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Guess what happened last week: My Cantonese student (victim) on Skype, Ah-Fu, came all the way from Switzerland to eat Sichuan food! What a great but slightly expected surprise. He was just as delightful 'live' as he is on Skype, which says a lot. Unfortunately, apart from a quick foray to an Armenian (!) restaurant, I didn't have much time to explore the island with him, because I had to prepare the Sichuan lunch for 16 people.
We did have time, however, to make a little film in Cantonese (watch this space!) and to learn how to look up Chinese characters in the dictionary. Well, ah-Fu did. I already know it, natch.
The big day came and so did all the people who had signed up; very unusual in this town.
10 nationalities!
Ways that make cooking Sichuan in Palma easier than Hong Kong: Most of the ingredients are available from a ten minute's walk away or less. I don't have to worry about the weather because 1: It's always good and 2: The eating is in the living room, not precariously on the roof, threatened by sideways rain most days.
Ways that make cooking Sichuan in Palma more difficult and time-consuming than in Hong Kong: The water from the tap is disgusting and full of calcium, so I have to dry each glass with a tea towel right after I have cleaned it instead of letting it air dry.
So there you have it, whether you live in Palma or abroad, there's always a Canto lesson near you. And a short walk, plane or car trip will let you enjoy lovely food in great company! But unfortunately, for now I can only cook for people who are actually in the same house. When will these techno-people invent a food-bearing Skype?!?
亞虎 - Ah Fu - Tiger
川菜 - Chuen choi - Sichuan food
外國 - Oi gok - foreign
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There they stand in the corner of my anteroom, accusing me.
Yes, my two banjos! On which I never play anymore!
In church two Sundays ago, one of the songs was Amazing Grace, a beautiful song to be sure, but all I could think of was the excellent new title thought up by my friend Ellen on a train in Hunan province: A Grazing Face.
As you can see, I mean hear and see, I'm in DIRE need of a banjo teacher. It all went to hell after my teachers Adam Petrashune (who appears in the video with his superior string skills) and his brother Austin left Hong Kong. This is the one thing in my life I really can't do by myself! Are there any banjo teachers in Palma? Or better, Adam, can you move over here?
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Yesterday was an exciting day in the old El Terreno Country Club! The venerable photographer Stuart Pearce
came to take photos for - wait for it - my old employer South China Morning Post!
Yes, apparently rumours about my lovely new gaff have swirled through the ether and reached Hong Kong and the lifestyle editor of Sunday Post Magazine. I was so excited - the fact that I had to style the house, which is really just a fancy word for tidy the hell up, only put a mild damper on things. No really, you think you have a tidy shack but when you start looking and thinking about rooms in photographic terms (lifestyle!) you realise it comes up woefully short.
You can't have half-eaten apples on the table, for example. Also, a few days ago I bought a brand-new doggie brush so I would only need to hoover once every day instead of three times, but no. I've been taking about a pillowcase worth of hairs off the two hounds every day, but still the floors look like the back of a ginger gorilla in a Turkish bathhouse, billowing with brown hairs.
As it happens, I was cooking Sichuan food for a birthday party that night, so I only had to tidy up once. Win-win!
The editor wanted me to style the garden as well, so naturally I chose my favourite sit-wear, handmade by the incredible talented Lina Benjumea, to brighten up the mosquito-riddled morass.
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FOOTBALL madness!
OK - no. I'm still not really interested in football. But I have to say this: When I lived in Hong Kong, any given World Cup match was at 2AM if you were lucky, except that wonderful year when the Koreans and Japanese burst upon the scene with their long, glossy black hair and stadium-cleaning, non-hooliganistic fans. Now I can saunter down to a nearby bar like English Pub Sindi's or seven or eight other establishments with full Cup coverage less than five minutes' walk away.
So yes, although it is out, Spain wins hands down.
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I admit it, I miss speaking Cantonese every day, but at least I have my students!
When I first arrived on Mallorca in January, I never thought I'd be teaching Cantonese, but modern technology thought otherwise. Skype is now helping me carry out my life's mission: To make Cantonese a world language. The world, quite frankly, deserves it!
But no one can make Cantonese a world language on an empty stomach, so first we must go to 飲茶 - yam cha - "drink tea". Which is all about eating. but also, a little, about tea! So this video is dedicated to my faithful students Ah-Mei (Deborah) Ah-Sai (Simon) Ah-Gong (Tom) Ah-Dak (Peter) Ah-Man (James) and Ah-Fu (Jakab), who are sensibly Learning Cantonese the Natural Way - From a Norwegian!
