Christmas in Hangzhou

Well Hello dear reader. Just looked at the blog and 3x2 has come up trumps...putting me to shame so heres a bit of a progress report. Christmas In Hangzhou! We had a blast, on Christmas Eve we had all the staff from Jennys company over for a meal and a drink, which was great, everyone had a ball, and as usual the for the finale the bald guy played the guitar...pretty cool actually because we were singing all sorts of stuff ...nothing that any chinese person could possibly know, but they all seemed to enjoy us westerners screaming...

'MMMMaaaaaaaabbbbbbbbyyyy, don't really wannaknowwwwwwwww............".

So that was Christmas Eve then Christmas Day it was all hands on deck for the Christmas Meal at Dons, which was great craic. Everyone got stuck in...I even peeled potatoes for 20 of us??????!!!!! Good crowd of people, good food and wine proved enough to make it a great day. We had a pub quiz on the night, which I voluteered to chair (why?) and was told that all these ex-pats get really competitive and that it was my job to lay the law down, my word was final......so I was more like Jeremy Paxman than Bamber Gascoigne...and I loved it!!!! We even had a drinking forfeit for anyone who questioned the question-master! ( Yeah.....That's how you create order Gav, nice one!??)

All the old gags came out including the old, eating a sliced carrot from the fish tank pretending it's a goldfish..............Jennifer screamed like the proverbial banshee and I think she's only just forgive me.

A great laugh though ended with much dancing to 'Fairytale of New York' and people wearing way too many hats...thats what Christmas is about innit??! Next day was the clean up operation....distinct lack of people for that...I wonder why???!! All was good though and we didn't find anyone asleep in the fish tank!

Last weekend was a bit surreal. You might have noticed a few blogs ago that me and Don played a few songs at his birthday bash....anyway....a few days later, this lady called and asked if we'd like to play at some presentation. As I answered the phone, I was like...'Of course' thinking can we charge or what, and then proceeded to tell her how famous me and 'our kid' were in England....I need to learn that not everyone gets irony........ anyway, I forgot about it and I think Don did so last Friday was the doo. We got to the place, I was carrying my guitar case through this massive hotel lobby feeling like Bono and not knowing what to expect. We got escorted to this function room....which was massive...and full of about 400 chinese people...with a big stage and PA and lights etc. Me and Don just looked at each other and cracked up.....then the old 'hor derves' (nerves) kicked in. So we asked the organiser 'who else is singing?' and she was like....'no one'.....ahhhh now you must understand that we'd rehearsed for this...obviously...........5 minutes before we set off and now were under the impression that we were the main event.....Excuse me?Where's that toilet?' I believe were the next words to come out of my mouth! OK so 400 chinese people and little old me and The Don were the only westerners! So delayed tactics were required and it turned out that there were some kiddies dressed as pigs and frogs singing Chinese songs and a lady of a certain age singing a traditional Chinese tune...if you've never heard any traditional Chinese singing....get a cat and accidentally step on it's paw.....for 5 minutes....that's possible the closest thing to it.

So we went backstage to get ready, and then we were called up by the hosts!! On stage and without a clue. All went well though, Don introduced himself in Chinese and then introduced me with my chinese name which I didn't recognise but the crowd seemed to find hilarious. Cos my old Chinese name is Ma Lon (bright horse) and my new one is Ma Liu (musical horse) but he introduced me as Ma Ping....................... which means Horse Fart! Anyway we got stuck into Sit Down by James and it went well, then Better Man by Blobby Williams which again went OK, everyone clapping away. And at the end of the night I got given an Mp3 player for my troubles. Result. Thats straight on ebay I'm telling you! But it was a great night and a bit of a relief, I've got some photos being sent me and will post them asap! So thats that people for another blog.....

a distinct lack of posts so far people......get some on or we'll be forced to do another picture quiz...adios