As I have not really published very much since this time last year, my stories of Shanghai, are now necessarily going to be sent to you out of date and most probably of all out of sequence.  So from now on this blog is going to bounce around all over the place, both in time and location.  I hope it does not make you too dizzy.

In my last post I explained that I had abandoned writing because of the frustrations of operating a blog behind China’s Great Firewall and how the frustrations had got the better of me.  That was not the only reason, only the last straw.  I had spent a long time trying to find a way of loading up videos that I had taken to show you.  I failed.  I had also spent a lot of my time over the year on a photography course, been leading guided walks and I also joined a quilting group.  All took up valuable exploring or writing time, but they meant that I was meeting more people and forming some great friendships, so that was a sacrifice worth making.  But a snide comment from someone back in the UK about my writing about personal things on the internet was the final nail in the coffin.  So I stopped.

But this time, when I went home in September, many of you expressed regret that I was no longer writing, and that has given me the impetus to start blogging again.  I am out of practice so forgive me whilst I get myself back up to speed. I think I have also found a way of sending you some video clips. If you don’t like what I have to say, you don’t have to read these letters home.  For me they were, and I hope once again will become, a way of processing my thoughts about this extraordinary life I have been living for nearly two years.

I was, as I said, recently back home.  I have old parents and young adults back in the UK whom I care deeply about.  We have left pets at home under the care of a house sitter and a home that is in the middle of a programme of building work. Also we have friends and relations all over the country and it is impossible to see everyone on a fleeting visit.  It is difficult to leave all this behind after 3 weeks and return to life in Shanghai and there is always much to talk about with Richard when I return.

For most of last week he was working his usual long hours and I, due to jet lag, was falling asleep by 8pm so we had little opportunity to catch up on the most pressing issues.  So on Saturday we ended up sitting outside at a Japanese cafe next to our metro station (we were on our way to an art gallery, but didn’t quite make it) having a mug of coffee and going through carpentry and nursing homes, degrees and ……when Richard felt something fall on his back and climb up his collar and tickle his neck.  Not knowing what it was, there was a bit of a reaction from my man, so I scooped it off his back and onto the floor, and we continued to watch its progress around the cafe furniture.  A Japanese girl sitting at the next door table reacted to it as if it were a spider, screaming a little, jumping from her chair and retreating well away. She was very grateful when Richard ushered it on its way towards the cafe next door.  I’d never seen a 螳螂 (tángláng) or praying mantis in the flesh before, though of course I’d seen them on the BBC  wildlife programmes.  About 4″ long, I was fascinated by its huge eyes and its rocking movements.  I assume that that helps its compound eyes to see.

There is a Chinese idiom from the Daoist classic Zhuangzi 庄子:”The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind”

which means to pursue a narrow gain while neglecting a greater danger.

China never ceases to surprise.