After leaving Lanzhou early on a very cold morning, (the first airline I've come across where the cabin crew wear navy jeans, pink striped shirts and navy knitted vests), we flew into "Sunny Sanya" and immediately removed a few layers of clothing - which initially made our clothes feel loose. We actually wore T-shirts and had to get out the sunscreen. Our first impression of Hainan was “green”, with lush tropical vegetation, flowers everywhere and...

A bit late for those at home, but we're still between new years here where New Year/Spring Festival preparations are well under way. In fact on Boxing Day, the Christmas decorations began coming down around town (much to the dismay of the Russian teacher who celebrates Christmas on Jan 7th) to be replaced by lanterns, banners and other decorations for the upcoming year of the dragon. In the few weeks immediately before Christmas, many shops, restaurants and b...

Snowballing in the figurative sense that is. The day itself was bright and sunny. Forecast was for -10 to 0 degrees, but we didn't have to go out, so I was able to skip a few layers - even put on a skirt.We initially expected to have a quiet Christmas – ring the family in the morning and eat at a nice restaurant downtown, but Vern (the other AVI) mentioned he was hankering after a traditional turkey dinner at a restaurant or hotel. That sounded like a g...

I think Nigella should be proud - but probably she wouldn't give a fig. Encouraged by my success with "roast" lamb, I progressed on to a chunk of beef with gravy and a passable Yorkshire pudding in the frying pan. I’ve refined the roasting technique a little by putting halved onions, skin on, in the bottom and placing the plate with meat directly on top of them. The “roast” potatoes I cook first in the microwave, then crisp up in a little oi...

I thought this was going to be "Not a goodweek really - 2". We lost our internet connection a couple ofweeks ago, and after topping up the card with more money we managed to get on acouple of times - but then nothing. After a week of trying, testing friendslaptops, testing friends apartment's internet, buying a new connection (whichwe need for our Macs to connect to the ethernet) we called in “the man”. He isa very busy man, and didn’t arriv...