Reading Time: 3 Minutes Hi everyone! Welcome back, welcome back. Gestures to an open fire crackling in the hearth. Hope we all had a fantastic New Year’s party – I know I did! And ouch, what a hangover right? We spent our NYE at our friend Emili’s (not her real name, so you’re safe Emily if you’re reading this), chomping on KFC (Korean Fried Chicken) and playing a multitude of board games as we waited to ring in 2019. Between all the yelling and laughing and general good times, I had what you would call an epiphany. Been having a fair few of those recently (read here and here). Yknow,…
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Chinese Golden Week
Reading time: 5 minutes Whew, we are back boys and girls! Back from where? Well, China of course! Been a pretty epic trip this time, as chronicled in the last two posts (here and here). Although we spent the majority of the time in Beijing, we were pretty lucky (or unlucky) to experience Golden Week. What’s Golden Week? Well, Wikipedia explains it as the “week from the 29th April to early May containing a number of Japanese holidays”. Nice, nice – the Japanese really deserve it you know? What with their car-making, raw fish and exemplary manners. Good for them. Eh? Why’d you tell a story about Japan, weren’t you…
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4 Things to Know in Beijing (and My Brush with the Authorities)
Reading time: 6 minutes “Halt!” Shouted the voice outside the barracks. I turned, to come face to face into the glaring eyes of a soldier on duty. “What’s wrong?” I enquired with a quizzical look. ”Show me your phone”. I looked around, there were now FOUR soldiers in a semi-circle facing me. Without further protest, I handed it over to the first soldier, who proceeded to scroll through my photo album. “Delete this”, he pointed at the last two pictures I took. Meekly I obeyed, what else could I do? Because this here is China – the country of my birth. In China, taking pictures of government buildings and military…
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What Path Would You Tell Your 15 Year Old Self To Go Down (Part 2)
Reading Time: 13 minutes OK guys, we are BACK! Who’s excited?!!! I know I am, let’s DO THIS. Do what you ask? Finish off the last post (read here), which was the first part of the response to my schoolmate DP ‘s question: Knowing everything you do now, what path would you tell your 15 year old self to go down? So let’s get to it, onto the next part! Wait, aren’t you forgetting something? Oh yeah, that’s right – before we jump in, I have to mention a big THANK YOU to everyone who commented and read through the previous post, it was one of the more commented on posts I’ve…
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4 Things My Late Grandma Taught Me (RIP)
Reading Time: 5 minutes RIP Grandma. Early yesterday morning, the beloved mother of my mother slipped peacefully into the next life. She was surrounded by her loved ones and in a way, I am glad that my mother was able to rush back home from overseas, to share in her last moments. I think as we reach a certain age, the mortality of our parents becomes an increasingly conscious thought, but the finality of the situation never really sinks in. Last year my Grandpa passed away, which was the catalyst for starting this blog – you realize that time is the most precious resource of all, that there is more…
