Unpredictable Beijing

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(When away from home,) I embrace unpredictability. I think all avid travelers do, or rather, to be an avid traveler you have to. And this midweek has been nothing short of that.

On Monday, I planned to meet Elvis, Eewei and their friends for dinner at Xidan 西单 after work. They were traveling in China after the Sino/Singapore Exchange Programme and dropped by Beijing - for only one day, miserable dudes - and were returning home the next day. And dinner we did have, though not after Eewei and Eugene led us on a long merry-go-round to their proposed eatery (I thought guys were supposed to be better at directions), which ended up not very good anyway. It's a homegrown fast-food outlet facaded with a Bruce Lee logo. And because we got there so late, a lot of the dishes were sold out. I told my colleagues we ate at 真功夫 the next day and they went, 难吃死了！(Chinese expression for extremely terrible food, literally: it'd be the death of me to eat that).

Well anyhow. Then we made an impromptu decision (yours truly is a whole-hearted advocate of impromptuness) to go karaoke-ing. The overnight package (11pm - 2am) was quite a good deal, plus I have been inching to sing for the past year (almost!). Only there was work the next day. But then my dilemma lasted for about 5 minutes and we went ahead. They sneaked a bottle of Black Label into the room, only to find out later that it was a counterfeit. Lesson learnt: Alcohol in China is dirt cheap (for Singapore standards - alcohol in Singapore is crazily taxed) but still do quality checks. Refrain from patronizing dubious outlets regardless of how much you're itching to drink. (John said his friend got sent to an emergency room after vodka at one of the clubs in Wudaokou. Shudder.) So we got Budweisers instead, and I finally got to sing! YAY was duper super high, probably the most energetic amongst us all. We sang till 3am (an hour overtime but nobody told us to leave, so), and I felt bad for having the guys send me home - cos my home in Beijing really is very very very far from practically anything else - yet truth to be told, I wouldn't dare to cab alone at such unearthly hours to such an unearthly place (pun intended, my area is filled with cemeteries and temples). AND I still did turn up for work yesterday. Livin' it up in Beijing, eh.

And yesterday was another unpredictable story. The weather in Beijing is really... nothing but that. It can be sunny this hour and pouring the next. Crazy shit. So on my way home, it started drizzling, which soon progressed to shower, and then a thunderstorm complete with lightning. My fellow intern said it had never rained that heavily since 1996. And I was walking home amidst all that - without an umbrella. Was thoroughly, thoroughly drenched when I got home... it was really crazy! My landlords were superbly amused, I was really amused myself too, but more thankful that I got home safe and sound. Thank GOD. I was really praying and praying as I slided through the rain, I could have been struck by lightning any time. Lesson learnt: Bring an umbrella along in Beijing regardless of how much you embrace unpredictability, cos life is definitely more previous!

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