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Published: December 9th 2010
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Christmas time in Beijing was very interesting. In a country that doesn't celebrate Christmas they were certainly getting into it...well at least the commercial side of it....I guess where there is a buck to be made you can just about celebrate anything. All the big shopping malls were decked out with Christmas trees and baubles as was our little Chinese apartment block. Although one thing I did notice and that was I wasn't constantly bombarded with Christmas carols wherever I went...maybe it's because I steer clear of the high-end expat shops.
As does happen when you have a bunch of people who have no family around, you sort of all get together. We were lucky, at least we got to celebrate with one of our children, Adam and his girlfriend Cristina, our Canadian chiro friend, Glen, who flew up from Shanghai, another Canadian friend of Adam's and our PT, Steve, and 2 Aussies Ross and Pip plus we were also in the near company of about 40 Aussie AYADs...it's a time when all the Beijing 'orphans' gather together. We went to Hilton Wangfujing and had an 'all you can eat, all you can drink champagne buffet lunch....really it's just an
excuse to overindulge which we willingly did. It was just a shame that Lani couldn't be with us. Next year we will have to organise ourselves a little better...and have all four of us together in the same country, same
city...somewhere.
Next up was New Year's Eve which was celebrated with a bunch of Kiwis and Aussies which consisted of drinks to kick the evening off at Stuart and Christine's followed up with more drinks at Paddy O'Sheas then even more drinks at Embassy House (no relation to the OZ or NZ Embassies) which turned out to be a very pleasant surprise as all the drinks were on the house (don't know who was paying, but it wasn't us!)
Hard on the heels of Xmas is my birthday and as does usually happens most years we are so tired from all the other celebrating that it becomes a bit of a non event and this year was no different except that this year I was also sick, so didn't feel like doing anything anyway but we made up for a week later at Assaggi which one may think is a Japanese restaurant but which in fact is Italian. I
was spoilt by Malcolm, Adam and Cristina
Jan 22 we headed up to Harbin with Glenda, John, Ross and Pip to see the Ice Festival. We were fortunate that John's company has a factory up that way and we were able to have the loan of the work van and driver and also the boss's PA. This time we got to see the Siberian tigers. ...these cats are really impressive, they look cute and cuddly despite their size.
Malcolm and I also took the opportunity to go skiing at Yabuli with Ben and Lee. It certainly was an adventurous couple of days that began with us missing our early morning train, arriving at lunch time to find the lifts were shut down because high winds, deciding that we would try tubing and snowboarding which resulted in Lee with a fractured elbow and us seeing the inside of a Chinese x-ray department. Now the question was whether Lee should have surgery in Harbin or fly back to Beijing. Beijing it was but 'oh sorry, you've missed all the flights tonight'. Lee had to sit up all night (too painful to lie down) and wait for an early morning flight
to Beijing. With Lee and Ben on their way to Beijing, Malcolm and I enjoyed our day of skiing albeit on so-so snow and ice. At least it was a blue sky, sunshine day with quite warm temps at -15C. If that wasn't enought excitement for our first couple of days, Malcolm ended up getting 'food poisoning'. He was up all night voiding from both ends. I don't really know how it happened as we shared the same meal, except for the 4 prawns...he had 2 and I had 2...just bad luck! Just as well it was a crappy day the next day, he didn't have to feel too badly about not skiing.
Spring has sprung we have had our first sand storm that herald beginning of spring....March down, April here we come....time sure does fly when you're having fun!
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