Quietzu!

Last night Mandy cooked our long-anticipated Chinese meal, just in time for the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations. There was quite a spread, with sesame seeds, spring rolls, dumplings, noodles - the lot. And chopsticks ('kuai-zi', sounds like Quietzu!) to help us along... sort of...


Mandy invited Fr. Thomas (Thomas Shen Fu) from Allen Hall to join us as a fellow Chinese host. Unfortunately he forgot to bring the atmospheric music, so we made him sing a national song with Mandy. He told us the biggest difference between Chinese people and Westerners is that the Chinese, despite the one-child policy, are very much family oriented. Young married couples have a duty to care for both sets of parents, and there is a greater bond between generations in the family. One does not see that much in London.

Mandy also gave us all a personal card, but as it's written in Chinese it's still a bit of a mystery to us! She said she'll translate it if we visit her in China one day, so we'll have to start booking the flights.