Destination China - First Leg

I handed my passport, boarding pass, and departure slip to the immigrations officer at the Brisbane International Airport. Check-in and security check transpired smoothly and quickly, and this was the last checkpoint before I could enter the International terminal to catch my flight to Singapore, and onward to China.

The officer looked at the documents and scanned my passport. “How long have you been in Australia?”

“A little over two years,” I said.

“You don’t have a visa on this passport,” she explained.

“It’s on my old passport which was going to expire this year. This is my renewed passport.”

“Well, you should’ve had the visa transferred to your new passport. Do you have your old passport?”

Transfer the visa to my new passport? The Australian visa was applied to my old passport electronically. A stamp or sticker was never physically added to the old passport. Surely, they had record of my visa and old passport somewhere in their database of records.

“Yes, but it’s in my checked bags.”

She frowned, clearly unimpressed and skeptical of my answer. “I need you to go over there for further questioning”. She was pointing to the far end of the counters and motioned to another immigration officer to escort me to the holding area. My heart sank. We were cutting it close to making the flight, and a long delay here would certainly mean a missed flight. After a 3-month process to get our Chinese visas approved, filled with red tape and delays, it seemed ironic that my departure was in jeopardy by Australian immigration because of my new passport, which was renewed in order to conform to Chinese immigration law stating that visa entrants can not enter the country with a passport set to expire within 6 months.  I took a deep breath, quickly told a waiting Amber that I was needed for questioning about my visa, and followed the officer to the holding area.

Department of Immigration
and Citizenship

After months of anticipation and waiting, our departure date to China had finally arrived.

We woke up around 7am and did our “Insanity” workout as scheduled  - not even relocating countries was going to stop us from getting our work out on!

After the difficult, yet invigorating work out, we got ready, packed the last of our things, checked out of our hotel room that we had called home for the past 2 months, and taxied to the Brisbane International Airport. The check-in and security processes were unusually quick and easy. We even didn’t have to pay the overweight baggage fees. We congratulated ourselves on how easy it had all been.

The line to get through immigration was fairly long, but moved steadily. After 15 minutes in line Amber passed through immigration without incident, but I was being escorted to the holding area. The area consisted of a makeshift cubicle office with a sitting area in the front occupied by two families also needing further questioning.

I handed my documents to the immigrations officer who chided me that I should have been carrying both passports. I purposely didn’t carry both passports because I thought it was illegal to do so! I didn’t tell the officer this, as she didn’t look like she was in the mood to have a two-way conversation. 

While she scanned my passport and made a phone call (perhaps to Interpol, the CIA, or ASIO?), I imagined myself as the next feature on the popular Australian TV show, “Border Security”. It’s a reality TV show that chronicles the everyday workings of the Australian customs and immigrations officers. Most of the show is focused on following agents as they question and search (and usually find) illegal contraband, or question people with dubious travel intentions and/or questionable visas or passports. I could see myself in one of the interview rooms being patronizingly questioned by an immigration officer. Between the questionings, the TV host, with his overly dramatic and accusatory voice, would question why I had a brand new passport without an Australian visa and hint at the possibility that my stay in Australia had been illegal which could result in my imminent deportation. I would put my head in my hands asking myself, “Why is this happening?” while viewers at home would be quick to judge, “Yup, that bloke is up to no good. Deport him!”

After 5 minutes on the phone, the immigration officer handed my documents back to me, told me that I was free to go, and instructed me to transfer my visa to the new passport - yeah, I’ll be sure to do that seeing that it would expire upon my departure within the hour!

With the brief scare now behind us, we were back on schedule and had enough time to grab a quick breakfast in the terminal before boarding the plane to Singapore.

Click here to read the next post, "Destination China - 2nd Leg"

Final sights of Australia

(Sunset at Tallow's Beach near Byron Bay, New South Wales)
Bye bye pretty beaches of Australia....China here we come!

After numerous postponements and extensions, Amber’s company finally confirmed a final date of employment for her assignment in Bunbury.  Even though we knew that the next project would be in China we had no idea when we would actually relocate because it is a 4 to 8 week time frame to complete the process of getting a Z-class working visa. We started the visa application process a month before moving out of Bunbury by getting our medical examination completed in Perth.  The process included updating our vaccinations, which meant receiving 4 injections covering 8 vaccines (Diptheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Polio, Hepatits A & B, Typhoid, Japanese Encephalitis). I don’t have issues with needles or shots, but one of those shots pretty much deadened my arm within minutes of the injection and rendered it useless for the next 2 days! Ouch.

We were told that while the visas were being processed, we would be living in Brisbane, Australia – the Australian headquarters for Amber’s company.  Due to the short, 1-2 month stay in Brisbane the company would not allow us to move all of our belongings from Bunbury to Brisbane, then have it all shipped to China. Instead, we had to pack essential items to bring with us to Brisbane for our 1-2 month stay and leave everything else in storage in Perth. Once our Chinese visas are approved the items in Perth would be air freighted to us in China. Thus, when we moved to Brisbane we only had a few bags with us plus our exercise and tennis gear, and my guitar equipment.

Our tiny Brisbane apartment

Upon arrival in Brisbane, we were a bit disappointed because we found ourselves booked into a very small 1-bedroom hotel. There was barely enough room to set down our luggage! Upon further inspection of the room, I was more disappointed because the cooking area was equipped with an electric stovetop (cooking is so much easier with gas). Meanwhile, in the bathroom I heard Amber shriek, “eeww!”  No, she hadn’t seen a spider or cockroach.  She was horrified that the bathroom was equipped with a tiny shower and tub combination (it’s all about having a separate shower and tub, or just a shower). Geez, we do seem to be snobbishly spoiled with these complaints! We really couldn’t nit-pick the place too much as it was fully paid for by the company, including utilities, and it was located right in the heart of the city, near Amber’s office. It would be home for the next 2 months.

Brisbane is a city of over 2 million people located on the east coast of Australia in the state of Queensland. Like most Australian cities, it is modern with well-preserved, beautiful colonial buildings and sites. The cultural and music scene is exceptional, the public transportation is good (including the river ferries), and it is consistently within the top 20 most livable cities in the world. Although we loved living in Bunbury, it was a bit refreshing to live in a proper city again.

The Story bridge and part of downtown Brisbane

To keep myself busy for the next 2 months I spent my time doing various activities which included: participating in an African drumming class, taking capoeira classes, running along the Brisbane River (and doing the Bridge-to-Brisbane 5k run), working out at a very nice gym downtown, playing tennis, taking private Mandarin lessons, and taking our laundry to the Laundromat. Out of all these activities the most interesting was the weekly trip to the Laundromat.

Chinatown in Brisbane

The Laundromat is located in Chinatown, which is 2 blocks from the hotel. They offer a full laundry service where they wash, dry, and fold your clothes. On my first visit I met the owner - a short, middle-aged, Asian woman that spoke English quite well. She was wearing a touristy shirt from Bangkok so I asked her, in Thai, if she was from Thailand. She was surprised and delighted that I could speak Thai and answered that she was Thai. We had a brief conversation in Thai before switching back to English (without much practice my Thai isn’t as good as it used to be).  Her name was Apple and she was married to an Italian. They’ve lived in Brisbane for over 10 years running the Laundromat. It was near closing time, so I’d have to wait until the next day to pick up the clothes. When I returned the next morning the clothes were ready, and, to my surprise, she gave me a plate of Thai food (an entire fish, cooked and seasoned!) wrapped up for me to take home. Without fail, every Thai person that I meet, both in Thailand and abroad, has always given me Thai food. It pleasantly surprises me every time. Every week for the next 2 months I took our laundry to the same laundromat and every week she had a new dish of food or fruit for me to take home. We’d chat about Thailand, Australia, Amber’s job as an engineer, her daughter’s job as an engineer, and where to buy good Thai food and fruit in Brisbane. I was sad to say goodbye to her, and gave her 2 bottles Australian wine for all the food she’d given me.

Sunshine Coast

Another nice feature of Brisbane is that it’s near some major Australian tourist hotspots. The first one that we visited was the Sunshine Coast. Located 100km north of Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast is a collection of towns and beaches along the coastline that is popular as a holiday and surfing destination.

The first stop of our daytrip was the Ginger Factory in Yandina, which turned out to be a small ginger-themed complex. It contained shops selling food and snacks containing ginger, a café, an ice cream shop, a honey shop, stations chronicling the history and processing of ginger, a nature walk, and a gift shop. The ginger ice cream was quite yummy!

Checking out the Ginger Factory

The next stop was Nutworks, which was located across the street from the Ginger Factory.  Nutworks is a macadamia processing factory and chocolate factory. Macadamia nuts are local to Australia, and nearly 50% of of the world’s macadamia nuts are produced in Australia, which has more than 13 million trees. Ferdinand von Mueller first described the macadamia genus, and he named the nut after his colleague, John Macadam. We bought some macadamia-based snacks and munched on a delicious macadamia chocolate tart. We were also eyeing the kiddie ride at the front of the shop – who wouldn’t want to ride in a jeep with a kangaroo, wombat and, koala?

Hop in mate!

The next destination was the well-known area called Noosa. The Noosa River flows into the Coral Sea at the beach town of Noosa Heads. As we drove towards Noosa Heads we saw the river inlet lined with mansions, complete with their own private beach for a backyard and dock for their boat. The beach section of the town was packed with people and it took forever to find a parking spot. We strolled along the main street, which contained shops, restaurants, and a few hotels. We also walked along a very nice beach. Noosa Heads was certainly nice, but we weren’t overly impressed, as it appeared to be overdeveloped, cramped, and had way too much people for our liking – and this was the winter low season. Apparently, people from Sydney and Melbourne come here just for the weekend as a getaway. I really don’t see why because based my experience all beaches in Australia are equally fantastic and, while this beach is fantastic in it’s own right, it didn’t merit itself to be above and beyond the norm. I can only guess that the prestige of Noosa adds to the allure.

A Noosa Heads Postcard

We continued our trip by driving south along the coast and stopped at a few other beach towns including Sunshine Beach, Castaways Beach, Peregian Beach, and Coolum Beach. They were much smaller than Noosa Heads and they weren't crowded with too many people. It reminded us of living in Western Australia – beautiful beach towns with hardly any people, if any, on pristine beaches. We finished our daytrip by having an early dinner at a café at Coolum Beach while enjoying the ocean view.

Sunshine and beach - a great combination!

Gold Coast

Two weeks after our Sunshine Coast daytrip Amber decided to take 2 weeks of vacation so we decided to visit the other major tourist area near Brisbane, Gold Coast.

A view of the Gold Coast

The city of Gold Coast is Australia’s 6th largest city with half a million people. The name of Gold Coast’s most well known suburb is Surfer’s Paradise (yes, the surfing is good here). There are numerous high-rise apartment and hotels along the beach in Surfer’s Paradise, a nice promenade along the beach, and a large shopping complex. We stayed at a very funky hotel that served excellent tacos – yum!

Welcome to Surfer's Paradise

The highlight of the Gold Coast was the whale-watching trip. This was our first whale watching tour and we didn’t know what to expect. We boarded the boat in the morning on a pier on the Nerang River and made our way towards the sea. We could see beautiful houses and marinas along the river,  including Jackie Chan’s house and another with a helicopter pad.  We got to the open sea, rode out to the sighting area, and within minutes we saw our first humpback whale in the distance!

The obligatory whale tale picture

 The captain explained that once we sight a whale he'll try to drive the boat to where it will next surface, which can take 2-10 minutes. However, there is a law that boats can't drive within 100 meters of a whale, but whales can swim up to a stationary boat. For the first 30 minutes we would see a whale in the distance, chase it, wait for it to surface again without luck, but see another whale in the distance and chase that one.  During the 3rd or 4th time of the cat and mouse game, a group of 3 or 4 whales surfaced right next to the boat. The captain picked the perfect spot for their surfacing and the whales were literally a few foot away from boat!

The pod of whales right next to the boat (2 surfacing, 1 about to surface)

 They were massive and seemed to glide effortlessly in the water. They seemed to be curious or playful as they surfaced several times around the boat. The pod split off and we tried to follow them, but it was to no avail. The rest of the tour was much like the beginning, spotting whales at medium distances but no more close encounters. Overall, it was a great experience to learn about the whales and to see them up close.

2 whales coming up for air

Byron Bay

The rest of the vacation was spent relaxing in the seaside town of Byron Bay, located in the state of New South Wales.

Cape Byron

Byron Bay is known for its relaxed and easygoing spirit. Events held at Byron Bay include music festivals, yoga retreats, pagan gatherings, and film and writer’s festivals. We spent our time lazy about, checking out the lighthouse (which happens to be the Eastern most point on the Australian mainland), checking out the beaches, and even getting in a game of tennis.

The Cape Byron Lighthouse

Our final day of the trip was spent driving through the little villages near Byron Bay. First we drove along the coast and stopped at a lookout to see a surf reserve at Lennox Head.

Preserving Surf Habitats

A view of the Surfing Reserve and the village of Lennox Head

After driving through a few villages in the hills we stopped for lunch at a Pecan farm. The pecan pie and pecan cheesecake were delicious!

We made a quick stop in Bexhill to sew one of the world’s few open-air cathedrals.

Bexhill open-air cathedral

Our final stop was in the legendary village of Nimbin. Nimbin is a tiny village of 350 people and is an Australian icon for hippies and marijuana use. In 1973 the village held the Aquarius Festival (a big hippie festival) and some of the participants decided to stick around, form cooperatives, and live an “alternative lifestyle”.

The main street of Nimbin

 It’s said that you can’t walk around the main street in Nimbin without being offered marijuana, and we weren’t disappointed! We were offered marijuana in the Nimbin museum and out in the open as were walking along the shops.

A public notice posted at the entrance to the Nimbin Museum

Checking out the hippie history in the Nimbin Museum

After 7 weeks in Brisbane our Chinese visas were finally approved. We spent the last days selling the car (I’m gonna miss that car!), packing, and enjoying the Brisbane festival. It’s been a great 2 ½ years in Australia and we sincerely hope to be back in the future. One chapter of our lives was coming to an end, and a new and exciting one in China is about to begin. Here we go!


(Click here to view all of our Australia East Coast Pictures)

My Highlights of Living in Australia

It’s been nearly 2 years since my last bog post. These 2 years living in Australia have whizzed by and, begrudgingly, it’s now time to say goodbye. I look back on how the time passed I realize that it was abundant with wonderful experiences and delightful people.  As I reflect on it all, it suddenly and surprisingly occurs to me that I’ve gone through a metamorphosis. I’ve transformed into a different person than when I arrived. Some of the change is physical as I’ve become the most fit I’ve ever been. Oh, and don’t forget about the hair! However, most of the change is within. I’ve tried new experiences, re-invigorated some of my dormant passions, and discovered a few new things about myself. I think it was all due to a perfect storm of open-mindedness, taking opportunities, luck, having a positive attitude, and living in an amazingly beautiful and community-centered town (go Bunbury!).

Here are my highlights of living in Australia.

The Beaches!

I’ve now been to numerous beaches across 4 Australian states and every single one of them was spectacular. Here are my favorite beaches:

Back Beach, Bunbury

I never got tired of watching the sun set over the ocean on a beautiful beach

Lucky Bay, Esperance

I was able to get up close with a few kangaroos right on the beach!

Whitehaven Beach, Whitsunday Island

The Hill Inlet at Whitehaven Beach, which is not too far from the Great Barrier Reef

Tennis

As I mentioned in a previous blog, Bunbury, and Australia in general, is very sport and fitness oriented. There is a club for just about any sport in Bunbury. I tried a few of the clubs in town including running, cross-country running, tennis (hadn’t played in 2 years), badminton, and boxing. I ended up staying with the tennis club and got to a point where I was playing tennis 6 days a week during the peak season, which was a good way to get used to playing on grass courts. I even convinced Amber to try it out and she ended up loving it. The tennis club atmosphere was great because we got to play quality tennis with friendly and often joking people of all ages. A highlight is getting to play with Dez, an 80+ year old Aussie who still has a mean stroke and a quick-witted tongue! Once, when I was partners with him he miss-hit a ball and scolded himself, “Ahh, c’mon Dez! You’re playing like an 80 year old! Hit the ball!”

A lovely tennis sketch of Amber and me. Made by fellow Bunbury tennis club member, Penelope Northcott.

I had regular tennis lessons for 2 years and got good enough to participate in an inter-city league and club tournaments. A highlight for me was winning the Bunbury Club Championships Singles “B” grade division (interestingly enough, I had to play against Amber’s boss in the finals). I also won 2 competitions in mixed doubles playing with an awesome 11-year-old girl. Big thanks to Andrew Woodward, the coach at the Bunbury Tennis Club, for drastically improving my tennis game!

Fitness

With such beautiful weather (it’s sunny most of the year, and during the few months of rain there are rainbows on an almost daily basis) and a great path along the beach, it makes sense to run along the ocean. The view was so great that it inspired Amber to join me for runs. This is a major accomplishment in itself as I can only recall one time in the past 13 years that we’ve ran together outside! Even though she was a little discouraged by her pace compared to mine (why is she always competing against me?) she kept at it and ran just about everyday after work. After training together we ran our first 10k race together in Margaret River and were quite pleased with ourselves. Later in the year while I was visiting the US, she completed another 10k race with marked improvement. Our most recent race was a 5k in Brisbane where we both posted blazing fast personal best times, 22:23 for me and 24:40 for her.

We’ve also regularly exercised by doing various fitness programs. First, it was fit boxing classes at the local boxing gym, then it was Jillian Michaels workout tapes, then we did the 63-day “Shape 21” program, then I did the “Shortcut to Size” 60-day program, and currently we’re in the 4th week of the 2-month “Insanity” workout program (yes, the workouts are crazy insane!). Needless to say, we are both in the best shape of our lives and we owe it all to the Bunbury lifestyle.

Musical Endeavors

It’s interesting how ideas, events, or experiences in life can just snowball and take a life of their own. This happened to me when trying to rekindle my passion for playing music. A single, tiny, innocent event led to another opportunity which led to more opportunities and so on until the result was much bigger and surprising than anything I could’ve imaged. 

Playing music has been a major part of my life, but unfortunately I didn’t do any music during the 2 years living in Thailand. Upon moving to Bunbury I decided to get back into music, particularly drumming and percussion. I ended up finding a 2-hour introductory class on African Drumming at the local community center – little did I know that this class would kick start an avalanche of opportunities that would completely reshape my life for the next 2 years and beyond. Even though I had never done African Drumming, I thought the class would be a good way to get back into drumming. The class was taught by a social worker at the Milligan Community Resource and Learning Centre that recently learned how to play the djembe drum so that he could facilitate a drumming therapy program for at-risk teens. The class was fun, the teacher was great, and we had lots of enthusiastic participants. The rhythms were pretty basic and easy, yet had a powerful, repeating effect. Later on, the technique became more difficult and the rhythms more complicated. Due to my drumming experience I could catch on but other people who were complete beginners could not. I ended up helping facilitate the class and giving my advice – essentially teaching the class here and there. After the class, it was recommended that I teach a series of classes for African drumming. It seemed kind of strange to teach something that I knew very little about, but it did sound interesting and I didn’t have anything else to do!  I did some researching on African drumming by buying a few books and finding helpful websites and videos on the Internet. It didn’t seem so difficult, so I decided to give it try, and I ended up teaching an 8-week African drumming course. I was getting paid for doing something I love - it doesn’t get much better than that! We had about a dozen people in the class and it was a great success. The class continued to be renewed for the next year and a half.

Having fun teaching African Drumming

In the meantime, one of the board members of the community center, Megan, heard about my African drumming class. She invited me for coffee and told me that she had participated in African drumming classes in Sydney and was eager to start a business teaching African drumming. I agreed to be a teacher and to help her get the business going.  Megan already had the name (Dindindi Drums), a logo, and eventually purchased 20 drums and a trailer. I ended up making the website (www.dindindi.com.au), teaching classes and workshops, and participating in gigs and performances. Dindindi has become a thriving drumming community in Bunbury and I’m proud to say that I helped get it off its feet!

Megan, Gina, and me giving a Dindindi performance at the Bunbury Performers Club

One of my regular students from the 8-week African drumming courses at the community center, Tracy, was an at-home piano teacher for kids. She was fascinated with learning new rhythms and recognized that her ability to read rhythms could be improved. Over time she realized that rhythm was the most important of the 3 aspects of music (rhythm, melody, harmony). She said that her piano students would simply memorize the rhythm of a song and not actually read and understand the printed rhythm on their sheet music. She wanted to overhaul her teaching process so that it was rhythm-reading focused. She asked me to help her create and co-teach a percussion and rhythm class for her piano students.  I agreed, and we created a 2-month lesson plan of weekly 30-minute classes for a group of girls aged 8-13 and a group of boys aged 8-15. I was a bit apprehensive to teach the class, as it would be my first time teaching kids.  Also, I had to learn new names for the notes because they have different names in the UK/Australia (an 8th note is called a quaver, a whole note is called semibreve, a half note is called minim, etc). We designed the classes with fun, interactive activities using various percussion instruments while still teaching the students how to read and write rhythms. The classes were a success, and it was very rewarding watching the kids progress so fast. It was especially rewarding for me because the kids were great and I was able to do two things that I love, music and teaching, and get paid for it!

As we continued to teach the next rounds of the rhythm classes, I was asked if I could teach guitar to some of the piano students for the following month. It had been maybe 5 years since I played the guitar, and I didn’t even own a guitar. I thought, “why not?” and I took on the challenge. I bought a second-hand guitar for $25, bought a few guitar books, and regained my technique with some practice. When the following month rolled around I was ready to teach guitar. I started out with 4 students of various beginning skill levels. We worked from guitar books for kids and I made it a part of my curriculum to teach them how to improvise and teach them about keys and chord progressions. They all loved improvising, as it was something new that they hadn’t learned and it gave them the freedom to really rock out and be creative. As the months went by I picked up more guitar students, and I was even teaching drum set lessons to a few students. I had lots of fun teaching and found it very rewarding to watch each student improve and see their confidence build every week.  It was particularly nice to hear the compliments from parents that their child enjoyed the lessons. One parent told me that when she told her son that I would be moving to China he became really sad and was nearly in tears knowing that we’d have to stop our lessons (it almost put me in tears hearing that). It’s amazing that the 2-hour introductory African drumming class started all of these musical endeavors.

Teaching Computer Classes

Returning back to that 2-hour introductory African drumming class, it’s break time and I find myself chatting with a fellow participant who happened to be a staff member at the community center. When she heard that I was an engineer she asked if I wanted a job teaching computer classes such as MS Word and MS Excel. Their current teacher was leaving soon and they needed a replacement. I felt I had a good grasp on computers and those programs, and again, I didn’t have anything else to do so I accepted the offer right there on the spot. After the African Drumming class I filled out some paperwork, applied for an Australian Tax File number, and I was on my way to teaching computer classes. I met the current teacher, looked at their computer lab set-up, and got copies of their class manuals. A month later I was teaching 4-5 classes a week, and I continued teaching computers classes for the duration of my stay in Bunbury.

One of my computer classes at the Milligan Centre

The classes were great as I was able to meet a lot of different people. Most participants were people trying to improve their computer skills to get back in the work force, or retired people who were new to computers and wanted to either use a computer they were recently given or just to try and understand and keep up with their grandchildren who were computer whizzes. A memorable moment was when I was teaching the introductory students how to use a computer mouse. Just as I was explaining how to hold the mouse an elderly gentlemen behind me frustratingly blurts out, “The bloody thing ain’t working”. I turn around and see him holding the mouse in the air pointed at the monitor and furiously pushing the buttons in a stabbing motion as if it were a television remote control. It took all my determination not to laugh out loud, and I kindly demonstrated to him that the mouse must lay on the table with his hand rested on top of it. Similar to teaching music, it was very satisfying to see the computer students learn a new skill and build confidence in their abilities. It was also very cute to see a child-like wonderment coming from retired people when they learn how to use MS Paint – yes, that’s right, MS Paint. Never mind the amazing Internet or complex database and spreadsheet capabilities that a computer can do; they were absolutely marveling and touting the genius of computers and modern technology simply because they could create and color basic shapes using MS Paint. Ahh, the joys of teaching.

When I arrived in Bunbury I had no idea what I was going to do. Before I knew it I was working a full time schedule. A typical week consisted of teaching computer classes, African Drumming classes, English classes, rhythm classes, guitar classes, drum classes, and volunteering as an after-school tutor. My free time was mainly tennis and exercising (there was a time when I went surfing regularly, but the numerous shark sightings on our beaches and nearby shark attacks scared me off). Oh, and another highlight was that I took a motorcycle class and got my motorcycle license.

I’ve been told that I’m “the most interesting man in the world” (a reference to the Dos Equis beer commercials), "the luckiest guy in the world", or that I am “living the life”. I must admit that I have enjoyed my time in Bunbury, Australia. It’s been one opportunity after another and all involving things that I’m passionate about and enjoy doing. The area is wonderful and the people have been great. It’s been a life-changing event living in Bunbury and I will sorely miss the place. A big thanks to all the people I've encountered in Bunbury, and an especially big "thank you" and "I love you" to my lovely wife who supported my unorthodox lifestyle!

As far as the future goes, Amber has accepted a short-term project in China. We are going to live in Brisbane, Australia for a month or two until our Chinese visas are approved and then it’s off to China!