Chilly Sunday

I was just about to post a funny blog about something or other and then I got an email saying an old workmate died on Wednesday. Don't really know what to write about now...

Ummm. Well I'm living at Lige Isle now for the time being and working with a Mosuo man learning Mosuo every afternoon for a couple of hours. So, some progress there. He is the father from the family where I lived first in Yongning and they have recently set up the motel and chat bar here. They got their first guests last night which was the cause for much excitement. The guests included a man from Norway, who spoke excellent English. At that point I reminded them that they didn't even have a menu yet, let alone one in English. He wrote out a list of items and then tried to explain to me what they had in them so that I could translate them into English. When we got to the Mosuo specials, four dishes in a row seemed to translate into English as "boiled pork". It turned out the pork came from different cuts from the pig's body, none of which appeared in my dictionary. So I had to write things like "boiled pork legs" "boiled pork- all different cuts" "boiled pork ribs" "boiled side of pork". I'm not really sure if these translations are accurate- they were conveyed by pointing at different parts of the body. Maybe "legs" should have been "trotters" and maybe "ribs" should have been "torso". Hmmm. Maybe they should all have said "stewed" instead of "boiled". Oh well, they should get the idea that there is pig meat and water involved.

I will help them put the menu on computer and print it out one of these days.

The day before yesterday I mostly did washing. With water from Lugu lake. I should just wash each set of clothes as soon as it's dirty, but that is hard when you're moving around as I was earlier this week. Then it suddenly builds up to four pairs of jeans plus heaps of thermals and skivvies and I have no more socks to wear and it all goes to hell and the washing takes a couple of hours- that is of actual washing, not just waiting for a machine to finish. That's once I work up the courage to dip my hands in the cold water.

I also go for random climbs up the side of mountains to keep warm. I have moved bedrooms so I am in an upstairs room now, which I think is nicer. Also it has a wood floor rather than concrete, which is warmer. Yesterday evening was nice, we sat around the fire and ate sunflower seeds and chatted for a few hours.