Merry Xmas and all that!

Gday,

Hope everyone's enjoying Christmas.
It's pretty low key affair for me and Mel. The first Christmas we've had by ourselves. I think the parents would have liked us to be in NZ &/or OZ, but waddaya gunna do? We're having dinner with a friend tonight. Probably a couple of sherberts too:)
Before Christmas we had a bit of trip around, visiting a couple of places that have connections with Mel's employer - basically a bit of PR. It was kinda cool as we stayed in some nice places and got taken out for dinner. A lot! We got to eat some pretty freaky food too!

The Five Freakiest Foods Mel & Tone Ate on Their Little Trip

1. Snake & Scorpion Soup - actually tasted pretty good. We didn't eat the scorpions but Mel ate some snake and thought it tasted like chicken. I missed out because apparently Chinese people love snake!

2. Stingray - also tasted good. A lot like shark. A dash of salt, a splash of lemon and some chips would've made it great:)

3. Sea Cucumber & Tofu Soup - tasted good, especially the tofu. The sea cucumber was like rubber:(

4. Donkey - tasted all right, but was chewy. Kind of like beef jerky.

5. Roast Pigeon - wasn't as good as Peking Duck. Very bony.

I've included some photos for your enjoyment. None of the scorpion though. Maybe tomorrow. Or more likely the day after as I'll be off to the pub to watch the cricket from Melbourne. Hopefully the Aussies will make it 4-0, Warney will get number 700 and Gilly will hit 3 '6s' to move to 100 career '6s'. Go the Aussies:)

Anyhoo, the pictures are of Dr Sun Yat Sen's Mausoleum in Nanjing, a headline from the China Daily (far and away the worst newspaper I have read. Ever. In the world. Total propaganda), Taishan (the most sacred of China's 5 sacred mountain, the head of a statue of Confucious and a sign of Chinese support and encouragement for yours truly:)

Enjoy!

Later
TONE