I slipped and fell on adventure

I always wanted to be an actor, to be infront of an audience, to make them howl with  laughter, to cringe with distaste, to gasp with shock or be silent in awe. Unfortunately I didn’t follow that dream, so it had stayed simply in my day-dreams, when sitting on a bus on the way to work, or wandering around the river, I’d enjoy a moment of imaginings of a destiny not quite fulfilled. What is mad and wonderful now, though, is that my love of an audience, a desire to impact others through performance, has been realised. Certainly not in the way I’d ever have thought, but here… in the role of teacher, you can gasp and flutter and spin and twirl and create worlds for your students to bask in while learning about this or that. I suspect that this is why, at the end of every class, I feel as though I’ve skipped, not walked, back to my accommodation… my blood buzzing with the bliss of performance… and yes, the fun of knowing that the kids have enjoyed their class and fingers cros...

During the evening we had decided to head off to Wuxi town, which is where Mark’s housemate was heading tomorrow… that morning… Robyn advised she wasn’t overly well and Mark was MIA… Therese and I pulled ourselves together and headed off to the train station. Why Wuxi? Well I thought it was pronounced Woooki… like the cute guys off Star Wars? Apparently this is not the case, its pronounced Wooshi, and if I’d known that I may have stayed in bed – not really, but still, would you not go to a place full of Wookies? It’s the closest you’ll get to a Care Bare hive! Wuxi sits along the third largest lake in China, it is considered the Land of Fish and Rice. For me? It seems more a peaceful village with some superb natural spots. Therese and I enjoyed the giant lilly pads, the stone bridges and sculpture of a giant turtle, apparently the child of a dragon. There was a woman laying a traditional flute, and children dressing up in traditional attire… We watched a barge of goodness-know...

You know those days, those days that its just a feat to get out of bed, let alone brush your  teeth, then there is a shower and breakfast and commute to contend with… well it was one of those days. What’s more… it was one of those days in China. I’d run out of tea, ok yes… there was herbal tea, there was even Earl Grey, but there was no English Brekky, Irish Brekky or even Caravan. No Tetley, no Dilmah and for crying out loud, no Bushels! Now, I’m ok without toilet paper, I can even deal without milk, a day or two without soap or a brush, fine by me, but deny me of a nice sweet tea to get me going in the morning, beware of the result! So… I, that morning, thrust on my trousers, scraping my shins, pulled on the closest shirt – and, twisted my hair into a lackey, shoved on boots – sockless – and started the 15 minute trek to the closest ‘supermarket’. The stones are not cobbled in the romantic sense of the word, they were more bricks, often protruding from the road in th...