And so I arrived in Sydney, "the most beautiful city on the planet", the pilot kept saying. Guess where he was from?!I had arrived in Sydney at 5 o'clock in the morning. By the time I made it to my hostel it was 7am. I was whacked after trying to squeeze so much in in China, Hong Kong and having no sleep on the two flights to get here. Unfortunately, my bed wasn't available until mid-day, so I packed my sleepiness into my rucksack, unpacked my stamina a...

China Part II: The Bit Where I Stopped Whinging and Got on With It... I was so keen to get out of Shenyang that I was ready for anything. I caught the night train to Dalian with Zoe. Dalian is Chinas most northern port which doesn't get iced up in winter; as a result, it has had a few 'owners' - the Russians have had a particularly strong impact on the architecture. But this is still a chinese city and was changing at a rate of knots. My Rough Guide book was o...

Hello! Just a quickie from Qingdao, China. I came here via Dalian - I caught a ferry but couldn't look out the window because the glass was frosted!! They were playing a martial arts film. I chose to listen to my iPod to avoid the sound of vomit splattering into plastic bags (sea sick family in the row in front of me...). Luckily I'm the daughter of an Old Sea Dog so no splattering from me. Went for a walk along the sea front in the rain today - it's nice here...

I had a hangover on my first day of work at IRI in Bracknell. This is a trend I seem keen to continue: I was collected from the airport in Shenyang feeling dehydrated and dishevelled and taken directly to Langston English Center (yes, it's American) to be introduced to about a billion people. I think I managed to maintain the smiley smiley facade. Eventually, I was taken to the apartment which the school organised (and pays for). It's ok. A large bedroom ...

The train station at Hong Kong was really well organised - I had to go through passport control- at a train station - how exciting?!  We were called to board and I found my carriage and then my compartment. I spotted a western woman a few doors down from my compartment. I was travelling soft sleeper: my compartment (a bit like an old style BR First class compartment) had 4 bunks in it. I sat nervously waiting for my travel companions, thi...