China via Brum

Went to Birmingham and met an old friend. We'll be meeting up one Sunday before she goes off to Scotland. Nice, because I was thinking of her last night and was sad that I wouldn't see her again. She said she'd been thinking of me a couple of weeks ago and had felt the same.

I told her about giving my Japanese things away because eventually I would like to learn Chinese. She said to come over to China this summer with her but I had to say no because I've really got to sort things out here this summer and get my health back. Next year though .. hopefully.

I like her and find her easy to chat to. There's no negative feelings hanging around. This doesn't mean that we agree about everything but the conversation never gets bogged down in calling people bitches and bastards etc because of jealousy or because someone's looking for some one to stitch up for some reason or other.

She wrote a couple of Chinese characters out for me and I gave her a first Dutch lesson. Let's hope things continue this way. Sort of one bit at a time. Just pleasant. She doesn't like intolerance either so the conversation just kinds of flows around a whole lot of things without getting into that scene. We have a similar sense of humour which helps too.

I found out that someone I know has gone abroad to work. I know she didn't really want to take that job because she'd hoped to work in China but it'll be brillian work experience for her for when she does go back. It's a bit difficult being in touch at the moment but it'll sort itself out somehow or other.

It's interesting to see how I've changed since we first met too. I was always friendly but kind of held back too and wasn't very sociable. I just had too much to cope with really I guess. I've changed and there aren't any problems at all now. Perhaps I was just so tired as well. There'd been a lot of stress in my life in the last few years and really I guess I just didn't want to get too involved a lot of the time. No thoughts like that even came into my mind today. just interested in thinking where we could meet up etc.