New Year and birthday celebrations .....

It was slightly depressing to arrive back in Chengdu and then Wuxi from Tibet. As you can see from the picture below, I am not exaggerating when I moan about the smog here in China! Admittedly, Wuxi is not as bad as this but it still has its days. As I was describing the beautiful blue skies of Tibet over NYE dinner, the others protested that it had been a beautiful day in Wuxi that day - the sun had peeked through the smog for a bit. We've definitely been here too long if we consider that a 'beautiful' day!

Yes, it really is this smoggy in China! Chengdu airport.

Although I had a brilliant time in Tibet, it was lovely to get back to my little apartment which happened to be absolutely freezing! I had a few hours to try to warm the apartment up and unpack before I needed to get ready to bring in the new year. I able to speak to most of my family which was lovely - it was great to have a glass of champers over the internet with my mum (the sound of the cork popping is just as good over the computer!)

Should we trust these two with the fireworks?? Boyd and Gunnar.

To bring in the new year, Gunnar and I headed to Provence, a French restaurant in Wuxi, with a group of other expats. We had a delicious meal of Australian steak and Brown Brothers Everton - a meal that was much appreciated after 10 days of eating yak meat, rice and potato!

Pete and Nancy enjoying a drink on NYE.

Paul had managed to obtain some fireworks - a relatively easy feat here in China, they are for sale in the supermarkets - and at midnight, we headed outside to let them off. Despite some discussion of where the best spot to let them off would be, this is China, so pretty much anything goes. We just stepped outside and let them off much to the delight of all of us. What a great way to bring in the new year!

The expat firework display about to begin! Paul and Gunnar.

After that, it was a fairly quiet night and everyone disappeared to another bar or home. Not quite the same sort of night as you would have back at home - I was slightly jealous as I read of people going to the Taste or Falls at this time of the year. It's always this time of the year that I miss Tassie the most, nothing beats being down at the Taste or the Salamanca Market with the Sydney to Hobart yachts coming in.

NYE

New Years Day was Gunnar's birthday, and as much as he was reluctant too, we were going to celebrate it! After a lazy morning of sleeping and DVDs, we headed off to have massages before going to a new Korean restaurant for a Korean BBQ dinner. As you can see from the picture below, there is always so much food at these restaurants. Much of it is kim chi, a range of salads and pickled vegetables and meats. Yum!

New Years Day - Gunnar is another year older! Only a few days left of holidays before we go back to work for another 3 weeks before having another 2 weeks off. It's a tough life here in China! I'm off to Jakarta in a few weeks for work and then Gunnar and I head off on our much anticipated skiing adventure!

Fireworks on NYE!