Some things are just a bit too precious not to share…

Hello lovely folks,

Here’s a “please sponsor me” request with a difference.  Some people run marathons.  Some people shave off all their hair.

Not me.

As some of you know, I’m taking part in the National Novel Writing Month this month.  It’s a challenge that some of my friends and I take up every year (ok, this year and last year, so far) to write a 50,000 word novel in a month.  Yep, 50k words - that’s about 1670 words per day, every day, for 30 days.  It’s day 4 now, and I’m on track to finish off my 6668th word this evening.

“But what’s it in aid of?” you ask.  Well, normally, nothing.  Normally it’s just a challenge we set ourselves.  But this year, I’d like to do it in aid of the charity I work for - Columba 1400.  The credit crunch has hit the whole non-profit sector pretty hard - many trusts and foundations which award funding are reliant on income streams from shares, and those income streams are looking pretty dry right now.

So, I’d like to help out in any way I can - by getting my friends and family involved.

Columba 1400 is a Scottish charity which works with young people from tough backgrounds - many of them have been in state care for much of their lives, or they could be carers for parents who have problems of their own..  It’s my organisation’s belief that these young people can achieve so much more than society traditionally leads them to believe, and it’s our mission to try to help them realise and understand that potential.

One of the phrases we use to describe our attitude is a quote from John Buchan: “Our task is not to put the greatness back into humanity, but ot elicit it - for the greatness is there already.”

Sponsoring me is easy - just whip out your credit card, visit www.justgiving.com/nanowrimo and pledge a wee bit of encouragement - not just for me to finish my novel, but for this organisation that I work for, which sees such amazing potential in each young person who crosses our threshold.

And if you want to read the finished story when it’s done (the main character is a giant spider - who’s interested?) then just email me and I’ll send it on through to you.

From NaNo 08 images

So Ubiquitous Jess’s boyfriend Tom is currently in Shenzhen on business [edited to add - he thinks this makes him sound very grown up and official and so perhaps it would be more appropriate to say, "tom's in Shenzhen playing with his techno junkie toys and getting paid to do it".  He prefers to think of himself "hanging in the Zhen"] and he’s been taking in the local gastronomic delights to be had there.  His comment last night was “if i have to watch one more LIVE animal being grilled or boiled…”

Dot dot dot.  Tom is a gentle soul, I can’t imagine him doing anything too violent, though his sense of justice is also acute so I quite understand his disgust at throwing live prawns on a grill.  Ugh.

Anyway, he just sent me a couple of photos which he’s generously allowed me to publish here, taken in a posh “restaurant of the world” (self styled as such of course):

See, when I talk about the “real” China, I guess that I’m talking from a slightly warped perspective.  I lived in a very muslim area in the middle of one of the world’s biggest deserts.  No Fangs, No Claws is, I believe the rule of thumb in muslim cooking.  Also, crocks are kinda hard to come by when the Gobi Desert is between you and the nearest large body of tropical water.

Looks to me like Tom’s found the Real China right there…  Thanks for the pics Tom!

So I’m at home sick today (not homesick, off work sick at home), and have been curled up in bed watching a movie on my laptop.  It got me thinking about being an expat in a non-western country.  The movie was a charming US/Bollywood indie film called Outsourced, about an American call centre manager who’s told that his whole department is being outsourced to India, and to add insult to injury he’s sent out there to train his replacement.

Anyway, this guy is pretty much the only Westerner in the town and at first feels totally out of his element.  Then he slowly begins not only to get used to his surroundings, but to quite enjoy his new life and the people he’s working with.  Just when he’s pretty much acclimatised, he has to go to another town to pick up a shipment, and it so happens that this other town is a tourist haven, with Westerners everywhere.

He makes a comment to his companion, “it doesn’t feel like India anymore!”

Suddenly I had this rush of memories of China, living in Dushanzi where there were just three of us Westerners most of the time, surrounded by Han and Uyghur and Kazak and Uzbek neighbours.  That to me feels like the *real* China.  When I visited my first major tourist spot in Dunhuang, it was so strange to see the place diluted by Western tourists.  And then even more so in Xi’an, like the “real” China that I’d grown to know whas somehow less China with all those westerners around.  And I had this wierd pang of “no, get away from this place, this is MY China!” Almost like the presence of other westerners reminded me of the fact that I was Western myself.  It reminded me on some level of that which I’d been trying to ignore - that I really didn’t fit in as well as I would have liked.

I still think a lot about China, and how much I’d like to go back there. Going there was an easy choice to make 6 years ago, my life was already in transition having finished university, without a full time job, and ready to try something totally different.  But here I am in Edinburgh and I can feel my roots going deeper and deeper here.  I sometimes wonder how deep they can go before I cease to even contemplate leaving, and on some level that saddens me, that I feel myself sinking into the comfort zone that is Edinburgh, rather than testing the limits of my experiences in strange new places…

Having said that… Hello?! This is EDINBURGH! The most beautiful city I’ve seen in my life. I’m really not complaining!

Here it is folks, finally the best interpretation of the social order of the geeks, nerds, dorks and dweebs.  It’s not a hierarchy, it’s a venn diagram!  Enjoy:

See, at this point I’d like to think that I’m a Geek, but I fear that at times I might fall into the Nerd or Dork categories.  But I’m definitely not a Dweeb.  Where do you stand?

I don’t do this often folks, and even less for music that’s not my own in some way, but Jubilee Hall (my lovely acoustic trio) played on Monday night with a fabulous musician called Alex Cornish, and after visiting his MySpace page last night, I really really had to share his music with you, because it’s been getting under my skin.  In a big way.

I strongly suggest that you go check out his music - it has tinges of Radiohead, with a dash of almost Early Coldplay.  Strings, smooth guitar, great vocals, and great melodies.

Don’t believe me? Have a listen for yourself on his MySpace page

This guy’s not to be missed.  I believe he’s touring the UK in September - details are on the Myspace Page, so if you’re nearby, go check him out.

Can you believe it folks? This month marks 5 years of blogs-on-record.  There was the odd blog entry on Blogger before this blog began, back when I was getting ready to go to China.  But then I found out that Blogger is one of the many blocked websites in China.

Who remembers Webmaster Matt? He was the amazing friend-I’d-never-met (Of course, I did meet him eventually, and actually had coffee with him today) who set this blog up for me, and hosted it back in the days before I had my own webspace.   Back in the days when it was called The Orient Express.  Throughout that year in China, I took you with me on a train from Shanghai to Urumqi. We began to explore Chinese food together.

You came with me for my first day of classroom teaching in China, you sympathised with my cat, Mushuk, when he was forced to sing soprano for the rest of his life.

Who remembers that first day when it started snowing? Or the day I forced Mushuk to pose with my new Firefly DVDs when they finally arrived while I was living in China (was it really 5 years ago!?)

I told you all about the Primary School where I was teaching, and the day I nearly set my apartment building on fire while the primary school was also having its own fire too.  You all celebrated christmas with us in Kelamayi with those Crazy Canadians, Chris and Pat (I miss you guys!) and more westerners than I’d seen together in one place since I’d arrived in China.

Browncoats mourned when Lux died, and celebrated when Serenity was announced.

I had adventures in Kashgar, Beijing and up to the Heavenly Lake on horseback with Kazak guides.

And then suddenly my big adventure was over, and I was home again in Australia.  But not for long.

For Mark Saul, that crazy Aussie piper and composer, invited me to join him on an adventure which would see me move to Edinburgh, and take me to so many interesting places and rockin’ festivals.  I’m so grateful to him for the opportunity.

And almost as soon as I arrived here in the gorgeous Edinburgh, I got to fulfil one of those big all-time dreams I’ve harboured since forever - I got to attend a Hollywood Red Carpet premiere.  OK, so it wasn’t in Hollywood, and I didn’t actually get to walk on the Red Carpet myself, but I got to go to the Big Damn World Premiere of Serenity.

Well, the next few years have been a little quieter and less adventurous, with the exception of more shows with Mark Saul, and a lightning fast, super spontaneous trip to New York to visit Yarnmonster Jess last January. And since then I’ve been pretty slack with the blogging, mostly cause I don’t seem to be having a very adventurous life.  It’s easy to forget, living in a city like Edinburgh, just how incredible this city is.  So here’s what I’m going to do.  I’m going to start taking my camera with me everywhere, and attempt to document the comings and goings of this beautiful, breathtaking place.  Eventually, one day, I’m going to go back to Australia (not now, not yet!) and I want to be mindful every day I spend here, how lucky I am to live here.

So, here’s to five long years of blogging, and here’s to many more to come, dear friends and readers.

This fabulous picture was sent to me by Ubiquitous Jessie, from her little sister who’s living and working in Canberra, poor luv.

“A few weeks ago in Sydney there was a major Catholic gathering and the pope went along to inspire the kiddies of Australia:”

I’m not sure I can remember laughing so hard this entire year.  Who knew that the Count from Sesame Street was such a nympho

count from sesame street