Well this is strange. The firecrackers have been driving us crazy for the past week and we have nearly jumped out of our skins on many occasions thanks to the efforts of fiendish neighbourhood kids who are probably targeting the naive foreigners with their carefully hidden surprise attacks. We have been woken up first thing in the morning by either random bangs and crackles or a cacophony of noises that seem to generate from beneath our window. So now we are at the point where we are actually use to the sounds and can carry on a conversation instead of stopping and looking around to see who has been mortally wounded. As part of our week off school we thought we would treat ourselves to a couple of nights in a hotel in the touristy part of town. So we lapping up some luxury in the main tourist drag expecting a big party atmosphere and sure there are plenty of bangs and crashes and when we walked around and there was a couple of fireworks going off but other than that we a completely underwhelmed. As I said earlier this is strange because normally we are overwhelmed by most things in China. We arrived in Zhongyang Dajie about lunchtime and immediately noticed a lot of restaurants not open but managed to find a nice Russian place so we headed downstairs into a dining room decorated with antiques and carver chairs the tables were laden with heavy silverware complete with napkin rings and the waitresses dressed in green velvet dresses with lace aprons, we felt like Russian aristocracy. We ordered a lamb stew, mash potatoes and of course I had to try the eggplant in tomato sauce, it was delicious. After an afternoon of enjoying the wi-fi in the hotel room (we only have broadband at our apartment) and I spent some quality time in the bathroom – the water in our apartment is usually too hot and it is playing havoc with my heat sensitive skin and eventually ventured out for dinner. The streets were lonely and the food situation had become even more desperate, so after aimlessly looking into empty restaurant windows we headed for an American coffee bar that was advertising itself as open, only to be informed that there was no food being served only drinks so I reluctantly gave up my Marguerite and we headed to the only place that was still serving – Mac Donald’s, I was mortified to end my 5 week year on that note, as well as being mortified that I was in China ‘the land of interesting food’ and to be stooping that low. Hopefully the year of the rabbit will feature us patronising more ethical businesses than this. Anyway we had a laugh at ourselves and tucked into our burgers and fries. We didn’t stay awake to watch the TV until midnight but were rudely woken up at midnight with an assault of bangs, drums, clangs and flashes of light, it reminds me of last year’s New Year’s Eve at the Taj Mahl but there the noise was caused by the monkey’s jumping on the tin roofs.
