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Patrick is back from Beijing, and I have dragged myself away from buffet breakfasts at the Hilton to return to our regular life.

I awoke this morning to find Chandler grinning away happily by the side of the bed, staring me into awareness while awaiting his morning walk. This wouldn’t have been so unusual had we not shut him in his room the night before.

Apparently Chandler can open doors.

This is a little annoying, but I am rather impressed that instead of whining and scratching at the door when we put him to bed, he quietly waits until morning then lets himself out without fuss.

Best of all, the door opens inwards. I wish I could see how he does it, there’s not a scratch mark to be seen.

After we collected Chandler yesterday afternoon, Patrick and I took him for a walk in the park. Patrick looked on in amazement as my grandma and grandpa park friends greeted me as we passed.

I think he is a little envious of my popularity.

Patrick brought Chandler home yesterday.

Chandler is a lovely 5 year old Golden Retriever and is very well behaved… he even smells nice.

Now I absolutely can’t wait to move to the new apartment so we can take him for lots of walks each day around the lake.

We took him for a walk there this afternoon and I discovered the added bonus of having a large dog… Everybody is too busy staring at him to stare at me! Yay!

We haven’t got the car yet though, I had forgotten that “soon” in China means “Possibly this year”… Still waiting! I look forward to taking Chandler our for drives and discovering all Hefei’s parks.

At the moment Patrick hails a cab while Chandler and I hide behind a bus stop and then we all quickly bundle into the car before the driver can comprehend what is happening and tell us that dogs are not allowed. The drivers are usually stunned into silence when a foreigner AND a great big orange bear of a dog magically materialise, so we generally get away with it.