It’s unusual to find so many imitations in the same street.

Nanjing WenAn Street

Nanjing WenAn Street

Li Ming (Li Ning imitation)

Bucksstar (Starbucks imitation)

Pizza Huh (no need to tell you from which company it is copied)

Haagon Bozs (fake Haagen Dazs)

T-Eleven (from 7-Eleven)

Ichido (from Ichiduo)

McDnoalds

Watons (from Watsons, the chain of convenience shop)

Shops in the street

Been to Guangdong and Meixian, place of the ancestors …. Not posting any picture here. It’s already on my Facebook account, and they were not good ones anyway.

I’m following a Gua Sha 刮痧 treatment for my back. It’s where the masseuse scrape your back with a jade comb-like object. Ok, it’s more like Dracula’s mouth with two protruding teeth on the side. The space in between is to allow space for your spine. I think. I was always lying face down, so no idea how they used it.

What can I say, my health is not that great, and I fracking love pain. I should try S&M one day. Joking.

For more than an hour the masseuse scrapes your neck, your shoulders and spine, and where she encounters some ‘knots’ she keeps telling you some bloody stories about this meaning some part of your body being sick (your liver, your spleen, etc etc, no idea what the hell they’re talking about since my Chinese is not that good) …. After my first session, the length of the area of the spinal cord was red/black. For them, that meant really bad health. For me it meant they’re fracking trying to get me killed. Haha.

I’ve enclosed a grainy picture of my back.

My back after gua sha treatment

I’m going to do a facial today. If the fracking rain stops. It’s been raining heavily during the last hour or so.

Ok, I need to stop watching Fracking Battlestar Galactica. Too many fracks.

I was happy to see the Mauritian team coming out, and pointed it out to my friends. The opinion was that there were “a lot of black people” .

Laughed with all the laowais (foreigners) and locals when we saw Mark Roswell (aka Dasha 大山, probably the most famous foreigner in China) in the Canadian team.

Initially planned to go and watch the ceremony in a pub, but by the time my friends got there, the place was already jam-packed and we ended up watching it in 4 Seasons’s Jazz bar. Nice place though expensive. Pre-opening ceremony we had a group of ladies singing, a tad too loud for my taste.

I’m getting more and more sluggish at work. Need to pull myself to complete the June accounts asap.

A distant auntie wants to introduce me to a girl in Shanghai because an uncle apparently told her I am “lonely” in Shanghai.

At what point does the age gap between a guy and a girl becomes too important? Or is there no limit? No, I’m not talking of those gold diggers and old farts relationship, but real emotion/love relationship. And it’s got nothing to do with the point above.

Watched 《The battle of Red Cliff 赤壁》, like it so much that I decided to read 《Three Kingdoms 三国演义》, which is a classic Chinese romantic litterature. A bit disappointed as I discovered the movie is very different from the classic novel. However, the fact remains that as a movie it was great to watch.

Want to watch 《Storm Riders 风云决》 which is already out in the theatres. From the trailer, you would never have thought it not to be a Japanese manga. Looks awesome.

It’s so hot. 35-38C. Need to switch aircon everyday.

Want to buy an electric bicycle. Would cost about 1500rmb (about Rs6,000) for decent one. There is one model about 600rmb (Rs2,400), but might be of poor quality. Fearful of the risk of someone stealing it.

Haven’t played my Wii for ages. Nor watched DVDs for that matter.

The hairdresser that opened a few metres away from my apartment has massage services. Wonder if it is any good. Want to do a back massage. Or a foot massage. But I can’t remember seeing them advertising foot massage service.

Bought a new pair of shoes as the heavy rainfalls that took place in Shanghai last month resulted in my sole pair of leather shoes split open.

I agreed to have a friend staying at my apartment when she told me she wanted to move out from the house she shares with her husband. Later, I started thinking it might be awkward for me in the future if I have “guests” coming. But it was too late to withdraw my offer. I don’t want to reak my promise. Good thing she thought the thing over again and decided to stay with her husband.

Argh, switched the aircon off barely 5mins ago, now feel too hot and need to switch it on again.

Ok, enough pointless ramblings. Goodnight.

BEIJING TRAFFIC: as American Football
To help you understand Beijing traffic, and perhaps to one day navigate its hazards, I’ve come up with the following analogy. I hope you find it helpful.

BEIJING TRAFFIC: as American Football

Traffic lights: BAD QUARTERBACK

In Beijing, a traffic light is like a quarterback- an extremely bad one. It’s so bad, none of the players listen to it. If they don’t get what they want.. they’ll just audible audibly and bullrush the intersection. Because of this lack of respect for Mr. QB, you find yourself in an interesting predicament.

You: RUNNING BACK

As soon as the quarterback huts and the light turns green, you might as well find some holes in the defense and go for the endzone. Here’s what you’re up against:

Buses: DEFENSIVE LINEMEN

Slow to accelerate and overweight, you can usually navigate around these guys pretty easily. They’re mainly dangerous because they can block you from seeing over the line of scrimmage, sometimes allowing a strong safety to sneak up on you.

Cars: BAD CORNERBACKS

Nimble, but usually polite, a car will usually cede if you walk in front of it. Bad tacklers. Unfortunately, they can be easily confused with…

Taxis: STRONG SAFETY

These are the guys you have to really look out for- they can really lay the smack down. Quick to accelerate and extremely aggressive, they will stop at nothing to “invent” lanes to tackle you. Beijing taxis make Rodney Harrison look like Michelle Kwan. Naturally, they love to talk trash, and honk frequently.

That’s it for the defense- let’s look at what’s protecting you from this monstrosity.

Other pedestrians: OFFENSIVE LINE

Strength in numbers, but I can’t tell if these guys are for or against you. On the one hand, if you can get sandwiched between a group of 5 or 6, you’re usually good. On the other hand, if you’re only with 1 or 2, they can be very hesitant. This might be because they perceive themselves as running backs and you as their offensive line. Luckily, there’s one last offensive player, and it’s the best.

Bikes: FULLBACK

Hands down, your biggest asset. These guys are big, bad, and have been in the league for years. I mean it takes balls just to WALK in Beijing… to bike here is Chuck Norris ballsy. So, if you can walk quickly with a bike protecting you from those nasty strong safeties, you’re all set. Touchdown.

Yesterday the electrician came AGAIN, because there was a socket that was not working in my room. He came slightly before 7pm, and left around 9.20pm! All the while I couldn’t prepare dinner. Darn. Anyway, my guest room now only has ONE socket that works. The other 2 has been condemned because the original current circuit was no longer working properly. What else will break down in the last 6mths contract I still have? I wonder.

My laptop was starting to crash last week, and I finally gave up and sent it for repairs on Tuesday. Still haven’t heard any news about it, although the first indications are that it’s the Graphics card that’s fucked up. And the laptop’s less than 1 year old. WTF?

It still has a warranty, but the cost to send the laptop to HK for repairs would far exceed doing it here in China. Oh well.

Anyway, a few pictures from my phonecam.

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Last week I got a message on my QQ, of all people it was sent to me by my Chinese ’sister’ now living in America. It called for the boycott of Carrefour on May 1st. This kind of message has now been posted for on many Chinese forums and circulated via msn/QQ.

And today, the Chinese MSN users are displaying a (L)China (that’s Love China) on their name/message. See my picture below. It’s apparently a sign of Chinese unity towards the Olympic issue and against France/Carrefour.

Also, I saw on a website a guy saying the cops stopped him when he was illegally riding on his motorbike. And the question the cop asked him was “are you French?” before seizing the bike. He isn’t French, but it shows the animosity Chinese people are feeling towards the French.

Of course, it’s not all towards French. As I said, the Chinese are not happy with the Western media and China has apparently requested for a CNN commentator to apologise for having said bad things about China.

The anti-Western sentiment that has been brooding lately (even before the Tea bet thing) is now getting worse. Visa checks, registration, renewals etc are all getting tougher.

Will this keep going until the Olympics? Who knows. But some expats are starting to complain that because of the actions of people outside China, they (the foreigners in China) are suffering unnecessarily.

I guess we’d better keep low profiles this year.

Since yesterday, it has not been possible to access Youtube and for most of the yesterday you could not access Yahoo.com mail. For some reason it was only yahoo.com, not yahoo.co.uk or yahoo.fr mails. Probably because the Yahoo.com website had an article on unrest in Tea-bet. Although Yahoo is now accessible as well as the articles about Tea-bet, Youtube remains blocked. The reason for that is the existence of several videos showing unrest in Tea-bet.

Forums where the word Tea-bet comes up triggers the Netnanny and the Great Firewall of China gets in motion. Access to the sites become slow and time-outs become more often.

It is to prevent this site from suffering the same fate that I have changed the name of the region.