Stuck in Singapore Changi Airport for a little while, waiting for my connecting flight to NZ. Should arrive in Auckland tomorrow (Wednesday) morning. It'll be a nice respite from the insanity I've had to put up with for the past week or so. Even the very thought of not having to deal with any more dishonest rickshaw drivers fills me with an undescribable joy. The time I was in Beijing was okay really, apart from shopkeepers/rickshaw drivers/loads of other people trying to con me out of my dwindling bank balance. I'm going to have to actually do some work (shock, horror) when I get back just to get to the financial position I was in before this whole sorry episode began. Shame there aren't many English teaching positions available at the mo, may have to resort to temping. Considering Sydney or England after I've built up my reserves again. Sydney's the sensible option, but I have a sudden yearning to go back to Blighty. Goddess only knows why. It's like a moth being attracted to a burning flame I guess, I know it's going to suck when I get here, but just interested to see how and how badly it'll suck. Anyway, I'd better get used to speaking English again I guess. Quite impressed with myself actually, managed to slip back into a standard Chinese accent pretty quickly. Thought I'd be stuck for a few months with no one being able to understand my Taiwanese accent. Like I might've mentioned earlier, I did have some trouble understanding the locals in Inner Mongolia. Accents differ all over China, so although any Chinese can communicate with any other through writing, speaking is a whole other ballgame. Taiwanese can't understand Beijingers can't understand Inner Mongolians can't understand people from Gansu, etc etc etc. That's even when they're speaking the same language. It's even more impossible when you consider all the various dialects: Mandarin and Cantonese being the main two, but others including Taiwanese, Hokkien and lots more. Just to cap it all off, something that's been sitting at the back of my brain nagging me for a while now. I know that Sikh policemen in England wear turbans with the police colours and patterns. Does this apply to other professions too? Camouflage turbans for the military? And do they have extra special turbans for when they let their hair down? (figuratively speaking.) I'm not being flippant, I really am curious. I don't actually know any Sikhs, so any help my beloved audience (all 3 of you) can give me would be, uh, helpful. Cheers all.