now that was one long writers block

....well ok, I did not suffer any writers block, I was just really busy. Do you remember my last post from almost 17 months ago? I went and did what I said I would, the picture on the right shows how that turned out. A lot of stuff happened since and by that I don't only mean that I've grown some hair. I found 朱丽霞 (Julia), the love of my life and we are having our wedding party in June. I myself got a new name too, it's 尼科. At least for this time I spare you the boring details of how I got the new name and how life and work is like in Shanghai for an expat, or the troubles I have learning Mandarin, but I think I might update this blog more often again, especially if you let me know you want me to do that by using my fancy new attention button which you might have spotted already. Yeah Yeah, I know..... weddings don't come cheap and pictures don't take themselves you know. I might even renew my flickr account if you make good use of that new button. ;)

Follow your heart

Walking along the beach in Sanya the other day I noticed two groups of people that had formed a few meters from each other. Each groups attention lay in its center rather then the other group so I got nosy and moved closer. Once I had moved towards one of the crowds it became clear what they where doing. They gaped at 3 people in their middle performing CPR on a poor guy who must have drowned a few minutes earlier. I didn't stick around and neither did I move closer towards the other group, but a bottle of oxygen which was swiftly carried from one group to the other made it clear that the situation there must have been similar. There was nothing for me to be done as proper medical help had arrived already, so I was on my way.

My mind of course, stayed with the scene and it made me realize how short life can be. So forget the stuff I wrote about laziness, that was clearly rubbish.
To make life matter to oneself and to not regret missed chances one has to give it one's best shot and thats exactly what I am going to do now.

Embrace the laziness

Some of you might wonder what I do in Qingdao all that time, others might have spotted in the pictures already where else I've been since my last post, but most of you surely wondered why I'm not posting anymore. Well, here it is, I was way too lazy to write stuff :) and to be honest, being as lazy as possible was the whole plan to begin with. All the sightseeing and stuff is just on the side so don't hassle me, I write when I want to.
Anyways, for all of you who could not make out from the pictures on flickr where I've been, I might as well tell you.
From Qingdao I went to Shanghai where I had a marvelous time despite the pollution and crowds. Then I traveled to Gulang Yu, an island near Xiamen where cars are not allowed and the air is clean which fixed my Shanghai-pollution cough. :-)
Although I liked GulangYu very much, my first visa was running out and I had to leave China for a while, so I took a train to Guangzhou yesterday and am now in Hong Kong.
Well, after all that writing just now, I need to get back to the original plan and be as lazy as possible. That of course means you'll have to wait a few more days for new pictures.

Qingdao

Since a few days I'm in Qingdao and celebrate with locals and tourists their marvelous beer festival. It's a bit like the Oktoberfest in Germany, fun but on the pricey side.
Fortunately there are alternatives how one can spend his time. For instance they do sell fresh draft beer on the streets which they directly pour from the tap into plastic bags.
The drinking then takes either some skill, a glass or a straw. And for snacks on the side, one can chew on a crispy deep fried scorpion. They are still alive when sold as you can see in this video and are cooked right on the street. I also put the same video on flickr where it might have slightly better resolution.

Beijing sights

as most of you might know, I'm not much of a sightseeing kinda guy.

Especially not the tourist attractions and so called 'must sees'. Nevertheless, I got my lazy ass out to Tiananmen square and the forbidden city and made you some pictures to look at. Don't complain that they all look hazy and stuff, the fog is not my fault :)
So, now go and check out my flickr link. There might even be a little video.

China massive!

Yesterday I finally got on my way. I was planning to get some sleep on the plane and avoid the whole jet lag hassle, but the free movies lured me into staying awake the whole flight. Not a wise decision.
Anyways, Beijing looks amazing.
I will put some pictures up soonish, stay tuned.

Check out da picz!

OK OK,
there isn't really any new stuff to be checked out yet.
Its still just the same old pictures that most of you peeps already know,
but thanks to the generosity of my mate Anthony they are now all accessible
on my newly improved flickr pro account