Life beyond the wall

Well, I didn't stick to my promise that I made on this blog back in early 2013 to make a post every week. I haven't even stuck to my personal vow to write my journal. I will try and be better, but to be honest life got in the way. In my own defence, my reasons for not having the time to post much are better than most peoples.

Since my last post that I made on here, some major things have happened. In the first week of September I moved 6500 miles from my humble home in the north of England to the mysterious and exotic land of China. I currently live in the city of Xuzhou where I teach English to about ten classes of Chinese children.

I've been here for just over four months now and I am hoping to be here for another 20 before I head back to the UK. Before I came here I was thinking that I would go home after a year as my commitments at home were rather large but a recent betrayal means that I have no home to go back to any more. This has led me to think that it is worth staying another year and then heading back when I have bumped my qualifications up some more. I know it sounds dramatic that I have no home to go to, but annoyingly I come from a very small family and they have no rooms for me to stay in when I go back and my own home will soon be sold. Simple facts.

Its odd when I think about home as I don't really miss it. I don't really miss much about home either except for archery and cheese and onion crisps (I have one packet of Cheese and Onion crisps I'm saving for a really bad day).

One of the things that was pretty big when I was over here is that my book came out: Raus Untoten.

I had always wanted to be published, after all I read so much, it seemed a natural progression for my favourite hobby. The thing was that I never really tried my hand at writing apart from a number of stories i had started and just as quickly abandoned. Then I was told about this project that was being done about zombies and nazi's and that my science background would make me an ideal candidate. I spent a few months on the project and then two months after submission I was told that I had been successful. It was something of a win for me.

I keep reading of course (and also working on a few projects of my own). Just yesterday I ploughed through Battle Earth X by Nick Thomas that was a good read. His stuff for a while in the middle had gotten a bit boring around books 5-7 of the series but 9 was back to the greatness of 1-3 and 10 has been a really good read with a feeling of Battlestar Galactica at the beginning of series 3. There are only two books left in the series so I am looking forward to seeing where it goes.

I best head off as not only have I spent a large amount of the past 24 hours in bed thanks to being ill, I have a Chinese test tomorrow, all after I had a teaching exam on Monday from Cambridge University. Busy times.