The guys at Sun China are really good hosts. They've been taking me out to a large variety of restaurants. I've been getting to try a lot of really interesting dishes. They range from the rice gloop [which apparently is a mixture of 8 different rice varieties, but not very much taste of it], yellow bean juice [a very strange sensation, served slightly warm and looks like milk] and various collections of noodles.

Today I experienced some interesting things. The first dish was dog. My hosts asked me about a hundred times whether I was *sure* that I wanted to eat it. I did. The thought of eating dog didn't really disgust me - it's very much part of the culture here. It tasted good. Assorted with that dish was a large collection of smaller things. When you finish the dog, they pour rice water into the wok and then you throw in a collection of vegetables and various bean related things that look remarkably like sponges.

One dish was a little odd though and I don't really think I liked it. From all accounts it's a hard boiled egg, that they wrap in earth and then leave until it goes green. It also seems to be covered in some sort of jelly. It looked odd, it tasted odd. I think I will avoid it in the future.

I met up with Chris and a few others at RedFlag Linux yesterday. It was good to see Chris again, since I met him at GUADEC in Seville last year. I demoed GNOME 2.2 for them - I'm pretty sure they were impressed, especially liking fontilus. They showed me their desktop and how they had customized the look and feel to be exactly like Windows. They had written a few really neat things and it certainly looked really integrated [although I still don't really like the KDE interface]. After the meeting, I went out for a walk around the city. It was nice to be able to walk around, and then when I felt tired hop into a taxi home to the hotel.

It has been an interesting day, combinating with me eating donkey. The whole chinese culture exists around eating - I guess it's not too unlike the Spanish or Italian culture. We went out for lunch this afternoon and were escourted up to our own dining room, a rather cold and empty room with a circular table. They ordered medium hot food - man, it was hot. It will take a while for my tastebuds to recover I think.

Travelling around Beijing is really a non-issue. Taxis are so cheap and plentiful that it's the encouraged way to travel. You simply give them a little bit of paper with your destination written on it [obviously in Chinese] and they take you to it. I haven't tried the buses or underground yet. If it's anything like the rumours, it's bound to be pretty jammed.

I went out for a stroll to see Beijing by night. It was so alive. So many people.

I wandered down to the Forbidden City, an amazing palace like complex with wonderful ornate decoration. It was too late to get the Roger Moore experience. Hopefully I will return to it later in the week.

I happened to come across a labyrinth of side streets containing a market. People selling anything - from food to tacky trinkets. I feel so over awed.

After 12 hours of heavily interrupted sleep, fine time to get catch a cold, I arose slightly light headed and decided to wander down to Tian'anmen Square. What a strange place - so silent, very eerie.

Everything really has that communist feel about it. It's hard to know whether the Chinese are proud of their history or not, or whether things are just treated as an ancient relic, slowly disappearing with time.

You notice the strange looks from time to time. I guess they still aren't used to seeing Westerners, but I'm pretty sure this will change for the Olympics in 2008. Beijing still feels like an incredibly safe city, and for the most part, very welcoming.

And suddenly it's approaching the end of the month and I find myself in Beijing, China. Life moves pretty quickly sometimes.

After a really shitty flight of 11+ hours, I arrived in Peking airport. Seems a much friendlier place than Japan ever was. For a second I almost glimpsed one of the customs guys smiling. A little while later, I find myself in a hotel room with 2 double beds, a pretty comfortable on-suite bathroom with a shower, bath and a rather non-flushing toilet. Feeling disorientated though. Still, the internet connection was rather welcome.

It's a pity that I'm here on my own. I think I would feel more adventurous with someone else tagging along. It's not as if I'm not going to get out and see around the city though. It's just harder to find the courage to walk into a restaurant and sit down, alone.

Tonight, in true non-exploratory fashion, I think I shall eat Western. I don't think I can handle the stress of trying to order something a little out of the ordinary from a restaurant just yet. If I'm feeling adventurous, I might have a wander down towards Tiananmen Square. Why am I here again?

The annual FOSDEM conference proved to be everything that I could ever have hoped. The conference definitely seems to be living up to its reputation, with some really fantastic names. It was also a chance to see these people again.

We all converged on Thomas' multi-storey house. Thomas is an excellent host, not a terribly good guide though.

So a weekend of new faces...

Some familiar ones...

And some whacky ones...

It's been a pretty busy month and I'm quite glad that it's over. The problem is that it seems as if it will continue for a while.

I sat on the couch this morning writing up release notes for the GNOME 2.2 release watching the bright blue sky. I think at that stage, I would have given anything to be out on the mountains, or high up a cliff face. My mind distracted from the task at hand - there was nothing to do than console myself by going for a walk around the city. No comparison though, and still the day dreams plague my mind.