world meets rosie

By: rosie

Mar 08 2010

Category: Uncategorized

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(Ying and David in the Canglang Pavilion Garden: Suzhou, China)

Last weekend we spent a freezing day exploring more of Suzhou’s gardens. Since one of Ying’s colleagues, and incidentally our friend, David or Dao Yue was visiting, he invited us to join him. The gardens are just as wonderful in the cold and threatening rain as they are in the sultry summer sun. As you can see here, Ying and Dao Yue are enjoying one of the features of this one – I am in a cave looking up at them through a perfectly moon like round hole in the roof. I hope to visit every garden eventually and to go back to my favourites. In one month, my mum and Aunt are coming over to visit – I hope to drag them into a few too.

So, back to this weekend. We spent time with friends on Saturday evening at a new Indian restaurant that just opened by the lake. We were a group of eight; two Germans, two Glaswegians, one English, one Italian and Ying and I. It was experiencing some opening teething problems, the most ironic being that it ran completely out of rice. However, the food was great – Ying and I don’t eat much aside from local Chinese or Japanese food so any other is a gamble, more likely than not, the standard might not be as high as expected, or the food is given an uncomplementary Chinese twist. Thankfully this Nepalese Jazz bar (I know!) and Indian restaurant was not a casualty.

On Sunday we managed to have a two-hour massage; foot followed by back. This was the first time I have almost fallen asleep, so I must have been lulled into a state of almost complete relaxation. We shambled sleepily off to lunch and then happened upon the equivalent of a Japanese one-dollar shop. Most items were between five and fifteen yuan (45p – £1.40ish) and we spent almost an hour filling a basket with, well, let’s be honest, thoughtful Japanese trash. Flocked coat hangers, printed pencil cases, tea strainers, a handy grater, adorable printed sponges, a clock, grape and coconut juice in a can, a passport cover, a 3-in-1 revolving permanent marker… you know the sort of stuff, I’m sure. We had enormous fun for a fair price.

All these activities squished into one weekend are not usual for us – we don’t do all these things every week. The reason we spent so much time shopping, being trimmed, eating, tailoring is because today is my birthday. I’m not a person that likes a scripted birthday so spontaneity and fun is the order of the day. Today I’m writing this, then Suzhou is my oyster. Susan and I will get up to something, but the pleasant aspect of no plan is it can’t go wrong. As long as I fall asleep tonight and I feel like I’ve enjoyed my day and someone enjoyed it with me, that’s the best feeling.