A quiet lunch and spicy food

To my surprise I think Benjamin went to school this morning. WTF is going on?! Not questioning it I was quick to get out the door and for a walk (it was smoggy but cleared a bit). I followed the subway line all the way to Huixinxijie Nankou station, which took a little over two hours, following the river/canal parks and observing various morning activities being performed by older people. Since I was meeting Randy at the pub I hopped on the subway so as not to be late.

I arrived early. Enda was working and asked where I was yesterday wondering if I’d left all ready, the regular that I am. He gave me another sample of their 100th Brew Barley Wine and we chatted, he wasn’t as busy today. Randy arrived so we ordered (and destroyed) burgers straight away and not long after my mate Royce arrived (Aussie/South African, actually from Zimbabwe) then pub acquaintances of his arrived and we soon had a posse going. After many drinks (free one from Enda and Royce along with Randy footing the bill, what a pal), lots of varied topics of discussion (Royce being the eldest had the most taboo subjects to talk about!) I said my goodbye’s to Enda the Irishman (such a dude I’ve been treated so well in that place) along with Royce and crew. This was around 7PM, been here for about 7 hours…

Tiny ‘VIP’ room

Me and Randy met Suzy at Andingmen for food at a nearby Szechuan restaurant called ‘Zhang MaMa‘ so it’s spicy food and Suzy’s home town. The place was full but they had a room around the corner where we could eat, was like a VIP room hutong style. Food was great (can’t remember much about it to be honest other than it was tasty and cheap) and we stayed a bit before getting the last subway home. Turned out to be a great night. 🙂

NOW I start helping with school runs?

I didn’t go for my usual long walk today, not because of the weather but the fact I had to take Benjamin back to school after lunch. Goa A Yi is ill and it’s not a hardship to do but it does mess up half the day. Nevermind soon won’t need to worry about any of that!

I took to the subway after dropping Benjamin off and ordered some food as soon as I got into the pub (not getting any at home rubbed the salt in further). Enda gave me a sample of their 100th Brew Barley Wine, this is the first time I have had a barely wine I think, tastes good, quite strong with a surprising amount of bitter. See what it’s like next week as it’s still maturing. Also my Oz/South-African friend popped in for a quick drink (his driver was outside) he’d not long came back from Oz so we chatted about that, Christmas, New Year, etc. Thankfully he couldn’t stay long so we wouldn’t be downing the stouts like last time...

Got home expecting Goa A Yi to be cooking and Randy tutoring Benjamin. No-one was in. Benjamin has a big test tomorrow so he stayed later at school today, he came back not long after me so there had been a little mix up. Played a wee bit of Lego after tea then he was off to bed. I’m preparing more for Oz and by this I mean looking into buying a bicycle on Gumtree and the possibility of getting some homebrew kit. What? 😉

All’s fair in beer and war

So I’d swapped today’s Mandarin lesson because of beer. Is that bad? It probably is isn’t it?

Today was Great Leap’s 100th brew and I wanted to see what they were making, and the specials that would be on offer. So yet again I left fairly early (about 9.30am) on foot to the pub. I partook in some different street food than my usual bing, slightly spiced fried pork with grated tattie encased in a crispy fried wrap. 6RMB/60p, I was very happy with my purchase, NOM.

Pork and tattie breakfast wrap

I tried to include as many hutong’s as I could on the way, avoiding main roads where possible but adding a chunk of time to my travel. Worth it though as the main roads can be quite tedious compared to the local market I found myself in, selling fruit, veg, meat and fish. Cool. I also poked my head into Great Leap’s No.6 pub (as it’s being refurbished right now) and there was still a lot of shit going on but I could see the new bar and taps. I also noticed a a new subway station soon to open nearby, means getting here will be even easier.

People be skating on the lake

Arrived in No.12 a bit later than expected and quickly ordered my pint and a burger. Was chatting to Enda about the special 100th brew today (a barley wine, high ABV), Christmas and New Year. They may be having a proper opening celebration for New Year at No.6 with an “All you can drink” offer, he might be there too. I’m quite tempted by this, all you can drink sounds dangerously great. 🙂 The rest of my time in the pub was spent nursing a few special priced beers, watching NFL, catching up with the world, chatting to Enda about the difficulty barley wine brew (LOTS of grain was used) and attempting a failed Skype chat with my good Aussie mate Nat and pal Jean. Said my Merry goodbyes to Carl and Enda then headed home.

These could easily be beer snacks

GIANT HOERS

Over dinner I had an energetic conversation with Ben about the Korean war. He’d talked about it before and since I knew next to nothing about it I decided to read up some whilst at the pub (thanks to Wikipedia). There is quite clearly still tense emotion between China, Korea and Japan. The media can tell you this but hearing and seeing it when talking to Ben was a different story, enlightening but also obviously biased. Some nasty stuff happened during those times form all sides.

When Benjamin came back from his after school class I gave him the calligraphy set I was gifted for the Au Pair prize thing. I didn’t want it and he had taken a shine to it, so an extra present for his birthday today was win-win. Attempted to learn some magic but he was soon off to bed.

Tomorrow is mandarin class then off to Home Plate with Randy and Suzy to stuff our faces with all you can eat BBQ and booze. YAS! 😀

You missed a spot

100th post! I had a party with some mates to celebrate.

“Chopsticks are going to be difficult for you guys…”

Class today, subway was on time and I got my street food, yas. We are halfway through the textbook now, which is pretty cool, and today was still about phone conversations with a little bit about sickness and body parts thrown in for good measure.

Afterwards I went to my usual haunt, Great Leap. Tuesdays and Sundays (for No.12) is when they have a selected beer at 25RMB/2.50GBP and today it was ‘Honey Ma Gold’, which I thought tasted a bit weird. That flavour was soon replaced by a super nom burger and chips combo. I also got a free sample of their ‘Hazelnut Porter’ as the bar staff wanted to know how to pronounce it in English. For free beer I’m happy to help. I was also watching a bit of American Foozball on the box as Randy’s home team were playing in… Wembley?! He had mentioned this to me at the weekend, part of the NFL spreading the love (note: World Dominance!) to the UK masses.

Got home and chilled a bit before Randy arrived to tutor Benjamin, we played outside for a bit which was cool (the skies were clear today). I helped Benjamin with some maths homework, a little bribery for encouragement goes a long way. Tomorrow was supposed to be a culture class learning how to play Mahjong (Majiang actually) but this got changed to painting, lets see how that goes.

Here is a woman in our complex cleaning her windows