I have a headache in my jaw

:(

My mother, out of sheer amusement, buys the biggest onion in the supermarket

And here comes the quote of the day, as said by her:

"Oh dam, I can't stand this. This onion is just so oniony"

There is such a thing as a discarded ironing board disguised as a surfboard because I saw one tonight

I'm a sucker for quotes

This guy pictured above,  ALBERT EINSTEIN, once said:

"There are only two ways to live life. One, as though nothing were a miracle. Two, as though everything were a miracle"

A N D

"Imagination is more important than knowledge"

I like the sound of this man.

Dogs and Kitties of the world

What: Little furry creatures who are blissfully unaware oh how much they make my heart tick.
Where: China, Europe.
Why: Taking photos became an addiction. It just happened.

Stefani aint sleeping tonight

I am living, or trying to live, in Shanghai.

Much to the amusement of the never tiring,ever staring Chinese men, I was just out in my pyjamas on the streets by myself. It was 3am, and I was in a desperate bid to find anything that looked remotely like it could help me.

Difficult. Do you understand chinese? ..... I dont.

My glands are so swollen and inflated I am toad lady.

What an unbecoming name.

An unbecoming name for a girl with an unbecoming illness in her throat.

I have sucked my way through a packet of chinese "watermelon frost throat lozengers" with no feeling of relief.

(Dont trust chinese packaging. There was nothing watermelon about them. They tasted more like spooning tigerbalm into your mouth. )

How wonderful to find myself feeling this way. Sick, the second time in two weeks.
The first time I got sick, my Chinese friend 'fairy', a true sweetheart, said ' Why are you sick? Its summer. Australia is too clean'.

My head wanted to say... "well actually fairy, have you noticed that air quality is really poor here?" It smells like rotten egg half the time. Did anyone tell you I dont DO eggs? I tried eating some fancy egg omlette thing for breakfast recently and I actually thought I was an egg the whole day.

Im going to stop talking about eggs and try and get some shut-eye.

Love:
poor, suffering,
whiney,
blimey,
chinese - grimey,

me.

Children

I am fortunate enough to work opposite Fuxing Park, designed by the French in the early 1900's.

One afternoon in this park, I was finishing eating my lunch before heading back to work, when I met a little Australian kid. I rarely understand anything in this city, and he suprised me. I looked up to hear this voice with an unmistakable australian accent saying 'Where are you from?'

The kid was sitting opposite me on a park bench, accompanied by his chinese babysitter. He was mid way through a messy crepe au chocolate, which made me smile, as I had eaten one a few hours before.

Our conversation went like this:

Boy - WHere are you from?
Me - Australia
Boy- Really? me too.
Me- Really, cool, where?
Boy- Byron Bay. I meet alot of Australians here you know.
Me- Wow, Byron Bay is alot different to here. Do you live here now?
BOy- Yeah, we moved here last year. I go to school near here.
Me- Do you like the weather here? Its always so hot.
Boy - Yeah, I do, its nice.
Me- I bet you miss the beach though dont you?
Boy- WELL OFCOURSE I DO!
Me - I do too. There are no beaches here.
Boy- I know. I just go to the pool. Its probably too crowded today.
Me - Have you made lots of new friends at your school?
Boy- Yes I have friends. I know everyone in my class. But they're not like my friends back home. I dont know why. They're a bit different here, you know? Not like us really.

Oh kids. This little person, with scraggly white blonde beach hair down to his shoulders, was easily the cutest kid in Shanghai. And yet, at the end of our conversation, (right before he proudly informed me that his mum was a Yoga teacher here)-- there was that honest confession, accompanied by his obvious sadness of finding himself in a place unlike home.