in the wild, but I mean they sleep most of the day and do most of their running at night, so it can’t be that far, can it ?

Can it ?

How about a fraction short of 11 miles !
….. just over 17.5km !

They must be crazy !!!!!

Mind you, that was when it was bit chilly at night. Now it’s started to get a bit hotter and steamier they’re only doing about a quarter of that, but Wow !

The things you learn.

That’s an Ausfahrt, mein Führer. (How do you pronounce “Ausfahrt” ?)

For some reason we Brits are renowned for our apparent love of “toilet humour”. I have no idea where this fallacy stems from, and I very much doubt if there is any basis for it in truth.

That said….

I was tidying up my Blogroll this afternoon (Oh, no pun intended ) and came across a reference to this piece on YouTube. (18 Certificate !)

So that’s how you pronounce Ausfarht !
(Clip Length 3:48)

Ok, so I have to be honest, I laughed my head off !

And the best part is, there’s a whole series of “Hitler Rants” covering all sorts of subjects. I love the one about Brett Favre.

Bicycles in China are not environmentally friendly (5) – Conclusion

Yes, we’ve reached the end at last !

While picking up from where I left off yesterday, am I going to paint a picture of doom and gloom or do I see hope on the horizon for China and the environment ? Well….

Bicycles in China are not environmentally friendly (4) – Globalisation

In this fourth post of the series I am returning to the original subject matter; the pollution being generated by Chinese industry, why it is being allowed to occur and, just as importantly, what the future will hold and why nobody really cares.

What ? Nobody really cares? Well, yes.

Let me explain a little about myself. This is me on that day trip, just having had lunch at a waterfront restaurant within the area. What do you see ?

Relaxing after lunch - near Qinzhou - Dec 2009

You see a tourist; a western tourist. Ok, so effectively China is my second home now because it is Amanda’s home country and the rest of her family is there, but outside of the family unit I am still a “tourist” when I visit.

Despite the destruction and devastation that is being meted out to the local environment, do you see somebody who is up in arms protesting about it ? Of course not. Why not ? Because there is not a single thing that I can do about it.

Bicycles in China are not environmentally friendly (3) – An educational diversion

So far in episodes (1) and (2) I have shown you what is happening in the vicinity of Guangxi Qinzhou Free Trade Port Area from a purely factual aspect.

Today I want to step aside from all this though, because on a personal level I found our day trip to the region quite educational.

My experience of China is somewhat limited and I have been intrigued at the way the different styles of buildings (and the different “classes” of the occupants) intertwine and I had often wondered how it all came about, especially given the fact that a lot of the smaller, more incongruous buildings didn’t seem to be that much older than the larger properties surrounding them. By seeing this new development in its early stages the whole process becomes a lot clearer.

New building 1	New building 2
New building 3	New building 4

Bicycles in China are not environmentally friendly (2) – Destruction and pollution

In the last post I discussed the way in which the Chinese love of the bicycle, both pedalled and powered, influences the Chinese authorities when it comes to town planning. They design everything with flat roads.

In this post I will show you what that means to the natural landscape of southern Guangxi.

Bicycles in China are not environmentally friendly (1) – Flat roads

I didn’t know where to start with the reports on my latest trip to China until I saw Kelly’s excellent post the other week on Post-Avatar Depression Support. In that post she links to a Seeking Alpha post entitled Are We Exacerbating China’s Pollution?, which then points the reader at these pictures of industrial pollution in China.

To be fair, the Seeking Alpha post does start with the words “America used to mistreat her land and water like this.”, and one could easily substitute almost any European nation for America in that statement.

This series of posts isn’t aimed at knocking China, (the wife wouldn’t let me). I love China. The intention is simply to relay what I have seen with my own eyes and have learned by my own recent experience, to try to put it into context from the perspective of the world in which we live, and to look to how things might develop and/or improve in the future, if they can.

So where do the bicycles fit into this ?