Street barber’s and stupid board games

I left the house a good bit earlier than I normally would, the back of 8AM, as I was keen to arrive at the pub earlier (for my Skype chat with Nat, honest that’s the true…) and get a jidan guan bing for breakfast. 🙂 This breakfast street food favourite of mine usually stops selling around 10AM and today I got mine with meat in it (possibly pork or chicken) which made it extra tasty! This may also increase the likelihood of having a case of the shits tomorrow, time will tell. I was also offered the services of a street barber (yup on the street, somewhat common here) to shave my beard. Haha! I told him I liked my beard, he said something, I laughed then continued walking. (I realise I need to take more pictures but it’s hard to remember sometimes when everything seems fairly ‘normal’)

Got to the pub early enough that it wasn’t even open, they kindly opened up for me though and I had a pint in my hand before noon, probably a bad thing. Was soon on Skype having a good ol’ blether to my mate Nat (she and a mate were making tee’s and stuff for the festival) this will most likely be the last chat with her until we meet again in the flesh in a little over a week. The excitement is building. 🙂 Enda wasn’t working today so no chat from him, I ate a salad (Yup! A salad. Had blue cheese in it though), surfed the net then bailed.

Much like in the morning I left earlier than usual so decided to skip a few stations and walk instead. Navigating a few hutong’s and popping out next to Yong He Gong Lama Temple I nipped into a wee import shop in Wudaoying hutong and bought a bottle of Punk IPA (it’s cheap here at 28RMB/2.80GBP) then hit the streets like a slightly upper class hobo (definitely something I’ll miss doing). Got on the subway at Guloudajie and headed home.

Opened the door to a bunch of people, some other A Yi’s and Benjamin’s mates, I left them too it and chilled in my room. Randy turned up to tutor Benjamin and over tea I found out the wee one had scored 90.5% in his Chinese test. Top job! I honestly thought it would be a chunk worse than that… After tea we played a game of ‘Weiqi‘ which was my first (get the excuses in) and he subsequently kicked my ass. Always a wee bit demoralising getting beaten by a 7 year old. He had his maths test today and tomorrow is a day off (news to me!) so if the weather is good we will be playing outside. Fooshiz.

Firing from the hip?!

Took Benjamin back to school after lunch then went for a wee walk. Weather was nice. Nothing too special I just headed South and did a lap of one of the frozen rivers/canals. I did notice some sort of a barmy/fight going, between road repair guys and plane clothed dudes, on at the opposite side of the water, shovels and bits of metal were being wielded as weapons! When I got over there though it had all died down, admittedly I was a bit disappointed.

Benjamin had his Chinese test today (which he said went well but that could mean anything) and had after school class in preparation for his maths test tomorrow. I’m not sure of the significance of these test other than they are significant! We chomped on some fat veg filled dumplings for tea, mmmm. We also collectively watched a terrible modern war soap drama on the TV, it really was bad and contained English speaking actors for this particular episode. Felt like Coronation Street on an island with guns. Sounds quite good actually…

Tomorrow should be my usual walk to the pub (I’m skipping taking Benjamin at lunch, I need a good walk) and hopefully chat to my mate Nat on the Skype. 🙂

Not my usual Sunday

I think because of that bloody mocha I couldn’t get to sleep last night, being ill and the fact my body hasn’t consumed semi-decent coffee in a while doesn’t help.

Almost beyond my will Goa A Yi told me to play with Benjamin and Kathy (stayed over) outside. I took a football, Benjamin took some tennis balls and a set of small gardening tools (Sounds like something Kenan would ask Kel to get at the end of an episode). So we played outside for two hours kicking and throwing balls about, carrying out dinosaur excavations and testing out the fitness park equipment.

People be sliding on the lake

After a pork filled lunch I bailed to Great Leap’s No.6 to grab a few pints and chat with good ol’ Nat on the Skype. Turns out she was watching Part II of The Hobbit so we didn’t get to have our alcohol induced chat (Replacing me with hairy feet midgets Nat? How dare you). On the plus side the new renovations of the pub are great and all the beers were on special, 25RMB/2.50GBP each! Yas. 🙂 Got chatting to an English dude, swapping stories of run-down urban haunted house explorations and he was telling me how prostitutes sell their wares via WeChat. I also got a text from my Mandarin teacher saying I’m getting a test on Friday and that will also be the last class. Awww, all wrapping up now.

Looking good no.6

After finishing my one to many pints I took the subway (from a newly opened and even closer station) home. Once in the door I had a really good chat with my Dad and Carol on Skype, great to catch up with everybody this weekend (bar you Nat :-P). My Nana has been in hospital recently but she is out now and on the mend. Wolfed down some pork and dumplings after my Skype chat then Benjamin came home and we attempted to rehearse some magic for a small show he is doing at school on Tuesday.

Before bed I watched ‘State of Play‘, what a shit film that was.

My computer has a drug problem…

Today started with porridge, yas. I’d ran out of oats last week and only got round to getting some yesterday. One of the best ways to start the day I think, plus coffee of course.

Class has been moved forward by 30 minutes so that I can leave a smidgen earlier. I’m still coming to terms with my loss of jidan guanbing for breakfast. Before leaving for class I had to throw lunch down my throat so I wouldn’t be late, I arrived BANG on time. Not that it would really matter.

We’re done with health now and this section is labelled “Can you repair my computer?”. Not sure what use this will be for me but it’s part of the text and needs to be done. I inadvertently mixed up “Virus” (computer related) with “Ice” (meth related!) simply by changing a tone. Those tones can be dangerous! I thought it was funny that the slang was used here too no just ‘Merca.

Since I missed ‘Heaven’ yesterday and Ben had arrived before lunch, I nipped past after class to get a beer for us both (5AM Saint, no Punk). Turns out he was on business today (and most of the weekend I think) so he arrived home late, the beers wait patiently in the fridge.

I’ve been asked to help Linda with a TOEFL paper in preparation for the exam. It’s basically and English test and the higher mark you receive means the better international university you can apply for. To get the good ones I think you need over 90%, no pressure then.