Post Jennifer and Post Olympics

Well Post Jennifer....life has been getting back to a bit of a routine here. But there still is a lot of action around Beijing. The closing ceremonies were another spectacular event.....even around our building.

After all the fireworks were over, and the city seemed finished, there was a 45 minute fireworks display at Chaoyang park just south of my window...spectacular....the best I have ever seen personally...and some of the fireworks were totally new to me....not just explosions but flutterings of light as the fireworks worked their way to the ground...as well as the eye popping colours of the "normal" fireworks......and that passed ..and then after a 1/2 hour another 45 minutes of more...quite a site to see and remember....

Rosamund and I had been out earlier and watched them from the window...she left for Greece and Athens with her possessions about 2 months behind and her cat in tow on the airplane.....she doesn't know whether she will have a place that will allow her to keep Giz....will need to find a place or fib to them about her cat...

Said good bye to a lot of ladies in my life this year.....time to move on?

Started teaching with a couple of twists...Reg had asked me to be the Athletic Director as the school needs one to be accredited with ACAMIS ( I think it stands for Association of Chinese and Mongolian International Schools)...with that goes some extra responsibilities and also some time to do the job....ok...as well some time for scheduling extra curricular events, bookings, administration stuff...I think I can handle that plus I get to have another title.....yippeee

However, things kind of got bogged down a little when one of the new teachers, who teaches Physical Education and Mathematics and Science was not able to get a visa and would be 2 weeks late.....I was asked to fill in for him in a couple of areas...helping teachers who would be doing the Math and taking one of his classes of PE...and then all the work came with the administration...to say the least it has been a very hard working time as we get the school up and running as well as trying to get the pe and sports teams going...and we were invited to put a team in a league 2 years before we normally would be allowed...another team had canceled out and they asked us in....well, of course and that created more work...now it has died down...the new teacher arrived to a welcome from the staff who worked to fill his positions.....woo hoooooo.

New mall opened behind us has a hockey rink and we may get some students on it this year.....it is an upscale one with real prices...yes somewhat like North America prices...and good quality stuff.....needless to say ....I am a good spectator...but they do have a couple of good bars....so THEY say.

Jennifer and I skype more often now and it is good to see Kenzie as she is growing up and developing her mom's personality....have a good picture of her decked out in her Rider suit.....Jennifer went to an Elton John concert...she was sitting 5 rows back and was able to get his autograph on a program ...she said she enjoyed it immensely.. 2 1/2 hours of entertainment.....heard that from several people that he puts on a great show.....

Have been training for the 1/2 marathon in the rain...it has been unusually rainy here this year and some mornings my run around Chaoyang Park is too slow for my liking but I can't seem to get going too fast....I sweat a lot and my shirt is usually soaked on those heavy misty mornings.....I have lots of company including some other runners from time to time and a pair of ladies who fly by me on their bikes...all decked out in their riding suits and helmets......don't know where they come from but they may pass me three times going around the park....have convinced the lawyer and a teacher to run with me ...as well Kim, a friend will be running ..should be good...October 19th.....and either on that day or before, I have to decide whether I will be running in the Greek marathon....

Will be sending home some stuff to J ( more purses) and Janet...will let me hone my bargaining skills even more....gives me an excuse to go to the markets and check out anything new....

Have purchased another set of golf clubs for me.....that is now 5 sets I have at one time owned and/or used and they still don't seem to improve it... talked to my friend Fred in New Brunswick and he is improving day to day...even went out and played some golf in Sept.....and shot a 41 on nine holes....good grief...after a heart attack and he still shoots better...what is up with that...we laugh a lot about that...

Broke down and bought another good cell phone.....Nokia N95 with more features than the last one....had another one and sold it to Craig ( new teacher) so that I now only have the one cell phone...bought it at a place called Carrefours.....we had been given a 800rmb gift card by the owner of the school so we went out there to spend it....I even bought a slow cooker to cook chili and stew in...or attempt to do...funny sight and J you will attest to this.....going through the check out line with maybe 15 lines ...right in front of me a lady had a bag which was flopping around...inside it was a live fish that had just been taken out of the tank...put into a plastic bag, price tag had been put on the bag and she was checking her other groceries along with this flip flopping thing through the till....normal as all get out.

Spent a weekend sailing in Qin Hong Dao..about a 2 hour train ride from here....The 4 friends, Dave Gibson, Ron Badger, Reg and I were a crew on a 4 man sailboat. The city was host to the Asian games a few years back and so fixed up a marina. None o us had much sailing experience but we went for a good time.

Friday night was a good get together and get acquainted and check into our hotel evening.... and we went out too late....I think three was the time we finally got back in....I was the captain and I think I led my mates astray...

The 9:30 morning came fairly early and our crew was one of the ones on the water first after a little theory...I found out later the 2 hour course we had was normally a 2 day course....anyway we headed out on to the water to practise...the winds were light and Adam our fearless instructor was finding it difficult to get us to do things right...but no capsizes... and we spent the morning getting used to all the positions that were on the boat.....I didn't have time to take the tiller before we headed in for our theory part and then lunch....one of the things that the instructor emphasized was to avoid collision at all cost....

The winds picked up as we headed out for the afternoon races which had prizes at stake.....I was at the helm and I had promised the boys that sometime this weeknd we would be in the water...well it didn't take long....about 15 minutes later, we had tasted salt water....yep ...just after a glorious tack, we were all swimming and it was to be an omen.....because for 9 times ( we think that is some sort of record) we were tossed into the water...not only that we had a couple of collisions and some near misses and a lot of swimming practise and practise at righting the boar...our instructor was very patient...and very wet....we didn't finish one race and couldn't finish another finishing with the most penalty points amassed by anyone....the idea was to have the least points.....now they tell us...finally we pulled into shore after getting exhausted with all the extra work.....we had a beer and watched the final races...the ones I had been so sure we would have been in....

But all was not lost, at the barbeque that evening, our crew won the best dressed outfit and also for some reason won the most spectacular capsize competition.... perhaps because the had had so many to draw from...it was a fun time though and we
laughed a lot...

The evening saw everyone singing and some dancing....we finished off our evening at the Extraordinary Bar....I chatted up the singer in the band and they allowed me to use my stunning voice to help them sing the Lying Eyes songs by the Eagles...early night at about 12;30

Next day we took to the waters and had fun with 3 on the boat and also we had a single boat...which Reg took out first...before even getting away he had capsized twice.... keeping up our good tradition...the three of us sailed around the harbour without a capsize and even took a little excursion out onto the ocean....I was able to get a small boat and for about 2 hours did the same...venturing our of the harbour several times just so that I could say that I had sailed on the ocean....all by myself...

Came home that afternoon on the train and slept a bit of the way....back in Beijing and it was raining so we caught the subway home and slumped into our beds....a great weekend of memories....

Another week started up and some twists...had a meeting to get the junior volleyball going one noon hour...Tuesday it was the Junior Basketball....lots of interest so I will find some coaches to start after the October holiday...Wednesday almost broke me...

Here is how it went....

Got up at 5:40 to go for my run...a reasonable one....under 40 minutes around Chaoyang Park...

Mornng classes were routine no major problems....

At 12:15 I was to go to the International School of Beijing to talk with an athletic coordinator to see how our school could get involved with the athletics....got directions written out before I left...got a cab..driver couldn't read ( I think)...phoned Chloe who told him how to get there....

Spent approximately 2 hours there and got some issues cleared away and was beginning to understand the "system"...came back to school at about 3:30

Attended Mandarin lessons so that I can learn to speak a little Chinese and can get by a little better....for one hour......

Had a meeting of softball people at Frank's place...supposedly near here.....took a cab and got close and then spent about 15 minutes finding the place....had a good meeting and set up schedules and dates and times and fees and then left for home again..

Returned home and had a 2-3 hour class on computers and how to better use them in the classroom along with the Smartboard......that almost did me in.....and then I spent another hour or so getting ready for tomorrow's work....I went to Reg the next day and said that I almost left for home last night.....I do have a return trip left from Air Canada so it is not out of the realm of possibilities....

The next day was good and Friday came very fast.....as I know ...there are days of teaching that are taxing and there are days that are satisfying...Some days you are the windshield and some days you're the bug....

Today is Saturday and I had a frustrating hour and a half trying to re arrange the flight to Hong Kong....I had submitted my credit card to a company called Elong and they needed to see the front side of my credit card...I phoned them and they wanted me to take a picture of it and send it by email....I said do you need to know the number on it and they said yes...so I read it to them.....no they couldn't accept that they have a department that approves your credit card...and then they were going to deliver it and I was going to be away and could I come down and do the business...so another 3/4 of an hour shot just to get a ticket to Hong Kong....some simple process that would normally take 5-10 minutes becomes a Hollywood production starring a cast of thousands.....hahahaha

Finished the afternoon with a pickup ball game at the park with about 2o people playing....we are going to have a small fall league of ball ....to get us ready for the spring league.....we have enough to make a team ourselves here at CIS but we are going to have other international teachers on the team....it was fun to get a few hits and catch and throw....I did not bring my glove but borrowed a couple...

Will send this one and get a new one started...not many pictures with this one.