I returned to Australia to have a mole checked by my skin doctor and to my relief everything was ok with it and so as one of my Chinese friends remarked. ”what a waste of money then” Well yes and no I guess. I was able to get checked by my GP and have my blood checked and his advice was to “stay in China” because it seems to agree with me. I was able to catch up with family and friends and I got to drive a car for two weeks, which to be honest was the best thing. To have the freedom of movement once more to go where I want when I want is something I have been able to since I was 17.
My first car was a Red Mark III Cortina, 1300cc with cross ply’s on it and so it screamed at you when you went round every corner and to be honest they were lethal. As soon as I could I changed to radials which felt a whole lot safer. The next thing I did was to add fur to the interior of the old Ford. Dashboard and door trims were covered in fake fur. I remember trying to buy glue, which I was going to use to fix it to the door trims, but I had to get a note from my mum to say we were not going to sniff it. At that time glue sniffing was rife and so if a young chap like me wanted to buy glue I got the third degree. I thought that the fur enhanced the old Ford and it made it a lot warmer in the winter and the ladies seemed to like it……………
On the 8th January I celebrated 41 years of driving and so I was fair chuffed to be able to hire a car to get reacquainted with the driving experience, because I haven’t driven a car for about 12 months. The small Hyundai I30 had a 6 speed triptronic gearbox which was very responsive and so you could have quite a bit of fun with it when driving on the twisty roads. It has two pedals and I have two feet and so it was perfect. I always left foot brake when I drive an auto and I find it far more effective and practical to drive this way, although I get told that it’s illegal to drive using two feet but I’m not sure how anyone is supposed to catch you doing it. The only complaint about the car is that it is front wheel drive which really detracts from a good all round driving experience.
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Australia is becoming really fat, and the amount of exposed flesh that you see in summer time is really alarming. To add to this already frightening experience is the dreaded tattoo. So many people seem compelled to cover their bodies is a mass of tattoos randomly placed. They all seem to go to the same tattoo artist because they all look similar. I only saw a few original looking pieces of art that seemed interesting and unique. I saw a few on the shoulders of women of what looked like a dead child. RIP….. stencilled onto their back for the world to see. I know someone that got this done many years ago when her son got killed and I can kind of understand that she wants her son to be with her every where she goes, but I think that this type of tattoo is hideous. As time goes on and the body gets fatter and older that once perfect tattoo comes to look like a melted Salvador Dali sketch in the dreadful standard cheap blue ink colour that seems to get used for the majority of designs. I wonder what compels folk to get tattoos, it’s like losing your virginity I guess……….you don’t really care who it is but you know you have to do it so that you can truthfully say………..’Yes I am not a virgin”
In my local shopping centre the fat folk are everywhere and not just a wee bit overweight but absolutely huge. They waddle about the place looking for ways to feed their already bulging bodies. The huge queue at the donut shop, the unhealthy looking fast food outlets selling a heart attack in a plastic tub. The only healthy looking option is the sushi bar and there is no one there. When you look into the shopping trolleys you descend into a world that I am not familiar with. Large bottles of soft drink, processed foods, chocolate, crisps, biscuits and sometimes you will see a lonely vegetable or piece of fruit struggling to be on its own. The American culture is spreading across the world slowly killing its inhabitants in a very cruel way. They upsize you and give you more value for money by giving you more fat in a cup, more fat on a plate, more sugar to feed your already bulging thighs and if there is just enough left they will throw in diabetes for free. That should be the new slogan…….Get your free diabetes here.
There were many “Back to school” sales on because the school holidays were coming to an end. I read in the local paper that many of the school clothes shops were having a lot of special orders because the kids were so fat. Gone are the days of XXL now we are up to 9XL and there were also some stores reporting that they had ordered trousers as big as 59in or 150cm in the waist. I’m only 32cm and so these kids are fuckin’ huge. The fat parents are allowing their kids to follow in their footsteps and so they will get their free diabetes quicker which I guess is a bonus. It seems to me that many western societies seem to following this trend. America is King of course and I really don’t understand why so many follow this ideology. I want quality not quantity, whereas this American fast food epidemic promotes quantity over quality. You don’t have to look far to see this, look at any McDonalds or Starbucks.
I’m not ready to return to Australia and I’m not sure I ever will be. Yes there are many positives of course, the weather, the environment, it’s less crowded and in some ways more ordered than China but at the moment I feel that it is boring and has nothing to offer me. I’ve stepped off the merry go round and I just don’t want to get back on it. Having spent 3 weeks there and watching the news, seeing the politicians argue like 5 year olds, news reports about lost dogs and of course and don’t forget the sport.
I enjoy China for the culture and the challenge of trying to speak the local language. I also like being detached from society just enough that I can enjoy a peaceful life. However money is always an issue and this is what will no doubt make me return to Australia at some point. I have my house there and I need to implement my retirement plan which is to win the lotto because I certainly don’t have enough in superannuation to see me through.
But there is also an air of negativity that I don’t want to be part of. It might sound strange to many folk but to me it seems that there is more positive energy in China and I would rather be in that domain. That’s possibly because I can’t understand the TV and I can’t read the papers and I as I said once before “Ignorance is Bliss at times “I heard many complaints when I was back from all walks of life, some are valid and some are just pathetic. Many don’t know how lucky they have it and they really need to get out more and that includes many of the politicians running the country.
And so I think that I will return to another island first and that was the one I was born on. I will need to return to the UK in February next year to apply for my visa for China if I so wish and at this stage I wish.