Our Thirty-oneth

Yesterday we celebrated thirty-one years of marital bliss.

Peter totally surprised me first-thing in the morning with a large parcel, elegantly wrapped in two plastic bags sticky-taped together. I shook it ... no rattle. Not heavy enough for a book. Couldn't smell any interesting chocolatey smells, and anyway it was too light for that too. Or so I thought.

This is the biggest box of chocolates I have ever received! And the lightest. 36 little cardboard packages, each containing two tiny Hershey's kisses. The whole thing comes down to 375 grams of chocolate. American made, maybe, but definitely Chinese packaging.

So then we hopped aboard a bus and went into town together. We got off near the centre of town and walked north. That's when we saw

The Big Chook

I know chickens like to scratch around in the dirt, but this is ridiculous.

We escaped from the chicken and went on up to a shopping centre we hadn't visited before. Its English name is "Trust Mart". Now there's an interesting concept in the Chinese market place. The centre was big and spacious and there were no crowds at all, so we spent a pleasant couple of hours browsing around. We even managed to find some apple-drinking-vinegar which we became very fond of in Zhengzhou but haven't been able to get here. Mind you, it wasn't nearly as tasty as the stuff we got last year.

Enough of that, we decided to cross the road and catch a bus back to the city centre rather than walking as it had begun to rain. We were at one of those huge intersections which takes a good minute to walk across, but fortunately there was an underpass. So we headed down the steps along with other pedestrians. Once you are underground things are often confusing, but there seemed to be only one tunnel to walk along and we were relieved to emerge once again into the clear air. Our instincts were right, the tunnel had taken us in the wrong direction and we were now on the corner diagonally opposite where we wanted to be. There was nothing for it but to head over land across the intersection.

Back in the city centre we decided on lunch in Pizza Hut - the creme-de-la-creme of restaurants if price is anything to go on. What would you think if you had to pay sixty or seventy bucks for a lunch-sized pan pizza? But it was nice. Sometimes you just need a little bit of home! Real mozarella stringy cheese, and not a chopstick in sight.

We were about to leave after our delicious lunch when I suddenly remembered the washroom facilities at Pizza Hut are usually well worth visiting too. A tall sad-looking Chinese employee held the door open for me as I entered the "ladies", and then stood around leaning on her mop handle while I relaxed on the clean white western-style loo. As I left she stepped into the stall to mop and wipe everything down for the next customer. At least she had waited til I was done - in some of the Chinese-style public conveniences if your stall door doesn't lock over-enthusiastic cleaning staff will reach in and start mopping while you are still busy ...

To complete our happy day we then crossed the road and enjoyed a dessert and coffee at Starbucks.

Yeah, 31 happy years ...