Mr. Hughes' Blog - Day 7

Day seven:

I woke late at 7.45 a.m. and struggled into the shower. In school term time I am usually awake by 5.30 a.m. so the rigours of the visit were taking its toll. There was an insistent knocking on the door: St Trinians wanted their laptop back which I had been using to email my family. St Trinians appeared to have been awake for several hours: the energy of youth! The team were on stage at 11.00 for their final appearance and were keen to get to the venue. Rock ‘n’ Roar were still in bed and wanted a lie in. The plan was to join St Trinians to support them for their 11.00 a.m. set.

I set off for breakfast by myself just after 8.00 a.m. The dining area was almost deserted as most of the guests had finished breakfast long ago. I helped myself to bacon, sausages, fried egg, fried bread (a treat) and baked beans. For the first time on our visit I didn’t have a strong Chinese aspect to the meal such sesame balls, fried dough sticks or noodles. I had lots of black tea for which I am acquiring a taste and plenty of fruit juice. Following on from this I had plenty of melon and some sweet bread.

Following breakfast I returned to my room to continue writing my pieces for the blog. I am aiming for 1000 words a day and hope that they may be informative, and just a little entertaining (?). I also have to process my photographs which I shoot in RAW format, but have to transform them into something which can go onto the blog.

At 10.10 a.m. I got a phone call from Pat (mentor of the St Trinians team). Josie had left her white shirt in her hotel room: could I please bring it? I knocked on the doors to wake up Rock ‘n’ Roar, and then went to find someone from housekeeping to open Josie’s room to get the shirt. At my second attempt I found someone who could understand English and was able to help. Retrieving Josie’s shirt I then returned to knock on the doors of Rock ‘n’ Roar to make sure they were stirring. I got a sleepy response from Lily and Abbie, but nothing from Emily. My knocking became louder and I was shouting to wake her up: no success. Then I tried phoning her room. I could hear her telephone ringing from my room (about 25 metres away, through a thick door), but still no success. Starting to get a little concerned I found a housekeeper and got the door open. Abbie went in and woke Emily. She was very tired, but got up quickly. We were in a taxi by 10.35 a.m. and at the venue in good time to give Josie her shirt.

We watched St Trinians perform their routine. It looked and sounded good. There were no technical hitches, and the dance went well. The team acquitted itself very well: it is now all in the hands of the judges.

Following the performance everyone went to Starbucks: a hot and stuffy walk, blessed with icy cold air-conditioning at the end; as well as chilled frappucinoes (milk-shakes) and familiar food.

The rest of the group returned for the super teams competition where teams of different nationalities join together to compete. I returned to the hotel in a taxi with Genna and Lily who were a little tired and under the weather: they would benefit from resting in their rooms.

Travelling by taxi is quite an experience in Suzhou. Taxi drivers don’t speak English (but why should they?), and we use the hotel’s business card to get us back to the hotel. Apart from this we rely on the hotel staff to tell the drivers where we want to go, and trust that they understand us in the first place. Still apart from Dr Hughes being taken to the wrong hotel last night, despite using the hotel’s card we generally get to the right place.

It appears that you can turn right against a red light a long as you don’t hit anything. Also taxi drivers use their horns a great deal. I think that this is mainly as a friendly “I am here signal”. I have rarely seen it used in anger or irritation. Given that many of the local people (on foot, cycles or mopeds) appear to have scant regard for the personal safety when crossing the roads, I think that this is an eminently sensible idea. Most of the taxi drivers I have used have been polite and considerate. The fare to the venue from our hotel is only 15 Yuan; that is about £1. Given that most taxis are icy from the air-conditioning I cannot understand how they can afford to charge these prices give the global oil price. I also have not seen any petrol stations in our entire visit.

In the evening we took a short walk to a public open space by the lakeside. There was going to be a light show with fountains. I borrowed Dr Hughes cheaper tripod for my camera as I was keen to try out night time photography. The walk to the lakeside as spectacularly lit by various buildings. We settled in some way from the lakeshore and waited for the show to start. With musical accompaniment a curtain of water rose and fell with ever-changing coloured lights, lasers and holographic images projected into the water of the fountains. It was an amazing sight. On the lake itself great gouts of flame danced just above the waves. The crowd filled the spaces near the lake itself, but there was plenty of room.

At the end we picked our way through the dispersing crowds and ended up at the hotel with instructions to order room service. After several attempts to get through to someone who spoke English Josie was told “Cook go home”, and we settled for bread, fruit and cheese from the local supermarket.