After all these years of not rushing to a plane. It was all wrong. I just needed to pay more to go business class.
For some reason I was put in there on the flight back from Beijing to Paris and 10 hours just flew past. I played with the chair settings. I was particularly fond of the setting for sleeping. So I pressed it and slept.
And then the one for being reclined and so on. Nevertheless I was overjoyed at the setting which meant I had to use two feet to get off the craft.
Perhaps this is what I've been missing over the years.
Tuesday, 2 September 2008
Monday, 1 September 2008
The Tourist Departs
My time at the Courtyard 7 is at an end. I take a flight back home this afternoon.
One of the upshots of the trip has been that if I'm going to be up in the air, which I don't particularly like, then it's better to be in a plane than in a chairlift.
But obviously one has to do certain things to go and see bits of the Great Wall.
Taking such a contraption was never in my evaluation when it came to seeing such a piece of history.
Beijing has been a varied experience. Like any big city there is the new and the traditional. What will be interesting to see is how those two factors develop.
The Olympics site was all very gleaming but what now for the Water Cube? During the week spent here on holiday, I've been able to see the other side - the restaurants, the tacky bar strips, the hip zones and the corporate power sectors.
And obviously it's going to be the personal that I'll hang on to. It'll will always be questionable whether the Olympics should have been staged in Beijing.
What is certain is it's a brilliant place to be.
One of the upshots of the trip has been that if I'm going to be up in the air, which I don't particularly like, then it's better to be in a plane than in a chairlift.
But obviously one has to do certain things to go and see bits of the Great Wall.
Taking such a contraption was never in my evaluation when it came to seeing such a piece of history.
Beijing has been a varied experience. Like any big city there is the new and the traditional. What will be interesting to see is how those two factors develop.
The Olympics site was all very gleaming but what now for the Water Cube? During the week spent here on holiday, I've been able to see the other side - the restaurants, the tacky bar strips, the hip zones and the corporate power sectors.
And obviously it's going to be the personal that I'll hang on to. It'll will always be questionable whether the Olympics should have been staged in Beijing.
What is certain is it's a brilliant place to be.
Friday, 29 August 2008
The Desertion
I have been so busy being a tourist that I'm not performing my prime function in life which is to keep an update of said blog.
Rapidly doing the things which must be done such as the Great Wall. This was a trip organised by the hostel where I'm staying.
The bus was scheduled to come at 7am and we left at about 7.30 and it was due to leave Mutianyu at midday and we left at 12.30pm.
I was scheduled to leave Leo's hostel on Tuesday but I am leaving as soon as this downpour is finished.
Too many little things are going wrong with the room so I figure it is best to get out while I can still recommend the place.
It has been a friendly little haunt but sadly I am too old to endure the compilation of little things.
This has made me wonder about my own stolidity and the like. But the upshot is that I've found a place which is around a courtyard and the rooms are, on the face of it, superior so with just over double the outlay I'm going to be getting a quadrupled aesthetic experience.
And so off I go to Courtyard 7. I like the sound of it, the Courtyard 7 it sounds like a team of superheroes.
Or perhaps the title of a kung fu movie.
Rapidly doing the things which must be done such as the Great Wall. This was a trip organised by the hostel where I'm staying.
The bus was scheduled to come at 7am and we left at about 7.30 and it was due to leave Mutianyu at midday and we left at 12.30pm.
I was scheduled to leave Leo's hostel on Tuesday but I am leaving as soon as this downpour is finished.
Too many little things are going wrong with the room so I figure it is best to get out while I can still recommend the place.
It has been a friendly little haunt but sadly I am too old to endure the compilation of little things.
This has made me wonder about my own stolidity and the like. But the upshot is that I've found a place which is around a courtyard and the rooms are, on the face of it, superior so with just over double the outlay I'm going to be getting a quadrupled aesthetic experience.
And so off I go to Courtyard 7. I like the sound of it, the Courtyard 7 it sounds like a team of superheroes.
Or perhaps the title of a kung fu movie.
Wednesday, 27 August 2008
The Tourist III
There was more sightseeing since this is the nature of the game. Have got free travel on the subway - a legacy of the Olympic Games and this gives me free access to all the famous monuments. These sort of freebies have made me become a complete capitalist and I take the taxi places because they're cheap too and I get to see the upstairs rather than riding downstairs.
I suppose I could say I'm helping the flow of cash. Whatever. Saw an 18 metre high Buddha as given by the seventh Dalai Lama to an emperor back in the 18th century - a time when everyone was getting along.
It is quite spectacular. Carved from a single chunk of Tibetan white sandalwood. Took two years to build and three years to transport to Beijing.
There's steady work.
That was at the Lama Temple. After years of seeing the Peking Opera in London and Paris, I saw the Peking Opera in Beijing. It was loud and good and just what I needed as the new National Theatre was exceptionally disappointing.
I got there as it was just closing down the public viewing areas. And I didn't fancy going to watch Turandot there. So I ended up at the Chang An Theatre listening to people pull faces and do their Noh thang.
Off to the Wall tomorrow. That should be great.
I suppose I could say I'm helping the flow of cash. Whatever. Saw an 18 metre high Buddha as given by the seventh Dalai Lama to an emperor back in the 18th century - a time when everyone was getting along.
It is quite spectacular. Carved from a single chunk of Tibetan white sandalwood. Took two years to build and three years to transport to Beijing.
There's steady work.
That was at the Lama Temple. After years of seeing the Peking Opera in London and Paris, I saw the Peking Opera in Beijing. It was loud and good and just what I needed as the new National Theatre was exceptionally disappointing.
I got there as it was just closing down the public viewing areas. And I didn't fancy going to watch Turandot there. So I ended up at the Chang An Theatre listening to people pull faces and do their Noh thang.
Off to the Wall tomorrow. That should be great.
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
The Tourist II
Saw new sights and sounds today. Essentially since that is the idea of touring, I seem to be fulfilling the whole point.
Have moved from the Olympic venue - the Beijing Friendship Hotel - to a place which is a bit more of a budget thang.
It seems OK at the moment. It is a bit more limited in space but then it does not matter. I'm here to see things like Houhai Lake and the Temple of Heaven.
Both of which I have taken in. Not to overcome by the taxi drivers. As far as collective commentary goes, it's an edgy thing getting a taxi. Even when they stop it's not always certain that they will take you.
One tried to charge 150 yuan for a journey - even though there is a meter in the car.
I know I look like a tourist but I didn't arrive yesterday.
Have moved from the Olympic venue - the Beijing Friendship Hotel - to a place which is a bit more of a budget thang.
It seems OK at the moment. It is a bit more limited in space but then it does not matter. I'm here to see things like Houhai Lake and the Temple of Heaven.
Both of which I have taken in. Not to overcome by the taxi drivers. As far as collective commentary goes, it's an edgy thing getting a taxi. Even when they stop it's not always certain that they will take you.
One tried to charge 150 yuan for a journey - even though there is a meter in the car.
I know I look like a tourist but I didn't arrive yesterday.
Monday, 25 August 2008
The Tourist
I've escaped from the hotel - venue - hotel vortex and I've become a tourist.
Forbidden City and the Silk Market have been taken in along with some hutongs - the narrow lanes that used to characterise the city.
Actually parts of the Forbidden City resembled a glorified hutong. Have also been introduced to a restaurant and bar. These after the two and a bit weeks of enclosure are a breath of fresh air.
Forbidden City and the Silk Market have been taken in along with some hutongs - the narrow lanes that used to characterise the city.
Actually parts of the Forbidden City resembled a glorified hutong. Have also been introduced to a restaurant and bar. These after the two and a bit weeks of enclosure are a breath of fresh air.
Sunday, 24 August 2008
The Medals
Who gets my gold silver and bronze?
This is the crucial issue emerging from the 29th Olympiad.
There could be many categories but for the reasons of space and because I don’t want to bore, I’ll only highlight a few.
In the men it’s a close call between Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps.
But the gold medal for me goes to Bolt who in his two individual races broke the 100 and 200 metres world records;
After easing up towards the end of the 100 metres he was asked why he didn’t go flat out preferring to start hailing the crowd.
The gist was since I had the world record .......breaking that wasn’t as important as winning the race.
And he was as true as his word in the 200 metres. He got the fastest time because it was an event that was dear to his heart.
Two golds, unseen in 24 years at the Olympics, and the first Jamaican man to triumph in those events.
His runs lifted the stadium.and the second week of the games.
He was also good for the post race comments he inspired. The whole thing about what did you do before your run for glory.
Slept till 11am, watched TV, had some nuggets, slept, woke up, had some nuggets, came to the track.
Even his opponents added to the legend. Richard Thompson, who was second in the 100 metres, confirmed the nuggets story to a disbelieving press conference, adding that during the race he was still pumping away while he could see Bolt ahead of him easing up.
Thompson was munificent enough to admit no one could have beaten the Jamaican.
And the American, Shawn Crawford, after the 200 metres just said Bolt was a bad, bad man. And, of course, by this he meant outstanding.
Phelps gets the silver because he’s already got 14 gold medals and I like to be contrary.
He comes behind Bolt for me because he’s not as overtly charismatic. Bolt is a showman, a crowd pleaser. True, there’s more room for it on the track. Phelps is a brilliant racer and as greatest Olympian of all time at 23, he lit up the first week. He’s on a mission to make swimming more popular so his journey is a work in progress.
If there were a category for team player the American swimmer Jason Lezak would win gold. But as there isn’t, he gets my overall bronze for somehow being a better performer in a group than individually.
Lezak has been the bedrock of American freestyle relays since the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, helping them to secure silver and bronze in Sydney and Athens.
Here in Beijing when he got into the water for the final leg of the 4x100 freestyle he was behind the Frenchman Alain Bernard, who beats him all the time one on one.
Lezak went past Bernard in the final centimetres to win the gold for the United States, thereby coining the term used among all the swimmers as “the relay”.
Performing for the collective is a concept that would find favour anywhere in the world.
As for the women, gold goes to the British athlete Tasha Danvers who had a horrible season of achilles and hamstring injuries and then was found to have a low white blood cell count which hampered her training.
She came third in the 400 metres hurdles and was so elated to be up there. Moreover she was able to epitomise the attitudes of a fighter. “You never ever, ever give up,” she told me. “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings, or the thin lady or size 12lady or whatever sings.”
The Russian pole vaulter Elena Isinbaeva gets silver for responding to taunts from her American rival Jennifer Stuczynski in the best possible way by beating her in the Olympic final.
In the run up to the games, it was reported that the American was going to "kick some Russian butt". And Isinbaeva not only relegated her into second place but stayed around for a solo crowd pleasing performance to set a world record on her third and final attempt - long after all the other pole vault competitors had gone home. That’s top level butt kicking.
Vengeance, as the saying goes, is a dish best served in front of 90,000 people.
And bronze goes to Stephanie Rice, the glamour girl of Australian swimming. She prettied up my bleary eyed mornings at the swimming pool. Moreover she was brilliant and poised in her press conferences and also stuck around to chat afterwards. She certainly has grounds to be a prima donna, she’s good looking and very good in the water.
But she’s a down-to-earth siren and she went home with three gold medals from three events. Almost Phelpsian
I didn’t attempt to get her phone number.
But then I give myself a gold medal for being intelligent enough not to ask
This is the crucial issue emerging from the 29th Olympiad.
There could be many categories but for the reasons of space and because I don’t want to bore, I’ll only highlight a few.
In the men it’s a close call between Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps.
But the gold medal for me goes to Bolt who in his two individual races broke the 100 and 200 metres world records;
After easing up towards the end of the 100 metres he was asked why he didn’t go flat out preferring to start hailing the crowd.
The gist was since I had the world record .......breaking that wasn’t as important as winning the race.
And he was as true as his word in the 200 metres. He got the fastest time because it was an event that was dear to his heart.
Two golds, unseen in 24 years at the Olympics, and the first Jamaican man to triumph in those events.
His runs lifted the stadium.and the second week of the games.
He was also good for the post race comments he inspired. The whole thing about what did you do before your run for glory.
Slept till 11am, watched TV, had some nuggets, slept, woke up, had some nuggets, came to the track.
Even his opponents added to the legend. Richard Thompson, who was second in the 100 metres, confirmed the nuggets story to a disbelieving press conference, adding that during the race he was still pumping away while he could see Bolt ahead of him easing up.
Thompson was munificent enough to admit no one could have beaten the Jamaican.
And the American, Shawn Crawford, after the 200 metres just said Bolt was a bad, bad man. And, of course, by this he meant outstanding.
Phelps gets the silver because he’s already got 14 gold medals and I like to be contrary.
He comes behind Bolt for me because he’s not as overtly charismatic. Bolt is a showman, a crowd pleaser. True, there’s more room for it on the track. Phelps is a brilliant racer and as greatest Olympian of all time at 23, he lit up the first week. He’s on a mission to make swimming more popular so his journey is a work in progress.
If there were a category for team player the American swimmer Jason Lezak would win gold. But as there isn’t, he gets my overall bronze for somehow being a better performer in a group than individually.
Lezak has been the bedrock of American freestyle relays since the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, helping them to secure silver and bronze in Sydney and Athens.
Here in Beijing when he got into the water for the final leg of the 4x100 freestyle he was behind the Frenchman Alain Bernard, who beats him all the time one on one.
Lezak went past Bernard in the final centimetres to win the gold for the United States, thereby coining the term used among all the swimmers as “the relay”.
Performing for the collective is a concept that would find favour anywhere in the world.
As for the women, gold goes to the British athlete Tasha Danvers who had a horrible season of achilles and hamstring injuries and then was found to have a low white blood cell count which hampered her training.
She came third in the 400 metres hurdles and was so elated to be up there. Moreover she was able to epitomise the attitudes of a fighter. “You never ever, ever give up,” she told me. “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings, or the thin lady or size 12lady or whatever sings.”
The Russian pole vaulter Elena Isinbaeva gets silver for responding to taunts from her American rival Jennifer Stuczynski in the best possible way by beating her in the Olympic final.
In the run up to the games, it was reported that the American was going to "kick some Russian butt". And Isinbaeva not only relegated her into second place but stayed around for a solo crowd pleasing performance to set a world record on her third and final attempt - long after all the other pole vault competitors had gone home. That’s top level butt kicking.
Vengeance, as the saying goes, is a dish best served in front of 90,000 people.
And bronze goes to Stephanie Rice, the glamour girl of Australian swimming. She prettied up my bleary eyed mornings at the swimming pool. Moreover she was brilliant and poised in her press conferences and also stuck around to chat afterwards. She certainly has grounds to be a prima donna, she’s good looking and very good in the water.
But she’s a down-to-earth siren and she went home with three gold medals from three events. Almost Phelpsian
I didn’t attempt to get her phone number.
But then I give myself a gold medal for being intelligent enough not to ask
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