(Apologies in advance to those on Owen's email list, you’ll have heard some of this before. I felt the need to record stuff about Lanzhou, for completeness. Sorry, it’s the librarian thing)Lanzhou is a long spreading city bisected by the Haung He (Yellow River) and hemmed in by mountains north and south. There are promenades and parks along the riverfront – some beautiful, some in need of major repair. In fact, like much of the city, chunks ...

The apartment has been quite dry since the central heating came on. I've taken to putting little bowls of water on windowsills, and bought a squirty bottle to spray around and try and raise the humidity a bit. On Monday I woke up with a particularly dry mouth and nose. Then as the day progressed I started sneezing. At first I blamed the allergies and reached for the nasonex, but by the end of Tuesday it was obvious I was coming down with a cold. So, the rest ...

Toilet paper that tears along the dotted line. One of my pet hates is dotted lines that don't tear straight.Being able to flush the toilet paper!! Not going there.DECAF COFFEE. We knew it would be difficult to get here. We brought some decaf coffee bags from home (lighter than a jar and less apt to break in transit), but they’re long gone. They were eked out by double dunking. We even tried a third dunk with Milo to make "mocha" – once.I found box...

Hair is very big with the Chinese, especially the young Chinese. There are hair salons everywhere and a lot of effort is put into the hairstyles. A lot bleach and dye their hair red or brown, and the young guys sport amazing puffed styles which are quite feminine to our Western eyes. (Though I do see it a bit of it at home nowadays.)A haircut was way overdue so I headed off to a salon I'd noticed on the way to the shops. I felt a bit bad as I passed a couple ...

The apartment is small, living/dining room, kitchen, bathroom and two bedrooms - so the housework doesn't take long to do. That is kind of nice, it's good to feel on top of it, that it's something that's easy. Not like at home where housework tends to be something dreaded, endured.We live simply, few possessions, not many gadgets, we brought mainly clothes in our 23kg baggage allowance. Shopping on foot and just a two burner stovetop means we eat ...