So more food updates starting to feel a bit like Michael Winner without the bank balance or super annoying e-sure adverts! Am very close to imitating his physique though.. I reckon I have put on at least 5stone since I got here! For lunch today (is this not how all my blog entries start?!) Belle took me for Yum Cha. It literally translates as ‘drink tea’ but it is when a large group sit down and order lots of different dishes and drink lots of Chinese tea! She wanted me to meet her team, so there were 18 of us in total and I was made the guest of honour! Everyone was really lovely and people kept rotating seats to come and chat to me… I felt honoured! On the menu today: curried noodles, beef dumplings, egg rice etc and…. CHICKEN FEET! And COW STOMACH LINING! Both actually very tasty despite the connotations they bring to mind.. bit chewy mind you, everyone was super impressed to see the white girl tucking in to some good old fashioned feet and innards hehe!

After lunch a named Erin gave me a mini tour of the Shenzhen metro and bus system to help me find my way around… it always looks so intimidating until you have experience. The price of a single ticket was only 3RMB… that’s about 20pence!! She told me that this was actually quite expensive and the buses were much cheaper… um 20p is ok by me, think I shall be splashing out on the metro thank you very much! She also kept telling me remember all these names and places she was telling me, gave up trying to after a while and nodded and smiled instead! Sometimes getting lost is a good experience, besides since I can walk to work from my new apartment so its not as if I will need to use transport all that often!

This evening went for dinner at Dormas… but of random story behind this one, Dorma is the lady I went to for a wax at the weekend and she insisted I come back to visit her for dinner and I chat… so I did! On the menu was Tibetian style chicken curry and beef dumplings in a chilli and garlic sauce, delicious and a teeny bit too hot for me but I didn’t say that of course. Dorma works ridiculously hard and is the only earner in her family, and so has to support her husband and 2year old daughter (such a cutie) as well as pay the childminder/cleaner (although god knows why she needs one with a husband who stays at home??!!). She also send money back to her other 2children in Nepal and also to her father, as is custom with many Asian families… you are missing out not being Chinese dada hehe! On top of all this the poor woman gets thoroughly taken advantage of at work by the sounds of things, dodgy boss which she is currently involved in legal proceedings with about her salary but all the time has to keep working to earn money!
She takes great pride in her family and her home and was telling me how she likes to prey every morning and has met the Dalai Lama many times. It was a really interesting and different evening!

Tomorrow night my boss is taking me for dinner in central… steak I hope! And I have a nice restful weekend planned.. so tired its 12.30 in the evening and I have only just got in and showered. Hope you are taking good care of yourselves and each other.

Lots of fat loving from Tanya the monster Helga Hefferlump (get me to that gym… there is one in my new apartment building woohoo!) xx