Wow, it definitely has been a while since I was last here… I guess I might have lost a few of you by now, but regarding the emails I am getting, I guess you are starting to get worried.

No worries!! I am doing fine, perhaps even better than fine. The last two-and-a-half months I have had a lot of parties, work, and adventures, and I intend to share them all with you.

At the start of October, I went to Foshan with Christine (see pictures). We went to Foshan especially because Christine has a thing for ceramic figurines, and this city happens to be famous for its pottery work. We went to see a temple (with very nice ceramic rooftop decorations) and a park with some ceramic artwork. We also spent about three hours looking for another park, but it turned out that, although our map was quite recent, the park had been demolished, and new residential areas had been constructed in its place. After enjoying a very nice foot massage and a well-deserved nap in our hotel, the next day, we visited the ancient kiln. This is an age-old pottery oven which is in fact the oldest operational ceramics kiln in China (and, according to the Chinese, in the world, obviously). We saw examples of flowerpots, vases, roof tiles and smaller pottery items being made, including some beautiful handmade figurines. It was all very impressive to see. Naturally, Christine wanted to add some earthenware ornaments to her collection, so we spend a significant amount of time looking around in the three-mile long street of ceramics-stores. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful, because most figurines are mass-produced, and Christine, being a bit of a connoisseur, only wants the best. Behind the ancient kiln, the museum and the shopping street was an area of art exhibitions, where we saw some remarkable, modernistic, but predictably, ceramic, art.

That evening, we had another foot massage and dinner in an Italian restaurant. The dinner was cut short unfortunately by me starting to collapse into a feverish full-body muscular cramp (which wasn’t half as funny as it sounds). So, I spent an exceptionally long time in the (thankfully) hot shower to relax, which made me queasy as all the acids from my muscles flowed into my digestive system. It wasn’t a great night and I can tell you that I have never dreaded a bus ride (due the next morning) more in my life.

Adventure number one concluded, on to adventure number two!!!

If you ever feel like you might be missing something, or if you want to know something about my life here, please let me know. Sometimes writing is just hard, because things here, which you might be very interested in, are becoming ordinary for me, and although I cannot say I have lost my sense of wonder in this fascinating country, I do feel that sometimes topics might be a bit far from the beds of my readers, figuratively speaking…