My how we've grown

A photograph is more than just an image, it's a way for you to look back into your past. You wipe away the lines imprinted on your face. For some that hairline comes back. The light that is now a mature beam from your eyes is re-engineered into a bright spark. But the same smile can always reappear, even after a number of years.

So here's to you my friends and old comrades in change, Dexter, Lucy, Pierre, Petr, Joey, Regula, Birtan, Juan, Dan, Asia and Stefano!

Oh conduit of the North

Just how many countries in the world would offer themselves up as hosts for a military meeting between the heads of the US and Russian armed forces?

I'm just wondering how this works. Would it be the Moscow or Washington making the call to the Finnish President's office.

What exactly do you say?

"Hi, look, we heard you might have an historic, 16th century manor, with has a Yellow Reception Room, Green Salon and Blue Coffee Salon, as well as lovingly manicured lawns for our security detail. Would it be possible to stop by on Wednesday to check it over?"

Hola mi amigos

Things I'm currently enjoying

• I'm out and about at university at least for another year...indulging in not having to find permanent work during the current economic climate.

• Officially admitted into the world of journalism. (Sat at the parliamentary press gallery table and asked the State Premier questions just like the paid professionals.) You can even view the story online.

• Indulging in a great deal of Tina Fey's Sarah Palin sketches

• Hearing Mandarin everywhere I go. I went into a Taiwanese restaurant and spoke some of my very limited, poor, Beijinger Mandarin and in return got the biggest smile from the staff.

It's not just my Chinese obsession anymore

In the lead up to the main event it's virtually impossible to escape China.

When I came back to Australia, it was with a certain pleasure that my ears were burning with Mandarin everywhere I went. In supermarkets, walking in the city and of course at the university for the real world it seemed to be a specialised Pavlov's bell for me.

If people ask me about what life was like in China, I can't help but smile and seem to go on forever (poor souls for asking) about experiences there. There is still such a strong emotion invoked in me - a romanticised reflection of life there, so that when I come across stories about the problems faced by ordinary people there I am reminded of just how important it is to keep the scales balanced.

Saying that I don't think there is any way to swoon over brown skies.

Do I look like a viking?

I ask this question because I came out of Lush (Wudaokou Heartland - an old school student hang out) two nights ago and a Chinese guy looked up at me and said loudly "you look like a viking!" (Blonde hair has a lot to answer for.)

Beijing is definitely a city where something beyond the ordinary happens every single day.

Yearning and Returning

There is something undeniably romantic about returning to a place which you once called home.

Perhaps the sensation lies in the rush of familiarity of feeling, fostering and forging stronger memories.

Hello China, my old friend.

Flying high and Airport Lows

Being able to:

a) afford to get on a plane and fly to exotic and ordinary destinations is a privilege

b) actually get into one of the big machines of the sky is a thrill

c) spend time in airports and observe how people from around the world come and go, fight, apologise for being upset/the company that employs them, sleep, pray, cry, laugh, induce a jet-lagged glaze of the eyes and to hear the "SIGH" as people finally get on their plane, is one of the things that makes flying fun

So when your flight to New York gets cancelled and you get to visit two brand new countries (albeit solely the airports at Arlanda and Heathrow) and arrive at your destination almost 24 hours after you were expecting it is, in the end...just fine.