Hey Hey and a Big G'Day toya,

VISA Medicals hey.
They are a pain in the arm at the best of time!
Let alone those ones totally forgotten during Summer Adventures!

When I was in Anyang packing to take off to Guoliangcun Mountain Village I got a call from my boss reminding me that my Visa would expire in several weeks and also reminding me that I needed have my yearly medical for my Residency Permit.

After hanging up I sat down on the bed and said with a sigh;
Well that puts an end to the 2011 Summer Manchurian Beers N Noodles Adventure!

I spent the next twenty five or so hours in hard seat on a train that seemed far colder than snowboarding naked. It was freezing and the size of everyone’s goose bumps was far more scary that the series of books in the same name and by the time I departed in Wuyishan, not only did I have a headache worse than that on a Sunday morning after a night on cheap wine but my joints and muscles had began to cramp. Thankfully it was nearly forty degrees outside so by the time I reached my trusty cheap hotel I had not only thawed but was more than happy to wash the last two days away beneath a cold shower and sleep for the next few hours with the air conditioner on.

After two days spent walking the lush, peaceful and bamboo and tea tree covered hills I woke feeling the worst I had felt in many years and spent the next three days trapped in my room shivering with fever until I finally woke with just enough energy to rise and catch the bus back to Shaowu to collect my things from YuwenJins home and wait for my new school to come collect me.

That never happened as by the time I arrived in Shaowu I was so dizzy and ill that I had to cancel the school collection and then spent several more days with cold sweats until I woke feeling 'still’ in both mind and body. I then reorganised the school collection and spent the following four days walking around Shaowu saying my goodbyes to my favourite temples etc during the day.

Nights were spent in the company of friends.
Whom I would sadly have to say yet another sad goodbye to.

The saddest of course being LiPing (Joyce), who had just returned from a month in Singapore with a new and opened mind to what the world can offer her. She is no longer tiny village Joyce as over the following days and nights I watched and listened in amazement as she viewed her China through completely different eyes and no longer were the beeping horns, spitting and organised chaos innocently accepted the way it was prior to me leaving for my Manchurian Adventure two months prior.

As for the school collection and medical?

Due to the chaos of the new term starting the school forgot to ring my boss to inform him that they had no time to come to Shaowu and that I would have to catch a train. This would have been fine if I had of known four days before and when Buckland’s rang to find out how my medical went, things began to get a little chaotic in my life as two weeks had passed since I left Anyang city and I now had to do my Visa Medical alone and after calling them Friday, YuWenJin found out the Entry & Exit Hospital in Nanping was closed on weekends.

Anyhow, to cut a long story short;

He rang a friend who rang a friend and on Monday morning I caught the first bus to Nanping (three and a half hours), where I was met by YuwenJins friend at the bus station. We then caught a cab to the Medical Center where four of her friends were waiting and even though the staff had finished checkups for the day they still happily did my check up with good humor. All seemed to go well and I’m now just waiting for the blood test results which of course are the worst to wait for. After my check up I treated everyone to a delicious seafood lunch across the road where I also got to taste Beef cooked in Coke which was much more awesome than expected. I then caught the bus three and a half hours back to Shaowu and after packing I caught the night train five or so hours to Shangrao city arriving around four in the morning

Such a short yet so sweet and helpful friendship.
Beers N Noodles toya…..shane
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The soundtrack to this entry was by Dan Melchoir
The album was ‘Das Menace Christmas For The Crow’
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