As we step out the door...

...we might have to dodge dog urine, from our lovely neighbours across the corridor. There are ladies who come and collect our rubbish from outside our door. There are ladies constantly sweeping the paths, moving leaves and litter out of the way. Outside; the china smell just hits you full on. When you get to the road, though it is narrow, it takes a long time to process in your mind how your going to cross it. At the beginning we would forget the cars came from opposite directions and almost get knocked over. If you shop in the large building over the road, you get called at to come and buy something, the chinese saying "Hey lady, come buy, come in shop, look, you want watch?" I suppose thats all the english they know. Its not like I know my manners in chinese or anything. To move people out of my way I say, Hello and Thankyou, which is "Neehow" , and "Shi Shi". The chinese I think worship fish, if they dont have them floating around in ponds or tanks, they make things look like them or parts of them like the head and scales, its totally gross. The cleaner the day looks here, is on television or if its a bright beautiful sunny day. The other day I was walking past a compound of units and all of a sudden this lady poured water from out of her window onto the path. I didnt know whether to run back home and decide to believe in superstitions after all or persist through the unusual occurances of my days. Some days it feels like such a big deal just to walk up the street. I suppose because of all the information I have to process. A few snacks that get us through the day that we can purchase a few minutes away, are: Pringles, Kitkats, Ferrora Rochurs, (spelling), sprite (no lemon squash at this stage) bottled water, wrigleys chewing gum, mentos, and other chinese adaptations of aussie stuff. Often, you get to a point where you think yeah, I've got it all under wraps now, nothing could happen today that will not shock me, scare me or freak me. Then you hear the loudest toot youve ever heard, you'll see more un-natural water falls and ponder where the heck it came from, or the cab ride will be like horror ride no354!!