And it was really heart-warming to see how proud they are that their daughter is competing in an Olympic Games.
Cassie’s mother, Zandra, was in tears just talking about her daughter’s achievement in making it to Beijing.
However, the Pattens are a bit worried about how they are going to cope with the language and the food in China – just like I was.
They are all vegetarians and know it will be a bit difficult to check if something has got meat in it or not, if they can’t speak or read Chinese.
However, they did say they do like noodles, so they may be surviving on those for 10 days.
Cassie said that when she visited Beijing last year she went to a function and told them that she was a vegetarian and that she did not want meat. They assured her they understood.
Anyway, when her food arrived she screamed as there was a chicken’s head in it. According to her, the caterers at that event thought that would be okay as there was no ‘meat’ with it.
Visiting China is certainly very interesting. The culture is so different. It is not like visiting Europe or North America.
But I have noticed that there are two different cultures at work in China.
There is the traditional and the modern, but they both seem to coincide quite happily.
I visited a shopping centre yesterday and sat having a coffee in a Starbucks on the ground floor.
One side of the coffee shop faced outside into a park area and the other into the mall.
Looking out of the windows I could see people buy designer clothes and high tech electrical goods on my right, but on my left there were people sat and laid out on stone benches or the floor, some playing some sort of game and others drinking something out of jam jars with leaves in it. There were also road sweepers passing travelling on bikes and using witches brooms to clean the pavements.
I have noticed that people over here do like to sit on the floor.
It was quite funny as I went back to the supermarket where I had previously bought the scan disc reader and hairdryer.
This time, though, I made sure I did not make any eye contract with any shop assistants, even when they stood right next to me.
Yet this shop – a Chinese Wal-Mart – had a television section and it was showing Olympic diving.
I went over to see how the Brits were doing, but I was quite amazed to see other people just sat on the floor of the store watching this big television.
Others came and joined as well. You just could not image people going into a supermarket in England and just sitting on the floor watching the TV.
I did watch for a bit, but I didn’t sit down, and I even managed to get out of the store this time without buying anything – I’m learning!
Later in the evening I went to watch former Plymouth hockey player Jon Bleby compete for Great Britain against Holland.
Even thought the game started at 9pm it was still incredibly hot and I don’t know how both teams managed to keep up the pace they did.
It was a bit gutting as GB looked to have held out for at least a draw, thanks to some great defending and goalkeeping by Alistair McGregory, but with less than eight minutes on the clock Holland scored a winner.
Jon’s family, including his parents, who live in Derriford, were in the ground cheering their son on and trying to make themselves heard over masses of orange Dutch fans.
Meanwhile, I have started a new task to try and find as many Plymouth links as possible in Beijing, other than the athletes and their families.
However, so far the only thing I have come up with is a new office/residential complex called Central Park, which has its entrance written in both English and Chinese.
Anyway I will keep searching for some more.
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