by .

Any westerner who’s travelled in China will agree, you get stared at when you’re walking down the street. It’s a little like you’re famous, but you don’t actually know what for.

No kidding, we were walking past a department store in Tunxi (Huangshan city) and we saw a singing competition / yoghurt promotion.

Not being the kind of people to say no to free samples of food (in the past day we’ve had dates, figs, halva, weird salty kiwi fruit etc) we stopped to get yoghurt.

But then, one of the girls serving yoghurt spied a major attention grabber.

Would we, the people with the most novelty value (and the best hair ever) sing for the crowd?

How could we say no? Lord knows, I tried to say no to both Dan and the girl, but she dragged us up to the MC. She said a whole bunch of stuff in Chinese and then the MC and organisers said to us.

“Would you sing? I’m sure you will be talented.”

Really, there was nothing left, but for us to choose a song…

“Anything, something you know well?”

In the heat of the moment, Dan and I did the only thing we knew how. We asked for English language karaoke cds.

And we were presented with the choice of just one song. It couldn’t have been more perfect.

“Bohemian Raphsody.”

Never, not even when auditioning for Popstars, performing in the ultimate super group The Hot 300 or singing at Generation X karaoke, have I had to sing for such a huge crowd.

Most people seemed a little confused. But they loved it whenever Dan said “ni hao” or “xie xie”. And I like to think that they went a little wild when we headbanged to the guitar solos. There were people taking photos of us and excited little girls smiling at us.

The Lonely Planet for China suggested singing karaoke with the locals as one of the top 10 things to do. Well, Dan and I just took that advice to the extreme, and we even received souvenir mugs.

by .

There’s a couple of people I wish that I’d packed up in my backpack and brought with me, just because they’d love Shanghai.

Ianto would be overwhelmed by the bikes which, this being China, are everywhere. Sadly, there’s no carbon fibre or shimano gear shifters to be seen. All of the ladies would be blown away by the shopping.

But the person who’d dig the history the most? Well, I have to say that Red Evan would be enjoying the communist history, and memorabilia scattered around this city.

Evan is so much in the thoughts of Dan and I (how much we miss his witty banter and naked swimming already) that we made a bus stop so we could take a photo for him.

Now, nothing stops a Shanghai bus. But we did.

This post is for you Evan Smith!

A more organised trip to Shanghai would have seen Dan and I whisked through the recognised cultural sites around People’s Square and The Bund in a matter of days. We’d have bought a couple of “bagsshoesrolexdvd” at the fakes market and gone on our merry way.

However, we seem to be organised not by our guidebooks, but by our feet (“Hey, let’s go down this street”) and our stomachs.

Even though I’ve had a couple of reasonable vegetarian meals (at the restaurant next to the Jade Buddha Temple and at Element Fresh in the Shanghai Centre), never has there been a time when I’ve celebrated my non-vegetarian status quite so much. And the reason for this celebration is street food in its myriad forms – but specifically the dumpling form.

Every two hours or so, Dan and I look at each other longingly, there’s hunger in our eyes… We’re thinking of snacks.

Any snack will do. We’ve had a rather tasty / pretzel like bread from the sinkiang area of China, fruit and bubble tea, tiny custard tarts and steamed buns with different fillings. There’s still various kebabs, steamed corn and candied fruit to try. Any snack will do and will probably more than suffice, but already, the tastiness we desire most is shengjian mantou (生煎馒头).

We keep finding ourselves walking in obscure local wet markets where we happen to be the only westerners around. We are stared at. We stare back at the people and the food for sale (specifically at the bullfrogs and obscure wriggling little eel things that we can’t identify). Yet that hasn’t stopped us in our search for shengjian mantou. We see them occasionally and gesture for two serves of them… Delicious!

But now I know what to ask for! Dan and I still haven’t explored the magical dumpling hour (just after 5) in the Old City near the Yunnan Gardens. And Shanghaiist has even provided me with an address for the best dumpling store in town.

I know where we’ll be having lunch tomorrow!

While both frustrating and expensive, there’s something to be said for pretravel medical checkups. You know what they say: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure…

I’ve spent over $80 on non-prescription medicines and don’t even want to know how much I’ve invested in “just in case” prescriptions for antibiotics and the morning after pill. I’ve been jabbed with vaccinations for typhoid, tetanus and rabies, had my teeth checked and had two fillings. I’m carrying two months worth of St John’s Wort and Vitamin B and multivitamins for fear of anxiety, depression, exhaustion and getting just plain old run-down.

Remember, apart from the St John’s Wort, all this preparation is not just for me. Whilst wary of getting sick whilst on the road, I also live in fear of Dan catching even a cold and turning into the biggest sook who ever shouldered a backpack.

So, it was in the spirit of “getting a checkup” that I headed off to my GP to get a pap smear done. Towards the end of last year, conveniently occuring at exactly the same time as my work related breakdown, I found out that my previous pap smear had been flagged for abnormal cells. At the time that news just added to a general feeling of ohmygodtheworldisgoingtoend, but I did remember to have another pap smear done about 3 weeks ago. And that came back with another notification of abnormal cells.

Now, because I’m leaving the country this Saturday I needed to get a whole bunch of “examinations” over and done with as soon as possible, you know, just in case. Referrals were made and the ObGyn’s office gave me an appointment for a colposcopy the day I rang up. Which was lucky, because I needed a biopsy on the abnormal cells, and, you guessed it, last Friday I rang up for the results and they showed Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN) II cell changes. And they’re the kind of cells you need to get removed before they potentially turn cancerous.

Since Friday, when I found out I needed to have the surgery, I’ve spent way too much time online looking at information about the procedure and getting distressed by forum responses. Should I, or shouldn’t I postpone my departure for Shanghai? Would I be in terrible pain or depressed? Would it affect my potential to have children a number of years in the future?

Oh, it was a tough weekend. I was moving house. And it was a long weekend so I couldn’t speak to my gynaecologist or my travel agent for three days for reassurance about the procedure and the flexibility of my ticket. I rang up on Monday and was reassured.

Then, I packed and moved stuff. Vacuumed and drove backwards and forwards across town. Went to Womadelaide for a day and visited my grandmother who is almost 99.

Today I had the LLETZ procedure to remove the area surrounding the abnormal cells away from my cervix. It meant that I was knocked out by a sedative and was in hospital for half a day. I’m going to have post operative bleeding or “loss” for a couple of days, and can’t have sex for about a month. I also have to be careful about picking up heavy objects, so I’m going to cart my pack around on a granny cart for the first week or two.

I was freaked out. So scared. But nowhere near as scared as I’d have been if it was cancer, and I’m so glad I found the changed cells when I did.

I feel a little tired and woozy and I have about a million things to do tomorrow, but damnit, I’m getting on that plane on Saturday morning.

For more information about pap smears and cervical cancer screening visit http://www.cervicalscreen.health.gov.au.

This Wednesday (March 15th) at the Exeter on Rundle St from 7.30 onwards.

Eat dinner or just drink beer.

Come say goodbye to me and give me a hug for good luck.

I still go into bookshops and feel a little upset and anxious because I know that I could never read everything there. Where does one start? Do you choose a letter and only read authors with that letter starting their last name?

I’ve thought about reading one book over and over again. Learning every minute detail the author put in there. Though, how I could decide on only one book, I just don’t know.

Then I start to worry a little. And think that maybe I haven’t done houses justice – I haven’t known the secrets of their walls and gardens. Did I ever talk to that person long enough to be able to map their personality accurately? When I’m away will I be able to carry them with me? [Replica friends in a town in my head.]

And my sweet, sweet little city of Adelaide. There’s no way I’ll ever know everything about you. How could anyone would use the excuse of “I know everything about this place and its people” as an excuse to leave? I promise, I’m not using that excuse, I wouldn’t even dream of it.

The closest I can come to explaining why I’m leaving, is that I feel complacent living here. I never quite take up the challenge of knowing everything I can about this town, and because of that, I’m not sure that I’d ever quite know me. When I’m travelling I feel much more stripped back, the outer layers of projected identity fall away and I begin to feel who I am again.

Prompted by Keri’s post – thought train…

Aliese kindly pointed out that she would have loved to comment on some of my posts except that there were some hiccups with my WP setup and she couldn’t leave her feedback. So. I’ve fixed up that hiccup which means that none of you have an excuse for not leaving a comment.

I also read somewhere that a good blogger provokes discussion with leading questions. Recently, Aliese asked whether there were people who would read her blog more if she posted about them. And instantly there were two new comments!

So I’ve decided to ask for your opinion. In the ilk of Stubborn Like a Mule
– should I have themed posts? Or perhaps I should have a blogging scavenger hunt / word association task where someone emails me a topic and I blog on it? Or should I jump on the bandwagon and blog about you, Red Evan?

Also, thanks so much to the awesome people who’ve ordered badges
from me! They’ll be coming out to you very soon. Remember – every set of badges you buy will allow me to eat a meal in China. Or half a cup of coffee in Venice. So thankyou again to those people who are keeping me alive.

Apart from the name of this bean dish there’s nothing baked nor ghetto about these beans. Ever since Karah made a version of it for me a couple of years ago, it’s become one of my staple “I don’t know what to have…” dishes.

Most of the ingredients come out of a can which means that you can whip it up at the last minute without any problems. And because it’s basically beans and tomato, you can add extra stuff if you have it sitting in the fridge or the cupboard. In fact, writing this down as a recipe is pretty ridiculous.

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• fresh or dried chilli (to taste)
• 4 rashers of bacon or 2 chorizo, sliced (optional)
• 2 cans of tomatoes
• 1 can cannelini beans
• mushrooms, sliced (optional)
• zucchini, sliced (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste
• sugar, if necessary

fry the bacon or chorizo in the olive oil with the garlic.
if using mushrooms add them now and fry them briefly too.
season with salt and pepper to taste.
add the cans of tomatoes and smoosh them up a bit.
add zucchini if necessary.
once the tomato juice has thickened a little add the cannelini beans and heat them through.

add a fried egg or parmesan or fetta on top for extra yumminess.

serve in a bowl with toast on the side.
or reheat and have on toast.

Now that Dan is safely out of the country and hopefully sleeping peacefully somewhere in Osaka, Japan, I’ll be free to bust out the To Do Lists and finish getting everything in order. Somehow, last night whilst trying to sleep amongst the bright lights and disorder of Dan’s last minute packing frenzy, I sleepily volunteered to finish tidying up his room. Yep, that’s in the same two week period that I have left to move out of my house, tidy up and make sure everything is in ship shape order before leaving the country.

Recently, there’s been a little bit of discussion amongst a couple of people I know as to whether the listmaking compulsion is linked to personality types. For example, do I suffer from an anxiety disorder because I write lists or do I write lists to help deal with / as a symptom of my anxiety disorder?

The first time that I went travelling for a long period of time I must have put out waves of organisation, or perhaps it was anxiety, because in hostels people would come up to me and ask to borrow a sewing kit “Because you look like the type of girl who would have packed one…”. Did I look well groomed? Or just really uptight?

Despite the benefits that an organised departure can bring (belongings packed up, friends and loved ones not overly stressed, finances in order and a well appointed sewing kit), there’s a lot to be said about not being too planned once travel has started. With merely a nod you’re able to literally change your direction with less than a day’s notice. Suddenly you realise that you’re heading East towards a mountain you’ve never heard of, but with awesome new friends beside you.

It’s Dan’s 27th birthday today and here’s hoping that it turns out well.

I’m a little afraid that I’ll fall asleep halfway through the day as I woke up at about 4am with incredibly bad reactions to mosquito bites and couldn’t get back to sleep for about an hour. On the topic of insects and insect borne diseases we also have to head off to The Travel Bug to get a whole bunch of medicine and drugs in case of misadventure.

If you feel like rocking up to Dan’s birthday party and our combined farewell do, we’re having a World Safari Birthday Picnic at 1pm on Saturday (tomorrow) in Botanic Park near the Friends Gate of the gardens. Bring along food, drinks, blankets and travel themed mix cds if you feel like gifting either of us.