Free liquid lunch and an email

Class today was OK, it’s hard to fully concentrate with this bloody cold. A lot of interesting things happened afterwards though…

I was going to meet Beth but she had plans so burger and a pint sounded amazing to me. Feeling a bit of a fatty I got a jian bing on the way (might not buy from that dude any more though, his spicy sauce allows for horrors in the future). Arriving at No.12, and before I even ordered, the assistant brewer thrust a sample of their latest beer under my nose, so new it doesn’t even have a name yet. Tasted fantastic, very hoppy-bitter, nom. I’m getting a bit of a rapport with the staff here, which is ace. I ordered a burger and pint of their Pale Ale #6 (in total was 45RMB/4.50GBP again, cheap must be a deal).

After annihilating the food and ordering a very nice mocha stout an older Australian/South-African (I couldn’t decide) dude wanted what I was having. This soon got us in conversation. Real nice guy and he showed me an application he had written (he is over 50 and a self taught programmer) that analyses the stock market on the fly, but can do a whole bunch of wonders, it’s being released next year. His wife is a high up member in Microsoft and he showed me trips that they get fully paid for (Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, etc). We chatted about religion, work, sport, Scotland…. All this time he was fueling us with these stouts, he bought us 4 each. Jebus I was close to getting hammered here and it wasn’t even tea time.

We then befriended an Australian (and his wee 4 year old son, very cool kid) and his American mate. I got the Aussie’s contact details as he said if anything goes tits up I should give him a shout (it won’t Nat I’m sure! 🙂 ). The South African Australian guy left and me not long after, the “fresh” air hitting me like a sack of spuds. I arrived home just in time for tea, say hello to Randy and play Worms with Benjamin.

Oh yeah so two important things happened today. Firstly, as of next week I’m getting one-on-one Mandarin classes, which is great, really is. I should be able to kick up the learning by being able to study at my own pace (note: a faster one). Secondly I got this email…

Thank you very much Australia

HAPPY FUCKING DAYS!!! 😀

HAHA! Honestly I was so fecking chuffed, I got this email in the pub and could have stayed and got hammered, alas it wasn’t meant to be. So I’ve booked my flights and travel insurance, come the 20th of January I’m off to Melbourne. It’s Official.

BOOM! 😀