Elephante and Chinese opera

Sassoleone in Italy

Walked to Avondale shops just now to get some groceries and buy a postcard to send to my host family that I stayed with when I was WOOFing (Working on Organic Farms) in Sassoleone in Italy. They now live in Germany. It is a tradition that I send an elephant. I must say there were not many recently printed postcards to choose from and some looked decidedly dated. I tried Avondale Bookshop and then Art Attack. Could maybe as a business venture print and sell some newer photos. I guess though there isn't a thriving tourism market here.

Avondale is full of contrasts. There are all the newly established supermarkets and restaurants such as The Food Lovers Market and Pick'n'Pay and then Ocean Basket and Simply Asia. The parking area is a mess though and full of pot holes. You also get accosted by beggars who all seem pretty desperate but you just can't help everyone and we're all struggling at the moment. Walking back to the flat on Argyll I was asked to donate towards fixing the pot holes. It is commendable that people try to fix them but they invariably don't do a very good job with just bricks and soil and it is really the municipality and government who should be doing it - but if one waits for that you will have craters I suppose.

This morning I taught Runbow's Mum. Runbow is not enjoying being separated from his parents in the morning when he goes to nursery school at Sharon, shame. Hope it becomes easier for him. For the lesson today we looked at a short biography on Maria Callas the opera singer. I asked if there is opera in China and was told there is traditional Chinese opera but sadly it is dying out as fewer and fewer people want to train in it. Maria Callas' mother sounded a bit of a tiger mum. We talked about this too and about the book by Amy Chua. I noticed that my student was not using the past tense correctly. Apparently though there is only one tense in Chinese. There is masculine and feminine but they are pronounced the same which explained why Yalin was sometimes not using she and her.

Popped home to see my fur babies Jasper and Elsie who were pleased to see me, with Elsie bringing me a leaf as a present. I miss them. Have a friend coming round for tea after work but I must get back to reading the Cambridge AS syllabus for environmental management.