Hear this loud and clear - I experienced a real Spring Festival

One promise I had made to myself living in China was to find a real Chinese Spring Festival, in a village, with real people rather than foreigners and city types.

Having rented a farmhouse in just such a village, I didn't really have an excuse not to do so this year.

But memories of a night shivering there a few weeks earlier were still fresh, and having told my best friend how awful it had been, I was convinced - and hopeful - she would turn down the suggestion.