Just went and ate a steam boat and j had to leave
early to go back to use the hotel facilities. I feel
better after a couple of days of 'muscle spasms' and
vomiting on our river cruise down the yangtze. Good
thing there are 3 med students + 1 nurse on tour.
I had in my mind that our river cruise was going to be
similar to a house boat hire on the murray, but
actually, suprisingly enough it was nothing like it.
We were on a 3 story, old rickety boat that had uneven
floors and passages that were'nt straight. The
restaurant had plastic sheets on the tables that
collect all the muck. There were a lot of chinese
tourists on the boat, we were the only foreigners, and
they seemed to think it was pretty funny when we were
playing majong. A guy who looked like johnny chan kept
trying to help, but he was playing different rules,
and it didnt work out to well for me. There was also a
massive storm with lots of sheet lightning, if the
boat had sunk, i think we would have died.
We got off once at this town that has been flooded
because of the 3 gorges dam project. There is a lake
now where the town square used to be. We took a
smaller boat around the town with the chinese tourist
and they took a lot of photos of us, rather than the
sights. Then we got on an even smaller boat that was
powered by six men in Y-fronts with very inefficient
oars. I asked Victor, our guide, why they didn't use
more efficient oars and he asked our local guide and
she asked the vice captain of the boat and he said
that's what they have always used. When we got to a
really shallow bit, all the rowing men in Y-fronts got
out and hitched ropes around themsleves and pulled us
through while singing a kind of chant. We got to some
weird kind of market, had a look, all still wearing
bright orange life jackets, and then got back in the
boat and went back to the town square (lake). On the
way back our local guide sang us songs and in bits we
joined in.
Now we are in Chengdu and off to see the panda's
tomorrow. J thinks that it is wrong to hold a baby
panda, i think im going to do it though, cause babies
love to be held by anyone, and i dont think the panda
would know the difference??? i wanna hold one..
¶ 8:53 AM 0 comments
so we just arrived in HK and there is still no sky in sight. It's pretty weird, it's kinda like being in doors all the time.
KL was heaps good, basically living like a princess (and i think it suited me quite well). j's relatives were really friendly and his dad drove us around anywhere we wanted to go, including going to pick up lunch and deliver it to us at the pool side.
j's cousin m took us out a couple of nights in his 'proton' which smelt a little funny cause it got filled up with water in the carpark at his work when the river flooded. he is a pretty funni guy, forex trader, really good at judo, likes hard core rap, esp ice cube, hasn't got a girlfriend yet, but likes to be prepared, so he is planning his wedding, which he intends to have next year. :)
other highlights - monkeys, lizards, canopy walk, fatty crab, new dig camera
¶ 7:12 PM 0 comments
Just received an electricity bill for $1360.40 …. The fairy lights will have to go :(
¶ 8:57 PM 0 comments
If you’ve ever received really bad news, you will know that it changes you forever from the instant that you hear it, so as a result, it is a good tactic to avoid any potential bad news for as long as possible.
Came home and there were 3 missed calls from an unknown number and also Barter saying someone rang up and really wanted to speak to me but he couldn’t remember their name. He said it sounded like Missi, but was a bit weird, like misty, or marissa, or marita or something and that it was fairly important, and he had never heard the voice before.
I refused to call back because it felt like it was going to be the barer of bad news. Why else would someone call me so persistently from out of the blue?
Last time this happened it was all ok….(flashback)
I was at my parents house and M and K called me 4 times during dinner asking when I was coming home cause they had to tell me something!! How stressful is that, I was nearly crying by the time I got home, cause I couldn’t tell if they were going to tell me that someone was dead, or that K was up the duff (a suspicion I had based on nothing). Turned out K had been knocked up after all, so it was all good, but a very stressful couple of hours.
….(end flashback)
However this does not make up for the life changing bad news incidents that I am basing my avoidance policy on.
Anyway, the next day I answered the mystery number and it was just N wanting to borrow my snowboarding gear. Phew!
So, no harm was done by avoiding the call, and if it had been bad news, I would have saved myself 24hrs of it, hence my avoidance policy stands.
¶ 8:32 PM 0 comments
