Back to work lad.. and update

Well what I have been up to... contrary to popular belief I’m still alive and still in Oz.
It’s been a long time since I put a post on here and as you can guess I’ve done a fair bit between Yunnan and getting back to Australia.

I went back to yangshuo to meet up some friends from the time spent there earlier in the year and was happy to find them all in good health and enjoying life as much as when I left. A few have moved on like myself to other things but many of the faces I knew from my previous visit were still around and it was great to bump into Bon, Kev, and Donna who I knew from Hong Kong and whom were in town for a week climbing.

I helped out a bit at china climb and it was good to meet some of the new staff and catch up with friends. A few beers were had some climbing was done and Sonia joined me for a few days and we were able to get out to do a few routes together. Dan and Tyson were still around as were many of my other friends and I really enjoyed meeting up with everyone, I feel this is a place that will keep calling me back, it hold lots of great times and memories for me, and many more yet to come I hope.

Back in Guangzhou I spent a fair bit of time wandering around the city and trying not to get lost which is fairly hard. I think this is the most disorientating city I have been to as many streets look alike and have lots of flyovers and roads all over the place so you can’t see so many of the landmarks for orientating yourself.

Sonia and I stopped in a really nice apartment which she had found and there was even a pool in the building so we spent a few evenings swimming, we went out for dinner a few times with some of her friends and spent Halloween in a Reggie bar called Cunion. This had a really cool band playing and has good music most nights.

We did intend to go and see a free concert but it was rained off and the only thing we achieved was getting soaked in torrential rain & thunder storm that lasted almost an hour. However we did go to the circus which was great fun and worth the 150yuan even if just for the black bear riding a Harley style bike around.

As this was China and Guangzhou is known for its variety of cuisine, (Sonia tells me the only thing that fly's that they don’t eat is a plane and the only thing with four legs they don’t eat is a chair) we spent a good few nights eating out but most of the time cooked in the apartment, lots of hotpot was had and I miss the Chinese food now I’m in Australia. Despite a large Asian and Chinese minority in Melbourne the food just isn’t the same although it’s still good.

I have been back in Melbourne just over two weeks now and have (after sending many e-mails) found a job. It’s not as good or as well paid as I had hoped but this is because of the restrictions on my visa the market downturn at the current time and also because I can only do temporary contracts. However its work and it pays money so I can’t complain.

I’ve got an old bike for $140 that gets me around the place fairly well, although I did get told off by the coppers for not wearing a lid one day, almost told them to stop being so bloody stupid and do something useful for a change, fortunately I remembered that I’m not in China anymore . They have funny laws over here like wearing seatbelts in cars, lids on bikes, only cross the road at crossings and all that stupidness. Phew how can anyone have any fun with all these laws flying about? Next they will ban all walking as you could trip over...

I’ve found some accommodation at last, about 4km outside the city centre (CBD) in a really nice old house sharing with three others. It’s not bad for $800 per month including all bills, its fully furnished etc and is bang next to a train station which can have me within 500m of work within 10 minutes so that a bonus. It’s also not very far from a bouldering gym so I can try and get strong again and rid myself of the bit of a belly that I have from all this good food I’ve been having over the past couple of months.

I’ve spent the past couple of weeks or so sleeping on Maria’s sofa which is comfy but the situation isn’t really ideal even more so now I’ve found work. she’s been really good putting up with me for so long as my only contributions have been towards food, cooking and tidying up the place so I think she will be pleased I’ve sorted out some place, and will be moving Wednesday.
I just hope I can find more work after this contract finishes, and I can save some cash before heading back to the UK for the summer months. I figure after the winter I had last year I deserve a couple of summers in a row. Melbourne appears to be a nice place to spend the time. It has lots of really good markets with local produce and you can’t do better than the sales on Sunday when they clear all the food extra cheap as they don’t open Mondays, last week we got 2kg of sausages for $10, winner.

I guess I will start slowly slipping into a different lifestyle now I’m working but I will try to save as much money as I can.
Firstly as I don’t know how much work I will get in OZ.
Secondly as I don’t know what I’m going to do after returning to the UK and need to build a cushion whilst I figure it all out.
Thirdly I’m starting to think it may just be a temporary return as I have many things pulling me in different directions, there’s still so much I want to see around the world and so many places to go. With luck I’ve found someone who I can go and see them all with... this may just be the start of the adventures.

Now I just need the money to make it happen so if you happen to know the lotto numbers for this upcoming weekly draw do be so kind as to tell me. More posts will arrive as i will undoubtedly feel the need to let you know how sunny it is here whilst you sit in the gloom of a British winter but you have proper ale... however i recall seth saying he found Abbott or somthing of the like over here... lad, please tell me where.