Published by Swiss James on 22 Jan 2008 at 12:04 pm
Harbin Two
As I was warned, cameras freeze up fast in the cold weather. By the time the sun went down and the mercury hit -25 C I was lucky to get a couple photos off before the battery cried for mercy and I had to warm it up again down my trousers.
I did manage to take this video clip though, and they say that a video is worth a thousand photos. Featured in all its glory here are the people enjoying horse and carriage rides, Westminster Abbey, umm the moon- oh loads of stuff.
Emma’s camera did better than mine. Firstly it’s mostly plastic on the outside, no doubt frequenter commenter dingle (who has a phD in plastic- I kid you not) will tell us why that makes a difference- and secondly it can take normal AA batteries, replacements for which she bought from a shop/hut inside the festival which she said was
“Like the first Christmas. There was straw on the ground and a donkey passed the batteries to me”
I don’t really know what else to say about the festival except that in the public toilet cubicle there was frozen pee just about everywhere you looked.
So, how to survive that kind of cold? Well as I learn from NASA, it’s all in the layers*
Harbin Ice & Snow Festival. Entrance 150 RMB for grown ups, 75 RMB for nippers. Should be on until end of Feb
[*warning, video may contain footage of me in my underwear].
Did you try the experiment of seeing whether a stream of water (or other liquid) freezes before it hits the ground?
That picture of Emma putting on a brave face, trying not to look too much like she’s in severe pain is priceless. Why do you have some gloves tied round your gooleys? Have you got something special down there that the rest of us don’t?
I think Harbin can easily claim to be the Blackpool of China with that light display. Was there gangs of youths on every corner spoiling for a fight?
CP- I did see one man with his old chap out, peeing into the wind on a street corner. He’s still stuck there as far as I know.
WoAi- she never complained once about the cold you know- I think because it was her idea and I made it plain that such behaviour would not be tolerated.
I’d attached my big outer gloves to my jacket because I’m so hard, I didn’t even need them
dingle- sadly not. And no tranny bars either.
Glad to see you wear the trousers and yer bird knows her place.
By the way, did you both work on the title of this post together, coz it’s a corker!
1. i clicked to the link *just* to see you in your undies.
2. i don’t care what you say, you both look cold.
3. Woai: what the heck did you mean by “bird knows her place”? comment, huh? (*insert femi-nazi cry of indignation here.)
4. cool pics!
Layers clip was very cool.
I did however then follow links to other Swiss James youtube posts.
How many drinks before we see another Timberlake rendition?
The Shed is in need of some live music.
WoAi- This is the advantage of 14 year old girls, and yes we spent the whole plane journey back working on that bad boy!
Angie- when you say I look cold in my undies, what exactly do you mean?
Lordluncheon- I’m always up for a bit of Timberlake, and as soon as I work out where The Shed is, I’m all over it
Angie I think you know what I am talking about - seen and not heard, speak only when spoken to and all that.
SJ I knew it must have been a collaborative effort because you couldn’t possibly have come up with it on your own.
Swiss, we’ve been to the Shed haven’t we, wasn’t that where we went with Liam when you knocked out some Radiohead number on the guitar while I slept on the bar?
dingle- ah no, see that’s The Hut- I made that mistake too. Aren’t you going to bang on about Specific Heat Capacity in yesterday’s post by the way?
Hut, Shed, Shelter - people are gonna think we’re living in the amazonian rainforest of something rather than a major metropolis.
pm on expat
I am so jealous. I was supposed to go to Harbin when I was in China, but I ran out of money(long story) and couldn’t go. Maybe one of these days I will make it there.