Author: brianlaurance

Saturday morning and all 15million Beijingers turned up to see Tian’anmen Square.

The fact that only 80,000 Chinese appear each day does not dispel my firmly held opinion that there was in fact a helluva lot more of them this morning.

And who have they come to see?

The Aussie with the white hair. I’d have made a few million today if I got a buck for every photo they took of me. Paris Hilton — eat your heart out — the Chinese paparazzi was focused on only one celeb today.

Moi!

12 year old Danny was the best. “Excuse me! Can I have my picture taken with you?” enquired the open-faced smiling youngster in perfect English. With my approval, his Mum whipped out an iPad and clicked away. We briefly talked about kangaroos and koalas and then the old man wandered on ahead, quietly chuffed at the momentous occasion of our chance encounter.

The Forbidden City is very appropriately named, for a world-wide audience of say 7 billion people are all forbidden to enter and actually see the vast 1,000 rooms and any accoutrements the emperors might have garnered since the place was finished in 1420.

The Forbidden City covers 114 Hectares. Bloody big in any language!

The Hutongs were next, traditional housing with an 800 year old residents’ pecking order, still maintained today and we visited the peasant end of town where they had a cool calm courtyard complete with crickets, canary and cane chairs. We were honoured with a visit to a private residence with the owner lady entertaining us by playing a zither.

By this time your reporter struck serious feet problems and retired hurt to the hotel. Aaaahhhh!

Confucius say… some people are like blisters… they don’t show up until the work is done.

But the valiant remnant of our touring party battled on to the Temple of Heaven and spent a pleasant couple of hours in shady gardens with an exhibition of Ballroom Dancing, Chinese style and imbibing the delights of a Chinese tea house ritual

Confucius say… perfectionist is one who takes great pains, and gives them to everyone else.

Selena our guide with Wendy, Bill and Isabel

Confucius say… your strength lies in your continued belief that what you just ate was indeed duck

At KL airport the shrill wailing of an inordinate number of distressingly tired children, gave rise to thoughts of a pending horror flight to Beijing.

But reality thankfully did not match the prospect; both the parents and the tiny tots were sound asleep as we levelled out at 10k metres, and the ever reliable Air Asia X journey was as smooth as silk and a little after 1am came the big reveal.

Beijing!

We’d arrived and eager for the coming adventure. A new land. An awaiting culture and peoples and things we’ve heard and read of for ages. A courteous passage thru the universal airport arrivals procedures and out into the hurley-burley of the metropolis of 15 million folk. Selina our guide whisked us through the honking hubbub of the car park then the freeway to our CBD hotel.

Friday: Beijing; perfect smog one day; brilliant smog the next

But what the heck! This is not the south of France, not Scotland or Norway. This is a new land; older than time itself and you know what? Everything here is ‘made in China’

Our hotel room is on the 11th floor and I estimate there are two or 3,000 apartments within our immediate vicinity. Some modern, some older style, but with pleasant garden spaces below.

Correction: not everything is ‘made in China’ for at Costa Coffee the cups were made in the U.K. and the coffee in Brazil. And all served with the fond memories of Italy’s Lake Como in the background.

In China 600 people are killed each day by motor cars. Walking in Beijing we tended to use the underpasses to avoid the cars, but the footpaths are beset by bicycles and electric scooters. All good fun!

Confucius say… man who run behind car get exhausted.

The arrival of the big day came at an ungodly 2.30am.
Kindred minds tucked up in a warm bed waiting for the alarm which was set for 3.15am.
The notion of missing the alarm got both our brains whirring in unison like an old milk separator, with a regular ‘ding’ sounding with the ever increasing pace of this ancient machinery.
But the motivation of our trip planned last January soon had us all brushed up and chomping at the front door awaiting Bill and Wendy to pick us up at four.
Janelle had kindly offered to drive us all and are we thankful!
For the uninitiated, the government road works on Tonkin Highway presents you with a live flag man popping out at 4.30 in the morning, directing the 1,000’s of travelling hopefuls in their cars back the way you just came.
What a night-foal (for the day was only just finding its feet!) And thanks Janelle.
The ever reliable Air Asia X brought us safely to KL and by 2 o’clock we were happily lunching by the pool at the airport hotel; the flag man now a distant memory in the rain-soaked mists of this morning.

Confucius say… alarm clock is something that makes people rise and whine.

Pre-Dawn coffee at Dome, a dip in the pool and dinner at The Old Town White Coffee. A good first day.

Holidays with spring just around the corner, it is time to get busy in the garden. Otherwise, come the end of September, when we return from our trip we’d be needing a bobcat to get near the house.

So after weeks of weeding, mulching, pruning, mowing and fertilising time for a Bon Voyage party.

Where better to celebrate than at our local Winthrop Chinese Restaurant, complete with a keyhole table setting for 14 and a 6 course banquet that began at five o’clock.

In fact there was so much terrific grub, the left-overs filled about 15 of those latter day doggy bag containers.

Confucius say Man with one chopstick go hungry.

Century Sun Cruise ship and I promise to learn how to put pictures in properly

A couple of posts back I quoted another Alex Haley saying and today it is time for this little gem!
“Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children.”
What a load of tosh!
More likely to be a great shepherds pie, vegetarian risotto and other champion delights for the grandkids, while their parents swan around the Pacific on a cruise ship for ten days.

While Mum and Dad were away on holidays, Megan and the grandfolks would take Jessica to specialist calisthenics classes for her solo performance training. And last weekend while we were sprinkling that ‘stardust’ over the Melbourne grandkids, Jess boldly trod the boards, wowing everyone with her solo act.

Having a baby changes the way you view your in-laws. I love it when they come to visit now.
They can hold the baby and I can go out.
Matthew Broderick

Hugs can do great amounts of good – especially for children.
Princess Diana

Adults are obsolete children.
Dr. Seuss

Children are our most valuable natural resource.
Herbert Hoover

The soul is healed by being with children.
Fyodor Dostoevsky

Doing nothing is happiness for children and misery for old men.
Victor Hugo

A mother’s arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them.
Victor Hugo

My songs are like my children – I expect them to support me when I’m old.
Dolly Parton

Grand photography by Jasmin Laurance

Alex Haley said “In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.”
In Melbourne this week we are here to meet our newest family connection to the future and how beautiful she looks in the pink, next to the pots and pans.
Meet Quinn Poppy Laurance, all of three weeks old and melting hearts already.

Two hours after her birth at 12.22pm on October 7th we got our first look at Quinn along with her Mum Jas.

What a wonderful little girl complete with a Melburnian beanie ready for the footy season

And what do grandparents generally do? Why! Take sister Frankie to the local park