Greeting and salutations!

It’s been a few days since I last posted something. This is mostly due to me catching a cold early in the week and feeling like crap until yesterday. Anyhoo, I’m mostly better now which is good for me☺ And Mel too. She’s already had the cold but she doesn't have put up with blowing my nose and coughing all through the night! It's good to sleep through the night again!

So what been going on? Actually a better question might be what’s been going down? And the answer would be the temperature. In a big way! I’m pretty sure the temperature hasn’t been over zero since Monday or Tuesday. In fact it’s so cold that the cement trucks have blankets on them. I know you’re all saying “yeah right, Tone. Whatever man!” and I don’t blame you one bit. But it’s the truth and I shall provide pictorial evidence as soon as I can.

Early in the week I spent a bit more time around Tiananmen Square. On Tuesday I braved the rush hour crowds on the subway in an attempt to beat the crowds going to see Chairman Mao’s Mausoleum. I got there around 830 and, despite the bitter cold; there were already thousands of people in the square. I made my way to the end of the ever-growing queue only to be shouted at by a guy with megaphone from about a metre away. After I recovered from that audiological blow to my brain, another guy (sans megaphone) was yelling at me “Sir. Sir. Sir. No cameras, no bags. Go bag check. Follow, follow.” And so I did. Well I tried to! This little fella was all energy. He ran out on to the street with his hand up to stop the traffic. Unfortunately the bus drivers saw things differently and kept right on going. Luckily for the little guy I was lagging and he had to stop. If wasn’t for that I think have may ended up as the front ornament on the Number 24 bus!!!

So eventually I got back to the still-lengthening queue and lined up. After waiting a few minutes the line started moving into the compound containing Mao’s body. As the line moved around a corner created by a wheelie bin, I swear every second guy in the line spat or blew his nose into the bin. Really classy! Better than lobbing a big loogey on the big man I suppose. Anyhoo followed the dotted yellow line on the ground around a couple of more corners before we came into line with front door of the mausoleum.

Once inside all hats came off and pretty much all talking stopped. Some people had bought flowers to lie on a big statue of Mao, along with a few hundred others. At this point the line split in two and went through a door on each side of the room. The line them came back together on the other side before splitting once again in front of the ‘Great Helmsman’ and his crystal coffin. By this time there was no talking at all. All eyes were on the big guy. I say 'big guy' but he wasn't so big. He actually looked really small, but that could because he’d been dead for 30 years! We could only see his head and shoulders. The rest of him was covered by a flag, which I would swear was Russian but I know that doesn’t make any sense!

I do have some more to say but I'll save that for later. I'll also have some more photos for you to have a look at.

CHEERS
TONE