A weekend full of warmth

Despite the apparent lack of our stuff from England, we decided to warm the new flat yesterday. Unlike in ‘Spaced’ (thanks for the recommendation Cesca, we bought it here and love it) plenty of people came with gifts and full of enthusiasm to warm the place and to annoy our neighbours. We had left notes in everyone’s letter box last week to warn them about the noise, but this clearly didn’t stop some people phoning compound security at 10pm (!!!!) complaining. The guards themselves looked a bit embarrassed. They should spend a bit of time in Pandongate, that would have taught them, hihi. (Reliable sources have informed me that apart from kebabs in the hallway, our old home is quiet these days.)

The damage materialised itself more inside our fridge, this morning we counted a total of 70 beers having been drunk, at least 4 bottles of wine and a bottle of rum. Not bad for a first party!

The cleanup was fairly quick and we still have a well-stocked drinks cabinet for an emergency party (Andrea, there is even champagne). Because the weather has been so lovely over the last days, we decided to spend the afternoon by the lake, just north of the ForbiddenCity, called Bei Hai (North Lake). The view of the city is spectacular (no pollution problems at all), and we could see the Forbidden City in the distance (we’re keeping this gem for a full day, when we’re ready for it, hihi).

We then walked along the outside walls of the Forbidden City to Tian’anmen Square, where everyday at 6pm the flag is lowered (I think they put it away at night, so it doesn’t get too dirty). A fairly unspectacular affair if you ask me, they had trouble rolling it up, and that was as exciting as it got. After walking past Mao’s Mausoleum (now only open from 8-12, he doesn’t like visitors in the afternoon), we discovered some crazy reconstructed place that even had a tram and lots of pictures of old Beijing. Went into one of the side streets and found ourselves right in the heart of touristy but still very Chinese Beijing. We bought some Chopsticks in cases (to take to restaurants to save the Pandas, but more about this another time) and counted our last kuai for some food and a taxi back (we had to get off early, coz it wasn’t quite enough).

All in all, a lovely weekend and a celebration of us being here more than a month now!!!!!