Patience is a (Hard-won) Virtue

Hey everyone, the answer a few snide comments/questions: No, I`m not dead. I have pictures, I might even have a lead as to how I can upload them finally. I just have to wait until Thursday when I get paid. I`m so poor, it`s been the old $10 a day fiasco for about 2 weeks now, which is fast becoming a royal pain in the arse, as I finally have some really lovely friends who are always going out, and I can`t afford a pot to piss in.

Oh well, one more month. I`m in the middle of another long working stretch right now, only one day weekends for the next few weeks. But then I have 4 days off to go and explore some more of Kyushu, which will be great. My last day at Nova`s on the 14th of June and I couldn`t be happier to have it over with. of course there are good days, but they`re thin on the ground right now, especially with the sleeplessness afflicting me at the moment as I battle both hayfever and the endless vivid dreams of reunification!

I`m a little anxious, but truly excited to be coming home. I`ve bought my tickets, my bags are (rehearse) packed - no, not really, I`ve restained myself from going to such anal lengths, but I really really really want to. In short I`m on tenterhooks. The only two things currently keeping me sane are Stu and a good book. Fortunately at my poor excuse for a school, where there are more free lessons than teachers, I have plenty of time to read. I`m fianlly getting into all the books I said I would read last year, but just never found the time for, barrelling through each new novel at a frightening pace. It can only be a good thing right now as I struggle with the extremely poor conversational patterns that naturally develope when you are constantly rephrasing you language all day for esl speakers. Sentence formation and natural structures, including word order were the first on the chopping block when it came to communication here. Now vocabulary is falling prey, but thanks to loads of free time I`m slowly gaining back.

Anyway, back to my travel plans. As it stands, I`ll be heading off to Thailand on the 17th of June, then onto Shanghai on the 30th, then back to Fukuoka (just me, Stu goes on to Beijing, then home via the Trans-Mongolian Express) for one night, then I fly to Sydney on the 4th of July (Independence Day!). I`m staying in Sydney with the lovely Webby Webstar for about 5 days, then on to Melbourne to catch up with everyone there (send me a message, let me know contact numbers everyone please), then finally, home to Adelaide on the 16th of July, poor, destitute even, but happy to be home!

So I hope that answers some of your more immediate questions and that you won`t all give up on me completely in this time of lean blogging. I absolutely swear I`ll get those pictures up the next time. Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye. Love you all, can`t wait for this next month to hurry up and be done with, but rest assured I`ll enjoy every minute of it anyway, well, almost every minute.

Stu and I had our one year anniversary on the 10th of May. He forgot.