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.