CHINA | Friday, 15 Jun 2012 | Photo Gallery
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CHINA | Friday, 15 Jun 2012 | Views [737]
Well, somehow I find myself in Shanghai, and the nine months I spent two years planning and waiting for are over. I’m not being woken up by the Mai Dofu man at five a.m., the background noise is incessant traffic rather than birdsong and sheep, and there ... Read more >
CHINA | Saturday, 9 Jun 2012 | Views [554]
If there’s one thing that would improve the quality of my life, it’s more sleep. I envy those who can fall asleep within five minutes and not wake up until it’s time to actually get out of bed. My sleep pattern is at best erratic; occasionally I do ... Read more >
CHINA | Monday, 4 Jun 2012 | Photo Gallery
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CHINA | Tuesday, 29 May 2012 | Views [583]
I’ve been a bit slack with this blog lately, partly because things here have been progressing in more or less the same way, and partly because I’ve been busy looking for a job. I tend to get a bit obsessive about things (you’d never have guessed that ... Read more >
CHINA | Tuesday, 29 May 2012 | Views [584]
Well, here I am with only two weeks left! A lot of my practice time over the last couple of months has focused on the sword form. After the initial super-fast learning week with Sha Wei, there was a period of three or four weeks when I was more or less ... Read more >
CHINA | Monday, 7 May 2012 | Views [446]
Some time ago, I wrote a bit about my state of mind and what
had been happening in my head. Today I’m
going to write some more about this. I
always wonder if it’s too personal to go onto a public space, but again, I feel
this is relevant to everyone ... Read more >
CHINA | Thursday, 3 May 2012 | Photo Gallery
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CHINA | Thursday, 3 May 2012 | Views [486]
So, having sent an email that ended with the sentence
“thankfully there hasn’t been another drinking session…” what happens?! Unbeknown to me when I wrote that sentence,
the 1 st of May was the school’s birthday, and when we turned up at
the kitchen ... Read more >
CHINA | Thursday, 19 Apr 2012 | Views [677] | Comments [1]
A couple of weeks ago a lovely young German couple arrived
for what is their third visit to Chen Jia Gou.
I was chatting with the guy, Robin, and he told me that on his first
visit he practiced intensely for two weeks then realised he had ‘burnt ... Read more >
CHINA | Monday, 2 Apr 2012 | Photo Gallery
Fun and Games!
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CHINA | Monday, 2 Apr 2012 | Views [1555]
I was going to take a blog holiday this week, but I got an
email from someone saying how much they were enjoying my blog, and it was so
nice to feel appreciated that I decided I would write something! And this time, it is going to be about an
ordinary ... Read more >
Tags: look! cheesecake and latte!
CHINA | Saturday, 24 Mar 2012 | Views [537]
Well! This week is
exactly halfway through my time in Chen Jia Gou! It’s a good time to reflect on the last
twelve weeks and wonder about what the coming twelve may bring (hopefully some
sunshine!).
It took a long while to get used to a six ... Read more >
CHINA | Friday, 16 Mar 2012 | Views [753]
One of the things I notice when I teach piano to adults is
how people get in the way of their learning.
People will say they’ve wanted to learn piano for years and it’s a dream
come true to be starting lessons, but all too often they stop because ... Read more >
CHINA | Wednesday, 7 Mar 2012 | Views [680] | Comments [1]
It’s been really hard to know what to write about this
week. Usually I have an idea then I
spend a few days thinking about it (no point rushing these things), but, apart
from having to run up and down the insanely steep concrete sides of the
aqueduct ... Read more >
CHINA | Tuesday, 21 Feb 2012 | Photo Gallery
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CHINA | Tuesday, 21 Feb 2012 | Photo Gallery
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CHINA | Tuesday, 21 Feb 2012 | Views [637]
When I was first teaching in Thailand, there was a British
guy in my school called Martin. Martin
came from Newcastle, was tall and thin, and had travelled around South East
Asia with a kettle so he could make a proper cuppa (and before anyone ... Read more >
CHINA | Tuesday, 21 Feb 2012 | Views [621]
When I was here over Chinese New Year on my own, I thought
that that would be the hardest time and when other students came and things got
back into a routine, things would be easier, but that wasn’t the case at
all. Although I was alone a lot over ... Read more >
CHINA | Monday, 6 Feb 2012 | Views [449]
So far I have written about strange food, Chinese New Year,
a plumbing catastrophe and my life in general, but I haven’t written anything
about what I spend most of my time doing, which is of course tai chi. This is partly because I wanted to wait ... Read more >
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