It's a....blog!

I've been meaning to do this for a long, long time now. No more putting it off! No more scribbling notes on receipts and napkins only to leave them in my pockets where they inevitably go through the wash and end up in little pieces stuck to my clothes. I hate it when that happens.

Right, let's get to it. I can't guarantee my blog entries will be in any kind of order (chronological, geographical, or otherwise), but don't let that spoil your fun!

I just left China where I spent the last month visiting some factories for work. By the end of January it had started snowing a little bit in places it doesn't usually snow, like Jiaxing:



Suzhou had it worse, and I forgot to bring my snow chains so got stuck:



By Chinese New Year it was snowing heavily. Highways were closed, utilities were failing, flights were being cancelled. The country was buckling under the pressure of millions of people trying to traverse the country in the worst weather to hit in 50 years. System Overload, Core Melt Down Imminent...



Many Chinese work 20, 30, or even 40 hours away from their hometowns. Lots of people queued all day for tickets home on New Year's Eve to find all the trains were full. Chinese New Year is one of only two weeks the Chinese get off every year. It's the most important, for many it's the only time of year they see their families.

I was very glad it didn't mean anything to me.



The laowai failing to blend in made his escape and hot footed it out of there, heading for the warmer shores of Thailand.