Catching up before I go, go

Photos for Week 12 and Week 13

I have finally christened Beijing now that I have had my first big night out. It wasn't intentional, but it seems to be what happens whenever someone goes to 'Huxleys' for the first time. It might be the slightly seedy ambiance that lulls the senses; it might be warm hospitality of the owner, Mingus; or it might be the "GnT"s (Gin and no Tonic) Mingis serves. Either way, a fabulous time was had by all especially me who, despite Tash's protests to the contrary, was the embarrassing friend who is happy drunk in the corner oblivious to her own drunkedness. The trip home was fine except I could think of nothing to talk to the driver about except "I've had too much to drink" (never a good choice), "Have you eaten yet?" or "What's your favourite colour?" so I remained silent.

The next morning I awoke to find a box in my bed (don't ask because I don't know) and wondered who had been in my house: surely I could not have caused that much destruction between the door and my bed. So while the box (whose name I didn't catch) climbed out the window, I remembered that I had to give a presentation that afternoon for work. The presentation I had been planning in a vague sort of way for 2 months but had rehearsed zero times. Crap. My timing was, as always impeccable. Why I chose the night before a real work activity in front of 30 people to booze it up I don't know. I've clearly embraced "Beijing Time" (not quite the worst possible moment, but nearly) as my own.

A traditional brunch at Grandma's with Tash revived me, and the presentation went fine on the most part. I vagued out in the middle of one question but managed to cover it. That night we met up with some of the other friends out of Beijing who came for the weekend and I surreptitiously didn't drink.

Sunday was a quiet breakfast in a trendy little hutong we frequent frequently called Nanluogu Xiang where they had their first Street Festival. By the end of my leisurely breakfast and coffee over a good book, I checked out the Festival, bought only things for other people (I'm proud) and the world's largest bag of chocolate popcorn. Ate most of said kryptonite, before exploromg a new area of town to find "Ladies Street" (which is actually a 'Super Bar Street') and Laitai Flower Market where I purchased my very first (and more than likely only) plant.

During the week I made a day trip to the 'Green yard' organic dairy farm, China's first produced of wholly organic pasteurised (as opposed to UHT) mild and yoghurt, which are delicious. They even have sugar-free yoghurt (which also doesn't have artificial sweetener like all the others), and they wake their cows in the morning by playing classical music, bless them. There were fields of organic corn growing for them, and even an organic orchard out the back: those cows eat better than I do. It was a gorgeous farm, and so nice to be out of the city since that day was an extreme pollution day. I stupidly rode the 7kms to the meeting point and 7kms back after, but at least my lungs had a rest in between.

The week after I went to the Jiuchang Art District open day, called "artWALK". Jiuchang Art District is a new art district out in the middle of the old industrial area (Depresso-land we dubbed it). The galleries were amazing, all converted old warehouses, but I didn't get to see them all so I will have to have another trip our there. The exhibitions were great too (see photos) Chinese art is really fresh and exciting! Also, there was series of short presentations from various artists and creative types in a forum called "Pecha Kucha". Originally started in Japan (Pecha Kucha is actually Japanese for the sound of conversation), it is now a world-wide phenomenon. The idea is that specialists and creative people from various fields of work talk for 6mins and 40 secs each, showing 20 images to explain their work to you. This keeps presentations concise, the interest level up, and gives more people the chance to show. My friend Vinny presented his show on touring Bosnia, and I saw some great presentations on sculpture, graffiti and TV production.

And now finally I've caught up with the present week! This Tuesday was the Mid-Autumn Festival, and for those of you who aren't in Asia or used to live there, it's one of the most colourful and fun festivals on the calendar. I still wished I was back in Repulse Bay, balefully trying to light lanterns while not lighting them on fire, and balancing the world's flimsiest candles on the lid of a Mooncake tin...

It was celebrated in Beijing in a pretty big way, and I planned a dinner at a nice place I know for my friends, then a trip to Beihai Park to play with lanterns. But, since it's China, nothing went according to plan. The restaurant wouldn't take reservations, so I went really early to get us a table. So they reluctantly agreed to set a table for 8 people, but then handed me the set menu which was the only one they were offering that night. It was a whopping ¥1300 for 7-8 people so I left! All the other restaurants in that area, called Houhai, were doing the same sort of deal because it was the Mid-Autumn Festival. And everywhere was filling up so quickly I decided to make an executive decision and went to a bar I know that's away from the main area and has a lovely atmosphere about it. There are lots of red lanterns, with couches right on the lakeside and they'll bring you Xin Jiang food which is quite good. It's actually a bit of a dive bar really, but the ambiance is great, and it's quieter than the main stretch. Or so I thought...

I didn't realise the music gets played at ear splitting volume. And when it's Mongolian Throat singing, I do mean ear splitting. And because traffic was so horrendous I sat waiting for people for nearly two hours, slowly starving to death. Finally, people started to arrive and someone I don't know very well (and I have to admit I've never liked) got all holier-than-thou about it being Xin Jiang food, and there's no vegetarian options, and it's so far away, and drinks are expensive blah blah blah. I told her that the alternative was paying ¥160 per head, but I also wanted to say to her well, next time you get here two hours early and then YOU can choose whatever you want. She kept it up most of the night which I stoically ignored. She also sent an apologetic email the next morning, which I also stoically ignored. I'm not THAT good a person.

I also bought Mooncake for us all, which also turned out to be a bit of a disaster. I made sure to get a nut and honey filled Mooncake, not a traditional one. I had successfully differentiated and bought both before so I know I was asking for the right thing. The lady insisted, however, that the big one was the nut one, so I bought it but of course it wasn't. It was the traditional one, duck egg and all. And to top it all off we were supposed to go to Beihai Park after but the park closed at 10pm which was when we were just finishing dinner, because they all ended up being so late. But, I loved it all and had a great time. My good friends and the people they brought were brilliant and made the most of it, like I did. Spending the night with my friends was all I really wanted so I was happy, and the whingers can just do their own thing next time I say!

So tomorrow I'm off to the little province of Ningxia and won't be back until Monday 8 October as it's Golden Week (the week long public holiday for National Day). I'll be camel-trekking, Monastery-seeing, sand-surfing, tomb-visiting and even inflated-dead-sheep-boat-rafting for 10 days. But then again, maybe not... This is China, so who knows where we'll end up!