Kid gloves

What a soft entry into China! Sunni met us at the airport - he works with Weigo Lang who we'll be spending the next week with. Sunni took us to our hotel (5 stars no less) - so we didn't have to try to figure out busses/taxi's etc. Supper was great - we had Cantonese which was really good. The most interesting was "barbeque dumplings" (as Weigo called them - "barbeque" because they couldn't think of anything else to call them...) - which is a dumpling about half the size of a fist with a meat filling. Delicious. Otherwise Won Ton soup and many little meats and vegetables arranged on small plates in the middle of the table.
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Cheaper than China!

I'm sitting in the departure lounge of Jhb Intl doing some random website updates and bemoaning this morning's loss by South Africa to the All Blacks (although NZ did deserve to win, I thought - more than we did at least). Marius has given me a book called "Prayers" by Michel Quoist (with the inscription: "To Sahib, from the Punk") which is a series of profound prayers rooted in everyday life - rather than pious religious fluff. Here's one called "The Subway" - which was the closest to flying I could find:

The last one squeeze in.
The door rolls shut.
The subway rumbles off.
I can't move;
I am no longer an individual but a crowd,
A crowd that moves in one piece like jellied soup in its can.

A nameless and indifferent crowd, probably far from you, Lord.
I am one wiht the crowd, and I see why it's sometimes hard for me to rise highter.
This crowd is heavy - leaden soles on my feet, my slow feet - a crowd too large for my overburdened skiff.
Yet, Lord, I have no right to overlook these people; they are my brothers,
And I cannot save myself, alone.

Lord, since you wish it, I shall head for heaven "in the subway."

I don't fly all that much but I must admit, there's a moment of sheer terror just as the plane takes off...that moment of "we haven't yet left the ground but it feels like we're airborn" - a point of tension between flying and being earthbound. The last few times I've felt that I need to make my peace with God because I honestly don't know if I'll live (!). Anyway...

Just after Marius gave me the book he pointed out the new ad campaign of YDE - "Cheaper than China." I snapped a pic with my phone - it's rather amusing... :)

China beckons...

I'm heading to China next Saturday (27 Aug) for 10 days. My Dad is going there on a geological research trip and I offered to carry his luggage - and he agreed. Hooray! I've wanted to go to China for a few years now and especially would like to be there for the 2008 Olympics - yet it's happening now. We're going to Heilongjiang which is the northern-most Chinese province, the capital of which is Harbin (the "Ice City") where they have the massive ice sculptures in January that sometimes make it onto our news. Our destination is just north of Mudanjiang - a city of 1/2 a million people.

It's going to be fun!