No rest for the wicked

I had a wee bit of a hangover when I got up and it wasn’t going to have much time to recover…

Most of today was spent chilling inside until tea time was approaching so I took my first step outside to buy some ingredients at Coles. I threw together a Thai vegetable stir-fry, it was all right. Both Nat and Jean had left at this point so I watched some TV along with ‘Gravity‘, watching this in IMAX would have been something.

When Nat got back from her family meal it wasn’t that long before our Skype date with Jefner and Garcia, this is where things get messy… Part the way through our chat we had run out of booze so I suggested we visit Nat’s folks house (they were away) so we went down the road and continued our drinking/chatting there, I think it wrapped up about 7am. Jebus. To say our chat was ‘interesting’ would be quite a large understatement. Brilliant to chat with my chums though, really was great. 🙂

[My apologies if I haven’t caught up with everyone back home, this will be done eventually. :-)]

Ill again. You cannot be serious?!?!

Well last nights “sleep” was pretty rubbish, my throat doing it’s best to keep me awake. I woke up this morning feeling a tad shite. Seems to be a different breed of ‘cold’ than the other two and came on quick. So it’s been nearly 6 months I’ve been here and this is the 3rd time I’ve felt ill, totally crap as back home I could go a year with maybe one spell of illness. For this China I dislike you.

Because I felt crap I stayed in today, try and rest up this time (drink plenty of fluids, etc) rather than power through it like the other times. It was by no means an uneventful day though as Kathy (Benjamin’s mate) came over and I was soon mucking about with them. The main game we played was ‘Detective vs Thief’ where the thief hides an item in the room, leaves a written clue and the detectives hunt for it. Quite fun actually, was good to spend almost a full day with the little ninja. A Christmas card from my Dad and co arrived, that was nice and Benjamin got the stamps. 🙂

Lunch was Papa John’s pizza’s and for tea we went to a restaurant in the mall. Stuffed as usual, favourites were the stuffed bing and sweet sticky rice ball things, nom. Afterwards Benjamin bought (note: his mum bought) some playdoh. Most of the kits there, and the advert that was running, all amount to making food! Pizza, ice cream, cakes, fruit, spaghetti, etc. Jebus H, it’s bad enough telling kids not to eat it without this.

Leaving the family I popped past Costa and paid the extortionate price of 31RMB/3.10GBP for a mocha. The plan was to leech their wifi and have a Skype chat with my mum but it turns out no one was awake, it was after 12 noon there! Michty me. Anyway I got home and (when they got up) chatted to my mum and younger brother, was good to catch up with them. I haven’t spoke to my mum since I’ve been here, oops sorry mum.

The rest of the night I chilled and watched ‘The Shawshank Redemption’, such a good film. 🙂

Here piggy piggy piggy…

So the plan this weekend is to go skiing. 🙂 Suzy mentioned it yesterday and it’s been organised today. Leave early on Saturday (like 7AM) and head to ‘Yunfoshang Ski Resort‘, rent some equipment and ski for the day. It’s only costing around 150RMB/15GBP, WTF that is cheap, I think it’s a coupon or something. We shall see what it’s like when we get there but she says it’s supposed to be good. Looking forward too it!

A creature of beer habit I went to Great Leap for a bulger and a few jars. This visit had more purpose though as I got on the Skype and had a good few hours blether with Nat in Oz land. Apparently it was hailing it down there. She mentioned that a motor-home was being rented for the festival instead of a van, meaning they can take the stuff to sell and sleep in it. Yas. She also mentioned a festival in February, ‘White Night‘, which lasts over 12 hours and parts of the city are shutdown to make room for loads of events like raves in churches, art stuff, fashion, film, sport, etc. Sounds ace and most of it is free! 😀

Had almost zero time to chat with staff before finishing my pint and off home I went. Chatted with Randy before he started tutoring Benjamin, I went a revised some Chinese for tomorrows class. Afterwards me and the wee man carried out some Lego spaceship races. Oh and never let a child get first pick on ice creams, chances are they will pick the one you want. Bugger.

(I didn’t do it)

“I’d like a mocha and a bowl of rice please.”

Not much to report today, usual lazy Sunday.

Zero hangover (didn’t drink much last night and what I did drink had tried to storm the Great Wall of Pizza in my stomach, and failed) just tired as I got up just after 9AM. Benjamin and Co were up and out quite soon in the morning so I just chilled. Was planning on Skyping Aussie mate Nat but she seemed to be off the grid (where are you Nat, check yer email min?! :-P).

Tea time me and Ben got to drink our beers, he enjoyed that. Benjamin had brought home his work from EF class which was a menu for ‘Star Box’, I think there is enough difference there to avoid being sued. There was good chat over dinner.

Oh and it’s December now, jebus. It’s still very dry here so not expecting snow any time soon. Hey next month I’ll be in Oz… wowzers. 🙂

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! 😀