So far so good but poor as can be

---

The tennants have left, the global financial situation has gone to pot, and the money spent in the wild decadent days in the early part of the trip cannot be made up now however cheap the aubergines in Yangshuo. Nevertheless, I am normally poor, and so it is almost like being back home living on the smell of an oily rag.I may have to get a job here, and I rather like the prospect. There is an advertisement for English teachers in a window. Free accommodation and food, free visa 4000-6000 RMB a month. Very lovely scenery and lots of time to sketch. It can work, it can work . . .

I am into my overdraft, and my longsuffering parents are about to go on holiday. Heaven help me. At least you can get a plate of excellent dumplings here for 45p. I will be eating a lot of them.

Have not lost too many things recently. The drawback about this is that the backpack is weighing a ton. I have sent home presents and they haven't arrived. Very sweet niece has said her present sounds nice and thank you anyway. The child has been well brought up, a present lost in the post would have been scant consolation for me at the age of eight, actually even now.

Here are the first two photos back when I was new to travelling and spent 80 quid a day and missed train stops. A couple of blogs will have to be for playing catch up. They will mainly be about how to fuck up on a global scale. It is all the rage these days.

Alex

---

Photos

Alex B in Paris
Day One, very confident, young Mia had given me her lunchbox. It was a long journey and I would need lunch.

Alex B in Rome
Early days when money spent like water.