{"id":130,"date":"2010-06-06T21:33:34","date_gmt":"2010-06-06T13:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/?p=130"},"modified":"2010-09-26T21:09:40","modified_gmt":"2010-09-26T13:09:40","slug":"a-dog-called-baby-and-response-to-a-request","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/?p=130","title":{"rendered":"A Dog called Baby and Response to a Request"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Dog called Baby<\/em> and Response to a Request<\/p>\n

Yesterday one of my ex-students called offering to take me out. \u00a0I had a day of work lined up, but there\u2019s always tomorrow so off I went.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We headed across the road and through an entrance which previously I had considered private.\u00a0\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>\u00a0When will I ever learn that nothing or little in China is considered private?\u00a0\u00a0 More on that another time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just before and through the entrance were rows of street vendors, but not my \u201cis it really chicken?\u201d \u00a0kebab vendor.\u00a0\u00a0 But then it was the wrong time of day for her to be out. \u00a0After the stalls were small shops and restaurants and we headed into one of them after stopping for some shots of two small kittens playing under the tree to which they were tied.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>They were not keen on the attention.\u00a0 \u00a0Real scaredy cats, but they did settle before I left.<\/p>\n

The restaurant served food from my student\u2019s home province which was many thousands of miles away.\u00a0 We had chicken complete with bones, braised beans with pork accompanied by rice.\u00a0 It was OK and I would return.\u00a0 After we finished eating the student asked the owners if they would show me their dog.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0It was quickly produced from an opening in a wall.\u00a0 It was clean from its weekly bath the previous day, but not pretty due to its protruding under jaw.\u00a0 It\u2019s the most docile dog I\u2019ve ever met.\u00a0 It\u2019s 9 months old and was happy just to nestle in people\u2019s arms.\u00a0 It\u2019s fed on restaurant left-overs, a good form of recycling I guess.\u00a0 It beats the need to forage which is the life of many dogs.\u00a0 I have no idea what some of the pampered pooches I meet eat.<\/p>\n

Every good meal should finish with desert so we headed to the large shopping centre nearby for dishes of ice cream.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t actually think about ice cream quality when I was eating it because there was much to see and talk about.\u00a0 However, on reflection it was pretty good.\u00a0 Last year I\u2019d been unable to find any decent ice creams so my son kept me well supplied when I visited him in September\/October.\u00a0 My ice cream foraging abilities have improved no doubt, but I also think China is changing so fast that I\u2019m seeing and tasting the changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The ice creams came complete with small fans made from something edible. The tables were designed as fish tanks with rocks, shells and a few small goldfish. The shop also had a hole in the wall for dispensing soft serve ice cream in cones.\u00a0 I\u2019d seen it before and been tempted a few times but never indulged after considering bacterial count.\u00a0 I forgot that thought after a long, hot walk in Tianjin and when faced with an ice cream dispenser in a shopping centre I indulged. The result was not disastrous but it did cause a bit of rumbling in the innards.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A young couple at another table had something known as fruit salad ice. \u00a0I asked to photograph it and we were informed that they came from the nearby medical college.\u00a0 My student immediately asked if I wanted to visit so we had the \u201cisn\u2019t it private\u201d conversation again. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We headed off via a couple of detours each offering more insights and meetings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The other college came complete with a lake\"\"<\/a> having several sculptures and the capacity for students to sit around and socialize or study.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0Some had taken the opportunity to do that.\u00a0 It was there that we collected a guide and entourage.\u00a0 The college also had gardens and a pleasant loggia arrangement covered with vines suitable for sitting underneath.\u00a0 While there is a lake here it is fenced off and has no seating arrangements.\u00a0 A loggia and outdoor seats scattered around the campus wouldn\u2019t go\u00a0astray either.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After a bit more wandering around we fare-welled our guide, had a quick sit down and interlude at the gates with the guards.<\/p>\n

So Sandra, I forgot to photograph lunch but you do get the ice cream and fruit salad ice.\u00a0 I’ve a couple more lined up from today’s outings.\u00a0 Not sure when those stories\u00a0 will reach you.\u00a0 Tomorrow has come and almost gone and I still haven’t finished that which earns my daily bread.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Dog called Baby and Response to a Request Yesterday one of my ex-students called offering to take me out. \u00a0I had a day of work lined up, but there\u2019s always tomorrow so off I went.\u00a0 We headed across the road and through an entrance which previously I had considered private.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0When will I ever […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[93,1,94],"tags":[13,22,21,20,23],"class_list":["post-130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-china","category-uncategorized","category-xingtai","tag-animals","tag-college","tag-dogs","tag-food","tag-lake"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions\/145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}