A day by the fire, well I would if I had a fire……..my small apartment is cold but modern. It has air conditioning but I don’t really want to spend the whole day with that rumbling in the back ground, although I might have to as my fingers are beginning to feel quite cold and you know there is a limit to how much tea you can drink. All you end up doing is running to the loo most of the time.

I haven’t gone for a shower yet and so I’m still sitting in me thermals which I may add are comfy, but my hands are cold. Once in the shower it is so difficult to get out, but of course the water will begin to run cold as it’s only a wee tank and I don’t think that is really environmentally friendly to do that either. Mind you I could plant some trees…….

I have to go out later this afternoon to meet Carol, she is looking for an English teacher and well I do speak English……..

I heard that the going rate is 300 rmb for a lesson and well I can live with that, mind you it depends of course on what or who you end up teaching. My first thoughts are, “why are they paying well above the average rate?” More money is not always a good thing, it can also bring with it too much stress and sometimes grief, or am I just being to pessimistic and looking at this from my usual negative, what’s the catch kinda thing. Carol even asked me for my TEFL qualification so she must be serious. Most folk here just say” well your English is better than mine, so that will do”

Today I will also try and do some Chinese study, although I am finding this to be more and more difficult to do, but tomorrow I am meeting a Chinese teacher and so I will be having at least one professional lesson a week. I think my Chinese is getting better and most days I learn a new phrase or character and I think I can understand more of what is being said to me. I promised Julie in Australia that I would have a conversation with her only in Chinese on my return and so I am definitely not up to that task yet and I only have 4 months before I return to Australia for a quick visa run. Shit time is running oot…………….

The reason for not being completely fluent, is that every one I meet wants to improve their English and so I end up correcting their speech and talking more in English. After all there are more of them than me, but I find that when in conversation I can begin to get the jist of what is being said but I could not translate word for word. Then again I could just be a lazy bastard that needs to pull his finger out and get on with it.

I think the latter is more accurate……. I have been a bit of a social butterfly the last few weeks and so you know when you actually have to do some work it does become quite difficult. But I have practiced how to ask for many different types of food. The first thing I did was to try and learn the menus because in many place there are no pictures and certainly no English. At least now I can order off the menu even although I am unable to speak the words. I just do it in the usual western fashion, grunt loudly and point…………no I’m way more sophisticated than that because I can say

我不知道怎么说，但我可以有这个

and then I grunt loudly and point………..

I go to one local Muslim restaurant, they come from the west of China and the food is really good. My favourite is the potato and beef but sometimes I mix it up. I’ll often walk in and they will say “Potato and beef?” and I go no! much to there amusement. I think they have bets on what I’m going to order before I walk in. I see many foreign students in their small restaurant, they are usually from Africa or India. I know that most of the Indian students are studying medicine but I’m not sure what the African Students are studying. And they really stand out over here……

Well I think with all this talk of food I might have to go and have some lunch, luckily I am well prepared. I got some noodles last night which I can re-heat….mmm delicious or I can go for a piece ‘n’ cheese with Tuna. Which reminds me, I bought some Bega old vintage cheese last week and it cost $8 for 250 grams or whatever the small size is. Western products are well over priced, but it’s good to have a them as there is only so much Chinese food one can consume. Coffee is also double the price, but at least I can get it easily enough. I need my cheese and coffee and chocolate. I go to Hong Kong next month for a visa run and so I will have to buy some more whisky as I only have enough for a wee swally and that is very sad considering it’s still winter and I should be consuming way more. When I return to Australia I shall buy some duty free Isle of Jura whisky as this is one of the best single malts money can buy.

Right that’s it, am beginning to ramble and I could eat a scabby heeded horse