CHINA 2010 MONDAY 13th SEPTEMBER

The hot weather continues with no humidity which makes it more pleasant. In the middle of the afternoon we went into the city to visit one of the shopping malls around the Railway Station primarily to buy a mobile phone case for Keith. We were successful on the second floor of the ‘World Trade Centre’ and happy with the price so bought 2 which should last him a while.
I browsed the fashion shops ending up in one and buying a T shirt with the help of the staff as I need their biggest size! Some of the fashion I declined especially T shirts with sayings that either don’t make sense, have words of adoration, or mis-spelt. An example of this was on a shirt a girl was wearing the other day which said “I love herpes”! (Guess it should have read ‘I love Hermes’.) Whilst paying for my shirt the young assistant tried her hardest to sell me long denim shorts – in this hot weather – so short shorts – at my age and with these legs! Another lady piped up that I was not old which was very flattering of her.
6.15pm we went across the road to meet Mander outside the restaurant used by the Company. We had been invited to join ‘Hong Kong John’ and meet his Engineer students at a welcome dinner. We were very annoyed when Mander said John would not be coming – he was too tired! What bad manners to refuse our host’s hospitality. Still we enjoyed the evening as we usually do and met his students. There were two Company dinners taking place and Mr. Cai excused himself for a short while. I said to Manders “that is two meals he has to eat” only to be told there has been many occasions when he has had to eat three! At times like that it is good there are many plates of food to choose from so you can eat lightly in each private dining room. Tonight we sampled pigeon cooked in the same style as the duck which very meaty and delicious. Again we had the beautiful platter of Xiamen’s signature dish of the worm in jellyfish, along with slices of sea cucumber, set amongst a small herb and floral arrangement and containing a wine glass with two small goldfish swimming around.
Sitting with us was a Chief and Second Engineer and although the Second Engineer didn’t talk to us the Chief was quite good and we laughed about his experiences in Texas. He said he could not understand what they were saying! I asked how they managed without tea as coffee is the main drink in America – his response “we drank Cola”. The language problem ended in a very expensive taxi fare as they asked to be taken back to the port and the driver took them to the airport!
I asked everyone if they had visited England but it was only the Chief who said “yes”. Keith asked him which port had he visited but as it was such a long time ago Chief could not remember other than it was only a small port and sounds as though it was in the countryside because he said “a man was growing vegetables in his garden and cutting them and leaving them”. He wanted to know why he was leaving them so we came up with various reasons such as them all being ready at once or a good season and too much for his family to eat. We told them about villagers leaving produce outside their houses either for free or a small amount of money which was usually donated to the village Church or a local charity. Again Keith asked him about the location saying was it in the North or South of England? “I don’t know I am an Engineer!” which made us all laugh and we both said “we like your answer”.