Final Post 16: See ya later

Written on Monday, 8th of February 2010 at 8:59 am

Well, we’re back in Australia now. We arrived into the airport this morning at 7 and took a taxi home. The taxi driver was a bit of a knobhead, speeding down the highway and doing quick overtakes. He nearly hit the back of another car.

When we were safely home I noticed the weather was nice and warm, and there was a cloudy blue sky to welcome us. Our two fat chihuahua dogs also welcomed us with their chirpy barks.

Inside the house was untouched. Nothing had moved – the calendars still read 22nd of January 2010. Also some bread in the pantry had collected mould.

We started to unpacked some of our luggage. My brother and I played with the things we bought, while my mum and dad laid out the gifts they received at their anniversary party.

Then we looked at some of the photos.

And that’s it; my family’s trip to the Far East. It was great fun and something I’ll always remember (with the help of this blog).

But right now I need some sleep.

Cheers,
Terence

Post 15: Joi gin

Written on Sunday 8th of Feb, 2010 at 5:34 pm

Our last day in Hong Kong was spent with my mum’s family at their old house in Cheung Ngao Shan (literally Looking at Cows Hills), a very small and remote village located near the major town of Yuen Long. My grandad built this house after the war was over and he retired from the army and moved to Hong Kong. It was simple and rustic shelter – a relic of the old days along with the rest of the village. There were three small bedrooms, kitchen and dining area, concrete floor with no carpet or tiling and an outdoor water closet.

There was also another room where my Uncle 5 had constructed an elaborate aquarium. A tank of water was perched higher than smaller tanks which were all connected by constant flowing water, like a pond waterfall. Each of the tanks housed different types of goldfish, and the waterfall ran down into a man-made pond which lived koi.

Most of the family from Uncle 3’s wedding and my parent’s anniversary were there. When we first arrived to the house we payed our respects to grandma and grandad by burning incense. Then we had a BBQ while it poured down with rain.

After the food was all gone Uncle 5 dug up an old firewood box from storage. It contained the keepsakes of my grandparents such as; their wedding certificates, poems and black and white family photos. There was a photo of a naked baby who everyone insisted was Uncle 6, but he protested loudly. The photos made my mum and her brothers reminisce about their childhood. Apparently all of them were afraid of my mum when they were little since she would scream her head off telling them to be quiet. This was all too familiar.

Everyone had a funny story to tell, but we couldn’t listen to them all as we had a plane to catch. We were going home, back to Australia. So we said our goodbyes and I thought about when I might see them again.

Probably not for a few years.

We left Cheung Ngao Shan and went back to Sheung Shui to pack our luggage and then took a bus to the airport. This was also a goodbye to Hong Kong (literally Fragrant Harbour).

Post 14: Sayonara

Written on Saturday 6th of Feb, 2010 at 11:02 pm

Our last day in Japan wasn’t as busy and rushed as the rest of the trip. We packed up and left the hotel at 9:30 am and as we drove off it started to snow. It’s been so cold ever since we arrived 4 days ago but this was the first time it snowed. It was a nice farewell present from Osaka.

We went to a pearl jewellery store where a man in a suit showed us how to dissect clams and how pearls were made. He made a girl in our tour group model a few pearl necklaces. I thought pearls only suited older women but it looked alright. Then he pulled out a pearl from a fresh clam and did a lucky draw to see who got to keep it. None of my family won, but my dad ended up buying a pearl for my mum anyway.

After the show we were left to wander the store. I ended up chatting to one of the sales clerks. She was Japanese but grew up in Canada so we spoke English to each other. It’s been awhile since I had an enjoyable conversation in English, because my family doesn’t count. Plus she was cute.

Osaka definitely has a higher percentage of good looking gals than anywhere else I’ve been. So it wasn’t the weather making my glasses fog up. However, almost every girl was caked in make-up. I didn’t notice until I started to see girls overdoing it. Cheeks pinker than fresh ham, skin with no pores and eyelashes long enough to be weapons.

After that we went to an outlet plaza. It was just a shopping area full of international brands - nothing uniquely Japanese. I spent most of my time in a music store playing on a miniature piano.

And that was our day. At night we went to the airport and in the morning arrived back in Hong Kong. It was going to be our last day here too.

Post 13: Laugh Riot

Written on Saturday 6th Feb, 2010 at 4:23 pm

On Friday, we went to Universal Studios theme park in Osaka. We arrived when the gates first opened at 10 am and were allowed to stay till 4 pm. So we had a full day of theme park awesomeness.

The park was fairly empty compared to the maximum capacity of 50,000 people. Most of the people in the park with us were schoolkids on an excursion. The kids were so excited that when the gates opened they all rushed in and started running in all directions.

The first area we visited was made to look like New York in the 1960’s and that was where the Amazing Spiderman ride was located.

It was amazing.

They made us sit in a motorised cart, which tossed us about while we immersed ourselves in Spiderman’s battle with Goblin, Dr. Eight Arms and other villains. The projection was done in 3D and the cart was able to move forwards, backwards, sideways and elevate into different rooms as the fighting progressed. They made a new villain out of water just so they could spray actual water on us. When explosions happened on screen they would blast hairdryers in our face. Even an actual fireball appeared next to the cart when a grenade was thrown. The climax of the ride was when it simulated a 500 metre fall from the sky. At the last moment before we hit the ground we were saved by Spiderman’s webbage.

Other rides we went on like Back to the Future and Jaws were just as good.

When we were too nauseas from the rides we went and watched a few shows. There was one show that was done as a one man play. A guy in an orange shirt was performing in a set that was behind glass. He was a room that looked quite cartoonish and had a TV in the middle. Suddenly a 2D cartoon Woody Woodpecker jumped out of the TV and started harassing the guy. It was like Roger Rabbit or Space Jam but live. The set also reacted to the animations, like when Woody Woodpecker jumped into the file cabinet files flew out, or when he went under ground the floorboards popped up. And in classic Tom and Jerry style the guy tried to hunt down Woody Woodpecker which was hilarious. Another show, Terminator 3D, also had live actors mixed in with 3D cinema.

We didn’t have enough time to see the whole park, which was disappointing, but the whole family enjoyed themselves. It’s just too hard not to smile when you’re watching cartoons.

Afterwards we ended up in Osaka’s city centre where we had Japanese BBQ for dinner. It’s like a regular BBQ except that you’re not allowed to wear shoes. We ordered some Matsusaka beef which was worth 10,000 yen for a very small 300 gram portion. This beef was particularly expensive due to the special production procedure. Only virgin cows were used and while alive they were pampered with massages, afternoon walks, beer and soothing music. All this was done to increase the quality of the beef. When I ate it medium rare, it had almost a creamy consistency, but with the texture of beef and it melted in my mouth like chocolate.

After that we went back to our hotel for one last night in Japan.

Post 12: The Long and Whinging Road

Written on Friday 5th of February at 10:46 pm

During this tour of Japan my dad hasn’t been exactly thrilled. Actually he’s been more like the kid who sat at the back of the classroom, one arm slumped over the chair, chewing gum with a t-shirt that says, “Down with homework.”

When we first arrived my dad was annoyed that Japanese people seemingly refused to speak any English, even at an international airport. Whenever he asked a question the locals would reply in Japanese as if he understood. This sort of thing occurred everywhere we went; at hotels, shops and restaurants. My dad felt that they weren’t being very welcoming to foreigners.

The Japanese have been very welcoming though, through extreme politeness. Whenever we would enter a shop they would always greet us with a cheerful, “Konichiwa.” Every shopkeeper has thanked us and bowed even if we didn’t buy anything. When our tour group left the hotel the staff stood outside and waved till the bus was out of sight. Instead of horns, some cars used a recorded message which asked you to politely step aside.

None of this impressed my dad.

There were other things that he didn’t like, but let’s not go into all that. I figured he couldn’t help acting the way he has. After all, he was in the generation of Chinese born after World War II and specifically the Second Sino-Japanese Wars. And war is just one of those things that has long lasting effects.

But what we did today cheered him right up.

Post 11: The wheels on the bus are round of course

Written on Thursday 4th Feb, 2010 at 10:36 pm

Yesterday the tour bus left the hotel at around 8 am. We drove for 2 hours up a mountain until we reached Nachi Falls. It was quite a sight, a beautiful scene created by nature. It was only marred by the fact that I was feeling carsick and a lady in our tour group gave me some herbal stuff that made it worse.

After that we drove back down the mountain to an aquarium. There were all kinds of weird sea creatures like giant eels, giant lobsters and flatfish. Flatfish are freaky asymmetrical fish that lie on their sides, and as a result have both eyes on one side. It must of lost a bet when they were handing out evolution chains. There were many other types of fish, crustaceans, corals and anemones, but the most interesting were the turtles. They had over a dozen of them and some were over 200 years old.

Our next stop was Kumano Suigun Basyogoya or The Pirates Lair. This was where Japanese pirates from ancient times hid from the navy. It was a cave with an entrance at the side of a cliff connected to the sea. When we were leaving the cave a man who owned a deli kept insisting we try his free mushroom tea. I was thankful he didn’t charge us for it.

Then we went to some rocks by the sea where I caught crabs of a hermit kind and that was our second day in Japan.

Today, we visited a Binchotan charcoal museum. Here they showed how Ubame oak was burnt into charcoal and then made into various objects like; figurines, statues, spoons, bowls, chopsticks, windchimes, xylophones and lightning rods. They even had an old charcoal-powered car. Binchotan charcoal was pretty impressive but the whole tour group ended up spending more time playing with a puppy at the front of the museum.

At lunchtime we went to Kuroshio Ichiba fish market where we watched a chef cut up a fresh 19 kg tuna fish. After the show some lady kept trying to pawn off her seaweed to my brother by making him eat all the samples.

It obviously wasn’t selling.

After driving a couple more hours we arrived at Arima. Here we checked out the Toy and Automata Museum which featured 3 floors of toys from the post-war era. The most interesting were the automata, or mechanical toys. They were wooden contraptions that operated via a crank which made dolls play out animations. There was one of a skeleton man flogging a dead horse.

For dinner we went into Kobe City and were left to wander around a mall area for 3 hours. I got separated from the family for 2 hours, so I just walked around until I randomly bumped into them at a restaurant. While I was lost I visited a Pachinko arcade. I watched an old man play for 10 minutes and I still have no clue how to play that crazy ball-ping game. It looked like a really boring way to spend a night out anyway.

We transferred to a new hotel in Kobe to end our third day in Japan. The family has been enjoying the trip so far. All of us except for my dad.

Post 10: Kimono man, it’s not that bad

Written on Tuesday 2nd of February at 8:27 pm

After leaving Hong Kong we arrived at Osaka/Kansai airport in the late afternoon. Osaka time is ahead of Hong Kong’s by 1 hour so a total 4 hours was gone in the air. Going through customs and baggage collection made us realise that this was not an international-friendly place as none of the staff spoke any English. My dad tried miming to a counter lady when he was trying to buy an ice tea.

He looked like an Egyptian hieroglyphic.

For this trip the family was booked onto a tour bus. The tour guide explained that there wasn’t going to be any sight-seeing today as the sun sets at around 5 in the winter. I didn’t mind since I just wanted to relax at the hotel. As the bus drove along the highway I didn’t see anything particularly interesting. Then I’m pretty sure I heard the guide say that Osaka is "famous for nothing". He tried to justify what he said by adding that holidays are about who you spend it with. Hmm...

We arrived at our hotel in Wakayama in 2 hours. We checked in and found that, like before no-one spoke any English, put our kimonos on and then had dinner.

Japanese food is always too something. Too sour, too salty, too sweet, or too bland. Put those extremes onto one tray though and it’s a bloody good feed.

After dinner my dad made my brother and I go to the community bath area which meant being in a space full of other naked, bathing men. For the first time in my life being glasses-wearer became a benefit. I just popped them off and every head had blurry face.

Soaking in the pool heated to about 40°C was very relaxing. They also had a space for you to shower sitting down which was more comfortable than standing. I must of spent an hour scrubbing. I could see what the tour guide meant when he said the Japanese enjoyed bathing. They did it right.

Tomorrow the tour begins.

Post 9: Here we go again

Tuesday, 2nd Feb 2010, 9:16am

Well, I’ve reached that point in a long holiday where I get a little homesick. I miss my friends back home, my dogs and my old routine. I especially miss being able to take a break from my family because as I type they’re arguing about how to fill out the embarkment forms.

We’re all sitting at gate 1 in Hong Kong airport getting ready for a 5 day trip to Osaka, Japan.

Post 8: Twenty five years on the wall

Written on Sunday 31st Jan 2010 at 10:25 am

Last night was my parents’ silver anniversary. 25 years of married bliss... well, maybe 5 years before I was born. It was a night planned 2 months ahead by my dad as a surprise for my mum.

Everybody was in the hotel salon room by 6 o’clock and my dad was due to bring my mum at 7. When it was time the lights were dimmed and everyone got ready to surprise her. When she walked in it literally took about 5 seconds before we yelled surprise. My mum had already seen the setup but we all just stared at her while waiting for our cue. Then my cousin’s band joined in with the Congratulations Song and the party began.

That night made my mum very happy. The band played love songs all night, people got up to do speeches, gifts got given and there was even a conga line at one point.

Post 7: Home is where the House is

Written on Saturday 30th 2010 at 9:56 am

My brother and I have just been hanging around in Hong Kong for the last 3 or so days. Our parents were off somewhere in mainland China and we had the apartment to ourselves. It really felt as though we made Hong Kong our home as we spent time shopping, taking the subway and eating noodles everyday.

On Tuesday Uncle and Aunty 6 took us up Tai Mo Shan (literally Big Hat Mountain) and they brought their dog along. It spins in a circle when it’s taking a crap so the poop is all swirly like in cartoons. I got to drive the car home. The mountain roads were fun to speed through but once we reached the city it was plain annoying. Nobody gives way and everybody’s horn happy. People in Hong Kong always seem to be in a hurry.

On Wednesday we went to Mong Kok with N Jr and his girlfriend. We strolled through Shoe Street which only had shops that sold sneakers and Women’s Street which sold cheap souvenirs. We explored a few malls and my brother and I ended buying all sorts of stuff like; a lighter that looks like a Juicy Fruit packet, a thumb-sized harmonica, tiny slot machine, tiny foosball table and ink pens that look like syringes. The shopkeeper who sold me the lighter showed me this other lighter than he thought was pretty cool.

It zapped me.

On Thursday my brother and I went to Tsim Sha Tsui (literally Pointy Sandy Mouth) by ourselves and we got lost for a while. Well about 2 hours and it was so dull and boring since my brother doesn’t talk much. Eventually we found the subway and went to Mong Kok where my cousin meet up with us and took me to his band practise. They were very good and they even let me on the drums to jam with them.

On Friday we saw Avatar in 3D. It’s an impressive feast for the eyes but the story and acting was average. Also the parallels are undeniable... [Link]. After the movie we went to an arcade and later at dinnertime we met back up with our parents for a BBQ.

And that brings us to Saturday. I realise not much happened these last 3 days, but it’s the boring stuff that you remember best. Tonight won’t be boring though since there’ll be a big celebration for someone who isn’t even expecting it. That’s right, a surprise party.

Post 6: The one about Macau

Written on Monday 25th January 2009 9:32 pm

Yesterday, Sunday morning we prepared for an overnight stay in Macau (literally some Portugese name) with another family. For privacy’s sake let’s call them the N family. My mum went to school with Mrs. N so they were old friends, my dad enjoys trying to one-up Mr. N in everything and they have one son; let’s call him N Jr, who came to stay with us in Australia last year. N Jr hung around for a month and a half so we were familiar.

We met up with the N family at the ferry port in Hong Kong Central (literally Centre of Hong Kong). Together we all went into a Starbucks where N Jr, my brother and I chatted while behind us my dad and Mr. N arm wrestled.

The ferry to Macau took an hour. I get light-headed on boat trips so I tried to sleep but a baby was crying the entire time. I didn’t mind though since I was glad someone was having a worse time than me.

Macau is a city of casinos, neon lights and smog. With only half a million people populating it I was surprised to learn that it grosses more profit from gambling than Las Vegas. At least that’s what my dad told me – and he is frequently making stuff up.

We took a bus to our hotel, The Venetian. It was a monumental building with its own sky and canal on the 2nd floor. It was less impressive that they allowed smokers inside the building. The air felt like second hand smoke everywhere.

After checking into our rooms both families headed down for some lunch. We chose a Chinese restaurant inside the Venetian. Everyone started telling the waiter what they wanted and when we were done Mr. N asked how big the portions were. The waiter then rolled his eyes so far back they reappeared from the bottom, then begrudgingly replied and walked off.

Well, Mr. N felt that that was pretty rude so he decided to scare him a little bit. So he walked up to the waiter and asked to see the manager. All we could see was a flash of fear in the waiter’s eyes which was quickly masked. Mr. N never did get to speak with the manager, but the waiter did change his tune and also gave us a nice discount.

So that was lunch. After that we gambled a little in the hotel’s casino and rested up in our rooms. At dinner Mr. N challenged my dad to get a discount like he did. My dad tried the sweet talk approach. I think we got charged a surplus.

We walked around the streets for a bit, taking in the vibrant neon colours of Macau and after accidentally giving a European tourist wrong directions back to her hotel we decided to visit another casino, The Grand Lisboa. We wanted to sneak my brother in, but he was underage. The best plan we came up with was to rush in as a huddled mass. However in our rush, we left my brother behind with my mum. The security guy stopped them both and asked for ID. My mum thought she could divert the guy’s attention by ruffling through the contents of her purse. She ended up showing her own passport, but this only irritated him. So we went back to the Venetian to end our first day in Macau.

N Jr left early in the morning the next day before my brother and I woke up. He had to get back for a lecture, the nerd. We had breakfast at about 10 and not having any else to do I suggested a visit to the spa. Only my dad thought this was a good idea, so the two of us went off and did just that.

I wanted to get a massage since I never had one before. We both got full body Swedish massages. During it my dad fell asleep and snored loud enough to drown out my thoughts. My masseuse asked if I was nervous because this was my first massage. I said I wasn’t but then she started kneading my butt like bread dough. The masseuse’s hands were rougher than I imagined they should be, like a cat’s tongue.

So that was our time in Macau. Getting back to the ferry before departure was made more difficult since my dad got lost somewhere in the hotel. The rescue effort consisted of my mum yelling at him over the phone. They’re going to have so much fun travelling together in mainland China – just the two of them.

That leaves my brother and I to find our own entertainment back in Hong Kong.

Post 5: Too Fun an’ all and a Wedding

Saturday 23 January 2010 11:03 pm

Today was the wedding day of my dear Uncle 3. My mum comes from a large family of 8 children so everyone got used to being referred to by number rather than name. Uncle 3 is over 50, has never been married and has no children. He’s also the last sibling to be wedded so today was gonna be a very special day for him.

At 9 o’clock, my brother and I were dropped off at the hotel by the parents, who weren’t going to the morning proceedings - they were however coming for lunch/free food. Uncle 6 took us into the hotel and we took some pictures with all the best men.

Okay, a little history: in the olden days the man would travel countless miles from his village to the woman and took her back for the wedding. She would then have a new life there and could never return home. Therefore the woman’s village, upset by this fact set up a series of challenges for the man so that he may prove his conviction to the woman.

In the modern day, the series of challenges turned into a bunch of crazy games.

When we entered the bride’s hotel room, she was nowhere to be seen. Uncle 3 declared himself and the best men (my brother and I included) cheered. Uncle 3 was instantly blindfolded by the bridesmaids. As this happened one of the best men had a D-cup bra strapped onto him. Uncle 3 had to pat random people and try to guess which one was his bride. I thought that was a bit unfair. I mean how were you supposed to pass that challenge? No right answer. So much wrong.

Other games included eating dry biscuits and spitting it, choosing the bride’s lipstick print from a line-up and dancing to a high-energy Cantonese pop song. Why aren’t all weddings this ridiculous?

After passing all the challenges the bride came out of hiding and we did a more serious tradition; the tea ceremony, where the bride and groom honour their elders.

We had to take a long, boring bus trip to Uncle 3’s apartment to perform the ceremony. When we were inside the apartment I saw a photo of Grandma, who past away when I was really young, 17 years ago. I thought it was weird that I was feeling sad about someone who I had never met before. Tea ceremony probably went alright. I didn’t play a part in it so I wasn’t paying attention.

We had lunch somewhere and reconvened at the hotel where the actual wedding would take place by the outdoor pool. My first thought was that they were marrying in front a heavily chlorinated swimming pool with dead bees floating about, but it was actually really nice. It looked like an expensive koi pond with a waterfall.

On one side was the bride and groom and the other side was the audience. The wedding went on and the crowd were at bit rowdy. Yelling shit from across the pool, but nobody minded. Finally when all the vows, signing and what else were done Uncle 3 got to kiss the bride. At that point everyone let go of the helium balloons we were given earlier and it was like a scene from Up (brilliant movie).

Love was filling the air so my brother and I decided to visit Game Zone before dinner. Game Zone was just a room in the hotel where we’d hope to find a pool table. There was only checkers and Connect 4.

Few games of checkers later, we headed down to the restaurant for dinner. It was a buffet and there was plenty of entertainment.

One microphone. One drunk Uncle 3. Comedy gold.

Uncle 3 claimed he wasn’t drunk but deliriously happy. My mum kept commenting she’d never seen her brother this “high” and that he had never sung before. That was obvious when he started to scream the lyrics.

Everyone was getting into the festive mood, cheering, laughing and taking pictures. Then it came to the cousins to take a picture together. My brother and I and seven of our cousins gathered around Uncle 3. We cheered, pulled faces and enjoyed the spotlight. Then Uncle 3 had a tissue and he was wiping his eyes. Someone asked him what was wrong.

He grabbed the microphone and said, “I miss my mum.”

But then he smiled and hugged all of us and we caused a ruckus right till closing time.

Post 4: King Kong's Chinese cousin

Friday 22nd Jan 2010 11:40 pm

I haven’t seen Hong Kong in awhile, so during the flight I was geared up. Nothing out of the ordinary happened inflight; watched movies and ate terrible airline food.

Anyway after we arrived at our apartment in Sheung Shui (literally Up with Water) we took the car to Mong Kok (literally Busy Horn) for some dinner. We went to a western style restaurant named The Sky Bar. We had a deaf waitress who couldn’t hear our orders and made us repeat ourselves. When I came up to order I explained to her my Cantonese was a bit rusty, but I thought her ears were a bit rusty when she came back with lemon water instead of the Sprite I ordered. I sent it back, but then my mum came back from the toilet and told me she had ordered the lemon water. Embarrassed, I had to ask the waitress to bring it back. I guess she wasn’t a bad waitress, we were just bad customers.

We were in a really large mall so we took some time to look around. My brother pointed out a shop with a terrible pun name; Cho-‘COOL’-ate.

It sold clothes.

Another shop was called The Bus Model Shop. It was exactly what the name tells you, an entire shop dedicated to model buses and the jerks who collect them.

My brother and I were in a shop looking at miniature chairs. We were playing around with them when the store clerk told us to put them down and pointed at a sign. It was in Chinese, which we couldn’t read so we accepted that it wasn’t our fault. As we were leaving I saw a girl knock over a handbag from the shelf. She looked at it and decided to ignore it. As she walked passed I asked, “You gonna pick that up?” Silence, she just stared at me. “Bit rude just knocking over a bag and walking off.” Then I realised I was still speaking in English and getting some weird looks. By that time the store clerk had already picked up the bag. I don’t think he wanted us there anymore.

Well that was a fun first night overseas. Tomorrow we have a wedding to attend. Time to meet the extended family.

Post 3: Oh brother, Mother

Thursday Jan 21st 2010

My mum has given in to paranoia. Two years ago when I was preparing to go to Beijing (first time travelling alone) all she did was warn me with stories about people getting mugged or their bags slash and pockets picked. Okay, so those things are pretty common in China and I know several people personally who have gone through it, but she'd go insane from there. She told me this one story about a woman getting her watch stolen by a thief who ran passed and chopped her whole fucking wrist off!

I had many questions. Mostly why did she believe such absolute nonsense, but she just reminded me to keep my hands in my pockets.

Recently she told me a story about a mother who was packing her groceries into the boot of her car. She left her kids in the car with the air con on and since the keys were in the ignition some dirtbag runs in and drives the car away, flooring it and leaving the mother chasing after the car screaming. Obviously, she was very distraught but it turned out alright. The eldest kid, who was about 10, kept his calm and negotiated with the crook to let them all go and he could have the car.

My mum told me this expecting me to be pretty amazed, but all I could say was, "That kid is a little bullshitter." A petty car thief doesn't want to add kidnapping to the offences. He probably dropped the kids off once he was safe and the kid thought, "How can I make the most of this?" The little shit.

Anyway we're leaving tomorrow early in the morning.

Post 2: An apple a day did little to help

Tuesday 19th Jan 2010

Well, yesterday I got a cold; 3 days before we fly off to Hong Kong. I don't even understand how I could possibly get a cold when the weather man said it was a sweltering 41°C. That's fucking hot. I guess he got he got fired after.

I just ate an egg and I'm going to sleep.

Unbelievable... the trip will be more interesting than this, I promise.

Post 1: Meet and greet

Sunday, 10th January 2010

So my name’s Terence, I live in Australia and I’m about to spend a great deal of time travelling abroad with my family. That’s 17 days of sight-seeing in China and Japan… with my family. See, I do love ‘em and all but with an obnoxious father, short tempered mother and an annoying, know-it-all little brother they do make it hard to for me to like them.

In any case I am excited about going overseas again. Even though the last time I went on a family trip my brother fought me for the window seat, my mum complained about everything and my dad kept reminding me his pants size were 2 inches smaller than mine.

We leave on the 22nd of January. Two weeks from now it begins.