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We went to the countryside yesterday as part of our wedding preparations.

We handed out sweets and cigarettes to all the countryside family members then set off fireworks and burned paper money at the family tombstones…. or rather, the other family members set of fireworks while I hid behind the car.

Last time we went to set off fireworks, we got a dodgy bunch, one of which shot rockets out sideways rather than into the sky. Everyone else laughed at all the fun as they scattered in every direction and dived into the surrounding fields, while I nearly had a heart attack in panic.

I don’t like fireworks very much.

This time I was well prepared, so bowed at the tombstones quickly and dashed off behind the car before any explosives could be lit.

Aside from all the scary blowing up of things, the day was a lovely, peaceful trip to the countryside.

We sat by a lake and watched ducks wiggle their bottoms in the air as they dived for food, we played with baby chickens (forgot about the whole bird-flu thing, oops), we picked some cotton and then we absolutely filled the four wheel drive to the roof with all the vegetables we could find.

I think most of the vegetables belonged to the family, but there were a few times Patrick’s mum appeared with fruits I’m pretty sure the family doesn’t grow.

It was all only about 30 minutes drive from home, so I think we should go more often.

I don’t write enough about Chandler, he is such a laugh and so sweet to be around, I am sure I could fill a whole blog with his antics alone.

He went through a period last week of refusing to eat his dinner unless under very special circumstances.  I am not sure at all what brought it on, and as of yesterday he has resumed usual eating practices, so it must have been just a phase.

For exactly a week, Chandler decided he would not eat a single biscuit unless it was in my hand or if it was in his bowl with Patrick dancing about madly behind it.

I am glad he didn’t need me to dance about, as it was still quite warm all week, and Patrick was finding Chandler’s dinnertime rather tiring.

I don’t really know anything about competition dogs, except that they have very odd names.  Chandler’s pedigree certificate lists his name as “CH Redog’s Ticklish Affair”.   (Not so bad considering according to the certificate, one of his relatives is known as “Goodtime Happy Ending!)

I don’t know if it has something to do with the way show dogs are trained, but Chandler doesn’t sit.

He stands up, and he lies down, but there is nothing in between.  I could count  on one hand the number of times I have seen him sit.  Each time it was when he was sooo excited I think he just couldn’t concentrate enough to stand on his back legs AND his front legs all at once, so his bum collapsed to the floor.

Chandler generally tires of things quickly.  In the short time we have had him he has already loved and left two toys.  When he has a favourite toy, he carries it everywhere he goes and sleeps with it cradled in his foot next to his head.

One thing he never tires of is trying to eat our socks as we put them on in the morning.  This he will always enjoy.

I am not very good at this blogging thing.

It is all the small things I see and experience here that I want to be remembering, but I never seem to get around to recording any of them.

I read other people’s writing and become disheartened, wishing that I could express myself with the same elegance.  I’m sure I’d have quite a story if I could.

I should, i suppose, be writing more rather than less, just in case it is something that can come with practice.

The wind is absolutely howling at the moment, which is a rare occurrence in Hefei.  I think there is a storm on the way.  No better time, I guess, to sit down and write something.

Chandler and I just went for a lively walk around the lake as the wind blew our hair in every direction.  Chandler had a wonderful time, it was just like sticking his head out the car window and being able to run and pee on things all at the same time.

As we walked past the path to our building, one of my neighbours called down from her balcony.  We have met a few times and she is always very sweet to me even though she doesn’t speak a word of English and I am always too shy to speak any Chinese.

Her nightdress was threatening to blow up over her head at any moment as she cheerily yelled down for me to come inside quickly as the rain was on its way.

We have such a warm and friendly community atmosphere here.  If only I could work out how to use my oven, I think I would make her a cake.

I’ve just signed myself up for an Amazon.com account.

I’ve no idea if books sent to our address written in English will make it here, but I am getting rather desperate.

I survived in Japan by borrowing books from other teachers’ collections, but having no English speaking friends or colleagues here makes that just a little difficult in Hefei.

In Melbourne I worked part time at the local libraries whenever I had spare time or felt the need for some extra cash, so always had access to an endless supply of reading material.

FREE reading material.

What a luxury!

Scanning through the books on Amazon, trying to calculate shipping cost, wondering how long I will have to wait for my purchases (up to 40 days they say) and if they will ever even find their way here, is bringing me to realise how bloody wonderful the library really is.

It is unimaginable to me now that I could put a few (or 20) books on hold online, then just wander down to pick them up when they arrived at my branch the next day, not paying a cent for any of them.

Sigh.

Our wallpaper was put up yesterday.

The wallpaper thing has been an ongoing saga since we first came and viewed the apartment upon arrival in Hefei.

There is a beautiful two story high wall in our living room which reflected light onto every surface, it was my favourite feature of the apartment when we first saw it.

On our first inspection I noticed an odd little bit of a feature wall had been painted opposite in an awful shade of sickly yellow.

I asked for it to be painted back the colour of all the other walls only to be horrified by the answer that it was painted that way because it would look lovely with the wallpaper on the other wall.

I nearly fainted at the thought of the lovely big wall being papered over, and after a week of protests came to an unhappy compromise of the yellow being removed if the wallpaper stayed.

I am slowly trying to get used to our wall being a large, patterned, purple wall now.  It looks quite nice at the moment as all the furniture has been taken out to accommodate the scaffolding used to put it up, but I am a little nervous how it will look when the sofa returns to it’s usual spot.

Maybe I will just keep the sofa in another room…