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. ๐ 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! ๐