No rest for the wicked

I had a wee bit of a hangover when I got up and it wasn’t going to have much time to recover…

Most of today was spent chilling inside until tea time was approaching so I took my first step outside to buy some ingredients at Coles. I threw together a Thai vegetable stir-fry, it was all right. Both Nat and Jean had left at this point so I watched some TV along with ‘Gravity‘, watching this in IMAX would have been something.

When Nat got back from her family meal it wasn’t that long before our Skype date with Jefner and Garcia, this is where things get messy… Part the way through our chat we had run out of booze so I suggested we visit Nat’s folks house (they were away) so we went down the road and continued our drinking/chatting there, I think it wrapped up about 7am. Jebus. To say our chat was ‘interesting’ would be quite a large understatement. Brilliant to chat with my chums though, really was great. 🙂

[My apologies if I haven’t caught up with everyone back home, this will be done eventually. :-)]

A day out to Bunnings

I was going to go out for a cycle but ended up vegging instead. We did go out to Bunnings though to buy some kit for brewing, also got chatting to an older Scotsman that worked there. The staff are all uber friendly in this place, it must be part of their daily quota to greet everyone they see.

For tea I attempted to make the super nom ji dan guan bing. Easy to make and tasted nom but I need to perfect and adjust the recipe to get it bang on, not bad though (would be great to taste the real deal again, especially for 3RMB!).

Pub quiz hot shot

Compared to yesterday today was full of milestones:

• Bought a ticket to see ‘DJ Shadow‘ live here tomorrow! Pretty bloody excited about that. 😀
• My Debit Mastercard arrived so I can now buy stuff online. Yipee!
• Because of the above I was finally able to order my SIM so I should have a working phone by tomorrow.
• Booked my RSA course for this Friday so I can be certified to work in a pub.
• Worked on my CV for pub’s to start handing in tomorrow (including IT work).

Around lunchtime me and Nat went past her folks house and chatted to them about work prospects, etc. My tea urn had also arrived so that’s a big step towards me brewing again. 🙂 Afterwards I hopped on a tram headed to the city where I grabbed a $6 Hop Hog at ‘Dejavu‘, also had a good chat with one of the staff (called Dan too) as this place is on my list of potential work places.

After my drink I wandered further into town to meet Caroline (friend of a friend) to join her and crew for a Trivia Night (Note: Pub Quiz) at ‘Honey‘ down in South Melbourne across the Yarra river. The event was packed, we had 7 brains in total so I was looking at a mid-table finish if anything. Second last place. Oh jebus. We did win some prizes in the raffle though to easy our wounds, even though they were shite and no one wanted them. Ha.

Got a lift back into town then jumped on a tram back home. Quite a productive day this one. 🙂

Dead guy in the rivah

Yesterdays wander had nothing on today’s.

Got up at 8AM and left the house 45mins later to watch a film at the Highpoint mall a wee walk away. I haven’t been to the cinema in at least 6 months and Tuesdays at this cinema are cheaper so I felt it had to be done, pity Anchorman 2 was shite. I knew they shouldn’t have done a sequel…

After the film I bought a steak & cheese subway then ate it in a park next to the Maribyrnong River just 10mins down the road. Decided to follow the river into the city and I noticed a police boat next to a bridge fishing out a dead body, Nat assures me this isn’t normal in Melbourne. Apart from that the walk down the river is really nice with the city skyline getting closer, some swish apartments, Chinese temple and nature reserves.

Maribyrnong River

That be a deed body right there

Melbourne Skyline

Nature Reserve

Random Chinese temple

COSTCO! Oh and a wheel…

I didn’t go on it

Leaving the river I ventured through the industrial area of Melbourne and was confronted not only by Costco (YAS!) but the Melbourne Eye (OK they call it the Melbourne Star but it’s the same thing). Went through the Docklands outdoor shopping centre and hopped on a City Circle tram for less than a handful of stops, it was too hot on that thing. Headed to Flinders Street Station via the grid block city (it’s going to be easy getting round this place I feel) then walked through the Olympic Park (forgot about that) to Richmond, here I visited Slow Beer for a cold one and job prospects. There were none but the beer was great, even had my favourite Dark Island Reserve ($48).

Flinders Street Station

Seen the pub doesn’t compare

Edward on a HOERS

National Gallery

Yarra River

Time was ticking on so I finished my beer and headed North-West to Thunder Road brewery for the home brew meetup. Having it in this brewery is going to be fantastic, we got a tour round and told that in the future we will be able to use the pilot brewery to make some competition beers, this is really really cool. The guys are a good bunch and I sampled a whole load of home brewed beers. At half nine we got kicked out and I walked home, today I covered around 35KM doing a big circle around the city, ace fun but I’ve burnt me face. Ha!

Oh and this is resident cat (DJ) Shadow

Who you calling a fanny?

Today I went for a wee wander. The weather was supposed to be another scorcher but thankfully was overcast so wasn’t that bad (I would have died otherwise). I’m going to a homebrew club meetup tomorrow so decided to scope the place out beforehand. The walk was a little over an hour from the house to Brunswick East.

Where do you live?

Railway cycle path

I left before lunchtime but didn’t see many people walking about (car culture) but there are loads of cycle paths about that people use. I followed a few on my journey, one going along a railway line, they are shared with pedestrians too. Oh and I revert my previous statement that Melbourne is flat, it is not.

Got to Thunder Road brewery and was unsure if I could just walk in, it is a fully operational brewery after all, but a member of staff waved me in and I soon realised this wasn’t an issue as there was a full bar setup slap bang in the middle of the brewery. Sweet. You can’t drink here though (no licence) but you can buy bottles, merch, top up your growler and have a few samples (which I did of course). Chatted to one of the workers and eventually the second in command, good blokes but unfortunately no jobs.

Thunder Road Brewery Bar

Brewhouse

Yeast holiday homes

Remember Safeway?

Samples finished I headed back home but detouring up Sydney Street, past Moonee Ponds Creek and Prince bottle shop for two crafty beers. For tea I made a big thing of mince and tatties, oh – hellz – yeah. 😀

Oh I also had a Gaytime…

Golden Gaytime… fecking nom

How to block your eBay account: Step 1.

Bloody hell so much for him being back to school! It would seem holidays have kicked in (which would explain why Linda was home too) but it felt like the school had been brought here as four of his mates turned up along with some A Yi’s. Jebus. I would have been out the door and to the pub but the air was shite today. 😦 Everyone buggered off after lunch so I was able to really chill then, until I tried to buy something on eBay…

At least this made me smile a bit

I was all set to buy some brewing equipment (shock horror) on Aussie eBay when my account was blocked. Fair enough, I’m in Beijing buying something in Melbourne, it looks kinda suspect. I couldn’t do the verification process as it had an old telephone number and their online chat directed me to a customer service call centre. I was on the phone for 30mins trying to get the block removed but ended with me having to send a photocopy of my driving licence to prove who I am. This process can take 7-10 days. WTF. Slightly pee’d off I resigned to the fact I could do no more and joined Randy and Benjamin for a game of Scrabble. (Mum tell Andy this is for his own good… 😉 )

I’m so proud…

Benjamin’s Dad didn’t arrive today (he’d left by-the-by but was coming back) and Yu was off to Hong Kong. I got my certificate in the mail, yaaaay. At least one thing today fairly perked me up from the eBay nightmare, Nat had emailed saying a group of us would be staying in a pimpin’ beach holiday home after the festival! HELLZ YEAH. 😀 I’m loving Oz all ready.

Waiting it out…

Ah today, what did I do today…? Bloody nothing that’s what!

Woke to find Benjamin not at school, he was sick last night so kept home today, which he spent mostly in front of the TV (talk over tea mentioned he had a fever and could have caught what Goa A Yi had last week). We built a Lego spaceship that his Dad had given him and that was about it. I sent some feedback forms back to the Au Pair company and they will be sending me a certificate. Maybe hang it up at my new digs in Melbourne? I think not.

Collage of tickets and business cards collected (before they go in the bin)

There isn’t much else I really want to do here in Beijing before I go, big trips would have been Shanghai or visit the terracotta warriors. Oh well. Will start packing end of the week, I have bought next to nothing in terms of goods so my bags should be lighter at least. All ready looking into what home brew kit I’ll be wanting to buy and what brew club to join too when I arrive. Haha, oh me. Not investigated too much in terms of tourist attractions, recently anyway, as I figure I’ll have lots of time to do so and Nat and pals can show me what’s what.

I’m excited but it never truly kicks in until departure day… 🙂

Quaffing beer like Professionals

The family were up and ready before me so as I was tucking into my golden syrup drizzled porridge they up and left without saying where or even a goodbye. Haha, to be fair this is quite normal and I’m used too it. So after I was fed and cleaned up I headed out, fudge knows when they would be back and I’m not sitting about to find out.

Hopped on the subway to the funky tee (not tea) shop Plastered at the touristy hutong Nanlouguxiang and bought two t-shirts. I was hoping there would be a sale on but for what I bought there was not. Not long after I was scoffing into one of my favourite Jian Bing’s, oh so nom. Had a wee walk to the Andingmen subway station and got off near Heaven Supermarket to purchase some beer. The plan today was meeting up with Randy and going to Henry’s house and drink said beer.

After buying a reasonable selection of beers (the shops offering is looking somewhat dire now) I toyed with the idea of wandering around Chaoyang Park but I had too much time on my hands so figured I’d go home, show face and then head back out again. When I got home no-one was there so I just sorted my stuff and bailed back out again. Met Randy at Liangmaqiao station, got on a bus and arrived at Henry’s hoose.

Henry had some home-brewed pale ale waiting for us so it was the first beer of the day and really quite good. Many a beer was sampled before we realised none of us had eaten, a liquid diet would not suffice. They both vouched for a restaurant nearby so we scooted off there and ordered a four course meal of spicy egg, tattie fritters, spicy long beans and scrummy kung po chicken. Some rice and a beer each this set us back 100RMB/10GBP in total, jebus these kind of prices I will miss. Back at Henry’s we continued drinking and chatting late on into the night before getting a taxi home (deploying Randy’s technique of walking in front of a taxi).

All that was missing last night was a selection of good cheeses. Mmmmm… 😉

I would like some meat with my meat please

This morning I helped Goa A Yi take down some curtains for cleaning, the balancing act to do this wasn’t exactly safe but made it more interesting. Ben also left for England today and before he did he gave me some money as a gift, what a nice dude.

It’s Christmas Eve?!?!?! I have to keep reminding myself that.

Class today was chilled, didn’t learn too much other than drawing comparisons between Christmas/New Year and Spring Festival/Chinese New Year celebrations. It’s a pity I won’t be here for it as that was one of the things I wanted to take part in.

Since I was meeting up with Randy and Suzy later I didn’t see the point in going home. I wandered around for nearly and hour but the smog was doing it’s best to make this as unpleasant as possible. I decided to sit my arse down in Heaven Supermarket with a beer (or two). Thanks to free wifi I was able to pass the time without relying purely on beer for entertainment. A wee while later I met Randy and Suzy at the restaurant.

Home Plate is a new setup, well this particular establishment is, and I thought it was a chain of sorts from America land, it isn’t. It is owned and ran by American’s though and this is good, really good as cooking meat on the BBQ is it’s game, and oh boy do they know how to play. A small, but correctly balanced, buffet was setup which had mixed red cabbage salad, tattie salad, corn bread, creamed corn, chilli beans, butter fried buns, pulled beef brisket and pulled pork. Oh sweet Jebus! I had three plates of this along with three pints and I was horribly stuffed, but OH so happy. 🙂 There was a scrummy looking date and sponge pudding but I couldn’t risk eating it I was THAT full of meat. Good company, good chat and we all left feeling stuffed good.

Get in ma BELLY

Christmas tomorrow eh? 😉

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! 😀