• On way home from stockport. Weather typically british damp. Still no crazy chinese drivers on road. #
• Meeting friend for lunch at the lighthouse pub. If you’re on the wirral you’re welcome to come. Al #
• @CountWhiteberg What wisdom? On buying overpriced style over real specification? I’m buying into supposed reliability. Hope it’s true. in reply to CountWhiteberg #
• Pub was good. Drank first pint of Guiness back in the Uk and enjoyed it. Nice to see old friends. Though was a little jealous of his car. #
• Hard Disk tools for reiserfs is taking a long time to recover files. It’s had over 24hrs and reading at >20%. Impatient for it to finish. #
• @CountWhiteberg I do assume you were talking about my MacBook purchase and not the fact that I’m #GettingEngaged in reply to CountWhiteberg #
• @steven_j_king Reliable long lasting alternatives to MacBook? in reply to steven_j_king #
• New Podcast: Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-24 – Finally have fast native access to twitter after 26hrs of trav… http://ow.ly/16pRuo #
• Gearing up to follow live (coverage) tweeting from the fast approaching apple press conference. Here comes the iPad. #
• I’m such a geek. I’m getting all excited by the apple conference. #
• rt @ischafer These Apple events are the closest thing our generation has to a World’s Fair. #
• @1rick you’re staying up for the “State of the union” I wonder if this is a ploy by #apple in reply to 1rick #
• Frantic Steve Jobs Stays Up All Night Designing Apple Tablet – the onion: http://ow.ly/111Y1 #
• RT @mashable 5 Apple Hits and 5 Misses: Which Will the Tablet Be? http://bit.ly/9JPcbm #
• getting really excited now. viewing both the engaget and http://live.gdgt.com coverage #
• arstechnica down for me, obviously too much traffic for the apple event #
• @sampsonian http://live.gdgt.com/2010/01/27/live-apple-come-see-our-latest-creation-tablet-event-coverage/ in reply to sampsonian #
• watching http://www.ustream.tv/channel/apple-tablet-event video awful but audio clear. #
• just made edit to wikipedia adding the iPad to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gameloft french developers mentioned in the speech. #
• http://live.gdgt.com/2010/01/27/live-apple-come-see-our-latest-creation-tablet-event-coverage/ proving to be the most reliable service. #
• Now I’m in two minds. I was thinking to buy an iPhone. if the ipad ran skype and had an inbuilt microphone, there’s really no need. #
• @clementyeung #Flash ending due to Google and HTML 5 in reply to clementyeung #
• @AlexBowman “Like your analysis” very specific and informative tweet there. I’ll keep it in mind! in reply to AlexBowman #
• Just set up mum’s phone with twitter. Poss Convenient method of communication for future messages. #
• I’m getting married to @rgmu11 but have been away from her for 2 weeks. Miss her company. #
• Really wish i’d setup some sms updates for twitter. Too dark to read book. No laptop. Bored with psp games. #
• Approaching carlisle, getting off the motorway to have/get dinner at tesco. #
• Listening to the news quizz on radio 4, eating sandwiches with bottled drinks, while on way to scotland. Feel at home. #
• 21.30 ETA. Clear scotland skies overhead. Moon bright over head. This certainly isn’t inner city dalian. #
• Using nokia browser to read twitter updates. So slow It’s painful. Something to do though. #
• @alexbowman weather how you remember. Bad exchange rate means things are more expensive. Nice to be back. Feeling more at home. How’re you? #
• Arrived safely in paternal grandparents house. About to tell them about getting engaged. #
• Grand parents told. :relief: returning to watching very large and jealousy inspiring tv. News of tony blair on. #
• @alexbowman I’m in Scotland at the moment. Use of computers is limited. GTalk when I’m back down south. #
• Sitting with Paternal Grandfather while parents and Grandmother out shopping. Hoping to see other grandparents this afternoon. #
• laminating some photos of china to show grandparents. #

• Finally have fast native access to twitter after 26hrs of travelling. Excellent. #
• Arrived safely at home after leaving from China a day ago (26hrs) #
• Now that I've told my parents, I can officially announce to the social web that Miao and I are engaged to be married. #
• @BillGlover It was a long one. I don't fancy changing at Frankfurt again if the wait is going to be that long. in reply to BillGlover #
• @MandarinSx @mingli @BillGlover Thanks for the congratulations! #GettingEngaged #
• @BillGlover If I'm travelling to my parent's house, flights to Manchester and Liverpool started make sense.Direct Heathrow, train is better in reply to BillGlover #
• Couldn't sleep well because of Jet Lag. Still feeling pretty exhausted. #
• I want to use all the wonderful Web2.0 Social things again on my Blog, but I know if I do, it's no longer China friendly for the #gfw #
• @BillGlover Sort through my things at parents house. Throw stuff away. See relatives. Continue job searching. in reply to BillGlover #
• @BillGlover Potential future in a small company with a friend based in Southampton. Going to see how it goes. Miao'll come in September. #
• @DaveLivesey Thanks! #GettingEngaged in reply to DaveLivesey #
• On the train back from depositing money in bank. Nice to be home. #
• Walking around outside at home, with the wonderfully fresh air, really highlights for me the bad air quality in China. #
• @raemond Thank You! #GettingEngaged in reply to raemond #
• Woke up early today. Feeling much recovered from jet lag. I figure tomorrow will be back to normal. #
• RT @tweetmeme Using Friendfeed as a Lifestream within WordPress | studionashvegas http://twurl.nl/tw2z28 #
• In a pound shop, wondering how much of this stuff comes from china. Guessing 90%. #
• @BillGlover Reverse Culture Shock! Was on the train, listening to man speaking. thought Eastern European. Dawned on me it was Liverpudlian. in reply to BillGlover #
• Sister just left for school in a taxi. At home, alone, again! Good thing I'm a geek, and spending a day connected to the internet is ok. #
• @gaomming Hello to twitter. May you always have a safe passage around the wonderful #gfw #
• @DaveLivesey Thanks for the #ff in reply to DaveLivesey #
• Finally decided to spend money on a Mac laptop.Guessing that the MacBook's are suitably speedy for my actual needs as opposed to what I want #
• Just seeing the trending topics. I guess it's time to say goodbye to #Conan O'Brien on NBC. #
• Learnt this morning that the "Move-Overwrite" function in Suse didn't work as expected. It was literally Move-Overwite, as opposed to merge. #
• Coming up on my 1500th Tweet. Wondering if any of these milestones are actually significant. #

• @1rick Connected to blogger, and got a partial load of the site. in reply to 1rick #
• @1rick no such connection luck with youtube, twitter or others. #gfw #
• RT @mranti It's believed this unblocking on some ISPs is caused by GFW upgrading and maintainence, not real unblocking. Yet to confirm. #
• #GFW I've set up indefinite pings to youtube and twitter to see if any connections are made before I got o bed. #
• RT @GE_Anderson Getting youtube in Shanghai. when #gfw disappears, don't quite mind to live in china. #
• @DaveLivesey Concept of "Snow Day" doesn't exist in China. It's been a foot deep and -13 degrees here and still expected to work. in reply to DaveLivesey #
• @DaveLivesey I feel empathy for people of Canada and other snowy places. Glad usual weather in the UK is temperate. in reply to DaveLivesey #
• @DaveLivesey Grit… What's that? In China they have people to shovel snow off the roads. Grit too expensive. Really! in reply to DaveLivesey #
• @DaveLivesey Seached you on Google and saw "Click to enter website… free hit counter." as subtitle on your site. Google #fail in reply to DaveLivesey #
• @ChinaPaul McDonalds coffee comes out a drip coffee maker. Starbucks does espresso. I guess your not an espresso person then? in reply to ChinaPaul #
• RT @copyblogger: "Good judgment comes from experience, and experience often comes from bad judgment." ~Rita Mae Brown #
• Settling down to last night in China for a while. Phone Charged. Camera Charged. Passport in Pocket. Future ahead. Hello Again Blighty. #
• On the topic of flying. What's that web 2.0 service that shows a map of where your plane is at the moment? I'm sure such a service exists. #

I don’t have time to really put a lot of thought into a large argument about why I support Google’s actions. My thoughts so far…

• Just because they pull out of the Chinese market doesn’t mean they can’t use the benefits of China as cheap outsourcing in a number of areas, either tech support, BPO, or actual software outsourcing.
• Pulling out of the Chinese market equates to loss of earnings in China. If by somehow staying in China they’re putting data privacy at risk, and opening themselves to a security threat, then this affects their service agreements with other companies in the west and could be more damaging than gains afforded by staying. The basis of this argument has got to be based on a technological issue of having servers located in China, otherwise the danger is the same no matter where you are on the net, and an ongoing problem for them unrelated to being in China or not.
• Pulling out the Google brand name does not mean that they have to stop operating in China.

Finally, I’m rather glad I don’t have to be in China while this is happening. The fallout of Google leaving China would be horrible. Having to use local email, rss readers, and search services isn’t a nice thought. For the skeptical among us, I suppose its just another marketing tool for rallying support of Google to make us think that they value privacy. I genuinely believe that they do, and I’m glad to see them protecting my data.

• Thursday 24th Dec: Normal Work Day. Examining students.
• Friday 25th Dec: Normal Work Day. Examining students. Ordered Christmas cake at bakery. Dinner with Miao at Abashi.
• Saturday 26th Dec: Prepared for phone interview.
• Sunday 27th Dec: Prepared for phone interview.
• Monday 28th Dec: Prepared for phone interview.
• Tuesday 29th Dec: Last elective lesson, played film. Gave another student their final exam (which he subsequently failed). Picked up cake from bakery on campus, they made a mistake of writing happy birthday, when I’d asked for merry Christmas. Prepared for phone interview.
• Wednesday 30th December 2009: Phone Interview With CSC, disappointing performance. Hoping for the best.
• Thursday 31st December 2009: Last day of teaching at Dawai. Talked with students, played some videos, and one student stormed out because she failed the exam, other students in class agree that both her attitude and skill warranted failure.

• Friday 1st Jan 2010: Rest at home. Installed CPanel on my VPS, apache install messed up. Restored server from backup.
• Saturday 2nd Jan 2010: Buy new camera (Panasonic Lumix LX3) , ate with Miao and her mother at local Brazilian all you can eat BBQ on Yanan Lu (Dalian) for 45 kuai.
• Sunday 3rd Jan 2010: Did some packing, ate dinner with Emmanuel at the Dawai Hotel (Cafe Travoria)
• Monday 4th Jan 2010: Met John for lunch at Abashi, Alex for coffee in Senmao Amici, onto find place for Alex to eat, failed, went to Bobo’s to have a chat and drink, ate dinner there. Read 2 emails from students asking to pass my elective course.
• Tuesday 5th Jan 2010: Burn DVDs with data from computer. Worked on job application. Packed some papers.
• Wednesday 6th Jan 2010: Met Paul for coffee and helped him with some computer issues. Need to email him about China proxies and how torrent stuff works. Paul saw the house, disappointed with only 2 rooms, saw that it had potential. Dalian Mayor’s Foreign Expert Dinner in the evening. Drank much wine for first time in ages. Enjoyed speaking with Shay. Went home with John (who leaves near me in Dalian) at 8PM cause nobody left around.
• Thursday 7th Jan 2010: Men came to pick up fridge and other packages to ship to Shenyang. Burnt DVDs of Data off computer.
• Friday 8th Jan 2010: Spent day with Byrnes. Ate curry at Abashi, went to local 168 hotel to book Byrnes in, drank coffee at 2 different Starbucks downtown. Ate steak at Amici Coffee near Youhao square. Walked to Bobo’s, dropped Brynes off and picked Miao up at the train station after having come home from business out of town. Miao dropped me off at Bobos in the taxi, and went home herself. Drink more at Bobo’s and walk home at around 11PM.
• Saturday 9th Jan 2010: Breakfast at Sanba Square McDonalds with Brynes. Coffee and Lunch at Starbucks and then Amici with Pengfei Duan. Sleep in late afternoon at home. Packing in the evening.
• Sunday 10th Jan 2010: Packing and Cleaning house. Bought 1TB sata disk at youhao square. Moved data around so that I can take back all photos and things to UK. Ate dinner at Abashi with John, Emmanuel and LiMing. Returned home early, moved 3 bags from house to John’s flat, for Miao to pickup later.
• Monday 11th Jan 2010: Emptied bank accounts in China. Converted currency to pounds, bought roast duck. Finished packing and cleaning. Left house at 12:10PM. Got on 1PM train to Shenyang. Good bye Dalian. Hello Shenyang. Bus to Miao’s Uncle’s unused second house. Sort out stuff that I’m taking to England. Taxi to Miao’s uncles house, eat Roast Duck that we’d brought with us from Dalian. Sleep.
• Tuesday 12th Jan 2010: Miao leave’s to goto work in morning. Goto museum in the afternoon. Walk home, buying things as we go.
• Wednesday 13th Jan 2010: Hair cut in morning. Eat at Korean BBQ in evening. Had first taste of dog meat, don’t think will be having it again.
• Thursday 14th Jan 2010: Make some blog entires in morning. Visit museum again in afternoon, to see the 3rd floor we hadn’t managed to have time to visit. Ate pizza at home (made by Miao’s mother). Played Plants vs Zombies for first time, made me quite agitated, don’t like it so much. Miao returned home for the night at 10PM.
• Friday 15th Jan 2010: Saw Miao off back to work. Read some blog entires of other people. Saw most recent episode of Dollhouse, can’t wait for finale. Watched QI. Make this blog entry. Expect Miao to come back this evening or tomorrow morning. Miao’s mother and aunt have been throughly cleaning flat.

Plans

• Saturday 16th Jan 2010: Meet Miao’s paternal relatives for Hotpot and spend afternoon with them.
• Sunday 17th Jan 2010: Flight back to UK. Leave home 6AM. Flight leaves 9.30AM from Shenyang-Beijing. Beijing-Frankfurt. Frankfurt-Manchester. Dad’s picking me up from Airport to take me home.

Prayer Statues by clarkalastair on Zooomr

Chinese Pottery Cow by clarkalastair on Zooomr

Chinese Ceramic Face Mask by clarkalastair on Zooomr

Ancient Chinese Buriel Ground Recreation by clarkalastair on Zooomr

Old Chinese Metal Work by clarkalastair on Zooomr

Chinese Glazed Ceramics by clarkalastair on Zooomr

Miao’s Cousing Getting Ready To Go Out by clarkalastair on Zooomr

Going To The Shenyang Museum by clarkalastair on Zooomr

Shenyang Government Building by clarkalastair on Zooomr

High Rise Buildings Near Shenyang Museum by clarkalastair on Zooomr

At The Shenyang Museum by clarkalastair on Zooomr

Miao’s Cousin On The Escalator by clarkalastair on Zooomr

On The Train To Shenyang by clarkalastair on Zooomr

Shenyang Bus Station At Night by clarkalastair on Zooomr

Miao’s Uncle’s Family by clarkalastair on Zooomr

Shenyang Street by clarkalastair on Zooomr

• I neglected to fully prepare an interview question that I didn’t think was as important as others. This question came up, and it was the weakest answer I gave. I’ll know better for next time. More preparation needed.
• I was too anxious, this stemmed from not enough practice of speaking, and feeling that I could have been more prepared. This lead to repetition.
• Stemming from this lead me to pick a bad example for one of the questions. Had I been calmer, I could have better chosen and adapted one of my prepared examples, instead of generating a new one that I hadn’t considered before.
• My focus needed to be more on showing that I am a suitable candidate for them. I failed to achieve this effectively, missing too many points that I had prepared.
• I needed to write bullet points of my answers to structure what I was saying, remind me of points to make, and stop me from saying things that may do damage.
• I needed to provide sufficient evidence for the things that I said.
• Emphasise what I can give the company. The company gives me a place of innovation, a challenging environment, intelligent staff to work with, and great projects. Not because of stability.
• Don’t mention weaknesses such as having a 2-2.