I nearly crashed on my bike laughing at an accident

Well hello reader! Dunno where I'm up to on the news from this side of the globe so I'll just babble for a bit (nothing new there then Gav)

Loads happening at the moment and it's a bit CCCRRRAAAYYYYZZZZEEEEEEE! Did a recording for a TV show last week. The show which is being aired over Chinese New Year ( in a couple of weeks). We were asked to recreate a scene from back home on what we would do on a typical New Years Eve. So me, Dangerous (Dave) and a couple of yankee doodles sat around table in a Tea shop, drinking Li Chee Tea, looking bored and then I chirped up with....'Hey guys shall we sing 'Auld Lang Syne' after which I produced my guitar that I just happened to have behind my chair and sang and strummed (absolutely murdered it cos I was full of a cold and can't sing), Dangerous could not have looked less impressed at my rendition so it's going to be funny. It's being aired on the big tv channel over here so I may get even MORE stares and laughs from the natives than usual....so that'll be....errrrr......terrible. (I'll youtube it if it's either very good or very bad).

Yesterday I nearly crashed on my bike laughing at an accident. Let me explain......you know I told you about the driving over here?..... well the cycling is the same (as soon as I get a camera I'm going to video my taxi ride). Listen to this, it's not uncommon when cycling around the city to be cut up whilst in the cycle lane (cycle lane which cars fly down). So you tend to get a little road rage from time to time -very un-asian thing to do. Anyway I was cycling back from the office/studio and this lunatic chinese man flew past me. He wanted to get past the two bikes riding side-by-side in front but there was blatantly no room. The two bikes in front were six inches apart. So Lance Armstrong then decides to ride straight at them......and he let out a chinese expletive as he flew over the top of them and landed on his backside, well I nearly wet myself with laughter as I passed.

'OK Gav, passing the scene of an accident?....how heartless'

......you may think, but no, I have been advised that as a westerner, I shouldn't stop at any accident, the natives will bring the police who will then blame you and try and fleece you for dosh. I heard about a guy who was in a taxi when it knocked a cyclist over. He got out to help and then had to pay for the hospital bills and taxi damage!!!! How bizzare eh?

Had a great conversation today with one of the expats. We were extolling the virtues of Chinese culture, which didn't take long. Then we came up with a theory that most people subscribe to. The Chinese are brilliant and making stuff. You're probably reading this on a laptop Made in China, in clothes Made in China, with a watch Made in China and virtually most of the things that you can see around you are MIC etc, so these people are fantastic at mass production. But they have no idea how to think. The communist regime has been in power since the year dot and have made laws that persecute the curios. Questioning and logic is very much frowned upon. Therefore the people become conditioned to 'not thinking'. So they are totally impressed with anyone who has ideas. A lot of the westerners over here are here solely to make decisions and give ideas to the factories. And that philosophy is right across the board, from driving, socialising through to manufactoring. So that was my thought for the day.

Last night was one of my favourites so far. I was asked to play at the local bar, so made it into a bit of a jam night. I sang a few songs and then got some of the punters up. The quality was good and I just got a text from Tim at the bar who says they doubled their takings for a Tuesday. This is Tim I mentioned before who is a nuuuuyarker (new yorker), funny as hell and an all round top bloke and he's responsible for giving me some breaks and a lot of good advice. Everythings....forgetaboutit' , '....that's the stoooopiddis thing i ever huyed....'.and alike. Anyway I got a regular paying spot every Tuesday there, loads of fun and making money? It's the way forward. Someone took some photos and is sending me them so I'll post asap.

We have done the final presentation demo for the radio station, so the shows there. Now we gotta see what they think when they get it. I'm chuffed with it and me and Kev (aka The Mac) are laughing a 'proper gee-raaffe' (laugh) doing it . I'll youtube a copy of that soon, but you'll be able to download it from www.morehangzhou.com . It, hopefully , will be a one hour show everyday. The pre production, recording, research and editing all take a bit of time , but it's well worth it. I'll get some pictures of the studios/offices and post them soon. Again we're getting loads of support from the ex-pats here and it's really appreciated.

Right just got 'On the Waterfront' on DVD so am gonna watch it now.

Peace out brothers and sisters

The MonkeyMan

PS. Thanks to all you lot me and threebie are up to 2000 hits on this blog, keep posting your comments it's always good to hear/censor them.
P.P.S We were discussing this the other night, why do people still put P.S. on emails? Surely P.S was for when you wrote snail mail and had forgotton sonething right? Now you can just drop in..........think about it people.