MenoninMinle

Greetings. I've not written owt for a bit. The reason for this is relatively simple. I recently asked an ex-VSO China volunteer (a recent escapee) for a bit of information over the internet. They happened to comment that China was a fascinating place to live and a shit place to work. I guess this has become all too apparent, and I've been counting the days, inbetween occasional lapses into minor interest. I've slipped from studying Mandarin on a daily basis and practicing it with whoever I have the chance to at every opportunity, to not studying at all and not even bothering to chat to people at work. Mmmm...why? It's complex. I think the only thing I can say right now is...I will never, ever, ever come back here. When I look at it objectively, I ... read more

Hmmm...sequels are always a bit of a disappointment, so I'll keep this brief and to the point. We left Kunming and headed to Dali by bus. Spent a few days hanging out at a lovely guest house run by an Australian guy called Dave. I did a lot of watching films n sitting in the sunny courtyard hacking up gunk and sneezing a lot. It was, and still is, Chinese New Year here (it seems to go on forever! It starts on the first and ends on the 15th day of lunar January) and a lot of Chinese tourists come to Dali to celebrate. Celebrating New Year involves cleaning the house, getting together with the family and eating a lot (unsurprisinglty!). People buy special New Year couplets (normally on red paper, which is a lucky colour) ... read more

Nothing really happens. Well, nothing of note...in the vast majority of the endless hours that stretch between the dawn of our time memorial and our sudden and ultimate exit from this bizarre cauldren of existence. If you were to eliminate the major dramatic incidents from your life, I suppose you'd find that the remaining 98 percent of your existence was composed entirely of routine scurrying and scuttling, domestic ordinarities, nail clipping and whiling away hours awaiting things which are quite pleasant yet don't quite account for the complete disregard of all the hours inbetween. Maybe I should pay more attention to the inbetween hours although I have precious little to mention. Work has seeped between the days and filled up the gaps of my every waking hour like some kind of mercurial poison since the commencement ... read more

Greetings all, I've finally got around to starting up a working, operational blog. As I have a terrible memory, I'm hoping that it will help me to record some memory of the world around my for my own security...then when I'm old, withered and entrenched in my own senility, I'll be able to read the Chinese section of my life's adventures and learn something of what my feeble mind failed to register. So for all those with too much time on their hands, or for those who have a despairingly sick fascination with the day to day drudgery of my life, here's a little window into my world. Go ahead, have a peek... Life here is pretty relaxed and it's generally a really healthy lifestyle. I've never eaten so much...we get fed three times a day...all ... read more