The blog has been a bit quiet for the last month because I’ve been in China having a bit of a holiday. Look out for more pictures and posts coming as I get round to it!

I thought I’d share a few snippets of Chinese culture as I come across them from while I was away. Today I’ve got some modern Chinese pop music, wedding customs, and spicy food (not all in one pot, fortunately) for you to digest.

I think it is a fair statement to say that China is completely different in just about every possible way from the UK. Sure cars still have four wheels and a steering wheel, people still have two legs, arms and eyes, and the sun rises in the east (东) and sets in the west (西), but that’s pretty much where the similarities end. Food is served and eaten differently, the customs are completely different, and subway stops are so far apart you couldn’t walk it if you wanted to.

A few nights ago, the TweetMeme team was invited to DediPower’s launch party for their latest datacenter. Fortunately enough I was able to go along, and along with the great conversation, catching up with friends from DediPower, and nice food and drink, the highlight of the evening was a live performance by Una and the Balkan Bears.

I won’t go into too much detail of their history as you can get it on their myspace page. However I will say that they were brilliant live. Great fun to watch, awesome music, and outstanding skill. I did find myself turning around a few times and saying that that kind of skill just shouldn’t be allowed!

It was a brilliant evening and if anyone gets the chance to catch them while they’re over here I highly recommend it. Some pictures and video embedded below.

I have three things to say the video below.

First of all, that album arrived from Amazon a couple of days ago, and I really didn’t think it had that track on it. It turns out that it was on the last track and had an extra verse sneaked in so I didn’t recognise it.

Second, it’s actually a brilliant live performance when current pop artists really can’t do that kind of thing. She actually plays the piano and sings live! Not enough of that is done these days.

Finally, the video is completely epic. Check it out.

And now for something a little different.

The

Yesterday I was in town, and spotted a sale on. I came home, showed my housemates my purchases, and all they had to say was that I’d bought a load of cheese.

Cheese