This week again has gone quite quickly - counting down the days until National Day and a week off in the first week of October now! The weather has decided today (unlike wednesday) to be a lot cooler, even drizzling, so whilst the drop in temperature and humidity is welcome relief, it's been a pretty grey day !

On Friday I went for a meal with Julia, my co-teacher, to a restaurant - I think they're a chain - where the food and interior is modelled on the old-fashioned restaurant 'canteens' of the 1950s and 1960s; basically, what restaurants were like in Chairman Mao's day. Again, another free meal courtesy of chinese hospitality but it was really cool, as stepping into the restaurant did feel a little like going back in time! The food was very good so it's definately a place I want the others to visit as well - so they can have a taste of Mao-ist cuisine, soak up the atmosphere etc..!

Saturday was pretty quiet but today has been livelier, as we were invited by a pupil of Christina's (one of my fellow English teachers) for lunch and to go fishing with her family (hopefully there will be some photo's to follow). We were picked up at 9.30 by Wendy and her Uncle and then had a 10 minute car journey to her parents' restaurant, which is just outside the town. Before lunch, we were taken to a lake in the grounds of the restaurant, and attempted to fish our own lunch! Ben and Christina caught fish, and we could see that there were some big ones in the lake: I thought I had one on my line at one point, so got quite excited, as the rod was being tugged down into the water and it felt like there was something BIG on the end..it wasn't. It was a piece of wood. That I somehow managed to dredge up from the bottom of said lake = Fish fail. So, even though I didn't catch anything I still wouldn't say fishing is boring - especially when you think you've caught a monster-fish!

xxx