A trip to the mountains

Hi,


Sunday and a good opportunity to go for hiking. Together with two of our friends (also Singaporean and Swedish), we headed towards Tiger Valley for more than 2 hours of walk along the river. The one hour car drive to get there (or to one of the other mountain spots) is worth doing again!


Olof

View over Tiger Valley
















Sam, Jacqueline and Stefan (photographer Olof)

Paralympics

Hi!

Last night was the closing ceremony of the Paralympics. The big Olympic "party" has now come to an end. Will life in Beijing go back to normal? I think yes, gradually business and life will continue as usual.

On Saturday, all cars are allowed on the roads again. No more special traffic regulations and other regulations for construction work and so forth, at least nothing that we know of today.

Regarding the sport events, we saw some of them live. Wheelchair basketball quarterfinals at the National Indoor stadium and swimming finals at the Watercube. Take a look at the photos.

Bye, bye!

Bird's Nest - the National Stadium

Swimming ticket - Paralympic finals

Watercube - the swimming stadium

Huixin's Birthday Party

It was Huixin's birthday on Friday and she had invited us to dinner at Grandma's Kitchen located on Xiushui South Street. I wanted to bake her a birthday cake but ended up buying one at Kempinski Deli. But I compensated my laziness for probably the best Black Forest Cake in town and a doggy softtoy. *oh, yanqing has a share in the presents too*

We drove to Grandma's Kitchen. I realised that with driving on our own, we became never punctual for appointments - partly due to our unfamiliarity with directions yet. But I must say then we usually underestimate the time we need to drive to a destination. Hhhmm, this is bad. Because having a car is suppose to shorten our commute time. *perplex*

Back to the topic, it was great fun at her party. We haven't been seeing each other alot since I moved here. Things do change after one is married and has his or her own family to take care of. I feel that I am a friend who is guilty of neglecting her friends. I'll try to change that.

Grandma's Kitchen was filled with laughter and loud talking on Friday night, thanks to us. But they also got a big check to cash in, because the birthday girl ordered ALOT of food. We were stuffed, happy, and satisfied. Olof and I left earlier since he got a flight to catch the next day.

My Telephone Ambassador

Piano concert

Hello!

Our kind landlady gave us 2 free tickets to the National Center for the Performing Arts of China. This amazing opera and concert hall has the shape of an egg, and looks very futuristic also from the inside: http://www.chncpa.org/n33879/n33958/n34529/index.html

We saw a great piano performance by the French pianist Phillipe Entremont.

Olof and Sam

Olympics Basketball Match - Prelims

Wow! Holi cow! It was absolutely spectacular to watch basketball LIVE at the competition venue, especially to watch good teams play.

We were lucky to manage get our hands on two last minute olympics basketball prelims tickets, which cost 2.5 times their original prices. To that, we (*&$*#&))(#_(*&!!. The Wukesong Indoor Stadium was surprisingly 80% filled with spectators for the two matches. *Yes. One ticket that entitles you to watch two matches. Yeah!* It was just the prelims, we can't imagine how it is gonna be like for the finals.

Croatia vs Lithuania. The Lithuanian audience cheerleaders became star of the show as well. Ha! They were very united and coordinated, but at the same time definitely a menace to the Croatia team, as they jeered whenever a Croatian laid its hands on the ball. But it was a fantastic game. Croatians led the score by as much as 10 points first, which was later over taken by the Lithuanians. The latter were charged with adrenalin after the 2nd quarter break, and crushed the Croatians like a monster. Both teams displayed great skills and perseverance.

Iran vs Argentina. When we first knew that Iran was playing, our first thought was: Eh? Iran? Then our second thought was Mr Ahmadinejad and his missile tests. But the players turned out to be quite good - absolutely skilled in 3 pointers, with very few misses. No.15 left a very strong impression on us, as he NEVER got changed out during the entire match. We understood that the Iranian team needed him - He was almost as tall as the goal post. He did not even need to jump in order to block or dunk any balls. However good they were, they were never good enough for Argentina. They swept the court like a hurricane. Swift, seamless teamwork, good physiques, the Argentines were unstoppable.

Of course the games aside, there were also the Beijing Dream Dancers and Olympics Mascots to amuse the spectators during breaks. Unimpressed with the dancers, we were rather entertained by the inproportionate big-headed mascots, which are called Fu Wa in Chinese.

Reception with President Nathan

My first thought when I saw Mr President, "He is so tiny!"

I finally saw my motherland's president in person. A reception organized by the Embassy of Singapore in Beijing gave Singaporeans the chance (probably once-in-a-lifetime) to get so upclose and personal with their president. The turnout was rather overwhelming. The entire Chaoyang Grand Ballroom at Grand Millennium Hotel was filled up with ladies and gentlemen in fine dresses and suits (although some were dressed typically Singaporean, if you know what I meant).

Mr President was, as we saw on TV, amicable and friendly. But he has clearly aged. At an age when he should have already retired and be enjoying his twilight years, we should be thankful that he took a 7-hour tiring flight to come support Team Singapore and graced the reception.

At a big event like this, and especially for newbies like us, we felt rather small and insignificant. But thank god that we saw some familiar faces that we got acquainted at the national day folk dinner that we organized last Sat. And my best friend Stacey was there as well (although she cleanly forgot about it if not I called her). So the evening ended fantastic still - minus the food.

And no, Mr President did not get to shake my hands. But I caught a glimpse of him on my Coolpix camera.