Retroactive posting

Got back from a quick (and unexpected) trip to Australia on Monday, and decided that I should get off my backside and get back to some semi-regular posting about my activities.  I've only got 10 weeks left in Shanghai before I go back to Melbourne for good, so I'm going to try to make the most of that time.

I've still got stories about some of my activities in recent weeks (and earlier in the year) that I haven't uploaded, so I'll try to add some retroactive posts in the next few weeks which fill in some blanks.  The way I see it, this blog is acting as a record of a lot of my time in China - I should be filling in as much as possible so that I can look back in the future and actually remember some of it!  It'd be a damn sight easier to do it if the stupid great Chinese firewall didn't block the site, but I guess there's not much I can do about it.  To all of you reading this everywhere else in the world - count yourselves lucky that you are not viewing a censored Internet.  It's a gigantic pain.

A distinct lack of posts

Yes, I've been slack. It's been a month since my last post, which is appalling. However, I did spend 8 days in Australia during that time (no way I was going to be posting then due to all the eating/drinking/catching up with people that was happening) and have just finished a stint where I had some visitors stay with me in Shanghai for 11 days. So there are legitimate reasons.

Anyway, I'm currently in the city of Xiangtan in a hotel with little to do in the evening other than blog about things, so look out for the final updates to the Shotty/Cookie mayhem visit, and a start on the more recent fun including another trip to Beijing and one to Xi'an, the home of the Terracotta Warriors.