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It seems unfair to mention Freda's laundry chores without mentioning Edie's dish-washing. I sometimes feel like we're camping indoors, due to the lack of furniture and work surfaces, especially in the kitchen. What should be our dining table (when it's too cold or wet to eat outdoors) is used for drainage, but we still can't really wash up in the sink, becausee it's precariously balanced on wobbly wall mounts. Never mind, Edie's lived in China long enough to pick up the habit of squatting for such activities. Here she's scrubbing the bowl from the rice cooker, which would probably be out of service in the UK since a link was discovered between aluminium cooking pots and Alzheimer's disease. Given that potatoes and bread have now replaced rice in our diet, we're not at too much risk.

Anything else noteworthy in the picture? The white tiles are bulging on the walls, likely to fall down in the next earthquake. The makeshift table, of which you can just see the corner, is a wooden workbench placed over a giant wok. The uncle who owns the house was the only person in He Xi registered to slaughter livestock. The large, built-in, tile-surround wok was used to boil pig parts. Since he left the village domestic pig-rearing has stopped, as there is no abattoire nearby. Yunnan  is waaaaaaay behind on such health and safety regulations and we've seen many DIY pig slaughters outside people's houses. I suppose this is a reminder that, up here near Beijing, we are a long way from Yunnan in many ways.

Anyway, thanks for all your hard work girls!

23/8/2010 10:43:29 am

You've got them girls well trained! Anyhing for 5 minutes on the Iphone, eh?

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