Tullamarine International Departures seems so small and quiet. Found free wireless lan for customers of TGIF so I have half an hour to catch up a bit before the flight to Hong Kong and an excuse for a final pot.
It really sucks saying goodbye to my family, friends and dog all over again. I think I’ll try and make it back two years from now.
Oh god, they’re playing ‘You’re the Voice’. I’m not sorry to be leaving now. Though for some reason it was always on fairly high rotation on Dutch radio too.

Hola! Back online after a few days off. Melbourne is lovely. The flat white and gin and tonic at Mario’s were worth the trip by themselves. Having a lovely time catching up with friends, shopping, and being a tourist.

Hi from the Peace Hotel in Shanghai. They’ve got a wireless lan that’s only 20 yuan for an hour. We arrived from Hong Kong yesterday, caught the maglev train from the aiport at 430km an hour. Slept for a while – I was being slayed by jetlag yesterday, though an hour and a half’s sleep after partying in Hong Kong the night before probably didn’t help.
We had dinner in one of the local restaurant streets, getting vegie stuff was surprisingly easy. The menu is crazy, next time I’m taking notes so I can report back. Our waitress giggled every time she had to talk to us and at one point offered us a choice of cold or warm beer.
The cocktails we had in the famous Jazz Bar back at the Peace Hotel almost cost as much as the dinner each (70 RMB each compared to 79 for the whole meal). The band played all the standards, the crowd was a mixture of locals, expats and tourists.
The dining room we had breakfast in looks out over the Bund. There are some amazing sci-fi style buildings across the way. It’s sunny but there’s so much smog or haze that you can’t see that much of the city. I had a mixture of everything they offered at breakfast, including dim sum, scrambled eggs (with slices of bread in it?!), preserved fruit, cheese and salads.
Today we’re going to explore the old Chinese city, maybe do some shopping, stroll along the Bund and have dinner at M on the Bund tonight.

Hi from the Peace Hotel in Shanghai. They’ve got a wireless lan that’s only 20 yuan for an hour. We arrived from Hong Kong yesterday, caught the maglev train from the aiport at 430km an hour. Slept for a while – I was being slayed by jetlag yesterday, though an hour and a half’s sleep after partying in Hong Kong the night before probably didn’t help.
We had dinner in one of the local restaurant streets, getting vegie stuff was surprisingly easy. The menu is crazy, next time I’m taking notes so I can report back. Our waitress giggled every time she had to talk to us and at one point offered us a choice of cold or warm beer.
The cocktails we had in the famous Jazz Bar back at the Peace Hotel almost cost as much as the dinner each (70 RMB each compared to 79 for the whole meal). The band played all the standards, the crowd was a mixture of locals, expats and tourists.
Today we’re going to explore the old Chinese city, maybe do some shopping, stroll along the Bund and have dinner at M on the Bund tonight.

Toodle-pip chaps, I’m off!

I have to admit, this is one of the things I thought of when I saw the Molvania site below. I really wanted this on a t-shirt, preferably a skinny raglan-sleeve number but the stupid Estonians didn’t sell it.
(Actually, they’re not stupid, but they’re also not “the most beautiful women in the world”, as they promised).

Visit sunny Molvania.
I especially liked the Molvanian Idol winner, though it sounded suspiciously like Santo Cilauro.

Another discovery today, http://www.wordspy.com/.

“American and British author Bonnie Greer thinks the UK habit of calling grown women “girls” is strange and irritating. But MP Ann Widdecombe holds no truck with efforts to stamp out its use.” (BBC)
We’re talking about a country that thinks ‘glamour model’ (i.e. showing your boobs for money) is an acceptable career aspiration. I don’t think the common use of ‘girl’ to mean ‘woman’ is a coincidence.

I found archaeoblog today.