Pakistan v Australia ‘10 Series Wrap.

The other week I made my predictions for the Australia v Pakistan tests in England, as a  neutral venue for Pakistan (as Australia did not want to tour Pakistan). I predicted a 2-nil win for the Aussie’s, but it ended up being a 1-all affair with the Pakistan team showing some surprise backbone in the second and final test.

The final test went somewhat as expected, with Australia winning comfortably in the end. Australia could have won the second test, but their 88 in the first innings was well below par and at no stage did they actually deserve to win (Pakistan still shot themselves in the foot, but at least they were able to walk away with the game).

All the Australian bowlers played poorly, with only Hilfenhaus showing any really threat. Smith took 3 good wickets in his debut series, but in two tests, that’s hardly enough. Surprising Marcus North and Shane Watson were Australia’s best bowlers. It’s probably a good thing North did take some wickets  because he was useless with the bat. Having seen Smith bat and bowl, he’s certainly a better option for Australia as number 6 (and with another spinner in the team).

So how did my predications go;

Best Australian batsmen: Simon Katich (1st – 187 runs @ 46.75)
Best Australian bowler: Mitchell Johnson (7th – 3 wickets @ 72.33)
Best Pakistani batsmen:  Shahid Afridi (6th – 33 runs @ 16.50)
Best Pakistani bowler: Danish Kaneria (5th – 6 wickets @ 34.33)

Aside from Katich, I didn’t do so well. Johnson continues his poor form in England, the conditions just not suiting his style of bowling.  Shahid Afridi, captain for Pakistan, was rubbish (he looked as if he was in a Twenty20 game) and swiftly retired after the first test (a brave move then paid off). Kaneria didn’t play too badly, but the Pakistani pacemen certainly had the better of the Australian batsmen, who in general were also quite poor during the series.

While one shouldn’t read too much into the series, it did go a long way to highlight some of Australia’s problems, mainly their batting. While I’m still happy to see Ponting go for a few more rounds, North needs to go. The bowling, well, just seemed a little off this game and suffered without Haurtiz and Siddle.

Let’s hope Australia can make some bold moves for the Indian test series before the Ashes.

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Protected: Lots of work, no time for play.

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Difficulties getting onto Facebook.

I’ve talked previously during my stay here the frustration of not being able to access certain sites due to censorship by the national government, otherwise known as the Great Firewall of China (aka the Golden Shield Project). It’s basically a huge IP, DNS, and URL filter that allows and disallows websites to be delivered to China from outside sources, say the US or Australia. That means web sites such as Youtube, Facebook, and blogspot  hosted blogs, cannot be access from within China (theoretically) for fear of, well, I suppose spread of information to the Chinese public.

Without wanting to go into details of what that information is, it’s best to bundle it up as national security for the People’s Republic and the people that reside within it. Including yours truly.

Over the last few months I have been able to access Facebook, not often, but certainly able to if only to send and receive messages and do the odd piece of tinkering. In the 3 and half months I’ve been here, I’ve probably been on Facebook less then 10 times. One can sidestep the Great Wall, if only briefly by technical means, which I will refrain from writing about although it does seriously limit what one can do on Facebook. In actuality, that has been the main reason I’ve hardly been on, it’s not that enjoyable when most of the functions don’t work.

Not to say that a reduced amount of time on Facebook has been to my determent. Quite the opposite to the point where it’s been almost liberating. Seriously, how much time do you spend on Facebook each day/week/month?

However, during one of my random and infrequent visits, I noticed that my little gap in the wall has closed up. Well, I wouldn’t say it’s closed up, but the information coming through isn’t working well enough for my, or anyone else’s, browser to read it properly. I’m not sure if this is due to changes in Facebook, or the Great Wall adapting its shield modulation much like a Borg ship under attack by multiple Federation crafts, suffice to say that Facebook is now, and for who knows how long, is off my reachable areas here.

Being so far away from home Facebook is one of the few tools one can use to maintain contact with friends and family. One of the biggest fears I have is coming back to Australia and being completely out of touch with my friends to the point that, well, your friend status has been replaced with acquaintance.  So, to that extent, I’m not that happy to lose Facebook.

I’m also a little disappointed to see sites such as Youtube and Google.cn banned here. While I can access Google through Hong Kong (I don’t see the point in banning Google.cn then) there is still a lot of content this banned. It does appear that Google.cn is back to being registered by Google, the road for any real content seems a long way off. I found this great site, from Google, that monitors it’s access in China. If anyone is interested, the link is here; Google China Access Monitor

I know there are plenty of ways of me to get around the Great Firewall of China, including a vpn and other tools, but I don’t use Facebook, or any other banned service, enough to warrant spending money on getting one. As far as I can see, any thing that get’s me away from the computer is probably a good thing, leaving me more time with my study, work, and most importantly, the two girls in the house.

So you see, perhaps the wall is doing me a favour?

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Space travel for all.

I saw this article and thought it was very cool.

BRITISH billionaire Sir Richard Branson’s new private suborbital spaceship built for Virgin Galactic has made its first flight with crew on board over California’s Mojave Desert.

SpaceShipTwo spacecraft are built to carry six passengers and two pilots on suborbital flights that would reach outer space for a few minutes but they would not go high enough to enter Earth orbit.

The flights will provide a weightless experience and a view of Earth below. Tickets cost $200,000 per person with an $20,000 deposit.

Sign me up. Anyone have a spare $200,000 they can lend me (or better yet, give me)?

I think the whole idea of space travel is amazing and I think it’s equally amazing how people, much like Richard Branson (whatever your thoughts about him are) have a vision to work towards something like this. With the US seemingly more and more disinterested in space exploration, the world needs visionaries like Branson to make inroads via smaller, reachable projects.

Would you be interested on going into space in one of Branson’s spacecrafts?

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Protected: Enrolling to vote in ‘10 elections.

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Sleeping a little better.

I was interested in seeing in the news today that South Korea have added their own version of the cruise missile into their military arsenal. The Hyunmu-3C missile has a range of 1,500 kilometres and a payload of 450 kilograms, which I’m sure is enough explosive force to knock a North Korean solider off his bike (and probably a lot more).  It is the longest range missile the South Korea military possess, though far short of the North Korean’s Taepodong-2 missile, which has a range of 6,700 kilometres, and based loosely on a Scud rocket design (so I’m guessing a rocket aimed at South Korea would most likely ended up hitting my apartment block here in Beijing).

Keeping in mind that North Korea, as well as China and Russia, both lie within 1,500 kilometres of South Korea, one has to argue do they need a missile to travel any further? No one really has any qualms with South Korea, except of course the North, but I’m sure a few Hyunmu-3C missiles would be much more effective than the North Korean equivalent.

I do wonder, however, how well protected I am here in Beijing. Being so close to both North and South Korea, as well as the always dodgy Russian’s, it’s not that incomprehensible to think that China may get hit with a stray missile. So how would China react? Well in the worst case scenario, I can see China rolling out some of it’s ‘Dong-Feng 5‘ missiles, all carrying 3,000 kT nuclear warheads with a range of 13,000 kilometres. Probably a little extreme, but a good enough deterrent to ensure one accurately spends the time pointing their own missiles in the right direction.

Combined with an army over 2.5 million people, and a defensive budget of $700 million US dollars this year alone, I’m actually starting to feel rather safe here in the good old People’s Republic!

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Trying out some Chinese.

I have mentioned previously, I have started taking Chinese lessons and have been doing so for the past month. In addition, Em has been helping me with my every day Chinese as well as coaching me with what I’ve been learning in class. As a result, I seem to be excelling a little faster than anyone else in my class, at least with pronunciation, despite the fact that some of them have up to 3 different Chinese classes or tutors to work with.

I never thought I’d be very good with foreign languages, having never learnt one during my school years, although after 5 years in Korea, I thought I did a fairly good job with my Korean, despite never having a formal Korean class (although I can only relate my Korean with other foreigners I worked with).

Of course the advantage in Korea was that I had to learn Korean in order to be able to enjoy and be comfortable with a lifestyle that was agreeable with me. In Beijing, Em has been able to for fill those needs with her Chinese and thus me not having to learn key phrases and words that I need, at very least, to survive. That’s not Em’s fault, that’s solely mine, for no other reason than a degree of laziness and convenience.

With that in mind, I really have been making a conscience effort to improve and use the Chinese I’ve been taught. At this stage it’s not a lot, but I am using what I know as much as possible. With one of the other teachers in the office also going to the same Chinese classes as I, we do like to challenge ourselves by asking questions to each other, at random, to help us remember what we have learnt in class. Little things like that really do make a difference.

I’ve also been brave enough to start ordering some food in Mandarin. While I can’t remember the names of the food, I can at very least get Em to write them down for me to say, correctly, when I’m ordering. The Chinese teachers at work have also been of good assistance and been helping with pronunciations with some of the more tongue-challenging names. I’m now confident enough to order dinner for both Em and I after work and bring it home. Tonight after work I managed to order the following meal;

• Jìàng bào tīng  (???) – similar to gong bao chicken but it doesn’t have any peanuts.
• Xī hóng shì chǎo jīdàn (西红柿炒鸡蛋) egg and tomato fried together.

I actually did order something else, but rather amusingly, I’ve already forgotten the word for it. That’s a bit how it is when learning a new language, one moment the word or phrase is there, the next it’s hidden away in your head until you can remember what it is again. And with Mandarin it isn’t enough to just remember the word, you also need to remember how to say the word correctly. One bad tone and you could end up in hospital!

A few other Chinese (and Korean) dishes I’ve added to my vocabulary are;

• sùcài bàn fàn (素菜拌饭) – otherwise known as bibimbap in Korea.
• pǔ tōng zǐ cài juǎn fàn (普通紫菜卷反) – gimbap.
• zhá jī pái gā li (炸鸡排咖喱) – curry rice.
• chǎo lā miàn mǐ tiáo (炒拉面米条) – ra-bokki (instant noodles with rice cakes and chilli sauce).

For the most part my pronunciation has been good enough where I haven’t had to repeat myself. It’s a start and it’s good to see myself making some progress.

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Giving some words of help.

I couldn’t help but feel the need to comment on Aaron’s post (it’s tough to get a link to a post when blogspot is banned here in China) from the other day. I’m still in a little disbelief that Aaron has nearly notched up 4 years in Korea. I vividly remember Aaron arriving in Korea, all bright eyed and eager to please, and being introduced to Jay, Michael, and myself. Admittedly, it wasn’t the best atmosphere in the apartment  when Aaron arrived, it was after a good 12 months of Jay and Michael bickering (although both did have a fondness for each other, just a differing of opinion), but Aaron settled down extremely well and, well, here we are now, nearly 4 years on.

Aaron listed some annoyance’s has been experiencing while living in Korea. I thought I would off him some of my experience (although it won’t be long before Aaron has spent more time in Korean than me!) and my advise. Hopefully he can use it, along with others who may share the same annoyance in Korea, and make their time in Korea that little more comfortable.

Disappearing Rubbish Bags. That’s right. Someone is steeling rubbish bags from the corridor outside the apartment. Not just mine thou, my neighbors also. For the best part of 18 months no one has ever complained about tenants placing bags outside, but for the past month they have been disappearing.

Aaron, I wish someone would come up and take my rubbish for me. I fail to see the problem here. If you have an Oscar the grouch taking your rubbish, then you need never buy government garbage bags again. If they’re taking it to sell the cardboard or plastic inside, then think of it as someone helping reduce your carbon footprint.

Starring At Food. But one behavior that confuses me a lot is the practice of starring at the food I buy while shopping. Now I’m sure people are just interested in what kinds of foods foreigners eat, but a few weeks ago I watched in bemusement as this middle-aged fella lent over into my trolley, moved my food around and had a real close look at what I had purchased.

Seems like an Asian thing. Chinese people love looking at the food in my trolley, too. Prepare an A3 sheet of paper and with huge lettering write something along the lines of "What are you looking at?", or "I eat food, too.". Lay this over the top of your food and people will quickly understand that looking into your trolley makes you feel… psychotic. Better yet, go over to their trolley (or basket) and start going through their items and randomly pick something out of it and put it in your trolley. Starring them out also is a good strategy, but be careful, starring at hal-mae (old woman) too long who won’t shift her glare, can cause blindness.

Micro-Manage Me Please! So its been a serious shock to the system to have the assistant manager of the department take such an interest in the 4 week long TOEFL camp which started a couple of weeks ago. The level of micro-management has created a level of resentment that I’ve not experienced since I started working at a University.

Micro Management. Doesn’t it feel like someone actually cares what you’re teaching now? After nearly 4 years of almost zero-guidance teaching, starting with our (and almost every other English teacher in Korea) first class the day after getting off our 13 hour flights and being told to teach, all of a sudden someone care about those little things such as lesson planning. In all honesty, lesson planning is one of those amazing things I’ve discovered recently (although I did cover it during my TEFL) which has assisted me no end in the classroom.

No more Playground books for you Aaron, you’re a real teacher now!

Of all the many people I’ve met in Korea, Aaron by far seems like one of the more relaxed, take-it-as-it-comes characters, and dare I say had flourished well in the land of the morning calm. I have to admit, if these are Aaron’s biggest problems about Korea, he’s doing just fine.

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