sharp note of leaf fall,
strange, this late summer's demise
seems much exaggerated

This morning I went kick-boarding in the rain at Lawson Pool. When I arrived the steam was gently rising from the water (an encouraging sign) but the pool was empty of swimmers. While I was blithely lapping the chlorinated depths, a little verse I had written in Grade 1 popped into my head.

The ships sail on the merry sea
They travel anywhere
They anchor in the little bay
When men go home for tea.

The poem had made it into a (now long lost) school magazine at Rose Bay Public in 1965. I think that maybe there were lots of little verses and stories in the publication, so it was no great shakes to be included. When I was working on the poem in class, I can still vividly remember going up to the teacher's desk so she could check my work. My recollection was that she has recommended the last line over my somewhat dramatic, "And then they sail away." Probably a good idea, I think.

I have always had a love of words and I hope that Tom does too. Language may or may not be a cage, but even with bars, the interior is expansive.

The times have been fraught with care for many people lately. The disappearance of the Malaysian Airways flight, mysterious and drawn out, has been unsettling. One can only imagine the anxiety of loved-ones trying to deal with this radical uncertainty.

Then there is the equally mystifying behaviour of Russia in invading the Crimea and, at the time of writing, maintaining a sizeable force on the Ukrainian border. One can argue that Russia has been neglected and mishandled by the West. There is a good case to be put. On the other hand, bribery and brute force seem simplistic and out of date in the modern era, particularly if one looks at the relative success of the EU in dealing with formerly intractable state rivalries.

Today I read a report by a respected investment expert who thinks that a far deeper financial crisis than the GFC is about to descend upon us. He has a very good track report as a pundit, but I hope that on this occasion he is wrong. Economic crisis at a time of political instability is a very bad recipe for much worse. I don't think that I need to spell it out.

I am not easily amazed, but tonight I was. I was humbled and astonished. Danette, whose life was hanging by a thread following a terrible car accident over a year ago, was at a friend's party tonight. I had heard nothing since news had her in a coma with terrible injuries. She was either not expected to live or to face a life of near total incapacitation.

And there she was. I didn't recognise her at first. Later I spent an hour talking to her. I am awed by her courage, by an indomitable will to live. I have prayed every night for her and somehow I found it hard to believe that she was there, chatting and laughing, leaving me floored with a kind of dumb joy. Well, there is no way of describing it. I am overwhelmed.

Welcome back amongst us, Danette. May this time ahead be a blessing for you and your family.

The world has always been a potentially dangerous place. All ages have had their chaos, famine, war, natural disaster and general calamity, punctuating what was likely a very mundane existence. Such is our age, writ larger by a massive and seemingly unstoppable flow of information in all directions. Modern doom sayers are no different from their gloomy ancestors. They just have a lot more data to sift through.

But there is no doubt that things are messy. The dividend from the end of the Cold War has been spent or squandered. We have not established an effective means of dealing with the political questions arising from globalisation, climate change, religious and ethnic nationalism and so forth. Perhaps this is the period in which new coalitions will form, or new institutions will arise.

On an entirely different note, Xiaoyu has written to say that she has started her English study. To my astonishment, she has a class every day. I guess that she is really serious about it. I had no idea that it was going to be seven days a week. She is really a sweetheart.

Strange events occur. A little while ago, as I opened this blog to review an entry, I noticed that all the photos posted from January 1st this year had disappeared and been replaced by what looked like a grey no entry sign. I cannot account for this bizarre occurrence, but it cost me an hour of time replacing the photos!

Xiaoyu and I continue to write to each other daily. Soon she will begin an English course to improve her language skills and hopefully in a year or so, communication between us will be much improved. We get along really well now but there is a deeper level of knowing that we will eventually need to explore.

A picture from a busy intersection near the centre of Nanning's main shopping precinct.

First official day of autumn and the rain continues to fall. Today it is heavier and the ground outside is sodden. In a month it will probably be parched from a lack of moisture. That seems to be the way of things at the moment.

Xiaoyu writes that it is cold and foggy in Nanning, where Spring has yet to take hold. While I was there the temperature was unseasonably warm and most days I only needed a t-shirt. It became colder by the end of my stay, though still in the region of 10C. Hardly arctic conditions.

A couple of weeks ago I joined QQ at the behest of Xiaoyu. QQ is a Chinese social media site that combines some of the elements of Skype, Facebook, MSN and so forth. I am now Xiaoyu's friend, which was the whole point of the exercise. But my presence as a Westerner has not gone unnoticed and I have regular friendship requests from mostly female Chinese women. I have accepted most of them, though now I am somewhat perplexed.

Why me? I am becoming a little suspicious that QQ may also be a place for romantic excursions, if you get what I mean. Yesterday a new friend from Shezhang asked me these three openers.

Are you married? Do you have a girlfriend? What is your job?

Not so subtle, hey? Maybe I need to be more cautious.