Catchup

I haven't posted for a while but I have still been doing things and taking photos of them. These are all albums so click on them to get the full experience.

The weather has finally warmed up. Actually Mum and Dad got the best of the Spring weather. Before they arrived it was still pretty cold, but really warmed up while they were here. A few weeks after they left we got 33 degree weather and it's been pretty steady at that level ever since. We get a bit more rain that in the Winter though which is nice.

We started Mandarin classes again. It had been 6 months since our last class but it actually didn't go too badly, we mostly remembered the words and pronunciation. After a chat with the teacher though, we're going to try to concentrate on more practical language skills rather than the less effective (at least in the short term) character study that people normally study. So we'll see how that goes!

I'm still trying to play the guitar. I've definitely gotten better although I'm still pretty far away from concerts still! I've been trying to practice regularly, but trying to do anything regularly is a bit of a mission. Still, it's fun and I'm enjoying it.

Here's a quick catchup on what's been going on:

Went to the 798 Art District with Jane, Mum and Dad

798 Art District

Went to the Temple of Heaven

Temple of Heaven

Went to the National Museum of China

National Museum of China

Went to the Museum of Shanghai

Shanghai Museum

Went to Shanghai (that's where the museum is!)

Shanghai

Went to Yuyuan Gardens and the Bund (check out the incredible numbers of people in the garden)

Yuyuan Garden and the Bund

Went to Suzhou, famous for gardens and canals. Also check out the incredible numbers of people there!

Suzhou Gardens and Canals

I still have a bunch of photos to go through from when Jane's family were here but I'm getting there.

One month of guitar

After a month of learning the guitar (well pretty much) I have come to a few conclusions:

• I have no particular natural talent for music! Maybe no one does, but I certainly don't
• Even though I'm not very good yet, it's still fun
• Apparently children are good at learning this sort of thing but as an adult I have the advantage of knowing how to learn stuff and a lot more willpower than a child which is nice
• Years of studying language and my current Mandarin helps a lot with reasonably abstract things like music notation

So after a month I'm part of the way through the fourth of twenty lessons and I'm in the process of finishing learning the notes in the first position (sharps and flats included), which is not too bad going. I clearly need to practice more before moving on, however this has allowed me to produce a rough approximation of a number of songs starting with (I think) Yankee Doodle and Ode to Joy and now I'm working on Fur Elise and the Star Spangled Banner for the Americans (well it is an American course after all).

I do have a book to learn some more songs as well but right now I want to finish this section and get to the chords which seems to be where most courses start. I am also hoping that the heating comes on soon (this weekend I think is the plan) because my hands keep getting really cold when I'm playing!

However I am still having fun, even with the boring exercises!

Two interesting things

So, two interesting things happened today. The first is that I bought a guitar. I'd always wanted to learn to play the guitar but never had the time or discipline to really get going. A week or so after we arrived though, we were walking somewhere and I saw a music shop and in the window was a guitar for about 500 yuan. Now in a silly movie, that would be the one I bought, but it was electric and I want to learn on an acoustic!

So I looked around for some lessons and ended up buying a dvd and online lesson set which didn't cost too much, and I may get some lessons with a teacher once we get back to Aus. Anyway, I looked around online for some guitar shops in Beijing with the idea that most of the cheaper types of that sort of thing are made in China anyway. Turns out there's a whole music shop area about 30 minutes from our place on the metro.

So having done some research into what sort of guitar I should buy, Jane and I went out there this morning to check it out. It took us ages to find the street (the directions I read said go south from the station, they should have said go one block east and then south from the station!) but once we were there, pretty much every shop was a music shop selling guitars, organs, pi pa (Chinese one string things) flutes of various configurations, violins by the thousand, saxophones, and those Chinese table harps like in Red Cliff! A huge number of shops to choose from, and cause I can't actually play the guitar, I kind of just went in, looked at some stuff in my price range, ran through the strings etc. After about 5 stores we went into a really small one where the guy was really helpful. He suggested a (reasonably) cheap guitar which sounded ok, and then another one which sounded much better. The better one ended up costing a little less anyway and it was the best sounding one and had decent action (that's what we guitar people call the distance between the strings and the fretboard). When I asked him how much with a bag, I ended up getting one thrown in for free which is nice.

So I now have sore fingers from starting my practice and I'm aware that this is an exercise that will take a long time (weeks for anything resembling a simple song, months for anything more, probably years for something good) but I'm still pretty excited about it :)

The other nice thing today was that we found a new restaurant just near our house that makes nice Chinese BBQ. We'd been talking for a while about the lack of nice, close restaurants and this one is in a different direction than we normally go (North East for those playing on their maps at home). It was packed when we got there but they have English on their menu which is always a plus. We got seated in the "westerner's corner" which is a little strange. When we arrived there was a huge Russian man and his son but soon after we arrived they also seated (I think) a French couple as well. Oh well. The food was great chilli BBQ kebabs of various things (beef, pork and mushroom, just mushroom, chicken, sheep penis if that's your thing etc) of which the ones we had were all really nice. And even better, when we left we found they have a takeaway menu as well. Waimai!!