mall

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.

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).

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

Oh and this is resident cat (DJ) Shadow

Ill again. You cannot be serious?!?!

Well last nights “sleep” was pretty rubbish, my throat doing it’s best to keep me awake. I woke up this morning feeling a tad shite. Seems to be a different breed of ‘cold’ than the other two and came on quick. So it’s been nearly 6 months I’ve been here and this is the 3rd time I’ve felt ill, totally crap as back home I could go a year with maybe one spell of illness. For this China I dislike you.

Because I felt crap I stayed in today, try and rest up this time (drink plenty of fluids, etc) rather than power through it like the other times. It was by no means an uneventful day though as Kathy (Benjamin’s mate) came over and I was soon mucking about with them. The main game we played was ‘Detective vs Thief’ where the thief hides an item in the room, leaves a written clue and the detectives hunt for it. Quite fun actually, was good to spend almost a full day with the little ninja. A Christmas card from my Dad and co arrived, that was nice and Benjamin got the stamps. 🙂

Lunch was Papa John’s pizza’s and for tea we went to a restaurant in the mall. Stuffed as usual, favourites were the stuffed bing and sweet sticky rice ball things, nom. Afterwards Benjamin bought (note: his mum bought) some playdoh. Most of the kits there, and the advert that was running, all amount to making food! Pizza, ice cream, cakes, fruit, spaghetti, etc. Jebus H, it’s bad enough telling kids not to eat it without this.

Leaving the family I popped past Costa and paid the extortionate price of 31RMB/3.10GBP for a mocha. The plan was to leech their wifi and have a Skype chat with my mum but it turns out no one was awake, it was after 12 noon there! Michty me. Anyway I got home and (when they got up) chatted to my mum and younger brother, was good to catch up with them. I haven’t spoke to my mum since I’ve been here, oops sorry mum.

The rest of the night I chilled and watched ‘The Shawshank Redemption’, such a good film. 🙂

P is for Pollution

So this happened today.

Appears to have been an accident when I first heard about it (driving here is quite bad) but knowing the significance of the place it does seem doubtful. Speaking to the mother she did seem to think it most likely wasn’t an accident and things like this have happened before (the BBC link mentions some). We shall see what becomes of it, possibly nothing I’d imagine even though it is something.

Smoggy smog was quite bad today but after lunch (dumplings, yas) I needed to stretch my legs so I went out, strolled through a small park, along the river and in to the ‘Golden Resources’ mall. I attempted to leech some WiFi from Starbucks but this failed so I read for a bit instead then headed home picking up some oats on the way. Benjamin brought his mate Coco home so I mucked about with them before tea, afterwards I did some English homework with Benjamin.

The mall and the smog

The mall and the smog

Yesterday I briefly touched on Beijinger’s and their gadgets, today (because of the weather) I want to hit on the pollution. It can be pretty gads, you don’t really appreciate what we have at home unless you have experienced something like this. I want to say it’s around 50/50 whether there will be smog or not but it’s mostly always there, just depends on the dose. Some days can be beautifully clear though, this does happen. When it’s real bad you can smell it and, when blowing your nose, see it too. The city apparently has some factories dotted about it’s outskirts, and even though they have had strict measures put on them (thanks to the Olympics) it doesn’t seem to have done much. I haven’t lived here all my life though so I suppose I cannot comment on that and the government do seem to acknowledge the issue but progress on fixing it is slow. I wonder how many years of my life I have lost…

[The US Embassy has it’s own air quality measurements]

A picture can mean a thousand words

Round 2 of Mandarin class (triple threat this week) was at 12 so a bit later than usual. I left earlier to walk about the hood of my class scoping out a small fruit/veg/meat/etc market (definitely for the locals) and another ‘April Gourmet’ (international food shop). I had food at the fast food place I’ve been to a few times, ordered a pork belly pieces dish with rice and a side of two chunky bing’s (Chinese pancake) filled with veg, all for a respectable 17RMB/1.70GBP. Nom.

Oh how I love bing's

Oh how I love bing’s

Class again was one-on-one which was cool. Learned a few new things but mainly reviewed the index of our workbook determining which words I could remember, a happy amount I would say. 🙂 We also talked about learning Chinese characters (not something I care to do currently!) and how I find it incredible that you learn both pinyin and the characters, they are like two different languages. Also reading them I can’t fully get into my head either, they are pictures where as with words I can at least have a go. I find it fascinating.

Got home, chilled, awaited Benjamin’s arrival. As ever there was maths homework to do, this time I wasn’t much help as it was mainly written in Chinese and Benjamin was struggling with some of the characters too. Goa A Yi pointed out that there appeared to be a fire, big clouds of black smoke, behind the mall and the noise of fire engines seemed to confirm this. Will check that tomorrow. After tea, and some hangman, Benjamin’s mum helped him with his homework and he was done for the night. Oh and Ben, his father, arrived late…. I had no idea that he was coming! You get used to that.

When the moon hits the sky, like a big pizza pie…

Unfortunately, none were scoffed today

It’s mid-autumn moon festival today! Yay! 😀

I’m not sure if there are any Official celebrations but this is when the Chinese people get a few days off and the moon is full. It being Beijing you may not get to see the moon at all…

The day started like any other except that Benjamin had friends coming over so he would be occupied, so when they arrived I left them too it and read some e-books. With my free time I now realise how much reading can be done, so I have stepped up my hunger for beer knowledge and downloaded three books about the subject. Craft beer I must add. Everyone I meet seems to get a beer lecture from me, the conversations always lead to beer, and I can’t help myself. So I blasted two books and I’m chewing my way through the third.

I took a break from knowledge after lunch,  and with Benjamin’s friends still here, decided to go for a wander. I headed South, like last time, but when hitting the T junction I went West, towards the river and then the giant mall, Golden Resources. It housing a cinema (+ IMAX) I decided to check the film times for future reference. Yup, all in Chinese. I waited for the screen to flick to English but this moment never came.

I aimlessly explored the mall, no intent of buying anything, and left, heading back through a few small parks and popped into the local mall to get some juice. As I was watching some display of chef’s, on a small stage, barking out numbers and performing some synchronised moves (I have no idea what was going on), Randy bumped into me. He was on his way to tutor Benjamin so I headed back with him.

I read more about beer (oh how I love thee) and then it was tea time. We were going out, huzzah! Not only was it at a new restaurant for me, it was a hot pot one, YAS been wanting to try this since ever! 😀

Hot Pot FTW

Hot Pot FTW

The idea is simple: In the centre of the table is a vat of bubbling broth (spicy/mild or both – we had mild) and you order what ever vegetables, meat, tofu, etc you want to sip and cook in it. Kind of like a fondue but with soup. It was fairly nom, I want to try the spicy one now.

Over dinner (Randy joined us) we chatted and the conversation about beer kicked up (told you!) so I dived in head first. I mentioned that I was going to get some beers tomorrow and Ben was very interested and wants me to get him some too. Haha, beer tasting session with the Dad. 🙂

Traditionally you eat Moon Cake during the festival, but none was consumed today. My man flu has been pissing me off too, it’s fecked my sinuses and my ears feel pressurised and muffled. Walking back to the apartment though I noticed the big fat moon in the sky, that was nice.

The Kolon Strikes Back

Proper sight seeing didn’t happen today. 😦 Not because the weather was bad, no, because it was too bloody hot! 35+C.

Instead we went to a mall, but not just any mall, the biggest in Beijing! Jin Yuan Shopping Mall has over 1000 shops/services, 6+ floors, IMAX cinema and was the worlds largest 2004/05. A fair beast so it is. I didn’t buy anything. I walked around it for an hour though soaking up the named brands (I avoided the Kolon Sport shop) of which are not that cheap, pity. Got my Chinese SIM sorted though, yas.

Oh and we had lunch at Papa Johns – never been until now. China of all places.

Outdoor Swimming Pool

Outdoor Swimming Pool

We also went to an outdoor swimming pool which sounds great, and it was good to get a swim, but it was fairly packed and the cleanliness isn’t the best. Kinda manky but something I’m getting used too.

As usual loads of food for tea (at the local mall for convenience) which included dumplings, pork belly and a cold noodle dish.

Tomorrow Benjamin is off to a school camp for a week which means my adventure times can begin! As long as the heat doesn’t kill me… Oh and I promise photos next week when the laptop adapter arrives.

[For those of you that we’re wondering, yes the spicy food yesterday did bring unwanted consequences today… :-s]