Entroducing…

Printed a bunch of CV’s today and inspected my tea urn when I got home, turns out it’s the wrong bloody size (20L not 40L) so will need to return that. Also my “next day delivery” SIM didn’t arrive so I’m another day off the grid.

CV’s in hand (bag) I cycled off to Brunswick to smooch up a few craft beer pubs down that way. Temple Brewery was closed (strange opening times and looks quite swish), Atticus Finch is a cocktail bar but I did get into the Alehouse Project. Cool place, 12 taps for good beer (inc. Tempest from Scotland), new chef for nom sounding food (crispy pigs ears or deep fried peanut butter ice cream) and the dude behind the bar was sound. After handing in my CV and wrapping my tastebuds around a beer (+ samples) I left to the Great Northern just a few minutes down the road.

This place is a proper pub with old style furnishings and decor, got chatting with the barman and locals here (mainly about AFL and which team’s I can pick) whilst having a drink then handing in my CV. Problem with this strategy is when your cycling and running on empty these 10%+ beers hit you much quicker, so with that in mind I had to call it a day and cycled home. This wasn’t without issue either as my front brakes were constantly half on (flat ground was like going up hill) and worse than that my handlebars came loose. Feck sake. Entirely my fault though.

[Fair Ground Theme Tune]

Got home, showered, ate food and bailed to see DJ Shadow down in St. Kilda. 🙂 Arrived early so wandered round the area for a bit (via a bottle shop) taking in the seaside sites and a small market next to the fair ground. An hour later I’m back at the gig with a fat grin on my face. Most of the tunes he blasted out (with no laptop in sight, proper mixing) were completely new and probably never to be heard of again with a few oldies in there to keep the crowd pumped, not that he needed too. Brilliant set and I even got to shake his hand at the end. 😀

Only bummer was missing my connecting tram in the city which meant an hours walk home… I did get to see the night time nature though including a possum, fox and two bloody giant bat’s. 🙂

Teatime Tech Talk

Benjamin was off school again today as he was still running a high temperature, so Randy wouldn’t be tutoring either. I stayed in until lunchtime as I didn’t want to seem like a complete bastard going to the pub whilst the young’n is sick. He came down to watch TV, we then built some Lego and played power cards. I was taken aback when he decided that there should be rules (I must stress here that Benjamin only likes rules when they are in his favour). We each wrote some down on a bit of paper, agreed on their implementation and played a good few games of fair power cards, quite happy with that.

Took the subway to the pub as there was no time to walk. Brewing was in full swing as Carl was back (they don’t brew without Big Boss) and they needed to restock up on the popular beers. Enda couldn’t speak too much but he did give me three different samples of beer, surprisingly one was a non-alcoholic ginger beer and it was tasty. Couldn’t stay too long so only bought one pint and eventually headed home to the invalid.

He seems much better today, more alive, appetite is back and very much able to kick my ass again at ‘Weiqi‘. I understand this game (or at least think I do) but he always seems to be a few steps ahead of me… Over tea I talked with Yu about the origins of French Fries, the ingenuity of 3D printing, shock of China’s pig cloning efforts and her disgust of lab grown meat. Me and Benjamin played hide and seek before he went to bed, he’ll also be off again from school tomorrow so another full day for me. 🙂

Here piggy piggy piggy…

So the plan this weekend is to go skiing. 🙂 Suzy mentioned it yesterday and it’s been organised today. Leave early on Saturday (like 7AM) and head to ‘Yunfoshang Ski Resort‘, rent some equipment and ski for the day. It’s only costing around 150RMB/15GBP, WTF that is cheap, I think it’s a coupon or something. We shall see what it’s like when we get there but she says it’s supposed to be good. Looking forward too it!

A creature of beer habit I went to Great Leap for a bulger and a few jars. This visit had more purpose though as I got on the Skype and had a good few hours blether with Nat in Oz land. Apparently it was hailing it down there. She mentioned that a motor-home was being rented for the festival instead of a van, meaning they can take the stuff to sell and sleep in it. Yas. She also mentioned a festival in February, ‘White Night‘, which lasts over 12 hours and parts of the city are shutdown to make room for loads of events like raves in churches, art stuff, fashion, film, sport, etc. Sounds ace and most of it is free! 😀

Had almost zero time to chat with staff before finishing my pint and off home I went. Chatted with Randy before he started tutoring Benjamin, I went a revised some Chinese for tomorrows class. Afterwards me and the wee man carried out some Lego spaceship races. Oh and never let a child get first pick on ice creams, chances are they will pick the one you want. Bugger.

(I didn’t do it)

Nuclear Warzone Adventure Times (+ a years supply of bacon)

So Ben (Benjamin’s father) arrived home last night, I had a sneaking suspicion he might. I said my hello’s in the morning they they went off for a swim and I went to meet Randy at ‘Nanlouguxiang’ so we could head North on one of the long distance buses.

I had a total cluster fuck in going here as I took the wrong transfer at one of the stations (force of habit) so had to re-route myself. When I finally arrived I was confronted by a moving wall of tourists at the ever popular street, navigating through it I was close to assaulting people, at least verbally. I met Randy on the other side and the pay off was tucking into a jian bing.

We wandered the hutong’s to ‘Andingmen’ where the bus stop was located, these things acting a bit more like a subway but on the road and only costing 0.4RMB/4p a ride. It took a wee while and the surroundings continued to get bleaker the further we went. We hedged our bets and got off at the last subway stop so we could use it to get back.

The Rise of the Machines

This place looked like the set from a post-nuclear-holocaust movie. Open area, dead tree’s, rusty skeleton warehouses, rubble and dust everywhere. Cool. (The Terminator theme tune became stuck in our heads) Venturing forth we came across a half arsed construction site, like the foundations had been set but then just left to rot. Going in the building we attracted the attention of a few neighbours dogs, our exit was a single wall (no roof) with a window and door. Opening the front door onto the street felt weird.

Beyond this was the cement shanty town

This place was a fair dump. I commented on how it reminded me of the middle east (not that I’ve been) as the buildings looked different and there was dust everywhere. Piles of coal were stacked up beside some houses and the local’s took interest in us like we were a tourist attraction. After a few dead end’s and the smog rolling in (gads) we had enough and bailed to the subway. I had my moneys worth on this bloody thing today as we were heading from the NE to SW of the city to check out a ‘Xinjiang‘ restaurant.

At least they know how to have fun in this place

Tourist hotspot this…

This is the biggest province in China and to the very far West, so it has influences from the Middle Eastern cuisine. The main dish we got was like a lamb and tattie hotpot/stew, very nom. With a bunch of other dishes and beers it was around 75RMB/7.50GBP each and it more than filled a hole.

Randy had mentioned needing a haircut and I wanted one too so with one nearby that’s exactly what we did (everything is open late here). I love this chain of hairdresser, not only is it cheap (42.50RMB/4.25GBP) you get your hair washed and head massaged (twice) by good looking Chinese girls in air stewardess get-ups. Judge me all you like I’ll miss getting my haircut here. 😛 We then played pool for an hour (me losing again, twice my own doing) and I got the subway home.

I got in around 11PM and was not prepared for what I was about to see. I went to my room and Goa A Yi called me and led me to the kitchen…

There was bits of pig EVERYWHERE! Piled high in the double sink, all over the floor in bags (inc. it’s head), a sack full of bits and a huge slab of it’s side which I helped her get on the table ready for butchering. Holy shit! I helped put the bags in the freezer then bag and put away what was in the sink. The two freezers were soon filled and I took the sack of left over bits to the bin outside. Yu had told me she had asked Goa A Yi to get some pork (her family being farmers) but I did not expect a whole fecking pig! How the hell did it get here?! Shocked and impressed they will be eating pig for a year. That’s a lot of bacon. (I wanted to take a picture but Goa A Yi looked shattered as she had been butchering for god knows how long, thought it would be a bit disrespectful)

Blood from the sack of bits, hope this comes out!

Hutong’s, pool, beer, meat and cheese

My days off begin! 😀

Being fairly shattered from yesterdays hike I forced myself to get up at a reasonable hour to see off Yu and Benjamin. They were leaving today for South Korea and wouldn’t be back until Sunday. Yas.

The day started off even better when a care parcel arrived for me from my Super Awesome mate Jefner. I was sent some magazines (including a Delicious mag, ermergerd), oatcakes, caramel logs and wafers along with some magazines (including a Beano) for wee Benjamin. What a Hero. Thankfully it all survived (sort of) and I’ll be tucking into a caramel wafer whilst reading Clarkson’s rants soon enough. 🙂

A tall order (AHAHAHAHA)

Hutong

So after the Christmas feeling of the parcel I meet up with Randy for some hutong exploration around Guloudajie area where there is a good mix of everything to see, eat, drink and do. We nipped in and out of some cafe’s just to see what they were like inside and what they sold. Randy noticed that the Bai Jiu (White Alcohol) museum was open and HAD to go in, I was reluctant with the 29RMB (2.90) entrance fee but peer pressure forced me in. (Yes I know you said I could wait outside Randy and I wish I did! Ha!) Not much to say about this place other than lots of bottles and no free samples. Shocking.

Where is the sampling station?

Leaving with a bad taste in my mouth (Bai Jiu would not have helped unfortunately) we went to get an omelet style tortilla pancake thing filled with goodies. (Jiang Bing I think it’s called) Randy had mentioned this before but each time we had went it was closed, but not today! Oh me this was nice, it’s like a flour tortilla with an egg in it, lettuce, spicy sauce, ham, mayo and a few nachos which give it an awesome crunch. All for 6RMB (60p), yas!

Jiang Bing Master

Yeah get that mayo on it

Wandering around with our noms we popped into a fairly kitch/hip bar where some of the floor is glass allowing views above and below. We went to the rooftop bit and I ordered a Canadian beer (Mooseheads’ Pale Ale) from their impressive selection of beers. Afterwards we went and played pool for an hour, the hall located above a small market which I need to visit again.

LADS (photo’s courtesy of Randy as I can’t be arsed taking the camera most times)

Time for proper food so en-route to ‘Stuff’d‘ we went past another good beer shop we had spied before (I got the Belgian Prima-Melior by Floreffe) and drank outside near a big outdoor television watching a badly dubbed old film. Beers finished we continued to the food place but again stopping in a shop that blew me away. Not only was the beer selection good (I bought Rogue Ales Dead Guy Ale) and the international food bit but the cheese. Oh the cheese! Biggest selection I have seen in Beijing so far and the recently delivered Scottish oatcakes are crying out for some blue Roquefort. I’ll be back.

I gazed upon it like it was gold

Finally we got to ‘Stuff’d’ where Thomas (really great Swede who runs the place) met us outside so we headed in with him. Not even looking at the menu we knew what we wanted, the Pulled Pork. Oh yes this is the shizz, washed down with a few home-brews. We stayed here until late, chatting with Thomas, until it was time to get the last subway home.

National Holiday and the lunch adventure

Today is the first official day of the National Holiday week, and in celebration they must have fired the weather rockets as its wet today.

We went out for lunch and I actually put on a jacket! ZOMG! :-O It wasn’t actually needed as the sun popped his head out but it was the first time I have layered up since arriving here. The restaurant (not our usual mall one) was closed so we drove to another one further away but the same brand. Yu said it has been on the go for over a 100 years or so, it’s quite popular, and after a short wait we were in.

To sum up the food we had would be that it mainly consisted of pig intestines. Now it wasn’t bad but not great, the taste reminded me of the smell from the roast pigs head I did a while back. There are definitely other parts of the pig I would rather eat.

So leaving the restaurant I thought we were headed home, oh how wrong was I. Yu parked up next to the ‘Forbidden City’ where we walked up a constant stream of people (we actually ran part of it) to get tickets, but at this point I still didn’t know what was going on. Once we got there and I quizzed Yu she said we were going in (Benjamin has never been) but oh me was it busy.

National holidays mean people either leave the city to visit family or they swarm it to see all the tourist attractions. I stood looking at the odd Westerner thinking “What possessed you to visit this place during the holidays?”. I had my photo taken from three different groups of people, including the tour guide Yu had hired (I had the English headset thing). It was good to get more of an insight into the place though, and see parts of it I missed last time (I’ve been here all ready mind). We did only get halfway through though before it closed and we had to head back.

Yu dropped me and Goa A Yi off near the compound as she was taking Benjamin to see her parents. I wasn’t hungry so skipped tea and popped over to the mall to get hiking supplies. So very excited for tomorrow, the weather looks good, I get to hit the hills and see The Great Wall. 😀