Sunday, 11 December 2011

Pingxiang Revisited

I’ve managed to get back to Pingxiang twice since returning to China, mostly for the street food (wrap man had clearly missed me) but also to see Lydia.  The first time was early September, en route to Xiamen.  I can’t remember if I mentioned that Lydia was pregnant, but she was 7 months in at this point and pretty big.  To celebrate her size and the fact that I was in Pingxiang, she decided that we should have a photoshoot to ‘preserve the happy memories’.  So, for sheer comedic value, here we are, preserving the happy memories…

As you can see, for the first take, we went pink.  The colour of babies.  Observe the fake eyelashes that were stuck to Lyd’s belly to make a face.

The photographer also did individual shots of us both.  Here's the most obvious choice of poses for a pregnancy photoshoot - behind a small dressing table, holding a pot of flowers, shouting something.
In the second and much more uncomfortable take we went ‘dark and sexy’.  And, in Lydia’s case, largely unclothed.
There are few words.  It was quite the Chinese pregnancy experience.
 
Anyway, a couple of months later, in the first week of November, I returned to pick up the rest of my clothes and visit the newest addition to Lydia's family, Yang Zhen Yi, English name Jenny.  She was born on 1/11/11, is in good health, super tiny and, sadly, the spitting image of her dad.

Here’s the proud mother.


And here I am on the 22-hour train ride back to Xiamen…
Until next time, Pingxiang.