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. 🙂

Does exactly what it says on the tin

Noodles for lunch (Nothing but noodles these past few days! Thankfully I love noodles.) then off to class. The basic structure of our lessons is definitely 90% chat with 10% learning new words. I think she has picked up on this though as I’ve been given homework, write about Christmas Day back home compared to what I did here. I also learned (The 90% chat includes a lot of cultural lessons) that in the North of China they like to eat salty food but in the South they prefer their food sweet. I explained “Smoked Corn Chicken” (If you’ve not eaten that why not?!) back home and thought it was made up for us Westerners turns out it could be a Taiwanese dish called “Sanbeiji” or “3 Cup Chicken”. Turns out it’s not the same dish but looks good.

Nom’d some baozi on the way home and when I got in, all relaxed, Goa A Yi had realised she’d run out of oil so asked me to nip to the shops and get some. Nothing gets in the way of food! I was the Hero of the hour. Tea wasn’t noodles either it was pork (Surprise!) but I do love this though, the meat clings on to fairly large chunks of fat but they almost melt in the mouth. Nom. Talked to Yu more about Australia and found out everyone will be leaving on the same day, so the parents are off to Japan, Benjamin is off to Taiwan and Goa A Yi will be heading back to her home town. Everyone is apparently leaving in the morning (I was hoping to go with them to the airport but I have a late flight) but Yu said she would try and get her driver to take me there. Yas! One less thing to worry about.

When Benjamin got home we played a tad of Lego and a bet was made (as usual!) but if I lost it would mean I couldn’t leave and had to stay here forever. Awww! Cute little sod. He’s been mentioning this more as it gets closer to OZ-DAY, it’s nice to know he will miss me. 🙂

Oh and all of a sudden today I’ve been hit by, possibly, another cold. Yup! WTF. I was sneezing a lot today, then a running nose in the evening and at night my throat went. This better just be a passing thing… 😦

The need to see my insides…

For some reason I didn’t get much sleep last night, at least my throat feels a TAD better. Probably jinxed that now.

Before class I emailed the Australian visa folks to ask for more clarification on the need for an x-ray. I’ve also emailed the 3 medical companies that have been approved by Oz for carrying out these checks. The lowest quote I got was 450RMB/45GBP which is O-K but an extra expense I hadn’t prepared for. The response from immigration may take a week so I’m being pro-active and booked the x-ray for Wednesday. Sooner done the better. (The visa form was super easy to fill in, clearly deceptively so)

Class was interesting today as the teacher (rightfully so I must add) had a go at the two girls I study with. They chat all the time and it disrupts the lessons, we are apparently behind in the textbook than everyone else. I’ve asked to be moved, hopefully on my own, so I can get the tuition I want. I OD’d on 4 baozi afterwards so that was good.

Received a couple more replies from breweries, all highly positive (one loving the fact I stated I had a beard, him saying it is fundamental to brewing) but ultimately they didn’t have any positions available, although one passed my details to their bar manager. Working in a bar is definitely next in line, one that serves craft beer preferably, but you need an RSA certificate. Easy done though it can cost around $50 for a half day class with a guaranteed pass, pretty much.

Did some homework with Benjamin, he also helped me with my Chinese homework. Class tomorrow but what I’m really looking forward too is a burger and pint at No.12. 🙂 (Hopefully my cold will start to feck off too)

Planning for future Adventures (+ a cold)

The cold definitely has me in it’s grip, mainly around the jugular. Last night I couldn’t hear properly like my volume had been turned down, my sinuses playing up. Always worse in the morning. So because of this I didn’t want to do anything today, in saying that though it was far from unproductive.

I submitted my online application for my Australian visa, fired off no less than 52 emails containing my CV to breweries in the Victoria area and bought my ticket to the ‘Rainbow Serpent‘ music and arts festival. 😀 Apparently the visa’s are processed fairly quickly (although mine seems to require an x-ray, which will be a slight pain in the arse to organise) so should hear back this week, then I can book flights. I’m expecting replies from breweries to be in dribs and drabs, if at all. Three replied all ready saying they were too small a setup (no brewery yet) and one offered to buy me a beer. And the festival kicks off a day or two after I arrive! Nat and her mate have a stall selling their wares (custom designed tee’s and stuff) and I’ll be helping too. Super looking forward to that. 🙂

The family was out most of today (Benjamin was at EF class) so around tea time Yu messaged me and I went over to the mall to meet them for tea. I haven’t been to this restaurant before (I can’t remember which province was it’s style) but it was very good, the filled bing’s and fall-off-the-bone beef were the highlights. I left needing a lie down. Stuffed. Helped Benjamin build another Lego robot, he did it all really, and showed him leek spin (no I didn’t not show him the alternate site). Class tomorrow as we are still catching up from holidays owed.