Coffee at Adelaide airport at 2 p.m., 9 July 2006. In all innocence, I prepared to judge carefully two flat whites. The Melbourne-based franchise chain Hudsons Coffee proclaimed a ‘formidable reputation for consistently making great cups of coffee’, but its airport outlet provided no evidence of this.

Yet while those clingfilm-wrapped platters of asparagus rolls, savoury cheese balls and Anzac biscuits have gone out of style, they haven't been totally scorned.

Fo-hsiang Pavilion in I-ho Park, a popular sight-seeing spot in the northwestern suburbs of Peking. Situated atop Wan-shou Hill, this structure stands some 150 feet high and commands a fine view of K'un-ming Lake.

He handed her a paper with Erik Last's DOB and Visa card number. This guy wouldn't give me his sosh. His social security number.