I do work....sometimes

The kids at the orphanage

Me, Greg and students at the orphanage
Me, Anna and some randoms who just walked into the shop
Me at the shop....drilling and screwing
' Come on Yang, if it's so funny then tell all the class'

OK students , to day we are going to study Mancunian....after me..'aaalllllrightttt cock, ow are yer'

The shop in Shanghai gets it sign
Me and my students after class yesterday, the guy on the right is giving his score out of ten for my teaching abilities. Notice the board behind me, I wound them up about Paris Hilton being a nuclear phyisist....ok you had to be there.

Anna and Adriana in a raremoment of actually grafting and not talking nonsense!


OK, I got an email this week from someone back home who said 'it looks like you're having a great time over there Munro, but do you actually do any work to justify your sorry existence....' well I kinda do and here are the photos to prove it.

I've got a few jobs. I'm teaching 3 days a week for an electrical supply company here in Hangzhou, they buy and sell electricity to China and the west. My job is to get them all speaking perfect English so they can go to the States and understand stuff. I think I mentioned before that I didn't really wanna teach over here at first but this opportunity came along and the dosh was too good to pass on. So I work there Weds,Thurs and Friday. A two hour class a day and it's brill. The students are brilliant, smiley and all keen to learn. I'm supposed to be teaching them American English (which I think is retarded) but every now and again I give them good old northern terms, which keeps me entertained no end. I told them that people who acted foolish are known as 'balloons' and also the idiom that if someone is not cool they are 'a plum'. OK, that idiom word I only learnt yesterday so I'm trying to crowbar it into everything at the moment.....sorry. No it's a good laugh and I'm trying to make it as much fun as possible and so far their English is improving....but as ever my Chinese isn't.

Anyhow, a couple of weeks ago I was invited to an orphanage here. So I asked a mate of mine, Greg, from America to come along. It was great , well as great as visiting an orphanage can be (reminds me of what my sister said last time I spoke to her, she'd just come back from New York and I asked her if she went to ground zero...to which she replied with much excitement 'Yes, it was BRILLIANT') Anyway we went to the orphanage and took some supplies and played with the kiddos, that was a humbling experience.

So I teach. Then I gig. The band is fastly becoming the best in the city which I LOVE! OK the only competition may be a chinese spoon player but it feels good. We played last night and the place went crazy. I'm doing a myspace profile at the mo, it's not finished but theres some good photos on it...if you get bored enough, click www.myspace.com/theholymoliesband . Last night we got interviewed by the MEN of Hangzhou for an article, I didn't have time so I'm meeting a reporter today...I am thinking of making up some stuff, like I am the lovechild of Keith Harris and Jade Goody...believe me they wouldn't question it.

So gig on Friday nights, I usually go to Shanghai on Saturdays where I'm helping some mates set up their clothing business. They are working really hard at the moment, many days 12 hours, so I reckon it's gonna be a success. Anna, Adriana and Pilar. Three amazingly determined and talented designers it's great to be around them. So that keeps me busy from Saturday to Wednesday.

Then Wednesday I get the 2 hour train journey back from Shanghai, teach and then I play my solo gig at night, which is my favourite. At the gig at Paradise I gotta try and behave myself, one cos the band are brilliant musicians and two the bar is a bit classy. Wednesday nights at Maya bar are the opposite. The bar is dark and homely (I won't say dingey or dodgy in case the boss reads this), and usually all hell breaks loose.Every week something unexpected happens, whether it's a cockatoo being placed on my mic stand halfway through a song or the odd naked person running around....it's always entertaining.

OK folks gotta go, keep in touch

Love y'all (you hear?)