ZERO TOLERANCE CHINA Nucleic acid testing in my community

Locked out of Hangzhou we need to do emergency food shop

Covid in China isn't over... here we go again...

2 Years Later! Hangzhou, China - Covid restrictions 2022 - Road Block!

We just went out to get veggies...road block - covid - CHINA

The Whole University Campus got Nucleic Acid tested today. China

A Taste of China from the back seat of my DiDi

A taste of #China - Sat in the back of taxi with the TV playing... so I filmed it so you don't have to.

Baoshi Pagoda wak:Saturdays walk to Baoshi Pagoda and environs.

Just a walk past the factories down our street in Haining, CHINA.

Out for a walk past the factories, as you do in China.

Chinese Strawberry Fields Forever - PYO just down the road

SWEET HAPPEN - A typical day in China 🇨🇳 - At the Mall 🛍

Just a trip to our local Mall to do a bit of shopping and to ease the crushing boredom of staying in all the time cos of the virus and the weather

CHINA 🇨🇳 - Lucky Everyday

A quick look around at the new apartment community next to ours in Haining, Zhejiang Province, China - this is how Chinese people live

China 🇨🇳 v Taiwan 🇹🇼 You Choose... #shorts

The difference between China 🇨🇳 and Taiwan 🇹🇼 - stay classy!

Life in China 🇨🇳 2021 Part 2 - Snibbets from my Mobile Phone 📲

Life in China - random videos off my phone

Bomb Shelter under my apartment in China 🇨🇳 URBEX

Raining today so I went underground to the bomb shelter/parking lot under our apartment 

A Night and Day doggy walk around a community in CHINA 🇨🇳

Taking the dawg for a walk... in Haining, China 🇨🇳 #china #dogwalking #dogs #dogwalk #vlog #vlogger

Fast Food CHINA 🇨🇳 炒面 chǎomiàn #short - Lunch Time - 10 rmb - 2 minutes

I go Urban INXPLORING in CHINA 🇨🇳

We went Urban INXPLORING in Hangzhou  China 🇨🇳 - (Ok Ok, shopping...)

Attending the local Police Station (PSB) in China - It's gotta be done!

When you enter China you always have to register with the local cops - unless you stay in a hotel open to foreigners

Running 🏃🏻‍♂️ and other stuff in China 🇨🇳 - a Podcast I feature in.

China Apartment Tour - the foreign stuff we buy here locally...Hangzhou.

China 🇨🇳 Urban Exploring a massive derelict shopping "castle" #urbex

Cornish Identity: A Passion to Exist - ebook available now

 My new book on Cornish Identity has just been published.  You can get the ebook Here the paperback and hardback will follow shortly.

Green China 🇨🇳 Recycling ♻️ and electric buses 🚌

The Asian Games is coming to Hangzhou - I better get in shape! 6K along ...

Mr Yang Top 5 IELTS Speaking Tips: 雅思口語得分技巧！再也不怕口語低分啦~Good 🇨🇳 #ielts

Guerrilla gardening 🥦 in Haining, China 🇨🇳

On the road to Shangri-La 🇨🇳 (Official Buffet Version)

Sneaking around a 1.5 million dollar house in CHINA - during the interna...

A New Years stroll along the Qiantang River with Snook Doggy Dog.

FREE FOOD delivered to all citizens in XI'AN CHINA Lockdown 🇨🇳☭

Winnie the Pooh is NOT banned in China - it's just more haters hating.

How Christmas 🤶 🎄🎅 is CELEBRATED in CHINA 🇨🇳 2021

Hangzhou Art Fair - September 25th 2021 - a walk around 🇨🇳 It does what it says on the tin... its an art fair... in China 🇨🇳 #art #china #video #artists #youtubevideos

A walk around West Lake, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, Marco Polo clued it "Heaven on Earth"

Humans and Gods - the Mystery of the Shu Civilisation - 这个展览大家一定要去，《人与神...

A Rainy Day in China 🇨🇳

A Tsingtao beer, 🍺 a wasp and the flight of the bumble bee 🐝 in CHINA🇨🇳...

We went out for a Chinese 🇨🇳 Hotpot - could you? 🔥🔥🔥🌶🌶🌶

THE BEST Sweet and Sour Pork at MY local community restaurant in CHINA 🇨...

This is where we eat on a regular basis

1.25 MILLION DOLLAR HOUSE 🏠 TOUR in JAIXING, CHINA 🇨🇳

The Watcher, the Bore, and Typhoon In Fa. Hangzhou CHINA🇨🇳 #short

Typhoon In Fa 🌬 China 🇨🇳 - "What About Us?" ☔️ 💨 On Chinese Social Media

Lost Chinese Horizons 🌇 - building communities in China 🇨🇳 #china

The most boring video to come out of China 🇨🇳 Part 6 the Finale + a walk...

China 🇨🇳 keeps on dancing 🕺

100 Year Anniversary Celebrations of the Chinese Communist Party in Hang...

Visions of China - videos on my phone - just Living in China #2

A walk around our 4,000,000 RMB Apartment 🌇 in Haining, CHINA 🇨🇳

DJI Osmo Action Explorer Combo unboxing in CHINA 🇨🇳 I bought a new camera 📷....from JD.com for Vlogging in CHINA 🇨🇳

View and review apartments (+monthly rents) 🌇 in Zhejiang Province, Chin...

Random VISIONS OF CHINA from my phone before I delete them all (May/June...

China 🇨🇳 Academy of Art - Graduate Show 2021

Inside the Chinese 🇨🇳 Fuck Box 🍆 I finally made it into a Chinese Fuck Box - so you don't have to!

CHINA 🇨🇳 DEMOLISHED! 🔨 Documenting the destruction of old China 🇨🇳

I had my SECOND COVID 19 Vaccine 💉 shot in CHINA 🇨🇳

The Emperor's New Tea - A walk around Longing Tea Village, Hangzhou, China

A young boxer in Suzhou, China. - SNOW TIGER TITUS - Pretty & Strong

Titus is my friend AJ's son training in Suzhou China - can you show him some love/likes by Liking his video please. #boxer #boxing

Epic Day Out in HANGZHOU, Markets, West Lake and Burgers in COMMUNIST CH...

Visiting a BBQ Street in Haining - Zhejiang Province, CHINA 🇨🇳🍆🍺

Rural Zhejiang Province - China is outside my front door and we are movi...

The most boring video to come out of China Part 5 - 1 Year on! - This is why we want to move

A meeting at the Animation and Cartoon Museum Hangzhou, China 🇨🇳

I had the Chinese COVID-19 Vaccine in China

Communist swingers in China. 🇨🇳

When American Culture INVADES China - Part 2

Eating a brownie in an arty mall and a vintage market Part 1

Introducing a Chinese F*CK Box.

Chinese Communism is Working - let's take a look

My vaccination is ready - Saturday Morning Coffee in China.

Walking around the borderlands of Hangzhou (Xiasha) and Haining.

Romance is dead in CHINA

Fat Chinese Refrigerator RAP Hangzhou Version ft Uncle Foreigner

You Are Here : excepts from a short walk along the mighty Qiantang River

A walk along the Grand Canal, Hangzhou and an encounter with an artist ...

To the explorers of the linguistic universe.

Keep your hosts of daffodils

Your weepy, whiney, verse

Don’t try to tell me

My writing is too terse

 

Don't question my choice of words

If they don't match your mood

Check your privilege at the gate

As there’s nothing I’d preclude

 

A healthy dose of realism

Will come knocking at your door

Don’t hide behind the curtains

Because its too hard to ignore

 

Living a poetic fantasy 

Of whimsy, fawn, and fae

Does not really cut it

In the hard, cold, light of day

 

The world tis a hard hard place

Life’s no shining bowl of cherries

When all we have are words and rhymes

To challenge such adversaries 

 

So no howling at the darken places

No barking at the moon

Just pen and ink and attitude

And paper to festoon

 

So take heed my friends and foe alike

And read my silken verse

For poets are naught but explorers

Of the linguistic universe.

The Qiantang River, 1000 year old poetry and votive offerings to the riv...

Of Cats, Panic Buying and Head Hoovering - Happy Chinese New Year!

TERMINATOR EVOLUTION - IT STARTS RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW - CHINA

Street art - China.

Something fishy at the VETS in CHINA!

The MOST BORING video to come out of CHINA - PART 4- you have been warne...

January 22nd 2021 --- One year later... here we go again in China.

Stepping outta 2020 in China stepping inta 2021

Christmas & Contradictions in Hangzhou, China

Visions of China 2020 - Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province - November/December

One Run is a quest to unite people from EVERY COUNTRY. I RAN.

CHINA wants to make love to you (Hangzhou Version)

Yungang grottos exhibition in Hangzhou - amazing use of 3D printing tech...

Bamboo and Tea in Hangzhou, China

Me and David Bowie together for the first time ever....

She said "Let's go to a NIGHT MARKET" - She got a dark side...

Let's go to a night market she said...

Xinjiang Noodles in the muslim noodle place in Hangzhou, China

Handmade Muslim noodles are the best...

Walking Meditation in Hangzhou, China

 Re-write of an article written in 2012 - submitted to an online Hangzhou magazine recently

Walking along the Nine Creeks in the Misty Forest finds you in a truly magical collection of mountains, trees, creeks and running water. On this outing one walks the trails––winding and climbing; the creeks - murmuring and gurgling; the trees - high and low––at one with the poet YuYuelai who wrote these words during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It is a place that has always been special for humans.

 

Walking the hills and tracks forces one to practise one of the main tenets of walking meditation – that of moving the feet. Buddhists are instructed to be mindful of four stages in each step: (i) lifting the foot; (ii) moving it forward; (iii) putting it down; and (iv) touching or pressing the foot on the ground.

 

And step by step, as I travelled these ways, I entered the meditative state of mind simply by putting one foot in front of the other, or as some practitioners suggest ‘stepping, stepping, stepping.’

 

Walking the meandering creeks and twisted paths, famous since the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), onehas to be aware of these actions because to put a foot wrong means a turned ankle or worse. By increasing our awareness of our bodies actions we also become increasingly aware of things outside of ourselves, objects we might trip over, other people we might walk into. We become more aware of these, and many of the other things outside of ourselves, than when we are just sitting––especially if we sit inside. These include the wind, the sun, the rain, and the sounds of nature and of humans and machines.

 

But as one finds the natural rhythm (and using a pair of trekking poles forces you into such a rhythm) you find that each and every footstep forms part of a natural mantra. And as the length of the walk progresses, it becomes easier to enter into the detached but aware state that walking meditation facilitates.

 

While walking long distances there will always be feelings associated with our bodies, from the niggling pain of a blister to the pleasant feeling of relaxation. There will also be feelings associated with the things we see and hear, and with all of the other sensory modalities that we experience––including those that are imagined.

 

In paying attention to feelings, the important thing is simply to notice them without either clinging to them or pushing them away. When we are unaware, it is very common for our minds to start grasping after experiences associated with pleasant feelings.

 

Many people say to me when I am out walking that I’ll “be able to have some thinking time––to sort things out,” but it always seems to me that when walking I actually have very little ‘thinking time.’  My mind becomes attuned to the mantra of walking, my eyes to the path ahead and my body to experiencing the sensations of physical activity.  By experiencing our sensations, rather than thinking about them, we help to cut down on unproductive thinking and bring about more calmness.

 

Walking in places such as the Mystery Forest allows us to ‘be in the moment.’ That moment where we can fill our mind with the richness of the experience of walking, leaving less room for daydreaming and fantasy and becoming deeply aware of our present experience, which becomes far more fulfilling than any daydream.

 

This detached state then becomes an integral part of the ‘Art of Walking’. The Buddhist monk Thick Nhat Hanh tells us that “If we practise walking meditation, we walk just for walking, not to arrive. We have to be alive with each step, and if we are, each step brings real life back to us. The purpose is to be in the present moment and enjoy each step you make.”

 

Walking alone along these ancient byways is a pure exercise in walking meditation and each step becomes a prayer and each mile dharma.

The MOST BORING video to come out of CHINA - PART 3- you have been warned.

A walk along the Grand Canal Hangzhou, China Oct 2020

Hangzhou Vegan Culture Festival October 2020

Happy New Year

Happy New year from me.

I haven't gone away just been busy with my website here  rob-burton.co.uk I'd appreciate it if you could go and take look, maybe subscribe to get the free newsletter. In this new year you will be able to get my FREE novella - The Castle of the Red-Haired Maidens as soon as its back from the editor.

You can also visit my facebook page and give me a like.

Four More Years... I wrote this in 2004 - just change the name to Trump

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 04, 2004

Four More Years of Bush!

Four more years of Bush (Trump works just as well)

I guess it depends on how quickly you say this as to whether it brings a smile to your lips or you break down in tears. I guess it also depends on whether you have the mentality of a thirteen year old boy or you are serious about your politics. (I hope I am in the latter category) – (Well not too serious!)

So Freedom and Democracy is safe for another four years. I don’t really know how afraid I am when I write this. But I send a word of sympathy to all the good thinking people of the US.

An online dictionary from Princeton University in the US tell us that Freedom is:

the power to act or speak or think without externally imposed restraints.

Is this the ‘freedom’ that Bush jnr. Is imposing on Iraq and Afghanistan? Because is seems to me that this ‘freedom’ Bush talks about comes with a lot of strings and external imposed (by the US) restraints – that’s not Freedom is it?

Another definition is:

Not being under another's control; the power to say or do as one pleases, e.g., freedom of speech or belief or freedom of economic decision making.

None of these, to my mind, is what’s on offer when the United States, through its figurehead Bush, starts to influence the citizens of those countries with displays of military strength and bombing by its Air Force. What about freedom of belief, and freedom of economic decision making? None of these will be part of Bush’s plan (Bush being, I am sure, a part of the ultra-right Christian Evangelical movement for whom Islam would be an anathema)

This leads us to another definition of freedom:

The societal condition that exists when every individual has 100% control over their own property."

That is, if it has not been bombed into dust, along with the rest of your extended family!

Freedom is one of those tricky words that mean different things to different people. For some CCTV is a means to freedom, for others is an abuse of a persons freedom to walk freely without being observed. There is, through the use of CCTV for instance, an implied guilt, that we all have to be observed in some way, like in Orwell’s 1984, and of course its all in the name of the people for the good of the people.

It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself—anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face… was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime Orwell 1984


It’s like the bringing together the two words Freedom and Terrorism can be used as a sort of a talisman that allows bullies like Bush and his Government (Which it appears over 50% of the US population support – so using guilt by association, the US is a country of bullies – and not just the red necked sort apparently) to enter legal states around the world and to enforce this thing ‘Freedom’.

Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?… The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact, there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking—not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness." Orwell 1984.

To be honest I do not want America’s ideas Freedom, I do not want the US to even suggest to me that their freedom’s are better than the freedom’s enjoyed by me in my country. I do not support any invasion of another country in the name of Bush’s idea of Freedom. I do not want the American Dream because from this side of the Atlantic it looks much more like an American Nightmare. The pursuit of Life, Liberty, and Happiness seems to be some sort of horrendous joke when it is applied to whats happening in the Middle East.

Remember Bush and co one day you will be bought to account:

"It was curious to think that the sky was the same for everybody, in Eurasia or Eastasia as well as here. And the people under the sky were also very much the same—everywhere, all over the world, hundreds or thousands of millions of people just like this, people ignorant of one another's existence, held apart by walls of hatred and lies, and yet almost exactly the same—people who had never learned to think but were storing up in their hearts and bellies and muscles the power that would one day overturn the world." Orwell 1984


Four More Years
Don’t Dry the Tears
On the mothers sallow cheek

When Soldier Boys
Have Lost their Toys
And return in the Brittle Box

A folded flag
Just a political gag
Placed in the Mothers hands

In Dusty Street
Other Sad Mothers weep
For the children dead in arms

It’s Freedoms stain
Americas Shameful Bloody Pain
Four More Years of Bush

My Facebook posts got TRUMPED.

I have been writing since my last update about my new novel The Twelfth Rune. It's coming along although I have been suffering from a cold, a cough and a thick head, so I will not suggest its been coming in leaps and bounds. More like little increments as my brain lightens up enough to let some words flow.

The main problem is just feeling tired all the time and not having the energy to think beyond watching something on YouTube and just longing out.

I've been having a bit of fun on Facebook. Because my new website has a blog facility I was wondering if I really needed to close these blogs down and start another new one on the website.  It was draining just to think about it. Then someone asked a similar question and posted that they were going to use their blog to allow their characters some freedom, so the blog could fill in back stories and so on.

Bingo I thought. So I posted this.

Dear Ann, Please consider this my application to steal the shit out of your idea. I have been wondering how to start my blog on my new website and my mind has been a blank. I, with your gracious permission, of course, will use my main characters voice - so it's not my blog, I don't need ideas - it's his. Yours plagerismly Rob

So then I started doodling a bit an idea for my blog and posted this:

My blog is gonna be so good, so very very good, I'm going to write bigly, I mean that literally it's going to be so so great, it'll be the best blog ever, I mean that, I see words, great words, words like you have never seen words, it'll be great, people will love it, love the words, mark my words, they'll be vetted and checked and edited. They will be edited so so hard that some won't even be allowed into my blog, thats how hard it will be. It'll be great believe me.

It seemed to be popular and someone asked me this. 

Are you going to build a wall around your blog?

And I answered thusly.

 I will build a wall and it will be a great wall, it will be a wonder wall, a wall of wonder, back beat the word will be on the street. It'll be so so great so fantastic, It'll be there until the fire in your heart is out. Really. I love our fantastic firefighters. Really love those guys. Girls too. I just wanna say that. Look I'm sure you've heard it all before, but I just wanna say it again and again. I have no doubts it will be fantastic, really great and you'll never really have a doubt. I don't believe that anybody especially the media with their fake news about my wall, my wonder wall, feels the way I do about it now. I feel great, I love it, I love you all, my Blog is great. Its an alternative fact that I haven't started it. So so bad. I have eleventy billion readers right now. At this moment. Its so so popular. And after all it's my wonder wall. Today was gonna be the day...

But I had my detractors who commented

Don't listen to crooked Rob and the fake news media, my blog is gonna be amazing, simply amazing and run by top people, the best people, better people than you, that's right, we're gonna lock up crooked Rob and his so called blog, we're gonna lock him up, then build a wall around him and make mexico pay for it

I retorted

 Look I like Greg I really really do. Great guy. Love his family too. Lovely family nice nice family. And his daughter. Lovely. Just 19, so so very young. I've known him a long long time really, I have, been to his house, lovely, nice daughter. Great friend. You know why I like him? He wasn't captured in Vietnam. Fantastic. a Hero. American hero. Keeps America great by not being captured by the gooks. Right. Look he does a great job. A fantastic job. Calls Putin daily by the way. Collect. Putin pays. its great. I love him. He works so so hard for me. Greg - you're fired!

Oh the fun you can have with words... and a Trump - et.

Hey I have a new website.

Check out my new website here:

www.rob-burton.co.uk

10 THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT ST VALENTINES DAY

I have just noticed that we are in the month of February. It sends shivers of fear down my spine. For February is that month, that month when we men must, above all the other months, have our wits about us. We must, when speaking with our significant other, understand every nuance of what they say to us, we must listen carefully to every sentence, analyse every word and notice every glance, every slight wrinkle of worry and doubt upon their brow, every soft sigh. We must be sure that we dredge up some romantic spark and fulfil their unspoken wishes, albeit that none of us are psychic and must fulfil these unspoken desires even though they are – unspoken!

Yes my fellow men the month of St. Valentine is upon us. 

St Valentine looking sad and worried because he forgot to buy her chocolate

10 things to remember about St Valentines Day

1. St. Valentine suffered a grisly death at the hands of the Romans. This serves to remind us men what will happen to us should, by some simple twist of fate, or sudden onrush of Alzheimer's disease, we forget the day

2. Saint Valentine is also the patron saint of epilepsy. No doubt this condition was bought on by the amount of money he had to spend on Cards, Chocolates, Flowers, Sexy underwear and other trinkets in the annual attempt to convince his partner that he is truly in love with her – and at a time, I might add, when the credit card and the bank balance are still suffering from exactly the same exercise at Christmas.

3. Lovebirds are tiny African parrots that carry disease. Therefore, although initially this seems like a romantic and apt gift for your lover, they are likely to contract psittacosis. This condition can cause fever, chills, weakness and fatigue, chest pain and loss of appetite, all of which are classic symptoms of being in love and will for a short period engender some sympathy if not out and out fawning. But as soon as the vomiting, diarrhoea, headaches and sweating start you can be sure this would be a Valentines to remember.

4. Hallmark Cards generates $4 billion in sales and charges an average $2.95 or more for a greeting card at retail while it costs the company a mere seven cents to manufacture the card. However, it is a huge mistake (see No 1) to recycle last year’s card. Don't attempt to make one unless you went to a top arts college or god forbid, forget.

5. Roman youths drew the names of girls who would be their partners during Lupercalia. This custom was Christianized and spread to Europe, England and Germany. The modern name for this is ‘swinging’. It is doubtful that your partner would be thrilled if you suggested this as a Valentines treat unless of course she is Swedish or German, where this sort of thing goes on non stop – or so I’m told. I’m not sure about what happens in the Americas.

6. Do not present your secret or intended loved one with a bouquet of Bay leaf, although this is the Valentine symbol of ‘hope’, she is more likely to interpret this as a request for a stew or soup of some kind. Better the Gardenia: ‘I love you in secret’ or the traditional Rose: ‘I love you passionately’. Although the Persians believe that ‘at night a nightingale flew toward the white rose attracted by its fragrance. He was pierced by the thorns and his blood dyed the flower red’. So not a nice image to plight your troth with.

7. One explanation for not buying chocolate this year is that the Roman equivalent of Valentine is Lupercus, the Greed god. Telling your partner (symbolically) that she is a greedy bitch whose cellulite is getting out of control is not the real message of Valentines Day is it?

8. Apparently ‘Diamonds are a girls best friend’ and are popular gifts for women during Valentines. This is perhaps because the diamond derives its name from the Greek adamas, "untameable" or "unconquerable", referring to its hardness. Similar traits to those we find in women. They may well get all soft and dewy eyed upon reciving such a gift and we men may strike it lucky that evening, but beware, these traits will re appear as soon as normal service is resumed on February 15th.

9. Apparently food is the key to expressing love and going out for a meal on Valentines Day is popular. According to one website Lobster is very popular. Last year in the UK there were 90,000 reported instances of food poisoning. Even under the best of circumstances, eating lobsters can be a public health risk. Seafood is the number one cause of food poisoning in the United States, and shellfish are involved in more than 66 percent of all seafood-related illnesses. In fact, as much as 10 percent of raw shellfish are infected with organisms that can cause hepatitis, salmonella poisoning, cholera, and even death. Maybe Valentines is the night to stay in, protect the credit card and have some Pasta! She’ll love you for being so thoughtful.

10. Cupid and Psyche, once together, (it’s a bit of a yarn) had a daughter born to them whose name was Pleasure. A lovely story of true romance but let this be a warning to all you young lovers out there, a few glasses of champagne, half a lobster and some chocolate pudding, if you survive the food poisoning, you’ll end up pregnant and be paying for it for the rest of your lives. A daughter called Pleasure, I think not. Maybe a daughter called Wilful, Disobedient, Headstrong and ‘You’re not going out in a skirt that short are you’?

So men, muster your courage, grab that box of dairy milk, and the wilting bunch of twelve roses from the garage forecourt, strengthen your resolve and with beating heart, bend your knee and pledge yourself to your loved one.

You know it makes sense.

BTW - Check out my new website Rob Burton