Leaving

Hey all

Finally got out of the country - after being hit up in the last 2 days for 500 bucks in tax by the federal government, 240 by the state government for driving with a mobile phone (you can apparently be booked for just having it in your hand now - you don't even need to be talking on it... soon it will be illegal to look at your watch) and then 120 by the local council for parking in a loading zone for about 5 minutes... If I hadn't been leaving anyway I was ready to start stockpiling weapons and become some kind of militant separatist. I stop in Beijing for the night, then head to Italy first, which is apparently run by the mob - but at least there are well understood limits to the avarice of gangsters, thieves and drug dealers; the same cannot be said for the Australian government. I do feel a bit sorry for the cops when they are in the process of giving out some ridiculous fine - presumably they joined the force with some set of ideals about serving the community, only to end up being turned into glorified tax collectors by Nanny Overlords...

Anyway, Air China is okay for a total budget airline - has little tv screens in the seats which work. Was relieved that my little movie screen worked cause the last time I was on a flight it didn't - a hostess moved me and I was just settling in for a marathon when some officious male hostess came and had a go at me for being in the wrong seat. I don't remember a whole lot of what happened after that apart from increasingly nervous versions of things like "Please calm down sir Please calm down Please remain in your seat Please sit down Please calm down..." and so on. Then he went and found out that I was supposed to be in that seat, and came back and apologised to me, as he should have, the animal, as he had tried to stop me watching TV and all I had done, harmless looking bearded skinhead that I am, was loom over him in mid-air with bloodshot eyes and snarl a bit.

Anyway, thanks for all of your best wishes and for coming to my going away bbq and thanks again to L and A for hosting it - L and A, for those of you who don't know them, are a charming couple – even on his own L is pretty decent, once you get past the limitless smugness and the truly shocking things he says about his wife behind her back ;)

Had a very nice dinner evening with K last night - was hard saying goodbye to her at the airport this morning - got all choked up about leaving for the first time.

Will write some more in Beijing.

Cheers

Later: chaos - first it turned out that the first flight actually stopped at Shanghai, which I thought was Beijing, and started to panic when my luggage did not show up, but then it turned out that we got off the plane, went through customs, wandered around in a big circle, got back on to the same plane with the same seat number, and then had a further flight to Beijing. Took quite a bit of wandering around the enormous terminal there till I figured out (ie, stumbled upon completely by chance) the particular counter I was supposed to go to in order to get my free hotel for the night. But I am here now, so all good, and in addition to reeking of cigarettes the bed has a little notice beside it to "Make life refused to drugs" which seems like sensible advice and makes me feel very safe.

Cheers, B