The Great Wall of China

So back to my massive trip this year, with my last related post seeing us getting into Beijing on the train. One of the biggest highlights happened the next day, being our visit to The Great Wall of China.

A minibus took the 7 of us (Belinda, Jess, Harris, Jonesy, Mark, Karl and myself) outside of Beijing in the morning, to the Mutianyu section, promised to be one of the most scenic by our China Vodka Train Honcho. The anticipation was building in the group, despite a couple of the crew having visited the Wall before on other travels.

We were dropped off at the carpark at the bottom of the section, and directed to the entrance where a choice of stairs or the Cable Car was quickly made. The ride up in our little glass bubble to the top gave us a tiny glimpses of the structure marked as one of the Wonders of the World.


Starting our walk of the section, we took in the awe of the expanse in front of us, being the tree-covered mountains, ribboned with this amazing man-made structure all along, winding over each rise.

One of the better preserved and intact sections, Mutianyu is also reportedly remarkable for it's watchtower structures, which we walked through on the several kilometers of Wall we covered. It was also reportedly not as crowded as some of the other sections, so whilst we didn't have the Wall to ourselves, we had the opportunity to take in in our stride, and experience it fully. So overwhelming, really!

Negotiating uneven steps, and then slope sections, passing through the watchtowers - this day was such an amazing experience. Something I've always wanted to see, and it was awe inspiring to actually be walking along the Wall.

Now, of course, the Chinese have thought of everything, and so rather than walking down to the bottom of the section to finish our visit, we took the Slideway! Yes, a toboggan each had us sliding all the way back down to the little markets and carpark. This was just the morning of a pretty special day in Beijing....

Radelaide: Ashes

Terrified that I would miss my flight, I must have skipped my hangover after the wedding, and made it out to the airport to fly from Melbourne to Adelaide, to join the test match for Day 3. Checking in at Sheila HQ along North Terrace, Belinda and I then walked down to Adelaide Oval for the start of play. Entering via the Member's, we watched till drinks, and then joined a very hungover Daisy for the next hour till lunch.

I then moved to the outer, and joined Jess and Andrew on the hill, who had just completed a roadtrip to be there. A day of runs for England, with KP scoring a double century, before the rains came and ended the days play. I found Melissa and Greg on the hill, for rain delay beers, and much discussion about Greg's allegiance.

Blender party at Sheila HQ was the order of the evening, with a large purchase of a blender, and fruit and all other important bits for random cocktails were collected. Melissa and Greg joined the Trans-Mongolian crew of myself, Belinda and Jess in a shot of Russian Standard vodka, to start the evening. Our apartment soon filled with the crew attending the match, and Jess and Andrew popped in at some point, for quite a large night of blender concoctions of all colours. Very good....but lethal!

Sluggish the next morning, I confess to not seeing a full days play, but eventually joined Jess and Andrew again on the hill, and a reluctant recovery beer. Perhaps not worth it, with the Aussies capitulating with wickets falling, a bad light and rain delay, and coming back on to lose hope with Clarke's wicket finishing the day.

A more subdued night, Day 5 started with Belinda, Dillo, Carl and I picking up the car for the beginning of our roadtrip, and then driving to the cricket for the mere hour of play it took for England to win by an innings and a bucket of runs. Very disappointed, the group of Sheila's in the Members watched from the Pimm's tent in horror. With more than anticipated time on our hands for this day, a pub lunch was found in North Adelaide before we farewelled the crew for our adventure ahead.

*Photos lifted from Jess and Andrew - thanks! Was so great to see you!

Breeanna and Damien's wedding

A couple of weekends ago, I was invited and attended the wedding of the year! It was gorgeous - congratulations to Bree and Damien.

After a rush down to Melbourne, and a quick visit to a hairdressers local to Melissa's, I grabbed a cab over to the Rose Garden of St Kilda Botanical Gardens. Under the beating sun, on a glorious Melbourne summer's day, Erin, Bec and Scott, Alissa and Dan, Lana and Pete, and Nikki and I gathered ready for the bride's big entrance.

A lovely, relaxed ceremony had Dam with the biggest, proudest reaction upon Bree's arrival, and laughs and smiles all the way through to husband and wife. So cute.

After individual congratulations, and group photos, our group escaped the heat along Acland Street, with me and the lads ducking in to catch the cricket score, before joining the girls upstairs at Big Mouth for cocktails and wine to cool off.

A taxi to Sails for the reception, walking into the venue felt just like walking out onto the beach, with full length windows out to the bay, the beach, and the sun blazing down. Amazing. Drinks on the decking, before we were brought into the function room for a full cocktail reception, including a lolly buffet.

It wasn't long before the band kicked off, and everyone was on the dance floor. As the sun set on the water of the bay out the window, the room was filled with fun and joy for the happy couple. Great party, and such a lovely day!

Roadtrip Mix

As I am floating around the house, packing for a trip that will include a big roadtrip, I am reminded of the Roadtrip Mix I received in the mail this year. As part of the group, love is a mix tape, this swap delivered a set of tracks to drive to....

1. Hit 'n' Run - Horrorpops
2. Last Of The Steam Powered Trains - The Kinks
3. Road Runner - The Animals
4. Saturdays Nights - Tiger Tones
5. Still Ill - The Smiths
6. Subterranean Homesick Blues - Bob Dylan
7. Wagon Wheel - Lou Reed
8. Silver Stallion - Cat Power
9. Run For Your Life - The Beatles
10. Midnight Swift - Buddy Holly
11. Cape Cod Kwasa Kwassa - Vampire Weekend
12. Ohio - The Dandy Warholes
13. Haulin Hearse - The Ghastly Ones
14. Dead Road 7 - The Kills
15. Do The Hansa - The Cure
16. Transmission - Joy Division
17. Mesopotamia - Santogold & Diplo
18. Black Tongue - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Only 1 song I had in my collection already, and several bands I was keen to give a listen. Another awesome mix gift from a music lover somewhere in the world!

Early Xmas Acknowledgement

Last night when I was working back late, my iPod played Last Christmas by Wham! on shuffle. My personal rule is that I don't need to acknowledge Xmas until I hear this track by chance. I think this is the earliest ever!! It is not even December yet!

Not that the lack of December has stopped anyone else from bringing Xmas madness to our eyes and ears all month. The Xmas tree in the centre of Ballarat has been up since around Melbourne Cup Day, and I definitely heard hideous carols over the speakers at the supermarket a couple of weeks ago.

However, getting a little closer this week, which may be more acceptable, when I drove home late, late on Sunday night, the lights on the trees and the reindeer and their sleigh had been switched on down Sturt Street, which also included red and green faces on the Town Hall clock.

I had to be careful staking out for these pictures, because these decorations, and also the tree near the Bridge Mall have been recent targets for people setting them on fire, and acts of vandalism such as bauble stealing.

I read news that it's snowing in London, so that's cute!

Brisvegas: Ashes

I picked Melissa up on Friday night from work, and we drove out to the airport for our flight to Brisvegas for the weekend. Following regular, alarmist weather warnings coming over the radio all afternoon, we found that the airport was in a bit of chaos as a result of the thunderstorms - which resulted in a 2 hour delay for us, easily wasted in the Qantas Club.

With all flights seeming to land at the same time just before midnight local time into Brisbane airport, a mammoth line for a taxi greeted us, before we could make our way to check in, and crash for the night.

The next morning, however, we were up early and down to the river to catch the City Cat, to get to the 'Gabba for the day. Too easy. Finding a pub with a BBQ set up for punters on the way to the cricket, we grabbed the perfect breakfast for the day ahead. We met Belinda at the gate, and then found our seats in the front row ready for the days play.

Sitting and soaking in the sun, and the Aussie batting display, Melissa and I popped across the road for cheeky full strength beers at lunch, at the Aussie Nash, with a bunch of the Barmy Army. We were also treated to a cracking partnership by Hussey and Haddin for the day.

Starting to hear of a rumour that there was a Pimm's bar on the other side of the ground, Melissa, Belinda and I went to check it out, to find Clive was spot on. Pimm's, including the added fruit bits and mint leaves, were perfect in the humid Queensland heat.

At the end of play, we went to the Pineapple Hotel for a few drinks, before Melissa and I managed to get back to the river and the City Cat took us back to our hotel. Up again the next morning we did it all again, including the breakfast stop, but for a much less exciting days cricket!

Our weekend of cricket and Summer ended with a few jugs at the German Club, before getting a cab back to the airport for just a 30 minute delay on our flight this time!

Today, being back in the office, the news as it feed through my screen showed that the pattern of good day, rubbish day, good day....continued, with the day, and test, ending with a handshake.

The Train To China

Another massive night, this time after all swearing we would have an early night after the final night in the Ger, put the success of catching our train in jeopardy, but MG somehow got us there in time. Dancing to totally random Mongolian pop and techo music in the bar at the front of our hotel, after being booted out the back door from one of the many Irish bars, we all seemed to get very carried away. Such fun!

A whole lot of napping started out this leg of our train trip from Mongolia to China, before we came to darkness with the timezones and the sheer distance covered. This also meant that the true Gobi Desert passed us by in darkness, which is a shame. The border crossing this time consisted of passport checks, but also a wheel change for the whole train...while we were on it.

Quite a bit of shunting around, and waiting, our carriage was eventually rolled into a shed where we where lifted up, and the wheels below were replaced with a different size, to fit the Chinese rail lines. It was quite bizarre seeing the section of train next to us being raised, or merely being noticeably lower than us when we were raised, with travellers that we had met waving to us from that disconnected part of the train.

A few rounds of vodka shots, our last of the Chinggis batch, saw out Mongolia for us.

Not thinking we were being inconsiderately loud this night, and given the fact that we were being displaced onto a new set of wheels at midnight, and therefore everyone was still up and about for the experience, we were totally bemused by the group of French tourists in our carriage waking at some ungodly hour and singing hymns (or something) at the top of their voices, imitating our group's laughs and voices, before they got off the train a few stops before us. The French are funny buggers, aren't they!

This leg of the trip was actually the least local mingling of the train trip, with large groups around our 2 allocated cabins this time. Nevertheless, we were excited to wake in a new country, ready to explore a new city.

*This post was meant to be published yesterday for NaBloPoMo, but no chance to be anywhere near a computer! NaBloPoMo fail!