Oct 26, 2011 - Back again to Zhaoqing, in time for my farewell dinner!

Winnie and I left the hotel, to find something to eat, before going to get the bus back to Zhaoqing. We crossed the road, and found a gorgeous shop, filled with clothing and other items from Yunnan Province. Lots of lovely jewellery, and souvenir type things, so I called Andy, to make sure that he and Angie find the place. We had an interesting lunch, in a little local sort of a place, which was dirt cheap. And Winnie was talking about the fact that a lot of the really cheap places use re-cycled oil which is really bad for your health. And...

Oct 16, 2011 - Cheryl leaves, then dinner with Winnie and Liao, and then a party on the 14th floor.

Cheryl left around 9.30 in the morning, to head to the airport in Guangzhou, along with Andy Hu, who had to go back to Guangzhou anyway, so volunteered to be her escort. I had had a message from Winnie, inviting me to have dinner with her and Liao, so I walked from the college, down to the International Square shopping centre, to wait for Winnie. On the way, at the BBQ restaurant near the Moslem Mosque, I saw a white goat tethered. I hope he was not waiting for the slaughterman!! But he did look happy enough though!! Winnie, Liao and I had...

Sep 30, 2011 - Back in China, with Mandy to meet us.

When we landed in KL, our first stop was at the Airside transit hotel, to confirm Cheryl's reservation for her return stop-over in KL. But we were disappointed to find that the hotel will be closed for renovations at that time, so she will have to make another choice for her overnight stop. We met up with Kerry and Terry for coffee at Starbucks, before heading off for our respective flights, and our onward journeys. It was good to see them, specially after my initial unsureness at seeing a woman approaching, and reaching our for my...

Jul 18, 2011 - A pleasant evening meal with Annie.

Not much to do today, so I ended up emptying my suitcase onto the bed, and re-packing it. I must be either getting terribly bored, or confused. I needed to check what was packed, and what needed packing. It is so long now, since I started packing, that I have no idea what I put in. Annie had called me to see if we could catch up for dinner tomorrow night, but I told her that this would not work, and it had to be tonight. So she called her friend Mindy, to see if she was available for tonight. But Mindy was in Guangzhou, so it would just be...

Jul 17, 2011 - I can't believe this - the guy sold me a return ticket to downtown Hong Kong - not the airport!!

For some unknown reason, I woke up early this morning. But I made a coffee and went back to bed. At just after 9am, Skype was ringing, so I dragged myself to the computer. Just as well it was, because it was Craig calling. He is very happy at having to be at the airport to pick me up, but not so happy about my arrival time. It will mean he will have to get up very early on Friday morning. But then, that is what sons are for, isn't it!! I was hanging about, doing cross stitch, while watching Aussie TV on the computer, when something told me...

Jul 16, 2011 - John's housewarming, and a trip to town.

I had planned to go in to town in the morning, to bank the money for Mr Forever and also to get my bus ticket. But, eventually procrastination won, and I decided that I could just go on my way to John's house. I am invited there at 3pm for a housewarming party. At lunch time, I called Cheer, to see if he could meet me at 2.30 at the bank, in case I have any troubles negotiating my way around the ATM, and then to come to the Hua Qiao Hotel, to help me get a bus ticket for next Thursday. I set out on the bus, and got to the ICBC bank a little...

Jul 15, 2011 - At last, a seat on a plane heading to Perth.

I had been sitting around here all day, totally stressing out about my return to Australia. Mr Forever could get me on a Malaysian Airlines flight, either before the 19th, which is no good, because I will not have my passport back by then, or after the 24th, which is also not good, because Cruz's birthday is on the 23rd, and I absolutely want to be there for that. Greg and I talked about it, and decided to give him until 4pm, then I would phone him, and find out what progress he is making. What an absolute bummer, these last few days. It...

Jul 14, 2011 - Not easy to find a flight home!!

Well, I am not sure what is going on. But, on the Malaysian Airlines website, there are sold out dates, but something I have never seen before. From July 21 to July 24, the are 'no flight'. That is clear, but something I have never seen before. Investigating further, it seems that there are flights to Kuala Lumpur, but none from KL to Perth, which of course is pretty critical to me!! A very frustrating day for me. I had had a couple of emails from Mr Forever last night, but he had the dates wrong. In the end I had rang him, to ask about...

Jul 13, 2011 - Got my replacement emergency passport.

My passport was here at 10am this morning, so I rang Nicole, to let her know. She was going to come straight up here, but then rang me back, to say that it seemed like it would be better to go to the PSB in the afternoon, to give us more time to deal with the bureaucracy!! I had printed off all the information I had found online, to show Nicole that it should not need to take half a month to get a visa into my passport, and to give my argument some extra weight. So, at lunch time, I went out to get passport photos for the visa, and then met...

Jul 12, 2011 - Waiting, waiting, waiting for passport to arrive.

Well, I definitely did not achieve much today. I was basically waiting around for the delivery of my passport. When it had not arrived by late afternoon, I called the Australian Consulate, and they said that it was processed, and would go out with EMS tonight, so at least I should have it by tomorrow. I had a whole lot of visitors at lunch time. Tim came up for a coffee, when he finished class, and then David Chapman rang Greg to say that his suitcase had arrived from Baoji, and he would bring it around. And also John had arranged with Greg...

Jul 10, 2011 - WAAAH! I got robbed. Lost my bag and everything in it.

Today started relatively normally, tired, hot and did not really want to go out at all today. But I had made plans, so had to go through with them because there were other people involved as well. So I left home at just before 4pm, to go and visit Julie in the hospital, after whinging to Greg many times about how I just wanted to stay home, and go to bed. Somehow, I think I must have 'known' something. Anyway, I had a nice visit with Julie and her Mum. She is looking bright and the whole family will fly back to Liuzhou on Wednesday. Their...

Jul 9, 2011 - Dinner with Greg and Ling, to celebrate his new job.

Wow!! A real stinker of a day today. The temperature actually managed to get to 37c again in the early afternoon. I tried to use my phone, only to discover it was out of credit. A real pain, because I was expecting to talk to Blue Sky this afternoon. When he did ring me, he told me that I owed him 50 rmb, as he had gone down, and put money onto the phone for me, and tried to tell me that there would be a big bill for commission!! I had a message from Sofie, wanting to catch up this afternoon, with Melrose, so we told them to call around...