Well moving sucks in general, it's a good time to throw away all the crap that you don't need, but what a mission! Since I am moving into an apartment in the same complex, it's not worth it hiring a moving truck or anything, plus the movers here are not very careful with stuff.. and well let's just say I'd rather break my own stuff than someone else do it. It's been a task and a half since I now own all of my own furniture, so couches, beds, tables, chairs, washing machines, fridges, airconditioners etc etc all had to be moved by me by hand using a very handy and useful IKEA trolley.. you know those little things with wheels that you tilt at an angle... yes I managed to move everything with one of those... anyway all the stuff is in the new house, now I have to organise the mess...

Yes the blog lives, and it'll stay up with very very occasional updates. Problem with this blog is that it's running an older version of Drupal (that's the CMS software I installed) and it's open to spambots... so I've had to disable comments since all I get are ten thousand viagra ads daily spammed into the comments section. If you'd like to ask a question or get feedback or in general keep up with the vids and what's happening in China, I suggest you check out my Facebook page (the link is at the top of this blog), This blog's main purpose is for me to get messages out if and when all the other channels get cut off by the Great firewall, also there are some things that I'd rather post here separate from all the social media.

Christmas is coming, it's that time of year, and for the past four years at least I've been doing the same thing, basically a Christmas eve dinner at my place with some close friends, my friends, Pete, Tyrone and Dave (and their respective wives/girlfriends/whatever), I've already ordered the turkey in HK, smuggling it over the border on Christmas eve may prove to be a task, but we've done it at least 3 times successfully in the past....

An IMPORTANT update, as of the 5th of November, China has successfully managed to block most vpns and proxys through the great firewall (probably due to the fact that there's a big political shift happening in a few days), popular paid for vpns such as ExpressVPN etc don't work either, my own way of getting through has also been blocked (well obviously not completely as I'm writing this message). I still have a way through, but it's slow and iffy, basically what this boils down to is that it's going to take me seriously long times to upload videos, as in the upload of a 10min video could take about 2 to 3 days... I'm working on another solution, but just to let you all know that I'm not going to stop, just it'll take some time for the videos to be uploaded. - Winston

I have been neglecting my blog lately, it's much harder to find time to sit down and write something, posting an update to facebook or google plus is easy (check my Facebook page and G+ for daily updates on China etc). I do however like the idea of keeping a blog, it is a good way to sit down properly and put down my thoughts from time to time.... So I'm married now.. and to be honest it's not much different to being not married :P (except my bank account is empty now after paying for the wedding).

Well Things are moving along, I've moved most of the big furniture across to my new apartment, it's a big step down, but the new place isn't bad, it's quite cozy and still big by Chinese apartment standards, I've found a place to stash the bikes in a hidden away corner of the underground parking, and I can also park them downstairs directly under my building (although the thought of my bikes becoming a jungle-gym for the local kids doesn't really appeal to me), I've been drilling holes, mounting shelves, fixing all the plumbing (it was in a state...

Dalian,

Dalian was always a place that I planned to ride to on the bikes, much farther up in the north east of China, it always seemed like it’d be a worthwhile challenge getting there, however looks like I’ve beat myself to it, an old friend of mine from Holland whom I went to high school with back in Johannesburg is just about to get married.. odd, about a month and a half before my wedding. Seems like 2012 is the year to get married, more people I know have gotten married this year than any other year I can remember.

Well you may or may not have noticed the new link at the top of the page, I've created a Facebook fan page for SerpentZA, it's actually pretty cool and a lot easier for me to post links and the occasional quick update etc, I will keep updating this blog as it's something different to all that, Google plus is still the place to go to see daily pictures and interesting things I come across, Facebook is a good place to check out links and to give me suggestions etc, and here is just a solid text only place for me to put down anything important that happens....

Anyway, I really enjoyed making my latest "Where the hell am I? - Urban wasteland adventure" series, it was good fun, however each video took over 14 hours to upload... damn Youtube is slow through a proxy.

I can barely believe it, I've almost hit 3000 subs on YouTube! I've also had some really good advice from some professionals in the filming industry! So expect my videos to look a little more professional and better in the future. A subscriber also helped me big time by setting up another way for me to upload YouTube videos through his workplace, so things are looking really good as far as the videos are concerned! Now just finding time to make them! :)

I honestly appreciate every single ounce of support that I've received from all of you, my viewers, subscribers and of course the vlogging community! Things are looking good for the future!

We've just experienced a massive typhoon, it slammed into Hong Kong and ripped through Shenzhen, uprooting trees, tearing down signs.. and well being generally awesome! I sat on my balcony with my Chinese friend Eddy and we drank wine while being pelted with rain, wind and debris, the next morning was rather interesting, I left at about 6:30am to get to work..