Praze-an-Beeble

The title of this blog, Praze-an-Beeble, is the name of a the village which I drove through to get to Godolphin House, a superb grade 1 listed granite built building dating from Tudor and Stuart times where once lived the Godolphin family until the 18th century. It is now owned by the National Trust but currently closed for some urgently needed restoration work. The collonade has some structural problems which the architects, conservation specialists "Architecton", aked me to look at.
Anyway, back to Praze-an-Beeble, which I hazarded a guess at the origin of this peculiar sounding appellation. I enquired of the National Trust buildings man, Malcolm who is a local person and extremely amiable, and confirmed my guess. The inhabitants of the eponomous village were strong Methodists and the adjoining villages referred to them as "all praise and bible people" hence the Cornish vernacular corruption into praze-an-beeble!


The other property which I visited was a fairly remote farm over the moor from the famous Daphne Du Maurier Jamaica Inn. It was a medieval hall house which was greatly changed over the centuries but retains its original "crossing" twixt animal house and human house. There are a number of ancient original features around the building too including granite gate posts, animal water troughs and steps.



The property can only be accessed by a track, which crosses a stream, and is totally unsuitable for any vehicle apart from a 4WD, so on this occasion I excuse the owners for possessing one!!! It is truly a beautiful collection of buildings encompassing a lot of history and set in a wonderful location. Once again I am lucky to see and work on such places.

Spring must be here! (Cornwall and Somerset)

In my role as a consultant in things "historical for the repair of structurally" I get to see some interesting buildings, places and countryside, and as such I am extremely lucky. This week is proving no exception.
A visit to a mediaeval barn in Somerset provided an opportunity to see some newly born lambs, and their mums, in addition to a magnificent barn which needs some serious work doing to it.





The barn is being restored and thankfully will remain as a barn as the owner of the farm recognises the important status of the building. The very caring consultant overseeing the structural aspects is my dear friend Patrick Stow, who also acts for Somerset County Council in things of historical importance.

Back in the fog

Our return flight from Beijing was delayed by one hour at departure due to "technical problems" on the incoming flight, always a bit worrying, and then we had a really smooth good flight as compensation. However when we neared Heathrow there was the inevitable fog and we were "stacked" in loops around the airport to allow waiting flights to get landed and others to take off. The food was as bad as ever and I fail to see why BA cannot serve up a half decent meal like Virgin does!
As we had landed so late we missed our connection and had to re-book and pay an extra fiver for the privelidge! We eventually arrived home after 10pm instead of the anticipated 7pm and dropped into bed without eating and just pleased to be at home again.
We might need to go back to Nanjing in March or April so should be a bit warmer then.

A Very Cold trip in Beijing

Our flight from Heathrow was delayed by nearly 2 hours due to the fog and allowing the waiting incoming flights to come in before our take off. 10 hours later we arrived at Beijing


We arrived in Beijing to a warm reception from our hosts who met us at the airport and whisked us off to our hotel but the weather was less than warm being a chilly minus 2. The next few days were spent in meetings with the Police and Army of the PRC and two outings.
We had a convivial time and some interesting meals, especially those in the country. We were accompanied by a colleague of mine this time who had not been to China before and it was all a bit of a shock to him!! I must say to his credit that he was brave and tried a number of unusual food items despite some initial misgivings. He even quickly learnt the use of chopsticks by necissity due to the lack of western "eating irons" in the country.



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The Army camp was located a few hours North of Beijing, beyond the Great Wall, and getting near to Inner Mongolia. Hence the coldness was nearing that of Siberia not too many miles Northwest of us!!
The writer and his companion took shelter from the bitter wind in an army bunker!

Overall the trip was very successful despite some shortcomings on the client side and we now expect to return again in the summer.

Have you seen any foxes...? Happy New Year

A Very Happy New Year to all friends & family and anyone who reads this blog.
We celebrated the coming of 2009 over a few days with family and friends and neighbours in various ways,all of which were most convivial and enjoyable. We will not bore you with the details of these intimate times spent by relating names, places and details apart from an anonymous event which was amusing to all who were there.
The aspects of local wildlife came into the conversation and a long term friend and partner, who live in woodlands, enquired of my wife if she sees any foxes in China?
She thoughtt for a moment and then said "Yes, in zoos", then added helpfully "and in restaurants". Our friends at first looked puzzled but then their expressions turned into one of slight shock and horror as it dawned on them that the restaurant inclusion meant that fox was on the menu!! My wife then laughed to cover her embarassment and apologised to them, bless her. Thankfully it was all taken well and the evening continued in a harmonious state.

Christmas reflections

Christmas Eve we attended midnight mass, it being dry and not too cold for once outside, and was very warm in the church with about 80% full congregation. A very good service with some delightful music, Smiths Mass setting and a Tavener piece to inspire the soul. The sermon was forgettable but caused me to reflect upon those times this last year when the plight of others had been brought to mind by personal experience or witness of occasions. Two such events of contrasting, but by no means less meaningful, were respectively in Edinburgh and Chengdu. The first was the return parade of "the Scottish Regiment" along the Royal Mile. We stood outside the City Hall atop the hill and heard the bagpipes from the bottom of the hill gradually becoming louder as they ascended with the marching troops. As the soldiers passed the Brigadier and Sheriff they gave the salute. We were very moved by the sight of these battle worn men recently returned from Afghanistan and could see the battle stress in their faces. The column of troops was followed by one of their soldiers in his wheelchair.
The other event was at Chengdu Station in Sechuan Province, China where we alighted from the train and found hundreds of young soldiers on the platform with lots of gear waiting to go to Tibet. The Government had brought their parents to see them off and would transport them home subsequently.
To serve in Tibet is considered an honour as to be picked for duty you need to be very fit so that you can endure the harsh conditions and rare atmosphere in that part of the World. These young men are also facing the unknown and their families fearful for their safety and anxious about their returning home one day.
We have not yet been to Tibet but hope to in 2009 or 2010 if we have time. There is a new train service from Beijing to Lhasa taking about 4 days through very spectacular scenery which we would like to try along with two Chinese friends.
Anyway, these memories came to mind whilst at mass and reminded me of others who need us to include them in our prayers.
May your Christmas be peaceful and Happy.

Not another banking story........?

I took this photo in Nanjing in November and think that it is an apt subject for the banking fraternity, showing a forlorn, desperate man on the steps in front of a bank!
My latest experience with Lloyds TSB is pretty unbelievable. In September I used the bank to send a few hundred US Dollars to a person in China, by an express "International Moneymover" as they like to call it. the bank had sent me a text message confirming the completion of the process. I have done this on many occasions in the past. This was a first time payment to the particular recipient whose bank is located in Kowloon. The receipient recently called me to say the money had not been received, so I sent a copy of the Bank Form that had been completed, by the bank clerk, to them as proof of payment. A few days later the chinese person called again to say the money had definately NOT been received. I headed for the bank with copies of all the paperwork, including the recipients bank details which they had emailed to me and which I had given to the bank clerk to use on the bank form. I had checked all the details after the clerk had finished and before the bank sent it off. At the bank I related the facts and handed all the paperwork to "Bill" the friendly bank clerk who said it would take while to check it all out as they ahd to contact the International Dept. OK. After about 50 minutes Bill came back with the Branch Manager in tow, a female called Lucy. Lucy then proceeded to say that the bank form had been filled in wrongly as Kowloon (Hong Kong) is not in China!!!!!
I was flabbergasted by this statement and assured her that Hong Kong IS IN CHINA. She maintained her insistance about this and was very aggressive, defensive and assertive while poor Bill stood to one side in an embarrased fashion. I asked Lucy if she had ever been to Hong Kong and if she realised that the UK had handed back Hong Kong to the Chinese a few years ago. After confessing that she had NOT been to Hong Kong or anywhere near it she gave me a short lecture on her version of the history and status of Hong Kong. Having told her that I have been there 4 times in the last 3 years she merely said that the discussion could go on for hours like this and refused to concede the point. However she did say that as far as the Banking fraternity were concerned Hong Kong is not in China which belied the truth of the matter. Her staff needed more training about THEIR systems and to know this fact. In the end she agreed to re-send the money without further charge and to pay the difference in exchange rate between now and the original date as there was a difference of about 30 cents to the pound!! So I believe that she had admitted their mistake by that action. After she had vanished I looked at Bill who had a wry smile on his face, he is no fool. I told him that her behavious had been outrageous and was no way to treat a customer as the whole argument was in the main banking hall in front of all the staff and customers. I think she must have been suffering from PMT that day or had too much coffee that morning. She is not the right sort of person to be a branch manager and I intend to write to her superiors about the incident. When I returned home to my Chinese wife and told her that Hong Kong is not in China she looked at me in total disbelief!! Gone are the days when bank managers were educated gentlemen with polite and courteous manners. More's the pity. Perhaps if we still had them the current banking mess would not have happened?