Initial belles lettres

I’d been writing my own travel diaries and sending postcards to loved ones during my sojourns around the globe. Naturally I took up blogging, once I was aware of it. Way back in March 2005 I was about to start the next venture into a mysterious culture… Japanese! I started writing in the (Google hosted) blog o vfowler during preparations for my first work gig as an English language teacher. In 161 posts, such as Ending of Sleepless in Brunswick, and bike police, I began to indite some of my misunderstandings and musings for the next year and bit.

Fulfilling a personal multi-purpose

As a public travel diary, my first blog served several purposes brilliantly. First, it allowed me to communicate with family and friends back home. Second, it gave me a place to practise writing and publish some news style articles combined with my photos. I’d started my flickr account at the same time, so it was a great tie in. Third, my travel narratives sufficed as the base script upon which I proudly produced my DVD trilogy - something like a slide-show on steroids.

This blog that your reading right now, vfowler blog, didn’t have a lot of direction initially. Mostly it was my laboratory for experimentation in what was possible on a self hosted WordPress powered blog. With the bells and whistles of additional media formats (audio and video), mapping, tags, categories, search, monthly archives, RSS, podcasts and vodcasts, interactive polls, calendars, communications and so on… I guess this is a web 2.0 blog. Currently vfowler blog is doubling as my required course blog for NET11.

Blogs for others

I kicked off a blog for my English students to practice writing with a real audience. At http://hawthornenglishclass.wordpress.com is where most of my class first understand the term blog - I still find this amazing. Thanks largely to my best friend, I’ve come to learn the flexibility of WordPress as a Content Management System (CMS) and have been punching out a couple of sites for friends using it.

Citizen Journalism - unlikely

http://www.nowpublic.com claims The News is NowPublic.com, albeit with a by-line of Crowd Powered Media. Generally I agree with James Farmer’s post Citizen journalism sucks, that there ought to be a level of professionalism associated with the term journalism. (Farmer, 2006) Sadly, I’d also concur that the average citizen is not very good at the skills involved. Only through teaching English as a second language have I come to realise how poor the average punter is with his/her first language. I studied photography at university and have some awareness of what makes a better photograph. Now the odds of the average camera wielding person producing an acceptable shot are improving. Still, my preference is to see the kind of photos that get into Lonely Planet publications rather than the rubbish that comes from my mobile phone camera. Needless to say, it frightens me when garbage is published.

Content is king

Whilst the average citizen isn’t skilled enough for publishing to a broad public audience, there are no fewer than millions of high calibre blogs out there appealing to our many niches and interests. Blogs are at home when new content is frequently published. Just like newspapers, one way to measure the quality of the content is by readership. The really great content is always forwarded on to others, similar to the way we discuss news articles that have impacted upon us. Although, how far reaching a blog post is, may be less important than reaching the right audience.

References

Farmer, J (2006 , October 5). Citizen journalism sucks. Retrieved August 18, 2008, from The Age Blogs website: http://blogs.theage.com.au/media/archives/2006/10/citizen_journal.html

My old passport has expired. It’s so sad. The Post Office staff cut the corners off it and all!

Never mind. With an electronic chip and a photo of me that looks like a hardened criminal, the all new passport arrived yesterday. I wonder what stamps I can collect this time… Where do you see yourself during the next 10 years?

Our actual marriage was a year ago today in the sweltering heat of down-town Jinan, China. Changes (David Bowie) is one word to cover a lot of our story since. The love continues growing and I happened to remember today is our anniversary. What did I find for a gift…?

A fellow teacher mentioned their first anniversary gifts were those funky paper lamps. To inspire our future journeys together, I surprised my super wife with the fact that today is the day and gave us this neat book, 501 must visit destinations.

Next Sunday we’re going to the Great Ocean Road. It’ll be the first time for Amy and she aims to nail the remaining four-hundred-and-ninety odd destinations. Let’s go!

Leaving Anhui after a week holiday, all full of love, was simply the greatest.

6 weeks later, leaving my wife at Jinan airport, I bawled my eyes out. My handkerchief soaked with tears and sniffles jerking my whole body. Nothing the airline staff could do, would comfort me in the least. I was grateful that my colleague and mate Ivan was there to drag my sulking corpse onto each of the flights.

Amy is born in the year of the monkey. It was most auspicious to have recently discovered that my birth date falls in the year of the tiger where

• Their energy and love of life are stimulating.
• Tigers are romantic, passionate, and playful.
• They love life and want to live it to the fullest.

If you prefer the alternative low down on your Chinese zodiac, check out Snarling Tiger, Dirty Rat: A Short and Nasty Guide to Embracing Your Inner Beast (by Stella Hyde). The Mating Mistakes combination of a tiger and a monkey are :

Monkeys know how to ride you, and you love having your fur groomed. But then they tease you, and you lose your temper and roar and look foolish.

Amy’s visa came through so quick, it definitely smashed all the Olympic records. A much needed 40kg baggage allowance ticket was found and finally we are counting down the hours. I have arranged Monday off work and my dad has come to help with airport transfer bright and early on Monday morning!

Naturally I’ll be occupied, taking care of MY wife. To keep the rest of you entertained on Monday, don’t miss this once in a lifetime opportunity :

27^th August; the day the whole world is waiting for.
Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky, starting August. It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. This will cultivate on 27^th August when Mars comes within 34.65 million miles of Earth. Be sure to watch the sky on 27^th August at 10:30pm. It will look like Earth has 2 moons. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287.

石首君 (shi shou jun) is my Chinese name - “Wow!”

After finishing the third week of our teaching English program in Jianzhu University, a little get together was organised by fellow teacher Chris Murphy. Thus far we hadn’t had much opportunity to meet our local counterparts. Amongst the throng of conversations between Australians, Germans, Americans, Chinese, I was entertaining with tales of encounters during my holiday in China 1 year ago. I was lucky to have met one amazing teacher named Amy. Her attentive listening and understanding certainly sparked my curiosity…

Two days later, Chris and Amy were going to visit a local tailor. To quench my curiosity, I decided to tag along. With patience, Amy was happy to teach me some important phrases in the Chinese language. Then our first date was on Thursday night, the 5th of April. A memorable evening spent in her cousin’s restaurant, we enjoyed the top 3 dishes chosen from the menu of the 10 most popular dishes! I was quickly starting to realise just how alluring and delightful a person Amy is. She walked me home afterward, our conversation filling the night air along the streets of her hometown.

Unfortunately Amy could not join us for the Easter weekend trip to Qingdao. Her work occupied her, so it wasn’t until the following Friday that we met again. A kind student named Jesse gave me his seat on the bus, making it my Good Friday. Saturday stirred so much romantic feeling between us as we strolled along the riverside walkways and bridges of the spring city. Our friendship more than flourished that weekend.

The following Friday was also a good one. I had to ask Valentin to directly invite Amy to his birthday party as she is a little shy to arrive at a party as a friend of another guest. This tactic worked wonderfully and I was so happy that we’d met again. In the ensuing week we started to get excited about the forthcoming May holiday and made plans to take a trip together.

A barbecue, beers and karaoke night with several friends singing together was a joyful evening after work on the Thursday.

Our holiday together was truly the making of us as a couple. Each day of the holiday brought us closer together. From sharing accommodation and fantastic meals together everyday, brilliant deep conversation, tests of trust, superb experiences in the World Heritage villages, hiking around the forests, mountains and valleys, abundant intimate moments, our faith in each other as the right combination grew and grew. We returned from our holiday, as boyfriend and girlfriend.

Thereafter, our relationship blossomed and we began to live together in Jinan.

On Sunday I took my boyfriend Vernon to the hospital, because he had some skin problems. We arranged to meet with Wang Yina, one of our friends, also a doctor in Jinan. My daddy went to see Wang Yina at the same time, and by luck that was the first time for daddy and my boyfriend to meet each other. Actually, at the very beginning, Vernon and I were a little worried about whether my daddy will love him or not, but when they saw each other, they met just like old friends, and love each other with beautiful smiles. One week later, we had a great lunch with daddy and his best friend, uncle Liu. Daddy chose a traditional Chinese restaurant for Vernon and he loved it. Although daddy and uncle’s English is really poor, with gesture, body language, a little Chinese spoken by Vernon and some translation by myself, we all communicated perfectly. Every one of us enjoyed the lunch and we received the blessing from daddy: “You are lucky to find each other. Best wishes to you two.”

It was on May 26th that I proposed to Amy. I could not get the flowers I really wanted to give her, but I knelt on one knee and declared my love to her. Yes! She said she would marry me and I became the happiest man on Earth.

Family, friends, colleagues, and even our students haven’t stopped congratulating us since. The registry of our marriage on the 5th of June was a steaming hot day in Jinan. It required ice-creams both before and after the registration was complete! We celebrated that evening over dinner with Amy’s best friend. I later surprised my wife with a 1-week married candle lit dinner.

I am completely over-the-moon happy that we have both found the right person to be with, and that we love each other. As husband and wife, we are now making the preparations to continue our life together, in love forever.

Amy and 3 dragon fountains

Meeting Amy started a special something in my life.

The test of whether I was a good guy began a few weeks later, without my knowledge whatsoever. For the May holiday week, the 2 of us jumped aboard a southbound train for a mountain retreat in Anhui province. Visiting locations of several gorgeous scenes from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon certainly excited us. Also the ancient villages we stayed in, were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in late 2000, the same period when the film was released. I have to admit I was more than a little surprised to find the name of the first place we visited, is Lovers’ Valley.

Here, everyone is surrounded by it, drenched in it, soaked in it. Love is everywhere It’s not only written in the gardens but also painted on the rock floor - of course in red, the Chinese colour for love!

But wait, there’s more! Not only chock-a-block full of love, the valley also has gorgeous waterfalls, a sea of bamboo, and a free show of the sky high trapeze trio!

We’d spent such a long time in Lovers’ Valley that the third destination for the day had to be cancelled. Onto the second place we visited, The Phoenix Source. Since the main Chinese symbol of womanhood is the phoenix (whereas the dragon is the male counterpart) this relentless gushing could easily be thought of as an ongoing re-birth origin of water. A day in China inevitably involves that water turning to tea.
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