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With 12 hours of daylight, relatively warm weather, and minimal Christmas commercial (or spiritual) hype here in Simao we usually forget about our advent calendar until well into December. But not this year! In fact Lesley and the girls even decided to make another one to add to our Christmas Carol Scrooge version which we've used for the past 4 years. Twenty-five match boxes (emptied of course), each decorated and filled with a mini bar of Dove chocolate! Now the countdown to Christmas will be a chocolately one...

 
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Chinese parks have a certain style to them, not often in keeping with Western aesthetic tastes. There's a tendency to feature ponds, paths, pavilions and grotesque, ugly lumps of limestone, often decorated with calligraphy describing how "beautiful" and serene and cultural the sttting is. Overcoming nature rather than working in pleasant (to our eyes) harmony. However today I spotted a new rock stategically placed in our local Banyan Tree Park, and it's not too bad! The park features bronze statues of a caravan of horses on the Ancient Tea Horse Trail, and to complement this the authorities have stumped up the cash for this splendid boulder of gneiss (for a change) featuring a clearly recognisable (for a change) image of a galloping horse. And, for a change, no calligraphy - yet.

 
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We played spot-the-cats at this semi-derelict crazy-golf ground on our walk round Taoranting Park yesterday with Hongyan and Bailing. In this picture alone you can find at least 8 of the stray cats that live in the park.
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This is Freda with Hongyan and Bailing by the lake, now partially frozen over. I've always wanted to skate on a frozen lake but it will take a sustained drop in temperature to render this safe for Robin Cousins.
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After our walk and a fabulous lunch we headed back to the Li-Bai household to play. We made a variety of books and pen pots, played chess, pinged Barbie dogs, watched cartoons and tortured ourselves on Hongyan's electronic massage chair. Freda had the remote control and thoroughly enjoyed tipping me up and down as the hidden robotic fists kneaded my back. It was hard to drag ourselves away and Freda didn't get into bed until 9:30. Just as wel we're studying at home these days with a flexible timetable!
 
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The trip to Ludao Park. Me and Dad went to Ludao Restaurant for lunch. We had 3 potato kebabs, 2 meat kebabs, 1 courgette kebab and a medium-sized noodles. Afterwards me and Dad went to the park. We noticed that the shoe-cleaners, who had been resting during the festival last week, had come back from their little holiday and this is a photo that Dad took in the park. There was another man with his grandson and he took a picture of me as well with his mobile phone. These people are drinking tea and there were about 6 of them all together, 3 of them were drinking tea and 3 were playing musical instruments. This is my new stripy top from the winter clothes bag. The weather today is quite sunny today, warmer than yesterday, nearly 20 degrees.

 
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Toffeed fruit on sticks is a Beijing speciality and this was one of the best we've ever had. Freda was on the look-out for toffee apples yesteday but the only ones we came across were on display, unwrapped, near a string of small butchers. I later wondered whether I'd been over-cautious and promised her, "the next time we see some, you can have a stick, whatever..." The next time was as we emerged from the Metro, as a man passed on his bike along the busy, fume-filled street, with a full display of toffeed fruit on his rack. Even Freda was put off those and agreed to wait until something more hygienic came along. These were worth the wait -  the toffee had set but was still warm as the lady lifted them from the drying tray to put in her glass cabinet [a good sign] and the bite-size crab apples were succulent. Freda's teeth got an extra scrub that day!

 
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As the Simao weather became colder and even wetter (yesterday's max was "only" 15 degrees) the Yunnan Nationality Clothing Festival threatened to turn into a bit of a wash out. But down at Red Flag Square the Wa Nationality stand was trying its best to whip up the enthusiasm of the damp crowd with an exotic catwalk fashion show. The Wa tribes on the Burmese border used to be infamous for practising headhunting, but these days they're known for their trademark look - long, flowing black hair and silver hairbands (men and women!). The older women are fond of a smoke, using beautifully ornate silver pipes which they tuck into their headbands when not in use. See photo below.

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Note pipe and inch-wide ear studs
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The other Nationality making a last minute impression were the Miao. Although predominant in Guizhou Province, there is a sizeable Miao presence in the hillier, remoter (and poorer) parts of Yunnan. Many are Christians, their forefathers having been converted by European missionaries in the latter part of the 19th Century. The Miao are justly famous for the beautiful embroidery work on their clothing. My photographer pal Li Xiaowen has been documenting the different styles and designs of Miao clothing embroidery for the Simao City Department of Culture. He's promised to take me out on a photo-trip to a Miao village sometime soon...

 
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Barbie with her three pups: Snowy, Coco and Marble.
 These days I have been a bit not OK. I am on a diet with NO gluten or dairy products. Yesterday we had to go to the hospital again to get another test done. When we got to the hospital I found out it was going to be another blood test. The thing is that when I found out that it was going to be another blood test I got abit nervous so when they put the needle in they took ages to find the veins. After I had had the blood test they gave me a lollypop and mum said she would find me a treat. After mum (well, VSO) had payed the BIG bills we went of to find my treat. First we went to a not-so-big Carrefour and walked round the toy section - that wasn't much fun because there wasn't much stuff so we went to a much bigger Carrefour and after walking round the toy section three times we finaly spotted a trolley of Barbie sets that used to cost 200 yuan but had been reduced to 48 yuan so mum bought two immediately and we went home to open the new set. Once we got back to the hotel room I started to play with it. It really is a very good set and it is also very FUN because you can ping the dogs through the hoop and they land in Barbie's arms. She's a bit of a cheat because she has a magnet in her chest so she doesn't drop them. You can also make the dogs run up the ramp and slide down through the tunnel. It's just like a real dog trial.

 
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A lot of time, a lot of stitches these days. Cold weather and hanging around hotel rooms is conducive to knitting and my quilt is coming along nicely. I've even managed to knit a hat for Freda's rabbit,Tessa, [see yesterday's photo] and her scarf [see above] is under way. I did also spend the morning working on the PIE Resource Pack [all materials to set up and deliver a comprehensive PIE project on one CD] to leave with VSO when we head back to Yunnan. I've been trying to find the time to do it for several years but full-time work gets in the way. "Just pop the materials on a CD," says the Programme Office, somehow forgetting that there are several hundred documents and files, some of which are full-blown manuals, workbooks, reports etc. I remember a team of 6 volunteers (some of them given a 3-month sabbatical for the purpose) working on ONE training book a few years ago. At least it's a job I want to do, to consolidate one aspect of the work I've been doing. I don't like loose ends.

Freda had a very productive home school session this morning, tearing throw her Maths and Chinese with ease, delighted that today's poem only had three new characters to learn. In the afternoon she wrote a story in English about a "bad Barbie", who mis-treated three lovely little dogs that finally ran away. Inspiring.

 
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Freda and Tessa in the Beijing Metro.
In fact, there's no competition. Our Beijing life is completely dull compared to the festivities of the other half of the family - folk festivals, tea festivals, parades and midday bai jiu. All I can manage is to lament - dry weather, flaking skin and hard pavements. Maybe it's just being surrounded by enormous amounts of concrete that makes walking seem more tiring. We're getting around the city by the very user-friendly underground system. Freda likes to join the small gathering of 40+ men at the front of the train to look over the driver's shoulder down the long, dark track and into the illuminated stations. It's great seeing the world from the other side of the perspex safety screens.

Freda gave some more blood today, for the lab to test for 148 different allergies, as well as lactose intolerance. I think the months of ill-health are building up and she broke down in tears today, after being incredibly brave and pragmatic so far. The nurses struggled to find a vein and eventually managed a slow trickle of blood, enough for the tests. Apparently we won't get any of the results back until next Thursday. Ali has been relaying messages back to VSO London Medical Unit, who have advised we stay in Beijing until the tests come back. As Coeliac is a condition that is incurable, and necessitates significant dietary changes (well, depending on one's default diet I suppose), it's important we confirm one way or another. If it's lactose causing the problems, she may grow out of it. Being in Beijing with French bakeries and Subway sandwiches would have been such a treat under different circumstances. I'm showing solidarity to Freda and resisting the temptation.

We have a couple of friends in Beijing, but it's hard to muster up the energy to leave the warmth of our little hotel room. I suspect I'm feeling a tad low myself, and in such circumstances am inclined to cut myself off. Despite having access to our blog I am unable to use our email account here so feel a bit isolated. 

In the absence of any exciting news or colourful photos, we'll leave it at that.

 
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Dai nationality peacock dancers
As I left to pick up Edie from school this morning I stumbled across a parade of various Yunnan nationality people in dancing garb. The streets had been lined with army and police for 2 hours previously to hold back the crowds, but with my camera bag and professional-looking SLR camera I managed to blend in with the official press photographers on the street to get some decent shots - no-one seemed to mind! Pity about the rain though. The authorities here obviously don't have sufficient funds to instigate a weather modification programme like they did for our last parade in Beijing on October 1st!

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Back down at the Yunnan Nationality Clothing Festival Edie took this picture of an interested local. Despite the rain it was heaving with people, damply crowding into the leaking tent stalls. I met my pal Li Xiaowen (from the Da Lu Shan trip) and we had a few baijius, but I managed to get roped into an interview for the local TV station. Hopefully I was so bad they won't bother me again!