Hi everyone!

I am headed back to Australia VERY SOON! I will be there December 24th-January 4th. My time’s going to be pretty full with family and a certain Wedding that is taking place on the 2nd, but I’m thinking of having a bit of a shindig seomtime on Saturday December 27th for anyone who wants to catch up! If you’ll be in the general vicinity of Canberra that afternoon and you’re interested in coming along, let me know and we’ll work something out. Winter is upon us here in Beijing/Langfang. This morning I was very glad for my double layer windows – when I got up at 6:30ish the outer layer was coated in a thick layer of ice! A sudden cold snap has dropped overnight temps to about -10 C, with daytime maximums also below zero.

I went to see Kylie Minogue in concert in Beijing on December 1st. If you don’t know who Kylie Minogue is (yes, my Australian friends, I find it hard to comprehend too, but there a plenty of people who don’t!) then SHAME on you, and go read this wikipedia article. Now! Where was I? Oh, right! The show! It was a fun night. I’ve never been a massive Kylie fan but she’s a true icon and it was so odd that she was performing HERE! So when an Aussie mate told me about the show and invited me to come I said yes!! We dressed up, had a pre-show dinner and drink, then went on in and had a great time! On our way back to the car afterward, we saw a crazy shooting star. It was so low, so fast, and we even watched it disintegrate. CRAZY!

A colleague and I regularly buy jianbing for breakfast/brunch on workdays (a sort of crepe omelet, common street food here). We go to the same lady with her bicycle cart making them fresh by the road outside our office. One day Jing (my coworker) went by herself to get them for both of us, and the jianbing lady asked her, “Where do you come from?” to which Jing replied with the northeastern province she’s from originally. The lady said, “That’s strange. Whenever you and that other girl talk together I can’t understand a single word!” She’d assumed we were speaking Jing’s native tongue, it never occurred to her that we were speaking English (or another foreign language)! A silly little story, perhaps, but it made my day.

Death Cab for Cutie – “Plans” and “Transatlanticism”

Nevertheless – “In The Making…”

Kisschasy – “Hymns for the Nonbeliever”

Sufjan Stevens – “Come On Feel The Illinoise”

“War of the Twins” – Margarest Weis and Tracy Hickman

“Test of the Twins” – Margarest Weis and Tracy Hickman