Archive for June, 2008

Nick’s party

Sunday, June 29th, 2008

The cake had just arrived!

Another picture from Nick’s party. This is Julian, Rose and Nick.

Rose thinks Nick and I look similar. Other people have said that we have the same mannerisms. We’ve spent a lot of time together over the years.

闭月羞花沉鱼落雁

Sunday, June 29th, 2008

look at Ying!

Last night we went to Nick’s birthday party at an Indian restaurant in Templestowe. Ying and I looked like this there. I’m so proud of her.

Thanks Andy and Popo! 我们感激你们

Sunday, June 22nd, 2008

Our Wuhan friends

A big thanks to our friends Andy and Popo who looked after us so well when we visited Wuhan. Peter and I were taken around, fed and generally entertained by this fun couple on our all too brief visit.

japan was ace fun

Saturday, June 21st, 2008

hooray! japan!

Here’s an old photo of Ying and Asher having lunch in one of the many railway stations we passed through in Japan.

Originally this photo wasn’t blurry, but when I resized it to fit on this blog it turned out a bit fuzzy. The picture below of my hard drive is even worse.

I’d like to go back there. But it won’t improve Asher’s Mandarin (or English). Priorities priorities.

new hard drive

Friday, June 20th, 2008

500 gigabytes isn't as large as it used to be

I’m all excited. Pictured above is my new Western Digital 500 gigabyte IDE hard drive. It’s in an enclosure which I got a few months ago.

These days you can buy 500 gigabyte external hard drives which come with their own enclosure for about $160. I could have done this, but I didn’t want to waste my enclosure which I’d already bought.

I didn’t get a SATA drive because I’m not sure if any of my computers can accomodate that. It’s a much newer technology than any of my machines.

What will I use it for? Right now I’m thinking I’d like to put a few documentaries on there. I like watching those. The problem is they aren’t seen on P2P sites as often as other types of films. Patience.

Big Grapsas style lunch

Sunday, June 15th, 2008

lunch time!

Great to have lunch with Peter’s (that’s Uncle Peter to Asher) family the other day! Here’s Sandy and Harry chilling out with Asher.

You picking a fight?

Saturday, June 14th, 2008

we start out as friends

Things all start out very innocent. It’s usually Asher that starts trouble.

the situation becomes tense

You see? He’s looking for a fight. He’s going to get one alright.

you wanna take this outside?

Come on then! I’ll ‘ave ya! You wanna take this outside?

chat and drink

Thursday, June 12th, 2008

front seat discussion

Recently I met with Siti in Singapore. We have a mutual friend, Marco. It was great to get together. Siti has a funny-shaped van. It’s not quite a minibus.

In China minibuses are called 面包车 “bread-car”, because of their shape.

glam rock additional clip

Sunday, June 8th, 2008


My friend (& cousin) Pippa recently commented on my recent glamrock post on here asking why there was no Alice Cooper on there. She’s 100% right about that. The above is a correction of that omission.

Today after Church we went to Peter and family’s home for a big lunch. Asher came and played with some Chinese visitors as well as the resident Greek Australians. It was a rowdy afternoon.

a day and no roti prata

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008

Yes, I’m now at Singapore airport waiting for my flight home to Melbourne. I didn’t get a chance for the whole day & 2 nights to have roti prata. Never mind, there’ll be plenty of opportunities in future visits to gain weight and cholesterol.

There are people getting foot massages. Honestly, some of the things people purchase or get done at airports seem really strange to me. It’d never occur to me to have a massage or a haircut or buy a litre of aftershave. Are these people just loaded with money or are they completely bonkers?

Speaking of money, I’m going to have to get used to paying a bit more for things when I get back to Melbourne. My last haircut was 6 RMB. My next will probably be $15. It doesn’t matter that much - wages are very different.