Hey Hey and a Big G'Day to you,
 
WOW, what an awesome weekend it has been so far. I've finally got to spend some time with my friend Mary again. You should know her from the 'Village Marriage' blog from some time ago. We speak on the phone a lot but actually catching up in person has been impossible due to her schools demands of her doing weekend classes for her Grade 6 students to prepare them for their Middle School entrance exams.
 
She gave me a call Friday afternoon and told me she'd be in Shaowu that very evening.
 
When she arrived myself, Mary and Joyce headed out to a favourite eatery Daniel, Aleca and I dubbed 'Yellow'. Mainly because its front and inner walls are all yellow. I think I've written about it in a prior entry. The girl is from Guilin and her English is cool. She came to Shaowu to marry her boyfriend. The three of us spent a wonderful few hours devouring dishes like sweet and sour pork and Japanese Tofu etc. We then headed up to Peoples Square to watch the dancing and the Music Fountain.
 
Yesterday morning Mary had her Middle School Teaching Exam. I rose early to meet her at the Numnber Six Middle School where she sat the exam. The poor thing was so nervous whilst waiting for the result. Happily she passed the exam where several didn't. Needless to say her English and love of teaching English shone through and as of next term she will leave her Primary School duties and begin teachng Middle School. Sadly the rest of the day was spent indoors as the the end of the wet season hasn't actually arrived and it has continued to rain for most of the last few days.

We happily spent hours chatting over chicken burgers and watching the De Vinci Code.
 
Last night I headed out with the Martin and Georga for a night on the town. I introduced them to the wonderful friendliness of 'Yellow' and its delicious menu. We then took a walk though the neon coloured streets and we then headed to Shaowu's newest bar called the Miami Bar. BUT, some of the signs actually say the Maiam Bar. I really don't know how they can get it both right and wrong, but this is China. From there we headed to Ting Tings Bar that we now have to rename as Ting Ting has left the building.

Ting has left Shaowu and moved back to her parents place in a small city a few hours away. How sad I was when she called me to tell me the news. Maybe we will leave the name as Ting Tings Bar in her memory. We spent the following many hours getting to know each other more over many local beers and too many Dice Games.
 
When we left Tings Bar I introduced the Aussie Couple to the Great Northern After Bar Noodles. Needless to say they were as impressed as Daniel and Alexa were.
Man I love those noodles.
 
I am writing this late Sunday evening. Until this morning I lived in a first floor apartment (for those out of China this actually means I lived on the ground floor. Here the ground floor is the first floor). This evening I write to you all from a wonderful fourth floor apartment. Why the move? Until the the humidity began its great knock on Shaowu's front door my apartment was anawesome place to live. I was asked if I wanted to look at this fourth floor apartment when I arrived but I love to live on the groudn floor so I said no.
 
Once the humidity began to slowly kick in things began to change. Horrible toilet smells began to enter my living and bedrooms a the sewer drain runs along the front of the apartment complex. Usually this wouldnt be a problem but right outside my window there is a little garden bed and on either side of the garden bed are openings. Not a good thing for anyone living in my apartment! Secondly the tiles in my kitchen and empty room (between the loungeroom, bedroom and bathroom) constantly sweat, meaning they are always wet!

A real bugger when you wake up in the middle of the night and forget to put on slippers.

Thirdly due to the smell and dampness I had so many bugs and slugs lurking around. A few slugs and mozzies you say. Think again. The slugs were found in my coffee cup, beer mug, on my chop sticks etc. Last night was the last straw. Luckily for me I looked into the beer mug before I drank. There was a drunken slug floating in my mug. Then during the night on a toilet trip I stepped on two slugs with bare feet.
 
ARGH! Get me out of here!
 
Thankfully the Aussie couple still had the keys to this apartment as they spent two nights here when they first arrived. So I grabbed them and spent a big part of the day moving all the stuff from my old place to my new place. This apartment is wonderful and pretty much what I had in Gansu. The lounge, kitchen and bedroom are in the centre and on the outter of them are two rooms to keep the heat out in Summer and in in Winter. I have ceiling fans in the lounge and kitchen which is really cool so now I don't have to carry my little fan around each room. There are two front doors. The usual one and then a thick steel security door. Perfect for when I get my Laptop. So now I am all settled and everything is in its place. 

Also a big thankyou to my friend Paris for a wonderful afternoon. We met in the street and spent the next few hours happily chatting whilst walking along the river and then over two delicious slurpy bowls of noodles.  Now there is a future Ms China entry!
 
Also the strangest thing has happened.
Talk about keeping in contact and living life through Travelpod.com.
 
Four people in the past week have contacted me and asked if I was ok. As I write this I have only just begun downloading the last months entries online due to this ball busting computer. My new Notebook has arrived in Shaowu but we are still awaiting the arrival of the English software so I haven't been able to pick it up and begin working with ease.
 
So I guess I will have to continue to pretend XP Word 2002 is my blog and remain calm enough to continue writing and doing my best to transfer from Word to Travelpod. What should take twenty seconds now takes around twenty minutes.!
 
Due to the lack of even a single entry in the last month a close friend from Australia, and two people I don't know have contacted me to see if I have been very sick. The people I don't know contacted me several months ago via Travelpod to comment on my blog and ask a few questions. They actually got worried that something bad had happened to me.
 
How sweet is that!
 
The fourth, my beautiful friend Shania from Shanghia gave me a call yesterday morning as I was waiting with a very nervous Mary. I met Shania (or Fanjing in Chinese) when I was in Sanchung. She had checked my blog to see what my thoughts were of her beloved Shanghai and found not a single entry to be found. We were supposed to catch up whilst I was in Shanghai, but due to her thesis demands and my walking and bar adventures it became impossible. It was a real pity as I really wanted to spend some time in Shanghai with someone who knew the place and could give me some realistic information on what it was like to live there.
 
I could get the same info from her on MSN but it's really not the same as catching up in person along with the fact that this computer doesn't like me chatting to people and working at the same time. It becomes too much and it has to stop to think about life. I'm sure it hits the bar as once it freezes it just chugs along at a slow pace for the rest of the night and refuses to swap between MSN and any other package. Add to that the fact that I really don't know when or if I will return to that city, then you have a bit of a downer. So I hope she returns to visit her family in Sunchang before I leave Shaowu.
 
To my Aussie buddy Judy, I'm really sorry mate.

I know I have text mail but with the complete friendship turn around between my computer and myself along with all the 'Goodbye and Welcome Dinners' for both English and Aussie couples life really has just flown by. I can't believe May is nearly over and I flew to Shanghai on the first of the month. If I was in Shanghai for six days then where has the rest of the month gone? I'm serious, I have no freaking idea where it's gone. There have been several bar nights and school has been over the top awesome but as for the rest of the time...maybe Area 51 is really here in Shaowu.
 
I only wrote that cause Tools 'Faaip De Oaid' is on at the moment.
 
Beers N Noodles to all you caring friends and readers!
 
The soundtrack to this entry was from Tool
The album was 'Lateralus'
Awesome!