At short notice... well, at virtually no notice, we've agreed to take in a Chinese teenager for the next six weeks.

Desperate friends in need are desperate friends indeed, so despite the inconvenience of builders in our house at the moment and despite my ever expanding wife being all pregnant and stuff, we sort of couldn't say no.

So he turned up last night.

I think he must have a foot odour problem or something cos he left his shoes outside.

Luckily, they are used to living in shoeboxes, so the wardrobe we've stuck him in must seem like a comparative mansion.

He's been sent here for his summer holidays for a Kiwi experience. So far that has involved sleeping, eating, watching TV, surfing the net, and reading Batman comics.

He's a very nice kid though. He said nice things about my guitar playing.

He caught a bus to downtownchinatown this morning, where he is studying Engrish during the day. I half expected him to get off at the wrong place and wind up in the South Island.

But no. He's fine. I hear there's a a lot of people in China, and that it's like this really big place, so I guess little ole Auckland seems very small in comparison.