Bloggens!
How the divil are you? We've just had another fantastic day at Shipley Art Gallery, distributing tea and cake to some of the nicest chaps and chapesses you could ever wish to meet. I just wish we were opening somewhere that we could do that on a daily basis. OH WAIT, WE ARE! We have been for 3 years now. 3 YEARS. We were just re doing our business plan, which we hope will convince the bank to give us absolutely loads of money, and we had to write that we had been working on our property for 31 months. It felt horrible. 31 months. Oh what can be achieved in that amount of time. You could watch 22320 episodes of Downton Abbey (44640 episodes of Friends) if you didn't want to sleep/urinate/make your dinner. Even if you did want to do that stuff, you could still squeeze in 15000 Downtons, or 30000 Friends. I would probably bore of that much costume drama, but NEVER would i get sick of that Ross and quippy Chandler and his quips, and Joey. Let's face it, we've all probably seen that many episodes anyhoo.
Alternatively you could get a degree in most things in that amount of time. We could have been super intelligent (and skint) but we decided to be tea house men (and skint).
Sometimes it gets a little tiring, all this ridiculous nothing happeningness. But our enthusiasm is still there. And all will be excellent.
We have started the 3 month renovation works on the building. It's dead old, the building. Not only has it been around for these 3 years, it had over 100 more years standing before we even were born!!! That makes a LOAD of years. Buildings that are a bit old always are hard to fix. This one is NO EXCEPTION. It's got rotten beams, and all sorts of building regs issues. And a chimney full o' soot. It's also listed, so everything takes forever and costs forever, as they say. It's also got no windows. And it is over 4 metres high, with 20 metres of window length. Which totals over £SHITLOTS on just the windows. Just the windows.
But it's really nice, so it's all worth it. We hope you like it too.
We are beginning the opening invites. We are having 2 opening events. One for press and official people. One for friends n family n lovely supporters of us. Also we might have a new years bash. Will let you know. Anyone that wants to come to the opening events and feels like they havent made themselves known enough, just send us an email, and we will send you the relevant documentation when the time comes.
The food menu is looking exciting. The tea menu is, of course, excellent. And our other beverages could thrill the hind legs off a donkey. If thrilling did that sort of thing.
Today they knocked 2 massive holes in some walls, which was excellent. Destruction is dead good fun. We wish we were allowed to do it ourselves, but apparently you have to have qualifications, and certificates. And a hard hat.
Tea is excellent.
Coinciding with the opening will be the all new shpongly website, some new teas, and possibly a nervous breakdown or 3.
We are really loving the feeling in Newcastle at the moment. Loads of quality independent establishments, and wonderful support for such operations. Can't wait to be well and truly involved.
HERE'S SOME CHINA TRIP BLOG BUBYE NOW XXX -
DAY 1
I got on the plane, and travelled in the air. I then got off the plane, and travelled on the ground, in HO CHI MINH. Then i got on the plane again, and travelled in the air again, until i got off in CHINA. In GUANGZHOU. During the air travel, there were lots of people that did annoying things. Like the fat fatty man who during the designated sleeping time ordered a sandwich and a beer every half an hour. He kept looking at his watch to see if 30 minutes had passed. That must have been some sort of self regulation system he had devised, because he knew if he didn't give himself strict rules, he would probably just eat every sandwich on the plane. All of the sandwiches. Anyway, this string ordering kept disrupting me. And i wanted him to stop it. He snored as well. And belched always. And was just a hulk of waste. He said he was travelling to southern china for work, and told me how much he hated being there, how he spent all of his time in Irish bars and KFC, and never travelled outside his expat compound. I got his phone number, and now we are bezzies.
Then there was rudey snob lady, who demanded a wine before we took off, and was deeeeply offended when that wasn't possible. She didn't say please or thanks once, and had a look on her face like she was being forced to watch Mick Hucknall and Janet Street Porter having a dirty romp -
No wonder air hostesses end up hating all humans, with people like her making their life generally unpleasant. It's just unnecessary, and actually quite cruel. I think i tried to over compensate for her impoliteness, and it probably made the hostesses feel uneasy the way i shouted 'THANKYOU EVER SO MUCH' every time they walked past.
Guangzhou airport is super well run and dead nice. It was thrilling to be there. Completely.
I spent 5 Yuan (50 british pence) on a metro ticket to zoom me into the centre. You get a little plastic token which you scan against the entry gate, and you pop it into a slot on exiting. So no messy tickets or anything. And blimey it's well organised. Wonderfully air conditioned, and well sign posted, speedy. They are numbered, the metro lines, from 1-8. I got on the number 2. Then changed to 3. First thing i noticed was the excellent array of haircuts, and fashions. When getting on an airport metro, you are amongst many a foreigner, so you are by no means a point of interest. But as the metro progresses, and people get on/off, your dilution gradually lessens. By the time I hit town, about 25 minutes, I felt the stares beginning. Guangzhou isn't a touristy place, really. Many people travel through it, as you often cannot avoid it. But it is not a destination city. So, we funny foreigners get a fair bit of eye attention. That's ok.
I emerged from the cool metro land, giddy with excite, into the sweltering, muggy, heavy air.
This feeling is amazing.
This is what i did see, initially -
This was on the leisurely stroll to my hostel along this route -
View Larger Map
It should take an hour. But it took 2 hours. What with all the sitting and watching and sweating.
It felt amazing, AND OMG EXCITING AND THRILLING to be there. I simply couldn't wait to get stuck into tea stuff.
I enjoyed the hunt for the hostel. It was exactly how i love hostels to be - in someone's flat, laid back, not corporate in any way and with a nice wrinkly man to check me in. It was my first proper communication with an actual real life chinaman. And i enjoyed it terribly. I love communication. I'm a rubbish english socialiser, as i fear sounding like a div too much. So when we both know we are going to sound like divs to each other, i relax much more, and just have fun. WOOOP.
These chaps are playing hacky sack. Together. Adults. Happy. At 1 am. This is amazing. A HUGE cultural difference.
So many people were out, playing games. Chatting. Dancing.
At 1.30 oclock, i saw an illuminated sign saying tea. So i followed it, like an excitable moth with my ganglionic instincts. Inside was a lovely man. We had lots of tea together, and discussed Man City. Now, sport isn't something i know a lot about. But, i think i pulled it off. (Man City ARE a good rugby team aren't they?) This is the man -
How the divil are you? We've just had another fantastic day at Shipley Art Gallery, distributing tea and cake to some of the nicest chaps and chapesses you could ever wish to meet. I just wish we were opening somewhere that we could do that on a daily basis. OH WAIT, WE ARE! We have been for 3 years now. 3 YEARS. We were just re doing our business plan, which we hope will convince the bank to give us absolutely loads of money, and we had to write that we had been working on our property for 31 months. It felt horrible. 31 months. Oh what can be achieved in that amount of time. You could watch 22320 episodes of Downton Abbey (44640 episodes of Friends) if you didn't want to sleep/urinate/make your dinner. Even if you did want to do that stuff, you could still squeeze in 15000 Downtons, or 30000 Friends. I would probably bore of that much costume drama, but NEVER would i get sick of that Ross and quippy Chandler and his quips, and Joey. Let's face it, we've all probably seen that many episodes anyhoo.
Alternatively you could get a degree in most things in that amount of time. We could have been super intelligent (and skint) but we decided to be tea house men (and skint).
Sometimes it gets a little tiring, all this ridiculous nothing happeningness. But our enthusiasm is still there. And all will be excellent.
We have started the 3 month renovation works on the building. It's dead old, the building. Not only has it been around for these 3 years, it had over 100 more years standing before we even were born!!! That makes a LOAD of years. Buildings that are a bit old always are hard to fix. This one is NO EXCEPTION. It's got rotten beams, and all sorts of building regs issues. And a chimney full o' soot. It's also listed, so everything takes forever and costs forever, as they say. It's also got no windows. And it is over 4 metres high, with 20 metres of window length. Which totals over £SHITLOTS on just the windows. Just the windows.
But it's really nice, so it's all worth it. We hope you like it too.
We are beginning the opening invites. We are having 2 opening events. One for press and official people. One for friends n family n lovely supporters of us. Also we might have a new years bash. Will let you know. Anyone that wants to come to the opening events and feels like they havent made themselves known enough, just send us an email, and we will send you the relevant documentation when the time comes.
The food menu is looking exciting. The tea menu is, of course, excellent. And our other beverages could thrill the hind legs off a donkey. If thrilling did that sort of thing.
Today they knocked 2 massive holes in some walls, which was excellent. Destruction is dead good fun. We wish we were allowed to do it ourselves, but apparently you have to have qualifications, and certificates. And a hard hat.
Tea is excellent.
Coinciding with the opening will be the all new shpongly website, some new teas, and possibly a nervous breakdown or 3.
We are really loving the feeling in Newcastle at the moment. Loads of quality independent establishments, and wonderful support for such operations. Can't wait to be well and truly involved.
HERE'S SOME CHINA TRIP BLOG BUBYE NOW XXX -
DAY 1
I got on the plane, and travelled in the air. I then got off the plane, and travelled on the ground, in HO CHI MINH. Then i got on the plane again, and travelled in the air again, until i got off in CHINA. In GUANGZHOU. During the air travel, there were lots of people that did annoying things. Like the fat fatty man who during the designated sleeping time ordered a sandwich and a beer every half an hour. He kept looking at his watch to see if 30 minutes had passed. That must have been some sort of self regulation system he had devised, because he knew if he didn't give himself strict rules, he would probably just eat every sandwich on the plane. All of the sandwiches. Anyway, this string ordering kept disrupting me. And i wanted him to stop it. He snored as well. And belched always. And was just a hulk of waste. He said he was travelling to southern china for work, and told me how much he hated being there, how he spent all of his time in Irish bars and KFC, and never travelled outside his expat compound. I got his phone number, and now we are bezzies.
Then there was rudey snob lady, who demanded a wine before we took off, and was deeeeply offended when that wasn't possible. She didn't say please or thanks once, and had a look on her face like she was being forced to watch Mick Hucknall and Janet Street Porter having a dirty romp -
(I now have that look on my face, and hope that you do too).
No wonder air hostesses end up hating all humans, with people like her making their life generally unpleasant. It's just unnecessary, and actually quite cruel. I think i tried to over compensate for her impoliteness, and it probably made the hostesses feel uneasy the way i shouted 'THANKYOU EVER SO MUCH' every time they walked past.
Guangzhou airport is super well run and dead nice. It was thrilling to be there. Completely.
I spent 5 Yuan (50 british pence) on a metro ticket to zoom me into the centre. You get a little plastic token which you scan against the entry gate, and you pop it into a slot on exiting. So no messy tickets or anything. And blimey it's well organised. Wonderfully air conditioned, and well sign posted, speedy. They are numbered, the metro lines, from 1-8. I got on the number 2. Then changed to 3. First thing i noticed was the excellent array of haircuts, and fashions. When getting on an airport metro, you are amongst many a foreigner, so you are by no means a point of interest. But as the metro progresses, and people get on/off, your dilution gradually lessens. By the time I hit town, about 25 minutes, I felt the stares beginning. Guangzhou isn't a touristy place, really. Many people travel through it, as you often cannot avoid it. But it is not a destination city. So, we funny foreigners get a fair bit of eye attention. That's ok.
I emerged from the cool metro land, giddy with excite, into the sweltering, muggy, heavy air.
This feeling is amazing.
This is what i did see, initially -
This was on the leisurely stroll to my hostel along this route -
View Larger Map
It should take an hour. But it took 2 hours. What with all the sitting and watching and sweating.
It felt amazing, AND OMG EXCITING AND THRILLING to be there. I simply couldn't wait to get stuck into tea stuff.
I enjoyed the hunt for the hostel. It was exactly how i love hostels to be - in someone's flat, laid back, not corporate in any way and with a nice wrinkly man to check me in. It was my first proper communication with an actual real life chinaman. And i enjoyed it terribly. I love communication. I'm a rubbish english socialiser, as i fear sounding like a div too much. So when we both know we are going to sound like divs to each other, i relax much more, and just have fun. WOOOP.
Here is the view from the hostel -
That eve a rendezvous with a mate (who was born at the same moment i was being born, in the room next to me, interestingly enough) was on the cards. A call was made from the lovely wrinkly mans phone. And we arranged to meet at a metro station. I washed, pointlessly, the current sweatiness away, before i got sweaty putting a t shirt on. I sat and drank 12 litres of water and a litre of iced green tea (v v v v popular) and ventured out again.
Unfortunately, the activities of that evening cannot be shared. Not because they are rude or anything, but because i am embarrassed at the choice of activity (not made by me).
But here is what i saw on the way home - It was a 3 hour walk at midnight, and oh so oh so amazing.
These chaps are playing hacky sack. Together. Adults. Happy. At 1 am. This is amazing. A HUGE cultural difference.
At 1.30 oclock, i saw an illuminated sign saying tea. So i followed it, like an excitable moth with my ganglionic instincts. Inside was a lovely man. We had lots of tea together, and discussed Man City. Now, sport isn't something i know a lot about. But, i think i pulled it off. (Man City ARE a good rugby team aren't they?) This is the man -
We shared some incredible Pu Erhs, and a fine fine high grade jade tie guan yen oolong.
This was my first encounter with the chinese tea drinking ritual. And he was happy to answer my many questions. I couldn't have happened across a more lovely man to take my chinese tea drinking virginity. I will never forget him. When i forgot to discard the first infusion, he said 'It doesn't matter, it happens to everyone, we will try again when you are ready.'
I was starting to feel very happy to be there, all concerns had dissipated, and as soon as you relax when travelling, the enjoyment grows exponentially, and you can feel the joy going off in bursts the more you think about it.
And so i slept on the hardest mattress that could ever exist, with different parts of my body going numb at different times during the night. But i didn't care. In the slightest.
