Ouchie !!

It has been a long time since my last post and if you are wondering then [...insert lame excuse here...] and so I apologise.

I have had an eventful week this week. I rode my motorbike into a great big gaping hole in the ground that had been left by one of the utility companies. A hole which went straight down into the sewer. A hole which was in a street with no functioning street lights. A hole which caused me a great deal of pain, resulting in five stitches in my chin, cuts and bruises all over my body, and a period of convalescence away from work.

So, what is the outcome?

Well, the police have been very good and are trying to establish who is responsible for the monumental cock-up, whereby you can have a seven foot by seven foot hole in the street with no barriers, no signs, no tape, nor any form of warning whatsoever. They are pursuing this line of enquiry in order to compensate me for my injury and loss. This isn't America, however, so I am only hoping to receive the cost of my suit, my shoes, my motorbike, my glasses and my hospital bills.

The hole in the street, as yet, remains in exactly the same state as before: with no barrier, no signs, no tape, nor any form of warning whatsoever. And the street lights continue to malfunction. Until someone dies I guess that it will be left in its current state.

I will be sure to cross unlit streets from my preferred choice of routes.

Spring festival was good, apart from the fact that everywhere was closed. Lantern Day was amusing and my room mate and I made the local paper (see left, you can make out the two white faces in the top corner), along with all of the far more interesting traditional Chinese displays and costumes. But, to the Chinese residents here in Rizhao, the two westerners were of far more interest than any of those, hence the picture in Rizhao News the next day. Two of my students brought me in copies of the paper to show me, which is how I found out that we were famous.

Not much else has been going on here as everywhere seems to go to sleep during the winter. The fireworks have just about stopped a-popping every waking hour, as they are want to do during Spring Festival, and things are getting back to normal. The weather is getting a little better and it will not be too long before I am back swimming in the sea and lazing on the beach during my time off.

I will endeavour to get another post up again before too long but, right now, I feel the need to go and dose up again on pain killers. I'm not sure what they are, because all of the writing on the box is in Chinese, but swilled down with a bottle of beer they certainly take the edge off of the aches and pains!

C'est la vie xx