Sleeping with the Enemy (Part 2)

No room at the Inn
It all started when Amy came to the sudden realisation that I was taking our laptop back to Australia with me in September. It had always been the plan (well, my plan anyway) to use this opportunity to upgrade all of my software from Australia while I was back, to avoid having to manage my way through the Mandarin language installs sent to PCs hooked to the pointy end of a Chinese IP address. For a moment it looked like there would be a showdown at 50 paces come August and you could cut the atmosphere with a wet noodle it was that intense. With only one home link to the real-time outside world there was already a problem most nights with all three of us wanting to catch up on our respective news sites and the like, but with only one front door to share it was time to look at longer term solutions. In the end it proved to be the catalyst for Amy getting her own laptop and journeying to the dark side into the realm of the Mac. While I intially took the opportunity to bag her out, she has by all accounts received great service from what is the only OFFICIAL Apple store in China, all the while I can’t seem to get a simple microphone fixed despite numerous attempts at both Australian and Chinese help desks. I've always been a PC fan myself though, and continue to watch out for clandestine attempts by the enemy to try and get me to join her in the Mac world where only half the free software works on your machine and you get into boring conversations with graphic designers about why Macs are better for their job than PCs. On a positive note it has provided us a quick bandaid fix to my own laptop microphone problem, and improved the quality of our Skype capabilities (which given China’s narrow pipes in to the country and the ever increasing use can’t be a bad thing).

While on the issue of internet pipes, I have been giving the country’s network a real run for its money recently in order to keep up with the Tour de France. It was with some trepidation (and palpitations) that I discovered a few months back the lack of any SBS-type coverage of the tour on the limited TV stations here. OK, maybe more correct would be to say English coverage (an SBS-type summary show is shown and commentated in Chinese). And while it hasn’t been all that good for the Aussies this year, at least the 2 hour difference between Canberra and here means that the race finishes at a more respectable hour (in the night time even, as opposed to after 1am for most stages).

In The Footsteps of Giants
Still on the bike riding front, I have had the opportunity since my last post to get out to the Olympic course here for another ride, this time with a lift out by car. After my 2nd visit out (which was by bike) I came to the quick realisation that I simply don’t have the fitness for the one and a quarter hour ride out on top of a lap around what is a very steep and relentless course. There isn’t much time for recovery - you either go up or down in most sections. Add to this the fact that the local government has not got it quite right JUST yet on the signage (no arrows) , and you tend to do alot of backtracking on your first few rides to find out which sections of track coming off a 5-way junction are actually part of the course. (Maybe they might be looking to do the same thing that Canberra TVE did with the Stromlo MTB course and revisit the entire signage design 3 times just to mix it up and keep it fresh).

Olympic track sign located, but with some intersectiosn leading off 5 different ways a few direction arrows would have helped.

Having done the course 3 times now (twice in summer and once just after the snow) I have a newfound respect for the riders who did multiple laps of it for the Olympics. Not only is it a very unforgiving course in terms of the sudden decrease and increases in elevation (giving little respite), the downhill sections are in a lot of cases fairly technical and do not allow for the rider to lower their heart rate before the cardio requirement of a 10% climb on loose shale shoots it up again. Over all this is the very big impact that the local weather has on the body as opposed to places like Canberra. In the 1.5hr ride/push I did last week I lost 2kg in the single ride through fluid loss (having weighed in before and after).

Riding the Olympic course can certainly be tough on the body, and it's not only the hills that make it so. This picture, taken from the MTB course media platform at the highest point of the loop, shows why it's not just the climbs that make it lung-busting.

On the more concerning side of things is the lack of helmets worn here when people do decide to go off-road. Sure I don’t necessarily agree with skipping the skid lid when you are just riding on the road, as a single accident can leave you very poorly off, but for God sake if you are going to purposely tear down a steep dirt embankment dotted with sharp protruding rocks and lined with erosion gullies at least wear a helmet. Case in point was the local guy we ran into on the ride. We spotted him on a fancy Merida bike as we were scouting for a good starting point and carpark, and we had only done the first section of the track before we had the guy tack onto the end of our 2-person convoy and start talking to us in Chinese. Now, here’s the funny thing that I’ve noticed in China. When someone speaks to you in Chinese and all you can say back to them in Chinese is “Wo Bu Dong, Bu Zhongwhen” (Mandarin for “I don’t understand. No Chinese") they take THIS as some type of contradiction, and think that you CAN actually speak the language. From that time on they continue to have deep one-sided conversations with you all the while you are looking at them with a dumbfounded look and likely not answering any questions they are asking.

Unfortunately for this guy he was about to have a very quick silencing moment, as he tore down the last descent of the Olympic course directly behind me. I was heading for what is a big mid-descent jump and bailed rather ungracefully. This left the local guy with no other option than to veer right, directly into the area where the rain had left some deep erosion nasties and he didn’t even make it to the end before his front wheel folded inwards and kicked him over the bars. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to react fast enough, with his forehead taking the brunt of the force and the forearm and wrist taking the remainder.

One of the trickier descents on the Olympic course. This section was beefed up prior to the Olympic race when the powers to be determined the course to be too easy. No problems now.

Sailing the Sea of Segue
Speaking of broken stuff (and still aiming to beat Anna Coren's Today Tonight segue record), we have spent a bit of time at the electrical store of late with not-so-robust appliances. Both times when I returned them I had 2 people initially at counter when I went up, after which 4 others came around to see what was going on all the while trying to get me to sit on a stool that would have my forehead peaking just over the counter in a very Dicky Knee style. Fortunately both times we ended up with repaired products. We have learnt to always buy the extended warranty, and also that things made for the domestic market are just not as robust as those that are exported.


Pay Dirt
After spending 6 months updating our own blog of travel stories we are stoked to be able to hear of other people’s experiences as they migrate from God’s Country to other parts of the world - many years of long hours finally paying off in the form of some big breaks. With good friends of ours recently moving to the Big Apple to take up work we are enjoying the emails we are getting of their adventures as they go about exploring their new (albeit temporary?) home. I reckon though if they could be encouraged to whack some photos in then this would get the reading masses even more excited and they would get visitors even faster (now what type of web tool allows you to post up stories of your adventures with some piccies to really give your friends the travel bug?)

Operation R-E-L-A-X-A-T-I-O-N
While July started fairly slow for us (Maddy holidays, and too hot to venture too far) the end of July is tending to be exactly the opposite. On top of preparing all the stuff I need to do when I am back in Australia (good old tax) we have decided to make a last minute dash for the border to escape the heat and to see some blue sky and blue seas. We had planned to go to Tibet but were curtailed due to current travel restrictions for some visa types. We then decided to look at an Inner Mongolia trip instead a few weeks later, but that clashed with some key dates for Amy’s work. With a cultural trip of China looking too difficult to juggle we have decided to take a more relaxing approach and join some friends for a week at a resort further down south in Thailand, which is proving to be just the thing to make us forget all about the Beijing special flavour cloud hanging in the sky on most days. It does mean that Madeline is missing some of her holiday program (which cost us an arm and a leg), but I don’t think she will mind all that much.

As a warm up to this we have been making use of the rare cooler days to head out and make the most of the limited blue skies, even going so far as to indulge in a bit of Molkky with friends in the park, much to the amusement of the locals. For those unfamiliar with the game (as we were), our Finnish friend described it in the usual Nordic simplistic way of ‘traditional Finnish summer game of throwing a piece of wood at pieces of wood’. Wikipedia provides a more detailed description for those who are really keen, but it did make for a great afternoon with wine and music and the group swapping between Molkky, badmintion, having a throw of the Juggling sticks and generally just trash-talking the opponent to try and beat one of the guys who seemed to have a knack for throwing the small log of wood at another specific log of wood 30 feet away.

Andrea getting alot of air on the molkky pitch at Ritan Park, while Amy looks on for inspiration and Maddy gives the juggling sticks a go. In the forground the day's Molkky champion Mikko assesses his opponents.

Maddy standing on one leg, in celebration of her molkky throw going more than 2 meters. She certainly got the hang of it as the day wore on.

Here or there?
Our last language lesson saw us head off to the Capital museum for a look around the place. Aside from being a top spot to take visitors, the translations this time had us both laughing and concerned about the possible existence of transportation wormholes around the place. The evidence for this Sudden Onset Astral Projection was the following sign, which we think may have been missing a map to put the statement into context. It did seem to hint that swine flu, SARS and bird flu is the least of the Government's problems (imagine the confusion that could result from 19million people thinking they were in a different place to where they were standing –that could really blow holes in the migrant worker visa system).

Nice to know that you are where you think you are.

While I was successful in a few of my job hunting expeditions, my application for the role of World Expo mascot did not (for some reason) lead to anything. I JUST don't know why they haven't called me in for an interview. This little character is out the front of the Beijing Capital Museum.

One of the more endearing museum statues. (not to say that the "Pi symbol with arms" above isn't - just 'different')