Saturday, March 04, 2006
Well hello there my lovelies,
didn't mean to leave you hanging - i have a day long splurge on the blog and then i kinda forget about it, didn't realise i'd left you freezing your arses off in harbin !
so where was i ?.....
...are yes swimming. well after that we went to a snow sculpture park and then a night ice sculpture park - when i say park i mean amusement park size - they were both massive !! it was great to see snow scultures as well as ice because the work is really different. the weirdest thing though was that as we arrived so did a posse of Disney characters ! felt like Disney on ice !!! i guess they had fun though, must have been nice and toasty inside their suits !!!
The size of some of these creations is just amazing, like monuments and forts that we could walk all over, really cool and very cold !!!
the night ice sculptures were huge as well and these were full of neon lights so they glowed in funky colours !
there were a couple of bars inside the ice park. one was called the 'ice bar' and was made of ice - intirely - needless to say we had a look around but didn't stay to sit on ice chairs and drink frozen wine ! we opted for the bar with heating and hot chocolate and watched russian girls with big bottoms and very small knickers dance around and a russian guy sing very out of tune chinese songs - great fun all round !!!
when we got back to beijing, we thawed out for a day and then headed off to the slopes. there are a few slopes around beijing that you can do day trips to - it turned out that they all have manmade snow but this meant that the weather was warm and sunny and only the snow was cold.
it was really good fun and quite challenging !! i fell more than i ever have before but i also got a much bigger high !!!
after skiiing we shot home changed clothes in a matter of minutes and raced back out the door to the ballet !! we went and saw the Russian Ballet with the Russian Philamonic doing the Nutcracker !! it was beautiful and majical and so wondeful to have some culture- long overdue !!! one thing that made me giggle though was that i looked down our isle in the middle of the performance and saw a little chinese boy trying very hard in the dimmed lights to read a chinese copy of the new Harry Potter !
i then came back to chengdu which felt lovely and warm - refreshing change seeing as i've been freezing my arse off for 3 months !
while in beijing, i think it was while i was lying face down in the snow after an almighty crash and burn on the slopes, that i decided to use my birthday present from graeme - a day at the spa. so the sunday before i went back to work i went to a small women only spa and handed over my voucher. i was lead upstairs to change and then i was put in one of those seated boxes you see in the movies where only the woman's head pops out. its a steam box and as i sat there i watched the temperature gange travel up to 46 degrees C !!! god it felt good ! then i got a full body massage and facial and cycled home in the sunshine with a big smile on my face !!!
so i arrived back to work on monday feeling refreshed and ready to go - a very unusual feeling after a holiday but thoroughly lovely.
the weather deteriorated for awhile but is now beautiful and sunny and i'm desperate to get outside and enjoy it - which means this blog entry is coming to an end.
just one thing to add - Bryony is coming to visit !!! i was pushing her hard to come to china for a holiday because i think after japan she will really feel the amazing similiarities and contrasts ! all the nagging paid off and she's coming at the end of march which is perfect timing because i have a week off work !! not sure what we'll do though - thought we might go out to the tibetan part of sichuan but have also heard of a cheap trip to the sunshine and beaches in the east so i'll keep you posted !!
didn't mean to leave you hanging - i have a day long splurge on the blog and then i kinda forget about it, didn't realise i'd left you freezing your arses off in harbin !
so where was i ?.....
...are yes swimming. well after that we went to a snow sculpture park and then a night ice sculpture park - when i say park i mean amusement park size - they were both massive !! it was great to see snow scultures as well as ice because the work is really different. the weirdest thing though was that as we arrived so did a posse of Disney characters ! felt like Disney on ice !!! i guess they had fun though, must have been nice and toasty inside their suits !!!
The size of some of these creations is just amazing, like monuments and forts that we could walk all over, really cool and very cold !!!
the night ice sculptures were huge as well and these were full of neon lights so they glowed in funky colours !
there were a couple of bars inside the ice park. one was called the 'ice bar' and was made of ice - intirely - needless to say we had a look around but didn't stay to sit on ice chairs and drink frozen wine ! we opted for the bar with heating and hot chocolate and watched russian girls with big bottoms and very small knickers dance around and a russian guy sing very out of tune chinese songs - great fun all round !!!
when we got back to beijing, we thawed out for a day and then headed off to the slopes. there are a few slopes around beijing that you can do day trips to - it turned out that they all have manmade snow but this meant that the weather was warm and sunny and only the snow was cold.
it was really good fun and quite challenging !! i fell more than i ever have before but i also got a much bigger high !!!after skiiing we shot home changed clothes in a matter of minutes and raced back out the door to the ballet !! we went and saw the Russian Ballet with the Russian Philamonic doing the Nutcracker !! it was beautiful and majical and so wondeful to have some culture- long overdue !!! one thing that made me giggle though was that i looked down our isle in the middle of the performance and saw a little chinese boy trying very hard in the dimmed lights to read a chinese copy of the new Harry Potter !
i then came back to chengdu which felt lovely and warm - refreshing change seeing as i've been freezing my arse off for 3 months !
while in beijing, i think it was while i was lying face down in the snow after an almighty crash and burn on the slopes, that i decided to use my birthday present from graeme - a day at the spa. so the sunday before i went back to work i went to a small women only spa and handed over my voucher. i was lead upstairs to change and then i was put in one of those seated boxes you see in the movies where only the woman's head pops out. its a steam box and as i sat there i watched the temperature gange travel up to 46 degrees C !!! god it felt good ! then i got a full body massage and facial and cycled home in the sunshine with a big smile on my face !!!
so i arrived back to work on monday feeling refreshed and ready to go - a very unusual feeling after a holiday but thoroughly lovely.the weather deteriorated for awhile but is now beautiful and sunny and i'm desperate to get outside and enjoy it - which means this blog entry is coming to an end.
just one thing to add - Bryony is coming to visit !!! i was pushing her hard to come to china for a holiday because i think after japan she will really feel the amazing similiarities and contrasts ! all the nagging paid off and she's coming at the end of march which is perfect timing because i have a week off work !! not sure what we'll do though - thought we might go out to the tibetan part of sichuan but have also heard of a cheap trip to the sunshine and beaches in the east so i'll keep you posted !!
# posted by Tess @ 10:31 PM 
